The Street of the Four Triumphal Arches at Pekin. 
 
THE CHINESE EMPIRE 
 
 Sqiul 
 
 TO 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OP A JOURNEY THROUGH TARTARY AND THIBET 
 
 BY M. HUC 
 
 FORMERLY MISSIONARY APOSTOLIC IN CHINA 
 
 View of the Great Wall of China from the neighbourhood of Pekiri 
 
 NEW EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 
 1SG0 
 
THE GETTY RESEARCH 
 INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 -4- 
 
 The Author of these volumes is already favourably known to the 
 English public, by his “ Travels in Tartary and Thibet,” but the 
 present work is one of greater interest and importance than the 
 former. M. Hue has enjoyed such opportunities of becoming ac¬ 
 quainted with China as have scarcely fallen to the lot of any 
 European before. During the journey here recorded, —a journey 
 through the very heart of the Empire, from the frontiers of Thibet 
 to Canton,— he stood under the immediate protection of the 
 Emperor, travelling in all the pride and pomp of a high Govern¬ 
 ment functionary, attended humbly by Mandarins, and surrounded, 
 by a military escort, and he was brought into constant and 
 intimate relation with persons of the highest rank in the country. 
 During a previous residence of no less than fourteen years in 
 various parts of China, he had been in habits of familiar inter¬ 
 course with all classes, but more especially with the poor, and 
 while labouring in his vacation in obscurity and secrecy, had 
 looked into the domestic life, and watched the working of the 
 hidden mechanism of society in that mysterious Empire still so 
 imperfectly known, though extending over a surface greater than 
 that of all Europe, and comprising a population of one-third of 
 the human race. His knowledge of the institutions, religion, 
 manners, and customs of the Chinese, was not taken on hearsay from 
 the accounts of others, but gathered from actual experience, and 
 he has communicated his knowledge to the reader, not in a heavy 
 formal dissertation, but in a much pleasanter manner, a propos to 
 the various incidents of his extraordinary journey. It will not 
 probably be regarded as matter of complaint that this journey, 
 undertaken in such anomalous circumstances, should present some 
 incidents, surprising enough to be received with doubt did they 
 
 a 4 
 
Till 
 
 translator’s preface. 
 
 come before us without any guarantee. But the well known and 
 high character of M. Hue—the auspices under which the work has 
 appeared—and the internal evidence of veracity that it every¬ 
 where presents, afford sufficient warrant, even for what is most 
 singular and unexpected. 
 
 It is to be noted also, that on that subject on which, of all others, 
 the statements of a Missionary are usually to be received with 
 hesitation, on the effect, namely, of the labours of himself and his 
 brethren in the conversion of the Chinese, M. Hue betrays no 
 tendency to the customary sanguine exaggeration; and if he has 
 resisted the temptation so often yielded to, of representing the 
 prospects, from missionary labours, in a more favourable light 
 than is warranted by the fact, we may reasonably give him credit 
 for accuracy in cases where his personal wishes and prepossessions 
 are far less, if at all concerned. The narrative is not at all less 
 credible because many scenes of it are as amusing as a comedy, 
 and often not unlike one in the curious game carried on between 
 the eternal shuffling trickeries of the Mandarins, and the courage, 
 humoui', and audacity of the missionaries. In several instances, 
 from the peculiar character of the Chinese, a kind of dashing 
 effrontery afforded the only means of escape from perils to which 
 a more timid and feeble traveller would probably have fallen a 
 victim. 
 
 In matters of opinion it cannot be expected that the views of 
 the author should always agree with those of English Protestants ; 
 he has of.course looked at things with his own eyes, and not with 
 ours, but it is never difficult to make allowance for the effect of the 
 refracting medium through which (as it appeal's to us) he has 
 regarded matters connected with the interests of his Church. 
 His religion, it may be added, is evidently not worn as a garment, 
 but interwoven with every thought and occurrence of his daily 
 life, and it will therefore often attract the spiritual sympathies of 
 those who may differ most widely from him on doctrinal points. 
 
 His account of the Chinese Empire, besides the information and 
 amusement it affords, suggests matter for solemn thought, in the 
 picture it presents of a civilised nation, almost wholly removed 
 from religious influence, “without God in the world,” and falling 
 rapidly to decay, from no other cause than that of internal moral 
 corruption. M. Hue mentions the (we believe) unparalleled 
 
translator’s preface. 
 
 IX 
 
 occurrence of a late Emperor having in an important state docu¬ 
 ment passed in review all the systems of religion known in China 
 (Christianity included), and formally recommended his people to 
 have nothing to do with any. The whole system of socjety and 
 government appears to be calculated with as little reference as 
 possible to the moral and spiritual nature of man. As one 
 xample, among many others, we may mention the extraordinary 
 dea entertained in China of the responsibility of public officers, 
 making the punishment for misconduct in any department in the 
 inverse ratio of the rank of the offender; clerks and other mere 
 I instruments being punished most severely, and the highest officers 
 scarcely at all: thus making it evident that the law takes cogni¬ 
 zance only of the mere physical fact, and not of the evil intention, 
 in which the whole moral offence consists. 
 
 Christianity alone, we conscientiously believe, can heal this 
 inward corruption, and arrest the downward progress of this 
 mighty nation, now no longer separated from us by almost im¬ 
 passable distance. Not merely the statesman and the merchant, 
 but the humblest among us, are now often connected by strong 
 and tender ties with countries equally remote. A breach too has 
 been made in the hitherto impenetrable barrier surrounding these 
 distant Asiatic Empires. The United States have obtained im¬ 
 portant commercial privileges in Japan; Russia is striving for the 
 same, and the secluded population of China have come forth to 
 mingle (in California and Australia) in some of the busiest haunts 
 of men, and take part in the newest movements of the time.* Of 
 the tx-emendous insurrection that has broken out in the bosom of 
 the Empire itself, as well as of some mistaken ideas entei’tained 
 concerning it, the author has himself spoken sufficiently. 
 
 A word of explanation may be permitted concerning the plural 
 pi'onoun constantly used by the author, the nos majesticum, as it is 
 called, not very correctly in this instance, for it is obviously em¬ 
 ployed by M. Hue, as by many others, rather to avoid the appear¬ 
 ance of egotism and veil the individual personality. Since it 
 seemed in some measure characteristic, the ti’anslator has not 
 ventured to change it for the more customary singular. But 
 
 * Recent accounts from Melbourne mention the arrival of Chinese immi¬ 
 grants in such numbers as to cause some serious apprehension on the part of 
 the English residents. 
 
X 
 
 translator’s preface. 
 
 whatever may be thought on this and other trivial points, there is 
 reason to hope from the subject of the work, the means of infor¬ 
 mation enjoyed by the author, and his vivid and dramatic manner 
 of conveying his impressions, that his book will be received 
 in this country with favour, equal to that which has already 
 welcomed it in his own. 
 
AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 
 
 —f— 
 
 When in a former work we retraced the recollections of our 
 journey in Tartary and Thibet, we were compelled to interrupt 
 our narrative on the frontiers of the Chinese Empire. We ex¬ 
 pressed, however, in a postscript, the wish to complete some day 
 the task that circumstances compelled us then to leave unfinished. 
 We said, “ We still have to speak of our relations with the Chinese 
 Mandarins and the tribunals, as well as to cast a glance on the 
 provinces that we traversed, and to compare them with those that 
 we visited on our former journeys through the Celestial Empire.” 
 “ This chasm,” we added, “ we will endeavour to fill up, during 
 whatever hours of leisure we may be able to spare from the 
 labours of our holy ministry.”* 
 
 The present opportunity has seemed extremely favourable for 
 the accomplishment of this design, and, in default of any other 
 merit, our observations on the Chinese will at least have that of 
 being well timed, since we are making them public at an epoch 
 when the political situation of this great nation is exciting the 
 most general and lively interest. 
 
 This vast Empire, which for so long a time has appeared to be 
 sunk in the most profound political apathy, and which even the 
 warlike operations of the English scarcely seem to have disturbed, 
 — this Colossus, has been suddenly shaken to its very foundations 
 by one of those terrible storms that can scarcely pass over a nation 
 without effecting some change in its ancient forms ; which leave 
 behind them sometimes better institutions, but always much of 
 desolation and ruin. 
 
 If the original causes of the Chinese insurrection are almost 
 entirely unknown in Europe, its more immediate occasion is not 
 
 * Recollections of a Journey through Tartary and Thibet. 
 
Xll 
 
 AUTHORS PREFACE. 
 
 so. In the first instance, this was an isolated act of highway 
 robbery ; then followed the association of several villains of that 
 description, endeavouring to resist the efforts of the Mandarins to 
 repress them, and soon from the very dregs of the population a 
 little army was raised, which began to occasion serious uneasiness 
 to the viceroy of the province of Kouang-si. At length the 
 captain of this gang of robbers, now become the chief of an armed 
 forcp, proclaimed himself Generalissimo, called in politics and 
 religion to the assistance of his revolt, summoned around him the 
 secret societies that swarm in the Empire, declared himself the 
 restorer of Chinese nationality against the usurpation of the 
 Mantchoo Tartar race, assumed the title of Emperor, under the 
 pompous name of Tien-te (Celestial Virtue,) and denominated 
 himself also the younger brother of Jesus Christ. By means such 
 as these has an Empire of three hundred millions of men been 
 brought to the brink of destruction. 
 
 It may appear scarcely credible that a petty revolt of banditti 
 should have increased to such an extent as to become formidable, 
 and assume a sort of national character; but for those who are 
 acquainted with China and its history it will not seem very sur¬ 
 prising. This country has always been the classic ground of 
 revolutions, and its annals are but the narrative of a long series 
 of popular commotions and political vicissitudes. In the period 
 of time between the year 420, when the Franks entered Gaul, and 
 1644, when Louis XIV. ascended the throne of France, and the 
 Tartars established themselves in Pekin, a period of twelve 
 hundred and twenty-four years, China underwent fifteen changes 
 of dynasty, all accompanied by frightful civil wars. 
 
 Since the invasion of the Mantchoo Tartar race, the nation has 
 appeared, it is true, -quite indifferent to the political situation of 
 the country, and altogether absorbed in material enjoyments; but 
 in the bosom of this sceptical and avaricious people, there has 
 always remained a powerful and vivacious spark that the Tartar 
 government has never been able to extirpate ; secret societies have 
 been formed all over the Empire, the members of which have seen 
 with impatience the Mantchoo domination, and cherished the idea 
 of overthrowing it to obtain a national government. These innu¬ 
 merable conspirators were all ready for revolt, and predetermined 
 to support it, let the signal come from whence it might, whether 
 
author’s preface. 
 
 xm 
 
 from a discontented viceroy or a highway robber. On the other 
 hand, the agents of Government had contributed not a little by 
 their conduct to provoke the outbreak. Their unheard-of exac¬ 
 tions had filled up the measure of wrong doing, and great numbers 
 of the Chinese, some driven by indignation, and others by poverty 
 and despair, joined the ranks of the insurgents, for the sake of 
 ■ even a remote chance of ameliorating their condition, certain that 
 : they could not be more oppressed, let the new government be as 
 bad as it might. 
 
 It is also far from impossible that another cause, but little 
 apparent, may really have exercised considerable influence in the 
 explosion of this Chinese insurrection; namely, the latent infiltra¬ 
 tion of European ideas, put in circulation in the free ports and 
 ; along the coast by the commerce of the Western nations, and 
 carried by the missionaries into the very heart of the Empire, and 
 to the most remote provinces. The people at large care little 
 enough about what is thought or done by Europeans, whose very 
 existence is all but unknown to them; but the educated classes do 
 at present think much of foreign nations, and cultivate geography 
 with great success. We have often in our journeys met with 
 Mandarins, who had very correct notions of European affairs, and 
 it is these learned men, who give the tone to opinion, and regulate 
 the course of popular thought, so that the common people may 
 very well be following the impulse of European ideas, without 
 knowing so much as the name of Europe. 
 
 One of the most remarkable aspects of the insurrection is the 
 religious character that its chiefs have sought, from its very com¬ 
 mencement, to impress upon it. Every one must be struck with 
 the new doctrines with which the proclamations and manifestoes 
 of the Pretender and his generals have been filled. The unity of 
 God has been distinctly expressed ; and around this fundamental 
 dogma have been grouped a number of ideas borrowed from the 
 Old and New Testament. War has been declared at the same 
 time to idolatry and to the Tartar dynasty; for after having 
 defeated the imperial troops, and overthrown the authority of the 
 Mandarins, the insurgents have never failed to destroy the pagodas 
 and massacre the Bonzes. 
 
 As soon as these facts became known in Europe, it was eagerly 
 proclaimed everywhere, that the Chinese nation had decided on 
 
XIV 
 
 author’s preface. 
 
 embracing Christianity, and the Bible Society did not fail to 
 claim the merit and glory of this marvellous conversion. 
 
 We do not, however, give the slightest credit to the alleged 
 Christianity of the insurgents, and the religious and mystical 
 sentiments expressed in these manifestoes inspire us with no gieat 
 confidence. In the second place, it is by no means necessary to 
 have recourse to the Protestant Propaganda to account for the 
 more or less Christian ideas remarked in the proclamations of the 
 revolutionary Chinese. There exist in all the provinces a very 
 considerable number of Mussulmans, who have their Koran and 
 their mosques. It is to be presumed that these iMhhometuns, who 
 have already several times attempted to overthrow the Tartar 
 dynasty, and have always distinguished themselves by a violent 
 opposition to the Government, would have thrown themselves with 
 ardour into the ranks of the insurrection. Many of these must 
 have become generals, and have mingled in the councils of Tien-te. 
 It is therefore not wonderful to find among them the doctrine of 
 the unity of God, and other ideas of Biblical origin, though 
 whimsically expressed. 
 
 The Chinese have also for a long time had at their command a 
 precious collection of books of Christian doctrine, composed bv 
 the ancient missionaries, and which, even in a purely liteiaij 
 point of view, are much esteemed in the Empire. Iliese books 
 are diffused in great numbers throughout all the provinces, and it 
 is more probable that the Chinese innovators have drawn the 
 ideas in question from these sources than from the Bibles pru¬ 
 dently deposited by the Methodist on the seashore. 
 
 The new faith proclaimed by the insurrectional government, 
 though vague and ill-defined, does nevertheless, it must be ac¬ 
 knowledged, indicate great progress ; it is an immense step in the 
 path that leads to the truth. This initiation of China into ideas 
 so opposed to the scepticism of the masses, and their coarse 
 tendencies, is, perhaps, a symptom of that mysterious march of all 
 nations towards unity, which is spoken of by Count de Maistre, 
 and which, according to the expression which he borrows from the 
 sacred writings, we ought to “salute from afar; * but foi^ the 
 present it appears to us difficult to see in the chief of this Chinese 
 
 * Soirees de St. Petersburg —Premier Entretien. 
 
author’s preface. 
 
 XV 
 
 insurrection anything else than a kind of Chinese Mahomet 
 seeking to establish his power by fire and sword, and cryiim to 
 his fanatical partisans—“ There is no God but God, and Tien-te 
 is the younger brother of Jesus Christ.” 
 
 And now, what will be the result of this Chinese insurrection ? 
 Will its promoters succeed in their design of establishing a new 
 dynasty, and a new worship, more in harmony with their lately 
 adopted faith ? Or will the Son of Heaven have power to re¬ 
 establish the throne so roughly shaken ? The recent course of 
 events is too imperfectly known to us, and appears also too little 
 decisive, to enable us to determine these questions. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the impossibility of forming any well- 
 grounded opinion on the probable issue of the struggle, the 
 journalists of Europe have declared that were the Tartar dynasty 
 once overthrown, the nation would merely return into its tradi¬ 
 tional course. It seems to us that this is an error. What is 
 called the Chinese system has really no existence ; for this expres¬ 
 sion can be understood in no other sense than by supposing it 
 opposed to a Tartar system. Now there is not, and never was a 
 Taitai system. Ihe Mantchoo race has, indeed, imposed its yoke 
 upon China, but has had scarcely any influence on the Chinese 
 mind ; it has not been able to do much more than introduce some 
 slight modifications into the national costume, and force the 
 conquered people to shave their heads and wear a tail. The 
 Chinese have been governed mostly by the same institutions after 
 as before the conquest ; they have always remained faithful to the 
 traditions of their ancestors, and have, in fact, in a great measure, 
 absorbed the Tartar race, and imposed upon it their own manners 
 and civilisation. They have even succeeded in nearly extinguish¬ 
 ing the Mantchoo language, and replacing it by their own. °They 
 have nullified the Tartar action on the Empire, by engrossing the 
 greater part of the offices that stand between the governors and 
 the governed. Almost all employments, in fact, if we except the 
 chief military posts, and the highest dignities of the State, have 
 become the exclusive inheritance of the Chinese, who possess, 
 more frequently than the Tartars, the special kinds of knowledge 
 necessary to fill them. As for the Tartars, isolated and lost in the 
 immensity of the Empire, they have retained the privilege of 
 watching over the security of the frontier, occupying the fortified 
 places, and mounting guard at the gates of the imperial palace. 
 
XVI 
 
 author’s preface. 
 
 V 
 
 It is not at all surprising that the state of affairs in China should 
 have resisted the Mantchoo invasion, and should not have been in 
 the slightest degree altered by the accession of a foreign dynasty. 
 China°differs in this, as in other respects, widely from Europe. 
 The countless revolutions and political convulsions of which it has 
 been the theatre have destroyed nothing, and for the simple reason, 
 that one of the most distinctive features of the Chinese character 
 is a profound, in some measure religious, veneration for ancient 
 institutions, and all things ancient. After every successive revo¬ 
 lution this extraordinary people has applied itself to reconstitute 
 the past, and recall the antique traditions, in order not to depart 
 from the rites established by their ancestors, and this is one of the 
 circumstances that may serve to explain how this nation, which at 
 so early a period attained so remarkable a degree of civilisation, 
 has remained stationary and made no progress for centuries. 
 
 Can it be hoped, nevertheless, that the present insurrection will 
 brine* any modification in this state of things? We must be per¬ 
 mitted to doubt this. It is even probable that the unsympathising 
 disposition of the Chinese towards the nations of the West will 
 remain what it has always been. China is far from being open ; 
 and whatever may be said, we believe that our missions have very 
 little to hope there. We must not forget, in fact, that Christianity 
 is in no way concerned in the crisis which the Empire is now 
 passing through. The Christians, too wise and prudent to hoist a 
 political standard, are also too few in number to exercise any 
 sensible influence on the affairs of the country, and they have re¬ 
 mained neutral. For this reason they have become equally suspected 
 by both parties, and we fear will be hereafter equally exposed to 
 punishment whichever side may be ultimately victorious. Should 
 the Mantchoo Government triumph over the insurrection, which 
 already more than once has displayed the cross upon its standards 
 it will have no mercy on the Christians, and this long struggle will 
 Wp nnlv served to redouble its suspicions and embitter its wrath ; 
 
 oppose his projects. 
 
 Thus the conclusion of the civil wav may be to the Christians 
 
author’s preface. 
 
 XVII 
 
 the signal of a new persecution. These terrible trials need not, 
 indeed, induce us to despair of the future prospects of Christianity 
 in China : for we know that the Almighty rules the nations at his 
 pleasure, that He can, when Ide pleases, bring good out of evil, and 
 that often, where men think all is lost, it is then precisely that all 
 is saved. 
 
 In fact, notwithstanding the worship professed by the Chinese 
 for their ancient institutions — if circumstances should at length 
 force the European element to quit its neutrality, and mingle in 
 the affairs of the Celestial Empire, this intervention would pro¬ 
 bably be the source of remarkable changes, and might gradually 
 produce a complete transformation of China. It may be even, 
 apart from the hypothesis of an intervention, that the new ideas 
 introduced by the revolutionary Chinese will of themselves prove 
 active enough to exercise considerable influence over the destinies 
 of the Empire. Then will regenerated China assume a new aspect, 
 and who knows whether it may not ultimately succeed in placing 
 itself on a level with European nations ? 
 
 These prospects, uncertain as they are, have encouraged us in 
 the execution of our task. The moment, in fact, when the 
 Tartar-Mantchoo dynasty appears to be tottering to its fall, and 
 China on the eve of a great social and political transformation, is 
 the most suitable for saying what we know concerning this great 
 Empire. Should it be destined to undergo a total change, we shall 
 have contributed to preserve the memory of what it was, and to 
 rescue from oblivion those ancient customs which have rendered it 
 in our own day an enigma to Europe. Whilst the insurrection is 
 proceeding in its work of demolition, we will labour in construc¬ 
 tion ; and if we can succeed in conveying an exact idea of Chinese 
 society, as it appeared to us in the course of our long peregrina¬ 
 tions, our object will have been attained, and we shall have 
 nothing more to say than, as the authors of former days used to do, 
 
 “ Soli Deo horios et gloria.” 
 
 In our former work, “ Recollections of a Journey,” we related 
 our travels across the deserts of Tartary, and the incidents of our 
 residence in Thibet, — a residence shortened by the ill-will of 
 Chinese politicians, and finally, our return to China, under the 
 escort of Mandarins. 
 
 We are now about to resume our narrative where we then laid 
 
 a 
 
XV111 
 
 author’s preface. 
 
 it down, that is to say, from the moment when, having just crossed 
 the frontiers of China, we were carried by our conductors towards 
 the capital of Sse-tchouen, to be there brought to trial. 
 
 This second part of our narrative will turn exclusively upon 
 China, and we will endeavour to correct as much as possible the 
 erroneous and absurd ideas that have prevailed from time imme¬ 
 morial concerning the Chinese people. The efforts made by learned 
 Orientalists, and principally by M. Abel Remusat, to rectify the 
 errors of Europeans on that subject, have not had all the success 
 they merited, for the most contradictory statements are constantly 
 being uttered and printed concerning them. It is not difficult to 
 trace these errors and contradictions to their sources, in the ac¬ 
 counts published at various epochs by those who have penetrated 
 into China, and also by those who have never set foot in it. 
 
 When,in the sixteenth centuiy, the Catholic missionaries arrived, 
 bearing the message of the Gospel to the innumerable nations who 
 form collectively the Chinese Empire, the spectacle that presented 
 itself to their observation was calculated to strike them with 
 astonishment, and even with admiration. Europe, which they had 
 just quitted, was in the convulsions of intellectual and political 
 anarchy. The arts, industry, commerce, the general aspect of 
 cities and their population, was totally different from what we see 
 at the present day. The West had scarcely entered on the path 
 of material civilisation. China, on the contrary, stood in some 
 measure at the zenith of her prosperity. Her political and civil 
 institutions worked with admirable regularity. The Emperor and 
 his Mandarins were truly the “Father and Mother”* of the people, 
 and by both high and low the laws were faithfully observed. The 
 imaginations of the missionaries could not but be powerfully af¬ 
 fected by this immense Empire, with its numerous and orderly 
 population, its fields so skilfully cultivated, its great cities, its 
 magnificent rivers, its fine system of canals, and its entire and 
 prosperous civilisation. The comparison was certainly at that 
 time not to the advantage of Europe, and the missionaries were 
 inclined to admire everything they saw in the new country of 
 their adoption. 
 
 They often exaggerated what was good in it, and they did not 
 * A title by which in China the representatives of authority are designated. 
 
author’s preface. 
 
 XIX 
 
 see the accompanying evil, and thus they have often published, 
 in perfect good faith, descriptions of China that were much too 
 flattering to be correct. 
 
 Modern missionaries have perhaps fallen into the contrary 
 extreme. Europe has been of late years marching from progress to 
 progress, and almost every passing day has been signalised by 
 some new discovery; China, on the contrary, is in a state of decay, 
 the vices that disfigured its ancient institutions have increased, 
 and whatever good may have been mingled in them has almost 
 wholly disappeared. It has happened, therefore, that the mis¬ 
 sionaries, setting out with magnificent ideas of the splendour of 
 Chinese civilisation, and finding the country really full of disorder 
 and misery, have come to conclusions respecting it the very 
 reverse of those formed by their predecessors three centuries ago. 
 Under the influence df these sentiments, they have given us pictures 
 of China drawn in gloomy colours. They have, without intending 
 it, exaggerated its evils, as their predecessors had exaggerated 
 what was good ; and these different estimates have produced con¬ 
 tradictory accounts, which were not likely to throw much clear 
 light on the facts of the case. Mere tourists, too, have of course 
 furnished their contingent to increase the confusion. 
 
 Few of the travellers who have been attracted either by curiosity 
 or interest to visit the Chinese shore have not felt the desire to 
 make the fact known to the world, at least through the news¬ 
 papers. They have seen little indeed, but that has not prevented 
 them from writing much, and often from slandering the Chinese, 
 for no other reason than that the missionaries formerly over¬ 
 praised them. Very frequently they have drawn largely in their 
 Avritings from the accounts of embassies, which unfortunately are 
 regarded as great authorities, although M. Abel Remusat has 
 more than once endeavoured to reduce them to their just value. 
 
 “ The ideas unfavourable to the Chinese,” says this skilful and 
 impartial critic, “ are not new, but they have been recently dif¬ 
 fused and credited. They are partly due to the authors of the 
 Narratives of the Dutch and the two English Embassies. 
 
 “ The missionaries had boasted so much of Chinese manners 
 and Chinese policy, that in order to say something new on the 
 subject, it was necessary to take the other side. There were also 
 many persons disposed to believe that as they Avere professedly 
 
 a 2 
 
XX 
 
 author’s preface. 
 
 religious men, they had yielded in their writings to the prejudices 
 of their profession, and the interests of their calling. Lay 
 observers are much less suspected, and in their eyes a missionary 
 is hardly a traveller. How could a man who was neither a Jesuit 
 nor a Dominican fail to be a model of veracity and impartiality ? 
 
 “ Nevertheless, if we consider the matter a little more atten¬ 
 tively, we shall see that the travellers, on whom so much reliance 
 has been placed, have not quite as many claims to confidence as 
 has been supposed. No one of them was acquainted with the 
 language of the country, whilst the Jesuits could even write in 
 Chinese, so as to equal the best native literati. No one of them 
 ever saw the Chinese otherwise than on occasions of ceremony, 
 in visits of etiquette, or at festivals strictly regulated by the 
 ‘Rites,’ whilst the missionaries made their way everywhere, from 
 the Imperial Court to the most remote provinces and the most 
 humble villages. These travellers never fail to speak very well 
 of the productions of the country, the manners of the inhabitants, 
 the genius of the Government, for they had under their eyes, 
 while writing their narrative of their travels, the collection of 
 4 Lettres Edifiantes ,’ the compilation of Duhalde, and the memoirs 
 of the missionaries. You never find, therefore, an idea of any 
 importance in one that has escaped the others, for they have 
 > copied faithfully, and that was the best thing they could do. 
 What could the most able men have said in their place ? 
 
 “ The situation of travellers in China is not usually an enviable 
 one. At their departure from Canton they are imprisoned in 
 closed boats ; they are guarded carefully from sight all along the 
 great canal; they are what we may call put under arrest imme¬ 
 diately on their arrival at Pekin ; and, after two or three official 
 receptions and interrogatories, they are hastily sent back again. 
 As they are not allowed the slightest communication with the 
 outer world, they can really describe from their own knowledge 
 nothing more than the hedge of soldiers by which they have been 
 surrounded, the songs of the boatmen who have accompanied them, 
 the formalities employed by the inspectors who have searched 
 them, and the evolutions of the grandees who prostrated them¬ 
 selves with them before the Son of Heaven. The history of the 
 whole affair has been given by one of these travellers with as 
 much naivete, as precision. He says, ‘they entered Pekin like 
 
author’s preface. 
 
 XXI 
 
 beggars, stayed in it like prisoners, and were driven from it like 
 thieves.’* 
 
 “ This kind of reception, quite conformable to the laws of the 
 Empire, explains very well the feeling of aversion to China mostly 
 perceptible in these narratives. The writers have enjoyed neither 
 freedom nor pleasure there, but have met with troublesome 
 customs, inconvenient furniture, and dishes that were not to their 
 taste ; and bad dinners and bad lodgings will leave unpleasant re¬ 
 collections in the most impartial minds.” f 
 
 It is assuredly not by traversing the country in this fashion, or 
 by residing some time in a port half Europeanised, that it is 
 possible to become acquainted with Chinese society. For that you 
 must be in some measure identified with the life of the Chinese ; 
 you must have lived Jong among them, and have almost become a 
 Chinese yourself. This is what we did for a period of fourteen 
 years, and we are therefore in a position to speak with confidence 
 concerning an Empire that we had adopted as a second country, 
 and that we entered without thinking of a return. Circumstances 
 have also greatly favoured us in our observations, for we have 
 been enabled to traverse several times the various provinces of the 
 Empire, and compare them with each other, as well as to become 
 initiated into the manners of the Chinese of the highest class, in 
 the midst of which we constantly lived during our journey from 
 the frontiers of Thibet to Canton. 
 
 Our readers must not, however, expect to find in our narrative 
 a great number of those edifying details which have so great a 
 charm for pious and believing souls, and which, perhaps, they had 
 a right to look for in the pages of a missionary. 
 
 It is our purpose to address readers of all opinions, and to 
 make China known to all; not merely to preserve the memory of 
 facts connected with our mission. These interesting particulars 
 must be sought in the “ Annals of the Propagation of the Faith,” 
 those veritable bulletins of the Church militant, in which are 
 recorded the acts of apostles, the virtues of neophytes, and the 
 struggles and sufferings of martyrs. Our object in these volumes 
 has been to describe the theatre of this peaceful warfare, and to 
 
 * Account of the Embassy of Lord Macartney, 
 f Melanges Posthumes, p. 336. 
 
 a 3 
 
XXII 
 
 author’s preface. 
 
 make known the populations that tlie Church of God desires to 
 subject to her rule, and bring within her fold. We hope it will 
 then be more easy to understand the long struggles of Christianity 
 in China, and to appreciate its victories. 
 
 One word more. Many things in these volumes will perhaps 
 appear improbable, especially if looked at merely with European 
 ideas, and without placing ourselves—if we may be permitted the 
 expression — in the Chinese point of view. 
 
 We trust, however, that our readers will give us credit for 
 veracity, and dispense us from the necessity of employing the 
 language that the celebrated Marco Polo thought himself obliged 
 to address to his readers in the beginning of his interesting 
 narrative: — 
 
 “ And we will put down the things we have seen as seen, and 
 the things we have heard as heard, in order that our book may be 
 honest and true without any lie, and that every one that may read 
 or hear this book may believe it ; for all the things it contains are 
 true.” * 
 
 Paris, 24th May, IS54. 
 
 * Recueil des Voyages de la Societe de Geographie.— Voyage de Marco 
 Polo, 1. i. p. 2. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Arrangements for our Departure. — New Costume. — Departure from Ta-tsien- 
 lou. — Farewell of our Thibetan Escort. —Aspect of the Road. — Suspension- 
 Bridge over the River Lou.—Family of our Conductor.—Palanquin- 
 bearers.— Long Caravans of Porters. — Riot on our account in the Town of 
 
 Ya-tcheou. — Country assumes definitively a Chinese Character_Triumphal 
 
 Arches and Monuments erected in Honour of Virgins and Widows. — Com¬ 
 munal Palaces for Travelling Mandarins.—Discovery of a Christian Family. 
 — Aristocracy of Khioung-tcheou. —Introduction and Ravages of Opium in 
 China.—Magnificent Monastery of Bonzes. — Interview with a Christian of 
 the Capital of Sse-tchouen. — Arrival at Tching-tou-fou - Page 1 
 
 CHAP. H. 
 
 Conversation with the Prefect of the Garden of Flowers. — Lodgings in the 
 Court of Justice. — Invitation to Dinner with the two Prefects of the Town. 
 — Conversation with two Persons of Distinction. — Two Mandarins of 
 Honour assigned to amuse us. — Solemn Judgment before the assembled 
 Tribunals.—Various Incidents of the Trial.—Report addressed to the 
 Emperor concerning us, and the Emperor’s Answer. — Imperial Edicts in 
 favour of Christians, obtained by the French Embassy in China. — Insuffi¬ 
 ciency of these Edicts. — Appearance before the Viceroy. — Portrait of this 
 Personage. — Despatch of the Viceroy to the Emperor. — Conversation with 
 the Viceroy --------24 
 
 CHAP. IH. 
 
 Tching-tou-fou, the Capital of the Province of Sse-tchouen. —Numerous Visits 
 of Mandarins. — Constitutive Principle of the Chinese Government. — The 
 Emperor-Curious Organis&tion of Chinese Nobility. — Central Adminis¬ 
 
 tration of Pekin. — The Six Sovereign Courts. — Imperial Academy.— 
 Moniteur of Pekin. — Provincial Gazettes. — Administration of the Pro¬ 
 vinces_Rapacity of the Mandarins.—Venality of Justice. — Family of a 
 
 Magistrate — his two Sons — his Schoolmaster. — Primary Instruction very 
 widely diffused in China. — Chinese Urbanity. — System of Instruction. — 
 Elementary Book. — The Four Classical Books. — The Five Sacred Books. 
 —Arrangements for our Departure. — Last Visit to the Viceroy - 51 
 
XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Departure from Tching-tou-fou. — Letter thrown into our Palanquin, at the 
 Gate of the Town. — Christianity in China. — Its Introduction in the 5th 
 and 6th Centuries. — Monument and Inscription at Si-ngan-fou. — Progress 
 of Christianity in the 14th Century. — Arrival of the Portuguese in China. — 
 Macao.—Lather Matthew Ricci. — Departure of the first Chinese Mission¬ 
 aries. — Prosperity of the Religion under the Emperor Khang-hi. — Persecu¬ 
 tion under the Emperor Young-tching. — Abandonment of the Missions.— 
 Numerous Departures of the new Missionaries.—Glance at the Present 
 State of Christianity in China. — Motives of Hostility in the Government 
 towards Christians. — Indifferentism of the Chinese in Matters of Religion. 
 — Honours paid to us on our Road. — Halt at a Communal Palace. — 
 Trickery on the part of Master Ting. — Navigation of the Blue River.— 
 Arrival at Ivien-tcheou ..... Page 86 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 Disputes with the Mandarins of Kien-tcheou. — Intrigues to prevent us from 
 going to the Communal Palace. — Magnificence of this Palace. — The 
 Garden of Sse-ma-Kouang. — Chinese Kitchen. — State of the Roads and 
 Channels of Communication. — Some Productions of the Province of Sse- 
 tchouen. —Use of Tobacco, in Smoking and taking Snuff. — Tehoung-tching, 
 a Town of the First Order. — Ceremonies observed by the Chinese in Visits 
 and Conversations of Etiquette. — Nocturnal Apparition.—Watchmen and 
 Criers of the Town. — Fires in China. — The Addition of a Military 
 Mandarin to our Escort. — Tchang-cheou-hien, a Town of the Third Order. 
 
 — Release of three Christian Prisoners. — Superstitious Practices to obtain 
 
 Rain. — The Dragon of Rain exiled by the Emperor - - - 115 
 
 CHAP. VI. 
 
 Bad and dangerous Road. — Leang-chan, a Town of the Third Order. —Dis¬ 
 putes between our Conductors and the Mandarins of Leang-chan.—A Day 
 of Rest.—Numerous Visits of Christians. — A Military Mandarin of our 
 Escort compromises himself. — He is excluded from our Table. — Great 
 Trial presided over by the Missionaries. — Details of this singular Trial. — 
 Acquittal of a Christian, and Condemnation of a Mandarin. — Triumphal 
 Departure from Leang-chan. — Servitude and abject State of Women in 
 China. — Their Restoration by Christianity. — Master Ting declares that 
 Women have no Souls. — Influence of Women in the Conversion of Nations. 
 
 — Arrival at Yao-tchang. — Hotel of the Beatitudes. — Lodgings in a Theatre. 
 
 — Navigation of the Blue River.—Plays and Players in China - 144 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Temple of Literary Composition. — Quarrel with a Doctor. — A Citizen in the 
 Cangue. — His Deliverance.—Visit to the Tribunal of Ou-chan. — The 
 
 Prefect and Military Commandant of Ou-chan_Medical Jurisprudence of 
 
 the Chinese. — Inspection of Dead Bodies. — Frequent Suicides in China.— 
 Considerations on this Subject. — Singular Character of Chinese Politeness. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXV 
 
 — The Boundaries which separate the Frontier of Sse-tchouen from that 
 of Hou-pe. — Glance over Sse-tchouen. — Its principal Productions. — Cha¬ 
 racter of its Inhabitants. — Kouang-ti, God of War, and Patron of the 
 Mantchoo Dynasty — Official Worship paid to him. — Wells of Salt and 
 Fire. — State of Scientific Knowledge among the Chinese. — State of Chris¬ 
 tianity in the Province of Sse-tchouen ... Page 172 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Arrival at Pa-toung, a Frontier Town of Hou-pe.—Literary Examinations. — 
 Character of the Chinese Bachelor. — Condition of Writers.—Written Lan¬ 
 guage.— Spoken Language. — Glance at Chinese Literature. — The Celestial 
 Empire an immense Library. — Study of Chinese in Europe.— Embarkation 
 
 on the Blue River.—-Salt Custom-House-Smuggling Mandarin. — Dispute 
 
 with the Prefect of I-tchang-fou. — A Mandarin wishes to put us in Chains. 
 
 — System of Customs in China. — I-tou-hien, a Town of the Third Class. 
 
 —Amiable and interesting Magistrate of that Town. — Geographical Know¬ 
 ledge of the Chinese. — Narrative of an Arab who travelled in China in the 
 Ninth Century before the Christian Era - - - - 196 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Names given by the Chinese to the Kingdoms of Europe. — Origin of the 
 Words China and the Chinese. — Explanation of the various Names that 
 ■ the Chinese give to their Empire. — Good and venerable Prefect of Song- 
 •tche-hien. — Portrait of the ancient Mandarins. — Holy Instructions of the 
 Emperors. — A Khorassanian of the Imperial Court. — Details concerning 
 the Manners of the Ancient Chinese. — Causes of the Decay of the Chinese. -— 
 Means employed by the Mantchoo Dynasty to consolidate its Power. — 
 Foreigners not always excluded from China. —Bad Policy of the Govern¬ 
 ment. — General Presentiment of a Revolution. — Navigation on the Blue 
 River.—'Tempest.—Loss of Provisions.—Running aground three Times.— 
 Shipwreck. — The Shipwrecked - - - - - 221 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Chinese City in a State of Siege. — Nautical Sports on the Blue River. — 
 Quarrel between Victors and Vanquished.— Civil War at Kin-tcheou.— 
 Glance at the military Strength of the Chinese Empire. — Discovery of two 
 Soldiers in the Residence of the Missionary. — Description of an extra¬ 
 ordinary Review of Troops. — Policy of the Mantchoo Dynasty with respect 
 to Soldiers.—Chinese Navy. — Cause of the Want of Bravery in the Chinese 
 during the last War with the English. — Resources of the Empire for the 
 Formation of a good Army and a powerful Navy. — A great Reformer 
 needed. — Departure from Kin-tcheou. — Route by Land. — Great Heat. — 
 Journey during the Night by Torch and Lantern - - - 248 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Dangerous Illness.—Mandarins’ Prescriptions.—Visit of the Doctor. — Theory 
 of the. Pulse. — Apothecaries in China. — Trade in Medicine. — Increase of 
 
XXVI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 the Malady. — Acupuncture. — The Supernatural Treasure of Red Pills. — 
 Experimental Medicine. — Origin and History of the Cholera in China. — 
 Free Practice of Medicine. — Good Effects of Red Pills. — Cure. — Terrible 
 Law of Responsibility. — Tragic Story. — Kind Attention of the Prefect of 
 Kuen-kiang-hien. — Fondness of the Chinese for Coffins. — Journey of a 
 Sick Man by the Side of his Bier. —• Calmness and Tranquillity of the 
 Chinese at the Moment of Death. — Visit to our Coffin. — Departure from 
 Kuen-kiang-hien ------ Page 271 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Visit of the Mandarins of Tien-men. — Their Attention to us.—Fame of Tien- 
 men for the Number and Beauty of its Water-melons. — Extensive Use of 
 the Water-melon Seed. — Caustic Humour of a Young Military Mandarin. 
 — The Inhabitants of Sse-tchouen treated as Strangers in the Province of 
 Hou-pe.— Prejudices of Europeans with regard to Chinese. —The Manner 
 in which most Works on China are composed. — True View of the supposed 
 Immobility of the Orientals. — Revolutions in the Chinese Empire. — Socialist 
 School in the Eleventh Century. — Account of their System. — Long and 
 severe Struggle. — Transportation of Tartar Agitators. — Causes of the Bar¬ 
 barian Invasions - - - - - - -296 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Arrival at Plan-tchouan. —Custom of presenting a Pair of Boots to a disgraced 
 Mandarin. — Placards and Advertisements. — Privileges and Liberty en¬ 
 joyed by the Chinese. — Association against Gamblers.— Society of the Old 
 Bull. — Liberty of the Press. — Public Lectures. — European Prejudice 
 concerning the Despotism of Asiatic Governments. — Carelessness of Magis¬ 
 trates. — Remembrance of the Sufferings of the Venerable Perboyre.— 
 Navigation of a Lake. — Floating Islands. — Population of China. — Its 
 Causes and Dangers. — Cormorant Fishing. — Some Details of Chinese 
 Manners.—Bad Reception at Han-yang.—We follow a Avrong Course.— 
 Passage of the Yang-tse-kiang. —Arrival at Ou-tchang-fou - - 316 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Bad Lodging in a Little Pagoda. — Ou-tchang-fou, Capital of Hou-pe. —Limits 
 of the Chinese Empire. — Mountains.—Rivers. — Lakes. — Climate. — Prin¬ 
 cipal Productions. — Chinese Industry. — Causes of its Decline-Former 
 
 Exhibitions of the Productions of Arts. — Relations of the Chinese rvith 
 Foreigners. — Present State of their Commerce Avith Europeans. — Internal 
 
 Trade of China. — Interest of Money-System of Chinese Economists upon 
 
 Interest of Thirty per Cent. — Pecuniary Societies. — Immense Commercial 
 Mart in the Centre of the Empire. — System of Canals. — Aptitude of the 
 
 Chinese for Commerce_Monetary System— Influence of the Sapeck. — 
 
 Infinitesimal Trade ------- 340 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Attempt to sec the Governor of the Province. — We force the Guard of his 
 Palace. — The Governor of Hou-pe. — Conversath n with this exalted Per- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXV11 
 
 sonage. — Good Result of the Visit. — Moving. — Courtesy of a Cook.— 
 Adieus of Master Ting, and the Sse-tchouen Escort. — The Mandarin Lieou, 
 or the “ Weeping Willow,” Chief of the new Escort. —Chinese Architecture. 
 
 — Towers. — Pagodas. — Eine Arts. — Religion. — Doctrine of the Literary 
 Class. — Great Honours rendered to Confucius.—Doctors of Reason.—Life 
 and Opinions of the Philosopher Lao-tze.—Buddhism. —Legend of Buddha. 
 
 — Dogmas and Moral Precepts.—Buddhists persecuted by the Brahmins.— 
 Causes of these Persecutions. — Dispersion of the Buddhists through the 
 various Countries of Asia ----- Page 368 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 All Religions condemned by the Chinese Government_Formulas of Scepti¬ 
 
 cism.— Condition of the Bonzes of China.—Buddhist Monasteries. — Reli¬ 
 gious Architecture. — Temple of Pou-Tou. — Library of the Monastery_ 
 
 Visit to the Superior of the Bonzes. — Profound Respect of the Chinese for 
 Writing. — Convent of Bonzesses. — Ceremonies to recal the Souls of the 
 Dying when they are escaping. —Death of a young Bachelor. —Mourning 
 
 of the Chinese-Singular Mode of Lamenting the Dead. — Interments. — 
 
 Worship of Ancestors-Chinese Classification of Various Ages of Life.— 
 
 Marriage in China. —Servitude of Women. — Discord in Domestic Life.— 
 | Examples—Sect of Abstinent Women - - - 395 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Departure from the Capital of Hou-pe.— Farewell Visit to the Governor of 
 the Town. — Burial of the Two Martyrs. — State of Christianity in Hou-pe. 
 
 — Disagreeable Incidents on the Road. — No Provisions in a Town of the 
 
 Third Order.—Visit to the Palace of the Town Prefect. — Treatment of 
 Criminals. — Horrible Details of a Trial. — The Kouan-kouen, or Chinese 
 Bandit. — Mode of Administering Justice_Code of Laws. — General Con¬ 
 
 siderations upon Chinese Legislation. — Penal and Materialistic Character 
 of the Code.— Defect of Precision in certain Laws. — Principle of Solidarity. 
 
 — Laws relating to Officers of Government. — Organisation of the Family. 
 
 — Repression of Crime. — Ritual Laws. — Taxes and Territorial Pro¬ 
 perty -------- 422 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Departure from Kouang-tsi-hien. — Storm.—Government Couriers. — Mode 
 of Epistolary Correspondence. — Grand Festival at Hoang-mei-hien.—Fire¬ 
 works-Chinese Music. — Idea we ought to have of the Music of the Ancient 
 
 Chinese—Imperial Road to Pekin. — The Roads in China. — Halt upon the 
 Borders of Lake Pouyang.—-Embarkation.— Kakkerlacs on board the Junk. 
 — Glance over the Province of Hou-pe.— Agriculture in China. — Imperial 
 Festival of Labour. — Details concerning Agriculture. — Agricultural Pro- 
 ductions. — The Bamboo. — The Water-lily. —Imperial Rice. — Observant 
 Character of the Chinese. — Classification of Corn. — What becomes of the 
 Swallows during Winter. — Manner of making a Cat tell the Time. — 
 Method of hindering Asses from Braying - 449 
 
XXV111 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Navigation of the Pou-yang. ■—Great Number of Junks. —Desert Tracts.— 
 Pauperism in China. — Bands of Mendicants. — Society for Gratuitous 
 Coffins. — The King of the Beggars. — The Hen’s Feathers Inn. — Causes of 
 Pauperism. — Gaming. — Various Chinese Games. — Mode of eluding the 
 Law against Gamblers. — Drunkenness. — The Vine, Wine, and Corn 
 Brandy. — Infanticide. — Its Causes. — Truth and Exaggeration concerning 
 Infanticide in China. — Yu-yng-tang, or Foundling Hospital. — Edict against 
 Infanticide. — Work of the Society of Holy Infancy - Page 475 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Uncultivated Tracts in the Province of Kiang-si. — The Guard-house. — The 
 Vinegar Polypus. — The Mandarin and his Steed. — Theft of Water-melons. 
 —Arrival at Nan-tchang-fou.— Mode of Installing Oneself in the Palace of 
 Literary Composition. — Solemn Public Supper. — Disappointment of the 
 Spectators.—Visit of the Prefect of the Town. — A Mongol Mandarin.— 
 His Geographical Knowledge. — Labours of the Protestant Methodists in 
 China. — Chinese Astronomers. — Aspect of the Capital of Kiang-si. — 
 Manufacture of Porcelain. — Chinese Antiquaries. — Origin of the God of 
 Porcelain. — Pisciculture in Kiang-si. —New Travelling Arrangements. 499 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Departure from Nan-tchang-fou.—A Mandarin Junk. — Comfort and Luxury 
 of Water-carriage. — Vehicles and Hotels. — Fiacre and Cabriolet. Stands 
 at Pekin.— Chinese light Literature.— Collections of Maxims and Proverbs. 
 
 — Passage of the Mountain Mei-ling.— Nan-hioung, the Frontier Town,— 
 Chinese Rope Dancers. — Little Feet of the Women. — Origin of this 
 Custom. — Navigation of the Tigris.—Recollections of our Entry into 
 China in 1840. —View of the Port of Canton.—European Vessels.—First 
 Night in Canton. — Our Martyrdom in Tartary. — Savings on the Road 
 bestowed upon our Servant Wei-chan. — Stay at Macao. — Death of M. Gabet. 
 
 — Departure for Pekin.—Arrival at Marseilles in 1852 - - 518 
 
THE 
 
 CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Arrangements for our Departure. — New Costume. — Departure from Ta- 
 tsien-lou. — Farewell of our Thibetan Escort,—Aspect of the Iload.— 
 Suspension-bridge over the River Lou, — Family of our Conductor.—Pa¬ 
 lanquin-bearers.— Long Caravans of Porters. — Riot on our Account in the 
 Town of Ya-tcheou. — Country assumes definitively a Chinese Character. — 
 Triumphal Arches and Monuments erected in honour of Virgins and 
 Widows. — Communal Palaces for travelling Mandarins. — Discovery of a 
 Christian Family. — Aristocracy of Khioung-tcheou. — Introduction and 
 Ravages of Opium in China. — Magnificent Monastery of Bonzes. — 
 Interview with a Christian of the Capital of Sse-tchouen. — Arrival at 
 Tching-tou-fou. 
 
 Two years had passed since we bade adieu to the Christians of 
 the Valley of Black Waters. With the exception of a x'esidence 
 of some months in the Lama convent of Koumboum, and in the 
 bosom of the capital of Buddhism, we had been since then per¬ 
 petually journeying through the vast deserts of Tartary and over 
 the high mountains of Thibet. But these two years of inex¬ 
 pressible fatigue were not sufficient: we Avere still far from the 
 end of our sufferings. Before we could hope to enjoy any repose, 
 we had to cross the frontiers of China, and traverse this immense 
 empire from West to East. 
 
 Formerly, upon our first entrance on the mission, we had tra¬ 
 versed it throughout its entire extent from North to South ; but 
 that Avas secretly, by stealth, — along bye-paths and in darkness,— 
 pretty much, in fact, in the fashion of bales of contraband goods. 
 
 Now our position was altogether different. We were to march 
 openly in broad daylight, keeping the middle of the Imperial high 
 road. Those mandarins, the very sight of xvhom used to throAv us 
 
 6 B - 
 
2 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 into a cold shiver, and who would have been so extremely happy 
 to put us to the torture, if we had fallen into their hands, had now 
 to make up their minds to serve us for an escort, and to over¬ 
 whelm us with respect and politeness all along the road. 
 
 We were about to become acquainted, in China, with a civilisa¬ 
 tion extremely unlike that of Europe, hut not less complete in its 
 kind. The climate, too, would be no longer the same, and the 
 means of communication would be greatly superior to those of 
 Tartary and Thibet. 
 
 ]N T o more fear of snow, and rocks, and precipices,—of wild beasts 
 and robbers of the desert. An immense population, provisions in 
 abundance, a richly varied magnificent landscape, luxurious and 
 agreeable, though sometimes whimsical habitations, — this was 
 what we might look for during this new and long stage of our 
 journey. We knew the Chinese, however, too well to feel quite 
 at our ease in this altered position. Ki-chan'*' had, indeed, given 
 orders that we should be treated kindly, but, in fact, we were, 
 after all, given up to the tender mercies of the mandarins. After 
 having escaped a thousand dangers in the wild countries that we 
 had just passed through, we felt no security that we were not to 
 perish of hunger and privation in the very bosom of abundance 
 and civilisation, and we were convinced that our fate would 
 greatly depend on the attitude we should assume from the be¬ 
 ginning. 
 
 We have observed elsewhere that the Chinese, and especially 
 the mandarins, are strong against the w r eak and weak against the 
 strong. To domineer over, and crush all around them, is the 
 object they constantly have in view, and to attain it they have an 
 inexhaustible resource in their native cunning and pliability of 
 character. Once allow them to get the upper hand, and it is all 
 over with you ; but if you can only succeed in mastering them, 
 you will find them ever after as docile and manageable as children. 
 You may turn and twist them which way you will; but beware 
 of showing yourself weak with them for a moment, for they must 
 be ruled with an iron hand. The Chinese mandarins are pretty 
 much like their own long bamboos. If one can but manage to get 
 hold of them in the right way, they are easily bent double and 
 kept so ; but if for a second you let go, they are up again in a 
 moment as straight as ever. It was on a constant struggle, there¬ 
 fore, that we were about to enter — a struggle of every day, and 
 
 * Chinese ambassador at the Court of Lha-ssa. See “ Recollections of a 
 Journey,” &c., vol. ii. p. 285. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE MANDARINS. 
 
 3 
 
 all clay long, from Ta-tsien-lou to Canton. There was no middle 
 course: we must either submit to their will or make them submit 
 to ours ; and we determined to adopt the latter mode of proceed¬ 
 ing ; for we were by no means inclined to have our long pilgrimage 
 terminate in some ditch behind the ramparts of a Chinese town*; 
 that was evidently not the martyrdom that missionaries sigh 
 after. In the first place, we had to maintain a long and vehement 
 dispute with the principal mandarin of Ta-tsien-lou ■)■, who would 
 not consent that we should continue our journey in palanquins: he 
 was obliged to give way, however, thanks to the energy and per¬ 
 severance of our protests. For these two years past we had had 
 to bestride horses of every size, age, and quality, so that our 
 limbs longed at last to stretch themselves out at ease in a pa¬ 
 lanquin. 
 
 After this first triumph, it was necessary to revolt against the 
 decrees of the “ Tribunal of Rites,” on the subject of the costume 
 that we were to adopt. We had said to ourselves, in every country 
 in the world, and especially in China, clothes play a very impor¬ 
 tant part in the affairs of mankind; and since we have to inspire 
 a salutary fear among the Chinese, it is by no means a matter of 
 indifference in what way we are to be dressed. We cast aside, 
 therefore, our Thibet costume, — the frightful wolfskin cap, the 
 checked hose, and the long fur tunic, that exhaled so strong an 
 odour of beef and mutton, and we got a skilful tailor to make us 
 some beautiful sky-blue robes in the newest fashion of Pekin. We 
 provided ourselves with magnificent black satin boots, adorned 
 with soles of dazzling whiteness. So far the aforesaid Tribunal 
 of Rites had no objection; but when we proceeded to gird up our 
 
 * Our fears were not chimerical. On our arrival at Macao, wc learned that 
 a French Lazariste, M. Carayon, had been recognised and arrested in one of 
 our missions in the north of China. According to the decree obtained by 
 M. Lagrenee, a missionary could not be condemned and put to death in tlfe 
 same summary manner as before; but was to be sent, in an honourable manner , 
 to Macao. The honourable manner in which M. Carayon was sent to Canton, 
 was in chains, and in the company of malefactors ; and he was exposed to such 
 cruel ill-treatment on the way, that he died very shortly afterwards. 
 
 Another, an Italian missionary, sent there in the same manner, was actually 
 refused the smallest allowance of food, and died of starvation the very day of 
 his arrival at Canton. It would be too long to mention the names of all the 
 missionaries who, quite recently, have fallen victims to the malice of the 
 Chinese; but, so lately as 1851, M. Vacher, of the Foreign Missions, was 
 arrested in the province of Yun-nan, and thrown into prison, where shortly 
 afterwards he was suffocated. 
 
 f The first town on the Chinese frontier that you meet with in coming from 
 Thibet. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 loins with red sashes, and cover our heads with embroidered 
 yellow caps, we caused a universal shudder among all beholders, 
 and the emotion ran through the town like an electric current, till 
 it reached the civil and military authorities. They cried aloud 
 that the red sash and the yellow cap were the attributes of Im¬ 
 perial Majesty, — allowable only to the family of the Emperor, and 
 forbidden to the people under pain of perpetual banishment. On 
 this point the Tribunal of Rites would be inflexible, and we must 
 reform our costume accordingly. We, on our side, alleged, that 
 being strangers, travelling as such, and by authority, we were not 
 bound to conform to the ritual of the empire, — but had the right 
 of following the fashion of our own country, which allowed every 
 one to choose the form and colour of his garments, according to 
 his own fancy. They insisted,—they became angry, — they flew 
 into a furious passion;—we remained calm and immovable, but 
 vowing that we would never part with our red sashes and yellow 
 caps. Our obstinacy was not to be overcome, and the mandarins 
 submitted — as they ought to do. 
 
 The military mandarin of Mussulman origin, whom we had 
 picked up at Ly-tang after the decease of the Pacificator of King¬ 
 doms*, was to escort us to Tching-tou the capital of the province 
 of Sse-tchouen. It had been agreed that his mission should end 
 on the frontier, but the mandarins of Ta-tsien-lou found us such 
 crabbed and troublesome customers, that they declined the honour 
 of conducting our caravan. The Mussulman seemed not at all 
 ambitious of it; but, like a true disciple of Mahomed, he knew 
 how to resign himself to his fate, and say calmly, “It is 
 written.” 
 
 At last we quitted Ta-tsien-lou, to the great satisfaction of the 
 mandarins of the place, who had begun to despair of converting 
 us to their ideas of civilisation. We kept the same escort that we 
 had taken at Lha-ssa, only reinforced by some young recruits of 
 the province, commanded by a long, lean corporal, who with his 
 robes tucked up to his middle, his legs naked, a large umbrella in 
 one hand, and a fan in the other, had not, it must be owned, a very 
 strikingly military appearance. As for ourselves, snugly ensconced 
 in our dear palanquins, we were borne rapidly along by four 
 vigorous Chinese bearers, over excavations, rocks, and mud holes, 
 and we soon outstripped our escort, who could by no means vie 
 with the bearers in strength and agility. 
 
 After mai’ching five lif we halted; the Chinese set down our 
 
 * See “ Recollections of a Journey,” vol. ii. p. 398. 
 
 f A li is the tenth of a French league. 
 
FAKEWELLS. 
 
 5 
 
 palanquin, and invited us to get out in very polite terms, and with 
 a slight smile that seemed to indicate some mystery ; and, as soon 
 as we were out, we were agreeably surprised to find behind a 
 rocky hill the Lama Dchiamdchan, with his little Thibetan troop.* 
 These honest fellows had come to meet us in order to bid us fare¬ 
 well once more in the manner of their country. They had 
 prepared a collation of Chinese pastry, preserves, apricots, and 
 rice wine, which they had spread on the grass, under the shade of 
 some large trees, and we were soon seated round it in a mood of 
 mingled joy and sadness. We were happy to find ourselves once 
 more together, but our joy was greatly damped by the thought 
 that we were again about to separate and most likely for ever. 
 The escort that we had left behind was not long in coming up, 
 and after having bade adieu to our dear Thibetans and said, “Au 
 revoir ,” we again got into our palanquins. 
 
 Au revoir — those words so full of consolation, and which so 
 often dry the tears of parting friends, — how many times had we 
 pronounced them in the sure and certain hope of seeing again one 
 day those to whom they were addressed! How many times in 
 China, in Tartary, in Thibet, in Egypt, in Palestine, had we 
 uttered them to friends whom we were to see no more ! 
 
 God hides the future from us : He will not permit us to know 
 his designs with respect to us, — and it is in accordance with his 
 infinite goodness that he does not, for there are separations that 
 would kill us if we knew them to be for ever. These Thibetans, 
 to whom we were attached by so many ties, we never saw again; 
 but we shall always retain one great consolation —we can pray to 
 God for these interesting populations, and petition that the 
 missionaries charged to preach the Gospel to them may succeed 
 in guiding them from the chill and darkness ot Buddhism to the 
 light and vivifying warmth of the Christian faith. 
 
 The road that we had been following from Ta-tsien-lou had 
 been constantly descending, and we soon found ourselves in a 
 deep and narrow valley, watered by a limpid stream whose banks 
 were fringed by willows and bamboos. On either side arose, 
 almost perpendicularly, lofty and majestic mountains, ornamented 
 with stately trees, and an inexhaustible variety of plants and 
 flowers. Our eyes feasted on the brilliant colours, and the exqui¬ 
 site verdure, and were filled with tears of delight as w'e inhaled 
 the balmy fragrance of the air : our whole being seemed to expand 
 
 * The chief of the Thibet escort that had accompanied us from Lha-ssa to 
 the Chinese frontier. See “ Kecollections,” vol. ii. p. 398. 
 
6 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 with rapture. One must have lived for two whole years amidst 
 ice and snow, dreary arid mountains and sandy deserts, to feel all 
 the intoxicating charm of such a landscape, and the delicious re¬ 
 pose afforded by fresh green grass to an eye wearied by the dead 
 monotonous whiteness of snow. 
 
 The road led along the course of the stream. Sometimes we 
 passed from one bank to the other over little wooden bridges 
 covered with turf, and sometimes over large stones thrown into 
 the bed of the rivulet. But nothing relaxed the speed of our 
 bearers ; on they went, over every obstacle, and always with the 
 same rapidity, agility, and-courage. Now and then they made a 
 short halt to wipe the sweat from their brows and smoke a pipe, 
 and then they resumed their march with redoubled vigour. The 
 narrow valley we were passing through seemed but little fre¬ 
 quented ; we met only from time to time some parties of travellers, 
 amongst whom it was easy for us to distinguish the vigorous, 
 energetic, and barbarous Thibetan from the pallid cunning-looking 
 faces of the civilised Chinese. On all sides we could see flocks of 
 goats and long-haired oxen, feeding on the mountain pastures, 
 whilst countless birds warbled amid the branches of the trees. 
 
 We passed the first night in a humble and badly provided inn ; 
 but as the habitations we had met with in Thibet had not accus¬ 
 tomed us to much luxury, we were very well pleased with what 
 we found. The miseries of every kind that we had suffered, 
 had had the effect of rendering us patient under all the trials 
 of life. 
 
 On the following day, the road became more wild and perilous. As 
 we advanced, the valley closed in, and became encumbered with 
 enormous masses of rock and great trees that had fallen from the 
 crest of the mountains. The stream that had borne us company 
 the day before, like a faithful friend, now gradually turned away 
 from us, and at last disappeared in a deep gorge. A torrent that 
 we had heard roaring for a long time, like distant thunder, 
 suddenly came in sight from behind a mountain and dashed itself 
 furiously over the rocks. We followed it a long time in its erratic 
 course, and saw it descend from point to point in noisy cascades, 
 or trail its greenish waters like a huge serpent into dark hollows 
 of the mountains. On this day we had no longer the pleasure of 
 gazing on a peaceful and smiling landscape of trees and flowers, 
 but this wild and savage grandeur of nature was not without its 
 charms. 
 
 We left these rugged defiles at last behind us, and having crossed 
 a broad valley called Iloang-tsao-ping (Yellow Grass Plains), where 
 
FAMILY OF OUR CONDUCTOR. 
 
 7 
 
 there is a great variety of culture and vegetation, we arrived at 
 the celebrated bridge of Lou-ting-khaio, which we had to cross on 
 foot and at a slow pace. This bridge was built in 1701. It is 
 192 feet long, and only ten wide, and is composed of nine enormous 
 iron chains, strongly stretched from one bank to the other, and on 
 which are laid transverse planks, tolerably well fitted, but move- 
 able. The river Lou. which it crosses, has such a rapid current, 
 that it has been found impossible to build a bridge of any other 
 kind. The two banks are very high, so when you are in the 
 middle of the bridge, if you look below at the swiftly running 
 waters it is prudent to keep fast hold of the railing; and as the 
 bridge is extremely elastic, it is necessary-to walk very slowly, to 
 avoid the risk of pitching over. 
 
 On the other side of the river Lou is a little town, where we 
 were received very noisily by a great concourse of people : it was 
 the native place of our Mussulman mandarin, the conductor of the 
 caravan ; and it was decided that we were to stop there for a day. 
 It was certainly only fair that the mandarin, who had passed two 
 years at Ly-tang, on the road to Thibet, should be allowed to pass 
 one day with his family. The next morning he presented to us 
 with paternal pride his two children, gorgeously attired, but with 
 faces so flushed and surprised, and arms and legs apparently so 
 stiff and awkward, that we could not help thinking they were 
 lodged for the first time in these fine clothes. We appreciated, 
 however, the courtesy of our mandarin, gave the little things some 
 sweetmeats and kind words, and caressed them as well as we could, 
 finding that after all they were really very pretty and intelligent ; 
 whilst their papa, smiling at one and the other, seemed quite to 
 expand with pleasure. 
 
 I wish we could give as good an account of the mandarin’s 
 kitchen as of his nursery ; but perhaps the worthy man thought 
 the having admired and contemplated his offspring for two hours 
 was enough to satisfy us, and that we should desire nothing more, 
 for he served us up a most detestable dinner. This suggested to 
 us that we had to do with a person who was inclined to make some 
 little profit out of our supplies on the road, and that if we did not 
 take care it might be likely enough that famine and death would 
 be found at the end of it. We therefore knitted our brows, and 
 gave our conductor to understand that we expected to live rather 
 differently here in China to what we had done in the mountains 
 of Thibet. Excuses of course were not wanting, but we had 
 made up our minds never ta admit any. 
 
 Amongst the inhabitants of Lou-ting-khiao the Thibetan ele- 
 
 b 4 
 
8 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 ment is still observable in manners and costume; but by degrees, 
 as you advance, this mixture disappears, and there remains soon 
 nothing but what is purely Chinese. 
 
 We quitted this town early in the morning, and crossed a high 
 mountain, on the summit of which is an immense plateau, with a 
 lake half a league broad in the middle. The paths that lead 
 upward to this plateau are so tortuous and difficult, that the 
 Chinese Itinerary * describes them by saying that they are only 
 fit for birds; and on the following day we were favoured with a 
 by no means pleasing reminiscence of the terrible ascent of the 
 mountains of Thibet. We scaled the Fey-yue-ling, “a gigan¬ 
 tic mountain which rises almost perpendicularly, and whose peaks 
 are painful to the eyes of the traveller. During the whole year it 
 is covered with snow, and surrounded by clouds that reach to its 
 very foot. The road is frightful, and passes over rocks and 
 chasms ; it is one of the most difficult in all China, and no place 
 of rest can be found on it.” This description, which we borrow 
 from the Chinese Itinerary, is perfectly correct. On this mountain 
 we again found snow, and the sight of it seemed to recall all the 
 horrors and miseries of the journey through Thibet and Tartary. 
 We felt like men who, after having climbed by prodigious exer¬ 
 tions out of an abyss, find themselves cast down into it a second 
 time. The bearers of our palanquin performed prodigies of skill, 
 strength, and courage. In the most difficult places, we wished to 
 get out, to afford them a little relief; but they would very seldom 
 allow us to do so, for they felt a pride in climbing like chamois 
 over the steepest rocks, and passing along the edge of the most 
 tremendous precipices, while carrying on their shoulders our heavy 
 palanquins, which seemed always tottering over the abyss. Many 
 times we felt a cold shudder run through our veins, for a single 
 false step would have been sufficient to precipitate us to the bottom 
 of the gulf beneath, and dash us to pieces against the rocks. But 
 nothing can equal the steadiness and agility of these indefatigable 
 bearers; and it is only among the wonderful Chinese that it is 
 possible to find such people. While they are running panting 
 along these terrific roads, their bodies dripping with perspiration, 
 and every moment in danger of breaking their limbs, you may 
 hear them laugh, joke, and pun as if they were seated quietly at 
 their tea-table. Notwithstanding the indescribable fatigues that 
 they undergo, too, they are very badly remunerated. The rate of 
 their wages is fixed at a sapeck a li, which comes to about a half- 
 
 * See what is said of the Chinese Itinerary in the “ Recollections.” 
 
THE CHINESE PALANQUIN-BEARER. 
 
 9 
 
 penny for a French league. Thus they cannot at the very utmost 
 gain more than five pence a day, and as there are many days in 
 the year, during which it is impossible for them to exercise their 
 employment, they have not, on an average, more than three pence 
 a day. With that they have to feed, clothe, and lodge themselves, 
 besides keeping enough to furnish them the means of passing the 
 greater part of the night in play and smoking opium. 
 
 The food of the common people in China is, it is true, almost 
 incredibly cheap ; and the palanquin-bearer is by profession some¬ 
 thing of a marauder,—besides having every where the privilege of 
 taking up his quarters for the night in a pagoda, an inn, or some¬ 
 where about the courts of law. His toilette, too, is not very ex¬ 
 pensive or complicated, for it consists of nothing more than a pair 
 of drawers reaching to the middle of the thigh, and sandals of rice 
 straw. He generally possesses also a short jacket, but he very 
 seldom puts it more than half on. 
 
 The palanquin-bearer is one of the most original types among 
 the Chinese, and we shall often have occasion to study him. 
 
 On the summit of the mountain ours allowed themselves a little 
 rest, devoured eagerly some little cakes of maize flour, and smoked 
 several pipes of tobacco. During this time we remained contem¬ 
 plating in silence the gi’eat reddish-grey clouds that were some¬ 
 times floating below, sometimes rolling down the sides of the 
 mountains, sometimes heaving and dilating themselves as if they 
 were going to rise up to us. Beneath the clouds, decreased to 
 miniature size by the distance, appeared rocks and deep ravines, 
 and foaming torrents, and cascades and carefully cultivated valleys, 
 where large trees of thick dark foliage were clearly marked out 
 against the tender green of the rice fields. The picture was com¬ 
 pleted by some scattered habitations, half hidden in tufts of 
 bamboo, whence rose at intervals light wreaths of smoke. 
 
 Notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers of the road across 
 this mountain, it is much frequented by travellers, for there is no 
 other way to Ta-tsien-lou, a great place of trade between China 
 and the tribes of Thibet. You meet every moment on these 
 narrow paths long files of porters carrying brick tea, which is pre¬ 
 pared at Khioung-Tcheou, and forwarded from Ta-tsien-lou to the 
 different provinces of Thibet. This tea, after having been sub¬ 
 jected to strong pressure, is made up into bales in coarse matting, 
 and fastened by leathern thongs to the backs of Chinese porters, 
 who carry enormous loads of it. You even see among them old 
 men, women, and children, who go climbing, one after another, up 
 the steep sides of the mountain. They advance in silence, with 
 
10 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 slow steps, leaning on great iron-pointed sticks, and with their 
 eyes fixed on the ground ; and beasts of burden would certainly 
 not endure so well, the constant and excessive fatigue to which 
 these slaves of poverty are subjected. From time to time, he who 
 is at the head of the hie gives the signal for a short halt, by strik¬ 
 ing the mountain with his iron-pointed stick; those who follow 
 him imitate this signal in succession, and soon the whole line has 
 stopped, and each individual, placing his stick behind him, so as to 
 relieve himself a little of the Aveight, lifts up his head, and utters 
 a long whistling sound like a sigh of pain. In this way they en¬ 
 deavour to recover their strength, and get a little air into their 
 exhausted lungs ; but after a minute or two’s rest, the heavy 
 Aveight again falls on the back and head, the body is again bent 
 toAvards the ground, and the caravan is once more in motion. 
 
 Whenever we met these unfortunate tea-porters, they were 
 obliged to stop and lean against the mountain, so as to afford us a 
 free passage. As our palanquin approached, they lifted up their 
 heads and cast on us a furtive and painfully stupid look. And this, 
 said Ave sadly, is what civilisation, when corrupt and without reli¬ 
 gious faith, is able to make of man created in the image of God—■ 
 of man Avho has been “ made a little loAver than the angels, crowned 
 Avitlx glory and honour.” The words of the prophet, in Avhich he 
 raises so high the dignity of man, recurred involuntarily to our 
 minds; but they sounded like bitter mockery in presence of these 
 poor creatures degraded to the level of beasts of burden. 
 
 Brick tea, and the khata, or “ scarf of felicity,” are the great 
 articles of trade between China and Thibet. It is scarcely credible 
 Avhat a prodigious quantity of these goods is exported annually 
 from the provinces of Kan-Sou and Sse-tchouen. These are cer¬ 
 tainly not absolute necessaries of life; but they are so connected 
 Avith the habits and wants of the Thibetans, that they cannot noAv 
 do Avithout them, and they have thus rendered themselves voluntary 
 tributaries of that Chinese Empire, Avhose yoke Aveighs so heavily 
 upon them. They might live in freedom and independence in the 
 midst of their mountains, and care nothing about the Chinese, if 
 they could only make up their minds to go without brick tea and 
 scarfs of felicity. But this they will probably not do, for factitious 
 Avants are those which weigh most heavily upon us, and from which 
 Ave have most difficulty in freeing ourselves. 
 
 After crossing the famous Fey-yue-ling, which rises on the 
 frontiers of the Central Empire like an advanced post of the moun¬ 
 tains of Thibet, Ave found ourselves once more in China, Avith its 
 beautiful landscapes, its towns and villages and numerous popula- 
 
CREATING A SENSATION. 
 
 11 
 
 tion ; the temperature rose rapidly, and soon the Thibetan horses, 
 which had borne the Chinese soldiers from the garrison of Lha-ssa, 
 became so overcome by the heat that they went along with out¬ 
 stretched necks, flapping ears, and open panting mouths. Several 
 could not endure the change, and died on the road; at which the 
 Chinese soldiers, who had reckoned on selling them for a good price 
 in their own country, became furious, and vented their wrath in 
 imprecations on Thibet and all that it contained. 
 
 A little while before we arrived at Tsing-khi-hiett, a town of 
 the third order, the wind began to blow with such violence that 
 our bearers had the greatest difficulty in keeping the palanquins 
 on their shoulders. But when in the midst of this hurricane we 
 entered the town, we were much surprised to find the inhabitants 
 attending quietly to their customary occupations, and to hear from 
 the master of the inn where we alighted, that this was the usual 
 weather in this part of the country. We consulted our Chinese 
 Itinerary on the subject, and there read, in fact, the following 
 words: — 
 
 “At Tsing-khi-hien the winds are terrible : every evening there 
 rise furious whirlwinds, which shake the houses and occasion a 
 frightful noise, as if everything was going to pieces.” It is probable 
 that these atmospheric disturbances are attributable to the neigh¬ 
 bourhood of the Fey-yue-ling and its vast and numerous gorges. 
 Since our departure from Ta-tsien-lou, we had travelled pretty 
 quietly, and without exciting much curiosity amongst the Chinese. 
 But as soon as we had reached the great centre of the population, 
 the sensation we created began to be perceptible. 
 
 The estafette who preceded us several stages to announce our 
 arrival, did not fail to blow his trumpet and rouse the inhabitants. 
 The peasants abandoned their field labours, to run and post them¬ 
 selves on the road side to see us pass by. At the entrance of the 
 towns especially, the curious came thronging about us in such 
 numbers that the palanquins could scarcely make their way through 
 the throng. Our bearers vociferated, the soldiers who formed our 
 escort tried to disperse them by dealing out blows right and left 
 with their rattans, and while we advanced, as through the midst 
 of an insurrection, all those thousands of little Chinese eyes were 
 peering into our palanquins with the most eager curiosity. Loud 
 remarks were made, without the smallest ceremony, on the cut of 
 our physiognomies, our beards, noses, eyes, costume,—nothing 
 was forgotten. Some appeared pretty well satisfied with us ; but 
 others burst into shouts of laughter, as soon as they caught sight 
 of what seemed to them our burlesque European features. A 
 
12 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 magic effect was, however, produced by the yellow* - cap and red 
 sash; those who first discovered them, pointed them out to their 
 neighbours with evident amazement, and their faces immediately 
 assumed a grave and severe expression. Some said that the Emperor 
 had charged us with an extraordinary mission, and that he had 
 himself bestowed on us these Imperial decorations. Others were 
 of opinion that w T e were European spies who had been arrested in 
 Thibet, and that we were to be tried as a preparatory ceremony 
 to that of having our heads cut off. These various opinions which 
 we heard expressed all round us, were sometimes amusing, but more 
 frequently, it must be owned, vexatious. 
 
 At Ya-tcheou, a fine town of the second order, where we stopped 
 after leaving Tsing-khi-hien, there was a real insurrection on our 
 account. The inn where we were lodged, possessed a large and 
 handsome courtyard, round which were ranged the chambers destined 
 to travellers; and as soon as we were installed in those prepared 
 for us, our visitors began to arrive in such crowds that the tumult 
 soon became deafening. As we had rather more desire to rest than 
 to present ourselves as a spectacle for the amusement of the public, 
 we endeavoured to turn them out of doors; and one of us advancing 
 to the threshold of our chambers, addressed to the multitude a few 
 words accompanied by energetic and imperious gestures, which had 
 a complete and instantaneous success. The crowd appeared to be 
 suddenly seized by panic terror, and set off as hard as they could 
 run; and no sooner was the courtyard clear than we had the great 
 gate locked for fear of a second invasion. 
 
 But little by little the tumult began again in the street. A sort 
 of murmur was heard among the crowd, and then the noise burst 
 out again as loud as ever. The worthy Chinese were determined 
 to gratify themselves with a sight of the Europeans. They began 
 to knock loudly and repeatedly at our great gate, and at last by 
 dint of violent shaking burst it in, and the living torrent rushed 
 again with impetuosity into the courtyard. 
 
 The matter w r as now becoming serious, and it was evidently 
 important to let them see who was master. By a sudden inspira¬ 
 tion we seized a long and thick bamboo, which happened to be lying 
 near the door of the room, and the poor Chinese, imagining no 
 doubt that we intended to knock them down with it, tumbled over 
 each other in their haste to get away. We then ran to the door 
 of the room occupied by our mandarin conductor, who, not knowing 
 what to do in the riot, had bethought himself of the safe expedient 
 of hiding himself. But as soon as we had found him, without 
 giving him time to speak, or even to think, we seized him by the 
 
THE EIOT QUELLED. 
 
 13 
 
 arm, clapped on his head his official hat, and dragged him along 
 as fast as we could run to the gate of the inn. Then we thrust 
 into his hands the great bamboo with which we had armed our¬ 
 selves, and enjoined him to stand sentinel. “ If,” said we, “ a single 
 individual passes that gate, you are a lost man; ” and hearing us 
 talk in this grand style, the poor man took it seriously and did not 
 dare to stir. The people in the street burst out laughing; for it 
 was something new to see a military mandarin mounting guard 
 with a long bamboo at the door of an inn. Everything remained 
 perfectly quiet up to the time of our going to bed; the guard was 
 then relieved, and our warrior laid down his arms and returned to 
 his room, to console himself by smoking some pipes of tobacco. 
 
 Those who do not know the Chinese, will doubtless be scanda¬ 
 lised at our behaviour, and will blame us severely. They will 
 ask, what right had we to make this mandarin ridiculous, and 
 „xpose him to the laughter of the people. The right, we answer, 
 that every man has to provide for his personal safety. This 
 triumph, absurd as it seems, gave us great moral power, and we 
 had need of it, in order to arrive safe and sound at the end of our 
 journey. It would be childish or insane to talk of reasoning and 
 acting in China as you would in Europe; the circumstance just 
 related is a trifle, but we shall find much stronger instances in the 
 course of our narrative. 
 
 Our depai’ture from Ya-tcheou was almost imposing. Our 
 demonstration of the evening before had raised us so high in public 
 opinion, that we had not to encounter on our passage the slightest 
 inconvenience. The streets were thronged with people ; but their 
 behaviour was civil, almost respectful. They stood aside quietly, 
 to let our palanquins pass, and everybody appeared to be earnestly 
 engaged in the study of our physiognomy, which we endeavoured 
 as far as possible to render extremely majestic, and quite in accord¬ 
 ance with the “ rites” 
 
 It was the month of June — the finest season for the province of 
 Sse-tchouen. The country we were traversing was rich and ad¬ 
 mirably varied by hills, plains, and valleys, watered by streams of 
 enchanting freshness. The country was in all its splendour, har¬ 
 vests were ripening all around, the trees were loaded with flowers 
 and fruit, and the exquisite perfume of the air reminded us that 
 we were passing through plantations of lemon and orange trees. 
 
 In the fields and on all the paths we found the industrious 
 population of China, constantly busied in trade and agriculture; 
 villages with their curve-roofed' pagodas, farms surrounded by 
 thickets of bamboo and banana, inns and houses of refreshment 
 
14 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 at short intervals along the roads, small tradesmen selling to tra¬ 
 vellers fruit, fragments of sugar cane, pastry made with cocoa-nut 
 oil, soups, rice, wine, tea, and an infinity of Chinese dainties. All 
 this brought back vividly the recollection of our former travels in 
 the Celestial Empire; but perhaps the strongest reminiscence was 
 afforded by the powerful odour of musk, with which China and the 
 Chinese are everywhere so much impregnated. 
 
 Travellers in remote countries have often remarked, that most 
 nations have an odour which is peculiar to them. It is easy to 
 distinguish the negro, the Malay, the Tatar, the Thibetan, the 
 Hindoo, the Arab, and the Chinese. The country itself even, the 
 soil on which they dwell, diffuses an analogous exhalation, which 
 is especially observable in the morning, in passing either through 
 town or country ; but a new comer is much more sensible of it than 
 an old resident, as the sense of smell becomes gradually so accus¬ 
 tomed to it as no longer to perceive it. 
 
 The Chinese say they perceive also a peculiar odour in a Euro¬ 
 pean, but one less powerful than that of the other nations with 
 Avhom they come in contact. It is remarkable, however, that in 
 traversing the various provinces of China, we were never recog¬ 
 nised by any one except by the dogs, which barked continually at 
 us, and appeared to know that we were foreigners. We had indeed 
 completely the appearance of true Chinese, and only an extremely 
 delicate scent could discover that we did not really belong to the 
 “ central nation.” 
 
 We noticed on our way a great number of monuments of a kind 
 peculiar to China, and wliich alone would suffice to distinguish this 
 country from all others ; namely, triumphal arches erected to 
 widowhood or virginity. When a girl will not marry, in order 
 that she may better devote herself to the service of her parents, or 
 if a widow refuses to enter the marriage state a second time, out 
 of respect to the memory of her deceased husband, she is honoured 
 after death with especial pomp. Subscriptions are raised for the 
 erection of a monument to her virtue, to which all the relations, 
 and even sometimes the inhabitants of the village or district where 
 the heroine has dwelt, contribute. These arches are of wood or 
 stone, covered with sculptures, sometimes very well executed, of 
 flowers, birds, and fabulous animals. Many of the ornaments and 
 fanciful mouldings would do no discredit to the artist who deco¬ 
 rated our finest cathedrals. On the front is usually an inscription 
 in honour of virginity or widowhood, as the case may be ; and 
 on the two sides are engraved in small letters the virtue of the 
 heroine in question. These arches, which have a very fine effect, 
 
COMMUNAL PALACES. 
 
 15 
 
 are frequent along the roads, and even in the towns. At Ning-Po, 
 a celebrated sea-port in the province of Tche-Kiang, there is a 
 long street entirely composed of such monuments, all of stone, and 
 of a most rich and majestic architecture. The beauty of the sculp- 
 tmes has excited the admiration of all Europeans who have seen 
 them; in 1842, when the English took the town, there was some 
 talk of their carrying off these triumphal arches, and making with 
 them a complete Chinese street in London. Such an enterprise 
 would have been worthy of British eccentricity, but whether from 
 fear of irritating the people of Ning-Po, or from any other motive, 
 the project was abandoned. 
 
 After two days’ march through this populous country, we seemed 
 to have quite recovered our former familiarity with it. China 
 entered into us at every pore, and our Tatar and Thibetan impres¬ 
 sions gradually faded away. At Khioung-tcheou , a town of the 
 second order and pleasantly situated, the inhabitants appeared to 
 be living in the greatest abundance. We were not, as on former 
 occasions, lodged in a public inn, but at a small palace decorated 
 with great richness and elegance, and where we had only to do 
 with people of exquisite politeness, most strict observers of the 
 rites or Chinese etiquette. On our arrival, several mandarins 
 came to receive us at the door, and introduced us into a brilliant 
 saloon, in which we found a luxurious and elegantly served colla¬ 
 tion. Hotels of this kind are called koung-kouans, or communal 
 palaces; they are found from stage to stage all along the road, 
 and are reserved for the use of the great mandarins, when travel¬ 
 ling on public service. Ordinary travellers are rigidly excluded 
 from them. A Chinese family has the office of maintaining each 
 of them in good order, and of making the necessary arrangements 
 when a mandarin is about to occupy it. The expenses are paid 
 by the governor of the town, and he appoints the domestics for 
 the service of the palace. The koung-kouans of the province of 
 Sse-tchouen are particularly renowned for this magnificence, and 
 they were completely renewed under the administration of Ki-Chan, 
 who was governor of the province for several years, and whose 
 actions ali bear the stamp of his noble and generous character. 
 
 We were somewhat astonished at first, to find ourselves lodged 
 in this lordly abode, where a splendid banquet was served up to 
 us, and where we were waited on by domestics in rich silk attire. 
 
 We talked a good deal with the mandarins of the town, who had 
 the courtesy to come and visit us; and the result of these conver¬ 
 sations was the clear conviction that we had been completely the 
 dupes of the little. Mussulman mandarin — the chief of our escort. 
 
16 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 According to the orders of Ki-Chan, which had been forwarded 
 in writing to the chief tribunal of Ta-tsien-lou, we were to be 
 lodged every day in the communal palaces, and treated in all 
 things like mandarins of the first degree. In regulating matters 
 thus, Ki-Chan had doubtless, in the first instance, followed the 
 impulse of his own generosity; but besides this, he had also 
 probably, from a very excusable patriotic pride, wished to give us 
 strangers a high idea of the grandeur of his country; he had 
 wished that we should be able to say that we had been received in 
 China with brilliant hospitality. But Ki-Chan had reckoned 
 without his little Mussulman, who did not particularly care about 
 making the Empire and the Mantchou dynasty shine in the eyes 
 of the two strangers, and who had some little views of his own, 
 connected with our commissariat department. He had an under¬ 
 standing with the courier, who preceded us always by a day’s 
 journey, and who declared to the mandarins of all the towns we 
 passed through, that we had absolutely refused to be lodged in 
 the koung-kouans from some caprice common among the men of 
 our nation, who never could be got to conform to the customs of 
 the Central Empire. He requested, therefore, that they would let 
 him have the orders for our reception at the various palaces, and 
 he would then undertake to provide for us in a manner more 
 suitable to our tastes and wishes. The mandarins and the keepers 
 of the koung-kouan were, on their side, of course not unwilling to 
 comply with a request that would save them all anxiety and 
 trouble; and if our peculiar tastes led us to prefer lodging at poor 
 inns and living on rice and water, salt herbs and bacon, if wine 
 was too heating and injurious to our Western stomachs, and that 
 we found very poor weak tea agree with us better, they of course 
 could have no objection. 
 
 In this manner our cunning little Mussulman found means to 
 maintain us for about a tenth of the sum allowed him for the pur¬ 
 pose, and quietly to pocket the balance. This discovery was of 
 the greatest importance to us; for it made us acquainted both 
 with the extent of our rights, and the value of the individual to 
 whose care we had been confided. 
 
 When we were about to retire to rest, our attention was attracted 
 by the behaviour of some of the keepers of the palace, who kept 
 hovering about us in what seemed a very mysterious manner. 
 Presently they addressed to us a few words, insignificant enough 
 in themselves, but which expressed their desire to enter into com¬ 
 munication with us. At length one of them, after having looked 
 well on all sides, to make sure that lie was not perceived, came 
 
CHINESE MANNERS. 
 
 17 
 
 after us into our room, shut the door, and then kneeling down, 
 made the sign of the cross and asked our blessing. He was a 
 Christian. Soon there came a second and a third, and at last the 
 whole family which had the care of the koung-kouan was assem¬ 
 bled round us. They were all Christians; but during the whole 
 day they had not, for fear of compromising themselves before the 
 mandarins, been able to make any demonstration to that effect. 
 
 It is impossible to form any idea of the emotions this incident 
 awakened in our minds! The present writer cannot now, after 
 the lapse of six years, recall it without feeling his heart beat 
 quicker, and the tears rush into his eyes. 
 
 These men were entirely unknown to us, yet we felt immediately 
 towards them like brothers and friends. Their thoughts and 
 feelings were in harmony with ours ; we could speak to them with 
 open hearts, for we were closely united by the bonds of faith, 
 hope, and charity. This inestimable happiness of finding brothers 
 everywhere is only for Catholics. They alone can traverse the 
 earth from north to south, and from east to west, and feel secure 
 of finding everywhere some member of the great family. 
 
 There is much talk of universal fraternity; but let those who 
 have it in their hearts, and not merely on their lips, exert them¬ 
 selves in the beautiful work of the propagation of the faith. 
 
 On the day before our departure we received a great number of 
 visitors, all belonging to the highest society of Khioung-tcheou. 
 Whilst we x-esided at the mission we had been mostly in communi¬ 
 cation with the lower classes; in the country with peasants, in the 
 town with artizans, for in China, as everywhere else, it is among 
 the people that Christianity first strikes root. We were happy 
 therefore to have this opportunity of forming an acquaintance 
 with the higher classes of this curious nation. The well bred 
 Chinese are very pleasing in their manners. Their politeness is 
 not fatiguing and tiresome as is sometimes supposed, but has 
 really something fascinating in it, and only falls into affectation 
 with the pretenders to elegance, who know little of refined society. 
 Their conversation is sometimes even intelligent and witty, and 
 though the compliments and elaborate eulogistic speeches they 
 make one another, are somewhat wearisome at first, you soon 
 become in some measure reconciled to them, by the grace with 
 which they are uttered. There was especially a gi'oup of young 
 men amongst our visitors, who excited our admiration; their 
 behaviour was modest, though unconstrained, showing a mixture 
 of timidity and confidence which suited their age perfectly. They 
 spoke little, and only when they were first spoken to, but showed 
 
 G 
 
18 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 their interest in the conversation by the animation of their faces 
 and their graceful gestures. Their fans too were managed by our 
 guests with so much elegance and dexterity, that they were quite 
 becoming. Of course we also had on our best manners, in order 
 to show that French urbanity was not inferior to the ceremonious 
 politeness of China. 
 
 When we set off again we remarked that our escort was much 
 more numerous than usual. Our palanquins proceeded between 
 a double line of lancers on horseback, whom it appeared the 
 governor of Khioung-tcheou had given us to protect us from 
 robbers. These robbers were the smugglers of opium, and we 
 were informed that for several years past they had come in great 
 numbers to the province of Yun-nan, and even as far as Birmah, 
 to fetch the opium sent to them from India. They came back 
 with their contraband goods quite openly, but armed to the teeth, 
 in order to be able to defy the mandarins who might oppose their 
 passage. Instances were mentioned to us of murderous combats, 
 in which both sides had fought desperately, the one to keep, the 
 other to get, the smuggled goods; for Chinese soldiers are only 
 valiant against robbers and smugglers when they hope to get 
 possession of the booty themselves. When these armed bands of 
 opium traders meet any rich travellers on the road, they seldom 
 fail to do a little more business by attacking and plundering them. 
 
 Every body is aware of the unfortunate passion of the Chinese 
 for opium, and of the war this fatal drug occasioned in 1840, 
 between China and England. Its importance in the Celestial 
 Empire is of rather recent date, but there is no trade in the world 
 the progress of which has been so rapid. Two agents of the East 
 India Company were the first who, in the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, conceived the deplorable thought of sending 
 to China the opium of Bengal. Colonel Watson and Vice- 
 President Wheeler are the persons to whom the Chinese are 
 indebted for this new system of poisoning. History has preserved 
 the name of Parmentier*; why should it not also those of these 
 two men? Whoever has done either great good or great harm to 
 mankind ought to be remembered, to excite either gratitude or 
 indignation. 
 
 At present China purchases annually of the English opium of 
 the amount of seven millions sterling ; the traffic is contraband, 
 but it is carried on along the whole coast of the Empire, and 
 
 * A distinguished French chemist, who introduced the culture of the potato 
 into France, after the famine of 1769 . — Trans. 
 
OPIUM SMOKING. 
 
 19 
 
 especially in the neighbourhood of the five ports which have been 
 opened to Europeans. Large fine vessels, armed like ships of 
 war, serve as depots to the English merchants, and the trade is 
 protected, not only by the English government, but also by the 
 mandarins of the Celestial Empire. The law which forbids the 
 smoking of opium under pain of death, has indeed never been 
 repealed; but everybody smokes away quite at his ease notwith¬ 
 standing. Pipes, lamps, and all the apparatus for smoking opium, 
 are sold publicly in every town, and the mandarins themselves 
 are the first to violate the law and give this bad example to the 
 people, even in the courts of justice. During the whole of our 
 long journey through China, we met with but one tribunal where 
 opium was not smoked openly, and with impunity. 
 
 Opium is not smoked in the same manner as tobacco. The pipe 
 is a tube of nearly the length and thickness of an ordinary flute. 
 Towards one end of it is fitted a bowl of baked clay or some other 
 material, more or less precious, which is pierced with a hole 
 communicating with the interior of the tube. The opium, which 
 before smoking is in the form of a blackish viscous paste, is 
 prepared in the following manner: — A portion, of the size of a 
 pea, is put on a needle, and heated over a lamp until it swells and 
 acquires the requisite consistence. It is then placed over the 
 hole in the bowl of the pipe, in the form of a little cone that has 
 been previously pierced with a needle so as to communicate with 
 the interior of the tube. The opium is then brought to the flame 
 of the lamp, and after three or four inspirations the little cone is 
 entirely burnt and all the smoke passes into the mouth of the 
 smoker, who then rejects it again through his nostrils. After¬ 
 wards the same operation is repeated, so that this mode of 
 smoking is extremely tedious. The Chinese pi’epare and smoke 
 their opium lying down, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the 
 other, saying that this is the most favourable position; and the 
 smokers of distinction do not give themselves all the trouble of 
 the operation, but have their pipes prepared for them. 
 
 At Canton, at Macao, and at other ports open to European 
 commerce, we have heard people attempt to justify the trade in 
 opium, by the assertion that its effects were not so bad as was 
 supposed; and that, as with fermented liquors and many other 
 substances, the abuse only was injurious. A moderate use of 
 opium, it was said, was rather beneficial to the feeble and 
 lymphatic Chinese. Those who speak thus, however, are com¬ 
 monly dealers in opium, and it is easy to suppose that they seek 
 by all possible arguments to quiet their consciences, which can 
 
20 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 hardly fail to tell them they are committing a bad action. But 
 the spirit of trade and the thirst of gold completely blind these 
 men, who with this exception are generous in their conduct, keep 
 their purses always open to the unfortunate, and are prompt in 
 every good work. These rich speculators live habitually in the 
 midst of gaiety and splendour, and think little of the frightful 
 consequences of their detestable traffic. When from their superb 
 palace-like mansions on the sea shore, they see their beautiful 
 vessels returning from the Indies, gliding majestically over the 
 waves, and entering with all their sails spread into the port, they 
 do not reflect that the cargoes borne in those superb clippers are 
 bringing ruin and desolation to numbers of families. With the 
 exception of some rare smokers who, thanks to a quite exceptional 
 organisation, are able to restrain themselves within the bounds of 
 moderation, all others advance rapidly towards death, after having 
 passed through the successive stages of idleness, debauchery, 
 poverty, the ruin of their physical strength, and the complete 
 prostration of their intellectual and moral faculties. Nothing 
 can stop a smoker who has made much progress in this habit; 
 incapable of attending to any kind of business, insensible to every 
 event—the most hideous poverty, and the sight of a family 
 plunged into despair and misery — cannot rouse him to the 
 smallest exertion, so complete is the disgusting apathy in which 
 he is sunk. 
 
 For several years past, some of the southern provinces have 
 been actively engaged in the cultivation of the poppy and the 
 fabrication of opium. The English merchants confess that the 
 Chinese product is of excellent quality, though inferior to that of 
 Bengal; but the English-opium suffers so much, adulteration 
 before it reaches the pipe of the smoker, that it is not in reality 
 as good as what the Chinese themselves prepare. The latter, 
 however, though delivered perfectly pure, is sold at a low price, 
 and only consumed by smokers of the lowest class. That of the 
 English, notwithstanding its adulteration, is very dear, and re¬ 
 served to smokers of distinction; a caprice which can only be 
 accounted for from the vanity of the rich Chinese, who would 
 think it beneath them to smoke tobacco of native production, and 
 not of a ruinous price; that which comes from a long way off, 
 must evidently be preferable. 
 
 “ Tut to il tnondo e fatto come la nostra famiglia.” 
 
 It may be easily foreseen, however, that this state of things 
 cannot last; and it is probable that the Chinese will soon cultivate 
 
KOAD TO SSE-TCHOUEN. 
 
 21 
 
 the poppy on a large scale, and make at home all the opium 
 necessary for their consumption. The English cannot possibly 
 offer an equally good article at the same price ; and when the 
 fashion at present in their favour shall have altered, they will no 
 longer be able to sustain the competition. When that happens, 
 British India will experience a terrible blow, that may possibly 
 even be felt in the English metropolis, and then, who knows 
 whether the passion of the Chinese for this fatal drug may not 
 decline. It would be by no means surprising if, when they can 
 procure opium easily and at a low price, they should gradually 
 abandon this degrading and murderous habit. 
 
 It is said that the people of London, and many of the great 
 manufacturing towns of England, have been for some time addicted 
 to the use of opium, both in its liquid and solid form; but the 
 circumstance has attracted little attention, though the progress of 
 the habit is alarming. Curious and instructive would it be 
 indeed, if we should one day see the English going to buy opium 
 in the ports of China, and their ships bringing back from the 
 Celestial Empire this deleterious stuff, to poison England. Well 
 might we exclaim in such a case, “Leave judgment to God.” 
 
 After quitting the communal palace of Khioung-tcheou we 
 crossed a magnificent plain, in which we saw the Chinese popula¬ 
 tion displaying all the resources of their agricultural and com¬ 
 mercial industry. As we advanced the roads became broader, 
 the villages more numerous, and the houses better built and more 
 elegantly decorated. The short garments worn by the people 
 gave way to long robes of state, and the physiognomies of tra¬ 
 vellers bore the impress of a higher civilisation. Amongst the 
 peasants with their large straw hats and sandals, appeared a great 
 number of Chinese exquisites, with their lounging and affected 
 deportment, playing continually with their fans, and protecting 
 their pale mealy complexions from the sun with little parasols of 
 varnished paper. Everything announced to us that we were not 
 far off Tching-tou-fou, the capital of the province of Sse-tchouen. 
 Before entering the town our conductor invited us to rest for a 
 short time in a Bonze monastery that we came to on the road. 
 In the mean while, he said he would go himself, according to 
 Chinese ceremonial, to present himself to the viceroy and ask his 
 pleasure respecting us. The superior of the convent came to 
 receive us, with a profusion of salutations, and introduced ns into 
 an immense saloon, where a repast was served of tea, dried fruits, 
 pastry of all colours, fried in sesame oil, which the Chinese call 
 hiang-you; that is, odoriferous. 
 
22 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Several monks of the monastery assisted their superior in en¬ 
 tertaining us, and keeping up the conversation ; but we did not 
 perceive among these Bonzes the frankness and sincerity of 
 religious conviction that we had found among the Lamas of 
 Thibet and Tatary. Their manners were full of courtesy indeed, 
 and their long ash-coloured robes irreproachable; but we could 
 not discover many signs of faith or devotion in their sceptical and 
 cunning faces. 
 
 This Bonze monastery is one of the richest and best-maintained 
 in China; and after we had taken tea, the superior invited us to 
 go over it. The solidity of the building and the richness of its 
 decoration attracted our attention ; but we admired especially the 
 gardens, groves, and park by which it is surrounded. Nothing 
 fresher or prettier can be imagined. We stopped for some 
 moments on the borders of a large fish-pond, where great numbers 
 of turtle were sporting amidst the broad leaves of the water-lily 
 which floated on the surface of the water. Another pond, smaller 
 than the first, was full of black and red fish ; and a young Bonze, 
 whose great ears stuck out comically on each side of his newly 
 shaven pate, was amusing himself by throwing them little pellets 
 of rice-paste ; for which they appeared excessively eager, crowding 
 to the surface and opening their mouths to receive them. 
 
 After this delightful walk, we were taken to the reception-room 
 of the monastery, where we found several visitors, and amongst 
 them a young man of lively, easy manners, and remarkable 
 volubility of tongue, whom, before he had spoken many words, we 
 discovered to be a Christian. “ You are undoubtedly,” said we to 
 him, “ of the religion of the Lord of Heaven ? ” For an answer 
 he threw himself on his knees before us and asked our blessing. 
 Such an act, in the presence of the Bonzes and of a crowd of 
 curious persons, indicated both a lively faith and great courage; 
 and in fact he was a man of very strong mind. He began, without 
 the smallest hesitation, to speak of the numerous Christians in the 
 capital, of the quarters of the town in which there were most, and 
 of the happiness it was to him to have met us; he then made a 
 bold attack upon paganism and pagans, defended the doctrines and 
 practices of Christianity, appealed to the Bonzes themselves, 
 rallied them on their idols and superstitions, and summed up with 
 an estimate of the value of the theological books of Confucius, 
 Lao-tze, and Buddha. It was a flood of words that seemed as if 
 it would never stop; the Bonzes were disconcerted at such an im¬ 
 petuous attack; the spectators laughed and looked pleased; and 
 we could not, on our side, help being quite proud of seeing a 
 
THE TRIBUNAL. 
 
 23 
 
 Chinese Christian proclaiming and defending his faith in public. 
 It was a thing as rare as it was delightful. 
 
 During the long monologue of our Christian orator there was 
 frequent mention made of a French embassy that had arrived at 
 Canton, and of a certain great personage named La-ko-nie *, who 
 in concert with the Imperial Commissioner Ky-yn, had arranged 
 the affairs of the Christians in China. In future it was said there 
 were to be no more persecutions of them ; the Emperor approved 
 their doctrine, and took them under his protection, &c. &c. 
 
 We did not place any great reliance upon all that, but we 
 endeavoured to make out what it really meant. Having, how¬ 
 ever, few data to proceed upon, we did not succeed in unravelling 
 all these enigmas ; and just as we were about to ask more precise 
 explanations from our fluent orator, four Mandarins who had 
 arrived from the capital, invited us to enter our palanquins and 
 resume our journey. 
 
 The bearers carried us at a run and without stopping to take 
 breath, as far as the walls of the town, where we found the soldiers 
 of our escort awaiting us. The precaution was by no means un¬ 
 necessary, for without this help it would have been impossible for 
 us to get through the streets, so compact and dense was the throng 
 that impeded our passage. Our hearts beat somewhat quicker 
 than usual, for we knew that we were about to be brought to trial 
 by order of the Emperor. 
 
 Were we to be sent to Pekin, to Canton, or to another world? 
 There had been nothing to alarm us hitherto ; but in the absolute 
 uncertainty of what we had to expect, it was pardonable that we 
 should experience a little emotion. 
 
 At length we arrived in front of a great tribunal, on the massive 
 portals of which were painted two monstrous divinities armed 
 with great swords. The two enormous folding-doors were thrown 
 open, and we entered, not without a thought of in what manner 
 we were to go out again. 
 
 From Ta-tsein-lou, the frontier townt to Tching-tou-fou the 
 capital of Sse-tchouen, we had made twelve days’ march, and had 
 traversed nearly a thousand li, equivalent to about three hundred 
 English miles. 
 
 * The Chinese name of M. de Lngrenee. This French embassy had arrived 
 during our long journeys through Tatary, and this was the first time we had 
 heard it mentioned. 
 
 f Fou signifies in China, a town of the first order; tcheou, of the second; 
 tsien, of the third: these three orders of towns are always enclosed by 
 ramparts. 
 
24 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 
 Conversation with the Prefect of the Garden of Flowers. — Lodgings in the 
 
 Court of Justice-Invitation to Dinner with the two Prefects of the Town. 
 
 — Conversation with two Persons of Distinction. — Two Mandarins of 
 Honour assigned to amuse us. — Solemn Judgment before the assembled 
 Tribunals. — Various Incidents of the Trial. —Report addressed to the 
 Emperor concerning us, and the Emperor’s Answer. —Imperial Edicts in 
 favour of Christians, obtained by the French Embassy in China. — Insuffi¬ 
 ciency of these Edicts. — Appearance before the Viceroy.—Portrait of this 
 Personage.—Despatch of the Viceroy to the Emperor. — Conversation with 
 the Viceroy. 
 
 The capital of the province of Sse-tchouen is divided into three 
 prefectures, charged with the police and administrative duties for 
 the whole town. Every prefect has a tribunal palace, where he 
 judges the affairs of his own jurisdiction ; and there he dwells 
 with his family, his counsellors, scribes, satellites, and his numerous 
 domestics. The prefectural tribunal unto which we were now in¬ 
 troduced, is called Hoa-yuen , that is to say, the Garden of 
 Flowers; and it was therefore with this flowery prefect that we 
 had first to do. He was a Mandarin of about forty years of age, 
 short, broad, and round ; his face was like a great ball of fat, his 
 nose buried and his eyes eclipsed, so that he seemed to have only 
 two little slits to look thi’ough. 
 
 When he entered the apartment in which we were awaiting his 
 pleasure, he found us reading some sentences in Mantchou with 
 which the walls were decorated, and asked us in a very affable 
 manner whether we understood that language. We answered 
 that we had studied it a little, and at the same time we endeavoured 
 to translate into Chinese the Mantchou distich that we had before 
 us, which signified : — 
 
 “ If you are in solitude, be careful to meditate on your own faults. 
 
 If you are conversing with men, be careful not to speak of the faults 
 of your neighbours.” 
 
 The prefect of the Garden of Flowers, being by birth a Mantchou 
 Tatar, was at first astonished, and then extremely flattered, to find 
 that we understood the language of his country, that of the 
 conquerors of China, and of the Imperial family. His funny little 
 squeezed up eyes twinkled with pleasure, and he made us sit down 
 on a red satin divan and talk to him. The conversation had no 
 relation to our affairs. We spoke of literature, of geography, of 
 
MEDITATIONS. 
 
 25 
 
 the winds, of snows, of barbarous countries and civilised countries. 
 He asked us many particulars concerning our manner of travelling 
 from Ta-tsein-lou, whether it was true that as far as Khioung- 
 tcheou Ave had been lodged in public inns, &c., and alter strongly 
 inveighing against our Mussulman Mandarin, announced to us 
 that he was going to have us conducted to the house appointed for 
 our residence. 
 
 At the door of the prefecture we found, not our travelling 
 palanquins, but others, larger, more convenient and more elegant; 
 and our attendants also had been changed, 
 
 The dwelling assigned to us was at a considerable distance, and 
 it was necessary, in order to reach it, to traverse the principal 
 disti'icts of the town. At last Ave reached a tribunal of the second 
 class, where resides a Mandarin, whose office a good deal resembles 
 that of the Juge de Paix, in France. We shall have occasion in 
 the sequel to say more of this Mandarin and his family. After 
 having exchanged a feAv polite phrases with the master of the 
 house, Ave were installed in our apartments, which were composed 
 of a sleeping-room, and a saloon for receiving visitors, for each of 
 us; but besides this the whole tribunal Avith all its courts and 
 gardens, and a charming belvedere that overlooked the tOAvn, and 
 whence the view extended far into the country, Avere placed at our 
 disposal. 
 
 The night had long closed in; and we were left to ourselves, 
 Avith leisure to meditate on the singularity of our position. What a 
 drama had our existence been for the last two years ! Our peace¬ 
 able departure from the Valley of Black Waters*, with Sandad- 
 chiemba, our camels, and our blue tent; our encampments and our 
 patriarchal life in the grassy wastes of Tat ary; the famous Lama 
 monastery of Kounboom, and our long intercourse Avith the religious 
 Buddhists ; the great caravan of Thibet, the horrors and suffer¬ 
 ings of that terrible journey through the deserts of High Asia; 
 our abode at Lha-ssa ; and those three frightful months during 
 which we had to climb mountains of snow and ice and scale pre¬ 
 cipices ; all these events, all these recollections came crowding 
 upon us at once so as almost to take aAvay our senses. And all 
 was not yet over : Ave Avere now, we thought alone, in the hands of 
 the Chinese, without protection, helpless and friendless. But 
 we were wrong; we had God for a friend and protector. I here 
 are certain situations in life when, if we lose our trust in God, we 
 must fall into despair : but when we place our Avliole reliance upon 
 
 See “ Recollections of a Journey,” &c. 
 
26 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Him, we become inspired with indomitable courage. The Al- 
 mighty, we said, many times has saved our lives in the most 
 miraculous manner in Tatary and Thibet; it is not likely He 
 would do that, to allow a Chinese afterwards to dispose of us at his 
 pleasure ; and we concluded that we might make ourselves per¬ 
 fectly easy, and allow our little affairs to be disposed of as best 
 pleased his providence. The night was far advanced; we said 
 our prayers, which, strictly speaking, might have been the morn¬ 
 ing ones, and then we lay down in peace. 
 
 On the following morning there was brought to us from the 
 prefect a large sheet of red paper, which proved to be an invitation 
 to dinner ; and when the hour had arrived, we once more entered 
 our palanquins and were carried to his house. 
 
 The tribunals of the Mandarins have seldom anything very 
 remarkable about them in an architectural point of view ; the 
 edifice is always low, consisting of only one floor; and the roof, 
 which is loaded with ornaments and little flags, alone indicates its 
 public character. It is always surrounded by a great wall, almost 
 as high as the building itself. Within this enclosure you see vast 
 courts and halls, and often gardens, which are by no means un¬ 
 attractive ; but the only thing which bears the stamp of grandeur 
 is a series of four or five stately portals placed in the same direc¬ 
 tion, and separating the different courts. These portals are 
 ornamented with grand historical or mythological figures, coarsely 
 painted but always with very striking colours. When all these 
 great folding-doors are opened in succession with great noise, and 
 display, at the extremity of this grand corridor, the hall where the 
 judge is administering, or rather selling, justice, the effect on the 
 imagination of a Chinese must be very striking. 
 
 On a raised platform in this last hall is placed a large table 
 covered with red cloth, and on the two sides of the apartment are 
 seen all kinds of weapons and instruments suspended to the walls. 
 The Mandarin is seated behind the table, the scribes, counsellors, 
 and subaltern officers standing round him. Below the platform is 
 the place reserved for the public, as well as for the accused, and 
 for the functionaries whose business it is to torture the unfortunate 
 victims of Chinese justice. Behind this hall of audience are the 
 private apartments of the Mandarin and his family. 
 
 Very often the tribunal is used also for a prison, and the con¬ 
 demned cells are placed in the first court. We saw here, when 
 we entered, a crowd of unfortunate criminals, with livid faces and 
 wasted limbs, scarcely covered by a few rags. They were crouch¬ 
 ing in the sunshine: some had on their shoulders an enormous 
 
DINE WITH THE PREFECT. 
 
 27 
 
 cangue, a sort of moveable pillory ; others were loaded with chains, 
 and some had only fetters on their hands and feet. 
 
 The prefect of the Garden of Flowers did not make us wait 
 long. As soon as we had entered, he presented himself, and in¬ 
 troduced us to the dining-room, where we found a fourth guest 
 the prefect of the third district of the town. A single glance 
 served to recognise in him the type of the true Chinese. He was 
 of middling height and sufficiently plump. His features were more 
 delicate than those of his Mantchou Tatar colleague, but inferior 
 in penetration and intelligence ; his eyes were suspicious in their 
 expression, and not so much arch as wicked. 
 
 We were seated at a square table, missionary opposite to 
 missionary, and prefect to prefect; and, according to Chinese 
 custom, the dinner began with the dessert. W e amused ourselves 
 a long while with the fruit and preserves, and our little glasses were 
 kept continually filled with warm wine. The conversation was sup¬ 
 posed to be quite free and easy; but we were not long in perceiv¬ 
 ing that our two magistrates were trying to subject us to an exa¬ 
 mination, 'without our perceiving it. This they found no very easy 
 matter. We had been invited to dinner, and so we intended to 
 dine in peace and as gaily as possible : and we were therefore 
 obstinately and maliciously bent on never going the way they 
 wanted to drive us ; and when they thought they had just got us, 
 we suddenly slipped aside, and made an innocent inquii'y about 
 the rice harvest, or the number of dynasties counted in the Chinese 
 monarchy. What especially annoyed them was that sometimes we 
 involuntarily fell into speaking French between ourselves, and 
 then they glanced at us and each other with such eager anxiety, 
 that they seemed to be trying to seize with their eyes the meaning 
 that escaped their ears. The dinner passed, therefore in a very 
 amusing manner ; and as it had begun with the dessert, it may 
 be considered to have been quite in order that it ended with the 
 soup. 
 
 We then rose from table : every one took his pipe, and tea was 
 served. The Mantchou prefect left us for a moment, but soon 
 returned, canying a European book and a packet. He presented 
 the book to us, and asked us whether we were acquainted with it. 
 It was an old breviary. 
 
 “ This js a Christian book,” said we, “ a prayer-book; how 
 comes it here?” “ I have lived a good deal amongst Christians,” 
 was the reply ; “ and one of them made me a present of it.” 
 
 We looked at one another and smiled ; that was rather more 
 polite than saying, “ You lie ” “ Here again,” he went on, “ this 
 
28 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 was given me too ;” and he opened an old piece of silk stuff, in ■ 
 which the packet was wrapped, and displayed a beautiful crucifix. I 
 The two prefects must have observed the emotion we felt at the 
 sight of what were to us such memorable relics ; for on turning \ 
 over the breviary we had read on the first page the name Mon” 
 seigneur Dufraisse, Bishop of Tabraca and Vicar Apostolic of the I 
 province of Sse-tchouen. This holy and courageous bishop had \ 
 suffered martyrdom in the year 1815, in the town of Tching-tou- 
 fou; perhaps he had been condemned and put to the torture in 
 the very tribunal where we were now standing. 
 
 “ These articles,” said we to the Mandarins, “ belonged to a 
 Frenchman who was a chief of the Christian religion, and whom 
 you put to death in this very town, thirty years ago. This man 
 was a saint, and you killed him like a malefactor.” Our Mandarins 
 appeared astonished and confounded at hearing us speak of an 
 event that took place so long ago; and after a moment’s silence, 
 one of them asked who could have deceived us by relating so ex¬ 
 traordinary a fable. “ Probably,” he added, smiling, and in a 
 careless tone, “ they were only joking with you.” 
 
 “ N°>” said we, “ there is not much to joke about in this business. 
 
 It is known to all the nations in the West that you have tortured 
 and strangled a great number of Christian missionaries. Only a 
 few years ago, you put to death another Frenchman, one of our 
 brothers, at Ou-chang-fou ”* The two representatives of Chinese 
 justice protested aloud, stamped with their feet, and maintained, 
 with indescribable impudence, that our information was false. 
 This was, of course, not the moment to insist upon its accuracy ; 
 and we, therefore, contented ourselves with begging the prefect of 
 the Garden of Flowers to make us a present of the breviary and 
 the crucifix. But our entreaties failed of success. This curious 
 personage endeavoured to make us believe that he was keeping 
 these things for a dear friend of his, who was a Christian, and 
 that to part with them would be to violate all the rites of honour 
 and friendship ; and thereupon he began to speak to us of the 
 numerous Christians existing in the province of Sse-tchouen, and 
 to give us some interesting details concerning them. 
 
 We had been aware that the Chinese Mandarins were not 
 ignorant of the progress of Christianity in their country ; that 
 they knew the localities in which neophytes were to be found, and 
 that even the presence of numerous missionaries was no mystery 
 
 * The venerable Perboyre, missionary of the congregation of St. Lazare; 
 martyred in 1840, at Ou-chang-fou, the capital of the province of Hou-pe. ’ : 
 
CHRISTIANS KNOWN IN CHINA. 
 
 29 
 
 to them ; we had supposed that the Christians, cautious as they 
 are, would scarcely have been able to elude completely the vigilance 
 of the Chinese police, that even the times and places of their 
 meetings were well enough known ; but we did not think that the 
 Mandarins were quite as intimately acquainted with their affairs 
 as we discovered them to be. 
 
 At Lha-ssa the ambassador Ki-Chan had informed us, that in 
 the province of Sse-tchouen we should find many converts, and he 
 even indicated the places where they were to be met with in the 
 greatest numbers. During the time when he was viceroy of that 
 province, he had discovered that the environs of his own palace 
 were almost entirely inhabited by Christians, and he could even 
 sometimes hear the sound of their hymns, when they were singing 
 on their festival days. “ I know too,” he had added, “ that the 
 chief of all the Christians in the province* is named Ma. I know 
 the house where he lives ; every year he sends to Canton for money 
 and various articles of merchandise ; and at a certain time of the 
 year, he goes to visit all the districts where there are Christians. 
 I never disturbed him, because I have been assured that he is a 
 virtuous and charitable man.” 
 
 It is evident from this, that if the Chinese wished to seize on 
 all the Christians and missionaries, it would be no difficult matter; 
 but the Mandarins will not proceed to that extremity, for if they 
 did they would find themselves overwhelmed with business that 
 would bring them no kind of profit, and they might even be ex¬ 
 posed to be degraded and sent to exile. The Emperor, and the 
 great tribunals at Pekin, would not fail to accuse them of negligence, 
 and call them to account for not having sooner been aware of what 
 was passing in their Mandarinates, and causing the laws of the 
 Empire to be put in force. 
 
 Thus the personal interest of the magistrates is often, for the 
 Christians, the strongest guarantee of peace and tranquillity. 
 
 The hour having come in which the prefect of the Garden of 
 Flowers had to administer justice, we took our leave. The 
 worthy Mantchou had had the complaisance to treat us to an ex¬ 
 cellent dinner, and we were grateful to him accordingly; but we 
 did not mean to carry our gratitude so far as to give him the in¬ 
 formation he wanted, and which he had hoped to obtain ; so after 
 having addressed each other reciprocally with all sorts of salu¬ 
 tations, and exhausted all the formulas of Chinese politeness, we 
 returned home. 
 
 Mgr. Peroekeau, Bishop of Maxula. 
 
30 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 During our absence our house had been set in order, by com¬ 
 mand of the viceroy. Two clever and well-behaved young men 
 had been appointed to be our valets de chambre. and to two 
 Mandarins of the lower class of the “ Gilt Copper Ball,” had been 
 assigned the office of keeping us company, dissipating our ennui , 
 and making themselves generally agreeable by the charms of their 
 conversation. One of them, a most prodigious gabbler, was, though 
 young, quite decrepit from the immoderate use of opium. The 
 other was really old, and constantly coughing and uttering great 
 sighs, probably for the vanished joys of his youth. The first 
 occupied himself from morning till night with his pipe and his 
 opium-lamp ; the other sat crouched in a corner, picking out seeds 
 of the water-melon with his long nails, his little withered hands 
 looking exactly like those of an old monkey. He ate a prodigious 
 quantity of these seeds, and moistened them with copious libations 
 of tea, saying that only this kind of diet suited the delicacy of his 
 temperament. 
 
 It may be supposed that the conversational talents of our two 
 companions were not of the most brilliant order; in fact, the 
 utmost they could do for us was to make us regret the somewhat 
 rough and rude manners of our Tatar friends ; but fortunately we 
 had, from time to time, some visitors of distinction, whose refined 
 and elegant deportment served to remind us that we were in the 
 capital of the most civilised province perhaps of the Celestial 
 Empire. 
 
 Four days after our arrival at Tching-tou-fou it was signified to 
 us, at an early hour in the morning, that the documents relating to 
 us having been sufficiently studied, we were to be brought to trial. 
 This news, as may well be supposed, was to us matter of great 
 interest. 
 
 A trial in China, and by order of the Emperor, was no trifle. 
 Many of our now happy predecessors had only entered the tri¬ 
 bunals to be tortured, and left them to suffer glorious martyrdom. 
 This day, then, was to be decisive of our fate, and to put an end 
 to all anxieties concerning the future, which for us had been so 
 long enveloped in darkness. 
 
 Our position was not, however, the same as that of the greater 
 part of the missionaries who had had to appear before the Man¬ 
 darins. We had not been arrested in the Chinese territory, no 
 Christian of the province had been in any relation with us, no one 
 was at all implicated in our affairs, and we were sure that no one 
 could be compromised on our account. 
 
 Samdadcliiemba had been the only companion of our fatigues 
 
THE TRIAL APPROACHING. 
 
 31 
 
 and privations, the only witness of our desire for the glory of God 
 and the salvation of man. But our dear neophyte was now no 
 longer with us ; he was in his own country, and sheltered from 
 all danger. We had only, therefore, to think of ourselves; the 
 Chinese government had only our two heads to strike at, and the 
 question was much simplified. In this quite exceptional situa¬ 
 tion, we could, with God’s help, present ourselves before the court 
 in a serene and equable state of mind. 
 
 The general administration of each province is entrusted to two 
 sse or commissioners, who have their tribunals in the capital. 
 These are the most important after those of the viceroy. We 
 were conducted to the judgment hall of the first provincial com¬ 
 missioner who bears the title of Pou-tching-sse. * His colleague, 
 the Ngan’-tsha-sse , or Inspector of Crimes, a kind of attorney- 
 general, was associated with the principal Mandarins of the town ; 
 for, as we were told, the trial was to be a solemn and extraordi¬ 
 nary one. 
 
 An immense crowd surrounded the tribunal ; amongst this 
 assemblage of the populace, eager to see the faces of the°“ devils 
 i of the Western Sea,” were a few sympathetic-looking counte¬ 
 nances, which seemed to say, “You are in a very unfortunate posi¬ 
 tion, and we can do nothing for you.” The dejection of these 
 poor Christians pained us, and gladly would we have infused into 
 their souls a little of the calmness and peace with which our own 
 were filled. The way was cleared by soldiers armed with bamboos 
 and rattans, the great doors were opened, and we entered. We were 
 placed in a small waiting-room, with the two amiable companions 
 that had been assigned to us, and thence we could amuse ourselves 
 by contemplating the movement and the sensation that reigned in 
 the tribunal. The Mandarins who were to take part in the cere¬ 
 monial arrived in succession, followed by suites of attendants, who 
 had uncommonly the appearance of gangs of thieves. The satellites 
 ran backwards and forwards in their long red robes, and hideous 
 peaked hats of black felt or iron wire, surmounted by Ion"- 
 pheasant’s feathers. They were armed with long rusty swords^ 
 and carried chains, pincers, and various instruments of torture, of 
 strong and terrible forms. The Mandarins were collected in 
 groups, talking with one another, and interrupting themselves 
 frequently by bursts of laughter; the subaltern officers, scribes, 
 and executioners, went and came, as if to give themselves airs of 
 importance; and every one seemed to anticipate a scene that 
 would be curious and seasoned by unaccustomed emotions. 
 
 All this agitation, and these interminable preparations, had in 
 
32 
 
 TnE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 them something of extravagance and exaggeration ; they were 
 evidently intended to frighten us. At length every one had found 
 his place, and the tumult was succeeded by a profound silence. A 
 moment afterwards a terrible cry, uttered by a great number of 
 voices, was heard in the hall of audience; it was repeated three 
 times, and our companions told us that it was on the judges mak¬ 
 ing their solemn entry and installing themselves in their seats. 
 Two officers, decorated with the Crystal Ball, then appeared, and 
 made us a sign to follow them. They came between us, our com¬ 
 panions placed themselves behind, and the two accused persons 
 walked thus to judgment. 
 
 A great door was then suddenly opened, and we beheld, at a 
 glance, the numerous personages of this Chinese performance. 
 Twelve stone steps led up to the vast inclosure where the judges 
 were placed; on each side of this staircase was a line of execu¬ 
 tioners in red dresses: and when the accused passed tranquilly 
 through their ranks, they all cried out with a loud voice, “ Trem¬ 
 ble ! Tremble! ” and rattled their instruments of torture. We 
 were stopped at about the middle of the hall, and then eight 
 officers of the court proclaimed in a chanting voice the customary 
 formula : — “ Accused ! on your knees ! on your knees ! ” The 
 accused remained silent and motionless. The summons was re¬ 
 peated, but there was still no alteration in their attitude. The two 
 officers with the Crystal Ball, now thought themselves called on 
 to come to our assistance, and pulled our arms to help us to kneel 
 down. But a solemn look and some few emphatic words sufficed 
 to make them let go their hold. They even judged it expedient 
 to retire a little, and keep a respectful distance. 
 
 “Every empire,” said we, addressing our judges, “has its own 
 customs and manners. When we appeared before the ambassador 
 Ki-Chan at Lha-ssa, we remained standing ; and Ki-Chan consi¬ 
 dered that in doing so we were only acting with reasonable con¬ 
 formity to the customs of our country.” 
 
 We waited for an answer from the president, but he remained 
 dumb. The other judges contented themselves with looking at us, 
 and communicating among themselves by grimaces. The tribunal 
 had apparently been arranged and decorated expressly for the 
 purpose of giving us a high idea of the majesty of the Empire. 
 The walls were hung with red draperies, on which certain sen¬ 
 tences were written in large black characters; gigantic lanterns of 
 the brightest colours were suspended from the ceiling ; and behind 
 the seats of the judges were seen the insignia of their dignity, 
 borne by officers in rich silk robes. The hall was surrounded by 
 
THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT. 
 
 33 
 
 a great number of soldiers in uniform and under arms, and along 
 the sides were seated a select number of spectators, who had pro¬ 
 bably obtained their places through favour and patronage. 
 
 The Pon-tching-sse, or first provincial commissioner, filled the 
 office of president. He was a man of about fifty years of age, with 
 thick lips of a violet colour, flabby cheeks, a dirty white com¬ 
 plexion, a square nose, long flat shining ears, and a forehead deeply 
 wrinkled. His eyes were probably small and red; but they were 
 so hidden behind large spectacles, which were tied in their place 
 with a black string, that this could not positively be ascertained. 
 His costume was superb ; on his breast glittered the large Imperial 
 dragon, embroidered in gold and silver ; a glebe of red coral, the 
 decoration of Mandarins of the first class, surmounted his official 
 cap ; and a long perfumed chaplet hung to his neck. The other 
 judges were attired in pretty nearly the same fashion, and they 
 had all more or less genuine Chinese faces, but none of them was 
 comparable to the president. His grand spectacles especially, 
 produced on us an astounding effect, but perhaps not exactly the 
 kind of one he had calculated on. We saw that this man was 
 seeking to impose on us by a display of his dignity. He had 
 made no reply to the observation we had made when we re¬ 
 fused to kneel down ; he had not even made the slightest gesture, 
 but had remained, ever since we had entered, as motionless as a 
 statue. This somewhat burlesque behaviour lasted long enough to 
 enable us to study quite at our ease the curious society in which 
 we found ourselves, and it was so amusing that we began to gossip 
 together in French, though in a low voice, communicating to each 
 other our little momentary impressions. Had this lasted much 
 longer, it might have ended in upsetting our gravity; but luckily 
 the president made up his mind to break his majestic silence. 
 
 In a nasal, squeaking voice he began to speak, asking us of what 
 country we were. 
 
 “ We are men of the French Empire.” 
 
 “ Why did you quit your noble country to come into the 
 Central Kingdom ? ” 
 
 “ To preach to the men of your illustrious Empire the doctrine 
 of the Lord of heaven.” 
 
 “ I have heard say that this doctrine is very sublime.” 
 
 “ That is true ; but the men of your nation are endowed with 
 intelligence, and with continued application they may attain to the 
 acquisition of this doctrine.” 
 
 “ You speak the language of Pekin ; where have you learnt it ? ” 
 
 “ In the north of the Empire; the pronunciation is best there.” 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ That is true, but where in the north ? Who was your 
 master ? ” 
 
 “ Every one ; we learned a little here, and a little there, by 
 speaking and hearing it spoken.” 
 
 After these few questions the president called an attendant, and 
 ordered him to bring a little casket, carefully enveloped in skins 
 and sealed in several places with large red seals. He then opened 
 it before us with much solemnity, and showed us what it con¬ 
 tained. We recollected then that, when we were at Lha-ssa, and 
 the ambassador Ki-Chan had examined our trunks, he had ex¬ 
 pressed a wish to keep some articles by way of vouchers, and we had 
 given him some letters, and a few little translations from Tatar and 
 Chinese books. The president now displayed these papers before 
 us, inquiring at the same time whether anything was wanting ; 
 and in order to assist us in giving an accurate reply, he furnished 
 us with an exact list, made at Lha-ssa, and signed by Ki-Chan 
 and ourselves. Nothing was missing ; and they made us sign a 
 declaration to that effect, drawn up in French and Chinese. We 
 could not but admire the exactness and regularity with which all 
 this was done. 
 
 Whilst the president was interrogating us, which he did with 
 apparent good nature and affability, we remarked that the person 
 seated on his right hand, his Ngan-tclia-sse, or Inspector of 
 Crimes, a kind of attorney-general, a wrinkled old man with a face 
 like a polecat, who rocked himself about, muttered continually 
 between his teeth, and seemed vexed at the turn the discussion 
 was taking. After finishing the examination of the little casket, 
 the president became again silent and motionless as before, and the 
 malicious public accuser began to speak. He made great use of 
 his opportunity ; discoursed with great volubility concerning the 
 majesty of the Celestial Empire, and the inviolability of its terri¬ 
 tory ; reproached us with our audacity, with our vagabondising, 
 life about the provinces and among the tributary nations; and 
 then fired off at us a volley of questions, which certainly proved 
 his eager desire to become acquainted with every particular con¬ 
 cerning us. He asked who had introduced us to the Empire ; with 
 whom we had entered into any relation ; whether there were many 
 European missionaries in China, where they lived, what resources 
 they could command for their subsistence; and finally, a crowd 
 of questions that appeared to us exceedingly impertinent. His 
 tone and manner, too, were by no means in accordance with polite¬ 
 ness and “the rites.;” and it became necessary to give this man a 
 lesson, and moderate his impetuosity. Whilst he was perorating 
 
THE INSPECTOR OF CRIMES. 
 
 35 
 
 at a great rate, and allowing his eloquence to overflow into all sorts 
 of subjects, we listened to him with great calmness and patience. 
 When he had finished, we said to him : — “ We men of the West, 
 you see, like to discuss matters of business with coolness and 
 method ; but your language has been so diffuse and violent, that 
 we have scarcely been able to make out your meaning. Be so 
 good as to begin again, and express your thoughts more clearly 
 and more peaceably.” 
 
 These words,' pronounced with great slowness and gravity, had 
 all the effect we could have desired ; whispers and significant smiles 
 began to circulate through the assembly, and the judges cast jocose 
 glances at the “Inspector of Crimes,” who was evidently quite 
 disconcerted. He wished to resume his speech; but his ideas had 
 become so confused, that he did not seem to know what he had 
 been saying. 
 
 We then addressed the president, saying that, as we found nothing 
 but disorder and confusion in the speech of the Inspector of Crimes, 
 we could not possibly reply to it; and begging that he would himself 
 continue the examination, as “ We men of the West admired dignity 
 and precision of language.” 
 
 These words tickled the vanity of the president; he returned to 
 us our cajolery with interest; and at last inquired who had brought 
 us to China, and with whom we had lodged. 
 
 “ Our heai'ts are saddened,” we replied, “ that we are not able 
 to satisfy you on this point. We will speak to you of ourselves as 
 much as you please; but of those who have been in relation with 
 us, never a word. Our resolution on that point has been long since 
 taken, and there is no human power capable of inducing us to alter 
 it.” 
 
 “ But you must answer! ” cried the Inspector of Crimes, gesticu¬ 
 lating violently; “you must answer! How else would truth be 
 found in this investigation?” 
 
 “ The president has questioned us in a noble and authoritative 
 manner, and we have replied to him with simplicity and frankness. 
 As for you, Inspector of Crimes, we have already said that we do 
 not understand you.” 
 
 The Assessor of the Left here cut short the dispute by giving us 
 a large sheet of paper to examine. It contained nothing but an 
 alphabet of European letters coarsely drawn. Probably it had 
 been obtained in the pillage of some Christian establishment, where 
 young Chinese were being brought up to the ecclesiastical profes¬ 
 sion. 
 
 “ Do you know that paper? ” asked the Assessor, 
 
 d 2 
 
36 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ Yes! They are the twenty-four radical signs, with which all 
 the words of our language are constructed.” 
 
 “Can you read them, and let us hear the sound of them ?” 
 
 One of us had then the complaisance to repeat solemnly his 
 ABC; and during the time, each of the judges drew from his 
 hoot, which in China often serves for a pocket, a copy of the alpha¬ 
 bet, in which the pronunciation of every European letter had been 
 given, better or worse, in Chinese characters. It seems that this 
 incident had been concerted and prepared beforehand. 
 
 Every judge had his eyes intently fixed upon the paper, and 
 doubtless promised himself to make in this one lesson great progress 
 in a European language. The Assessor of the Left, keeping his 
 eyes and the fore-finger of his right hand fixed on the first letter, 
 and addressing himself to the one of the prisoners who had just 
 said ABC, begged him to repeat the letters slowly, and pause a 
 little on each. 
 
 The prisoner, however, making four steps forward, and politely 
 extending his alphabet towards the philological judge, observed: — 
 
 “I had thought we came here to submit to trial; but it seems 
 we came to be schoolmasters, and you to be our scholars.” 
 
 A peal of laughter shook the assembly, in which the solemn 
 president, and even the Inspector of Crimes, took part; and thus 
 terminated their lesson in our language. 
 
 It will be observed that this terrible trial had been gradually 
 assuming a less formidable and more amusing aspect. The poor 
 accused persons might at least hope there was now no intention of 
 tearing their flesh with red hot pincers or sticking sharp reeds 
 under their nails. The faces of the executioners assumed a less 
 ferocious expression, and the instruments of torture began to look 
 very much like an idle parade. 
 
 The president then asked us, what good it was to the French to 
 come and make Christians in China? what advantage they could 
 hope for from it ? “ Material advantage ? None! France has no 
 need of gold or silver, or of the productions of foreign countries; 
 she makes, on the contrary, enormous sacrifices to them out of pure 
 generosity. She sends you the means of founding schools, she 
 collects your forsaken children, and often feeds your poor in times 
 of famine. But, over and above all this, she sends you the truth. 
 You say that all men are brothers, and this is true; this is why 
 they all ought to worship the same God, He who is the Father of 
 us all. The nations of Europe know the true God, and they come 
 to make him known to you. The happiness which consists in 
 making the truth known and loved, this is the profit sought for by 
 the missionaries who come to you.” 
 
CONGRATULATIONS. 
 
 37 
 
 The president and the other judges, with the exception always of 
 the Inspector of Crimes, then asked for some information concern¬ 
 ing the Christian religion; and this we gave them with the greatest 
 eagerness. At length the president said to us, in a very affable 
 manner, that doubtless we had by this time some need of rest, and 
 that this was enough for to-day. Thereupon the Court rose, we 
 made a profound bow, and the judges departed on their side and 
 we on ours, whilst the soldiers and satellites uttered yells that 
 shook the foundation of the building, this being, it appears, the 
 customary ceremonial on the entrance and departure of the official 
 persons. 
 
 This first inquiry had then terminated in a favourable manner; 
 at least, we concluded as much from the congratulations Ave re¬ 
 ceived, in traversing the halls and courts on our return. The 
 Mandarins of the town, who had attended the trial in order to in¬ 
 crease the dignity and splendour of the Court, saluted us in an 
 affected manner, saying that all was well, and that our affairs were 
 going on very prosperously. In the different quarters of the town 
 that we passed through, we met numbers of Christians, whose faces 
 were expanded and beaming Avith joy, and whom we recognised 
 by their making the sign of the cross as we Avent by ; and glad 
 were we to see confidence and courage reviving in the hearts of 
 these poor people, who had doubtless suffered much from learning 
 that we were in the hands of the deplorable mockery of justice that 
 exists in their country. 
 
 Our two Mandarins of honour, who, during the long sitting of 
 the Court had had to remain standing behind us, no doubt also 
 shared in the emotions of the day and the general joy ; but they 
 were overcome by fatigue, and as soon as we had reached our 
 abode, they flung themselves with impassioned eagerness, the one 
 on his pipe, the other on his melon seeds. In the e\’ening we re¬ 
 ceived a great number of visitors of distinction, and we endeavoured 
 to find out Avhat there might still be for us to fear or to hope. It 
 was generally agreed that we should be well treated ; but that our 
 trial would be greatly protracted, and that in all probability Ave 
 should have to go to Pekin. Some said that the Emperor himself 
 wished to question us, others thought that the King-pou, or grand 
 tribunal of crimes, now sitting at Pekin, would ultimately decide 
 our fate. One thing was certain, namely, that the Emperor had 
 sent a despatch to the viceroy on the subject of our affairs. We 
 asked to see it; but our request was refused, and the Chinese were 
 even scandalised at our audacity in Avishing to cast our eyes on 
 what had been written by the “ Son of Heaven.” The viceroy 
 
38 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 alone had read it, and had mentioned something of its contents to 
 his courtiers. A year afterwards, when we were at Macao, we 
 found means to procure the Report that the viceroy had sent to 
 court concerning us, and we found in that a portion of this famous 
 Imperial despatch. The Report begins thus : — 
 
 “ Report addressed to the Emperor, on the fourth day of the 
 fourth moon of the twenty-sixth year of Tao-kouang (1846). 
 
 “ In virtue of the powers conferred by a supreme decree, Ki- 
 Chan has announced to your Majesty that he has arrested certain 
 strangers from Fou-lansi (France) ; and that he has seized certain 
 foreign books and writings in strange characters, tie has added, 
 ‘ It appears from the declaration of these strangers, that, by way 
 of Canton and other places, they have arrived at the capital 
 (Pekin); that returning thence by Ching-king (Moukden, the 
 capital of Mantchuria), they have traversed Mongolia and visited 
 Si-tsang (Thibet) with the purpose of preaching their religion.’ 
 That after having interrogated these strangers, he has charged a 
 magistrate to conduct them into the province Sse-tehouen, &c. As 
 the aforesaid strangers understand the Chinese language, and can 
 read and write both Mantchou and Mongol, it has not appeared 
 very certain to your Majesty that they really were from France, and 
 your Majesty has forwarded to me a despatch, sealed' with the Im¬ 
 perial seal, and enclosing the following orders:— ‘ When they 
 shall have arrived at Sse-tchouen, inquire with care into all the 
 circumstances of their journey, as well as the names of the places 
 through which they have passed, and endeavour to discover the 
 truth. The moment of their arrival, send to me a copy of the 
 first report, and of their declai’ation. Have their letters and their 
 books in foreign languages examined, as well as the articles en¬ 
 closed in the wooden case, and transmit to me, at the same time, 
 all necessary information. I address to you this Imperial order that 
 you may make yourself acquainted with it. Respect this! Respect 
 this! ’ ” 
 
 According to this Imperial document, therefore, it appeared that 
 at the court of Pekin they had not quite made up their minds on 
 the subject of our nationality. Since we knew how to read and 
 speak Chinese, Mantchou, and Mongol, the “ Son of Heaven ” was 
 inclined to think that we were not really Frenchmen, and had 
 charged the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen to clear up this difficulty. Our 
 fate depended on the new information that was to be given to the 
 Emperor, and the opinion of those who supposed we should have 
 to go to Pekin did not seem without foundation. For ourselves, 
 the idea of travelling to Pekin appeared by no means disagreeable; 
 
MEASURE OF RELIEF TO THE CHRISTIANS. 
 
 39 
 
 we had been so tossed about for the last two years, that no change 
 in our itinerary could well put us out of our way. A particular 
 circumstance, too, that had just come to our knowledge, made us 
 think with much pleasure of the chance of seeing the court of 
 Pekin, and finding ourselves face to face with that astonishing 
 monarch who governs “the ten thousand kingdoms, and the foui 
 seas which are under heaven.” 
 
 In returning from the palace of the provincial commissioner, 
 Avhilst we were crossing a kind of square thronged with curious 
 people, a little packet had been with great adroitness flung into 
 our palanquin, and of course we made haste to conceal it. 
 
 In the evening, when we at length found ourselves alone in our 
 chamber, and had not to dread the indiscretion of visitors, we eagerly 
 opened and examined the mysterious missive. It proved to be a long 
 letter from the Chinese priest, charged with the care of the Christians 
 of Tching-tou-fou. It gave us clear and precise information con¬ 
 cerning the embassy of M. Lagrenee, and we immediately recog¬ 
 nised in him the La-ko-nie who had been mentioned to us in so 
 vague a manner by the young Christian we had met in the Bonze 
 convent before entering the town. In communicating to us the 
 memorial and the edicts in favour of the Christians obtained by 
 M. Lagrenee, this missionary warned us that, notwithstanding ail 
 these important concessions, the position of the Christians was in 
 reality very little improved ; and that in many localities the per¬ 
 secution was still going on with unabated severity. As very false 
 impressions have been created in France, on the subject of the 
 religious liberty obtained by the embassy sent by M. Guizot to 
 China, we will now enter into a few details with respect to it. 
 
 After having concluded a treaty of commerce between France 
 and China, a treaty which was the principal object of the embassy, 
 M. Lagrenee wished before his return to make some attempt to 
 ameliorate the fate of the Chinese Christians and missionaries in 
 these unfortunate countries. He had not, indeed, received from 
 his government any official commission to that effect; and it must 
 be acknowledged it was a very delicate and difficult business to 
 undertake. The representative of the French government might, 
 certainly, protest against the atrocious executions of many of the 
 missionaries; he might require that in future Furopeans arrested 
 in the interior should be sent back to one of the free ports, 
 without being subjected to ill-treatment; the English, in their 
 treaty of Nankin, had already carried this equitable measure. 
 But to demand from the Emperor of China the religious liberty 
 
 d 4 
 
40 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of his own subjects, was rather a more awkward thing; for, in fact, 
 what claim had the nations of Europe to interfere in the govern¬ 
 ment of the Celestial Empire, and dictate to the Emperor the 
 measures he should adopt for the government of his own people ? 
 It is evident that the French ambassador who should attempt to 
 negotiate with the Imperial commissioner with this view, would 
 be considered very officious, but not at all official, in his conduct. 
 M. Lagrenee could not possibly demand, in the name of King 
 Louis Philippe, that the Emperor Tao-kouang should leave his 
 subjects free to profess the Christian religion. 
 
 The opportunity, nevertheless, was a very favourable one. The 
 Chinese were still smarting under the attack of the English, and 
 were perfectly well disposed to promise anything to Europeans,— 
 of course with the mental reservation of breaking their promises 
 whenever it should be found convenient. And that was in fact 
 precisely what took place. After long and earnest entreaties on 
 the part of M. Lagrenee, which are a proof of the interest he took 
 in the cause of.the Chinese missions, the Imperial commissioner 
 Ky-yn addressed to his Emperor the following memorial. 
 
 “ Ky-yn, Grand Imperial Commissioner and Viceroy of the two 
 provinces of Ivouang-tong and Kouang-si, presents respectfully 
 this memorial. 
 
 “ After a profound investigation, I have come to the conclusion 
 that the religion of the Lord of heaven*, is that which is venerated 
 and professed by all the nations of the West. Its principal aim 
 is to exhort to good and to repress evil. Formerly under the 
 dynasty of Ming , it penetrated into the central Kingdom f, and at 
 that epoch it was not prohibited. Subsequently, as it often hap¬ 
 pens, there were found among the Chinese who followed the 
 religion, men who abused it to do wrong, and the magistrates 
 sought out and punished the guilty. Their judgments are recorded 
 in the judicial Acts. 
 
 “ Under the reign of Kea-king, a special article of the penal 
 code was promulgated for the punishment of these crimes. It 
 was intended to prevent Chinese Christians from doing wrong, 
 and by no means to prohibit the religion venerated and professed 
 
 * The Chinese designate thus the Christian Religion. 
 
 f 1 owards the end of the 1 6th century. Christianity did, in fact, penetrate 
 into China as early as the 5th and 6th century ; and especially in the 13th, it 
 was very flourishing ; at this epoch there existed at Pekin an archbishop with 
 four suffragans. The Imperial commissioner Ky-yn might be ignorant of this 
 fact, but it is vexatious that no one should be found to inform him of it. 
 
THE APPEOVAL OP THE EMPEEOE. 
 
 41 
 
 'by the nations of the West. I dare, therefore, to supplicate your 
 Majesty for the future to exempt from chastisement those Chinese 
 who profess the Christian religion, and rvho have not been found 
 guilty of any crime or disorder. 
 
 “ As for the French and the other foreigners who profess the 
 Christian religion, they have been permitted to build churches 
 and chapels in the territory of the five ports which are open to 
 commerce; but they must not take the liberty of entering into 
 the interior of the Empire to preach their religion. If any one 
 in defiance of this prohibition should go beyond the assigned 
 limits, and make rash excursions into other districts, the local 
 authorities are to seize him and deliver him to the consul of his 
 nation, in order that he may be kept within the bounds of his 
 duty and punished. But he is not to be chastised summarily, or 
 put to death. 
 
 “ By that means your Majesty will show your benevolence and 
 your affection for virtuous men; the tares will not be confounded 
 with the good grain, and your sentiments and the justice of the 
 laws will be made manifest. 
 
 “ Supplicating your Majesty to exempt from all chastisement 
 the Christians who remain honest and virtuous in their conduct, 
 I venture humbly to present this petition, in order that your 
 August Goodness may deign to approve my plan, and command 
 it to be executed. 
 
 “(Respectful Petition.)” 
 
 THE APPROVAL OP THE EMPEROR. 
 
 “ On the nineteenth day of the eleventh moon of the twenty- 
 fourth year of Tao-konang (1844), I received words written in 
 vermilion: — 
 
 “ I ACQUIESCE IN THIS PETITION. RESPECT THIS! ” 
 
 In conformity with this approval, an Imperial edict was issued, 
 addressed to the viceroys and governors of provinces, eulogising 
 the Christian religion, and forbidding for the future all pursuit of 
 Chinese Christians on account of it by any of the courts great or 
 small. 
 
 The missionaries and Christians were transported with joy 
 when these edicts were made known: they thought they saw in 
 them the dawn of the long-desired era of religious liberty for the 
 missions of China, and the consequent rapid progress of Christi- 
 
42 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 anity; and the blessings and thanks of Europe and Asia were 
 poured out on the French embassy. 
 
 Those, however, who had a practical knowledge of the Chinese 
 and the Mandarins, could foresee that in reality the results of these 
 edicts would be far from corresponding to these magnificent hopes. 
 The Imperial command was promulgated and made known to the 
 five free ports open to European commerce; and M. Lagrenee 
 desired that it should be published also in the interior of the 
 Empire; which was promised, but of course not done. 
 
 Copies of the petition of the commissioner Ky-yn and of the 
 Emperor’s edict were, however, distributed in great numbers among 
 the Christian communities of the interior, and the neophytes were 
 all able to read the eulogium that the Emperor had pronounced on 
 their religion, and the prohibition of any future persecutions that 
 he had addressed to the Mandarins, and they took it all for earnest. 
 The Christians believed themselves perfectly free; and were for 
 a brief interval convinced that, if the government of Pekin did 
 not yet favour completely their mode of belief, it at least granted 
 it perfect toleration. 
 
 But the local persecutions went on, nevertheless, as if neither 
 ambassador, nor petition, nor edict had ever existed; and the 
 Christians soon discovered that they were building on shifting 
 sands, and that the paper liberty that had found its way to them, 
 like a contraband article, was a mere chimera. 
 
 Those who were dragged before the tribunals, and who were so 
 simple as to claim the protection of the Imperial edict and of the 
 French embassy, were silenced in the most imperious manner. 
 “What!” said the Mandarins, “has a low fellow like you the 
 impudence to pretend to interfere in the ti'ansactions of the 
 Emperor with foreign nations ! ” 
 
 The negotiations in favour of religious liberty, that took place 
 between the French ambassador and the cunning Chinese diplo¬ 
 matists, were in fact of little value. They had no official character. 
 The French government had made no demand of the Emperor of 
 China, and he had made no promise to France. All that had 
 passed was merely a personal communication between M. Lagrenee 
 and Ky-yn. The one had expressed strongly his sympathy for 
 the Chinese Christians, and the other had courteously recom¬ 
 mended them to the protection of his Emperor. 
 
 The French ambassador once gone, and Ky-yn recalled, all these 
 fine promises were scattered to the winds. 
 
 This is, in short, all that was obtained. In the petition of the 
 Imperial commissioner he supplicates the Emperor “ to deign for 
 
TREATMENT OF CHRISTIANS. 
 
 43 
 
 the future to exempt from chastisement, Chinese as well as 
 foreigners who shall be found professing the Christian religion, 
 but who have not been guilty of any crime or disorder/’ But 
 who was to watch the Mandarins, and find out whether they 
 persecuted the Christians or not ? Could the Chinese government 
 permit foreigners to overlook the conduct of its own officers ? 
 If complaints were made, could not the Chinese always reply to 
 them by falsehood? Could they not always say that the Christians 
 [detained in prison, or sent into exile, were punished for other 
 crimes than that of their religious faith? And in fact this 
 is precisely what has been done, and what it was very easy to 
 foresee. 
 
 On the subject of the missionaries it is said in the petition, 
 “neither the French nor other foreigners are to preach their 
 religion in the interior of the Empire; and if any one, in defiance 
 of this prohibition, should venture to pass beyond the assigned 
 limits, he shall be delivered to the consul of his nation, in order 
 that he may be restrained within his duty and punished.” 
 
 Now, it is well known that our consuls would not exactly 
 punish a missionary for preaching the Gospel ; but these expres¬ 
 sions would lead the Chinese to believe that we are disorderly 
 men, stepping beyond the line of our duty, and punishable by the 
 Mandarins of our own country; and it is evident such an impression 
 is not likely to increase the influence of the missionaries. They 
 may, perhaps, no longer be lawfully put to death when they are 
 arrested; but can one be surprised that, on their painful journeys 
 back to their consuls, they are subjected to the contempt, the 
 sarcasms, and the ill-treatment of the Mandarins and their 
 satellites? 
 
 If we should put it to the missionaries themselves who are 
 preaching the Gospel in China in the midst of great sufferings 
 and privations, whether they prefer the risk of death that they 
 wei’e liable to in former days, or the melancholy position in which 
 they now find themselves, Ave know them sufficiently to be sure 
 of their answer. We have never studied diplomacy ; but it cer¬ 
 tainly seems that the excellent intentions of the French ambas¬ 
 sador might have lent a more effectual support to the propagation 
 of the faith. At vai'ious epochs French missionaries have suffered 
 a martyr’s death in various parts of China. In 1840, M. Perboyre, 
 an apostle and a saint, was put to death by oi'der of the Emperor, 
 in a grand ceremonial on the public square ol tile capital of 
 Hou-pe; not a word was said of this atrocious and iniquitous 
 execution, or of any other. When France entered into diplomatic 
 
44 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 relation with China, the Imperial commissioner must have ex¬ 
 pected to be questioned concerning these judicial assassinations, 
 and the silence of our ambassador must have greatly surprised 
 him. France certainly had a right to ask of the Chinese govern¬ 
 ment some account of so many Frenchmen unjustly tortured and 
 put to death. She might have ventured at least to ask the 
 question, for what crime the Emperor had strangled them? A 
 few inquiries on the subject of the venerable martyr of 1840, 
 might have helped the Chinese to believe that France does take 
 some interest in the lives of her children. The Chinese govern¬ 
 ment ought, in our opinion, to have been strongly urged on this 
 point; the moment was favourable, and it ought to have been 
 caught in the fact of its savage barbarism, and public and 
 honourable amends to the memory of our martyrs inexorably 
 demanded from it, in the face of the whole Empire; an apology 
 ought to have appeared in the Pekin Gazette, and an expiatory 
 monument have been erected on the public square of Ou-tchang- 
 fou,' where M. Perboyre was strangled. In this manner the 
 Christian religion would have been for ever glorified in the 
 Empire, the Christians raised in public opinion, and the life of a 
 missionary rendered inviolable. It would then have been needless 
 to stipulate that, for the future, the Chinese should not chastise 
 them in a summary manner, or put them to death. They would 
 themselves have taken very good care to do nothing of the kind. 
 This ought to have been the first business of the embassy, on its 
 arrival at Canton; assuredly, in so doing it would have had 
 justice on its side; and the parade, the festivals, and the shakings 
 of hands might have come afterwards. 
 
 Do not let it be thought, however, that we have the slightest 
 intention of throwing any blame on the ambassador. Since we 
 have undertaken to speak of China, we must do so truly and 
 frankly, to the best of our knowledge and belief; but we are fully 
 persuaded that M. Lagrenee has himself the interest of the 
 missions much at heart, and that, if it only depended on him, all 
 the Chinese would be Christians, and would profess their I'eligion 
 in perfect liberty. We know how difficult and delicate was his 
 task; that he had to act on his own responsibility, and without 
 any official instruction from his government; but we cannot avoid 
 speaking of things as they are. In 1844, people in Europe were 
 generally convinced, and many are so still, that China was at length 
 open, and the Christian religion entirely free. 
 
 But the truth is, unfortunately, that the English have no more 
 opened China, commercially speaking, than the French ambassador 
 
DISCUSSION ON CEREMONIES. 
 
 45 
 
 has obtained for the Chinese religious liberty. The subjects of 
 her Britannic Majesty would not venture to set foot in the 
 interior of the city of Canton, although by treaty they are in 
 possession of this privilege; they cannot go beyond its envii'ons, 
 for the intolerance and hatred of the native population keeps 
 them in some measure blockaded in their factories. As for the 
 Christians, their situation is not in the least ameliorated; they 
 are, as they were before, at the mercy of the Mandarins, who 
 persecute them, pillage them, throw them into prison, torture 
 them, and send them to die in exile, just as easily as if there 
 were no representative of France in the Empire, and no French 
 ships of war on her coasts. It is only in the five free ports that 
 they do not dare to torment the neophytes, thanks to the energetic 
 and constant protection of our legation at Macao and our consul 
 at Chang-liai. 
 
 Although the Imperial edict in favour of the Christians appeared 
 to us insufficient, and almost delusive, on account of its non-pro¬ 
 mulgation in the interior of the Empire, we resolved to take what 
 little advantage we could of it, whether for ourselves or the Chris¬ 
 tians, should any good opportunity present itself. 
 
 Two days after our appearance before the tribunal of the first 
 commissioner, the Mantchou prefect of the Garden of Flowers, who 
 had become rather friendly, announced to us that our affairs being 
 sufficiently known, we should not have to undergo another judicial 
 examination ; and that in the course of the day the viceroy would 
 have us summoned, in order to signify what had been determined 
 with respect to us. We had a long and lively discussion, on the 
 question of the ceremonies that we should have to observe before 
 the chief of the province and the representative of the Emperor. 
 They brought a crowd of arguments to convince us that we ought 
 to go down on our knees before him. In the first place, it was a 
 prodigious honour for us to be admitted to his presence at all, since 
 he might be considered as a sort of diminutive of the Son of 
 Heaven. Then, to remain standing straight upright before him 
 would be to offer him an insult; besides giving him a very bad 
 idea of our education, it would irritate him, would alter the good 
 disposition he had towards us, would draw down his anger upon 
 us ; and moreover, they added, whether we liked or not, we should 
 find ourselves compelled to kneel. It would be impossible for us 
 to resist the influence of his majestic presence. 
 
 We ourselves felt pretty sure of the contrary, and we declared 
 to the prefect, that he might depend upon it that would not happen. 
 Nevertheless, we would cause no scandal, nor give the viceroy 
 
46 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 any reason to think us wanting in sentiments of respect and 
 veneration towards his person and his high dignity. We begged 
 the prefect of the Garden of Flowers, therefore, to inform^ the 
 viceroy that we positively could not appear before him in an 
 attitude that our manners did not require even in presence of 
 our own sovereign, but that we had no intention of failing in 
 respect towards him, and that we would pay him every honour 
 conformably to the rites of the West; but that we would rather 
 submit to the irremediable misfortune of being deprived of his pre¬ 
 sence than yield this point. It may readily be supposed that in 
 fact we cared little enough about this matter of going down on 
 our knees, since in China it is really nothing more than a mark 
 of respect and civility; but we determined to keep an upright 
 position, because, if we had once consented to bend the knee, we 
 should have been obliged ever after to prostrate ourselves before 
 every trumpery little official that we happened to meet, and that 
 would have been a source of exceeding annoyance ; while we 
 thought with reason that every one would consider himself obliged 
 to treat with politeness and consideration, the men who had not 
 been obliged to kneel even in the first tribunal of the province. 
 Our obstinacy was completely successful, and it was agreed that 
 we should be presented in the European fashion. 
 
 Towards noon two handsome state palanquins were sent to fetch 
 us, and we betook ourselves, attended by a brilliant escort, to the 
 palace of the most illustrious Pao-hing, viceroy of the province 
 of Sse-tcliouen. The tribunal of this high dignitary of the Chinese 
 Empire had nothing to distinguish it from those that we had 
 seen before, except its superior size and somewhat better preser¬ 
 vation. It was in the same style of architecture, and had pre¬ 
 cisely the same combination of courts and gardens. All the 
 Mandarins, civil and military, without exception, had been con¬ 
 voked ; and by degrees as they arrived they took their places 
 according to their respective ranks and dignities, in a vast 
 hall on long divans, where we were already placed in company 
 with the two prefects of the town, who were to present us. In a 
 neighbouring apartment an orchestra of Chinese musicians was 
 executing some soft but very whimsical symphonies, that were by 
 no means unpleasing. Mery soon it was announced that the viceroy 
 was in his cabinet. A great door opened, all the Mandarins rose, 
 fell into order, and defiled in the most profound silence as far as 
 an antechamber, where they ranged themselves according to rank. 
 
 Our two introducers now desired us to pass through the files of 
 Mandarins, and conducted us to the door of a cabinet, which was 
 
VISIT TO THE VICEROY OF SSE-TCHOUEY. 
 
 47 
 
 jopen, but they stopped on the threshold and made a sign for us to 
 enter. At the same time the viceroy, who was seated cross-legged 
 on a divan, beckoned us towards him in a very gracious manner. 
 We bowed low and advanced some steps. We were alone in the 
 apartment with him ; for all the Mandarins, civil and military, 
 were mounting guard in the antechamber; but they were near 
 enough to hear what was spoken. 
 
 We were at first greatly struck by the simplicity of the apart¬ 
 ment, and of the high personage who inhabited it. It was a 
 narrow room papered with blue, and its only furniture consisted 
 of a small divan with red cushions, a flower-stand, and some vases 
 of flowers. The illustrious Pao-hing was an old man of seventy 
 or thereabouts, tall and thin, but with a countenance full of sweet¬ 
 ness and benevolence. Ilis small, but still brilliant, eyes were keen 
 and penetrating; his beard long and somewhat scanty, and his 
 complexion very fair, with a slight yellow tinge. Altogether his 
 appearance was not wanting in majesty, and the simple blue silk 
 robe he woi'e contrasted favourably with the richly embroidered 
 habits of the Mandarins in attendance upon him. Pao-hing was a 
 Mantehou Tatar, and a cousin and intimate friend of the Emperor. 
 In their infancy they had lived together, and had never ceased to 
 feel towards each other a lively and cordial affection. The viceroy 
 asked us, at first, whether we were suitably lodged in the mansion 
 he had assigned to us. “ We have been making inquiries,” he 
 added, “ of the soldiers of your escort ; and it appears that the 
 military officer who accompanied you from Ta-tsien-lou, did not 
 lodge you in the communal palaces. I have dismissed that vile 
 man, who had no regard for the dignity of the Empire.” It was 
 in vain that we endeavoured to plead for him. 
 
 “And why in fact,” said the viceroy, crossing his arms, “did 
 they prevent you from residing in Thibet ? Why did they compel 
 you to return ? ” 
 
 “Illustrious personage,” said we, “we understand nothing of 
 the matter, and should be very glad to know. When we return to 
 France, and our sovereign asks us why we were expelled from 
 Thibet, what must we answer him?” 
 
 Here Pao-hing burst out into a vehement attack upon Ki-Chan; 
 he spoke of the difficulties that he was always throwing in the 
 path of the government, and ended by calling him to-pche ; an ex¬ 
 pression that can only be translated by “creator of embarrassments.” 
 
 Pao-hing afterwards requested us to come quite close to him; 
 and then he set himself to take a deliberate survey of our personal 
 appearance, first of one and then of the other, while he at the same 
 
48 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 time amused himself by turning in his mouth fragments of the 
 Areca nut, which the Mantc.hous like so much to chew. He took 
 several pinches of snuff also, out of a little phial, and had the 
 courtesy to offer it to us, though without speaking, and still 
 seeming as profoundly occupied with observing our features as if 
 he were about to take our portraits. We considered that he 
 admired our beauty, for he asked whether we had any medicine or 
 recipe for preserving that fresh and florid complexion. We 
 replied that the temperament of Europeans differed much from 
 that of the Chinese ; but that in all countries a sober and well 
 x’egulated course of life was the best means of preserving health. 
 
 “ Do you hear,” he added, turning to the numerous Mandarins 
 in waiting, and repeating emphatically, “ in all countries a sober 
 and well regulated life is the best means of preserving health.” All 
 the balls, red, blue, white, and yellow, bowed profoundly in token 
 of assent. 
 
 After having taken another long pinch, Pao-hing asked us what 
 our plans were, and where we wished to go to. This seemed 
 rather a curious question, and we answered, “ Where we wish to 
 go to is to Thibet and Lha-ssa.” 
 
 “ Thibet and Lha-ssa! Why you have just come from there.” 
 
 “No matter ! We wish to go back to them.” 
 
 “What do you want to do at Thibet and Lha-ssa ?” 
 
 “You know that our only business anywhere is to preach our 
 religion.” 
 
 “ Yes, I know; but you must not think of Lha-ssa, you would 
 do much better to preach your religion in your own country. 
 Thibet is a good-for-nothing place. I would not have sent you 
 away from it, since you wished to stay; but now that you are 
 here, I must send you to Canton.” 
 
 “ Since we are not free, send us where you please.” 
 
 The viceroy then said, that since we were now in his province, 
 he would be answerable for our safety; but that it was his duty 
 to forward us to the representative of our nation. “ You may,” 
 he added, “ remain for a time at Tching-tou-fou, to rest yourselves 
 and make the necessary preparations for your journey ; and I shall 
 see you again before your departure. In the mean time I will 
 give such orders as will enable you to travel as conveniently as 
 possible.” We bowed respectfully, and thanked him for his kind 
 intentions with respect to our accommodation. Just as we were 
 taking our leave, he called us back to ask about our yellow caps 
 and red girdles. “Your costume,” said he, “is not that of the 
 Central Nation, and you must not travel in that fashion.” 
 
THE YICEROY’S DESPATCH. 
 
 49 
 
 “Behold !” said we, “you have the right not only to hinder us 
 from going where we will, but even to prevent our dressing our¬ 
 selves according to our own fancy!” 
 
 Paq-liing began to laugh at this, and said, as he waved bis hand 
 in farewell, that since we were so fond of that costume, we might 
 keep it. The viceroy then returned to his private apartments to 
 the sound of music ; and the Mandarins accompanied us to the 
 gate of the palace, congratulating us on the benevolent and cordial 
 reception we had met with from the most illustrious representative 
 of the Son of Heaven, in the province of Sse-tchouen. 
 
 We have already mentioned the report that Pao-hi::g addressed 
 to the Emperor concerning us, and we will give here the sequel of 
 it, which is a reply to the Imperial despatch already cited :—- 
 
 “I, your subject,” says the viceroy of Sse-tchouen, “have carefully 
 inquired into the purpose which the said foreigners have in under¬ 
 taking such long journeys to preach their religion, and whence 
 they derive the resources necessary for their daily maintenance, 
 why they remain so long without returning to their country, 
 whether any definite period is assigned to their stay, what number 
 of proselytes they have made, what special object they had in 
 wishing to go to Si-tsang (Thibet), w'hich is the residence of the 
 Lamas. 
 
 “ The result of these inquiries is, that they are travelling about 
 only to preach their religion, and that their mission is to be of 
 uncertain duration. When, whilst on a journey, they think they 
 shall want the means of supplying their necessary expenses, they 
 write to the agent of their nation, who is, at Macao, and he im¬ 
 mediately sends them money. In all the provinces of China there 
 are men of the same country, who have expatriated themselves to 
 preach their religion, and there is not one of them who does not 
 exhox*t men to do good. They do not propose to themselves any 
 other object. They neither recollect the numbers nor the names 
 of the persons to whom they have taught their doctrine. 
 
 “As to their journey to Thibet, they wished, after having 
 preached their religion there, to return from it to their own 
 country by the way of Nepaul; but as they were not sufficiently 
 versed in the language of Thibet, they were not able during their 
 stay there to make any converts. At this epoch the high func¬ 
 tionary Ki-Chan who resides in the capital of Thibet, ordered an 
 inquiry, in consequence of which they were arrested and sent 
 under escort to Sse-tchouen. 
 
 “ I have opened their wooden chest, and examined the letters 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 and papers it contained ; but I have not been able to find any one 
 who could read those characters and understand them. 
 
 “The strangers, when intei’rogated on the subject, replied that 
 they were family letters, and authentic certificates of their religious 
 mission. 
 
 “ I wished to inquire carefully whether the declaration they 
 made before Ki-Chan was, or was not, the expression of the truth; 
 but I have not been able to find any irrefragable proof. 
 
 “ I then examined their beards and their eyebrows, their eyes 
 and their complexions; and I found them all different from those 
 of the men of the Central Kingdom; so that it seemed to me de¬ 
 monstrated that they were really strangers, coming from a distant 
 country, and that they are not to be mistaken for worthless persons 
 from the Interior Territory (China). Thereupon there does not 
 remain in my mind the slightest doubt. 
 
 “ If it should be considered desirable to know the contents of 
 their letters and foreign books, they must, I think, be sent to Can¬ 
 ton, in order that a man versed in those foreign languages may be 
 found, who shall read them and make known their contents. 
 
 “ Should no further discovery be made concerning them, these 
 strangers may then be placed in the hands of the consul of France, 
 in order that he may recognise them, and send them back to their 
 own country. By that means the truth will be brought to light. 
 
 “ As for Samdadchiemba, as it appears from his examination 
 that he was only attached to these strangers in the quality of a 
 servant receiving wages, it seems proper to send him back to his 
 native country; namely, the district of Nien-pe in the province of 
 Kan-sou. There he will be delivered to the local magistrate, who 
 will immediately set him at liberty. 
 
 “ If hereafter circumstances should arise that shall appear to 
 relate to the object of your first decree, I will, as is my duty, write 
 a faithful report concerning them, which I will address to your 
 Majesty. At the moment when your instructions have reached 
 me the weather is excessively hot, and the clothing and provisions 
 for the said strangers not yet ready. I, your subject, after having 
 written and sealed this exact and circumstantial report, have charged 
 a public functionary to take the Imperial road and conduct them 
 to their destination, by the province of Hou-pe and other places.” 
 
 This report, which we were only able to procure a year afterwards 
 when we were at Macao, will serve to show the frank and upright 
 character of the viceroy of Sse-tchouen. Not one single word 
 is found in it, to indicate anything of the inveterate antipathy 
 which the Chinese so often cherish towards strangers and Christians, 
 
TCHING-TOU-FOU. 
 
 51 
 
 though lie could not have imagined that what he had written was 
 ever likely to fall into our hands; and in pronouncing this eulogium 
 on French missionaries, he only yielded honestly to the impulse of 
 genuine conviction. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 Tclfing-tou-fou, the Capital of the Province of Sse-tchouen. — Numerous visits 
 of Mandarins. — Constitutive Principle of the Chinese Government. — The 
 Emperor.— Curious Organisation of Chinese Nobility. — Central Adminis¬ 
 tration of Pekin. — The six Sovereign Courts. — Imperial Academy. — 
 Moniteur of Pekin. — Provincial Gazettes. — Administration of the Provinces. 
 — Rapacity of the Mandarins. — Venality of Justice. — Family of a Magis¬ 
 trate.— His two Sons. — His Schoolmaster. — Primary Instruction very 
 widely diffused in China. — Chinese Urbanity. — System of Instruction.—• 
 Elementary Book. — The four Classical Books. — The five Sacred Books. — 
 Arrangements for our Departure. — Last Visit to the Viceroy. 
 
 Tching-tou-fou, the capital of the province of Sse-tchouen, is one 
 of the finest towns in the Empire. It is situated in the middle of 
 an admirably fertile plain, watered by beautiful streams, and 
 bounded towards the horizon by hills of graceful and varied forms. 
 
 The principal streets are of a good width, paved entirely with 
 large flagstones, and so clean that you can scarcely, as you pass 
 through them, believe yourself to be in a Chinese town. 
 
 The shops with their long and brilliant signs, the exquisite order 
 with which the merchandise displayed in them is arranged, the 
 great number and beauty of the tribunals, pagodas, and of what 
 we must call literary institutions, — all contribute to make of 
 Tching-tou-fou a town in some measure exceptional; or at least 
 this is the impression we retained concerning it, when subsequently 
 we had visited the most renowned cities of the other provinces. 
 
 Our host the magistrate informed us that the present capital of 
 Sse-tchouen was quite a modern town, the old one having been 
 reduced to ashes by a terrible conflagration, and he related to us 
 on this occasion an anecdote or a fable, that w r e repeat because it 
 is quite in the Chinese taste. Some months before the destruction 
 of the old city, a Bonze was one day seen in the streets, ringing a 
 small bell, and crying out with a loud voice:— I-ko-jen. leang-fio- 
 yen-fsin, that is to say — “One man, and two eyes!” At first 
 nobody paid much attention to him. “ One man, and two eyes ” 
 did not appear a very remarkable phenomenon, and the existence 
 of such a one hardly seemed a truth that deserved to be proclaimed 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 with such solemnity and perseverance. But as the Bonze kept 
 continually repeating his formula from morning till night, people 
 became at last curious to know what he could possibly mean by it. 
 To all questions, however, he would make no other answer than 
 his everlasting “ One man, and two eyes.” 
 
 At last the magistrates took up the matter, but they could make 
 nothing of it. Inquiries were made where this Bonze came from, 
 but nobody knew. No one had ever seen him before; he was 
 never known to eat or drink, and all day long he traversed the 
 streets of the city with a grave face and downcast eyes, ringing 
 his bell and incessantly refreshing the memory of the public con¬ 
 cerning “ One man, and two eyes.” In the evening he disappeared, 
 but no one knew where he went to, to pass the night. 
 
 This went on for two months, and people ceased to take any 
 notice of him, setting him down for a very eccentric individual or 
 a madman. But one day it was noticed that he had not made his 
 appearance; and on that day, towards noon, fire broke out at once, 
 in many parts of the town, with such violence that the inhabitants 
 had only just time to snatch what they considered most valuable, 
 and rush out into the fields. Before the end of the day, the town 
 was a heap of ashes and smoking ruins. 
 
 Everybody then recollected the words of the Bonze, which, it 
 seems, were an enigmatical prediction of this frightful catastrophe. 
 
 It would be impossible to understand the riddle without having 
 an idea of the form of the Chinese characters, in which the key to 
 
 it is found. The following character A signifies “ man.” In 
 adding to it two points, or eyes, you obtain another k which sig¬ 
 nifies “ fire;” so that in crying out “ One man, and two eyes,” the 
 Bonze meant to announce the conflagration that reduced the capi¬ 
 tal to ashes. 
 
 The man who told us this story could give no further explanation, 
 and we shall take good care ourselves not to attempt any. “ The 
 city was entirely rebuilt,” he added, “and this is how you come to 
 find it so handsome and regular.” 
 
 The inhabitants of Tching-tou-fou are fully worthy of the cele¬ 
 brity of their city. The higher classes, who are very numerous, are 
 remarkable for the elegance of their manners and attire; the middle 
 also rival the higher in politeness and courtesy, and appear also to be 
 in quite easy circumstances. The poor are indeed very numerous, 
 as they are in all the great centres of population in China; but in 
 general it may be said that the inhabitants of this town enjoy a more 
 considerable degree of opulence than appears in any other place. 
 
TWO PICTURES OP CHINA. 
 
 53 
 
 The very benevolent reception we had met with from the viceroy, 
 did not fail to procure us a great number of friends, and place us 
 in relation with the most distinguished persons in the city, as well 
 as with the great functionaries, civil and military, the first magis¬ 
 trates of the tribunals, and the chiefs of the learned corporation. 
 
 When we were living at the missions in the midst of our Chris¬ 
 tian communities, we were obliged by our position to keep ourselves 
 at a very respectful distance from the Mandarins and their dange¬ 
 rous neighbourhood. The care for our own safety, and still more 
 that of our neophytes, made this caution indispensable. Like other 
 missionaries, we held intercourse with scarcely any other class than 
 that of peasants and artisans, and it was, therefore, difficult for us 
 to become extensively acquainted with the Chinese as a nation. 
 We were familiar with the manners and habits of the people, 
 their means of existence, and the ties that unite them to each other; 
 but we had no very exact knowledge of the superior classes, or of 
 the aristocratic element that gives impulse, life, and movement to 
 the social body. We perceived effects without knowing the 
 causes. 
 
 But the constant communication we had with the Mandarins and 
 the cultivated classes, during our residence at Tching-tou-fou, 
 enabled us to acquire a great amount of useful information on these 
 points, and to study more closely the mechanism and organisation, 
 or rather what constitutes the vitality and strength of a nation. 
 To become acquainted with man, it is not sufficient to observe his 
 movements, and dissect his limbs and organs: one must study and 
 penetrate into his soul, which is the principle of life, and the motive 
 cause of all his actions. 
 
 From the thirteenth century, when the first notion of China 
 was brought into Europe by the celebrated Venetian, Marco Polo, 
 up to our own days, all parties seem to have agreed in regarding 
 the Chinese as a very singular people — a people unlike all others. 
 But if we except this one opinion, which is universally received, 
 we scarcely find in what has been written concerning the Chinese, 
 any thing but contradictions. Some are in perpetual ecstasy with 
 them ; others are constantly heaping upon them abuse and ridicule. 
 
 Voltaire has drawn for us an enchanting picture of China, its 
 patriarchal manners, its paternal government, its institutions based 
 on filial piety, and its wise administration always entrusted to the 
 most learned and virtuous men. Montesquieu, on the contrary, 
 has used the darkest colours, and painted them as a miserable 
 abject race, crouching under a brutal despotism, and driven, like a 
 vile herd, by the will of the Emperor. 
 
54 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 These two portraits, drawn by the authors of LJEsprit des Lois 
 and L'Essai sur les Mceurs , have very little resemblance to the 
 original. There is gross exaggeration on both sides, and the truth 
 is certainly to be sought for between them. 
 
 In China, as everywhere else, there is a mixture of what is good 
 and bad, of vice and virtue, that may give occasion to satire or 
 panegyric, as the attention is fixed on one or the other. It is 
 easy to find among a people whatever you desire to see in them, 
 if you set out with a preconceived opinion and the resolution to 
 preserve it intact. Thus Voltaire was dreaming of a nation 
 whose annals should be in contradiction with Biblical tradition, a 
 people rationalistic, anti-religious, and whose days nevertheless 
 flowed on in uninterrupted peace and prosperity. In China he 
 thought he had found this model nation, and he did not fail to 
 recommend it to the admiration of Europe. 
 
 Montesquieu, on the other hand, was putting forth his theory 
 of despotic government, and wanted some example to illustrate it. 
 He took the Chinese for this purpose ; and showed them trembling 
 under the iron rod of a tyrant, and crushed beneath a pitiless 
 system of legislation. 
 
 We intend to enter into some details concerning Chinese insti¬ 
 tutions and the mechanism of this government, which assuredly 
 does not merit either the invectives that have been poured out on 
 its despotism, or the pompous eulogies that have been pronounced 
 on its antique and patriarchal wisdom. In developing the Chinese 
 governmental system, we shall see that practice is often in con¬ 
 tradiction to theory; and that the fine laws found in the books, 
 are not quite so often seen in application. 
 
 The idea of the family is the grand principle that serves as the 
 basis of society in China. Filial piety, the constant subject of 
 dissertation to moralists and philosophers, and continually recom¬ 
 mended in the proclamations of Emperors and the speeches of 
 Mandarins, has become the fundamental root of all other virtues. 
 
 All means are made use of to exalt this sentiment, so as to make 
 of it an absolute passion ; it assumes all forms, mingles in all 
 actions, and serves as the moral pivot of public life. Every crime, 
 every attempt against the authority, property, or life of individuals, 
 is treated as filial disobedience; whilst on the other hand, all acts 
 of virtue, devotion, compassion towards the unfortunate, com¬ 
 mercial probity, or even valour in battle, are referred to filial 
 piety ; to be a good or a bad citizen, is to be a good or bad son. 
 
 The Emperor is the personification of this grand principle, which 
 dominates and penetrates more or less deeply all the strata of 
 
THE SON OE HEAVEN. 
 
 55 
 
 society, in this immense agglomeration of three hundred millions 
 of individuals. In the Chinese language he is called Hoang-te, 
 August Sovereign, or Hoang-chou, August Elevation ; but his 
 name par excellence is Tien-dze , Son of Heaven. 
 
 According to the ideas of Confucius and his disciples, the great 
 movements and revolutions of the Empire are under the direct 
 guidance of Heaven ; and it is the will of Heaven only that over¬ 
 throws some dynasties and substitutes others. Heaven is the 
 true and only master of the Empire, it chooses whom it pleases as 
 its representative, and communicates to him its absolute authority 
 over the people. The sovereignty is a celestial mandate, a holy 
 mission entrusted to an individual for the sake of the community, 
 and withdrawn from him as soon as he shows himself forgetful of 
 his duty and unworthy of his high office. It follows from this 
 political fatalism, that in epochs of revolution the struggles are 
 terrible, until some decided success and evident superiority have 
 become, for the people, a sign of the will of Heaven. Then they 
 rally at once round the new power, and submit to it for a long 
 time without any hesitation. 
 
 Heaven, they imagine, had a representative, an adopted son; 
 but it has abandoned him, and withdrawn its credentials ; it has 
 chosen another, and he of course is the one to be obeyed. — This 
 is the whole system.* 
 
 The Emperor being the son of Heaven, and consequently, 
 according to the Chinese expression, Father and Mother of the 
 Empire, has a right to the respect, the veneration, the worship 
 even of his children. His authority is absolute; it is he who 
 makes and who abolishes the laws, who grants privileges to 
 Mandarins or degrades them, to whom alone belongs the power 
 over life and death, who is the source of all administrative and 
 judicial authority, who has at his disposal the whole power and 
 revenues of the Empire ; in one word, the state is the Emperor. 
 His omnipotence, indeed, extends even farther, for he can transmit 
 this enormous power to whom he pleases, and choose his successor 
 among his children, without any law of inheritance imposing a 
 restraint upon him in his choice. 
 
 The sovereign power in China is, then, in all respects absolute ; 
 but it is not, as has been supposed, for that reason despotic. It is 
 a strong and vast system of centralisation. The Emperor is the 
 head of an immense family; and the absolute authority that 
 
 * It is in consequence of this theory, that the present pretender lias taken the 
 name of Tien-te, that is, “ Celestial Virtue.” 
 
56 
 
 'THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 belongs to him is not absorbed* but delegated to his ministers, who 
 in their turn transmit their powers to the inferior officers of their 
 administrative governments. The subdivisions of authority thus 
 extend gradually downwards to groups of families, of which the 
 fathers are the natural chiefs, and just as absolute within their 
 sphere as any other. It may well be supposed that this absolute 
 power, being thus infinitely divisible, is no longer equally dan¬ 
 gerous ; and besides, public opinion is always ready to check any 
 excesses on the part of the Emperor, who would not, without 
 exciting general indignation, dare to violate the rights of any of 
 his subjects. He has also his private and general councils, the 
 members of which have the right of expressing their opinions, and 
 even remonstrating with him on matters both of public and private 
 concern. One may read in the annals of China, how the censors 
 have often acquitted themselves of their duty, with a freedom and 
 vigour worthy of all praise. Finally, these potentates, the objects 
 of so much homage during their lives, are often after death, like 
 the ancient kings of Egypt, subjected to a trial, the verdict from 
 which is attached to their name and descends to posterity. By 
 these posthumous names only do they become known to history; 
 and as they are always either eulogistic or satirical, they serve to 
 give a brief estimate of the character of their reign. 
 
 The greatest counterpoise of the Imperial power consists of the 
 literary aristocracy, or corporation of men of letters; an ancient 
 institution which has been established on a solid basis, and the 
 origin of which is at least as early as the eleventh century before 
 our era. It may be said that the administration receives all its 
 real and direct influence from this sort of literary oligarchy. 
 
 The Emperor can only choose his civil agents among the 
 lettered class, and in conformity with established arrangements. 
 Every Chinese may present himself for the examination for the 
 third literary degree ; and those who obtain this, may then become 
 candidates for the second, which opens the way to official employ¬ 
 ment. To fill the higher offices the prize must be obtained in the 
 competition for the first degree. 
 
 It seems, doubtless, a magnificent thing to organise the govern¬ 
 ment of a great Empire by literary qualification; but though it 
 may be a subject of admiration, it is not to be regarded as a model 
 for imitation in all countries. 
 
 The Emperor is recognised by the laws as the sole proprietor of 
 the soil of the Empire ; but this is a mere theory, and it does not 
 hinder the property in land from being really as firmly established 
 as it is in Europe. The government, in fact, only possesses the 
 
IMPERIAL FAMILY. 
 
 57 
 
 right over it in case of non-payment of the tax, or of confiscation 
 for state crimes. 
 
 The villages are collectively responsible to the Exchequer for 
 the discharge of all fiscal impositions, and they have at their head a 
 mayor called Sian-yo , who is chosen by universal suffrage. 
 
 The communal organisation is perhaps nowhere else as perfect 
 as in China; and these mayors are chosen by the people, without 
 the Mandarins presenting any candidates or seeking in any way to 
 influence the votes. 
 
 Every man is both elector and eligible for this office ; but it is 
 usual to choose one of advanced age, who both by his character 
 and fortune occupies a high position in the village. We have 
 known many of the Chinese mayors, and we can affirm that in 
 general they are worthy of the suffrages with which they have 
 been honoured by their fellow-citizens. The time for which they 
 are elected varies in the different localities ; they are charged 
 with the police duties, and serve also as mediators between the 
 Mandarins and the people, in matters beyond their own compe¬ 
 tence. We shall have occasion to return to this salutary institution, 
 which agrees very ill with the ideas we commonly entertain of 
 the heavy despotism which is supposed to weigh on the Chinese 
 nation. 
 
 The corporation of lettered men, recruited every year by the 
 method of examination, constitutes a privileged class, almost the 
 only nobility recognised in China, and it may be considered as the 
 chief strength and nerve of the Empire. Hereditary titles only 
 exist for the Imperial family, and for the descendants of Con¬ 
 fucius, who are still very numerous in the province of Chantong. 
 
 To the hereditary titles which the relations of the Emperor 
 enjoy, there are attached certain prerogatives, as well as a very 
 modest allowance, the right of wearing a red or yellow girdle, of 
 putting a plume of peacock’s feathers in their caps, and of having 
 six, eight, or twelve bearers to their palanquins. They cannot, 
 more than any other citizen, pretend to any public office, without 
 having previously taken their literary degree at Pekin and 
 Moukden the capital of Mantchuria. We have often seen these 
 Tatar nobles living in idleness and penury on their small pensions, 
 and having no other proof to show of their illustrious origin than 
 the red or yellow girdle. A private tribunal, however, is charged 
 to govern them and superintend their conduct. 
 
 The first civil and military Mandarins who have distinguished 
 themselves in the administration or in war, receive the titles of 
 koutig, heon, phy, tze, and nan ; which may be considered as cor- 
 
58 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 responding with those of duke, marquess, count, baron, and knight. 
 These titles or grades are, however, not hereditary, and give 
 Ho right to the sons of the individual rewarded by them, but, what 
 appears to us very curious, they may be carried back to his an¬ 
 cestors. This custom was introduced with reference to the 
 funeral ceremonies and the titles that the Chinese bestow on their 
 defunct relatives. An officer who has been raised in rank by the 
 Emperor, cannot accomplish the funeral rites of his family in a 
 suitable manner, it his ancestors have not been decorated with a 
 corresponding title. To suppose that the son is of higher rank 
 than the father, would be to overthrow the hierarchy, and attack 
 the fundamental principle of the Empire. A nobility, not merely 
 confined to the individual, but even retrograding to the ancestors, 
 instead of being transmitted to the descendants, does appear ex¬ 
 cessively whimsical to us, and one must be a Chinese to have 
 thought of such a thing. Nevertheless, it would be interesting 
 to inquire whether, in reality, it may not be the better plan of 
 the two. 
 
 All the officers, civil and military, of the Chinese Empire are 
 divided into nine orders, khiou-pi/ig , distinguished one from the 
 other by certain buttons, or rather balls, of the size of a pigeon’s 
 egg, which are worn above the official cap. This distinctive ball 
 is of plain red coral for the first order, of carved coral for the 
 second, of a transparent deep blue stone for the third, of pale blue 
 lor the fourth, crystal for the fifth, of some opaque white stone for 
 the sixth, and for the seventh, eighth, and ninth of gilt and 
 wrought copper. 
 
 Every order is subdivided into two classes ; the one active and 
 official, the other supernumerary; but this makes no difference in 
 the balls. All the official personages comprised in these nine 
 orders, are designated by the generic term of kouang-fou. The 
 name of Mandarin is unknown to the Chinese ; it was invented by 
 the first Europeans who visited the country, and is probably 
 derived from the Portuguese word “ mandar ” to command, out of 
 which they made Mandarin. 
 
 The administration of the Celestial Empire is divided into three 
 parts ; the superior administration of the Empire, the local admin¬ 
 istration of Pekin, and that of the provinces and colonies. 
 
 The entire government is under the direction of two councils, 
 attached to the person of the Emperor; the Nei-lio, and the Kiwi - 
 ke-tchou. The first is charged with the preparation of plans, and 
 the despatch ot current business. Its duty is, according to the 
 official book, “ to put in order, and to make manifest the thoughts 
 
MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 59 
 
 and designs of the Imperial will, and to regulate the form of ad¬ 
 ministrative decrees.” It may be regarded in some measure as 
 the secretaryship of the Empire. 
 
 The second council, numed Iviun-ke-tchou, deliberates with the 
 Emperor concerning political affairs; it is composed of members 
 of the Nei-ko, and of the presidents and vice-presidents of the 
 superior courts. The Emperor presides at its sittings which 
 generally take place very early in the morning. 
 
 Below these two general councils are the six sovereign courts 
 or boards, Leou-pou , which correspond with our ministries, and 
 take cognisance of all the civil and military affairs of the eighteen 
 provinces of China. At the head of each of these are placed two 
 presidents, the one Chinese, the other Tatar, and four vice-presi¬ 
 dents, of whom two are Chinese, and two Tatars. Every board 
 has special offices for the different departments of business, and 
 in these are a great number of divisions and subdivisions. 
 
 First. The highest sovereign court, called court of civil em¬ 
 ployments, Li-pou, which has the presentation to civil offices, on 
 the nomination of the Emperor, and the distribution of civil and 
 literary employments throughout the Empire; it has four divisions, 
 which regulate the order of promotions and changes, keep notes 
 concerning the conduct of official persons, determine their salaries, 
 and their leaves of absence in times of mourning, and distribute 
 the diplomas of posthumous rank, granted to the ancestors of 
 officers admitted into the ranks of the nobility. 
 
 Secondly. The court of public revenne, Hou-pou which is 
 occupied with the imposition of taxes and tributes, the distribution 
 of salaries and pensions, the receipt and expenditure of corn and 
 money, and their transport by land and water. 
 
 It is also the business of this court to divide the territory of 
 the Empire into provinces, departments, circles, and cantons. It 
 takes census of the population, keeps the registry of lands, and 
 assesses the taxes and military contingents. This financial court 
 comprises fourteen divisions, which correspond pretty well with 
 the ancient division of China into fourteen interior provinces; 
 besides this, it superintends the tribunal of civil appeal, which 
 decides disputes concerning property and inheritance; it manages 
 the coinage, the manufactories of silk, and the establishments for 
 dyeing; and it looks to the provision of corn for the capital. 
 
 It is also this court that regulates the distributions of corn and 
 rice, and the gratuitous loans by which the people are assisted in 
 times of scarcity and famine. Finally, it is honoured with the 
 office of presenting annually to the Emperor, the list of young 
 
60 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Mantchou girls, who are ambitious to become inmates of his 
 harem. 
 
 It is one of the officers of the Hou-pou who presides every year 
 at the celebrated agricultural festival, in which the Emperor is 
 seen to put his hand to the plough in a field, trace the furrow, 
 and sow it with corn. 
 
 Thirdly. The sovereign court of rites, Ly-pou has the business 
 of regulating ceremonies and public solemnities, the minute details 
 of which are so important in the eyes of the Chinese. It has four 
 divisions, which are occupied with the ordinary and extraordinary 
 ceremonial of the court, with the rights of sacrifices in honour of 
 the souls of former sovereigns and illustrious men, with the regu¬ 
 lation of public festivals, and the form of the robes and head¬ 
 dresses worn by the officers of government. This court super¬ 
 intends schools, public academies, and literary examinations, and 
 determines the number, the choice, and the privileges of the 
 learned of various classes. Foreign diplomacy also lies within its 
 jurisdiction; it prescribes the forms to be observed in the intercourse 
 with tributary princes and foreign potentates, and whatever has 
 relation to the embassies: and finally, it has the general direction 
 of music, which in theory, may perhaps be very fine, but does not 
 in China exactly strike one as such in the execution. 
 
 Fourthly. There is the supreme court of war, Ping-pou, which 
 has also four subdivisions, and regulates the appointment and 
 promotions of military officers, registers the notes furnished con¬ 
 cerning their conduct, and attends to the commissariat department, 
 and the punishments and military examinations for the whole 
 army. One of these subdivisions has the special charge of the 
 cavalry, the camels, the relays of horses, and the transport of 
 provisions and ammunition of all kinds. 
 
 Fifthly. The court ot chastisements or criminal jurisdiction, 
 Hing-pou has eighteen subdivisions, corresponding with the 
 eighteen provinces of the Empire, attending to the criminal busi¬ 
 ness of each province; a corps of prison inspectors; legislative 
 chambers, which receive the articles of the penal code on their 
 promulgation, and a board of fines and penalties. 
 
 Sixthly. The court or board of public works, Koung-pou , has 
 the direction of all the works executed at the expense of the 
 state, such as the construction of public buildings, the fabri¬ 
 cation of utensils and clothing intended for the troops and for 
 public officers, the digging of canals, the formation of dikes, 
 the erection of funereal monuments for the imperial family and 
 illustrious persons. It also regulates weights and measures, and 
 
THE ACADEMY OF HAN-LIN. 
 
 61 
 
 directs the manufacture of gunpowder; this supreme court has 
 four divisions. 
 
 The superior administration at Pekin comprises also the colonial 
 office, Ly-fan-yuen, which has the superintendence of “ strangers 
 from without;” a designation applied to the Mongol princes, the 
 Lamas of Thibet, and the Mahometan princes and chiefs of the 
 districts near Persia. The Ly-fan-yuen, which governs the 
 Mongol tribes, regulates, as well as it can, the rather entangled 
 affairs of the nomadic hordes; and interferes, in an indirect 
 manner, in the government of Thibet and the small Mahometan 
 states of Turkestan. 
 
 The Tou-tclia-yuen , or office of universal censorship, is placed 
 above the sphere of action of all these administrative wheels, and 
 overlooks their movements. Its office is to criticise the manners 
 and morals of the people, and the conduct of the employes. The 
 ministers, princes, even the Emperor himself, must, whether he 
 likes it or not, submit to the remonstrances of this censor. 
 
 Finally. There is the Toun-tchin-sse, or palace of representa¬ 
 tion, which transmits to the privy-council of the Emperor the 
 reports sent from the provinces, and the appeals against sentences 
 pronounced by magistrates. This palace of representation, in 
 which are united the members of the six supreme courts and the 
 office of universal censorship, forms a kind of court of cassation to 
 decide on appeals in criminal cases, and on sentences of death. 
 The decisions of these three courts united are required to be 
 unanimously given. In the contrary case, it is the Emperor him¬ 
 self who must be the judge in the last resort. 
 
 The famous Imperial academy of Han-Lin is composed of lite¬ 
 rary graduates ; it furnishes orators for the public festivals, and 
 literary examiners for the provinces, and is supposed generally to 
 promote the cause of learning and science. It contains within 
 itself a board for the editing of official documents, and another for 
 the revision of the Tatar and Chinese works published at the ex¬ 
 pense of government. Its two presidents inhabit the Emperor's 
 palace, and they overlook the studies and labours of the academi¬ 
 cians. The college of historiographers, and the whole body of 
 annalists, depend on the academy of Han-lin. The first are occu¬ 
 pied with drawing up the history of this or that remarkable reign 
 or epoch. The annalists, to the number of twenty-two, write day 
 by day the annals of the reigning dynasty : which are only pub¬ 
 lished when another has succeeded it. They are on duty by turns, 
 four at a time, and remain near the person of the Emperor to take 
 notes of his actions and even his words. 
 
62 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The official gazette of Pekin may also be counted among the 
 organs of the administration. It is a real Moniteur Universel, in 
 which nothing can be printed which has not been presented to the 
 Emperor, or which does not proceed from the Emperor himself; 
 the editors of it would not dare to change or add anything, but 
 under penalty of the severest punishment. This Pekin gazette is 
 printed every day, in the form of a pamphlet, and contains sixty 
 or seventy pages. The subscription to it does not amount to more 
 than twelve francs a year ; and it is a most interesting collection, 
 and very useful in making one acquainted with the Chinese 
 Empire. 
 
 It gives a sketch of public affairs and remarkable events; the 
 memorials and petitions presented to the Emperor, and his answers 
 to them; his instructions to the Mandarins and the people; the 
 judicial proceedings, with the principal condemnations and the 
 pardons granted by the Emperor; and also a summary of the 
 deliberations of the sovereign courts. The principal articles, and 
 all the public documents, are reprinted in the official gazettes of 
 the provinces. 
 
 Papers thus edited certainly serve to keep the Mandarins and 
 the people acquainted with public affairs ; but they are little cal¬ 
 culated to excite or encourage political passions. In ordinary 
 times, and when they are not under the influence of any revolu¬ 
 tionary movement, the Chinese are not at all inclined to meddle 
 with affairs of government: they are a delightfully quiet people to 
 deal with. In 1851, at the period of the death of the Emperor 
 Tao-kouang, we were travelling on the road from Pekin, and one 
 day, when we had been taking tea at an inn in company with some 
 Chinese citizens, we tried to get up a little political discussion. 
 
 We spoke of the recent death of the Emperor, an important 
 event which, of course, must have interested everybody. We ex¬ 
 pressed our anxiety on the subject of the succession to the imperial 
 throne, the heir to which was not yet publicly declared. “Who 
 knows,” said we, “which of the three sons of the Emperor will 
 have been appointed to succeed him ? If it should be the eldest, 
 will he pursue the same system of government ? If the younger, 
 he is still very young ; and it is said there are contrary influences, 
 two opposing parties, at court—to which will he lean ? ” We put 
 forward, in short, all kinds of hypotheses, in order to stimulate 
 these good citizens to make some observation. But they hardly 
 listened to us. We came back again and again to the charge, in 
 order to elicit some opinion or other, on questions that really ap¬ 
 peared to us of great importance. But to all our piquant sugges- 
 
THE PALACE. 
 
 63 
 
 tions, they replied only by shaking their heads, puffing out whiffs 
 of smoke, and taking great gulps of tea. 
 
 Ihis apathy was really beginning to provoke us, when one of 
 these worthy Chinese, getting up from his seat, came and laid his 
 two hands on our shoulders in a manner quite paternal, and said, 
 smiling rather ironically,— 
 
 Listen to me, my friend ! Why should you trouble your heart 
 and fatigue your head by all these vain surmises? The Mandarins 
 have to attend to affairs of State ; they are paid for it. Let them 
 I earn their money, then. But don’t let us torment ourselves about 
 what does not concern us. We should be great fools to want to 
 do political business for nothing.” 
 
 “ That is very conformable to reason,” cried the rest of the com¬ 
 pany ; and thereupon they pointed out to us that our tea was 
 getting cold and our pipes were out. 
 
 Ihe local administration of Pekin comprehends several special 
 institutions, the functions of which have relation to the Imperial 
 Court, or the district in which it resides, to the direction of the 
 sacrifices, the Imperial stud, and the ceremonial of the Imperial 
 ! audience-chamber. 
 
 Ihe government of the palace is under the direction of a special 
 council, which comprises seven divisions, charged with the pro¬ 
 visioning and repairs of the palace, the salaries and punishments 
 for offences committed in it, the receipt of the revenues of the 
 farms, and the superintendence of the flocks and herds of the pri¬ 
 vate domain. 
 
 Three great scientific establishments are attached to the court: 
 the National College, where the sons of the great dignitaries are 
 educated ; the Imperial College of Astronomy, charged with the 
 astronomical and astrological observations, and the preparation of 
 the annual almanack; and the College of Medicine. Eight hun¬ 
 dred guards are attached to the person of the Emperor,°and the 
 military service of the capital is confided to the generals of the 
 Eight Banners ; a corps composed of Mantchoo, Mongol, and 
 Chinese soldiers, the direct descendants of the army that conquered 
 China in 1643-4. The numerous body of eunuchs employed in 
 the palace, and who, under the preceding dynasty played so active 
 a part in the revolutions of which the Chinese Empire has so often 
 been the theatre, is at present reduced to total inactivity. 
 
 Under the minority of Khang-hi, the second Emperor of the 
 Mantchoo dynasty, the four regents, on whom the government 
 : -devolved, destroyed the authority of the eunuchs. 
 
 I heir fiist act was to pass an express law (which they had en- 
 
64 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 graved on plates of iron of a thousand pounds weight) prohibiting 
 all Mantchoo princes for the future from elevating eunuchs to any 
 sort of office or dignity. This law has been faithfully observed, 
 and it is perhaps one of the principal causes to which we may at¬ 
 tribute the peace and tranquillity China has enjoyed for so long a 
 time. 
 
 The provincial administration is constituted with as much 
 vigour and regularity as that of the whole Empire. Every * 
 province is governed by a Tsoung-tou , or governor-general, whom ; 
 the Europeans are in the habit of calling viceroy, and also by a | 
 Fou-yoaen, or sub-governor. The Tsoung-fou has the general 1 
 control of all civil and military affairs. The Fou-youen exercises 
 a similar kind of authority, but is more specially charged with 
 the civil administration, which is divided into five departments; i 
 namely, the executive, the literary, that of the salt duties, of the ; 
 commissariat, and commerce. 
 
 The executive department is directed by two superior officers, 
 of whom one undertakes the civil administration properly so called, 
 the other that of criminal law. Under the inspection of these 
 officers, who render an account to the governor and under-governor, 
 every province is divided into prefectures, administered by civil 
 officers, whose functions correspond with those of our prefects and 
 sub-prefects. 
 
 The Chinese distinguish, first, the great prefectures named Fou, 
 which have a special administration under the inspection of the 
 superior government of the province; secondly, the prefecture 
 called Tcheou, the functionaries of which depend sometimes on 
 the provincial administration, and sometimes on that of the grand 
 prefecture ; and, finally, the sub-prefecture Hien, below both the 
 Fou and the Tcheou. Each of these three, the Fou and the Tcheou 
 and the Hien, possess a kind of chief town, surrounded by walls 
 and fortifications, where the authorities reside. 
 
 These are the towns of the first, second, and third order, of 
 which mention is so often made in the accounts of the Missionaries. 
 
 The chief officers of the prefectures and sub-prefectures are 
 charged with the collection of the taxes and the police duty. 
 
 Secondly. The literary department of every province is con¬ 
 ducted by a director of instruction, who delegates his authority to 
 the principal professor residing in the chief towns of the prefecture 
 and sub-prefectures. They have under them secondary masters, 
 who are distributed throughout the cantons. Every year the di¬ 
 rector of instruction makes a tour to examine students and confer 
 the first literary degree. Every three years examiners are sent 
 
OFFICERS OF THE ARMY AND NAVY. 
 
 65 
 
 from the academy of the Han-lin , at Pekin, to preside over the 
 extraordinary examinations, and confer the second literary degree; 
 and after that the literary graduates have to go to Pekin to pass 
 their examination for the third decree- 
 
 Thirdly. The department of the salt duties has under its 
 inspection the salt-marshes, as well as the reservoirs and wells, 
 and also has to undertake the transport of the salt. 
 
 Fourthly. The department of the commissariat has to attend to 
 the preservation of the corn in which the greater part of the taxes 
 is paid, and to effect its transport to the capital. 
 
 Fifthly. The department of commerce has to collect the dues in 
 the sea-ports and on the navigable rivers. The maintenance of 
 the dikes on the Yellow River is entrusted to a special board, 
 which forms, in the provinces of Tchi, Chan-toung and Ilo-nan, 
 a body independent of the provincial administration. 
 
 The military government of each province, which is placed, like 
 the civil administration, under the authority of the viceroy, has 
 the command of the land and sea forces. In general, the Chinese 
 make little distinction between the two services, and the several 
 ranks have the same names in both. The generals in the Chinese 
 army are called Ti-tou; they are sixteen in number, and two 
 belong exclusively to the marine force. 
 
 These generals have each their head-quarters, where they 
 collect the greater part of their brigade, and they distribute the 
 rest through the different posts under their command. Besides 
 these, various fortresses of the Empire are occupied by Tatar 
 troops, commanded by a Tsiang-kiung, who obeys no one but the 
 Emperor, and whose business it is to watch over and keep in 
 respect the high civil functionaries, who might be meditating 
 treason or revolt. The admirals ( Ti-tou ) and vice-admirals 
 ( Tsoung-ping ) reside constantly on shore, and leave the command 
 of their squadrons to the subordinate officers. 
 
 Below these superior officers, in the various branches of the 
 administration, is an enormous mass of subaltern functionaries, 
 whose names and titles are scrupulously inscribed in the “ Book of 
 Places.” This kind of Imperial almanack, which is printed anew 
 every three months, and is perfectly authentic, would give an ex¬ 
 cellent idea of the entire personnel of Chinese administration. 
 
 From this slight sketch of the political system of the Empire, it 
 will readily be perceived, that, absolute as the government is, it is 
 not on tliat account necessarily tyrannical. If it were, it would 
 probably long since have ceased to exist; for it is not easy to 
 conceive that three hundred millions of men could be ruled arbi- 
 
66 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 trarily and despotically for many successive centuries, let them be 
 ever so apathetic and brutalised — and assuredly the Chinese are 
 neither the one nor the other. 
 
 To maintain order amidst these terrific masses of people, nothing 
 less was needed than that powerful system of centralisation which 
 was invented by the founders of the Chinese monarchy, and which 
 the numerous revolutions by which it has been agitated have only ; 
 modified, without ever disturbing from the foundations. 
 
 Under shelter of these strong, energetic, and, one may say, 
 learnedly combined institutions, the Chinese have been able to 
 live in peace, and enjoy some tolerable sort of happiness, which, 
 after all, is perhaps the most that man in this world can reasonably 
 pretend to. 
 
 The annals of China resemble those of most other nations ; 
 they contain a mixture of good and evil— an alternation of peace¬ 
 able and happy periods, with others that were agitated and 
 miserable ; governments probably will never be found perfect, till 
 the day when men shall be born free from faults. 
 
 It is impossible, however, to disguise from one’s self, that the 
 Chinese do appear at present to have arrived at one of those 
 epochs in which the evil has gained the ascendant over the good. 
 Morality, arts, industry, all seem to be on the decline, and poverty 
 and destitution are making rapid progress. 
 
 We have seen the most frightful corruption penetrating the 
 whole mass of society — magistrates selling justice to the highest 
 bidder; Mandarins of every degree, instead of protecting the 
 people, oppressing and pillaging them by every means in their 
 power. 
 
 But ought these disorders and abuses that have glided into the 
 exercise of power, to be attributed to the form of the Chinese 
 government? One can hardly think that. These abuses depend 
 mostly on causes that we shall have occasion to point out in the 
 course of our narrative; but however that may be, it cannot be 
 disputed, that the mechanism of the Chinese government deserves 
 to be studied carefully, and without prejudice, by the politicians 
 of Europe. 
 
 We must not wholly despise the Chinese; there may be even 
 much that is admirable and instructive in their ancient and 
 curious institutions, based upon literary qualification, by which it 
 has been found possible to grant, in the communes, universal 
 suffrage to three hundred millions of men, and to render every 
 distinction accessible to all classes. During our stay at Tclxing- 
 tou-fou, we had an opportunity not only of making acquaintance 
 
THE “ HIDDEN TREASURE. 
 
 67 
 
 with the high functionaries of the city, but of studying also the 
 manners and habits of the Chinese Mandarin in private life, and 
 in the bosom of his family. The magistrate in whose house vve 
 were lodged, was named Pao-ngan, that is, “ Hidden Treasure.” 
 He was a man of about fifty years of age, of a fine figure, robust 
 health, and plump enough to obtain the frequent compliments of 
 his colleagues. His strongly marked features, brown complexion, 
 thick moustache, guttural pronunciation, and continual complaints 
 of the heat, pointed him out as a native of the north. He was, in 
 fact, from the province of Chan-si; his father had held some high 
 offices, but he himself had never been able to rise above the 
 simple magistracy, and even that lie had attained only a few years 
 before. He took good care not to attribute this small progress to 
 Avant of success in the literary examinations; but, like most other 
 men, preferred laying the blame on the injustice of men, and his 
 own bad star, which took a pleasure in throwing him out of the 
 road to honour and fortune. If you would believe him, his name 
 Avas most exactly descriptive, and he was, in the full extent of the 
 term, a “ Hidden Treasure.” 
 
 Although somewhat inclined to doleful lamentation, Pao-ngan 
 Avas, on the whole, a very good fellow, and took the trials and 
 vicissitudes of this nether world pretty easily. He had come into 
 office rather late, and only when his days were on the decline; 
 but he certainly did his utmost to make up for lost time. 
 
 He loved law to the bottom of his heart, and never failed to 
 make the most of it. He had tAvo or three kinds of myrmidons 
 constantly employed in rummaging up, in all quarters of the 
 town, all the little affairs that could be brought within his juris¬ 
 diction, and his good humour increased with the number he had 
 on his hands. 
 
 Such an eagerness for the fulfilment of duties that are mostly 
 considered troublesome and annoying, could not but appear to us 
 very edifying, and Ave found ourselves charitably disposed to admire 
 in Pao-ngan his extraordinary passion for justice. But he speedily 
 undeceived us, by very frankly declaring that he wanted money, 
 and that a Avell managed cause was the best means of procuring 
 it. “If it is allowable,” said he, “to make a fortune by trade 
 and commerce, why may one not also groAV rich by teaching 
 reason to the people, and developing the principles of justice?” 
 
 These not very elevated sentiments are common to all the 
 Mandarins, and they express them openly and Avithout scruple. 
 The administration of justice has become a regular traffic, and the 
 chief cause of this abuse, we really believe, is to be found in the 
 
68 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 insufficient remuneration allotted by government to magistrates, .i 
 It is extremely difficult for them to live in suitable style, with the 
 palanquins, and servants, and the costume suitable to their j 
 position, if they have nothing more to meet all these expenses 
 than the slender resources granted to them by the State. Their 
 subordinates have no pay at all, and have to indemnify themselves . 
 as well as they can, by exercising their industry on the unlucky 
 suitors who pass through their hands—veritable sheep, from whom 
 every one snatches as much wool as he can tear off, and who are 
 not unfrequently at last completely flayed. 
 
 Towards the commencement of the present dynasty, these abuses 
 had become so flagrant, and the complaints on the subject so 
 unanimous throughout the Empire, that the cantons drew up a 
 memorial against the country tribunals, and presented it to the 
 Emperor Tcliang-hi. The answer was soon given, and a curious 
 one it was. “ The Emperor, considering the immense population 
 of the Empire, the great division of territorial property, and the 
 notoriously law-loving character of the Chinese, is of opinion that 
 law-suits would tend to increase, to a frightful amount, if people 
 were not afraid of the tribunals, and if they felt confident of 
 always finding in them ready and perfect justice. As man,” con- ; 
 tinues the Imperial logician, “ is apt to delude himself concerning 
 his own interests, contests would be then interminable, and the 
 half of the Empire would not suffice to settle the law-suits of the 
 other half. I desire, therefore, that those who have recourse to 
 the tribunals should he treated without any pity, and in such a 
 manner that they shall be disgusted with law, and tremble to 
 appear before a magistrate. In this manner the evil will be cut 
 up by the roots; the good citizens, who may have difficulties 
 among themselves, will settle them like brothers, by referring to 
 the arbitration of some old man, or the mayor of the commune. ; 
 As for those who are troublesome, obstinate, and quarrelsome, let 
 them be ruined in the law-courts—that is the justice that is due 
 to them.” 
 
 One cannot, perhaps, altogether admit the validity of this 
 Imperial reasoning, but it is nevertheless undoubtedly true, 
 that in China, those who haunt the tribunals, and get themselves 
 ruined, and not unfrequently knocked down also, by the Mandarins, 
 are, with some honourable exceptions, men of a vindictive and 
 malignant character, to whom no counsel can be of service, and 
 who have need to be chastised by their “ father and mother.” * 
 
 A title given by the Chinese to their magistrates. 
 
THE SONS OF PAO-NGAN. 
 
 69 
 
 Pao-ngan the “ Hidden Treasure,” for his part, followed 
 scrupulously the gracious instructions of the Emperor Khang-hi. 
 Since he had been installed in his little tribunal, he dreamed of 
 nothing but of fleecing suitors; but if is most likely, nevertheless, 
 that this was not solely with the philanthropic purpose of di¬ 
 minishing their numbers. One day, when we were asking from 
 him some information with respect to the capital of Sse-lihuen, he 
 mentioned to us a certain district as being the worst in the town. 
 We supposed, of course, that this abominable quarter was the 
 resort of all sorts of bad characters, but it was precisely the con¬ 
 trary. 
 
 “ Since I have been in the magistracy,” said Pao-ngan, with 
 delightful naivete, “ that district has never given me a single suit; 
 concord reigns among all the families in it.” 
 
 This excellent magistrate had two sons, who aspired to follow 
 in their father’s footsteps, but it seemed likely they would never 
 attain to the honour of placing any kind of ball on their caps. 
 The elder, who was twenty-three years of age, and already the 
 father of a little citizen of the Chinese Empire, who trotted about 
 and prattled very prettily, had an exceedingly stupid though con¬ 
 ceited face, which afforded a very just idea of his intellectual pre¬ 
 tensions. He had been studying all his life, and was apparently a 
 student still, but the degree of Bachelor was an honour he had 
 not yet attained. His papa, the “ Hidden Treasure,” frankly 
 admitted that his eldest son was not remarkably clever. 
 
 The younger, a lad of seventeen, was pale and feeble, and evi¬ 
 dently consumptive, but as amiable and interesting as his elder 
 brother was tiresome. He was well informed too, and far from 
 unintelligent, and he had a soft melancholy tone in his voice that 
 added to the charm of his conversation. 
 
 If to this “ Hidden Treasure ” and his family be added our two 
 guards of honour, the youthful consumer of opium, and the ancient 
 chewer of melon-seeds, a good idea will be formed of the society in 
 which we found ourselves. It was a curious thing enough for two 
 French missionaries to be living thus familiarly with Mandarins 
 in the middle of a great Chinese town, on the confines of Thibet, 
 ten thousand leagues from their own country, whilst their fate was 
 being decided in a discussion between the viceroy of the province 
 and the Court of Pekin. 
 
 The life of a Chinese Mandarin appeared to us a very leisurely 
 one. At sunrise, Pao-ngan installed himself on his judge’s seat, 
 and passed the first hours of the morning in administering justice, 
 or, more properly speaking, in arranging and legalising the ex- 
 
 s a 
 
70 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 tortious of bis scribes. After this rather superfluous labour came 
 the great affairs of the day, namely, breakfast, dinner and supper. 
 Pao-ngan kept a very good table, as be received an extra allow¬ 
 ance on our account; but, ample as it was, the unfortunate man 
 could not, after the third day, resist putting water into the excel¬ 
 lent rice-wine, in order to squeeze a little more profit out of us. 
 It seems as if a Chinese really must make use of some kind of 
 fraud and trickery ; every unlawful gain has for him such an 
 irresistible attraction. In the intervals between his meals, the 
 occupations of Pao-ngan were not very laborious ; he smoked, he 
 drank tea, he amused himself with munching dried fruits, or frag¬ 
 ments of sugar-cane; or he dozed upon a divan, or fanned him¬ 
 self with large palm-leaves, or possibly played a game of cards or 
 chess. Then some other Mandarin, as idle as himself, would come 
 sauntering in, and they would sit down together, and mourn over 
 the inconveniences and toils of public life. 
 
 Such was the life of our legal functionary. We never surprised 
 him so much as a single time with a pen or a book in his hand. 
 
 It may be supposed that all Chinese official personages are not 
 precisely like Pao-ngan. We have known some who were, on the 
 contrary, active, intelligent, and studious, and constantly stimulated 
 by the hope of advancement in their career. 
 
 During our residence in this family, we used, when we became 
 too weary of our habitual company, to go and take refuge with a 
 personage who passed the greater part of the day at the house. 
 This was a venerable graduate of letters, the tutor of the “ Hidden 
 Treasure’s ” children. We used to talk to him of Europe, and he, 
 in return, told us stories of China, which he seasoned plentifully 
 with sentences from the classic authors of his country. This 
 learned Chinese resembled very much those erudite personages of 
 former days whose conversation was always bristling with quota¬ 
 tions from Latin and Greek. In France the race is almost extinct, 
 but it is still flourishing in full vigour in China. The man of 
 learning is accustomed to present himself with a considerable 
 amount of easy assurance, indeed with not a little vanity and pom¬ 
 posity, so convinced is he of his own value. 
 
 He is the diapason of every conversation, for he is erudite, and 
 moreover a fine speaker. His vocal organ is mostly of a mar-] 
 vellous flexibility, and he has the habit of accompanying his words 
 with much stately gesticulation, of emphasising many of them, and 
 indulging in great variety of intonation. 
 
 His language, being in a very sublime style, is not always very 
 intelligible; but that is perhaps rather an advantage, as it gives 
 
THE CHINESE MAN OF LETTERS. 
 
 71 
 
 him an opportunity of assisting the comprehension of his hearers, 
 by describing with his finger in the air, explanatory characters. 
 If any one else begins to talk in his presence, he listens to him 
 with a shake of the head, and a compassionate smile that seems to 
 say, “Well! Well! you have not the gift of eloquence.” 
 
 But when one of these erudite gentlemen fills the office of tutor, 
 although at bottom he may have the same amount of conceit, he is 
 forced to put on a little modesty over it; for he understands very 
 well the imprudence of displaying his pride before those who re¬ 
 quire his services. 
 
 These magistri form in China an extremely numerous class. 
 They are usually men of no fortune, who not having been able to 
 attain to the dignity of the mandarinate, are obliged to resort to 
 this method of obtaining their living. It i3 not necessary to have 
 passed all the examinations in order to become a magister, for in 
 China education is quite free, and any one is at liberty to set up a 
 school, without the government interfering with him in any way 
 whatever. The interest a father must feel in the education of his 
 children is supposed to be a sufficient guarantee for his choice of 
 a master. 
 
 The heads of the villages and of the different districts of the 
 cities assemble when they wish to found a school, and deliberate on 
 the choice of a master, and the salary that is to be allowed him. 
 
 They then prepare a local habitation for it and open the classes. 
 If the magister does not continue to please those who have chosen 
 him, they dismiss him, and choose another. The government has 
 only an indffect influence over the schools, through the examina¬ 
 tions of those who aspire to enter the corporation of letters. 
 They are obliged to study the classical authors upon which they 
 have to be examined ; but the uniformity that is seen in Chinese 
 schools is rather the result of custom, and general agreement of 
 the people, than of legal prescription. In our Catholic schools the 
 Chinese professors explain the Christian doctrine freely to their 
 pupils, without any other control than that of the vicar apostolic 
 | or the Missionary. The rich are very much in the habit of having 
 for their children private tutors, who give them lessons at home, 
 and often lodge in the family. 
 
 Of all countries in the world China is assuredly the one in which 
 primary instruction is most widely diffused. There is no little 
 village, not even a group of farms, in which a teacher is not to be 
 found. He resides most frequently in the Pagoda; and for his 
 maintenance he lias usually the revenue of a foundation, or some ¬ 
 times a kind of tithe paid by the farmers after the harvest. 
 
72 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The schools are rather less numerous in the northern provinces ; 
 it almost seems as if the intellects of the people were rendered 
 duller and heavier by the rigour of the climate. 
 
 The people of the south, on the contrary, are acute and lively, 
 and devote themselves with ardour to literary studies. With some 
 few exceptions, every Chinese knows how to read and write, at 
 least sufficiently for the ordinary occasions of life. Thus the work¬ 
 men, the peasants even, are capable of taking notes concerning 
 their daily affairs, of carrying on their own correspondence, of 
 reading the proclamations of the Mandarins, and often also the 
 productions of the current literature. 
 
 Primary instruction has even made its way into the floating f 
 dwellings, which cover by thousands the rivers, lakes, and canals 
 of the Celestial Empire. One is sure of finding in their little j 
 barques, a writing-desk, an arithmetical machine, an annual register, 
 some of the little brushes that supply the place of pens, and some 
 pamphlets which in their moments of leisure the mariners amuse 
 themselves by deciphering. The Chinese tutor is charged not 
 only with the instruction, but also with the education of his pupils. 
 He has to teach them the principles of politeness, to train them to 
 the practice of the ceremonial of public and private life, to show 
 them the various modes of salutation, and the deportment they 
 have to observe towards their relations, their superiors, and their 
 equals. 
 
 The Chinese have been much reproached for their absurd attach- | 
 ment to frivolous ceremonies, and the minutiae of etiquette. People 
 have been pleased to represent them as always moving in a grave 
 solemn manner, after the fashion of automata, executing in their 
 friendly salutations only certain manoeuvres prescribed by the law, 
 and addressing each other in stiff formulas of courtesy learnt by 
 heart from the ritual. . The Chinese of the lower class, the palan¬ 
 quin bearers, and street porters of great towns, have been supposed 
 to be always prostrating themselves to each other, and asking ten 
 thousand pardons, after having been abusing or even knocking 
 each other down. These extravagances are not really to be met 
 with in China; they are to be found only in the accounts of Euro¬ 
 peans, who seem to think themselves obliged, in speaking of a 
 country so little known, to relate many strange things. Setting 
 aside all exaggeration, however, it is certain that urbanity is among 
 the Chinese a distinctive sign of national character. 
 
 A fondness for polite and decorous observance may be traced 
 among them from the remotest antiquity, and their ancient philo¬ 
 sophers never fail to recommend to the people a strict observance 
 
CHINESE MANNERS. 
 
 73 
 
 of the precepts established for the relations of society. Confucius 
 said that ceremonies are the symbols of virtue, and destined to 
 preserve it, to recall it to memory, and even sometimes to supply 
 its place. These principles being among the earliest inculcated by 
 schoolmasters on the minds of their pupils, it is not surprising that 
 we find in all ranks of society manners which display more or less 
 of that politeness which is the basis of Chinese education; and 
 even the country people and peasants certainly treat each other 
 with more respect and decorum than would be manifested among 
 the laborious classes of Europe. 
 
 In their official reports, and on solemn occasions, the Chinese 
 have certainly too much of stiffness and bombastic grimace, and 
 are too much the slaves of ceremonious etiquette. The regulation 
 tears and groans of their funeral ceremonies, their emphatic protes¬ 
 tations of affection, respect, and devotion to people they despise 
 and detest, the pressing invitations to dinner, given on condition 
 of not being accepted; all these are excesses and abuses common 
 enough, but which were even noticed and blamed by Confucius 
 himself. This rigid observer of “ The Rites,” has somewhere said 
 that, with respect to ceremonies, it is better to be a miser than a 
 prodigal, especially if in practising them one has not the feeling in 
 the heart that alone confers on them merit and importance. 
 
 Apart from these public demonstrations, in which there is often 
 a good deal of constraint and affectation, the Chinese are not defi¬ 
 cient in openness and freedom of deportment. When they have 
 pulled off their satin boots, and laid aside their robes of state and 
 their official hats, they become men of the world; and in the 
 habitual intercourse of daily life they know how to release them¬ 
 selves from the bonds of etiquette, and indulge in social recreation, 
 in which the conversation is seasoned, as among ourselves, with 
 gaiety and pleasant trifling. Friends meet in an unceremonious 
 way to tea or warm wine, or perhaps to smoke the excellent tobacco 
 of Leao-tong; and sometimes on such occasions they amuse them¬ 
 selves by guessing riddles and making puns. 
 
 The chief branch of instruction in the Chinese schools is that of 
 reading and writing, or painting the Chinese characters. To ex¬ 
 ercise the hand of the pupil, they oblige him to practise, first the 
 elementary forms that enter into the composition of the letter, and 
 then to proceed gradually to more complicated combinations. 
 When he can make a firm and easy stroke with the pencil, beauti¬ 
 ful examples of various styles of writing are given to him to copy. 
 The master corrects the work of the pupil in red ink, improving 
 the badly drawn letters, and pointing out the various beauties and 
 
74 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 imperfections in the copy. The Chinese set great value on fine 
 writing; and a good calligrapher, or, as they say, “an elegant 
 pencil,” is always much admired. 
 
 For the knowledge and good pronunciation of the character, the 
 master, at the beginning of the lesson, repeats a certain number to 
 each pupil, according to his capacity. They then all return to their 
 places, repeating their lesson in a chanting tone, and rocking them¬ 
 selves backwards and forwards. The uproar and confusion of a 
 Chinese school, in which every pupil is vociferating his own par¬ 
 ticular monosyllables in his own particular tone, without at all 
 troubling himself about his neighbour, may easily be imagined. 
 Whilst they are thus chanting and rocking about, the master of 
 the school, like the leader of a band, keeps his ears pricked and 
 attentive to all that is going on, shouting out his amendments from 
 time to time to those who are missing the true intonation. As soon 
 as the pupil thinks he has his lesson perfectly impressed on his 
 memory, he goes up to the master, makes a low bow, presents his 
 book, turns his back, and repeats what he has learnt. This is 
 what they call pey-chou, “turning the back on a book;” that is, 
 saying a lesson. 
 
 The Chinese character is so large, and so easy to distinguish 
 even at a great distance, that this method does not appear super¬ 
 fluous, if the point is to ascertain whether the pupil is really 
 repeating from memory. The bawling and rocking themselves 
 about is considered to lessen the fatigue of study. 
 
 The first book that is placed in the hands of scholars is a 
 very ancient and popular work, entitled San-dze-king or Sacred 
 Trimetrical Book. The author has named it thus because it is 
 divided into little couplets, each verse of which is composed of 
 three characters or words. The hundred and seventy-eight verses 
 contained in the San-dze-king form a kind of encyclopedia, in 
 which children find a concise and admirable summary of the chief 
 branches of knowledge that constitute Chinese science. 
 
 It treats of the nature of man, of the various modes of educa¬ 
 tion, ot the importance of the social duties, of numbers and their 
 origin of the three great powers, of the four seasons, of the five 
 cardinal points, of the five elements, of the five constant virtues, 
 of the six kinds of corn, ot the six classes of domestic animals, of 
 the seven dominant passions, of the eight notes of music, of the 
 nine degrees of relationship, of the ten relative duties, of studies 
 and academical compositions, of general history and the succession 
 ot dynasties; and the work concludes with reflections and ex¬ 
 amples on the necessity and importance of study in general. It 
 
THE TA-IIIO. 
 
 75 
 
 nay well be imagined that a treatise of this kind, well learnt by 
 :he pupils, and properly applied by the master, must greatly 
 develope the intellects of Chinese children, and favour their 
 natural taste for the acquisition of serious and positive knowledge. 
 The San-dze-king is worthy in all respects of the immense popu¬ 
 larity it enjoys. The author, a disciple of Confucius, commences 
 with a distich, the profound and traditional sense of which is very 
 striking— Jen-dze-tsou-sin-pen-chan, “Man in the beginning was 
 of a nature essentially holy.” But it is probable that the Chinese 
 understand very little the tendency and the consequences of the 
 thought expressed in these two lines. 
 
 A learned Christian has composed for the schools of our mis¬ 
 sions a little theological encyclopaedia on the model of the San-dze- 
 king. The verses are formed of four words ; and it is for this 
 reason he has given it the title Sse-dze-king, or Sacred Book in 
 Four Characters. 
 
 After the trimetrical encyclopaedia the Sse-chou, or Four Clas¬ 
 sical Books, are placed in the hands of the pupils. Of these we 
 will endeavour to give some brief idea. The first is the Ta-hio, 
 or Grand Study; a kind of treatise on politics and morals, com¬ 
 posed from the very concise text of Confucius, by one of his 
 disciples ; and the grand principle inculcated in it is self-improve¬ 
 ment. These are the words of Confucius : — 
 
 L 
 
 “ The law of the Grand Study, or practical philosophy, consists in developing 
 the luminous principle of reason, which we have received from Heaven, lor the 
 regeneration of man, and in placing his final destiny in perfection, or the 
 sovereign good. 
 
 II. 
 
 “We must first know the goal towards which we are tending, or our 
 definite destination. This being known, we may afterwards maintain the 
 calmness and tranquillity of our minds. The mind being calm and tranquil, 
 we may afterwards enjoy that unalterable repose which nothing can trouble. 
 Having then attained to the enjoyment of the unalterable repose which nothing 
 can trouble, we may afterwards meditate and form our judgment on the essence 
 of things ; and having formed our judgments of the essence of things, we may 
 then attain to the desired perfection. 
 
 III. 
 
 “ The beings of nature have causes and effects ; human actions, principles 
 and consequences. To know causes and effects, principles and consequences, is 
 to approach very nearly to the rational method by which perfection is attained. 
 
 IY. 
 
 “ The ancient princes who desired to develope in their states the luminous 
 principle of reason that we have received from Heaven, endeavoured first to 
 
76 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 govern well their kingdoms ; those who desired to govern well their kingdoms, 
 endeavoured first to keep good order in their families; those who desired to 
 keep good order in their families, endeavoured first to correct themselves; those 
 who desired to correct themselves, endeavoured first to give uprightness to their 
 souls; those who desired to give uprightness to their souls, endeavoured first to 
 render their intentions pure and sincere ; those who desired to render their in¬ 
 tentions pure and sincere, endeavoured to perfect, as much possible, their moral 
 knowledge, and examine thoroughly their principles of action. 
 
 y. 
 
 “ The principles of action being thoroughly examined, the moral knowledge 
 attains the highest degree of perfection ; the moral knowledge having attained 
 the highest degree of perfection, the intentions are rendered pure and sincere ; 
 the intentions being rendered pure and sincere, the soul is penetrated with pro¬ 
 bity and uprightness, and the mind is afterwards corrected and improved ; the ; 
 mind being corrected and improved, the family is afterwards better managed ; 
 the family being better managed, the kingdom is afterwards well governed ; 
 and the kingdom being well governed, the world enjoys harmony and peace. 
 
 VI. 
 
 “ All men, the most elevated in rank, as well as the most humble and 
 obscure, are equally bound to perform their duty. The correction and amelio- ] 
 ration of one’s self, or self-improvement, is the basis of all progress, and of all ] 
 moral development. 
 
 VII. * 
 
 “ It is not in the nature of things but that whatever has its basis in disorder 
 and confusion, should also have what necessarily results from that. To treat : 
 lightly what is the principal or most important thing, and seriously what is only 
 secondary, that is a method of action we ought never to follow.” 
 
 As we have said, the Book of the Grand Study is composed of 
 the preceding text, with a commentary in ten chapters by a dis¬ 
 ciple of Confucius. The commentator exerts himself especially to , 
 apply the doctrine of his master to political government, which 
 Confucius defines as what is just and right , and which he supposes] 
 founded on the consent of the people. The formula in the Grand 
 Study is as follows: — 
 
 “ Obtain the affection of the people, and thou wilt obtain the empire ! 
 
 Lose the affection of the people, and thou wilt lose the efnpire! ” 
 
 The Book of the Grand Study concludes in these words: — 
 
 “If those who govern states only think of amassing riches for their personal 
 use, they will infallibly attract towards them depraved men; these depraved 
 men will make the sovereign believe that they are good and virtuous ; and 
 these depraved men will govern the kingdom. But the administration of 
 these unworthy ministers will call down the chastisements of Heaven, and 
 excite the vengeance of the people. When matters have reached this point, 
 what ministers, were they ever so good and virtuous, could avert misfor- 
 
THE TCIIOUNG-YOUNG. 
 
 77 
 
 tune ? Therefore, those who govern kingdoms ought never to make their 
 private fortune out of the public revenues ; but their only riches should be jus¬ 
 tice and equity.” 
 
 The second classical book, Tchoung-young, or the Invariable 
 Centre, is a treatise on the conduct of wise men in life. It has 
 been edited by a disciple of Confucius, according to instructions 
 received from the lips of the master himself. The system of 
 morals contained in this book is based on the principle, that virtue 
 is always at an equal distance from two extremes — In medio con¬ 
 sists virtus. This harmonious centre, Ching-ho, is the source of 
 the true, the beautiful, and the good. 
 
 I. 
 
 “ The disciple Sse-lou inquires of his master concerning the strength of man. 
 
 II. 
 
 “ Confucius replies : ‘ Is it concerning manly strength in northern or in 
 southern countries that you wish to inquire ? Is it of your own strength ? 
 
 III. 
 
 “To have gentle and benevolent manners for the instruction of men — to 
 have compassion towards those madmen who revolt against reason,—this is the 
 manly strength proper to southern countries; it is that which the wise endea¬ 
 vour to attain. 
 
 IY. 
 
 “ To make one’s couch on steel blades and skins of wild beasts — to contem¬ 
 plate without shuddering the approach of death, — this is the manly strength 
 proper to northern countries, and it is that which the brave endeavour to attain. 
 
 V. 
 
 “ But much stronger and much grander is the power of soul belonging to 
 the sage who lives always at peace with men, and who does not allow himself 
 to be corrupted by passion. Much stronger and grander is the power of 
 soul in him who keeps always in the straight path, equally distant from the 
 two extremes. Much stronger and grander is the power of soul in him 
 who, when his country is in the enjoyment of a good government, which is his 
 work, does not allow himself to be corrupted or blinded by a foolish pride. 
 Much stronger and grander is the power of soul in him who, when his country, 
 being lawless, has not a good government, remains immovable in his virtue till 
 death.” 
 
 Confucius, in his Invariable Centre, as in his other treatises, 
 endeavours to apply his ethical principles to politics. These are 
 the conditions on which he allows to sovereigns the right of 
 governing nations and giving them institutions : — 
 
 I. 
 
 “ It is only the man supremely holy, who, by the faculty of knowing tho¬ 
 roughly, and comprehending perfectly, the primitive laws of living beings, is 
 worthy of possessing supreme authority and commanding men,— who, by pos¬ 
 sessing a soul,’grand, firm, constant, and imperturbable, is capable of making 
 
78 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIEE. 
 
 justice and equity reign,— who, by his faculty of being always honest, simple, 
 upright, grave, and just, is capable of attracting respect and veneration,— who, 
 by his faculty of being clothed with the ornaments of the mind and the talents 
 procured by assiduous study, and by the enlightenment that is given by an 
 exact investigation of the most hidden things and the most subtle principles,— 
 is capable of discerning with accuracy the true from the false, and good from 
 evil. 
 
 II. 
 
 “ His faculties are so ample, so vast, so profound, that he is like an immense 
 spring, whence all issues in due season. 
 
 III. 
 
 “ They are vast and extensive as the heavens; the hidden source whence 
 they flow is deep as the abyss. Let this man supremely holy appear with his 
 virtues, and his powerful faculties, and the nations will not fail to have faith in 
 his words. Let him act, and the nations will not fail to be in joy. 
 
 IV. 
 
 “It is thus that the renown of his virtues will be like an ocean, inundating 
 the empire in every part. It will extend even to the barbarians of the north 
 and the south. Wherever vessels or chariots can reach,—wherever the power 
 of human industry can penetrate, — in all the places which the heavens cover 
 with their immense canopy, — on all points that the earth contains, which the 
 sun and the moon enlighten with their rays,—which the dew and the clouds of 
 morning fertilise, — all human beings who live and breathe can never fail to 
 love and to revere him.” 
 
 The third classical book, Lun-yu , or Philosophical Conversa¬ 
 tions, is a collection of maxims put together in rather a confused 
 manner, and of recollections of the discourses of Confucius with 
 his disciples. Among a great number of common-places on morals 
 and politics, are some profound thoughts, and some curious details 
 concerning the character and manners of Confucius, who seems to 
 have been something of an original. Thus, the Lun-yu informs 
 us that the master, in introducing his guests, kept his arms 
 stretched out like the wings of a bird ; that he would never eat 
 meat that was not cut in a straight line ; that if the mat on which 
 he was to sit down was not regularly placed, he would not take it; 
 that he would point to nothing with his fingers, &c. 
 
 Finally, the fourth classical book is that of Meng-tze , or Mincius, 
 as he is called by Europeans. This work, divided into two parts, 
 contains the summary of the counsels addressed by this celebrated 
 philosopher to the princes of his time and his disciples. Mincius 
 lias been decorated by his countrymen with the title of Second 
 Sage, Confucius being the first; and they render to him in the 
 great Hall of the Learned, the same honours as to Confucius. 
 This is what a Chinese author says of the Book of Mincius: — 
 “ The subjects treated in this work are of various natures. In one 
 
THE MENG-TZE. 
 
 79 
 
 part are examined the virtues of individual life and of domestic rela¬ 
 tions ; in another, the order of affairs. Here are investigated the 
 duties of superiors, from the sovereign to the lowest magistrate, 
 for the attainment of good government. There the toils of 
 students, labourers, artisans, traders, are exhibited; and in the 
 course of the work the laws of the physical world, of the heavens 
 and the earth, the mountains and rivers, of birds, quadrupeds, fish, 
 insects, plants, trees, are occasionally described. A great number 
 of affairs that Mincius managed, in the course of his life, in his 
 intercourse with men, his occasional discourses with people of 
 rank, his instructions to his pupils, bis explanations of books, 
 ancient and modern,—all these things are incorporated in this 
 publication. 
 
 It is a collection of historical facts and of the words of ancient 
 ages, uttered for the instruction of mankind.” 
 
 M. Abel Remusat has thus characterised the two most celebrated 
 philosophers of China: — 
 
 “ The style of Meng-tze, less elevated and less concise than that 
 of the prince of letters, Confucius, is more flowery and elegant, 
 and also not deficient in nobleness. The form of dialogue, which 
 he has pueserved in his Philosophical Conversations witli the great 
 persons of his times, allows of more variety than one can expect 
 to find in the apophthegms and maxims of Confucius. The cha¬ 
 racter of their philosophy also differs widely. Confucius is always 
 grave, even austei-e. He extols the virtuous, of whom he draws 
 an ideal portrait, and only speaks of the vicious with cold indigna¬ 
 tion. Meng-tze, with the same love of virtue, seems to have more 
 contempt for, than hatred of vice. He attacks it by the force of 
 reason, and does not disdain even to employ the weapon of ridi¬ 
 cule. His manner of arguing approaches the irony attributed to 
 Socrates. He does not contend with his adversaries ; but endea¬ 
 vours, while granting their premises, to draw from them absurd 
 consequences, that lie may cover them with confusion. He does 
 not even spare the princes and great men of his time, who often 
 only feigned to consult him, in order to have an opportunity of 
 boasting of their conduct, or to obtain from him eulogiums that 
 they supposed themselves to merit. Nothing can be more piquant 
 than the answers he sometimes gives them on such occasions, and 
 nothing more opposed to the too generally entertained opinion of 
 the baseness and servility of Orientals, and especially of the 
 Chinese. 
 
 “ Meng-tze does not resemble Aristippus so much as Diogenes, 
 but without violating decency and decorum. His liveliness does 
 
80 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 sometimes appear of rather too tart a quality, but he is always 
 inspired by zeal for the public good. 
 
 “ The pupils in Chinese schools learn these books at first by 
 heart, without troubling themselves with the sense or meaning of 
 the author; and if they attach any ideas to his words, they are 
 indebted merely to their own sagacity. It is only when they are 
 capable of repeating the whole, from one end to the other, that the 
 master sets to work, with the assistance of innumerable com¬ 
 mentaries, to develope the text, word by word, and give the 
 necessary explanation; and the philosophical opinions of Con¬ 
 fucius and Meng-tze are then expounded, in a manner more or 
 less superficial, according to the age and capacity of the pupil.” 
 
 After the four classical books, the Chinese study the five sacred 
 books, King , which are the most ancient monuments of Chinese 
 literature, and contain the fundamental principles of the earliest 
 creeds and customs. The first in date, the most renowned, but 
 the least intelligible of these sacred books is the Book of Changes, 
 y-King. This is a treatise on divination, founded on the combi¬ 
 nations of sixty-four lines (some entire, others broken), and called 
 koua, the discovery of which is attributed to Foic-hi, the founder 
 of Chinese civilization. Fou-hi is said to have found these 
 mysterious lines, which he says are capable of explaining all things, 
 on the shell of a tortoise. But Confucius, whose capacity and 
 talents were so extraordinary, studied these enigmatical koua very 
 assiduously, and went through much labour in editing the y-King, 
 without being able to throw much light upon the matter. After 
 Confucius, the number of writers who have had the weakness to 
 occupy themselves seriously with the y-King, is almost incredible. 
 The Imperial Catalogue enumerates more than 1450 treatises, in 
 the form of memoirs, or commentaries, upon this famous, but 
 whimsical work. 
 
 The Chou-king, or Book of History, is the second sacred book. 
 Confucius has collected in this important work the historical re¬ 
 collections of the first dynasties of China as far as the eighth 
 century before our era. It contains the speeches addressed by 
 several emperors of these dynasties to their great officers, and 
 furnishes a great number of precious documents concerning the 
 first ages of the Chinese nation. 
 
 The third sacred book is the Che-king, or Book of Verses ; a 
 collection, made also by Confucius, of ancient national and official 
 songs, from the eighteenth to the third century before our era; 
 and there is found in it very interesting and authentic information 
 on the ancient manners of China. The Book of Verses is often 
 
THE FIVE SACRED BOOKS. 
 
 81 
 
 quoted and commented on in the philosophical writings of Meng- 
 tze and of Confucius, who recommends it to his disciples. He 
 says, in the Lun-yu, “ My dear disciples, why do you not study 
 the Book of Verses ? The Book of Verses is proper for elevating 
 your sentiments and ideas ; it is fitted for forming your judgment 
 by the contemplation of things ; it is good for uniting men in 
 mutual harmony, and for exciting regret without resentment.” 
 
 The fourth sacred book is the Li-ki, or Book of Rites. The 
 original was lost in the conflagration of ancient books ordered by 
 the Emperor Thsin-che-Hoang, at the end of the third century 
 before our era. The present ritual is a collection of fragments ; 
 the most ancient of which do not appear to date from an earlier 
 epoch than that of Confucius. 
 
 Finally, the fifth sacred book is the Tchun-thsiou, or the Book 
 of Spring and Autumn, written by Confucius ; and which takes 
 its name from the two seasons of the year in which it was com¬ 
 menced and finished. It contains the annals of the little kingdom 
 of Lou, the native country of this philosopher, from the year 292 
 to 480 before our era. Confucius wrote it to recall the princes of 
 his time to respect for ancient customs, by pointing out the mis¬ 
 fortunes that had happened to their predecessors since these customs 
 had fallen into desuetude. 
 
 These five sacred and four classical books are the basis of all 
 science among the Chinese. What one finds in them is, it must' 
 be confessed, but little suited to the tastes or wants of Europeans. 
 It would be vain to seek in them for scientific ideas; and, with 
 some truths of great importance in politics and morals, one is 
 confounded by finding mingled the grossest errors and the most 
 absurd fables. Chinese instruction nevertheless, taken on the 
 whole, tends wonderfully to create in the mind an attachment to 
 ancient customs, and a profound respect for authority ; two things 
 which have always been the twin pillars of Chinese society, and 
 which alone can serve to explain the duration of this ancient 
 civilisation. We shall not enter here into any further details con¬ 
 cerning the education and literature of the Chinese, since we shall 
 have to return to the subject on several other occasions. 
 
 We had been about fifteen days at Tching-tou-fou, and, as we 
 were beginning to be exceedingly tired of it, we managed to 
 intimate to the viceroy our desire to resume our journey. He 
 replied very graciously, that it would give him pleasure if we 
 would prolong; our period of repose, but that we were entirely free, 
 and might ourselves fix the day of our departure. The Magistrate 
 Bao-ngan did his utmost to detain us,.and put in operation all the 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 resources of liis insinuating and pathetic eloquence, conjuring us 
 to stay a little longer, if we would not “ rend his heart.” We on 
 our side had to explain to him the depth of grief into which we 
 should be plunged, when we should be separated from him by 
 lakes and rivers, plains and mountains. ^Nevertheless, in spite of 
 this reciprocal wish to remain, for ever together,, it was decided 
 that we should set off in two days. Various little intrigues im¬ 
 mediately began ; all the Mandarins who were at liberty set about 
 manoeuvring to obtain the office of our escort, and their visits from 
 that moment succeeded each other w'ithout interruption. It was 
 a perfect avalanche of white and gilt balls which fell all at once 
 into the halls of The Hidden Treasure. All these candidates 
 were, if you could take their word for it, absolutely perfect men; 
 
 _they possessed in the highest degree the five cardinal virtues, 
 
 and were also perfectly familiar with all the laws of politeness ; 
 they all understood how much strangers of our importance must 
 have need of care and attention, during the toilsome journey we 
 were about to undertake. The countries we were about to traverse 
 were well known to them, and we might rely on their experience 
 and devotion. They showed this eagerness to accompany us, 
 merely because a mission so glorious would render their names 
 illustrious, and their lives permanently happy. 
 
 What all these fine things really meant was, that there was a 
 little fortune to be gained by him who should have the chance of 
 escorting us. According to the benevolent intentions of the 
 viceroy, we were to travel like government officers of rank. In 
 that case extraordinary contributions would be levied on all the 
 countries through which we passed, to provide for our expenses 
 and those of our escort; and the gentlemen who desired so greatly 
 to be our conductors thought to profit ^by our inexperience in such 
 matters, and retain for their own share the greater part of the 
 funds that wotild be allotted for the purpose by the tribunals on 
 our road. There exist very minute regulations concerning these 
 sorts of journeys ; but they thought we should know nothing about 
 them. We took very good care, however, not to choose our con¬ 
 ductors ourselves ; we preferred leaving the appointment to the 
 superior authorities, reserving in this manner the right of com¬ 
 plaining if things did not afterwards turn out to our satisfaction. 
 We should want, it appeared, two Mandarins; one of the literary 
 class who would be the soul of the expedition, and one military, 
 with fifteen soldiers, to secure the tranquillity and good order of 
 our march. 
 
 On the evening before our departure, our friend the Prefect of 
 
THE CHINESE CALENDAR. 
 
 83 
 
 the Garden of Flowers paid us an official visit, to present the two 
 successful candidates. The literary candidate, named Tin", was 
 of the middle size, very thin, marked with the smallpox, and worn 
 out with the use of opium ; a great talker, and exceedingly 
 ignorant. In our first interview he was careful to inform us that 
 he was very much devoted to Kao-wang, a kind of divinity of the 
 Chinese pantheon ; and that he knew a great number of prayers, 
 and especially some very long litanies, which he was in the habit 
 of reciting every day. We are persuaded that it was with the 
 intention of being particularly agreeable that they favoured us 
 with this learned Mandarin and his long litanies ; and he was, it 
 must be confessed, something of a curiosity. 
 
 The military Mandarin, for his part, knew no prayers at all. 
 lie was a young man with a broad lace, and a constitution naturally 
 robust, but already suffering from the effects of opium. His 
 manners were more polished and courteous than those of his 
 colleague, and he even appeared to have made more progress in 
 literary culture. 
 
 On the day of our departure we went at a very early hour to 
 pay our farewell visit to the viceroy. This reception was not 
 solemn and stately as on the former occasion ; we had no music, 
 and there was no assemblage of the civil and military officers of. 
 the town. We were accompanied only by rhe Prefect of the 
 Garden of Flowers, who remained standing at the door of the 
 cabinet in which we were received. 
 
 , The same simplicity appeared in the deportment of the viceroy. 
 He spoke to us with much kindness, and was good enough to 
 enter into the most minute details on the subject of the orders he 
 had given for our treatment on the road ; and in order that we 
 might be fully aware of our claims, he presented us with a copy of 
 the regulations that our conductors were bound to see executed. 
 
 During this visit the viceroy mentioned in confidence a circum¬ 
 stance that surprised us, and which tends to show that the 
 Chinese are by no means as good mathematicians and astronomers 
 as they are in Europe generally supposed to be. He told us that 
 the government would soon find itself in great embarrassment on 
 account of the necessity of a revision of the calendar, which was now 
 on longer accurate. We knew very well that the first missionaries, 
 at the epoch of their favour at court, had been complaisant enough 
 to correct many grave errors that were found to exist in the Chinese 
 computation of the lunar year, as well as to make for the govern¬ 
 ment a kind of perpetual calendar for a considerable period. This 
 period, however, was now nearly over, and the Office of Mathema- 
 
84 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 tics at Pekin had humbly declared itself incapable of preparing 
 another. 
 
 The viceroy, who had probably received particular instructions 
 on the subject from the Emperor, asked us whether there would 
 be no means of engaging the missionaries to labour in the reform 
 of the calendar ? We replied that if the Emperor invited them 
 to do so, they would probably have no motive for refusing his 
 request. We took this opportunity, also, of reminding this high 
 dignitary of the services formerly rendered to the Empire by the 
 missionaries, in directing the works of the Mathematical Office, 
 preparing maps of the provinces, and of tributary countries; 
 negotiating various treaties with the Russians ; and in a number 
 of other occasions in which they showed as much talent as de¬ 
 votion to the Chinese government. “ How many missionaries,” 
 said we, “ have quitted their country to come and devote them¬ 
 selves entirely to the Chinese.” And the Chinese, in what manner 
 have they rewarded so many toils, and such great sacrifices ? 
 When they thought they no longer had need of the missionaries, 
 thev drove them ignominiously from their country ; they put others 
 to death ; they seized on the establishments which they had erected 
 at great expense; they even outraged, quite recently, the tombs 
 of those learned and virtuous persons who excited the admiration 
 of the celebrated Emperor Khang-hi. 
 
 When we spoke of the recent profanation of these tombs, the 
 viceroy appeared struck with astonishment. The French mis¬ 
 sionaries formerly possessed, in the environs of Pekin, a magnificent 
 piece of enclosed ground, that had been given to them as a burial 
 place by the Emperor Khang-hi. There repose many of our 
 countrymen, who died thus at the distance of ten thousand leagues 
 from their country, after having worn out their lives in sufferings j 
 and privations in the midst of a people who never knew how to 
 appreciate either their virtue or their knowledge. 
 
 We visited this enclosure, known among the Chinese as the j 
 French Burial Ground, several times, and could never do so with¬ 
 out feeling our hearts beat as if we were about to set foot once ; 
 more upon our native soil. This is, in fact, French soil; it is an : 
 affecting and precious colony, conquered in the midst of the ; 
 Chinese’Empire, by our departed brethren. The site of it is one j 
 of the finest to be found in Pekin. The walls are still in good j 
 preservation, but the house, and the wood-work, which is in a style j 
 half European half Chinese, are greatly in need of repair. In the j 
 middle of a vast garden now running wild, there is a grove in 
 which the tombs of the missionaries have been placed by command, 
 
FRENCH CEMETERY AT PEKIN. 
 
 85 
 
 under some lofty forest trees ; but as Europeans have now no 
 longer a legal existence in China, the French Burial Ground was 
 entrusted to the care of a Chinese Christian family, since sent into 
 exile in consequence of a recent persecution. The establishment 
 was then sacked and pillaged by the robbers of Pekin. 
 
 At present it is in possession of the government, and the hea¬ 
 thens lodged in it steal every day whatever they like, — the trees, 
 the materials of the chapel, even the stones from the tombs. 
 
 The viceroy, as we said, was struck with astonishment at hear¬ 
 ing us speak of the pillage of the Burial Ground, and inquired 
 whether the French government had been informed of it. “ Pos¬ 
 sibly it may have been,” we replied; “but if not, we will take 
 care to give the information.” 
 
 “ And if I write to Pekin on the subject, and the Emperor 
 should give orders to restore the sepulchres, will that satisfy the 
 French?” 
 
 “ They will doubtless be glad to learn that reparation has been 
 made for the injury done to the tombs of their brothers.” 
 
 The viceroy immediately called for a pencil, wrote some words, 
 and promised, as soon as possible, to address to the Emperor a 
 memorial relative to this affair. We afterwards talked with him 
 a long time about European governments, the Christian religion, 
 and the Imperial decrees obtained by M. de Lagrenee. The 
 worthy ol<5 man evidently felt a good deal of anxiety concerning 
 the Mantchou dynasty, and he appeared to understand that an 
 epoch had arrived, in which whether they would or not, the 
 Chinese must modify their ancient institutions, and enter into 
 relations with European powers. Thanks to steam, these are now 
 no longer at so immense a distance from the Celestial Empire. 
 
 “I will go to Pekin,” said he, “and I will myself speak to the 
 Emperor.” 
 
 At length the Viceroy put an end to the interview, by address¬ 
 ing us with the customary words, “ I-lou-fou-sing? “May the 
 star of happiness accompany your journey.” We wished him a 
 long and happy old age, and left him to return to the house of the 
 magistrate, where we were to meet the Mandarins of our escort.* 
 
 We found a numerous company, composed of persons with whom 
 we had become acquainted during our stay at Tching-tou-fou: we 
 sat down to table, and Pao-ngan served us up a regular feast 
 
 * In 1850, we went from Macao to Pekin, with the intention of seeing the 
 viceroy, whom the Emperor had summoned to remain near his person. But 
 unfortunately, he died just a fortnight before our arrival. 
 
 Some short time afterwards the Emperor died also. 
 
86 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 according to “the Rites.” Very soon the ceremonious formalities 
 of the farewell began. They told us, in all sorts of tones, and 
 with every conceivable variation, that during our residence with 
 them they had annoyed us very much, and rendered our lives 
 extremely unpleasant. On our sides we declared that on the 
 contrary we had the greatest need of their indulgence and their 
 pardon, for we had been most troublesome and exacting guests. 
 Every one of course knew the value of this strange phraseology 
 consecrated by custom, and which does sometimes happen to be a 
 very naive expression of the truth. At last we entered our 
 palanquins, and the procession, preceded by twelve soldiers armed 
 with rattans, opened for us a passage through a dense throng of 
 curious spectators. All were desirous of getting a glimpse of these 
 famous “Western Devils,” who had so strangely become the 
 friends of the viceroy and the Emperor; and of this fact no one 
 could doubt, since instead of strangling us, they allowed us to 
 wear the yellow cap and the red gird'e. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 Departure from Tcliing-tou-fou. — Letter thrown into our Palanquin, at the 
 
 Gate of the Town_Christianity in China. — Its Introduction in the Fifth 
 
 and Sixth.Centuries — Monument and Inscription at Si-ngan-fou.— Progress 
 of Christianity in the Fourteenth Century. — Arrival of the Portuguese in 
 China. — Macao. —Father Matthew Ricci.— Departure of the first Chinese 
 Missionaries. — Prosperity of the Religion under the Emperor Khang-hi.— 
 Persecution under the Emperor Young-tching.— Abandonment of the Mis¬ 
 sions.— Numerous Departures of the New Missionaries. — Glance at the 
 present State of Christianity in China. — Motives of Hostility in the Govern¬ 
 ment towards Christians.— Indifferentism of the Chinese in Matters of Reli¬ 
 gion.— Honours paid to us on our Road. — Halt at a Communal Palace. — 
 Trickery on the part of Master Ting. — Navigation of the Blue River. — 
 Arrival at Kien-tcheoii. 
 
 As we reached the southern gate of the town, we remarked among 
 the mass of people assembled there a great number of Christians. 
 They made the sign of the cross to enable us to recognise them, 
 and also to afford us, as well as they could, an expression of 
 sympathy. Their countenances showed satisfaction and confidence; 
 for they had doubtless imagined they saw in the attentions that 
 had been lavished on us by the viceroy and the first magistrates 
 of the town, the percursory signs of the religious liberty, the hope 
 of which had shone for a moment on their path. 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA. 
 
 87 
 
 Perhaps, also, they might hope that information afforded viva 
 voce to the representatives of France, concerning the nullity of 
 the Imperial Edicts, would draw forth a protest that might force 
 hack the Chinese government into the path of justice and modera¬ 
 tion. If such were indeed their hopes on witnessing our departure 
 for Macao, they must have been sadly disappointed; for their 
 situation, instead of improving, became aggravated from day to 
 day. 
 
 At the moment when we were passing through the last gate, 
 one of us caught in his palanquin a letter, furtively flung in by a 
 Christian who kept himself crouched in a corner; it was from 
 M. Perocheau, Bishop of Maxula, and vicar apostolic of the 
 province of Sse-tchouen. This zealous and learned prelate spoke 
 to us of numerous local persecutions, which were still desolating 
 his vicariate, and begged us to remind the Mandarins we might 
 meet with on the road of the promises made by the Emperor with 
 respect to the Christians of his Empire. 
 
 Our resolution was already taken in that matter, and the re¬ 
 commendation of the venerable elder of the Chinese Bishops 
 could only confirm us the more in it. But unfortunately our 
 efforts had a very small effect. 
 
 The Chinese Christian communities are still, as they were 
 before, at the mercy of the Mandarins; and they have now, also, 
 to dread the fanaticism and barbarity of the insurgents. All 
 seems to indicate that the missionaries will long have to sow the 
 divine seed in tears and sorrow. Truly lamentable is this obstinacy 
 of the Chinese people, in rejecting, disdainfully, the treasure of 
 faith that Europe has never ceased to offer with so much zeal, 
 devotion, and perseverance. No other nation has excited such 
 lively solicitude on the part of the Church; no sacrifice has been 
 spared for its sake; and yet it is the one, of all, that has proved 
 most rebellious. 
 
 The soil has been prepared and turned in all directions with 
 patience and intelligence; it lias been watered by sweat and tears 
 and enriched with the blood of martyrs ; the evangelical seed has 
 been sown in it with profusion; the Christian world has poured 
 forth prayers, to draw upon it the blessing of Heaven; and yet it 
 is still as sterile as ever, and the time of the harvest is not yet 
 come: for one cannot give the name of harvest to a few scattered 
 ears, springing up here and there, and gathered in haste, lest they 
 should fall at the first breath of the storm. It would not be 
 impossible, perhaps, to point out the principal causes which hinder 
 the propagation of the Gospel in China; but it will be better to 
 

 88 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Set- 
 
 give, first, a rapid sketch of the various attempts that have been 
 made, at different epochs, to Christianise this vast Empire. 
 
 The first efforts to throw the light of faith on the central and 
 eastern parts of Asia were made at a very remote period. 
 
 Already, as early as the fifth and sixth centuries, we discover 
 traces of the first missionaries who travelled by land from Con¬ 
 stantinople to what they called the Kingdom of Cathay; for it 
 was under this name that China was first known in the West. 
 
 These apostles wandered on foot, their staves in their hands, 
 over mountains, along banks of rivers, through forests and deserts, 
 amidst privations and suffei'ings of every kind, to carry the tidings 
 of salvation to nations unknown to the rest of the woidd. For a 
 long time it was supposed that the Gospel was not preached in 
 China till a comparatively recent period, — the time when the 
 celebrated and coux-ageous Matthew Ricci penetrated into the 
 Empire in the latter half of the sixteenth century. But the 
 discovery of the monument and inscription at Si-ngan-fou *, the 
 former capital of China, proves incontestably that in the year 
 635, the Christian religion was known and even flourishing there. 
 This inscription speaks of numei'ous churches which owed their 
 erection to the piety of the Emperors, and of magnificent titles 
 bestowed on the priest, Olopenf, who is designated as the 
 Sovereign Guardian of the Kingdom of the Great Law; that is to 
 say, Primate of the Christian religion. 
 
 In 712, the Bonzes excited a persecution against the Christians, 
 who, however, after some transitory trials, were again triumphant. 
 “Then,” according to the inscription, “the religion that had been 
 oppressed for some time, began again to raise its head. The 
 stone of doctrine that had been for a moment thrown off its 
 balance, recovered itself. In the year 744, there was a priest of 
 the kingdom of Ta-thsin^; who came to China to salute the 
 Empei’or; he ordered this priest Sohan, and six others, with the 
 one sent from Ta-thsin, to offer Christian sacrifices in the palace 
 of Him-kim. Then the Emperor ordered them to suspend over 
 the door of the church an inscription written with his own hand. 
 This august tablet shone with a vivid splendour; and that is why 
 all the earth conceived a great respect for religion. All affairs 
 were perfectly well managed, and felicity, arising from l’eligion, 
 was profitable to the human race. Every year the Emperor 
 
 * A magnificent fac-simile of this celebrated inscription may be seen in the 
 Imperial Library at Paris. 
 
 f There is every reason to believe that Olopen was a Syrian. 
 
 f The Roman Empire was thus designated by the Chinese of this epoch. 
 
 
THE INSCRIPTION AT SI-NGAN-EOU. 
 
 89 
 
 Tai-tsoung, on the day of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, presented 
 to the Church celestial perfumes ; and he distributed Imperial 
 viands to the Christian multitude, to render the day more re¬ 
 markable and celebrated. The priest, Y-sou, a great benefactor 
 of the religion, and, at the same time, a great person at court, 
 lieutenant of the Viceroy of So-fan, and Inspector of the palace, 
 to whom the Emperor has presented a religious habit of sky blue, 
 is a man of gentle manners and mind, inclined to all sorts of good. 
 As soon as he had received into his heart the true doctrine, he 
 began to put it in practice. He came to China from a distant 
 country, and he surpasses in industry all those who flourished 
 under the three flrst dynasties ; he understands perfectly the 
 sciences and arts. In the beginning, when he laboured at court, 
 he rendered excellent services to the state, and acquired, in a 
 high degree, the esteem of the Emperor.” 
 
 “ This stone,” concludes the inscription, “ was prepared and 
 raised in the second year of the reign of Tai-tsoung ” (a.d. 781). 
 “At that time the priest Niu-chou, Lord of the Law,” (that is to 
 say, Pontiff of the Religion,) “ governed the whole body of 
 Christians in the Oriental countries. Liou-siou-yen, counsellor of 
 the palace, and formerly Member of the Council of War, wrote 
 this inscription.” 
 
 This precious monument, of which Voltaire had the audacity, 
 or rather the bad faith, to dispute the authenticity, speaks also of 
 a person celebrated in China named Kouo-tze-y. He was the most 
 illustrious man of the Tang dynasty, either in peace or war; and 
 several times replaced on the throne Emperors, who had been 
 driven from it by foreigners and rebels. He lived to be eighty- 
 four years of age, and died in 781, the same year when this 
 monument was erected. His name has remained popular in China 
 to the present time : he is often chosen as the hero of dramatic 
 pieces, and we have heard his name pronounced with respect in 
 assemblies of Mandarins. 
 
 There is every reason to think that this man was a Christian ; 
 this is what is said of him On the monument of Si-ngan-fou. 
 
 “ Kouo-tze-y, the first president of the ministerial court, and 
 king of the city of Fen-yen, was in the beginning generalissimo of 
 the armies of So-fan, that is to say, in the Northern countries. 
 The Emperor Sou-tsoung associated him with himself for his com¬ 
 panion in a long march ; but although, by singular favour, he was 
 admitted familiarly even into the Emperor’s chamber, he was 
 never more in his own eyes than a simple soldier. He was the nails 
 and the teeth of the Empire, the ears and the eyes of the army ; he 
 
90 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 distributed among them the pay and the presents that he received 
 from the Emperor, and never accumulated any thing in his own 
 house. He kept the ancient churches in repair, or he enlarged 
 them, raised their roofs and their porticoes to a greater height, and 
 embellished them in such a manner that their edifices were like 
 pheasants spreading their wings to fly. 
 
 “Besides that, he served in every manner the Christian religion: 
 he was assiduous in the exercise of charity, and lavish in the dis¬ 
 tribution of alms. Every year he assembled the priests and the ' 
 Christians of the four Churches ; he entertained them zealously 
 with suitable viands, and continued these liberalities for fifty days 
 in succession. Those who were hungry came to him, and he fed 
 them. He took care of the sick, and restored them to health ; he 
 buried the dead and put them to rest. It has not been heard, up 
 to the present time, that the virtue of anyone shone so brightly, even 
 in the Tha-so, those men who devote themselves so religiously to 
 good works.” 
 
 The whole life of Kouo-tze-y appears to have been admirable, 
 and offers details of the greatest interest. We regret that the 
 limits we are obliged to prescribe to ourselves, do not permit us 
 to give here the biography of this illustrious Chinese Christian of 
 the 8th century ; but we cannot resist quoting the magnificent 
 eulogium that a Chinese historian has passed upon him. “This 
 great man,” he says, “ died in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 
 He was protected by Heaven on account of his virtues; he was be¬ 
 loved by men on account of his beautiful qualities ; he was feared 
 by the enemies of the state on account of his valour; he was re¬ 
 spected by the subjects within the Empire on account of his in¬ 
 corruptible integrity, his justice, and mildness ; he was the support, 
 the counsellor, and soul of his sovereigns; he was loaded with 
 riches and honours, during the course of his long life ; he was 
 universally regretted at his death, and he left behind him a nu¬ 
 merous posterity, the heirs of his glory and his merits, as well as 
 of his fortune and his name. The whole Empire put on mourning 
 at his death,— and this mourning was the same as that worn by 
 children for the death of those from whom they have received life : 
 it lasted three whole years.” 
 
 There is no doubt, then, that the Christian religion was flourish¬ 
 ing in China in the 8th century, since it contained within its bosom 
 such men as Kouo-tze-y, but it is probable, nevertheless, that the 
 faithful -had many contests to sustain with the Bonzes, and also 
 with the Nestorians, who, at this epoch, were scattered in great 
 numbers all over the regions of high Asia. 
 
EARLY MISSIONS TO CHINA. 
 
 91 
 
 It is well known that towards the beginning of the 9th century, 
 Timotheus, Patriarch of the Nestorians, sent some monks to 
 preach the Gospel among the Tartars of Hioung-nou who had 
 taken refuge on the borders of the Caspian Sea, and subsequently 
 these monks penetrated into Central Asia, and as far as China. 
 The torch of faith grew pale afterwards, no doubt, even if it were not 
 entirely extinguished, in those distant countries, but it revived in 
 the most brilliant manner in the 13th and 14th centuries, the epoch 
 in which the communications between the East and the West be¬ 
 came more frequent on account of the crusades, and of the invasions 
 of the Tartars,— gigantic events, whose effect was to unite and 
 mingle together all the nations of the earth. 
 
 The Church did not fail to take advantage of these great political 
 convulsions, to forward her pacific and holy work, the propaga¬ 
 tion of the faith. From the time of Tchingis-khan and his suc¬ 
 cessors, missionaries were sent to Tartary and China. They 
 carried with them ornaments of the church—altars and relics, “ to 
 see,” says Joinville, “if they could attract these people to our 
 faith.” They celebrated the ceremonies of religion before the 
 Tartar princes, who granted them an asylum in their tents, and 
 permitted them to raise chapels, even within the enclosures of 
 their palaces. Two of these, Plan-Carpin and Rubruk, have left 
 us curious accounts of these travels. 
 
 Plan-Carpin was sent, in 1246, to the great Khan of the Tartars 
 by Pope Innocent the Fourth; he crossed the Tanais and the 
 Volga, passed to the north of the Caspian Sea, followed the 
 northern frontiers of the regions that occupy the centre of Asia, 
 and took his course towards the country of the Mongols, where 
 a grandson of Tchingis-khan had just been proclaimed sovereign. 
 About the same time, the monk Rubruk, charged by St. Louis with a 
 mission to the Western Tartars, followed nearly the same route. 
 
 At Khara-Khoroum, the capital of the Monguls, he saw, not far 
 from the palace of the sovereign, an edifice upon which was a 
 little cross: “then,” says he, “I was at the height of joy, and 
 supposing that there must be some Christians there, I entered, and 
 found an altar magnificently adorned. There were representa¬ 
 tions of the Saviour, the Holy Virgin, and of John the Baptist, on 
 cloths embroidered with gold, and two angels, of which tiie body 
 and the vestments were enriched with precious stones. There was 
 a large silver cross, with pearls and other ornaments in the centre, 
 and at the corners ; and a lamp with eight jets of light burned 
 before the altar. In the sanctuary was seated an Armenian monk 
 of a swarthy complexion, very thin, wearing nothing but a coarse 
 
92 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 tunic, reaching only down to the middle of his leg, and a black 
 mantle fastened with iron clasps.”*' Rubruk relates, that there 
 were in these countries a great number of Nestorians and Greek 
 Catholics, who celebrated the Christian festivals with perfect free¬ 
 dom. Princes and Emperors even received baptism, and protected 
 the propagators of the faith. 
 
 At the beginning of the 14th century, Pope Clement the Fifth f 
 instituted an archbishopric at Pekin, in favour of Jean de Mont- 
 corvin, a French missionary, who preached the Gospel in these 
 countries for forty-two years, and when he died left a very 
 flourishing Christian community. 
 
 An archbishopric at Pekin, with four suffragans in the neigh¬ 
 bouring countries : surely these afford sufficient proof that there 
 were at this period a great number of Christians in China. 
 
 These communications, however, were interrupted, and by 
 degrees Cathay and Zipangri J, whose wonders so much excited 
 the imaginations of the Western nations, at the time when the 
 curious narratives of the noble Venetian, Marco Polo, made their 
 appearance, were entirely lost sight of by them. 
 
 The very existence of these empires began to be doubted ; and 
 the accounts of the famous traveller, whose faithfulness and simple 
 sincerity are now fully admitted, were regarded as mere fables. 
 
 The discovery of China had to be made over again, and this 
 glory belongs to the Portuguese. These bold navigators having 
 reached the Cape of Good Hope, doubled it, and reached the 
 Indies by a route that no vessel had followed before. In 1517, 
 the Viceroy of Goa despatched to Canton eight vessels under the 
 command of Fernand d’Andrada, who received the title of Ambas¬ 
 sador. D’Andrada, who was of a soft and pliant character, 
 managed to gain the friendship of the Viceroy of Canton, and 
 made an advantageous treaty of commerce with him, the com¬ 
 mencement of the relations of China with Europe. Subsequently, 
 
 * Tunc gavisus sum multum , supponens quod ibi esset aliquid Cliristianitatis. 
 Ingressus confidenter, inveni alture paratum vere pulchre. Erat enim in panno 
 aureo brosdate ymago Salvatoris et beate Virginis, et Johannis Baptiste et duorum 
 angelorum, lineamentis corporis et vestimentorum di&tinctis margaritis , crux magna 
 argentea habens gemmas in angulis et in medio sui, et alia philateria rnulta, et 
 lucerna cum oho ardens ante altare, habens octo lumina; etsedebat ibi unus mona- 
 chus Armenus nigellus, macilentus, indutus tunica asperimma usque medias tibias, 
 habens desuper pallium nigrum, de seta furratum, vario ligatus ferro sub cilicio .— 
 (Recueil de Voyages et de Memoires publie par la Societe de Geographic, 
 tom. iv. p. 301.) 
 
 f The tomb of this celebrated Pope is to be seen in the cathedral of Avignon. 
 
 | China and Japan. 
 
MISSIONS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 93 
 
 the Portuguese rendered the Chinese a signal service by capturing 
 a famous pirate, who had long ravaged their coasts ; and in gra¬ 
 titude for this service the Emperor permitted the Portuguese to 
 establish themselves on a peninsula formed by some sterile rocks. 
 On this spot arose the city of Macao, long the sole mart of the 
 commerce of Europeans with the Celestial Empire. At present 
 Macao is a mere remembrance; the English establishment at 
 Hong-Kong has given it the mortal blow, and nothing is left of its 
 former prosperity but fine houses without tenants; in a few years 
 more, perhaps, the European ships, as they sail past this once 
 proud and wealthy Portuguese colony, will see only a naked 
 rock to which the Chinese fisherman will come to dry his black 
 nets. Missionaries, however, will still like to visit these ruins, 
 for the name of Macao will be always celebrated in the history of 
 the propagation of the faith ; there, during many centuries, were 
 formed, as in a cenacle, the apostles who afterwards went to carry 
 the glad tidings of the Gospel to China, Japan, Tartary, the 
 Corea, Cochin China, and Tonquin. 
 
 While the Portuguese were labouring to develop the importance 
 of their colony of Macao, St. Francis de Xavier was preaching at 
 Japan, which the Chinese merchants of Ning-po annually visited 
 in their great trading junks. 
 
 It was probably from them that he learned those particulars 
 concerning China, which he wrote to Europe towards the end of 
 his life. Having formed the project of carrying the faith into this 
 vast empire, he embarked for it, but he had not yet set foot on the 
 land he had so long sighed after, when he was overtaken by 
 death on a little island near the Chinese coast. 
 
 Other apostolic men, however, took up his idea, and heirs of 
 his zeal for the glory of God, threw themselves into the path he 
 had pointed out. The first, and most celebrated, was Father 
 Matthew Ricci, who entered China towards the end of the 16th 
 century. 
 
 Religious ideas do not, it must be owned, strike very deep root 
 in this country, and the seeds of the Christian faith, cast into it 
 in the earlier ages, appear to have entirely perished. With the 
 exception of the above-mentioned inscription at Si-ngan, no trace 
 of the passage of former missionaries, or of their preaching, was 
 then to be found. Not even in the traditions of the country was 
 preserved the slightest trace of the religion of Jesus Christ. A 
 melancholy trait is it in the character of this people, that Chris¬ 
 tian truth does but glide over its surface ! 
 
 All was now to begin again ; but Father Ricci possessed all the 
 
94 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 necessary qualifications for this great and difficult enterprise. 
 “ A zeal courageous and indefatigable, but wise, patient, circum¬ 
 spect,_slow, that it might be more efficacious, and timid in order 
 
 to dare the more; such should have been the character of him, 
 whom God had destined to be the Apostle of a nation, refined, 
 suspicious, and naturally hostile to all that does not arise within 
 itself. A character so truly magnanimous was needed to begin 
 over again a work so often destroyed, to know how to profit by 
 the smallest resources ; his superior genius, and his rare and pro¬ 
 found knowledge, were needed to render him respected by people 
 accustomed to respect nothing but themselves, and to teach a new 
 law to those who had not hitherto supposed that any one could 
 teach them anything; and his modesty and humility were also 
 required, to soften to this proud people, the yoke of a superiority 
 of mind which is only voluntarily submitted to, when it is not 
 perceived. Most of all was required the great virtue, and the 
 continual union with God, that distinguishes this Apostolic man, 
 to render supportable to himself by the inward grace of the spirit, 
 the toils of so painful a life as that which he led in China, com¬ 
 pared with which one may consider that the longest martyrdom 
 would have spared him many sufferings.” * 
 
 After more than twenty years of labour and patience, Father 
 Ricci had reaped only cruel persecutions and sterile applausebut 
 after he had been received favourably at court, the conversions 
 became numerous, and Catholic churches arose in many places. 
 Father Ricci died in 1610, at the age of fifty-eight; and he had 
 the consolation to leave his mission at last in a flourishing state, 
 as well as missionaries animated with his own zeal, who like him, 
 calling the arts and sciences to the aid of their ministry, continued 
 to rouse the curiosity of the Chinese in order to dispose them 
 favourably towards the object they had in view. 
 
 The most illustrious among them were the Fathers Adam Schal 
 and Verbiest. It is to the latter that the French are indebted for 
 their entrance into China ; it was he who sent for them to Pekin, 
 and induced the Emperor to receive them and treat them with 
 distinction. 
 
 In 1684, an idea of sending missionaries to China began to be 
 entertained in France for the first time. The Royal Academy of 
 Sciences was then working, by order of the king, at the reform 
 of their geography. They had sent members of their illustrious 
 body into all the French ports of the ocean and the Mediterranean, 
 
 * Preface to the Lettres edijiantes, t. iii. p. 5. 
 
MISSIONS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY. 95 
 
 as well as into England, Denmark, Africa, and America, to make 
 the necessaiy observations. But they were much more perplexed 
 when it came to sending persons to India and China. Academi¬ 
 cians, it was thought, would run the risk of not being well received 
 in those countries — and of giving offence. The Royal Academy 
 began, therefoie, to think of the Jesuits. Colbert had an interview 
 on the subject with Father de Fontaney and M. Gassini. The 
 death of the gieat Colbert frustrated the project for some time 
 but it was resumed afterwards, by his successor M. le Marquis de 
 Louvois. Six missionaries — the Fathers de Fontaney, Tachard, 
 Gerbillon, le Comte, de Visdelou, and Bouvet — embarked at 
 Biest, on the 3rd of March, 168o, and landed at Ning-po on the 
 23rd of July, 1687. Thence they repaired to Pekin, where they 
 had soon gained the esteem and admiration of all classes of the 
 people by their virtue, their learning, and their apostolic zeal. 
 They got so completely into the good graces of the Emperor, that 
 he gave them a house even'within the limits of the Yellow City, 
 and quite near to h'is own palace, in order to be able to converse 
 with them more easily. A short time afterwards he also assigned 
 to them a large space for the construction of a church; he con¬ 
 tributed with much liberality towards the expenses of the erection, 
 and in order to afford the French missionaries a striking proof of 
 his devotion, he chose himself to compose the Chinese inscription 
 in honour, of the true God, that was to be placed on the front of it. 
 
 The Emperor Khang-hi declared himself openly as the pro¬ 
 tector of the new religion; influenced by his example, the princes 
 and great dignitaries showed themselves favourable to it, and the 
 number of neophytes increased considerably not only in the 
 capital, but also throughout the extent of the Empire. The 
 missionaries who were scattered about the provinces, profiting by 
 the good disposition of the head of the State, redoubled their 
 ardour in preaching of the Gospel, and in a short time there arose 
 in every quarter, churches, chapels, oratories, and flourishing 
 Christian communities. The Chinese no longer feared that by 
 receiving baptism they should incur disgrace and the persecutions 
 of the Mandarins. The Christians held up their heads and 
 showed themselves proud of their religion; perhaps they did so 
 a little too much, for it is common with men who are pusil¬ 
 lanimous and cowardly in times of trial, to become arrogant in 
 a period of prosperity. It was to be feared, however, that this 
 success, based in some measure on the Imperial favour, would 
 not be of very long duration: and thus it proved. 
 
 The unfortunate disputes of the missionaries on the subject of 
 
96 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the rites practised in honour of Confucius and of ancestors, tended 
 greatly to cool the friendship of the Emperor Khang-hi, and to 
 excite"his anger. At his death a violent reaction took place; his 
 successor Young-tching let loose against the Christians the hatred 
 and jealousy that had been held in check during the preceding 
 reign. The celebrated Father Gaubil* arrived in China during 
 this melancholy period, and he wrote thus concerning it (in 1722) 
 to the Archbishop of Toulouse, Monsieur de Normond:—- 
 
 “ I have only been a few months in China, and I was much 
 grieved when I came, to find a mission which only a short time 
 asro held out such encouraging hopes, reduced to so melancholy a 
 condition. The churches are in ruins, the Christians dispersed, 
 the missionaries exiled and confined in Canton — the first port in 
 China, without being permitted to advance further into the 
 Empire; the religion itself is on the point of being proscribed. 
 This, my lord, is the mournful sight that met my eyes at my 
 entrance into a country supposed to be so favourably disposed 
 for receiving the Gospel.” The mournful predictions of Father 
 Gaubil were not long in being realised. Two years afterwards 
 Father de Mailla wrote to France, to one of his colleagues: — 
 “ How can we write to you in the overwhelming position in 
 which we find ourselves, and how can we make known to 
 you the particulars of the melancholy scenes that are passing 
 before our eyes? What we have been dreading for so many 
 years — what we had so often predicted — has at last come to pass. 
 Our holy religion is entirely proscribed in China; all the mis¬ 
 sionaries, with the exception of those who were at Pekin f, have 
 been driven from the Empire; the churches are demolished or 
 put to profane uses; edicts have been issued, in which the severest 
 penalties are threatened to those who shall embrace the Christian 
 faith, or who having done so shall fail to renounce it. Such is 
 the deplorable state to which a mission is reduced, that for 200 
 years has cost us so much labour and suffering.’' 
 
 Thus the prosperity that had sprung up under the protection 
 of one Emperor, disappeared at the first word of persecution from 
 his successor. The Church of China had doubtless grand and 
 beautiful examples of constancy in the faith to record in its 
 annals; but numerous and lamentable defections proved also that 
 Christianity had not struck deeper root in it than it had done in 
 
 * Father Gaubil, bom at Gaillac (Tarn), was the most illustrious missionary 
 of the period in China. 
 
 f The missionaries permitted to remain at Pekin were employed in the 
 Mathematical Office, under the title of artists and learned men. 
 
THE CHURCH NEVER DISCOURAGED. 97 
 
 past ages, and that the Chinese, so tenacious and immovable in 
 their attachment to ancient custom, had little energy and steadi¬ 
 ness in the cause of religion. 
 
 . T° Young-tching, a prince, as we have seen, hostile to Chris¬ 
 tianity, succeeded Kien-long, whose long and brilliant reign 
 seemed to have revived that of Khangi. The missionaries re¬ 
 covered their credit at Court, and the work of the propagation of 
 the Gospel was resumed, but amidst perpetual vicissitudes; some¬ 
 times tolerated, now and then openly protected, but more often 
 fiercely persecuted, especially in the provinces. The number of 
 Christians, however, was gradually increasing, when the suppres¬ 
 sion of the religious orders and the political commotions of Europe 
 not only arrested the progress of the missions, but gave cause to 
 fear that the flame of religion would be once more extinguished 
 in the remote East. The old missionaries were removed by death, 
 there were no new ones to take their places, and the Christians, 
 left to themselves, were betraying the greatest weakness, when 
 another persecution broke out under Kia-king, the successor of 
 Kien-long on the Imperial Throne. During this unfortunate 
 period the Christian communities, in many cases, completely dis¬ 
 appeared. 
 
 We have visited, in the provinces, a great number of towns 
 that formerly possessed Christian churches, where we could not 
 find a single Christian. In the country some poor families still 
 cling to the faith, as the Mandarins have found nothing among 
 them to tempt their cupidity, or because, having no inheritance 
 in this world, they the more felt the necessity of persevering in 
 their efforts to gain one in the world to come. 
 
 In vain, however, has China disappointed over and over again 
 the hopes of the Church ; the Church is never discouraged. The 
 moment circumstances appeared in the slightest degree more 
 favourable, Evangelical labourers presented themselves, no less 
 zealous and devoted than their predecessors. They crossed the 
 ocean to seek, in that land ravaged by so many tempests, the few 
 gei ms of faith that had not perished; they cherished them with 
 cate, they watered them with their tears, and scattered new seeds 
 as they passed along in their apostolic journeys. Their first care 
 was to collect the dispersed Christians, to induce them to resume 
 the practice of their duty, and to bring back to God and to the 
 faith the families that had had the weakness to succumb during 
 the persecution. For thirty years past the number of missions 
 has been continually on the increase, the greater part of the 
 ancient communities have been re-organised, and the spark that 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 had been nearly extinct revived again in their bosoms. Little by 
 little also new ones have been formed to replace those that dis¬ 
 appeared in the storm. The great and beautiful association for 
 the propagation of the faith, with the idea of which God inspired 
 a poor woman of Lyons, has made considerable progress; the 
 Holy See has erected the eighteen provinces of China into so 
 many Vicariates Apostolic, in which priests of foreign missions, 
 Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Lazaristes labour without 
 ceasing for the extension of the kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 Every vicariate possesses, besides a great number of schools for 
 the education of both boys and girls, and a seminary where young 
 Chinese are brought up to the ecclesiastical profession; in various 
 parts of the country also pious associations have been formed 
 with the purpose of bestowing baptism on dying children, or 
 collecting those who have been abandoned; and nurseries and 
 asylums have been instituted on the model of those that have 
 prospered so well in France. 
 
 At the present time the propagation of the Gospel is neverthe¬ 
 less not going on so well as before. The missionaries are no 
 longer at Court under the protection of the Emperor and of men 
 of high rank, going and coming with the ceremonial of Man¬ 
 darins, and appearing in the eyes of the people in the imposing 
 position of a power recognised by the State. They are, on the 
 contrary, proscribed throughout the length and breadth of the 
 Empire; they have to creep into it by stealth, with all kinds of 
 precautions, and to conceal their abodes to elude the vigilance of 
 the magistrates. They even have to avoid showing themselves 
 to the infidels for fear of exciting the suspicions of the authorities, 
 and compromising the safety of the Christians and the future 
 prospects of the missions. It may easily be supposed that, thus 
 fettered, it is impossible for the missionary to act directly upon 
 the population and afford his zeal free play. Not only is he 
 prohibited from proclaiming in public the word of God, but it 
 would not often be safe for him so much as to mention the subject 
 of religion in private with an infidel of whom he was not sure. 
 He must circumscribe his zeal strictly within the limits of his 
 ministry. To go from one community to another, to instruct and 
 exhort the neophytes, administer the sacraments, celebrate in 
 secret the festivals of the holy Church, visit the schools and afford 
 what encouragement he can to both masters and pupils, — this is 
 the circle within which he is compelled to confine himself. In all 
 the communities there are certain heads or elders designated as 
 Catechists , who are chosen among the most steady, best instructed, 
 
PRESENT STATE OF MISSIONS. 
 
 99 
 
 and influential Christians of the locality, and who are charged 
 to instruct the ignorant, and to catechise and preside over the 
 ' prayers in the absence of the missionary. It is they who can 
 act most directly on the infidels, instruct them in the truths of 
 religion, and exhort them to renounce the superstitions of Bud¬ 
 dhism. But, unfortunately, their zeal for the conversion of their 
 brethren is seldom very ardent, and they need to be constantly 
 kept up to the mark by all kinds of encouragements. 
 
 Such is the method generally followed in China for the pro¬ 
 pagation of the faith, and it may easily be conceived that it leaves 
 much to be desired. Here and there a few conversions take 
 place, and, on the whole, the number of Christians does certainly 
 increase,—but so slowly, and with so many hindrances, that one 
 scarcely knows what to think of the future prospects of religion 
 in these countries. On the whole, there may be perhaps at pre¬ 
 sent 800,000 Christians in the Chinese Empire; but what is that 
 out ot 300,000,000 of inhabitants ? Such an amount of success is 
 not, it must be owned, very encouraging when it is remembered 
 that it is the result of many centuries of preaching, and of the 
 efforts of countless missionaries. 
 
 It is natural that our readers should ask what may be con¬ 
 sidered the cause of this deplorable sterility. First, then, it is 
 indisputable that, as the Government is opposed to Christianity, 
 the timid and pusillanimous Chinese will have no great inclination 
 to profess it, to brave the hostility of the Mandarins, and defying 
 persecution, to exclaim with pious daring, “ It is better to disobey 
 man than God!” They will excuse themselves by referring to the 
 prohibition of the Emperor. But it may be asked, “would it not 
 be possible to induce the Emperor to grant religious liberty to his 
 subjects?” No, we think not. Not that the Chinese Government 
 is in its own nature intolerant and persecuting — not the least in 
 the world; in matters of religion it is completely indifferent. It 
 does indeed admit for the public functionaries a kind of official 
 worship, consisting in merely external ceremonies, but it is itself 
 profoundly sceptical, leaving the people to adopt what ideas they 
 please concerning religion, and even from time to time recom¬ 
 mending them to have none at all. The Emperor Tao-kouang, 
 some time before his accession to the throne, addressed to the 
 people a proclamation, in which he passed in review all the 
 religions known in the Empire—Christianity included—and came 
 at last to the conclusion that they were all false, and that one 
 would do well to despise them altogether. 
 
 A Chinese may therefore please his fancy, and become a disciple 
 
100 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of Buddha, of Confucius, of Lao-tze, or of Mahomet, without the 
 tribunals troubling themselves at all about it; the Government 
 only proscribes and pursues with severity certain sects, which are 
 in fact only secret societies, organised for the overthrow of the 
 reigning dynasty. Unfortunately it has placed Christianity in 
 this category, and it is very difficult to correct this error, and 
 introduce 0 more just ideas. Seeing that Christianity has been 
 brought into China and propagated by Europeans, the Govern¬ 
 ment” has persuaded itself that they have done this merely with 
 a view to obtain partizans, in order to be able some time or other 
 to seize on the Empire with more facility. The greater the zeal 
 of the Europeans, the greater is the fear and suspicion of the 
 Government. The submission and attachment, too, which the 
 neophytes manifest towards these missionaries, tend to strengthen 
 these chimerical terrors. We say chimerical, since assuredly we 
 know very well that missionaries do not leave their country, and 
 go to the end of the world to wear out their lives, in the hope ot 
 overthrowing a Mantchoo dynasty. But the Govei nment of 
 Pekin does not see this; being profoundly sceptical itself, it has 
 no conception of religious feeling, and cannot at all compiehend 
 why people should come so far, and endure so many suffeiings 
 and privations, for no other purpose than to teach gratuitously to 
 unknown persons, forms of prayer, and the means of saving their 
 souls. Such a proceeding would appear to them so excessively 
 absurd, so great a folly and extravagance, that no one, not even a 
 European, could be guilty of it. The Chinese, therefore, are 
 thoroughly convinced that, under pretence of religion, we are really 
 manoeuvring for the invasion of the Empire, and the overthrow 
 of the dynasty; and it must be owned, that they have under their 
 eyes certain facts that have no tendency to convince them of their 
 mistake. Careful as they are to surround themselves with jealous 
 barriers, and not to suffer an indiscreet glance to be cast on their 
 own doings, they like very well to know what is going on among 
 their neighbours. _A.nd what do they see all aiound them? 
 Europeans, masters everywhere where they have introduced them¬ 
 selves, and the natives subjected to a domination little enough 
 conformable to the precepts of the Gospel. The Spaniards in the 
 Philippine Islands, the Dutch in Java and Sumatra, the Portu¬ 
 guese at their own doors, and the English everywhere! _ The 
 French alone they do not see, but they are perhaps malicious 
 enough to suppose that we are only seeking for an opportunity to 
 instal ourselves somewhere. 
 
 This is no mere supposition of ours; the Chinese really have 
 
THE EMPEROR YOUNG-TCHING. 
 
 101 
 
 these notions, and they do not date from yesterday. In 1724, 
 when the Emperor Young-tching proscribed the Christian l-eligion, 
 three of the principal Jesuits who were at Court addressed a 
 petition to him, supplicating him to revoke his decision, and 
 continue to the Christians the protection they had enjoyed under 
 the previous reign. This is what is said on the subject in a letter 
 of Father Mailla, dated from Pekin: — 
 
 “The Emperor sent for the three fathers to come to him,—a 
 favour we by no means expected. As soon as, they had been 
 introduced to his presence he made them a speech a quarter of an 
 hour long, which he seemed to have studied, for he repeated very 
 fluently all that could justify his conduct with respect to us, and 
 replied to the arguments alleged in the petition. This is the 
 substance of what he said: — ‘ The late Emperor my father, after 
 having instructed me for forty years, chose me in preference to 
 my brothers to succeed him on the throne. It is my great en¬ 
 deavour to imitate him, and not to depart in anything from his 
 manner of governing. Certain Europeans* in the province of 
 Fo-kien have been endeavouring to defy our laws, and trouble our 
 people. The great men of our province have applied to me, and 
 I must repress this disorder. It is the business of the govern¬ 
 ment with which I am charged, and I neither can nor ought to 
 act now, as I did when I was a private prince. 
 
 “ You say that your law is not a false law, and I believe it. 
 If I thought it were, what should hinder me from destroying your 
 churches and driving you from the Empire? False laws are 
 those which under pretext of virtue fan the spirit of revolt, — as 
 the law of Pe-lien-kiao j" does. But what would you say if I were 
 to send a troop of Bonzes and Lamas into your country to preach 
 their law in it? How would you receive them ? 
 
 “ Le-ma-teou (the Chinese name for Father Ricci) came to 
 China — in the first year of Ouan-ly. I will not speak of what 
 the Chinese did at that time; that is not my business; but you 
 were then in small numbers, a mere nothing. You had not your 
 people and your churches in every province. It was only in my 
 father’s reign you began to build churches and to spread about 
 your law everywhere with such rapidity; we observed it, though 
 we did not dare say anything; but if you found means to deceive 
 my father, you need not hope to deceive me in the same way. 
 
 “ You wish to make the Chinese Christians, and this is what 
 
 * Spanish Dominicans, settled in the province of Fo-kien. 
 
 f The sect of the “ White Lily.” 
 
102 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 your law demands, I know very well. But wliat in that case 
 would become of us? The subjects of your kings! The Christians 
 whom you make, recognise no authority but you; in times of 
 trouble they would listen to no other voice. I know well enough 
 that there is nothing to fear at present; but when your ships shall 
 be coming by thousands and tens of thousands; then, indeed, we 
 may have some disturbances.” 
 
 From all that we have been able to observe during our long 
 residence in China, it is certain that all Christians are regarded 
 as the creatures of European governments. This idea has pene¬ 
 trated so deeply into the Chinese mind, that they sometimes 
 express it with strange simplicity. 
 
 The Christian religion is designated in China as Tien-tchou- 
 kiao, that is to say, the religion of the Lord of Heaven ; the idea 
 of God being expressed by the word Tien-tchou. One day we 
 were speaking of religion with a really superior sort of Mandarin, 
 a very intelligent fellow. He asked us who was that Tien-tchou, 
 whom the Christians adore and invoke, and who had promised 
 to render them rich and happy in such an extraordinary manner. 
 “ Why,” said we, “ do you, a learned man of the first class, a 
 well-instructed man, and one who lias read the books of our 
 religion, do you ask this ? Do you not know who is the Tien- 
 tchou of the Christians?” 
 
 “Ah, you are right,” said he, putting his hand to his forehead, 
 as if to recall a half-vanishing recollection; “ you are right, I ought 
 to know; but 1 really had forgotten all about this Tien-tchou.” 
 
 “ Well, you know now, who is he then?” 
 
 “ Oh to be sure, everybody knows, — he is the Emperor of the 
 French!” 
 
 All Mandarins perhaps are not so bad as this one, but the con¬ 
 viction is pretty general among them that the propagation of 
 Christianity is a political movement; and it would be extremely 
 difficult to set them right, and induce the Government to grant 
 the liberty which is so necessary for a favourable reception of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 The frequent persecutions of all kinds, that the Government 
 exerts against the Christians, form of course one great and serious 
 obstacle to the conversion of the Chinese; but it is not the great¬ 
 est, for after all there was a time when religion was not exposed 
 to these attacks from the authorities. Under the reign of the 
 Emperor Kbang-hi, the missionaries were honoured and caressed 
 by the Court; the Emperor himself wrote in favour of Christianity; 
 he had churches built at his expense, and the preachers, provided 
 
CHINESE INDIFFERENCE TO RELIGION. 103 
 
 with an Imperial licence, might traverse the Empire freely from 
 one end to the other, and exhort every one to be baptized. No 
 Christian had anything to tear; on the contrary, they were sure 
 to find, in case of need, aid and protection from the missionaries. 
 No one dared to do them the least injury or the slightest wrong ; 
 the Mandarins were obliged to treat them with kindness and con¬ 
 sideration; but notwithstanding these advantages, so greatly ap¬ 
 preciated by the Chinese, the conversions were by no means as 
 rapid, numerous, and steadily progressive, as they were in Europe, 
 when the Gospel was first preached there. With some few 
 precious exceptions, it was met everywhere with coldness and 
 indifference. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, to go back so far, in order to know 
 what the Chinese character is, even when there is nothing to be 
 feared from the Mandarins. In the five ports open to Europeans, 
 religious liberty really does exist, and it is protected by the pre¬ 
 sence of consuls and ships of war. Yet the number of Christians 
 does not increase more rapidly than in the interior of the Empire. 
 In Macao, Hong Kong, Manilla, Sincapore, Pinang, Batavia, 
 though they are under the dominion of Europeans, the great mass 
 of the population consists of Chinese, who for the most part are 
 permanently settled in these cities, and hold in their hands the 
 great interests of agriculture, commerce, and industry. It is 
 certainly not the fear of persecution from the European authorities 
 that hinders them from embracing Christianity. Yet the con¬ 
 versions are not more numerous than elsewhere. 
 
 At Manilla, which is a Spanish colony, the number of Chinese 
 Christians is considerable; but that may probably be ascribed to 
 the effect of a law passed by the Spanish Government, which 
 forbids a Chinese to marry a Tagale* woman, until he has 
 become a Christian. When the Chinese wish to marry, therefore, 
 they receive baptism, just as they would go through any other 
 ceremony that was required. But if, even after the lapse of many 
 years, the fancy takes them to return to their own country, they 
 leave the wife and the religion behind, and go back as they came, 
 perfect sceptics, and not troubling themselves at all about things 
 spiritual and eternal. It is this radical, profound indifference to 
 all religion — an indifference that is scarcely conceivable by any 
 who have not witnessed it—which is in our opinion the real, 
 grand obstacle that has so long opposed the progress of Christianity 
 in China. The Chinese is so completely absorbed in temporal 
 
 * The Tagales are the aborigines of the Philippine Islands. 
 h 4 
 
104 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 interests, in the things that fall under his senses, that his whole 
 life is only materialism put in action. 
 
 Lucre is the sole object on which his eyes are constantly fixed. 
 A burning thirst to realise some profit, great or small, absorbs all 
 his faculties — the whole energy of his being. He never pursues 
 anything with ardour but riches and material enjoyments. God— 
 the soul — a future life — he believes in none of them, or, rather, 
 he never thinks about them at all. If he ever takes up a moral 
 or religious book, it is only by way of amusement — to pass the 
 time away. It is a less serious occupation than smoking a pipe or 
 drinking a cup of tea. If you speak to him of the foundations of 
 faith, of the principles of Christianity, of the importance of sal¬ 
 vation, the certainty of a life beyond the grave — all these truths, 
 which so powerfully impress a mind susceptible of religious feeling, 
 he listens to with pleasure, for it amuses him and piques his 
 curiosity. He admits everything, approves of all you say, does 
 not find the least difficulty, or make the smallest objection. In 
 his opinion, all this is “ true, fine, grand,” and he puts himself into 
 an oratorical attitude, and makes a beautiful speech against idolatry, 
 and in favour of Christianity. He deplores the blindness of men 
 who attach themselves to the perishable goods of this world; 
 perhaps he will even give utterance to some fine sentences on the 
 happiness of knowing the true God ; of serving him, and of merit¬ 
 ing by this means the reward of eternal life. To listen to him, 
 you would think him just ready to become a Christian, in fact, 
 that he was such already; yet he has not advanced a single step. 
 It must not, however, be supposed that his speeches are wholly 
 insincere; he does really — after afashion — believe what he says; 
 at all events, he has certainly no conviction to the contrary; he 
 merely never thinks of religion as a serious matter at all. He 
 likes very well to talk about it; but it is as of a thing not made 
 for him — that he personally has nothing to do with. The Chinese 
 carry this indifference so far,—religious sensibility is so entirely 
 withered or dead within them, — that they care not a straw 
 whether a doctrine be true or false, good or bad. Religion is to 
 them simply a fashion, which those may follow who have a taste 
 for it. 
 
 In one of the principal towns of China, we were for some time 
 in communication with a lettered Chinese, who appeared extremely 
 well disposed to embrace Christianity. We had several conferences 
 together, and we studied carefully the most important and difficult 
 points of doctrine, and finally, by way of complement to our oral 
 instruction, we read some of the best books. Our dear catechu- 
 
THE EXPECTED CONVERT. 
 
 105 
 
 men admitted, without any exception, everything we advanced; 
 the only difficulty was, he said, the learning by heart the prayers, 
 that every good Christian ought to know, in order to say them 
 morning and evening. As he seemed nevertheless to desire 
 putting off to some indefinite period the moment in which he should 
 declare himself a Christian, every time he came to see us we urged 
 him to do so, and made the most earnest representation of the duty 
 of following the truth, now that he knew where it lay. <f By and 
 by,” said he ; “ all in good time. One should never be precipitate.” 
 One day, however, he spoke out a little more. “ Come,” said he, 
 “ let us speak to-day only words conformable to reason. It is not 
 good to be too enthusiastic. No doubt the Christian religion is 
 beautiful and sublime; its doctrine explains, with method and 
 clearness, all that it is necessary for man to know. Whoever has 
 any sense must see that, and will adopt it in his heart in all sin¬ 
 cerity; but, after all, one must not think too much of these things, 
 and increase the cares of life. Now, just consider—we have a 
 body; how many cares it demands! It must be clothed, fed, and 
 sheltered from the injuries of the weather; its infirmities are great, 
 and its maladies numerous. It is agreed on all hands, that health 
 is our most precious good. This body that we see, that we touch, 
 must be taken care of every day, and every moment of the day. 
 Now is not this enough without troubling ourselves about a soul 
 that we never do see? The life of man is short and full of misery; 
 it is made up of a succession of important concerns, that follow 
 one another without interruption. Our hearts and our minds are 
 scarcely sufficient for the solicitudes of the present life—is it wise 
 then to torment oneself about the future one? ” 
 
 “ Doctor,” we replied, “ you said when you began, that our 
 discourse to-day should be a reasonable one; but take care, for it 
 often happens, that we think we are listening to the voice of 
 reason, when in fact only prejudice and habit are speaking. Our 
 bodies are full of infirmities, you say; that is true, for they are 
 perishable, and it is for that very reason we should do better to 
 concern ourselves about our souls, which are immortal, and which 
 certainly exist, though we cannot see them. Our present life, 
 you say, is a tissue of paltry cares. Undoubtedly it is — and that 
 is precisely why it is reasonable to think of that future life which 
 will have no end. What would you think of a traveller who, on 
 finding himself at a dilapidated inn, open to all the winds and 
 deficient in the most absolute necessaries, should spend all his 
 time, in trying how he could make himself most comfortable in it, 
 without ever thinking of preparing for his departure, and his 
 
106 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 return into tlie bosom of his family? Would this traveller be 
 acting in a wise and reasonable manner?” 
 
 “ No! no! ” replied the doctor ; “ one must not travel in that way : 
 but man, nevertheless, ought to confine himself within proper 
 limits. How can he provide for two lives at the same time? If 
 the traveller ought not regularly to take up his abode at an inn, 
 neither ought he to travel on two roads at the same time. When 
 one wishes to cross a river, one must not have two boats, and set 
 a foot in each ; one would run the risk of tumbling into the water, 
 and drowning oneself.” This was all we could get out of the 
 doctor, who nevertheless was really a worthy fellow enough, but 
 a most thorough Chinese. We shall, in the sequel, often have 
 occasion to refer to this indifferentism, the inveterate and chronic 
 malady of the Empire of China. 
 
 The reader may perhaps, by this time, have forgotten that we 
 were setting out from the Tcliing-tou-fou, and that we received at 
 the gate, a letter from Monseigneur the Vicar Apostolic of the 
 province of Sse-tchouen. It was this letter that occasioned us to 
 cast a glance over the first introduction, the numerous vicissitudes 
 and the present state of Christianity in China. 
 
 During the first hour of our march, we noticed all along the 
 road the hurry and activity that is always seen more or less in 
 the neighbourhood of great towns, but more especially in China, 
 where traffic keeps every one perpetually in motion. Horsemen, 
 pedestrians, porters, thronged the road, and raised clouds of dust, 
 that soon completely enveloped us and our palanquins, and 
 threatened to suffocate us. By degrees, as we advanced, all these 
 busy travellers had to slacken their pace, and get out of the way, 
 and, in fact, to stop, in order to allow us to pass. The horsemen, 
 alighted, and those who wore large straw hats had to take them 
 off. Those who did not hasten to show these marks of respect to 
 the illustrious “ Devils of the West,” were graciously invited to 
 do so, by a shower of thumps with the rattan, bestowed by way of 
 reminder by two of our attendants, who acquitted themselves con 
 amore of so pleasant a duty. When people spared them the 
 trouble, by being voluntarily mindful of “the rites,” they walked 
 off, looking rather sulky, and eyeing with a disappointed look their 
 idle bamboos. 
 
 It is usual in China for the people to manifest their respect for 
 magistrates, when they pass them in the streets, or on the roads, 
 with their insignia of office. No one is allowed to remain seated ; 
 those who are in palanquins have to stop, the horsemen to alight, 
 the wearers of broad-brimmed straw hats to uncover, everybody 
 
HONOURS PAID US DURING OUR JOURNEY. 
 
 107 
 
 has to keep silence and to maintain a respectful and filial attitude 
 in presence of him whom they call their “ Father and Mother ; ” 
 and who passes proudly before them, casting at them from his 
 palanquin an oblique and disdainful glance. Those who, from 
 negligence or forgetfulness, fail to comply with this ceremonial, 
 are immediately and roughlj' recalled to their duty, by some ill- 
 looking, uncombed satellites, with sallow faces and fierce eyes, who 
 are down upon them in a moment with their whips and rattans, 
 and endeavour in the most energetic manner to inculcate on them 
 a lesson of filial piety. In general, the people submit with a very 
 good grace to these demands, to which they are bent and fashioned 
 by long habit, and the legitimacy of which no one dreams of com 
 testing. But it does nevertheless happen from time to time, that 
 the Chinese do not take these lessons with quite so much docility, 
 and then quarrels and even regular battles take place, in which 
 everybody takes part, the merely curious and disinterested parties 
 generally with the citizens against the agents of authority. The 
 satellites then become humbled and trembling; they are pushed 
 about, hustled, beaten and pulled by their tails, and the Mandarin 
 generally has at last to get out of his palanquin to quell the riot. If 
 he is loved and esteemed by the people, this is easy enough; they 
 listen to his exhortations, and the seditious revolt dies away; but 
 if it happens that they have any complaints against him, they profit 
 by this fortunate occurrence to give him a lesson in his turn. They 
 crowd round him, and load him with sarcasm and abuse, the 
 illusion of his omnipotence speedily vanishes; and the people, 
 usually so respectful and submissive, are carried by passion to the 
 most violent excesses. 
 
 The viceroy Pao-hing, in framing the regulations to be observed 
 during our journey, had ordered that all along the road the same 
 honours should be paid to us as to functionaries of the highest rank ; 
 and we had scarcely begun our journey, before we perceived that 
 very energetic measures were employed in the execution of the 
 prescribed orders. It was far from agreeable to us to travel in 
 this way. We fairly blushed with shame at assuming thus the 
 appearance of petty tyrants, and felt a pang of remorse, whenever 
 our attendants gave way to their brutality against travellers who 
 were not quite quick enough in demonstrating their respect. Yet 
 notwithstanding our repugnance, it was necessary to reconcile 
 ourselves to these rather savage honours, which the Celestial 
 Empire has but seldom lavished on foreigners. All that we could 
 do was to beg the civil Mandarin to desire our people to be as in¬ 
 dulgent as possible to those who might fail in the observance of 
 
108 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the “Rites.” He did so; but our recommendation had very little 
 effect; indeed it rather seemed to operate the contrary way, for 
 our satellites, seeing that we had taken notice of their zeal in our 
 honour, became even more zealous than before. 
 
 After a three hours’ march we reached a Koung-kouan, or com¬ 
 munal palace, where we were to rest for a little while and take 
 some refreshments. The guardians of the palace were waiting 
 for us in their state dresses at the door, the top of which had been 
 hung with draperies of red silk ; and at the moment of our entrance, 
 they set fire to a paquet of fireworks that had been fastened to the 
 end of a long bamboo ; and we marched into the hall of reception 
 to the sound of this Chinese musquetry, and in the midst of the 
 profoundest salutations, which we endeavoured to return with in¬ 
 terest. Upon a brilliantly varnished table was placed a magni¬ 
 ficent collation of pastry and fruit, amidst which arose conspicu¬ 
 ously an enormous water melon, the thick black skin of which had 
 been carved in fanciful designs by a Chinese engraver. By the 
 side of the table was a gueridon, supporting an antique porcelain 
 jar full of lemonade. 
 
 Before we sat down to table, one of the guardians of the place 
 brought us a large copper tub filled with boiling water, into which 
 he plunged some small napkins, and then, wringing them out, he 
 presented one to each of us. Linen towels are made use of in this 
 way, hot and smoking, to wipe the hands and face ; and the custom 
 of offering them to you after meals and on journeys is universal in 
 China. 
 
 At the beginning of our residence in the country we had some 
 difficulty in conforming to this practice. When we went to visit 
 our Christian converts, and immediately on our arrival, they 
 always hastened to present us with a piece of wet linen, whence 
 issued a boiling vapour; and we should have been very glad to 
 dispense with the ceremony. But by degrees we got accustomed 
 to it, and at last really liked it. 
 
 The heat and the dust had annoyed us so much, that we did not 
 fail to do honour to the Chinese fruits, and especially to the 
 lemonade, which was deliciously cool. We were rather surprised 
 to find that it had been prepared with ice, for this is by no means 
 customary amongst the Chinese, who, when they are parched with 
 thirst, can think of nothing more refreshing than swallowing a 
 cup of boiling tea. As we expressed our astonishment at being 
 served with a beverage so conformable to our tastes and the 
 customs of our country, the guardians of the palace informed us 
 that the viceroy had sent all along the road, to the places where 
 
MANOEUVRES OF MASTER TING. 
 
 109 
 
 we were to stop, a set of orders, which prescribed, even to the 
 minutest details, the manner in which we were to be entertained. 
 We asked to see these orders, and there truly we read, that the 
 viceroy commanded all the guardians of communal palaces to 
 provide us with juicy fruits, melons, and iced water, flavoured 
 with lemon and sugar, because “ such are the customs of the 
 people who come from the western seas.” It would certainly not 
 have been easy to find any one more polite and gracious than this 
 Viceroy of Sse-tchouen. When he was questioning us concerning 
 our habits of life in our own country, we did not imagine it was 
 with the view of rendering our passage through China more 
 agreeable to us. In general, we have met with much more 
 
 devotion of character amongst the Mantchoos than the Chinese,_ 
 
 always more generosity, and less treachery ; and now when the 
 Mantchoo Tartars are about to be driven from China, — when 
 they are attacked so violently in all the writings that speak of the 
 Chinese insurrection, we can do no less than bear this sincere and 
 just testimony to their merits. 
 
 We resumed our march after a short halt, and arrived a little 
 before night at Kien-tcheou, a town of the second order. In this 
 our first day’s journey, we already had occasion to be angry with 
 our conductor, the Mandarin Ting ; and we took good care not to 
 let him escape. We had remarked as we came along that our 
 palanquins were not the same that had been shown to us before 
 our departure, which were perfectly convenient. Master Ting 
 had indeed received the money to purchase these, but he had not 
 been able to resist the temptation of keeping the half of it for 
 himself, and had accordingly got two old, narrow, broken-down 
 palanquins varnished, and made to look like new. These were so 
 narrow and inconvenient, that we had had an extremely uneasy 
 journey. But it was not enough for Master Ting thus to specu¬ 
 late on our palanquins; he wished to turn an honest penny also 
 on our bearers. It had been arranged that we were to have four 
 a-piece ; but this ingenious speculator had managed to make us 
 do with three ; two before, and one behind, so that he pocketed 
 the wages of the fourth. 
 
 We were not surprised at this, for we knew that a Chinese can 
 scarcely ever keep the straight path of himself, but has to be for¬ 
 cibly brought back to it. We did not, however, expect to have 
 to begin the very first day, and it did not seem a good augury. 
 
 In the evening, when we were taking tea together, we told our 
 conductor that we had been arranging our plans for the next day. 
 “ Oh, I understand,” said he, with the satisfied air of a man who 
 
110 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 considers himself very sagacious; “you don’t like the heat, and 
 you would rather set off at an earlier hour in order to enjoy the 
 freshness of the morning ; that’s it, is it not ? ” 
 
 “Not at all! you are to set out alone, and to go back to 
 Tching-tou-fou.” 
 
 “ Have you, perhaps, forgotten something ? ” 
 
 “No! we have forgotten nothing; but you will go back, as we 
 said, to Tching-tou-fou; you will go to the Viceroy, and tell him 
 that we will have nothing more to do with you.” 
 
 We said this in so serious a manner, that Master Ting could not 
 possibly imagine there was any joke meant. He started up, and 
 stared at us open-mouthed with an expression of astonishment; 
 and we went on. 
 
 “ We will have nothing more to do with you; and you will beg 
 the Viceroy to send us another conductor. If the Viceroy should 
 ask why we will have nothing more to do with you, you can tell 
 him, if you please, that it is because you have been cheating us in 
 making us travel in two bad palanquins, and giving us only three 
 bearers each, instead of four.” 
 
 “ That is true ! that is true ! ” cried Master Ting, whose animal 
 spirits had now got into circulation again ; “I noticed as we went 
 along that your palanquins were not at all fit for persons of your 
 quality: what you want are those fine handsome palanquins with 
 four bearers; who could doubt that? I saw this morning that 
 there was some confusion in Pao-ngan’s house; and things have 
 not been managed as they ought to have been. The Hidden 
 Treasure is a man who loves lucre, as everybody knows; but who 
 could suppose he would carry his avarice so far as not to provide 
 you with suitable palanquins ? One must have little regard for 
 one’s honour and reputation, to do such a thing as that. How¬ 
 ever, we are rather different sort of people ; we will endeavour to 
 make amends for the evil doings of Hidden Treasure, and give 
 you good palanquins instead of those bad ones.” This speech 
 was completely Chinese,—that is to say, a lie from one end to 
 the other ; but it would have been taking trouble to little purpose 
 to endeavour to refute it. “ My Lord Ting,” said we, “ we know 
 very well what to think on the subject of this fraud ; but it does 
 not so much matter to us to know who has pocketed the money 
 for our palanquins, as to know whether we shall have any others. 
 That is the question.” 
 
 “Yes, certainly, you shall. How can personages like you 
 travel in this manner.” 
 
 “ When shall we have them? ” 
 
THE YANG-TZE-KIANG. 
 
 Ill 
 
 “ Directly — to-morrow.” 
 
 “Mind what you say. Do not promise more than you can 
 perform.” 
 
 “ To-morrow ; certainly not later. We shall come to a consi¬ 
 derable place, where the traveller can find everything he desires.” 
 
 “ Since that is the case, let us set off together.” 
 
 At dawn on the following morning, it was announced to us that 
 everything was ready for our departure. We entered our narrow 
 travelling prisons, and, after a very circuitous course through the 
 streets of the town, the procession reached a great gate, on the. 
 banks of the famous Yang-tze-kiang (the “river which is the Son 
 of the Sea”), and which the Europeans call the Blue River. 
 Master Ting approached us now, and said, in the most gracious 
 manner in the world, that since the way by land was long, moun¬ 
 tainous, toilsome, and dangerous, from passing by many precipices, 
 he had taken the liberty to hire a boat, in order to render that 
 part of our journey more agreeable and rapid. We had been 
 journeying so long on terra Jirma, that a little trip by water pro¬ 
 mised to be uncommonly pleasant. The pure calm sky foretold 
 apparently a delightful day, and we already enjoyed in anticipa¬ 
 tion the pleasure of feeling ourselves borne along by the majestic 
 current of the finest river in the world ; whilst we contemplated 
 at leisure the splendour and magnificence of its shores. We im¬ 
 mediately, therefore, ascended the deck of the junk, and our 
 palanquins were brought on board after us. 
 
 Those who have not tolerably a good stock of patience, or who 
 do not desire an opportunity of acquiring it, should certainly not 
 think of travelling to the Celestial Empire to enjoy the pleasure 
 of a voyage in a junk. They might run the risk of going mad 
 before they weighed anchor. 
 
 Scarcely had our procession reached the place of embarkation, 
 than everybody hastened to get on board, and to instal himself 
 there according to his own peculiar notions of comfort. 
 
 It has always seemed to us, that the nature of a Chinese, body 
 and soul, had an astonishing resemblance to that of India-rubber. 
 The suppleness of their minds can only be compared to the elasti¬ 
 city of their corporeal frames ; and it is worth seeing how, when 
 they have found a snug corner, be it ever so small, they will 
 manage to stuff themselves in, and curl themselves round, and 
 make a perfect nest of it ; and when they have once taken up 
 such a position, they are settled in it for the day. 
 
 We were no sooner on board, than our numerous travelling 
 companions all contrived to get themselves housed. The palan- 
 
112 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIKE. 
 
 quin bearers seemed to us to have taken up a position one upon 
 the other in the kitchen, to which air and daylight could only enter 
 by a very small aperture. But these people really appear to 
 recard air and light as mere superfluities. No sooner, too, had 
 they crouched down in this hole, than they set to work eagerly to 
 play at cards. 
 
 The soldiers, our servants, and those of the Mandarins had, in 
 the meanwhile, stowed themselves away between decks in all sorts 
 of impossible and unimaginable postures, and were busy regaling 
 themselves with tea, tobacco, and noisy gossip. Our two con¬ 
 ductors, Ting and the military officer Leang, had taken refuge in 
 an alcove closed in with curtains, through the numerous slits of 
 which we could distinguish the feeble rays of a lamp and much 
 white vapour, which exhaled a foetid odour, giving us plainly to 
 understand that the chiefs of our escort were engaged in intoxi¬ 
 cating themselves with opium. A 3 for ourselves, alone and tran¬ 
 quil on the deck of the junk, we were pacing backwards and for¬ 
 wards, drawing the fresh morning air into our lungs, and watching 
 the bustle of the port, and the smiling faces of a crowd of the towns¬ 
 people, for whom we appeared to present the most astonishing 
 spectacle they had ever seen. As for the crew of the vessel, not a 
 man was there to be seen, with the exception of an old fellow, rolled 
 up like a pin-cushion, near the helm, but who did not appear to 
 concern himself at all about things below, and most likely still less 
 about those above. He was hugging his knees, on which his chin 
 rested ; and since we had come on board, he had not quitted for a 
 single moment, this comfortable and elegant attitude. 
 
 We asked him whether we were not soon going to set off. 
 Then he rose up, and answered, looking all the while at the sky, 
 “ Who knows that ? Iam not the master—I am only the cook.” 
 
 “ Where is the master, then ? Where are the sailors ?” 
 
 “ The master is at home, and the sailors are at the market.” 
 
 On this information we resumed our walk, and the cook his 
 favourite attitude. A European, who was still a novice in the 
 Celestial Empire, might perhaps have become impatient, and made, 
 as the phrase is, bad blood, on such an occasion. 
 
 After the lapse of two long hours, the sailors seem to have remem¬ 
 bered that they had a junk in port, and, slowly and quietly, one 
 after another, made his appearance. The master at length called 
 over their names, and the crew being found complete, the plank 
 between the deck and the shore was taken away. That was 
 something; but we were still a long way off starting. Our two 
 mandarins now came out of their opium den, and went to find the 
 
A PASSAGE IN A RIVER JUNK. 
 
 113 
 
 master ; and then began a dispute that seemed interminable, for 
 no arrangement had jet been made about the price for our passage. 
 By the time all these difficulties were smoothed, it was nearly 
 noon ; the sailors began their nasal song, as they worked at the 
 capstan and unfurled the large matting sails ; the great iron-wood 
 anchor was soon up, and the breeze and the current bore us swiftly 
 away, while a Chinese sailor kept up a sonorous tune, striking the 
 tam-tam by way of salute to the shore. 
 
 We had promised ourselves an agreeable —indeed a magnificent 
 —day. The morning, as we said, left nothing to desire, but the 
 fine weather did not last. The sky soon became covered with 
 clouds, and we had hardly been sailing a quarter of an hour before 
 a pouring rain forced us to quit the deck and take refuge below, 
 in the midst of a deafening noise and an air close to suffocation. 
 
 As we had but a short time before quitted the frozen mountains 
 of Thibet, we suffered much in this species of stew-pan, where we 
 seemed to breathe only the burning and nauseous vapours of tobacco 
 and opium. After having been so often in danger of perishing from 
 cold, we were now apparently likely to die of heat. 
 
 Whilst we were thus being cured in a corner of this great 
 smoking room, our Chinese appeared perfectly at their ease. They 
 panted a little from time to time; but we saw that on the whole 
 they were happy, and that this state of things was perfectly 
 agreeable to them. Master Ting especially seemed to be in a state 
 of the highest self-satisfaction. After having smoked abundantly 
 both tobacco and opium, and swallowed a considerable number of 
 cups of tea, lie began to warble his long litanies, doubtless to thank 
 his patron, Kao-wang, for having thus far prospered his honest 
 endeavours. We understood perfectly well, however, that the 
 cause of his extreme satisfaction was the handsome profit he ex¬ 
 pected to make out of the journey; this being the case, his delight¬ 
 ful humour was quite intelligible. 
 
 A young Chinese, named Wei-chan, who had been given to us 
 for a private servant, and who appeared very much devoted to us, 
 probably because he thought it his interest to do so, kept us a little 
 au courant to the diplomatic manoeuvres of our conductors. 
 
 'Iliis trip on the water we found had only been undertaken in 
 consequence of a little prudent calculation. At every stage, the 
 Mandarin of the place where we stopped was obliged to supply all 
 the wants of the party, as well as the expenses of the road to the 
 next stage; and to furnish bearers for the palanquins, and horses 
 for the soldiers. These corvees cost considerable sums. Now 
 Master ling had made his little arrangements thus; he sent for- 
 
 i 
 
114 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 ward his scribe along the route we were to have followed, to gather 
 the appointed tribute, but graciously to inform the Mandat ins that 
 he would spare them all the trouble of the alfaii by pioceeding by 
 water. It was easy, as we were going down the river, to do in 
 one day the distance of four stages, and as the hiring of a boat 
 costs very little, the profits became enormous. . 
 
 This is why Master Ting was reciting the litanies of Kao-wang 
 with such a beaming countenance. 
 
 If our voyage had been but tolerably agreeable, we should have 
 been happy to give him the opportunity of lealising this little 
 fortune; but it was abominable and more than once perilous. The 
 rain never left off for a single moment; and as we had set off so 
 late, night came on before we had gone half the way. The navi¬ 
 gation of the Blue River, so safe and easy in the interior of China, 
 when it has acquired its full development, and rolls its majestic 
 volume of waters through vast plains, presents serious difficulties 
 in the mountainous province of Sse-tchouen. Its course has some¬ 
 times the rapidity of a perfect torrent; and its bed is winding, 
 and full of shoals which demand great skill and prudence in the 
 navigation. This is why the viceroy had ordered that we should 
 make the journey by land; but he had reckoned without his Master 
 Ting, who could not resist speculating on our lives and his own. 
 "VYe°did not utter a word of complaint or reproach; but we con¬ 
 tented ourselves with forming, on our side, our little plan for the 
 next day, which would, we flattered ourselves, check any inclination 
 he might feel in future to follow the suggestions of his enteipiising 
 genius. 
 
 It was past midnight when we arrived at Kien-tcheou , a town 
 of the third order. The night was profoundly dark, and the rain 
 still falling heavily; the anchor was dropped as near as possible to : 
 the shore, where we could perceive a great deal of bustle, and many 
 lanterns moving about in all directions; these were the peisons sent j 
 from the various tribunals, and 1 ing s scribe, who weie waiting foi us. j 
 
 The disembarkation was effected amidst tremendous vociferation j 
 and indescribable confusion. As soon as our palanquins had been , 
 put ashore, we entered them; and our bearers, feeling doubtless, 
 after their thirty hours’ rest, the want of a little exercise to put then j 
 blood into circulation, set off with us at a round pace. At the mo- j 
 ment when they started, Master ling bawled to them, at top of his j 
 voice, to be sure and take us to the Hotel of Accomplished A\ ishes. j 
 
 At’ the corner of the street, however, we stopped the bearers, 
 and desired them to proceed to the communal palace, for weintended 
 to lodge there, and at no hotel; and they immediately obeyed, while j 
 
MORE MANOEUVRES. 
 
 115 
 
 our escort probably directed their steps to the above-named Hotel 
 of Accomplished Wishes. We soon arrived; but there was no 
 appearance of our having been expected, for all the gates of the 
 palace were shut. We told the bearers to make a noise; and it 
 must be proclaimed to their honour, that they acquitted themselves 
 of this duty in a manner there could be no mistake about, and 
 fairly stunned us. A heap of great stones lay just handy, and in 
 a moment they were sent flying against the door, which was soon 
 opened, and a guardian of the palace made his appearance, in a 
 very incomplete costume indeed, and not having, evidently, the 
 most distant notion what the riot was about. When he had a little 
 recovered from his consternation, we were able to enter into some 
 explanations, from which it appeared, as we expected, that the 
 guardians of the Koung-houan had not been informed of our arrival, 
 and that there was nothing in readiness for our reception. This 
 was, then, another manoeuvre, a la chinoise, of Master Tin"-, and 
 we had nothing for it but to betake ourselves to the Hotel of 
 Accomplished Wishes, the name of which, as far as we were con¬ 
 cerned, certainly had rather a satirical sound. We found there all 
 the escort assembled, and Master Ting, and the officer Leang , 
 hastened to assure us, that if no one had been drowned on the 
 way, it was entirely owing to our merit; that every one had been 
 sheltered under our good fortune, and so forth; and then they 
 tried to explain to us how it was quite impossible that we should 
 have been lodged at the communal palace. “ Well,” said we, “ we 
 are tired and hungry; let us have something to eat, and then go 
 to bed, for it is long past midnight; we can settle other affairs to¬ 
 morrow.” 
 
 CHAP. Y. 
 
 Disputes with the Mandarins of Kien-tcheou. — Intrigues to prevent us from 
 going to the Communal Palace.—Magnificence of this Palace.—The Garden 
 of Sse-ma-kouang.—Chinese Kitchen.—State of the Roads and Channels of 
 Communication.—Some productions of the Province of Sse-tchouen.—Use of 
 Tobacco, in Smoking and taking Snuff. — Tchoung-tching, a Town of the 
 Pirst Order. — Ceremonies observed by the Chinese in Visits and Conversa¬ 
 tions of Etiquette. — Nocturnal Apparition. — Watchmen and Criers of the 
 Town. — Fires in China. — The addition of a Military Mandarin to our 
 Escort.—Tchang-cheou-hien, a Town of the Third Order.—Release of Three 
 Christian Prisoners. — Superstitious practices to obtain Rain. — The Dragon 
 of Rain exiled by the Emperor 
 
 Day had scarcely dawned, when Master Ting took it upon him to 
 interrupt our first sleep, to announce to us that it was time to set off 
 
116 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ Take yourself off, Master Ting,” said we, “ as quickly as you 
 can; and, moreover, if any one else has the impudence to come 
 disturbing us, we will get you degraded.” 
 
 The door closed, and we turned round and went to sleep again, 
 for we were worn out with fatigue. At noon we rose, quite re¬ 
 freshed and ready to begin the war with the Mandarins. 
 
 We turned our steps towards a neighbouring apartment, from 
 which proceeded a whispering sound, as of a conversation carried 
 on in a low voice. We opened the door, and found ourselves in 
 the presence of a numerous and brilliant assembly, composed of 
 the principal magistrates of the town. After saluting the company 
 with the utmost solemnity, we perceived in the middle of the room 
 a table on which were arranged some little dishes for a dessert, 
 the'prelude obligato of every Chinese repast. Without any other 
 explanation, we drew forward an arm-chair, and begged the com¬ 
 pany to be good enough to be seated. Our assurance seemed to 
 create some astonishment; but a great fat Mandarin, the prefect 
 of the town, pointed out the places of honour, and invited us to 
 take them, which we immediately did without hesitation. This 
 was not very modest on our part, nor quite conformable to the 
 Chinese rites; but we needed, for the moment, to make an imposing 
 
 The guests were numerous. The dessert was attacked in silence, 
 every one contenting himself with exchanging a few forms of 
 politeness in a low voice. They glanced at us by stealth, as if to 
 make out from our countenances the nature of our sentiments. 
 There was evidently a feeling of general embarrassment. At 
 length a young civil functionary, probably the boldest of the troop, 
 
 ventured to reconnoitre the ground. 
 
 “ Yesterday,” said he, “ was a disagreeable day ; the navigation 
 of the Blue River must have been far from pleasant; but to-day 
 the weather is splendid. It is a pity that you did not set out at 
 an early hour in the morning ; you would have arrived at 1 ckoung- 
 tching before nightfall. Tchoung-tching is the best town in the 
 
 ^ “ Certainly,” repeated the others in chorus ; “ there is nothing 
 comparable to Tchoung-tching. One finds there every thing one 
 can wish for. What a difference between this country and that! 
 Here poverty is excessive — we live only in privation.’ 
 
 “ n ot yet very late,” resumed the young functionaly ; you 
 can get as far this evening as the communal palace on the road, 
 pass the night there, and arrive to-morrow at Tchoung-tching 
 before noon.” 
 
THE PALANQUIN QUESTION. 
 
 117 
 
 “ Oh ! ” added another, “ the thing is easy enough ; for the 
 roads are as flat as my hand, and the country is enchantingly 
 beautiful; you travel constantly under the shade of large trees.” 
 
 “ Have the bearers of the palanquins been told? ” cried the fat 
 prefect of the town, addressing the numerous domestics who filled 
 the hall. “ Quick ! let some one go and see for them, for our two 
 illustrious guests are determined to set otf as soon as they have 
 eaten their rice. They are in a great hurry, and cannot honour 
 us any longer with their presence.” 
 
 “ Wait a moment,” said we; “ we are in no hurry. It does not 
 appear that any one here is acquainted with our affairs. In the 
 first place, we have to change palanquins. Those that were given 
 us at Tching-tou-fou will not do. Eh? Master Ting! Is it not 
 here that we were to get the good palanquins with four bearers? ” 
 
 “No, no!” cried all the Mandarins in concert; “a little place 
 like this ! How in the world could you find good palanquins ready 
 here? You must order them beforehand.” 
 
 “ Very well; order them, then. We are in no hurry. Whether 
 we get to Canton a moon sooner or later makes very little differ¬ 
 ence to us. In the mean time we can amuse ourselves here, by 
 visiting the town and its environs.” 
 
 “ In such a poor place as this,” said the prefect, “ there are no 
 skilful workmen to be found. Nobody here knows how to make 
 any other palanquins than those little bamboo ones, for two bearers. 
 The people of this part of the countxy know nothing of luxury; 
 very few of them have enough to live on. You must go to 
 Tchoung-tching to find great manufactories.” 
 
 “ Yes, yes ! you must go to Tchoung-tching,” was echoed from 
 all quarters ; “Tchoung-tching is the place for fine palanquins. 
 Every one knows that the Mandarins for eighteen provinces round 
 all send for their palanquins to Tchoung-tching.” 
 
 “Is that true? ” said we turning to Master Ting. 
 
 “ Certainly it is true. Who here would dare to utter lies ? ” 
 
 “ In that case, then, find a man who understands these things, 
 and send him directly to Tchoung-tching to get some palanquins. 
 We will wait hei'e. We need a little rest, and we will profit by 
 this opportunity. We speak calmly; but this decision is irre¬ 
 vocable. We shall not alter it.” 
 
 The Mandarins looked at one another quite stupefied. 
 
 During the whole of this interesting discussion, the dinner had 
 been going on ; and having taken our last cup of tea, we rose to 
 return to our chamber and leave the Mandarins to settle the matter 
 among them. 
 
118 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 They had a long debate, which ended in the Chinese fashion, 
 by sending deputations to endeavour to make us change our minds. 
 First came the civil Mandarins, then the military ones, then botli 
 orders united; but all found us inflexible. They invented the 
 most absurd tales ; they heaped lie upon lie, to prove to us that 
 we must set out immediately. But to all this we had but one 
 answer : “ When men like us take a resolution, it is irrevocable.” 
 
 At last it was announced to us, that palanquins had been brought, 
 and they begged us to come down into the court-yard to examine 
 them. We made no objection ; and, after casting a glance at 
 them, said, “Very well; let them be bought.” 
 
 But thereupon arose a new question. The Mandarins looked 
 at one another, and asked, “Who is to pay?” The discussion 
 became lively, and although we were quite uninterested in it, we 
 asked permission to state our opinion. 
 
 “ It is very evident,” said we, “ that the town of Kien-tcheou is 
 not obliged to provide us with palanquins.” 
 
 “ That is conformable to reason,” exclaimed eagerly the Man¬ 
 darins of Kien-tcheou. 
 
 “ That ought to have been done at Tching-tou-fou, whence we 
 began our journey; but it would seem that the person who pro¬ 
 cured us palanquins there, did not act in conformity with the 
 rules of honour.” 
 
 “ That’s the thing,” cried the Mandarins; “ doubtless he kept 
 for himself a part of the money that was allotted for them.” 
 
 “ Well, we must repair this error, and it does not seem to us 
 that there is any great difficulty. Yesterday, in our passage on 
 the Blue River, Ave made two days’ journey. Master Ting got 
 the money for two stages, and only had to pay for the hire of a 
 boat. It does seem to us, therefore, that he both can and ought 
 to pay the price of the palanquins.” 
 
 The Mandarins of Kien-tcheou burst out laughing, and said 
 our solution of the problem was capital. Master Ting was foaming 
 with rage, and uttering yells as if his inside were being torn out. 
 
 “Compose yourself,” said we, “ and pay the dealer the price of 
 these palanquins with a good grace ; otherwise we must imme¬ 
 diately write to the viceroy that you made us travel on the Blue 
 River.” This threat had a wonderful effect, and our conductor 
 began mournfully to count out the cash. 
 
 The evening had come and still there was no talk of our going 
 away; but the Mandarins of Kien-tcheou appeared greatly diverted 
 at the misadventure of Master Ting, not at all suspecting that 
 their turn was coming next. 
 
MORE DISPUTES. 
 
 119 
 
 On the following day as soon as it was broad daylight, Master 
 Ting presented himself very modestly, to ask whether he might 
 send for the bearers, and at the same time he delivered to us some 
 visiting cards, by which the principal Mandarins of the town ex¬ 
 pressed to us their good wishes for our journey. 
 
 We replied, that lie might send the bearers ; because it was our 
 intention to go to the communal palace and pass the day there, as 
 we declined lodging at the Hotel of Accomplished Wishes. Our 
 conductor, who had not yet recovered from the shock of the evening 
 before, looked at us with so astonished a face that we were obliged 
 to repeat our words with a little more emphasis. The moment he 
 was sure of our meaning, he left the room and gave the alarm to 
 the Mandarins, who came running one after the other to assure 
 themselves of the truth of the incredible report. 
 
 It was the prefect of the town whom we most wished to see ; 
 so, as soon as he arrived, we mentioned that he ought to have 
 received from Sse-tchouen a despatch, in which it was directed 
 that we were to be lodged in the communal palace ; and that we 
 could not understand why, at Kien-tcheou, the orders of the 
 viceroy had not been executed ; that for various reasons we wished, 
 to quit the hotel and go and pass a day at the communal palace: 
 first, not to establish a bad precedent, and create the temptation 
 to do elsewhere what had been done here ; secondly, because being 
 obliged to write afterwards to the viceroy, to give him an account 
 of the manner in which we had been treated on the road, it would 
 be painful to us to have to point out that at Kien-tcheou they had 
 not executed his orders. “ Besides,” we added, “ the route we 
 have before us is long and fatiguing ; we suffered much incon¬ 
 venience on the Blue River, and we should be very glad of a day’s 
 rest.” 
 
 All these were excellent reasons, but the prefect could see 
 nothing but the expense of entertaining so numerous a party for 
 a whole day at the palace. He did not dare to give his true 
 reason, however, and say at once that it would cost too much ; the 
 Chinese always prefer less angular methods ; a lie is much more 
 convenient. The prefect declared that we should be conferring 
 upon him infinite happiness by remaining another day at Kien- 
 tcheou. Men from the great kingdom of France! — that was 
 indeed a rarity ! Moreover our presence could not fail to bring 
 good fortune to the country ; but the communal palace was unin¬ 
 habitable, it was in so horrible a state that a man of the lowest 
 class could not be lodged in it. It was full of workmen and of the 
 materials for repairs that were about to be made in it. Besides 
 
120 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 this, there were in the grand saloon seven or eight coffins, con¬ 
 taining the dead bodies of official persons of the district, waiting 
 till the members of their respective families should come and take 
 them away to bury them in their native places. 
 
 The prefect calculated a good deal on the moral effect of this 
 last argument. While he was speaking in the most sombre and 
 lugubrious manner of these coffins and dead bodies, he looked at¬ 
 tentively into our faces, to see whether he had not alarmed us. 
 But we were rather more inclined to laugh, for we were con¬ 
 vinced there was not one word of truth in all that he had been 
 saying. 
 
 We replied in a somewhat ironical tone, that since probably the 
 viceroy was not aware of the communal palace having been con¬ 
 verted into a cemetery, it would be well to write to him to that 
 effect; since if he happened to travel this way himself, he might 
 not, perhaps, find it pleasant to take up his abode among coffins and 
 dead bodies ; but that as far as we were concerned it did not make 
 the slightest difference, as we were not much afraid of the living, and 
 not at all of the dead. We should go to the palace, therefore, and 
 did not doubt but that we should be able to make ourselves veiy 
 comfortable there. The prefect did his utmost to deter us from 
 this “ almost insane” project; and at last, to have done with him, 
 we told him that he might settle the matter at his good pleasure, 
 provided only that he would write and sign a statement that we, 
 having wished to rest for a day at the communal palace of Kien- 
 tcheou, had not been allowed to do so on account of its being in 
 an uninhabitable state. The prefect perfectly understood our 
 meaning ; and turning to some subaltern officers who were in 
 waiting, he said : “ I am of the same way of thinking as our 
 guests; it is absolutely necessary they should have a day of re¬ 
 pose. Let orders be immediately sent to the Koung-kouan to 
 take away the coffins and put things as they ought to be, and let 
 the guardians take care not to be again guilty of the same fault.” 
 Ten minutes afterwards we were proceeding in state, in our new 
 palanquins to the communal palace. As we went out, we just 
 whispered in the ear of Master Ting, “ Remember, if we are not 
 properly treated, we will remain two days instead of one.” Strange 
 country, in which it is necessary to behave in this way in order 
 not to be oppressed and ill-treated yourself. 
 
 It would have been really a pity to leave Kien-tcheou without 
 seeing this magnificent palace ; and when we had gone over it, 
 we could not help thinking that the Mandarins had been unwilling 
 to let us come in, lest, charmed by its beauty and convenience, we 
 
CHINESE DESCRIPTIVE POEM. 
 
 121 
 
 should be unwilling to go out again. After traversing a vast 
 court planted with trees, we ascended to the main building by 
 thirty beautifully cut stone steps. The apartments were spacious, 
 lofty, exquisitely clean, and deliciously cool and fresh ; the fur¬ 
 niture was richly ornamented with gilding, in an infinite variety 
 of patterns ; the hangings were of gorgeous red or yellow silk, the 
 carpets made of woven bamboo-peeling, and painted in the liveliest 
 colours ; there were antique bronzes, immense porcelain urns, vases 
 of the most elegant forms, in which flowers and shrubs of the most 
 whimsical appearance were growing: such were the ornaments 
 that we found in this superb abode. Behind the house was an im¬ 
 mense garden, in which Chinese industry had exhausted its resources 
 to imitate the freedom and even the capricious sports of nature. 
 It would be difficult to give an exact idea of these curious cre¬ 
 ations, the taste for which prevailed for a long time in Europe, 
 and on which the rather unsuitable name of English garden has 
 been bestowed by us. There is a little Chinese poem entitled 
 “ The Garden of Sse-ma-kouang,” in which that illustrious histo¬ 
 rian and great statesman of the Celestial Empire*, has been 
 pleased to describe all the wonders of his rural retreat; and it 
 will give us much pleasure to offer a translation of this pretty 
 fragment of Chinese literature, which will at the same time throw 
 some light on the character of its author, that famous Sse-ma- 
 kouang who played so important a part under the dynasty of the 
 Song, in a social revolution hereafter to be mentioned : — 
 
 “Let others,” says Sse-ma-kouang, “build palaces to contain 
 their vexations, and display their vanity; I have made myself a 
 retreat to amuse my leisure, and converse with my friends. 
 Twenty acres of land have sufficed for my purpose. In the midst 
 is a great hall, in which I have collected 5000 volumes, to inter¬ 
 rogate the wise and converse with the ancient. Towards the 
 south is a pavilion, in the midst of the waters of a rivulet that 
 falls from the hills on the west. Here it forms a deep basin, 
 which afterwards divides into five branches, like the claws of a 
 leopard, and innumerable swans swim on its surface or sport on 
 its banks. On the borders of the first, which flings itself down in 
 repeated cascades, there rises a steep overhanging rock, curved 
 like an elephant’s trunk; and the top of this sustains an open 
 pleasure-house to take the fresh air, and see the rubies with which 
 morning adorns the sun at his rising. The second branch divides 
 
 * Sse-ma-kouang was first minister of the Empire, towards the end of the 
 eleventh century, under the dynasty of Song. 
 
122 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 itself, a little way off, into two canals, round which winds a 
 gallery, with a double terrace, bordered with roses and pome¬ 
 granate trees. The branch from the west bends in the form of a 
 bow towards the north of a solitary bower, where it forms a little 
 islet, covered with sand and shells of various colours ; one part 
 is planted with trees always green, the other is adorned with a 
 cottage of reeds and thatch, resembling those of fishermen. The 
 other two branches seem alternately to seek and to fly from one 
 another, as they follow the declivity of a meadow enamelled with 
 flowers, which they keep ever fresh: sometimes they diverge 
 from their beds to form little pearly basins, framed in emerald 
 turf; then they leave the level of the meadow, and descend in two 
 narrow channels, and the waters break against the rocks that 
 oppose their passage, and roar and dash into foam, and then roll off 
 in silver waves, through the winding course they are obliged to take. 
 
 “North of the great hall are several summer pavilions, scattered 
 at random about hills which rise one above the other, like a 
 mother above her children ; some hang on the declivity of a hill, 
 some are nestled in little gorges, and are only half seen. All the 
 hills are shaded by groves of tufted bamboo, and intersected by 
 gravel paths to which the sun’s rays never penetrate. 
 
 “ To the eastward speads out a small plain divided into flower 
 beds, square and oval, and defended from the cold winds of the 
 north by a wood of ancient cedars. All these beds are filed with 
 odoriferous plants, medicinal herbs, flowers, and shrubs. Never 
 does spring leave this delicious spot. A little forest of lemon, 
 pomegranate, and orange trees, always loaded with flower's and 
 fruit, completes the prospect. In the midst of this forest, is a mount 
 of verdure which you ascend by a gentle winding slope, that 
 passes several times round it, like the volutes of a shell, and which 
 gradually diminishes to the summit. Here and there at short 
 distances, you find seats of soft turf, which invite to repose, and 
 to the contemplation of the garden from various points of view. 
 
 “ On the west, an avenue of weeping-willows, with their long 
 pendant branches, guides you to the banks of a stream, which falls 
 a few paces further from the brink of a rock covered with ivy and 
 wild grasses of various colours. The environs exhibit a barrier 
 of pointed rocks, fancifully heaped together, and rising in an amphi¬ 
 theatre in a wild and rustic manner. At the bottom of these is 
 a deep grotto, which enlarges as you advance into it, till it forms 
 a kind of irregular saloon with a dome-like roof. The light enters 
 this apartment by an aperture tolerably large, but veiled by 
 branches of the honeysuckle and wild vine. This grotto affords 
 a cool retreat from the burning heats of the dog-days ; masses of 
 
CHINESE DESCRIPTIVE POEM. 
 
 123 
 
 rock scattered here and there, or broad platforms cut out of the 
 solid rock, form the seats. A little fountain issues from one side, 
 and falls in trickling threads upon the floor, where, after winding 
 about through many crystal rills, it unites again in a reservoir 
 which forms the bath, and afterwards discharges itself into a 
 pond below the grotto. This pond leaves only a narrow path 
 between the shapeless grotesque rocks by which it is enclosed ; 
 and these are inhabited by a whole nation of rabbits, that startle 
 the countless swarms of fish in the pond, as much as they are 
 startled by them. 
 
 “ How charming is this solitude ! The broad surface of its 
 watery basin is sprinkled with little islets of shrubs, the larger of 
 which serve as aviaries, and are filled with all kinds of birds. 
 You can pass easily from one to the other by blocks of stone that 
 rise out of the water, and little wooden bridges, some straight, 
 some arched, some in zig-zag, that cross it. When the lilies 
 with which the borders of the pond are planted, produce their 
 flowers, it appears crowned with purple and scarlet—like the 
 horizon of the seas of the South, when the sun rests on it. 
 
 “ To leave this solitude you must either turn back, or cross the 
 chain of steep rocks by which it is surrounded. You can ascend 
 to the summit of it by a sort of rude staircase roughly hewn with 
 the pickaxe ; and there you find a simple cabinet, unadorned 
 indeed, but yet adorned enough by the view of an immense plain 
 through which the Kiang rolls its flood through rice fields and 
 villages. The innumerable barks with which this mighty river is 
 covered, the labourers tilling the ground, the travellers who are 
 passing along the highways, animate this enchanting prospect; and 
 the azure mountains which terminate the horizon, afford repose 
 and recreation to the sight. 
 
 “When I am weary of writing and composing in the midst of 
 my books in my great hall, I throw myself into a boat which I 
 row myself, and go and seek the pleasures of my garden. Some¬ 
 times I land on the fishing-island, where, with a broad straw- 
 hat on my head to protect me from the ardent rays of the sun, I 
 amuse myself with enticing the fish that sport in the water, and 
 study our human passions in their mistakes; or at other times, 
 with my quiver on my shoulder, and my bow in my hand, I climb 
 over the rocks, and there, lying in wait, like a traitor, for the 
 rabbits ; as they issue forth, I pierce them with my arrows at 
 the entrance of their holes. Alas! they are wiser than we are, 
 and they fly from what is dangerous to them ; if they spy me 
 coming, not one will show himself. 
 
 “ When I walk in my garden I gather the medicinal plants that 
 
124 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 I wish to keep; if a flower pleases me, I pluck it, and enjoy its 
 scent; if I see one suffering from thirst, I water it, and its neigh¬ 
 bours profit by the shower. How many times have ripe fruits 
 restored to me the appetite that the sight of luxurious dishes had 
 taken away. My pomegranates and my peaches are the better 
 for being gathered by my own hand, and the friends to whom I 
 send them are always pleased by my doing so. Do I see a young 
 bamboo that I wish to leave to grow, I cut it, or I bend and in¬ 
 terweave its branches to free the path. The summit of a rock, 
 the banks of a stream, the depths of a wood, all are welcome to 
 me when I wish to repose myself. I enter a pavilion, to watch a 
 stork making war on a fish ; but scarcely have I entered, than 
 forgetting what brought me there, I seize my kin*, and challenge 
 the birds around to rivalry. 
 
 “ The last rays of the sun surprise me sometimes whilst I am 
 contemplating in silence the tender anxieties of a swallow for her 
 little ones, or the stratagems of a hawk to gain possession of his 
 prey. The moon rises, and I am still sitting there ; this is an ad¬ 
 ditional pleasure. The murmuring of the waters, the rustling of 
 the leaves in the wind, the beauty of the heavens, plunge me into 
 a delightful reverie ; all nature speaks to my soul; I go wandering 
 about, and listening, and night has reached the middle of its course 
 before I have reached the threshold of my door. 
 
 “ My friends come too, occasionally, to interrupt my solitude, to 
 read to me their works, or to hear mine. Wine enlivens our 
 frugal repasts, philosophy seasons them; and whilst, at court, men 
 are seeking voluptuous pleasure, fostering calumny, forging 
 fetters, and laying snares, we are invoking wisdom, and offering 
 her our hearts. My eyes are constantly turned towards her, but 
 alas ! her rays only beam on me through a thousand clouds : let 
 them be dispersed, even were it by a storm, and this solitude will 
 become for me the temple of felicity. But what do I say? I, a 
 husband, a father, a citizen, a man of letters,—lam bound by a thou¬ 
 sand duties, my life is not my own. Adieu, my dear garden ! adieu! 
 the love of kindred and of country calls me to the city ; keep thy 
 pleasures that they may some day dissipate anew some new cares, 
 and save my virtue from their temptations.” 
 
 The garden of the Communal Palace of Kien-tcheou did not 
 certainly present all the superb features described by the pencil of 
 Sse-ma-kouang, but it was nevertheless one of the finest we had 
 
 * A sort of Chinese violin. 
 
CHINESE DINNERS. 
 
 125 
 
 seen in the Celestial Empire. We passed the remainder of the 
 morning in it, and were never tired of admiring the patience of 
 the Chinese, in cutting, out of shrubs and fragments of rock, all 
 the eccentric figures suggested by their whimsical and fertile 
 imaginations. 
 
 We were seated under the portico of a miniature pagoda, when 
 Master Ting came to inform us that dinner was ready. The 
 principal functionaries of the place, in rich and brilliant costume, 
 were already assembled in the hall, and their reception of us was 
 most amiable and gracious. We overwhelmed each other with 
 compliments and courtesy, and invited each other reciprocally to 
 the most honourable places. To put an end to this polite contest, 
 we said that the Koung-kouan being the house of the traveller, 
 we ought to be considered as at home, and should, therefore, of 
 course, treat our guests according to the rites. We assigned, 
 therefore, to each of the company a place according to his rank, 
 reserving the lowest for ourselves, and this proceeding was very 
 graciously received. They began to think we were not quite 
 such uncivilised barbarians as they had taken us to be the evening 
 before. ° 
 
 The banquet was splendid, and served according to all the for¬ 
 malities of Chinese etiquette. On the part of the guests, there 
 could be nothing more desired; indeed, they were so excessively 
 amiable, that we could not for a moment doubt of their having the 
 most lively and earnest desire to get rid of us on the next day. 
 
 We will not attempt to describe a Chinese dinner; not but that 
 it might present some details capable of interesting Europeans, 
 but they are already pretty well known, and we should fear trying 
 the reader's patience too far. We remember, also, seeing in the 
 “ Melanges Posthumes” of Abel Remusat, the following passage, 
 which would prevent us from attempting to give the nomenclature 
 of the dishes, even had we been so inclined: — 
 
 “ Some years ago (says this clever and learned orientalist), the 
 officers of a European embassy returning from China, where they 
 had cause to applaud themselves for the success of their operations, 
 thought proper to favour the readers of the ‘ Gazette’ with a 
 description of a repast that had been given to them, they said, by 
 the Mandarins of some frontier town. Never, according to their 
 account, had people been better entertained ; the quality of the 
 dishes, the number of the services, the play performed in the 
 interval, all was exactly described, and produced an admirable 
 effect. But it happened, that some persons who were readers of 
 
126 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 old books, bad a kind of recollection of having seen something 
 like that before, and, on inquiry, it appeared that more than a 
 hundred years back, exactly the same dinner, composed of the 
 very same dishes, and served in precisely the same manner, had 
 been given to some Jesuit missionaries, who had written an ac¬ 
 count of it. There were many people, however, for whom it was 
 all quite new, and though it may be true, in general, that ‘ a 
 warmed-up dinner is good for nothing,’ in this particular case it 
 was found very acceptable ; and the public, always fond of par¬ 
 ticulars concerning manners and customs, and even of culinary 
 details, cared very little to know who had been the real diners. 
 Whoever they might have been, it found just the same amusements 
 in the singularities of the Chinese table etiquette, and the gravity 
 with which the guests, while eating their rice, executed manoeuvres 
 and evolutions that would have done honour to a well-trained 
 regiment of infantry.” 
 
 Since the time when M. Abel Hemusat alluded thus playfully to 
 this famous Chinese dinner, it has been served over again many 
 times, especially after the last war of China with England. But 
 the new editions of it that have been published both in English 
 and French have been unfortunately so much corrected and revised 
 as a little to damage its accuracy. Under pretence, that in the 
 course of a hundred years, the Chinese may have made some dis¬ 
 coveries in the culinary art, it has been found amusing to make 
 the public believe that they prepared dishes with castor oil, and 
 that some of their favourite dainties were shark’s fins, fish-gizzards, 
 goose-feet, peacock’s combs, and other delicacies of the same 
 description. 
 
 Such dishes as these could scarcely have been met with by any 
 one who had made acquaintance with Chinese cookery elsewhere 
 than at Canton, a few yards from the English factories; or, in 
 fact, as Europeans newly landed in China are always very anxious 
 to get invited to a Chinese dinner, in the hope of meeting with 
 some extraordinary things, it is by no means impossible that some 
 of the Canton merchants may have been mischievous enough to 
 amuse themselves at their expense, and serve them up dishes in¬ 
 vented expressly for them, and which had never before made their 
 appearance at a Chinese table. 
 
 ^ Peacocks are so rare in China that we have ourselves never 
 seen any there. The feathers of this bird are sent to the court by 
 tributary kingdoms, and the Emperor gives them as a special 
 favour to the highest functionaries, with permission to wear them 
 
CHINESE TALENT FOE COOKEEY. 
 
 127 
 
 in their caps on state occasions, as an ornament. How, then, cau 
 we imagine that dishes made of the peacock’s combs can be common 
 at Chinese dinner parties ? The castor oil plant is not unknown 
 in China ; it is cultivated extensively in the northern provinces, 
 but the oil is used merely for lighting and so far is it from being 
 regarded as a favourite condiment, that when one day, at a Mission 
 not far from Pekin, we wished to give a small dose of it to one of our 
 brothers who was ill, our Chinese converts vehemently opposed our 
 doing so, saying that this oil was a poison. \V e do not deny, never¬ 
 theless, that Europeans may have seen it on dinner tables at Can¬ 
 ton, but we feel quite sure that, in that case, they have been made 
 the victims of some mystification, and that when they were amus¬ 
 ing themselves with the absurd tastes of the Chinese, the latter 
 were in their turn laughing at the credulity of the Europeans. 
 
 It is certain, however, that a real Chinese dinner would be a 
 very odd thing in the eyes of a stranger, especially if he were one 
 of those who think, as some people do, that there is only one way 
 of living. To begin dinner with the dessert, and end it with the 
 soup ; to drink the wine smoking hot, out of little china cups, and 
 have your food brought to you ready cut up into small pieces, and 
 to be presented with a couple of sticks, instead of a knife and fork, 
 to eat it with ; to have, instead of napkins, a provision of little 
 bits of coloured silk paper by the side of your plate, which, as you 
 use, the attendants carry off; to leave your place between the 
 courses, to smoke or amuse yourself; and to raise your chop-sticks 
 to your forehead, and then place them horizontally upon your cup, 
 to signify that you have finished your dinner ;—all these things 
 would doubtless seem very odd, and create the curiosity of Euro¬ 
 peans. Hie Chinese, on the other hand, can never get over their 
 surprise at our way of dining. They ask how we can like to drink 
 cold fluids, and what can have put it into our heads to make use of 
 a trident to carry food to our mouths, at the risk of pricking our 
 lips or poking our eyes out. They think it very droll to see°nuts 
 put on the table in their shell, and ask why our servants cannot 
 take the trouble to peel the fruit, and take the bones out of the 
 meat. They are themselves certainly not very difficult in the 
 nature of their food, and like such things as fried silkworms and 
 preserved larvas, but they cannot understand the predilection of 
 our epicures for high game, nor for cheese that appears to belong 
 to the class of animated beings. 
 
 One day, at Macao, we had the honour to be seated at the dinner 
 table of a representative of a European power, when a magnificent 
 dish of snipes was brought in. But what a disappointment! The 
 
128 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Chinese Yatel had taken out the entrails of this incomparable bird. 
 He knew not what a perfumed and savoury treasure the snipe holds 
 in its stomach. The cook was forced to appear before the arbiters 
 of taste, who received him with wrathful looks, and the delinquent 
 was struck with consternation on hearing that he had committed a 
 culinary crime too heavy to be a second time pardoned. Hoping 
 to make amends, the unfortunate cook, a few days afterwards, took 
 care to serve up in all their integrity some birds that were not 
 snipes, and thereupon a new storm of wrath fell on the devoted 
 head of the poor Chinese, and was followed by his dismissal, in a 
 state of utter despair that he should ever be able to exercise his 
 art in a manner conformable to the astoundingly capricious tastes 
 of Europeans. 
 
 All the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, without exception, 
 are gifted with a remarkable aptitude for cookery. If you want a 
 cook, it is the easiest thing in the world to supply the want; you 
 have but to take the first Chinese you can catch, and after a few 
 days’ practice he will acquit himself of his duties to admiration. 
 
 What appears most surprising, is the extreme simplicity of 
 means with which these marvels are performed. One single iron 
 pot suffices to execute promptly the most difficult combinations. 
 The Mandarins are in' general pretty much of gourmands , and 
 carry the business and refinements of the table to a tolerably high 
 pitch. They have in their service cooks who possess a vast store 
 of receipts, and secrets to disguise dishes in a thousand ways, and 
 change their natural flavour ; and when they desire to show off 
 their 3 skill, they really perform surprising feats. The cook at 
 Kien-tcheou gave us some most incontestable proofs of talent, and 
 his dinner merited and received the praises of all the guests. 
 During the whole day, the Mandarins of Kien-tcheou behaved in 
 the most admirable manner, and on the following morning we re¬ 
 solved, by way of return, to afford them the satisfaction, of seeing 
 us go away. We parted most excellent friends, but without any 
 very particular wish to meet again. 
 
 The roads that we now traversed were far from being equal to 
 those in the environs of Tching-tou-fou, and indeed the system of 
 roads in China is far from being perfect. The communication by 
 land is generally inconvenient, and often dangerous. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of the great towns the roads are suffi¬ 
 ciently wide, but by degrees as you advance they grow narrower, 
 till at last they sometimes vanish altogether. Then the travellers 
 make their way wherever they can, through fields, quagmires, and 
 rocky barren tracts. 
 
ROADS AND CANALS. 
 
 129 
 
 If you come to a brook over which the local government has not 
 thought proper to make a bridge, you must take off your shoes and 
 stockings and wade through it. But very often you find some 
 poor creatures stationed on the banks, who make a business of car- 
 rying travellers on their shoulders, from one side to the other, for 
 the value of a few sapecks. All this route, nevertheless, still bears 
 the name of a great high road. 
 
 This deplorable state of things has not always existed in China ; 
 formerly, it appears, there were means of communication that left 
 nothing to desire, and in almost all the provinces you may still see 
 remains of these fine roads, paved with broad flag-stones, and bor¬ 
 dered with magnificent trees. In the Annals, especial mention is 
 made of the superb roads that, under the Song dynasty, traversed the 
 Empire from one end to the other; and the dynasty of Yuen added 
 to this an admirable system of canals, that increased still more the 
 facility of travelling and the transport of merchandise. But these 
 great works have been abandoned under the Mantchoo-Tartar Em¬ 
 perors, who, instead of maintaining them, have even hastened their 
 destruction. Trees have been cut down, flag-stones torn up, and 
 the land annexed to the neighbouring fieids; indeed, with the 
 system of pillage that prevails at present all over the Empire, we 
 were almost surprised to find a single tree standing, or a flag¬ 
 stone in its place. The canals have suffered less, and the govern¬ 
 ment has even occasionally taken some pains to maintain them. 
 They are, however, rapidly deteriorating. The famous Imperial 
 canal, which traverses the Empire from north to south, is dry the 
 greater part of the year, and scarcely serves any other purpose 
 than that of transporting the tributes of corn and other natural 
 productions to the public granaries at Pekin. 
 
 At the distance of one day’s journey from Kien-tcheou, the road 
 becomes mountainous and irregular, and the country less beautiful 
 and less rich. The aspect of the population, too, is no longer the 
 same; their appearance is rougher and coarser, and their manners 
 ; are by no means so polished. The dilapidation of the farms and 
 the dirtiness of the villages show that the condition of the people 
 is less prosperous. 
 
 Pile mountains, nevertheless, have nothing wild and rugged in 
 their aspect; their summits are crowned with flowers, and their 
 slopes and valleys present abundant harvests of kao-lecmg maize, 
 sugar-cane, and tobacco. The kao-leang is a variety of the Holcus 
 Sorghum, of which we in France make nothing but brooms; but 
 it is cultivated on a large scale, and with great care, in China. It 
 attains an astonishing size; its stalks are solid enough to be used 
 
 k 
 
130 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 with advantage in the construction of farm-houses and palings; 
 the ears furnish a considerable quantity of large seeds, which the 
 poor eat instead of rice; and from which, by distillation, a liquor 
 may be obtained containing a large proportion of alcohol. The 
 Chinese attach in general little importance to the culture of maize, 
 and it is almost always of indifferent quality. They gather the 
 ears before they are completely ripe, and when they are still quite 
 milky, and devour them thus, after slight roasting. Sugar is very 
 common in China, and is obtained from the cane, which grows 
 luxuriantly in the southern provinces; but the Chinese do not 
 know how to purify it and give it the whiteness and brilliancy it 
 obtains in the European refineries. Their factories deliver it in the 
 state of moist sugar, or simply crystallised. The cultivation of 
 tobacco is immense, although this plant, which is at present spread 
 over the whole surface of the globe, and is in use among all nations, 
 even those least in contact with civilised life, was not known in 
 China, it is said, till a very recent period. It is stated to have 
 been imported into the Central Empire by the Mantchoos ; and the 
 Chinese were much astonished when they first saw their conquerors 
 inhaling fire through long tubes, and “eating smoke.” It cost 
 them a good deal to imitate the accomplishment; but now they are 
 passionately, enthusiastically devoted to it. By a curious coinci¬ 
 dence this plant is called in the Mantchoo language tambakou , but 
 the Chinese designate it simply by the word meaning smoke. Thus 
 they say they cultivate in their fields the “ smoke leaf; ” they chew 
 smoke, and they name their pipe the “ smoke funnel.” 
 
 The use of tobacco has become universal throughout the 
 Empire ; men, women, children, everybody smokes almost without 
 ceasing. They go about their daily business, cultivate the fields, ride 
 on horseback and write, constantly with the pipe in their mouths. 
 During their meals, if they stop for a moment it is to smoke a 
 pipe ; and if they wake in the night, they are sure to amuse 
 themselves in the same way. It may be easily supposed therefore, 
 that in a country containing 300,000,000 of smokers, without count¬ 
 ing the tribes of Tartary and Thibet, who lay in their stocks in the 
 Chinese markets, the culture of tobacco has become very important. 
 The cultivation is entirely free, every one being at liberty to plant 
 it in his garden, or in the open fields, in whatever quantity he 
 chooses, and afterwards to sell it, wholesale or retail, just as he 
 likes, without the Government interfering with him in the 
 slightest degree. The most celebrated tobacco is that obtained 
 in Leao-tong, in Mantchuria, and in the province of Sse-tchouen. 
 The leaves, before becoming articles of commerce, undergo various 
 
TCHOUNG-KING. 
 
 131 
 
 preparatory processes, according to the practice of the locality. 
 In the south they cut them into extremely fine filaments; the 
 people of the north content themselves with drying them and 
 rubbing them up coarsely, and then stuff them at once into their 
 pipes. 
 
 Snuff-takers are less numerous in China than smokers; tobacco 
 in powder, or, as the Chinese say, “smoke for the nose,” is little 
 used except by the Mantchoo Tartars and Mongols, and among the 
 Mandarins and lettered classes. The Tartars are real amateurs, 
 and snuff is with them an object of the most important consider¬ 
 ation. For the Chinese aristocracy, on the contrary, it is a mere 
 luxury—a habit that they try to acquire — a whim. The custom 
 of taking snuff was introduced into China by the old missionaries, 
 who resided at the court. They used to get the snuff from 
 Europe for themselves, and some of the Mandarins tried it, and 
 found it good. By degrees the custom spread ; people who wished 
 to appear fashionable liked to be taking this “smoke for the 
 nose,” and Pekin is still par excellence, the locality of snuff-takers. 
 I he first dealers in it made immense fortunes. The French to¬ 
 bacco was the most esteemed; and as it happened at this time that 
 it had for a stamp the ancient emblem of the three fleur de lis, 
 the mark has never been forgotten ; and the three fleur de lis are 
 still in Pekin the only sign of a dealer in tobacco. 
 
 I he Chinese have now for a long time manufactured their own 
 snuff; but they do not subject it to any fermentation, and it is 
 not worth much. They merely pulverise the leaves, sift the 
 powder till it is as fine as flour, and afterwards perfume it with 
 flowers and essences. The Chinese snuff-boxes are little vials 
 made of crystal, porcelain, or precious stones. They are some¬ 
 times very elegant in their form, and are cut with great taste and 
 sold at immense prices. A little silver or ivory spatula, with 
 which the pinch is taken out, is fitted to the stopper. 
 
 I he sun had not quite set when we arrived at Tchoung-king, a 
 town of the first order, and after Tching-tou-fou, the most im¬ 
 portant of the province of Sse-tchouen; it is advantageously situated 
 on the left bank of the Blue River. On the other side, opposite 
 to Tchoung-king, is another great town, which would only make 
 one with the first mentioned, but for the great breadth of the 
 river. It is a great centre of commerce, and a depot for the mer¬ 
 chandise of almost all the provinces of the Empire. 
 
 There is also here a numerous and flourishing Christian com¬ 
 munity, as the Ambassador Ki-chan, and the Viceroy Pao-king, 
 had already informed us. We expected, consequently, to receive 
 
132 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 visits from the principal Christians, as they could not fail to have 
 been aware of our arrival, but no one appeared. In the evening 
 we expressed our surprise at this to Master Ting, who then ad¬ 
 mitted that in fact a great number of persons had presented them¬ 
 selves, but that they had not been permitted to enter, as they 
 wore no costume of ceremony, and had the appearance of being 
 tiresome, vulgar people. “ They did say, indeed,” added he, 
 
 “ that they belonged to your illustrious and sublime religion, the 
 religion of the Lord of Heaven, but we did not believe them.” 
 
 The guardians of the Communal Palace were certainly in some 
 measure to blame in this matter ; but we did not wish to com¬ 
 plain, as it was possible they might think themselves in the right. 
 It had been agreed, in order to protect us from the annoyance of 
 incessant crowds of visitors, that no one should be admitted to us 
 in the Communal Palaces, without their observing all the forms 
 and ceremonies prescribed by the Rites for official visits of etiquette. 
 In the “Melanges” of Oriental literature by M. Abel Remusat, some 
 tolerably exact details are given concerning the manner of making 
 ceremonious visits in China, borrowed from a Chinese manuscript 
 in the Imperial library. 
 
 “ Much has been said concerning Chinese politeness, the formali¬ 
 ties which it imposes every moment, and on the smallest occasions. 
 It has been asserted, not quite without truth, that, in accordance 
 with these, a conversation between men not connected by friend¬ 
 ship becomes a mere preconcerted dialogue, in which each repeats 
 a part he has learnt by heart; but the specimens of this polite 
 dialogue that has been inserted in some accounts are not in 
 general very accurate. Those which Fourmont has given, after 
 Father Varo, are full of error. Although most people know 
 something of the exaggerated forms of expression, which among 
 ancient nations appear to be the product of long-continued habits 1 
 of social life, it is still curious to see in detail how far it is pos¬ 
 sible to carry these refinements of urbanity, by which every one 
 endeavours to show his own good breeding.” 
 
 To judge of this point as relating to the Chinese, we must 
 translate literally the customary forms of speech ; and in order to 
 compare the manners of different nations, in this respect, we must 
 have an exact interpretation of a Chinese conversation. But I 
 will first explain the general principles of visiting, for a matter of 
 this importance deserves to be treated methodically. 
 
 It is a custom in China, as it is in Europe, to get rid of a 
 visitor you do not wish to see, by saying you are not at home, 
 
RECEPTION OP VISITORS. 
 
 133 
 
 without being over anxious that he should really believe it; or 
 you have it stated that you are indisposed, overwhelmed with 
 business, and so on. The servants are instructed, on such occa¬ 
 sions, to take the visiting cards, and inquire the addresses of the 
 visitors, in order that the master may, in a few days, return the 
 visits he has not received. 
 
 In a Chinese romance there is a scene of three lettered Chinese, 
 who are amusing themselves with making verses, and drinking 
 warm wine, when a very troublesome and disagreeable old Man¬ 
 darin is announced. 
 
 <f Stupid fellow,” says the master to his servant; “ why didn’t 
 you say I was not at home ? ” 
 
 “ I did,” replies the servant, “ but he saw the palanquins of 
 these two noble visitors before the door, and he would not believe 
 me.” 
 
 Thereupon the master rises, puts on his cap of ceremony, and 
 runs with affected eagerness to meet the disagreeable visitor, whom 
 he overwhelms with compliments, while the two learned guests, 
 who detest him, vie with the master of the house in their polite 
 welcome. Would any one believe that this scene, which is well 
 described, was repi’esented as passing at a hundred and four 
 degrees of longitude from Paris ? 
 
 He who intends paying a visit usually sends a servant some 
 hours before, with a note to the person he wishes to see, to 
 inquire whether he is at home, and to beg him not to go out if he 
 has leisure to receive the visit. This is a mark of deference and 
 respect for those whom you wish to see in their own houses. The 
 note is on a sheet of red paper, larger or smaller according to the 
 rank and dignity of the persons, and the degree of respect to be 
 testified. The paper is folded once or twice, and you only write 
 on the second page, in such words as these, “ Your disciple, or 
 your younger brother, So-and-so, has come to bow his head to 
 the ground before you, and to offer you his respects.” 
 
 This phrase is written in very large letters when you wish to 
 mingle a certain air of stateliness with your courtesy ; and the 
 characters become smaller and smaller in proportion to the interest 
 that one has in appearing humble and respectful. 
 
 This note having been presented to the porter, if the master 
 accepts the visit, he replies verbally, “ It will give me pleasure, 
 and I beg him to come.” If you are busy, or have some reason 
 for not receiving the visit, the answer is—- “ I am much obliged ; 
 I thank him for the trouble he proposes to take.” But if the 
 
 K 3 
 
134 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 visitor be a person of superior rank, it is — “My lord does me an 
 honour that I had not dared to hope for.” 
 
 These sorts of visits are seldom declined in China. 
 
 If no note has been received to announce the visit, which only 
 happens with common people, or in case of pressing business, the 
 visitor may be requested to wait, but he is to be told what occupa¬ 
 tion prevents the host from receiving him : “ My master begs you 
 to be seated for a moment — he is combing his hair — or dressing 
 himself.” But if the visit has been announced previously by a 
 note, the master of the house must put on fine clothes, and hold 
 himself in readiness to receive the guests at the door of the house, 
 or as he alights from his palanquin, saying, “ I beg you to enter.” 
 The two leaves of the centre door must be opened, for it would 
 be impolite to allow the guest to enter by a side one. Great 
 people have their palanquins carried in, or even ride in on horse¬ 
 back to the foot of the staircase, which leads to the hall of 
 reception. The master of the house then places himself at their 
 right hand, and afterwards passes to their left, saying, “ I beg 
 you to go first,” and accompanies them, keeping always a little 
 behind. 
 
 In a room where company is received, the seats ought to be 
 arranged in two parallel lines, one before the other. In entering 
 you begin, from the very bottom of the room, to make your bows,— 
 that is to say, you turn towards your host, making one step back¬ 
 ward, and bow till your hands, which are kept clasped, touch the 
 ground. In the provinces of the south of China, the south side is 
 the most honourable ; but in the north it is quite the contrary. 
 Of course the most honourable side is to be offered to the guest; 
 but he, by an ingenious piece of courtesy, may in two words 
 change the state of things, and say, Peli, that is, “We are now 
 observing the ceremony of the north country,” which implies, “ I 
 hope that in placing me to the south you are assigning me the 
 least distinguished place.” 
 
 But the master of the house politely hastens to frustrate the 
 humble intentions of his guest, by saying, Nan li, “ Not at all, 
 sir; it is the ceremony of the south, and you are, therefore, in 
 your proper place.” Sometimes the visitor himself affects to take 
 the least honourable, but then the host excuses himself, saying, 
 “I should not dare ;” and, passing before his guest, taking care 
 not to turn his back on him, he proceeds to his proper position, a 
 little behind. Then they both bow, and if the master of the 
 house has any relations who live with him, the bows have to be 
 repeated as many times as there are persons to salute. These 
 
ETIQUETTE IN CHINA. 
 
 135 
 
 manoeuvres last for some time, and as long as they do, nothing 
 else is said than Pou-kan, pou-kan, “I should not dare.” 
 
 One piece of politeness, which is the due of great people, and 
 which does not displease those of inferior rank, is to cover the 
 chairs with little carpets made on purpose. Then there are more 
 antics to be performed. The guest refuses to take the chair of 
 state; the host insists; he makes a feint of wiping the chair with 
 the skirt of his robe ; and the stranger does the same for the chair 
 that he is to occupy: finally, the guest bows to his chair before 
 sitting down, and neither party takes his place till he has ex¬ 
 hausted all the resources of ceremony and good education. 
 
 Scarcely are you seated before the servants bring the tea, in 
 little porcelain cups ranged on a tea-board of varnished wood. 
 Among rich people, tea-pots are not used, but the quantity of tea 
 required is put into the cup, and the boiling water poured upon 
 it. The infusion is highly scented, but is taken without sugar. 
 The master of the house approaches the most important of his 
 guests, saying, as he touches the tea-board, Tsing-tclia , “ I invite 
 you to take tea,” and then every one advances to take his cup. 
 The master takes one in both hands, and presents it to the most 
 distinguished guest, who receives it also with both hands. The 
 rest of the company take their cups, and drink together, though 
 inviting each other by gestures to drink first. When every one 
 is served, the visitors, holding their cups in both hands, bow to the 
 ground, taking care not to spill the smallest drop of the tea, which 
 would be very indecorous; and to lessen the liability to such an 
 accident the cups are only half filled. The most elegant manner 
 of serving tea is to give with it a little dried sweetmeat and a 
 small spoon used only for this purpose. The guests drink their 
 tea at many sips, and very slowdy, though all together, in order to 
 be ready at the same moment to put down their cups. However 
 hot it may be, you must not exhibit any annoyance, but politely 
 burn their throat or your fingers. 
 
 When the weather is very warm, the master of the house, as 
 soon as the tea is drunk, takes his fan and holding it in both hands, 
 bows to the company, as if to say, Tsing-chen, “I invite you to make 
 use of your fans.” Every one accordingly takes his fan ; and it 
 would be exceedingly rude not to bring one with you, as you would 
 then prevent others from using theirs. 
 
 The conversation must always begin on indifferent, and mostly 
 insignificant subjects, and this is, perhaps, the most difficult part 
 of the ceremonial. In China you generally have to pass about two 
 
 k 4 
 
136 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 hours in saying nothing, and then at the end of the visit, you ex¬ 
 plain in three words what really brings you there. 
 
 The visitor rises and says, “ I have been troublesome to you a 
 very long time; ” and, doubtless, of all Chinese compliments, this 
 is the one that most frequently approaches the truth. 
 
 Before leaving the room, you bow in the same manner as on 
 entering it, the master keeping to the left and a little behind, and 
 following as far as the horse or the palanquin. Before mounting, 
 the stranger entreats the master to leave him, that he may not be 
 guilty of so great a disrespect as turning his back, but the other 
 contents himself with turning half round, that he may not see him 
 mount. When the visitor is seated on his horse, or that his 
 bearers have raised the poles of his palanquin, the tsing-leao, or 
 adieu, is exchanged, and this is the last civility. 
 
 Such is the almost invariable order observed in visits between 
 people of equal condition, though of course it is liable to modifica¬ 
 tion, according to particular circumstances, such as the rank, the 
 age, the occupation, the amount of personal distinction, &c. A 
 volume might be written to describe all the variations, and it 
 may easily be supposed that in China such books have not been 
 wanting. On the whole, however, it is easier to be polite in China 
 than elsewhere, as politeness is subject to more fixed regulations, 
 and every one knows what he has to do in any given situation. 
 It is, of course, a great restraint, but still it has its advantages. 
 
 The degree of etiquette that we had adopted, in conformity to 
 the advice of the viceroy, prescribed to our visitors to send in 
 advance a card of large dimensions, and when they came, to present 
 themselves in full dress. By this means, we were enabled to avoid 
 many troublesome visits, without exposing ourselves to the charge 
 of rudeness. We regretted, however, to find that this plan kept 
 away the Christians, whom our Mandarins took care not to inform 
 previously of the conditions required, in order to be received. 
 
 We explained to Master Ting how glad we should be to see the 
 worshippers of the Lord of Heaven, and we begged him to use his 
 good offices to bring us together; but as we had no great reliance 
 on his wish to oblige us, we endeavoured to adopt, on our own 
 parts, some more effectual means. 
 
 The night that we passed at Tchoung-king was marked by an 
 incident so strange and fantastic, that the narration of it might 
 very well pass for a ghost story. We declare, therefore, before¬ 
 hand, that it is not a fiction, and that we were not the victims of 
 any hallucination. We were in bed, and sound asleep when we 
 seemed to hear, as if in a dream, a measured and sonorous sound 
 
THE APPARITION. 
 
 137 
 
 moving at intervals through the courts, the gardens and the dif¬ 
 ferent apartments of the Communal Palace. The sound seemed 
 sometimes far off, and sometimes in our own room. We thought 
 we could distinguish a slight crackling of the bamboo mats, as by 
 the steps of some one walking cautiously, so as not to be heard; 
 sometimes we seemed to be in a strong light, then again in pro¬ 
 found darkness ; a voice that was turned towards our ear articu¬ 
 lated some words that we could not make out and then the peculiar 
 measured sound moved away, to approach us again after a time. 
 We were still quite asleep, but with something of the oppressive 
 feeling of a nightmare, for, notwithstanding all our efforts, we 
 could not either open our eyes or utter a word. At length we felt 
 something like a blow on the shoulder, and afterwards a violent 
 shock, that awakened us at once with a start, and we found our¬ 
 selves surrounded by a dazzling light, and saw opposite us a 
 hideous face that began to laugh, and showed us its long and yellow 
 teeth. The spectre stretched out a naked withered arm, and pre¬ 
 sented us with a grave air, a paper, on which were written Euro¬ 
 pean characters. 
 
 We drew back instinctively, and not knowing very well where 
 we were. The spectre began to laugh again, drew back his arm, 
 took in his left hand the torch he had been holding in his right, 
 and made the sign of the Cross. And, now that our eyes had 
 ' become capable of distinguishing objects a little more clearly, we 
 saw that we had to do with a real living Chinese, very ugly, 
 strangely attired, and naked to the waist. 
 
 When he saw that we were awake, he bowed towards us, and 
 said in a low voice, that he was a Christian, and that he had 
 brought us a letter from Monseigneur de Sinite, coadjutor of the 
 Vicar Apostolic for the province of Sse-tchouen. He then lit a 
 lamp that stood on a little table by the side of the bed ; we opened 
 the letter that had reached us in so curious and phantasmagorical a 
 manner, and whilst we read, our Christian retired, and began again 
 to pace the apartments of the Communal Palace, striking the floor 
 from time to time with a piece of bamboo. This man, it appeared, 
 filled the office of night watchman. 
 
 Monseigneur Desfleches, Bishop of Sinite, whom we had known 
 at Macao, in 1839, had his residence in the town of Tclioung-king. 
 After having expressed his regret at not being able to quit the 
 retreat in which he was hidden, to pay a visit to his countrymen, 
 he entered into some details concerning the persecutions that the 
 Christians were still suffering, notwithstanding the edicts of 
 religious liberty obtained by the French Ambassador. His lord- 
 
138 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 ship pointed out to us, that in the town of the third order, called 
 Tchang-cheou, in which we were to pass some days, the first 
 magistrate had just sent three Christians to prison ; and he gave 
 us all the information necessary to claim their release, when we 
 should have arrived in the town. 
 
 The Christian who had brought us the letter had taken care to 
 deposit some paper, a Chinese pen and an inkstand on the table 
 by the bedside, and we replied immediately to the communication 
 of Monseigneur Desfleches. assuring him that we would do all that 
 depended on us to obtain the release of his dear prisoners. We 
 profited at the same time by this opportunity, to beg him to warn 
 the Christians, who might wish to visit us at the Communal 
 Palace, of the necessity of conforming to the regulations of “ the 
 rites.” 
 
 We wrote this letter under a feeling of the deepest dejection. 
 A missionary — a Frenchman, one whom we had known, and had 
 not seen for so long — was here, almost close to us, yet we could 
 not join him, embrace him, nor converse with him on any of those 
 topics that thrill the soul of the missionary, such as the sufferings of 
 the Christians, the trials of those who preach the Gospel, nor of 
 our country, that France, from which we had had no news for 
 three years. So sw r eet a consolation was denied us, and we were 
 reduced merely to writing a few lines to him in haste and secrecy 
 in the middle of the night. 
 
 In the life of the missionary, hunger, thirst, the inclemencies of 
 the seasons, all the tortures of the body, are as nothing in compa- 
 rison with these moral sufferings, these privations of the heart, to 
 which it is so difficult to accustom oneself. While w*e were thus 
 carrying on this singular and contraband correspondence, our cun¬ 
 ning Christian continued his rounds through the different quai'ters 
 of the Communal Palace, not forgetting from time to time to strike 
 with his bamboo instrument the various watches of the night. 
 When we had finished the letter, he concealed it carefully in the 
 folds of his girdle, and tranquilly resumed his march. 
 
 The Chinese have in all circumstances, an inexhaustible store 
 of tricks and artifices at their disposal, and the Christians of 
 Tchoung-king, wishing to convey to us secretly M. Desfleches’ 
 letter, had contrived to introduce one of their number into the 
 Palace. A poor artisan, an unlikely person to excite any sus¬ 
 picion, offered himself to the guardians in the quality of night 
 watchman, taking care to ask much lower wages than are com¬ 
 monly given to the people who exercise this kind of industry. 
 The offer was accepted to the great satisfaction of the Christians 
 
FIRES IN CHINA. 
 
 139 
 
 of Tchoung-king, who were glad to be able to send us the letter, 
 and perhaps at the same time not sorry to play the police a trick, 
 for the Chinese are fully awake to this favourite amusement of 
 old civilised nations. 
 
 Night watchmen are much in fashion in all the provinces of 
 China ; they are especially regularly employed in the pagodas, the 
 tribunals, and the hotels, and rich private persons have them also 
 in their service. These men are obliged to walk all night in the 
 places confided to their vigilance, and to make a noise by striking 
 at intervals on a tam-tam or an instrument of bamboo. The pur¬ 
 pose of this noise is politely to intimate to the thieves that people 
 are on their guard, and that consequently the moment is not 
 favourable for breaking open doors or through walls. In some 
 towns the Government also maintains watchmen organised as a 
 patrol to traverse the streets, maintain public tranquillity, and 
 give notice in case of fire. They stop for a moment in each 
 quarter, and after having struck three times on their bronze tam¬ 
 tams, they cry in unison Lou-chan lou-hia — siao-sin-ho, that is to 
 say, “ Beware of fire on the ground-floor — beware of fire on the 
 upper-floor.” 
 
 Fires are very frequent in China, especially in the southern 
 provinces, where the houses are mostly built of wood. The prac¬ 
 tice of smoking continually too, and of having fire almost always 
 in readiness for making tea, must be the cause of many accidents; 
 indeed, when you have lived some time among them, and seen how 
 careless the Chinese are, and what a disorderly state their houses 
 are in, you are surprised that fires do not happen oftener. 
 
 The first thing they dread when fire does break out, however, is, 
 not the fire but the thieves, who come running in from all quar¬ 
 ters, under the pretence of extinguishing the fire, but really to 
 increase the confusion, forcing themselves in everywhere, and car¬ 
 rying off” whatever they can lay hands on, as if to snatch it from 
 the flames. It is a regular pillage, and what people are most 
 anxious about whose house is on fire, is to prevent the public from 
 coming to their assistance. They hasten to move away their goods 
 as fast as they can, and the neighbours are obliged to do the same, 
 for the plunderers have the ready pretext of stopping the progress 
 of the fire, for dismantling the houses, and appropriating even the 
 very building materials, when they can get nothing else,— a small 
 profit is better than none. It may easily be imagined what a fire 
 is with such helps as these; a few hours are generally sufficient 
 for the disappearance of two or three hundred houses. 
 
 In many towns, however, the administration does show some 
 
140 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 anxiety to stop these abominable attempts. They maintain, as we 
 have said, a patrol in the streets to give warning. They have 
 large tubs standing filled with water, and there even exists in 
 some places a more or less well organised body of firemen. 
 
 The moment a fire is perceived to have broken out, it is the 
 duty of the Mandarins to repair to the spot, with this troop and 
 the agents of police, in order to drive away the populace, who seem 
 always disposed by instinct to become transformed into a band of 
 robbers. The Chinese fire-engines are constructed very much like 
 our own, but they bear the name of “ Aquatic, or Marine Dragon,” 
 
 —loung or yang loung. 
 
 The word yang loung might, perhaps, be more correctly trans¬ 
 lated European Dragon, which would tend to show that they are 
 of European importation, and that the Chinese can sometimes be 
 prevailed on to adopt the customs of foreign countries. 
 
 One thing that always excited our admiration was the surprising 
 activity with which the Chinese begin to rebuild their houses after 
 they have been burnt down. Scarcely have the firemen disap¬ 
 peared, than the masons and carpenters take possession of the still 
 smoking ground. They are not, however, usually the same pro¬ 
 prietors who rebuild houses ; these are mostly ruined, and vanish, 
 going wherever they can ; but such is the eagerness for trade and 
 speculation in this country, that, while the flames are still devour¬ 
 ing the houses, a crowd of purchasers present themselves to buy 
 the ground, and build new ones ; and the contract of sale is drawn 
 up almost by the light of the fire. 
 
 Immediately the ground is cleared, as if by enchantment, and it 
 is usual to carry the rubbish to the spot where the fire first broke 
 out, and heap it up there, throwing the expense of clearing it off 
 upon the person whom the law supposes guilty of negligence, and 
 therefore ordains this practice as his punishment. You frequently 
 see in the interior of towns great heaps of ruins that have no other 
 origin than this. 
 
 We left ichoung-king rather late on the following morning, to 
 go and pass the day at the neighbouring town. We had only to 
 cross the Blue River, though it was possible that its very rapid 
 current might present some difficulties; but we arrived quite \ 
 safely at the other side, and Master Ting did not fail to claim all 
 the merit of the success. He had made choice, he said, of a boat 
 of the most perfect construction, and boatmen of tried intelligence ; 
 moreover, he had repeated litanies to Kao-wang all the time he 
 was smoking his opium ; and Kao-wang, in return, had commanded 
 the river to carry us quietly over. 
 
THE NEW MANDARIN. 
 
 141 
 
 Ouv little adventure at Ivien-tcheou had, it seems, made some 
 noise, and the Mandarins, seeing that we were not inclined to 
 favour their manoeuvres at our own expense, thought proper to 
 submit. As soon as we got to Tchoung-king, we could perceive 
 the good effects of our firmness. We found the Communal Palace 
 completely ready, and in full trim, and every one endeavouring to 
 make themselves agreeable; so that, of course, we did what we 
 could to reward this friendly attention, by taking ourselves away 
 again as quickly as possible. 
 
 The authorities here added to our escort a military Mandarin 
 and eight soldiers; and they did not fail to inform the people in 
 the town that they did so in order to increase the grandeur of our 
 appearance, or, as they say in China, “ to display the character of 
 haughty majesty.” 
 
 We thanked the Prefect for his courtesy, and left him all the 
 merit of his pretended generosity, though we knew that the 
 measure had really been ordered by the viceroy on account of the 
 gang of thieves that infest the road we were about to traverse, as 
 far as the boundaries of the province. The new Mandarin was 
 one of the heroes of the famous expedition sent to Canton against 
 the English in 1842 ; but, although he had been engaged in the 
 war against the “ Western Devils,” his appearance was not very 
 warlike. He had a loose, shambling gait, a face that looked as if 
 it were made of papier mache, and a mouth always foolishly half 
 open. As there was, too, a considerable amount of self-importance 
 in his maimers, we had some suspicion that we should not get on 
 very well together. From our very first interview, on the strength 
 of having, during his stay at Canton, often taken a walk before 
 the European factories, he gave himself such airs of familiarity, 
 that we were obliged to recall him to the observance of the 
 Rites. 
 
 After leaving the banks of the Blue River, we arrived at 
 Tchang-cheou-hien, a town of the third order. This was where 
 the three Christians of whom M. Desfleches had spoken were 
 imprisoned. As soon as we were installed in the Communal 
 Palace, the Prefect of the town came with all his staff to pay us 
 a visit according to the established rules. We received him with 
 all possible solemnity, in presence of our Mandarin conductors; 
 and when we had exhausted the common-places of conversational 
 etiquette, we inquired whether there were many Christians in the 
 district. “ They are very numerous,” he replied. 
 
 “Are they worthy people — endeavouring to improve their 
 hearts and to live according to the precepts of Christian virtue ?” 
 
142 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 — “ How can the people be otherwise than good who follow your 
 holy doctrine ? ” — “You are right; those who follow faithfully 
 the doctrine of the Lord of Heaven cannot fail to be virtuous 
 men. Your great Emperor, in an edict that he addressed to all 
 the tribunals, has proclaimed that the Christian religion has no 
 other object than to teach men to fly from what is evil and 
 to practise what is good. He permits his subjects, therefore, 
 throughout the extent of the empire to follow this religion ; and 
 he forbids all Mandarins, great or small, to seek after or per¬ 
 secute the Christians. Doubtless, the Imperial edict has reached 
 the town, and you are acquainted with it?”—“ The will of the 
 Emperor is like the heat and light of the sun, — it penetrates 
 everywhere; it has reached even this poor town.” 
 
 “ So we supposed; but the common people, in their moments of 
 idleness, like to invent silly stories, quite without reason; and 
 they pretend, that in the tribunal of Tchang-cheou-hien, you pay 
 no respect to the Imperial will. Foolish tongues have even gone 
 so far as to say that three Christians of the town of Tchang- 
 cheou-hien have been arrested within these few days, and are 
 now shut up in your tribunal. What are we to think of these 
 rumours?” — “ That they are idle and false. The people of these 
 countries are given to lying, and one must pay no attention to 
 what they say. It is well known that the Christians are most 
 virtuous men. Who, then, should dare to put them in prison, 
 especially after the edict that the Emperor has issued ?” 
 
 “ It is indeed difficult to believe that a man like you could be 
 guilty of such a rash action.” 
 
 “ The wise listen to the talk of the multitude, but they know 
 Tow to discern truth from falsehood.” 
 
 After this aphorism, we returned to the common-places again, 
 to the great satisfaction of the Prefect, who was, doubtless, 
 pluming himself in his own mind on having so completely mystified 
 us. He retired quite in a state of self-glorification, distributing 
 majestic salutes to the company, and strutting and swelling like a 
 turkey-cock. 
 
 As soon as he had left the palace, we said to Master Ting, 
 “ Now take a pencil, and write.” We dictated to him the names, 
 the ages, and professions of the three Christians who were lying 
 in prison ; and we then begged him to go immediately to the 
 tribunal, and present this paper to the Prefect, telling him at the 
 same time that the three men thus indicated were now shut up 
 in his prisons: that he had just now been lying most impudently; 
 but that we had been willing to spare him, and not put him to 
 
THE DRAGON IN DISGRACE. 
 
 143 
 
 shame before the public—since the authority of a magistrate has 
 always need to be surrounded with honour. 
 
 The Prefect’s tribunal was quite close to the Communal Palace, 
 and as soon as Master Ting arrived, we heard the sound of the 
 tam-tam, and the clamour made according to custom by the satel¬ 
 lites as the judge takes his seat to administer justice. Almost 
 immediately afterwards the three Christians, restored to liberty, 
 came to pay their respects to us, and express their gratitude, and 
 the Prefect’s scribe was commissioned at the same time to inform 
 us that his master had been wholly ignorant of their imprison¬ 
 ment; that the fault lay entirely with a subaltern officer, an 
 audacious man, and ignorant of the law, who had already before 
 committed similar mistakes, and whom he would not fail to punish. 
 According to the law of Chinese politeness, we "were obliged to 
 listen to these new lies as if they were indisputable truths. 
 
 The immediate motive for imprisoning these Christians was, 
 that they had refused to conform to certain superstitious practices 
 of the Chinese in times of drought, the object of which is to 
 obtain rain from the Dragon of Water. When these droughts 
 are prolonged, and occasion any fears for the harvest, it is cus¬ 
 tomary for the Mandarin of the district to make a proclamation, 
 prescribing the most rigorous abstinence. Neither fermented 
 liquors, meat of any kind, fish, eggs, or animal food of any de¬ 
 scription is allowable; nothing is to be eaten but vegetables. 
 Every housekeeper has to fasten over his door strips of yellow 
 paper, on which are printed some formulas of invocation, and the 
 image of the Dragon of Rain. If heaven is deaf to this kind of 
 supplication, collections are made, and scaffolds erected, for the 
 performance of superstitious dramas; and, as a last resource, they 
 organise a burlesque and extravagant procession, in which an 
 immense dragon, made of wood or paper, is carried about to the 
 sound of infernal music. 
 
 Sometimes it happens that, do what they will, the dragon is 
 obstinate, and will not give rain, and then the prayers are changed 
 into curses; he who was before surrounded with honours is in¬ 
 sulted, reviled, and torn to pieces by his rebellious worshippers. 
 
 It is related that under Kia-king, fifth Emperor of the Mantchoo- 
 Tartar dynasty, a long drought had desolated several provinces of 
 the North; but as, notwithstanding numerous processions, the 
 dragon persisted in not sending rain, the indignant Emperor 
 launched against him a thundering edict, and condemned him to 
 perpetual exile on the borders of the river lli, in the province of 
 lorgot. I fie sentence was about to be executed, and the criminal 
 
144 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 was proceeding with touching resignation to cross the deserts of 
 Tartary and undergo his punishment on the frontiers of Turkestan, 
 when the supreme courts of Pekin, touched with compassion, went 
 in a body to throw themselves at the feet of the Emperor, and 
 ask pardon for the poor devil. 
 
 His Imperial Majesty then deigned to revoke the sentence, and 
 a courier was sent off at full galop to carry the news to the 
 executors of the Imperial decree. The dragon was reinstated in 
 his functions, but only on condition that in future he would acquit 
 himself of them a little better. Do the Chinese of our days, it 
 will be asked, really put faith in such monstrous practices ? Not 
 the least in the world. All this is merely an external and com¬ 
 pletely lying demonstration. The inhabitants of the Celestial 
 Empire observe these ancient superstitions without at all believing 
 in them. What was done in times past, they continue to do in 
 the present day, but solely because their ancestors did so, and 
 what their ancestors have established they are always unwilling to 
 change. 
 
 CHAP VI. 
 
 Bad and dangerous Road.—Leang-chan, a town of the Third Order.—Disputes 
 between our Conductors and the Mandarins of Leang-chan, — A Day of 
 Rest. — Numerous visits of Christians.— A Military Mandarin of our Escort 
 compromises Himself. —• He is Excluded from our Table.— Great Trial pre¬ 
 sided over by the Missionaries. — Details of this singular Trial. — Acquittal 
 of a Christian, and Condemnation of a Mandarin. — Triumphal departure 
 from Leang-chan.— Servitude and Abject state of Women in China.— Their 
 Restoration by Christianity. — Master Ting declares that Women have no 
 Souls.— Influence of women in the Conversion of Nations.— Arrival at Yao- 
 tchang.— Hotel of the Beatitudes.—Lodgings in a Theatre.— Navigation of 
 the Blue River.—Plajs and Players in Cliina. 
 
 On leaving Tchang-cheou-liien we remarked that the bearers were 
 taller, more vigorous, and more agile than usual; and they carried 
 us away with an ease and rapidity that were perfectly astonishing. 
 Master Ting told us, as he passed by, that these were men selected 
 on purpose, as the road was likely to be toilsome and dangerous. 
 
 We were not, in fact, long before we entered a mountainous 
 district, intersected by deep ravines, where the roads were nothing 
 more than narrow sloping paths cut in the clay, and moistened by 
 an abundant rain, that had fallen incessantly during the previous . 
 night. We would much rather have proceeded on foot; but it 
 
BAD AND DANGEROUS ROADS. 145 
 
 would have been impossible for us long to maintain our equilibrium 
 on this slippery ground. 
 
 We were assured that of the two, there was less danger in 
 remaining in the palanquins. 
 
 The bearers, being in the habit of passing along these miserable 
 roads, begged us to trust in the steadiness of their legs, and we 
 did confide a little in them, and much in Providence. 
 
 These poor bearers advanced, supporting themselves as well as 
 they could on an iron-pointed staff, which they stuck from time 
 to time into the clay; but although of course this manoeuvre was 
 of a nature to slacken their march, they proceeded, nevertheless 
 with such rapidity as to make us fairly giddy. Now and then they 
 involuntarily made some odd capers, and the palanquin rocked 
 from side to side in a very undecided manner, and appeared to be 
 slipping from their shoulders. At those moments our position was 
 by no means a pleasant one, for we ran imminent risk of rolling 
 to the bottom of the ravine, and breaking bur limbs against the 
 enormous flint stones. 
 
 When we quitted these horrible paths, it was only to climb steep 
 and very slippery hills, which were equally difficult in the ascent or 
 descent. But in these circumstances there was not the same 
 danger ; and a fall could have no farther ill consequence than that 
 of retarding our progress. To obviate this inconvenience, how¬ 
 ever, two long ropes were attached to the palanquin, to which 
 about a dozen persons were harnessed, who thus helped to draw it 
 forward ; and when it was necessary to descend, the ropes were 
 placed in an opposite direction, in order to moderate the speed of 
 the bearers. 
 
 This strange team was recruited all along the road in a manner 
 somewhat tyrannical it must be owned, but conformable to the 
 customs of the country. When the attendants of the escort per¬ 
 ceived any wood-cutters in the forest, or labourers in the fields, 
 they ran to them, and summoned them, in the name of the law, to 
 come and give their assistance for five li. It was curious to see 
 the various stratagems put in practice in this chace, which to us 
 was of so new a kind. When the fugitives found themselves 
 circumvented by the knowing and skilful evolutions of the Man¬ 
 darin’s people, they often surrendered at discretion, and came 
 laughing to submit to this unprofitable labour. We were at first 
 distressed to see these poor villagers snatched thus from their 
 necessary work, and compelled to give us, gratuitously, the use of 
 their legs and arms; but we were obliged to leave all these things 
 to be settled according to the custom of the country, for we were 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 by no means called upon as we went along to reform the abuses 
 that we might happen to meet with in the Celestial Empire. 
 
 By God’s help we passed in safety through all the dangers of 
 the road; but we arrived at Leang-chou-hien quite worn out with 
 fatigue; for, though we had had much less physical suffering than 
 our bearers, we had had more of the mental kind. Though we 
 had not taken a hundred steps, our limbs were to the last degree 
 weary. The constraint we had had to impose on ourselves, and 
 the efforts we were obliged to make, to maintain perfect immobility 
 in our palanquins, and avoid giving them the least shake, pro¬ 
 duced all the effect of a forced march. As soon as ever we reached 
 the Communal Palace, therefore, we hastened to get a little rest, 
 leaving Master Ting to say to the visitors that we were not at 
 home. 
 
 Our Mandarins and the people of our escort, who probably were 
 not so tired as we were, never left off making a most abominable 
 noise with the guardians of the Palace. During the whole night 
 we had the pleasure of hearing them quarrelling, though what 
 about we could not exactly discover ; all that appeared clear was, 
 that it was a question of gain and loss, of trickery and fraud. By 
 the time it was daylight again, our servant came to explain to us 
 all the details of these - very Chinese doings. Our conductors, it 
 appeared, had, at the instigation of the new military Mandarin 
 whom we had taken at Tchoung-king, attempted to make the 
 tribunals of Leang-chan pay a more considerable sum for the ex¬ 
 penses of our journey than they were really bound to furnish. In 
 order to support their pretensions in the most effectual manner, 
 they had even not shrunk from falsifying the orders signed by 
 the viceroy; but, unfortunately for their little speculation, the 
 Mandarins of Leang-chan had already been furnished w r ith a copy, 
 so that it was easy for them to ascertain the fraud. This was the 
 origin of the interminable quarrels we had heard, and since the 
 night was not, it appeared, long enough to settle them, the morning 
 dawn found them still disputing with the same fury as before. 
 Master Ting endeavoured to get us into the quarrel, and had re¬ 
 presented us to the Mandarins of the place as most terrible fellows ; 
 but the affair did not concern us, and we took care not to meddle 
 in it. We merely exhorted them to come to an agreement as well 
 as they could, and as quickly as they could, for we certainly did 
 not intend to set out in the hottest part of the day. 
 
 When at last they had exhausted all the tricks and stratagems 
 of Chinese polemics, peace was concluded; on what conditions we 
 were not informed; but that did not matter to us. Towards 
 
CHRISTIANS AT LEANG-CHAN. 
 
 147 
 
 eleven o’clock they came to inform us, with an air of triumph, that 
 at last we were going to set off; but we replied it was too late, 
 and we would not go till the next day. “ We have certainly,” we 
 added, “no right to prevent you from quarrelling; but neither 
 have you any right to make us the victims of your disputes, by 
 forcing us to travel during the greatest heat.” The people of our 
 escort understood immediately that there was no help for it; and 
 that we should not change our resolution; but it was not so with 
 the Mandarins of Leang-chan, who could not make up their minds 
 to it till after they had exhausted all the resources of Chinese 
 diplomacy. The military commandant tried to seduce us with a 
 jar of fine old wine, which he accompanied with most touching 
 and fraternal exhortations. We tasted the wine, which we found 
 delicious; but we declared our conviction that we could nowhere 
 drink it in such good company as at Leang-chan. 
 
 As soon as it became known that we were not going to set off 
 that day, the Communal Palace was invaded by a crowd of traders, 
 who came to offer us the curiosities of the country. What we 
 found most remarkable in these displays of Chinese merchandise 
 were the blinds or awnings often used in these warm countries to 
 fix over the doors and windows. They are made of little sticks of 
 bamboo, joined together with silk cord, and ornamented with 
 paintings of flowers, birds, and fanciful patterns. The beautiful 
 I varnish that covers them heightens the brilliancy of the colours, 
 and renders this light trellis-work extremely gay and pretty, 
 i There are also in this town a great variety of odoriferous necklaces 
 for sale. 
 
 The Christians are numerous enough at Leang-chan, and we 
 were astonished that none of them had yet showed themselves. We 
 could not help thinking that the Mandarins of the place had for¬ 
 bidden them to enter, in order to be a little revenged upon us for 
 our refractoriness. As we were walking in the outer court, how¬ 
 ever, we noticed among the crowd at the door, a man who made 
 the sign of the Cross; and we walked straight up to him, and 
 invited him to follow us into the hall of reception. The long 
 military Mandarin who had accompanied us from Tchoung-king, 
 j endeavoured to make us send him back; but he was entreated to 
 moderate a zeal so untimely and so little to our taste. After 
 having listened with the most lively interest to the details that 
 this Christian entered into concerning the state of the mission, we 
 begged him to give his brethren notice of the necessity of present¬ 
 ing themselves with a visiting note, and a dress of ceremony. We 
 also went ourselves to give notice to the porter, and, the news being 
 
 l 2 
 
148 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 soon spread abroad among the Christians, our visitors shortly 
 afterwards began to arrive in numerous detachments. How can 
 we express the ineffable delight that these meetings afforded us ? 
 These men were all unknown to us, yet they were brothers and 
 friends. We felt as it were a Christian magnetism, a current of 
 fraternity passing from them to us and from us to them. We loved 
 without having ever seen each other, for we had one faith and one 
 hope. We had so long been wanderers among indifferent or 
 hostile people, that the sympathy by which we were now surrounded, 
 even though it was a little Chinese in its expression, expanded our 
 hearts, and filled them with sweet emotions. It seemed while we 
 were conversing with Christians, that we were but a little way 
 from France. The Mandarins were quite surprised at these spon¬ 
 taneous intimacies, and the friendship which it seemed to them 
 must be of long standing. They looked puzzled and uneasy, and 
 it was evident they were obliged to exercise some self-command 
 to restrain their ill-humour. An incident very unimportant in 
 itself, a mere trifle, was near making their anger burst forth, and 
 might have led to more serious consequences. 
 
 Just before nightfall, as we were repeating our breviary while 
 walking in an avenue of the garden, and the three Mandarins of 
 our escort were smoking their pipes under a large oleander and 
 enjoying the delicious fragrance of the evening, our servant 
 crossed the garden with a letter and small packet and took the 
 way towards our room. The military Mandarin whom we had 
 taken at Tchoung-king immediately followed him, and though he 
 had chosen his time well, we did nevertheless perceive his move, 
 and ran to our room to see what the audacious spy was doing. 
 "VVe caught him in flagrante delicto, reading our letter and rum¬ 
 maging in the parcel addressed to us. As soon as he saw us he 
 tried to bolt, keeping possession of the parcel; but we barred his 
 passage, drove him back into the room, shut the door, and sprang 
 upon him crying “ Thieves ! Thieves!” When he saw that we took 
 hold of a rope as if to tie him, he cried out in his turn for help, 
 and all the inmates of the palace in a moment came running to our 
 room. 
 
 We had no inclination to do anything more than laugh at the 
 adventure ; but in China it was necessary to go into a violent 
 passion, and accordingly we did so. 
 
 The packet, which was open, contained only some dried fruit3 
 and perfumed necklaces, which a Christian family had the kind¬ 
 ness to offer us. The letter had nothing in it which could com¬ 
 promise them, and was as follows : 
 
WE DEMAND A TRIAL. 
 
 149 
 
 “ The humble family of the Tchao prostrate themselves to the 
 earth before the Spiritual Fathers coming from the great kingdom 
 of France, and beg them to call down the blessing of Heaven upon 
 them. It is by the merciful will of God that they have obtained 
 your precious presence in our poor and obscure country. 
 
 “ Soon rivers and mountains will separate us, but the sentiments 
 of the heart can traverse infinite spaces in a moment. Day and 
 night we will think of our Spiritual Fathers. 
 
 “At Leang-chan all the friends of religion* unite to pray to 
 the Lord of Heaven for them, and to beg him to grant them 
 perpetual peace for their souls and bodies. We raise towards you 
 some fruits of our country. Deign to lower your hands to receive 
 them. This little offering is that of our hearts. These characters 
 have been traced by the sinful men and women of the family of 
 Tchao.” 
 
 The zealous military Mandarin, confused at not having dis¬ 
 covered any kind of plot, trembled in every limb at the expression 
 of our pretended anger. The Prefect of the town arrived with 
 his staff to restore peace, but he took such a wrong way to obtain 
 it that he produced precisely the opposite result. He was stupid 
 enough to tell us that he had ordered the head of the family of 
 Tchao, as the original cause of the disturbance, to be imprisoned. 
 
 “Atrial! a trial!” we exclaimed; “ we must have a trial! If 
 the head of the family of Tchao has committed any offence, let 
 him be* punished according to the laws for an example to the 
 people. But if the head of that family is innocent, then it is the 
 military Mandarin of Tchoung-king who is the guilty party, and 
 he must be punished. The peace has been broken in the Com¬ 
 munal Palace; we, who travel under the safe conduct of the 
 Emperor, have been insulted by one of his officers ; order must 
 be restored, and every one be put in his proper place — good or 
 bad, according to his conduct.” 
 
 The Prefect of Leang-chan, who did not well understand what 
 we would be at, tried to persuade us that the affair might be con¬ 
 sidered as terminated — that no more need be said about it — that 
 the head of the family of Tchao was pardoned and about to be 
 set at liberty, and that consequently “ all the emotions of our 
 souls might be tranquillised.” But to all his exhortations and 
 those of his colleagues we replied always in the same words, “A 
 trial! a trial! If the head of the family of Tchao is innocent, he 
 has no need of pardon ; his conduct must be investigated ; he has 
 
 * “ Kiao-you.” The Chinese Christians call themselves by this name. 
 
150 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 been ill-treated in the eyes of the world. Our honour and that of 
 all Christians is concerned. There must be a public trial in order 
 that the principles of justice and equity may be explained to the 
 people with clearness and method. Those who know us,” we 
 added, turning to the Prefect, “know that we are not men of light 
 words and unsteady resolutions, and we here declare that we will 
 not leave Leang-chan till there has been a public trial, at which 
 we will be present. It is already late, but orders can be given 
 directly to make the necessary preparations.” Addressing ourselves 
 afterwards to Master Ting, we told him, that as it was supper 
 time we must sit down to table, and in order not to prolong the 
 discussion, and to induce every one to go about his business, we 
 made the Prefect a low bow, and retired to walk in a little solitary 
 garden that was situated behind our own room. 
 
 Some few minutes afterwards all the curious people, whom the 
 adventure of the dried fruits had attracted to the Communal 
 Palace had disappeared, and it was announced to us that the warm 
 wine was on the table. As we entered the room where the supper 
 was served, we remarked that the Mandarin Tchoung-king was ; 
 at his post amongst the rest of our fellow-commoners, and we 
 made him a sign to go out, declaring that henceforth it would be j 
 impossible for us to take our meals in his company. He thought 
 proper at first to affect to take this for a joke; but we soon made 
 him understand that we were perfectly serious, and, by the per¬ 
 suasion of his colleagues, he at length withdrew, though with a 
 very bad grace, and went to eat his rice elsewhere. 
 
 Our supper, as may be imagined, was not remarkably gay. 
 The company helped themselves from the dishes right and left, j 
 but all in perfect silence; the chop-sticks seized and let fall often 
 the same morsel before carrying it off. The guests swallowed, as | 
 if in mere absence of mind, several little glasses of warm wine ; I 
 they glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes, but j 
 said nothing. Every one seemed to be thinking of this grand 
 trial. It occurred to us now and then that we had gone on rather 
 too boldly, and that if there had been at Leang-chan a Prefect of 
 a little energy of character it would have been prudent to think of 
 an honourable retreat. But fortunately we had to do with a | 
 fearful man, of a soft nature, whom we were very sure of being ] 
 able to bend. It was of importance, therefore, to march on with¬ 
 out hesitation, and we were also glad to profit by this opportunity 
 to encourage and raise the spirits of the Christians, whom the dis- i 
 appointment of their hopes of religious liberty had greatly dejected. I 
 
 As there was not much time wasted in conversation, we had ; 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRIAL. 
 
 151 
 
 soon arrived at the end of the repast, tea and pipes were brought, 
 and then it was found necessary to relax a little from perfect 
 dumbness, since, the occupation not being of so active a nature 
 as dinner, there was no longer the same pretext for keeping silence. 
 We therefore plunged immediately, and without preamble, into the 
 business that was occupying everyone’s thoughts — that is to say, 
 the proposed trial. 
 
 We were the first to speak. “We presume,” said we, “ that by 
 this time everything is in readiness for the trial that is to take 
 place this evening. Has the hour been fixed yet ? ” 
 
 “ Yes, certainly,” replied Master Ting : “ everything shall be 
 arranged according to your desire. The Prefect has undertaken 
 it, and he is renowned for his skill in discussing the most difficult 
 points of law. All will be well, make yourself easy ; you cannot, 
 however, be present at the trial; the laws of the Empire are 
 opposed to it. But that is no matter.” 
 
 “ On the contrary, it matters very much ; mind, we warn you 
 that if the trial takes place without our being present, it will count 
 for nothing.” 
 
 After a long and stormy discussion, we found ourselves no nearer 
 the point at issue. The emissaries of the tribunal went and came 
 incessantly, but without bringing us any solution of the problem. 
 But as we had no wish to pass the night in parleying, we told 
 Master Ting that he might undertake to negotiate on the follow¬ 
 ing basis:—If at ten o’clock in the evening the trial had not com¬ 
 menced, we should go to bed, and then we should certainly remain 
 the next day at Leang-chan; if the affair were not decided the 
 next day, we should remain till the day after, and so on indefin¬ 
 itely, for we were firmly determined not to leave the place till after 
 the trial. 
 
 Furnished thus with his instructions, Master Ting betook him¬ 
 self to the Tribunal. Ten o’clock arrived, and we went to bed 
 and slept profoundly, though on the eve of a grand battle ! 
 
 Towards midnight, we were awakened from our sleep to receive 
 a deputation from the first magistrate, informing us that all was 
 arranged, and in readiness for the trial, and that they were await¬ 
 ing us at the Tribunal. The hour did not appear to us particu¬ 
 larly convenient; but, considering that the Mandarins had had a 
 good deal to get over on their side, we thought we could do no 
 less than make some concessions on ours. We rose therefore 
 immediately, and after having put on the finest clothes we had, 
 we repaired to the tribunal in a palanquin, and escorted by 
 
152 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 numerous attendants bearing in their hands torches of resinous 
 wood. 
 
 We knew what a Chinese trial was. What we had undergone 
 at Lha-ssa and Tching-tou-fou had served to make us acquainted 
 with the form of procedure ; and we had traced out for ourselves, 
 in accordance with these recollections, a nice little plan, which it 
 was only necessary to carry out with steadiness. 
 
 We were introduced into the hall of audience, which was splen¬ 
 didly lit with large lanterns of variously coloured paper. A mul¬ 
 titude of curious spectators, amongst whom were probably many 
 Christians, thronged the lower end of the hall. The principal 
 Mandarins of the town and our three conductors were seated at 
 the upper part on a raised platform, where were several seats 
 arranged before a long table. The judges gave us a most gracious 
 reception, and the Prefect begged us to be seated immediately, in 
 order that they might commence proceedings. The question now 
 arose, where were we to be seated ? Nobody knew, and our pre¬ 
 sence appeared to create in the mind of the Prefect himself some 
 serious doubts on the subject of his prerogatives. He certainly 
 bore an Imperial dragon, richly embroidered in relief on the front 
 of his violet silk tunic, but then we had a dragon on a beautiful 
 red girdle: the Prefect had a blue ball; but then we had a yellow 
 cap ! 
 
 After a few moments of hesitation, we felt a sudden energetic 
 inspiration to assume the direction of the affair ourselves, and, ac¬ 
 cordingly, we marched proudly up to the President’s seat, and 
 coolly motioned the others to the places they were to occupy, each 
 according to his dignity. There was a movement of surprise, and 
 even of hilarity among the Mandarins, but no opposition. They 
 seemed so taken by surprise as to be completely put out, and me¬ 
 chanically assumed the places indicated. 
 
 The sitting was then commenced. We placed before us on the 
 table the corpus delicti — that is to say, the letter and the little 
 parcel. After having read and commented on the letter, we passed 
 it to the military Mandarin of Tchoung-king, who was in the last 
 place on the right hand, and asked him whether that was the letter 
 he had opened. The reply was in the affirmative. We then passed 
 on the parcel with the necklaces perfumed with cloves and sandal 
 wood. Its identity having been also confirmed, we desired an 
 officer of the court, who wore a cap of black felt in the form of a 
 sugar-loaf and ornamented with long pheasant’s plumes, to present 
 the letter and the parcel to each of the judges, that they might all 
 examine them. 
 
THE TRIAL. 
 
 153 
 
 These preliminaries being over, the order was given to intro¬ 
 duce the accused, and bring him to the bar, and we soon saw 
 advancing between four ill-looking attendants a Chinese of elegant 
 deportment and most intelligent countenance. A chaplet, at the 
 end of which shone a large bright copper cross, was passed round 
 his neck. Immediately on seeing him, we began to feel great 
 hopes of success ; it would have been very disagreeable and em¬ 
 barrassing to us to have to do with a timid stupid man, incapable 
 of giving us any support in the singular position in which we had 
 placed ourselves ; but we could not have met with a more suitable 
 person. The head of the Tchao family appeared expressly cut out 
 for our purpose. 
 
 As soon as he had arrived at the bottom of the platform, he cast 
 a rapid glance round the court, but one that was sufficient to 
 enable him to perceive that he was to be judged by one who was 
 not a Mandarin of the Celestial Empire. He prostrated himself 
 smiling, and, after having saluted the president by striking the 
 earth three times with his forehead, he rose to salute each judge 
 with a low bow. When he had performed these salutations in the 
 most graceful manner, he knelt down ; for, according to the Chinese 
 law, it is in this posture the accused have to appear before their 
 judges. We begged him to rise, telling him we should be pained 
 to see him on his knees before us, since that was not conformable 
 to the customs of our country. 
 
 “ Yes,” said the Prefect, “ stand upright, since you have been 
 permitted to do so; and now,” added he, “ since the men from those 
 distant countries will doubtless not understand your language, I will 
 myself undertake your examination.” 
 
 “No, no!” we said, “that cannot be; your fears are without 
 foundation; you will see that we shall come to a very good under¬ 
 standing with this man.” 
 
 “ Yes,” said the accused; “ this language is for me whiteness 
 and clearness itself. I understand it without a moment’s hesita¬ 
 tion.” 
 
 “ Since that is the case,” said the Prefect, a little disconcerted, 
 “ you must reply with simplicity and uprightness of heart to the 
 questions that will be addressed to you.” 
 
 We proceeded then to the examination in the following form: — 
 
 “ What is your name? ” 
 
 “This quite little person* is called by the vile and despicable 
 name of Tchao; the name that I received in baptism is Simon.” 
 
 * The Chinese of the lower order always qualify themselves thus in the pre¬ 
 sence of Mandarins. 
 
154 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “What is your age, and where do you come from?” 
 
 “ For eight and thirty years I have endured the miseries of life 
 in the poor country of Leang-chan.” 
 
 “Are you a Christian?” 
 
 “ I, sinner as I am, have obtained the grace of knowing and 
 adoring the Lord of Heaven.” 
 
 “ Look at this letter. Do you know it ? By whom was it 
 written?” 
 
 “I do know it. It is this quite little person who traced these 
 awkward characters with his unskilful pencil.” 
 
 “Examine this packet. Do you recognise that?” 
 
 “ I do recognise it.” 
 
 “ To whom did you address this letter and this parcel?” 
 
 “To the Spiritual Fathers of the great kingdom of France.” 
 
 “What was your purpose in sending these things?” 
 
 “ The humble Tchao family wished to express to the Spiritual 
 Fathers the sentiments of their filial piety.” 
 
 “ How can that be? We do not know you, and you do not know 
 us. We have never seen you.” 
 
 “ That is true; but those who are of the same religion are never 
 strangers to one another; they make but one family, and when 
 Christians meet, their hearts easily comprehend each other.” 
 
 “ You see,” said we to the Prefect, “ that this man perfectly 
 understands our language. He replies with the utmost clearness 
 to all our questions; you know also now, that Christians only form 
 one family; it is written in your books, and you yourselves often 
 repeat, that all men are brothers, — that is to say, all men have 
 the same origin; let them come from the North or the South, the 
 East or the West, they have all proceeded from the same father 
 and mother; the root is one, the branches are innumerable. This 
 is what we must understand when it is said that all men are 
 brothers, and that signifies also that there is but one sovereign 
 Lord, who has created and governs all things. Fie is the great 
 father and mother of the ten thousand nations who are on the face 
 of the earth. The Christians alone adore this Sovereign Lord, 
 this great Father and Mother, and that is why they are said to 
 form among themselves but one family. Those who are not 
 Christians belong also by their origin to the same family; but they 
 live'apart and forget the principles of paternal authority and filial 
 piety.” 
 
 “ All that is founded in reason,” said the Chinese j udges. “ Here 
 is the true doctrine in all its purity.” 
 
 After this short theological discussion, we returned to the trial. 
 
THE TEIAL. 
 
 155 
 
 “ We ourselves,” said we, addressing the accused, “ are strangers, 
 not born in the Central Empire, but we have lived in it long 
 enough to become acquainted with the greater part of your laws. 
 It may be, nevertheless, that some have escaped us. Answer, 
 therefore, according to your conscience. 
 
 “In sending us this letter, and the packet of dried fruit, did you 
 think that you were acting contrary to the laws?” 
 
 “ I did not think so. On the contrary, 1 believed that I had 
 done a good action, and that is what our laws do not forbid.” 
 
 “ As you are a man of the people, you may be mistaken in this, 
 and not understand aright the laws of the Empire.” 
 
 Addressing ourselves then to the magistrates who were seated 
 near us, we asked them whether this man had committed a repre¬ 
 hensible action? All replied unanimously that his conduct was 
 worthy of praise. “ And you,” we said to the Mandarin of Tchoung- 
 king, named Lu, “what is your opinion?” 
 
 « There can be no doubt that the action of the Tchao family was 
 virtuous and holy. Who would be absurd enough to say the con¬ 
 trary, and maintain that it was reprehensible? ” 
 
 “ The matter has now been made clear,” said we to the accused; 
 “ the truth has been carefully separated from error. According 
 to the testimony both of the superior and inferior Mandarins, you 
 had a right to obey the dictates of your heart, and make the offering 
 to us. In that case we accept it here openly, and in presence of 
 { every one; and we will preserve your letter with care as one of our 
 most precious possessions.” 
 
 The trial was now over, and we might immediately have pro¬ 
 nounced a verdict of “ not guilty,” and sent home the accused in 
 triumph; but as we had taken a fancy to playing the part of 
 Mandarin, we prolonged the sitting a little. We requested the 
 honourable Tchao to give us some information concerning the 
 Christian community of Leang-chan; and in language that was 
 full of spirit, though decorous, he entered into a number of details 
 that were most interesting to us, though probably not quite as much 
 so to the other judges. At length we ventured to ask this question, 
 — “Are the Christians of Leang-chan faithful observers of the 
 laws ? Do they set a good example to the people ? ” 
 
 “ We Christians,” said Tchao, “ are miserable sinners, like other 
 men, but we do endeavour to act virtuously.” 
 
 “Do so,” said we; “exert yourselves to become virtuous, to 
 make your conduct conformable to the purity and holiness of the 
 doctrine of the Lord of Heaven, and you will see that the Manda¬ 
 rins and the people throughout the Empire will at last do you 
 
156 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 justice. Already the Emperor has issued an edict declaring 
 that the object of the Christian religion is to train men to the 
 practice of what is good, and the avoidance of what is bad, and he 
 has consequently forbidden either the great or the small tribunals of 
 the eighteen provinces to persecute the Christians. This edict has 
 not yet been promulgated in all localities, but its existence is 
 authentic ; you may announce it to all the friends of religion: you 
 are permitted to say your prayers and observe all Christian ordi¬ 
 nances without any fear, and in perfect liberty. Who would be 
 audacious enough, by troubling you, to incur the anger of the 
 Emperor.” 
 
 After this little speech, we asked the Prefect if we might send 
 back the head of the Tchao family to his home. “ Since it is 
 manifest,” said we, “ that his conduct has been in all respects 
 virtuous, he ought now to be allowed to go and carry the conso¬ 
 lation of his presence to his relations and friends.” 
 
 The meeting was just about to disperse, but we extended our 
 arms, and begged permission to express one more thought. 
 “ Since,” said we, “the action of the Tchao family has been conform¬ 
 able to the laws and irreproachable, it is evident that the conduct 
 of the Mandarin Lu has been culpable; he introduced himself 
 secretly into our apartment, and has covered his face with shame, 
 by opening a letter that was addressed to us. 
 
 “ The Mandarin Lu was appointed to be our military escort 
 from the town of Tchoung-king to the frontiers of the province ; 
 but, as you see clearly that he has not received a good education, 
 and his ignorance of the rites may lead him into still greater faults, 
 we here declare that we will have nothing more to do with him: 
 our declaration shall be made in writing, and sent to the superior 
 authorities of Tchoung-king.” At these words we rose, and the 
 sitting was over. Our admirable Christian came to us, threw 
 himself on his knees, and asked our blessing. He also received 
 the congratulations of the Mandarins, who had been present 'at 
 these curious proceedings, and he well deserved them. It seemed 
 to us, that by his dignified deportment, and the courageous pro¬ 
 priety of his language, he had done honour to the name of Christian 
 in the eyes of his countrymen. We felt, nevertheless, some anxiety 
 concerning his future prospects, and the joy of our little triumph 
 was somewhat abated by feelings of distrust. We feared that, 
 after our departure, the Tribunal of Leang-chan, might seek to 
 take its revenge on the Christians. We recommended to Simon 
 Tchao therefore the utmost prudence, in order to afford no pretext 
 to the malevolence of the Mandarins, and we bessed him to send 
 
THE POWER OF RED GIRDLES. 
 
 157 
 
 us word how he was going on. A year afterwards we received at 
 Macao a letter from Leang-chan, informing us that since our de¬ 
 parture the Christians had enjoyed the most profound tranquillity, 
 and no one had ventured to persecute the worshippers of the Lord 
 of Heaven. 
 
 It was almost morning by the time we returned to the Communal 
 Palace, but we went to bed, — not indeed to sleep — that would 
 have been difficult, — but to rest ourselves a little, recover our 
 composure, and prepare to set out in a few hours. We had need 
 of some interval of rest, that our thoughts might return into their 
 wonted channel, from which they had been so suddenly driven. 
 We had hardly quitted the Tribunal, before all that had passed 
 appeared like a dream. We could hardly conceive how the Man¬ 
 darins and the people could have been in earnest in this extra¬ 
 ordinary trial: the part of president of the court, played impromptu, 
 by a French missionary in a Chinese town, in the presence of 
 Chinese magistrates, and that without any opposition, as if it had 
 been the most natural thing in the world ! Two strangers, two 
 barbarians, to be allowed to master for a moment all the rooted 
 prejudices of a people, jealous and disdainful of strangers to excess, 
 and that even to the point of arrogating to themselves the authority 
 of a judge, and exercising it officially! How could this be 
 possible ? 
 
 These facts prove, however, how much the principle of authority 
 is usually respected by the Chinese people. Our red girdles had 
 been our most powerful spell; they were influenced by them, 
 without being very well aware of it, as by an emanation of the 
 Imperial power. 
 
 The fear of compromising themselves is also a sentiment uni¬ 
 versal among the Chinese, and which one may easily turn to 
 account. Every one thinks first of providing for his own safety, 
 and then letting things take their course. Prudence, or perhaps 
 it may be called pusillanimity, is one of the most remarkable 
 qualities of the Chinese; ancl they have an expression, which 
 they make use of on all occasions, which very well characterises 
 this sentiment. In the midst of all difficulties and embarrassments, 
 the Chinese say siao-sin, that is to say, “Lessen” or “draw in 
 your heart.” Those who are fond of comparing the characters of 
 j various nations, as they manifest themselves in their languages, 
 might find a curious contrast in this respect between the French 
 and the Chinese. At the approach of danger, while the latter 
 says, trembling, “ Draw in your heart,” the former starts up, 
 crying “ Prends garde.” He makes use of an expression that 
 
158 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 could only suit a warlike race, who, in presence of an enemy, 
 instinctively lay the hand on the sword. 
 
 On our depai’ture from Leang-chan, we were honoured with a 
 magnificent ovation. The news of this stx-ange nocturnal sitting 
 of the First Tribunal, under the presidency of a “ Devil of the 
 West,” had spread abroad, enriched, of course, by the imaginations 
 of the narrators, with a number of most wonderful circumstances. 
 As soon, therefore, as the sun appeared above the horizon, all the 
 inhabitants of the town began to hurry eagerly to the spot that we 
 should have to pass. All the Mandarins, in their robes of state, 
 were assembled at the Communal Palace to bid us farewell, and to 
 overwhelm us with the most extravagant compliments. They 
 accompanied us into the street, and would not go back till they had 
 seen their unlooked for colleagues of the preceding night properly 
 installed in their palanquins. All the way we went along the 
 crowd was immense, and animated by the most noisy and feverish 
 eagerness to catch a glimpse of us — or, at least, of our yellow 
 caps. Here and there were assembled groups of Christians, who, 
 we saw with pleasure, were assuming a tolerably courageous de¬ 
 portment. All wore their chaplets round their necks, and when 
 we came up to them, threw themselves on their knees, and begged 
 our blessing in chorus, making as they did so, a bold sign of the 
 cross. We did not perceive that this religious act excited among 
 the Pagans the least inclination to hostility or mockery. They 
 kept a respectful silence, or contented themselves with saying, 
 “ Here are Christians who are asking the masters of their religion 
 to call down felicity from Heaven upon them.” 
 
 In the last street, before we left the town, we saw a long line of 
 women, who appeared also to be waiting the passing of the men 
 with yellow caps and red girdles. When our palanquins came 
 opposite them, after having tottered a few seconds on their little 
 lame feet, they ended by kneeling down, and making also the sign 
 of the cross. They were Christian women of Leang-chan, who 
 under these circumstances, had judged it proper not to “draw in 
 their hearts,” but to shake off, at least for once, the hard yoke of 
 servitude which Chinese prejudice imposes on their sex. The 
 people of our escort seemed rather surprised at such an audacious 
 demonstration, but we did not hear any improper remark. One of 
 them cried on seeing the women kneel down, “ Well, there are 
 Christian men, that I have known a long time, but I never knew 
 before there were Christian xoomen; ” to which his comrade 
 responded, “ Nobody ever thought you knew much about any¬ 
 thing.” 
 
ABJECT CONDITION OF WOMEN. 
 
 159 
 
 At length we got out of Leang-clian, a town of the third order, 
 which will always hold a place in the numerous recollections of 
 our long peregrinations. We forgot to say that when we left the 
 Communal Palace, we found that the Mandarin of Tchoung- 
 king was no longer among the number of our conductors. After 
 dismissing him at the close of our judicial sitting, we never saw him 
 again, and no one ever spoke to us of him ; only at the moment of 
 our departure, the Prefect informed us that Lu had been replaced 
 by a young military Mandarin, whom he presented to us, and who, 
 far from exposing himself to be brought to trial, always behaved 
 in a very amiable and prepossessing manner. The above men¬ 
 tioned conduct of the Christian women of Leang-chan, was one 
 of the things that struck us most during our journey through 
 the province of Sse-tclaouen. That women should collect in the 
 street to see two persons pass, who were reputed curious and ex¬ 
 traordinary, who, though said to be born in Europe, had traversed 
 Tartary, Thibet, and China, there was nothing in that but what 
 was quite natural. If these women were Christians, it was 
 natural enough that they should kneel down, and cross them¬ 
 selves, and ask a blessing of a minister of their religion. All this 
 would be simple enough in Europe, but in China it was something 
 prodigious ; it was a defiance to all custom, a running counter to 
 the most established ideas and principles. Such prejudices arise 
 from the lamentable state of oppression and slavery, to which 
 women have always been reduced, among nations whose senti- 
 I ments have not been ennobled and purified by Christianity. 
 
 The condition of the Chinese woman is most pitiable ; suffering, 
 privation, contempt, all kinds of misery and degradation, seize on 
 her in the cradle, and accompany her pitilessly to the tomb. 
 Pier very birth is commonly regarded as a humiliation and a dis¬ 
 grace to the family—an evident sign of the malediction of Heaven. 
 If she be not immediately suffocated (according to an atrocious 
 custom which we shall speak of by and by), she is regarded and 
 treated as a creature radically despicable, and scarcely belonging to 
 the human race. 
 
 This appears so incontestable a fact, that Pan-houi-pa?i, cele¬ 
 brated, though a woman, among Chinese writers, endeavours, in 
 her works, to humiliate her own sex, by reminding them continu¬ 
 ally of the inferior rank they occupy in the creation. “ When a 
 son is born,” she says, “ he sleeps upon a bed ; he is clothed with 
 robes, and plays with pearls ; every one obeys his princely cries. 
 But when a girl is born, she sleeps upon the ground, is merely 
 wrapped up in a cloth, plays with a tile, and is incapable of acting 
 
160 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 either virtuously or viciously. She has nothing to think of but 
 preparing food, making wine, and not vexing her parents.” 
 
 In ancient times, instead of rejoicing when a child was born— 
 if it happened to be of the inferior sex — they left it for three 
 whole days on a heap of rags on the ground, and the family did 
 not manifest the slightest interest in so insignificant an event. 
 When this time had expired, they performed carelessly some trivial 
 ceremony, strikingly contrasting with the solemn rejoicings that 
 took place on the birth of a male child. Pan-houi-pan refers to 
 this ancient custom, and vaunts its propriety and wisdom, serving 
 so well to prepare woman for the proper feeling of her inferiority. 
 
 This public and private servitude of women — a servitude that 
 opinion, legislation, manners, have sealed with their triple seal — 
 has become, in some measure, the corner-stone of Chinese society. 
 The young girl lives shut up in the house where she was born, 
 occupied exclusively with the cares of housekeeping, treated by 
 everybody, and especially by her brothers, as a menial, from 
 whom they have a right to demand the lowest and most painful 
 services. The amusements and pleasures of her age are quite un¬ 
 known to her; her whole education consists in knowing how to 
 use her needle ; she neither learns to read nor to write ; there 
 exists for her neither school nor house of education ; she is con¬ 
 demned to vegetate in the most complete and absolute ignorance, 
 and no one ever thinks of, or troubles himself about her, till*the 
 time arrives when she is to be married. Nay, the idea of her 
 nullity is carried so far, that even in this, the most important and 
 decisive event in the life of a woman, she passes for nothing ; the 
 consulting her in any way, or informing her of so much as of the 
 name of her husband, would be considered as most superfluous and 
 absurd. 
 
 The young girl is simply an object of traffic, an article of mer¬ 
 chandise to be sold to the highest bidder, without her having the 
 right to ask a single question concerning the merit or quality of her 
 purchaser. On the day of the wedding there is great anxiety to 
 adorn and beautify her. She is clad in splendid robes of silk, 
 glittering with gold and jewels ; her beautiful plaits of raven hair 
 are ornamented with flowers and precious stones ; she is carried 
 away in great pomp, and musicians surround the brilliant palan¬ 
 quin, where she sits in state dike a queen on her throne. You 
 think, perhaps, on witnessing all this grandeur and rejoicing, that 
 now, at last, her period of happiness is about to begin. But, alas ! 
 a young married woman is but a victim adorned for the sacrifice. 
 She is quitting a home where, however neglected, she w r as in the 
 
ABJECT CONDITION OE WOMEN. . 161 
 
 society of the relations to whom she had been accustomed from 
 her infancy. She is now thrown, young, feeble, and inexperienced, 
 among total strangers, to suffer privation and contempt, and be 
 altogether at the mercy of her purchaser. In her new family, 
 she is expected to obey every one without exception. According 
 to the expression of an old Chinese writer, “the newly married 
 wife, should be but a shadow and an echo in the house.” She has 
 no right to take her meals with her husband; nay, not even with 
 his male children : her duty is to serve them at table, to stand by 
 in silence, help them to drink, and fill and light their pipes. She 
 must eat alone, after they have done, and in a corner ; her food is 
 I scanty and coarse, and she would not dare to touch even what is 
 left by her own sons. * 
 
 It may be thought, perhaps, that this does not agree very well 
 with the much-talked-of principle of filial piety; but it must not 
 be forgotten that in China a woman counts for nothing. The law 
 ignores her existence, or notices her merely to load her with 
 fetters, to complete her servitude, and confirm her legal incapacity. 
 Her husband, or rather her lord and master, can strike her with 
 impunity, starve her, sell her, or what is worse, let her out for a 
 longer or shorter period, as is a common practice in the province 
 of Tche-kiang. 
 
 Polygamy, which is allowable in China, aggravates the suffer¬ 
 ings of the married woman. When she is no longer young, when 
 she has no children, or none of the male sex, heiHiusband'takes a 
 second wife, of whom she becomes in some measure the servant, 
 j The household is then the seat of continual war, full of jealousies, 
 
 ; animosities, quarrels, and not unfrequently of battles. When they 
 are alone, they have at least the liberty of weeping in secret over 
 the cureless sorrows of their destiny. 
 
 The state of perpetual humiliation and wretchedness to which 
 the women of China are reduced, does sometimes drive them to 
 i frightful extremities; and the judicial annals are full of the most 
 tragical events arising from this cause. The number of women 
 who hang themselves, or commit suicide in various ways, is very 
 considerable. When this catastrophe occurs in a family, the 
 husband shows usually a great deal of emotion, for, in fact, he has 
 suffered a considerable loss, and will be under the necessity of 
 buying another wife. 
 
 I he hard condition of the poor Chinese women is, as will be 
 supposed, considerably ameliorated in the Christian families. As 
 it is remarked by Monseigneur Gerbet, “ Christianity, w'hich 
 strikes at the very root of slavery, by its doctrine of the divine 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 fraternity of all men, combats in a special manner the slavery of 
 women, by its dogma of the divine maternity of Mary. How 
 should the daughters of Eve remain slaves from the fallen Adam, 
 since the restored Eve, the new mother of all living, has become 
 the Queen of Angels? When we enter those chapels of'the 
 Virgin to which devotion has given a special celebrity, we lemaik 
 with pious interest the ex voto suspended there by the hand of a 
 mother whose child has been cured—of a sailor saved from ship¬ 
 wreck by the patroness of mariners. But the eyes of reason and 
 history see in the worship of Mary an ideal temple which Ca¬ 
 tholicism has constructed for all times and for all ages ;■ an ex voto 
 of a higher social and universal signification. Man had pressed 
 with a°brutal sceptre on the head of his companion for forty 
 centuries; but he laid it down on the day when he knelt before the 
 altar of Mary—he laid it down with gratitude; for the oppression 
 of his wife had been his own degradation, and he was delivered 
 then from his own tyranny.”— (Monseigneur Gerbet, Keepsake 
 Keligieuse .) 
 
 The recovery of women in China from this abject state is going 
 on slowly, it is true, but in a most striking and effectual manner. 
 In the first place, it need hardly be said that the little girl boin in 
 a Christian family is not murdered, as is often the case among the 
 Pagans. Religion is there to watch over her at her birth, to take 
 her lovingly in its arms, and say, Here is a child created in the 
 image of 'God, and predestined, like you, to immortality. Thank 
 the Heavenly Father for having given her to you; and implore 
 the Queen of Angels to be her patroness. 
 
 The young Christian girl is not permitted to stagnate in 
 ignorance; she does not vegetate, forsaken by every one, in a 
 corner of the paternal mansion; for since she must learn her 
 prayers and study the Christian doctrine, it is necessary to re¬ 
 nounce in her favour the most inveterate prejudices of her nation. 
 Schools must be founded for her, where she may be enabled to 
 develope her intellects, to learn in the books of her religion those 
 mysterious characters which are for other Chinese women an 
 inexplicable enigma. She will be in the society of numerous 
 companions of her own age; and at the same time that her mind 
 is becoming enlarged and her heart formed to virtue, she will learn 
 in some measure in what consists the life of this world. 
 
 It is more especially by marriage contracted in the Christian 
 form that the Chinese woman shakes off the frightful servitude 
 of Pagan customs, and enters on the rights and privileges of the 
 great family of humanity. Although the power of prejudice and 
 
ting’s opinion of women’s souls. 163 
 
 habit may not even yet always permit her to manifest her inclina¬ 
 tions openly, and choose for herself him who is destined in this 
 life to partake her joys and her sorrows, her wishes do never¬ 
 theless cdunt for something; and we have ourselves, more than 
 once, known instances of young girls who, by their energetic 
 resistance, have induced their parents to break off engagements 
 entered into without their participation. Such a fact would be 
 regarded as absurd and impossible among the Pagans. The 
 Christian women also always possess in their families the in¬ 
 fluence and the prerogatives of wives and mothers; and it may 
 be observed that they enjoy greater liberty out of doors. The 
 practice of assembling on Sundays and festival days at chapels 
 and oratories to pray in common, and be present at the divine 
 offices, creates and maintains relations of intimacy among them. 
 They go out oftener to visit each other, and form from time to 
 time those little social parties which are so useful in dissipating 
 care and vexation, and in helping one to support the burden of 
 life. Pagan women know nothing of these comforts and con¬ 
 solations; they are almost always secluded, and nobody cares if 
 they wear out their souls in languor and ennui. Master Ting, in 
 speaking with us concerning the Leang-chan demonstration, men¬ 
 tioned it as such an enormity, that it is evident what is the value 
 of women in the estimation of the Chinese. 
 
 “ -^ s we were leaving Leang-chan,” said he, “ when we passed 
 | through that street where there were so many women assembled, 
 I heard it said that they were Christians. Is’nt that nonsense?” 
 
 “No, certainly; it was the truth. They were Christians.” 
 
 Master Ting looked stupified with astonishment, and his arms 
 fell down by his side. «I don’t understand that,” said he. “ I 
 ' have heard you say that people become Christians to save their 
 souls. Is that it?” 
 
 “ Yes; that is the object we propose to ourselves.” 
 
 “ Then what can the women become Christians for?” 
 
 “ What for ? To save their souls, like the men.” 
 
 “ But they have no souls,” said Master Ting, stepping back a 
 pace, and .folding his arms; “women have no souls. You can’t 
 make Christians of them.” 
 
 We endeavoured to remove the scruples of the worthy man upon 
 ! this point, and to give him some few sounder ideas on the subject 
 of women’s souls ; but we are by no means sure we succeeded. 
 The very notion tickled his fancy so much, that he laughed with 
 all his might. “ Nevertheless,” he said, after having listened to 
 our dissertation, “ I will be sure to recollect what you have been 
 
164 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 telling me; and when I get home again to my family, I will tell 
 my wife that she has got a soul. She will be a little astonished I 
 think.” 
 
 The Chinese Christian women feel deeply how much they owe 
 to a religion that is releasing them from the hard bondage in which 
 they have hitherto groaned, and which, whilst guiding them on the 
 Avay to eternal life, procures for them even in this world joys and 
 consolations that seem made expressly for them. They show 
 themselves "rateful too ; they are full of fervour and zeal; and one 
 may say that the progress that has been made in the propagation 
 of the faith in the Celestial Empire is principally owing to them. 
 They maintain the regularity and exactness of the prayers in the 
 Christian communities; they may be seen braving the prejudices 
 of public opinion, and practising with much self-devotion works 
 of Christian charity, even towards the Pagans, taking care of the 
 sick, collecting and adopting the children abandoned by their 
 mothers. It is they who in times of persecution confess the faith 
 in presence of the Mandarins, with most courage and perseverance. 
 In general, indeed, the zeal of women in the cause of religion has 
 been remarked in all ages and countries. 
 
 “ History informs us, that whenever the Gospel has been preached 
 in any country, women have always shown a particular interest in 
 the Word of Life, and habitually preceded men in their divine 
 eagerness to receive and propagate it. One would say that the 
 response of Mary to the angel, ‘Behold the handmaid of the 
 Lord,’ finds a stronger echo in their souls. This was prefigured 
 in the very commencement of Christianity in the persons of the 
 holy friends of the Virgin, who, having run before even the well- 
 beloved disciple to the tomb of the Saviour, were the first to 
 become acquainted with the fact of the resurrection, and to an¬ 
 nounce it to the Apostles. Women have always held a high rank 
 in the pi’eaching of the Gospel. 
 
 “At the commencement of all great religious epochs, a mysterious 
 celestial form—the form of a saint—is seen heralding its progress. 
 When Christianity issued from the catacombs, Helena, the mother 
 of Constantine, presented to the ancient Roman world the re¬ 
 covered cross, which Clotilda soon erected over the Frank cradle 
 of modern society. The Church owes in part the greatest triumphs 
 of St. Jerome to the hospitality offered to him by Saint Paula in 
 her peaceful retreat at Palestine, where she instituted an academy 
 for Roman Christian ladies. Monica, by her prayers, brought 
 forth the true Augustine. In the middle ages, Saint Hildegarda, 
 Saint Catherine of Sienna, Saint Theresa, preserved much better 
 
THE HOTEL OF THE BEATITUDES. 
 
 165 
 
 than the greater part of the learned doctors of their time the tra¬ 
 dition of a mystic philosophy—so good, so vivifying to the heart, 
 the spring to which, in our own age, more than one soul, dried 
 and withered by doubt, has come to bathe and refresh itself, and 
 seek to return to truth by the way of love.”—(Monseigneur Gerbet, 
 Keepsake Religieuse .) 
 
 After the triumphal night at Leang-chan, we had a magnificent 
 journey by a fine road across an enchanting country. The rays 
 of the sun, indeed, were somewhat too powerful, but we were be¬ 
 ginning to get accustomed to this high temperature, as we had got 
 accustomed to the frost and snow of Tartary. 
 
 Towards the end of the day we stopped at a certain place named 
 Yao-tchang. This town, though rather a considerable one, was 
 not surrounded by ramparts. No Mandarin appeared to have a 
 fixed residence there ; there was no Communal Palace, and con¬ 
 sequently we were obliged to look out for the best lodging we 
 could find. At first we made the experiment at an old inn, 
 called on its sign the Hotel of the Beatitudes, and the chief of this 
 establishment conducted us with great ceremony to what he called 
 his chamber of honour. It was situated immediately over the 
 kitchen, and it is very possible that it was for various reasons a 
 very honourable apartment. But experienced travellers must not 
 think only of vain glory, and it appeared to us that this chamber 
 of honour, to which air and light only entered by a narrow sky¬ 
 light, was not altogether an eligible abode for us. In fact it was, 
 to speak plainly, an abominable den, haunted by legions of mos¬ 
 quitoes, which on our entrance issued forth full of wrath from 
 every corner, and began to whirl and buzz around us, and declare 
 implacable war. There exhaled also from this gloomy hole such 
 a noisome vapour of mouldy fusty antiquity, that the very idea of 
 passing the night there made one sick. We were assured, never¬ 
 theless, that this was the best hotel at Yao-tchang, and it is by 
 no means impossible, judging from the general aspect of the 
 locality, that it might be so. Whether we liked it or not, there¬ 
 fore, it seemed we should have to put up with it ; and we were 
 making our preparations to manage as well as we could, when the 
 smoke from the kitchen chimney, after having climbed slowly up 
 the steps of the black narrow staircase, began to invade our 
 chamber of honour in such quantities that it was not possible to 
 remain there any longer. The acrid nature of the smoke pained 
 our eyes, so that we descended weeping to the kitchen, in search 
 of Master Ting, whom we found stuffed into a corner, intoxicating- 
 himself with opium. As soon as he saw us, he raised his head a 
 
 M 3 
 
166 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 little from his bamboo pillow, and asked whether we were com¬ 
 fortable upstairs. “ Not very; we are suffocated by foul air, 
 blinded by smoke, and devoured by mosquitoes.” 
 
 “ Those three things are very bad,” responded Master Ting, 
 laying down his pipe, and exerting himself so far as to raise him¬ 
 self into a sitting posture ; “ but what is to be done ?—there is no 
 Communal Palace in this place, and the other inns are worse than 
 this. The case is very difficult.” 
 
 “ No, not very difficult; what we want is a little cool fresh air. 
 We will go into the country, and take up our lodging under a 
 tree. We were accustomed to sleep thus in the open air for a 
 long time.” 
 
 “Yes ; it is said that this custom exists among the Monguls, in 
 the Land of Grass, but here, in the Central Kingdom, it is not 
 received. Men of quality cannot pass the night in the fields with 
 birds and insects ; the Rites are opposed to it. But wait a moment; 
 I think I know a good place ; I will go and see about it: ” and 
 thereupon our dear Mandarin rose up, put out his little smoking 
 lamp, took his fan and went out. 
 
 We waited for his return at the door of the inn, and a short 
 time afterwards we saw him coming back, taking as long strides as 
 he possibly could, and addressing to us from a distance, with his 
 two arms, some telegraphic signs, which, on account of their mul¬ 
 tiplicity and their extreme complication, we could not understand. 
 We were inclined to think, nevertheless, that Master ling had 
 made a discovery. As soon as he was near enough to make us 
 hear, he cried, in his sharp nasal tones, “ Let us move directly ; 
 we can go and lodge at the theatre: it’s an excellent' place for 
 seeing and breathing ! ” 
 
 Without asking for-any more explanation, we went back into 
 the house. A porter appeared, who took up our baggage, and, in 
 the twinkling of an eye, we had left the Hotel of Beatitudes to 
 become tenants of the theatre of Yao-tchang. This theatre 
 formed part of a-great Bonze Convent, and was situated in an 
 immense court-yard opposite to the principal pagoda. Its con¬ 
 struction was rather remarkable, in comparison with the numerous 
 edifices'of this kind to be met with in China. Twelve great 
 granite columns supported a vast square platform surmounted by 
 a pavilion richly ornamented, and supported on pillars of varnished 
 wood. 
 
 A broad stone staircase, situated at the back of the building, 
 led to the platform, first into an apartment intended for the actors, 
 and thence to the stage by two side doors, which served for 
 
A LODGING IN THE THEATRE. 
 
 167 
 
 entrances and exits. Upon the stage were placed some chairs 
 and a table, and there we supped by the light of the moon and 
 stars, as well as of a number of lanterns, which the directors of the 
 theatre had had kindled in our honour; it was really a charming 
 spectacle, and one altogether unlooked for. If we had not taken 
 the precaution to have the great gate of the Bonze Convent shut, we 
 should soon have had the whole population of Yao-tchang in the 
 space that was intended to serve for a pit. It is certain that the 
 inhabitants of this place had never seen on their stage anything 
 they would think as curious as ourselves. "We heard a tumultuous 
 mob outside, demanding with loud cries to be allow’ed a sight of 
 the two men from the Western seas at supper. They seemed to 
 think we must have some quite peculiar and extraordinary method 
 of eating. Some succeeded in getting upon the roof of the Bonze 
 Convent, and some had climbed over the enclosure and up into 
 some high trees, whence they could command a view of us, and 
 where we saw them jumping about among the leaves like large 
 monkies. .These curious and intrepid persons must have been 
 much disappointed to see us eating our rice with chopsticks, quite 
 in the established Chinese fashion. 
 
 The evening was* delightfully fine, and the air delicious on this 
 platform, where we begged our servant to place our beds, as we 
 desired to pass the night there. All was made ready, and we 
 wished to go to bed; but our watchful observers manifested no 
 inclination to quit their posts, and at last we had to put out the 
 lanterns, in order to drive them home. As they departed, we 
 heard some of them say, “ Why, these men are just like us ! ” 
 “ Not quite,” said another ; “ the little devil has very large eyes, 
 and the tall one a very pointed nose. 1 noticed that difference.” 
 
 At break of day, Master Ting arrived, presented himself on the 
 stage, and was so obliging as to set about waking us, by giving a 
 roll on an enormous drum which stood in a corner, and, doubtless, 
 served for the orchestra, when there was a pei’formance. 
 
 After having thus exhibited his talents as a drummer, he 
 bethought himself to give us, also, a specimen of his dramatic 
 capabilities. He therefore placed himself in the middle of the 
 stage, threw himself into a theatrical attitude, sang a song with 
 much gesticulation, and then undertook, solus, a very animated 
 dialogue, changing his voice and his place, when the turn of the sup¬ 
 posed interlocutor came. When the dialogue was finished, he was 
 not tired, but favoured us, also, with a taste of his quality as a 
 tumbler. “ Now,” said he, “ do you pay attention, I am going to 
 show you some tricks of agility ; ” and in a moment, there he was. 
 
 m 4 
 
168 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 leaping, gambolling, pirouetting, and tumbling bead over heels. 
 But, just as he was at the height of his performance, a door of the 
 Bonze Convent was heard to open, and he immediately stopped 
 short, and rushed off into the slips, saying,it would never do to 
 allow the people to see a Mandarin mimicking the play-actors. 
 
 We profited by his absence to get up, and very soon all the 
 people of our escort, who the preceding night had been obliged to 
 disperse and seek a lodging, were assembled at the gates. The 
 palanquin bearers and porters arrived shortly after, and all w r as 
 made ready for our departure. 
 
 Yao-tchang is built on the banks of the Blue River, whose tran¬ 
 quil and majestic course we could perceive from the top of the 
 Bonze Convent; and, although we had more than once protested 
 against travelling by water, we thought we would make one more 
 experiment, and see whether we could not manage to make it 
 more agreeable than it had been the first time. 
 
 In a very long journey, some change in the mode of travelling 
 is always desirable, as the uniformity becomes at last excessively 
 wearisome : the palanquin has, doubtless, its advantages, which 
 are not to be despised; but to be for a long time together shut up 
 every day in a cage, and balanced upon the shoulders of four un¬ 
 fortunate fellows, whom you see, panting, and perspiring with heat 
 and fatigue,—one does, sometimes, get rather tired of that. 
 
 We proposed, therefore, to our conductors to make a stage by 
 water ; the proposal was received with enthusiasm, and, for fear 
 we should change our minds, everybody made as much haste as 
 possible in preparing for the embarcation : as they knew that we 
 had a horror of dawdling, they displayed a really marvellous 
 activity. According to our recommendation, two boats were hired, 
 one for ourselves and the Mandarins, the other for the soldiers, 
 attendants, and palanquin bearers; and as soon as ever we came 
 on board, they weighed anchor, and we set off, the beauty of the 
 weather and the calmness of the water affording us hopes of a 
 pleasant journey. The cabin we occupied was spacious, and 
 pretty well ventilated; and if not absolutely clean, was at least 
 tolerably dirty. 
 
 We had not yet had time to offer Master Ting our compliments 
 on the brilliant theatrical abilities he had developed, and we now 
 expressed to him the happiness we felt in admiring in him a talent 
 that we had not expected. Our little dose of flattery had a 
 magical effect. After having replied, with due modesty, that he 
 had no talent of the sort, he immediately proposed to go through a 
 little dramatic piece in the cabin, with the assistance of the two 
 
THEATRICAL TASTES OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 169 
 
 military Mandarins, who also volunteered to take a part. There 
 was no need 0/ any long preparation ; the proposal was scarcely 
 made before the two functionaries had begun their comedy, if one 
 may give that name to a buffoonish dialogue, seasoned with gri¬ 
 mace and contortion. 
 
 Their repertoire appeared inexhaustible, and, now they had once 
 begun, we had great difficulty in inducing them to resume a 
 language and manners more in accordance with their official dignity. 
 To say the truth, however, our Mandarins really only wanted a 
 little more practice, and a rather better memory, to make excellent 
 actors. There is, perhaps, not a people in the world who carry so 
 far their taste and passion for theatrical entertainments as the 
 !| Chinese. We said just now that they were a nation of cooks, and 
 we might also assert, with truth, that they are a nation of actors. 
 These men have minds and bodies endowed with so much supple¬ 
 ness and elasticity, that they can transform themselves at will, and 
 express by turns the most opposite passions. There is, in fact, 
 a good deal of the monkey in their nature, and, when one has lived 
 some time among them, one cannot but wonder how people in 
 Europe could ever take it into their heads that China was a kind 
 of vast academy, peopled with sages and philosophers. Their 
 gravity and their wisdom, exclusive of some official proceedings, 
 are scarcely found out of their classical books. The Celestial 
 Empire has much more resemblance to an immense fair, where, 
 
 : amidst a perpetual flux and reflux of buyers and sellers, of brokers, 
 
 : loungers, and thieves, you see in all quarters stages and mounte¬ 
 banks, jokers and comedians, labouring uninterruptedly, to amuse 
 the public. Over the whole surface of the country, in the eighteen 
 ! provinces, in the towns of the first, second and third order, in the 
 burghs and the villages, rich and poor, Mandarins and people, all 
 i the Chinese, without exception, are passionately addicted to 
 j dramatic representations. There are theatres everywhere; the 
 great towns are full of them, and the actor's play night and day. 
 There is no little village that has not its theatre, which is usually 
 placed opposite to the pagoda, and sometimes even forms a part of 
 it. In some circumstances the permanent theatres are not found 
 sufficient, and then the Chinese construct temporary ones, with 
 wonderful facility, out of bamboo. The Chinese theatre is always 
 extremely simple, and its arrangements are such as to exclude all 
 idea of scenic illusion. The decorations are fixed, and do not 
 change as long as the piece lasts. One would never know what 
 they were intended for, if the actors themselves did not take care 
 to inform the public, and correct the motionless character of the 
 
170 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 scenes by verbal explanations. The only arrangement that is ever 
 made with a view to scenic effect is the introduction of a kind of 
 trap-door in the front of the stage, that serves for the entrances 
 and exits of supernatural personages, and goes by the name of the 
 “ Gate of Demons.” 
 
 The collections of Chinese dramatic pieces are very* extensive; 
 the richest is that of the Mongol dynasty, called the yuen , and it 
 is from this repertory that various pieces, translated by learned 
 Europeans, have been taken. With respect to their literary merit, 
 we may quote the judgment pronounced on them by M. Edouard 
 Biot. “ The plot of all these pieces,” says that learned Chinese 
 scholar, “ is very simple ; the actors themselves announce the person 
 they represent; there is seldom any connection between the scenes, 
 and very often the most burlesque details are mingled with the 
 gravest subjects.* 
 
 “ In general, it does not appear that these pieces deserve to be 
 rated above our old booth plays; and we may believe that the 
 dramatic art in China is still in its infancy, if we can trust the 
 accounts of travellers who have been present at theatrical perfor¬ 
 mances at Canton, and even at Pekin. 
 
 “ It may be that its imperfect state depends in a great measure 
 on the degraded condition of the Chinese actors, who are mere 
 servants, hired for wages by a speculator, and who have to please 
 an ignorant mob, in order to eafn their wretched subsistence. 
 But, if we find little intrinsic merit, in the Chinese chefs-d’ceuvres 
 which have been presented to European readers, they cannot but 
 be curious, regarded as studies of manners; and, in this point of 
 view, we sincerely thank the learned men who have introduced 
 them to us.” 
 
 The companies of Chiftese actors are not attached to any theatre 
 in particular; they are all of the itinerant class, going wherever 
 they are wanted, and travelling with an enormous apparatus of 
 costumes and decorations. The appearance of these caravans is 
 very peculiar, and recalls the picturesque descriptions of our gangs 
 of gipsies. You often meet with them on the rivers, which they 
 travel on by preference, for reasons of economy. 
 
 These' wandering bands are usually hired for a certain number 
 of days; sometimes by Mandarins or rich private persons, but more 
 frequently by associations formed in the various quarters of towns 
 and in villages. 
 
 * It might have been added that Chinese dramas are full of very equivocal 
 jokes, and often of revolting obscenity. 
 
CHINESE AUDIENCES. 
 
 171 
 
 There is always some pretext for getting up a play—the pro¬ 
 motion of a Mandarin, a good harvest, a lucrative speculation, a 
 danger to be averted, the cessation of a drought, or of rain, every 
 event, whether fortunate or unfortunate, must always be celebrated 
 by a theatrical performance. The heads of the district assemble, 
 and decree that there shall be a play, lasting so many days, and 
 then everybody has to contribute to the expenses in proportion to 
 his means. Sometimes this is done by one person, who wishes to 
 offer a treat to his fellow-citizens, or to obtain for himself the 
 
 I character of being a generous man. , 
 
 In commercial transactions of importance there is often a stipu¬ 
 lation that, over and above the price, there shall be a certain 
 number of dramatic entertainments given by one or other party. 
 
 1 Sometimes disputes arise concerning this article of the treaty, and 
 he who is declared by the arbiters to have been in the wrong has 
 to pay one or two representations by way of fine. 
 
 The lower classes of the people are always admitted gratuitously 
 to the theatre, and they never fail to profit by the permission, 
 j Some theatre or other is always to be found open at every hour 
 of the day or night in the great towns. The villages are not so 
 favoured, and as they have but few subscribers, they can only 
 afford to have the actors at certain periods of the year. If they 
 hear, however, that there is a play to be performed anywhere in 
 their neighbourhood, the villagers will often, after all the toil of 
 the day, walk five or six miles to see it. 
 
 The spectators are always in the open air, and the place assigned 
 to them has no precise limit. Every one chooses the best post he 
 can find, in the street, upon the roof of a house, or up a tree, so 
 that the clamour and confusion prevailing in these assemblies'may 
 easily be imagined. The whole audience eats, drinks, smokes, and 
 talks as much as it pleases. The small dealers in provisions move 
 about incessantly among the crowd; and whilst the actors are 
 exerting all their talents to revive before the public some great 
 national or tragic event, these merchants are howling themselves 
 hoarse to announce the bits of sugar-cane, sweet fried potatoes, 
 and other dainties contained in their ambulatory shops. 
 
 It is not the custom at theatres in China to applaud or hiss. 
 Women are forbidden to appear on the stage, and their parts are 
 played by young men, who imitate so well the feminine voice and 
 dress, that the resemblance is perfect. Custom does, however, 
 permit the women to dance on the rope, or perform equestrian 
 feats; and they show, especially in the northern provinces, pro¬ 
 digious skill in these exercises. One can hardly conceive how, 
 
172 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 with their little feet, they can dance on a tight rope, stand firmly 
 on horseback, and perform many other difficult feats. 
 
 As we have before had occasion to remark, the Chinese succeed 
 wonderfully well in all that depends on address and agility. 
 Jugglers are very numerous, and the skill of many of them would 
 astonish our most celebrated sleight-of-hand practitioners. 
 
 Our voyage on the Blue River was rapid and extremely pleasant. 
 We arrived at Fou-ki-hien in the afternoon, having gone 150 li, 
 or about 45 miles, in four hours and a half. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 
 Temple of Literary Composition.— Quarrel with a Doctor.—A Citizen in the 
 Cangue. — His Deliverance.—Visit to the Tribunal of Ou-chan—The Pre¬ 
 fect and Military Commandant of Ou-chan. — Medical Jurisprudence of the 
 Chinese.— Inspection of Dead Bodies.— Frequent Suicides in China.— Con¬ 
 siderations on this Subject.—Singular Character of Chinese Politeness.—The 
 Boundaries which separate the Frontier of Sse-tchouen from that of Hou-pe. 
 
 —Glance over Sse-tchouen.— Its principal Productions-Character of its 
 
 Inhabitants.— Kouang-ti, God of War and Patron of the Mantchoo Dynasty. 
 
 •—Official Worship paid to him.—Wells of Salt and Fire.— State of Scientific 
 Knowledge among the Chinese. — State of Christianity in the Province of 
 Sse-tchouen. 
 
 Fou-ki-hien is a town of the third rank, built on the left bank of 
 the Blue River. We were struck on our arrival by the distin¬ 
 guished and elegant appearance of its inhabitants. It is said that 
 literature is here held in great honour, and that the district of 
 Fou-ki-hien contains, immense numbers of students and lettered 
 men of every grade. 
 
 As the Communal Palace is situated in a not very airy quarter, 
 a very cool and pleasant lodging had been prepared for us in the 
 Wen-tchang-koun, or Temple of Literary Composition, where the 
 assemblies of the literary corporation are held, and the examinations 
 for degrees take place. 
 
 We found this Wen-tchang-koun larger and richer than any 
 edifice of the kind that we had ever visited; it contained several 
 halls devoted to special purposes, which were wainscoted with 
 varnished wood, and furnished in the ornamental style of Chinese 
 luxury and grandeur. These saloons are destined for literary 
 meetings, as well as for banquets; for in China the admirers of 
 the belles lettres by no means disdain gastronomic indulgences, 
 and are as well inclined to criticise a good dish as a literary com- 
 
THE WEN-TCHANG-KOUN, 
 
 173 
 
 position. When the company has become somewhat elevated with 
 ' poetry or rice wine, they are invited to a stroll by a magnificent 
 garden ; on one side of which is seen, among great trees, a pretty 
 pagoda, erected in honour of Confucius, and on the other a range 
 of little cells, where, during the examinations, students are shut 
 up, to write on the questions assigned them. No one is to have in 
 his cell anything more than an inkstand, some of the little 
 brushes used for pens, and seme blank paper; all communication 
 with the outer world is interdicted until they have finished their 
 composition, and to guard against the infraction of this important 
 rule, a sentinel is placed at the door of each student. 
 
 An octagonal tower with four floors rises in the middle of the 
 garden, and as we were known to be very fond of fresh air, they were 
 so kind as to lodge us in the uppermost one, whence we enjoyed an 
 enchanting prospect of the various quarters of the town, with its 
 enclosure of embattled walls ; beyond them the country, scattered 
 over with farms, and covered with rich and varied vegetation, and 
 the noble Blue River, whose windings we could trace far through 
 the plain, till, after hiding itself for a little while behind green 
 hills, it reappeared, and then finally was lost to sight in the horizon. 
 
 As soon as we were installed, like feudal lords, in our donjon 
 keep, the literary graduates and the functionaries of the town 
 hastened to pay us a visit. We could not, however, afford more 
 than a few hours to the demands of ceremony, for we much 
 desired repose. The gentle rocking motion of the boat and the 
 monotony of the languid conversation had both contributed to 
 overpower us with sleep. As soon as possible, therefore, we told 
 our servant to say we could not be seen any more, locked our door, 
 and lay down on our reed mats. 
 
 While we were still in the transition state between sleeping and 
 waking, we heard a voice not far from our door, and, listening, 
 could distinguish the voice of our servant quarrelling, as it seemed, 
 with a visitor who would take no denial, and insisted on seeing us, 
 whether we would or not. 
 
 The visitor was alleging his title of doctor, and asserting that 
 as the Wen-tchang-koun was the property of men of letters, it 
 gave him the- right of visiting, and even scrutinising, those who 
 had taken up their lodging in it. Wei-chan resisted courageously, 
 till at length the other, offended at an opposition so lively and un¬ 
 expected, went so far as to strike him. The vociferation now 
 became louder, the curious, as usual in such cases, came running 
 from all quarters, and it was evidently necessary for us to get up, 
 and give a lesson in the “Rites” to this impertinent doctor. 
 
174 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 As soon as the door was opened, it was easy to see how the 
 matter stood, for Wei-chan, fairly boiling over with anger, seemed 
 ready to fly at the doctor, and eat him up. He, on his side, was 
 so occupied with his antagonist, that he did not notice us, till he 
 felt himself seized strongly by the arm, and, turning suddenly, 
 was petrified at finding himself face to face with a Western devil 
 in a yellow cap. We dragged him into our chamber, where he 
 was summoned to give an account of himself. 
 
 “ Who are you?” 
 
 “ I am a doctor of this town.” 
 
 “No! you are not a doctor, you are a rude and ignorant man. 
 What do you want?” 
 
 “ I came to walk in the Temple of Literary Composition, to 
 recreate my mind and my heart.” 
 
 “ Go and recreate yourself elsewhere, and don’t come here 
 disturbing our rest. Take yourself quickly out of our presence! 
 If you like you can tell your friends that you have seen us, and 
 that we drove you out because you understood nothing of the 
 social virtues.” 
 
 The doctor showed some symptoms of resistance. “But who 
 then,” cried he, “is master in the Wen-tchang-koun?” 
 
 “ In our room we are masters, and, consequently, you must get 
 out as fast as you can; and if you don’t go by the staircase, we 
 will throw you out of the window. Will you go?” 
 
 The doctor, doubtless, thought we were in earnest in this 
 threat, for he disappeared in a moment, and we heard him 
 running down the stairs at a great rate. This might be, perhaps, 
 a good opportunity to say something of the pedantry and arro¬ 
 gance of the lettered Chinese; but we shall have occasion to 
 speak on the subject by and by. 
 
 This little incident had quite taken away our inclination to 
 sleep, so, after the doctor had departed, we came down from our 
 tower to explore the Temple of Literary Composition. 
 
 We were crossing the garden in the direction of the pagoda of 
 Confucius, when we perceived, at the end of a long corridor that 
 led to the street, an unfortunate man on his knees, and loaded 
 with a gi’eat cangue. The cangue, as is well known, is an 
 enormous block of wood, with a hole in the middle, through which ’ 
 the head of the criminal is passed; it presses with all its weight 
 upon his shoulders, so that this atrocious torture makes a man, as 
 it were, the foot of a huge heavy table. 
 
 We walked towards him, and the miserable creature imme¬ 
 diately began to implore our mercy, and begged us to pardon him. 
 
THE PRISONER RELEASED. 
 
 175 
 
 We came nearer, and were greatly affected to see in this 
 horrible situation a very respectable-looking man, with an honest 
 face, who was shedding tears copiously, and imploring our forgive¬ 
 ness. It was a heartrending spectacle. 
 
 We came nearer to read the sentence, which, according to 
 ‘custom, was written in large letters on, strips of white paper, 
 pasted on the cangue'; and scarcely had our eyes glanced over the 
 inscription, than we felt a cold perspiration covering our fore¬ 
 heads. This is what we read on.several strips of paper: — 
 
 “ Condemned to fifteen days of cangue, the nights not excepted, 
 for the offence of disrespect towards the strangers'of the West, 
 who are under the protection of the Emperor. Let the people 
 tremble, reflect, and correct their faults!” 
 
 On each of the three strips there was the red seal of the Prefect 
 of Fou-ki-hien. 
 
 Fortunately the Tribunal was only a few yards off; we ran 
 thither, and obtained a short interview with the Prefect, who 
 immediately came back with us, to set the unfortunate man at 
 liberty. But before taking off the cangue, the Prefect thought 
 proper to address to him a long speech, first on the merciful 
 nature of our hearts, and then on the practice of the three social 
 relations. We had hardly patience to listen to him, and there 
 were some moments when we really should have been glad to see 
 the untimely speechilier in the place of the sufferer, whose whole 
 crime, it appeared, was the having said to one of the guardians of 
 the temple,' “ Some years ago the Western devils came from the 
 | South, but now they come from the North too.” The poor fellow 
 had, it is true, applied to us a not very polite nickname, but he 
 was not the inventor of it. It is under this malignant denomina¬ 
 tion the Europeans are best known in China; and if all those who 
 use it were to be put in the cangue, the whole Empire would soon 
 find its way there, beginning with the Mandarins. 
 
 As soon as the poor man had been released, we invited him to 
 come to our room, and served him with tea and a little collation, 
 explaining to him, as well as we could, how grieved we were to 
 have been the involuntary cause of his deplorable adventure. 
 Our reconciliation was already complete, when an old man with 
 a white beard and two very young men were introduced to us; 
 they were the father and the sons of the person who had become 
 our friend in so singular a manner. 
 
 They threw themselves on their knees to express their grati¬ 
 tude for what they had the simplicity to call our benefits. They 
 burst into tears, and seemed not to know what to say to express 
 
176 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 their feelings, till at last we really could not bear it any longer. 
 We had to do indeed with Chinese, whose sincerity may always 
 be a little suspected; but it is a horrible thing to see an old man 
 sobbing and shedding tears. We rose, therefore, and bid farewell 
 to these good people, for whom our passage through their country 
 had been the occasion of such lively and painful emotions. 
 
 We quitted Fou-ki-hien with a certain feeling of regret ; for 
 it was not with this town as with so many others which left us no 
 profound recollections, and which we traversed and left almost 
 with the same indifference as our temporary encampments in the 
 desert. We had only passed half a day at Fou-ki-hien, but we 
 had felt there such strong and varied emotions, that it seemed as 
 if we had made a long stay. The Temple of Literary Composition, 
 that tow^er from the top of which we commanded a view of the 
 town and country; the rash enterprise of the intrepid doctor; the 
 unfortunate citizen sinking under the cangue, his deliverance, the 
 pathetic visit of his father and children — all this seemed to make 
 an epoch, and to leave behind it the most vivid remembrance. 
 Time is a profound mystery, and the human soul alone is capable 
 of estimating its duration. To live long is to think and feel much. 
 
 We had now to choose between the route by water and that by 
 land, for the course of the Blue River would take us as far as our 
 next stage. The last experiment had succeeded so well, that we 
 had a fnind to try it a second time; and we felt sure beforehand of 
 finding the people of our escort quite of our opinion. In a boat 
 we went faster, more conveniently, and with much less expense ; 
 they could, therefore, realise enormous profits, which they divided 
 among them, though always in such a manner that the Mandarins 
 had the greatest part. The palanquin bearers also found their 
 advantage in it; for after having passed the day in playing at 
 cards, they still received their customary wages; and provided the 
 navigation was not dangerous, and that they would give us a good 
 boat, we on our part were happy to be able to procure our con¬ 
 ductors these advantages. 
 
 This second experiment was also crowned with complete success, 
 and quite reconciled us to the Blue River, for which we had before 
 felt so great an antipathy. We came, from time to time, to some 
 rather difficult places, reefs of rocks on a level with the water ; 
 but the skill and experience of our mariners always carried us 
 past them without damage. It was almost night when we arrived 
 at Ou-Chan, where we were conducted to the Communal Palace, 
 well i-eceived and well treated. The evening wore on, however, 
 and we had not yet seen any of the authorities of the place, except 
 
STRANGE IF TRUE. 
 
 177 
 
 an officer of very inferior rank, who held an appointment at the 
 port, in the Salt Custom-house. This was by no means conform¬ 
 able to established rule; and as we were always on our guard to 
 suffer no encroachment on the privileges that had been granted to 
 us, and which constituted our strength and our security, we begged 
 to have it explained why we were deprived of the honour of a 
 visit from the Mandarins of Ou-chan ? The reply was that the 
 Prefect was absent. “ And his deputy ? ” “ Absent too.” “And 
 the military commandant of the district?” “He set off this 
 morning. All the functionaries, civil and military, are absent on 
 government business.” We treated this as a bad joke, and thought 
 we should have to put to rights, every day, a machine that was 
 constantly threatening to get out of order. 
 
 We ordered our palanquin, and invited Master Ting to be good 
 enough to accompany us immediately to the Prefect’s tribunal. 
 He made no objection, and we set off. The tribunal was closed; 
 we had it opened. All the lights were out; we had them kindled. 
 We entered the saloon of reception, and the servants of the Prefect 
 hastened to offer us tea ; but no ball, of any colour whatever, was 
 to be seen. At last, the sse-ye presented himself. These sse-ye 
 are counsellors or pedagogues, whom the magistrates choose for 
 themselves, to aid and direct them in the management of affairs ; 
 they are paid by the magistrate, and do not belong officially to 
 the administration, but their influence is immense; they are in 
 fact the springs that set the wheels of the tribunal in motion. 
 The sse-ye of Ou-chan assui'ed us, that the Prefect and the other 
 principal functionaries had been absent for several days, engaged 
 in the investigation of a cause of the highest importance. We 
 begged his pardon for coming to disturb him at so late an hour; 
 but added, that having to see the Prefect, we would, since he was 
 absent, await his return. No doubt that would in some measure 
 delay our arrival at Canton ; but that this would be of no great 
 consequence, as our business allowed of a certain latitude ; and 
 thereupon we returned to the Communal Palace. 
 
 Master Ting had heard our conversation with the sse-ye ; and 
 he needed no moi'e to convince him that we were about to take up 
 our quarters at Ou-chan, to await the return of the Prefect, and 
 that until then nothing would induce us to move. He had by this 
 time become a little accustomed to the barbarism of our character 
 and the inflexibility of our resolutions. We had hardly, therefore, 
 returned to the Communal Palace before he began laughing to 
 warn the travellers that they might sleep in peace, for that it was 
 our intention to fix ourselves definitely at Ou-chan. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The next day, when the sun was tolerably high, all the inhabi¬ 
 tants of the palace were still plunged in sleep ; the most profound 
 silence reigned all over it. Nothing was to be heard but the 
 sound of a torrent, which behind the house was dashing over great 
 rocks that opposed its passage. 
 
 This tranquillity rather flattered us, for it showed the attention 
 that had been paid to what we had said the evening before. 
 
 Soon after noon, however, we heard, all on a sudden, a great 
 clamour mingled with the sound of the tam-tams and the noisy 
 detonations of fire-works. An officer of the tribunal now came to 
 inform us that the Prefect had arrived with the other Mandarins 
 of the town. We made no delay in receiving his visit, and he 
 presented himself, accompanied by the military commandant of 
 the district, who was decorated with the Blue Ball, and bore the 
 title of tou-sse. He was of the same rank as Ly, the “ Pacificator 
 of Kingdoms,” w r ho after having long served us for an escort across 
 the frightful route of Thibet, died so miserably without ever seeing 
 his country again. 
 
 The Chinese have so elaborately developed their system of lying 
 and deceit, that it is very difficult to believe them, even when they 
 do speak the truth. Thus we were persuaded that this absence 
 and return of the Prefect and the Mandarins of Ou-chan was only 
 a trick, yet we were nevertheless mistaken ; and the Chinese, 
 extraordinary as it may seem, had not told a lie. As soon as we 
 saw the Prefect and the military commandant, it was easy for us 
 to perceive that they really had just come from a journey: the 
 exhaustion evident in their faces, the dust with which they were 
 covered, their disordered garments, all announced that they had 
 been passing many hours in their palanquins. 
 
 The Prefect was a man of about sixty years of age, with a grey 
 beard, a short thick-set figure, and a merely moderate amount of 
 embonpoint . His face had an expression of simplicity and good 
 nature, extremely rare in Chinese physiognomies, and especially 
 in those of the Mandarins. The tou-sse was about the same age, 
 and rather above the middle size, though a little bent; his coun¬ 
 tenance also was very open, but he did not belong to the Chinese 
 race. He was of Mongol origin, and had passed his youth in the 
 Land of Grass, leading a nomadic life in the deserts ; several of 
 the countries he had wandered over were perfectly well known to 
 us. When we spoke the Mongol language to him, he seemed 
 quite affected, and would certainly have shed some tears, if he had 
 not feared to compromise his character as a soldier. These two 
 personages pleased us ; we were very glad we had waited for 
 
THE WASHING OF THE PIT. 
 
 179 
 
 them, and they, on their side, seemed very well satisfied to see 
 us, which we believed so much the more, because they did not 
 endeavour to express it by any of the emphatic formulas of 
 Chinese politeness. We read it on their faces; and this method 
 afforded us a far more satisfactory proof than the other would have 
 done. 
 
 The Prefect of Ou-chan entered into some details concerning 
 the motives of his absence. He had gone with his assessors to a 
 village under his jurisdiction, to inquire into the case of a man 
 found dead in a field, and determine whether the death had been 
 a natural one, or the result of a murder or suicide. We addressed 
 several questions to him, on a certain method employed by Chinese 
 | justice, in order to make the wounds and contusions of a dead 
 j body appear, even after decomposition has begun, and thus to 
 ascertain the mode of death. 
 
 We had heard a great deal of the measures adopted by magis¬ 
 trates on such occasions, and, indeed, some such extraordinary 
 things, that we were very glad to get some information about 
 them from an authentic source. 
 
 The Prefect had not now time to satisfy our curiosity on all 
 points ; but he promised to come back in the evening, and bring 
 with him the book entitled Si-yuen ; that is to say, “The Washing 
 i of the Pit;” a work on medical jurisprudence, very celebrated in 
 ! China, and which should be in the hands of all magistrates. The 
 Prefect kept his word; and the evening was devoted to a rapid 
 examination of this curious book, upon which also the Mandarins 
 | of Ou-chan did not fail to furnish many commentaries, as well as 
 to relate a number of anecdotes that we will not repeat, as we 
 have no means of testing their truth. 
 
 In all times, the Chinese government has shown great solicitude 
 for the discovery of homicide and the examination of bodies 
 | found dead. After the conflagration and destruction of the 
 libraries by the famous Tsing-che-hoang, there remained no 
 work on medical jurisprudence of older date than the dynasty of 
 Song, which began in the year 960 of our era. 
 
 The Mongol dynasty of Yuen, which succeeded that of Song, 
 had the work remodelled, and enlarged it with the accounts of a 
 ! number of ancient customs that tradition had preserved in various 
 parts of the Empire. After the dynasty of Yuen, that of Ming 
 instituted researches and examinations on this important question, 
 and had many successive works published for the instruction of 
 imagistrates. The Mantchoo dynasty has published a new edition 
 !of the Si-yuen, or “Washing of the Pit.” To dig this pit a dry 
 
 N 2 
 
180 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 and, if possible, clayey soil must be chosen; the pit must be made 
 five or six feet long, three wide, and as many deep; it is then to 
 be filled with dry branches of trees and brushwood, and a fire kept 
 up in it, till the sides and the bottom are heated almost to a white 
 beat. The ashes are then taken out, a quantity of rice wine poured 
 in, and the dead body placed over the opening, on a hurdle made 
 of osier twigs; then the whole is covered with tiles placed in a 
 hollow form, so as to leave every part of the body free to be acted 
 upon by the vapour of the rice wine. Two hours afterwards, every 
 mark of a wound or a blow will appear quite distinctly. The Si- 
 yuen declares that the same operation may be performed with the 
 bones, arid the same results obtained; and it adds, that if the blows 
 have been of a nature to cause death, the marks will always appear 
 on the bones. 
 
 The Mandarins of Ou-chan asserted that all this was perfectly 
 correct; but we have ourselves had no opportunity of verifying 
 their assertion. 
 
 It is the duty of the Mandarins to perform this operation every 
 time that there arises the least suspicion concerning the death of 
 an individual; they are even obliged to have the body disinterred 
 if it has been buried, and to examine it carefully, even though the 
 exhalations from it should be likely to endanger their lives; ‘‘for,” 
 says the Si-yuen, “ the interest of society requires it, and it is not 
 less glorious to brave the danger of death, to defend one’s fellow- 
 citizens from the knife of the assassin, than from the sword of the 
 enemy. He who has no courage, ought not to be a magistrate, and 
 should resign his office.” 
 
 The Si-yuen passes in review all imaginable methods of causing 
 death, and explains the mode of ascertaining them by examination 
 of the body. 
 
 The Chinese appear to have invented a terrific variety of modes 
 of murder. The article “ strangling ” especially is very rich ; the 
 author distinguishes those “ Strangled by hanging,” “ Strangled 
 on the knees,” “ Strangled lying down,” “ Strangled with a slip 
 knot,” and “ Strangled with a turning knot.” He describes care¬ 
 fully all the marks likely to appear on the body, and indicates the 
 differences where the individual has strangled himself. On the 
 subject of drowming he says, that the bodies of the drowned are 
 very different from those thrown into the water after death. The 
 first have the abdomen much distended, the hair sticking to the 
 bead, foam in the mouth, the hands and feet stiff, and the sole of 
 the foot extremely white. These signs are never found in those 
 thrown into the water after being suffocated, poisoned, or killed 
 
FREQUENT SUICIDES. 
 
 181 
 
 in any other way. As it often happens, in China, that a murderer 
 endeavours to conceal his crime by a fire, the Si-yuen, under the 
 chapter of the “ Burned,” teaches how to find out, by inspection of 
 the body, whether the deceased has been killed before the fire or 
 suffocated by it; among other things it says, that in the first case, 
 neither ashes nor vestiges of fire are found in the mouth and nose, 
 whilst these signs are always found in the latter. 
 
 The last chapter treats of the various kinds of poison, and their 
 antidotes; but however skilful and vigilant magistrates may be, 
 it may easily be supposed that all these practices make a very 
 imperfect substitute for the opening of the body, which ancient 
 and invetei'ate prejudices forbid to be done in China. 
 
 It is impossible to read the Si-yuen without being convinced 
 that the number of attempts against life in this country is very 
 considerable, and especially that suicide is very common. The 
 extreme readiness with which the Chinese are induced to kill 
 themselves, is almost inconceivable; some mere trifle, a word 
 almost, is sufficient to cause them to hang themselves, or throw 
 themselves to the bottom of a well; the two favourite modes of 
 suicide. In other countries, if a man wishes to wreak his ven¬ 
 geance on an enemy, he tries to kill him; in China, on the con¬ 
 trary, he kills himself. This anomaly depends upon various 
 causes, of which these are the principal: — In the first place, 
 Chinese law throws the responsibility of a suicide on those who 
 may be supposed to be the cause or occasion of it. It follows, 
 therefore, that if you wish to be revenged on an enemy, you have 
 only to kill yourself to be sure of getting him into horrible trouble ; 
 for he falls immediately into the hands of justice, and will certainly 
 be tortured and ruined, if not deprived of life. The family of the 
 suicide also usually obtains, in these cases, considerable damages; 
 so that it is by no means a rare case for an unfortunate man to 
 commit suicide in the house of a rich one, from a morbid idea of 
 family affection. In killing his enemy, on the contrary, the 
 murderer exposes his own relatives and friends to injury, disgraces 
 them, reduces them to poverty, and deprives himself of funeral 
 honours, a great point for a Chinese, and concerning which he is 
 extremely anxious. It is to be remarked also, that public opinion, 
 so far from disapproving of suicide, honours and glorifies it. The 
 conduct of a man who destroys his own life, to avenge himself on 
 an enemy whom he has no other way of reaching, is regarded as 
 heroic and magnanimous. 
 
 Finally, we may say that the Chinese dread suffering much 
 more than death. They will sell their lives very cheaply if they 
 
182 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 can hope to get rid of them in an expeditious manner; and it is, 
 perhaps, this consideration that has induced Chinese justice to 
 render the trial of a criminal almost more frightful and terrible 
 than death. 
 
 China is the country of contrasts ; all that you see there is the 
 opposite of what you see anywhere else. Among barbarians, and 
 even in civilised countries where true notions of justice have 
 not sufficiently purified the public conscience, you see the strong, 
 the rich, the powerful, making the poor and weak tremble, op¬ 
 pressing them and sporting with their lives with frightful careless¬ 
 ness ; in China, it is often the weak tvho make the strong and 
 powerful tremble, by holding suspended over their heads the threat 
 of suicide, and forcing them by that means to do them jastice, 
 spare them, and help them. The poor have recourse sometimes to 
 this terrible extremity, to avenge themselves for the hard-hearted¬ 
 ness of the rich, and it is by no means unusual to repel an insult by 
 killing yourself. It would be interesting to compare this mode of 
 duelling a la Chinoise with that which is in use among European 
 nations; there might be traced some curious analogies, and one 
 would be forced to agree that there is pretty much the same extra¬ 
 vagance and absurdity in the one case as in the other. 
 
 The functionaries of Ou-chan treated us with remarkable affa¬ 
 bility, and our talk was prolonged far into the night; each one 
 reported concerning the manners and customs of his country; 
 China, Mongolia, and France asserted their respective pretensions, 
 by the mouth of their representatives; and it was at last agreed 
 that all countries have a fund of good and bad qualities, which 
 pretty well balance e^cli other; though we endeavoured, never¬ 
 theless, to prove that Christian nations are, or might be, more 
 virtuous than others, since they were always under the influence 
 ot a holy and divine religion, tending essentially to develope good 
 qualities and stifle bad ones. The Mandarins declared our reason¬ 
 ing quite conclusive ; and asserted, if not from conviction at least 
 from courtesy, that France occupied incontestably the first rank 
 among the ten thousand kingdoms of the earth. Their good-will 
 towards us was even carried so far as to invite us seriously and 
 sincerely to stop another day at On-chan ; the temptation was 
 great, but we resisted it, because it was essential to preserve for 
 our extraordinary halts the peculiar character that we had endea¬ 
 voured to give them. Besides, since the Mandarins of Ou-chan had 
 had the politeness to invite us to stop, we were so much the more 
 bound to have the politeness to go. Politeness before everything ! 
 It is quite the custom in China to give the most pressing invita- 
 
A HOSPITABLE MAN. 
 
 183 
 
 tions, but only on condition that they shall he refused ; to accept 
 them would be to show that you had had a very bad education. 
 
 During the time when we were at our Northern Mission, we 
 were witnesses of a most curious fact, which was wonderfully 
 characteristic of the Chinese, It was one of our festival days, and 
 we were to celebrate the Holy Office at the house of the first 
 Catechist, where there was a tolerably large chapel, to which the 
 Christians of the neighbouring villages were in the habit of 
 coming in great numbers. After the ceremony, the master of the 
 house posted himself in the middle of the court, and began to call 
 to the Christians who were leaving the chapel:—“Don’t let any¬ 
 body go away. To-day I invite every one to eat rice in my house ; ” 
 and then he ran from one group to another urging them to stay. 
 But every one alleged some reason or other for going, and went. 
 The courteous host appeared quite distressed; at last he spied a 
 cousin of his. who had almost reached the door, and rushed 
 towards him saying, “ What, cousin ! are you going too ? Impos¬ 
 sible! this is a holiday, and you really must stop.” “No,” said 
 the other, “ do not press me, I have business at home that I must 
 attend to.” “Business! what to-day, a day of rest! Absolutely 
 you shall stop, I won’t let you go; ” and he seized the cousin’s 
 robe and tried to bring him back by main force, while the desired 
 guest struggled as well as he could, and sought to prove that his 
 business was too pressing to allow of his remaining. “ Well,” 
 said the host at last, “ since you positively cannot stay to eat rice, 
 we must at least drink a few glasses of wine together. I should 
 be quite ashamed if my cousin went away from my house without 
 taking anything.” “Well,” replied the cousin, “it don t take 
 much. 0 time to drink a glass of wine,” and he turned back ; they 
 re-entered the house and sat down in the company room. The 
 master then called in a loud voice, though without appearing to 
 address any one in particular : — “ Heat some wine, and fry two 
 eggs! 
 
 In the meantime, till the hot wine and fried eggs should arrive, 
 the two lighted their pipes and began to gossip, and then they lit 
 and smoked again, but the wine and eggs did not make their 
 appearance. 
 
 The cousin, who most likely really had some business, at last 
 ventured to inquire of his hospitable entertainer, how long he 
 thought it would be before the wine would be ready. 
 
 “Wine!” replied the host, “wine! Have we got any wine 
 here ? Don’t you know very well that I never drink wine ? it 
 hurts my stomach.” 
 
 n 4 
 
184 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “In that case,” said the cousin, “surely you might have let me 
 go. Why did you press me to stay ? ” 
 
 Hereupon the master of the mansion rose, and assumed an atti¬ 
 tude of lofty indignation. 
 
 “Upon my word,” said he, “ anybody might know what country 
 you come from! What! I have the politeness to invite you to 
 drink wine, and you have not even the politeness to refuse ! 
 Where in the world have you learned your rites? Among the 
 Mongols, I should think.” And the poor cousin, understanding 
 that he had been guilty of a terrible solecism, stammered some 
 words of apology, and filling his pipe once more, departed. 
 
 We were ourselves present at this delightful little scene; and as 
 soon as the cousin was gone, the least we could do was to have a 
 good laugh; but the master of the house did not laugh, he was 
 indignant. He asked us whether we had ever seen such an 
 ignorant, stupid, absurd man as his cousin, and he returned 
 always to his grand principle, that is to say, that a well-bred man 
 will always render politeness for politeness, and that one ought 
 kindly to refuse what another kindly offers; “otherwise,” he 
 cried, “ what would become of us?” We listened without de¬ 
 ciding the question for or against him ; for in what depends upon 
 the customs of nations, it is very difficult to have one sure and 
 certain rule applicable to all; and in looking closely at the matter, 
 we thought we could make out their peculiar views of politeness. 
 Both parties by this means obtain, at small cost, the satisfaction 
 of appearing generous and. obliging to everybody, and on the 
 other hand, everybody can obtain the satisfaction of knowing that 
 he receives a great many kind invitations, and yet has the delicacy 
 to refuse them. Yet, after all, it must be owned this is mere 
 Chinesery. 
 
 The pressing solicitations of the Mandarins of Ou-chan notwith¬ 
 standing, we next day resumed our march, like men who had been 
 in good society, and studied the rites elsewhere than in the deserts 
 of Mongolia. This day’s journey tvas a very toilsome one; first, 
 because it was two days since we had been in a palanquin, and 
 our legs had lost the habit of bending ; and secondly, because we 
 had to traverse a mountainous country. Its aspect was not at all 
 pleasing, but wild and melancholy. The soil was gravelly and 
 sandy, and ill adapted to cultivation; we saw few villages, and 
 when some miserable-looking farmhouses did appear here and 
 there in the bottom of a valley, the inhabitants generally ran to us 
 to ask for a few sapecks by way of alms. 
 
 Towards the afternoon, we climbed a rather steep hill, Master 
 
1'ERTILITY OF SSE-TCHOUEN. 
 
 185 
 
 Ting marching at the head of the column. As soon as he had 
 reached the summit, he got out of his palanquin, and by degrees 
 as the others arrived he made them stop too. We did not com¬ 
 prehend quite well the meaning of this manoeuvre ; but when we 
 too reached the top of the hill, Master Ting invited us to alight 
 from our palanquins, saying, “ Come and see ! Here finishes the 
 province of Sse-tchouen. We are about to enter Hou-pe. This 
 little ditch is the boundary of the two provinces, and I did not 
 like to cross the mountain without pointing it out to you. See,” 
 he added, striding with one leg across the ditch, “now I have one 
 leg in Sse-tchouen, and another in IIou-pe:” and he stood motion¬ 
 less for a minute, in order to enable us fully to conceive this 
 astounding fact. 
 
 Several palanquin bearers, who seemed to think it very strange 
 to have one leg in Sse-tchouen, and the other in Hou-pe, repeated 
 several times the same interesting experiment, and succeeded just 
 as well as the civil Mandarin. Then, after we had rested a short 
 time, and looked eagerly to the right and the left, the way we had 
 come and the way we were going, we set off a^ain, and arrived 
 shortly afterwards at Pa-toung. 
 
 Sse-tchouen (Four Valleys) is the largest province in China, 
 and perhaps also the finest. So at least it appeared to us, after 
 having compared it with the other parts of the Empire that we 
 have had occasion to study in our various journeys. From the 
 frontiers of Thibet to the boundaries of Hou-pe are reckoned 
 forty days’ march, equivalent nearly to an extent of three hundred 
 leagues. Besides a great number of forts and war stations, there 
 are counted in this province nine towns ol the fii'St class, and a 
 hundred and fifteen of the second and third. 
 
 Its temperature is moderate, both in winter and summer, and 
 neither the long and terrible frosts of the northern nor the stifling 
 heats of the southern provinces are ever felt in it, 
 
 Its soil is, from the abundance of rivers by which it is watered, 
 extremely fertile, and it is also pleasantly varied. Vast plains, 
 covered by rich harvests of wheat and other kinds of corn, alter¬ 
 nate with mountains crowned with forests, magnificently fertile 
 valleys, lakes abounding in fish, and navigable rivers. The lang- 
 tse-kiang, one of the finest rivers in the world, traverses this pro¬ 
 vince from south-west to north east. Its fertility is such, that it 
 is said the produce of a single harvest could not be consumed in it 
 in ten years. Great numbers of textile and tinctorial plants are 
 cultivated in it ; among others the herbaceous indigo, which gives 
 a fine blue colour, and a kind of hemp or thistle, from which 
 
186 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 extremely fine and delicate fabrics are produced. On the bills 
 are fine plantations of tea, of which all the most exquisite kinds 
 are kept for the epicures of the province. The coarsest are sent 
 off to the people of Thibet and Turkestan. 
 
 It is to Sse-tchouen that the pharmacists from all the provinces 
 of the Empire send their travellers to lay in their stocks of medi¬ 
 cinal plants ; for, besides that immense quantities are collected in 
 the mountains, they have the reputation of possessing more effi¬ 
 cacious virtues than those found in other countries. A consider¬ 
 able trade is also carried on here with the rhubarb and musk 
 brought from Thibet. 
 
 It would seem as if tbe richness and beauty of Sse-tchouen had 
 exercised a great influence on its inhabitants; for their manners 
 are much superior to those of the Chinese of the other provinces. 
 The great towns are, at least relatively, clean,and neat. The 
 aspect of the villages, and even of the farms, bears witness to the 
 comfortable circumstances of their inhabitants ; and throughout 
 Sse-tchouen you hear nothing of the unintelligible patois so com¬ 
 mon in the other provinces; — the language is nearly as pure as 
 that spoken in Pekin. 
 
 The Sse-tchouennese are of a robust temperament and a more 
 masculine physiognomy than that of the Chinese of the south ; 
 though at the same time not so harsh as that of the northerns. 
 They have the character of being good soldiers, and it is mostly 
 from amongst them that the greater number of military Mandarins 
 is chosen. The province is rather proud of its warlike genius, 
 and of having given birth to a famous general, of whom they have 
 made a god of war. This Chinese Mars is the celebrated 
 Kouang-ti, whose name is. so popular throughout the Celestial 
 Empire, and who was born in Sse-tchouen in the third century of 
 our era. After gaining many splendid victories over the enemies 
 of the Empire, he was killed, with his son Kouang-pmg, who has 
 been made his aide-de-camp. 
 
 The Chinese, who have of course not failed to fabricate a num¬ 
 ber of extravagant legends concerning him, pretend that he did 
 not really die, but ascended to heaven, where he took his place 
 amongst the gods, in order to preside over the fortunes of war. 
 The Tartar Mantchoo dynasty, in ascending the Imperial throne 
 of China, performed the apotheosis of Kouang-ti, and solemnly 
 proclaimed him tutelary spirit of the dynasty. A great number 
 of temples have been raised to him in all the provinces of the 
 Empire, where he is usually represented sitting in a calm, but 
 proud attitude. 
 
THE OFFICIAL WORSHIP. 
 
 187 
 
 His son Kouang-ping, armed cap-a-pie, stands at liis left hand; 
 and on his right hand is seen his faithful squire, holding a large 
 sword, knitting a pair of very thick eyebrows, opening great, 
 round, bloodshot eyes, and apparently intent on nothing but 
 frightening all who look at him. 
 
 The worship of Kouang-ti belongs to the official state religion 
 of China; the people trouble themselves very little about it, and 
 care no more for their god of war than for any of the other 
 Buddhist divinities. But the public functionaries, and especially 
 the military Mandarins, are obliged, on certain days, to go and 
 prostrate themselves in his temple, and burn sticks of incense in 
 his honour. The Mantchoo dynasty, after having taken the 
 trouble to make a god of him, appoint him to be the protector of 
 the Empire, and raise magnificent pagodas in his honour, is of 
 course not going to put up with indifference or want of devotion 
 to him in its own servants. 
 
 The Mantchoos, who, in establishing the worship of Kouang-ti, 
 probably had in view nothing more than a political object, and re¬ 
 garded it only as a means of influencing the minds of the soldiers, 
 have not neglected to lend their authority to the fable of his 
 appearance in all the subsequent wars of the Empire. At various 
 epochs, especially during the war against the Eleuts, and more 
 recently against the rebels of Turkestan, he has been plainly seen, 
 hovering in the air, supporting the courage of the Imperial armies, 
 and overwhelming their enemies with invisible arrows. It is 
 certain, they say, that, with so powerful a protection, they can 
 never fail of victory. One day, when a military Mandarin was 
 relating to us with great naivete, stories of the prowess of the 
 famous Ivouang-ti, we bethought ourselves to ask him, whether 
 he had appeared in the last war that the Empire was engaged in 
 with the English. This question seemed to vex him a little, and, 
 after a moment’s hesitation, he said: “They say he did not, no one 
 saw him.” 
 
 “ It was a very serious affair though, and his presence was by 
 no means unnecessaiy.” 
 
 “ Don’t let us talk any more of that war,” said the Mandarin ; 
 “Kouang-ti certainly did not appear, and it is a very bad sign. 
 They say,” he added, lowering his voice, “ that this dynasty is 
 abandoned by Heaven, and that it will be soon overthrown.” 
 
 This idea that the Mantchoo dynasty has finished its appointed 
 career, and that another will shortly succeed to it, was very widely 
 diffused in China in 1846; during our journey we several times 
 heard it mentioned, and there is little doubt that this kind of vague 
 
188 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 presentiment, prevailing for several years, was a very powerful 
 auxiliary to the insurrection that broke out in 1851, and since then 
 has made such gigantic progress. 
 
 The wonder of Sse-tchouen, and one that deserves to be placed 
 even before the famous Kouang-ti, is what the Chinese call the 
 Yen-tsing and Ho-tsing, wells of salt and wells of fire. We saw 
 a great number of them, but without having time to examine 
 them attentively enough to give a full description of them, and 
 we will therefore quote on this subject a letter of M. Imbert, 
 long a missionary in this province, but subsequently appointed 
 Vicar Apostolic in Corea, where he had the honour to be 
 martyred in 1838. The minute details contained in this letter 
 are very fit to give an exact idea of the patient and laborious 
 industry of the Chinese. We will therefore give the passage as 
 it stands. 
 
 “The number of salt-wells is very considerable; there are some 
 dozens of them in a tract of country of about ten leagues long by 
 four or five broad. Every one here who has made a little money, 
 looks out for a partner, and begins to dig one or more wells. 
 Their manner of digging is not like ours ; these people do every¬ 
 thing in miniature ; they have no idea of carrying on any operation 
 on a grand scale, but with time and patience they attain their 
 objects, and at much less expense than we do. They have not the 
 art of opening rocks by blasting, and all these wells are in the 
 rock. They are usually from fifteen to eighteen hundred French 
 feet deep, and only five or six inches in diameter. The mode of 
 proceeding is this. If there be a depth of three or four feet of 
 soil on the surface, they plant in this a tube of hollow wood 
 surmounted by a stone, in which an orifice of the desired size of 
 four or five inches has been cut. Upon this they bring to work 
 in the tube a rammer of three or four hundred pounds’ weight, 
 which is notched, and made a little concave above and convex 
 below ; a sti-ong man, very lightly dressed, then mounts on a 
 scaffolding, and dances all the morning on a kind of lever, that 
 raises this rammer about two feet, and then lets it fall by its own 
 weight. From time to time a few pails of water are thrown into 
 the hole, to soften the material of the rock, and reduce it to pulp. 
 The rammer is suspended to a rattan cord, not thicker than your 
 finger, but as strong as our ropes of catgut. 
 
 “ This cord is fixed to the lever, and a triangular piece of wood 
 is attached to it, by which another man sitting near gives it a 
 half-turn, so as to make the rammer fall in another direction. At 
 noon this man mounts on the scaffold, and relieves his comrade 
 
SALT AND FIRE-WELLS. 
 
 189 
 
 till the evening; and at night these two are replaced by another 
 pair of workmen. 
 
 “When they have bored three inches, they draw up the tube, 
 with all the matter it is loaded with, by means of a great cylinder, 
 which serves to roll the cord on. In this manner these little wells 
 or tubes are made quite perpendicular, and as polished as glass. 
 Sometimes the ground is not rock all through, but beds of coal 
 and other materials are found, and then the operation becomes 
 more difficult, and sometimes even entirely useless; for, as these 
 substances do not all offer equal resistance, it may happen that the 
 well loses its perpendicularity ; but these cases are rare. Some¬ 
 times the large iron ring that suspends the rammer breaks, and 
 then five or six months’ labour are needed before it is possible, 
 with the help of other rammers, to break up the first and reduce 
 it to a pulp. When the rock is good, the work advances at the 
 rate of two feet in twenty-four hours, so that about three years 
 are required to dig a well. To draw water from it, a tube of 
 bamboo, twenty-four feet long, is put down, at the bottom of which 
 there is a valve or sucker; when it has reached the bottom, a 
 strong man sits on the rope, and shakes it, so that every shake 
 opens the sucker, and makes the water rise. The tube being full, 
 a great spindle-shaped cylinder of fifty feet in circumference, upon 
 which the rope is wound, is worked by two, three, or four 
 buffaloes, till it is drawn up. This rope also is made of rattan. 
 These poor buffaloes, however, are very ill suited to this labour, 
 and they die in great numbers. If the Chinese had our steam- 
 engines, they would be able to perform the work at less cost, but 
 thousands of working people would die of hunger. 
 
 “ The water of these wells is very salt; it gives, on evaporation, 
 one-fifth, or even sometimes one-fourth. The salt is also of very 
 acrid quality, so much so as often to inflame the throat to a 
 painful degree; and it is then necessary to make use of sea-salt, 
 which is brought from Canton or Tonquin. 
 
 “ The air that issues from these wells is highly inflammable. 
 If when the tube full of water is near the top you were to present 
 a torch at the opening, a great flame twenty or thirty feet in height 
 would be kindled, which would burn the shed with the rapidity 
 and explosion of gunpowder. This does happen sometimes through 
 the imprudence of workmen, or in some cases from a malicious 
 desire to commit suicide in company. There are some wells from 
 which fire only, and no salt, is obtained; they are called Ilo-tsing, 
 fire-wells. A little tube of bamboo closes the opening of the well, 
 and conducts the inflammable air to 'where it is required; it is 
 
190 
 
 THE CHINESE EHPIRE. 
 
 then kindled with a taper, and burns continually. The flame is 
 of a bluish colour, three or four inches high, and one inch in 
 diameter. Here the fire is not sufficient to boil the salt, but at 
 about forty leagues off there are much larger fire-wells. 
 
 “ To evaporate the water, and prepare the salt, they make use 
 of large brass tubs, about five feet in diameter, and only four 
 inches deep. 
 
 “The Chinese have found out that, in presenting a larger 
 surface to the fire, the evaporation goes on more quickly and the 
 fuel is economised. This tub, or cauldron, is surrounded by other 
 deeper ones, containing water, which boils at the same fire, and 
 serves to feed the large tub, so that the salt, when evaporated, 
 completely fills the tub, and takes its form. The block of salt 
 weighs two hundred pounds and upwards, and is as hard as 
 stone; it has to be broken into three or four pieces for the pur¬ 
 poses of commerce. 
 
 “ The fire is so strong, that the cauldron becomes red hot, and 
 the water throws up great bubbles to the height of eight or ten 
 inches. When the fossil fire from the wells is made use of, the 
 ebullition is still more violent, and the cauldron is calcined in a 
 short time, although those employed in that case are three or four 
 inches thick. 
 
 For all these salt-wells great quantities of coal are consumed, 
 and various kinds of it are found in the country; but the thickness 
 of these beds of coal varies from only one inch .to five. The sub¬ 
 terranean path leading to the mine is so steep, that bamboo ladders 
 are placed in it. The coal is in large pieces. The greater part 
 of these mines contain much of the inflammable air of which I 
 have spoken, and it is impossible to use lamps in them. The 
 miners either grope about in the dark, or make a kind of light 
 with x’esin and saw-dust, which burns without flame, and does not 
 go out. When a salt-well has been dug to the depth of a thousand 
 feet, a bituminous oil is found in it, that burns in water. Some¬ 
 times as many as four or five jars of a hundred pounds each are 
 collected in a day. This oil is very fetid, but it is made use of 
 to light the sheds in which are the wells and cauldrons of salt. 
 The Mandarins, by order of the Prince, sometimes buy thousands 
 of jars of it, in order to calcine rocks under water, that render the 
 navigation perilous. When a shipwreck takes place, the people 
 make a kind of lamp of this oil, which they throw into the water 
 near the spot; and then a diver, and oftener still a thief, goes 
 down to search for any article of value that he can carry away, 
 the subaqueous lamp lighting him perfectly.” 
 
A SUBJUGATED VOLCANO. 
 
 191 
 
 “ If I knew a little more of physical science, I could tell you 
 what this inflammable and subterraneous air of which I have 
 spoken really is. 1 do not believe that it is produced by a sub¬ 
 terranean volcano, because it needs to be kindled, and when 
 kindled it never goes out, unless in a most violent gust of wind, 
 without the tube being stopped up by a ball of clay. f Showmen 
 often fill bladders with it, and carry it about the country; they 
 make a hole in the bladder with a needle and kindle it with a 
 taper, to amuse simpletons. I believe that it is a gas, or spirit of 
 bitumen, for the fire is very fetid and gives out a thick black 
 smoke.” * 
 
 “ These coal mines and wells of salt afford occupation to large 
 masses of the population, and there are some wealthy persons who 
 have as many as a hundred wells belonging to them; but these 
 colossal fortunes are soon dissipated. The father amasses, and 
 the children spend all in gambling or debauchery. 
 
 “On the 6th of January, 1827, I arrived at Tse-liou-tsing 
 (that is ‘ wells flowing of themselves ’), after a march of eighteen 
 leagues made in my thick shoes with iron nails an inch long, on 
 account of the mud that renders the roads slippery. 
 
 “This little Christian community only contains thirty com¬ 
 municants ; but I found there the most beautiful wonder of nature, 
 and the greatest effort of human industry that 1 have met in all 
 my travels — a subjugated volcano. 
 
 “ The place is in the mountains, on the borders of a little river. 
 It contains, like Ou-tong-kiao, salt-wells dug in the same manner, 
 that is to say, with an iron rammer of three hundred pounds’ 
 Aveight. There are more than a thousand of these wells or tubes 
 containing salt water; and, besides this, every well contains 
 inflammable air, which is conducted through a bamboo tube, lit 
 with a taper, and cannot be put out Avithout vigorous blowing. 
 When they wish to get the salt water, they extinguish the fire 
 tube, for otherwise the inflammable air, coming up in great 
 quantity with the water, Avould cause an explosion in the mine. 
 In one valley there are four wells which yield fire in terrific 
 quantities, and no water; that is doubtless the centre of the 
 volcano. These wells at first yielded salt water: and the water 
 having dried up, about twelve years ago another well was dug to 
 a depth of. three thousand feet and more, in the expectation of 
 finding water in abundance. This hope Avas vain, but suddenly 
 there issued from it an enormous column of air, filled with blackish 
 
 * This is no doubt Avhat chemists call carburetted hydrogen. 
 
192 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 particles. I saw it with my own eyes. It does not resemble 
 smoke, but the vapour of a fiery furnace, and it escapes with a 
 frightful roaring sound, that is heard far off. It blows and 
 respires continually, but never inspires ; but it is possible that its 
 inspirations may be made in some lake, perhaps the great lake of 
 Hou-kouang, two hundred leagues off. There is, on a mountain 
 about a league off, a small lake, about half a league in circum¬ 
 ference; but I cannot think that sufficient to feed the volcano. 
 This little lake has no communication with the river, and is only 
 fed with rain water. 
 
 “ The opening of the well is surrounded by a wall of freestone, 
 six or seven feet high, to guard against the well being set on fire 
 by accident or malice, a misfortune which did really happen last 
 August. The well is in the middle of an immense court, with 
 large sheds in the centre, where the cauldrons are placed for the 
 boiling of the salt; and on that occasion, as soon as the fire 
 touched the surface of the well, there arose a terrific explosion, 
 and a shock as of an earthquake, and at the same moment the 
 whole surface of the court appeared in flames. These flames, 
 however, though about two feet high, seemed to flutter over the 
 surface of the ground without burning anything. Four men, with 
 great self-devotion, went and rolled an enormous stone over the 
 surface of the well, hut it was thrown up again immediately into 
 the air. Three of the men were killed ; the fourth escaped ; but 
 neither water nor mud would extinguish the fire. At length, 
 after fifteen days’ labour, a sufficient quantity of water was collected 
 on a neighbouring mountain, to form a large lake or reservoir, and 
 this was let loose all at once upon the fire, by which means it was 
 extinguished; but at a cost of thirty thousand francs, a large sum 
 for China. 
 
 “ At the depth of a foot below the ground, four enormous 
 bamboo tubes are fixed in the four sides of the well, and these 
 conduct the inflammable air beneath the cauldrons. More than 
 three hundred are boiled by the fire from a single well, each of 
 them being furnished with a bamboo tube, or fire conductor. On 
 the top of the bamboo tube is one of clay, six inches long, witli a 
 hole in the centre six inches in diameter; this clay hinders the 
 fire from burning the bamboo. Other tubes, carried outside, light 
 the large sheds and the streets. There is such a supply of fire, 
 that it cannot hll be used; and the excess is carried by a tube, 
 outside the enclosure of the salt works, into three chimneys, out 
 of the tops of which the flame leaps to a height of two feet. 
 
 “ The surface of the ground within the court is extremely hot, 
 
PATIENT INDUSTRY OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 193 
 
 and seems to burn under the feet; even in January the workmen 
 are all half-naked, having nothing on but a short pair of drawers. 
 I had, like other travellers, the curiosity to light my pipe at the 
 fire of the volcano, and found it extremely active. The cauldrons 
 here are four or five inches thick, and they are calcined and untit 
 for use at the end of a few months. 
 
 “ The water is received through bamboo tubes into an enormous 
 cistern ; and a chain-pump, worked night and day by four men, 
 forces it into an upper reservoir, whence it is conducted in tubes 
 to feed the cauldrons. Four-and-twenty hours’ evaporation pro¬ 
 duces a cake of salt six inches thick, and as hard as stone. This 
 salt is whiter than that of Ou-tong-kiao and affects the throat less ; 
 possibly the coal employed at Ou-tong-kiao may make the dif¬ 
 ference, or it may be in the water itself. The latter contains a 
 greater amount of salt than that of Tse-liou-tsing; it produces 
 three or even four ounces of salt for every pound of water ; but at 
 Ou-tong-kiao the coal is dear, while at Tse-liou-tsing the fire costs 
 nothing. These two districts have to sell their salt in different 
 towns, and custom-house officers see that this arrangement, which 
 has been approved by the government, is not disturbed. 
 
 “ I forgot to tell you that this fire produces scarcely any smoke, 
 but a strong bituminous vapour issues from it, which I could 
 perceive at two leagues off. The flame is reddish, like that of 
 coal; it does not seem to issue directly from the orifice of the 
 tube, as that of a lamp might, but it begins about two inches above 
 it, and then rises about two feet. In the winter the poor, to warm 
 themselves, dig a round hole of a foot deep in the ground in which 
 they place a handful of straw and set light to it, and a dozen of 
 these poor creatures will then seat themselves round it. When 
 they have warmed themselves sufficiently they fill up the hole with 
 sand and the fire is put out.” 
 
 From this account we may form some idea of the character of 
 Chinese industry. The physical sciences are among them still 
 in the elementary stage, and only cultivated with a view to im¬ 
 mediate practical application; but the Chinese supply in some 
 measure the place of knowledge by their most prodigious patience. 
 It is remarkable that, with modes of proceeding so extremely 
 simple and resources so limited, they are able to obtain results that 
 would elsewhere require a considerable amount of science. Their 
 turn of mind tends always to simplification ; scientific machinery 
 would only embarrass them, and they would perhaps not succeed 
 so well; but with their sagacity and perseverance they contrive 
 to effect the most difficult things. They take time for their 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 fulcrum and patience for their lever ; these are the two great 
 principles of Chinese physical science. 
 
 It is, nevertheless, true that a certain amount of this kind of 
 knowledge has existed among the Chinese from the most remote 
 antiquity, and has descended from generation to generation, some¬ 
 times in the form of a family secret, sometimes disseminated in a 
 receipt book. With these very simple aids, they attain results 
 that with us are only the fruits of science and study. Thus the 
 Chinese are able to work mines, and to amalgamate metals and 
 work them in all sorts of ways : they cast bells and statues in 
 bronze and other metals ; they manufacture enormous porcelain 
 vases ; they build towers, and construct on their rivers magnificent 
 and remarkably solid bridges : they have dug a fine canal from 
 one end of the Empire to the other. At two different epochs they 
 have undertaken gigantic works of extreme difficulty, to change 
 the course of the Yellow River ; and they know how to produce 
 all colours and combine them in a wonderful manner. We might 
 pass in review all the products of their arts and industry, which 
 have often a great deal of merit, and we should be compelled to 
 acknowledge, that in China, as elsewhere, there are chemists, 
 mathematicians, and natural philosophers. 
 
 Their systems, it is true, are not scientifically arranged and 
 based upon fixed general principles. The Chinese would be 
 unable to say according to what laws they obtain certain chemical 
 combinations; they Mould content themselves with showing you 
 some old receipt which, as experience has taught them, will attain 
 the end in view. Their miners could not assuredly explain in a 
 satisfactory manner why that combination of saw-dust and resin 
 which they make use of for a light will not kindle the gas in the 
 mines, and produce an explosion; but assuredly it answers for 
 them the purpose of Davy’s celebrated safety-lamp. 
 
 Although, however, scientific results may thus be obtained by 
 them without science, yet the knowledge of the Chinese must 
 always remain scattered and desultory. It is very difficult for 
 them to make any progress, or indeed to avoid retrograding from 
 the point already attained. Their decay in many departments 
 has begun years ago, and they acknowledge that they could not 
 now do many things that were easy to them in times past. The 
 natural sciences have no part whatever in their sj^stem of in¬ 
 struction, and since the knowledge slowly gathered from experience 
 during a long course of ages has no other guardians, for the most 
 part, than ignorant workmen, many very useful and important 
 ideas are unavoidably lost. A more intimate relation with Europe 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN SSE-TCHOUEN. 
 
 195 
 
 can alone preserve from perishing many of these precious germs, 
 which may one day develope themselves under the influence of 
 modern science. 
 
 Sse-tchouen, the most remarkable, in our opinion, of the eighteen 
 provinces ot China, is also that in which Christianity is the most 
 flourishing. It counts nearly a hundred thousand Christians, 
 mostly zealous and faithful in the fulfilment of their duties ; their 
 numbers also are obviously on the increase from year to year. 
 
 The prosperity of this mission arises from its never having been 
 entirely abandoned like many others. At the period even of our 
 most disastrous revolutions, whilst France herself, without priest 
 and without a worship, could hardly be supposed to occupy herself 
 with the religious interests of China, the Christians of Sse-tchouen 
 still had the happiness of retaining in the midst of them apostles 
 full of zeal and fervour, who. watched with care over the precious 
 sparks of faith, whilst waiting till better times should permit new 
 missionaries to come and revive the sacred fire of religion in those 
 countries. The province of Sse-tchouen has now been entrusted 
 to the care of the Society of Foreign Missions, which is gathering 
 the fruits of its zeal and perseverance. 
 
 The Christian community of Sse-tchouen, besides being the 
 most numerous in China, presents also some peculiar features. 
 Everywhere else * the neophytes, in town and country, have been 
 mostly recruited from amongst the most indigent classes ; but it 
 has not been thus in Sse-tchouen ; for, although the propagation 
 of the faith has not yet reached the summit of society, the greater 
 number of Christians are found in its middle ranks. 
 
 Of course, in a religious point of view, the poor are at least of 
 as much consequence as the rich, and we must not forget that 
 shepherds came before kings, to adore the Saviour of the world 
 in His manger ; but it happens that many of the Chinese are 
 simple enough to believe that a certain sum is always given to 
 catechumens on the day of their baptism, and that people thus 
 become Christians from motives of worldly interest. It is advan¬ 
 tageous, therefore, to do away with this idea, and let them see that 
 Christianity is professed by people in easy circumstances, who 
 have no need of alms. It is also well that the missions should be 
 self-supporting, and be able to found schools and build chapels for 
 themselves. 
 
 _ Sometimes, it is true, the prosperity of the missions lias this 
 disadvantage, that it tends to excite the cupidity of the Mandarins, 
 
 * The province of Kiang-nan must be excepted, 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 who are willing enough to let the poor alone, but keep up a most 
 watchful superintendence over those houses where there is any¬ 
 thing to take. On the whole, however, the balance of advantage 
 may be said to be on the side of prosperity in the missions. 
 
 The families may, by uniting their strength, obtain a certain 
 amount of influence, intimidate the satellites, and compel the 
 Mandarins to spare them ; for in China, in order to make yourself 
 respected, it is sufficient to take a formidable attitude. In traversing 
 the province of Sse-tchouen, we remarked that the Christians 
 appeared to enjoy a greater amount of liberty than elsewhere ; 
 or at least make greater efforts to assert their claim to what has 
 been granted them. They venture to assemble and proclaim 
 publicly that they are Christians. One day we saw a number of 
 them in their Sunday clothes, walking in procession with a banner 
 at their head, to the celebration of a festival in a neighbouring 
 village ; and it was Ting himself who pointed out the fact to our 
 observation. 
 
 We are persuaded that if all the Christians of China stood on 
 the same footing as those of Sse-tchouen, it would not be so easy 
 as it has been to subject them to persecution. 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Arrival at Pa-toung, a frontier Town of Hou-pe. — Literary Examinations. — 
 Character of the Chinese Bachelor. — Condition of Writers.—Written 
 Language. — Spoken Language. — Glance at Chinese Literature.— The 
 Celestial Empire an immense Library.—Study of Chinese in Europe.— Em¬ 
 barkation on the Blue River.—Salt Custom-house.—Smuggling Mandarin.— 
 Dispute with the Prefect of I-tchang-fou. — A Mandarin wishes to put us in 
 Chains. — System of Customs in China. — I-tou-hien, a Town of the Third 
 Class.— Amiable and interesting Magistrate of that Town.— Geographical 
 Knowledge of the Chinese.—Narrative of an Arab who travelled in China in 
 the ninth century before the Christian Era. 
 
 After leaving Sse-tchouen behind us, a few hours’ march brought 
 us to Pa-toung , a little town of Hou-pe. Although we were now 
 no longer in the country subject to the jurisdiction of the Viceroy 
 Pao-hing, we were received as we had been in all the towns of 
 Sse-tchouen; for the orders that had been given respecting us 
 were to remain in force till we should arrive at Ou-tchang-fou, 
 the capital of Hou-pe. The authorities of Pa-toung treated us 
 there with the accustomed ceremony ; but scarcely had we reached 
 it before we noticed the most complete and extraordinary change 
 
THE KAO-PAN. 
 
 197 
 
 in the tone and manner of the people of our escort. Mandarins, 
 satellites and soldiers — all appeared metamorphosed with that 
 elastic suppleness which is the most striking feature in the Chinese 
 character. They had all at once become peaceable and modest to 
 a degree that was really admirable. The reason of this was, that 
 they had now entered what they regarded in some measure as a 
 foreign country, and they had left all their domineering pride on 
 the frontiers of their own province, of course with the full intention 
 of resuming it when they went back. For the present, however, 
 their business was to avoid compromising themselves, and “draw 
 in their hearts ” so as to continue their journey in safety. 
 
 The Viceroy of Sse-tchouen had warned us that, in the province 
 of Hou-pe, the communal palaces were few in number, and not 
 convenient for us. At Pa-toung we found none at all, but we 
 lost little by that, for we went to lodge in the Kao-pan, that is to 
 say, “the Institution.” The Kao-pan, or theatre of examinations, 
 is, like the wen-tchang-koun, a palace of literary composition, an 
 edifice belonging to the learned corporation. That of Pa-toung 
 had nothing remarkable in its construction, but as it was exqui¬ 
 sitely clean and had vast apartments, it was fresh and cool. The 
 examinations had taken place only a few days before, and we 
 found the various decorations still arranged as for the ceremony. 
 In the evening we had visits from a crowd of the literary person¬ 
 ages, amongst whom were several who we must own appeared to 
 us exceedingly stupid. 
 
 This literary corporation was organised as early as the eleventh 
 century before the Christian era, but the system of examinations 
 existing at present does not date farther back than the eighth 
 century before the commencement of the great dynasty of Tang. 
 Before this epoch the magistrates were elected by the people ; but 
 at present, as we have said, universal suffrage has been preserved 
 only in the communes, in the election of the mayors, who bear the 
 name of ti-pao in the south, and of sian-yo in the north of the 
 Empire. 
 
 The literary examinations are, like everything else, degene¬ 
 rating and sinking to decay. They have no longer the grave, 
 earnest, impartial character that was doubtless impressed on 
 them at the time of their institution. The corruption which has 
 spread through everything without exception in China has also 
 found its way among both examiners and examined. The rules 
 that ought to be observed in the examinations are extremely 
 stringent, with a view to prevent any kind of fraud, and discover 
 the true merit of the candidate ; but, by certain financial methods, 
 
198 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 a way lias been found to neutralise the effect of these precautions. 
 A rich man can always find out beforehand the subjects proposed 
 for the various compositions; and, what is worse, even the suf¬ 
 frages of the judges are sold to the highest bidder. 
 
 A student who knows he is not capable of going through the 
 examination, or who has not been able to procure the programme 
 of the questions, coolly goes with a certain sum in his hand to 
 some poor graduate who has the requisite ability, and who merely 
 takes the name of the candidate for honours, assumes his place, 
 and brings him back the diploma. It is a regular branch of 
 industry, which is carried on almost publicly in China; and the 
 Chinese, in their picturesque language, have given to the gentle¬ 
 men who have obtained their degree in this fashion, the name of 
 crupper bachelors. 
 
 The number of bachelors is very considerable; but, for want of 
 resources, pecuniary as well as intellectual, there are very few 
 Avho attain to the higher degrees, which fit them for public offices. 
 Those who are in easy circumstances, however, may at least enjo}'- 
 the incomparable happiness of wearing a gilt ball in their caps. 
 They are fond of public ceremonials, parades, and assemblies, at 
 which they may display their pretensions. Sometimes, too, they 
 occupy their leisure with literature, and compose novels or pieces 
 of poetry, which they read to their colleagues, and receive plenty 
 of compliments, of course on conditions of reciprocity. Poor 
 literary graduates, who hold no public office, form in the Empire 
 a class apart, and lead a kind of life that it is difficult to describe. 
 Real laborious work is not at all accordant to their tastes and 
 habits. To occupy themselves with industry, commerce or agri¬ 
 culture, would be much beneath their dignity. Those who wish 
 in earnest to gain a livelihood become schoolmasters or doctors, or 
 endeavour to fill some subaltern office in the tribunals ; others 
 become mere adventurers, and live on the public in various ways. 
 Those who live in the large towns have very much the aspect of 
 ruined gentlemen, and they have little other resource than to 
 visit and bore each other at their common expense, or arrange 
 plans to avoid dying of hunger. Very often they contrive to 
 extort money from the rich and the Mandarins, who having 
 always plenty of administrative sins upon their consciences, do not 
 care to have for enemies a set of idle, hungry bachelors, always 
 ready to weave some intrigue or lay a trap for the man in office. 
 Lawsuits are also a grand resource for this useful class of society. 
 I hey apply themselves assiduously to fomenting quarrels, and 
 embittering tne parties against each other; and then they under- 
 
CONDITION OF WRITERS. 
 
 199 
 
 take for a certain little reasonable consideration to appease and 
 reconcile them, or, as they say in their language, to give them 
 some commentaries on law. Those whose imaginations are not 
 sufficiently lively and fertile to suggest all these modes ot industry, 
 endeavour to live by their pens, which they manage with admi¬ 
 rable skill. They drive a little trade in sentences finely written 
 on strips of coloured paper, such as the Chinese consume in large 
 quantities for the decoration of their doors and the interior of 
 their apartments. It is almost superfluous to add, that these 
 literary geniuses, “ incompris ” of the Celestial Empire, are also 
 the agents of secret societies, and the agitators in times of revolu¬ 
 tion. The proclamation, the placard, and the pamphlet, are 
 weapons that they know how to manage just as well as their 
 brethren of the West. 
 
 Although literature is in China very much encouraged by the 
 government, and by public opinion, this encouragement does not 
 proceed so far as to afford an income to its professors. Nobody 
 here makes a fortune by writing books; more especially such 
 books as novels, romances, and poetry or dramatic pieces. How¬ 
 ever good these may be, very little value is attached to them. 
 Those who are capable of appreciating them read them of course, 
 but merely as an amusement. No one thinks of the author, who 
 indeed on his side never dreams of putting his name to his pro¬ 
 ductions. People in China read very much as they take a walk 
 in a garden, for the sake of a momentary recreation ; they admire 
 the trees, the verdure, the splendour and variety of the flowers, 
 but all this without ever thinking of the. gardener, much less 
 asking his name. 
 
 The Chinese are full of veneration for “ sacred and classical 
 books,” and their esteem for great works on history and morals is 
 in some measure a religion with them, the only one perhaps that 
 they profess seriously; for they are accustomed to consider litera¬ 
 ture from the point of view of serious utility. The class whom 
 we call authors are in their eyes only idle persons who pass their 
 time in amusing themselves by making prose or verse. I hey 
 have no objection to such a pursuit. A man may, they say, 
 “amuse himself with his pen as with his kite, if he likes it as 
 well — it is all a matter of taste.” 
 
 The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire would never recover 
 from their astonishment if they knew to what extent a work of 
 this kind may be in Europe a source of honour and often of wealth. 
 If they were told that any one may obtain great glory among us 
 by composing a drama or a romance, they would either not believe 
 
200 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 it oi’ set it down as an additional proof of our well-known want of 
 common sense. How would it be if they should be told of the 
 renown of a dancer or a violin player, and that one cannot make 
 a bound, or the other draw a bow anywhere, without thousands of 
 newspapers hastening to spread the important news over all the 
 kingdoms of Europe! 
 
 The Chinese are too decided utilitarians to enter into our views 
 of the arts. In their opinion a man is only worthy of the admira¬ 
 tion of his fellow-creatures when he has well fulfilled the social 
 duties, and especially if he knows better than any one else how to 
 get out of a sci’ape. 
 
 You are regarded as a man of genius if you know how to regulate 
 your family, make your lands fruitful, traffic withability, and realise 
 great profits. This at least is the only kind of genius that is of 
 any value in the eyes of these eminently practical men. 
 
 In a preceding chapter we endeavoured to give an idea of the 
 system of instruction adopted in China; and since we are now at 
 the Ivao-pan it will be a good opportunity for completing the sur¬ 
 vey, by casting a glance over the Chinese language and literature, 
 concerning which many very inaccurate ideas prevail. 
 
 “A curious and frequent contrast,” says M. Abel Remusat, “is 
 presented by the lively curiosity with which we inquire into all 
 that relates to the manners, the character and the creed of Oriental 
 nations, and the profound indifference with which the Asiatics 
 regard our intellectual progress, our institutions, and even the 
 masterpieces of our industry. It seems that we have always need 
 of others, and that the Asiatics alone suffice to themselves. The 
 Europeans, so disdainful, so proud of the progress they have made 
 in the arts and sciences, during these three hundred years, are 
 continually asking what is thought and felt by men whom they 
 regard as so far inferior to them in every respect. The Asiatics 
 care nothing about what the Europeans think; whether they think 
 at all, or whether they exist at all. In Paris and in London there 
 are many people studying Oriental literature; at Teheran or Pekin 
 nobody knows whether the West has a literature or not. The 
 Asiatics do not dream of contesting our intellectual superiority; 
 they simply ignore it, and never trouble themselves about it, which 
 is incomparably more mortifying for men so much inclined to value 
 themselves upon it as we are.” 
 
 In Europe, in France and England especially, a lively interest 
 has been felt now for some years in all that passes in the Celestial 
 Empire. All that comes from this country excites curiosity; and 
 we are determined to make acquaintance with the eccentric nation, 
 which is so bent on living by itself in the world. 
 
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 
 
 201 
 
 Now, it seems to us, that the primary cause of the eccentric 
 character of this people is to be found in the extraordinary character 
 of their language. It is most emphatically true of the Chinese that 
 the literature is the expression of society. 
 
 That which distinguishes the Chinese language from all others, 
 is its surprising originality, its great antiquity, its immutability, 
 and, above all, its prodigious extension over the most populous 
 countries of Asia. Of all the primitive languages, not only is it 
 the only one still spoken in our own day, but it is also the most in 
 use of all living modes of speech. Chinese, with various modifica¬ 
 tions, is spoken in the eighteen provinces of the Empire, in Mant- 
 chooria, Corea, Japan, Cochin China, Tonquin, and several islands 
 of the Straits of Sunda. It is unquestionably the language the 
 most widely diffused throughout the world, and that which trans¬ 
 mits the ideas of the greatest number of men. 
 
 The Chinese language is divided into two quite distinct parts, 
 the written and the spoken. The written language is not composed 
 of letters combined together for the formation of words; it is not 
 alphabetical; it is a collection of an immense number of written 
 characters, more or less complicated, of which each expresses a 
 word and represents an idea or an object. The primitive characters 
 used by the Chinese were signs or rather coarse drawings, which 
 imperfectly represented material objects. 
 
 These primitive characters were two hundred and fourteen in 
 number. There were some for the heavens; others for the earth 
 and for man; the parts of the body; domestic animals, such as the 
 dog, the horse, the ox; for plants, trees, quadrupeds, birds, fish, 
 metals, &c. Since this first invention of Chinese writing, the forms 
 of these coarse paintings have been changed; but, instead of im¬ 
 proving, they have corrupted them; only the primitive strokes 
 have been preserved, and it is with this small number of figures 
 that the Chinese have composed all their characters and found 
 means to satisfy the numerous requirements of their civilisation. 
 
 The first Chinese must have soon discovered the insufficiency of 
 their two hundred and fourteen primitive signs; by degrees, as 
 society advanced and the circle of their knowledge enlarged, new 
 i wants must have made themselves felt, the number of characters 
 had necessarily to be increased; and for that a new method adopted, 
 for it would not do to have a number of new figures that, as they 
 were multiplied, would be confounded together. How with these 
 rude sketches could it be possible to distinguish a dog from a wolf 
 or a fox; an oak front an apple or tea tree ? How especially would 
 it be possible to express human passions, anger, love, and pity, 
 abstract ideas, and operations of the mind? 
 
202 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 In the midst of these difficulties there does not seem to have been 
 at any time an idea of introducing an alphabetical, or even syllabic 
 system; the Chinese could obtain no knowledge of such a one 
 among the barbarous and illiterate nations by whom they were 
 surrounded; and, besides, they have always had the highest 
 opinion of their written language, regarding it as a celestial inven¬ 
 tion, the principle of which was revealed: to Fou-hi, the founder 
 of their nationality. I hey were forced, therefore, to have recourse 
 to combinations of the primitive figures; and by this means they 
 formed an immense multitude of signs, composed for the most part 
 arbitrarily, but which sometimes present ingenious symbols, lively 
 and picturesque definitions,, and enigmas, the more interesting as 
 the solution lias not been lost. Natural objects, and many others 
 which can be assimilated to them, are all classed under the animal, 
 tree, or plant, which was the type of them in the hundred and 
 fourteen primitive characters; the wolf, the fox, the ram, and the 
 other carnivora, were referred to the dogs; the various species of 
 goats and antelopes, to the sheep; the deer, the roebuck, and 
 the animal that produces musk, to the stag; the other ruminants, 
 to the ox ; the rodentia, to the rat; the pachydermata, to the pig; 
 the hoofed, to the horse. The name of every creature is thus 
 composed of two parts; one relating to the kind, the other deter¬ 
 mining the species by a sign indicative either of the peculiarities 
 of conformation, the habits of the animal, or the use that may be 
 made of it. By this ingenious method are formed real natural 
 families, which, with the exception of a few anomalies, might be 
 acknowledged by modern naturalists. 
 
 TV ith respect to abstract ideas and acts of the understanding the 
 difficulty was greater; but it was not less ingeniously met. To 
 paint anger, they make a heart surmounted by the sign of a slave; 
 a hand holding the symbol of the middle designates the historian, 
 whose first duty it is to incline to neither side; the character signi¬ 
 fying straightness and also that of walking represented the govern¬ 
 ment, which should be rectitude itself in action; to express the idea 
 of a friend, they placed two pearls, one beside the other, because 
 it is so difficult to find two pearls exactly matching one another. 
 For many of the words the figure is entirely arbitrary; but there 
 are great numbers of which the analysis would be very interesting. 
 The ancient missionaries mention several; but they are far from 
 having exhausted the subject, or even studied it under its most 
 curious relations. It would be impossible to calculate the tradi¬ 
 tions, the allusions, the unexpected analogies, the picturesque and 
 epigrammatic features which are thus enclosed in these characters ; 
 
 
READING AND WRITING CHINESE. 
 
 203 
 
 and it is incredible what light would be thrown on the ancient 
 moral and philosophical opinions of the primitive nations of Oriental 
 Asia by studying carefully, while guarding against too hasty theo¬ 
 rising, these symbolical expressions; in which they have painted 
 unconsciously, themselves, their manners, and the whole order ol 
 things under which they have lived, and with which history has 
 made us so imperfectly acquainted, since they date from a time when 
 history was not. 
 
 Chinese characters were at first traced with a metallic point 
 upon little bamboo tablets; and it was with a view of facilitating 
 their execution, that by degrees the primitive form was modified, 
 i until the figurative type was almost lost. The stiffness of their 
 strokes also was much softened three centuries before our era, after 
 , two important discoveries; the art of making paper with the bark 
 of the mulberry or bamboo, and the not less precious one of pre¬ 
 paring the substance we call Indian ink. The small brush or 
 pencil then took the place of the metallic graver, successive modi¬ 
 fications were again introduced in the figure, till at last, they 
 arrived at the present character, formed from the combination of 
 a certain number of strokes, either straight or slightly curved. 
 
 Chinese writing is at first sight disagreeable, from its strange¬ 
 ness ; but when one is accustomed to it one soon begins to think 
 it pretty and even graceful. All these characters firmly drawn 
 with a pencil acquire a degree of delicacy and beauty; a really 
 good Chinese handwriting is both graceful and bold ; and the 
 slender, bony fingers of the Chinese manoeuvre their pencils with 
 surprising dexterity. They write their characters one above 
 j another in a vertical line; and this arrangement does notallow 
 the reader to see the whole phrase at once, as in horizontal 
 writing: they begin their lines by the right of the page; in a 
 word, they proceed in exactly the contrary way to the European. 
 The number of characters successively introduced by the com¬ 
 bination of strokes amounts to thirty or forty thousand in the 
 Chinese dictionaries; but two-thirds of these are seldom used, 
 and, by cutting off* the synonyms, five or six thousand charac¬ 
 ters, with their various significations, would amply suffice to 
 understand all original texts. 
 
 It has been said, and repeated over and over again, that the 
 Chinese pass their lives in learning to read, and that even the old 
 learned men depart this life without having accomplished the dif- 
 I licult enterprise. The notion is amusing, but fortunately for the 
 Chinese very incorrect. 
 
 If to know a language it were necessary to know every word in 
 
204 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 it, how many Frenchmen would be able to boast of being ac¬ 
 quainted with their native tongue? How many people are 
 familiar with the innumerable technical phrases that fill up the 
 greater part of our dictionaries ? It has been imagined and 
 asserted in very serious works that Chinese writing is purely 
 ideographic. This is an error. It is ideographic and phonetic 
 at the same time; but as the demonstration of the truth could not 
 very well be made intelligible to those who have not a con¬ 
 siderable knowledge of the mechanism of the language, we will 
 content ourselves with giving one proof that will be understood 
 by all. 
 
 The Chinese characters are so far phonetic, that in all our mis¬ 
 sions those who learn to serve the mass have for their use a little 
 book in which the Latin prayers are written out in Chinese cha¬ 
 racters. How could that be if they were simply ideographic ? 
 How could they l'ender and express exactly the sounds of our 
 European language ? 
 
 In the Pagoda Libraries, what are the greater part of the books 
 of prayer that the Buddhist priests have to learn from one end to 
 the other, but Chinese transcriptions of Sanscrit books ? The 
 Bonzes study them, and repeat them without at all comprehending 
 their meaning, because by means of these so-called ideographic 
 characters they have translated the sound without the sense. It 
 may be said, that every Chinese character is composed of two 
 elements, which may in general be easily distinguished, one ideo¬ 
 graphic, the other phonographic. Is not this the case with all 
 writing ? It belongs to philologists and not to us to determine 
 these questions ? 
 
 The Chinese in their written language have three distinctions 
 of style : the antique or sublime style, the type of which is to be 
 found in the ancient literary monuments, and which exhibits very 
 rare grammatical forms; the common or vulgar style, remarkable 
 for a great number of ligatures, and the employment of words 
 composed to avoid homophony and facilitate conversation ; and, 
 finally, the academic style, which partakes of the two preceding, 
 being less concise than the antique, and less prolix than the vul¬ 
 gar. A profound acquaintance with the antique style is necessary 
 for reading the ancient books ; and in general all the works that 
 treat ot historical, political, or scientific subjects, since they are 
 always written in a style that approaches the antique. The 
 vulgar style is employed for light productions, theatrical pieces, 
 private letters, and proclamations intended to be read aloud. 
 
 The spoken language is composed of a limited number of mono- 
 
THE HOUAN-HOA. 
 
 205 
 
 syllabic intonations ; namely, four hundred and fifty, which by 
 the very subtle variation of the accents are multiplied to about 
 sixteen hundred. It results from this that all Chinese words are 
 necessarily grouped in homophonous series, whence a great num¬ 
 ber of double meanings may arise either in reading or speaking ; 
 but this difficulty is avoided by coupling synonymous or antithetic 
 words. In this manner the ambiguities disappear, and the con¬ 
 versation is no longer embarrassed. 
 
 The language called Houan-hoa , that is to say, common uni¬ 
 versal language, is that which the Europeans wrongfully designate 
 by the name of Mandarin language, as if it were exclusively 
 reserved for the Mandarins or functionaries of government. 
 
 The Houan-hoa is the language spoken by all instructed per¬ 
 sons throughout the eighteen provinces of the Empire, and in this 
 a distinction is made between the language of the north and that 
 of the south. The first is that of Pekin ; it is marked by a more 
 frequent and sensible use of the guttural or aspirate accent. It is 
 ooken in all the provincial government offices; the officers of 
 which affect to imitate the pronunciation of the capital, which in 
 China, as elsewhere, is regarded as the regulator of propriety of 
 language. 
 
 The common language of the south is that of the inhabitants of 
 Nankin, who cannot give utterance to the guttural accent, like 
 those of the north; but whose more flexible voices give the 
 varieties of intonation with greater accuracy. Very likely when 
 Nankin was the capital of the Empire* its pronunciation was the 
 most esteemed. 
 
 Besides the two subdivisions of the universal, or, as the Euro¬ 
 peans say, the Mandarin language, there exist in the various pro¬ 
 vinces of China particular local idioms or patois, in which the 
 pronunciation differs much from that of the universal language. 
 It happens sometimes that one side of a river does not understand 
 the other; but, as it is only on account of difference of pronunci¬ 
 ation, recourse can always be had to writing. There are also, in 
 addition to these patois, dialects peculiar to the provinces of 
 Kouang-tong and Fo-kien. 
 
 The literature of China is certainly the first in Asia, by the 
 importance of its monuments, the number of which is prodigious. 
 Some estimate may be formed of it by the catalogue of the 
 Imperial Library of Pekin, which contains 12,000 titles of works 
 with tables of contents. In the principal catalogues Chinese 
 
 * Pekin means court of the north, and Nankin that of the south. 
 
206 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 litei’ature is divided into four great sections. The first is that of 
 sacred or classical books, of which we have already spoken in a 
 preceding chapter. The second is of those on history. The 
 Chinese count, on the whole, twenty-four complete histories of 
 the different dynasties anterior to the Mantchoo, without counting 
 chronicles and memoirs. 
 
 The first great collection of ancient historical monuments in 
 China and the neighbouring countries is due to the celebrated Sse- 
 ma-tsien, an Imperial historian of the first century before our era. 
 It is composed of 130 books, divided into five parts. The first 
 comprehends the fundamental chronicle of the Emperors; the 
 second consists of chronological canons ; the third treats of the 
 rites of music and astronomy, the division of time, &c.; the fourth 
 contains biographies of all the families which have been pos¬ 
 sessors of principalities ; and the last, which is composed of seventy 
 books, is devoted to memoirs concerning foreign countries and 
 biographies of illustrious men. 
 
 In the middle of the eleventh century, Sse-ma-kouang, whose 
 Poetic Garden we have already mentioned, edited a complete series 
 of annals from the eighth century before Christ to the year 960, 
 the date of the accession of the dynasty of Song, under which he 
 lived. Father de Mailla has given a translation of them under the 
 title of General History of China, continuing it also to the first 
 Emperor of the Mantchoo dynasty. 
 
 Towards the end of the thirteenth century Ma-touan-lin pub¬ 
 lished his celebrated historical encyclopaedia, entitled Profound 
 Researches into Ancient Documents of every Kind. 
 
 This famous historian does not content himself with registering 
 documents ; he discusses and explains them, and his work is the 
 richest mine that can be consulted upon all that relates to govern¬ 
 ment, political economy, commerce, agriculture, scientific history, 
 geography, and ethnography. 
 
 The third section is that of special works relating to the arts 
 and sciences. It comprises, first, moral treatises, the familiar dia- j 
 logues of Confucius, the elementary lessons and conversation of 
 the celebrated Tchu-hi, treatises on the passions and on the educa¬ 
 tion both of men and women; secondly, works on the military art; ; 
 thirdly, special treatises on the penal laws; fourthly, on agricul¬ 
 ture and the management of the silk-worm ; fifthly, on medicine ; 
 and natural history, comprehending the descriptions of animals, j 
 vegetables, and minerals ; sixthly, practical treatises on astronomy ; 
 and mathematics ; seventhly, on the science of divination ; eighthly, ! 
 on the liberal arts, namely, painting, writing, music, and the art of 
 
DIFFUSION OF LITERATURE. 
 
 207 
 
 drawing the bow; ninthly, essays on the coining of money, on 
 making ink, and the preparation of tea; tenthly, general encyclo¬ 
 paedias, with illustrations; elevently, works descriptive and illus¬ 
 trative of ancient and modern nations; twelfthly, treatises on the 
 Buddhist religion ; thirteenthly, numerous treatises by adepts of 
 the sect of Tao; fourteenthly, mythological works. 
 
 The fourth and last section comprehends works of light litera¬ 
 ture, such as poetry, the di'ama, romances, and novels. 
 
 In China there are not, as in Europe, public libraries and read¬ 
 ing-rooms ; but those who have a taste for reading and a desire to 
 instruct themselves, can satisfy their inclinations very easily, as 
 books are sold here at a lower price than in any other country. 
 Besides, the Chinese find everywhere something to read; they can 
 scarcely take a step without seeing some of the characters of which 
 they are so proud. One may say, in fact, that all China is an 
 immense library ; for inscriptions, sentences, moral precepts, are 
 found in every r corner written in letters of all colours and all sizes. 
 The fa 9 ades of the tribunals, the pagodas, the public monuments, 
 the signs of the shops, the doors of houses, the interior of the 
 apartments, the corridors, all are full of fine quotations from the 
 best authors. Tea-cups, plates, vases, fans, are so many selections 
 of poems, often chosen witli much taste, and prettily printed. A 
 Chinese has no need to give himself much trouble in order to 
 enjoy the finest productions of his country’s literature. He need 
 ; only take his pipe and walk out, with his nose in the air, through 
 i the principal streets of the first town he comes to. Let him enter 
 the poorest house in the most wretched village ; the destitution 
 Avill often be complete, things the most necessary will be wanting ; 
 
 I but he is sure of finding some fine maxims written out on strips of 
 red paper. Thus, if those grand large characters, which look so 
 terrific in our eyes, though they delight the Chinese, are really so 
 difficult to learn, at least the people have the most ample opportu¬ 
 nities of studying them, almost in play, and of impressing them 
 ineffaceably on their memories. 
 
 The study of Chinese was long regarded in Europe as a thing 
 extremely difficult, if not impossible. Who, indeed, with the con¬ 
 viction that the Chinese themselves could not succeed in learning 
 properly to read, would have been willing to engage in so hopeless 
 an enterprise? But the prejudice has at last been overcome, and 
 philologists have found out that Chinese may be learned as easily 
 as other foreign languages. M. Abel Remusat is perhaps the first 
 who had the resolution to attempt in earnest to conquer the ob¬ 
 stacles which seemed to forbid access to it; but when this learned 
 
208 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Orientalist had in some measure smoothed the way, and shown by 
 his example that it was possible to acquire a knowledge of the lan- ] 
 guage of Confucius, many learned men threw themselves eagerly 
 into the route that he had pointed out, and at present there may 
 be counted in Europe several distinguished Chinese scholars ; at J 
 the head of whom stands M. Stanislas Julien, who has attained toj 
 so thorough a knowledge of this language, that we are persuaded! 
 very few, even of the Chinese themselves, are equally capable of] 
 understanding the more abstruse productions of their literature. 
 
 With respect to the spoken language, Chinese does not present; 
 as many impediments and difficulties as many of the languages of 
 Europe. 
 
 The pronunciation alone requires some pains, especially in the 
 beginning ; but by degrees you become familiar with the exi¬ 
 gencies of accents and aspirates, especially when you live in the 
 country, and have no intercourse with any but natives. In making 
 these few remarks on the Chinese language, we have thought that 
 we should probably meet the wishes of our readers; but it is now 
 time to resume our itinerary. 
 
 Master Ting had often predicted to us, that when we reached 
 Hou-pe we should look back with regret on Sse-tchouen. We 
 should, he said, find the inhabitants coarse in their manners, unob¬ 
 servant of the Rites, and speaking an unintelligible language. 
 Then the roads were detestable; there was seldom a Communal 
 Palace to be met with, but in its place only a very bad inn. Our 
 first halt at Pa-toung, however, by no means justified these sombre 
 previsions. We were in the province of Hou-pe, and we found 
 ourselves just as well ofiP as before. We were treated with civility, 
 and the Ivao-pan, or Theatre of Examinations, which served us 
 for a lodging, was certainly as good as a Communal Palace. We 
 had, nevertheless, gathered some information on the road that was 
 by no means agreeable; the Mandarins and literary men whom 
 we met were unanimous in declaring that we should find the 
 journey from this stage toilsome and difficult; that the roads were 
 badly kept, and that we should find no good palanquin bearers. All 
 this proceeded from the proximity of the Blue River. The navi¬ 
 gation of that river, they said, was so cheap and easy, that both 
 travellers and merchandise generally went by water; and although 
 always on our guard against the deceit and falsehood of the Chinese, 
 their arguments this time appeared plausible enough ; and it was 
 agreed that we should follow the course of the river as long as pos¬ 
 sible ; on condition, however, of landing every evening, and passing 
 the night at the towns previously marked out for our halts. 
 
DISCOVERY OF A SMUGGLER. 
 
 209 
 
 The first night after leaving Pa-toung we stopped at Kouei- 
 tcheou, where, except a good deal of commercial bustle in the port, 
 we found nothing remarkable. The next day we embarked very 
 early ; and our escort was increased by the addition of a military 
 officer and some soldiers, to protect us, it was said, against the 
 pirates. We passed without accident a place dangerous from its 
 numerous reefs ; some of the last met with on this fine river, 
 which beyond this place goes on increasing from day to day, and 
 spreading richness and fertility around it. There is certainly no 
 one in the world to be compared with it for the multitude of men 
 whom it feeds, and the prodigious number of vessels that it bears 
 on its waters. Nothing can be more grand and majestic than the 
 development of this river during its course of 1980 miles. At 
 Tchoung-king , 900 miles from the sea, it is already a mile and a 
 half broad ; at its mouth it is no less than twenty-one. 
 
 Before we reached I-tchang-fou, a town of the first class, we 
 passed a little custom-house for the salt duties, and our boats had 
 to stop for the visit of the officers. We thought it rather strange 
 that Mandarins’ boats should be subjected to these visits ; but 
 Master Ting assured us it was all according to rule. “These 
 visits,” he said, “are on account of the crews of the boats, who 
 sometimes profit by the presence of public functionaries to do a 
 great deal of smuggling; you must, therefore, resign yourselves 
 and have patience.” 
 
 We resigned ourselves therefore, and had patience accordingly. 
 The custom-house officers first visited the boat in which the 
 soldiers were ; and, having found in it no more salt than was ne¬ 
 cessary for culinary purposes, allowed it to set sail again and 
 continue its passage. 
 
 Afterwards, they came on board of ours; and, when they had 
 politely saluted the passengers, they requested the master of the 
 vessel to take them down into the hold. “The hold!” he ex¬ 
 claimed, with an air of the utmost astonishment;, “you would 
 spoil your fine clothes. I have ballasted my vessel with mud, and 
 you know very well that when one carries Mandarins one does 
 not carry merchandise.” 
 
 “ Who knows ?” cried the little military Mandarin whom we took 
 up at Kouei-tcheou; “ perhaps these two noble Europeans come here 
 to smuggle salt; ” and then he applauded his own wit by a shout 
 of laughter. The officers, however, did not allow themselves to 
 be disconcerted by this hilarity, but quietly began their search; 
 and shortly afterwards we heard a tremendous uproar. There in 
 \ the hold, sure enough, had been found, not mud, but a considerable 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 cargo of salt! and the chief smuggler was no other than the said 
 military Mandarin who had been put on board to protect us 
 against pirates. The affair now became serious: an embargo was 
 immediately laid on the vessel, and every one on board became 
 compromised. Every one, therefore, master, sailors, custom-house 
 officers, Mandarins, and our intrepid smuggler with the gilt ball, 
 began to vociferate at once. "We were the only listeners ; but it 
 was by no means easy to make out what any one was saying. All 
 we could understand was, that the sailors were exclaiming against 
 the skipper, the skipper against the smuggler, the smuggler and 
 the custom-house officers against everybody else. Master Ting 
 was perfectly sublime in his wrath; he rushed from one to the 
 other, bawling and gesticulating vehemently, but without seeming 
 to know or care whether any one listened to him. When and 
 how was all this to finish? That was what we were trying to 
 find out, but we could not succeed. 
 
 During this inconceivable uproar the vessel of course was 
 standing still. It was already late, and it appeared we should 
 not get to the port, though it was but a little way off. To wait 
 till all parties were agreed was evidently out of the question ; and 
 we saw no other resource than to throw ourselves into the melee. 
 We seized, therefore, upon Master Ting, the custom-house officers, 
 and the smuggler, and drove them before us down the ladder in 
 our cabin. As soon as we had secured our men, we forbad them 
 to say another word about salt. The boat, we said, had been 
 hired to take us — us to I-tchang-fou. We had already been sub¬ 
 jected to a long delay, and it mattered to us very little whose 
 fault it was, we should make them all responsible. “Let us set 
 off again,” we said; “and when you are once in port, you may 
 take°as long as you like to settle your quarrel.” They were about 
 to recommence their explanations; but one of us kept them 
 blockaded in the between decks, while the other went up and gave 
 orders to the master to set sail again; and he did so, carrying 
 with him the custom-house officers in despair at leaving their 
 station. 
 
 As soon as we had reached the port, we hastened to effect our 
 disembarkation, leaving the salt question to be discussed by those 
 whose business it was. It was almost dark when we entered the 
 town of I-tchang-fou. We had for a guide a very ill-looking 
 fellow, whom the Prefect had sent to meet us on the shore, and 
 who took us to what he called a Communal Palace. In this fine 
 large town of the first class they could find for two Frenchmen 
 travelling under the protection of the Son of Heaven no better 
 
LODGINGS IN I-TCHANG-FOU. 
 
 211 
 
 lodging than a damp hole, without doors, windows, or furniture, 
 and already serving as a barrack to legions of rats, whose noise 
 and foul odour made us shudder. We restrained our indignation; 
 for what was the use of saying anything to that man, who doubt¬ 
 less had done nothing but obey orders? 
 
 After having, with the aid of a lantern, attentively inspected 
 this pretended Communal Palace, we gave orders to carry our¬ 
 selves and our baggage immediately to the Prefect’s Tribunal. 
 We were introduced there into a great hall, where we hastened to 
 have our palanquins deposited and our trunks arranged, giving 
 our servant Wei-chan to understand that he might set up his 
 little menage in a corner. Whilst we were quietly occupied with 
 these arrangements the people of the tribunal went and came 
 perpetually; but without ever addressing a word to us, and 
 merely interrogating Master Ting, who replied always by a series 
 of little cringes, but without saying a word, for fear of compro¬ 
 mising himself either with us, or the authorities of the place. At 
 last the Hall of Guests was opened, and the Prefect entered at 
 one end and we at another; and after having reciprocally performed 
 some profound salutations, we went and sat down on the divan. 
 Directly afterwards, tea and some fine slices of water-melon were 
 served. The conversation did not get on very w^ell; but fortunately 
 w r e could get over part of the embarrassment by busying ourselves, 
 the Prefect with his tea, and we with our melon. 
 
 The magistrate of I-tchang-fou perceiving that we manifested 
 a decided taste for this refreshing fruit, endeavoured to make use 
 of it as a bait to entice us away from his house, and make us go 
 and lodge where he had intended to put us. “ This fruit is ex¬ 
 cellent in this warm weather,” said he. “ Delicious,” said we. 
 “ I am going to select two,” he continued, “ which I will send for 
 you to the Communal Palace. You have seen it, I suppose ; I 
 gave orders to have you taken there.” 
 
 “ We were taken to a damp dilapidated place, swarming with 
 rats ; we could not lodge there.” 
 
 “ Yes, I have been told it was not very dry; but that’s an 
 advantage in summer — the damp keeps it cool. Besides, it is 
 the best place we have for guests. I-tchang-fou is a great town, 
 it is true, but it is very poor ; there are no good lodgings in it; 
 you may ask the people here.” 
 
 “ We never said I-tchang-fou was not a poor town ; we are 
 persuaded it is ; we only said we could not lodge there.” 
 
 ■ In that case, said the Prefect, sulkilv, “ will you lod^e in mv 
 house? ” 
 
212 
 
 THE CHINESE. EMPIRE. 
 
 Since he had had the politeness to invite us to remain, we 
 ought, according to the Rites, to have had the politeness to go 
 immediately ; but we were not Chinese. 
 
 “ Yes, thank you,” we replied ; “ we shall be very comfortable 
 here; ” and then we complimented with great prodigality of ex¬ 
 pression the beauty and magnificence of his tribunal. The 
 Prefect now rose, saying that it was late, and that it would be 
 necessary to prepare our beds. He added, with a bow, that we 
 had done him great honour in not disdaining to lodge in his 
 miserable habitation; but we saw in his face that he was furious. 
 
 As soon as he had gone, we established ourselves very com- 
 modiously in a large room, next to the Hall of Reception ; and 
 the first part of the night was passed very peaceably : but not so 
 the last ; towards midnight we were awakened by a noisy con¬ 
 versation. The functionaries of I-tchang-fou, who probably had 
 also been supping at the tribunal, had gone afterwards into the 
 saloon which was next our chamber ; and there they did not 
 hesitate to criticise us very freely. The smallest details of this 
 piquant conversation were distinctly audible to us. They analysed 
 us completely, morally and physically. Some had the charity to 
 consider us as endurable, and not to say too much against us ; 
 others said that we had not been long enough in the Central 
 Kingdom to become acquainted with the Rites, and that it was 
 easy to see in us the signs of the bad education people get in the 
 West. There was one who appeared especially excited against 
 us, and did all he could to bring his comrades to his own way of 
 thinking ; so that, if they had listened to him, our journey would 
 not have been continued in a very agreeable manner. 
 
 “ They are treating these people a great deal too well,” said 
 he ; “ they pretend that the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen treated them 
 with distinction ; but in my opinion he was quite in the wrong ; 
 he would have done much better to put a cangue upon them. 
 These men who go wandei’ing about out of their own country ought 
 to be punished. They must be treated with severity. That’s the 
 way ! If our Prefect was not afraid of them, they would be more 
 obedient. Let him only put them into my hands and you shall 
 see. I will load them with chains, and take them in that way to 
 Canton.” We thought we recognised the voice of the gentleman 
 who promised us these little favours. It was a military Man-, 
 darin, who had been boasting with much pride and arrogance of 
 having been in the war against the English, and of having seen the 
 western devils near enough not to be afraid of them. 
 
 The talk of this person, to say the truth, annoyed us. There 
 
TERRIFIC THREATS. 
 
 213 
 
 was certainly no cause to fear ; we were in favour with the Go¬ 
 vernment, and no one probably would venture to lay hands on us; 
 nevertheless, we had still a long way to go, and they might occasion 
 us a great deal of trouble. It was well to be on our guard, not 
 certainly by “ making our hearts small ” in the Chinese fashion ; 
 but, on the contrary, by enlarging them. We got up, there¬ 
 fore, very quietly; and, after having put on our robes of state, 
 abruptly opened the door, and bounced out upon our fiery warrior. 
 “Here we are,” we said; “go and fetch your chains; since that 
 is the way you mean to take us to Canton, you shall do so im¬ 
 mediately; go and fetch them, do you hear?” Our sudden 
 appearance disconcerted the conspirators ; but we pursued our 
 future conductor, roaring to him to go for his chains, while for 
 every step we made forward he drew one back. At last we fairly 
 drove him into a corner of the room, looking terribly frightened. 
 “ But,” stammered he, “ I don’t understand what all this is about. 
 Who wishes to chain you ? Who could have the right to do so ? ” 
 — “ You, of course ; you said so just now, we heard you. Chain 
 us then directly, if you like.” — “ I do not understand, I do not 
 understand,” still repeated the valiant Mandarin. “ Nobody here 
 ever said such a word. How could we think of such a thing as 
 chaining you ? Are we not here to serve you ? ” 
 
 By degrees the rest of the company began to join in the con¬ 
 versation, every one protesting that what we had ourselves heard 
 had never been spoken. That was all we wanted. Our sortie 
 had been as successful as we could desire, and we now returned 
 to our room, convinced that we need not make ourselves at all 
 uneasy about the braggings of the Mandarins of I-tchang-fou. 
 The council did not assemble again, and as soon as we had retired 
 every one went home. 
 
 In the morning the Prefect hastened to express his regrets for 
 the vexatious occurrence of the night. He assured us that the 
 Mandarin whose conversation had annoyed us had a bad tongue, 
 but a good heart; and that every one there felt the greatest 
 regard for us. 
 
 “ We are perfectly convinced of that,” we replied ; “ but the 
 circumstance that took place last night was very scandalous. All 
 the servants in the house were witnesses of it, and the news has, 
 probably, by this time, been spread all over the town. Every one 
 knows, no doubt, that one of the military officers of the town 
 undertook to put chains upon us ; and, under these circumstances, 
 we do not think it would accord with our dignity to set off again 
 directly. We will repose here for a day. It must not be thought 
 
 p 3 
 
214 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 that we hastened to get away because we were afraid. For the 
 sake of our own honour and yours, every one must know that we 
 have been treated properly by the authorities of I-tchang-fou.” 
 
 The Prefect was evidently vexed to hear us speak in this way; 
 but he admitted the legitimacy of our reasoning, and resigned 
 himself to the hard necessity of keeping us another day in his 
 tribunal. 
 
 The day passed in peace, and even rather agreeably. We saw 
 again the Mandarins with whom we had made acquaintance during 
 the night, with the exception, however, of the formidable antago¬ 
 nist of the English army. It was in vain that we invited him, 
 and assured him that we had no more inclination to chain others 
 than to be chained ourselves, he would not come; but he sent us 
 his visiting card, alleging his innumerable occupations as the cause 
 that would prevent his waiting on us in person. 
 
 We profited by this day of rest to see the town; but we found 
 nothing remarkable in it; in general, all the great towns of China 
 are much alike: there are crowds of people running about, and 
 pushing against one another, but no public monuments, or anything 
 to interest a traveller, such as he would find in Europe. 
 
 We quitted I-tchang-fou, however, as free men, without either 
 handcuffs or chains on our feet; and we felt sure that they would 
 not in any tribunal venture to make such a proposal in future, for 
 fear of seeing their prisoners metamorphosed into unwelcome 
 guests. 
 
 We continued our journey still down the river, as this was 
 decidedly the most convenient, pleasant, and expeditious mode of 
 travelling. On our way we passed another custom-house, but 
 without being stopped. The officers were tranquilly smoking 
 their pipes in front of it, and watched us passing without dis¬ 
 turbing themselves. Master Ting said, that they had come to 
 visit us before, because they had had information of there being 
 contraband goods on board. 
 
 The custom-houses in the interior of China are not numerous, 
 or at all severe in their proceedings. At the time when we had 
 been in the same position as other missionaries travelling as native 
 Chinese, and, consequently, subject to the same laws as any one 
 else, we traversed the Empire from one end to the other, without 
 having anywhere had our trunks searched, which contained Euro¬ 
 pean books, sacred ornaments, and many other prohibited articles. 
 The officers of the customs used to present themselves ; we declared 
 that we were not merchants, and carried with us no contraband 
 goods ; we then offered our keys in a very calm and stately manner, 
 
ARRIVAL AT I-TOU-HIEN. 
 
 215 
 
 and requested them to examine our trunks, which they never did. 
 If they had been as rigid and active in the performance of their 
 duty as those of France, for instance, the poor missionaries would 
 not have been able to get off so well; but one can mostly extricate 
 oneself from any difficulty of this kind in China by means of a 
 small pecuniary offering. 
 
 The greater part of the custom-houses are established solely for 
 salt, the trade in which, in most of the provinces, is a government 
 monopoly ; the Chinese make a great consumption of this article; 
 their food is full of it. In almost every family you find an abun¬ 
 dant provision of herbs and of salt fish, as it is the ordinary food of 
 the lower classes; and even those of a higher rank always have it 
 served on their tables. It is with salt, also, that they correct the 
 insipidity of their rice boiled in water. The Chinese are small 
 eaters, and live on very little; we have always thought that, as 
 salt is a nutritive substance, the quantity they take of it must 
 supply the want of more food; but with this kind of diet it may 
 be supposed they must be continually thirsty, and that accounts 
 for their drinking tea at all hours of the day. 
 
 Since the last war with the English, the government has estab¬ 
 lished a great number of custom-houses along the line that Euro¬ 
 pean goods have to follorv to reach the interior of the Empire. 
 The Chinese being forced to permit the trade which the English 
 opened for themselves with their artillery, have no other way than 
 this to oppose their invasion; and consequently the further their 
 goods proceed into China, the heavier become the duties to which 
 they are subjected. Too weak to repel force by force, and say 
 we will have none of your merchandise, this is the only expedient 
 they have been able to hit on, in order to protect the native in¬ 
 dustry. 
 
 We arrived early at I-tou-hien , a town of the third class, where 
 we were received in a charming Communal Palace by a mandarin 
 no less charming. The first magistrate of I-tou-hien is, unques¬ 
 tionably, the most accomplished person we ever met among the 
 Chinese functionaries. 
 
 He was quite a young man, somewhat weakly, with a pale face, 
 apparently attenuated by study. He had obtained the degree of 
 doctor in Pekin, when he was scarcely more than a child; and his 
 | gentle and spiritual-looking countenance was rather set off than 
 otherwise by a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles of European manu- 
 j facture. Ilis conversation, full of good sense, refinement and 
 modesty, was really delightful; and the exquisite politeness of his 
 manners might have reconciled any one ever so adverse to them, 
 
216 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 to the Chinese Rites. On our arrival we found a splendid collation 
 of delicious fruit, laid out in a cool fresh pavilion, in the midst of 
 a garden shaded by large trees. Among the rarities of this rich 
 dessert we remarked with pleasure cherries of a brilliant red colour, 
 fine peaches, and other fruits that do not grow in the province of 
 Hou-pe, and we could not help expressing our surprise at the 
 circumstance. “ How could you possibly procure such rare fruit?” 
 said we to our amiable Mandarin. 
 
 “ When one wishes to please friends,” said he, “one always finds 
 means to do so. The resources of the heart are inexhaustible.” 
 
 We passed the whole day and part of the night in talking to 
 this interesting Chinese. He had many questions to .ask concern¬ 
 ing the various nations of Europe; and he always made his 
 inquiries in a serious judicious manner, worthy of a man of high 
 intelligence. He did not ask one of the puerile silly questions to 
 which his brother Mandarins had accustomed us so much. Ge¬ 
 ography appeared to be the subject that most interested him, and 
 he had a great deal of very accui'ate knowledge concerning it. 
 He surprised us very much by asking, whether the European 
 governments had not yet realised the project of cutting through 
 the Isthmus of Suez, so as to connect the Mediterranean with the 
 Indian Ocean; and we found him very well informed concerning 
 the extent and importance of the five parts of the world ; and the 
 space that China occupies upon the globe. 
 
 The Europeans are quite in error when they attribute to the 
 Chinese a total ignorance of geography, because they find among 
 them absurd maps, a kind of caricature of the earth, manufac¬ 
 tured for the amusement of the lower classes ; from these it has 
 been concluded that even the studious men know no better. At 
 all times the Chinese have given proofs of having great interest 
 in geographical knowledge. It is very evident that with their 
 present system of remaining at home, and refusing admittance to 
 foreigners, it must be very difficult for them to acquire precise and 
 circumstantial information concerning other countries, but much 
 valuable knowledge may notwithstanding be found in their writ¬ 
 ings ; and Klaproth has availed himself of the assistance of Chi¬ 
 nese geographers, to throw a great deal of light on the geography 
 of Asia in the middle ages. The recent important publication of 
 M. Stanislas Julien, upon the travels of a Chinese in India in the 
 sixth century, show how much there might be to learn in the 
 works of men who could observe so well and describe what they 
 had observed so faithfully. 
 
 We found in an Arab book entitled the “The Chain of Chro- 
 
THE CHAIN OF CHRONICLES. 
 
 217 
 
 nicies,” composed in the ninth century, a passage capable of giving 
 a good idea of what was known in China at a time when European 
 knowledge was exceedingly small. We will quote this fragment 
 from the Arab writer, as it seems likely to interest the reader:— 
 
 “ There was at Bassora a man of the tribe of Coreishites, called 
 Ibn- Vahab, and who was descended from Habbar, the son of Al- 
 Asvad. The town of Bassora having been ruined, Ibn-Vahab 
 quitted that country, and went to Siraf. At that time there was a 
 ship just setting sail for China, and it occurred to Ibn-Vahab that 
 in these circumstances he would embark in this ship. When he 
 arrived in China, he wished to see the supreme king, and he there¬ 
 fore set out for Khom-dan*, and from the port of Khan-fou f to 
 the capital is a journey of two months. He had to wait a long 
 time at the Imperial gate, although he presented petitions in which 
 he announced himself as being come of the same blood as the 
 prophet of the Arabs. At length the Emperor placed a house at 
 liis disposal, and ordered that he should be provided with every¬ 
 thing necessary; at the same time he charged the officer who re¬ 
 presented him at Khan-fou to make inquiries about this man, and 
 to consult merchants concerning him who asserted himself to be of 
 the family of the prophet of the Arabs, to whom may God be pro¬ 
 pitious ! The governor of Khan-fou announced in his answer, 
 that the pretensions of this man were well founded. Then the 
 Emperor admitted him to his pi*esence, and made him considerable 
 presents, and he returned to Irak with what the Emperor had 
 given him. 
 
 “ This man had grown old, but he retained the use of his facul¬ 
 ties. He related to us that when he was with the Emperor, that 
 prince asked him many questions on the subject of the Arabs, and 
 the means they had employed to overthrow the Empire of Persia. 
 This man had replied, ‘ The Arabs have always been conquerors 
 by the help of God, whose name be praised! because the Persians 
 have been plunged in the idolatrous worship of the sun, the moon, 
 and the fire, instead of the Creator.’ The Emperor said, 4 The 
 Arabs triumphed on that occasion over the noblest of empires, 
 containing the most cultivated lands — the most abounding in 
 riches — the most fertile in intelligent men, the country of him 
 whose renown has extended farthest of all.’ Then he continued, 
 
 * At present Si-ngan-fou, the capital of the province of Ho-nan, where was 
 ' found the inscription of which we have spoken, and which really was, at this 
 epoch, the residence of the Emperors of the dynasty of Tang. 
 
 f Khan-fou is a sea-port in the province of Tche-hiang. We once made the 
 same journey as the Arab traveller, and took about the same time for it. 
 
218 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 ‘ What is, in your opinion, the rank of the principal empires in the 
 world ?’ The man replied that he was not able to give an opinion 
 on such matters. Then the Emperor ordered the interpreter to 
 say to him these words : ‘We ourselves count live great sovereigns. 
 The richest is he who reigns in Irak ; that is situated in the middle 
 of the world, and the other kings are placed around him. He 
 bears among us the title of King of Kings. After this empire 
 comes our own : the sovereign of which is named the King of 
 Men ; because there is no king tvho maintains better order in his 
 states, or exercises better vigilance over them. Also there is no 
 people more submissive to its prince than ours. We then are really 
 the kings of men. Next comes the King of Wild Beasts, who is 
 the King of the Turks, and whose states are contiguous to those of 
 China. The fourth king in rank is the King of Elephants, that is 
 to say the King of India. He is called among us also the King of 
 Wisdom, because wisdom originated among the Indians. Lastly, 
 there is the Emperor of the Romans, called among us the King of 
 Fine Men, because there is not on the earth a better-made race of 
 men, nor with more handsome faces than the Romans. These are 
 the principal kings. The others hold only a secondary rank.’ 
 
 “ The Emperor afterwards ordered the interpreter to say these 
 words to the Arab: ‘Would you recognise your master if you 
 were to see him?’ The Emperor meant the Apostle of God, to 
 whom may God be merciful! I replied, ‘And how should I see 
 him, when he is now on high with God ?’• The Emperor replied, 
 ‘ I did not mean that, I was speaking only of his face.’ Then 
 the Arab answered, ‘ Yes.’ Immediately the Emperor had a box 
 brought to him, and placing it before him, he took from it some 
 pieces of paper and gave them to the interpreter, saying, ‘Let him 
 see his master.’ 
 
 “ I recognised on these pages the portraits of the prophets, and, at 
 the same time, I repeated prayers for them, so that my lips moved. 
 
 “ The Emperor did not know that I had recognised the prophets, 
 and he asked the interpreter why I moved my lips. The inter¬ 
 preter asked me, and I answered, ‘ I was praying for the prophets.’ 
 The Emperor asked how I had known them, and I answered, ‘ By 
 the attributes that distinguish them. Thus, there is Noah in his 
 Ark, he who saved himself with his family when the Most High 
 God commanded the waters, and all the earth with its inhabitants 
 was submerged. Noah only with his family escaped the deluge.’ 
 At these words the Emperor began to laugh, and said, ‘ You have 
 guessed rightly, when you recognised Noah ; but as to the sub¬ 
 mersion of the whole earth, that is what we do not believe. The 
 
INTERVIEW WITH THE EMPEROR. 
 
 219 
 
 deluge only covered a part of the earth ; it did not reach either 
 this country or India.’ Ibn-Vahab reported, that he was afraid 
 to refute what the Emperor had said, or urge the arguments that 
 he might have used, but which the prince would not have admitted, 
 lie resumed, however, saying, ‘ There is Moses and his rod, with 
 the children of Israel.’ ‘ That is true; but Moses showed himself 
 on a very little theatre, and his people were not always well dis¬ 
 posed towards him.’ I then said, ‘ There is Jesus sitting upon an 
 ass, and surrounded by the Apostles.’ The Emperor said, ‘ He 
 appeared only for a very short time: his mission did not last more 
 than thirty months.’ 
 
 “Ibn-Vahab continues thus to pass in review the different pro¬ 
 phets ; but we will confine ourselves to repeating a part of what 
 he said to us. Ibn-Vahab added that above each prophet’s face 
 there was a long inscription, which he supposed to contain the 
 name of the prophets, their country, and the circumstances that 
 accompanied their mission. Afterwards he continued thus : ‘ I saw 
 the face of the Prophet (upon whom be peace!); he was mounted 
 on a camel, and his companions were also mounted on camels, 
 placed around him. All wore on their feet Arab coverings; all 
 had toothpicks attached to their girdles. As I began to weep, the 
 Emperor told the interpreter to ask me why I shed tears ; I re¬ 
 plied, “ That is our prophet, our Lord, and my cousin. Peace be 
 upon him !” the Emperor replied, “You have spoken truly. He 
 and his people raised the most glorious of empires, only he was 
 : not to see with his own eyes the edifice he had founded. The 
 edifice was only seen by those who came after him.” 
 
 “ I saw also a great many other pictures of prophets, some of 
 | whom were making a sign with their right hands, joining the 
 thumb and the fore-finger, as if by this movement they had wished 
 to attest some truth. Some were represented standing, and making 
 a sign with their finger towards heaven. There were also others, 
 whom the interpreter told me were prophets of India. 
 
 “ Afterwards the Emperor interrogated me concerning the 
 caliphs and their customs, as well as upon our religion, manners, 
 and customs, and such things as I Avas capable of answering. 
 
 I Then he added, ‘ What, in your opinion, is the age of the world ?’ 
 I replied, ‘ People are not agreed about that. Some say six tliou- 
 sand years, others more, but the difference is not great.’ 
 
 “ Thereupon the Emperor laughed very much, and the Vizier, 
 who was standing near him, signified also that he was not of my 
 (opinion. The Emperor said, ‘Ido not think your prophet said 
 that.’ Then my tongue turned, and I said, ‘Yes! he did say so.’ 
 
220 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Immediately I saw signs of disapprobation on the Emperor’s coun¬ 
 tenance, and he charged the interpreter to transmit to me these 
 words:— 
 
 “ ‘ Pay attention to what you say. Men do not speak to kings 
 till they have well weighed what they are going to say. You have 
 affirmed that you are not all agreed upon this point; you are not then 
 agreed upon what your prophet has asserted, and you do not accept 
 all that your prophets have established. It is not right to be 
 divided in such cases; on the contrary, such affirmations should 
 be received without dispute. 
 
 “‘Take care of that, and do not commit the same imprudence again.’ 
 
 “ The Emperor said many more things which have escaped my 
 memory, on account of the length of time that has elapsed since. 
 Afterwards he added, ‘ Why did you not go rather to your own 
 sovereign, who, both from his residence and his race, would suit 
 you much better?’ I replied, ‘Bassora, my native place, was in 
 desolation. I was at Siraf. I saw a ship going to set sail for 
 China. I had heard of the splendour of the empire of China and 
 of the abundance of all things that are found in it. I wished to 
 come to this country, and see it with my own eyes. Now I am 
 about to return to my own country, to my sovereign and my 
 cousin, and I will speak to him of the splendour of this country, 
 to which I have been a witness. I will speak to him of the vast 
 extent of this country, of all the advantages I have enjoyed in it, 
 of all the goodness that has been shown to me.’ These words 
 pleased the Emperor. He ordei'ed that a rich present should be 
 given to me, and. that I should return to Khan-fou on post mules. 
 Tie even wrote to the Governor of Khan-fou to recommend him to 
 treat me well, to give me the preference over the officers of his 
 government, and to provide me with evei’ything I wanted up to 
 the moment of my departure, and I lived in abundance and satis¬ 
 faction until I left China. 
 
 “We questioned Ibn-Vahab on the subject of the town of 
 Khom-dan, where the Emperor resided, and on the manner in which 
 it was laid out. He spoke to us of the extent of the town, and of 
 the number of the inhabitants. The town, lie said, is divided into 
 two parts, separated by a long broad street. The Emperor, the 
 Vizier, the troops, the Cadi of Cadis, the eunuchs of the court, 
 and all persons who belong to the government, occupy the right 
 or eastern side. No person of the lower class is to be found there, 
 nor anything like a market. The streets are traversed by rivulets, 
 and bordered by trees, and they contain vast mansions. 
 
 “ The part situated on the left, or west side, is destined for the 
 
ARAB TRAVELLERS IN CHINA. 
 
 221 
 
 people, for merchants, shops, and markets. In the morning, at 
 day-break, you see the stewards of the Imperial Palace, the 
 servants of the court, of the generals and their agents, entering on 
 foot and on horseback the part of the town where the shops and 
 markets are; you see them buying all that is wanted by their 
 masters, and after that they return to their own quarter, and you 
 see nothing of them till the next morning. 
 
 “ China possesses many agreeable things, delightful groves with 
 rivers winding through them, but you never find the palm-tree.” 
 
 In reading these accounts of the Arab travellers, it is easy to 
 be seen that they have really been in China, and apart from the 
 exaggerations inherent in the Oriental character, it is also easy to 
 recognise the country of which they speak. There exhales, as it 
 were, a certain odour of China from their writings, that cannot be 
 mistaken. Strange that this people, so often overthrown by long 
 and terrible revolutions, should still have preserved that peculiar 
 stamp that will always distinguish them from every other. 
 
 The Chinese of the ninth century, of whom these Arabs speak, 
 are certainly the same that Marco Polo found in the thirteenth, 
 although they were then subject to the dominion of the Mongol 
 Tartars. Three centuries later, when the Portuguese doubled the 
 Cape of Good Hope, and again discovered China, they recognised 
 the people whom the illustrious Venetian traveller had previously 
 made known in Europe, and in our own days we may only be said 
 to have renewed acquaintance with the same old Chinese that 
 were discovered by the Arabs and Marco Polo. 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 
 Names given by the Chinese to the Kingdoms of Europe. — Origin of the 
 words China and the Chinese. — Explanation of the various names that the 
 Chinese give to their Empire. — Good and venerable Prefect of Song-tche- 
 hien.— Portrait of the Ancient Mandarins.— Holy instructions of the Em¬ 
 perors. — A Khorassanian of the Imperial Court. — Details concerning the 
 manners of the Ancient Chinese. — Causes of the decay of the Chinese. — 
 Means employed by the Mantchoo Dynasty to consolidate its Power. — 
 Foreigners not always excluded from China. — Bad Policy of the Govern¬ 
 ment. — General presentiment of a Revolution. — Navigation on the Blue 
 River.— Tempest. — Loss of Provisions.— Running aground Three times.— 
 Shipwreck.—The Shipwrecked. 
 
 The young prefect of I-tou-bien, after having gathered with live¬ 
 liest interest all the information we could give him concerning the 
 different countries of Europe, bethought himself to ask us how we 
 
222 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 called liis country in our language. When he heard that we gave 
 it the name of China, and its inhabitants that of Chinese , he could 
 hardly recover from his astonishment. He insisted upon knowing 
 what these words meant, the sense attached to them, why the words 
 China and Chinese should have been chosen to designate his 
 country and his countrymen. “We,” said he, “call the happy 
 inhabitants of your illustrious country Si-yang-jin; now Si 
 means West, yang sea, and jin man, so that the word means 
 ‘ Men of the Western Seas; ’ that is the general denomination. 
 To designate the several nations, we transcribe their names as 
 faithfully as cur characters will allow of. Thus we say Fou-lang- 
 sai, that is to say homme-jaran-gais. When we speak of the 
 Westerns we sometimes seize on a striking trait of the people 
 whom we wish to point out. Thus we call the In-ki-li (English) 
 Houng-mao-jin, that is, ‘Men of Red Hair,’ because it is said they 
 have hair of that colour; and we give to the Ya-me-li-kien 
 (Americans), the name of ‘Men of the Gaudy Banner,’ because it 
 is said that they carry at the mast of their vessels a flag striped 
 with various colours. You see that all these denominations have 
 a sense, a meaning for the mind. That must be the case also with 
 your words China and Chinese; since those words do not belong 
 to our language, they must necessarily signify something in yours.” 
 
 These expressions, very strange certainly in the ear of a Chinese, 
 seemed to trouble our worthy magistrate so much, that to prevent 
 him from imagining that they had any satirical and malevolent 
 sense, we were obliged to enter on a little historical dissertation, 
 and prove to him that these words did belong radically to the 
 Chinese language; that it was the name they formerly gave them¬ 
 selves, but that we have altered it to suit our own mode of speech, 
 as they out of Frangais have made Fou-lang-sai. 
 
 It is, in fact, indisputable that these words do come from the 
 country itself. The Chinese have always had the habit of desig¬ 
 nating their empire after the reigning dynasty. It is thus that in 
 remote times they gave it the names of Tang, of Yu, and of Hia. 
 The great exploits of the Emperor of the dynasty of Han, brought 
 this name into use, and after that time the Chinese bore the name 
 of Han-jin or Men of Han, which is still common, especially in the 
 northern provinces. 
 
 The dynasty of Thang having distinguished itself still more by 
 its conquests than that of Han, the name of Thang-jin was for 
 several centuries in use to designate the Chinese. In our time 
 China, being governed by the Mantchoo dynasty, which has adopted 
 the title of Thsing “pure,” the Chinese call themselves Th sing-jin , 
 
ORIGIN OP WORDS “CHINA” AND “CHINESE.” 223 
 
 ox* men of Thsing, as they bore the name of Ming-jin, xxnder the 
 dynasty of Ming. It is precisely as if the French had taken 
 successively the names of Carlovingians, Capetians, and Napo- 
 leonians, according to the dynasties that have reigned at diffei’ent 
 epochs in France. 
 
 The name of China, by which we designate this vast counti'y, 
 is in almost general use in Eastern Asia. We get it from the 
 Malays, who call this Empire Tchina. The Malays became 
 acquainted with the Chinese in the second half of the third 
 century before our era, when the famous Empei’or Thsing-che- 
 liouang subjected the southern pai’t of China and Tonquin, and 
 even carried his conquests as far as Cochin China. 
 
 The people of the Malay Islands, having direct relations with 
 these countries, then met the Chinese, who bore at the time 
 the name of Thsing, after the reigning dynasty. The Malays, 
 not having pi-ecisely the lettei's required, pronounced the word 
 Tchina, adding an a to it. The pilots and some of the sailors, 
 who afterwards took the Portuguese ships into Chinese ports, 
 were of Malay oi’igin, and it was quite natural that the Portuguese 
 should adopt the name that their guides gave to China. Thus the 
 first Europeans called it Tchina, and this name was afterwards 
 slightly modified, according to the language of the various nations 
 who adopted it. 
 
 It is equally certain that the first relations of the Chinese with 
 India date from the time of the Thsing dynasty. This name was 
 changed by the Hindoos also into Tchina, for the same x'eason as 
 among the Malays ; and they substituted tch for ths. The Arabs 
 received the word from India, and wrote it Sin-Sina to accom¬ 
 modate it to their language, and thence pi'obably came the Latin 
 Since-Sinenses, used to designate the Chinese. 
 
 Although the Arab navigators, and the first Portuguese who 
 went to India, had adopted the Sansci’it and Malay name of 
 Tchina for Southern China, the northern part of this country not 
 bearing the same name among the neighbouring nations, was also 
 differently named in the West. Under the dynasty of Flan, that 
 is to say, in the two centuries before and after our era, the Chinese 
 conquered all Central Asia, as far as the banks of the Oxus and 
 the Jaxartes. They established there militai’y colonies, and their 
 merchants traversed those countries to exchange their merchandise 
 for other pi'oductions from Persia and the Roman Empire. They 
 brought principally silk and tissues of that material, which found 
 an excellent market in Persia and Europe. According to Greek 
 authors, the word ser signifies the silk-worm, and the inhabitants 
 
224 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of Serica the country from which the silk came. This fact shows 
 that the name of Seres denoted the valuable article of trade that 
 the Western nations obtained from them. In Armenia the insect 
 that produces silk is called chiram, a name that has some resem¬ 
 blance to the ser of the Greeks. It is natural that these two words 
 should have been borrowed from the Eastern nations, and that is 
 what the Mongol and Mantchoo languages make it easy to de¬ 
 monstrate. 
 
 We may infer from this, that the names of silk, among the 
 ancients and moderns, originated in the eastern part of Asia. 
 Silk is called sirk among the Mongols, and sirghe by the Mant- 
 choos. As these two nations inhabit the north and north-east of 
 China, is it likely that they received these denominations from the 
 people of the West? On the other hand, the Chinese word see, 
 which signifies silk, has not only a resemblance to sirk and sirghe , 
 but also still more to the ser of the Greeks. This analogy will 
 appear so much the more striking when we consider that in the 
 Chinese language the letter r is not pronounced. The Corean 
 word for silk is identical with that of the Greeks. Silk has then, 
 it seems, given its name to the people who first fabricated it and 
 sent it to the west; and the Seres of the Greeks and Romans were 
 evidently the Chinese*, whose Empire was formerly separated by 
 the Oxus from that of Persia. 
 
 Among the different names that the Chinese give to their 
 country, the most ancient and the most in use is that of Tchoung- 
 kouo, that is to say, the Empire of the Centre. The Chinese 
 historian relates that this denomination dates from the time of 
 Tching-wang, the second Emperor of the dynasty of Tcheou, who 
 reigned towards the end of the twelfth century before our era. 
 At this epoch China was divided into several principalities, which 
 all took the title of kingdoms. Tcheou-koung, uncle of the 
 Emperor, gave to the town of Lo-yang, in what is now the 
 province of Ho-nan, where the Chinese monarch resided, the 
 name of Central Kingdom, because it was, in fact, situated in the 
 midst of the other kingdoms of China. Since that time, the 
 portion of the Empire possessed by the Emperors, or the whole of 
 it, has borne this title. Such is the true and only origin of that 
 
 * “ It would be curious,” says Klaproth, who has furnished the greater part 
 of these considerations on the different names of China, “to know at what 
 period the word silk was introduced into the English language. It appears to 
 be the same as the Russian chclk, which I believe to be derived from the Mongol 
 sirk: this is so much the more likely as Russia was for a long period under the 
 Mongol yoke. ” 
 
RECEPTION AT SONG-TCHE-HIEN. 
 
 225 
 
 denomination, which has been preserved to our own day; yet 
 most of the European books that treat of China, jest about this 
 name, and boldly infer from it, that the Chinese are completely 
 ignorant of geography ; whilst it would be nearer the truth to 
 say, that we ourselves are ignorant of their traditions. “I have 
 no need,” says Klaproth in his Memoirs, “ to refute the absurd 
 idea of those who pretend that the Chinese believe their country 
 to be situated in the middle of the world, and that it is for this 
 reason they give it the name of the Central Kingdom.” A sailor or 
 a porter of Canton might, perhaps, give such an explanation ; but 
 it remains for the intelligence of the questioner to adopt or reject it. 
 
 The Chinese also give to their country the name of Tchoung - 
 hoa, or, Flower of the Centre ; of Tien-chao, the Celestial Empire, 
 or Heaven’s Empire ; and of Tien-hia, the “ Beneath the Heavens,” 
 or the world, as the Romans called their dominions Orbis. 
 
 Of course, we did not give our Mandarin all the details into 
 which we have been now entering, or speak to him of the Greeks, 
 the Romans, or even the Arabs ; but we told him enough to make 
 him understand why we call his countrymen the Chinese, and not 
 Tclioung-liouo-jin, or Men of the Central Empire. 
 
 Our explanations satisfied him completely, and he appeared 
 quite happy to see that the word Chinese was not an abusive nick¬ 
 name, as he had been at first inclined to think. 
 
 We were at last obliged to take leave of this interesting doctor, 
 and it was not without regret. Most gladly would we have re¬ 
 mained another day, but the Rites were there to forbid it, and we 
 could not show ourselves wanting in politeness towards a man who 
 had treated us with so much delicate attention. 
 
 From I-tou-hien we went by land to Song-tche-hien, not a long 
 stage, and by a tolerably agreeable road. We stopped at this last 
 town on the recommendation of the young Prefect of I-tou-hien. 
 He had informed us that we should find there one of his Mends 
 filling the office of first magistrate, with whom we should be well 
 satisfied. He had had this Prefect informed of our arrival over 
 night, and he must have written some wonderful things concerning 
 us, for we were received with extraordinary pomp. A triumphal 
 arch was erected at the gate of the Communal Palace ornamented 
 with hangings of red silk and artificial flowers, glittering with 
 tinsel, and gleaming with coloured lanterns. As soon as we had 
 entered the first court we were welcomed by a noisy discharge of 
 innumerable fireworks, which the guardians of the palace had been 
 holding suspended by long strings at the end of bamboo canes. On 
 the threshold ol the saloon ol reception stood awaiting us a worthy 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE, 
 
 old gentleman, still vigorous, who, on seeing us, appeared all 
 sparkling with joy. This was the first magistrate, on whom so 
 high a eulogium had been pronounced at I-tou-hien. Our 
 presence put him apparently quite beside himself with joy. He 
 clasped us in his arms, looked at us smilingly, went and came and 
 gave orders to everybody, and then began again his little saluta¬ 
 tions and caresses. At length he grew more calm, and we seated 
 ourselves to take tea while awaiting the collation that he had given 
 orders to serve to us. It was rather late, as we had arrived 
 sooner than we had been expected. 
 
 This respectable magistrate had not the refinement of mind and 
 the distinguished manners of his young colleague at I-tou-hien, 
 but he appeared to us endowed with great penetration. His 
 conversation was agreeable, and the absence of elegance in its 
 forms was well compensated by a tone of frankness and good 
 humour that suited his advanced age wonderfully well. We 
 learned from his sse-ye, or privy councillor, that he had sprung 
 from a poor peasant family, and that his youth had been spent 
 amidst labour and privation. He had passed the literary ex¬ 
 aminations with so much applause, that, notwithstanding the 
 obscurity of his birth and his total want of patronage, he had 
 obtained the degree of Bachelor 1 , and subsequently, at Pekin, that 
 of Doctor. Afterwards he had toiled painfully up the lower 
 grades of the magistracy, until by merit alone, he had reached 
 the office of Prefect of a town of the third order. To attain still 
 higher dignities it would have been necessary to go to consider¬ 
 able expense, and make costly presents to ministers and persons 
 influential at court. He could not, therefore, pretend to any 
 higher employment, because he was poor, and he was poor because 
 he would not fleece the people under his jurisdiction, and because 
 he administered justice gratuitously, and shared his modest revenue 
 with the poor of his district; but every one loved and blessed his 
 rule. 
 
 As soon as we were installed in the Communal Palace we 
 remarked that the people entered freely into all parts of it, invading 
 the courts, the gardens, the apartments, and even taking the liberty 
 of entering the one where we were talking with the Prefect. 
 Master Ting having made an observation that we did not like 
 these tumultuous assemblies, “ Let them come,” said the Prefect, 
 smiling and looking at us with an air of supplication ; “ pray do 
 not send them away; they will not incommode you, they only 
 want to see you. If you should find them troublesome, I need 
 only make a sign to them, and they will retire immediately.” 
 
A REALLY PATERNAL GOVERNOR. 
 
 227 
 
 We took very good care not to vex this good magistrate by 
 having put in force at Song-tche-hien the strict orders that we 
 had given in other places. On that day there was absolute free 
 admission for all, and every one was at liberty to come and study 
 as much as he pleased the physiognomies and appearance of the 
 men of the Western Seas. Whilst the curious contemplated us 
 with open mouths and staring eyes, the good Mandarin watched 
 them with great delight, and we on our parts were greatly pleased 
 to observe his good-natured face, and to be able to afford so much 
 gratification to the public. Everything went off very peaceably, 
 and without occasioning us the least trouble. 
 
 When one set had stared enough they retired, and made room for 
 others, and if ever there occurred the least noise or disorder among 
 them, their Prefect had but to say a word or make the slightest 
 gesture of disapprobation, and they were all quiet in a moment; 
 his smallest orders were obeyed in a manner at once respectful 
 and filial. 
 
 The Prefect of Song-tche-hien, surrounded by his people, was 
 the very image of a father in the midst of his children, the most 
 touching realisation of the fundamental idea of the laws and 
 institutions of China, which are always based on the principle o 
 paternity, and which suppose that every functionary is a father to 
 his people, and they as children with respect to him. At present 
 this magnificent system is only a vain theory, and, with some few 
 rai’e exceptions, it is never found but in books; the Mandarins 
 are scarcely anything else than a formidable association of little 
 tyrants and great thieves, strongly organised for the pillage and 
 oppression of the people. We repeat, however, that this disorder 
 is not the necessary consequence of Chinese institutions; it is not 
 inherent in the principle of the government, but, on the contrary, 
 it is a flagrant violation of that principle. 
 
 In reading the annals of China we remarked that under certain 
 dynasties the Mandarins were good magistrates, occupying them¬ 
 selves paternally with the interests of those confided to their care. 
 They went out often to visit the people under their government; 
 they inquired for themselves into the wants of the poor and the 
 sufferings of the unfortunate, in order the better to succour them; 
 they traversed the rural districts to examine the state of the har¬ 
 vests, to encourage the laborious farmers, and reprimand those 
 who showed negligence in their work. If an inundation or any 
 other public calamity took place, they hurried to the spot to in¬ 
 vestigate the evil and inquire into the remedy. On the first and 
 the fifth day of each moon they gave instruction to the people 
 
228 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 who were eager to receive it, and especially they administered 
 justice with strict impartiality. Every oppressed man, every one 
 whose rights had been interfered with, might present himself at 
 the tribunal; he had but to strike on a great cymbal, placed 
 expressly for that purpose in the interior court, and the Mandarin, 
 as soon as he heard the sound, was obliged to appear and listen to 
 the complainant at any hour of the day or night. 
 
 Now things are managed in a very different manner: there are 
 indeed in all the localities places appointed where the Mandarins 
 ought to instruct the people ; they are called Chan-yu-ting or 
 “ Hall of Holy Instructions; ” but on the appointed day the Man¬ 
 darin does but just walk in, smoke a pipe, drink a cup of tea, and 
 walk out again. Nobody is there to listen to him, and if there 
 were he would not trouble himself to say a word. In the tribunals 
 the “ Cymbals of the Oppressed” are still to be seen; but the 
 oppressed take good care not to strike upon them, for if they did 
 they -would be immediately fined or whipped. 
 
 The conduct formerly observed by the Mandarins towards the 
 inhabitants of a district was only a repetition, on a small scale, of 
 that of the Emperor towards his subjects. It has always been a 
 custom with the Chinese sovereigns to publish from time to time 
 instructions to their subjects on morals, agriculture, and industry. 
 This practice dates from the most remote times of the monarchy. 
 The Emperor of China is not only the supreme head of the state, 
 the great sacrificer or high priest, and principal legislator of the 
 nation, he is also the chief of the Literary aristocracy, and the first 
 doctor in the empire; he is not less bound to instruct than to 
 govern his subjects, or rather governing and instructing ought to 
 be in his empire the same thing. All decrees are instructions; 
 orders are given under the form of lessons, and bear that name; 
 chastisements and punishments are the complement of the lesson; 
 the Emperor is regarded strictly as a father whose duty it is to 
 teach his children, and who is compelled sometimes to chastise 
 them. 
 
 The chan-yu, or holy edicts, emanating from the Imperial pen 
 for the instruction of the people, are ordered to be read and ex¬ 
 plained, on the first and the fifteenth day of every month, with 
 great state, and according to the ceremonial that l’egulates these 
 solemnities. In every town or village, the civil and military 
 authorities, attired in their state costume, assemble in a public 
 hall; the master of the ceremonies, a personage always indispen¬ 
 sable in Chinese meetings, cries in a loud voice to all present, to 
 file off according to their rank; and he warns every one not to 
 
ANECDOTE OF A FORMER GOVERNMENT. 
 
 229 
 
 fail to perform before a tablet, inscribed with the sacred names of 
 the Emperor, the three genuflexions, and nine knockings of the 
 head. This ceremony over, they pass into the hall, named Chan- 
 yu-ting, where the people and the soldiers standing in silence, the 
 master of the ceremonies says, “ Begin with respect.” The magis¬ 
 trate, who has the office of reader, then advances towards an altar, 
 on which perfumes are placed, kneels down, and takes, with every 
 demonstration of respect, the tablet, on which is written the maxim 
 that has been chosen for the explanation of the day, and then mounts 
 upon the platform. 
 
 An old man receives the tablet, and places it on the platform 
 opposite to the people; then commanding silence with a little 
 wooden instrument in the form of a bell, he reads the sentence in 
 a loud voice. Afterwards the master of the ceremonies cries, 
 “ Explain that sentence of the Holy Edict;” and the orator rises, 
 and explains the sense of the maxim, which usually turns on some 
 commonplace of the moral books of the Chinese. 
 
 This custom, if seriously carried out, can only be laudable and 
 useful, but as it is done now, it is merely a vain ceremony. The 
 case is the same with the celebrated festival in which, in the first 
 days of spring, the Emperor goes with all his court into the country 
 to cultivate a field himself, by way of encouraging agriculture; 
 and every Mandarin is required to repeat the same ceremony in 
 his district. It is indisputable that these fine institutions had 
 formerly great influence, when they were seriously carried out by 
 the Mandarins and the people. We could bring a crowd of ex¬ 
 amples, drawn from the annals of China, to give an idea of what 
 this nation was in times past; but we prefer leaving the already 
 quoted Arab author to speak, since his testimony will be less sus¬ 
 pected than that of a Chinese writer. 
 
 “ A man who was a native of Khorassan, had come from Irak, 
 and bought there a great quantity of merchandise; then he em¬ 
 barked for China. This man was very avaricious and selfish, and 
 there arose a dispute between him and the eunuch whom the Em¬ 
 peror had sent to Khan-fou, the rendezvous of the Arab merchant, 
 to choose amongst the merchandise newly arrived whatever should 
 be suitable for him. This eunuch was one of the most powerful 
 men in the empire; it was he who kept the treasures and riches 
 of the Emperor. The dispute took place on the subject of an 
 assortment of ivory and other merchandise, the merchant refusing 
 to yield his goods at the price offered; the discussion grew warm, 
 and at last the eunuch carried his audacity so far as to put aside 
 what was best among the merchandise, and to seize upon it by 
 
230 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 force, without troubling himself at all about the claims of the 
 proprietor. 
 
 “The merchant set off secretly from Khan-fou, and went to 
 Khom-dan, the capital of the empire, two months’ journey or more, 
 taking his way to China, already mentioned. 
 
 “ The custom is, that he who rings the bell over the head of the 
 king* should be conducted immediately ten days’journey off, to 
 a kind of exile. There he is kept in prison for two months, and 
 then the governor of the place sends for him and says: — ‘You 
 have taken a step, which, if your claim is not well founded, will 
 bring on you ruin and loss of life; the Emperor has established 
 for you, and persons of your class, viziers and governors of whom 
 you may, when you please, ask justice. Know that if you persist 
 in addressing yourself directly to the Emperor, and that your 
 complaints should not be found to be such as to justify such a step, 
 nothing can save you from death. 
 
 “ ‘ It is good that every man who should be inclined to do as 
 you have done, should be deterred from following your example. 
 Desist then from your claim, and return to your proper business.’ 
 When a man in such a case withdraws his complaint, they give 
 him fifty blows with a stick and send him back to the country 
 whence he came, but if he persist, he must be conducted into the 
 presence of the Emperor. All this was done with the Khorassanian, 
 but he persisted in his complaint, and still asked to speak to the 
 Emperor. He was, therefore, brought back to the capital, and 
 taken before the Prince, and the interpreter questioned him as to 
 the purpose he had in view in what he had done. The merchant 
 then related how a dispute had arisen between him and the eunuch, 
 and how the eunuch had taken his goods from him by force. The 
 affair, he said, had made a noise in Khan-fou, and had become 
 public. 
 
 “ The Emperor ordered that the Khorassanian should be again 
 put in prison, but that he should be provided with everything he 
 required to eat and drink ; at the same time he wrote by the 
 Vizier and his agents to Khan-fou, to desire them to obtain in¬ 
 formation concerning the merchant’s story, and endeavour to dis¬ 
 cover the truth. 
 
 “The same orders were given to the Master of the left, the 
 Master of the right, and the Master of the centre, the three per¬ 
 sons on whom, after the Vizier, the command of the army depends; 
 it is to them the Emperor entrusts the guardianship of his person, 
 
 * The Emperor has in his palace a bell for the use of the oppressed who 
 claim his protection, but it is now as much off duty as the cymbal of the 
 Mandarins. 
 
THE CADI OF CADIS. 
 
 231 
 
 and when that prince goes to war, or on similar occasions, each of 
 the three takes the place that his title indicates. 
 
 “ These three functionaries, therefore, wrote to their subordinate 
 officers. 
 
 “ All the information they received tended to justify the recital 
 of the Khorassanian, and letters to the same effect came from 
 various parts of the empire. Then the sovereign sent for the 
 eunuch, and as soon as he arrived, his goods were confiscated, and 
 the Emperor withdrew from his hands the treasure that had been 
 entrusted to him. At the same time he said, ‘You would well 
 deserve that 1 should put you to death. You have exposed me to 
 the censure of a man who came from Khorassan on the frontiers 
 of my empire, who has visited the country of the Arabs, after that, 
 the countries of India, and lastly my states, in the hope of enjoying 
 my benefits. You would then, that this man, in returning to 
 these countries, and revisiting the same nations, should say, “I 
 have been the victim of injustice in China, and they have stolen 
 my aoods.” I will refrain from shedding your blood, in consider¬ 
 ation of your former services, but I shall appoint you to be the 
 guardian of the dead, since you have not respected the interests 
 of the living.’ By the order of the Emperor, this eunuch was 
 then charged to watch over the royal tombs, and to keep them in 
 good order. 
 
 “One of the proofs of the admirable order that reigned formerly 
 in the empire, and the great difference there is at present is the 
 manner in which the judicial decisions were given, the respect for 
 the law which animated all hearts, and the anxiety shown by the 
 government for the administration of justice and in the choice of 
 persons who had given sufficient proofs in the legislation, of sin¬ 
 cere zeal, an invincible love of truth, a firm resolution not to yield 
 what was right for the sake of persons of importance, and a mpst 
 scrupulous regard to the rights of property of the weak, which 
 might fall into their hands. 
 
 “ When the Cadi of Cadis was to be appointed, the government, 
 before investing him with the office, sent him into all the cities, 
 which by their importance are regarded as the pillars of the 
 empire. He remained in each city one or two months, and made 
 inquiries into the state of the country, its customs, and the dis¬ 
 position of the inhabitants. He inquired after persons on whose 
 testimony he could rely to such a degree, that when they had 
 spoken, it was useless to seek for more information. 'When this 
 
 * At this epoch the empire was in a state of revolution. 
 
232 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 man had visited the principal towns of the empire, and that there 
 remained no considerable place where he had not sojourned, he 
 returned to the capital, and they put him in possession of his 
 office. 
 
 ihis was the Cadi of Cadis, who chose and governed his sub¬ 
 ordinates. His knowledge of the different provinces of the 
 empire, and of the persons who in each district were worthy of 
 being charged with judicial functions, whether they were natives 
 of the country or not, was a well-grounded knowledge, which 
 made it unnecessary for him to have recourse to the recom¬ 
 mendations of people who, perhaps, mignt have had partialities, 
 and have replied in a manner contrary to the truth. There was 
 no cause to fear that any Cadi would venture to write to his 
 superior things whose falsehood he would immediately have 
 detected, and would then have dismissed his informant. 
 
 “Every day a crier proclaimed at the door of the Cadi these 
 words, ‘Is there any one who has any complaint to make, whether 
 against the Emperor, whose person is withdrawn from the sight 
 ot his subjects, or against any of his officers, or agents, or his 
 subjects in general? For these things I stand in the place of the 
 Emperor, in virtue of the powers he has conferred upon me.’ The 
 crier repeated these words three times. It is an established prin¬ 
 ciple that the Emperor does not disturb himself from his occupa¬ 
 tions, unless some governor has been guilty of evident iniquity, 
 or that the supreme magistrate has neglected to administer justice, 
 and to watch over the persons confided to his care. Now as long 
 as he keeps himself from these two things, — that is to say, as 
 long as the decisions given at his tribunals are conformable to 
 equity, and that the functions of the magistracy are confided to 
 persons who are friends of justice, the Empire is maintained in the 
 most satisfactory state .”—Chain of Chronicles , p. 106. 
 
 This last observation of the Arab writer is still applicable to 
 China at the present day. It is because the magistracy is no 
 longer confided to persons who are friends of justice, that this 
 empire, once so flourishing and so well governed, is sinking rapidly 
 to decay, and advancing towards certain, and perhaps speedy, 
 destruction. 
 
 In seeking for the causes of this general disorganisation, of this 
 corruption that has obviously penetrated into every stratum of 
 Chinese society, and is working its ruin, it seems that we find it 
 partly in a very important modification of the ancient system of 
 government, which was introduced by the Mantchoo dynasty. It 
 
INJURIOUS INNOVATIONS OF THE MANTCHOO. 233 
 
 decreed, namely, that no Mandarin should hold office in the same 
 place more than three years ; and that no one should be appointed 
 in his own province. The motive that dictated such a law may 
 easily be guessed. 
 
 As soon as the Mantchoo Tartars saw themselves masters of the 
 empire, they were terrified at their small number; — lost as they 
 were in some measure in the midst of the countless multitude of 
 Chinese, they must have asked themselves what means they had 
 of governing this immense nation, naturally hostile to a foreign 
 dominion. 
 
 To fill all public offices with Mandarins chosen from amongst 
 the Tartars would not have been sufficient; and it would also have 
 been no very good method of pacifying the minds of a people so 
 jealous, and so convinced of their own merit. It was, therefore, 
 decided that the vanquished party should not be excluded from 
 public functions; but the offices of the Supreme Courts of Pekin 
 were doubled, and divided between the Tartars and Chinese. 
 These latter had in great part the administration of the provinces, 
 with the exception, however, of the first military Mandarinates 
 and the command of the fortified places, which were reserved for 
 the Tartars. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these precautions, it was still difficult for 
 the conquering nation to consolidate its power, and it was in 
 constant fear of conspiracy. There could not but be among the 
 high officers some partisans of the fallen dynasty; and the 
 authority which they enjoyed in the provinces must give them 
 great influence in any attempt to raise the people. It was easy for 
 them to weave plots, and have an understanding with those under 
 their authority to undermine and finally overthrow the new 
 government. It is, therefore, probable that it w T as with the view 
 of paralysing these attempts at counter revolution, that it was de¬ 
 termined that no one should be a Mandarin in his own country ; 
 and that no magistrate should exercise his functions more than 
 three years in the same place. 
 
 The Mantchoo dynasty did not fail, of course, to colour this 
 innovation with specious pretexts, relating to the public advantage 
 and its solicitude for the welfare of the people, and forgot not to 
 allege that the magistrates being far from their relations and 
 friends, would be more free to devote themselves entirely to their 
 functions and the interests of the country. 
 
 Such were the motives publicly avowed to render this alteration 
 in the institutions of the empire acceptable ; but in fact the object 
 
234 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 was to hinder influential men from taking root anywhere, and 
 creating themselves partisans. 
 
 The conquerors of China have perfectly succeeded in this object 
 for the space of two hundred years. As the great Chinese 
 Mandarins have been always wandering from province to province, 
 without being able to fix themselves anywhere, all concert between 
 them has become impossible; and as the heads of parties,—the 
 representatives of Chinese nationality, could never rely upon 
 agents whose authority was but temporary, conspiracies among 
 them were easily crushed. This policy, judicious perhaps for the 
 consolidation of a rising power, could not fail to be in the end a 
 source of disorder. In making into a law of the empire what 
 ought to have been a mere transitory expedient, the imprudent 
 conquerors of China deposited in the very root of their power a 
 poisonous germ, that has developed itself gradually, and borne 
 fatal fruits. 
 
 The magistrates and public functionaries, having only a few 
 years to pass at the same post, live in it like strangers, without 
 troubling themselves at all about the wants of the people under 
 their care; no tie attaches them to the population; all their care 
 is to accumulate as much money as possible wherever they go, 
 and continually repeat the operation, till they can return to their 
 native province to enjoy a fortune gained by extortion in all the 
 rest. It is in vain to cry out against their injustice and their de¬ 
 predations; it matters little to them what is thought of them, they 
 are only birds of passage; the next day they may be at the other 
 extremity of the empire, and will hear no more of the cries of the 
 victims they have despoiled. 
 
 The Mandarins have thus become utterly selfish, and indifferent 
 to the public good. The fundamental principle of the Chinese 
 monarchy has been destroyed ; for the magistrate is no longer a 
 father living in the midst of his children, he is a marauder who 
 cornes one knows not whence, and who is going one knows not 
 whither. Thus since the accession of the Mantchoo Tartar 
 dynasty everything in the empire has fallen into a languishing and 
 expiring condition. You see no more of those great enterprises, 
 those gigantic works, which are indicative of a powerful and 
 energetic life in the nation that executes them. 
 
 You find in the provinces monuments that must have required 
 incredible efforts and perseverance: numerous canals, lofty towers, 
 superb bridges, grand roads over mountains, strong dykes along 
 rivers, &c. But now, not only is nothing of the kind ever un- 
 
FATAL EFFECTS ON THE EMPIRE. 235 
 
 r 
 
 dertaken, but even what has been done under former dynasties is 
 suffered to go to ruin. 
 
 Man, especially if he be not a Christian, can seldom free himself 
 from his selfishness; he likes to enjoy the fruits of his labour 
 himself, and seldom lays the foundation of an edifice but in the 
 hope of seeing its completion. “ Why,” might one of these Man¬ 
 darins of passage say to himself, “ should I undertake what I shall 
 never have time to finish ? Why sow, for another to reap the 
 harvest?” And with these views, the interests, moral and 
 physical, of the population, are entirely abandoned. There are, 
 we doubt not, governors of provinces, and prefects of towns, 
 capable of effecting useful reforms, of creating beneficial institu¬ 
 tions, and executing works often much wanted ; but considering 
 that they are only there for a day, they have not courage to put 
 their hand to the work ; egotism and private interest easily gain 
 the upper place in their thoughts; they occupy themselves ex¬ 
 clusively with their private affairs, leaving the interests of the 
 public to be looked after by their successors, who in their turn 
 leave it to those who may come after them. 
 
 This system, supposed to be established with the object of with¬ 
 drawing the Mandarins from private and family influence, and 
 rendering their administration more free and independent, has had 
 the very opposite effect. The functionaries succeed each other so 
 rapidly in the various localities, that they are never acquainted 
 with the affairs submitted to their administration; and often 
 enough they even find themselves flung into the midst ot a popu¬ 
 lation whose very language they do not understand, fhey are 
 often unacquainted with the manners and customs of the country; 
 for it would be a great mistake to suppose that the Chinese are all 
 alike. The difference is, perhaps, more strongly marked between 
 the various provinces of China, than between many separate 
 kingdoms of Europe. When the magistrates arrive at their 
 Mandarinate, they find, fixed at their posts, the interpreters and 
 subaltern functionaries, who, as they know all about the affairs of 
 the locality, can easily render their services indispensable. In 
 the smallest circumstances, the magistrates would be incapable of 
 acting without the help ot these agents, who are, in fact, the real 
 governors. 
 
 The papers relating to all the lawsuits are in their hands; they 
 alone draw them up, and settle beforehand the tenor of the judg¬ 
 ment to be given. The magistrate has only to promulgate in 
 public what they have arranged in private, and without his par¬ 
 ticipation. Now, all these immovable factotums are on the spot; 
 
236 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 they have with them their relations and friends; and it is there¬ 
 fore not at all surprising that judicial and administrative affairs 
 are conducted chiefly through intrigue and cabal. The tribunals 
 are full of these vampires, incessantly occupied in draining away 
 the substance of the people, first, for the Mandarins, and then on 
 their own account and that of their friends. We have often been 
 brought into relation with these gentry; we have seen them at 
 their dirty work, and we can hardly say whether the sight inspired 
 most indignation or disgust. 
 
 Thus it appears, that since the accession of the Mantchoo dynasty, 
 Chinese society has undergone great alteration for the worse. 
 
 In Europe, people have strong ideas of the immobility of this 
 people. These innovations, introduced by the conquering race, 
 are regarded as customs dating from the most remote antiquity, 
 and necessarily resulting from the Chinese character. Who, for 
 instance, is not convinced that this people has a natural antipathy 
 to foreigners, and has always endeavoured to keep them away 
 from its frontiers? Yet nothing can be more incorrect. This 
 exclusive and jealous spirit belongs particularly to the Mantchoo 
 Tartars ; and it is only since the commencement of their rule that 
 the empire has been hermetically sealed to foreigners. 
 
 In past ages the Chinese kept up constant relations with all the 
 countries of Asia. Arabs, Persians, Indians traded in their ports 
 without any hindrance; they even penetrated into the interior, 
 and freely traversed the provinces. That Khorassanian, and that 
 Arab who journeyed in peace to the capital of the Empire to 
 demand an audience of the Emperor, are in themselves a proof of 
 this. I he monument of Si-wgan-fou (the inscription on which 
 we have mentioned) testifies that foreign missionaries had then 
 preached and practised the Christian religion in all freedom. In 
 the thirteenth century, Marco Polo was, with his father and his 
 uncle, very well received in China at two different epochs. 
 Although Venetians, they exercised there public functions of the 
 highest importance, Marco Polo having been made governor of a 
 province. About the same epoch, an archbishop existed at Pekin, 
 and Christian religious ceremonies were publicly performed, 
 lowards the end of the first Chinese dynasty, when Father Ricci 
 and the first Jesuit missionaries recommenced their labours, it 
 does not appear that they had to contend with the same difficulties 
 as at the present day; they were honourably received at court, 
 and the first Tartar Emperors only tolerated what they found 
 already existing. 
 
 * AH this proves that the Chinese have not always had such a 
 
EVIL FOREBODINGS CONCERNING THE EMPIRE. 237 
 
 great aversion to foreigners as is imagined. Many Mandarins, 
 with whom we have had occasion to discuss this question, and to 
 whom we have endeavoured to show how anti-social and insulting 
 to other nations the Chinese policy was, have declared to us that 
 the real Chinese had never repulsed foreigners, and that all the 
 severe measures taken against them date only from the commence¬ 
 ment of the present dynasty. 
 
 The Mantchoos, it is evident, were, on account of the smallness 
 of their numbers in the midst of this vast empire, compelled to 
 adopt stringent measures to preserve their conquest. For fear 
 that foreigners should be tempted to snatch their prey from them, 
 they have carefully closed the ports of China against them, think¬ 
 ing thus to secure themselves from ambitious attempts from with¬ 
 out ; and in the interior of the empire they have sought to keep 
 their enemies divided by their system of rapid and constant change 
 of public officers. These two methods have been crowned with 
 success up to the present time ; and it is really an astonishing 
 fact, and one, perhaps, not sufficiently considered, that a mere 
 handful of nomades should have been able to exercise, for more 
 than two hundred years, a peaceable and absolute dominion over 
 the vastest empire in the world, and over a population which, 
 whatever may be the common opinion respecting them, are really 
 extremely stirring and fond of change. A policy, at the same 
 time adroit, supple, and vigorous, could alone have obtained a 
 similar result; but there is every reason to think that the methods 
 which once contributed to establish the power of the Mantchoo 
 Tartars will ultimately tend to overthrow it. 
 
 These strangers — these barbarians whom the government of 
 Pekin appears to despise because it dreads them — will sooner or 
 later grow impatient at seeing its gates obstinately closed against 
 them; and some fine day they will burst them open, and find be¬ 
 hind them a population, countless, it is true, but disunited, without 
 any cohesive force, and at the mercy of any one strong enough to 
 seize them, wholly or in part. 
 
 The venerable Mandarin of Song-tche-hien, that “ fine old Chi¬ 
 nese gentleman,” uttered many lamentations over the decay of his 
 country. “ Since the sacred traditions of our ancestors,” said he, 
 “ have fallen into oblivion, heaven has abandoned us. Those who 
 watch attentively the march and the progress of events, those who 
 observe how great is the selfishness of our magistrates, how pro¬ 
 found the degradation of the people, feel a dark and mournful pre¬ 
 sentiment. We are on the eve of an immense revolution — this 
 is felt by numbers ; but will the impulse come from without or 
 
238 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 from within ? No one knows — no one can foresee. One thing 
 is certain ; this dynasty has lost the divine protection, and the 
 people have now only feelings of contempt and anger for those who 
 govern them. Filial piety exists no longer amongst us, and the 
 Empire must fall.”* 
 
 r lhe Mandarin who talked in this way was, it is true, of a very 
 advanced age, and consequently we were not surprised to find him 
 somewhat inclined to grumbling and taking a sombre view of 
 things. Horace’s old man is a cosmopolite. The young and fasci¬ 
 nating Prefect of I-tou-hien saw the evil, we doubt not, as clearly 
 as his respectable friend of Song-tche-hien, but he did not despair, 
 or think that the Chinese nation had arrived at the end of its 
 career. He remarked, indeed, that all was out of order; there 
 was not a wheel in the State machine that did not grind ; but he 
 loved the machine, he thought it well and learnedly put together, 
 and that it might be possible to make it do its work for centuries 
 longer. But for this a wise and skilful mechanician was indispen¬ 
 sable. Upon this last point, however, he was very reserved, and 
 evidently did not say all that he thought: his position as a high 
 government officer demanded great prudence, and we took good care 
 not to press him.on a question of so much delicacy; however, he said 
 enough for us to suspect that the fall of the Tartar dynasty would 
 not altogether break his heart. He seemed to think it quite reason¬ 
 able and natural that the Chinese nation should be governed by a 
 Chinese Emperor, and several Mandarins have expressed the same 
 feeling in our presence, but it does not exist among the masses, 
 who, as we said, think it very absurd to occupy yourself gratui¬ 
 tously with political questions. Such a feeling may, however, exist 
 
 in a Latent state, and, to awaken it, there needs only an event_ 
 
 an opportunity, such as has occurred at several of the most cele¬ 
 brated epochs in the history of China. 
 
 The Prefect of Song-tche-hien, a great admirer of antiquity, 
 studied to fulfil towards us the duties of hospitality, in a manner 
 truly patriarchal. We were not merely for him travellers and 
 strangers, whom it was necessary to take care of, because the law 
 and the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen had ordered it. We were his 
 guests in the full force of the term, and not only his guests, but 
 also the guests of his friends— of his colleagues in the civil and 
 military administration; the guests, in fact, of all the inhabitants 
 of Song-tche-hien. A\ r e were, of course, obliged to show ourselves 
 
 * E is to be observed that these Recollections were written in 1849 from 
 notes collected during 1846 . 
 
DEPARTURE FROM THE HOSPITABLE PREFECT. 239 
 
 sensible to these friendly demonstrations, and live in some measure 
 in public. The utmost privacy we could obtain was only just 
 what was sufficient for repose and prayer. The Prefect would 
 leave to no one else the care of arranging our departure. He went 
 himself to the port to choose our boats, and he hired a third for 
 his chief secretary and some domestics, who were to accompany us 
 as far as Kin-tcheou, where we were to stop. He had also shown 
 us the attention of sending his cook on board with a rich assort¬ 
 ment of provisions, in order to continue his generous hospitality 
 as long as he could. 
 
 We quitted Song-tche-hien very early in the morning. As the 
 greater part of the night had been spent in gossiping, we felt as 
 soon as we came onboard that a small appendix to the very limited 
 portion of sleep we had been permitted to take would be very ac¬ 
 ceptable. A good breeze diffused a refreshing coolness over the 
 deck. Our servant made our travelling bed under a great sail, and 
 we fell asleep very comfortably, lulled by the sound of the waves, 
 as they dashed against the junk. During nearly an hour we en¬ 
 joyed this delightful repose, but after this the post became unten¬ 
 able. The breeze continuing to freshen, the vessel acquired an 
 uneasy jerking motion — sometimes to the right, sometimes to the 
 left; and as the horizontal position became extremely difficult to 
 keep, we rose and tried how we could maintain the vertical one. 
 The river, already at this part of Hou-pe, is a league wide, and 
 presented a magnificent aspect to the eye ; but one not altogether 
 satisfactory for our navigation, as the wind was blowing with ex¬ 
 treme violence, and the movement of the junk was very disagree¬ 
 able. 
 
 We went below, and found, as usual, our dear Mandarins lying 
 side by side on mats, and smoking their accursed opium. As soon 
 as we appeared, they extinguished their little lamps. “ It seems,” 
 said we, “ that opium is food enough for you —no one appeal's to 
 be thinking of dinner; but we must do honour to the provisions 
 sent us by the kind Prefect of Song-tche-hien.” At these words, 
 very simple and natural, we thought, as it was late, and we had as 
 yet taken nothing, our Mandarins looked completely bewildered. 
 No one answered a word. <f When it is convenient,” said we, 
 “ will you give orders to the servants ? It will not do to put it off 
 too long, the wind is still increasing, the junk will soon be shaken 
 so that it will be impossible to keep our feet.” 
 
 Master Ting cast on us a compassionate look; he half opened 
 his mouth, but no words came out. We saw that something vexa¬ 
 tious had happened, but we could not guess what. At length, col- 
 
240 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 lecting all his energies, he burst out, in a despairing tone, with, 
 “ What shall we do, we have no victuals ! The junk that carries the 
 Prefect’s provisions is far on before us — perhaps we shall overtake 
 it. If you like, we will amuse ourselves in the meantime with taking 
 tea; that will give us something to do.” The kind of recreation that 
 our ingenious conductor proposed to us was, certainly, a very inno¬ 
 cent one; but we knew from long experience, that it is not very 
 strengthening for the stomach. To amuse oneself by drinking tea, 
 when one is exceedingly hungry, is absolutely to open a gulf in¬ 
 stead of filling one up. 
 
 We came up on deck again, rather disappointed, and looked 
 over the vast surface of the river, in hopes of discovering the bark 
 that bore our cook and his accessories. A large yellow flag, we 
 were told, floated at the mast, by which we should know the vessel. 
 We looked, however, in vain. We saw many trading junks with 
 their large mat sails, driven by the wind and tossed by the waves; 
 but vainly on every side did we look for our provisions; — there 
 was nothing for it but resignation, nobody was to blame. The 
 place had, indeed, been mentioned where the other junk was to 
 have waited for us; but, very likely, the violence of the wind had 
 net permitted it to stop. Probably, we said, we saw those pro¬ 
 visions embarked with too lively a feeling of satisfaction, and this 
 disappointment has been permitted to give us a lesson. 
 
 W e went below again to preach patience and resignation to our 
 staff; but we were followed by the master of the boat, who, seeing 
 our distress, had the kindness to offer us a ration of the rice that 
 was boiling in the great kettle belonging to the crew. We ac¬ 
 cepted his offer with gratitude, and were soon dining on rice boiled 
 in water and seasoned with salt herbs. This was of course not 
 very dainty fare, but we had had worse. Whilst we were per- 
 forming thus an instrumental piece in the rice bowl with our little 
 chopsticks, we had the wisdom to call to our minds the epoch when, 
 in traversing the deserts of Tartary and the mountains of Thibet, 
 we had no other food than some handfuls of barley flour, moistened 
 with a little tea, or flavoured with suet. 
 
 “ Heavens ! ” said we, “ if we had every day found such a dinner 
 as this under our tent! Fine white rice, well boiled and abundant 
 in quantity, besides a plate of salt herbs, and preserved red pepper ! 
 Why, such a feast would have seemed a miracle! Flow Samdadchi- 
 emba’s large face would have expanded at the sight of such a store 
 of food. What fine stories he would have told us over it! ” 
 
 The recollection of the incredible repasts prepared for us in 
 those days by our dear camel driver, was an excellent seasoning, 
 
MANDARINS SEA-SICK. 
 
 241 
 
 and gave us quite an appetite to our present fare. We did not dine 
 so well certainly as many persons in the world, but assuredly better 
 than a number of unfortunate people who did not dine at all. Our 
 estimate of our welfare here below mostly depends upon compari¬ 
 son. How many people live in constant suffering and distress, 
 because they persist in always looking above, instead of below 
 them! 
 
 Dinners past and present, however, and even Tartary and 
 Thibet, were forgotten not long afterwards, in cares of a different 
 kind. During the whole morning the wind had been constantly 
 increasing, and towards noon it came on to blow so violently, that 
 we had to take in nearly all the sail, and keep only what was 
 just necessary to steady the junk. The river was like a great arm 
 of the sea lashed by a gale. The waves, though shorter and 
 lower than in the open sea, were more impetuous, and dashed 
 furiously against each other. Our poor junk, rolling and pitching 
 at the same time, groaned and creaked in every plank. Sometimes 
 she seemed to be lifted high above the water, then plunged heavily 
 down into the midst of it. We were driven about by sudden and 
 violent gusts, occasioned by the inequalities of the shore, and now 
 and then we were within a hair’s breadth of destruction, for the 
 poor junk, almost on her beam ends, seemed, as she trembled and 
 shook all over, to be hollowing out a tomb for herself in the waters. 
 The position was critical; but the chief danger arose from the 
 want of solidity in our vessel, as, like most of the river junks, it 
 was of very imperfect construction. The sailors appeared, never¬ 
 theless, quite easy, and we preferred attributing their calmness to 
 their experience rather than to their indifference. 
 
 Whilst we were thus driven at the mercy of the winds and 
 waves (but under the care of God), our Mandarins had taken 
 refuge in a narrow cabin, where they cowered down without 
 daring to move. We did not at all perceive on the faces of our 
 two military gentlemen the haughty dignity that is proper to a 
 soldier in a moment of danger. That Master Ting should want 
 it was excusable : his quality of literary man gave him the right 
 to be afraid. The fact was, all our conductors were affected by 
 sea-sickness ; and as they had never felt it before, nor even heard 
 it mentioned, they all thought they were going to die. It was in 
 vain we assured them it was a mere momentary inconvenience, 
 occasioned by the motion of the vessel; they persisted in believing 
 it was all over with them. “And you two” said Master ling, 
 with a faint voices “ does not the vessel move for you as well as 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 for us, and you are not ill.” “ Oh, that’s a different case,” said 
 we, “ we don’t smoke opium.” 
 
 “ What ! do you think it is the opium that is killing us ? ” 
 
 “Who knows? We could not venture to say that, but it is 
 certain that opium is a poison, and that by degrees it must destroy 
 the energy of the constitution in all smokers.” Thereupon Master 
 Ting began to curse the day when he had allowed himself to yield 
 to the temptation of this detestable drug, and promised, that if he 
 escaped with his life this time, he would throw pipe, lamp, and 
 opium overboard. “Why not do it now,” sgid we, “what’s the 
 use of waiting ? ” 
 
 “ Oh, I am too ill now, I have not strength to move.” “ Well, 
 we are not at all ill, we can see to this little matter for you,” and 
 we turned towards the place where he kept his smoking tools : but 
 Master Ting was there before us. Suddenly awakened from his 
 lethargy, he had made but one bound to the spot where his be¬ 
 loved casket was placed. The movement had been so nimble, and 
 so totally unexpected, that his companions could not help laughing, 
 though they were certainly not at all in the humour for it ; and 
 leaving him brooding over his treasure, we returned to the deck 
 to see how we were getting on. 
 
 The water was less rough, and the breeze less violent; and 
 though there was scarcely any sail set, the junk was moving swiftly 
 on. “ If this lasts,” said the master, “ we shall be soon at Kin- 
 tcheou.” And glad we were to hear him say so, for the weather 
 looked ugly, and we wished very much to be in port again. But 
 alas! though the distance was small, we were still far off the port. 
 
 Towards four in the afternoon, we reached a point where the 
 river makes a bend in another direction, and instead of continuing 
 its course to the south, turns abruptly to the west. At this point 
 we met several junks that were tacking to get through the difficult 
 passage, where the side wind became a contrary one. Here we 
 saw the two other boats of our flotilla, those containing the soldiers, 
 and the provisions; they had probably been there a long time 
 before us, but had not been able to get any further. We began 
 now to perform in our turn the same manoeuvres as the other junks, 
 crossing the river from one side to the other. But it was in vain 
 we sailed quite close to the wind, as the sailors say, and that our junk 
 lay almost on her side,—we could not succeed ; we were continually 
 driven back, and had to go through the same work all over again. 
 
 For those who are quiet on shore the sight of such manmuvres 
 is very attractive; we contemplate with interest 1 every movement 
 of the vessel, we follow her progress with anxiety, we calculate 
 
AFLOAT AND ASHORE. 
 
 243 
 
 her rate of motion, and consider what she will have to do under 
 certain circumstances. When there are several vessels engaged 
 in the same way, we compare their relative speed in sailing, their 
 difference of build, and of behaviour; and there is mostly some 
 one in which we are, in spite of ourselves, particularly interested. 
 If she excels the rest, we are quite pleased, and as proud as if we 
 had a share in her merit. 
 
 But, to enjoy all this, one must be on shore quite at one’s ease, 
 and perhaps smoking a pipe; for those on board it is quite a 
 different affair, and not at all amusing. The first and even 
 the second time the manoeuvres have to be repeated one can 
 keep one’s patience tolerably well, but then one begins to get 
 tired; and when the weather is bad, and the navigation danger¬ 
 ous,— when you go on tacking and tacking, without ever ad¬ 
 vancing a step—you really are in danger of losing your temper; 
 at least, if you are so unfortunate as not to be able always to 
 resign yourself to the will of God, in small as well as in great 
 things. 
 
 We had been more than an hour thus tacking about, without 
 any one of the vessels being able to pass the point in question; 
 but at last, though the gale had increased, some of the junks did 
 succeed in doubling the headland, and disappeared. 
 
 We thought then that our turn was coming, but we were mis¬ 
 taken; backwards and forwards we went, always in the same track, 
 until all at once a sudden gust seized us, and threw us, not past 
 the point, but on the opposite shore, which, fortunately, was only 
 sand and mud, so that the junk was not broken; and after the 
 
 crew had vociferated for a long time, they endeavoured to get her 
 afloat again. Every one set to work, sailors, Mandarins, and 
 missionaries, and with much toil, in the sweat of our brow, we 
 got her out of the sand, and recommenced our hopeless manoeuvres. 
 This time we did not even get as far as before, and presently the 
 wind caught us again, and flung us once more on the shore we 
 had just left. 
 
 Prudence now certainly required that we should refrain for the 
 present from making any new attempt. AVe tried to convince the 
 master that he would run the risk of losing his junk, as well as 
 drowning us, which would be an unpleasant incident for both 
 parties. Even supposing that we did manage to get round the 
 point, should we be much better off with the foul wind we should 
 find on the other side? We were of opinion, therefore, that it 
 would be best to wait in patience for a more favourable opportunity. 
 The vanity of our master, however, prevented him from adoptin<>- 
 
244 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 this prudent resolution. He could not bear the idea that all the 
 other junks had passed, and that he should be the only one left 
 behind. He made a horrible noise on board, cursed the sailors, 
 swore at winds and waves, and heaven and earth, and was in a 
 perfect fury. Go on he would, or try to go on, let the wind blow 
 as it might; so away went the poor junk, tacking to this side and 
 that again, and struggling to do what was impossible, till we were, 
 for the thii’d time, dashed ashore on the sands. 
 
 The master was now at his wit’s end, and, rather overpowered 
 than resigned, he gave it up. It was almost dark too, and it 
 would have been madness to endeavour to reach Kin-tcheou that 
 night, with winds and waves against us. Instead, therefore, of 
 forcing back the boat into the channel of the river, they plunged 
 her still farther into the sand, in order to withdraw her from the 
 action of the waves, which were dashing against her side with a 
 fury that threatened every moment to break her to pieces. 
 
 When this operation was over, the junk was lashed to some 
 neighbouring trees, by means of strong bamboo cables; the 
 anchors were driven firmly into the ground; in short, all pre¬ 
 cautions were used to prevent her being carried away again. 
 After this everybody tried to settle himself as well as he could 
 for the night. There was neither town nor hamlet near the spot 
 where we had gone aground; we could only perceive a farm or 
 two scattered about, where we could not hope to pass the night 
 any more comfortably than in our own boat. 
 
 Our dinner, as it may be remembered, had not been very 
 sumptuous, but circumstances were now far more unfavourable to 
 us than they had been at dinner time. We augured, therefore, 
 that we should sup much worse, and we were by no means 
 deceived in our expectations. We had neither a great pyramid of 
 rice, nor salt herbs, nor red pepper. On leaving Song-tche-hien 
 the crew had only provided for a day’s voyage ; they had not, 
 indeed, made a very close calculation, and had provided abundantly 
 for their number, but they could not have supposed they would 
 have so large a party, or that our provisions would be likely to 
 fail. There could not, therefore, be much food of any kind on 
 board, and on inspection of the rice sack, it appeared that there 
 was not enough to afford a meal for the crew, who, after the 
 fatigue and trouble they had undergone, must have been greatly in 
 need of it. 
 
 These worthy fellows, nevertheless, generously offered us a part 
 of what there was, but we could not think of taking it ; the rice 
 that these poor people wanted would certainly have done us no 
 
THE JUNK AFLOAT. 
 
 245 
 
 good, if we had eaten it. We had made up our minds, therefore, 
 resignedly, to go to bed without supper, when Master Ting 
 came to whisper to us that there was a cargo of pumpkins on 
 hoard in the hold. The master, on being interrogated, admitted 
 the fact,‘and said, that as Long-tche-hien produced enormous 
 pumpkins, one of his friends had commissioned him to bring a 
 quantity to the market at Kin-tcheou. We proposed to him to 
 buy them all; the bargain was quickly concluded, and the cargo 
 passed immediately from the hold to the kitchen. We had them 
 boiled in large slices in the kettle belonging to the crew, and then 
 distributed among the whole ship’s company. So after all we got 
 some supper, taking care to add to our slices of pumpkin a little 
 meditation upon oatmeal. 
 
 The night passed without accident. Every one slept pro¬ 
 foundly except the watchman, charged to strike the hours upon 
 the tam-tam, and the next morning at daybreak, the crew were all 
 in motion again. The wind had fallen very much, and, what was 
 still better, it had changed its direction. We were, however, a 
 long time in getting afloat again; for the junk had got so deep 
 into the sand, that it was no easy matter to set her free. At last 
 we got once more into the channel of the Blue River, and, with 
 the wind behind us, dashed on in full sail towards the port of Kin- 
 tcheou. We were all on deck, enjoying the freshness of the morn¬ 
 ing, and the pleasure of a smooth and rapid navigation, and 
 contemplating the rich panorama that was unfolded before our 
 eyes. All the faces that had been so sad and gloomy the evening 
 before, were now radiant and saucy enough. Our Mandarins were 
 once more convinced of the value of a life, which, when they were 
 sea-sick, they were quite ready to part with. Master Ting was 
 exulting to find himself still a member of this breathing world, 
 and would have required very little pressing to act us a play. 
 “Master Ting,” said we, “you have, you see, escaped with your 
 life, and you can move about quite well, so you must not forget to 
 fulfil your promise: go and get your opium box, and let us pitch 
 it overboard.” He only replied by cutting a caper, saying he had 
 only said that in fun ; and to show how little disposed he was to 
 throw his pipe into the water, he went down and began to smoke 
 with more ardour than ever. 
 
 In the midst of this general enjoyment the master alone was 
 still out of humour. That arrival in port that we were all longing 
 for, was precisely what he dreaded, for he feared to encounter the 
 raillery of the other junks. “ How shall I dare to show myself? ” 
 he kept repeating. “ I have lost my face ” (that is, been dis- 
 
246 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 honoured). Vainly did we try to encourage him : to all we could 
 say he had but one answer, “ I have lost my face! ” 
 
 At last we reached the port of Kin-tcheou, and as we entered, 
 there arose a general sensation. All the junks got into motion, 
 shouts were uttered, arms extended, the tam-tam sounded from 
 every quarter! Our skipper could not stand this ; it was evi¬ 
 dently nothing but raillery and sarcasm. Very soon our junk was 
 surrounded by little boats, and the most curious of their occupants 
 began to climb on board, and then we learned the real cause of 
 these lively demonstrations, which were by no means satirical, but 
 cordially congratulative. They had believed us lost. The greater 
 part of the junks that had made the point, which we had endea¬ 
 voured in vain to pass, had suffered shipwreck on the other side, 
 in the midst of a tremendous gale. 
 
 Those that had arrived in port were entirely dismantled ; they 
 had announced that we were coming, and as we had not appeared, 
 everybody was persuaded that we had been swallowed by the 
 waves. The numerous misfortunes that they related to us, with 
 many lamentable details, made us wonder at and bless the good¬ 
 ness of God towards us. It was indeed providential that we had 
 run aground three times, for we had been thus prevented from 
 reaching the point of danger. What we had regarded as a trial, 
 was, in truth, a blessing of God, an evidence of his goodness and 
 mercy. Whilst we were endeavouring to resign ourselves to what 
 we thought a disappointment, we ought to have been returning 
 thanks for a signal benefit. In many events of life men commit 
 the same mistake, and are deceived by false appearances. We 
 often see them inconsiderately yielding themselves a prey to gloom 
 and sadness, when they should calmly bless the perpetual watch¬ 
 fulness of Providence over them. 
 
 The joy that we felt at having so wonderfully escaped shipwreck 
 was not, however, unmingled with grief. Our two transport boats 
 that we had been so jealous of, because they had got before us, had 
 been lost; the one had been wrecked upon the reefs that border 
 the shore, the other had foundered and gone down, when quite 
 near the port. Three men were drowned, two soldiers and the 
 Head Secretary of the Prefect of Song-tche-hien. The others 
 had been saved by the mariners of Kin-tcheou, who had hastened 
 to their assistance on their little bamboo rafts. 
 
 After listening to these melancholy details, we made what haste 
 we could to the Communal Palace, whither our poor shipwrecked 
 men had been taken ; and on entering the court-yard we saw a 
 great display of cloths spread to dry in the sun, hung to doors and 
 
RESPONSIBILITY FOE INFERIORS. 
 
 24 
 
 windows, ox' stretched upon cords. Our first care was to pay a 
 visit to the proprietor's of these garments. We found them lying 
 on mats in the great hall, and wrapped in coverings that had been 
 sent to them from the tribunal. When we entered they were as 
 much astonished as if they had seen so many ghosts appear ; no 
 doubt they had supposed us drowned, and by this time thought no 
 more of us. The irreproachable condition of our costume espe¬ 
 cially seemed to surprise them. Being dry from head to foot, we 
 did not look at all like men who came from the bottom of the 
 Blue River; but a few words served to explain how very fortu¬ 
 nate for us had been our vexations of the px-eceding evening. We 
 visited all the men in succession, and did not find one dangerously 
 ill; they were only much exhausted, and in need of repose. 
 
 What troubled them most was the loss of their little baggage. 
 They bad saved from the shipwreck nothing but the garments 
 that were drying in the sun, not even their pipes, which had dis¬ 
 appeared in the tempest. This loss, however, the authoi'ities of 
 Ivin-tcheou had hastened to make good, by sending each of them 
 a pipe and an abundant pi'ovision of tobacco immediately. A 
 Chinese cannot remain long without smoking, rnoi'e especially 
 when he is in grief. We soothed our shipwrecked mariners by 
 promising to endeavour to come to some arrangement with the 
 Mandarin of the town by which their losses might be repaired 
 before leaving Kin-tcheou. 
 
 But what could not be repaired was the death of the two sol¬ 
 diers, and of the Secretary. What a blow it would be for the 
 good Pi'efect when he should learn this catastrophe! The thought 
 that this kind old man would be made responsible for this fatal 
 accident grieved us deeply. We knew the customs of the Chinese, 
 and that this death would in all probability be the cause of much 
 persecution to him. The x'elations of the Secretary would not 
 fail to pi'ofit by the event, to demand enormous damages. We 
 could fancy we saw them now, rushing to the tribunal with loud 
 lamentations, tearing their hair, l’ending their garments, and de¬ 
 manding their relative with gi'eat outcries. It was evident that 
 the Pi'efect of Song-tche-lden was in no way guilty of this mis¬ 
 fortune; nothing could be imputed to him, but no mattei'. The 
 man had been in his service, he was responsible for him, he must 
 restoi’e him to his family. “He is dead,” you may say; “the 
 victim of an accident.” 
 
 “We, his relations, know nothing about that,” will be the reply. 
 “ He was at your house yesterday; to-day he has disappeared. 
 You must restore him to us, you must answer for him, life for 
 
248 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 life ; or, if you do not wish to have a law-suit commenced against 
 you, and to be accused of homicide, let us come to some agree¬ 
 ment.” Such a circumstance is often enough to interrupt the 
 career of a Mandarin, and ruin him completely. 
 
 Such is the way they manage these matters in China, if not 
 always, at least very often, and this monstrous abuse proceeds, 
 perhaps, from an excellent principle, which is the safeguard of the 
 lives of many men. This principle is that of rigorous responsi¬ 
 bility of the superior for the inferior: but at present the Chinese 
 carry it to a vicious extreme, and, driven by their insatiable 
 cupidity, they find means to pervert even the best institutions. 
 
 We could never find out what was the result of this affair. 
 We hope, however, that the popularity enjoyed by the Prefect of 
 Song-tche-hien, and possibly also the integrity of the Secretary’s 
 family, may have preserved him from much harassing. We 
 should be grieved indeed to think that this most worthy and 
 venerable Mandarin should have fallen into serious trouble in 
 endeavouring to provide for our comfort. 
 
 CHAP. X. 
 
 Chinese City in a state of Siege. — Nautical Sports on the Blue River. — 
 Quarrel between Victors and Vanquished. — Civil War at Kin-tcheou. — 
 Glance at the Military Strength of the Chinese Empire.—Discovery of Two 
 Soldiers in the Residence of a Missionary.—Description of an extraordinary 
 Review ot Troops.—Policy of the Mantchoo Dynasty with respect to Soldiers. 
 — Chinese Navy.—Cause of the want of Bravery in the Chinese during the 
 last War with the English. — Resources of the Empire for the formation of a 
 
 good Army and a powerful Navy-A great Reformer needed.— Departure 
 
 from Kin-tcheou.—Route by Land. — Great Heat.—Journey during the 
 Night by Torch and Lantern. 
 
 Since we had left the frontiers of Thibet, our passage through 
 every Chinese town had been a kind of little event; the Man¬ 
 darins and the people, every one we met, seemed anxious about 
 the Europeans who had been to Lha-ssa; they crowded to see 
 them, sometimes they even got up a little riot in their honour, and 
 were sometimes so excited as to fail in respect to the authorities. 
 Our arrival at Kin-tcheou, following that of a number of ship¬ 
 wrecked mariners, could not but excite still more the curiosity of 
 the inhabitants of this great town; and the uproarious reception 
 we had met with in the port induced us still more to expect a 
 great sensation in the town. But we were quite mistaken; we 
 
NAUTICAL RACES. 
 
 249 
 
 passed unnoticed, and nobody seemed to trouble themselves about 
 us. The reason of this was, that Kin-tcheou was at the moment 
 the scene of an important event that left little room for curiosity 
 in the minds of the inhabitants. The town was, so to speak, in 
 a state of siege, in consequence of a bloody battle that had taken 
 place two days before, between the Chinese and the Mantchoo 
 Tartars. When we entered, all was calm and gloomy. We 
 traversed long streets that were silent and almost deserted ; the 
 shops were closed, or only half open, the few persons whom we 
 met hurried along with rapid steps, sometimes forming little 
 groups in which they spoke in a low voice, and with great anima¬ 
 tion. We saw that all minds were in a state of fermentation, 
 everything seemed to breathe of civil war. 
 
 This conflict between the Chinese and the Tartars had had its 
 origin in some nautical sports. It is customary in China, at certain 
 seasons of the year, to have junk races, and for the towns near 
 navigable rivers, and the sea-ports, this is an occasion of great 
 rejoicing; the magistrates, and sometimes the rich merchants of 
 the locality, distribute prizes to the victors; and those who wish 
 to enter the lists organise themselves into a company, and appoint 
 a chief. The junks that serve for these games are very long and 
 narrow, so that there is only just room for two benches of rowers; 
 they are most richly carved and ornamented with gilding and 
 designs in bright colours. The prow and the poop represent the 
 head and tail of the Imperial Dragon ; they are therefore called 
 loung-tchouan, that is to say, dragon beats. They are hung with 
 silks and tinsel, and along their whole length are displayed nume¬ 
 rous streamers; bright red pennants float in the wind: and on 
 each side of the little mast that supports the national flag are placed 
 two men, who never leave off striking the tam-tam, and executing 
 rolls on the drum, whilst the mariners, leaning over their oars, row 
 on vigorously, and make the dragon junk skim rapidly along the 
 surface of the waters. 
 
 Whilst these elegant boats are contending with one another, the 
 people throng the quays, the shore, the roofs of the neighbouring 
 houses, and the vessels that are lying in the port. They animate 
 the rowers by their cries and plaudits; they let off fireworks; they 
 perform at various points deafening music, in which the sonorous 
 noise of the tam-tam, and the sharp sound of a sort of clarionet 
 giving perpetually the same note, predominate over all the rest. 
 The Chinese relish this infernal harmony. 
 
 It happens sometimes that a dragon boat is upset in a moment, 
 and emptied of its double line of rowers; but the crowd greets the 
 
250 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE, 
 
 incident with a shout of laughter; nobody is at all disturbed, for 
 the men who row are always good swimmers. You soon see them 
 emerge from beneath the water, swimming about in all directions 
 to catch their oars again, and their rattan helmets; the water 
 springs up beneath their abrupt and rapid movements, you might 
 take them for a troop of porpoises disporting in the middle of the 
 waves. When every man has found his oar and his hat again, the 
 dragon boat is placed once more on her keel, the streamers are put 
 to rights as well as circumstances will permit, and then comes the 
 grand difficulty of how to get into her again; but these people are 
 so agile, adroit and supple, that they always manage it somehow. 
 The public has often the satisfaction of witnessing these little 
 accidents on fete days, for the boats are so frail and light, that 
 the slightest fault in the movements of the rowers may capsize 
 them. 
 
 These nautical games last for several days together, and are 
 continued from morning till night, the spectators remaining faith¬ 
 fully at their posts all the time. The ambulatory kitchens and the 
 dealers in provisions circulate through all parts of the crowd to 
 feed this immense multitude, which, under pretext of having no 
 regular meal at home that day, is eating and drinking continually, 
 whilst rope dancers, jugglers, pickpockets, and thieves of every 
 species, profit by the opportunity to turn their talents to account, 
 and vary the amusements of the day. The official fete is terminated 
 by the distribution of the prizes, and the rowers wind up with 
 merrymaking, and sometimes also with quarrelling and fighting. 
 
 This had taken place at Kin-tcheou a few days before our arrival. 
 As it is the most important garrison town of Hou-peo the soldiers 
 and sailors are there in great numbers. During the celebration 
 of the last nautical games, the Chinese and Mantchoos had divided 
 themselves into two camps, and had long disputed the prize for the 
 dragon boats; but the Mantchoo Tartars had at last gained the 
 victory, and this had been solemnly proclaimed with unaccustomed 
 formalities by the principal Mandarins of the garrison, so that the 
 vanity of the Chinese had been much wounded. Pieces of silk, jars 
 of wine, roast and boiled pigs, and a certain sum of money, had 
 been distributed to the victors, who divided among them the money 
 and the silk, and then arranged an immense banquet for the con¬ 
 sumption of the pigs and the wine. 
 
 In these banquets it is usual for the defeated party to drink to 
 the health of the conquerors, and the ceremony is gone through as 
 it ought to be amongst good comrades; after these few cups of wine 
 have been drunk in the prescribed manner, a fusion of the two 
 
RIOT AT KIX-TCHEOU. 
 
 251 
 
 parties is effected, and victors and vanquished take their places 
 indiscriminately at the table. On this occasion, however, the 
 Chinese, who had long borne ill will to the Tartars, drank to them 
 with a very bad grace; there were even, it is said, injurious ex¬ 
 pressions uttered, and murmurs against the partiality of the judges 
 of the nautical race. By degrees a quarrel arose, and the Tartars, 
 excited by wine and the taunts of the Chinese, thought proper to 
 remind their adversaries that they were the masters of China, and 
 that the conquered owed respect and obedience to the conquering 
 race. The battle then began, and some of the Chinese were soon 
 stretched dead and horribly mangled on the ground. Immediately 
 the agitation spread over the whole town; the Chinese rushed 
 about tumultuously, without knowing very well where they were 
 going, but uttering frightful cries. Without having lived in the 
 midst of such a population as this, it is scarcely possible to conceive 
 the disorder and confusion that reign in a Chinese town in times oi 
 trouble. 
 
 Whilst the Chinese were vociferating and rushing about the 
 streets of Kin-tcheou, the Tartars had taken refuge in their can¬ 
 tonments, called the Tartar town, where is the palace of the 
 kiang-kiun, or commandant general of the military division of the 
 province. This important post is always occupied by a Tartar. 
 The Mantchoos concentrated themselves to the number, it is said, 
 of 20,000, in the tribunal of their grand Mandarin, and then they 
 barricaded all the gates. The Chinese, persuaded that they were 
 afraid of them, poured into the Tartar town, and surrounded the 
 tribunal as if to besiege it. A general attack commenced, not 
 indeed with murderous weapons, but with thousands of voices, 
 furiously demanding to have delivered up to them a number or 
 Mantchoos equal to the Chinese who had been killed, in order 
 that they might revenge themselves upon them by killing and 
 mutilating them at discretion. Whilst they were making these 
 demands, which, horrible as they were, were nevertheless in ac¬ 
 cordance with Chinese custom, not a sound was heard from the 
 interior of the tribunal, not one of the besieged was to be seen. 
 The Chinese, more and more persuaded that they were become 
 formidable to the Tartars, resolved to break open the gates. At 
 the first attempt, however, the gates were abruptly flung back, and 
 the Mantchoos rushed out, pouring a hail of balls and arrows over 
 the unarmed multitude, and then throwing themselves upon them 
 sword in hand. The rash assailants scoured nimbty back to their 
 quarters, and hurried into their houses, not forgetting to shut the 
 door; and doubtless not promising themselves to begin again to- 
 
252 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 morrow; but about thirty Chinese were left dead upon the spot, 
 and the number of wounded was very considerable. 
 
 On the two following days there was no new collision, for every 
 one prudently remained at home ; but the still and lugubrious 
 aspect the town presented when we entered it, denoted that the 
 public mind was still a prey to great anxiety, and that under this 
 apparent calm were brooding irreconcilable antipathy and hatred. 
 Immediately after the murderous affair that had taken place at 
 the gates of the Tartar tribunal, the military commandant and the 
 Prefect of the town had each sent off despatches to Pekin, in which 
 the events were doubtless represented in a very different manner. 
 A decision was now expected from the capital, and it was generally 
 supposed that the Chinese would be reprimanded, the Mantchoo 
 general recalled, but only to be sent to a better post, and that 
 then the matter would be allowed to drop. 
 
 It may be conceived that in such cii'cumstances, it would have 
 been an easy thing for the Chinese of Kin-tcheou to exterminate 
 this handful of Mantchoos. It was only necessary to surround 
 them, and drive them in one upon another to suffocate them. 
 After the first charge that took place at the gate of the tribunal, if 
 that innumerable multitude had not run away, the Mantchoos 
 would have been lost; but, as we have already remarked, the 
 Chinese are unorganised, without chiefs, and therefore without 
 strength or courage. There is no one to communicate an impulse 
 to the whole body; every one has to give it to himself, and it 
 consequently has reference only to his private interests, and never 
 to that of the public. 
 
 The government maintains in some of the most important towns 
 of each province of the Empire a garrison composed in great part 
 of Mantchoo soldiers, under the command of a great military 
 Mandarin, who belongs also to this nation. His power cannot be 
 controlled by any civil functionary, not even by the Viceroy of the 
 province. He corresponds directly with the Emperor, and it is to 
 him alone he is responsible for his administration. This body of 
 troops remains entirely separate from the population in every town 
 where they are stationed, and the quarter they inhabit bears the 
 name of the Tartar town. 
 
 With the exception of these bands of Tartar soldiers in some of the 
 towns, you may traverse the provinces in every direction without 
 being sensible of the presence of the Mantchoo element in the popu¬ 
 lation. You see only Chinese, who are entirely absorbed in the 
 interests of commerce, industry, and agriculture, whilst the foreign 
 soldiers are guarding the frontiers, and watching over the public 
 
THE IMPERIAL ARMY. 
 
 253 
 
 tranquillity. The Tartars really seem, in fact, less like a conquering 
 people than an auxiliary tribe that has obtained by its valour and its 
 victories the privilege of mounting guard in the Empire. The 
 administrative influence has remained with the Chinese; it is they 
 who fill the greatest number of civil offices ; and if they have been 
 conquered by the Mantchoos, they have imposed on their conque¬ 
 rors their language, their manners, their civilisation, and, in a 
 great measure, their customs. 
 
 Having but recently issued from the forests and steppes, where 
 they led a nomadic life, maintaining themselves by their flocks and 
 the chase, the Tartars could not but yield to the influence of the 
 celebrated country into which they had opened for themselves a way, 
 partly by valour, and still more by stratagem and perfidy. They 
 were willing to leave the details of government to the Chinese, since 
 they had taste, talent, and experience for them; but they have 
 always taken good care to retain in their own hands the direction 
 of the land and sea forces. The administration of the War De¬ 
 partment has always remained exclusively in the hands of the 
 Tartars. 
 
 It is impossible to make even an approximate calculation of the 
 strength of the Chinese army in ordinary times, for of course we 
 cannot speak of its actual state, which must have undergone most 
 important modifications during the progress of the present for¬ 
 midable insurrection. According to the official almanack, the total 
 number of troops maintained by the Emperor amounts to no less 
 than one million two hundred and thirty-two thousand Chinese, 
 Mantchoos, or Monguls, quartered in the interior of the Empire, 
 as well as thirty-one thousand sailors. Such a figure as this is 
 evidently too high, and a mere calculation of the Chinese Almanack. 
 We traversed China in all directions for several years, and could 
 not help asking ourselves where was this mighty army, of which 
 we nowhere saw any signs? China is doubtless a vast country, 
 its population greater than that of all Europe put together; yet if 
 the soldiers were as numerous as they are said to be, it would still 
 be possible to see something of them. Now, with the exception 
 of the towns already mentioned, where there are some organised 
 and stationary troops, we never saw any but the militia necessary 
 for the service of the tribunals. M. Tembowski, who in 1821 
 conducted a Russian Embassy to Pekin, collected the most exact 
 information possible concerning the effective force of the Chinese 
 army ; and the total amount he gives is that of 740,900 men, in¬ 
 cluding Chinese, Mantchoos, and Mongols. It is probable that 
 this statement is much nearer the truth, at least as far as relates 
 
254 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 to the number of soldiers registered as belonging to the army; but 
 it by no means follows that there are in China actually seven 
 hundred thousand men on active military service. We believe 
 that even this number must be reduced two-thirds, if we wish 
 to get at the number of men who really follow the trade of arms. 
 
 We have ourselves lived long enough in Tartary to become ac¬ 
 quainted with what are called the Mongol troops ; they are com¬ 
 posed of nomadic shepherds, who pass their lives in keeping 
 their flocks, and never trouble themselves about military exercises. 
 They have indeed in their tents a long matchlock, and sometimes 
 a bow and arrows, but they make use of them only to kill yellow 
 goats and pheasants. If they have a lance, they never touch it, 
 but to run after the wolves that make war upon their flocks of 
 sheep; for this Mongol division of the Imperial army consists of 
 families of shepherds, including infirm old men and infants at the 
 breast; they are all counted in, as every male is born a soldier, 
 and begins immediately on his birth to receive his pay. 
 
 The Chinese troops are almost as fictitious as the Mongols. 
 Their number is estimated at five hundred thousand men, but 
 they are composed chiefly of artisans and labourers living in the 
 midst of their families, and occupying themselves quite at their 
 ease with the cultivation of their fields, or with working at their 
 trade, without appearing to suspect the least in the world that they 
 belong to the class of warriors. From time to time, they have 
 to put on what passes for a uniform, when they are summoned to 
 a general review, or required to go and root out gangs of thieves. 
 But apart from these rare occasions, when also they can generally 
 find a substitute for a few sapecks, they are left in perfect tran¬ 
 quillity at home. As, however, they are all counted as soldiers, 
 and the Emperor has the right to convoke them in case of war, 
 they receive annually a small sum, very insufficient though for 
 them to live upon, if they did not add to it the produce of their 
 daily toil. 
 
 In certain localities regarded as the strong places in the Empire, 
 all the inhabitants are enrolled in this manner. 
 
 During the last year of our former abode in China, we were 
 once charged with the care of a little Mission in a southern pro¬ 
 vince. There was a chapel to celebrate the holy mysteries, and 
 assemble the neophytes in the hours of prayer and religious in¬ 
 struction ; near the chapel a small house with a garden, the whole 
 surrounded by great trees, a high flint wall, and thickets of bam¬ 
 boo. We lived in this retreat with two Chinese, one about thirty 
 years old, the other nearly twice that age. The first bore the title 
 
A PAIR OF HEROES. 
 
 2 55 
 
 of Catechist; he assisted us in the functions of the holy ministry, 
 overlooked our small housekeeping, and instructed the Christian 
 children and the catechumens in the manner of chanting the public 
 prayers. In his moments of leisure, which were not a few, he 
 occupied himself with sewing, for in fact he was by trade a tailor. 
 He was a very worthy fellow, of gentle, quiet manners, uttering 
 very few unnecessary words, and only rather too fond of medicine 
 and medical books. This mania had come to him because, from 
 seeing himself always pale, meagre, and miserable-dooking, he 
 thought he must be ill, and that he would like to doctor himself, 
 and had consequently plunged into the study of medicine. 
 
 The elder Chinese had no official title in the Mission; but he 
 looked after a great many things concerning the cleanliness and 
 good order of the chapel and the presbytery, and the digging and 
 watering of the garden, where he succeeded more or less in raising 
 a few flowers and vegetables. He was also our cook, when there 
 was anything to be cooked, and he had besides the self-imposed 
 duty of holding long conversations with all who came to our abode, 
 and his generosity in offering tea and tobacco made him very 
 popular. He had formerly been a smith, and since his new 
 functions were not very well defined we had continued to call him 
 Siao the smith. 
 
 One day these two companions of our solitude presented them¬ 
 selves in our chamber with a certain air of solemnity, to ask our 
 advice. An inspector extraordinary had, it appeared, arrived 
 from Pekin, and there w v as shortly to be a general review. What 
 the old smith and the tailor wanted to know was, whether thev 
 should go to it. “That must depend upon yourselves,” replied 
 we; “if you think it will amuse you, and that you like to go, we 
 will keep the house. We do not care to see the show ; we saw 
 quite enough of those things in the north of the Empire.” 
 
 “We have never been there yet,” said the catechist; “we have 
 always been able to get off easily; but they say the new inspector 
 is strict in requiring every one to come. Everybody that does 
 not will be put down, and then condemned to live hundred strokes 
 of the rattan and a heavy line.” 
 
 We thought this inspector must be the. most extraordinary man 
 we had ever heard of, to require everybody to come and see his 
 review under pain of five hundred strokes of the rattan and a 
 heavy fine. 
 
 “Why, if that be the case,” said we, “we must go too.” 
 
 “ Our Spiritual Father may go to see it if he pleases, but we 
 soldiers of the Emperor are bound to be present.” 
 
256 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ You soldiers!” we exclaimed, contemplating our two Christians 
 from head to foot. We thought we must have misunderstood 
 them, and that they had said “subjects of the Emperorbut not 
 at all, they were really soldiers, and had been for a long time. 
 For more than two years that we had known them we had never 
 had the smallest suspicion of the fact, though this does little credit 
 to our sagacity; for when there had been any reviews, exercises, 
 or forced labour, they had been in the habit of going away, and 
 leaving as their substitutes any persons they happened to meet 
 with. Our catechist confessed to me, nevertheless, that he had 
 never touched a gun in his life, and that he should be afraid to do 
 so. He did not think he should have courage to fire off a cracker. 
 
 Being now sufficiently enlightened as to the true social position 
 of these two functionaries of the Mission, we told them that as 
 they bore the title of soldiers and received the pay, they must 
 fulfil the duties, at least on extraordinary occasions; that the 
 threat of the rattan and the fine was an unequivocal proof of the 
 will of the Emperor on the subject, and that, as Christians, they 
 were specially bound to set a good example of obedience and 
 patriotism. It was then agreed that they should go where honour 
 called, and on our side we determined to be present at a display 
 which promised to be so magnificent. 
 
 The appointed day having come, our two veterans of the 
 Imperial Army took, at an early hour, a very solid breakfast, and 
 emptied a large jug of hot wine to keep up their spirits. After 
 this they set about disguising themselves as soldiers. This did 
 not take long. They had but to substitute for their little black 
 caps a straw hat of a conical shape, with a tuft of red silk at the 
 top, and to put on over their ordinary clothes a black tunic with a 
 broad red border. This tunic had, before and behind, an 
 escutcheon of white linen, upon which was drawn, very large, the 
 character ping, meaning soldier. The precaution was by no means 
 a useless one, for without such a ticket one might easily have 
 made a mistake. This little tailor, for instance, with his pallid 
 face, feeble diminutive body, and tearful looking eyes, always 
 modestly cast down, had not such a decidedly martial aspect that 
 there was no mistaking him ; but now, when you looked either at 
 his breast or his back, there was the inscription, as plain as 
 possible, “This is a soldier,” and you knew what he was meant for. 
 
 When their costume was quite complete, our two heroes took, the 
 one a gun and the other a bow, and set off for the field of Mars. 
 The very moment they were gone we locked our street door, and 
 set off after them to see what was to be seen. 
 
THE GRAND REVIEW. 
 
 257 
 
 This great military display was to take place outside the town 
 in an immense sandy plain, to which the warriors were already 
 hastening in little groups, accoutred in various ways according 
 to the banner they belonged to; their arms, which did not 
 trouble themselves to gleam in the sun, were also in great variety; 
 there were guns, bows, pikes, sabres, pitchforks, and saws fastened 
 to the end of a long handle, as well as rattans, shields, and iron 
 culverins, which had for a carriage the shoulders of two individuals. 
 In the midst of this medley there was, nevertheless, one thing in 
 which the army displayed the most admirable uniformity. Every 
 man without exception had a pipe and a fan. As to the umbrella, 
 that did not seem to be strictly according to regulation, for those 
 who carried umbrellas also were in a minority. 
 
 At one extremity of the field there was raised, on a slight 
 elevation of the ground, a platform shaded by an immense red 
 parasol and ornamented with banners, streamers, and some large 
 lanterns that did not seem particularly necessary, as the sun was 
 shining in full splendour; but perhaps they were intended to be 
 symbolical, and to signify to the soldiers that they were in the 
 presence of enlightened judges. 
 
 The Inspector Extraordinary of the Imperial Army, and the 
 principal civil and military Mandarins of the town, were on the 
 platform, seated in arm-chairs before little tables covered with 
 tea-things and boxes filled with excellent tobacco. In one corner 
 was a servant holding a lighted match, not, however, to fire 
 cannon with, but to light pipes; and at various points of the field 
 we saw formidable detached forts made of bamboo and painted 
 paper. The moment arrived to begin. A little culverin that 
 stood near the platform was fired off, the military judges covering 
 their ears with their hands to protect them from the frightful 
 detonation; then a yellow-flag was hoisted to the top of one of 
 the forts, the tam-tams sounded a furious charge, and the soldiers 
 rushed together pell-mell, uttering terrible cries and grouping 
 themselves round the flag of their company; then they seemed to 
 be trying to get into some sort of order, in which they were not 
 very successful, and after that they had a mimic fight, and the 
 melee, which was certainly the most effective, soon followed. It 
 is impossible to imagine anything more whimsical and comic than 
 the evolutions of the Chinese soldiers; they advance, draw back, 
 leap, pirouette, cut capers, crouch behind their shields, as if to 
 watch the enemy, then jump up again, distribute blows right and 
 left, and then run away with all their might, crying “Victory! 
 victory! ” 
 
 S 
 
258 
 
 TIIE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 One would really take them for an army of mountebanks, every 
 one of which was playing tricks in his own fashion. We saw 
 many soldiers who did nothing whatever but run sometimes to one 
 side, sometimes to the other, probably because they did not know 
 very well what to do else; and we could not get it out of our 
 heads that our two Christian warriors belonged to this class. 
 
 All the time the battle lasted, two officers, placed at each 
 extremity of the platform, were continually shaking a standard, 
 and indicating by the greater or less rapidity of their movements 
 the degree of heat of the action. Whenever the flags stopped the 
 combatants stopped too, and then every one returned to his post, 
 or somewhere near it, for they are not too exact in these matters. 
 
 After the grand battle there were manoeuvres of certain chosen 
 companies, who appeared tolerably well exercised, though even 
 their evolutions had an extremely whimsical character. 
 
 The English artillery must have had easy work with enemies 
 whose chief skill consists in cutting capers and balancing them¬ 
 selves a long time on one leg in the manner of the Hindoo 
 penitents. Afterwards the fusiliers and archers went through 
 their exercise in a very creditable manner. 
 
 The Chinese muskets have no stock; they have merely a handle 
 like a pistol, and when you fire you do not rest the weapon against 
 the shoulder; you hold it on the right side about the height of the 
 hip, and before drawing the trigger, which contains a lighted 
 match, you content yourself with fixing your eyes well on the 
 object you mean to aim at. We have remarked that this method 
 was very successful, which would go to prove, perhaps, that it is 
 less necessary to keep your eye on the end of your weapon than 
 on the mark you wish to hit, exactly as you would do in throwing 
 a stone. 
 
 The most amusing thing in the whole review was unques¬ 
 tionably the firing with the small culverins. We have said that 
 these pieces have no carriages; they are borne solemnly by two 
 soldiers having each an end of the culverin leant on his left 
 shoulder, and keeping it in its place with his right hand. Nothing 
 can be imagined more comic than the faces of these poor fellows 
 when the machine was to be fired. They took pride in showing 
 a magnanimous serenity on the occasion, and it was easy to see 
 that they were making immense efforts to be quite at their ease; 
 but the position was critical, and the muscles of their faces would 
 take such unaccustomed forms that they produced the most as¬ 
 tounding grimaces. The Imperial Government, in its paternal 
 solicitude for these poor human gun-carriages, orders that, before 
 
CAMEL BATTERIES. 
 
 259 
 
 the firing, their ears shall be carefully stuffed with cotton; and, 
 although at considerable distance, it was easy for us to see that on 
 this occasion the injunction had been liberally obeyed; but under 
 these circumstances it may be imagined that it is not very easy 
 to take aim correctly, and the Chinese seldom trouble themselves 
 with attempting it. The ball goes where it likes, but during these 
 exercises the artillerists were prudent enough to fire with powder 
 only. 
 
 In the wars in Tartary, or any other countries where there are 
 camels, it appears that these quadrupeds are made to form a 
 battery, by placing the culverins between their humps. In a 
 series of pictures representing the campaigns of the Emperor 
 Khang-hi in the country of the Oeleuts, we saw many of these 
 camel batteries; and it may be supposed from this specimen of 
 management, how much difficulty European troops are likely to 
 experience in a war with the Chinese. The review ended with a 
 general attack on the forts, which it is impossible for us to give 
 an account of, as we understood absolutely nothing of the pro¬ 
 ceedings. All we know is, that long and unimaginable evolutions 
 were performed, and that at several periods a most deafening 
 clamour was raised. At length the banners ceased to be shaken, 
 the judges on the platform rose shouting “victory!” the whole 
 army repeated the acclamation three times, and one of our neigh¬ 
 bours, who doubtless understood what had taken place, informed 
 us that all the forts without exception had been carried with 
 astonishing intrepidity. 
 
 We returned to our residence, to which our two heroes, covered 
 with dust, sweat, and glory, speedily followed us. We questioned 
 them a good deal about the military exercises they had been 
 performing with so much success ; but they could give us no very 
 precise information; they could not even tell what part they had 
 themselves played in all this brilliant affair; and, according to 
 them, two-thirds of the soldiers were not better informed than 
 themselves. They had merely followed and imitated the move¬ 
 ments of a few select companies. It is evident, therefore, that a 
 pretty considerable reduction may be made from the force of 
 500,000 men composing what is called the Chinese division of the 
 army. 
 
 The number of Mantchoo troops is estimated at 60,000 men. 
 These soldiers, we believe, are habitually under arms, and are 
 assiduous in their px’ofession. The government watches over 
 them with great anxiety, for the Empei’or has a sti*ong interest 
 in not allowing these troops to stagnate in inaction; he takes care 
 
260 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 that they shall preserve at least somethin" of the warlike cha¬ 
 racter to which they owe their conquest of the Empire. They 
 are treated, it is said, with considerable severity, the smallest 
 infraction of rules or neglect of duty is rigorously punished, whilst 
 the Chinese or Mongol troops are left nearly to do as they like. 
 It is not improbable that the reigning dynasty favours, up to a 
 certain point, the ignorance and inactivity of the Chinese and 
 Mongols, in order to preserve the relative supei-iority of the 
 Mantchoos, and to retain an easy means of defence in case of 
 sedition or revolt. If the 500,000 Chinese soldiers were trained 
 to the management of arms and military discipline as well as the 
 Mantchoos, a moment would suffice to sweep the conquering race 
 from the Chinese soil.* 
 
 The navy of the Chinese Empire is about on a level with its 
 land forces; it is composed of about 30,000 sailors, distributed 
 over a considerable number of war junks. These vessels, very 
 high in the prow and poop, of a rude construction, and rigged with 
 sails of bamboo matting, are very difficult to manoeuvre, and in¬ 
 capable of undertaking long voyages. They merely, indeed, run 
 along the coasts, and up and down the great rivers, to chase the 
 pirates, who appear to have very little fear of them. The forms 
 of the war junks, and especially of those found in the interior of 
 the Empire, are very various. It is to be observed, that, with 
 some few exceptions, the Blue River has always been the principal 
 theatre of the naval battles sustained by the Chinese. At the 
 time when the Empire was divided into two, these battles were 
 very numerous. 
 
 The names borne by these junks seem sometimes intended to 
 give an idea of their form ; thus the Centipede is the name of one 
 with three rows of oars, representing the numerous feet of that 
 hideous insect; the Hawk’s Beak has the two extremities equally 
 curved, and each provided with a helm, so that they can move 
 backwards or forwards without going about. The Four- Wheeled 
 junk has two wheels at the prow and two at the stern, which are 
 turned by two men with a crank. These wheeled vessels are 
 said to be of great antiquity, and there only needed the application 
 of steam power to give this ingenious people ages ago the dis¬ 
 covery of Fulton. 
 
 The whimsicality of the paintings with which they are decorated 
 is another peculiarity of these junks. An attempt is mostly made 
 
 * We did not think it right to alter any of these remarks, which were written 
 before the Chinese insurrection. 
 
FEEBLENESS OF THE CHINESE ARMY. 
 
 261 
 
 to give them the aspect of a fish, a reptile, or a bird. Generally 
 there are two enormous eyes at the prow, charged doubtless with 
 the duty of looking fierce to frighten the enemy. All these 
 monstrosities, however, are not so surprising to a stranger as the 
 disorder and confusion that reigns on board. You find several 
 different households assembled in them, and not unfrequently on 
 the deck little houses, absolutely built of masomy. European 
 sailors admire nevertheless one idea in the construction of these 
 vessels, that of dividing the bottom into various water-tight com¬ 
 partments, so that a leak can never occasion more than partial 
 damage. It is, perhaps, because this method has been found 
 efficacious, that it has not been thought necessary to have pumps 
 on board. 
 
 The military government of each province, placed like the civil 
 under the direction of the viceroy, has the command of both land 
 and sea forces. In general the Cliinese make very little difference 
 between the services, and the various ranks in each have the same 
 names. The generals are called ti-tou ; they are sixteen in number, 
 and two belong exclusively to the sea service. These superior 
 officei’s have each their head-quarters, where they assemble the 
 greater part of their brigade, and distribute the rest in the various 
 places under their command. There are besides, as we have re¬ 
 marked, many fortified places occupied by Tartar ti-oops, and 
 commanded by a Tartar kiang-kiun, who obeys only the Emperor. 
 The admirals, ti-tou , and the vice-admirals, tsoung-ping, reside 
 habitually on shore, and leave the command to inferior officers. 
 The ranks of the military Mandai'ins correspond to the civil, and 
 ai’e equally conferred in accordance with the l’esult of examinations 
 which candidates have to undergo, either in the pi'ovinces or at 
 Pekin, and which are varied with the importance of the degree ; 
 thus there are Bacheloi’s and Doctors in JFar as well as Bachelors 
 axxd Doctoi’s of Lettei's. The aspirants to the military degi’ees 
 are examined on certain books of tactics, and also especially on 
 their ability to draw the bow, mount on liox’seback, raise and 
 throw enormous stones, scale walls, perform feats of strength, and 
 execute a great number of gymnastic exercises, invented to delude 
 and terrify the enemy. Literature is nevertheless not entirely ex¬ 
 cluded fx’orn these examinations ; Bachelors of War are required 
 to be able to explain the classical books, and produce some little 
 literaiy composition. 
 
 From what we have said, some idea may be formed of the 
 Chinese army. There do not perhaps exist in the world more 
 wretched troops, worse equipped, more undisciplined, more in- 
 
 s 3 
 
262 
 
 TIIE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 sensible to honour, in a word, more completely absurd; they may 
 be able to crush bands of robbers, or the hordes of Turkestan; 
 but they have proved in the last war with the English that they 
 are quite incapable of resisting European soldiers, even in the 
 proportion of fifty to one. 
 
 This complete nullity of the Chinese army depends on many 
 causes, of which the principal are the long peace the Empire has 
 enjoyed, — a peace that maybe said to have now lasted for several 
 centuries, since the petty wars in which it has been engaged have 
 been insufficient to revive the warlike spirit, — the policy of the 
 Mantchoo dynasty, which seeks to perpetuate in the Chinese the 
 feebleness that prevents them from shaking off its yoke, — the 
 obstinacy of the government in refusing to admit any reform in 
 the tactics and weapons of ancient times; and, finally, the dis¬ 
 credit that for some time past has been thrown on the military 
 profession. A soldier is, according to the Chinese expression, an 
 antisapeck man, that is, a man of no value, — a man whose worth 
 cannot be represented by the smallest coin. A military Mandarin 
 is nobody by the side of a civil officer, and can only act according 
 to the impulse given to him; he is the representative of force — 
 of brute matter, a machine that must be guided by the superior 
 intelligence of the literary man. 
 
 These causes, however, are adventitious, and we by no means 
 believe that the Chinese are radically incapable of making good 
 soldiers. They are capable, certainly, of much self-devotion and 
 courage. Their annals are as full of traits of heroism as those of 
 the Greeks, the Romans, or any other of the most warlike races. 
 In going through the history of their long revolutions and their 
 intestine Avars, you are often struck with admiration at seeing 
 whole populations, men, tvomen, and even children, supporting 
 Avith heroic fortitude all the horrors of a siege, and defending the 
 Avails of their cities to the last extremity. How often have the 
 recitals of these grand struggles brought us back to modern times, 
 reminding us of the sublime defence of Saragossa, and of the 
 famous Russian who had the stern and terrible courage to reduce 
 Moscow to ashes to save his country. In the first period of the 
 Mantchoo dynasty the Chinese had the patriotism and resolution 
 to lay waste their own coasts as far as twenty leagues up the 
 .country, and destroy villages and cities, burn woods and corn 
 fields, in fact to create an immense desert, in order to annihilate 
 the power of a formidable pirate, who for a long time had held in 
 check the Avhole strength of the Empire. There has been much 
 joking about the manner in which the Chinese soldiers behaved 
 
FUTURE POSSIBILITIES. 
 
 263 
 
 before the English troops. After firing their pieces once, they 
 threw them down, and fled as a flock of sheep might do if a bomb 
 should burst in the midst of them ; and it was thence inferred that 
 the Chinese were men essentially cowardly, deficient in energy, 
 and incapable of fighting ; but this judgment appears to us over 
 hasty. In these circumstances the Chinese soldiers simply showed 
 their good sense. The means of destruction employed by the 
 two parties were so entirely disproportioned, that there could be 
 no room for the display of valour. On one side arrows and match¬ 
 locks, on the other good muskets, and cannon loaded with grape. 
 When a maritime town was to be destroyed, it was the simplest 
 thing in the world. An English frigate had only to heave-to at 
 the proper distance, and then, while the officers, seated quietly at 
 dinner on the poop-deck, manoeuvred the champagne and madeira, 
 the sailors methodically bombarded the town, which with its 
 wretched cannon could only send a few balls about half way to 
 the enemy’s vessel, while their houses and public buildings came 
 tumbling down on all sides as if struck by lightning. The 
 English artillery was for these poor people so terrible, so super¬ 
 natural a thing, that they at last believed they had to do with 
 beings more than mortal. How could they be expected to be 
 brave in so unequal a contest ? An enemy whom they had no 
 means of reaching, was blazing away at them quite at his ease ; 
 what could they do but run away ? They did so, and in our 
 opinion they showed their wisdom in so doing. The government 
 alone was to blame, for driving thousands of men almost unarmed 
 and defenceless to a certain and useless death. The English 
 troops are assuredly very brave, but if ever, which God forbid, 
 they should have to defend their country against a European 
 army with nothing better than bows and arrows, and matchlocks 
 taken from the Chinese, they would soon, we are convinced, find 
 some of their valour oozing away. 
 
 It may be that it would be possible to find in China all the 
 elements necessary for organising the most formidable army in 
 the world. The Chinese are intelligent, ingenious, and docile. 
 They comprehend rapidly whatever they are taught, and retain it 
 in their memoxy. They are persevering, and astonishingly active 
 when they choose to exert themselves, respectful to authority, 
 submissive and obedient, and they would easily accommodate them¬ 
 selves to all the exigencies of the severest discipline. 
 
 The Chinese possess also a quality most precious in soldiers, and 
 which can scarcely be found as well developed among any other 
 
264 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 people, namely an incomparable facility of supporting privations 
 of every kind. 
 
 We have often been astonished to see liow they will bear hunger 
 thirst, heat, cold, the difficulties and fatigues of a long march, as if 
 it were mere play. Thus, both morally and physically, they seem 
 capable of meeting every demand; and with respect to numbers 
 they might be enrolled by millions. 
 
 The equipment of this immense army would also be no very 
 hard matter. There would be no occasion to have recourse to 
 foreign nations. Their own country would furnish in abundance 
 all the material that could be desired, as well as workmen without 
 number, quick at comprehending any new invention. 
 
 China would present also inexhaustible resources for a navy. 
 Without speaking of the vast extent of her coasts, along which the 
 numerous population pass the greater part of their lives on the sea, 
 the great rivers and immense lakes in the interior, always covered 
 with fishing and trading junks, might furnish multitudes of men, 
 habituated from their infancy to navigation, nimble, experienced, 
 and capable of becoming excellent sailors for long expeditions. 
 The officers of our ships of war that have visited the Chinese seas 
 have often been astonished to meet, far away from any coast, their 
 fishermen braving the tempests, and guiding their miserable vessels 
 in safety over enormous waves that threatened every moment to 
 swallow them. The Chinese would very soon be able to build 
 vessels on the model of those of Europe, and a few years would 
 enable them to put to sea with such a fleet as has never been 
 seen. 
 
 No doubt the reader will think the notion of this immense army, 
 this avalanche of men descending from the high table-land of Asia, 
 as in the time of Tchinggis Khan, these innumerable Chinese 
 vessels ploughing all seas, and coming even to blockade our ports, 
 an exceedingly fantastic one, and we ourselves are certainly far 
 from thinking it likely to be realised. But when you become 
 thoroughly acquainted with this empire of 300 millions of inhabi¬ 
 tants, when you know what are the resources in soil and population 
 of these rich and fertile countries, you cannot but ask what should 
 prevent such a nation from exercising great influence over the 
 affairs of the human race. What it wants is a man of genius, a 
 man truly great, capable of assimilating the power and vitality of 
 this nation, more populous than all Europe, and which counts 
 more than thirty centuries of civilisation. Should an Emperor 
 arise among them possessed of a great intellect, a will of iron, 
 a reformer determined to come at once to a rupture with the 
 
POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 265 
 
 ancient traditions, and initiate his people into the progressive 
 civilisation of the West, we believe that the work of regeneration 
 would proceed with rapid strides, and that perhaps those Chinese 
 who now appear such very ridiculous people, might be thought of 
 somewhat more seriously, and might even occasion mortal uneasi¬ 
 ness to those who covet so eagerly the spoils of the ancient nations 
 of Asia. 
 
 The young Mantchoo prince who in 1850 ascended the imperial 
 throne will probably not be the great and powerful reformer of 
 whom we have spoken. He commenced his reign by degrading and 
 putting to death the statesmen who, during that of his predecessor, 
 had seen themselves compelled, under the English cannon, to make 
 some concessions to the Europeans. The high dignitaries who 
 form his council have been chosen among the most obstinate 
 partisans of the old regime and the ancient traditions; and in 
 place of the tolerant sentiments manifested by those who opened 
 the five ports, have come all the old traditional antipathies. Every 
 device has been tried to elude the obligation of treaties ; under the 
 influence of the new policy, the relations between the Consuls and 
 the Mandarins have become embittered, and the concessions of the 
 late Emperor almost illusory. 
 
 It is evident to the least clear-sighted, that the object of the 
 Mantchoo government is to disgust Europeans, and break off all 
 intercourse with them; it would gladly have nothing to do with 
 them at any price. China has, however, now been brought too 
 near to Europe for it to be permitted any longer to lead this iso¬ 
 lated life in the midst of the world; and if the Tartar dynasty does 
 not itself take the initiative in a change of policy, it will be forced 
 to it, sooner or later, by its contact with the Western nations, or 
 perhaps by the insurrection that has broken out in the southern 
 provinces, and which, as it has been making the most rapid pro¬ 
 gress, may any day become a social revolution, and produce a 
 complete change in the aspect of affairs throughout the Empire. 
 Our sojourn in the town of Kin-tcheou, after the riots originating 
 in the nautical games, proved to us that the Mantchoos are any¬ 
 thing but popular, and that the Chinese would ask nothing better 
 than an opportunity of shaking them off. 
 
 We stopped two days at Kin-tcheou, to afford our shipwrecked 
 men time for rest, and for restoring, as well as they could, their 
 lost equipments. With the authorities of the town we had only 
 the most indispensable intercourse. As their attention entirely 
 occupied by the serious events that had taken place, we did not 
 wish to disturb them; but we succeeded in inducing them to in- 
 
266 
 
 TIIE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 demnify the people of our escort, who had lost their baggage in 
 the Blue River; and they did so with such unexpected generosity, 
 that the men tound themselves richer than they had been before. 
 
 Our last voyage had been so unfortunate that no one had the 
 least wish to make another attempt of the kind; even Master Ting 
 himself thought it prudent to restrain his accumulative ardour; lie 
 seemed to doubt whether the profits lie should realise would com¬ 
 pensate him for the twofold danger of drowning and sea-sickneSs, 
 and to consider that small and sure gains on dry land were, on 
 the whole, a better thing. The Mandarins of Kin-tcheou, also, 
 would have scarcely been willing we should embark, for fear of 
 falling into the same trouble as the Prefect of Song-tche-hien. 
 M e ourselves, though we had found travelling by water rather 
 less fatiguing than by land, were persuaded that the dangers and 
 inconveniences were pretty equally balanced. We agreed to con¬ 
 tinue our journey, either in a boat or a palanquin, as Master Ting 
 thought proper, and the final decision was for the palanquin. 
 
 We left the town of Kin-tcheou in much the same state as we 
 had found it on our arrival: — its commercial movement was not 
 yet restored; the shops remained half closed, and the small number 
 of inhabitants we met in the streets looked full of distress and 
 discontent. This sullen and gloomy expression did not, however, 
 extend beyond the limits of the town. Outside the walls we found 
 the Chinese as gay, alert, and busy as usual; in the country every 
 one was going about his work, seeming to care very little about 
 the quarrel of the nautical games, and all nature looked smiling 
 and gracious, as if to make us forget the sad and anxious aspect of 
 the town; the flowers, still glittering with dew, were expanding 
 in the first rays of the sun; the birds were frolicking among the 
 leaves, or, perched upon a branch apart, were greeting each other 
 with delicious melody. All along the road we met groups of little 
 Chinese children, with large straw hats, leading goats, asses or 
 enormous buffaloes, to feed on the grass that grew in the ditches. 
 You could hear the prattling of the little creatures quite far off, 
 and see them capering and jumping, some trying to climb on the 
 backs of the buffaloes, and seat themselves astride there, others 
 teasing the animal, to induce him to throw off the little successful 
 cavalier, without at all troubling themselves with the quarrels of 
 the Mantchoo and Tartar races. When our palanquins came up, 
 they assumed a grave modest attitude and preserved a perfect 
 silence; but it w r as easy to see arch and mischievous glances 
 through all their demure looks, and as soon as ever we had passed, 
 they resumed their gambols, even more noisily than before. After 
 
FATIGUES OF THE EOAD. 
 
 267 
 
 our disagreeable adventures on the Blue River, and the two days 
 passed in a town still agitated by civil discord, the aspect of the 
 beautiful country, always delightful enough, seemed really to do 
 us good, and the sweetness and serenity of the air to pass into our 
 thoughts. 
 
 This pleasant state of mind did not, however, last longer than 
 the expansion of the flowers of the field. What a strange mixture 
 of energy and weakness is the heart of man! If it requires little 
 to elevate and strengthen it, a breath also is sufficient to cast it 
 down. The sight of the country, and the delightful freshness of 
 the morning, had seemed to give us new life; yet as soon as the 
 heat of the sun, and the weight of the atmosphere, had bowed down 
 the plants and withered the flowers, we also fell into dejection. 
 By degrees, as the air and the earth became heated, the breeze 
 that had been blowing in the morning died away, and towards noon 
 was entirely gone, and we seemed to be actually breathing fire. 
 Even the Chinese, accustomed as they are to these terrible heats, 
 were almost suffocated. From time to time we went to rest in the 
 shade of large trees that we came to at the road-side ; but, wherever 
 we went, we found ourselves in a furnace, and even in the shade 
 there was scarcely a perceptible difference. 
 
 This frightful day was followed by a night still more fatiguing, 
 except that the weather had somewhat cooled; for we were 
 tormented incessantly by swarms of mosquitoes, which turned our 
 hours of rest into hours of torture. 
 
 We were now in a flat, damp, marshy country, where these 
 abominable insects increase and multiply in an incredible manner; 
 and as they too dread the great heats, they go in the middle of the 
 day to take refuge among the grass at the borders of water, or in 
 the darkest recesses of the woods; but when the night comes, they 
 issue from their lair, wrathful and hungry, and throw themselves 
 with fury on their unhappy victims. It is impossible to protect 
 one’s self from them, for they can insinuate themselves into the 
 smallest openings, and the mosquito net soon becomes loaded with 
 them. Those who have ever had an opportunity of becoming ac¬ 
 quainted with these creatures will know what it is to pass a night 
 in their company. There was every sign that this weather would 
 last for several days, and we felt so incapable of continuing the 
 journey in such a season, that we resolved to stop at the first con¬ 
 venient station, and allow this tremendous heat to pass before 
 proceeding farther. We were on the point of announcing that 
 plan to our conductors, when our servant was inspired with a 
 grand idea. 
 
268 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ It seems to me,” said he, “ that for several days past you have 
 not been very comfortable.” 
 
 “ Tou are right, Wei-chan,” we replied; “ we are suffering very 
 much. Our strength is quite exhausted.” 
 
 “ Who can doubt it? When one has great fatigue in the day, 
 and no rest at night, where should the strength come from ? This 
 is the season at which the rays of the sun and the stings of mos¬ 
 quitoes are most terrible; but we might easily protect ourselves 
 from both one and the other.” 
 
 “Do you really think we could find any way to manage that? ” 
 
 “ Yes ; an(i a very simple one; one that the mosquitoes themselves 
 have taught me. These insects sleep in the day and travel at night. 
 Why shouldn’t we do so too? By that means, we should avoid 
 both the sun and the mosquitoes.” The idea seemed excellent. 
 
 “ Capital!’’said we; “why you are quite a man of resources. 
 Tour advice is as wise as it is simple, and you shall see that this 
 very evening we will put it in practice.” 
 
 The moment when Wei-chan received this sudden illumination 
 was, perhaps, the hottest of the day, and we were seated in the 
 vestibule of the little pagoda of a village. We had made the half 
 of our day’s journey, and were resting a little before going on; 
 while the peasants of the place hastened to bring us provisions, 
 and to profit by our passage to earn a few sapecks. Whilst we 
 were seeking to extinguish the fire that consumed us by swallow- 
 ing great cups of tea, and chewing pieces of sugar-cane, our 
 Mandarins were refreshing themselves with smoking opium in a 
 narrow cell belonging to a Bonze. The soldiers and the palan¬ 
 quin bearers, stretched at the road side, were sleeping soundly 
 under the burning rays of the sun ; and our servant was alone 
 with us, under the shadow of the broad roofed pagoda, when he 
 communicated his admirable plan. 
 
 _ As soon as we reached the station where we were to pass the 
 night, we communicated our project to Ting, and to the first 
 magistrate of the place. At first, of course, it met with opposition. 
 It was a very bad thing to travel after twilight—it was quite 
 unusual — it was turning night into day, and day into night, &c. 
 I hey could not help seeing that there were great advantages in 
 the innovation; but what would people think ? What would 
 people say? All that we could allege went for nothing against 
 this powerful argument. 
 
 We bethought ourselves, however, of a very simple method of 
 bringing the magistrate over to our side, which was to say very 
 gravely that since we found it impossible to travel in the middle 
 
THE NOCTURNAL PROCESSION. 
 
 269 
 
 of the day in this summer heat, we should, if we did not travel at 
 night, have to wait for the cooler days of autumn ; but we gave 
 him at the same time to understand, that we came from a country 
 where it was the custom to travel by night more than by day, and 
 we did not at all like having to break through our established 
 customs. This argument was found sufficient, and an estafette 
 was immediately mounted and sent off, to give notice along the 
 road that in future we should do the stages by night. 
 
 Many people in Europe imagine in the Chinese character the 
 calmness and gravity of the philosopher, but we have always found 
 in it, on the contrary, the lightness and versatility of the child. 
 Thus in the present case the people of our escort had appeared 
 generally repugnant to our new plan of travelling; but no sooner 
 was our determination taken, and it was settled that we should 
 begin this very evening, when everybody was full of impatience. 
 Mandarins and soldiers laughed, sung, frolicked, and promised 
 themselves infinite pleasure. They would hardly give themselves 
 time to take their evening meal, or make the necessary prepara¬ 
 tions; every moment they came to tell us it was dark, and to ask 
 whether we should not set off. Master Ting burst abruptly into 
 the room into which we had retired to say our prayers, and 
 throwing down at our feet with great noise a bundle of pieces of 
 wood that he had been carrying on his shoulders, exclaimed, 
 “ There! there’s a fine collection of torches of resinous wood to 
 light us on our way;” and as he spoke, he fairly jumped about 
 with joy, like a little child. We pointed out to him, however, 
 that he was disturbing us, and then he took up his bundle again 
 and went away. 
 
 At last, towards ten o’clock in the evening, we quitted the 
 Communal Palace. As we passed through the streets of the town, 
 our manner of travelling did not seem at all extraordinary. The 
 Chinese streets are so well lighted up with lanterns of all sizes, 
 shapes, and colours, that the little illumination we carried with 
 us became mingled with the other numerous lights by which our 
 eyes were almost dazzled. When we got out into the country, 
 however, we could contemplate at our ease our own splendour, 
 without being distracted by the lanterns of the public, and the 
 varied and fantastic spectacle that was displayed all along the road 
 delighted us for a long time. 
 
 The horsemen who led the march were furnished with large 
 torches that cast a red light with abundance of smoke* then came 
 the foot passengers, each with his own lantern, of peculiar form 
 and dimension, and the palanquins were also illuminated by four 
 
270 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 red lanterns suspended to the four corners of their canopy. All 
 these lights, rising and sinking with the inequalities of the ground, 
 crossing each other in all directions, according to the movements 
 of the travellers, presented such an amusing spectacle that we 
 never noticed the length of the way: and the gleaming lights 
 from our grand illumination, falling on and partially lighting up 
 farms, and corn-fields, and trees, and every object on the road, 
 produced the most singular and striking effects. All the caravan 
 was in the highest spirits; they sung, they joked, they amused 
 themselves with letting off crackers, and firing rockets into the 
 air, for in China there is no such thing as happiness without fire¬ 
 works. Our servant Wei-chan was, as it was fair he should be, 
 the happiest of the whole band. lie came from time to time 
 frisking about our palanquin, and we never failed to give him 
 what he was looking for, repeated compliments on his happy 
 discovery. 
 
 Never, in fact, had we seen a journey performed with more 
 pleasure, and, besides the perpetual amusement of the spectacle, 
 we rejoiced in a tolerably pleasant temperature; the night was 
 not very cool, but at least it was possible to breathe. Towards 
 one o’clock in the morning we saw advancing towards us an illu¬ 
 mination a good deal resembling our own, except the resinous 
 torches ; and presently the two became mingled and confounded 
 with one another. We had reached a little town where we were 
 to stop to dine, and the magistrate of the place, who was expecting 
 us, had sent all the lantern-bearers of his tribunal to increase our 
 escort. The matter had been so well arranged that there was not 
 a moment’s delay. We found the dinner quite ready: every one 
 had an excellent appetite, and after having saluted the function¬ 
 aries who had come to bear us company, we resumed our nocturnal 
 peregrination. 
 
 We arrived at the next stage before sun-rise, and as soon as we 
 were installed in the Communal Palace, we received the visits of 
 the Mandarins, and then, without troubling ourselves to ask what 
 o’clock it was, we supped in a manner that might not have led 
 any one to suppose we had dined very well at one o’clock in the 
 morning. 
 
 The time having come, at which, as we were told, the mosquitoes 
 are in the habit of going to bed, we prepared to go to bed also, 
 and the observation of Wei-chan proved to be extremely accurate, 
 for these redoubtable insects, after having vagabondised all night, 
 have, doubtless, need of repose: and they allowed us to sleep soundly 
 and peaceably till the end of the day. We continued to follow this 
 
ILLNESS ABROAD. 
 
 271 
 
 new plan of travelling, and found ourselves all the better for it; 
 but our strength had been so completely exhausted by the long 
 duration of our fatigues, that at Kuen-kiang-hien, a town of the 
 third order, we fell seriously ill, and were compelled to interrupt 
 our journey. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 
 Dangerous Illness. — Mandarins’ Prescriptions. — Visit of the Doctor. _ 
 
 Theory of the Pulse. — Apothecaries in China. — Trade in Medicine._ 
 
 Increase of the Malady.—Acupuncture. — The supernatural Treasure of 
 red Pills. — Experimental Medicine. — Origin and History of the Cholera in 
 China. — Free Practice of Medicine.— Good Effects of red Pills. — Cure. 
 — Terrible Law of Responsibility. — Tragic Story. —Kind Attention of the 
 Prefect of Kuen-kiang-hien. —Fondness of the Chinese for Coffins. — Journey 
 of a sick Man by the side of his Bier. — Calmness and Tranquillity of the 
 Chinese at the moment of Death. — Visit to our Coffin. — Departure from 
 Kuen-kiang-hien. 
 
 It is common to say that health is the greatest blessing possessed 
 by man here below; and in fact the enjoyments of this life are so 
 fragile and fugitive, that they all vanish at the approach of the 
 slightest infirmity. But for the exile, for the traveller, wandering 
 in distant lands, health is not merely a good — it is a quite in¬ 
 estimable treasure—-for it is a mournful and bitter thing to be 
 attacked by illness in a foreign country, far from relations or 
 friends, and surrounded by persons to whom you are a source of 
 annoyance, and who only regard you with indifference, or even 
 with aversion. What a frightful and despei-ate situation would it 
 be for one who counted only on the help of man, and had the mis¬ 
 fortune of not knowing how to find in God his support and con¬ 
 solation. 
 
 Our long journey — so full of vicissitudes of every kind—had 
 hitherto been at least free from this trial. In Tartary and Thibet 
 we had been threatened with being staiwed or frozen to death, 
 devoured by wild beasts, murdered by robbers, or crushed by the 
 fall of avalanches; a single step would often have been sufficient 
 to plunge us from the top of a mountain into a frightful abyss. 
 
 In China, executioners had displayed before us the instruments 
 of their atrocious tortures; an angry populace had risen in in¬ 
 surrection around us; and, finally, a tempest had nearly engulphed 
 us in the waters. After having so often had death under various 
 forms so near us, it only remained to see him standing quietly at 
 our bed-foot, ready to take possession in the most ordinary forms 
 
272 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of a prey that had so often escaped him, and for two whole days it 
 pleased G-od to leave before our eyes this melancholy vision. 
 
 On the very evening of our arrival at Kuen-kiang-hien, and 
 whilst we were receiving the visit of the principal magistrates 
 of the town, we were suddenly seized with violent vomitings, ac¬ 
 companied by most acute pains in the stomach. It seemed really 
 as if a genei’al decomposition were going on in our frame, from 
 head to foot; and we were forced to go to bed. The doctor was 
 sent for; the most renowned doctor, it was said, of the whole 
 country; a man accustomed to perform prodigies, and cure with 
 the greatest ease all sorts of incurable maladies. Whilst waiting 
 the arrival of this marvellous doctor, in whom we were far from 
 feeling the most absolute confidence, the mandarins of our escort, 
 and those of Kuen-kiang-hien, discoursed with much learning and 
 sang-froid on the cause of our illness, and the means to be em¬ 
 ployed for its cure. 
 
 We have said that the Chinese were, in virtue of their tem¬ 
 perament, essentially actors and cooks; we may add also that they 
 are something of doctors. Every one of the company delivered 
 his opinion of our condition in the most technical terms, and it 
 was settled by the obliging members of this impromptu consultation 
 that our “noble and illustrious malady proceeded from a disturbance 
 in the equilibrium of the vital spirits.” The igneous principle, 
 they thought, too long fed by the excessive heat, had ended by 
 exceeding beyond all measure the. proper bounds assigned to it, 
 and that, consequently, a fire, so to speak, had been kindled in the 
 sublime organization of our body. Consequently also the aqueous 
 elements had been dried up to such a degree that there no longer 
 remained to the members and organs the humidity necessary to 
 the performance of their natural functions; thence proceeded those 
 vomitings, those pains in the stomach, and that generally dis¬ 
 ordered state which it was easy to perceive in our face, and which 
 produced such violent contortions. 
 
 In order to re-establish the said equilibrium there needed only 
 to be introduced into the body a certain quantity of cold, and to 
 lower the extravagant temperature of this igneous principle; 
 therefore it w^as necessary to favour the return of moisture into 
 all the members. In this manner health would be immediately 
 re-established, and we might resume our journey ; being, however, 
 very careful not to permit the igneous principle to develope itself 
 to the point of absorbing the aqueous principle. There was a 
 very simple method of bringing back into the body this beautiful 
 harmony. Everybody knew that green peas are of an extremely 
 
REGULAR PRACTITIONERS. 
 
 273 
 
 cold nature; a certain quantity was therefore to be put on to boil, 
 we were to drink the liquor, and by that means the fire would be 
 put out. 
 
 A mandarin of Kuen-kiang-hien suggested that nevertheless 
 we must use this liquor with great moderation, for fear of 
 occasioning too great a chill; but Master Ting interposed, saying 
 that we might, without any danger, take twice the ordinary dose 
 of it, as he had remarked that our temperament was incomparably 
 warmer than that of a Chinese. It was also decided that for this 
 purpose of restoring the humidity necessary for the harmonious 
 action of the organs, there was nothing better than boiled cucum¬ 
 bers and water melons. 
 
 It was finally therefore agreed unanimously, that nothing more 
 was necessary than green peas, boiled cucumbers, and water 
 melons, to set us on our feet again, and enable us to pursue our 
 journey; and in the meantime the doctor arrived. The cere¬ 
 monious, yet perfectly easy manner in which lie presented himself 
 pointed him out as a man who passed his time in paying visits. 
 Pie was a little roundabout man with a pleasing countenance, and 
 of a redundant plumpness calculated to afford the most advan¬ 
 tageous ideas of his hygeienic pi-inciples: and a pair of great 
 spectacles seated on a very little rudimentary kind of nose, and 
 tied behind his ears with a silk cord, gave him quite a finished 
 medical air. A small grey beard and moustachios, and hair of the 
 same colour tied behind in a pig tail, afforded additional evidence 
 of long experience in the art of healing. As he approached our 
 bed, lie gave utterance to some aphorisms that did not seem to us 
 altogether worthless. 
 
 “ I have learned,” said he, “ that the illustrious patient was born 
 in the countries of the west. It is written in the books that 
 maladies vary according to the country; those of the north do 
 not resemble those of the south; every nation has some that are 
 peculiar to it, and every country produces particular remedies, 
 adapted to the ordinary infirmities of its inhabitants. The skilful 
 physician ought to distinguish different temperaments, in order to 
 understand the true character of maladies and prescribe suitable 
 medicaments ; it is in this that his science consists. We must 
 take good care not to treat the men of the Western Seas in the same 
 manner as the men of the central nation.” After having laid 
 down these principles, with very striking inflections of voice, and 
 abundance of gesticulation, he drew towards him a bamboo arm¬ 
 chair and seated himself by the side of our bed. He then asked 
 for our right arm, and having laid it on a small cushion he began 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 to feel the pulse by playing on it with all his fingers as if lie were 
 playing the pianoforte. The Chinese consider that there are dif¬ 
 ferent pulses corresponding to the heart, the liver, and the other 
 principal organs. To feel the pulse well you must feel them all one 
 after the other, and sometimes several together, in order to under¬ 
 stand their several relations. During this operation, which lasted 
 a very long while, the doctor appeared plunged in profound medi¬ 
 tation ; he did not speak one word, but kept his head bent down, 
 and his eyes fixed on the points of his shoes. 
 
 When the right arm had had its turn, the left was taken, and 
 the same ceremonies performed with it; and then at length the 
 doctor majestically raised his head, stroked his beard and mous- 
 tachios two or three times, and pronounced the sentence: “ By 
 some means or other,” said he, shaking his head, “ the cold air has 
 penetrated into the interior, and has put itself in opposition, in 
 many of the organs, with the igneous principle ; thence arises the 
 struggle, which must necessarily manifest itself by vomitings and 
 convulsions; we must therefore combat the evil with warm sub¬ 
 stances.” 
 
 The mandarins, who a minute before had said precisely the 
 contrary, did not fail to agree entirely with the opinion of the 
 physician. 
 
 “ That’s the thing,” said Ting: “it is evident there is a struggle 
 between the cold and the heat; these two principles are not in 
 harmony, and what is wanted is to make them agree; that’s just 
 what we were thinking.” The physician then went on : “ The 
 
 nature of this noble malady is such that it may yield with facility 
 to the virtue of the medicines, and disappear very soon ; and, also, 
 it is quite possible that it may resist, and that the danger may in¬ 
 crease. This is my opinion on the subject after having studied 
 the various characters of the pulse.” 
 
 This opinion did not appear to us an extremely hazardous one, or 
 likely in any case to compromise seriously the person who de¬ 
 livered it. “ You must have rest and quiet,” continued the doctor, 
 “and take every hour a dose of the medicine lam going to pre¬ 
 scribe.” As he spoke he rose, and went to seat himself at a little 
 table, where writing materials had been prepared. Ihe learned man 
 then dipped in a cup of tea the end of a little stick of Indian ink, 
 which he rubbed on a dish of black stone, then seized a pencil, 
 and began to trace the prescription on a large sheet of paper. lie 
 wrote a large page, and when he had finished, he took his paper, 
 read it again attentively in a low voice, and then came to us and 
 communicated its contents. He placed the prescription under our 
 
THE PRESCRIPTION. 
 
 275 
 
 eyes, then extending towards it the first finger of his right hand, 
 terminated by a nail of frightful length, he pointed to the 
 characters he had just written, and gave us by degrees a full 
 explanation of them. We did not understand much of what he 
 said, for the violent headache with which we were tormented 
 hindered us from following the thread of his learned dissertation 
 on the properties and virtues of the numerous ingredients that 
 went to compose the medicine; besides, the little attention of 
 which we were capable was entirely absorbed by the sight of that 
 prodigious nail, that went wandering over the mass of Chinese 
 characters. We made out, however, that the basis of the remedy 
 was rhubarb and orange peel, tahocmg and kapi; besides these 
 articles, a variety of powders, leaves, and roots were to enter into 
 its composition. Each kind of drug was specially charged to act 
 on a particular organ, in order to bring about the desired result, 
 and the aggregate of their operations to effect the prompt re¬ 
 establishment of our health. 
 
 It is customary to boil the drugs together in a vase of baked 
 clay; and when the water has, by a long ebullition, sufficiently 
 assimilated their medicinal properties, the patient is made to 
 swallow it as hot as possible. Chinese medicine is almost always 
 of an oily nature, and of a very dark yellowish colour; this very 
 uninviting appearance proceeds from a certain fatty black sub¬ 
 stance that the physicians have the good taste to introduce into all 
 their prescriptions; how r ever, if one can get over the unpleasant 
 look of them, these medicines are seldom very difficult to take; 
 they have mostly an insipid sweetish taste, and are never so 
 abominably nauseous as some of the compositions of our European 
 pharmacists, which turn your very heart, and make your whole 
 inner man rise in violent rebellion. 
 
 When the Chinese M. D. had fulfilled his mission with respect 
 to our “ noble and illustrious malady,” and made a number of 
 profound bows to the company, he departed, promising to come 
 back the next morning. The mandarins of Kuen-kiang-hien went 
 also, and in very sorrowful mood, for the physician had said posi¬ 
 tively, that we needed repose, and our condition also seemed bad 
 enough to make it probable that we should have to make a pretty 
 long stay, even if we were not obliged to take up our final abode 
 at the foot of one of their mountains. All these considerations 
 could not but cause them much anxiety. 
 
 When all the strangers were gone, Master Ting asked us whether 
 it was necessary to follow the doctor’s prescription, and prepare 
 the medicine he had ordered. The fact was, that we had no great 
 
276 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 confidence either in the drugs or the doctor; but where were we 
 to find a better? To whom could we apply for help in these 
 melancholy circumstances? Only to the great Master of life and 
 death, whom it has pleased to bestow on plants certain marvellous 
 properties, by which they contribute to the solace of human in¬ 
 firmities ; he might therefore grant to these drugs, insignificant as 
 they might be, a special virtue, if it should be his good pleasure 
 that we should recover our health. 
 
 In the Holy Scriptures we are told to honour physicians in case 
 of necessity; and we could have no better opportunity for that 
 than the present. Let us therefore, we thought, honour the Chinese 
 doctor, and scrupulously obey his orders. “ Yes certainly,” we 
 replied to Master Ting’s question; “ the medicine must be prepared 
 as he has ordered.” 
 
 A servant of the Communal Palace was sent to get the ingredients 
 to the house of the doctor himself, who had just made up the pre¬ 
 scription. In China, the physicians are at the same time apothe¬ 
 caries, and sell to their patients the remedies they prescribe; but 
 although these two professions are intimately connected with one 
 another, and in themselves by no means incompatible, there are 
 some objections to their being exercised by the same individual. 
 Some abuses may easily enter into the exercise of functions that 
 support each other so completely — as, for instance, human frailty 
 considered, the physician may yield to the temptation of prescribing 
 costly remedies, or even sometimes of prolonging the malady for 
 the purpose of procuring more considerable profits for his friend 
 the apothecary. The prodigious quantity-of drugs that enter into 
 the composition of Chinese medicines has indeed always appeared 
 to us rather surprising; and we would not venture to say that the 
 circumstance is not to be accounted for from the fact we have 
 mentioned of their being prescribed and sold by the same person. 
 
 The fear of being fleeced by the doctor has given rise to a curious 
 custom, quite in accordance with Chinese manners. The physician 
 and the patient usually enter into an earnest discussion concerning 
 the value and price of the medicines ordered. The other members 
 of the family too take part in this odd sort of bargaining; they ask 
 the doctor to prescribe common cheap drugs, and they examine the 
 prescription, and strike out such as are too expensive. Possibly 
 the effect of the medicine may be thereby rendered slow or doubt¬ 
 ful, but they will put up with that, and run the risk. They always 
 hope, too, that the alteration will not be of much consequence, and 
 that it will be pretty much the same in the end. In fact, the great 
 recommendation of Chinese practice is, that one prescription is 
 
CURIOUS CONSULTATION. 
 
 277 
 
 about as good as another, and that whether you absorb a little 
 more or less of their black brewages will probably make very little 
 difference. 
 
 The physician, after having haggled for a long time, generally 
 ends by abating something of the price of his merchandise, for the 
 simple reason that if he did not, the patient would go to another 
 shop. 
 
 Very surprising and very Chinese scenes, however, sometimes 
 occur with reference to these cases. When the physician-apothe¬ 
 cary has said his last word, and declared positively that to obtain 
 the cure it is indispensably necessary to make use of this or that 
 remedy, a family council is held, actually in the presence of the 
 sick person, in which the question of life or death is coolly put, 
 and frequently arguments brought forward to show that, considering 
 the advanced age of the patient, or the hopeless nature of the 
 malady, it may be better not to incur a useless expense, but quietly 
 to allow things to take their course. After having closely calcu¬ 
 lated what it will cost to buy these possibly useless medicines, it 
 is not uncommon for the sick man himself to take the initiative, 
 and decide that it will be much better to reserve the money to buy 
 a fine coffin, since one must die sooner or later, and it is well 
 worth while to give perhaps a short remnant of life in order to 
 have a handsome funeral. With this sweet and consoling prospect 
 in view, they send away the doctor, and — the sitting being pro¬ 
 longed— send for the undertaker. Such are the thoughts and cares 
 that occupy the mind of a Chinese in the presence of death. 
 
 Fortunately for us we had no occasion to enter into these intricate 
 calculations, since it was the business of the mandarins to provide 
 us with medicines, or, in case of need, with a coffin. We were 
 even assured beforehand that they would have the politeness to 
 place us in one of superior quality ; and being thus made perfectly 
 easy in our minds on this important point, we had nothing to do 
 but quietly to swallow all the drugs offered to us, without even 
 asking what they cost. Never had a doctor of Kuen-kiang-liien a 
 better patient. 
 
 The efficacy of the medicine, however, by no means corresponded 
 with our generosity of behaviour; we cannot say whether it did 
 good or harm, or maintained a prudent neutrality, and left us to 
 get well or not as we thought proper; all that we know is, that on 
 the following morning we were in a very dangerous state. Then 
 came more medicines, and also more illness; a consuming fever; 
 a distracting headache, a dry and burning skin, and fierce pains in 
 the bowels: such were the principal symptoms. The doctor never 
 
 t 3 
 
278 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 left us, for the worthy man’s pride was now concerned. To find 
 himself engaged in a battle with the astonishing organisation of a 
 devil of the western seas; to vanquish such an obstinate, unrea¬ 
 sonable, atrocious kind of malady, the like of which had never been 
 seen among the inhabitants of the celestial empire, that would 
 assuredly be a feat that could not fail to cover the doctor with 
 glory. On the following day we did not know much of what was 
 passing in the room we occupied in the Communal Palace of Kuen- 
 kiang-hien. Our brains became a chaos in which France, China, 
 Tartary, and Thibet were blended and mingled into an inextricable 
 entanglement of all that was absurd and monstrous; persons the 
 most incongruous, too, were brought together by the wild extra¬ 
 vagances of our delirious imagination, and made to hold all sorts 
 of impossible conversations. In the evening, however, our under¬ 
 standing became clear enough to make out that the physician was 
 speaking of the operation of acupuncture , whereupon we clenched 
 our fist, and looked at him in such fierce wrath, that he drew back 
 in a fright. This manner of explaining our opinion of the matter 
 was not, we must own, quite in accordance with the Rites, but 
 under the circumstances, and seeing that the disease scarcely left 
 us a full consciousness of our actions, it may perhaps be deemed 
 excusable. 
 
 This operation of acupuncture was invented in China in a period 
 of the remotest antiquity, and afterwards passed into Japan. It is 
 in frequent use in both countries, for the cure of many diseases, 
 and is performed by introducing into the body long metallic needles, 
 the whole science of the operator consisting in the choice of the 
 places where he will poke them in, and in the knowledge of the 
 depth to which they may penetrate, and the direction they ought 
 to follow. In some cases the needles are made red hot. Very 
 ■wonderful cures are said to have been performed by this method, 
 but one must really be born in Japan or China to submit to have 
 one’s body made into a pincushion. 
 
 Acupuncture lias been, at different periods, much the fashion in 
 Europe. This is what M. Abel Remusat wrote on the subject in 
 1825: — “Acupuncture has from the remotest antiquity formed 
 one of the principal curative methods of Chinese and Japanese 
 medicine; it has also been practised in Europe for several years, 
 and for these few months much extolled in France. Like every¬ 
 thing new and singular, this mode of proceeding has found both 
 detractors and enthusiastic admirers. Some have seen in it a sort 
 of panacea of marvellous efficacy; others an unmeaning operation, 
 that might sometimes be highly dangerous. Facts have been 
 
ACUPUNCTURE. 
 
 279 
 
 cited on both sides; and as the opportunities for observation of it 
 in Europe could not he very frequent or numerous, reference. lias 
 been made to the experience of Asiatics, usually so much disdained 
 in matters of science. Independently of academical essays, and 
 articles in periodicals, some small works have been printed, capable 
 of throwing light on this interesting point of .therapeutics and 
 physiology.” 
 
 Several celebrated physicians and natural philosophers — among 
 others, MM. Morand, j. Cloquet, and Pouillet —made at that 
 time repeated experiments in acupuncture. In studying the man¬ 
 ner in which the needles act on a living body, they had been 
 induced to think that the cause of pain was the accumulation of 
 the electric fluid in the part that is the seat of it, and that the 
 introduction of the needle might favour its discharge. The needle, 
 in this hypothesis, was a real lightning conductor introduced into 
 the body of the patient; and the immediate, indeed instantaneous 
 relief he felt, led naturally to the comparison of this physiological 
 action with the phenomena that take place when a surface, charged 
 with electricity, is put in relation with other bodies by means of a 
 metallic conductor. It was even thought that on touching the 
 needle about ten minutes after its introduction a slight shock was 
 felt, like that produced by a very feeble voltaic pile. Thus an 
 attempt was made to explain, at the same time, the cause of the 
 affection as consisting in an accumulation of the electric fluid on 
 a nervous branch, and the curative effect produced by the simple 
 subtraction of the fluid. It had been subsequently ascertained 
 from the experiments of M. Pouillet, that electric action did really 
 take place on the introduction of a needle into a muscle affected 
 with rheumatism ; but that this action was not due to the pain, or 
 the cause of the pain, since it took place equally when acupuncture 
 was practised on a part that was not the seat ot any neuralgic 
 affection. It had been stated that this action took place in the 
 same manner with animals, and that it constantly co-existed with 
 the oxidation of the metal. It was demonstrated, that it was 
 never excited by a needle of platina, gold, or silver, but only by 
 those made of oxidable metals. It is therefore allowable to con¬ 
 clude that the physical phenomenon observed is the result of 
 chemical action between the metal of the needle and the parts with 
 which it is brought into contact; for there is never any oxidation 
 of metal without a development of electricity, and it is nearly 
 certain that this current is of no effect in the relief felt by the 
 sufferer. 
 
 As to the physiological effects of acupuncture, independently of 
 
280 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the relief afforded, which has been remarked, especially in cases of 
 rheumatism or neuralgia, they have mostly been observed to be 
 the following. The introduction of the needle is not very painful, 
 if care is previously taken to distend the skin, and if the needle is 
 turned, instead of being driven straight forward. In general, its 
 extraction is more painful than its introduction ; there issues very 
 little blood from the puncture; at most, only a few drops. The 
 skin rises round the instrument, preserving its natural colour ; but 
 it soon sinks again, and there is formed a red circle round it. The 
 sick person then feels shootings directed towards the part; mus¬ 
 cular contractions take place ; numbness, following the course of 
 the great trunks of the nerves; and feverish shiverings. It is not 
 uncommon to see a sweat break out over the part corresponding 
 with the seat of pain; and in that case it has ceased, or at all 
 events become diminished, or has shifted its place. Towards this 
 time there have come faintings, more or less complete, and more or 
 less durable, and which can scarcely be attributed to the pain of the 
 puncture, singe they have taken place when the painful sensation 
 has ceased. This, it appears, is the only accident ever known to 
 result from acupuncture. There might be, perhaps, cause to fear 
 serious wounds and fatal consequences if the needle should traverse 
 the great nervous trunks, or the organs essential to life. Some 
 surgeons have asserted that the extreme fineness of the needle was 
 a sufficient guarantee against consequences of this kind; but 
 although in experiments made on animals, it has been found pos¬ 
 sible to pierce with them the stomach, the lungs, and even the 
 heart, without any bad result, it is, nevertheless, certain that such 
 attempts might occasion an irreparable misfortune. 
 
 The Chinese and Japanese doctors, being ignorant of anatomy, 
 and having only the most vague and erroneous ideas on the subject 
 of the organisation of the human frame, must often meet with fatal 
 accidents ; but acupuncture is not practised among them without 
 rule and method, nor entirely according to the caprice of the 
 practitioners. 
 
 They have determined on the surface of the human body three 
 hundred and sixty-seven points to which they have given particular 
 names, according to the relation in which they suppose them to 
 stand with the internal parts; and in order to obtain practice 
 without compromising human health, they have fabricated small 
 copper figures, on which very small holes are made in the proper 
 places ; the surface of the figure is then covered with paper pasted 
 on, and the student is required to place his needle without hesita¬ 
 tion upon the spot where the opening is made, and on which he 
 
ACUPUNCTURE. 
 
 281 
 
 would be required to operate according to the affection he is 
 
 examined upon. _ t 
 
 “ But what can all these precautions avail,’ says M. Abel 
 Remusat, in speaking of a Japanese book on Acupuncture, in 
 the profound ignorance of the practitioner as to the situation and 
 connection of the various organs? They regulate their practice 
 solely on the principles of a blind routine, or the still more absuid 
 theories of a fantastic physiology, which may be traced both in the 
 general and particular precepts that the Japanese author has here 
 collected. They set out on the principle that the arteries always 
 proceed from above to below, the veins always from below to above. 
 It is, therefore, prescribed, in performing the operation, to turn the 
 point of the needle upward when it is wished to go counter to 
 the course of the blood, and downwards if you desire to pioceed 
 with it. An unseasonable or awkward puncture is to be corrected 
 by making punctures on other corresponding points; and halt the 
 prescriptions in the-book are worthy of the sagacity of this. In a 
 syncope following a severe fall, the upper part of the tin oat, oppo¬ 
 site the larynx, is to be punctured to the depth of eight lines. In 
 pains in the loins, the hams are to be punctured ; in dry coughs, 
 the external and hinder part of the arm, to a depth of one line, 
 or in the middle of the front of the arm, or at the base of the little 
 finger. In considering how distant these parts are one from 
 another, it has been supposed that the Japanese physicians sought 
 to act by derivation; but that, in my opinion, is to do them too 
 much honour, by attributing to them so clear an idea of revulsion. 
 In this instance, as in so many others, they are probably only 
 acting at random, on the suggestions of an ignorant and credulous 
 empiricism. 
 
 “I will not take upon me, nevertheless, to pronounce a decided 
 judgment upon Japanese medical doctrines, from a small un¬ 
 authorised work, whose contents, perhaps, would not receive the 
 approval of their really skilful medical men, if any such are to be 
 found in Japan. There are works on medicine and surgery among 
 us which would not give a very favourable idea of our progress in 
 these sciences, if they should be taken up at random from oui 
 libraries and sent off to China as a specimen. In the King’s 
 Library in Paris there is a little treatise on Acupuncture in 
 Chinese, and the rules found in it do not agree with those of the 
 Japanese. What may be said in praise of the physicians of both 
 countries is, that in the application both of the needle and the 
 moxa, they seem to have been guided by long practice, and that 
 the points assigned for the operation are not always as ill chosen 
 
282 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 as those above mentioned. They seem also to have been en¬ 
 lightened by experience as to the danger of introducing the needles 
 above the principal nerves of the great arterial trunks and the 
 vital organs; but it is probable that their experience on these 
 points has cost the lives of a great number of patients.” 
 
 We entertained precisely the same opinion on this matter as 
 M. Abel Remusat, at the moment when it was proposed to stick 
 needles into our own body; the operations of this kind that we 
 had witnessed by no means tended to re-assure us sufficiently, 
 although they had been what is called successful; and we felt no 
 desire to contribute at our own expense to the progress of the art 
 of acupuncture in the Chinese Empire. The doctor comprehended 
 immediately the figurative language by which we had expressed 
 our aversion to the introduction of the needles; and he did not 
 insist on it, as Master Ting, with extreme sagacity, suggested that, 
 as Europeans were not organised at all in the same manner as the 
 Chinese, he might run the risk of sticking them in the wrong 
 place. “What rashness!” he cried; “do we know how these 
 Europeans are made ? Who can tell what they have in their 
 bodies? How do you know, doctor, what you would be sticking 
 your needle into?” The doctor admitted, or feigned to admit, 
 the cogency of Master Ting’s reasoning; and it was settled that 
 we should go back to our black broth, with certain modifications. 
 
 The night was a good deal better than the day had been; and 
 in the morning the physician reappeared, and found us, he said, 
 extremely well prepared to take a most decisive remedy, the good 
 effect of which was certain. The cure would be immediate and 
 radical, and assuredly we could not require more. The preparation 
 of this miraculous medicine required very little time or trouble ; 
 the doctor having asked for half a cup of tea, threw into it a 
 dozen of minute red pills, scarcely the size of a pin’s head, real 
 homoeopathic globules. As soon as we had swallowed this tea, 
 which, by the addition of these globules had acquired a strong 
 odour of musk, everybody was ordered out of the room, that we 
 might be left in perfect quiet; and though we certainly cannot 
 affirm that this mode of treatment contributed to our relief or our 
 cure, it is certain that we soon afterwards felt much better, and 
 that the improvement went on during all the rest of the day. 
 
 In the evening we took six more red globules, and the next day 
 we were decidedly convalescent, though still excessively weak; 
 the malady had disappeared, there were no more convulsions, or 
 headaches, or pains in the stomach;—and who so proud as our 
 doctor ? He harangued the company with the most perfect con- 
 
THE RED PILLS. 
 
 283 
 
 fidence on all imaginable subjects, and they vied with each other 
 in applauding every word that came out of his mouth. Especially 
 he did not fail to dwell on the infallible efficacy of this red medicine, 
 when administered in due season, and according to the rules of 
 prudence and wisdom, — two virtues which heaven had been 
 pleased to confer upon him in the most supreme degree. 
 
 These red pills, to which every one attributed our cure,, were 
 not for us an unknown medicine, for they enjoy a prodigious 
 celebrity in China, and we had heard them everywhere extolled. 
 The pompous and emphatic name that they bear is equal to their 
 reputation. They are called ling-pao-you-y-tan, that is to say, 
 
 “ Supernatural treasure lor all desires. It is said to. be a tiue 
 universal panacea, curing all kinds of maladies without any 
 exception: the great difficulty consists in varying the dose, and 
 combining it with a suitable liquid. Administered in an impioper 
 manner, this remedy may, it is said, become dangerous, and cause 
 terrible infirmities. The composition of it is a seciet, in possession, 
 of a single family in Pekin, in which it has been faithfully trans¬ 
 mitted from generation to generation ; it is, therefore, impossible 
 to mention the ingredients; its smell of musk, though veiy power¬ 
 ful, need not be considered as anything characteristic, since in 
 China, not only the medicines, but also every other object, the 
 people, the land, the air, all are more or less impregnated with this 
 particular odour. I he whole Chinese Empire smells of musk, 
 and the merchandise imported thence to Europe retains the smell 
 for a long time. 
 
 This supernatural treasure, although manufactured only by the 
 one family in Pekin, is known all over the Empire, and can usually 
 be bought at a moderate price; but it is necessary to be. caieful 
 to get it unadulterated, which in China is no very easy thing. At 
 Pekin the price has never varied: it is the same as that of puie 
 silver. One day we ourselves went to buy some in one of the 
 principal shops, and we had only to place in one scale a small 
 ingot of silver, and the merchant put in the otliei' an equal weight 
 
 of red pills. . 
 
 The supernatural treasure is perhaps the most active sudonfic 
 existing; but it acts in a quite peculiar manner. A single one of 
 these little red globules reduced to powder, and put up the nose 
 like snuff, occasions a long succession of sneezing, until the whole 
 body breaks out into violent perspiration. This powder is some¬ 
 times used to ascertain if a sick person is near the point of death. 
 If a pinch cannot make him sneeze, the Chinese say he will 
 certainly die in a day ; if he sneezes once, he will at all events not 
 
284 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 die till the morrow, and the hope increases in the precise ratio of 
 the number of sneezings. 
 
 Chinese medicine is remarkable for the extreme whimsicality of 
 its modes of procedure, and the collection of books in which it may 
 be studied is very considerable; but they contain for the most 
 part few recipes but such as are already more or less known. 
 Europeans would of course find in them nothing interesting in a 
 scientific point of view; but it would be a mistake to treat them 
 with perfect contempt. The Chinese are endowed with prodigious 
 powers of observation; they have much penetration and sagacity, 
 and often notice many small, but not unimportant circumstances, 
 to which minds superior to theirs might be apt to pay no attention, 
 ihe antiquity of their civilisation, too, and their habit of collecting 
 and preserving in writing the most important discoveries, must 
 have put them in possession of an immense mass of useful facts. 
 
 We have never had the honour to study medicine ourselves; 
 but we have often heard it maintained by learned and skilful 
 physicians, that the art of curing human maladies was less a matter 
 ol science than of experience and observation. Sickness and in- 
 fiimity is the mournful inheritance of humanity in all countries, 
 and at all epochs; is it not reasonable to suppose that God has 
 always placed it within the power of man to discover the means of 
 lelieving his sufferings, and preserving his health? The most un¬ 
 civilised, nations, savages even, have often been found in possession 
 of certain remedies, which science not only could never have in¬ 
 vented, but of which it could not even explain the effects. 
 
 Ilieie are in China at least as many maladies as there are else¬ 
 where; yet mortality is not proportionably greater than in other 
 countries. Its immense and exuberant population may be con¬ 
 sidered to afford a proof that, on the whole, Chinese doctors are 
 not in practice much more awkward and unskilful than their 
 brethren in Europe. Neither the one nor the other has yet been 
 able to compound a good elixir of immortality, although both had 
 the weakness to labour to discover such a one for many centuries: 
 the Chinese find means, however, to live as long as we do, and 
 octogenarians are as numerous among them as among us. We are, 
 indeed, far from envying the Chinese their system of medicine, 
 which it must be owned borders closely on quackery; we would 
 only assert the probability of their possessing curative methods 
 piopoitioned to their necessities. We have even seen instances of 
 their treating, with great success, diseases that would be considered 
 very formidable by our medical faculty. There is no missionary 
 who in his apostolic career may not have witnessed facts of this 
 
SUCCESS IN SOME DANGEROUS MALADIES. 285 
 
 kind, capable of exciting his surprise and admiration. When a 
 'physician has succeeded in curing promptly and radically a malady 
 presenting the most grave and dangerous symptoms, it is to little 
 purpose to pass a learned condemnation on the methods he has 
 employed, and endeavour to prove their inefficiency. The sick 
 man has been healed —he is again in the enjoyment of perfect 
 health — that is the essential point. There are few people who 
 would not prefer being saved in the most irregular and stupid 
 manner to being killed according to the most approved and scientific 
 methods. 
 
 It is indisputable, for instance, that there exist in China medical 
 men who know how to treat the most decided cases of hydrophobia ; 
 and it matters little that during their treatment of this frightful 
 malady, they expressly forbid any object containing hemp to be 
 shown to the patient, under the idea that that would neutralise the 
 effect of the remedies. 
 
 For several years we had for one of our catechists a man who 
 had the precious gift of being able to set fractured limbs. We 
 have seen him operate upon and cure with extraordinary facility 
 more than fifty unfortunate men, whose bones wei'e broken and 
 even crushed. The operation always succeeded so well that the 
 patients used to come themselves to thank him, to the chamber 
 that he occupied beside ours, and in the presence of such results, 
 we never felt inclined to laugh, because the plaster he employed to 
 promote the junction of the bones was made of wood lice, white 
 pepper, and a fowl pounded to death. 
 
 In 1840, we had in our seminary at Macao a young Chinese, 
 who was about to be sent back to his family, on account of the 
 complete deafness by which he had been for some months af¬ 
 fected, and which did not permit him to continue his studies. 
 Several medical authorities, Chinese, Portuguese, English, and 
 French had been consulted in vain concerning this infirmity. 
 The doctors explained in technical language the mechanism of 
 hearing; they said wonderful things about it that did honour to 
 the profundity of their knowledge ; but their treatment remained 
 ineffectual, and the deafness was declared incurable. 
 
 Fortunately we had in our house a Christian recently arrived 
 from our mission in the neighbourhood of Pekin. He was neither 
 a doctor nor a man of learning; nor did he possess any literary 
 degree. He was simply a very poor peasant; but he recollected 
 having noticed that the people ot his country employed a certain 
 plant with success in the cure of deafness. After diligent search¬ 
 ing in the environs of Macao, he had the good fortune to find some 
 
286 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of this salutary herb, and he expressed the juice of some of the 
 leaves into the ears of the sick man, from which an immense quan¬ 
 tity of humour was immediately discharged, and in two cays the 
 cure was complete. The young Chinese was enabled to continue 
 his studies, and is at present a missionary in one of the southern 
 provinces.* 
 
 The Chinese have some maladies peculiar to themselves, and 
 not known elsewhere; as there exist several which make great 
 ravages in Europe, and are in China unknown. Some are common 
 to both the east and the west, and the method of curing them is 
 no better understood in the one quarter of the world°tlian the 
 other. Phthisis, for example, is considered incurable by the Chinese 
 physicians, and also the cholera. This terrible malady manifested 
 itself first in China, then spread to the other countries of Asia, and 
 afterwards reached Europe. It was under the following circum¬ 
 stances this formidable scourge, formerly unknown, made its first 
 appearance. We have the account from a great number of the 
 inhabitants of the province of Chan-tong, who were eye-witnesses 
 of what they related. 
 
 In the first year of the reign of the deceased Emperor—that is 
 to say in the year 1820,—a mass of reddish vapour was noticed one 
 day upon the surface ot the Yellow Sea. This singular phenome¬ 
 non was observed by the Chinese of the province of Chan-tong, 
 which forms its coast. These vapours were at first light, but gra¬ 
 dually increased, became condensed, rose little by little above the 
 surface of the water, and at last formed an immense red cloud, 
 which remained for several hours floating in the air. The Chinese 
 were seized with terror, as they mostly are in the presence of all 
 great natural phenomena, and sought in certain superstitious 
 practices of the Bonzes the means of averting the threatened 
 calamity. 
 
 They burned vast quantities of magic paper, which they threw 
 all flaming into the sea. They formed long processions in which 
 they bore the image of the Great Dragon; for they of course 
 attributed these sinister omens to the anger of that fabulous per¬ 
 sonage. At last they had recourse to an extreme measure only 
 adopted in desperate cases : .they executed a tremendous charivari 
 all along the sea coast. Men, women, and children went striking 
 redoubled blows upon all the instruments most capable of produc¬ 
 ing a loud and sonorous noise, tam-tams, kitchen utensils, and 
 
 * We could mention on the subject of Chinese medicine a number of re¬ 
 markable facts; but we abstain, because Le vrai peut quehuefois n’e 
 vraisemblaOle. tre P as 
 
ORIGIN OF THE CHOLERA. 
 
 287 
 
 metal implements of all kinds ; and the wild and savage outcries of 
 a countless multitude of people increased the horror of this infer¬ 
 nal uproar. We were ourselves once witnesses of a similar mani¬ 
 festation in one of the great towns of the south, where all the 
 inhabitants, without exception, shut up in their houses, struck as 
 in frenzy every metallic article within reach, uttering at the same 
 time the most frantic and incredible vociferations. One can hardly 
 imagine anything more frightful than this monstrous tumult arising 
 in the bosom of a great city. Whilst the inhabitants of Chan-tong 
 were seeking to conjure away this unknown misfortune, which yet 
 every one foresaw, a violent wind suddenly began to blow, and, 
 dividing the cloud into various columns, drove them on toward the 
 land. These red vapours spread in a winding course along the 
 hills and valleys, and swept over the towns and villages, and 
 wherever they passed men found themselves suddenly attacked by 
 a frightful disease, which in a moment deranged the entire organi¬ 
 sation, and changed a living man into a hideous corpse. In vain 
 did the doctors anxiously turn over their books; nowhere could 
 they find any hint of this new, strange, and terrible enemy, that 
 struck like a thunderbolt, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the 
 other,—on poor and rich, young and old, but always apparently in 
 the most capricious manner without following any fixed rule in the 
 midst of its fearful ravages. Numberless remedies were tried, 
 numberless experiments made ; but entirely without success, and 
 the implacable scourge went raging on with unabated fury, plung¬ 
 ing whole populations into terror and mourning. 
 
 According to all that the Chinese have told us of this terrible 
 malady it was incontestibly the cholera. It ravaged first the pro¬ 
 vince of Chan-tong, then turned northwards to Pekin, striking 
 always in its march the most populous towns. At Pekin its vic¬ 
 tims were proportionally more numerous than elsewhere. Thence 
 the cholera crossed the Great Wall, and the Chinese say that it 
 faded away in the Land of Grass. 
 
 It is probable that it followed the route of the caravans as far as 
 the Russian station of Khiaktha, and that, afterwards passing 
 through Siberia, it invaded Russia and Poland, whence it made a 
 bound to France after the revolution of 1830, just ten years after 
 it had issued from the bosom of the Yellow Sea. 
 
 In China every one is at full liberty to take up the profession of 
 medicine whenever he pleases; the government does not in any 
 way interfere with him. It is of opinion that the deep and lively 
 interest every one takes in his own health is a sufficient guarantee 
 that confidence will not be given to a doctor who is unworthy of 
 
288 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 it. Thus, whoever has read a few receipt books, and learned the 
 nomenclature of medicaments, may plunge boldly into the noble art 
 of healing his fellow-creatures, or killing them. 
 
 Medicine, as well as education, is found to be an excellent con¬ 
 duit to carry off the numerous literary bachelors, who are never 
 likely to rise to the superior degrees, and attain the honours of the 
 Ma ndarin ate. Thus China is swarming with doctors, and, without 
 reckoning the amateurs, who are almost innumerable—since, as we 
 have said, every Chinese knows more or less of medicine,—there 
 is no village so small as not to contain several professors of the 
 healing art. Their position is indeed far less desirable than in 
 Europe, for, besides that there is no great honour in exercising a 
 profession that is within the reach of every one, there is also very 
 little to be gained by it. Visits are not usually paid for at all: 
 medicines are sold cheap, and always on credit; whence it may 
 reasonably be inferred that the doctor cannot count on more than 
 a third of his nominal revenue. It is also very much the custom 
 not to pay for medicines that have not produced a good effect, 
 which happens pretty often, and even this is not the worst of the 
 poor doctor’s case. He is not unfrequently obliged to hide himself 
 or fly the country, to avoid imprisonment, fines, the bamboo, or 
 even wmrse punishment. This may happen when, having promised 
 to cure a patient, he has been so awkward as to allow him to die. 
 The relations then, without hesitation, commence a lawsuit against 
 him, and the safest way, if the doctor have any regard for his life 
 or his sapecks, is to take flight. It would seem that the legislature 
 favours these severe proceedings ; for the following passage occurs 
 in the penal code of China, section 297 “ When those who shall 
 
 exercise the professions of medicine or surgery, without under¬ 
 standing them, and shall administer drugs or operate with a 
 piercing or cutting instrument, in a manner contrary to established 
 rules and practice, and that they shall thereby contribute to cause 
 the death of the patient, the magistrate shall convoke other men of 
 the profession to examine the nature of the remedy that they shall 
 have administered, or the wound they shall have made, and which 
 has been followed by the death of the patient. If it should appear 
 that the physician or surgeon has only acted in error, and without 
 any injurious intention, he may, by a certain payment, obtain 
 remission of the punishment inflicted on a homicide, in the manner 
 established for cases of killing by accident; but the physician or 
 surgeon shall be compelled for ever to quit the profession.” This 
 last provision appears to us very sagacious, and such as might be 
 imitated with advantage in other places. 
 
DISGUSTING PRACTICE. 
 
 289 
 
 Chinese doctors are very fond of a speciality, and occupy them¬ 
 selves exclusively with the treatment of certain maladies. Some 
 devote themselves to such as proceed from cold, others to those 
 caused by heat. Some practice acupuncture; others devote their 
 time to broken limbs. Ihere are also doctors for infants, doctors 
 lor women, and doctors for old men. There are some who are 
 called “ suckers of blood/’ and who are, in fact, living cupping- 
 glasses. they fasten their lips hermetically on the humours and 
 abscesses of invalids, and, by drawing in their breath, make a 
 vacuum, and cause the blood and humours to gush into their 
 mouths. We have seen these vampires at work, and never wit¬ 
 nessed a more revolting spectacle. The cure of the eyes, the ears, 
 and the feet is usually left to the barbers, who enjoy also the pri¬ 
 vilege in some of the southern provinces of fishino- for fro^s 
 Whatever may be the speciality of the Chinese doctors, however’ 
 they very rarely become rich by the exercise of their art: they 
 live from day to day as they best can, and commonly rival their 
 brethren the schoolmasters in privation and poverty. 
 
 Iiom what we have said, the reader will have formed no verv 
 favourable idea of Chinese medicine. It was our business to relate 
 1 lankly and freely what we knew ; but we would not excite any 
 needless prejudice against it; for it is very possible that to it, after 
 C-od, we are indebted for our lives. 
 
 As soon as our cure was complete, the civil and military Man¬ 
 darins of Kuen-liia.ng-hien hastened to pay us a visit in grand 
 state, and congratulate us on the favours that heaven and earth 
 had just granted to us. 1 hey expressed to us in the most lively 
 manner how happy they were to see us out of danger, and on the 
 point of recovering possession of our precious and brilliant health. 
 I his time we were persuaded that the words of the Mandarins 
 were entirely sincere, and the true expression of their feelings, for 
 our recovery released them from a terrible responsibility. °They 
 could not but be excessively uneasy while we were threatening to 
 die under their jurisdiction; not, of course, that they cared 
 whether we lived or died ; but they could not doubt that our 
 death would have occasioned them great embarrassment. 
 
 Iheie are some special difficulties connected with the presence 
 of a dead body in China. When an individual dies in his family 
 theie is no trouble; the relations are answerable, and no one has 
 any right to raise doubts or suspicions concerning the causes of 
 death. But if he lose his life out of doors, the proprietor of the 
 place on which the body is found becomes responsible. Whether 
 it be in a wood, in the middle of a field, on a piece of waste land, 
 
 u 
 
290 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 matters not, the owner of the soil is bound to give notice and afford 
 the necessary explanations, which, to be considered valid, must be 
 accepted by the relations of the deceased. In that case they under¬ 
 take to perform the funeral; and when once they have presided 
 over the burial all is over. But until then the unfortunate pro¬ 
 prietor of the land remains responsible for the life of a man, whom 
 perhaps he has never seen nor heard of. In these circumstances 
 terrible things sometimes happen ; incredible suits are commenced 
 in which the Mandarins and the relations of the dead resort to 
 every device of trickery and wickedness to satiate their cupidity, 
 and ruin their victim. They have been known to keep an unfor¬ 
 tunate and perfectly innocent man shut up in a dungeon, with the 
 terrors of death suspended over his head, until they have succeeded 
 in despoiling him of all his goods. 
 
 This terrible law of responsibility, although often in practice a 
 source of monstrous iniquities, was doubtless considered in the 
 mind of the legislator in the light of a safeguard of human life, a 
 salutary barrier to the outbreaks of passion. It may be conceived 
 that in a country like China, where there exists no religious prin¬ 
 ciple capable of restraining evil instincts, assassinations would 
 take place every moment, if the blood of a man were made of small 
 account. Draconian laws have been found necessary to restrain 
 within the limits of duty these materialist populations living 
 without a God, without religion, and consequently without a con¬ 
 science. In order to teach them to respect the lives of their fellow- 
 creatures, a dead body has been made to them an object of exces¬ 
 sive dread. 
 
 We cannot say whether this law has produced any of the good 
 results hoped for from it; but it is easy to see the crying abuses to 
 which it has given rise. Without speaking of iniquitous law-suits 
 _of the persecutions carried on by the Mandarins against inno¬ 
 cent persons, it is certain that this law tends to stifle every senti¬ 
 ment of compassion towards the unfortunate. Who would have 
 the courage to receive into his house any poor suffering wayfarer 
 whose life might be in danger? Who would venture to bestow 
 care upon a dying man, or even to allow him to die in peace in 
 his field, or the ditch that bordered it? Such an act of mercy 
 might chance 1 6 be rewarded by total ruin, or even by capital 
 punishment. Thus the sick and unfortunate are driven from every 
 dwelling; they are obliged to remain stretched on the high road, 
 or to be dragged under certain sheds, which, being the pi opt .1 tv of 
 the government, do not compromise any one. One day we our¬ 
 selves saw an honest tradesman endeavouring, with tears and 
 
DANGER FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE DEAD. 291 
 
 supplications, to persuade a poor fellow who had fainted on the 
 threshold of his shop to go and die somewhere else ; and the unfor¬ 
 tunate creature got up with the help of a passer by, and had the 
 charity to go further off and yield his last breath in the middle 
 of the street. 
 
 One of the greatest acts of vengeance that a Chinese can prac¬ 
 tise towards an enemy is to deposit by stealth a dead body upon 
 his ground. He is certain by that means to entail on his foe a 
 long series of miseries and calamities. When we were at our mis¬ 
 sion in the valley of the Black Waters, one of the little towns ir 
 the environs became the scene of a horrible crime of this nature 
 A vagabond went into the warehouse of a great commercial esta¬ 
 blishment, and, addressing himself directly to the principal, said, 
 “ Steward of the cash-box, I want money and I have none; I have 
 come to beg you to lend me some ; I know that your Company is 
 rich.” J 
 
 I he sinister looks and audacious tone of the fellow intimidated 
 the meichant, and, not daring to turn him out, he offered him two 
 ounces of silver, saying politely it was for a cup of tea. The 
 beggar demanded, with the utmost effrontery, whether he thought 
 a man like him would be satisfied with two ounces of silver. “ It 
 is not mueli,” said the merchant, “but times are bad, business is 
 not going on well, and every body is poor now-a-days.” 
 
 What, you are poor too, are you?” said the mendicant; 
 
 keep your two ounces of silver then ; I’m not going to starve 
 you ” and he went out, casting on the merchant a look Tike that of 
 a wild beast. 
 
 I he next day he presented himself again in the street before the 
 door, holding a child in his arms, and called out, “ Steward of the 
 cash ! steward of the cash ! ” 
 
 The merchant recognised the man, and cried, laughing “Ah, 
 ha, you have thought better of it, and have come to fetch your two 
 ounces of silver, have you?” 
 
 “No, I have not,” said the ruffian; “on the contrary, I have 
 come to make you a present. See, here is something to make 
 your business get on better ; ” and with these words he plunged a 
 knife into the heart of the child, flung it all bleeding into the ware¬ 
 house, and then rushed away and hid himself in the labyrinth of 
 stieets. lie child oelonged to a family known to be at enmity 
 with this one, and the consequence was the total ruin of the house- 
 the principal partners of which long languished in the public 
 prisons. r 
 
 It is probable that a case so atrocious as this does not often 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 happen ; hut there is no doubt that the law in question quite fails 
 in its object, and, instead of preventing crime, tends to produce it. 
 
 The fears entertained by the Mandarins of Kuen-kiang-hien on 
 our account had certainly not been such as to make them dread 
 any of these terrible outrages of the Chinese law; but they had 
 imagined that the French government would concern itself about 
 our'death, and call their Emperor to account for it, and that there 
 would consequently come a long series of inquiries, perplexities, 
 and annoyances of every kind, that the malevolent might accuse 
 them of negligence, and that they might have to suffer loss and 
 damage in various ways. We took good care not to undeceive 
 them,°and to tell them that our government had something else to 
 do than to trouble itself about us ; we thought it better to leave 
 them in this salutary fear—salutary not only tor us, be it observed, 
 but for any missionaries who might have anything to do with their 
 tribunals. These Mandarins did not know probably that the judi¬ 
 cial assassination of several French missionaries had formed no 
 obstacle to the exchange of the most touching assurances of esteem 
 and affection between the two governments, and that neither our 
 sickness nor our death would be likely to occasion them the smallest 
 uneasiness. 
 
 After resting four days at Kuen-kiang-hien, our strength being 
 sufficiently restored, we began to think of continuing our journey. 
 When we announced this joyful news to the prefect of the town, 
 although lie made the most polite efforts to appear concerned, it 
 was impossible for him to restrain the transports of his delight. 
 His language under its influence became quite poetical and flowery. 
 He wished°us—nay, he promised us for every day of our journey 
 till we should reach Macao—a smooth and fine road, calm weather, 
 a sky of cloudless blue, cool and umbrageous places of repose, a 
 favourable wind, and a propitious current on the river; in short, 
 he forgot nothing that could render our journey happy and agree¬ 
 able. °What a piece of good fortune it was for him that we should 
 have been at Kuen-kiang-hien when we arrived, and just at the 
 time of our illness! We might have met with a careless selfish 
 magistrate, who would not have understood, or not have fulfilled 
 his duty tbwards us; a magistrate who would not, as he had done, 
 have given us his whole heart, have surrounded us every day, as 
 he had had the happiness of doing, with solicitude, and affection^ 
 and devotion. And, in order to convince us of the sincerity of 
 these charming expressions, he assured us that he had carried his 
 care so far as to choose for us a magnificent coffin, at the first 
 maker’s in Kuen-kiang-hien. 
 
AX AGREEABLE COMPLIMENT. 
 
 293 
 
 Could there possibly be a more polite man ? To have a coffin 
 made quite ready for us in case we should want it—we could not 
 fail to thank him with warmth for this most tender and delicate 
 attention. 
 
 In no other countiy than China, perhaps, could men be heard 
 exchanging compliments on the subject of a coffin. People are 
 mostly shy of mentioning the lugubrious objects destined to con¬ 
 tain the mortal remains of a relation or friend, and when death 
 does enter the house, the coffin is got in in secrecy and silence, in 
 order to spare the feelings of the mourning family. But it is quite 
 otherwise in Chinathere a coffin is simply an article of the first 
 necessity to the dead, and of luxury and fancy to the living. In 
 the great towns you see them displayed in the shops, with all sorts 
 of tasteful decorations, painted and varnished, and polished and 
 trimmed up to attract the eyes of passengers and give them the 
 fancy to buy themselves one. People in easy circumstances, who 
 have money to spare for their pleasures, scarcely ever fail to pro¬ 
 vide themselves beforehand with a coffin to their own taste, and 
 which they consider becoming; and, until the moment arrives for 
 lying down in it,, it is kept in the house, not as an article of imme¬ 
 diate necessity, but as one that cannot fail to be consoling and 
 pleasant to the eye in a nicely furnished apartment. 
 
 For well brought-up children it is a favourite method of express¬ 
 ing the fervour of their filial piety towards the authors-of their 
 being, a sweet and tender consolation for the heart of a son to be 
 able to purchase a beautiful coffin for an aged father or mother, 
 and come in state to present the gift at the moment when they least 
 expect such an agreeable surprise. If one is not sufficiently 
 favoured by fortune to be able to afford the purchase of a coffin in 
 advance, care is always taken that before “ saluting the world,” as 
 the Chinese say, a sick person shall at least have the satisfaction 
 of casting a glance at his last abode ; and if he is surrounded by at 
 all affectionate relations, they never fail to buy him a coffin, and 
 place it by the side of his bed. 
 
 In the country this is not always so easy ; for coffins are not 
 kept quite ready, and, besides, peasants have not such luxurious 
 habits as townspeople. The only way then is to send for the car¬ 
 penter of the place, who takes measure of the sick person, not for¬ 
 getting to observe to him that it must be made a little longer than 
 would seem necessary, because one always stretches out a little 
 when one’s dead. A bargain is then made concerning the length 
 and the breadth, and especially the cost; wood is brought, and the 
 workmen set about their task in the yard close to the chamber of 
 
 v 3 
 
294 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the dying person, who is entertained with the music of the saw 
 and the other tools, while deatli is at work within him, preparing 
 him to occupy the snug abode'when it is ready. 
 
 All this is done with the most perfect coolness, and without the 
 slightest emotion, real or affected. We have ourselves witnessed 
 such scenes more than once, and it has always been one of the 
 things that most surprised us in the manners of this extraordinary 
 country. A short time after our arrival at the mission in the 
 north, we -were walking one day in the country with a Chinese 
 seminarist, •who had the patience to reply to all our long and 
 tedious questions about the men and things of the Celestial Em¬ 
 pire. Whilst we were keeping up the dialogue as well as we could, 
 in a mixture of Latin and Chinese, using a word of one or the 
 other as we found occasion, we saw coming towards us a rather 
 numerous crowd, who advanced in an orderly manner along a 
 narrow path. It might have been called a procession. 
 
 Our first impulse was to turn aside, and get into some safe 
 corner behind a large hill; for, not having as yet much experience 
 in the manners and customs of the Chinese, we had some hesita¬ 
 tion in producing ourselves, for fear of being recognised and 
 thrown into prison — possibly even condemned and strangled. 
 Our seminarist, however, reassured us, and declared that we might 
 continue our walk without any fear. The crowd had now come 
 up with us, and we stood aside to let it pass. It was composed of 
 a great number of villagers, who looked at us with smiling faces, 
 and had the appearance of being uncommonly pleased. After 
 them came a litter, on which was borne an empty coffin, and then 
 another litter, upon which lay extended a dying man wrapped in 
 blankets. His face was haggard and livid, and his expiring eyes 
 were fixed upon the coffin that preceded him. When every one 
 had passed, we hastened to ask the meaning of this strange proces¬ 
 sion. “ It is some sick man,” said the seminarist, “ who has been 
 taken ill in a neighbouring village, and whom they are bringing 
 home to his family. The Chinese do not like to die away from 
 their own house.” “ That is very natural; but what is the coffin 
 for ? ” “ For the sick man, who probably has not many days to 
 
 live. They seem to have made everything ready for his funeral. 
 I remarked by the side of the coffin a piece of white linen that 
 they mean to use for the mourning.” 
 
 These words threw us into the most profound astonishment, and 
 we saw then that we had come into a new world — into the midst 
 of a people whose ideas and feelings differed widely from those of 
 Europeans. These men quietly setting about to prepare for the 
 
CALMNESS AT THE APPKOACH OF DEATH. 
 
 295 
 
 funeral of a still living friend and relation ; this coffin placed pur¬ 
 posely under the eyes of the dying man, doubtless with the pur¬ 
 pose of doing what was agreeable to him ; all this plunged us into 
 a strange reverie, and the walk was continued in silence. 
 
 The astonishing calmness with which the Chinese see the ap¬ 
 proach of death does not fail when the last moment arrives. 
 They expire with the most incomparable tranquillity without any 
 of the emotions, the agitations, the agonies that usually render the 
 moment of death so terrific. Their life goes out gently like a lamp 
 that has no more oil. The most certain sign by which you may 
 know when they have not long to live, is when they no longer ask 
 for their pipe. “ The sick man does not smoke any more,” the 
 Chinese Christians were accustomed to say, when they came to 
 summon us to administer the last sacraments. This was a formula 
 to indicate that the danger was pressing, and that there was no 
 time to lose. 
 
 It appears to us that this peaceable death of the Chinese is to be 
 attributed, first, to their soft and lymphatic temperament, and, 
 secondly, to their entire want of religious feeling. The appre¬ 
 hensions connected with a future life, and the bitterness of separa¬ 
 tion, cannot exist for those who have never loved any one much, 
 and who have passed their lives without thinking of God or their 
 souls. They die indeed calmly ; but irrational animals have the 
 same advantage, and at bottom this death is really the most 
 lamentable that can be imagined. 
 
 We quitted at last this town of Kuen-kiang-hien, where we had 
 been on the point of stopping for ever ; but before we set off we 
 had the curiosity to go and see the coffin that had been prepared for 
 us. It was made out oi four enormous trunks of trees, well planed, 
 stained of a violet colour, and beautifully varnished. Master Ting 
 asked us how we liked it. “ Superb,” we said ; “ but yet we must 
 own we prefer being seated in our palanquin.” 
 
 We resumed our journey, conformably to the new programme, 
 by torch and lantern light. 
 
 The doctor had recommended it when he gave us his parting 
 advice: and the night travelling so completely restored our 
 strength and appetite, that the next day, when we entered the 
 Communal Palace of Tten-men, we felt quite fresh and well. 
 
296 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 Visit of the Mandarins of Tien-men. — Their Attention to us. — Fame of 
 Tien-men for the Number and Beauty of its Water-melons. —- Extensive Use 
 of the Water-melon Seed. — Caustic Humour of a young military Mandarin. 
 — The Inhabitants of Sse-tchouen treated as Strangers in the Province of 
 Hou-pe.— Prejudices of Europeans with regard to Chinese. — The Manner 
 in which most Works on China are composed. — True View of the supposed 
 Immobility of the Orientals. — Revolutions in the Chinese Empire.— So¬ 
 cialist School in the Eleventh Century. — Account of their System. — Long 
 and severe Struggle. — Transportation of Tartar Agitators. — Causes of the 
 barbarian Invasions. 
 
 The Mandarins of the town of Tien-men made haste to visit us. 
 They knew that a serious illness had detained us four days at 
 Kuen-kiang-hien, and though they had been informed that our 
 health was improving, they desired to convince themselves of it 
 in person. It was easy to see through this great politeness ; they 
 feared no doubt that being yet scarcely convalescent, we might 
 take it into our heads to rest awhile in their town. What if a 
 relapse should take place, and we should die at Tien-men! It 
 may be imagined how formidable these ideas were to men who 
 dread expense and trouble above everything. When they saw us, 
 however, their fears were at an end, for we were looking pretty 
 well, and, what mattered more to them, expressed our intention of 
 pursuing our journey at nightfall. Full of hope, they exerted 
 themselves to render our departure easy and agreeable. In order 
 to procure for us invigorating repose, they set a guardian of the 
 Communal Palace to drive out with a horse-hair fly-flapper any 
 musquitoes that might be in our rooms ; and, fearing that these 
 impertinent insects, yielding to the depravity of their natures, 
 might return to trouble our slumbers, they fumigated all the ap- 
 pi'oaches with certain aromatic herbs whose odour is said to be 
 unendurable to musquitoes. The desired result was obtained ; we 
 slept tranquilly and to our heart’s content. 
 
 Hearing that we had more than once shown a predilection for 
 aqueous fruits, the authorities of Tien-men had the kindness to 
 put an abundant supply of them at our disposal; water-melons, in 
 particular, were lavished on us with astonishing prodigality. 
 The soldiers, the servants, the palanquin-bearers, all had as much 
 as they could desire. It was the height of the season for this 
 fruit, which is produced at Tien-men of unusual size and superior 
 flavour. Though it was very early when we entered the town. 
 
TIIE WATER-MELON. 
 
 297 
 
 we had remarked in all the streets long stalls covered with a 
 profusion of magnificent slices of water-melons; some were scarlet, 
 some white, and some yellow, the latter being generally the most 
 delicate. 
 
 The water-melon is very important in China on account of its 
 seeds, for which the Chinese have a perfect passion. The reader 
 may perhaps remember the old Mandarin of honour, who had been 
 fastened upon us in the capital of Sse-tchouen, and who seemed 
 to have come into the world for no other purpose than to chew 
 melon-seeds. In some places, when the harvest is abundant, the 
 fruit is valueless, and only preserved for the sake of the seed. 
 Sometimes the fruit is carried in quantities to some frequented 
 highway, and given away to travellers, on condition that they 
 shall put aside the seeds for the proprietor. By this interested 
 generosity they have the glory of refreshing the weary during 
 the hot season, and they also relieve themselves of the trouble of 
 working these mines to extract the precious deposit within. 
 
 These water-melon seeds are indeed a treasure of cheap amuse¬ 
 ment for the three hundred million inhabitants of the Celestial 
 Empire. They are an object of daily consumption throughout 
 the eighteen provinces, and it is amusing to see these extraordinary 
 people munching these seeds before their meals to test the con¬ 
 dition of their stomach and appetite. Their long and pointed 
 nails are then extremely useful. The skill and rapidity with 
 which they strip off the hard shell to obtain the tiny kernel must 
 be seen to be appreciated; a troop of squirrels or apes could not 
 manoeuvre more dexterously. We always thought that the natural 
 propensity, of the Chinese for what is artificial and deceptive had 
 inspired them with this frantic passion for water-melon seeds ; 
 for if there is in the world a disappointing dish, a fantastic kind 
 of food, it is surely this. Therefore the Chinese use them at all 
 times and in all places. If a few friends assemble to drink tea or 
 rice-wine, there is always an obligato accompaniment of melon- 
 seeds. They are eaten whilst travelling, whilst pursuing busi¬ 
 ness; when children or workmen have a few sapecks to dispose of, 
 they run to expend them on this dainty; it is sold everywhere — 
 in the towns and the villages, on the high-roads and the by-roads; 
 in the wildest and most ill-provisioned district you need never 
 fear to be without melon-seeds. The consumption of them 
 throughout the Empire is something incredible, something beyond 
 the limits of the wildest imagination. You sometimes see junks 
 on the rivers entirely loaded with this precious cargo; truly you 
 might imagine yourself in a nation of rodentia. It would be a 
 
•298 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 curious inquiry, and one worthy to attract the attention of our 
 great compilers of statistical tables, to fix the daily, monthly, or 
 yearly consumption of this article, in a country counting three 
 hundred million inhabitants. 
 
 On leaving Tien-men, where we passed a pleasant day, there 
 was appointed to accompany us as escort to the following stage, 
 a young military Mandarin, whose manners and gossip amused us 
 much. His little, pale, lively face, with a touch of sarcasm in it, 
 excited interest and curiosity; although a soldier, he had more 
 brains than most of the men of letters, and no one was more con¬ 
 vinced of this than himself. As he spoke not only with ease but 
 with elegance, he was not backward in the use of "his tongue; he 
 discussed everything that came into his head with decision and \ 
 authority, interlarding his long harangues with pleasantries and 
 witticisms not wanting in smartness. Above all, he boasted of a 
 long residence at Canton, and of some small displays of prowess 
 against the English, as well as of having studied the manners 
 and customs of foreign nations, and of being thus fitted to appre¬ 
 ciate and judge definitively every subject on the face of the earth. : 
 
 When we halted for our mid-day meal, he began to tease the 
 Mandarins of our escort most pitilessly. He talked of Sse-tchouen 
 as of a foreign country, a mere savage region. He asked them 
 whether civilisation had begun to creep into the mountains yet. 
 a \ou are not from the Thibet frontier,” said lie; “ it is easy to 
 perceive in your accent, manners, and appearance, that you live 
 very near a race of savages, and this is certainly the first time 
 you have travelled. Everything surprises you—that is always ' 
 the way with people who never stir from the place they are born : 
 in;” and he went on to point out to them many contrasts between ; 
 their customs and those of Idou-pe. 
 
 To tell the truth, our Sse-tchouenites had found themselves I 
 sadly out of their element since they had left their province. ! 
 Ihey were ignorant of the manners of the country we were j 
 traversing ; they were laughed at, insulted, and, above all, fleeced. 
 
 One day, for example, some soldiers of the escort had seated 
 themselves for a few minutes before a shop. When they rose to 
 depart, a clerk of the establishment came and demanded, with 
 much gravity, two sapecks a piece for having rested before his I 
 door. 1 he soldiers looked at him in amazement; but the malicious 
 clerk held out his hand with the air of a man who has no sus¬ 
 picion that his demand can possibly be objected to. The poor 
 travellers, attacked in their tenderest point — the pocket — ven- j 
 tured to say that they did not understand the demand. “ That is 
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VARIOUS PROVINCES. 299 
 
 very strange!” cried the clerk ; and, summoning his neighbours 
 around, “Look here! these men fancy they can sit before my 
 shop for nothing! Where can they come from, I wonder, to be 
 ignorant of the commonest customs!” 
 
 The neighbours exclaimed, laughed loudly, and marvelled at 
 people who were simple enough to imagine they could sit down 
 for nothing. The soldiers, ashamed of being taken for uncivilised 
 creatures, paid the two sapecks, saying, to excuse themselves, 
 that such was not the custom in Sse-tchouen. They had not gone 
 far, however, when some officious shop keepers ran to tell them, 
 as a consolation, that they were very silly to let themselves be 
 taken in so easily. 
 
 These scenes were of daily occurrence while we were travelling 
 through Hou-pe, and indeed we natives of the West found our¬ 
 selves more at home throughout China than the inhabitants of 
 other provinces who were unused to travelling. 
 
 Very false ideas are entertained in Europe concerning China 
 and the Chinese. It is spoken of as an empire of remarkable and 
 imposing unity, as a perfectly homogeneous nation, so that to 
 know one Chinese is to know them all; and after passing some 
 time in a Chinese town, you are capable of describing life 
 throughout this vast country. This is far from being the case, 
 though no doubt there are certain characteristics to be found 
 throughout, which constitute the Chinese type. 
 
 These characteristics are remarkable in the face, the language, 
 the manners, the ideas, and certain national prejudices; but they 
 are distinguished by such varieties of shade, such well defined 
 differences, that it is easy to tell whether you are dealing with the 
 men of the north, south, east, or west. In passing from one 
 province to another, you become aware of these modifications; 
 the language changes by degrees till it is no longer intelligible; 
 the dress alters in form so much that you can distinguish a citizen 
 of Canton from one of Pekin by it alone. Each province has 
 customs peculiarly its own, even in important matters, in the 
 imposition of taxes, the nature of contracts, and the construction 
 of houses. There exLt also particular privileges and laws which 
 the government dare not abolish, and which the functionaries are 
 forced to respect; there reign everywhere rights of established 
 custom which destroy that civil and administrative unity that Euro¬ 
 peans have been been pleased to attribute to this colossal empire. 
 
 As much difference might be pointed out between the eighteen 
 provinces as between the various states of Europe; a Chinese 
 who passes from one to the other finds himself in a strange 
 
300 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 country, amidst a people whose habits are unknown to him, where 
 every one is struck with the peculiarity of his face, language, and 
 manners. There is nothing surprising in this when it is con¬ 
 sidered that the Chinese empire is composed of a number of 
 kingdoms, often separated under the dominion of various princes, 
 and ruled by distinct legislation. These nations, though more 
 than once united, have never combined so closely but that an 
 observing eye could detect the different elements composing the vast 
 whole. 
 
 Hence it follows that a sojourn in Macao or the factories of 
 Canton does not render a man competent to judge of the Chinese 
 nation. Even a missionary, who has resided many years in the 
 bosom of a Christian community, will no doubt be perfectly 
 acquainted with the district that has been the theatre of his 
 zealous labours; but if he undertakes to extend his observations, 
 and believes that the ways of the converts around him are those 
 of the whole empire, he deceives himself, and misleads the public \ 
 opinion of Europe. It may be imagined, therefore, how difficult 
 it is to form a just estimate of the Chinese character and country 
 from the writings of travellers who have paid a passing visit to 
 those ports open to Europeans. These writers are undoubtedly 
 gifted with intellect and a fertile imagination; they choose their 
 language, and turn their sentences with an enviable skill; when 
 reading their books you never doubt their good faith for a moment; 
 there is only one thing wanting,—that they should have seen the 
 country and the nation of which they speak. 
 
 Let us suppose that a citizen of the Celestial Empire, wishing 
 to become acquainted with that mysterious Europe whose products 
 he has so often admired, makes up his mind to visit the extra¬ 
 ordinary people of whom he has no knowledge beyond a vague 
 notion of their geographical position. He embarks; and, after 
 traversing the ocean till he is sick of seeing nothing but sea and 
 sky, he reaches the port of Havre. Unfortunately he does not 
 know a word of French, and is obliged to call to his assistance 
 some porter wbo has picked up, somehow or other, a little Chinese; 
 he adorns him with the title of interpreter or ioun-sse , and gets on 
 with him as best he can, eking out his words with abundance of 
 pantomimic gestures. 
 
 Furnished with this guide, he traverses the streets of Havre 
 from morning till night, disposed to make an astonishing discovery 
 at every step, in order that he may have the pleasure of regaling 
 his fellow-countrymen with his wonderful adventures on his 
 return home. Ha enters every shop, is enraptured with all he 
 
A CHINESE TRAVELLER IN EUROPE. 
 
 301 
 
 sees, and buys the most extraordinary things, paying of course, 
 two or three times what they are worth, because there is an 
 understanding between his interpreter and the shopman to get as 
 much as possible out of the barbarian. 
 
 Of course our Chinese is a philosopher and ,a moralist, and 
 therefore takes a great many notes; he devotes the evening to 
 this important labour, to which he calls in the aid of his guide. 
 He always has a long series of questions ready for him, but is a 
 little embarrassed because he can neither make his own questions 
 quite intelligible, nor understand very clearly the ansAvers re¬ 
 turned. Nevertheless, after making the effort of coming to the 
 West, it is absolutely necessary to acquire a mass of information, 
 and enlighten China on the condition of Europe. What Avould 
 people say if he had nothing to tell them after his long journey? 
 He writes, therefore, sometimes according to the information of a 
 porter whom he does not understand, sometimes at the dictation of 
 his own suggestive imagination. 
 
 After a feAV months passed thus in Havre, our traveller returns 
 to his native country, well disposed to yield to the entreaties of 
 his friends not to deprive the public of the useful and precious 
 information he has collected concerning an unknown country. 
 
 No doubt this Chinese will have seen many things he did not 
 1 expect ; and if he be at all well informed, might prepare a very 
 interesting article on Havre for the Pekin Gazette. But if, not 
 content with that, he takes up his too ready pen to compose a dis¬ 
 sertation on France, the form of its government, the character of 
 its senate and legislature, its magistracy and army, science, arts, 
 industry and commerce, not to speak of the various kingdoms of 
 Europe, which he will liken to France, Ave must suspect that his 
 narrative, however picturesque and well written, av i 11 contain a 
 mass of errors. His “ Travels in Europe,” as he will no doubt 
 call his book, cannot fail to convey to his countrymen very false 
 ideas regarding the nations of the West. 
 
 Many works on China published in Europe have been written 
 in the manner I have described, and after perusing them it is 
 difficult to imagine China such as she really is. The China de¬ 
 scribed is a Avork of imagination, a country which has no existence, 
 and setting aside the great mistake regarding the unity of the 
 Chinese Empire, there are many others which Ave will venture to 
 point out. 
 
 The immutability of the Asiatics is one of those established 
 ideas in regard to them Avhich is founded on an utter ignorance of 
 their history. “If there is,” says M. Abel Bemusat, “ in the whole 
 
302 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 range of European ideas, one recognised fact, one notion indis¬ 
 putably settled, it is that of the subjection of Eastern nations to 
 their ancient doctrines, manners, and customs, of the regularity of 
 their habits, and the unchangeable nature of their laws. The 
 immutability of. the East has passed into a proverb, and this 
 opinion, among other advantages, possesses that of rendering 
 superfluous all inquiry after their ancient condition, which is 
 supposed to be illustrated so well by their present state. May I 
 venture to brave the general conviction and disturb the tranquil¬ 
 lity of public opinion on this topic, by representing the Orientals 
 as people who from time to time have followed new doctrines, 
 adopted various forms of government, and bowed to the sway of 
 fashion in the matter of personal adornments. The Europeans, I 
 who are so fond of change in these things, will think that in as¬ 
 serting this I intend to extol the Asiatics, and I fear being taken j 
 for an enthusiastic eulogist of these people, because I try to estab- 1 
 lish a conviction of their inconstancy. 
 
 “ But, in the first place, what intimate connection is there : 
 between those nations called Orientals, that we should class them 
 under one general head, and include them all in one comprehensive 
 estimate? It would appear that somewhere or other there is an 
 immense country called the East, whose inhabitants, formed on the i 
 same model, and subject to the same influences, may be described 
 en masse, and comprehended in one viewu Yet what have these 
 nations in common beyond their Asiatic birth? And what is Asia 
 but a portion of the great continent which the sea only surrounds 
 on three sides, and to which we have assigned fictitious limits, and ■ 
 traced an imaginary boundary on the side nearest us? Even those I 
 ancient names that were formerly in use are becoming superseded 
 by more elegant appellations, and it is hard to say exactly what is 
 Asia, since our geographers have proscribed the whole four quarters 
 of the world, and substituted a division of three, five, or six with 
 the harmonious names of Australia, Polynesia, Oceanica, and 
 Nothasia.* Are the Malays an Asiatic race? Are the Muscovites j 
 a European nation? Are there many points of resemblance, 
 between an Armenian and a Tartar, an Indian and a Japanese? 
 There is more difference between them than between a Londoner ; 
 and a Parisian, a citizen of Madrid or of St. Petersburg. Yet we] 
 class them all together, because we do not know how to distinguish 
 
 * A name sometimes applied by French geographers to a portion of the 
 Indian archipelago, including the isles of Sunda, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas J 
 and Philippines.—T rans, 
 
DIFFERENCES AMONG ASIATICS. 
 
 303 
 
 them, just as we are embarrassed to detect a difference of features 
 ; in those negro faces which on casual observation appear identical. 
 We confound intellectual traits and moral developments, and from 
 this confusion produce an imaginary being, resembling nothing that 
 really exists; we call it an Asiatic or Oriental, and, knowing no 
 more about it, praise or blame at random; generic terms are 
 indeed useful to people who are not particular about having correct 
 ideas, and who care little to understand before pronouncing 
 judgment. 
 
 But if you would consider this subject more nearly, you will 
 be surprised at the multitude of things unknown to you, at the 
 prodigious differences to be traced between nations which we class 
 together so carelessly, or, to speak more plainly, which we con¬ 
 found so ignorantly. I do not mean varieties of climate, nor of 
 dress, which necessarily follow those variations, nor of race as 
 exhibited in the countenance, although that is great enough to 
 cause one people to treat as a monster what is elsewhere prodi¬ 
 giously admired. Nor do I point to natural productions, which 
 influence social habits so largely, nor to language, though it acts 
 powerfully on literary taste; I confine myself especially to two 
 points, religion and laws, two points of the highest importance, 
 revolutions in which produce such great changes in public and 
 private life, and which do not in Asia present the painful monotony 
 that has been fancied; for, in spite of what a great.writer has said, 
 these two points do not depend entirely on climate, or, in other 
 words, religion and law are not settled by rain and sunshine.”* 
 After passing briefly in review the principal Asiatic nations, 
 and showing that they have little or nothing in common, that each 
 has a separate moral, political, and religious character, this learned 
 and discerning writer continues thus: “All these races may be 
 called Easterns, for the sun certainly lights them before us; or 
 Asiatics, for they live east of the Oural mountains, which in 
 modern maps are considered the line of demarcation between 
 Europe and Asia, but it must be understood that the name is all 
 they have in common, and that it is used for brevity’s sake to 
 avoid long and useless denominations, being only incorrect when 
 used carelessly and unthinkingly. The characteristics which are 
 
 1 common to these nations are their obstinacy in what concerns 
 themselves, and their prejudice against foreigners. But these 
 blind prejudices and this dogged obstinacy separate them one from 
 another as much as from us, and a Japanese at Teheran, or an 
 
 * Melanges Asiatiqucs, p. 224. 
 
304 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Egyptian in the streets of Nankin, would be an object of almost as 
 much astonishment and ridicule as a European. 
 
 “But in recalling the annals of the past, shall we perhaps dis¬ 
 cover something of that uniform civilisation, that one primitive 
 type, whose chief attribute is held to be immutability? Different 
 as they now are, may the Easterns only have become so in the 
 course of time? Did they indeed resemble one another at a far 
 distant epoch? Have they become changeable in consequence of 
 change, and has one revolution given them a taste for others? 
 The history of Asia answers all these questions, and if a false 
 solution of them is offered to the public, the reason is that it costs ! 
 some trouble to study the history itself, and that the greater part 
 of those who speak of it find it easier to create fiction than to search 
 for truth. 
 
 “Religion and government are among the things which should i 
 only be changed on necessity, and men who allow themselves to 
 be lightly influenced on other subjects might adhere firmly to their 
 opinion on these. But men are men in Asia as elsewhere, and 
 inconstancy in serious matters has ever been a malady of the human 
 race. We therefore find in the annals of that part of the world 
 such abundant material for the history of folly and error, that we 
 must be rich indeed in such experience on our own account to be 
 able to neglect so many useful lessons, which would not cost us a 
 tear or a penny. 
 
 “ Asia is the domain of fable, of aimless reveries and fantastic 
 imagery ; what astonishing varieties, and, we may say, what de- 
 plorable diversity may be there observed of the manner in which 
 human reason, without any other guide, has endeavoured to satisfy 
 the first want of society—religion. 
 
 “If there are few truths that have not been taught in Asia, it 
 may also be said that there are few extravagances that have not 
 been held in honour there. The mere list of the various faiths ] 
 that have in turn prevailed in the East saddens good sense and j 
 alarms the imagination. The idolatry of the Sabteans, the worship 
 of fire and the elements, Islamism, the polytheism of the Brahmins, j 
 that, of the Buddhists and followers of the Grand Lama, the 
 worship of the heavenly bodies, and ancestors, of spirits and 
 demons, and many minor sects of which little is known, all vying 
 with each other in senseless dogmas and strange customs, do not 
 these present variety enough on a most important point ? And j 
 how can morals, laws, and customs be unchangeable, when the j 
 very basis of all law and morality vacillates thus ? 
 
 “Nor is it a single nation in Asia that has been subject to; 
 
NUMEROUS RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 
 
 305 
 
 these fluctuations; all the nations, all the races, have brought 
 their contribution to swell the general mass of follies very like our 
 own; and to see the eagerness with which they are adopted in 
 nations which have not given them birth, one would say that, con¬ 
 trary to ordinary opinion, the desire for change among these men 
 overcomes even the force of custom and national prejudice, in so 
 much that a new system is always welcome, if it be but in opposi¬ 
 tion to common sense; for reasonable ideas have less lively charms 
 and less rapid success, they attract at first only intelligent minds, 
 and it is often but slowly that they gain ground with the multi¬ 
 tude.” 
 
 The Chinese, with whom we ought here particularly to occupy 
 ourselves, have not been the less remarkable among Asiatic races 
 for their inconstancy in religion. In the ages of antiquity, China 
 preserved herself from one evil by the aid of another ; she avoided 
 idolatry by lapsing into indifference; already during the lifetime 
 of Confucius, however, China was divided by two principal reli¬ 
 gious sects, and five or six systems of philosophy, all teaching con¬ 
 tradictory doctrines. A third faith, that of Buddhism, has since 
 been added to the two first, and the three have held possession of 
 an empire which counts one-third of the human race. Long and 
 tragic are the accounts of the divisions and quarrels which, at 
 various epochs of Chinese history, these religious questions have 
 given rise to; but it is to be remarked that whilst the cultivated 
 classes have been always attached to the principles of Confucius, 
 the multitude have inclined to the superstitious practices of Bud¬ 
 dhism. But it would be difficult to find, elsewhere than in China, 
 people who could adopt all these various faiths and philosophic 
 systems, without troubling themselves to reconcile them one with 
 the other. This was the commencement of that relapse into 
 religious indifference, in which the Chinese are now plunged, after 
 so long suffering themselves to be blown about by every wind of 
 doctrine. 
 
 Nor have governments and institutions varied less than religion 
 throughout Asia. Here again is the fancied constancy wanting. 
 Religion and politics are everywhere connected, and as we retrace 
 our steps to the infancy of society, they appear to be blended toge¬ 
 ther. In the Eastern regions of Asia they were formerly one and 
 the same thing, if we may judge from tradition ; and the govern¬ 
 ment of forty centuries ago did not in the least resemble those of 
 the present day. The name of heaven was given to the Empire, 
 the sovereign called himself God, and confided to his several 
 ministers the business of lighting, warming, and fertilising the 
 
 x 
 
306 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 universe. The titles of these ministers, and the dresses they wore, 
 corresponded to their noble functions ; there was one to represent 
 the sun, one for the moon, and so on for the other planets; there 
 was a superintendent of mountains, another of rivers, of air, 
 forests, &c. A supernatural authority was attributed to these 
 functionaries, and the harmony of this fine order of things was 
 only disturbed by comets and eclipses, which were supposed to 
 announce to the world a deviation of the heavenly bodies from 
 their accustomed path, and whose apparition, even at the present 
 day in China, is a rude shock to the popularity of a statesman. A 
 very similar system appears to have reigned in Persia in remote 
 antiquity, but in both countries terrestrial events rudely dissipated 
 these brilliant fictions. War, rebellion, conquest, and division led 
 to the establishment of the feudal system, which lasted about seven 
 or eight centuries, nearly the period during which it held sway in 
 Europe, and which was more than once reproduced by the effect 
 of the same causes which first gave it birth. Monarchy, never¬ 
 theless, prevailed generally, and ended by obtaining a complete 
 and decisive triumph ; so that China really experienced what 
 would have been seen in Europe had the dreams of those who 
 aspired to universal empire been realised, and France, Spain, 
 Italy, Germany, and the States of the North been united in one 
 vast kingdom, ruled by one sovereign, and having the same insti¬ 
 tutions. 
 
 The counterpoise to the Imperial poAA r er (at first a very weak 
 one) was the philosophy of Confucius. It acquired more strength 
 in the seventh century, became regularly organised, and it is now 
 1,200 years since the system of competition and examinations for 
 literary degrees, the aim of w’hich is to subject the unlearned to 
 the yoke of the learned, has practically placed the government in 
 the hands of educated men. 
 
 The irruptions of Tartars, a race who trouble themselves 
 very little about literature, have sometimes suspended the rule of 
 this philosophical oligarchy, but sooner or later it has always 
 resumed its sway, for the Cliinese appear to prefer the dominion of 
 the pen to that of the sword, and pedantry to violence, though the 
 one does not always banish the other. Those learned men who 
 have made such erudite researches to prove how the Chinese 
 government has been enabled to remain unchanged for 4,000 years, 
 have neglected one thing which is rather important. No doubt 
 the reasons alleged are very learned and well imagined, but the 
 fact to be accounted for is simply not true, a misfortune which has 
 happened before now to philosophical explanations. The Chinese 
 
FEEQUENT POLITICAL CONVULSIONS. 
 
 307 
 
 have adopted various maxims, altered their form of government, 
 tried divers political combinations, and, though there are some 
 experiments of which they have not bethought themselves, their 
 history presents nearly the same phases as that of most other 
 nations. 
 
 China has certainly no need to envy other countries their 
 changes ; but she might excite jealousy in some on the score of 
 her revolutions, the tragic overthrow of dynasties, and civil wars. 
 
 What would our most famous European revolutionists say, if 
 they were told that they are but children and scholars beside the 
 Chinese in the art of upsetting society? Yet this is true; their 
 history is one series of catastrophes which have at various times 
 shaken the empire to its foundation. 
 
 Compare France and China within a given period of time, say 
 from the year 420 —the entrance of the Franks into Gaul—to the 
 year 1644, when Louis XIV. ascended the throne of France, and 
 when the Mantchou Tartars established themselves in Pekin. 
 During the time of 1224 years, these so-called peaceful Chinese, 
 this nation so attached to ancient laws and customs, so renowned 
 for its immobility, went through fifteen changes of dynasty, all 
 accompanied by frightful civil wars, and almost all by the bloody 
 extermination of the dethroned families. In the same space of 
 time France only saw two changes of dynasty, which were quietly 
 effected by time and circumstances, without any effusion of blood. 
 
 It is true that since then we have made great progress, and 
 that since we have made acquaintance with the Chinese, we have 
 done our best to emulate them. If we could imagine that the his¬ 
 tory of China was at all studied amongst us, we might fancy that 
 our fellow-countrymen had resolved to copy them ; they have done 
 it already to admiration on several points; a feverish taste for 
 political change, and a profound indifference on religious topics, 
 are two leading traits of Chinese character. It is a curious fact 
 that the greater part of those social theories which have lately 
 thrown the public mind of France into a ferment, and which are 
 represented as the sublime results of the progress of human reason, 
 are but exploded Chinese Utopias which agitated the Celestial 
 Empire centuries ago. Our readers may judge of this from the 
 extracts we shall make from the History of Cliina, but which we 
 must condense, on account of their lengthy details. 
 
 In the 11th century of our era, the Chinese nation, under the 
 dynasty of Song, presented a spectacle nearly analogous to that 
 seen in Europe, and France especially, of late years. The great 
 and knotty questions of social and political economy filled all 
 
308 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 minds, and split into parties every class of society. Those people 
 who at other times have seemed so indifferent to the proceedings 
 of their government, then flung themselves passionately into the 
 discussion of systems which aimed at an immense social revolution. 
 Matters had come to such a point, that the ordinary business of 
 life was neglected ; commerce, handicrafts, and even agriculture, 
 were abandoned for polemical agitation. The nation was divided 
 into two furious parties ; pamphlets, libels, inflammatory writings 
 of all kinds were daily flung profusely to the multitude, who de¬ 
 voured them with avidity. Placards also played a prominent part, 
 and though not long since we manifested a certain aptitude for 
 this mode of influence, it must be confessed we are far behind the 
 Chinese. 
 
 The reformer, or chief of the Socialist party, was the famous 
 Wang-ngan-che, a man of remarkable talent, who kept all classes 
 of the Empire in excitement during the reign of several emperors. 
 Chinese historians say that he had received from nature a mind far 
 above mediocrity, which was brought to perfection by careful cul¬ 
 ture. In youth he studied with ardour and application, and his 
 efforts were crowned with success; he was distinguished by 
 honourable mention among those who received the rank of doctor 
 at the same time. He spoke with eloquence and grace, having the 
 art of giving weight to all he said, and he knew how to give an 
 air of importance to trifling things when his interest required it. 
 His private life was regular, and all his external conduct respect¬ 
 able ; such were his good qualities. On the other hand, he is 
 represented as ambitious, and as a man who thought any means 
 lawful to gain his ends, self-willed to obstinacy when he bad to 
 support an opinion he had once advanced ; haughty, and filled with 
 an idea of his own merits, esteeming only what agreed with his 
 own opinions and views of politics, and desirous of uprooting and 
 utterly destroying the old institutions of his country, to replace 
 them with new ones of his own invention. 
 
 To accomplish his enterprise he did not hesitate to undertake 
 a long, difficult, and even repulsive task. This was to make ample 
 commentaries on all the sacred and classical writings, into which 
 he insinuated his own opinions ; and to compose a universal dic¬ 
 tionary, in which he gave to certain words an arbitrary meaning 
 according to his own interest. Historians add that he was incom¬ 
 petent to conduct affairs of state, because he had only general views 
 on the subject, and would have governed according to maxims 
 which, though good in themselves, he did not apply to the right 
 time and circumstance. 
 
A CHINESE RADICAL REFORMER. 
 
 309 
 
 The popularity of Wang-ngan-che fluctuated greatly at various 
 periods during the time that he bent all his efforts to reorganise, 
 or rather to revolutionise, the Empire. His power was almost 
 unlimited beneath the Emperor Chen-tsoung, who, charmed with 
 the brilliant qualities of the reformer, gave him liis entire confi¬ 
 dence. 
 
 The executive and the tribunals were soon filled with his crea¬ 
 tures, and seizing the favourable moment to realise his schemes, 
 the ancient order of things was soon overthrown. His innovations 
 and reforms were greeted enthusiastically by his partisans, and 
 attacked with envenomed eagerness by his enemies. 
 
 The most formidable adversary encountered by Wang-ngan-che 
 was a statesman named Sse-ma-kouang, one of the most celebrated 
 historians of China, the same who described his garden so charm¬ 
 ingly in the little poem we have already quoted. 
 
 M. Abel Remusat has written a biographical notice of him, in 
 which occurs the following account of Wang-ngan-che and his 
 opponents.* 
 
 “ The Emperor Chen-tsoung, on ascending the throne, desired 
 to surround himself with all the enlightened men of the country, 
 amongst whom Sse-ma-kouang could not be overlooked. This new 
 phase of his political life was no less stormy than the previous one. 
 Placed in opposition to one of those audacious spirits who, in the 
 path to their plans of reform, fear no obstacle, and respect no 
 ancient institution, Sse-ma-kouang showed himself, what he had 
 ever been, a religious observer of the customs of antiquity, and 
 ready to brave all for their maintenance. 
 
 “Wang-ngan-che was the reformer whom chance had opposed 
 to Sse-ma-kouang, as if to summon to an equal combat the guar¬ 
 dian genius that watches over the preservation of empires, and the 
 spirit of reform that makes them tremble. Stimulated by contrary 
 principles, the adversaries were gifted with equal talents: one em¬ 
 ployed the resources of his imagination, the activity of his mind, 
 and the firmness of his character, to change and to regenerate ; the 
 other, to stem this torrent, called to his aid the remembrance of the 
 past, the example of the ancients, and the lessons of history, which 
 he had studied with care. 
 
 “Even the prejudices of the nation to which Wang-ngan-che 
 was proud to show himself superior, found a supporter in his 
 antagonist. In the year 1069 several provinces had been visited 
 in succession by a number of terrible disasters; epidemic maladies, 
 
 * Nouveaux Melanges Asiatiques. 
 x 3 
 
310 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 earthquakes, and a drought which destroyed nearly all the harvest. 
 According to custom, the censors seized the occasion to invite the 
 Emperor to examine if there were faults in his conduct to amend, 
 or abuses in his government to reform ; and the Emperor testified 
 his sorrow by abstaining from certain pleasures, music and fetes 
 in the palace. The reforming minister disapproved of this homage 
 to old prejudice. ‘These calamities,’ said he to the Emperor, 
 
 ‘ have settled and unvarying causes; earthquakes, droughts and 
 inundations have no connection with the actions of man. Do you 
 hope to change the ordinary course of things, and that Nature 
 should alter her laws for you?”’ 
 
 Sse-ma-kouang, who was present, did not suffer this speech to 
 pass uncombated. “ Monarchs are indeed to be pitied,” cried he, 
 “ when they have near their persons men who propound such 
 theories; they would destroy the fear of heaven, and what other 
 restraint can check their disorders ? Masters of all around, they 
 dare anything with impunity, and would give themselves up to 
 any excess; and those subjects who are really attached to them 
 would no longer be able to excite their better feelings.” 
 
 According to Wang-ngan-che, the carrying out of his scheme 
 was to procure infallible happiness to the people in the develop¬ 
 ment of the greatest possible material enjoyments for every one. 
 Whilst reading the history of this famous epoch in the dynasty of 
 Song, one is forcibly struck with the resemblance of the writings 
 and harangues of Wang-ngan-che to those, which, in our own 
 time, we have seen propounded in the newspapers and the 
 senate. 
 
 “ The first and most essential duty of a government,” said the 
 Chinese socialist, “ is to love the people, and to procure them the 
 real advantages of life, which are plenty and pleasure. To accom¬ 
 plish this object it would suffice to inspire every one with the 
 unvarying principles of rectitude, but as all might not observe 
 them, the State should explain the manner of following these 
 precepts, and enforce obedience by wise and inflexible laws. In 
 order to prevent the oppression of man by man, the State should 
 take possession of all the resources of the Empire, and become the 
 sole master and employer. The State should take the entire 
 management of commerce, industry, and agriculture into its own 
 hands, with the view of succouring the working classes and pre¬ 
 venting their being ground to the dust by the rich.” According 
 to these new regulations, tribunals were to be established 
 throughout the Empire, which were to fix the price of provisions 
 and merchandise. For a certain number of years taxes were 
 
A GREAT SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. 
 
 311 
 
 to be imposed — to be paid by the rich — from which the poor 
 should be exempt. The tribunals were to decide who was rich 
 and who poor. The sum thus collected was to be reserved in the 
 coffers of the State, to be distributed to aged paupers, to workmen 
 out of employ, and to whoever should be judged to stand most in 
 need of it. 
 
 According to Wang-ngan-che the State was to become the only 
 proprietor of the soil; in each district the tribunals were to 
 assign the land annually to the farmers, and distribute amongst 
 them the seed necessary to sow it, on condition that the loan was 
 repaid either in grain or other provisions after the harvest was 
 gathered; and in order that all the land should be profitably 
 cultivated, the officers of the tribunals should fix what kind of 
 crop was to be grown, and supply the seed for it. 
 
 “ It is evident,” said the partisans of the new scheme, “ that by 
 these means abundance and happiness will reign throughout the 
 land. The only people who can suffer by this state of things are 
 the usurers and monopolists, who never fail to profit by famine 
 and all public calamities, to enrich themselves and ruin the work¬ 
 ing classes. But what great harm will it be to put an end at last 
 to the exactions of these enemies of the people? Does not justice 
 require that they should be forced to restitute their ill-gotten 
 gains ? The State will be the only creditor, and will never take 
 interest. As she will watch over agriculture and fix the current 
 price of provisions, there will always be a supply proportionate to 
 the harvest. In case of famine in any one spot, the great agricul¬ 
 tural tribunal of Pekin, informed by the provincial tribunals of 
 the various harvests of the Empire, will easily restore the equi¬ 
 librium by causing the superfluity of the fertile provinces to be 
 transported into those which are a prey to want. Thus the neces¬ 
 saries of life will always be sold at a moderate price, there will no 
 longer be any classes in want, and the State, being the only 
 speculator, will realise enormous profits annually, to be applied to 
 works of public utility.” 
 
 This radical reform entailed of course the destruction of large 
 fortunes and the reduction of all classes to a more uniform con¬ 
 dition, and this was precisely the aim of Wang-ngan-che and his 
 followers. This bold scheme did not, as with us, stop short at 
 theory, for the Chinese are much more daring than they are 
 reputed to be. The Emperor Chen-tsoung, persuaded by the 
 arguments of Wang-ngan-che, placed entire authority in his 
 hands, and the social revolution began. Sse-ma-kouang, who had 
 struggled long and fruitlessly against the reformer, determined to 
 
312 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 make a last effort, and addressed to the Emperor a remarkable 
 petition, from which we shall quote the passage relative to the 
 advancing of seed-corn to the tiller of the land. 
 
 “It is proposed to advance to the people the seed with which 
 they are to sow the ground. At the end of winter, or in the 
 beginning of spring, the officers will supply each man with the 
 quantity they judge necessary, gratuitously. Immediately after 
 the gathering of harvest, the same quantity and no more will be 
 demanded back. What can be more advantageous to the people? 
 By this means all lands will be cultivated, and abundance will 
 reign throughout the provinces of the Empire. 
 
 “ In theory nothing can be more attractive and beneficial, in 
 practice nothing more injurious to the country. We will suppose 
 the grain distributed, and eagerly received by the people (though 
 on this point I have much doubt); do they really make the use°of 
 it for which it is destined? Whoever believes this must have very 
 little experience, and judges far too favourably of the common 
 order of men. The interest of the moment is what concerns them 
 most; the greater part never look beyond the day, and very few 
 indeed trouble their heads about the future. 
 
 “ The seed, then, is entrusted to them, and they begin by con¬ 
 suming part, they sell or exchange it for something which they 
 imagine they need more than anything else. Corn has been given 
 them; they leave off working, and become idle. But supposing 
 all this does not happen: the grain is sown, all the necessary 
 labours of cultivation are properly performed, the time of gathering 
 the crop arrives, and they are called upon to repay what was lent 
 them. The harvest which they have watched as it grew and 
 ripened, and regarded as their own property, the well-earned fruit 
 of their labours, must now be divided. Part must be yielded up, 
 or sometimes, in bad seasons, the whole crop. How many reasons 
 will be alleged for refusing to do so ! How many real and imagin¬ 
 ary necessities will stand in the way of the restitution! 
 
 “ The- tribunals, we shall be answered, which are established 
 expressly for this department, will despatch their satellites to en¬ 
 force the payment of what is due. Doubtless; and beneath the 
 pretext of demanding what is due, what extortion, what robbery 
 and violence will be committed! I do not mention the enormous 
 cost which such establishments would entail; but, after all, at 
 whose expense would they be maintained?' At the expense of the 
 Government, the nation, or the farmers ? Whichever it may be, 
 who will derive advantage from it? It may be alleged that this 
 practice of advancing the seed has long been in use in’ the province 
 
ASCENDENCY OF WANG-NGAN-CHE. 
 
 313 
 
 of Chen-si, and that none of these evil results have taken place; it 
 appears, on the contrary, that the people find it desirable, since 
 they have made no request for its appeal. I have but one reply to 
 make to this. I am a native of Chen-si; I passed the first part of 
 my life there; I have been an eye-witness to the miseries of the 
 people, and I can affirm that, of the evils under which they suffer, 
 they attribute two-thirds to this practice, against which they 
 murmur unceasingly. Let candid inquiry be entered into, and the 
 true state of things will be made manifest.”* 
 
 The chronicles of the time add that on the side of Sse-ma-kouang 
 were seen all the most distinguished men of the Empire, whether 
 renowned for wit, experience, talents, judgment, or rank, and who 
 all added their prayers and entreaties to his; then, changing their 
 tone, they accused Wang-ngan-che of disturbing the public tran¬ 
 quillity. 
 
 But amid the violent attacks and clamour that rose against him 
 on all sides, there former remained ever calm and imperturbable. 
 Possessed of the confidence of the sovereign, he smiled at the vain 
 efforts of his enemies to ruin him. He read the declamations and 
 satires which they presented to the Emperor under the name of 
 respectful representations, humble supplications, and so forth, and 
 appeared not to be moved by them in the slightest degree. 
 
 When the Emperor, persuaded by the arguments of his adver¬ 
 saries, was on the point of yielding and restoring the form of 
 government to the old footing, Wang-ngan-che would calmly say 
 to him, “Why should you be hasty in this matter?' Wait till ex¬ 
 perience has shown you the result of the measures which we have 
 adopted for the benefit of your realm and the happiness of your 
 subjects. Beginnings are always difficult, and it is only after over¬ 
 coming many obstacles that a man can hope to reap the fruit of 
 his labour. Be firm, and all will go well. Ministers, nobles, and 
 Mandarins have all risen against me. I am not surprised at it; 
 they cannot quit the common routine, and adopt new customs. 
 Little by little, they will grow used to these innovations, their 
 natural aversion will die away of its own accord, and they will end 
 by applauding what they are now so eager to decry.” 
 
 Wang-ngan-che maintained his ascendency throughout the reign 
 of Chen-tsoung; he put all his plans in execution, and overturned 
 the country at his ease. According to Chinese historians, his 
 social revolution was not successful; the nation became more deeply 
 plunged in misery than ever. But that which excited the public 
 
 Memoires sur la Chine, vol. x. p. 48. 
 
314 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 opinion most deeply against this bold reformer was his attempt to 
 remodel literature, and subject it to his despotic system. Not onlv 
 did he change the form of examination for the grades of literary 
 rank, but he caused his own commentaries on the sacred books to 
 be adopted as the correct explanation, and ordered that the signifi¬ 
 cation of the characters should be referred to the great dictionary 
 which he had himself composed. This last innovation it was, pro¬ 
 bably, which drew upon him the implacable hatred of the greater 
 number of his enemies. 
 
 On the death of the Emperor, Wang-ngan-che was immediately 
 deposed ; the reigning Empress sent for Sse-ma-kouang, who had 
 been living in retirement. She named him governor of the young 
 Emperor, and Prime Minister. His first step in this important 
 post was to efface every trace of the government of Wang-ngan- 
 che, who died not long after ; nor did Sse-ma-kouang long survive 
 him. The memory of these two men has been by turns execrated 
 with all the virulence of political passion; and in this, again, the 
 Chinese have shown a strong resemblance to the Europeans. 
 
 The reigning Empress caused the body of Sse-ma-kouang to be 
 interred with great magnificence, and the official epitaph adorns 
 his memory with all the virtues of a wise man, an excellent citizen, 
 and an accomplished minister ; but his highest praise was the 
 public grief at his death. The shops were closed ; the people went 
 into mourning ; and the women and children who could not kneel 
 beside his coffin, prostrated themselves before his portrait in the 
 interior of their houses. These signs of sorrow accompanied the 
 funeral -wherever it appeared, on its way to the native place of 
 Sse-ma-kouang. 
 
 Whilst witnessing the honours paid to the memory of this great 
 man, it would not have been easy to foresee the reverse it was 
 destined to experience eleven years later. The partisans of Wang- 
 ngan-che having contrived to return to the posts from which Sse- 
 ma-kouang had displaced them, found means to cajole the young 
 Emperor, who was now of age and sole master. Sse-ma-kouang 
 was stripped of all his posthumous titles, and declared the enemy 
 of his country, — a measure which made a great impression on the 
 minds of the Chinese. His tomb was destroyed, and the marble 
 monument bearing his epitaph flung to the ground. Another was 
 erected, bearing the enumeration of his pretended crimes; his 
 writings were burnt; and, had it depended on these enraged per¬ 
 secutors, one of the finest specimens of Chinese literature would 
 have been entirely destroyed. In the meantime, the memory of 
 Wang-ngan-che was restored to honour, and his political system 
 
BARBARIAN INVASIONS IN EUROPE. 
 
 315 
 
 pursued with redoubled ardour. In reading the history of these 
 sudden changes of public opinion, we might well imagine it was 
 written of some European nation. 
 
 Three years had scarcely elapsed before the memory of Sse-ma- 
 kouang was once more adorned with all his titles and honoui's ; 
 and the name of the reformer, again loaded with execration. The 
 socialist party were persecuted in their turn, and forced to fly the 
 country : this was in the year 1129. 
 
 While China thus cast forth these bold innovators, the terrible 
 Tchinggis Khan was rising into power in those steppes of Tartary 
 which were soon to pour forth as conquerors their numberless 
 hordes of barbarians. This coincidence is worthy of note, and 
 seems to us to bear out a profound observation of a statesman 
 gifted both with a great intellect and a noble heart. 
 
 Shortly before beginning this work on China, we were honoured 
 by an interview with one of those rare men who, amidst all our 
 civil discord, have preserved the esteem and consideration of all 
 parties. We were speaking of those civilised races of ancient 
 Asia whose history is so little known in Europe, and which have 
 no doubt experienced, like ourselves, great social crises, and 
 suffered from mighty revolutions. “ I have often thought,” said 
 the illustrious speaker, “ that the invasions of barbarians, which 
 at various times have overwhelmed Europe, may probably have 
 resulted from some great social movement in the populous countries 
 of Asia. These great centres of civilisation have no doubt been 
 the theatre of terrible struggles, and the ferocious bands whose 
 irruptions are recorded in our history might be those enemies of 
 public peace whom society had forcibly expelled. This is only an 
 a priori idea, which stands in need of historical proof; you might 
 perhaps find it in the chronicles of the Chinese Empire.” 
 
 This remark, proffered with the reserve which distinguishes 
 superior minds, made an impression upon us. We were struck by 
 the connection which we there perceived between the Chinese 
 crisis under the dynasty of Song, and the formidable agitation 
 manifested soon afterwards in Tartary. Since then we have more 
 carefully studied the remarkable events which took place in high 
 Asia during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries of our era, and 
 the a priori idea of the Minister for Foreign Affairs has become 
 for us an historical fact.* 
 
 After the final defeat and annihilation of Wang-ngan-clie’s 
 
 * We hope that M. Drouyn de Lhuys will pardon our having borrowed his 
 idea to place it on these pages in such unworthy company. 
 
316 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 system, liis numerous partisans were forced to quit the country 
 which they had hoped to make their prey, and where their attempts 
 at disorganisation were remembered with detestation by all good 
 citizens. They passed the Great Wall in large troops, and 
 wandered into the deserts of Tartary. Here, leading a vagabond 
 life, they soon communicated their unquiet spirit and love of 
 change to the Mongol tribes, then remarkable for a fierce and 
 savage disposition. These ferocious Nomads, who had not yet 
 been humanised by Buddhism, were then so far from regarding 
 the slaughter of an animal or the crushing of an insect as a crime, 
 that rapine, plunder, and assassination were their pastimes. It 
 may readily be imagined what a monstrous combination was 
 produced by the union of these people with the refuse of Chinese 
 civilisation! The whole of Tartary was soon in a ferment; and 
 these vigorous nations, inoculated with the passion of revolution, 
 could no longer be restrained within their own boundaries ; they 
 sought for other countries to overturn, and inundate with blood, — 
 a world to ravage. Nothing was wanted but a man to organise 
 and command, and Tcliinggis Khan appeared. He gathered 
 together the wild and terrible hordes of those regions, and led 
 them in immense battalions even into Europe, crushing and over¬ 
 whelming all that came in his way. The result of these tremendous 
 invasion’s is well known. 
 
 CHAP. XIII. 
 
 Arrival at Han-tchouan—Custom of presenting a pair of Boots to a disgraced 
 Mandarin. — Placards and Advertisements. — Privileges and Liberty en¬ 
 joyed by the Chinese. — Association against Gamblers. — Society of the Old 
 find- — Liberty of the Press. — Public Lectures. — European Prejudice 
 concerning the Despotism of Asiatic Governments. — Carelessness of Magis¬ 
 trates. — Remembrance of the Sufferings of the venerable Perboyre._ 
 
 Navigation of a Lake. — Floating Islands. — Population of China. — Its 
 
 Causes and Dangers.—Cormorant Fishing_Some Details of Chinese 
 
 Manners. — Bad Reception at Han-yang. — We follow a wrong Course.— 
 Passage of the Yang-tse-kiang. — Arrival at Ou-tchang-fou. 
 
 The sarcasms and pleasantries of the young military Mandarin 
 of Ilou-pe were received with a bad grace by our escort, Master 
 Ting especially; but convinced at last, by many mishaps, that they 
 were indeed in a strange country, they took them more in good 
 part, which immediately had the effect of quieting the malice of 
 their witty companion. 
 
THE BOOTS OF HONOUR. 
 
 317 
 
 After several stages, in which there occurred nothing worthy of 
 mention, we arrived at Han-tchouan, a town of the second class. 
 The sun had just risen, a number of idlers were standing about 
 outside the ramparts, and near the principal gate the groups were 
 more numerous. We had the fatuity to imagine that they were 
 assembled to see us pass, but we were never more mistaken. 
 
 At the moment when we were about to enter the city, there 
 appeared, coming out, a brilliant procession, followed by an im¬ 
 mense crowd, and we were obliged to stop to let it pass. The 
 principal person of the procession was a military Mandarin of 
 advanced age, and who bore the insignia of the tou-sse, an import¬ 
 ant grade in the Chinese army. He rode a richly caparisoned 
 horse, and was surrounded by officers of inferior rank. Directly 
 the procession had passed the gate it stopped, close to where our 
 palanquins were placed, and the crowd pressed forward eagerly, 
 making the air resound with cheers. 
 
 Two noble old men, magnificently dressed, and carrying each a 
 satin boot, approached the tou-sse; they knelt down, respectfully 
 pulled off his boots, and replaced them with those they carried. 
 During this ceremony the people all prostrated themselves; two 
 young men then took the boots which had been drawn off, and hung 
 them on the arch of the town gate; and the procession moved on, 
 followed by a large crowd, uttering cries of grief and lamenta¬ 
 tions. Our palanquins were also set in motion, and we entered 
 Han-tchouan. 
 
 The streets were thronged with people, but so much preoccupied 
 were they by the ceremony which had just taken place, that they 
 hardly deigned to cast a glance on the two Devils of the West. 
 When we reached the Communal Palace, we hastened to inquire 
 of the guardian the meaning of what we had seen. We learned 
 that the military Mandarin had been stript of his appointment 
 in consequence of calumnious reports spi’ead against him at Pekin; 
 that he had been degraded a step in military rank, and sent to a 
 less important post. The people, nevertheless, who had had no 
 fault to find with his government of Han-tchouan, had resolved 
 to protest against this injustice by a solemn manifestation. Ac¬ 
 cording to custom the Boots of Honour were presented to him, as 
 a mark of sympathy, and those which he had worn were retained 
 to hang over the town gate as a precious souvenir of his good 
 administration. 
 
 This singular custom is of most ancient date and universal 
 practice; it is the means which the Chinese adopt to protest 
 against the injustice of Government and testify their gratitude 
 
318 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 to the Mandarin who has really shown himself “ The Father and 
 Mother of the People.” In almost every town of China, the 
 principal gate is ornamented with a large assortment of old boots, 
 dusty, and tumbling to pieces with rottenness and age. They are 
 the glory of the town — one of its most precious monuments, for 
 they point out how many good Mandarins the country has been 
 fortunate enough to possess. 
 
 The first time that we remarked this singular appendage to the 
 gate of a town, we taxed our powers of imagination in vain to 
 guess what they could possibly do there, since it was evidently 
 much too high to be a cobbler’s stall. A Christian who accom¬ 
 panied us gave us the real explanation, but we scarcely believed 
 it, nor was it till we had seen many town gates thus adorned that 
 Ave were convinced they had not been practising on our cre¬ 
 dulity. 
 
 The Chinese, submissive as they are to authority, always find 
 means of expressing their opinion, and of bestowing praise or 
 
 blame on their Mandarins. The offering of a pair of boots is 
 
 certainly a very original way of showing esteem and sympathy; 
 but they do not confine themselves to this. A very powerful 
 
 organ of public opinion is the placard, and this is everywhere 
 
 made use of with the dexterity of long practice. When it is 
 desired to criticise a Government, to call a Mandarin to order, and 
 show him that the people are discontented with him, the placards 
 are lively, satirical, cutting, and full of sharp and witty sallies; 
 the Roman pasquinade was not to be compared to them. They 
 are posted in all the streets, and especially on the doors of the 
 tribunal where the Mandarin lives who is to be held up to public 
 malediction. Crowds assemble round them, they are read aloud 
 in a declamatory tone, whilst a thousand comments, more pitiless 
 and severe than the text, are poured forth on all sides, amid shouts 
 of laughter. 
 
 Sometimes, instead of the vehicle of opposition, it becomes a sort 
 of national reward to those Mandarins who have made themselves 
 popular. Then satire is replaced by pompous eulogy, and the idol 
 of the people is likened to all the most famous holy personages of 
 antiquity. The Chinese, however, succeed much better in blame 
 than praise, and their placards are much happier in insult than in 
 eulogy. 
 
 The Chinese are not in the habit of bowing beneath the rod of 
 their master so unresistingly as is imagined. It may indeed be 
 said, and it is to their credit, that they are in general submissive to 
 authority ; but when it becomes too tyrannical, or merely fraudu- 
 
DISAPPROVAL OP THE NOMINATED PREFECT. 319 
 
 lent, they sometimes rise up with irresistible energy, and bend it to 
 their will. 
 
 While traversing one of the western provinces, we one day 
 reached a town of the third class, named Ping-fang, where we 
 found the whole population in commotion, and wearing a very 
 unaccustomed aspect. We learned that the cause was as follows:— 
 
 A Mandarin had been named governor of the town of whom the 
 inhabitants did not approve. It was known that in the district he 
 had just left, his administration had been arbitrary and tyrannical, 
 and that the people had suffered much from his injustice and ex¬ 
 tortion. 
 
 The news of his nomination to Ping-fang therefore excited 
 general indignation, which showed itself at first in the most violent 
 satirical placards. A deputation of the chief citizens set off for the 
 capital of the province, to present to the viceroy a humble petition 
 to have pity on the poor people of Ping-fang, and not to send them 
 a tiger, who would eat them up, instead of a father and mother to 
 take care of them. The petition was refused, and the Mandarin 
 oi’dered to set off to take possession of his post on the following 
 day. 
 
 The deputies returned, bringing this sad news to their fellow 
 citizens. The town was plunged into consternation, but did not 
 confine itself to idle lamentations. The principal people assembled, 
 and held a grand council, to which all the most influential citizens 
 were invited. It was decided that the new governor should not be 
 permitted to install himself, and that he should be civilly ejected 
 from the town. 
 
 The Mandarin arrived at the expected time, accompanied by a 
 numerous suite, and, contrary to expectation, he encountered not 
 the smallest sign of opposition on his wmy. Every one knelt at 
 his approach, and paid homage to his dignity. He was convinced, 
 therefore, that his fears of a bad reception were chimerical, and 
 that all would go well. 
 
 Scarcely had he entered the tribunal, however, before he had 
 had time even to drink a cup of tea, it was announced to him that 
 the chief citizens of the town requested an audience. He hastened 
 to grant it, under the impression that they came to offer their con¬ 
 gratulations on his safe arrival. The deputation prostrated them¬ 
 selves, according to the rites, before their new Prefect; then, one 
 of them stepping forward, announced to him, with exquisite polite¬ 
 ness and infinite grace, that they came in the name of the town, to 
 request that he would set off directly to return whence he came, for 
 they would have none of him. 
 
320 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The Prefect, thus rudely disenchanted, endeavoured first to 
 soothe, and then to intimidate, the rebellious citizens, but all in 
 vain ; he found himself, as the Chinese say, “only a paper tiger.'” 
 The spokesman very calmly told him that they had not come there 
 to discuss the matter; that the thing was settled, and they had 
 made up their minds that he should not sleep in the town. In 
 order to leave him in no doubt as to their real intentions, he added 
 that a palanquin waited before the door, and that the town would 
 pay his travelling expenses, besides providing a brilliant escort to 
 conduct him safely to the capital of the province. 
 
 It would have been impossible to turn any one out more politely. 
 The Prefect still endeavoured to raise objections; but a great 
 crowd had gathered round the house, uttering cries of a far from 
 flattering or reassuring nature, and he saw that it would be impru¬ 
 dent further to resist. He yielded, therefore, to his destiny, and 
 signified his willingness to comply with their demands. With 
 much respect and ceremony he was shown to the door, where a 
 handsome palanquin was in waiting, and requested to step in. 
 The cavalcade immediately set off, still accompanied by the chief 
 men of the town. 
 
 On reaching their destination, they went straight to the Vice¬ 
 roy’s palace. The chief representative of Ping-fang presented the 
 Prefect to the Viceroy, saying :— 
 
 “ The citizens of Ping-fang restore to you this magistrate, and 
 humbly supplicate you to send them another ; as for this one, they 
 will not have him at any price. Behold the humble petition of 
 your children.” Speaking thus, he handed to the Viceroy a long 
 roll of red paper, containing a petition signed with the names of 
 all the most important people of Ping-fang. 
 
 The Viceroy, with some appearance of dissatisfaction, took the 
 roll, read it attentively, and then told the deputies that their 
 arguments were advanced on reasonable grounds, and should be 
 attended to ; that they might return home quietly, and announce 
 to their fellow citizens that they should soon have a Prefect to suit 
 them. 
 
 When we reached Ping-fang the deputies had just returned, 
 bearing intelligence of the perfect success of their bold measure. 
 
 Such incidents are not unfrequent in the Chinese Empire. It 
 often happens that energetic and persevering popular demonstra¬ 
 tions oppose the evil administration of the Mandarins, and force 
 the Government to yield to public opinion. 
 
 It is a great mistake to fancy the Chinese hemmed in by 
 arbitrary laws, and quailing under a despotic power, which rules 
 
FREEDOM OF LOCOMOTION IN CHINA. 321 
 
 their actions and dictates all their proceedings. Though an abso¬ 
 lute monarchy, moderated, indeed, by the influence of the educated 
 classes, the people enjoy beneath it much more liberty than is 
 generally supposed, and possess many privileges which we might 
 vainly seek in some countries boasting a liberal constitution. 
 
 It has been written, and commonly believed, in Europe, that 
 the Chinese are forced to follow the trade of their fathers, that no 
 one can change his place of abode without the permission of the 
 Mandarins; in short, that they are subject to a host of restric¬ 
 tions, repulsive to the feelings of the European. We do not know 
 what has given rise to these prejudices, for it is very certain that 
 throughout the Empire each man follows the profession that suits 
 him best, or none at all, without the Government interfering in the 
 least. Every man is free to please himself, to become an artisan, 
 doctor, schoolmaster, agriculturist, or tradesman, without having 
 need of a licence or permission of any kind. 
 
 As regards travelling, nowhere can there exist greater freedom 
 and independence of motion ; each citizen may wander about among 
 the eighteen provinces, and settle whei*e he pleases, undisturbed 
 by any public functionary. No one interferes with the traveller, 
 who is sure never to encounter a gendarme demanding his passport. 
 If the Chinese Government should unhappily take into their heads 
 one fine day to adopt the ingenious invention of passports, poor 
 missionaries would find themselves in a very lamentable condition. 
 They would be unable to stir a step without false passports, which 
 they might, no doubt, easily obtain by bribery; but this would be 
 sorely against their consciences. 
 
 There is a law existing which enjoins the Chinese to remain 
 within the limits of the Empire, and not to go vagabondising among 
 foreigners, acquiring bad habits, and destroying the fruit of their 
 good education; but the numerous emigrations of Chinese to the 
 English, Dutch, and Spanish colonies, as well as to California, 
 prove that this regulation is not very strictly enforced. It is 
 written in the Statute Book, like many others equally disregarded. 
 
 The liberty to traverse the various parts of the country unob¬ 
 structed is almost indispensable to these people, continually as they 
 are engaged in commercial operations. Of course the least impedi¬ 
 ment to free motion would check the great system of commerce 
 which is the life and soul of this vast empire. 
 
 The freedom of association is as necessary to the Chinese as that 
 of locomotion, and they possess it as completely. With the excep¬ 
 tion of the secret societies aiming at the overthrow of the Mantchou 
 dynasty, and which are pursued with the utmost severity by 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Government, all societies are allowed, and the Chinese have a 
 remarkable aptitude for forming them. There are societies for all 
 trades and professions; robbers and beggars even have their 
 associations; nobody stands alone in his sphere. It sometimes 
 happens that the citizens unite to watch over the observance of the 
 laws in places where the authorities are too weak or too negligent 
 to maintain order. We have ourselves witnessed efforts of this kind 
 which were attended with very satisfactory results. 
 
 Gaming is prohibited in China, but it is nevertheless carried on 
 everywhere with an almost unequalled passion. One large village, 
 situated near to our mission, and not far from the Great Wall, was 
 celebrated for its professional gamblers. One day, the chief of a 
 considerable family, who himself was in the habit of playing, made 
 up his mind to reform the village. He therefore invited the prin¬ 
 cipal inhabitants to a banquet, and towards the end of the repast 
 he rose to address his guests, made some observations on the evil 
 consequences of gaming, and proposed to them to form an associa¬ 
 tion for the extirpation of this vice from their village. The 
 proposal was at first received with astonishment; but finally, after 
 a serious consultation, it was adopted. An act was drawn up and 
 signed by all the associates, in which they bound themselves not 
 only to abstain from playing, but to watch the other inhabitants, 
 and seize upon all gamblers taken in the fact, who should be 
 immediately carried before the tribunal to be punished according 
 to the rigour of the law. The existence of the society was made 
 known in the village, with the warning that it was resolved and 
 ready for action. 
 
 Some days afterwards, three most determined gamblers, who 
 had not taken the manifesto in earnest, were surprised with the 
 cards in their hands. They were bound and carried before the 
 tribunal of the nearest town, where they were severely beaten and 
 heavily fined. We stayed some time in this part of the country, 
 and can testify to the efficacy of this measure in correcting the 
 prevailing vice of the village. So striking, indeed, was the success 
 of the association, that many others were organised in the neigh¬ 
 bourhood with the same object. 
 
 Springing spontaneously to life, unaided by any government 
 influence, these societies sometimes present a truly formidable 
 aspect, and exercise their authority with an energy and audacity 
 which the proudest Mandarins might envy. 
 
 Not far from the place where the anti-gambling society had 
 flourished, there arose a much more redoubtable association. This 
 part of the country is inhabited by a population partially Chinese, 
 
THE EOBBEES* NEST. 
 
 323 
 
 partially Mongol, and is intersected by mountains, valleys, and 
 steppes. The villages scattered amongst them have not been con¬ 
 sidered of sufficient importance by Government to be confided to 
 the care of Mandarins. Deprived of the restraint of authority, 
 this wild region had become the resort of many bands of robbers 
 and miscreants, who exercised their trade with impunity throughout 
 the neighbourhood, both by day and night. They pillaged flocks 
 and crops, lay in wait for travellers in the defiles of the mountains, 
 pitilessly stripped them of all their property, and often put them 
 to death; sometimes they went so far as to attack a village and 
 lay it waste. We ourselves have often been obliged to traverse 
 this dreadful district "to visit our converts, but it was always 
 necessary to assemble in great numbers, and go well armed. Many 
 times had the Mandarins of the nearest town been petitioned for 
 assistance, but none of them had dared to engage in a conflict with 
 this army of banditti. 
 
 But that which the Mandarins dared not attempt, a simple villager 
 undertook and accomplished. “ Since the Mandarins either cannot 
 or will not come to our assistance,” said he, “ we must protect our¬ 
 selves ; let us form a houi The houis, or societies of the Chinese, 
 are always inaugurated with a feast. Regardless of expense, the 
 villagers killed an old bullock, and sent letters of invitation to the 
 villages all round. Everybody approved the idea, and the society 
 was entitled Lao-niou-houi, or “ Society of the Old Bull,” in re¬ 
 membrance of the inauguration feast. The regulations were brief 
 and simple. 
 
 The members were to enrol as many people as possible in their 
 ranks.. They bound themselves to be always ready to aid each 
 other in the capture of any robber, great or small. 
 
 Every robber or receiver of stolen goods was to have his head 
 cut off immediately upon arrest, all form of trial being dispensed 
 with, and the value of the object stolen not being taken into account. 
 As it was easy to foresee that these proceedings would entail dis¬ 
 putes with the tribunals, the whole society was responsible for 
 each member, and took upon itself collectively to answer for all 
 heads cut off. 
 
 This formidable society immediately commenced operations with 
 unexampled energy and unity of purpose; heads of robbers, both 
 great and small, fell with amazing and awful rapidity, and one 
 night the Associates assembled silently in great numbers to take a 
 tsey-ouo or Robbers' Nest. This was a notorious village lyirU at 
 the bottom of a mountain gorge ; the Society of the” Old Bull 
 surrounded it on all sides, set fire to the houses, and all the inhabi- 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 tants, men, women, and children, were burnt or massacred. Two 
 days after this frightful expedition, we ourselves beheld the yet 
 smoking ruins of the Robbers’ Nest. 
 
 It was not long before all the brigands of the country were ex¬ 
 terminated or intimidated, and property was respected to such a 
 point that the people would pass even a lost thing lying in the 
 road without venturing to touch it. 
 
 These rapid and sanguinary executions began to make a noise 
 in the neighbouring towns. The relations of the victims besieged 
 the tribunals with their complaints, and loudly demanded the death 
 of the assassins, as they called the Associates. Faithful to their 
 oath, the society presented themselves in a body to answer all ac¬ 
 cusations, and contest the actions brought against them. They 
 were by no means dismayed, having foreseen this probable termi¬ 
 nation to their efforts from the beginning. The trial was carried 
 to the Criminal Court of Pekin, which approved the proceedings 
 of the society, and banished a number of the functionaries whose 
 negligence had caused all the disturbance. It was thought desir¬ 
 able, nevertheless, to bring the society under the authority of the 
 Mandarins, and legalise its existence : the regulations were modi¬ 
 fied, and each member was required to wear a badge, delivered by 
 the Mandarin of the district. The name of Lao-niou-houi was 
 replaced by that of Tai-ping che or “Agency for the Public 
 Peace,” and this was the title which the society bore when we left 
 the country on our way to Thibet. 
 
 From what we have just narrated, it may be seen that the 
 Chinese make great use of their freedom of association, and are 
 not such slaves to their Mandarins as is believed in Europe. 
 Liberty of the press is another ancient institution of China, which 
 we Europeans fancy we have invented, though in France we do 
 not seem able to make it take root in the soil. Sometimes people 
 seem enthusiastic in defence of this liberty : it is a fever, a delirium; 
 and then, again, they no longer care for it, and seem, on the con¬ 
 trary, charmed at being deprived of the power of writing and 
 printing their thoughts. 
 
 The Chinese say that the barbarians of the Western seas are too 
 hot-blooded ; they cannot take things coolly, and do not in the 
 least understand the just medium that Confucius speaks of. 
 
 “ We Chinese,” they say, “ print whatever we like ; books, 
 pamphlets, circulars, and placards, without any interference from 
 Government. We may even print for ourselves at discretion, 
 provided we do not find it too troublesome, and have money 
 enough to get the types carved. We do not abuse this liberty; 
 
325 
 
 LIBERTY OF THE PRESS IN CHINA. 
 
 we print what may amuse or instruct the public, without prejudice 
 to the five cardinal virtues and the three social relations. We do 
 not meddle much in public affairs, because we are persuaded that 
 the Empire would not be well governed if 300,000,000 of indi¬ 
 viduals attempted each to make it go his own way. It does some¬ 
 times happen, indeed, that books are printed which might trouble 
 the public peace and throw disrespect on authority, and on such 
 occasions the Mandarins seek out the author of the crime and 
 punish him severely. But this is no reason to prevent others 
 from expressing their thoughts and composing books; the mis¬ 
 demeanor of a bad citizen should not entail the punishment of the 
 whole nation. It seems that this is not the way in the countries 
 beyond the Western seas; and it is not surprising, for we know 
 that different nations have different tastes and dispositions. It is 
 the disposition of the Western people to be excited to anger some¬ 
 times in one direction, sometimes in another; it is their taste to 
 think their governments good one day and bad the next: it is 
 evident that if such people were suffered to have as much liberty 
 as we enjoy, there would be no end to confusion and disturbance. 
 It may be good sometimes to change governments, but such alte¬ 
 rations should not be rapid or frequent. One of our wisest philo¬ 
 sophers has said, ‘ Unhappy the nation which is badly governed; 
 but yet more unhappy the nation which, having a tolerable govern¬ 
 ment, is not wise enough to keep it.’ ” 
 
 Although, when once plunged into rebellion, the Chinese yield 
 to every excess of hatred, anger, and revenge, it is yet true that 
 they do not ordinarily meddle in politics or public affairs. Were 
 it not so, a nation of 300,000,000 pei'sons could scarcely have a 
 moment’s repose, with such elements of discord and insurrection 
 amongst them as the freedom of association and the liberty of the 
 press. 
 
 The Chinese have another institution, which, though good and 
 praiseworthy in itself, might become a powerful agent for the 
 excitement and fomentation of popular passions in the hands of 
 turbulent spirits; we speak of the chouo-chou-ti, or Public Readers. 
 This is a numerous class of men, who travel about to all the towns 
 and villages, reading to the people interesting portions of their 
 history, accompanied always by their own comments and reflections. 
 These lecturers are commonly good speakers, with a copious flow 
 of words, and are often very eloquent. 
 
 The Chinese love to listen to them; they gather round them in 
 all sorts of public places, at the street corners, and in the entrances 
 of tribunals and pagodas,—and it is easy to perceive, merely at 
 
326 
 
 TIIE CHINESE EMPIEE. 
 
 the sight of their faces, how lively an interest they take in these 
 historic narratives. 
 
 Now and then the reader stops to rest, and he takes advantage 
 of these pauses to make a collection; for he has no other revenue 
 than the contributions of his auditors, and they are generally liberal 
 enough. It is thus that in China, the land of despotism and tyranny, 
 clubs are constantly held in the open air, though it is greatly to be 
 doubted whether certain nations who think themselves far advanced 
 in liberal ideas would not be much alarmed to see such a custom 
 introduced among them. 
 
 It is general in Europe to regard Asia as the classic ground of 
 despotism and slavery, yet nothing is more opposed to the truth. 
 We do not think the reader will find the following passage too long, 
 from the pen of M. Abel Remusat, whose authority is great in such 
 matters, because he regards the East with the just and impartial 
 eye of a man who can rise above common prejudices and rest his 
 opinion only on the truths of history. 
 
 “ Amid all the changes of Oriental governments, there is one 
 striking and unvarying feature, the absence of that odious tyranny 
 and debasing servitude which have been represented as casting 
 their dark shadow over the whole of Asia. I except the Mussulman 
 states, which claim a separate study. 
 
 “ Everywhei’e else the sovereign power, though surrounded by 
 imposing state, is subject to severe — I had almost said to the only 
 effectual — restrictions. Asiatic monarchs have been regarded as 
 despots, because they are addressed kneeling, and approached only 
 with the humblest prostrations; and those who have looked no 
 further judge from appearances. Yet, religion, customs, and 
 prejudices oppose invincible obstacles to the free exercise of their 
 will. 
 
 “ A king in India, according to the divine lawgiver Manou, is 
 like the sun; he dazzles all eyes, he is fire and air, sun and moon; 
 no human creature dare contemplate him. But this superior being 
 cannot lay a tax on a Brahmin, if he should be dying of want, nor 
 make a labourer into a merchant, nor infringe, in the slightest 
 degree, the injunctions of a code which is looked upon as revelation, 
 and which regulates civil interests as well as religious doctrines. 
 
 “ The Emperor of China is the Son of Heaven, and when a 
 subject approaches his throne he strikes the ground nine times with 
 his forehead; but he can only choose a sub-prefect out of the list 
 of candidates presented to him by the Mandarins; and if during 
 an eclipse he should neglect to fast and to acknowledge publicly 
 the faults of his ministry, a hundred thousand pamphlets, authorised 
 
EUROPEAN RULERS IN ASIA. 
 
 327 
 
 by the law, would recall him to his duty in the observance of 
 ancient customs. We should never think of erecting such boun¬ 
 daries to regal power; but in the East many such institutions set 
 limits to the caprices of tyranny; and a power thus restrained can 
 scarcely be called despotic. 
 
 “I have said institutions, and this modern and European word 
 may seem misapplied when speaking of a half-civilised nation, who 
 are ignorant alike of budgets, comptes rendus, and bills of indemnity. 
 It does not signify here an act issued all at once by a legislative 
 assembly to inform a nation that, after a certain day, they will 
 have'to adopt pew customs and follow new principles, allowing 
 alwmys a reasonable time for change of habits and opinions. In 
 this sense I confess that a great part of Asia has no institutions. 
 Those laws and principles which guide the actions of the strong, 
 and protect to a certain extent the rights of the weak, are merely 
 the results of national character; they are founded on the pre¬ 
 judices of the people, on their social disposition and intellectual 
 necessities. It is evident how deeply these are graven in their 
 hearts, since no one has thought it necessary to print them. 
 China is an exception in this case; she is in advance of other 
 Asiatic nations, and has a right to European esteem, for she has 
 long been in possession of a written constitution, and is in the 
 habit of altering it from time to time, and introducing modifi¬ 
 cations. It even descends to details neglected by us; for, besides 
 the functions of the supreme courts and the administrative hier¬ 
 archy which are there determined, there are in it particular 
 statutes to regulate the calendar, weights and measures, the 
 division of the provinces, and, moreover, music, which has always 
 been an object of importance in the government of the Empire. 
 
 “ If, then, by despot is meant an absolute master, disposing at 
 will of the property and life of his subjects, using and abusing a 
 boundless power, 1 can see none such in i\sia; everywhere ancient 
 manners and customs, and ideas received, even though erroneous, 
 offer to the regal power restrictions more embarrassing than 
 written regulations, and which a tyrant can only defy by exposing 
 himself to destruction. I see only a few places where nothing is 
 respected, where moderation is unknown, and might only is right; 
 and this is where the weakness or imprudence of the natives has 
 suffered the establishment of foreigners from distant lands,— men 
 whose sole object is to make a fortune as rapidly as possible, and 
 then to return and enjoy it in their native country. lliey have 
 no pity for men of another race, no sympathy with the aborigines, 
 whose language they cannot understand, in whose tastes, habits, 
 
 T 4 
 
328 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 and prejudices they do not share. Harmony, founded on reason 
 and justice, cannot exist between interests so diametrically opposed. 
 Force alone can maintain this state of things; absolute despotism 
 is necessary to support a handful of rulers eager to seize on every¬ 
 thing, amid a multitude who deny their right to anything. This is 
 the state of things in the European colonies of Asia. 
 
 “ They are a singular race, these Europeans, and their proceedings 
 would make a strange impression on an impartial judge, if such a 
 one could be found on the earth. Intoxicated by their own progress 
 in modern times, especially by their superiority in the art of war, 
 they look upon all other families of the human ra.ce with supreme 
 disdain, as though all were born to admire and serve them, and 
 that of them it was written: £ God shall enlarge Japhet, and he 
 shall dwell in the tents of Id hem, and Canaan shall be his servant .’ 
 All must think like them and work for them; they walk abroad 
 upon the earth exhibiting to the humbled nations their faces as the 
 type of beauty, their ideas as the standard of intelligence, their 
 arguments as the very basis of all reason; everything is to be 
 measured by their scale; and who contests the justice of this 
 arrangement? 
 
 “To each other, indeed, they still show some deference. In 
 their quarrels among their various countries they observe certain 
 principles, and murder one another according to fixed rules. But 
 it is only within the limits of Europe that this holds good, and it is 
 thought superfluous to observe the law of nations towards uncivilised 
 people. Though confident of the skill of their soldiers and the 
 excellence of their arms, the Europeans pursue a cautious policy. 
 Inglorious conquerors and ungenerous victors, they attack the 
 Orientals as if they had nothing to fear, and treat them when sub¬ 
 dued as formidable enemies. 
 
 “ Achieving by diplomacy what they have failed to do in battle, 
 they victimise the natives alike in peace and war; binding them to 
 pernicious alliances, imposing conditions on their trade, occupying 
 their ports, annexing their provinces, and treating as rebels the 
 tribes who cannot submit to such a yoke. It is true that they 
 moderate their proceedings towards those states which yet boast 
 some vigour, and they show a degree of consideration for Canton 
 and Nangasaki, which would be absurd in regard to Palembeng or 
 Colombo.* 
 
 “ By a perversion of ideas, more strange perhaps than the abuse 
 
 * This was written in 1829. M. Abel Remusat would probably have omitted 
 this sentence had he written in 1840, after the English war with China. 
 
SELFISH VIEWS IN CIVILISATION. 
 
 329 
 
 of power, our writers take part with our disappointed adventurers, 
 blame the Asiatics for precautions rendered prudent and natural 
 by our own conduct, and exclaim against their want of hospitality. 
 We are indignant at their being suspicious of such dangerous 
 neighbours, and when they decline the disinterested advances of 
 our merchants, cry out that they reject the benefits of civilisation. 
 Civilisation, as far as they are concerned, appears to mean, culti¬ 
 vating the ground industriously, that the Europeans may be 
 supplied with cotton, silk, and spice, paying taxes to them regularly, 
 and changing, without a murmur, their laws and customs, in spite 
 of tradition and climate. The Nogay Tartars have made great 
 progress of late years; they have abandoned the nomadic life of 
 their fathers, and the tax-gatherer knows where to find them when 
 tribute is due. The ancient subjects of Queen Obe'ira are much 
 improved since the days of Captain Cook, for they have embraced 
 Methodism, and attend divine service in black cloth coats, thus 
 furnishing a new market for the manufactures of Somerset and 
 Gloucester. Travellers have lately remarked with pleasure a 
 prince of the Sandwich Isles holding his court clad in a red coat 
 and waistcoat ; and it was only to be regretted that the heat of the 
 climate prevented his completing the costume. 
 
 “ But, however imperfect and awkward these imitations may be, 
 however grotesque and useless, they are to be encouraged for 
 their possible consequences. The time may come, when the 
 Hindoos will use our muslins instead of weaving their own, when 
 China, instead of exporting silk, shall import it, when the Esqui¬ 
 maux shall shiver in calico shirts, or the inhabitants of the Torrid 
 Zone melt under our felt hats and woollen garments. 
 
 “ Let these people give up their own manufactures in favour of 
 European trade; let them renounce their ideas, their language, and 
 literature, all in short that composes their national individuality, 
 and learn to think, feel, and speak like us, purchasing these useful 
 lessons at the price of their territory, and independence; let them 
 be complaisant to our academicians, devoted to the interests of 
 our merchants, tractable and submissive in all things, and they 
 may be allowed to have made some steps towards civilisation, and 
 permitted to take rank at a great distance behind the privi¬ 
 leged people, the race par excellence to whom it is given to possess, 
 to govern, to comprehend, and to instruct.” * 
 
 These remarks may be thought a little severe by general readers; 
 but whoever has traversed Asia and visited the European colonies, 
 
 Melanges Asiatiques. 
 
330 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 will be forced to confess that the conquered race is almost every¬ 
 where heated harshly and insolently, by men who pique themselves 
 on their civilisation, and sometimes on their Christianity. 
 
 \\ e have strayed very far from Han-tchouan and the happy 
 Mandarin to whom the town solemnly presented a pair of boots at 
 the moment of his departure. 1 he reader has doubtless forgotten 
 that it was a propos of this manifestation of popular feeling that 
 we were led to speak of the elements of liberty that exist in China, 
 and which sometimes exhibit themselves in such a curious guise. 
 
 The greatest panegyric pronounced by the people of Han- 
 tchouan on their favourite magistrate was, that he always adminis- 
 tered justice in person and in public. Among the Chinese magis¬ 
 tracy this is now a rare merit; for things are fallen into such decay 
 in that unhappy country, that the greater part of the Mandarins, 
 whether from idleness or from reluctance to display their inability, 
 never administer justice themselves. They sit in a private cabinet, 
 generally separated from the tribunal by a partition only. The 
 complainants discuss their affairs in presence of the scribes and 
 functionaries, who retire from time to time to report progress, 
 according to their own ideas, to the unworthy judge, as he lies on 
 a comfortable divan, much more busied with his pipe and cup of 
 tea than with the life or fortune of the hapless litigant. The judge 
 is not even troubled to pronounce sentence; it is brought to him 
 ready drawn up, and he has only to put his seal to it. This 
 method has become so prevalent that a magistrate who takes the 
 trouble to preside in person, and interrogate the disputants himself, 
 is regarded as an extraordinary man, worthy of public admiration. 
 
 A'V e were obliged to stop at Han-tchouan for two whole days, 
 during which the wind blew with incessant violence. Nobody 
 thought of embarking on the Blue River, for we had not forgotten 
 the disastrous wreck of the Secretary of Song-tche-hien, and our 
 repeated grounding on the bank. 
 
 Although little desirous of retaining the charge of our precious 
 and illustrious persons, the Mandarins of Han-tchouan preferred it 
 to incurring the responsibility of a wreck. Regretting, however, 
 to lose the advantage of this little storm, which refreshed the air 
 delightfully, we ourselves proposed to our guides to continue our 
 journey by land, hoping that the wind would not be strong enough 
 to tear our palanquins off the shoulders of the bearers. But Master 
 Ting objected, saying that the perils of wreck were much more 
 imminent in the land journey than the river transit. We could 
 not understand this until he further informed us that in leaving 
 Han-tchouan it would be impossible to avoid water-carriage, as the 
 
LAKE PING-HOU. 
 
 331 
 
 river lay on one side, and a great lake on the other, — one of the 
 two we must necessarily cross. The boats with which the lake was 
 navigated were so frail and ill-built that it was impossible they 
 could resist the force of the storm; we were therefore obliged to 
 resign ourselves to our fate, and wait patiently. 
 
 As soon as the wind abated, we resumed our journey by land. 
 Five years before, a French missionary had.followed the same 
 route, also escorted by Mandarins and their satellites, but under 
 very different circumstances. We were free, surrounded by 
 homage, and travelling in comfort; he, on the contrary, was 
 loaded with chains, and assailed with ceaseless insults by the pitiless 
 wretches who accompanied him; yet in the eyes of the true faith 
 was his progress a triumphal march, for he was going full of 
 strength and courage to engage in a sainted struggle. After 
 enduring long and frightful torments with unalterable constancy in 
 the capital of Hou-pe, he perished gloriously with the palm of 
 martyrdom in his grasp, and followed by the admiration of the 
 whole Catholic world. As we travelled along the route from Han- 
 tchouan, sanctified by the sufferings of the venerable Perboyre, 
 the details of that long martyrdom which we ourselves had had the 
 consolation of narrating to our friends in Europe, arose once more 
 in our minds, filling us with sweet emotion; our eyes were wet, 
 but the tears shed over the memory of a martyr are more those of 
 pleasure than of pain. 
 
 For two hours we followed narrow tortuous paths, now winding 
 among hills of red earth, where cotton and indigo grew in abundance, 
 now running through valleys between verdant plantations of rice. 
 Soon we caught sight of the lake Ping-hou, whose blue surface, 
 slightly ruffled by a light breeze, glittered in the sun as if covered 
 with innumerable diamonds. Three boats were lying ready for us 
 at the bank; our party was soon embarked; long sails made of 
 bamboo, and folded like fans, were quickly hoisted, and we pushed 
 off. The wind being insufficient, its place was supplied by numbers of 
 rowers; towards noon, however, the breeze strengthened, and 
 carried us rapidly over a magnificent lake. We encountered boats 
 of every size and shape, carrying passengers and merchandise, as 
 well as numerous fishing smacks, distinguished by the black nets 
 hung on the mast. The various vessels passing and repassing 
 with their yellow sails and striped flags, the vague indefinite murmur 
 floating around, the aquatic birds hovering over the lake and 
 diving suddenly after their prey, all this presented a most charming 
 and animated picture to the eye. 
 
 We passed several floating islands, those curicus productions of 
 
332 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 < Chinese ingenuity, which no other people seem ever to have 
 thought of. These floating islands are enormous rafts, generally 
 constructed of bamboos, which resist the decomposing influence oV 
 the water for a long time. Upon the raft is laid a tolerably thick 
 bed of vegetable soil; and, thanks to the patient labours of a few 
 families of aquatic agriculturists, the astonished traveller beholds 
 a whole colony lying on the surface of the water,—pretty houses 
 with their gardens, as well as fields and plantations of every sort. 
 The inhabitants of these floating farms appear to enjoy peace and 
 abundance. During the leisure time which is not occupied by the 
 culture of their rice-fields they employ themselves in fishing, 
 which is at the same time a pastime and a source of profit; and 
 often, after gathering a crop of grain from the surface of the lake, 
 they cast their nets and bring up a harvest of fish from its depths; 
 lor these waters team with creatures fit for the use of man. Many 
 birds, particularly swallows and pigeons, build their nests in these 
 floating isles, and enliven the peaceful and poetic solitude. 
 
 Towards the middle of the lake we encountered one of these 
 islands on its way to take up a fresh position. It moved very 
 slowly, though there was a good deal of wind, and large sails were 
 attached to the houses as well as to each corner of the island : the 
 inhabitants, men, women, and children, lent their strength to aid 
 its progress, by working at large oars ; but their efforts did not 
 seem materially to increase the speed at which they moved. How¬ 
 ever, these peculiar mariners do not probably trouble themselves 
 much about delay, as they are sure of sleeping on land, at what¬ 
 ever pace they may go. Their migrations are often without any 
 apparent motive. Like the Mongols in their vast prairies, they 
 wander at will; but, more fortunate than these latter, they have 
 constructed for themselves a little solitude in the midst of civili¬ 
 sation, and unite the charms of a nomadic life to the advantages of 
 a sedentary abode. 
 
 I hese floating islands are to be found on all the great lakes of 
 China, and at first sight present an enchanting picture of happiness 
 and plenty, whilst it is impossible not to admire the ingenious 
 industry of these Chinese, so singular in all their proceedings. But 
 when you consider the cause of their construction, the labour and 
 patience necessary for their creation, by people unable to find a 
 corner of the solid earth on which to establish themselves, the 
 smiling picture assumes a darker tint, and the mind endeavours 
 vainly to penetrate the future of a race so numerous that the land 
 will no longer hold it, and which has sought a resting-place on the 
 surface of the waters. 
 
THE VAST INCREASE OF POPULATION. 
 
 333 
 
 The traveller in the Celestial Empire, reflecting on its countless 
 myriads of inhabitants, whose numbers increase year by year with 
 \ frightful rapidity, is almost tempted to wish that China should 
 experience one of those exterminating scourges by which Provi¬ 
 dence arrests from time to time the rapid increase of too fertile 
 races. 
 
 The population of China has been a subject of much debate 
 among European authors, who had no means of coming to exact 
 conclusions. The Chinese statistics are, nevertheless, kept with 
 care; and in each province the heads of families are required to 
 inscribe their numbers in registers kept for the purpose, and the 
 total numbers are collected and published. 
 
 The method of registration has varied much even in modern 
 times; numerous classes of non-ratepaying individuals have been 
 omitted from the census, and hence results the difference in the 
 calculation of the Chinese population presented to us at different 
 times. 
 
 The three following accounts appear to be equally authentic, 
 though the larger number surpasses the smallest by 183,000,000: — 
 
 In 1743, according to Father Arniot . . . 150,265,475 
 
 In 1761, „ „ Father Hallerstein . . 198,214,552 
 
 In 1794, „ „ Lord Macartney . . 333,000,000 
 
 The most recent census taken under the Mantchou dynasty 
 raises the total number to 361,000,000. We have not the infor¬ 
 mation necessary to examine this calculation and decide with 
 certainty, but we do not doubt the correctness of the estimate in 
 spite of the enormous number registered. 
 
 It is easy to form perfectly opposite ideas of the population of 
 China, according to the route by which you traverse it. If, for 
 example, in the central provinces you travel along the roads, you 
 would be led to believe the country much less populous than it 
 really is. The villages are few and far between, the waste lands 
 so considerable that you might at times fancy yourself in the 
 deserts of Tartary. But traverse the same province by the canals 
 or rivers, and the aspect of the country is entirely changed. Often 
 vou pass huge cities, containing not less than two or three millions 
 of inhabitants, whilst smaller towns and great villages follow each 
 other in almost uninterrupted succession. It is difficult to conceive 
 where these numberless multitudes, whose mere habitations seem 
 to cover the whole surface of the land, can find means of subsist¬ 
 ence, and the estimate of three hundred and sixty-one millions 
 would seem rather under than over the truth. 
 
334 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 A celebrated Chinese moralist, Te-siou, refers to “ tien” or 
 heaven, the alternate increase and diminution of the population of 
 the Empire. 
 
 “ The events,” he says, “which cause the increase and diminution 
 of mankind are so various and so closely connected, so slow and 
 so efficacious, that policy and foresight are powerless to oppose 
 them. A man must be very ignorant of our history to see only a 
 chain of natural causes in the hidden manoeuvres of heaven with 
 the generations of mankind, increasing or reducing them according 
 to its views for the whole Empire. A man must be very little of 
 a philosopher not to see that war, pest, famine, and great revolu¬ 
 tions confound every system, from the impossibility of foreseeing 
 their causes, arresting their ravages, or calculating their ultimate 
 effects on the population. The experience of past dynasties is lost 
 to the present generation ; the very measures successful in one 
 century may become destructive in the next.” 
 
 Though we respect the caution of the Chinese moralist, it seems 
 to us, nevertheless, that several secondary causes might be assigned 
 for the prodigious population of China; such as the general eager¬ 
 ness of parents to marry their children, the shame attached to 
 dying without descendants, the frequent adoptions which per¬ 
 petuate families, the retention of property in the direct line from 
 the incapacity of girls to inherit, the immutability of taxes, which, 
 always imposed on the land only, fall indirectly on the merchant 
 and artisan, the marriage of soldiers and sailors, the wise policy of 
 conferring nobility only on employments, which, by distinguishing 
 men and not families, prevents their rank becoming hereditary, and 
 destroys the vain prejudice o£ mesalliances, the frugal way of life 
 of all classes, — all these causes, perhaps, favour the rapid increase 
 of the Chinese population, but it is doubtless referable above all to 
 the profound peace which the Empire has enjoyed for the last two 
 hundred years. 
 
 At the present moment this peace exists no longer; an insurrec¬ 
 tion, which broke out three years ago, threatens a general move¬ 
 ment throughout the country, and the fall of the Tartar dynasty. 
 If this revolution should resemble those which have preceded it, 
 the details of which in the History of China it is impossible to 
 read without shuddering, if civil war with its horrible train of 
 massacres and incendiarism should continue much longer, the 
 population will be frightfully reduced, and the Chinese who survive 
 the carnage will be able to find abodes, without as now having 
 recourse to floating islands on the surface of the lakes. 
 
 Just as our pleasant journey on the Ping-hou was approaching; 
 
FISHING CORMORANTS. 
 
 335 
 
 its termination, we encountered a long file of fishing boats which 
 were rowing back to their ports. Instead of nets they carried a 
 great number of cormorants, perched on the edges of the boats. 
 
 It is a curious spectacle to see these creatures engaged in fishing, 
 diving into the water, and always coming up with a fish in their 
 beak. As the Chinese fear the vigorous appetite of their feathered 
 associates, they fasten round their necks an iron ring, large enough 
 to allow of their breathing, but too small to admit the passage of 
 the fish they seize: to prevent their straying about in the water 
 and wasting the time destined for work, a cord is attached to the 
 ring and to one claw of the cormorant, by which he is pulled up 
 when inclined to stay too long under water. When tired, he is 
 permitted to rest for a few minutes, but if he abuses this indulgence 
 and forgets his business, a few strokes of a bamboo recall him to 
 duty, and the poor diver patiently resumes his laborious occupation. 
 In passing from one fishing ground to another, the cormorants 
 perch side by side on the edge of the boat, and their instinct teaches 
 them to range themselves of their own accord in nearly equal 
 numbers on each side, so as not to disturb the equilibrium of the 
 frail vessel; we saw them thus ranged throughout the little fleet 
 of fishing smacks on Lake Ping-hou. 
 
 The cormorant is larger than the domestic duck ; it has a short 
 neck and long beak, slightly hooked at the end. Never very 
 elegant in appearance, it is perfectly hideous after it has passed 
 the day in fishing. Its wet and tumbled plumage stands on end 
 all over its meagre body, and it hunches itself up till nothing is to 
 be seen but a frightful shapeless lump. 
 
 Having passed Lake Ping-hou, we re-entered our palanquins and 
 arrived towards night at Han-yang, a large town on the banks of 
 the Blue River. The shop-keepers were already lighting their 
 lanterns, and numerous groups of artisans, who had finished their 
 daily labour, were on their way to the theatre, singing and frolicking 
 as they went, while at the street corners spectators were gathered 
 round jugglers and public readers. Everything wore the lively 
 animated air of a densely populated city, when, after (he fatigues 
 of a day of toil, all feel the necessity of a little rest and amusement. 
 
 The public promenade is a thing unknown to the Chinese, who 
 cannot perceive either its charms or its wholesomeness. Those 
 who have some notion of European manners think it very singular, 
 if not utterly absurd, that we should find pleasure in walking for 
 its own sake. When they hear that we consider it a refreshment 
 and amusement, they regard us as very eccentric, or entirely devoid 
 of common sense. 
 
336 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The Chinese of the interior whom business takes to Canton or 
 Macao, always go the first thing to look at the Europeans on the 
 promenade. It is one of the most amusing of sights for them. 
 They squat in rows along the sides of the quays, smoking their 
 pipes and fanning themselves, contemplating the while, with a 
 satirical and contemptuous eye, the English and Americans who 
 promenade up and down from one end to the other, keeping time 
 with admirable precision. Europeans who go to China are apt to 
 consider the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire very odd and 
 supremely ridiculous, and the provincial Chinese at Canton and 
 Macao pay back this sentiment with interest. It is'wery amusing 
 to hear their sarcastic remarks on the appearance of the devils ol 
 the West, their utter astonishment at sight of their tight-fitting 
 garments, their wonderful trousers, and prodigious round hats, like 
 chimney-pots, — the shirt-collars adapted to cut off the ears, and 
 making a frame around such grotesque faces, with long noses and 
 blue eyes, no beard or moustache, but a handful of curly hair on 
 each cheek. The shape of the dress-coat puzzles them above 
 everything. They try in vain to account for it, calling it a half¬ 
 garment, because it is impossible to make it meet over the breast, 
 and because there is nothing in front to correspond to the tails 
 behind. They admire the judgment and exquisite taste of putting 
 buttons as big as sapecks behind the back where they never have 
 anything to button. How much handsomer they think themselves 
 with their narrow, oblique, black eyes, high cheek bones, and little 
 round noses, their shaven crowns and magnificent pig-tails hanging 
 almost to their heels. Add to all these natural graces a conical 
 hat, covered with red fringe, an ample tunic with large sleeves, and 
 black satin boots, with a white sole of immense thickness, and it 
 must be evident to all that a European cannot compare in appear¬ 
 ance with a Chinese. 
 
 But it is in their way of life that they hold themselves most par¬ 
 ticularly superior to us. When they see Europeans spend hours in 
 walking for the mere sake of the exercise, they ask if it is not more 
 conformable to civilised ideas to sit down quietly to smoke and drink 
 tea when you have nothing else to do, or, still better, to go to bed 
 at once. The idea of meeting to spend the greater part of the night 
 in amusements and gaiety has not yet presented itself to them. 
 They are like our worthy ancestors before they hit upon the plan 
 of prolonging the day till midnight and the night till noon. All 
 the Chinese, even of the highest class, go to bed in time to get up 
 at sunrise, New Year’s Day and certain family festivals excepted. 
 On these occasions they do not allow themselves a moment’s repose. 
 
EARLY HOURS OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 337 
 
 In general, they follow the course of the heavenly bodies in their 
 arrangement of day and night. At those hours which, in the great 
 cities of Europe, are the most noisy and tumultuous, the cities of 
 China enjoy the most profound tranquillity. Every one has retired 
 into his family ; all the shops are closed ; the boatmen, the mounte¬ 
 banks, the public readers, have finished their sittings, and nothing 
 like business is to be seen, except, perhaps, in a few theatres which 
 depend mostly on the favour of the working classes, who have only 
 the night at their disposal, in which to enjoy the favourite amuse¬ 
 ment of seeing a play. 
 
 We took more than an hour to traverse the long streets of Han- 
 yang. At last they deposited us at the extremity of a suburb, in 
 a sort of house which we know not how to describe. It was not a 
 Communal Palace, nor a tribunal, nor an inn, nor a prison, nor a 
 pagoda. It was, we were told, an establishment destined for a 
 variety of uses, which the authorities of the place had prepared 
 for our reception. We were received very coldly by an old Chi¬ 
 nese, a little retired Mandarin, who introduced us into a spacious 
 saloon, the only furniture of which consisted in a few dislocated 
 arm-chairs, and its whole illumination in a large red candle mads of 
 some vegetable fat, which gave out, together with much smoke, a 
 dull and lugubrious light. 
 
 The old Chinese filled his pipe, lighted it at the candle, sat him¬ 
 self down at the end of a bench, and began to smoke, without even 
 looking at us. As the behaviour of this individual was little to 
 our taste, we took no notice of him, but began to promenade the 
 room at the risk of being considered barbarians. An entire day 
 passed in a boat or in a palanquin gave us, we thought, the right to 
 stretch our legs a little. 
 
 While we promenaded, and while the retired old Mandarin 
 silently smoked his pipe, our conductors had disappeared. We 
 remained for a long time thus,- and found the position rather 
 unpleasant, since no Mandarin of Han-yang, either great or small, 
 had honoured us with his presence, and no one had even had the 
 politeness to order us a cup of tea, though, as it was very late, 
 some refreshments would have been by no means superfluous. 
 Our Chinese always maintained the same attitude, without trou¬ 
 bling himself about us in the smallest degree, and we on our side 
 affected not to pay any attention to him. At length Master Ting 
 appeared, and we asked him what all this meant, and what was to 
 come of it, but saw by his surprise that he understood the situa¬ 
 tion no better than we did ourselves. However, it must end some' 
 how. He then began to question the old Chinese, who was filling 1 
 
 z 
 
338 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 his pipe for about the tenth time, and he replied, without disturbing 
 himself, and scarcely looking at us, that no one had given him any 
 orders about us, that he did not know who we were, where we 
 came from, or where we were going to; that he was himself very 
 much surprised at seeing so many people suddenly invade the 
 establishment of which he was the guardian at so late an hour. 
 After he had thus expressed his thoughts very phlegmatically, he 
 replaced his pipe in his mouth, and began to smoke again. It was 
 evidently impossible to enter into negotiation with a person of this 
 stamp, so we determined upon paying a visit to the Prefect. 
 
 Our reception was polite enough, but extremely cold. The 
 Prefect said he thought we should have gone that same evening to 
 the capital of the province, on the opposite bank of the river, and 
 consequently he had not made any preparation to receive us. 
 “ Since you are not going to Ou-tchang-fou to-night,” he added, 
 «I will go and give orders to have you taken care of in the House 
 of Guests, whither they have conducted you.” This meant that 
 the Prefect had played us a trick a la Chinoise, to spare himself 
 the expense and trouble of giving us an official reception. He 
 knew very well, better than we did, that it was not possible for us 
 to go in one day from Han-tchouan to Ou-tchang fou, and that 
 we must necessarily pass the night at Han-yang. We thought it 
 was not worth while to be angry about this, and we returned 
 quietly to the above-mentioned House of Guests, with the prospect 
 of finding our imperturbable Chinese still in the same place smoking 
 his pipe. 
 
 We had, however, committed a great fault in taking leave of the 
 Prefect so politely, and without speaking a little sharply to him; 
 for, imagining that we were very easily satisfied, he did not fail 
 to take advantage of it. We returned to our Chinese, whom, sure 
 enough, we found still seated on his bench, and the red candle, 
 though burnt down to a small end, was still alight, its great wick 
 surrounded by a little flame and a great deal of thick smoke. One 
 of the Prefect’s servants soon presented himself, bearing a basket 
 divided into several compartments, which contained a slender sup¬ 
 per. On seeing him, the guardian of the House of Guests rose, 
 and went into a neighbouring apartment to fetch a table, which he 
 placed against the wall, and upon it the aforesaid red candle, snuff¬ 
 ing it very dexterously by giving a fillip to the wick. Master 
 Ting, who was hungry, had already taken his place on one side of 
 the table, but his visage lengthened piteously when he §aw the 
 nature of the banquet sent us by the Prefect. A great bowl of 
 rice boiled in water, placed between two little plates, one contain- 
 
OUR MISPLACED DIGNITY. 339 
 
 ing some morsels of salt fish, and the other some slices of bacon ; 
 this was the supper. 
 
 The Prefect of Han-yang seemed inclined to abuse the privilege 
 he thought he possessed of treating us according to his will and 
 pleasure. Master Ting was foaming with rage, and threatened to 
 eat up the poor servant who had brought the basket. We had to 
 exert all our influence to restrain him, and make him understand 
 that it was not fair to impute to this poor man the offence of the 
 bacon and salt fish ; but our vanity was so mortified at the pro¬ 
 ceeding, that we completely departed from the line of conduct we 
 had marked out for ourselves in our relations with the Mandarins, 
 and yielding to a puerile emotion of pride, we told the servant to 
 carry back the viands to his master, and thank him for his obliging 
 generosity, and at the same time we begged Master Ting to go and 
 order us a proper supper at the nearest tavern, since we meant to 
 live at our own expense at Han-yang. 
 
 The Prefect’s major-domo carried away the bowl of rice and the 
 accessories, and soon afterwards we were doing the honours of a 
 magnificent supper that we gave to the Mandarins of our escort, 
 at the expense of two ounces of silver. It appeared to us at the 
 time that we were acting with incomparable dignity, and that we 
 had got most majestically out of the scrape. But our self-conceit 
 blinded us, and hindered us from seeing that, after all, we had done 
 a very stupid thing. We understood this the next day, after a 
 night’s rest had enabled us to take a more tranquil view of our 
 position. We had forgotten that we were in China, and that 
 Mandarins were by no means the men who could have any feeling 
 of honour piqued. What we ought to have done would have been 
 to have ordered an entertainment of the first class, and have made 
 the Prefect pay for it, and after that to have remained one or two 
 days at Han-yang. This strange system was so well adapted to 
 the Chinese character, that it had succeeded perfectly all along the 
 road. But we had been foolish enough, in a moment of anger, to 
 abandon it, and we had to suffer for our folly; for after that w r e had 
 incredible trouble to recover our former position. 
 
 We quitted Han-yang with a lively feeling of satisfaction, without 
 even regretting that ancient guardian of the House of Guests, 
 who dismissed us with the same grace and amiability that he had 
 exhibited in our reception. 
 
 The journey we were to make that day, though not long, was not, 
 it was said, altogether without dangre. We had only to cross the 
 Blue River; and when we went to the shore we could see the 
 vague and imperfectly defined outline of an immense town, almost 
 
340 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 entirely enveloped in fog; this was Ou-tchang-fou, the capital of 
 the province of Hou-pe, only separated from Han-yang by the 
 river, which in this place resembles a great arm of the sea. Multi¬ 
 tudes of enormous junks were moving rapidly down or slowly up 
 this “ River Child of the Sea,” as the Chinese call it. d he wind 
 was blowing from the south, which was favourable enough for us, 
 as we only wanted a side wind; but it was extremely violent, and 
 as the passage-boats we found stationed at the shore appeared much 
 too slight for stormy weather in these impetuous waters, we hesitated 
 a little before embarking in them. The example, however, of many 
 other travellers, who made no difficulty, having reassured us, we 
 entered a boat, which soon carried us away with almost terrific 
 rapidity. When we were near the middle of the river, we met with 
 a squall that sent our boat so much on her side, that her sails for 
 a moment touched the water. At length, after a passage ot three 
 quarters of an hour, we arrived without accident in the port of 
 Ou-tchang-fou, where we were detained more than two hours 
 opening a passage for ourselves through the prodigious mass of 
 junks in the anchorage. After that, we had a real journey to go 
 through the streets of this vast city; and it was afternoon by the 
 time we were installed in our lodgings, not far from the Governor’s 
 Palace. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 Bad Lodging in a little Pagoda. — Ou-tchang-fou, Capital of Hou-pe.— 
 Limits of the Chinese Empire. — Mountains. — Rivers. — Lakes. — Climate. 
 — Principal Productions. — Chinese Industry. — Causes of its Decline.— 
 Former Exhibitions of the Productions of Arts. — Relations of the Chinese 
 with Foreigners. — Present State of their Commerce with Europeans.— 
 Internal Trade of China. —Interest of Money. — System of Chinese Econo¬ 
 mists upon Interest of Thirty per Cent.—Pecuniary Societies. — Immense 
 Commercial Mart in the Centre of the Empire. — System of Canals.— 
 Aptitude of the Chinese for Commerce. — Monetary System. — Influence of 
 the Sapeck. — Infinitesimal Trade. 
 
 The place where we had been located since our arrival at Ou- 
 tchang-fou was a little pagoda quite lately built, and of which the 
 Bonzes had not yet taken possession. It was clean, but far from 
 commodious. We had at our disposal but one narrow chamber, 
 to which air and light only penetrated by a single skylight; it was 
 opposite a high wall, and the heat in it was suffocating. All the 
 Mandarins we saw promised to attend immediately to our request 
 to be removed ; but probably no one of them thought any more 
 
CAUSES OF OUR ILL-TREATMENT. 
 
 341 
 
 about it, for we were still left pitilessly in this hothouse. We were 
 suffering now the consequences of the diplomatic blunders we had 
 made at Han-yang. 
 
 The little Mandarin of that town, who had been charged to take 
 us across the Blue River to Ou-tchang-fou, had doubtless not failed 
 to compromise us by saying that we were very good sort of people, 
 and easy to cheat. In vain did Master Ting protest the contrary — 
 no one believed him. They knew that when the supper sent to us 
 by the Prefect of Han-yang did not please us, we had very quietly, 
 and without making any complaint, ordered another at our own 
 expense from the restaurateur. Thus there was no necessity for 
 them to give themselves any trouble; we should always be quite 
 content, if only they did not kill us. 
 
 Such were the consequences of a moment of weakness. W e 
 understood now how completely in the right we had been hitherto, 
 in being obstinate and refractory with the Mandarins, who are 
 always disposed to become the tyrants and persecutors of those 
 who do not. know how to make them tremble. 
 
 There was also, we found, another cause for the ill-will mani¬ 
 fested towards us by the authorities of Ou-tchang-fou. Some 
 months before our arrival in this town, a Spanish missionary had 
 been discovered and arrested in the province. He had been 
 brought to the capital, where he had had to undergo several 
 judicial examinations, and after being harassed in various ways 
 and detained long in the public prisons, he was taken to Macao 
 (with a chain round his neck), conformably to the treaties con¬ 
 cluded between the various European powers, at the conclusion of 
 the war with the English. This good Spanish priest, whose 
 patience and resignation greatly exceeded ours, had allowed the 
 inhabitants of Ou-tchang-fou to assume a tone and deportment of 
 which we now became the victims. If we complained, they replied 
 that we ought to consider ourselves very fortunate that w r e were 
 neither imprisoned nor put in irons. We ought to be full of 
 gratitude for not having our throats cut. We considered, how¬ 
 ever, that it u'as our duty, not only for our own sakes, but for 
 those of the missionaries who should come after us, to endeavour 
 to combat these views. We formed our plan, therefore, and only 
 waited a favourable moment for putting it in execution. 
 
 As our hot narrpw cell was an extremely disagreeable place to stop 
 in, we determined to take some walks in the town, in company with 
 our dear Master Ting, who w r as longing exceedingly to see again 
 his beloved province of Sse-tchouen, and to have nothing more to 
 do with the barbarians of Hou-pe; but in order to be able to move 
 
 z 3 
 
342 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIKE. 
 
 more freely through the streets, without exciting public attention, 
 it was indispensable to lay aside provisionally our yellow' caps and 
 red girdles. 
 
 Ou-tchang-fou was already well know'n to us, for in the first year 
 of our abode in China we had had occasion to visit this great town, 
 one of the chief commercial places in the Empire, and communi¬ 
 cating with all the other provinces by the Blue River. We have 
 seen that Han-yang is opposite to Ou-tchang-fou; another im¬ 
 mense town, called Han-keou, that is, “Mouth of Commerce,” is 
 still nearer to it, being situated at the confluence of a river that 
 throws itself into the Yang-tse-kiang, almost under the walls of 
 the capital. These three towns, standing in a triangle, in sight of 
 one another, and only separated by the river, form a kind of heart, 
 from which the prodigious commercial activity of China circulates 
 to all parts of the Empire. 
 
 They are calculated to contain together nearly eight millions of 
 inhabitants, and they are so closely connected by the perpetual 
 going and coming of a multitude of vessels, that they may almost 
 be said to form one. 
 
 This is the spot that must be visited by those w’ho w'ould wish 
 to have an idea of the internal trade of China. But, before enter- 
 ing upon some details connected with the subject, which we hope 
 may not be found without interest, it seems desirable to cast a 
 glance at the geography and statistics of this vast and powerful 
 Asiatic Empire, the richest, the most ancient, and the most popu¬ 
 lous existing on the face of the earth, or of which history has 
 preserved any recollection. 
 
 China, properly so called, without counting its vast and numerous 
 tributary kingdoms, is a great continental country, situated in the 
 eastern and central parts of Asia. It is bounded to the south and 
 east by the Pacific Ocean, to the north by the Yn chain of moun¬ 
 tains and the great desert of Gobi, called in Chinese the “ Sea of 
 Sand, to the west by the mountains of Thibet, and to the south¬ 
 west by the less elevated ranges that extend along the limits of the 
 Burmese Empire and Tonquin. 
 
 Under the reign of Kien-long , second Emperor of the Mantchoo 
 dynasty, three provinces were taken from the country formerly 
 known under the names of Leao-tong, and Mantchuria, and were 
 added to China. According to this arrangement, the present 
 frontiers of the Empire follow' the northern shore of the Gulf of 
 Leao-tong, proceeding from Chcm-hai-kouan, one of the gates of 
 the Great Wall, to the mouth of the Ya-lou: from this point the 
 frontier line leaves the coast of the gulf, and extends from west to 
 
GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA. 
 
 343 
 
 east across the peninsula of Corea, as far as the sea of Japan, 
 following the shore of that sea in a north-easterly direction; it then 
 proceeds northward to the point that marks the commencement of 
 the Russian frontier, a little way to the north of the mouth of the 
 Amour, or Black River. Thence the line which separates the two 
 empires follows generally the chain of mountains of Hing-ngan, 
 then proceeds south-westward as far as the Black River, which it 
 crosses at its confluence with the Argoun, and stops at the lakes ot 
 Koulun and Bouir. At this place the Chinese frontier line quits 
 the Russian, leaving between the two the country of the Khalkas 
 and Mongolia; then stretches to the south-east as far as the San- 
 gari, which it crosses at Bedoune, and goes on again till it joins 
 the wooden palisade ofLeao-tong; following this barrier from 
 north-east to south-west, to its junction with the Great Wall, at a 
 short distance to the west of Chan-hai-kouan. 
 
 The Chinese frontier then follows the Great Wall, proceeding, 
 with various sinuosities westward to the Tellow River, and separa¬ 
 ting the country of the Mongols from the two provinces of Petche- 
 li and Chan-si. After crossing the Yellow River, towards the 
 middle of the branch which proceeds to the south, it runs first south¬ 
 west and then north-west, between the country of the Ortoos on 
 the north, and the province of Chen-si on the south; then joins 
 the Yellow River a second time, towards the middle of that part of 
 it which tends northward, crosses it, again taking a southerly 
 course, after having embraced the territory of Ning-hia; and then 
 coasts first the left and then the right bank as far as latitude 37°: 
 from this point it leaves the river, turning to the north-west, until 
 it has reached latitude 40°, in the department of Sou-tcheou, and 
 continues to follow the same direction as far as 44°. That is the 
 extremity of China on the north-west. The frontier then returns 
 to the south-east, leaving the sandy deserts and the country of the 
 Kou-kou-noor , and having reached Si-ning , it descends to the 
 south, coasting successively the provinces of Kan-sou and Sse- 
 tchouen. Its direction becomes a little westerly in the countries 
 where the great rivers that flow from the high mountains of Ihibet 
 pour their waters into the immense stream, called by the Chinese, 
 par excellence , Kiang, or The River. After this it turns again 
 towards the east, proceeds, with various sinuosities, between the 
 country of the Birmans and Cochin China on one side, and the 
 provinces of Yan-nan and Kouan-si on the other, to the - point 
 whence we set out. 
 
 According to the frontier line we have just traced, it will be seen 
 that China presents the form of a circle, or rather of an equilateral 
 
 Z 4 
 
344 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 parallelogram from which the angles have been cut off. It advances 
 on the south to three degrees beyond the tropic of Cancer, and ex¬ 
 tends northward to latitude 41°, presenting, towards the north-east 
 and north-west, two prolongations, of which one reaches beyond 
 the 40th, and the other to the 56th parallel of north latitude. With¬ 
 out taking, for the present, these two prolongations into account, it 
 will be seen that China is comprised between 20° and 42° of lati¬ 
 tude, and 9/ and 123° of longitude E. from Greenwich. Its entire 
 area contains an extent of 1575 miles from north to south, and 
 1800 Irom east to west, or 2,835,000 square miles,— more than 
 eight times the surface of France. 
 
 China forms a considerable portion of the immense slope from 
 the mountains of Thibet to the shores of the Eastern Ocean. The 
 mountains on its western side are dependencies of the great moun¬ 
 tain mass of Central Asia, which is continued eastward by two 
 principal ranges; of which one bears the Chinese name of thsin- 
 ling, or Blue Mountains, and stretches to the south-east, between 
 the parallels ol 31° and 34°, and the other, known under the name 
 of Ncm-ling , Mountains of the South, east-south-east, between the 
 parallels of 24 and 2i'°. The mountains of Thsin-ling and Nan- 
 ling, marked in most of the maps of China as continuous chains, 
 are in reality only mountain masses, of which the general direction 
 is towards the north-east. The Chinese soil presents also several 
 other great broken chains, formed of separate groups, tending in 
 the same direction. Such are those which extend from the eastern 
 point of Chan-tong, in the island of Hai-nan, and from Thai-tong, 
 near the province of Chan-si, in the north, to the frontiers of Ton- 
 quin. This general direction from south-west to north-east is also 
 that of the line of volcanoes, which is continued across the great 
 island of Formosa, the Archipelago of Lieou-tchieou and Japan, as 
 fai as the Aleutian Islands. The learned geologist M. Elie de 
 Beaumont has shown that it coincides with the great circle of the 
 terrestrial sphere which passes by the' Cordilleras of South Ame¬ 
 rica and the Rocky Mountains of the North ; whence it seems 
 we may infer that the mountain system of Oriental Asia, and that 
 of the great American chains, are of the same date. The earth¬ 
 quakes, the mud eruptions, the upheavings of the soil, which have 
 been observed in China from the remotest antiquity, have, in fact, 
 a striking analogy with phenomena of the same kind that have 
 taken place in the two Americas. There is no volcano now in ac¬ 
 tion in China, but it is certain that over a great extent of country 
 the soil is volcanic ; and in the province of Chan-si there are many 
 volcanic vents, emitting sulphurous compounds,-Solfataras, as 
 
RIYEIiS AND LAKES. 345 
 
 they are called,—which are turned to economical uses by the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Parallel to these series of mountain groups in China, flow a great 
 number of streams, which mostly fall into one or other of the im¬ 
 mense rivers,— Yang-tse-kiang, that we have called the Blue River, 
 and the Hoang-lio, or Yellow River. Both take their rise in the 
 eastern mountains of Thibet, between 34° and 35° of north lati¬ 
 tude. Their mouths also are at no great distance from one 
 another; but during their course they leave between them a pro¬ 
 digious tract of country, of which w'e have already spoken else¬ 
 where. As the Chinese geographers class the mountains according 
 to their own ideas, and distinguish five principal ones, whose posi¬ 
 tions they describe mostly according to historical tradition, so also 
 they mention four rivers, under the name of Sse-tou, “ The Four 
 Flowings;” namely, the Kiang, the Ho, the Houi, and the Tsi. 
 To these must be added a considerable number of rivers that fall 
 into the sea, but which do not equal, either in length or volume, 
 the tributaries of the Yellow and Blue Rivers. 
 
 There are in China several great lakes, amongst -which are dis¬ 
 tinguished five principal ones ; namely, the Lake Thoung-thing , on 
 the confines of Hou-nan and Hou-pe ; secondly, the Lake Phou- 
 yong, in the province of Kiang-si; thirdly, Lake Houng-tse in 
 Kiang - sou ; fourthly, the Si-hou, or Western Lake, in Tclie-kiang ; 
 and fifthly, Lake Tai-hou, or the Great Lake, on the borders of 
 Kiang-sou and Tche-kiang. There are also other smaller and less 
 celebrated lakes, principally in Yun-nan. 
 
 The climate of a country that extends from the tropic to 56° of 
 latitude, must of course differ excessively in the different provinces; 
 and it does in fact present every variety of the temperate, and 
 some also of both the frigid and torrid zones. The province of the 
 Black River has winters like those of Siberia, and the heat of Can¬ 
 ton is equal to that of Hindostan. You see reindeer in the north 
 and elephants in the south. 
 
 Between these two extremes is found every variation of tempera¬ 
 ture and climate. Thus, at Pekin, in latitude 40°, the thermometer 
 falls during the three winter months to 30° below zero, and rises in 
 summer to 30° of heat. At Canton, lat. 23°, the mean temperature 
 is 22°9 / . The air in China is mostly very salubrious, which is the 
 more remarkable, as the most general cultivation, at least all over 
 the southern parts, is that of rice. This advantage may no doubt 
 be partly attributed to the happy arrangement of the great basins 
 being open to the most healthy winds, but also partly to the wise 
 measures adopted for the improvement of the country in the culti- 
 
346 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 vation of the banks of the lakes and marshy lands, procuring a 
 free passage for the waters of rivers and streams, and subjecting to 
 judicious management the work of irrigation, which so materially 
 concerns the prosperity of the Empire and the welfare of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 The entire surface of China may be divided into three zones, 
 parallel to the equator, and of which the temperature and products 
 are very different. The northern zone extends to the 35th parallel, 
 and does not pass to the south beyond the lower valley of the Yel¬ 
 low River. The climate here is much too severe for tea, rice, or 
 the common mulberry ; the land is mostly sown with millet and 
 barley, which resist the cold better than wheat. A great many iron 
 ores, and considerable beds of coal, are also found here. This 
 precious combustible is indeed found almost all over China; and 
 especially in the province of Kan-sou. It is employed for the 
 common fuel, as well as in the manufacture of iron, lime, &c. The 
 central zone, bounded by the 27th or 26th parallel, and the moun¬ 
 tains of Nan-ling, has much milder winters than the northern, and 
 the rice and wheat are excellent there. It possesses, too, the better 
 kinds of tea: the mulberry, the cotton tree, the jujube, the orange 
 tree, the sugar cane, which was imported from India in the eighth 
 century, and the bamboo, which is found, indeed, as far as lat. 38°, 
 and which has been applied by the Chinese to a great variety of 
 purposes. The eastern part of this favoured zone is celebrated for 
 its manufactures of silk and cotton ; the middle of it passes for the 
 granary of China, and might feed the whole country from its enor¬ 
 mous harvests of rice; the west is rich in woods fit for building. 
 The southern zone, bordered by the sea, has the same natural pro¬ 
 ductions as these, but not generally of as good a quality, as the tem¬ 
 perature is much higher. Numerous metalliferous deposits are 
 distributed throughout both zones : gold and silver in the provinces 
 of the south and west; copper, tin, and lead, in the central province 
 of Kiang-si; and mercury in abundance in various forms. Finally, 
 the mountains of the south-west, in Yan-nan and Kouei-tcheou, 
 are said to be rich in metals of all kinds. There are also found in 
 China the lapis lazuli, the ruby, the emerald, the corindum*, quartz ; 
 ollaris stone, of which vases, and especially inkstands, are made ; 
 steatite, various kinds of schist, jasper, and serpentine, used in the 
 fabrication of musical instruments; and the precious green stone 
 called jade, and by the Chinese, who set a high value on it, Yu. 
 
 * A precious stone, of which there are many varieties, and which is said to 
 ..be the hardest after the diamond. — Trans. 
 
ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. 
 
 347 
 
 It is found in Thai-tong, in the province of Chan-si, but most of 
 these stones come from Khootan, and are brought from Tartary by 
 the Bucharians. 
 
 China has a great number of native animals, amongst which 
 are several that are little, or not at all known in Europe. Horses 
 are small, and not so valuable as in some other countries. In the 
 north are found the camel of Bactriana, the buffalo, various kinds 
 of bears, the badger, the rat, a particular kind of tiger, and several 
 species of the leopard and panther. 
 
 The ox is less common than in Europe, and the pig is smaller 
 than the European. There are several species of dogs with black 
 tongues. The cat is domesticated, especially a tailless kind, very 
 common in the south; and the white variety, with silky hair, is 
 not unknown. 
 
 There are several species of rodentia , some of which, indeed, 
 swarm so as to become a perfect scourge, and traverse the country 
 in immense troops. The jerboa, the flying-squirrel, the otter, the 
 sable are found in the forests, and the rhinoceros and the oriental tapir 
 inhabit the western parts of Kouang-si, Yan-nan and Sse-tchouen. 
 Many kinds of stags, goats, and antelopes, the musk-deer, and 
 other less known ruminants, people the forests and mountains, par¬ 
 ticularly in the western provinces. In the south-west are also 
 found many of the quadrumana , and even some large kinds of 
 monkeys, nearly related to the ourang-outang. 
 
 China, so fertile in all sorts of natural productions, also possesses 
 a treasure without which the most abundant riches of the soil be¬ 
 come useless; namely, the industry of its inhabitants. In all that 
 concerns the material conveniences of life, the industry of the 
 Chinese is marvellous. The origin of various arts among them is 
 lost in the darkness of ages; but their invention is attributed to 
 two personages, whose historical existence has often been doubted 
 by the annalists. 
 
 Since time immemorial the Chinese have known how to ma¬ 
 nufacture the silk stuffs that have attracted towards them the 
 merchants of the greater part of Asia. The manufacture of 
 porcelain has been brought to a degree of perfection that has been 
 only very lately surpassed in Europe, and which has not yet been 
 equalled for solidity and cheapness. The bamboo serves for the 
 fabrication of thousands of articles; their cottons and nankeens 
 are renowned all the world over; they excel in making flowered 
 satins, in which, notwithstanding the simplicity of their means, 
 they succeed in producing the most varied designs ; their crapes 
 we have not yet been able to imitate. Besides their hempen 
 
348 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 cloths, they make a very strong kind with a sort of ivy called ko. 
 Their furniture, their vases, their instruments and tools of every 
 kind, are remarkable for a certain ingenious simplicity well 
 deserving of imitation. 
 
 The polarity of the loadstone had been remarked among them 
 2500 years before our era, although no result favourable to navi¬ 
 gation had been obtained from it. Gunpowder, and other inflam¬ 
 mable substances, which they make use of for fireworks of a very 
 effective kind, were known to them from a remote period ; and it 
 is believed that the bombs and swivel guns, of which they taught 
 the use to the Tartars in the 13th century, may have given the 
 idea of artillery to the Europeans, although the form of the guns 
 and cannon made use of at present was brought to them from 
 France, as the names given to them attest. In all recorded time 
 they have known how to work in metals, make musical instruments, 
 and cut and polish hard stones. Wood engraving and stereotype¬ 
 printing date in China from the middle of the 10th century ; and 
 they excel in dyeing, embroidery and lacquered work. Very imperfect 
 imitations are produced in Europe of some of the productions of 
 their industry — their lively and unchangeable colours, theirfine and 
 strong paper, their ink, and many other articles, the manufacture 
 of which requires patience, care, and dexterity. They are fond of 
 imitating models that come to them from foreign countries, and 
 they copy them with the most exact and servile fidelity. They 
 even make expressly for the Europeans articles adapted to their 
 taste ; and images in china, steatite, or painted wood, are made so 
 cheaply among them, that there might often be economy in getting 
 them from China, as they could only be executed by European 
 workmen at great expense. 
 
 We may observe, however, that manufacturing industry, like 
 everything else in China, is in a state of decay, and visibly declin¬ 
 ing from day to day. Many important secrets connected with it 
 are lost, and the most skilful workmen would now be incapable of 
 producing the perfection and finish so much admired in the works 
 of past ages. Thence arises the immoderate passion of the rich 
 Chinese for antiques— kou-toon, as they call them. They seek 
 with avidity for the silks, bronzes, porcelain, and paintings of an¬ 
 cient date, which certainly far surpass more modern productions ; 
 but not only do the Chinese of the present day invent nothing and 
 improve nothing, they retrograde perceptibly from the point 
 attained a long time ago. 
 
 This deplorable state of things is referable to the general dis¬ 
 organisation and the carelessness of government, which we have 
 
DECAY OF PRODUCTIVE ART. 
 
 349 
 
 had occasion to mention so often. No one caves to offer any 
 encouragement to the talents and merit of artists or artisans ; there 
 is nothing to excite any emulation among them; and consequently 
 no one endeavours to make any progress, or to distinguish himself 
 above his fellows. Every man of genius capable of giving a salutary 
 impulse to art and industry, is paralysed by the thought that his 
 efforts will remain entirely unknown, and are indeed of the two 
 more likely to bring him punishment than reward from the govern¬ 
 ment. It was not thus formerly, and the means now employed in 
 Europe, which contribute so powerfully to develope all industrial 
 capacities and talents, were once in use in the Chinese Empire. 
 There were public exhibitions for the productions of the fine and 
 useful arts; all citizen? were admitted to examine them; and the 
 magistrates never failed to praise and reward those who distin¬ 
 guished themselves by their diligence and success. 
 
 In the accounts of the voyages made by the Arabs in China in 
 the 9th century, there is a curious passage, which serves in some 
 measure to explain the astonishing progress made by the Chinese, 
 at an epoch when the other nations of the world were plunged in 
 ignorance and barbarism. 
 
 “ The.Chinese,” says the Arab narrator, “ are, of all the creatures 
 of God, those who have most skill in the hand in all that concerns 
 the arts of design and fabrication, and for every kind of work; 
 they are not in this respect surpassed by any nation. In China, 
 when a man has made anything that probably no one else would 
 be able to make, he carries it to the governor, demanding a recom¬ 
 pense for the progress he has made in the art. The governor 
 immediately orders the article to be placed at the door of his 
 palace, and keeps it there for a year : if in the course of that time 
 no one finds any fault in it, he rewards the artist, and takes him 
 into his service; but if any real defect can be pointed out in the 
 work, it is sent back, and no reward given to the maker. 
 
 “ One day, a young man brought a piece of silk stuff, on which 
 was represented an ear of corn, with a sparrow perching on it. No 
 one on seeing it could doubt that it was a real ear of corn, and that 
 a sparrow was really sitting upon it. The stuff remained for some 
 time in the place of exhibition; at last a humpbacked man came, 
 and began to criticise the performance. He was immediately 
 admitted to the governor of the town, and the artist at the same 
 time was sent for. Then they asked the humpbacked caviller 
 what he had to object to ; and he said, ‘ Everybody knows very 
 well that a sparrow could not perch upon an ear of corn without 
 making it bend; now the artist has represented it quite straight, 
 
350 . 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 and yet he has shown a sparrow perched upon it.’ The observation 
 was considered just, and the artist received no reward. 
 
 “ The purpose of the Chinese in all this is to exercise the talents 
 of the artists, and to force them to reflect maturely upon what they 
 undertake, and devote the utmost possible care to the works that 
 issue from their hands.” 
 
 It is easy to understand how these permanent exhibitions must 
 excite emulation, and favour the progress of the arts. Thus at this 
 epoch, China had acquired such a marked superiority over all the 
 neighbouring countries in this respect, that its internal trade 
 obtained an astonishing development. The principal commerce 
 carried on with the Romans was for siik, which was effected by the 
 intervention of the Buchanans, the Persians, and others; it is this 
 which first made China known in the West, and called the Westerns 
 to China. The foreigners who frequented its ports were so 
 numerous, that towards the end of the 9tli century 120,000 of them 
 were massacred at one time at Han-tcheou-fou, the capital of 
 Tche-kiang. These are the terms in which the Arab writer de¬ 
 scribes these terrible executions: — 
 
 “ Events have happened that have put a stop to the expeditions 
 directed against these countries, which have ruined this land 
 (Chinaj, and destroyed its powder. I am going, please God, to 
 relate what I have read relative to these events. That which has 
 deprived China of the high position she previously held with respect 
 to laws and justice, and which has interrupted the commercial 
 expeditions towards these regions from the port of Syraf, is the 
 enterprise of a rebel, who did not belong to the royal house, and 
 who was called Bauschena. This man began by crafty and dis¬ 
 obedient behaviour; then he took arms and began to pillage private 
 persons. Little by little bad men collected round him; his name 
 became terrible; his resources increased; his ambition took a 
 higher flight; and among the towns of China that he attacked was 
 Khan-fou, the port where the Arab merchants land. Between this 
 town and the sea there is a distance of some days’journey; its 
 situation is on a great river, and it is bathed by fresh water.* 
 
 “ The inhabitants of Khan-fou having closed their gates, the 
 rebels besieged them a long time. That took place in the course 
 of the year 264 of the Hegira (878 a. d.). The town was taken 
 
 * This description is perfectly accurate. We have been on the spot where 
 Klian-fou formerly stood ; the port exists no longer, being tilled up with sand, 
 but the Chinese of the neighbourhood have preserved the memory of its 
 commercial importance. 
 
FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 351 
 
 at last, and all the inhabitants put to the sword. Persons acquainted 
 with the events that happen in China, report that there perished on 
 this occasion 120,000 Mussulmans, Jews, Christians, and Magi, 
 who were established in the town, and carried on trade there, with¬ 
 out counting the natives killed at the same time. The precise 
 number of persons of these four religions who lost their lives was 
 known, because the Chinese Governor was in the habit of levying 
 a tax upon them according to their numbers. The rebels also had 
 the mulberry and other trees cut down, which were upon the terri¬ 
 tory of the town. We name the mulberry trees in particular, 
 because the leaf of this tree feeds the insect that makes the silk, up 
 to the moment when the creature constructs its last dwelling. This 
 circumstance was the cause of no more silk being sent from there 
 to the Arab countries, and other regions.” 
 
 Whilst foreigners flocked to the ports of the Celestial Empire, 
 Chinese merchants visited in their junks all the seas of India, and 
 went to traffic in Arabia and Egypt. They visit even yet, for 
 commercial purposes, the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, the 
 ports of Cochin China and Japan, the peninsula of Malacca, and 
 even Bengal. As to land trade, they have at different times 
 occupied themselves with it in a very active manner ; and it cannot 
 be doubted that it is the interests of commerce that have carried 
 to Tartary the Chinese colonies established there, and also drawn 
 thither the armies sent to the Western countries by the Chinese 
 government. 
 
 At present there is an active foreign trade carried on along all 
 the northern and western frontier. The Chinese get horses from 
 Tartary, as well as the precious green stone called jade ; musk and 
 shawls from Thibet; furs from Siberia ; soaps, leather, and gold 
 and silver thread from Silesia and Russia. The neighbouring- 
 towns of the Birmah country get their European goods this way ; 
 and it w'as by the route of Little Bucharia, and the towns on the 
 north west of Kan-sou, that the first silks formerly arrived in 
 Europe; but the difficulties of transport have now for some time 
 rendered the foreign commerce by land far less important than 
 by sea. 
 
 The port of Canton was for a long time the only one open to 
 European commerce, which, up to the end of the 18th century, 
 sent nothing to China but its money to exchange for tea. Since 
 the commencement of the 19th, it has sent also cotton goods, 
 woollen cloth, wrought metals, watches, &c. India furnishes her 
 spices, camphor, ivory, and especially enormous quantities of 
 
352 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 opium, the taste for which has been so rapidly propagated in 
 China. 
 
 This vast continent yields to foreign commerce the value of 
 about 7,000,000/. in exchange for above 9,000,000/. of raw or 
 manufactured products sent to her from India and the west. The 
 more or less considerable consumption of the principal products of 
 China, tea and raw silk, determines the importance of the ex¬ 
 changes that can be effected with the subjects of the Celestial 
 Empire. China needs to sell, not to buy. With the exception of 
 opium and Indian cotton, she accepts foreign goods only with the 
 view of favouring her own export trade. According to these data, 
 it would be easy to foresee the commercial opportunities that 
 France might obtain for herself on this new ground, by the side of 
 the other powers of Europe. England imports into her marts 
 54,000,000 pounds of tea; the United States, 17,000,000 ; Russia, 
 above 8,000,000: as to France, she only takes the tea required for 
 her own consumption, and that is less than 600,000 pounds. Raw 
 silk is only taken by England and the United States, — England 
 more than 2,000,000 pounds, representing a value of 1,400,000/. 
 Of all the countries that seek an opening for their goods in China, 
 British India is the only one that finds an easy market, and which 
 can turn the balance of exchange in its own favour. China re¬ 
 ceives annually from Calcutta and Bombay to the amount of 
 1,200,000/. in raw cotton, and above 5,000,000/. in opium. British 
 manufactured goods, by being sold at a very low price, have, not¬ 
 withstanding the competition of Chinese industry, been introduced 
 into the ports of Canton and Shang-hai, to the amount of 1,320,000/. 
 in cottons, and 440,000/. in woollen cloths. 
 
 r lhe Russian cloths offered at Kiaktha and in Central Asia, and 
 the American cottons brought to Shang-hai, accept the same con¬ 
 ditions and submit to the same sacrifices. This burdensome com¬ 
 merce is maintained by means of the profits realised on the return 
 cargoes, and it also excludes from the extreme East the productions 
 of France. Thus in the best years the exchanges of France with 
 China have not exceeded a value of 2,000,000 of francs.* 
 
 In order to afford the means of estimating at a glance the rela¬ 
 tive importance of the commercial transactions of foreign nations 
 with China, we will give an exact statement of the number of 
 vessels belonging to each which entered its port during one year. 
 
 * Revue des deux Mondes, 1st Sept. 1841, by M. Jurien de la Gravicre, 
 whose numerous and interesting works afford a proof that it is possible to be 
 at the same time a distinguished sailor and a highly gifted writer. 
 
FOREIGN COMMERCE. 
 
 353 
 
 FOREIGN VESSELS WHICH ENTERED CHINESE PORTS 
 IN 1850. 
 
 England 
 
 
 
 
 374 
 
 United States . 
 
 
 
 
 183 
 
 Holland 
 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 Spain . 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 Various nations 
 
 
 
 
 22 
 
 France 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 This commerce is doubtless of considerable importance to 
 England and the United States, but its influence is very little felt 
 in this vast Chinese Empire, and this immense population of 
 traders. The trade with foreigners might cease suddenly and 
 completely, without causing any sensation in the interior provinces. 
 The great Chinese merchants in the ports open to the Europeans 
 would doubtless feel it; but it is probable that the Chinese nation 
 would not experience the least inconvenience. The price of tea 
 and silk would fall, and that of opium would rise, but only for 
 a short time, for the Chinese would soon raise it in abundance. 
 The course of business would suffer no embarrassment, since, as 
 M. Jurien de la Graviere truly observes, “ China has need to sell 
 and not to buy.” Its rich and fertile provinces furnish all that it 
 requires; it has within its own limits all that is either necessary or 
 useful, and Europe can only supply it with articles of luxury and 
 fancy. The cotton goods brought to China, enormous as their 
 amount appears, can be in reality but a feeble resource for the im¬ 
 mense consumption of more than 300,000,000 of men. 
 
 If, then, the Chinese Government has never, at any time, 
 favoured foreign commerce; if it has even endeavoured to paralyse 
 and crush it; it was because it has always considered it as pre¬ 
 judicial to the true interests of the country. Commerce, according 
 to the Chinese, can only be serviceable to the Empire insomuch as 
 by giving up superfluous articles, it acquires what are necessary 
 and useful. This principle being admitted, they infer from it, that 
 as the trade with foreigners diminishes the quantity of silk, tea, 
 and porcelain, and consequently increases the price of these 
 articles in all the provinces, it is really disadvantageous to the 
 Empire, and it is for this reason they have always endeavoured to 
 fetter it. The various objects of luxury, the precious trifles 
 brought by European ships, have never created any illusion 
 on this subject for the Government, and it has desired only the 
 commerce with the Tartars and Russians, by which it obtains 
 the furs and leather that it really requires, and always in the way 
 of barter. 
 
 A A 
 
354 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The Chinese have by no means the same ideas as the Europeans 
 on the subject of commerce. Kouan-tse, a celebrated economist 
 of the Celestial Empire, who lived more than two thousand years 
 ago, expresses himself thus : “ The money which enters a kingdom 
 by commerce only enriches it in the same proportion as that which 
 goes out. There is no commerce permanently advantageous but 
 the exchange of things useful and necessary. The trade in articles 
 of pomp, elegance, or curiosity, whether carried on by exchange or 
 by money payments, supposes the existence of luxury ; now luxury, 
 which is the abundance of what is superfluous among certain 
 citizens, supposes the want of necessaries among others. The 
 more horses the rich put to their chariots, the more people will 
 have to walk on foot; the more their houses are vast and magnifi¬ 
 cent, the more those of the poor are small and miserable; the more 
 their tables are covered with dainties, the more people there are 
 reduced to eat only rice. 
 
 “ The best that can be done for men in a social state by means 
 of industry and labour is that all should have the necessaries, and 
 some the conveniences of life.” 
 
 As these are the principles of the Chinese Government, it is easy 
 to see that European productions will never have a very extensive 
 market in China; at all events as long as the Chinese remain what 
 they are without any considerable modification in their tastes 
 and habits. As foreign commerce cannot offer them any article of 
 primary necessity, nor even of any real utility, they will interest 
 themselves very little in its extension, and they would see it stopped 
 altogether, not only without uneasiness, but with a certain feeling 
 of satisfaction. 
 
 The case would certainly not be the same in England ; a total in¬ 
 terruption of the trade with China would be for her a most 
 disastrous event. The life and movement of that colossal power 
 would be immediately paralysed in India; from the extremities 
 the evil would rapidly reach the heart, and before long there would 
 be seen, even in the metropolis, symptoms of a mortal malady. 
 Her possessions in India are the most fertile source of the wealth 
 and power of Great Britain, and these possessions are nourished 
 by China. The English are perfectly aware of this, and that is 
 why they have in these latter years bravely taken the resolution to 
 endure all the offences of the Chinese Government, rather than by 
 coming to a new rupture with it to arrest the great commercial 
 movement which is one of the principal sources of the prosperity 
 of India. 
 
 One excellent reason why the Chinese care little about foreign 
 
ENORMOUS RATE OF INTEREST. 
 
 355 
 
 commerce is, that their internal trade is so extensive, and employs 
 vessels of all sizes, which are continually furrowing the rivers and 
 canals by which the Empire is watered throughout its whole 
 extent. This trade consists principally in the exchange of the 
 grain, salt, metal, and other natural and artificial productions of 
 the various provinces. 
 
 China is a country so vast, so rich, so varied, that its internal 
 trade alone would suffice abundantly to occupy that part of the 
 nation which can be devoted to mercantile operations. There are 
 in all the great towns important commercial establishments, into 
 which, as into reservoirs, the merchandise of all the provinces dis¬ 
 charges itself. To these vast storehouses people flock from all 
 parts of the Empire, and there is a constant bustle going on about 
 them — a feverish activity that would scarcely be seen in the most 
 important cities of Europe. The channels of communication, 
 although often very inconvenient, are at all times thronged with 
 merchandise, which is carried in boats, on carts, barrows, and the 
 backs of men and of beasts of burden. 
 
 The Government itself carries on trade, by laying up in store in 
 the granaries that are found in many of the chief towns the 
 excess of corn that it receives in tribute, and selling it to its 
 subjects in times of scarcity. A part of the pawnbroking establish¬ 
 ments, so numerous in China, also belong to the Government. The 
 rate of interest is two per cent, per month for articles of clothing, 
 and three per cent, for jewels and articles of the metallic kind. 
 The legal interest of money has been fixed at 30 per cent, per 
 annum, which makes three per cent, per month, as the sixth, the 
 twelfth, and the intercalary moon (when there is one) do not bear 
 interest. 
 
 One would like to know what object the Chinese Government 
 had in view, in fixing the interest of money at so enormous a rate, 
 and to understand their mode of regarding questions of political 
 and social economy. According to Tchao-yng, a distinguished 
 writer of the Celestial Empire, the purpose was to prevent the 
 value of land from increasing, and that of money from diminishing 
 by the mediocrity of interest. In fixing it at a very high rate, it 
 has endeavoured to render the distribution of land proportioned to 
 the number of families, and the circulation of money more active 
 and uniform. 
 
 “ It is evident,” he says, “ that money being inferior to land, as 
 being more casual in itself, and in the income derived from it, the 
 same value in land will always be preferred to that which is in 
 
 a a 2 
 
356 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 money. It is evident, also, that in order not to run the risks to which 
 money is liable, people will like even to possess a smaller value in 
 land, with greater security. This smaller value is proportioned to 
 the risks of money and its profits. 
 
 “The more the interest of money is raised, the more land is 
 required, all risks being compensated, to equal it, as you must 
 have a greater number of acres of bad land to equal a smaller of 
 . that which is good and fertile. Now the more land is required to 
 equal money, the easier is it for the poor citizens to preserve what 
 land they have, and even to acquire a certain quantity; since it is 
 not needful for that to be rich; and for the same reason the divi¬ 
 sions are easy in families, and advantageous to the state for the 
 lands which the Government has had especially in view. Why? 
 Because property in land produces always more to those who 
 cultivate it themselves, and that the rich, who possess more than 
 they can cultivate, lose for the state in neglecting their lands, or 
 making them over to others, what those gain who are their own 
 cultivators — a certain and inevitable loss, to which must also 
 be added the risks of the harvest and the casualties of payment; a 
 loss, consequently, which, being aggravated by these risks, renders 
 the purchase of land less advantageous to them than to the poor, 
 and must facilitate it to the latter in the same proportion that it 
 disgusts the former.” 
 
 After having shown by examples that the landed possessions of 
 the people have always increased in proportion as the interest of 
 money was high, Tchao-yng concludes thus:—“The great ad¬ 
 vantage which the law of interest at thirty per cent, has aimed at 
 and obtained is, that the cultivators of land, who are the most 
 numerous, the most useful, the most moral and laborious portion 
 of the community, may possess property in land, and have enough 
 to subsist upon without being rich, and not be the unfortunate 
 slaves of the monied interest, of those citizens who fatten their 
 useless idleness on the fruit of the labour of these unfortunate 
 men.” 
 
 Tchao-yng endeavours afterwards to prove that the rate of 
 thirty per cent, being the mean between the revenue of good land 
 and the profits of wholesale trade, was precisely what was needed 
 to stimulate commerce, and bring idle money into circulation. 
 “Whoever has good lands,” he says, “will not leave them to lie 
 fallow, because, if he be not insane, he will not deprive himself in 
 dead loss of the harvests with which every year they may fill his 
 granaries. Whoever has property or money would be equally in¬ 
 sane if he allowed it to lie idle in his coffers; since, if there is 
 
THE LAW OF THIRTY PER CENT. 
 
 357 
 
 more risk in placing it than in cultivating land, there is also more 
 considerable profit. 
 
 “ Everybody agrees that a merchant never keeps money locked 
 up in his chest, since the powerful attraction of gain continually 
 draws it out. The law of thirty per cent, being established, the 
 same attraction must produce the same effect upon all those who 
 have it. We see, therefore, that since money has borne this high 
 interest, no one thinks of hoarding it, and the circulation of it has 
 been more general, lively, and continual.’' 
 
 Another economist, named Tsien-tche, maintains that the legal 
 interest of thirty per cent, is intended to facilitate commerce. It 
 will be seen that the Chinese are as advanced as we are in the art 
 of making formulas. 
 
 “ A well-organised society,” says Tsien-tche, “ would be that in 
 which every one labouring according to his powers, his talents, and 
 the public necessities, all property would be divided in such pro¬ 
 portions as should secure its enjoyment to every one at the same 
 time. 
 
 “ The richest state would be that in which a small amount of 
 labour would furnish the productions of nature and art in abun¬ 
 dance superior to the numbers and the wants of the inhabitants. 
 Wealth has necessarily a relation to wants. The Empire was richer, 
 with a smaller amount of property, under the first dynasties, because 
 less labour produced more in proportion to the number of the 
 inhabitants.” 
 
 “ The population of the Empire is such at present that the 
 pressing interest of common necessity requires us to draw all that 
 can be drawn from the fertility of the land and the industry of 
 man. In order to effect this, we must cultivate in every place what 
 best flourishes in it, and work up all the materials we have. The 
 superabundant produce of some localities may then become a help 
 to others that are deficient, and it is for commerce to undertake their 
 transport. 
 
 “ The necessity of commerce in the Empire is equal to the 
 necessitj r of exchanges, and the utility of commerce to their utility 
 — that is to say, the necessity is absolute, and the utility universal 
 and continual. 
 
 “We must distinguish in commerce things and places. Its 
 totality embraces the productions of nature and art — the necessary, 
 the useful, the convenient, the agreeable, and the superfluous. 
 
 “ There is a commerce between family and family in the same 
 place, a commerce from village to village, from town to town, from 
 province to province ; and it is easy, continual, and universal, on 
 
 a a 3 
 
358 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 account of proximity; a commerce, finally, of the capital with the 
 provinces, and of the provinces among themselves, however distant 
 they may be from one another.” 
 
 “If all the goods of the Empire belonged to the State, and that the 
 State would undertake the distribution of them, it must necessarily 
 undertake these exchanges which are effected by commerce, by 
 carrying the superabundance of one place to another; and in that 
 case, it would have to assign a salary to those who should under¬ 
 take this duty, as it does to magistrates and soldiers, &c., and this 
 office, which has nothing in it but what is noble and great, since it 
 stands in direct relation with the public felicity, would become 
 honourable. Merchants, however, undertake to render this im¬ 
 portant service to society at their own risk and peril. The propor¬ 
 tion, and the correspondence of the exchanges of productions, is 
 neither uniform, constant, nor convenient enough to provide for 
 the varied and continual wants of society; but money, as the sign 
 and equivalent of a fixed and recognised value, supplies this want 
 so much the more easily, as it lends itself with facility and prompti¬ 
 tude to all the proportions, divisions, and correspondences of 
 exchange. Money is the spring and the leaven of commerce, and 
 commerce can only be flourishing inasmuch as the circulation of 
 money facilitates, increases, accelerates, and perpetuates the multi¬ 
 tude of exchanges. 
 
 “ The ancient equilibrium and proportional distribution of pro¬ 
 perty having been destroyed, it is evident that there are a great 
 number of citizens whose expenses are less than their receipts, and 
 who, consequently, can put by money, or at least are in no hurry 
 to make use of it. It is not less evident to the Government, watchful 
 that the totality of money circulating in the Empire should be pro¬ 
 portioned to the value and quantity of the innumerable exchanges 
 of commerce, that the money withdrawn from circulation by these 
 reserves diminishes the facility, the uniformity, and the continuity of 
 these exchanges in proportion to its quantity. Everything, there¬ 
 fore, which tends to restore it to circulation, and to keep it there, 
 is for the benefit of commerce. 
 
 “ The law does what it can, by forcing those to whom the State 
 gives most, to be at the greatest expense; custom and propriety 
 do so still more, but that is not sufficient. The high interest of 
 money, however, supplies this want, by securing the profits which 
 tempt cupidity. If there are any that resist so powerful an attrac¬ 
 tion, it is a new proof that a smaller interest would have still less 
 drawn it out, and would have deprived commerce of just so much 
 advantage. 
 
PASSAGE FROM THE WRITINGS OF TSIEN-TCITE. 359 
 
 « As the need of money in commerce is always pressing and uni¬ 
 versal, oh account of its immensity and its infinite divisions and 
 ramifications, the smallest sums find a place in it, and are enticed 
 by the temptation of profit—a temptation so much the more pow¬ 
 erful to the labourer and the artisan, that the smallest loss affects 
 his well-being, and that if he entrusts his money to commerce, he 
 may withdraw it when he will. 
 
 “ Merchants and traders, if they had sufficient funds to do with¬ 
 out the help of loans, which is impossible on account of the in¬ 
 equality of fortunes, and of the proportion of the money in 
 circulation with the value of exchanges throughout the Empire — 
 could merchants and traders, I say, do without the continual assist¬ 
 ance of loans — it would be in the interest of commerce that they 
 should make them, and that they should be rendered lucrative in 
 order to interest the public in its success. 
 
 “If the facility, the convenience, and the safety of transports by 
 land and water are carefully watched over; if everything relating 
 to commerce in sales, purchases, and the despatch of goods, is 
 effected with so much celerity and good faith ; if the privileges of 
 fairs and markets are so scrupulously preserved ; if the police kept 
 there is so attentive and so mild ; if the malversations and tyrannies 
 of custom-house officers are punished with so much energy, it is 
 because almost every one has property engaged in commerce, or is 
 interested for those who have. Government must demand the 
 assistance which is its due, and which it is so important to all the 
 citizens to procure for it; and the high interest of money is an in¬ 
 fallible method of effecting this. This law of thirty per cent, was 
 a grand coup d'etat .” 
 
 The economist Tsien-tche afterwards refutes the adversaries of the 
 law of thirty per cent., one of whom, Leang-tsien, says, “ The an¬ 
 cients tolerated only a low rate of interest; that of thirty per cent, 
 is an injustice and a public oppression. It is impossible to imagine 
 more flagrant usury.” We might content ourselves with replying, 
 first, that the fact alleged is at least doubtful, since we cannot open 
 the ancient authors, or even the sacred books, without perceiving 
 that the profits of trade were prodigious under the beautiful and 
 celebrated dynasty of the Tcheou; and it is not natural to suppose 
 either that merchants always traded with their own funds, or that 
 those who'lent to them did not desire to share the profits made 
 with their own money; all that one can say is, that a high rate of 
 interest was not authorised by law ; but as we do not find that it 
 was prohibited, it would be necessary to inquire whether what we 
 
 a a 4 
 
360 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 have lost of those laws contained the condemnation or the apology 
 of high interest. 
 
 “ Secondly, we may reply that the proportions have all been 
 changed with the increase of the population. A father may be 
 obliged to govern his family differently when he has twelve children 
 to what he did when he had only three or four. Thirdly, that it is 
 terrible to accuse of injustice and usurious oppression a law that 
 zeal for the public good alone has dictated, — which has been 
 received with thanks throughout the Empire, which is equally for 
 the profit of all, and as it only permits , not enjoins, this rate, is no 
 restraint on any one,—which is now several centuries old, and 
 which replies to all objections by the present state of the Empire 
 and of commerce.” 
 
 “A shop on the great street that runs towards the first entrance 
 of the Imperial Palace lets for four times as much as it would let 
 for if it were in a more ordinary and less frequented quarter. 
 What is the reason of this augmentation of rent ? Why should 
 this disproportion exist between two houses whose real value is the 
 same, since they have cost the same sum to build ? It is because, 
 although it only depends on myself, if I am the owner, to profit by 
 its advantageous commercial position, I yield my right to the mer¬ 
 chant on condition that he shall make me amends, by increasing the 
 rent in proportion to the profit it will procure for him, and which 
 I have given up to him. The case is the same with the money 
 lent to merchants. 
 
 “ Commerce has its revolutions, its accidents, its faults, its losses, 
 its failures in good faith; of which the general result reduces the 
 sum total of the property embarked in it to an interest that does 
 not exceed by more than four or five per cent, the ordinary return 
 from good land. Is that too much advantage to secure for it the 
 loans it requires, and compensate those who embark their money 
 in it for the risks they run ? The public at large always gains in 
 the loans made to commerce, but there are many individuals who 
 lose their interest, or even their capital. The flux and reflux of 
 the loss and gain must necessarily be taken into the account in the 
 rate of interest of money, and so much the more that, ■whether by 
 reason of the population, or of the constitution of the government, 
 and of the public administration, the greater part of the funds 
 engaged in commerce must be borrowed.” 
 
 “ The State has laid no other tax on commerce than that of the 
 customs; the merchant and the trader, however rich they may be, 
 whatever expense the State may go to to secure the facility and 
 cpnvenience of their trade, give nothing in return, although they 
 
PASSAGE FROM THE WRITINGS OF TSIEN-TCHE. 361 
 
 gather its best fruits. This policy is wise and equitable, for as the 
 merchant and trader derive their revenues from the public by the 
 profits of their trade, they would make the consumers pay any tax 
 that might be demanded of them; the State would therefore, in 
 that case, only have made them receivers of taxes. If, how¬ 
 ever, the necessities of the State should require the imposition of 
 a tax on commodities the consumption of which is common to all 
 classes, and in proportion to the fortunes of individuals, it is evi¬ 
 dent that it should be a tax of which the distribution should be 
 most equitable, and least burdensome to the poor. Every one 
 would admit this. Our literary men, who have cried out against 
 the interest of thirty per cent., understand nothing of political ad¬ 
 ministrations. Let us change the names, and this will be demon¬ 
 strated. To what does the excess of interest obtained at present 
 over the whole Empire amount beyond what was obtained under 
 the dynasty of Tang, nine centuries ago? Let us take it at ten 
 millions of ounces of silver. Who would object, it the State 
 should demand such a sum as this, over and above the ordi¬ 
 nary imposts, for the purpose of providing for the interests of 
 commerce in the interior of the Empire? Well, the decree 
 authorising a rate of thirty per cent, interest for money, has 
 created such a tax, and the State yields it to those who lend their 
 money to their fellow-citizens for the purposes of commerce. It 
 is on the profits of trade, and not on the public at large, that 
 this tax is levied, and in the most advantageous manner, since 
 every one pays it in proportion to his consumption. All that 
 there is peculiar in this impost is, that the State yields it to 
 the public, without making it pass through the treasury of the 
 Empire, and without being obliged to increase it by the expenses 
 
 of collection. 
 
 “ How is it that the high rate of interest fixed by the law affords 
 advantage to commerce ? Because it opens a career to those who 
 have the talent for it, and favours its division among a greater 
 number. The genius for commerce is a peculiar one, like that for 
 letters, for government, for the arts ; possibly even one might say 
 that, in some respects, it embraces them all. Now this genius for 
 commerce is lost to the Empire in all those who follow a different 
 career; it remains therefore to develope it in those who have no 
 other resource. Although commerce is indisputably necessary to 
 the State, yet the administration which goes to so much expense to 
 facilitate study, and to form by that means men capable of poli¬ 
 tical business, does nothing for those who have a genius for 
 commerce to assist them in its development. Now the high 
 
362 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 interest of money makes amends for this kind of neglect. How- 
 ever poor a young man may be, if he is well conducted and clever, 
 he will be able to borrow enough to make an attempt; and as soon 
 as this succeeds, all purses will be open to him, and this interest 
 law will have given to the Empire a useful citizen, who would have 
 been lost if a helping hand had not been held out to him. Now, 
 when men can enter into business without having any money of 
 their own, commerce must necessarily be divided among a great 
 number, and that is what the present state of the population 
 renders desirable. 
 
 “ A man, whatever he may be, has but a certain amount of time 
 and strength to employ. If his business demands more, he must 
 call in help, that is to say, he must buy the services of others; they 
 cost him little, for the most part, and he endeavours to obtain the 
 utmost advantage from them. What he gains by these assistants, 
 by degrees releases him from the necessity of working himself, and 
 the public is charged with the burden of his idleness. It was asked 
 by So-ling why he had lent twenty thousand ounces of silver from 
 the public treasury to twelve small traders. ‘It was,’ he replied, 
 
 4 in order that the public might not any more have to pay for the 
 lacquered work, the shows, the festivals, concubines, and slaves of 
 him who has monopolised the silk factories. Rivalry in trade 
 obliges traders to emulate each other in labour and industry; that 
 is to say, to be less extortionate towards the public.’ ” 
 
 It would be, we presume, superfluous to warn the reader, that in 
 quoting these passages, perhaps at rather too great length, we by 
 no means intended to express our assent to all the doctrines of the 
 Chinese economists. Many of these perplexed questions are too 
 far above our knowledge on such subjects for us to pretend to offer 
 any opinion on them. We wished merely to show the mode of 
 thinking of the Chinese writers. It is so common for people in 
 Europe to form their opinions of the Chinese from the drawings on 
 screens and fans, and to regard them merely as more or less civilised 
 baboons, that we were glad to have an opportunity of showing how 
 they treat questions of policy and social economy. 
 
 In order to facilitate commercial operations, the Chinese have 
 invented pecuniary societies, which are found over the whole 
 Empire, the object of which is to avoid the burden of fixed debts 
 bearing interest. The members of these societies agree among 
 themselves upon a certain sum to be contributed by each on the 
 first of every month; on this same day lots are drawn for the whole 
 sum, and so on every month till every one has had his turn. As 
 this would, however, be rather unfair towards the last comers, the 
 
THE COMMERCIAL HEART OF CHINA. 
 
 363 
 
 sum is increased every month by a small interest paid by the first 
 winners. The advantage of these societies consists in obtaining a 
 considerable sum at once for small ones paid at intervals. As the 
 Government does not interfere with them in any way whatever, their 
 rules vary at the pleasure of the members; but there are two con¬ 
 ditions that appear to be invariable — namely, that the founder of 
 the society has a first lot, and that a member who once fails to pay 
 his contribution forfeits his advances to the chief, who is answerable 
 for ail; but this is a case of very rare occurrence. All the members 
 make it a great point of honour to be faithful to these engagements 
 and a failure in them is sure to cover a man with the contempt of 
 his fellow-citizens. If any one finds himself pressed for money, he 
 easily obtains the advantage of having the next lot given to him; 
 and if he cannot go on any longer, he yields his advances to another, 
 who becomes answerable for him. These societies are so much 
 the fashion, that almost all the Chinese belong to one or other ; 
 farmers, artisans, small tradesmen, are thus all collected in groups, 
 and hold their resources in common. A Chinese never lives in 
 isolation, but it is especially in matters of interest and commerce 
 that his associative spirit is remarkable. 
 
 The immense population of China, the richness of its soil, the 
 variety of its products, the vast extent of its territory, and the 
 facility of communication by land and water, the activity of its 
 inhabitants, its laws and public usages, all unite to render this nation 
 the most commercial in the world. 
 
 On whichever side a stranger enters China, whatever point may 
 first meet his eye, he is sure to be struck, above all else, by the 
 prodigious bustle and movement going on everywhere under the 
 stimulus of the thirst of gain, and the desire of traffic by which 
 this people is incessantly tormented. From north to south, from 
 east to west, the whole country is like a perpetual fair, and a fair 
 that lasts the whole year without any interruption. 
 
 And yet, when one has not penetrated to the centre of the Empire, 
 when one has not seen the great towns, Han-yang, Ou-tchang-fou, 
 and Han-keou, facing one another, it is impossible to form an ade¬ 
 quate idea of the amount of the internal trade. 
 
 Han-keou especially, “ The Mouth of Commercial Marts,” must 
 be visited, for it is one great shop; and every production has its 
 street or quarter particularly devoted to it. In all parts of the city 
 you meet with a concourse of passengers, often pressed so compactly 
 together, that you have the greatest difficulty to make your way 
 through them. Long lines of porters stretch through every street; 
 and, as they proceed with a peculiar gymnastic step, they utter a 
 
364 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 measured monotonous cry, whose sharp sound is heard above all 
 the clamours of the multitude. In the midst of this crowded vortex 
 of men, there prevails, nevertheless, a very fair amount of order and 
 tranquillity; there are few quarrels, much less fights, although the 
 police is far from being as numerous as in most of our cities in 
 Europe. The Chinese are always restrained by a salutary fear of 
 compromising themselves that acts like an instinct; and though 
 they are easily excited, and induced to vociferate, they are soon 
 quiet again, and things return to their usual course. 
 
 In seeing the streets thus constantly thronged with people, you 
 might be apt to think that ail the inhabitants of the town must be 
 out, and the houses empty. But just cast a glance into the shops, 
 and you will see they are crowded with buyers and sellers. The 
 factories also contain a considerable number of workmen and 
 artisans ; and if to these you add the old men, women, and children, 
 you will not be surprised to hear the population of Han-keou, 
 Han-yang, and Ou-tchang-fou, taken together, estimated at 
 eight millions. We do not know whether the inhabitants of the 
 boats are included in this calculation, but the great port of 
 Han-keou is literally a forest of masts, and it is quite astonishing 
 to see vessels of such a size, in such numbers, in the very middle of 
 China. 
 
 We have said that Han-keou is in some measure the general 
 mart for the eighteen provinces, since it is there the goods arrive, 
 and thence depart, which are intended to supply all the internal 
 trade. Perhaps the world could not show a town more favourably 
 situated, and possessing a greater number of natural advantages. 
 Placed in the very centre of the Empire, it is in some measure 
 surrounded by the Blue River, and brought into direct communica¬ 
 tion with the provinces of the east and the west. This same river, 
 on leaving Han-keou, describes two curves, to the right and left, 
 and bears the great trading junks towards the south as far as the 
 bosom of the lakes Pou-yang and Thoung-ting, which are like two 
 inland seas. An immense number of rivers, which fall into these 
 two lakes, receive in small boats the merchandise brought from 
 Han-keou, and distribute it through all the provinces of the south. 
 Towards the north the natural communications are less easy, but 
 gigantic and ingenious labours have come to the aid of nature, in 
 the numerous artificial canals with which the north of China is 
 intersected, and which, by marvellous and skilful contrivances, 
 establish a communication between all the lakes and navigable rivers 
 of the Empire, so that you might traverse its entire extent without 
 ever getting out of your boat. 
 
WATER COMMUNICATIONS. 
 
 365 
 
 The Annals of China show that at every period each successive 
 dynasty has paid great attention to the canal system; but no other 
 work is comparable to that which was executed by the Emperor 
 Yang-ti, of the dynasty of Tsin, who ascended the throne in the year 
 605 of the Christian era. 
 
 In the first year of his reign he dug many new canals, and en¬ 
 larged the old ones, so that vessels could pass from the Hoang-Ho 
 to the Yang-tse-kiang, and from these great rivers to the principal 
 smaller ones. A learned man named Siao-hoai, presented to him 
 a plan for rendering all the rivers navigable throughout their entire 
 course, and making them communicate, one with another, by canals 
 of a new invention. His project was adopted and executed, and 
 there were consequently made, remade, and repaired, more than 
 four thousand eight hundred miles of canals. This great enter¬ 
 prise of course required a vast amount of labour, which was divided 
 between the soldiers and the people. Every family was required 
 to furnish one man, between the ages of fifteen and fifty, to whom 
 the Government gave nothing but his food. The soldiers, who 
 had to do the most painful part of the work, received a small 
 increase of pay. Some of these canals were lined with freestone 
 throughout their entire length, and during our various journeys 
 we saw remains enough to attest the beauty of the works. That 
 | which ran from the northern to the southern court* was forty 
 feet wide, and had on its banks plantations of elm and willow. 
 That from the eastern to the western court was less magnificent, 
 but also bordered with a double line of trees. 
 
 Chinese historians have branded the memory of the Emperor 
 Yang-ti, because during his reign he never ceased to oppress the 
 people by these corvees, to satisfy his own caprice, and his taste 
 for luxury, but they acknowledged that he deserved well of the 
 Empire for the benefits conferred by his canals on the internal 
 trade. 
 
 The wealth of China, its system of canals, and the other causes 
 i already assigned, have doubtless contributed much to develope in 
 the country the prodigious commercial activity that has been re¬ 
 marked in it at all epochs; but it must be acknowledged also that 
 the character and genius of its inhabitants has always disposed 
 them to traffic. The Chinese has a passionate love of lucre; he is 
 fond of all kinds of speculation and stock-jobbing, and his mind, 
 full of finesse and cunning, takes delight in combining and calcu¬ 
 lating the chances of a commercial operation. 
 
 * There were at this time four imperial courts. 
 
366 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The Chinese, par excellence , is a man installed behind the counter 
 of a shop, waiting for his customers with patience and resignation, 
 and in the intervals of their arrival pondering in his head, and 
 casting up on his little arithmetical machine, the means of increasing 
 his fortune. Whatever may be the nature and importance of his 
 business, he neglects not the smallest profit; the least gain is 
 always welcome, and he accepts it eagerly: greatest of all is his 
 enjoyment, when, in the evening, having well closed and barricaded 
 his shop, he can retire into some corner, and there count up 
 religiously the number of his sapecks, and reckon the earnings of 
 the day. The Chinese is born with this taste for traffic, which 
 grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength. The 
 first thing a child longs for is a sapeck; the first use that it makes 
 of its speech and intelligence is to learn to articulate the names of 
 coins; when his little fingers are strong enough to hold the pencil, 
 it is with making figures that he amuses himself, and as soon as 
 the tiny creature can speak and walk, he is capable of buying and 
 selling. In China you need never fear sending a child to 
 make a purchase; you may rely on it, he will not allow himself 
 to be cheated. Even the plays to which the little Chinese are 
 addicted are always impregnated with this mercantile spirit; 
 they amuse themselves with keeping shop, and opening little 
 pawnbroking establishments, and familiarise themselves thus 
 with the jargon, the tricks, and the frauds of tradesmen. Their 
 knowledge in all that relates to commerce is so clear and pre¬ 
 cocious, that you need not hesitate to confide to them the most 
 important affairs, and to give them serious business of this kind to 
 manage at an age when children are mostly occupied with their 
 playthings. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire enjoy the not unmerited 
 reputation of being very artful and knowing, and such a character 
 will of course play a great part in mercantile affairs. Volumes 
 might be written on the frauds, more or less ingenious and auda¬ 
 cious, of the Chinese merchants; and the habit of trickery is so 
 general, the fashion so universal, that no one is offended at it; it 
 is simply a mode of showing that you are clever and wide awake. 
 A tradesman is often quite proud when he can tell a story of some 
 successful piece of knavery. It is only just to observe, however, 
 that this want of probity and good faith is chiefly found among 
 the petty traders; the great commercial houses are, on the con¬ 
 trary, most remarkable for the uprightness and integrity of their 
 dealings, and their scrupulous fidelity to their engagements. 
 European merchants who have had commercial transactions with 
 
INFINITESIMAL TRADE. 
 
 367 
 
 China, are unanimous in extolling the irreproachable probity of 
 their conduct, and it is painful to add that we fear they could not 
 always return the compliment. 
 
 The only legal coinage existing in China is a little round piece 
 made of a mixture of copper and pewter, and called by the Chinese 
 tsien, and by the Europeans sapecks. They are pierced through 
 the middle with a square hole, in order that they may easily be 
 passed on a thread. A string of a thousand of these pieces is 
 equivalent usually to a Chinese ounce of silver: gold and silver 
 are never coined in China; when employed for larger purchases 
 than can be paid for in sapecks, they are weighed like any other- 
 commodity; sapecks are used for all small transactions, and agree¬ 
 ments are also made in strings of sapecks. 
 
 The Chinese in the towns generally carry with them little scales 
 for buying and selling, and weigh all the money they give or re¬ 
 ceive. Bank notes, payable to the bearer, are in use throughout 
 the whole empire ; they are issued by the great houses of business, 
 and accepted in all the principal towns. 
 
 The value of a sapeck is about half a French centime ; and this 
 small coinage is an incalculable advantage to small dealings. 
 Thanks to the sapeck, one may traffic in China on very small 
 means. One may buy a slice of pear, a dozen of fried beans, a 
 few melon seeds, or one walnut, or one may also drink a cup of 
 tea, or smoke some pipes for a sapeck; and a citizen who is not 
 rich enough to afford himself a whole orange will often purchase a 
 half. This extreme division of Chinese coinage has given birth 
 to an infinity of small occupations that afford a subsistence to 
 thousands of persons. With a capital of two hundred sapecks (ten 
 pence English), a Chinese will not hesitate to commence some 
 mercantile speculation. The sapeck is especially an immense 
 resource for those who are asking alms, for a man must be poor 
 indeed not to be able to give a beggar a sapeck. 
 
368 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 Attempt to see the Governor of the Province. — We force the Guard of his 
 Palace. — The Governor of Hou-pe. — Conversation with this exalted Per¬ 
 sonage.—Good Result of the Visit.—Moving.—Courtesy of a Cook.— 
 Adieus of Master Ting and the Sse-tchouen Escort. — The Mandarin Lieou, 
 or the “ Weeping Willow,” Chief of the new Escort. —Chinese Architecture. 
 — Towers. — Pagodas. —Fine Arts. — Religion. — Doctrine of the Literary 
 Class. — Great Honours rendered to Confucius. — Doctors of Reason. — 
 Life and Opinions of the Philosopher Lao-tze. — Buddhism. — Legend of 
 Buddha —Dogmas and moral Precepts. — Buddhists persecuted by the 
 Brahmins. — Causes of these Persecutions — Dispersion of the Buddhists 
 through the various Countries of Asia. 
 
 We said at the commencement of the preceding chapter that on 
 our arrival at Ou-tchang-fou, we were confined in a narrow cell of 
 a pagoda, where we ran considerable risk of being suffocated. We 
 had hoped that when the high functionaries of the place had them¬ 
 selves seen this murderous hole, they would understand that we 
 could not live without air, and would perhaps themselves have pro¬ 
 cured us another lodging till the day of our departure. These 
 hopes, however, did not seem very likely to be realised. The 
 magistrates of the capital took not the slightest notice of us ; and, 
 with the exception of some petty officials, no creature came to 
 visit us. 
 
 This treatment was certainly rather wounding to our vanity, but 
 we might perhaps have been able to support the trial, would they 
 only have afforded us space to move in and air to breathe. To be 
 forsaken by our beloved and amiable Mandarins was distressing, 
 but it could be borne ; but to be dropt into a hole and forgotten, 
 that we could not put up with. For two days we remained in this 
 ignominious position, and then we resolved to make a vigorous 
 effort to get out of it, and endeavour to resume the influence we 
 had lost by our own fault. After having put on our dress of cere¬ 
 mony, we sent for some palanquin bearers, and commanded them 
 to conduct us to the governor of the province. They looked at us 
 in a hesitating manner, but we paid them in advance, promising 
 them at the same time something handsome on our return, and 
 then they set off with enthusiasm. 
 
 We crossed the square where the venerable Perboyre had been 
 strangled, and arrived at the tribunal where he had been so cruelly 
 tortured, and where sentence of death had been pronounced against 
 him. 
 
 We alighted from our palanquins at the entrance of the palace^ 
 
A CALL ON THE GOVERNOR. 
 
 369 
 
 and so far our enterprise had not been very difficult. We crossed 
 the threshold, determined to bear down all obstacles that should 
 intervene to prevent our approach to the Governor. We had 
 scarcely reached the middle of the courtyard before we were sur¬ 
 rounded by a crowd of satellites and attendants, such as usually 
 throng the avenues to the great tribunals, but their sinister hang¬ 
 dog physiognomies, with which we had been long familiarised, did 
 not alarm us much. We marched on boldly, affecting not to hear 
 the thousand remarks that were made around us, on the subject of 
 our yellow caps and red girdles. 
 
 At the moment wffien we were about to cross a hall to enter a 
 second court, we were accosted by a little Mandarin with a gilt 
 ball, who seemed to be acting as a sort of usher to introduce 
 guests. He appeared quite aghast at our abrupt entrance, and 
 placing himself in our way, he asked three times running where we 
 were going, extending at the same time his two arms in a horizontal 
 position, as if to bar our passage. 
 
 “ We are going to his Excellency the Governor,” we replied. 
 
 “ His Excellency the Governor is not there. You can’t see the 
 Governor. Do the Rites permit people to push in in that way to 
 the first magistrate of the province? ” and as he spoke he stamped 
 about and gesticulated, and with his arms extended followed every 
 one of our movements, jumping alternately to the right and the 
 left to prevent us from passing. We walked on, nevertheless, 
 without saying a word, and thus forced our introducer to walk 
 backwards. As we reached the end of the hall he turned suddenly, 
 and threw himself upon the two leaves of the folding door, as if to 
 shut them; but seizing him by the arm, we cried out in the most 
 imperious tone we could muster, “ Woe to you if you do not leave 
 that door open. If you stop us for a single moment, you are a 
 lost man.” 
 
 These words inspired a salutary fear; he opened the door again, 
 and we entered the second court, leaving the little man gazing 
 after us in open-mouthed astonishment. 
 
 We reached the Governor’s apartments without any new ob¬ 
 stacle. In the ante-chamber were four superior Mandarins, who, 
 when we entered, seemed to doubt whether we were not ghosts. 
 They gazed at us and at one another without speaking a word, and 
 as if consulting each other as to what was to be done in these un¬ 
 expected circumstances. At length one of them ventured to ask 
 who we were. “ We are Frenchmen,” we replied ; £< we have been 
 at Pekin, thence from Pekin to Lha-ssa, in Thibet; and we wish 
 to speak with his Excellency the Governor.” 
 
 B B 
 
370 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ But is his Excellency the Governor informed of your arriva 
 at Ou-tchang-fou ? Has your visit been announced to him?” 
 
 “ A dispatch from the Emperor ought to have informed him of 
 our coming to Hou-pe.” We remarked that the words “ dispatch 
 from the Emperor ” had an effect on the Mandarins. The speaker, 
 after fixing upon us for a moment an inquisitive look, disappeared 
 through a little door. We suspected that he had gone to the Go¬ 
 vernor to announce to him the curious discovery he had just made ; 
 and he was not long before he returned. 
 
 “ The Governor is absent,” said he, in a perfectly easy manner, 
 just, as if he had not been telling a lie ; “the Governor is absent. 
 When he returns he will send for you, if he has anything to say to 
 you. Now go back to your lodgings.” 
 
 “ Who is it who desires us to go away ? Who told you to say 
 the Governor would send for us ? Why do you seek to deceive us 
 by pronouncing words contrary to the truth ? The Governor is 
 here; you have just spoken with him, and we will not go away till 
 we have seen him.” As we said this, we quietly seated ourselves 
 on a broad divan that occupied a great part of the room. The 
 Mandarins, astonished at our doings, made their exit altogether, 
 and left us alone. 
 
 At Han-yang, as we have said, we had betrayed much weakness, 
 and it was now necessary to repair this fault, if we wished to reach 
 Canton in safety, instead of perishing in misery on the road. The 
 benevolence of the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen could not avail us 
 farther than Ou-tchang-fou; the Governor of Hou-pe would now 
 have the disposal of us as far as the capital of Kiang-si, and it was 
 absolutely necessary that we should speak with him, in order not to 
 be abandoned entirely to the voracity of the petty Mandarins. We 
 were left alone for a long time, so that we had full leisure to 
 arrange the plan we intended to follow. 
 
 At length an aged attendant appeared, who after having in a man¬ 
 ner applied his face to ours, in order to take a good observation of 
 them, said, in a tremulous voice, that “ His Excellency the Governor 
 invited our illustrious persons to come to him.” From this polite 
 formula, we thought it might not be difficult to recover our posi¬ 
 tion, and we immediately followed the attendant into a magnificent 
 saloon, where, amidst a crowd of Chinese articles of luxury, we 
 noticed a French clock and two beautiful vases of Sevres china, as 
 well as some apparently English pictures on the walls. The rich 
 Chinese are very fond of decorating their apartments with articles 
 of European manufacture; not that they have any great value in 
 their eyes as works of art, but they come from a great distance, 
 from beyond the Western Seas, and that is enough. 
 
THE INTERVIEW. 
 
 371 
 
 In that matter, Chinese and Europeans are pretty much alike. 
 Who does not like to have in his drawing-room some ugly figure 
 of bronze or porcelain which he can show has really come from 
 China ? 
 
 We were engaged in admiring the Sevres vases, and noticing 
 with feelings of gratified vanity how greatly superior they were to 
 the porcelain from the Chinese factories, when the Governor en¬ 
 tered. He crossed the saloon swinging his arms, and looking 
 neither to the right nor the left; and then went and sat down 
 near a flower-stand in a large lacquered arm-chair, the back of 
 which was covered with red cloth embroidered with silk. We 
 saluted him respectfully, and then waited till he should address us. 
 This personage did not appear to possess the kindness and simpli¬ 
 city of the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen. He was about fifty years of 
 age, and his thin dark face had a severe and hard expression. 
 
 “ Your illustrious country,” said he, “ is the kingdom of France ; 
 is it long since you left it?” 
 
 “ Yes ; several years.” 
 
 “ You have doubtless some affair to communicate to me, since 
 you have come to see me?” 
 
 “ First, we wished to fulfil a duty of politeness.” 
 
 “ Ah ! I am ashamed-.” 
 
 “ Then we desired to know whether the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen 
 had forwarded a dispatch to announce our arrival at Ou-tchang- 
 fou.” 
 
 “ Certainly, it arrived a long time ago; the couriers who carry 
 dispatches travel rapidly.” 
 
 “ Oh I From the manner in which we have been treated here, 
 we thought that the dispatch had not yet arrived. The Emperor 
 gave orders to the Viceroy Pao-hing to have us conducted to Can¬ 
 ton with all possible respect; and during our residence at Tching- 
 tou-fou we had reason to speak in high praise of the treatment we 
 received from the authorities. The illustrious and venerable Pao- 
 hing, with whom we had several interviews, paid us the greatest 
 attention ; and all along the road both great and little Mandarins 
 have respected the orders he gave concerning us, and we have 
 travelled in the most convenient and honourable manner.” 
 
 “ That is the custom of our country,” said the Governor, 
 haughtily ; “ strangers are well treated among us.” 
 
 “ It appears, however,” we replied, “ that this custom is not 
 general; perhaps it depends on the Governors of the provinces. 
 The Book of Rites is the same for the whole Empire, but it would 
 seem to be interpreted in a different manner in Hou-pe to what it 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 is in Sse-tchouen. At Han-yang, on the other side of the river, 
 we should have died of hunger if we had not had money with us 
 to go and buy food for ourselves at an inn. Here in the capital 
 itself, during the two days we have been here, no one has taken 
 the slightest notice of us, and we have been shut up in a cell 
 where we had hardly room to turn round. Did the Emperor, 
 perhaps, give orders that we should be made to expiate at Hou-pe 
 the good treatment we had received at Sse-tchouen?” 
 
 “What words are you speaking? The mercy of the Emperor 
 extends over all places. Where are you lodged?” 
 
 “ The Viceroy of Sse-tchouen never asked us where we were 
 lodged; he knew, because it was he himself who assigned us our 
 lodging. When we arrived in this city we were conducted into a 
 narrow chamber, into which scarcely any air can penetrate, and 
 we have been there two days without seeing any one to whom we 
 could complain. It is probably desired that our journey should 
 end at Ou-tchang-fou.” 
 
 The Governor fairly shook in his chair with anger; he declared 
 we were calumniating the character of his nation; his sharp voice 
 became more and more piercing, and he began to talk with so 
 much volubility and animation, that at last we could no longer 
 understand what he was saying. We took good care, however, not 
 to interrupt him, but stood before him calm and motionless, wait¬ 
 ing till he should become more pacified and hold his tongue. When 
 the time came, we said to him, in a very low tone, but with a cer¬ 
 tain cold and concentrated energy, “Your Excellency, we are not 
 in the habit of pronouncing rude and injurious words ; it is not 
 right to assume bad intentions in our brethren; nevertheless, we 
 are missionaries of the Lord of Heaven; we are Frenchmen, and 
 we cannot forget that this town is called Ou-tchang-fou.” 
 
 “ What is the meaning of these words ? I do not comprehend 
 them.” 
 
 “ We cannot forget that one of our brothers, a missionary, a 
 Frenchman, was strangled here at Ou-tchang-fou, twenty-three 
 years ago ; and that another of our brothers, also a missionary and 
 a Frenchman, was put to death here, not quite six years ago.” 
 
 On hearing these words the Governor changed countenance, and 
 it was evident he was greatly agitated. 
 
 “ This very day,” we continued, “in coming here, we crossed 
 the square upon which our brothers were executed. Can it then 
 be surprising if we feel some uneasiness, if we fear that some 
 attempt may be made upon our lives, especially when we have 
 been lodged almost in a sepulchre ? ” 
 
SUCCESS OF OUR VISIT. 
 
 O *7 Q 
 
 O i 6 
 
 “I don’t know what you mean; I know nothing about these 
 affairs,” replied the Governor hastily; “ at the periods of which you 
 speak I was not in the province.” 
 
 “We are aware of that; the Governor who was here six years 
 ago, as soon as he had given the order to have the French mis¬ 
 sionary strangled, was degraded by the Emperor, and condemned to 
 perpetual exile. It was evident to the whole Empire that Heaven 
 had avenged the innocent blood. No one, however, need answer 
 for more than his own actions. But whose fault is it that w r e are 
 now being treated in the manner we have described ? We have 
 studied the writings of the philosopher Meng-tse, and we have read 
 in them this : ‘ Meng-tse one day asked the king of Leang whether 
 he thought there was any difference between killing a man with a 
 sword and killing him with ill-treatment, and the king of Leang 
 replied, I do not think there is any difference.’ ” 
 
 The Governor appeared very much astonished to hear us quote 
 a passage from the classical books. Fie endeavoured to throw a 
 little more gentleness into his physiognomy and manners, and he 
 thought proper to reassure us concerning the fears we had 
 expressed for our personal safety. He said that the Mandarins 
 had executed his orders badly, that he would have a severe inquiry 
 into the matter, and that everybody’s sins should be punished, 
 since he was determined to have respect paid to the will of the 
 Emperor, whose heart was filled with quite paternal kindness for 
 strangers, as we had ourselves experienced in the treatment we had 
 received at Sse-tchouen, and ali along the road. He added that 
 we should be equally well treated at Hou-pe, that we must not 
 believe those stories of two of our countrymen having been put to 
 death in past times. Those were merely idle and false reports 
 invented by low people, whose tongues were always active, and 
 given to lying. 
 
 We did not think it necessary to insist upon the point, and prove 
 to him that the martyrdom of MM. Clet and Perboyre was some¬ 
 thing very different from an idle rumour; we contented ourselves 
 with observing that it was always known in France in what manner 
 Frenchmen were treated in foreign countries, that our government 
 might appear sometimes not to notice it, but that it would not fail 
 to remember it in due time. Altogether we flattered ourselves that 
 we had produced some impression on the Governor, and that our 
 visit would have a good result. Before leaving the apartment, 
 therefore, we endeavoured to relax a little of the constraint of the 
 situation by giving his Excellency some information about our long 
 journey and Europe, which was to him almost an unknown world 
 
 b b 3 
 
THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 374 
 
 At length we performed the salutations required by the Rites, and 
 took our departure. 
 
 In crossing the hall, and descending the numerous steps of the 
 tribunal, we could easily see that the success of our visit was already 
 known. We were courteously saluted by all whom we met, and 
 when we reached the first court, the introducer of guests, who had 
 displayed so much zeal in barring our passage, hastened to meet us, 
 and conduct us to our palanquins, with every appearance of the 
 most cordial and profound devotion. Our bearers, whom we found 
 waiting for us at the door with the palanquin, then took us on their 
 shoulders, and bore us at a rapid pace back to our abode. 
 
 We had only been a few hours in this abominable cell when the 
 tam-tam was heard sounding at the door of the little pagoda, and 
 a Mandarin, accompanied by a numerous suite of attendants, pre¬ 
 sented himself, demanding to speak with the illustrious natives of 
 the kingdom of France. As soon as he saw us he hastened to 
 announce that he was charged by his Excellency the Governor to 
 conduct us to a more suitable and more convenient lodging, one 
 that should be more conformable to the laws of hospitality. 
 
 “ When shall we go ? ” we asked. 
 
 “Whenever you please; probably everything is ready, for the 
 orders were given as soon as you quitted the Governor’s palace.” 
 
 “ Let us go immediately then,” said we; “ it is late, and we 
 should be glad to rise again out of this tomb.” 
 
 “ Yes, that’s it,” cried Master Ting, who was not more satisfied 
 than we were with this wretched little dwelling, where he was 
 obliged to keep himself huddled up while he smoked his opium, 
 because there was not room for him to stretch himself out; “ that’s 
 it, let us rise again out of this tomb.” We then packed up our 
 goods with all possible haste, and gladly turned our backs on the 
 detestable den. 
 
 We were conducted to the other extremity of the town, almost ; 
 into the country, and were there installed in a vast and handsome 
 establishment, half civil and half religious. It was a rich Buddhist 
 convent, surrounded by numerous apartments destined to receive 
 Mandarins of distinction on their arrival at Ou-tchang-fou. There 
 were gardens, courts planted with lofty forest trees, belvederes, 
 and terraces on peristyles, Avhich gave an air of pomp and grandeur 
 to the place that contrasted strikingly with the mean little pagoda 
 we had just left; but what we prized above all else was the sweet 
 fresh air of the country that we drew in in long breaths. 
 
 As soon as we were settled in our dwelling, the Mandarin who i 
 had brought us here sent for the cook of the establishment, and he i 
 
ATTENTIONS SHOWN TO US. 
 
 375 
 
 arrived quickly with a pencil between his teeth, a sheet of paper 
 in one hand, and an inkstand in the other, and placing himself at 
 the end of the table, rubbed a little ink upon a slab, and begged 
 us to mention the names of the dishes we preferred. 
 
 “ It is a fact known to all the world,” said the Mandarin, “ that 
 the Western nations do not feed in the same manner as the in¬ 
 habitants of the Central Kingdom, and as far as possible we must 
 comply with people’s usages and customs.” We thanked the 
 Mandarin for his polite attention, but said we had now for a long 
 time been in the habit of living quite in the Chinese manner. The 
 “ Superintendent of the Cauldron ” need only follow the inspirations 
 of his own talents, and all would be well. A list of dishes would 
 be quite superfluous. We should have found it, indeed, very hard 
 to make one; for, during all these years we had had to accustom 
 ourselves to so many kinds of cookery, and had eaten of so many 
 odd things, that we were now hardly capable of appreciating 
 culinary skill, and our ideas on the subject of dishes had become 
 extremely vague and confused. Everything that had not the taste 
 of barley flour, flavoured with suet, was acceptable to us. 
 
 The head cook gathered up his writing materials, and took his 
 departure, quite proud and elated at the mark of confidence we had 
 shown him, and of which, we may add, he proved himself thoroughly 
 worthy. The skill with which he compounded for us a number of 
 Chinese ragouts, each better than the last, was such as to show 
 that we could not have done better than confide entirely in his 
 genius and discretion. 
 
 The day after our moving into this new habitation, Master Ting, 
 accompanied by his colleague, the military Mandarin, and the 
 numerous soldiers and attendants who had escorted us since our 
 departure from the capital of Sse-tchouen, came in a body, and 
 with a certain air of solemnity, to our apartments, to bid us fare¬ 
 well. Having been charged only to conduct us to Ou-tchang-fou, 
 their mission was now ended, and they were about to return to their 
 own country. 
 
 We had travelled in company by land and water now for the 
 space of two months ; we had gradually become accustomed to live 
 together ; we had shared in the good and the bad times on the 
 road; and it was not without a kind of emotion that we now saw 
 the moment arrive that was to separate us for ever. Our regrets 
 were certainly not as lively and profound as those we had expe¬ 
 rienced in bidding adieu to our Thibetan escort. We had no 
 friendly ties to sever, but merely a certain habit of being together, 
 which is easily acquired during long and toilsome journeys, and 
 
 B B 4 
 
376 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 which it is disagreeable to break off in order to form new ones. 
 Master Ting had provoked us more than once, and we had often 
 quarrelled ; yet, on the whole, we had become tolerably good 
 friends. At bottom he was not a bad fellow, for a Mandarin ; and 
 if one only let him play the Chinese a little, that is to say, finger 
 the sapecks right and left all along the road, he was tolerably good- 
 humoured and amiable. 
 
 Our farewells were extremely verbose, but instead of weeping, 
 we laughed a great deal as we recollected many curious incidents 
 of the journey. We afterwards showed him a piece of politeness, 
 a la Chinoise, by inquiring whether, in a pecuniary point of view, 
 he had reason to be satisfied with having accompanied us, and had 
 made a pretty round sum by it. 
 
 “ Why, yes,” he said, rubbing his hands, “ the business has been 
 pretty good; I have got together a nice little lot of ingots; but 
 you know, of course, it was not for the sake of money that I wished 
 to accompany you.” 
 
 “ Oh, of course not; who could think that?” 
 
 “ It is evident that I don’t like money ; I never did ; but I should 
 like to offer a little present to my mother on my return. It is for 
 her sake I wish to make some profit.” 
 
 “ That is, Master Ting, a fine and noble feeling. In loving 
 money, then, you only practise filial piety? ” 
 
 “ Exactly; filial piety is the very foundation of the social re¬ 
 lations ; it ought to be the prime motive of all our actions.” And 
 Master Ting took his leave, wishing that the star of happiness might 
 shine on our route all the way to Canton. 
 
 He went off quite delighted with the idea of having persuaded 
 us that he had been induced by pure filial piety to fleece the 
 Mandarins, all along the road from the capital of Sse-tchouen to 
 Ou-tchang-fou. 
 
 The only one of our Sse-tchouen escort who did not leave us 
 here was the servant, Wei-ehan, whom the Viceroy, Pao-hing, had 
 engaged for us. This young man had acquitted himself of his 
 duty with intelligence and activity, and even appeared to have 
 formed a kind of attachment to us — at least, as far as we could 
 possibly expect from a Chinese servant. He had been, like the 
 rest, appointed to attend us only to Ou-tchang-fou ; but the evening 
 before the departure of his companions, he had come to express a 
 desire to remain with us till we reached Canton. His proposal not 
 only met with no objection on our part, but was even eagerly 
 accepted, though we did not think it prudent to express all our 
 satisfaction to him. He had by this time become perfectly ac- 
 
A WEEPING WILLOW. 
 
 377 
 
 quainted with our habits, and knew, as the Chinese say, “the taste 
 of our characters; ” and it was much more agreeable to us to have 
 to do Avitli a man to whom we were already accustomed, and who 
 suited us tolerably well, than with a stranger. Wei-chan could 
 also be of great service to us with the new escort that we were to 
 take at Ou-tchang-fou. The one that was leaving us, and which 
 in the latter part of our journey had behaved extremely well, had, 
 including its chief, Master Ting, cost us an immensity of trouble to 
 bring into such good order. We had spent so much pains upon it, 
 that the idea of having all our work to do over again was rather 
 disheartening. Now we calculated that the presence of Wei-chan 
 would save us the trouble of undertaking another course of educa¬ 
 tion for our future travelling companions; he would serve as a 
 good example to the rest, and continue all our good traditions. It 
 was therefore decided that he should accompany us to Canton. 
 
 After the departure of our Sse-tchouen escort, the Mandarin 
 who had conducted us to our new abode came to pay us a visit of 
 ceremony, and to announce to us that he had been appointed by 
 his Excellency the Governor to conduct us to Nan-tchang-fou, the 
 capital of Kiang-si. He begged us afterwards to give him out- 
 opinion on the propriety of the Governor’s choice of him for an 
 affair of so much importance. There were not two ways to answer 
 such a question in China, so we replied, that in such a choice the 
 Governor had proved most indisputably his possession of the rare 
 gift of discernment into the characters of men, and that also his 
 Excellency had shown no less clearly his desire to render out- 
 journey fortunate and agreeable. Before our departure we would 
 not fail to go and thank him for this signal mark of his solicitude 
 and benevolence. Our new conductor made in return for our 
 courtesy the humblest speeches, and assured us that he had never 
 before met with men whose hearts were so capacious and so 
 merciful. 
 
 When this performance- was over, we tried to have a little ra¬ 
 tional conversation. We learned that our Mandarin was forty 
 years of age, that he was called Lieou , that is, “The Willow that 
 he belonged to the literary class, but had only attained a low grade ; 
 that he had formerly had the government of a small district, but 
 that he was at present out of office. 
 
 By his language it was easy to see that he was a native of the 
 North, from the province of Ching; namely, the country of Con¬ 
 fucius, which by no means implies that his intelligence was of a 
 very high order. More grave and somewhat more dignified than 
 Master Ting, he was also more reserved, and not so amusing ; it 
 
378 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 was besides not very agreeable to talk with him* as he expressed 
 himself with extreme difficulty. In his ordinary moods he slipped 
 his words together, so that we understood him very imperfectly, 
 and when he became at all excited his talk got into such confusion, 
 such an inextricable imbroglio, that we understood nothing at all! 
 His physiognomy was very unmeaning; there remained to him 
 only a few fragments of his teeth, and his goggle eyes that were 
 seen bolting out behind the glasses of his spectacles had the infir¬ 
 mity of frequently shedding tears ; so that when we found his name 
 was “ Willow,” we could not help adding an epithet, and calling 
 him “ The Weeping Willow.” 
 
 It was agreed between us that the new escort should be or¬ 
 ganised as quickly as possible, and so as to be ready for us to set 
 off again in four days. 
 
 The visit that we had had the audacity to make to the Governor 
 of Hou-pe had produced two good effects. First, we had recovered 
 our lost influence ; and secondly, we had obtained an excellent 
 lodging, where, while we were waiting the arrangements for our 
 departure, we might recover from the fatigues of our journey, and 
 also find around us many amusements. Besides the company of 
 the Mandarins who resided in the same establishment, we had from 
 time to time that of the principal functionaries of the town, who 
 did not fail to come and pay their respects to us, as soon as they 
 learned that we were in favour with the Governor. We could also 
 enjoy, without going out, the pleasure of walking in the courtyards 
 shaded by large trees, or in the immense garden, where — though 
 it was not so ornamental and elegant as that of Sse-ma-kouang — 
 there was a pretty belvedere, and the most capricious winding 
 paths imaginable. 
 
 Sometimes we went to visit the Buddhist temple, situated at the 
 centre of the establishment, and endeavoured to make out the 
 meaning of the enigmatical sentences with which the walls were 
 adorned. 
 
 We could not exactly understand what this building was; there 
 were wings devoted to the service of travelling Mandarins; there 
 were vast saloons destined for literary meetings, and assemblies of 
 several other corporations; there was an observatory, and a 
 theatre, and a pagoda; and all this went by the name of Si-men- 
 yuen, Garden of the Western Gate. You often find in the large 
 towns of China these unaccountable establishments, devoted to a 
 variety of purposes. Their construction is very difficult to de¬ 
 scribe ; you can only say it is quite Chinese. The public edifices, 
 temples, houses, towns, of the Celestial Empire, have all a certain 
 
CHINESE ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 379 
 
 character peculiar to them which does not belong to any known 
 order of architecture; one might call it the Chinese style ; but no 
 one could have an exact idea of it without having been in China. 
 
 The towns are almost all built on the same plan: they are usually 
 of the quadrilateral form, and surrounded by high walls, flanked 
 with towers at certain distances, and sometimes also by ditches, 
 wet or dry. In books which speak of China, it is said that the 
 streets of the towns are broad and perfectly straight, but it is not 
 less true that others are narrow and tortuous, especially in the 
 cities of the south. We have seen here and there some exceptions, 
 but they are extremely rare. The houses in town as well as in the 
 country are low, and have seldom more than one story. Those of 
 the first class are built of brick or painted wood, varnished on the 
 outside, and roofed with grey tiles; the second are of wood or clay, 
 with thatched roofs. The buildings of the north are always in¬ 
 ferior to those of the south, especially in the villages. In the 
 houses of the rich there are usually several courts, one behind 
 another, and in the last are the apartments of the women and the 
 gardens, A southern aspect is always preferred. The whole of 
 one side of the apartments is usually occupied by windows, in 
 which either talc painted in various designs, a sort of transparent 
 shell, or white and coloured paper, is used instead of glass. The 
 edges of the roof are turned up to form a gutter, and the corners 
 decorated with dragons and other fabulous animals. The shops 
 are supported by pilasters, ornamented with inscriptions on painted 
 and varnished boards, and the mixture of colours produces from a 
 distance a very agreeable effect. Very few private houses can be 
 called magnificent, though the term may be applied to some public 
 edifices. At Pekin the Government offices and the palaces of the 
 princes are raised on abasement, and covered with varnished tiles; 
 but the most remarkable monuments are the bridges, towers, and 
 pagodas. The. bridges are very numerous, and we have seen some 
 stone ones, composed of arches of great strength and span, that 
 were very handsome and imposing in appearance. At a short dis¬ 
 tance from the towns of the first, second, and third order, you 
 almost always see a more or less lofty tower standing apart and 
 solitary like a colossal sentinel. According to Indian tradition, 
 when Buddah died, his body was burnt, and his bones divided into 
 eight parts, which were inclosed in so many urns, to be deposited 
 in towers of eight floors. 
 
 Thence originate, it is said, these towers, so common in China, 
 and in all the countries into which Buddhism has penetrated. The 
 number of these floors is nevertheless uncertain, and their form is 
 
380 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 also very variable. There are some round, some square, some 
 hexagonal or octagonal, and they are built of wood, of brick, even 
 of earthenware, like that of Nankin, the ornaments of which being 
 of porcelain have procured for it the name of the porcelain tower. 
 Most of these monuments, however, are now falling into ruins, but 
 in the ancient poems are found passages which attest the luxury 
 and magnificence formerly displayed by the Emperors in their 
 construction. “ When I raise my eyes towards the tower of stone, 
 I must seek its top in the clouds. The sheen of its bricks glitters 
 with gold and purple, and reflects, like a rainbow, the rays of the 
 sun.” A censor, to express energetically the inutility and enormous 
 expense of the famous tower of Tchang-ngan, calls it ‘‘the half of 
 a city.” A poet, in rather a satirical vein, in speaking of one of 
 these edifices which was five hundred feet high, after several 
 strophes expressive of astonishment and admiration at the project 
 and execution of so great a work, continues: — “I am in fear of 
 asthma, and I have not dared to ascend to the highest terrace, 
 whence men below appear like ants. To mount so many steps as 
 that is only for those young loins, that have the strength to carry 
 in their hands or on their heads the revenues of several provinces.” 
 There were formerly, according to the Chinese books, towers of 
 white marble, of gilt brick, and even of copper; at all events in 
 part. They had three, five, seven, nine, even thirteen floors, and 
 their outward form varied as much as their internal decoration. 
 There were some that had galleries or balconies diminishing in 
 width at each floor; some were built in the midst of the waters, 
 some on an enormous mass of steep rocks, upon which, neverthe¬ 
 less, trees and flowers were made to grow, and where you saw 
 cascades and waterfalls. The ascent to the platform on which 
 they were built was by a set of steps roughly cut, and winding 
 round the sides of the rock, or even through it by vaults and 
 caverns imitated from those of mountains, and suspended like them 
 over precipices. 
 
 When you reached the platform you found, as it were, enchanted 
 gardens; and from the midst of these rose the towers, which must 
 have been of extraordinary beauty, to judge from the remains still 
 existing. 
 
 The pagodas or idol temples are scattered all over China with 
 incredible profusion; there is no village that does not possess 
 several of them, and they are seen on all the roads, and even in the 
 fields. The city of Pekin, it is said, possesses ten thousand of them. 
 It must be added that the greater part of these pagodas do not 
 differ much from other buildings. Very often they are only like 
 
RELIGIOUS EDIFICES. 
 
 381 
 
 small chapels, in which there are niches with idols in them, and 
 vases with burning perfume. 
 
 There are, nevertheless, some that exhibit a richness, grandeur, 
 and beauty, worthy of much admiration, such, for instance, as the 
 Temples of Heaven and Earth at Pekin, and in the provinces 
 several celebrated pagodas, to which the Chinese make pilgrim¬ 
 ages at certain times of the year. 
 
 The ornaments and decorations of these temples are, as may be 
 supposed, quite in the Chinese taste — and full of caprice and con¬ 
 fusion— and the paintings and sculptures have little artistic merit, 
 as the arts of design are very imperfectly cultivated in China. 
 The painters only excel in certain mechanical processes relating 
 to the preparation and application of colours; in their compositions 
 they pay no attention whatever to perspective, and their landscapes 
 are most distressingly monotonous. Their best performances are 
 in miniatures and water colours, but though not devoid of a certain 
 kind of beauty, they are still very inferior in style to the most 
 mediocre of European paintings. The sculptures in the pagodas 
 have often merit in the details, but want both elegance and correct¬ 
 ness of form. The Chinese assert that the painters and sculptors 
 of former times, especially of the fifth and sixth centuries of our 
 era, were greatly superior to those of the present day; and one 
 may be tempted to subscribe to that opinion after having visited 
 the old curiosity shops, where you find articles of real merit. 
 
 Temples of any great antiquity are not found in China, as they 
 have seldom been built strong enough to resist the ravages of time, 
 or wilful injury; when they decay they are usually left to go to 
 ruin as they may, and new ones built. The Song dynasty, says 
 a Chinese proverb, made the roads and the bridges, the Tang the 
 towers, the Ming the pagodas. 
 
 We may add, that the present dynasty, the Tsing, have made 
 nothing, and do not even try to preserve what has been made by 
 others. In considering the prodigious number of the temples, 
 pagodas, and oratories, which rise in all parts of China, one might 
 be tempted to think the Chinese a very religious people, but on 
 looking closely at the matter, it is easy to see that these external 
 manifestations are only the result of old customs, and no indication 
 at all of pious feelings and ideas. The Chinese of the present day 
 are, as we have already said, entirely absorbed in material interests 
 and the enjoyments of the present life, and totally indifferent to 
 religion in every form. 
 
 Their annals attest, nevertheless, that at various epochs they 
 have been deeply interested in certain religious systems, which 
 
382 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 after many vicissitudes, have at length become acclimatised in the 
 Empire, and still exist there, at all events nominally. 
 
 There can hardly be said to be any such thing as a state religion 
 in China, but all religions are tolerated, provided, at least, they are 
 not regarded as politically dangerous. Three principal religions 
 are admitted and considered as equally good — one might say 
 equally true — although there have been long and bitter wars 
 between them. The first and most ancient is that called jou-kiao, 
 “ ihe Doctrine of the Lettered,” of which Confucius is regarded 
 as the patriarch and reformer. It is based on a philosophic pan¬ 
 theism, which has been variously interpreted at different epochs. 
 It is believed that in the highest antiquity the existence of an 
 Omnipotent God distributing rewards and punishments was recog¬ 
 nised in it; and various passages in the writings of Confucius give 
 room to think that the sage himself acknowledged such a one; 
 but the vague sense in which he has used his words, the little 
 anxiety he has shown to inculcate such a belief on his disciples, 
 and the care he takes to base his ideas of morality* and justice 
 upon the principles of the love of order and a certain not very well- 
 defined conformity with the will of heaven and the progress of 
 nature, have permitted his followers to err so far, that several of 
 them have fallen into a true Spinozism, and have taught, while 
 referring always to the authority of their master, a materialistic 
 system that is degenerating into atheism. Confucius, in fact, is 
 never religious in his writings; he contents himself with recom¬ 
 mending in general the observance of the ancient practices of filial 
 piety and fraternal love; and the bringing the conduct into con¬ 
 formity with the laws of heaven, with which human actions ought 
 always to harmonise. 
 
 In reality, the religion and the doctrine of Confucius is a system 
 of positivism. Little do the Chinese care about long philosophical 
 lucubrations, little tor questions concerning the origin, creation, 
 and end of the world. They ask of time only what may suffice 
 for life; of science and letters only what is required to fill official 
 
 * And what morality ! Tse-luen, a disciple, asks Confucius how a son ought 
 to bear himself towards the enemy of his father. “ Let him lie down in a 
 mourning habit,’ replies Confucius, “and have only his weapons for a pillow. 
 Let him accept no employment till the enemy of his father no longer exists 
 upon the earth. Should he meet him, either in the palace or in the market¬ 
 place, let him not go home to fetch his arms, but attack him on the spot. ” In 
 another passage this famous moralist expresses himself thus: “ the murderer 
 of your father ought not to remain under the same sky with you ; you must not 
 lay by your arms as long as the murderer of your brother still lives, and you 
 cannot live in the same kingdom with that of your friend,” 
 
CONFUCIUS AND HIS FOLLOWERS. 
 
 383 
 
 employments ; of the greatest principles only their practical conse¬ 
 quences ; and of morality nothing but the political and utilitarian 
 part; in a word, they are what at the present day many in Europe 
 are striving to become. They put aside all grand disputes, all 
 speculative questions, to attach themselves to the positive. Their 
 religion itself is only a kind of civilisation, and their philosophy 
 the art of living in peace, of commanding and obeying. 
 
 The State has always retained as a civil institution the worship 
 paid to the spirits of heaven and earth, of the stars, the mountains, 
 and the rivers, as well as to the souls of deceased relations ; it is 
 an external religion for official personages and literary men who 
 aspire to any office ; but no one regards it as anything more than 
 a social institution, the meaning of which may be interpreted in 
 different ways, and from which no consequence need be drawn. 
 
 This worship has no priests and no idols; every magistrate 
 practises it within the sphere of his own jurisdiction; and the 
 Emperor himself is the patriarch or head of it. Generally, all 
 literary persons, and those who propose to become such, attach 
 themselves to it, though often without renouncing practices bor¬ 
 rowed from other religions. But conviction does not seem to have 
 anything to do with the matter in either case; and habit alone 
 induces them to conform to ceremonies which they themselves turn 
 into ridicule — such as divination, casting horoscopes, and counting 
 lucky and unlucky days, all which superstitions are in great vogue 
 throughout the Empire. 
 
 Whatever is least vague and most serious in the religion of the 
 Chinese is absorbed by the worship of Confucius. His tablet is 
 in all the schools; masters and pupils are required to prostrate 
 themselves before this venerated name, at the beginning and at the 
 end of the classes, and his image is to be found in the academies 
 and the places where the learned assemble, and where literary ex¬ 
 aminations are carried on. All the towns have temples raised 
 in his honour, and more than three hundred millions of men proclaim 
 him the saint par excellence. Never has it been given to any 
 mortal to exercise during so many centuries so extensive an empire 
 over his fellow-creatures, or to receive homage so much like true 
 worship, although every one knows perfectly well that Confucius 
 was simply a mortal man, who lived in the principality of Lan-sin, 
 six centuries before the Christian era. 
 
 A worship, at the same time civil and religious, rendered to a 
 simple citizen by an immense nation for four and twenty centuries! 
 There is nothing in human annals comparable to it. The descend¬ 
 ants of Confucius, who exist still in great numbers, participate in 
 
384 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the honours paid by the Chinese nation to their glorious ancestor; 
 they constitute the sole hereditary nobility of the Empire, and 
 enjoy certain privileges appertaining to them alone. 
 
 The second religion in China is regarded by its professors as the 
 primitive religion of the ancient inhabitants, and it has consequently 
 many analogies with the preceding; only that the individual 
 existence of spirits and demons, independently of the parts of nature 
 over which they preside, is more fully recognised by it. The priests 
 and priestesses of this worship are devoted to celibacy, and practise 
 magic, astrology, necromancy, and many other absurd superstitions. 
 They are called Tao-sse, or Doctors of Reason, because their fun¬ 
 damental dogma taught by the famous Lao-tze, the contemporary 
 of Confucius, is that of the existence of the primordial reason that 
 created the world. 
 
 Lao-tze being little known to Europeans, it may not be irrelevant 
 here to enter into some details concerning the life and opinions 
 of this philosopher. We borrow them from an excellent notice of 
 him, published by M. Abel Remusat, in his Melanges Asiatiques. 
 
 “ I have subjected to a profound examination the doctrines of a 
 philosopher, very celebrated in China, though very little known in 
 Europe, and whose writings, being very obscure, and consequently 
 very little read, are not much better appreciated in his own country 
 than in ours, where his name has hardly been heard. 
 
 “ The traditions that have been current concerning this philo¬ 
 sophy, and for the knowledge of which we are indebted to the 
 missionaries, are not of a nature to invite any serious inquiry. 
 What was most positively known was, that this sage, whom one of 
 the three sects of China acknowledges as its head, was born 2400 
 years ago, and wrote a book that has come down to posterity under 
 the pompous title of ‘ The Book of Reason and Virtue.’ From 
 this title, his followers have bestowed on themselves that of ‘ Doctors 
 of Reason;’ and they support their claim to this denomination by 
 a thousand extravagances. It is from them we learn that the 
 mother of their patriarch bore him in her womb nine times nine 
 years, and that he came into the world with grey hair, which 
 procured for him the title of Lao-tze (‘Old Child’), under which 
 he is commonly known. It is recorded also that towards the end 
 of his life, this philosopher left China, and travelled very far into 
 the West, to the countries where, according to some, he obtained 
 his opinions, and, according to others, taught them. In searching 
 for the details of his life, I have met with many wonderful things 
 told of him by the ignorant sectaries who suppose they are follow¬ 
 ing his doctrine. For instance, as they admit the dogma of the 
 
CHARACTER OF HIS WRITINGS. 
 
 385 
 
 transmigration of souls, they imagine that of their master not to 
 have been its first birth when it came to animate the body above 
 mentioned, but to have already appeared several times upon the 
 earth. It is known that Pythagoras pretended to have formerly 
 reigned in Phrygia under the name of Midas ; that he remembered 
 to have been that Euphorbius who wounded Menelaus, and that he 
 recognised in the temple of Juno at Argos the buckler that he had 
 borne at the siege of Troy. These sorts of genealogies cost nothing 
 to those that fabricate them, but that which has been made for 
 Lao-tze is certainly magnificent. Among other transformations, 
 his soul had descended many ages before into the western countries, 
 and had converted the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, 600 years 
 before the building of Rome! 
 
 “ It appears to me that these fables might have relation to the 
 principles inculcated by Lao-tze, and, perhaps, present some traces 
 of the circumstances that carried them to the extremity of Asia. 
 I was interested in inquiring whether this sage, whose life offers so 
 many points of resemblance with the philosopher of Samos, might 
 not have also in his opinions some more real conformity with him. 
 My examination of his book fully confirmed this conjecture, and 
 also effected a complete change in the opinion I had formed of the 
 writer. Like many other founders of religious systems, he was far 
 from foreseeing the direction that the doctrines he taught were to 
 take in future ages, and should he ever appear again upon the earth 
 he would have much cause to complain of the wrong done to him 
 by his unworthy disciples. Instead of the head of a sect of jugglers, 
 magicians, and astrologers, seeking for the elixir of immortality, 
 and the means of reaching heaven by raising themselves through 
 the air, I found in his book a true philosopher, a judicious moralist, 
 an eloquent theologian, and a subtle metaphysician. His style has 
 the majesty of Plato; and we must own also something of his 
 obscurity. He expresses similar conceptions almost in the same 
 language; and the analogy of the expressions is not less striking 
 than that of the ideas. Here, for example, in speaking of the 
 Supreme Being:—‘Before the chaos that preceded the birth of 
 the heavens and the earth, one only being existed — immense, silent, 
 immoveable yet incessantly active—that is the mother of the 
 .universe. I know not how this being is named; but I designate 
 it by the word reason. Man has his model in the earth, the earth 
 in the heavens, the heavens in reason itself.’ The morality professed 
 by Lao-tze is worthy of this beginning ; according to him perfection 
 consists in being without passion, in order the better to contemplate 
 the harmony of the universe. There is not, he says, any greater 
 
 C C 
 
386 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 sin than ill-regulated desires, nor any greater misfortune than the 
 torments that are the just punishment of them. He did not seek 
 to diffuse his doctrine. ‘ If one has discovered a treasure,’ he says, 
 ‘one conceals it carefully.’ The most solid virtue of the sage 
 consists in knowing how to pass for a fool. He adds that the wise 
 man should follow the times, and adapt himself to circumstances ; 
 a precept that one might think superfluous, but which was doubtless 
 intended to be understood in a sense different from that which it 
 has among us. For the rest, his philosophy breathes nothing but 
 mildness and benevolence. He is averse only to hard-hearted and 
 violent men. Mention has been sometimes made of this passage 
 concerning conquerors: ‘ The least glorious peace is preferable to 
 the most brilliant successes of war. The most splendid victory is 
 but the light from a conflagration.’ ‘ He who adorns himself with 
 laurels loves blood, and deserves to be blotted out from the number 
 of men.’ The ancients said, ‘ Render no funeral honours to con¬ 
 querors; receive them with tears and cries, in memory of the 
 homicides they have committed, and let the monuments of their 
 victories be environed with tombs.’ 
 
 “ The metaphysics of Lao-tze offer many remarkable traits that 
 we are constrained to pass over in silence. How in fact could we 
 give an idea of the high abstractions, the inextricable subtleties, in 
 which his oriental imagination wanders and loses itself. It is suffi¬ 
 cient to say that the opinions of the Chinese philosopher on the 
 origin and constitution of the universe present no ridiculous fables 
 or monstrous absurdities; they bear the impress of a noble and 
 elevated mind, and in the sublime reveries that distinguish them 
 they present a striking and indisputable resemblance to the doc¬ 
 trines professed a little later in the schools of Pythagoras and Plato. 
 Like the Pythagoreans and Platonists, our philosopher admits as a 
 first cause Reason — a being ineffable, uncreated, who is the type 
 of the universe, but who has no type but himself. Like Pytha¬ 
 goras, he regards human souls as emanations from this ethereal 
 substance, and supposes that after death they are re-united with it; 
 he also agrees with Plato in refusing to the wicked the faculty of 
 re-entering the bosom of this universal soul. Like Pythagoras, he 
 gives to the first principles of things the names of numbers, and his 
 cosmogony is in some measure algebraical. He attaches the chain 
 of being to him whom he calls One — then to Two — then to Three 
 — who he says have made all things. The divine Plato, who had 
 adopted this mysterious dogma, seems to fear revealing it to the 
 profane; he envelopes it in clouds in his famous letter to three 
 friends; he teaches it to Dionysius of Syracuse, but in enigmas, as 
 
TRAVELS OE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS. 
 
 38 
 
 he says himself, for fear that his tablets, passing over land and sea, 
 might fall into the hands of some unknown person who should read 
 and understand them. 
 
 “Possibly the then recent recollection of the death of Socrates 
 might have contributed to occasion this reserve. Lao-tze does not 
 employ all this circumlocution, and it is clearly laid down in his 
 book, that it was a threefold being who formed the universe.” 
 
 This thought confirms ail that has been already indicated in the 
 tradition of the journey of Lao-tze towards the West, and leaves 
 little doubt concerning the origin of his doctrine. Probably he 
 received it from the Jews of the Ten Tribes, whom the conquests 
 of Salmanasar had just dispersed over Asia; or from the apostles 
 of some Phoenician sect, to which belonged also the philosophers 
 who were the precursors and masters of Pythagoras and Plato. In 
 a word, we find in the writings of this Chinese philosopher the 
 dogmas and opinions which formed, to all appearance, the basis of 
 the Orphic faith, and of that antique oriental wisdom which the 
 Greeks sought for in the school of the Egyptians, the Thracians, 
 and the Phoenicians. 
 
 It is now certain that Lao-tze drew from the same sources as the 
 masters of ancient philosophy ; but one would like to know who 
 were his immediate preceptors, and what countries of the West he 
 visited. We know by a credible witness that he went to Bactria, 
 and it is not impossible that he penetrated as far as Judea, or even 
 Greece. A Chinese at Athens presents indeed an idea that runs 
 counter to our' opinions, or rather our prejudices, concerning the 
 relations of ancient nations; but I believe, nevertheless, that we 
 should accustom ourselves to it; and that though it cannot be 
 positively proved that our Chinese philosopher did really reach 
 Greece, it is not improbable that there were Chinese there about 
 that period, and that the Greeks may have alluded to them in those 
 Scythians and Hyperboreans whom they mention as remarkable for 
 the mildness and elegance of their manners. Besides this, if Lao-tze 
 stopped in Syria, after having traversed Persia, lie must already 
 have gone three parts of the way, and overcome the greatest diffi¬ 
 culties in the passage across the plateau of high Asia. 
 
 Since we have attached ourselves exclusively to the search after 
 facts, we can hardly conceive that any one should undertake such 
 a long and toilsome journey from the sole desire to become 
 acquainted with opinions; but that was the time for philosophic 
 travels, —men were willing to brave every fatigue in the search 
 after wisdom, or what they took for such ; and the love of truth had 
 power to stimulate them to enterprises upon which even the love 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of gain would have hardly ventured. There is an air of romance 
 about these long wanderings, that half prevents us from believing 
 in them. We can hardly imagine that at those remote periods, 
 when geography was so imperfect, and the world enveloped in 
 obscurity, philosophers should quit their country, and pass through 
 a thousand obstacles, over a considerable part of the ancient conti¬ 
 nent, without what we should consider more substantial motives. 
 But all facts that are difficult of explanation are not to be rejected, 
 and facts of this kind multiply upon us as we penetrate further into 
 the ancient history of the East. What we are tempted to think is 
 that the obstacles were not so great as we have imagined, nor the 
 countries so entirely unknown. The recollections of ties of kin¬ 
 dred still, it may be, linked the nations of the antique world one to 
 another; and hospitality, the virtue of barbarous nations, dispensed 
 the traveller from the necessity of many precautions that he could 
 not now safely neglect. Religion favoured their progress, which 
 was in some measure but a long pilgrimage from temple to temple, 
 from school to school. 
 
 At all times commerce has had her caravans, and from the highest 
 antiquity there were in Asia certain tracks marked out, which 
 naturally continued to be followed, till the discovery of the Cape 
 of Good Hope changed the direction of these long journeys. In 
 our opinion the civilised nations of antiquity were by no means so 
 much strangers to each other, or so isolated, as is commonly sup¬ 
 posed, because the motives that urged them to communicate one 
 with another are unknown to us. We are sometimes disposed to 
 place to the account of their ignorance what is in fact only attri¬ 
 butable to our own. In this respect we might justly apply to our¬ 
 selves what is said in relation to morals by one of the most celebrated 
 disciples of the sage whose opinions we have just been inquiring 
 into. “ A vivid light shone on the highest antiquity, of which only ■ 
 a few rays have reached us. It appears to us that the ancients 
 were in darkness because we see them only through the thick clouds ] 
 from which we ourselves have but just issued. Man is an infant born j 
 at midnight, who, when he sees the sun rise, thinks that yesterday j 
 has never existed.” Confucius was in frequent communication with 
 Lao-tze, but it is difficult to know what was his opinion of the doc- 1 
 trines of the patriarch of the Doctors of Reason. One day he went to 
 pay him a visit, and when he returned to his disciples, he remained 
 three days without pronouncing a word. Tseu-kong was surprised 
 at this, and asked the cause of his silence. “ When,” said Confu- , 
 cius, “I see a man make use of his thoughts to escape me, like a | 
 bird that flies away, I dispose mine like a bow armed with its arrows j 
 
THE DOCTORS OP REASON. 
 
 389 
 
 to pierce him, and I never fail to reach him and master him. 
 When I see a man making use of his thoughts to escape me like an 
 agile stag, I arrange mine like a running dog to pursue him, and I 
 never fail to come up with him, and throw him down ; when a man 
 makes use of his thoughts to escape from me like a fish of the deep, 
 
 I arrange mine like the hook of the fisherman, and I never fail to 
 take him, and get him into my power. But as to the dragon who 
 rises on the clouds and floats in ether, I cannot pursue him. I have 
 seen Lao tze, and he is like the dragon. At his voice my mouth 
 remained wide open ; my tongue came out of it with astonishment, 
 and I had not the power to draw it back; my soul was plunged 
 into perplexity, and has not been able to recover its previous calm¬ 
 ness.” 
 
 Whatever may be said of the philosophical ideas of Lao-tze, 
 his disciples, the Doctors of Reason, do not at present enjoy any 
 great popularity. The superstitions to which they abandon them¬ 
 selves are so extravagant, that the most ignorant make them an 
 object of sarcasm. They have rendered themselves especially 
 notorious by their pretended elixir of immortality; though they 
 gained great credit for it with many famous Emperors. The Chi¬ 
 nese annals are full of the disputes and quarrels of the Lao-tze 
 with the disciples of Confucius, and the latter have employed the 
 weapons of ridicule against them with the greatest success, and 
 have never failed to turn the laugh against the Doctors of Reason, 
 as well as against the Bonzes, the priests of Buddhism, which is 
 the third religion of China. 
 
 Towards the middle of the first century of our era, the Em¬ 
 perors of the dynasty of Han admitted Indian Buddhism officially 
 into their dominions. This religion, which has material represen¬ 
 tations of the divinity, spread rapidly among the Chinese under 
 the name of the “ religion of Fo,” an imperfect transcription of 
 the name of Buddha. So vast a religious system, professed by 
 more than three hundred millions of followers, well deserves that 
 we should enter into some details with respect to its origin, its 
 doctrine, and its propagation among the nations of high Asia. 
 The word Buddha is a very ancient generic name, having in San¬ 
 scrit a double root. The one signifies being, existence ; the other 
 wisdom, superior intelligence. It is the name by which was ori¬ 
 ginally designated the creative omnipotent God; but it has been 
 extended to those who worshipped him, and sought to raise them¬ 
 selves to him by contemplation and holiness. All the Buddhists, 
 however, whom we have met in China, Tartary, Thibet, and Cey¬ 
 lon, intend by this name to denote an actual historical personage, 
 
 c c 3 
 
390 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 who has become celebrated throughout Asia, and who is regarded 
 as the founder of the institutions and doctrines comprised under 
 the general name of Buddhism. 
 
 In the eyes of Buddhists this personage is sometimes a man and 
 sometimes a god, or rather, he is both one and the other. He is a 
 divine incarnation, a man-god, who came into the world to en¬ 
 lighten men, to redeem them, and point out to them the way of 
 salvation. This idea of a redemption of the human race by a 
 divine incarnation is so general and popular among the Buddhists, 
 that we have everywhere found it reduced to a neat formula, ex¬ 
 pressed in remarkable terms. If we addressed to a Mongol or a 
 Thibetan this question, “Who is Buddha?” He replied instantly, 
 “The Saviour of Men.” The marvellous birth of Buddha, his 
 life and his instructions, contain a great number of moral truths 
 and dogmas professed in Christianity, and which we need not be 
 surprised to find also among other nations, since these truths are 
 traditional, and have always belonged to the heritage of humanity. 
 There must be among a pagan people more or less of Christian 
 truth, in proportion as they have been more or less faithful in pre¬ 
 serving the deposit of primitive traditions. 
 
 From the concordant testimony of Indian, Chinese, Thibetan, 
 Mongol, and Cingalese books, we may place the birth of Buddha 
 about the year 960 before Christ; the variation of a few years, 
 more or less, is of little consequence. Klaproth has extracted 
 from the Mongol books, which are merely translations from Thi¬ 
 betan or Sanscrit, the legend of Buddha, of which we are about 
 to give a succinct analysis. 
 
 “ Soutadanna, chief of the House of Chakia, of the caste of 
 Brahmins, reigned in India over the powerful Empire of Magadha, 
 in Southern Bahar, the capital of which was Kaberchara. He 
 married Mahamaia, ‘ The Great Illusion,’ but did not consummate 
 liis marriage with her. She, although a virgin, conceived by divine 
 influence, and on the fifteenth day of the second month of spring, 
 she brought into the world a son, whom she had borne in her womb 
 three hundred days. Taking him in her arms, she presented him 
 to a king, who was also an incarnation of Brahma (in Mongol, 
 Esroum Tingri), and who enveloped him in a piece of precious 
 stuff, and lavished upon him the most tender cares. Another king, 
 an incarnation of Indra (in Mongol, Hormousta Tingri), baptized 
 the young god in divine water. The child received the name of 
 Arddha Chiddi, and was immediately recognised as a divine per¬ 
 son, it being foretold that he would surpass in holiness all pre¬ 
 ceding incarnations. Every one adored him, saluting him with 
 
THE LEGEND OP BUDDHA. 
 
 391 
 
 the title of God of Gods (in Mongol, Tingri in Tingri). Ten 
 virgins were charged to serve him, seven to bathe him, seven to 
 dress him, seven to rock him to sleep, seven to keep him clean, 
 seven to amuse him with their sports, while thirty-five others 
 charmed his ears by songs and instruments of music. When he 
 arrived at the age of ten, they gave him several masters, amongst 
 whom was distinguished the sage Babourenou, from whom he 
 learned poetry, music, drawing, mathematics, and medicine, but 
 he soon embarrassed his tutor by questions, and afterwards begged 
 him to teach him all languages, an indispensable condition, he 
 said, of his apostleship, which was to enlighten the world, and 
 spread among all nations the knowledge of religion and of the 
 true doctrine The preceptor, however, was acquainted only with 
 the idiom of India, and the pupil therefore taught the tutor fifty 
 foreign languages with their peculiar characters, and he soon sur¬ 
 passed the whole human race. 
 
 “ When he had reached the proper age, he refused to marry un¬ 
 less they could find him a virgin possessing thirty-two virtues and 
 perfections, and by dint of searching they did at last discover one, 
 but it was necessary to dispute possession of her with her uncle, 
 who had also sought her in marriage. He was then twenty years 
 old — the marriage took place—and the following year the young 
 wife brought into the world a son, and afterwards a daughter. 
 Soon renouncing worldly vanities, he gave himself up to the prac¬ 
 tice of virtue and a contemplative life, and quitted his wife, his 
 family, and his preceptor, who, afflicted at such a resolution, made 
 vain efforts to dissuade him from this step. They even signified 
 to him that they would keep him a prisoner in his palace of Kaber- 
 chara, but he declared that he would get out in spite of them, and 
 he said to his tutor, ‘ Adieu, father; I am going to return to the 
 condition of a penitent; I renounce you, my wife, my dear son, my 
 empire ; I have reasons sufficient to follow my vocation. Do not 
 hinder me from accomplishing this step ; it is for me a sacred duty.’ 
 
 “ Mounted on a horse brought to him by a celestial spirit, lie 
 then took flight, and went to the kingdom of Oudipa, on the 
 borders of Naracara. There he conferred on himself the sacer¬ 
 dotal order, cut his hair off, and assumed the costume of a peni¬ 
 tent. He also substituted for his own name that of Gotama, that 
 is, ‘ He who extinguishes and kills the senses,’ ( go , senses, and 
 tamd , darkness). 
 
 “When exhausted by his long austerities, he restored himself 
 by taking the milk of the cows that Soutadanna, his father, had 
 conducted into the neighbourhood of his retreat. A great ape 
 
 c c 4 
 
392 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Khakho-Monsou came often to see Gotama; one evening it brought 
 him some cakes made of the honey of wild bees, and figs, and pre¬ 
 sented them to him for his repast. Gotama, according to his 
 custom, watered the figs and the honey with holy water, and then 
 ate of them. The ape leaping for joy, fell into a well, and in 
 memory of the accident the place was consecrated under the name* 
 of ‘ Place of the offerings of the Ape.’ One day, when an ele¬ 
 phant intoxicated with cocoa-wine was sent against him by a bad 
 genius, he pacified it by merely making a sign with his finger. 
 
 “He afterwards chose a still wilder retreat, whither he was 
 followed by only two disciples, Chari, the son of his preceptor, 
 and the celebrated Malou-Toni. Yet, remote as this retreat was, 
 his enemies found means to discover it, and thought to tempt him 
 by insidious questions. Eriktou and Debeltoun presented them¬ 
 selves first, and inquired with feigned modesty, ‘ Gotama, what is 
 thy doctrine ? Who was thy tutor ? From whom didst thou 
 receive the priesthood ?’ ‘I am holy by my own merit.,’ replied 
 Gotama; ‘ it is I who have consecrated myself my own minister. 
 What have I to do with other teachers ? Religion has penetrated 
 my being.’ He repelled the seductions of many women, and on 
 that occasion caused the tutelary genius of this globe to spring 
 from the earth, and bear witness to his virtues. Five favourite 
 disciples were then associated with their master, and their names 
 became celebrated in the history of Buddhism ; they are Godinia, 
 Datol, Langba, Muigtsan and Sangdan. At the end of six years 
 he quitted the desert to go and fulfil the apostolic duties for which 
 he had prepared himself by long fasting. His disciples adored 
 him, and immediately there shone forth a glory from the face of 
 the saint. He then took the route to Varanasi (Benares), to 
 make his entry, but absorbed in ecstatic contemplation, he made 
 three times the circuit' of this sacred town before ascending the 
 throne, which the founders of three anterior religious epochs had 
 successively occupied. After having taken possession of this 
 supreme seat, he adopted the name of Chakia-Mouni, ‘ the peni¬ 
 tent of Chakia,’ lived in solitude, and continued the preparatory 
 meditations by which he fitted himself for his new functions. 
 Followed by his five disciples he afterwards crossed the deserts, and 
 betook himself to the sea-shore, being every where received with 
 veneration. Returning to Benares he there unfolded his doc¬ 
 trine, surrounded by an innumerable multitude of auditors of all 
 classes. His teachings are contained in a collection of eio-ht 
 hundred great volumes, known under the general name of Gand- 
 jour, or Verbal Instruction. They turn exclusively on the meta¬ 
 physics of creation, and on the frail and perishable nature of man. 
 
THE BUDDHIST DECALOGUE. 
 
 393 
 
 “ This monumental work is found in all the libraries of the 
 great Buddhist convents. The finest edition is that issued at 
 Pekin from the Imperial press. It is in four languages, Thibetan, 
 Mongol, Mantchou and Chinese. The government is in the habit 
 of sending copies of it as presents to the great Lama monasteries. 
 Chakia Mouni experienced a lively opposition from the priests 
 attached to the ancient creeds, but he triumphed over all his ad¬ 
 versaries, after holding a discussion with them ; and their chief 
 prostrated himself before him and acknowledged himself van¬ 
 quished. In memory of this triumph there was instituted a fes¬ 
 tival that lasted for the first fifteen days of the first month. Chakia- 
 Mouni then revised the principal foundations of morals and the 
 decalogue. Moral principles are reduced to four. 1st, mercy 
 established on an immoveable basis; 2ndly, the aversion to all 
 cruelty; 3rdly, a boundless compassion towards all creatures; 4thly, 
 an inflexible adherence to the law. Then follows the decalogue, 
 or the ten commandments and special prohibitions: 1st, not to kill; 
 2nd, not to steal; 3rd, to be chaste ; 4thly, not to bear false witness ; 
 5thly, not to lie; 6thly, not to swear; 7thly, to avoid impure 
 words; 8thly, to be disinterested; 9thly, not to avenge yourself; 
 lOthly, not to be superstitious. This last prohibition is very re¬ 
 markable, and the modern Buddhists certainly do not pay much 
 attention to it. Chakia-Mouni declared that these precepts con¬ 
 cerning human actions were revealed to him after the four grand 
 trials that he had gone through when he devoted himself to a 
 state of sanctity. 
 
 “ This code of morals was beginning to be diffused over all 
 Asia when he quitted the earth, casting off his material envelope, 
 to be re-absorbed into the universal soul, which is himself. He 
 j was then eighty-four years of age. Before bidding adieu to his 
 disciples, he predicted that the reign of his doctrine would last 
 five thousand years, but that at the end of this time there would 
 be another Buddha, another man-god, predestined ages before to 
 be the teacher of the human race. ‘ Until that epoch,’ he added, 
 ‘ my religion will be the object of persecution, and my faithful 
 ones will be obliged to quit India, and retire to the highest sum¬ 
 mits of Thibet, and this plateau, from the top of which the ob¬ 
 server commands the world, will become the palace, the sanctuary, 
 and the metropolis of the true faith.’ ” 
 
 Such is the abridged history of the famous founder of the 
 Buddhist religion, who endeavoured to overthrow Brahminism, the 
 ancient religion of the Hindoos. Buddha employed both miracles 
 and preaching as the means of diffusing his religion, and his his- 
 
394 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 tory, as well as that of his disciples, is filled with prodigies and 
 marvels of the most extravagant kind. 
 
 i he dominant character of Buddhism is, however, a spirit of 
 mildness, equality, and fraternity, which contrasts favourably 
 with the hardness and arrogance of Brahminism; and Chakia- 
 Mouni and his disciples endeavoured to put mankind at large in 
 possession of the truths which were before regarded as the exclusive 
 property of the privileged classes. 
 
 I he perfection of the Brahmins was in some measure egotistical; | 
 their religion was only for themselves. They gave themselves up ] 
 to severe penance, but it was in order to share in another life the 
 abode of Brahma. 
 
 The devotion of the Asiatic Buddhist was more disinterested. 
 Not aspiring to elevate himself alone, he practised virtue, and 
 applied himself to gain perfection, in order to share its benefits 
 with other men. In the institutions of an order of religious men¬ 
 dicants, which in a short time increased to a prodigious extent, 
 Chakia attracted to himself, and consoled, the poor and the un¬ 
 fortunate. I he Brahmins mocked him, because he received into 
 the number of his disciples miserable men, who were rejected by 
 the first classes of Indian society. But he contented himself with 
 replying, “ My law is a law of mercy for all.” One day the Brah¬ 
 mins were scandalised at seeing a daughter of the inferior caste 
 of the Tchandala received as a religious woman. Chakia said : 
 
 There is not between a Brahmin and a man of another caste the 
 difference that there is between gold and a stone, between light 
 and darkness. Ihe Brahmin, in fact, did not proceed out of the 
 ether, or the wind. He did not cleave the earth to appear in the 
 daylight like the fire that issues from the wood of the Arani. The \ 
 Brahmin was born of a woman, like the tchandala; where, then, I 
 dost thou see the cause that should render the one noble and the i 
 other vile? Ihe Brahmin himself, when he is dead, is abandoned 
 as an object vile and impure, precisely like a person from another j 
 caste; where, then, is the difference?” 
 
 1 he religious systems of Buddhism and Brahminism resemble 3 
 each other closely in many points; and the bitter persecutions j 
 which the Buddhists have experienced from the Brahmins are 
 attributable less to a divergence of opinion upon dogmas, than to 
 their admission of all men, without distinction of caste, to civil 
 and sacerdotal functions, and to future rewards. The empire of 
 Brahminism depending essentially on the hierarchy of caste, they 
 could not but treat as enemies the reformers who proclaimed the j 
 equality of all men in this world and the next. 
 
CHINESE INDIFFERENTISM. 
 
 395 
 
 These persecutions were long, and extremely violent; and if we 
 give credit to the traditions and books of the Buddhists, the num¬ 
 ber of victims must have been incalculable. At length, towards 
 the sixth century of our era, Brahminism obtained a decisive vic¬ 
 tory over the partisans of the new religion; and the latter, expelled 
 from Hindostan, took refuge in the Himalaya mountains, and 
 thence spread over Thibet, Bucharia, Mongolia, China, the Bur¬ 
 mese Empire, Japan, and even as far as Ceylon. Among the 
 Buddhist nations we have visited, those who appear to us most 
 sincerely attached to their religion are, first, the Mongols, then 
 come the Thibetans, in the third place the Cingalese, and lowest 
 in the scale stand the Chinese, who, indeed, have fallen into 
 complete scepticism. 
 
 On our passage to Ceylon, some Buddhists of that country told 
 us that their books alone contained the pure doctrine of Buddha, 
 and that, according to the traditions of the country, when he was 
 flying from the persecutions of the Brahmins, he retired into their 
 island, and that afterwards he rose into the skies from the summit 
 of one of their mountains, where he left the print of his foot. It 
 is the mountain called at present Adam’s Peak, as the Mussul¬ 
 mans pretend that the impression is that of the foot of the first of 
 men. In the interior of the island is the famous temple of Candy, 
 where the Buddhists preserve, as they say, one of Buddha’s teeth. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 
 All Religions condemned by the Chinese Government. — Formulas of Scepti¬ 
 cism. _ Condition of the Bonzes of China. — Buddhist Monasteries. — 
 Religious Architecture. — Temple of Pou-tou. — Library of the Monastery. 
 
 _Visit to the Superior of the Bonzes. — Profound Respect of the Chinese 
 
 for Writing. — Convent of Bonzesses. —Ceremonies to recal the Souls of the 
 Dying when they are escaping. — Death of a young Bachelor. — Mourning 
 
 of the Chinese. — Singular Mode of lamenting the Dead-Interments. —- 
 
 Worship of Ancestors. — Chinese Classification of Various Ages of Life.— 
 Marriage in China. — Servitude of Women. — Discord in domestic Life. — 
 Examples. — Sect of abstinent Women. 
 
 The three religions of which we have spoken in the preceding 
 chapter, and which are personified by Confucius, Lao-tze, and 
 Buddha, or Fo, still exist in China. After having struggled 
 fiercely for ages, the one against the other, they are now united in 
 universal indifferentism, and there reigns among them the most 
 
396 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 profound peace. This result must be principally attributed to the 
 literary classes. 
 
 The Doctors of Reason and the Buddhists had abandoned them¬ 
 selves to so many superstitions, that the disciples of Confucius had 
 no great difficulty in turning them into ridicule. The pamphlets 
 full of spirited satire which they have continually been firing off 
 at the Bonzes and the Tao-sse have at length stifled in these people 
 every religious sentiment, and the Emperors themselves have done 
 their part towards plunging the nation into the scepticism which 
 is eating away its spiritual life, and effecting its dissolution with 
 frightful rapidity. There is still extant a collection of sentences 
 composed by the Emperor Khang-hi for the instruction of his 
 people; and Yoang-tching, who succeeded him on the Imperial 
 throne, has made commentaries upon his father’s sentences, which 
 are intended to be read in public by the magistrates. One of the 
 points on which the princely commentator particularly insists, is 
 the propriety of cherishing an aversion to all false sects, that is to 
 say, in fact, for all religions. He passes them in review, and con¬ 
 demns them all, without exception ; but that of Buddhism, which 
 is the most widely diffused in China, is especially the object of his 
 reprobation. He speaks of the dogmas on which it rests with con¬ 
 tempt ; he turns its practices into derision. 
 
 The Buddhists, like other followers of Indian sects, attach much 
 importance to certain words or syllables, which they repeat con¬ 
 tinually, thinking to purify themselves from their sins by the mere 
 articulation of these holy syllables, and to effect their salvation by 
 this easy method. The Imperial commentator rallies them keenly 
 upon this practice. “ Suppose,” he says, “ you had violated the 
 laws in some way, and that you were taken into the hall of judg¬ 
 ment to be punished ; do you think, if you were to go on bawling 
 a thousand times over, ‘Your excellency ! your excellency ! ’ the 
 magistrate would be any more likely to spare you for that? ” In 
 other passages this comparison tends to nothing less than the 
 destruction of all idea of worship or homage rendered to the 
 Divinity. These sentences are real lessons in atheism, addressed 
 by a sovereign to his subjects. 
 
 “ If you do not burn any paper in honour of Fo, and if you do 
 not deposit any offerings on his altar, he will be displeased, you 
 think, and send his judgments on your head. What a miserable 
 creature must your god Fo be then ! Let us take the example of 
 the magistrate of your district: should you never go to compli¬ 
 ment him, and pay your court to him, if you are honest people, 
 attentive to your duty, he will not the less be well disposed towards 
 
PATERNAL INSTRUCTIONS OP YOANG-TCHING. 397 
 
 you ; but if you transgress the law, commit violence, and en¬ 
 croach on the rights of others, he will always be dissatisfied with 
 you, though you should find a thousand ways of flattering him.” 
 The Christian religion is, of course, not spared by the commenta¬ 
 tor of the Emperor Khang-hi, who was very favourably disposed 
 towards the missionaries, but regarded them merely as artists and 
 learned men, from whom he might obtain some advantage for the 
 State, as the following passage from his successor, Yoang-tching, 
 will tend to prove. “ The sect of the Lord of Heaven,” he says, 
 “a sect that is perpetually talking about heaven and earth, and 
 beings without substance or shadow, this religion, also, is per¬ 
 verted and corrupt; but as the Europeans who teach it under¬ 
 stand astronomy and mathematics, the Government has employed 
 them to correct the calendar. It by no means meant, however, to 
 imply by that, that their religion was good; and you must not 
 believe anything they tell you.” 
 
 Such instruction as this, coming from so high a quarter, could 
 not fail to bear fruit; and all belief in spiritual things and a future 
 life has been accordingly extinguished. 
 
 The religious sentiment has vanished from the national mind; 
 the rival doctrines have lost all authority ; and their partisans, 
 grown sceptical and impious, have fallen into the abyss of in- 
 differentism, in which they have given each other the kiss of 
 peace. Religious discussions have entirely ceased ; and the whole 
 Chinese nation has proclaimed this famous formula, with which 
 everybody is satisfied, San-kiao-y-friao, that is, “ the three reli¬ 
 gions are but one.” Thus all the Chinese are at the same time 
 partisans of Confucius, Lao-tze, and Buddha; or rather, they are 
 nothing at all: they reject all faith, all dogma, to live merely by 
 their more or less depraved and corrupted instincts. The literary 
 classes only have retained a certain taste for the classical books 
 and moral precepts of Confucius, which every one explains ac¬ 
 cording to his own fancy, invoking always the “ ly,” or principle 
 of rationalism, which has become the only one generally re¬ 
 cognised. 
 
 But although they have thus made a tabula rasa of their 
 religious creeds, the ancient denominations have remained, and 
 the Chinese still like to make use of them ; but they are now only 
 the memorials of feeling long since dead. Nothing more clearly 
 indicates this desolating scepticism, than a formula of politeness 
 exchanged between unknown persons on their first meeting. It is 
 customary to ask to “what sublime religion” you belong. One, 
 perhaps, will call himself a Confucian, another a Buddhist, a third 
 
398 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 a disciple of Lao-tze, a fourth a follower of Mahomet, of whom 
 there are many in China ; and then every one begins to pronounce 
 a panegyric on the religion to which he does not belong, as 
 politeness requires; after which they all repeat in chorus, “ Pou- 
 loun-kiao,toun-ly “Religions are many; reason is one; we are all 
 brothers.” This phrase is on the lips of every Chinese, and they 
 bandy it from one to the other with the most exquisite urbanity. 
 
 It is indeed a clear and concise expression of their feeling on 
 religious questions. In their eyes, a worship is merely an affair 
 of taste and fashion, to which no more importance is to be 
 attached than to the colour of your garments. 
 
 The government, the literary classes, the whole nation in fact, 
 regards all religions as things futile and of no interest; and 
 it may therefore easily be supposed that there reigns in 
 China an incomparable toleration for every kind of worship. 
 The Chinese enjoy, in fact, the most perfect liberty in this respect, 
 provided always that the authorities can be convinced that under 
 pretence of a religious association you are not concealing a poli¬ 
 tical object injurious to the State. For this reason only, as we 
 have said before, the Christians are reproached and persecuted by 
 the magistrates. 
 
 No one ever thinks of persecuting the Bonzes and the Tao-sse. 
 They are left to live in poverty and contempt in their obscure 
 abodes, without any one ever troubling himself about them, with 
 the exception, perhaps, of an occasional practitioner of the art of 
 magic who may come to consult them about casting lots, or to 
 burn some painted paper and perfumes at the feet of an idol, 
 or to order a few prayers in the hope of immediately making a 
 large fortune by them. The extremely slender fees that the 
 Bonzes receive on such occasions, however, would be insufficient 
 for their maintenance, if they neglected to make up the deficiency 
 by some private industry. The greater part of them keep a 
 school; and those who are not sufficiently versed in the classical 
 books for this are compelled, in some measure, to wander about 
 the villages and beg their rice. The revenues of the pagodas are 
 not now as considerable as they were at some periods ; and from 
 the Bonzes and Tao-sse being able to obtain only so precarious 
 and humiliating a subsistence, their number is continually declin¬ 
 ing. It is hardly conceivable why men not supported by a reli¬ 
 gious faith should resign themselves to such abject poverty ; and, 
 in fact, this priesthood of an extinct religion and a forsaken 
 worship is compelled to recruit itself in a singular manner. 
 
 The Bonze who is attached to a pagoda buys, for a few sapecks, j 
 
THE HOLY ISLAND OF FOU-TOU. 
 
 399 
 
 the child of some indigent family, shaves his head, and makes a 
 disciple of him, or rather a servant. The poor child vegetates 
 thus in the company of his master, and by degrees accustoms 
 himself to that mode of life. Subsequently he becomes the suc¬ 
 cessor and heir of him to whom he has been sold ; and he then 
 seeks, in his turn, to procure for himself a small disciple. 
 
 In this manner is perpetuated the race of Bonzes, wdiose influence 
 has been so great at different epochs, as may be seen in the annals 
 of China, but which at the present day has completely lost all 
 authority and credit. The people have no longer the smallest 
 respect for them. They are often brought on the stage, and made 
 to play the most infamous parts; indeed, such is the contempt 
 into which they have fallen, that the insurgents have lately thought 
 to render themselves popular by massacring them everywhere on 
 their passage. 
 
 There were formerly in the environs of the most celebrated pa¬ 
 godas, great monasteries, where numerous Bonzes lived in com¬ 
 munity, in the manner of the Lamas of Thibet and Tartary. They 
 possessed rich libraries, in which all Chinese and Indian books 
 that had any relation to the Buddhist religion were kept. In these 
 ■were to be seen the finest editions of the “ Gandgour” or “Ver¬ 
 bal instructions of Buddha,” in 800 large volumes, and the “ Dand- 
 gour,” in 232. This last work is a sort of religious Encyclopaedia, 
 or ecclesiastical history of Buddhism. At present, however, these 
 famous libraries are almost deserted. We have had occasion to 
 : visit a great number of them, and among the rest that of Fou-tou, 
 one of the most renowned in the Celestial Empire. 
 
 Pou-tou is an island of the great archipelago of Chusan, on the 
 coasts of the province of Tche-kiang. More than 100 monas¬ 
 teries, more or less important, and two of which were founded by 
 Emperors, are scattered over the sides of the mountains and val¬ 
 leys of this picturesque and enchanting island, which nature and 
 art have combined to adorn with their utmost magnificence. All 
 over it you find delightful gardens, full of beautiful flowers,— 
 grottoes cut in the living rock, amidst groves of bamboo and other 
 trees, with aromatic banks. The habitations of the Bonzes are 
 sheltered from the scorching rays of the sun by umbrageous foli¬ 
 age, and scattered about in the prettiest situations imaginable. 
 Thousands of winding paths cross the valleys in various directions, 
 and the brooks and rivulets, by means of pretty bridges of stone 
 or painted wood, and for the communications between the scat¬ 
 tered dwellings. In the centre of the island rise two vast and 
 brilliant edifices — Buddhist temples—the yellow bricks of which 
 
400 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 announce that their construction is due to imperial munificence. 
 The religious architecture of the Chinese does not at all resemble 
 ours. They have no idea of the majestic, solemn, and perhaps 
 somewhat melancholy style, that harmonises so well with the feel¬ 
 ings which ought to be inspired by a place devoted to meditation 
 and prayer. When they wish to build a pagoda, they look out for 
 the most gay and smiling site they can find on the declivity of a 
 mountain or in a valley; they plant it with great trees of the ever¬ 
 green species; they trace about it a number of paths, on the sides 
 of which they place flowering shrubs, creeping plants, and bushes. 
 It is through these cool and fragrant avenues you reach the build¬ 
 ing, which is surrounded by galleries, and has less the air of a 
 temple than of a rural abode charmingly situated in the midst of a 
 park or garden. 
 
 The principal temple of Pou-tou is reached by a long avenue of 
 grand secular trees, whose thick foliage is filled with troops of 
 crows with white heads ; and their cawings and flapping of wings 
 keep up a continual clamour. At the end of the avenue is a mag¬ 
 nificent lake, surrounded with shrubs that lean over its waters like 
 weeping willows. Turtle and gold fish gleam through them ; and 
 mandarin-ducks, in their gaily-coloured plumage, play over their 
 surface, amidst the splendid water-lilies whose rich corollas rise 
 majestically upon tender green stalks spotted with black. Several 
 bridges of red and green wood are thrown over this lake, and lead 
 to flights of steps, by which you ascend to the first of the temple 
 buildings — a kind of porch, supported upon eight enormous 
 granite columns. On the right and left are stationed, like sentinels, 
 four statues of colossal size, and two side gates lead to the vestibule 
 of the principal nave, where is enthroned a Buddhist Trinity, repre¬ 
 senting the Past, the Present, and the Future. These three statues 
 are entirely gilt, and, although in a crouching posture, of gigantic 
 dimensions—at least twelve feet high. Buddha is in the midst, 
 his hands interlaced, and gravely placed on his majestic abdomen. 
 He represents the Past, and the unalterable and eternal quiet to 
 which it has attained; the two others, which have the arm and the ; 
 right hand raised, in sign of their activity, the Present and Future. ] 
 Before each idol is an altar covered with little vases for offerings, I 
 and cassolets of chiselled bronze, where perfumes are constantly 
 burning. 
 
 A crowd of secondary divinities are ranged round the hall, the j 
 ornaments of which are composed of enormous lanterns of painted 
 paper or horn—square, round, oval — indeed, of all forms and 
 
THE GREAT TEMPLE. 
 
 401 
 
 colours; and the walls are hung with broad strips of satin, with 
 sentences and maxims. 
 
 The third hall is consecrated to Kouang-yn , whom the greater 
 number of accounts of China persist in regarding as a goddess of 
 porcelain, and sometimes also of fecundity. According to the 
 Buddhist mythology, Kouang-yn is a person of the Indian Tri- 
 mourti, or Triune God, representing the creative power. 
 
 Finally, the fourth hall is a pantheon, or pandemonium, contain¬ 
 ing a complete assortment of hideous idols, with ogres’ and reptiles’ 
 faces. Here you see, huddled together pell-mell, the gods of 
 heaven and earth; fabulous monsters, patrons of war, of the silk 
 manufacture, of agriculture, and of medicine; the images of the 
 saints of antiquity, philosophers, statesmen, warriors, literary men 
 — in a word, the most heterogeneous and grotesque assembly con¬ 
 ceivable. 
 
 This temple is divided into four parts. Its building and decora¬ 
 tion must have cost enormous sums; but at present it is in a com¬ 
 plete state of dilapidation. The rich roof of gilt and varnished 
 tiles is broken and defaced, so that when rain falls, it washes the 
 heads of the poor idols, who seem to need an umbrella more than 
 the perfumes that are burning at their feet. The other pagodas 
 are in no better condition; some are falling entirely into ruins, 
 and the gods lie prostrate, with their faces to the ground, and 
 serve sometimes for seats to the curious travellers who visit this 
 holy isle. 
 
 The vast monasteries of Pou-tou, where once dwelt multitudes 
 of Bonzes, are now entirely abandoned to legions of rats and great 
 spiders, which peacefully ’weave their enormous webs in the de¬ 
 serted cells. The cleanest and best preserved place is the library, 
 and the Bonze in charge of it desired that we should pay it a 
 visit; but we found it very inferior to those that we had seen in 
 Tartary and Thibet. It possessed about 8000 volumes, enveloped 
 in yellow satin, carefully ticketed and ranged in order in cases sur¬ 
 rounding a vast saloon. They relate exclusively to the theology 
 and liturgy of the religion of Buddha. Most of them are trans¬ 
 lations ; but some are simple Chinese transcriptions of Indian 
 books, which the Chinese can read fluently, without understanding 
 a word of their contents. We hinted to the librarian that books 
 of this kind could not be particularly instructive to the Bonzes. 
 
 “ The religious family of Buddha,” he replied, “ finds now no 
 more attraction in books. The Bonzes of Pou-tou read none— 
 no more those they can understand than those they cannot. They 
 
 D D 
 
402 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 never set a foot in the library. I see none but strangers, who come 
 to visit the place out of curiosity.” 
 
 The religious Buddhist, who made this confession, did not seem 
 to partake the indifference of his brethren ; on the contrary, he was 
 a true type of the bibliopole. For eighteen years that he had 
 resided at Pou-tou he had scarcely quitted his library. He passed 
 in it the whole day and a part of the night, continually occupied, 
 he said, in sounding the unfathomable depths of the doctrine. 
 Some books that were lying open on a table in the corner, attested, 
 in fact, that he was doing something else than merely keeping the 
 place; and if we had been disposed to listen to him, he was quite 
 ready and willing to favour us with a review of the collection, 
 accompanied by a little analysis of the contents of each volume. 
 He did, indeed, begin with wonderful enthusiasm; and it was easy 
 t.o see that he did not often find visitors complaisant enough to 
 listen to his dissertations on what for him had become a true wor¬ 
 ship. But want of time compelled us to deprive him and ourselves 
 of the pleasure of this learned oration. 
 
 We paid a visit to the superior of the island, whose habitation 
 was situated near the principal temple. The apartments he occu¬ 
 pied were almost clean; and it might even be seen that certain 
 notions of luxury had formerly presided over their arrangement. 
 This superior was a man of about forty years of age, whose lan¬ 
 guage did not indicate any great skill in literature or theology, but 
 whose cunning eye, and brief emphatic speech, denoted a man 
 accustomed to business and command. He told us that for some 
 years past he had been endeavouring to get the pagodas of the 
 island restored, and that almost all the Bonzes under his authority 
 were now in the interior of the Empire, in quest of the funds neces¬ 
 sary to the realisation of his project. The collections made, how¬ 
 ever, he said, had hitherto been very small; and he did not fail to 
 add many long lamentations over the decay of zeal for the worship 
 of Buddha. As he knew that we were missionaries, we thought we 
 might frankly express our own opinion on the subject of the indif¬ 
 ference he was deploring. “We are not at all surprised,” said we, 
 “to see the Chinese cold and careless towards a worship including 
 so many contradictory articles of faith, and which darken and con¬ 
 fuse common sense.” 
 
 “ That is the thing,” he replied ; “ your marvellous intelligence 
 has seized the true point of the difficulty.” 
 
 “ Men may be seduced for a time by vain superstitions ; but 
 sooner or later they perceive their futility, and easily detach them¬ 
 selves from them.” 
 
PLEASING MORAL LESSON. 
 
 403 
 
 “ These words are full of clearness and precision.” 
 
 “ A religion which has no root in truth cannot satisfy the heart 
 and mind of man. The nations may put faith in it for a time; but 
 their faith is neither firm nor durable.” 
 
 ‘ That is the true explanation. 3 he central nation has no more 
 faith, and that is why my Bonzes come back with empty hands. It 
 is known that religions are numerous, but that Reason is immu¬ 
 table.” 
 
 “ False religions, based upon lies, have, indeed, only a certain 
 time ; but truth is eternal, and consequently for all times and places. 
 Ihe religion of the Lord of Heaven, which is the expression of the 
 truth, is for all men — it is immutable as its foundation.” 
 
 This chief Bonze was tolerably well acquainted with the Chris¬ 
 tian doctrine ; he had read several books concerning it, and among 
 others the celebrated one of Father Ricci, upon the “True Know¬ 
 ledge of God.” Fie had the politeness to tell us that our religion 
 was sublime—incomparable, and that, as for his own, it had not 
 even common sense; and then he added the formula customary 
 among the Chinese — Pou-toun-kiaotoun-ly — “ Religions are 
 many; reason is one;” and with this deplorable conclusion he 
 abruptly changed the subject, and began to talk to us of the fine 
 plans he had in his head for the restoration of the pagodas. 
 
 As we left Pou-tou, we met several boats making for the port of 
 the little island. They were laden with Bonzes, returning from 
 their quest; and we inquired whether they had been fortunate. 
 “ Oh; yes,” cried a young novice, in a transport of joy ; “ we are 
 bringing back plenty of sapecks ! ” 
 
 Scarcely had he uttered the words before he received a hard 
 thump on the head from an old Bonze, who was sitting, hunched 
 up, near this indiscreet young person. 
 
 “Shaven devil!” cried the worthy man, “will you never cure 
 yourself of telling lies? We sapecks indeed!” 
 
 The poor child hid his face in his hands, and began to cry. He 
 seemed to understand, too late, that he had committed an 'impru¬ 
 dence, and that it is not well to reveal the secret of one’s riches to 
 the first comer. I he old Bonze had had more experience. 
 “ There,” said he, giving another cuff to the poor novice, “ that’s 
 for your lies ! I’ll give you more knocks than we have sapecks.” 
 I hen turning to us, he said, with bland politeness, ‘‘It is necessary 
 to correct youth when it outrages the truth ; that is an incontesta¬ 
 ble principle. Our excursion into the district of Han-Tcheou has 
 not been fruitful. The rice harvest had been a bad one, and the 
 people were in indigence ; how, then, could they bestow alms on 
 
 d n 2 
 
404 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the family of Buddha? We have, however, had the happiness to 
 collect a large quantity of neglected paper, and thus to save innu¬ 
 merable written characters from profanation. Respect for written 
 characters has been inculcated by the saints of antiquity.” And, 
 as he spoke, he pointed to a little boat following them, that con¬ 
 tained a cargo of waste paper. 
 
 The flotilla of Bonzes then continued its route ; and we could 
 not help thinking that they had probably collected a tolerable sum, 
 or the old Bonze would not have been so hard upon the young 
 novice for his indiscretion. When a Chinese has money, he will 
 never admit that he has; and if he boasts of having it, you may 
 almost always be sure that his purse is empty. This mania is not 
 peculiar to the Chinese character; it may be found elsewhere. 
 
 In showing us the boat filled with old bits of paper, the Bonze 
 had said that respect for written characters had been recommended 
 by the saints of antiquity ; and we had, in fact, remarked, during 
 our long abode in the Celestial Empire, that generally all the Chi¬ 
 nese profess a profound veneration for the written word. They 
 take great care not to put to profane uses any paper on which 
 letters are written or printed. Coarse paper is sold at a very low 
 price for packages and other similar purposes; but they preserve 
 with respect whatever has writing on it, and avoid treading upon it, 
 or dirtying it. Even the children have the same habit. 
 
 We do not believe that the Chinese attach any superstitious idea 
 to this practice; they appear simply to intend by it to pay honour 
 to human thought, which may be said to be incarnate, and fixed in 
 writing. In this point of view, the scrupulous solicitude of the 
 Chinese for the written character is, perhaps, worthy of admiration. 
 
 As, however, even in China, all are not as careful as it is sup¬ 
 posed they ought to be of written paper, but leave it, either from 
 neglect or forgetfulness, exposed to profanation, a certain class of 
 Bonzes make it their special mission to institute everywhere an 
 exact and minute search after it. They traverse towns, villages, 
 and frequented high roads, with a hod on their backs, and a hook 
 in their hands, and they stop by preference in places where rub¬ 
 bish and filth is thrown, and pick up carefully every scrap of 
 paper they can see. Their collections are then carried into a 
 pagoda, to be burnt before the images of the sages of antiquity. 
 
 The majority of the most celebrated pagodas of China are 
 nearly in the same state of decay as that of Pou-tou. Decay and 
 want of faith are everywhere perceptible, and nothing indicates 
 that these Buddhist edifices will ever recover their ancient lustre. 
 The remembrance of their renown attracts to them, at certain 
 
VARIOUS MODES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 405 
 
 epochs, a number of visitors ; but it is curiosity and not religion 
 that brings them. They go to burn incense at the feet of the 
 idols, or to bargain with the Bonzes for prayers ; but these vota¬ 
 ries are in fact mere pleasure-seekers, and their journeys to the 
 pagodas little parties got up for the sake of recreation. You do 
 also occasionally meet people walking in the places sacred to 
 Buddhist devotion, but they are mere promenaders, not pilgrims. 
 
 There do not exist any monasteries, properly so called, where 
 Bonzes live in community. The religious Buddhists scattered 
 over the different provinces of the Empire are independent of one 
 another, and unconnected by any tie of discipline or hierarchy. 
 In each house'there is indeed a chief, but he is rather an adminis¬ 
 trator of temporal goods than a spiritual superior. He does not 
 exercise any authority over his brethren, who live without any 
 rule, just as their caprice dictates, sometimes in one way, some¬ 
 times in another, being often absent for a long time from the 
 monastery, going vagabondising about the country, as long as 
 they can pick up a living, and only returning home when driven 
 by hunger ; indeed, if they happen to find anywhere a position to 
 suit them, they do not come back at all. To make yourself a 
 Bonze, you have only to shave your head and put on a robe with 
 long wide sleeves ; to cease to be one, merely to change your coat 
 and let your hair grow, wearing a false tail until your own has 
 attained the fashionable length. The religious Buddhists of China, 
 it is obvious, are far from having the influence and importance of 
 the Lamas of Tartary and Thibet. 
 
 Convents of Bonzesses are rather numerous in China, especially 
 in the provinces of the south, and their costume differs very little 
 from that of the Bonzes ; they also have their heads shaven ; they 
 are not cloistered, and are frequently met with in the streets. If 
 we should give credit to public rumour, we should say also that 
 there reign great disorders in the interior of these establishments, 
 and it is certain that respectable people, who are a little anxious 
 about their reputation, will not set foot in them. 
 
 From all that we have said concerning the present condition of 
 the various modes of worship recognised in China, and the posi¬ 
 tion of their ministers, it is allowable to conclude that the Chinese 
 are living absolutely without religion. There remain among them 
 a few superstitious practices, to which they yield rather from 
 habit than conviction, and from which they are very easily de¬ 
 tached. No account whatever is taken of religious belief by. the 
 legislature, and the magistrates only speak of it to turn it into 
 ridicule. The idea of an atheistical government, and an athe- 
 
 X) d 3 
 
406 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 istical law, which in France was so extolled in the Chamber of 
 Deputies, has been actually realised in China, but it does not 
 seem that the nation has greatly gained thereby in grandeur and 
 prosperity. 
 
 During our residence at Ou-tchang-fou, in the establishment 
 called Si-men-yuen, or Garden of the Western Gate, we happened 
 to be witnesses of an occurrence which shows how possible it is to 
 reconcile the most superstitious practices with the total absence of | 
 any religious conviction. We have said that this vast institution, 
 where we were awaiting the day of our departure, had various 
 tenants of different classes. Opposite to the apartment assigned 
 to us, in a spacious court, there was another wing of the building, 
 in a rather elegant style. This was occupied by a retired Man¬ 
 darin, with a numerous family, who had held formerly a high 
 office in the magistracy, and who had delayed for two years his 
 return to his native province, in the hope that his influence with 
 the first functionaries of the town might obtain for his eldest son 
 a small Mandarinate. This aspirant had as yet only the grade of 
 Bachelor, though he was married, and had three children. During 
 these two years of expectation, the hopes of the old Mandarin had 
 not been realised, but his son, instead of being promoted to a 
 public office, had fallen ill of a malady that seemed likely to carry 
 him to the tomb. At the time of our arrival we found the family 
 plunged into great grief, for the state of the sick man was so 
 alarming that they were already preparing to make him a coffin. 
 The death of this young man would, it was evident, be regarded 
 by the whole family as a terrible event, for he was its hope and 
 support. 
 
 On the very first night that we passed in our new lodging, the j 
 Garden of the Western Gate resounded with cries and the letting ' 
 off of fireworks, which were heard, sometimes on one side, some¬ 
 times on the other, but almost without interruption. The purpose i 
 of all this clamour was to save the dying man. 
 
 The Chinese think, as we do, that death is the result of the defini¬ 
 tive separation of the soul from the body, but they also think that 
 the degree of illness is in direct proportion to the number of attempts 
 which the soul makes to escape, and when the sufferer experiences 
 the terrible crises that endanger his life, it is a proof that the soul 
 has been momentarily absent, that it keeps going away to a certain 
 distance, but returns again. The distance being so small, it is still 
 able, to exercise considerable influence on the body, and keep it ] 
 alive, although it suffers dreadfully from this transitory separation; j 
 if the dying person falls into the last agony, it is evident that the I 
 
CHASE AFTER A SOUL. 
 
 407 
 
 soul has gone with the firm resolution not to come back again. 
 Nevertheless all hope is not yet lost, and there is a method of 
 making it take up its abode again in the unfortunate body that is 
 struggling with death. They try first the effect of persuasion, and 
 endeavour by prayers and supplications to induce the soul to 
 change its resolution. They run after it, they conjure it to come 
 back, they describe in the most moving terms the lamentable state 
 to which they will be reduced if this obstinate soul will not hear 
 reason. They tell it that the happiness of the entire family 
 depends upon it, they urge it, flatter it, overwhelm it with en¬ 
 treaties. “ Come back, come back! ” they cry, “ what have we 
 done, what have we done to you? What motive can you have for 
 going away? Come back, we conjure you,” and as no one knows 
 very well which way the soul is gone, they run in all directions, 
 and make a thousand evolutions in the hope of meeting it, and 
 softening it by their prayers and tears. 
 
 If these mild and insinuating methods do not succeed, if the 
 soul remains deaf, and persists coolly in going its own way, they 
 adopt another course, and try and frighten it. They utter loud 
 cries, they let off fireworks suddenly in every direction in which 
 they imagine it might be making off; they stretch out their arms 
 to bar its passage, and push with their hands to force it to return 
 home and re-enter the body. Amongst those who set out on the 
 chase after a refractory soul, there are always some more skilful 
 than others, who manage to get upon its track. Then they sum¬ 
 mon the others to help them, calling out, “ Here it is ! here it is ! ” 
 and immediately everybody runs that way. They then unite their 
 forces, they concentrate their plan of operations, they weep, they 
 groan, they lament, they let off squibs and crackers of all kinds, 
 they make a frightful charivari round the poor soul, and hustle it 
 about in all sorts of ways, so that if it does not give it up at last, 
 it must really be a most stubborn and ill-disposed spirit. 
 
 When they are setting out on this strange errand they never fail 
 to take lanterns with them, in order to light the soul on its way 
 back, and take away any pretence it might make of not being able 
 to find it. These ceremonies mostly take place during the night, 
 because, say the Chinese, the soul is in the habit of taking advan¬ 
 tage of the darkness to slip away. This opinion seems to be somewhat 
 akin to that expressed by M. de Maistre, in his Soirees de Saint- 
 Petershourg :—“ The night air is not good,” he says, “ for the physi¬ 
 cal man. The animals teach us this, -when they all seek a shelter in 
 the night; our maladies teach us this, by raging most during the 
 night. Why do you in the morning send to ask how a sick friend 
 
 D d 4 
 
408 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIKE. 
 
 has passed the night, rather than in the evening to know how he 
 has passed the day ? It must be because there is something bad in 
 the night.” 
 
 In the Garden of the Western Gate there was, as we have al¬ 
 ready said, a fine pagoda dedicated to Buddha, of whom a gilt 
 statue stood on the altar. The gate of this temple was open day 
 and night, and the relations, friends, and servants of the patient 
 were continually passing through it, and before the statue of 
 Buddha; but no one of them ever stopped to say a prayer, to burn 
 incense, or to implore the cure of him who seemed so dear to all; 
 this was because these people were really without faith or religion ; 
 they did not seem to have any suspicion of the existence of an all- 
 powerful Being, the master of life and death, who holds in his 
 hands the destinies of all men. 
 
 All they knew was that when a person was in danger of death, it 
 was customary to run this way and that in pursuit of his soul, and 
 try to bring it back, and they adopted this practice simply to do as 
 others did, without ever asking whether the custom was reasonable 
 or absurd, and probably also without having any great confidence 
 in it themselves. 
 
 The whole night long we were kept awake by these extraor¬ 
 dinary manoeuvres of the poor Chinese for the arrest of the fugitive 
 soul of their dying relative. Now and then they stopped under our 
 windows, and we heard them addressing to it such strange bur¬ 
 lesque supplications, that the scene would have been perfectly amus¬ 
 ing and laughable, if we had not known that a numerous family 
 was overwhelmed by grief, and in momentary expectation of a 
 cruel domestic calamity. Absurd as it was, there was something 
 heartrending in hearing the voice of that old man and those little 
 children, calling with loud cries on the soul of a father and a son. 
 
 On the following morning, as we were going towards the apart¬ 
 ments of the sorrowing family, in the hope of being able to speak 
 some words of consolation to them, we were met by a servant, 
 who informed us that the sick man had just died. 
 
 The Chinese have a number of circumlocutory phrases to indi¬ 
 cate the fact. They say the person exists no more, he has “sa¬ 
 luted the age,” he has “thanked the world,” he has “ascended to 
 the sky,” &c., all so many expressions, more or less elegant, to be 
 employed according to the quality of the individual of whom you 
 speak. When the question is of the Emperor, they say he has 
 “ fallen or given way,” for the death of the head of the Empire is 
 regarded as so immense a catastrophe, that it can only be com¬ 
 parable to the fall of a mountain. 
 
REGULATION SORROWS. 
 
 409 
 
 We soon saw persons going to and coming from the house of 
 the deceased, clothed in habits of mourning, that is to say, wearing 
 caps and girdles of white linen. For complete mourning the 
 dress must be altogether white, even to the shoes, and the little 
 silk cord with which the hair is plaited and knotted up. Chinese 
 customs being always in opposition to those of Europe, as we 
 wear black, they of course will wear white. 
 
 It is the custom in China to keep the dead a very long time in 
 the house, sometimes even to the anniversary of their decease. In 
 the meanwhile the body is placed in a coffin of extraordinary 
 thickness, and covered with quick-lime, so that it does not occa¬ 
 sion any inconvenience in the house. The object of this practice 
 is to do honour to the dead, and give time for preparation for the 
 funeral. His burial is the most important affair, one may say, in the 
 life of a Chinese, the object of his most anxious solicitude. Death 
 is a mere trifle ; no one troubles himself much about that, but the 
 quality of the coffin, the ceremonies of the funeral, the choice of 
 a burial-place, and the spot where the grave is to be dug, all that 
 is matter of serious consideration. When the death takes place, 
 these cares of course are left as a legacy to his relations. Vanity 
 and ostentation certainly have much to do with these things; 
 every one wishes to perform the ceremony in grand style, so as to 
 create a sensation in the country, and outdo his neighbours. To 
 obtain the funds necessary for such a display some management 
 is often necessary, but people are not alarmed at the most extra¬ 
 vagant expenses; they do not shrink from the most enormous 
 sacrifices; they will even sell their property, and occasionally ruin 
 the family outright, rather than not have a fine funeral. Con¬ 
 fucius did not enjoin all these foolish excesses, in the fulfilment of 
 an imaginary duty of filial piety, but he did advise people to 
 devote as much as the half of their w'orldly property to the inter¬ 
 ment of their parents. The reigning dynasty has endeavoured to 
 check these exorbitant and useless expenses, but the laws made 
 concerning them appear to affect only the Mantchoos ; the Chinese 
 continue to follow their ancient customs. 
 
 After the body has been placed in the coffin, the relations and 
 friends assemble at certain appointed hours, to w'eep together, and 
 express their sorrow. We have often been present at these funeral 
 ceremonies, in which the Chinese display with marvellous facility 
 their really astonishing talents for dissimulation. The men and 
 women assemble in separate apartments, and until the time comes 
 at which it is settled they are to grieve, they smoke, drink tea, 
 gossip, laugh, all with such an air of careless enjoyment that you 
 
410 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 can hardly persuade yourself that they are really supposed to be 
 a company OLf mourners. But when the ceremony is about to 
 begin, the nearest relation informs the assembly that the time has 
 come, and they go and place themselves in a circle round the 
 coffin. On this signal the noisy conversation that has been going 
 on suddenly ceases, the lamentations begin, and the faces but 
 now so gay and good-humoured instantly assume the most doleful 
 and lugubrious expression. 
 
 The most pathetic speeches are addressed to the dead ; every 
 one speaks his own monologue on the subject, interrupted by 
 groans and sobs, and, what is most extraordinary, inconceivable 
 indeed, by tears, — yes,- actually real true tears, and plenty of 
 them. 
 
 One would suppose they were unconsolable in their grief—and 
 yet they are nothing more than skilful actors — and all this sor¬ 
 row and lamentation is only a display of histrionic talent. At a 
 given signal the whole scene changes abruptly, the tears dry up, 
 the performers do not even stop to finish a sob or a groan, but 
 they take their pipes, and lo, there are again these incomparable 
 Chinese, laughing, gossipping, and drinking tea. Certainly no 
 one could guess that, instead of drinking hot tea, they had but a 
 moment before been shedding hot tears. 
 
 When the time comes for the women to range themselves round 
 the coffin, the dramatic piece is, if possible, played with still greater 
 perfection. The grief has such an appearance of sincerity, the 
 sighs are so agonising, the tears so abundant, the voice so broken 
 by sobs, that actually, in spite of your certainty that the whole 
 affair is a purely fictitious representation, you can hardly help 
 being affected at it. 
 
 The Chinese do not fail to turn to account in many circum¬ 
 stances this astonishing talent for going distracted in cold blood, 
 and pouring from their eyes a quantity of water, so-called tears, 
 that come from one knows not where. What is also very strange 
 is, that, although they are all acquainted with these insinuating 
 artifices, they are sometimes caught by them, and reciprocally 
 cheated. It is, however, with strangers that they obtain their 
 most brilliant successes. Missionaries newly arrived in China, 
 who have not yet had time to become acquainted with their won¬ 
 derfully flexible natures, capable of taking by turns, and at will, 
 the expression of the most opposite sentiments, imagine they have 
 to do with people of the profoundest sensibility, the most impres¬ 
 sible in the world; but they soon discover that the tears of the 
 Chinese are no more to be relied on than their words, and are for 
 
GRAND FUNERALS. 
 
 411 
 
 the most part purely fictitious. Cordiality and sincerity are qua¬ 
 lities rare indeed among the Chinese. 
 
 The rich inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, it is almost need¬ 
 less to say, make an exorbitant display at funerals. They invite 
 as many relations and friends as they can, in order to muster an 
 imposing procession, and the mourning dresses worn by the whole 
 party are at the cost of the family of the deceased, who are also 
 bound to provide them for several days together with splendid 
 repasts. A great number of musicians are hired for the occasion, 
 and also of weepers , for though most people in China are, as we 
 have said, pretty well skilled in the art of shedding tears, there 
 exist mourners, by profession, who have carried it to still greater 
 perfection, and are absolutely inimitable at sobs and groans. They 
 follow the coffin in long white robes, hempen girdles, and dis¬ 
 hevelled hair; and their lamentations are accompanied by the 
 beating of gongs, by the sharp and discordant sounds of rude 
 instruments of music, and the discharge of fireworks. The sudden 
 explosion and the smell of the powder are supposed to be efficacious 
 in frightening away the demons and hindering them from seizing 
 on the soul of the defunct, which never fails to follow the coffin ; 
 and as these malevolent spirits have also the reputation of being 
 extremely covetous, and fond of money, people endeavour to get 
 on their weak side. They let fall, for this purpose, all along the 
 road, sapecks and bank-notes, that the wind carries away in all 
 directions ; and as the demons in China are by no means as cun¬ 
 ning as the men, they are taken in by this device, and fall into the 
 trap with charming simplicity, though the supposed bank-notes are 
 in fact only bits of white paper. Whilst they are engaged in 
 pursuing these deceitful appearances of riches, the soul of the 
 defunct proceeds quietly and comfortably after its coffin without 
 any danger of being stopped by the way. 
 
 The sceptical Chinese are in general quite willing to dispense 
 with the attendance of Bonzes, or Tao-sse, at their funerals. Not 
 having felt any need of religion during their lives, they argue, very 
 logically, that they certainly do not want it after they are dead. 
 The disciples of Confucius especially could hardly admit the ne¬ 
 cessity of offering prayers and sacrifices for the departed, when 
 they profess to believe that man dies altogether, that the soul 
 vanishes as well as the body, and falls into nothingness. But the 
 Bonzes, nevertheless, are occasionally invited to funerals, on ac¬ 
 count of the greater pomp that their presence confers. We wit¬ 
 nessed ourselves, in the environs of Pekin, the funeral of a great 
 dignitary of the Empire, at which were present all the Bonzes, 
 
412 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Lamas, and Tao-sse that could be collected from the whole coun¬ 
 try round, and they each said their own prayers, and performed 
 their own ceremonies. It was a realisation of the famous formula, 
 San-kiao-y-kiao •—the three religions are one. 
 
 I he Chinese are in the habit of offering viands, and some¬ 
 times splendid banquets to their dead ; and these are served before 
 the coffin, as long as the body is kept in the family, and on the 
 tomb after the burial. 
 
 What idea is really in the minds of the Chinese on the subject 
 of this practice? Many people have thought and written that 
 the souls of the departed are supposed to take pleasure in regaling 
 themselves with the subtle and delicate parts, the essences as they 
 might be called, of the dishes offered to them ; but it seems to us 
 that the Chinese are far too intelligent to carry absurdity to such 
 a point as this. The masses, no doubt, observe these practices 
 quite mechanically, without ever thinking of the meaning of them ; 
 but for those who are in the habit of reflecting upon what they 
 do, it is impossible to believe they can delude themselves so 
 grossly. 
 
 How, for instance, could the Confucians, who believe the com¬ 
 plete annihilation of both soul and body, suppose that the dead 
 come back to eat ? One day we asked a Mandarin, a friend of 
 ours, who had just offered a sumptuous repast at the tomb of a 
 deceased colleague, whether, in his opinion, the dead stood in 
 need of food ? 
 
 “How could you possibly suppose I had such an idea?” he 
 replied, with the utmost astonishment. “ Could you really sup¬ 
 pose me so stupid as that?” 
 
 “ But what then is the purpose of these mortuary repasts ?” 
 
 “We intend to do honour to the memory of our relations and 
 friends; to show that they still live in our remembrance, and that 
 we like to serve them as if they were yet with us. Who could 
 be absurd enough to believe that the dead need to eat ? Amongst 
 the lower classes, indeed, many fables are current, but who does 
 not know that rude ignorant people are always credulous ?” 
 
 We are inclined to think that all tolerably well informed Chi¬ 
 nese, a little accustomed to reflection, would be of the same 
 opinion as this Mandarin, with respect to the practices to which 
 the multitude may possibly attach superstitious ideas. 
 
 The w'orship of ancestors, which formerly occasioned such long 
 and deplorable disputes between the Jesuit missionaries and the 
 Dominicans, may, perhaps, be regarded in the same light as the 
 offerings to the dead. The Chinese have always been in the habit 
 
LONG PERIOD OF MOURNING. 
 
 413 
 
 of reserving in the interior of their houses an apartment dedicated 
 to the honour of their forefathers. Among the princes, the great 
 Mandarins, and all who are rich enough to have numerous cham¬ 
 bers in their houses, it is a kind of domestic sanctuary, in which 
 are kept tablets inscribed with the names of ancestors, from him 
 who is counted as the founder of the family, down to the most 
 recently dead. Sometimes there is only the name of the founder, 
 as he is supposed to represent all the others. To this sanctuary 
 the members of the family go to perform certain ceremonies pre¬ 
 scribed by the Rites ; to burn perfumes, present offerings, and 
 make prostrations. They go there also whenever there is any im¬ 
 portant enterprise in agitation, any favour received, or any mis¬ 
 fortune suffered. They go, in fact, to inform their ancestors of 
 whatever of good or evil happens to their descendants. The 
 poor, and those who have no more room in their houses than is 
 strictly necessary to lodge the living, merely put their ancestors 
 in a corner of their room, or on a shelf. Formerly, even in time 
 of war, the general had in his tent a place set apart for the tablets 
 of his ancestors, and at the commencement of a siege, on the eve 
 of a battle, or whenever any important event seemed impending, 
 he proceeded, at the head of his principal officers, to prostrate 
 himself before the tablets, and make to his ancestors a report 
 concerning the situation of his affairs. 
 
 These customs were tolerated by some of the missionaries, who 
 saw in them merely acts of civil homage rendered to the memory 
 of the dead; but they were severely reproved by others, who 
 found in these ceremonies all the characteristics of idolatrous 
 worship. Thence arose those lamentable contests which at this 
 epoch so completely paralysed the missions. The question was 
 really difficult of solution. Neither the partisans nor the op¬ 
 ponents of the rites practised in honour of ancestors and of Con¬ 
 fucius, doubted that their opinion was supported by irrefragable 
 proofs; the quarrel became embittered, and it seemed as if, hence¬ 
 forward, peace and harmony would no longer exist among these 
 infant Christian communities. But Rome, that tribunal sovereign 
 and infallible in the eyes of every good Catholic, cut short the 
 dispute, condemned the worship of ancestors and of Confucius, 
 and took effectual measures to prevent the recurrence of these 
 unfortunate dissensions, that had proved more injurious to the 
 missions in China than the violent persecutions of the Mandarins. 
 
 The ordinary duration of mourning for a father or mother is 
 three years; but this has been reduced to twenty-seven months 
 for the functionaries of the Government. During this time of 
 
414 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 mourning, a Chinese cannot perform the duties of any public 
 office. A Mandarin is obliged to quit his post, a minister of state 
 to renounce the administration of affairs, and live wholly in retire¬ 
 ment. He must pay no visits, and his official relations with the 
 world are completely suspended. Once at least every year he 
 must perform a commemorative ceremony at the tombs of his 
 ancestors, in which all the descendants of the family, men, women, 
 and children, take part. They clean the place of burial, and, 
 after having decorated the ground with numerous cuttings of 
 coloured paper, they make the prostrations prescribed by the 
 ceremonial, burn perfumes, and deposit on the turf or the tomb¬ 
 stone little vases, containing more or less exquisite culi¬ 
 nary dainties. However profound may be the scepticism of 
 the modern Chinese, it is probable that these practices were 
 once based upon some kind of belief in a future life. “ Al¬ 
 most all men,” says Bossuet, “ sacrifice to the manes, that is, the 
 souls of their ancestors, by which we see how ancient is the faith 
 in the immortality of the soul, and that it may be classed among 
 the earliest traditions of the human race.” 
 
 In all these ordinances concerning funerals, mourning sacrifices 
 before the tablets, and at the tombs of ancestors, it is easy to see 
 the consecration of the one grand principle of filial piety, which is 
 the basis of Chinese society. There are, indeed, scarcely any 
 customs that, when closely looked into, will not be seen to tend 
 to the inculcation of respect for paternal authority in the minds 
 of the people. This purpose is also especially evident in the 
 numerous ceremonies connected w r ith marriage. We will enter 
 into some details concerning this matter, and it will be seen what 
 an immense part paternal power plays in the laws and manners of 
 the Empire. 
 
 It is an indisputable fact that in China fathers and mothers, or, 
 in their absence, grand-parents, or, in fact, the nearest relations, have 
 a completely arbitrary authority over young persons in the affairs 
 of marriage, from which they cannot withdraw themselves. The 
 Chinese now marry very young, though this appears to be contrary 
 to the usages of antiquity, and the prescriptions of the Book of 
 Rites. This canonical book establishes in the following manner 
 the division of the ages of man : — 
 
 “ Man, at the age of ten, has a brain as weak as his body, and 
 can at most only apply to the first elements of the sciences. 
 Man at twenty has not yet his full strength; he scarcely perceives 
 the first rays of reason. Nevertheless, as he begins to be a man, 
 one ought to allow him the manly hat. At thirty, man is truly 
 
PRECEPTS FROM THE BOOK OF RITES. 
 
 415 
 
 man ; robust and vigorous ; and this is the age that is suitable 
 for marriage. To a man of forty, small magistracies may be 
 entrusted; and to a man of fifty, the most difficult and extensive 
 employments. At sixty, men grow old, and little remains to them 
 but prudence without vigour, so that they ought not to do any¬ 
 thing themselves, but merely to say what they wish to have done. 
 A man of seventy, whose strength of mind and body is exhausted, 
 should leave domestic cares to his children. The decrepit age 
 is that of eighty or ninety years ; men at that time of life are 
 like children, no longer subject to the laws ; and if they reach a 
 hundred, they need occupy themselves with nothing more than 
 in fanning the feeble flame of life that yet remains to them.” 
 
 According to the Book of Rites, therefore, venerable antiquity was 
 of opinion that the age of thirty was the most suitable for marriage; 
 but the Chinese at the present day — more precocious, probably 
 — have abandoned this ancient custom. Nothing is more com¬ 
 mon than to arrange a marriage during the infancy of the parties, 
 or even before their birth. Two friends make a solemn promise, or 
 even take an oath, to unite in marriage the children of different 
 sexes that may be born to them ; and the solemnity of the engage¬ 
 ment is marked by their tearing reciprocally a piece out of their 
 tunics, and giving it to each other. Marriages contracted in this 
 manner cannot, of course, be founded on congeniality of character ; 
 this can seldom happen, as the parties have not usually seen each 
 other beforehand ; the will of the parent being the sole reason for 
 the formation of the nuptial tie. 
 
 In a Chinese marriage, not only does the bride bring with her no 
 dower, but her parents expect to receive a sum of money, which is 
 stipulated for in advance. One part of it is paid as earnest money 
 as soon as the contract is signed ; the other, some days before the 
 celebration of the wedding. Besides this, the parents of the 
 bridegroom make presents to those of the bride of silk stuff's, rice, 
 fruit, wine, &c. If these presents and the earnest money have 
 been received, the contract is concluded, and neither party can 
 draw back. Although the wife has no wedding portion, it is cus¬ 
 tomary for the parents to bestow on her, out of pure liberality, a 
 more or less considerable trousseau , and it sometimes happens t hat 
 the father-in-law sends for the young husband into his house, and 
 constitutes him heir to a portion of his property. But he cannot 
 avoid leaving the rest to some one of his own family and nanne, 
 who may perform the rites and ceremonies before the tablets of his 
 ancestors. This practice is, in the eyes of the Chinese, of so much 
 importance, that it has even given occasion to adoptions. A man 
 
416 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 who has no male descendants adopts, or, rather, buys a child, who 
 afterwards recognises no other parent. It then takes his name, and 
 at his death wears mourning like a son. If it happens that the 
 father has children of his own after the adoption, it still remains 
 in force, and the adopted child has a right to an equal portion of 
 the property with the other children. 
 
 All marriages are made by mediators for both parties, who 
 undertake gratuitously all the negotiations and preparations. It is 
 even considered as an honour to fulfil such a delicate duty. 
 
 Polygamy is not, we believe, really a legal institution in China. 
 Formerly, it was only permitted to Mandarins and men of forty 
 years of age who had no children, to take secondary, or, as the 
 phrase is, “little wives.” The Book of Rites even prescribes the 
 punishments to be inflicted for the transgression of this law. “A 
 man guilty of concubinage,” it says, “ shall be punished with a 
 hundred blows on the shoulders.” But these laws subsist only in 
 the books, and a man may, in fact, take a secondary wife whenever 
 he pleases. His fancy has no other limits to observe than those of 
 his fortune, and does not always observe even those. 
 
 But whatever may be the number of secondary wives, there can 
 never be but one legitimate spouse, who is the mistress of the 
 house, and to whom all the others are subordinate. 
 
 The children born of these secondary wives acknowledge the 
 legitimate one only as their mother ; wear mourning for her instead 
 of their real mother, and lavish on her all their expressions of 
 respect, affection, and obedience. The secondary wife is so en¬ 
 tirely inferior and dependent, that she must obey the lawful wife 
 in everything ; and she never calls the head of the house by any 
 other name than that of father of the family. 
 
 The secondary wife is never permitted to abandon her husband 
 for any cause whatever. She is simply the property of him who 
 has purchased her; but the husband may repudiate her, drive her 
 out of his house, or sell her if he thinks proper; there is no law 
 to forbid it. “If,” says the code, “a man shall send away his law¬ 
 ful wife without reason, the law will oblige him to take her back 
 again, and he shall receive eighty blows of the stick;” but the law 
 says nothing of the “little wife,” and this silence authorises the 
 Chinese to treat her according to his caprice. 
 
 When the Chinese contracts a lawful marriage he is perfectly 
 aware that he is forming an indissoluble tie, and the written laws 
 of the Empire are in harmony with the general conviction. They 
 impose severe punishments on married persons who openly neglect 
 their duties. They admit indeed of divorce in several cases, but 
 
RECEIVING A PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE. 
 
 417 
 
 all legislation on this subject is wholly in favour of the husband. 
 As in all pagan societies, the woman is always the slave or victim 
 of the man. The law seldom troubles itself about her, but if ever 
 it does mention her, it is but to remind her of the inferiority of 
 her condition, and that she is only in this world to obey and to 
 suffer. 
 
 Amongst the obstacles to marriage recognised by the law, there 
 are some rather remarkable ones which concern magistrates. A 
 Mandarin, for example, is forbidden to form an alliance in the 
 province where he holds any public employment. If a civil Man¬ 
 darin (military officers are exempt) marries or even takes a second¬ 
 ary wife in the country where he is magistrate, he is condemned 
 to eighty blows with the stick, and the marriage is declared null 
 and void. If he marry the daughter of a man concerned in a 
 lawsuit that he is to decide, the number of strokes is doubled, and 
 in these two cases, the mediators receive the same punishment. The 
 woman is sent back to her parents, and the nuptial presents are 
 confiscated to the public treasury. We will not enter into long 
 details of the ceremonies and formalities observed in the celebra¬ 
 tion of marriage. There are six principal rites, but they are all 
 observed only among families of importance; the greater part of 
 them are dispensed with among people of inferior condition. The 
 first rite consists in agreeing on the alliance; the second, in asking 
 the name of the young lady, and the month and day of her birth, 
 for Chinese etiquette requires that she should be, at this stage of 
 the treaty, absolutely unknown to her future husband; the third 
 thing to be done, is to consult diviners concerning the result of the 
 marriage, and to report a happy augury to the parents of the girl; 
 the fourth to offer silk stuffs and other presents, as pledges of the 
 intention to form the connexion; the fifth to appoint the wedding 
 day; and the sixth to go and meet the bride, and conduct her to 
 the house of her husband. The accomplishment of these rites is 
 accompanied in both families by a crowd of minute observances 
 from which no one would dare to depart. The formula of the 
 missives that they address to each other, the words that they em- 
 ploy, the particular salutations to be used, all is previously deter¬ 
 mined, according to the rules of the most exquisite politeness. 
 The part, however, which is played in all these ceremonies by the 
 family of the bride, must always wear a certain stamp of deference 
 and modesty. Thus, when the name of his daughter is asked, the 
 father is required to answer in the following manner: — “I have 
 received with respect the marks of your goodness. The choice 
 that you deign to make of my daughter to become the wife of 
 
 E E 
 
418 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 your son, shows me that you esteem my poor and cold family more 
 than it deserves. My daughter is coarse and stupid, and 1 have 
 not had the talent to bring her up well; yet I shall nevertheless 
 glory in obeying you on this occasion. You will find written 
 on another page the name of my daughter, and that of her mother, 
 with the day of her birth.” When he receives the presents, and 
 the information that a day is fixed for the wedding, the father 
 replies in these terms:—“I have received your last resolution. 
 You wish this marriage to take place, and I am only sorry that my 
 daughter has so little merit, and that she has not had all the educa¬ 
 tion desirable. I fear she is good for nothing, yet nevertheless, 
 since the augury is favourable, I dare not disobey you. I accept 
 your present, I salute you, and I consent to the day appointed for 
 the wedding. I will take care to make due preparation.” 
 
 On the day marked for the celebration, the bridegroom puts on 
 a magnificent dress, and when the family has assembled in the do¬ 
 mestic sanctuary, he kneels down, and prostrates his face to the 
 ground. Perfumes are then burnt before the tablets of ancestors, 
 and the important event is announced to them. The master ol 
 the ceremonies then invites the father to take a place on the seat 
 prepared for him. As soon as he is seated, the bridegroom re¬ 
 ceives on his knees a cup of wine, of which he first pours a few 
 drops on the earth by way of libation, and before drinking makes 
 four genuflexions before his father; afterwards he advances to¬ 
 wards the seat, and receives the commands of his father in a 
 kneeling posture. The father says : “ Go, my son, go and seek 
 your wife, and behave in all things with prudence and wisdom.” 
 The son, prostrating himself four times before his father, replies 
 that he will obey ; after which he enters a palanquin that is already 
 waiting at the door. His friends, and a numerous array of at¬ 
 tendants, march before him, bearing lanterns of the most brilliant 
 colours, a custom that arose at a time when it was usual to cele¬ 
 brate marriages in the night. When he has reached the house of 
 the bride, the bridegroom waits at the gate of the second court 
 until his father-in-law comes to introduce him. 
 
 In the house of the bride similar ceremonies are observed. 
 After the libation and the drinking of the cup of wine, the bride 
 kneels down before her father, who exhorts her to obey faithfully 
 the commands of her father and mother-in-law, and then the 
 mother places a garland on her head, whence hangs a large veil 
 that covers her face. “Take courage, daughter,” she says, “and 
 be always submissive to the will of your husband.” 
 
 They then proceed solemnly to meet the bridegroom, who is 
 waiting at the entrance of the second court. The procession ad- 
 
THE WEDDING. 
 
 419 
 
 vances, and when it has reached the middle of the court, the 
 bridegroom kneels down, and offers a wild duck to his father-in- 
 law, which the master of the ceremonies carries to the bride. At 
 length the bridal pair meet for the first time; and they salute each 
 other very gravely, making a profound inclination, and then they 
 kneel down together “ to adore the heavens and the earth/' It 
 would seem that this act is the essential point of the ceremony, 
 and in some measure the symbol of the conjugal tie. When they 
 wish to express that any one is married, they commonly say, “ he 
 has adored the heavens and the earth.” 
 
 After they have remained a short time on their knees, the bride 
 is conducted to a palanquin covered with rose-coloured silk; the 
 bridegroom also enters his palanquin, and the procession moves 
 away, considerably augmented in number, for besides the lantern- 
 bearers aforesaid, there come now people carrying beds, chairs, 
 tables, and all kinds of household utensils. When it has once 
 more reached the house of the bridegroom he alights, and invites 
 his bride to enter, but marches before her to the interior court, 
 where the nuptial feast is prepared. Then the bricle raises her 
 veil and salutes her husband, and he salutes her in his turn, and 
 they both wash their hands, the husband on the north, the wife on 
 the south side of the portico. Before sitting down to table the 
 wife makes four genuflexions before her husband, who responds 
 with two to her, and they sit down opposite one another. Before 
 eating and drinking, they make a libation with wine, and put aside 
 some viands to be offered to the ancestors. 
 
 They then taste of some of the dishes in profound silence; the 
 husband rises, invites his wife to drink, and sits down again, and 
 the wife performs the same ceremony with respect to her husband, 
 and at the same time two full cups of wine are brought, of which 
 they drink a part, and then put what remains into one cup to 
 drink it between them. The father of the bridegroom in the mean¬ 
 time is giving his friends a grand banquet in a neighbouring apart¬ 
 ment, and the mother of the bride another to the women invited. 
 For them the entire day is one long festival, in which the time 
 passes with a little more spirit and gaiety, than it does with the 
 newly-married pair. 
 
 On the following day, the wife, clothed in her bridal attire, and 
 accompanied by her husband, and a mistress of the ceremonies, 
 carrying tw r o pieces of silk stuff, goes into the second court of the 
 house, in which her father and mother-in-law are seated at sepa¬ 
 rate tables, awaiting her visit. 
 
 The newdy-married pair salute them and make four prostrations 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 
 
 THE . CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 before them, after which the husband retires into a neighbouring 
 apartment, and the wife makes her offerings. The rest of the day 
 and several following ones are employed in paying visits. The 
 wife has to pay her respects to all the relations of her husband, 
 and perform genuflexions before them ; and the husband to pre¬ 
 sent himself in the same manner to the relations of his wife. 
 
 Such is, briefly, the ceremonial of a Chinese marriage ; and we 
 have observed that every one in China professes great respect for 
 this solemn act of a man’s life. When a marriage procession, be 
 it of rich or poor people, passes by, you must stand aside for it; 
 even Mandarins of the highest rank stop, with all their attendants, 
 and if they are on horseback, politeness requires them to descend, 
 and do honour to the newly-married pair. 
 
 It appears somewhat unnecessary to add that Chinese marriages 
 are seldom happy, and peace and harmony do not often reign in 
 the interior of a family. Without mentioning the numerous causes 
 of jealousy and discord that must arise from the presence of several 
 secondary wives in the same house, it must evidently be a surpris¬ 
 ing chance if a pair, who have never seen each other before mar¬ 
 riage, should really prove congenial. Incompatibility of character 
 frequently manifests itself soon enough, and thence arises aversion 
 and even sometimes bitter hatred. Perpetual quarrels, conflicts, 
 and even sanguinary battles, take place, in which the woman is 
 almost always the sufferer. Privations of every kind, and of every 
 day ; invectives, curses ; from time to time also blows; these are 
 her heritage, which she must endure with patience. In some 
 parts of the country it is so much the fashion to beat a w ife, that 
 a man would hardly like not to follow it, as to show himself negli¬ 
 gent on this point would be to forfeit his marital dignity and 
 proclaim himself a simpleton, who understood nothing of his 
 prerogatives. 
 
 One day we were witnesses of a terrible scene in a Chinese 
 family that we knew intimately. On coming in we found a nume¬ 
 rous party assembled round a young woman, who appeared on the 
 point of yielding her last breath. A few days before she had been 
 the very image of health, but now she was scarcely recognisable, 
 her face was so bruised and covered with blood. She could not 
 move or speak, but her eyes streaming with tears, and the violent 
 beating of her heart, indicated too well what she was suffering. 
 We asked for some explanation of this heartrending spectacle. “ It 
 is her husband,” said the bystanders, « who has brought the poor 
 creature to this state.” The husband was standing there gloomy, 
 silent, almost stupified, his eyes fixed upon his unfortunate victim. 
 
 “ What motive,” said we, “ could possibly have urged you to 
 
AN AFFECTIONATE HUSBAND. 
 
 421 
 
 such a dreadful excess? What crime has your wife committed to 
 be treated in this way?” 
 
 “ None, none! ” he cried, in a voice broken by sobs. “ She 
 never deserved any punishment; we have only been married two 
 years, and you know we have always lived in peace. But for 
 some days I have had something on my mind. I thought people 
 were laughing at me, because I had never beaten my wife; and 
 this morning I gave way to a bad thought.” And the young man, 
 whom we could never have suspected of such a piece of insanity, 
 abandoned himself to tardy and useless remorse. Two days after¬ 
 wards the poor woman, who had always been an angel of goodness, 
 expired in terrible convulsions. 
 
 In some cases, pecuniary interest is the only motive capable of 
 restraining within some limits the harshness of the Chinese towards 
 their wives. When they do treat them with gentleness and mo¬ 
 deration, it is usually on a principle of economy, as you might 
 spare a beast of burden because it costs money, and because if 
 you killed it, you would have to replace it. This hideous calcula¬ 
 tion is by no means a mere supposition of ours. In a large village 
 to the north of Pekin, we were once witnesses of a violent quarrel 
 between a husband and wife. After having for a long time abused 
 each other in the most furious manner, and even hurled at each 
 other some tolerably inoffensive projectiles, their anger still in¬ 
 creasing, they began to break everything in the house. Several of 
 the neighbours tried in vain to restrain them, and at length the 
 husband seizing a great paving-stone from the court.yard, rushed 
 furiously into the kitchen, where the wife was expending her wrath 
 upon the crockery, and strewing the floor with the ruins. When 
 the husband rushed in with the paving-stone, everybody hurried 
 forward to prevent a calamity that seemed imminent—there was 
 no time—but the fellow dashed his paving-stone, not against his 
 wife, fortunately, but against his great cast-iron kettle, which he 
 stove in with the blow. The wife could not outdo this piece of 
 extravagance, and so the quarrel ceased. A man who was stand¬ 
 ing by, then said, laughing, to the husband, “ You are a fool, my 
 elder brother; why didn’t you break your wife’s head with the 
 stone instead of your kettle ? Then you would have had peace in 
 your house.” 
 
 “ I thought of that,” replied the kind husband coolly; “ but it 
 would have been foolish. I can get my kettle mended for two 
 hundred sapecks, and it would have cost me a great deal more to 
 buy another Avife.” Such an answer will not be in the least sur¬ 
 prising to any one who knows the Chinese. 
 
 e e 3 
 
422 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The women of the Celestial Empire are so unfortunate, that in 
 many places their sufferings in this life have suggested to them the 
 hope of a future one. It is most painful to see these poor victims 
 of a sceptical and corrupt civilisation, vainly struggling amidst 
 their sufferings to find some consolation, and, for want of a know¬ 
 ledge of Christianity, throwing themselves into the extravagances 
 of the metempsychosis. They have formed a sect called the “ Ab- 
 stinents,” which is increasing rapidly in the southern provinces. 
 The women who enrol themselves in this sisterhood make a vow to 
 eat neither meat nor fish, nor anything that has had life, but to live 
 wholly on vegetables. They think that after death their souls will 
 migrate into another body, and that if they have been faithful to 
 their vows of abstinence, they will have the happiness to return to 
 life as men. The hope of obtaining such an advantage supports 
 them under their daily mortifications, and enables them to endure 
 the troubles and hardships they have to suffer from the other sex. 
 They promise themselves, doubtless, ample compensation after their 
 metamorphosis ; and it would not be, perhaps, a very hazardous 
 conjecture, that some of them enjoy a little the idea of the ven¬ 
 geance they will take on their husbands, when they shall be trans¬ 
 formed into women. 
 
 At various periods of the year this sisterhood goes in procession 
 to certain pagodas. We have met them several times, and it was 
 truly pitiable to see the poor women, leaning on sticks, and hob¬ 
 bling along on their little goat’s feet, to make long pilgrimages, in 
 the hope that after their death they will be able to take a good 
 revenge on the men for all their present wrongs. 
 
 CHAP. XVII. 
 
 Departure from the Capital of Hou-pe. — Farewell Visit to the Governor of 
 the Town. — Burial of the two Martyrs. — State of Christianity in Hou-pe. 
 
 — Disagreeable Incidents on the Road. — No Provisions in a Town of the 
 third Order. — Visit to the Palace of the Town Prefect. — Treatment of 
 Criminals. — Horrible Details of a Trial. — The Kouan-kouen, or Chinese 
 Bandit. —Mode of administering Justice. — Code of Laws. — General Con¬ 
 siderations upon Chinese Legislation. — Penal and materialistic Character 
 of the Code. —Defect of Precision in certain Laws. — Principle of Solidarity. 
 
 — Laws relating to Officers of Government. — Organisation of the Family.— 
 Repression of Crime.—Ritual Laws.—Taxes and territorial Property. 
 
 After four days’ rest in the Garden of the Western Gate, we 
 began to think of resuming our seemingly interminable journey. 
 
TOMBS OF MARTYRS. 
 
 423 
 
 We felt our strength and courage nearly exhausted, and we had 
 still nearly nine hundred miles to travel, and that during the hottest 
 season of the year, and constantly in a southerly direction. But 
 trusting in the protection of Providence, we did not doubt of 
 arriving some day safe and sound at xMacao. 
 
 The preparations for our departure were made; our old palan¬ 
 quins, somewhat disfigured by the dust, and calcined by the scorch¬ 
 ing of the sun, were varnished and furbished up anew; the new 
 escort was regularly organised under the command of Master Lieou, 
 the “ Weeping Willow,” and our domestic Wei-chan had begun the 
 education of our future travelling companions. He had insinuated 
 to them, in his picturesque and figurative language, that it would 
 be necessary for them to bend often, in order not to graze them¬ 
 selves against certain angular points in our character. 
 
 Before finally quitting the capital of Hou-pe, we went to salute 
 his Excellency the Governor of the province, who received us with, 
 ceremonious politeness. His language and manners had nothing 
 of the benevolence and affability that had excited a feeling of love 
 for the venerable and excellent Pao-hing, the Viceroy of the pro¬ 
 vince of Sse-tchouen. On our side, we contented ourselves with 
 behaving courteously, and strictly observing the regulations of the 
 ritual. “ Travel in peace,” said he, waiving his hand. “ Remain 
 seated in tranquillity,” we responded, and with a bow, not very 
 profound, we departed. 
 
 We had not quitted the large and populous town of Ou-tchang- 
 fou, at the utmost, above an hour, when we entered a mountainous 
 country, of which the soil was of a reddish colour, and furrowed in 
 all directions by narrow paths. We had a vague recollection of 
 having seen it before, and on consideration we thought we must 
 have passed through some of the windings of its numerous hills 
 when, in the beginning of the year 1840, we had for the first time, 
 and in a furtive manner, traversed the Chinese Empire. This 
 remembrance plunged us into a sweet though sad reverie, and in 
 order to be quite sure that we were not mistaken, we inquired of 
 one of the palanquin bearers what was the name of the country we 
 were traversing ? Houng-chan, he replied, “ the Red Mountain.” 
 Yes, that was it! That name was profoundly impressed on our 
 memory ! 
 
 In passing along a narrow road bordered with thorny shrubs, 
 that were interlaced by numerous climbing plants, we perceived 
 at a little distance, on the declivity of a hill, two modest tomb¬ 
 stones, placed side by side. The sight filled our hearts with 
 emotion, and our eyes with tears. Beneath these two stones re- 
 
 e e 4 
 
424 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 pose the precious remains of two spiritual sons of St. Vincent de 
 Paul the venerable Clet and Perboyre, martyred for the faith, the 
 one in 1822, the other in 1839. Oh, how great a consolation 
 would it have been to have stopped for awhile, to have knelt, to 
 have prostrated ourselves by these family tombs, and have kissed the 
 ground consecrated by the blood of these martyrs, and prayed to 
 God, in the name of these strong-hearted men, these heroes of the 
 faith, for a little of the intrepidity that is always necessary amidst 
 the tribulations of the world ! for whatever may be the part 
 that the will of God has assigned to us here below, we are all 
 children of Calvary, and have need of some portion of the martyr’s 
 spirit. 
 
 Prudence, however, did not permit us to stop. There would 
 have been danger in pointing out this sacred treasure to the nu¬ 
 merous persons who accompanied us. 
 
 In 1840, when we visited these dear tombs, we were alone with 
 a young Christian of Ou-tchang-fou, who served us for a guide, 
 and this is what we wrote at the time to our brethren in France : — 
 
 “ The precious remains of MM. Clet and Perboyre repose 
 side by side on a green hill, at a short distance from the town of 
 Ou-tchang-fou. Oh, how delightful was the hour I passed near 
 these simple but covered mounds. Upon an idolatrous soil, in 
 the midst of the Chinese Empire, a feeling of rapturous happiness 
 hitherto unknown seemed to fill and dilate my soul. No chiselled 
 marble covers the bones of these two glorious children of St. 
 Vincent de Paul, but God Himself seems to have undertaken the 
 care of their mausoleum. Parasitical plants and thorny shrubs, 
 resembling the acacia, grow around it; and above the carpet of 
 verdure that covers it, rise in elegant profusion the beautiful 
 blossoms of the mimosa. As we contemplated these brilliant 
 flowers, escaping from a thick network of thorns, we thought in¬ 
 voluntarily of the glory with which the sufferings of martyrs are 
 crowned in heaven.” 
 
 The two tombs were exactly in the same state as when we left 
 them : both the stones and their inscriptions appeared to us to be 
 untouched ; only the season for the flowers was past, and the 
 mimosas no longer displayed their bright corollas amidst the 
 leaves. The grass too was withered up, but some stalks of the 
 wild bind-weed, stript of its leaves, crept from one tomb to the 
 other, as if to form a bond between them. 
 
 Let us hope that the blood of martyrs, formerly such good seed 
 for Christianity, may not have lost its fertilising power in China. 
 This land has been doubtless hitherto deplorably sterile ; but when 
 
CHRISTIANS IN HOU-PE. 
 
 425 
 
 the hour comes, the hour appointed by Him who is able “from 
 the very stones to raise up children to Abraham,” we may see this 
 adamantine soil soften, and bring forth countless worshippers of 
 Jesus. 
 
 The state of Christianity in Hou-pe is not so flourishing as in 
 the province of Sse-tchouen. At most there are not in it more 
 than 12,000 or 14,000 Christians — most of them poor, and be¬ 
 longing to the lower classes of society. 
 
 The frequent and violent persecutions that have harassed this 
 province may perhaps account for this slow progress of the faith; 
 and the small numbers of the Christians, and the continual vexations 
 they have to endure from the Mandarins, contribute to render 
 them timid, and to repress the ardour and energy necessary for 
 proselytism. While travelling over this province, we always 
 noticed that the Christians kept themselves concealed; they did 
 not dare to show themselves on our passage, we did not receive 
 any visits from them at the Communal Palaces, at most we could 
 only discover them here and there, by their making stealthily the 
 sign of the cross, in order to let us know who they were. We 
 saw no signs of the spirit and activity so perceptible at the mis¬ 
 sions of Sse-tchouen, and which denoted a more lively faith, or at 
 all events a more ardent zeal for the conversion of the infidels. 
 
 The mission of Hou-pe is at present confided to the care of 
 Italian missionaries, under the direction of Monseigneur Rizzolatti, 
 Vicar Apostolic, who has been many years in the missions of 
 China. Under the influence of his long experience, the vicariate 
 of Hou-pe had considerably increased, when unfortunately a per¬ 
 secution separated the pastor from his flock. M. Rizzolatti was 
 arrested, and sent to the English colony at Hong-Kong, where he 
 is now waiting till circumstances shall appear sufficiently favour¬ 
 able to permit him, without imprudence, to return to the bosom 
 of his mission. 
 
 We travelled the whole day, through a country intersected by 
 hills and ravines, and apparently little adapted to cultivation ; we 
 saw few villages, only here and there a few scattered houses and 
 farms, where, by dint of patience and industry, a few families con¬ 
 trive to obtain some small return from the barren soil. Before 
 sunset we arrived at the banks of the Blue River, which we had 
 to cross in order to reach a market-town situated on the opposite 
 side. The road that we followed on leaving Ou-tchang-fou ran 
 towards the North-East, and took us farther off Canton, but we 
 were compelled to proceed by this circuitous way to avoid a 
 number of little lakes that would every moment have bai’red our 
 
426 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 passage. It was necessary also to take the Imperial road, that 
 would afterwards lead us directly to the capital of Kiang-si. We 
 might have embarked at Ou-tehang-fou, and gone down the Blue 
 River, as far as the great lake Pou-yang, but as that was the season 
 of inundation and tempests, the administration had considered it 
 prudent to send us by land. The route was longer and less agree¬ 
 able, but there was no fear of shipwreck. After having crossed 
 the Blue River, we halted at a iarge village, the name of which 
 we have forgotten, but this is no great matter, for we have nothing 
 to say in its favour. We found bad lodgings, a bad supper, and, 
 into the bargain, a frightful quantity of mosquitoes, and a large 
 ill-smelling insect, of the order coleoptera, called the ka/tkerlac*, 
 which abounds in the warm countries of China, and delights in 
 gnawing the tips of your ears and toes while you sleep. 
 
 We were mostly lodged and fed in a deplorable manner, as long 
 as we continued on this cross-road. The Mandarins in their 
 journeys usually follow the course of the Blue River; and the 
 local administration has not, as elsewhere, erected Communal 
 Palaces from stage to stage, to receive the public functionaries. 
 
 We were obliged to lodge at miserable inns—ill kept, and un¬ 
 speakably dirty — where we had the greatest difficulty in procuring 
 just enough to prevent our dying of hunger. Our conductors did 
 whatever they could for us; the Weeping Willow, who had pro¬ 
 mised to render our lives so delightful, so poetical, as long as we 
 remained under his care, vainly gave orders to his subordinates — 
 order what he would, his orders produced only the poorest results. 
 He was excessively distressed, at least we certainly thought his 
 eyes poured out tears more abundantly than usual, but our servant, 
 Wei-chan, was not tearful but furious. As we had kept him in 
 hopes of his being able to manage our affairs well, he felt his 
 honour hurt, and his reputation compromised whenever we did not 
 find, as in Sse-tchouen, a superb Communal Palace, with a splendid 
 banquet ready for us. He got into a passion every moment, in¬ 
 sulted the innkeepers, and cursed the whole province of Hou-pe. 
 To hear him, you would have thought the whole town or village 
 deserved to be burnt down, and the inhabitants to be set in the 
 Cangue, or exiled to the end of Bucharia. We were obliged more 
 than once to moderate the extravagance of his zeal, and show him 
 that though we had thought proper to be energetic in claiming 
 our rights, we could also be patient when circumstances required 
 
 * This insect is of the genus Blatta; and as there is. we believe, no English 
 name for it, we have adopted that used by the Dutch and by sailors. The 
 French name is Cancrelat. — Tit. 
 
A VISIT TO THE PREFECT. 
 
 427 
 
 it, and that there was no reason to attribute ill-will to any one. 
 Wei-chan listened attentively to our sermon, but that did notliinder 
 him rating everybody he came in contact with. The day before 
 we arrived at the Imperial road, we reached towards noon a town 
 of the third order, called Kouang-tsi-hien. We were conducted 
 to a tolerably good-looking house, that reminded us a little of the 
 Communal Palaces, and we were expatiating in a cool pleasant 
 garden, beneath the broad leaves of a thick grove of bananas, when 
 the Weeping Willow came towards us, and gazing at us mournfully 
 through his tears and his spectacles, uttered these interesting words: 
 “The guardian of the establishment is only charged to lodge us; 
 the Tribunal told him that he need not provide any victuals.” 
 
 “ The authorities of the town, then, will attend to us; they will, 
 doubtless, send us dinner from the Tribunal.” 
 
 “ By no means; they told me the Tribunal would have nothing 
 to do with feeding us.” 
 
 “ Who, then, is to undertake it ?” 
 
 “ Nobody ! ” cried the Willow, piteously, extending his right 
 hand towards us, while with the left he wiped his eyes with a bit 
 of white linen. 
 
 “ Nobody ? ” cried we, too, starting up from our seats ; “ send 
 for our palanquin-bearers, and let them take us to the Prefect of 
 the town.” 
 
 The Weeper, who was not accustomed to our diplomatic pro¬ 
 ceedings, was seized with fright, but Wei-chan calmed his fears 
 by telling him that we had behaved in this way all along the road, 
 and that no harm had ever come of it. 
 
 The palanquin-bearers arrived, according to order, and we set 
 off for the Prefect’s palace. We had desired our men not to stop 
 at the outer gate, but to march boldly in, and our orders were 
 punctually obeyed ; but the porter, noticing this unusual mode of 
 entrance into the Tribunal, ran after us to ask where we were 
 going. 
 
 “ To speak to the Prefect.” 
 
 “ The Prefect is sitting in judgment; there is a trial of the first 
 importance.” 
 
 We thought this was only a pretext to prevent our entrance, and 
 we therefore insisted upon going in. 
 
 “At least,” said the porter, “give me your visiting card, and I 
 will go and announce you.” 
 
 In the fear that the Prefect would not see us if we did, we re¬ 
 plied to the porter, that we were not subject to the rites of the 
 Empire, and that we would announce ourselves. We then made 
 
428 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 a sign to the bearers to go on, and we soon reached the interior 
 court, immediately before the entrance of the principal hall. This 
 court was so full of people, that we thought it probable the first 
 magistrate of the town really was engaged as we had been told. 
 
 A subaltern officer of the Palace also came up to us just as we 
 alighted from our palanquins, and assured us that the Prefect was 
 then sitting in judgment on a criminal trial. We hesitated for a 
 moment, not knowing very well what to do, whether to return 
 home, or to make our way into the hall where the trial was going 
 on. As we did not at all like having come for nothing, and were 
 moreover somewhat curious to see what was going on, we put 
 aside the crowd and entered. 
 
 All eyes were immediately turned towards us, and a movement 
 of surprise was perceptible throughout the assembly. Two men 
 with great beards, yellow caps, and red girdles, formed a very 
 surprising apparition. 
 
 For ourselves, at the first glance we cast into the hall, we felt a 
 cold perspiration come over us, and our limbs tottered under us; 
 we were ready to faint. The first object that presented itself on 
 entering this Chinese judgment-hall was the accused — the person 
 on his trial. 
 
 He was suspended in the middle of the hall, like one of those 
 lanterns, of whimsical form and colossal dimensions, often seen in 
 the great pagodas. Ropes attached to a great beam in the roof 
 held him tied by the wrists and feet, so as to throw the body into 
 the form of a bow. Beneath him stood five or six executioners, 
 armed with rattan rods and leather lashes, in ferocious attitudes, 
 their clothes and faces spotted with blood — the blood of the un¬ 
 fortunate creature, who was uttering stifled groans, while his flesh 
 was torn almost in tatters. The audience present at this frightful 
 spectacle appeared quite at their ease, and our yellow caps excited 
 much more emotion than the spectacle of torture. Many laughed, 
 indeed, at the horror visible in our faces. 
 
 The magistrate, to whom our coming had been hastily an¬ 
 nounced, rose from his seat as soon as he perceived us, and crossed 
 the hall to meet us. As he passed near the executioners, he had 
 to walk on the tips of his toes, and hold up his beautiful silk robes, i 
 that they might not be soiled by the pools of half-coagulated blood 
 with which the floor was covered. Fie saluted us smilingly, and ! 
 saying he would suspend the proceedings for a moment, conducted 
 us to a small room situated behind the judge’s seat. We sat down, ] 
 or rather we fell, upon a divan, and M'ere some moments before j 
 we could recover our composure. 
 
A CHINESE TRIAL. 
 
 429 
 
 The Prefect of Kouang-tsi-hien was nearly forty years of age ; 
 his features, the tone of his voice, his looks, his manners, all ex¬ 
 pressed so much mildness and goodness, that we could not recover 
 from our astonishment. It seemed to us impossible that this 
 should be the man who had ordered the frightful measure we had 
 just witnessed; and so strong a feeling of curiosity took possession 
 of us, that we asked whether we might, without indiscretion, put 
 some questions to him concerning the terrible affair he was then 
 engaged in. 
 
 “ On the contrary,” he replied, “ I should myself desire that 
 you should understand the nature of this trial. You appear to 
 me astonished at the extreme severity I have shown towards the 
 criminal; the torture he is enduring has moved you to compas¬ 
 sion. The emotions that agitated your hearts on your entrance 
 into the hall mounted to your faces and became visible to every¬ 
 body. But this criminal does not merit any consideration ; if you 
 knew his conduct, you would certainly not think I was treating 
 him with too much rigour. I am naturally inclined to mildness, 
 and my character is averse from all cruelty. A magistrate, also, 
 must be the father and the mother of his people.” 
 
 “ What great crime, then, has this man committed, to be sub¬ 
 jected to so horrible a torture?” 
 
 “ This man is the chief of a band of ruffians, who for more than 
 a year past have been committing outrages on the Great River, 
 which they were in the habit of traversing night and day in a large 
 boat. He has pillaged a considerable number of merchant junks, 
 and committed more than fifty murders. He has ended by con¬ 
 fessing all his crimes, and on this point the truth has been brought 
 to light; but he persists in not denouncing his companions, and I 
 am obliged to employ these extreme methods to reach all the 
 guilty. When one wishes to destroy a tree, it is not sufficient to 
 cut down the trunk, we must tear it up by the roots, otherwise it 
 will sprout forth again.” 
 
 The magistrate afterwards related to us some abominable atro¬ 
 cities committed by this gang of robbers; of their cutting out the 
 tongues and tearing out the eyes of men, women, and children ; 
 of their cutting their prisoners to pieces with circumstances of 
 horrible barbarity; such were the amusements in which these 
 monsters in human form indulged on board their vessels. These 
 details, frightful as they were, did not surprise us. Our long 
 residence in China had taught us to what degree the instinct of 
 evil is developed among these people. 
 
 The Prefect of Kouang-tsi-hien, to whom we had briefly ex- 
 
430 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 plained the circumstances that had caused us to commit such an 
 indiscretion as to come and trouble him while he was engaged in 
 his official duties, replied that his having been so much occupied 
 with this affair was the sole cause of the negligence we had to 
 complain of. He added, that w r e might now return to our lodg¬ 
 ings, with the certainty that everything should be arranged in 
 conformity with the Rites ; but that for himself, he must now 
 resume his seat, and proceed with the trial. 
 
 Although it was late, and we had taken nothing that day but a 
 very slight luncheon, we had very little inclination now to sit 
 down to table. What we had seen and heard since we had en¬ 
 tered the judgment-hall had been quite sufficient to take away our 
 appetite. We inquired of the Prefect whether there would be 
 any objection to our being present for a little while at the trial; 
 but our request seemed to surprise, and in some measure embar¬ 
 rass him. After a few minutes’ reflection he said, “If you come 
 into the hall, I fear your presence will create some disturbance. 
 The people here have never seen men of the Western countries, 
 and if you come in, the officers of the court will hardly attend to 
 their business. However, if you wish it, you shall remain in this 
 room, and from here it will be easy for you to hear and see every¬ 
 thing, without yourselves being seen by any one.” 
 
 He then called an attendant, and desired him to open a large 
 window, and let down a bamboo trellis-work; and whilst we took 
 our places behind this grating, the judge returned to the hall, re¬ 
 sumed his seat, and the trial went on, after the attendants, execu¬ 
 tioners, and officers of the court had cried three times, “ Let every 
 one be modest and respectful I ” 
 
 After having rapidly glanced over some pages of a manuscript 
 that was probably some document connected with the trial, the 
 judge ordered a functionary who stood at his left, to ask the prisoner 
 whether he knew a man named Ly-fang, who formerly carried on 
 the trade of a blacksmith, in a village near a place mentioned. 
 
 We have already said that the Mandarins not being allowed to 
 hold office in their own province, are seldom sufficiently acquainted 
 with the idiom of the countries where they are placed, not to need 
 an interpreter whenever they have to address a man of the lower 
 class. 
 
 The judge’s question was therefore translated to the prisoner, 
 who raised a little his head, which had sunk upon his breast, and 
 casting at the judge a look like that of a wild beast, he replied in 
 an insolent tone, that he had heard speak of him. “ Do you know 
 him ? Have you had any dealings with him?” 
 
A CHINESE TRIAL. 
 
 431 
 
 “ I have heard speak of him ; I do not know him.” 
 
 “ How can that be, when this man remained a long while in 
 your boat ? Do you persist in uttering a falsehood ? Speak the 
 truth. Do you know Ly-fang ?” 
 
 “I have heard of him; I do not know him.” 
 
 The Prefect took up from the table a piece of bamboo wood, 
 and threw it into the middle of the court. A figure was marked 
 upon it, which pointed out the number of blows the prisoner was 
 to receive. One of the executioners picked it up, examined the 
 figure, and cried, in a chanting tone, “Fifteen blows;” that is to 
 say, the criminal would receive thirty — for the executioners al¬ 
 ways double the number ordered by the judge — and this, multi¬ 
 plied by the number of executioners, furnished a frightful total. 
 There was immediately a stir in the assembly; all eyes were fixed 
 with eager curiosity, sometimes on the miserable prisoner, some¬ 
 times on the executioners. Many smiled, and arranged themselves 
 a little more conveniently on their seats, like people about to wit¬ 
 ness something interesting. The executioners took their places; 
 and soon the body of the criminal was swinging and turning about 
 under a shower of blows, while he uttered terrible shrieks, and his 
 blood spirted out on all sides, and ran down the rattans, reddening 
 the naked arms of the executioners. It was impossible to endure 
 such a spectacle any longer; and we asked one of the officers of 
 the court who had remained with us whether there was not any 
 way of getting out, without crossing the hall. He urged us, how¬ 
 ever, strongly to await the end of the trial, in order to see, he said, 
 how they managed to unbind the prisoner. But we had seen quite 
 enough; and the officer had the complaisance to lead us back through 
 a long corridor to the gate where our palanquins were waiting. 
 
 “ This criminal was a famous kouan-kouen” said the officer, as 
 he left us ; “ are there many kouan-kouen in your country?” 
 
 “No,” we said; “ this class of men is unknown among us.” 
 
 It would not be easy to give a correct translation of this word, 
 kouan-kouen. It .is given in China to a race of bandits, who 
 make it a sport and a matter of pride to defy the laws and the ma¬ 
 gistrates, and commit all kinds of crimes. To give and receive 
 wounds with composure; to kill others with the most perfect cool¬ 
 ness ; and to have no fear of death for yourself: this is the sublime 
 ideal of the kouan-kouen. 
 
 These men are very numerous in China; they form societies 
 among themselves, and stand by each other with immoveable 
 fidelity. Some few live alone, and they are the most ferocious. 
 They regard it as unworthy of their valour to have an associate, 
 
432 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 or any support whatever, and they rely on nothing but the energy 
 of their own characters. The audacity of these men is incompa¬ 
 rable ; the most extravagant and atrocious crimes seem to have for 
 them an irresistible attraction. Sometimes they will even go and 
 denounce themselves to the magistrates from a motive of pride. 
 They confess all their crimes, furnish the most irresistible proofs, 
 and demand condemnation ; and then, when all the preparations 
 have been made, and when, according to Chinese law, the con¬ 
 fession of the culprit is necessary, they deny all that they have 
 said, and endure with incredible stoicism all kinds of torture. 
 It might really be thought they took a pleasure in having their 
 limbs mangled, provided only that they could enrage the Man¬ 
 darins and defy the law's. Sometimes they succeed in bringing 
 their judges into difficulties, and even getting them dismissed from 
 their offices; and this is their greatest triumph. In all the towns 
 of China you find numerous collections of little pamphlets, which 
 form in some measure the judicial records and causes celebres of 
 the Empire. They contain dramatic biographies of the most 
 famous kouan-kouen ; and as they cost but a few sapecks, they are 
 eagerly bought and read by the people. 
 
 The manner of administering justice in China is extremely sum¬ 
 mary. It may be said, without exaggeration, that there are four 
 times as many judges in France as in the whole Chinese Empire, 
 but this simplification is by no means favourable to the accused, 
 for whom there is scarcely any protection. His fortune and his 
 life depend almost always on the caprice and rapacity of the Man¬ 
 darins. The ordinary tribunals have only a single judge; and the 
 prisoner remains on his knees during the whole trial; the judge 
 interrogates him ; and he alone decides on the value of the answers 
 given. There is no advocate to undertake his defence ; his rela¬ 
 tions and friends are sometimes admitted to plead for him ; but 
 that is a pure condescension on the part of the Mandarin, and 
 dependant on his good pleasure. The position of the witnesses is 
 sometimes almost as bad as that of the accused, for if their depo¬ 
 sitions do not please the judge, they are liable to be cuffed or 
 whipped whenever he pleases, and an executioner, charged with 
 this duty, always stands beside them in case he should be wanted. 
 The accused is absolutely at the mercy of the Mandarin who is to 
 judge him, or rather indeed of the sabaltern officers of the court, 
 who have always drawn up beforehand a statement of the case, 
 favourable or otherwise to the prisoner, according to the money 
 they have received. 
 
 Cicero has described, with his energetic eloquence, the mode of 
 proceeding of the infamous Verres, when he held office in Sicily. 
 
ROMAN AND CHINESE JUDGES. 
 
 433 
 
 “The condemned,” he says, “are shut up in prison; the day of 
 their punishment is fixed; but it has already begun in the persons 
 ol their unfortunate relatives. Even their children are forbidden 
 to see them ; and while the father lies stretched on the ground in 
 his dungeon, they are prevented from bringing him either food or 
 clothing. Desolate mothers have passed whole nights near the 
 fatal gate which prevented them from receiving the last embraces 
 of their children ; they have begged as the only favour that they 
 might be permitted to catch the last breath of their sons. But at 
 the gate watches the inexorable jailor, the Praetor’s executioner, 
 the terror and death of our citizens and allies, the Lictor Sestius, 
 who levies a tax upon every groan and pang. ‘ You shall give 
 me,’ he says, ‘so much to go in ; so much to be allowed to buy 
 food:’ and no suppliant refuses it. ‘And you, how much will 
 you give me for killing your son at a single blow? How 
 much that he may not suffer a long time? How much that I may 
 dispatch him almost without his perceiving it?’ And for these 
 frightful services, too, must the Lictor be paid.” 
 
 It has always seemed to us that Verres must have had some 
 knowledge of Chinese customs, so striking is the resemblance be¬ 
 tween the proceedings of the Mandarins and those of the above- 
 described Praetor of Sicily. 
 
 Every condemned criminal has a right to appeal to the superior 
 tribunals, and carry his cause to the sovereign court at Pekin; but 
 to reach it so many springs must be set in motion, so many influ¬ 
 ences brought to bear, that most of the causes are finished in the 
 provinces. 
 
 Chinese justice is very severe on thieves and disturbers of the pub¬ 
 lic peace. The most ordinary punishments are fines, the bastinado, 
 blows on the face with thick leathern soles, the cangue, or portable 
 pillory, the prison, iron cages where the prisoner must remain in a 
 crouching attitude, perpetual or temporary exile into Tartary, and 
 death by strangulation or decapitation. Rebels are cut in pieces, 
 or mutilated in the most horrible manner. Punishments are mostly 
 inflicted in a hasty and arbitrary way, with the exception of the 
 punishment of death, the sentence for which, with a few rare 
 exceptions, must have the ratification of the Emperor. 
 
 Ihere exists in China a code, drawn up with very full details, 
 such as European lawyers would call a corpus of Chinese law. It 
 is called Ta-tsing Lu-li, that is to say, Laws and Statutes of the 
 grand dynasty of the Tsing. It has been translated into English by 
 Sir George Staunton under the title of “ Penal Code of China,” — 
 a title that does not at first seem quite accurate, as there are many 
 
 F F 
 
434 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 other things besides criminal law treated of in the course of the 
 work. It is divided into seven portions on the following subjects. 
 1. General Law; 2. Civil Laws; 3. Fiscal Laws; 4. Ritual 
 Laws; 5. Military Laws ; 6. Criminal Laws ; 7. Laws concerning 
 public works ; but the title of Penal Code, though not literal, is by 
 no means inapplicable. 
 
 Those who have observed attentively the manners and institu¬ 
 tions of China, have been struck by two things, very fit to attract 
 attention. On the one hand, the generally penal character of the 
 legislation of the Celestial Empire. Every ordinance of the law, 
 every regulation, is made under penal sanction, not only in crimi¬ 
 nal affairs, but also in matters purely civil. All irregularities, 
 faults of negligence, and so forth, that in European legislation 
 would entail only forfeitures, incapacities, errors, or some slight 
 civil reparation, are punished in China by a certain number of 
 strokes of the bamboo. It might be interesting to inquire into the 
 cause of this curious characteristic of Chinese law. On the other 
 hand, we find all China, with its official religion, its public and 
 private ceremonial, its political institutions, its police and adminis¬ 
 tration, and its vast population of three hundred millions of men, 
 all governed on the one single principle of filial piety before ad¬ 
 verted to; a principle that has been extended to the respect due 
 to the Emperor, and his delegates, and which is in reality little else 
 than the worship of ancient institutions. 
 
 Chinese civilisation originates in an antiquity so remote that we 
 vainly endeavour to discover its commencement. There are no 
 traces of the state of infancy among this people. This is a very 
 peculiar fact respecting China. We are accustomed in the history 
 of nations to find some well-defined point of departure, and the 
 historic documents, traditions, and monuments that remain to us 
 generally permit us to follow, almost step by step, the progress of 
 civilisation, to be present at its birth, to watch its development, its 
 onward march, and, in many cases, its subsequent decay and fall. 
 But it is not thus with the Chinese. They seem to have been 
 always living in the same stage of advancement as in the present 
 day ; and the data of antiquity are such as to confirm that opinion. 
 
 It would not be then very rash to conjecture that some myste¬ 
 rious event of the highest importance must have brought the 
 Chinese suddenly to the point at which we find them, and this fact 
 must have left a profound impression on the imagination of the 
 people. Thence may proceed the respect, the veneration, the 
 gratitude felt for the first founders of their ancient monarchy,, who 
 conducted them iu so rapid a manner to a certain state of enlight- 
 
PENAL CHARACTER OF CHINESE LAW. 
 
 435 
 
 enment. Thence the worship of ancestors, of all ancient things, of 
 those who hold towards the state the place that the father and 
 mother occupy in the family. The Chinese have in fact always 
 attached the idea of something holy and mysterious to whatever is 
 antique, to all that has existed for ages, and this respect gene¬ 
 ralised has taken the name of filial piety. 
 
 This sentiment, carried to excess, had the necessary consequence 
 of cherishing a sort of exclusive spirit, and a contempt for foreign¬ 
 ers, who were regarded as barbarians ; and in the second place, a 
 stationary condition of civilisation, which seems to have remained 
 pretty nearly what it was in the beginning. 
 
 These reflections enable us to assign to the laws relative to filial 
 piety, political and social, their true importance. As the style is 
 the man, so legislation, which is the style of nations, reflects faith¬ 
 fully the manners, habits, and instincts of the people for and bv 
 whom it has been created, and we may say of Chinese legislation, 
 that it represents very accurately the Chinese people. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, being wanting in reli¬ 
 gious faith, and living from day to day without troubling themselves 
 either about the past or the future, profoundly sceptical, and totally 
 indifferent to what touches only the moral nature of man, having 
 no energy for anything but the amassing of sapecks, cannot, as 
 may easily be supposed, be well induced to obey the laws from a 
 sentiment of duty. The official worship of China does not in fact 
 possess any of the characteristics of what can properly be called a 
 religion, and is, consequently, unable to communicate to the people 
 those moral ideas that do more for the observance of the laws than 
 the most terrible penal sanctions. It is, therefore, quite natural 
 that the bamboo should be the necessary and indispensable acces¬ 
 sory of every legal prescription ; and the Chinese law will conse¬ 
 quently always assume a penal character, even when it has in view 
 objects purely civil. 
 
 Whenever a legislature is compelled to be lavish of punishments, 
 it may certainly be affirmed that the social system in which it is in 
 force is vicious; and the Penal Code of China is an illustration of 
 the truth. The punishments awarded by it are not graduated 
 according to the moral gravity of the crime, considered in itself, 
 but merely on the amount of damage that may be occasioned by it. 
 Thus, the punishment of theft is proportional to the value of the 
 object stolen, according to a scale drawn up expressly to that effect, 
 unless the theft be accompanied by circumstances that bring it under 
 some other head. The penal legislation of China is based on the 
 utilitarian principle ; and this need not excite any surprise, for Chi- 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 nese materialism does not consider the act so much in a moral point 
 of view, as with respect to its consequences. 
 
 The presence of this utilitarian principle in legislation usually 
 indicates that the social bond is artificial, that it does not rest on 
 the true principles that constitute and preserve nationalities. The 
 immense population of China, depraved by the absence of religious 
 faith and moral education, wholly absorbed in material interests, 
 would not subsist long as a nation, but would be speedily dismem¬ 
 bered, were a system of legislation, founded on the principles of 
 absolute justice'and right, to be suddenly substituted for the strange 
 one that now governs it. Among a nation of speculators and 
 sceptics, like the Chinese, the social bond is found in the penal, not 
 in the moral law, and the rattan and the bamboo form the sole 
 guarantees for the fulfilment of duty. 
 
 And even so far the object would not be attained, did not the 
 Mandarins charged with the execution of the laws find in them the 
 greatest possible latitude. This is what explains the vagueness and 
 want of precision so often observable in the penal code of China. 
 Very often the definition of a crime is so obscure and imperfect, 
 that the law becomes completely elastic in the hands of the Man¬ 
 darin. It really seems to be made expressly to favour their 
 oppressive, shuffling, dishonest propensities; for in the absence of 
 clear and positive texts, they can always find means of bringing 
 within the category of punishable offences acts which, if not per¬ 
 fectly innocent, are at all events such as can never be subjected to 
 positive laws. 
 
 Thus, for example, we find in vol. i., page 274, of the Fenal 
 Code, the following article: “When a trader,- after having 
 observed the nature of his neighbour’s business, stocks his shop, 
 and puts prices on his goods in such a manner that his neighbours 
 cannot sell theirs, and thus obtains more than the customary ad¬ 
 vantage, he shall be punished with forty strokes of the bamboo.” 
 
 What tradesman could be out of the reach of the vexations of 
 the Mandarins, with such a clause as this always suspended over 
 his head ? And here is another still more odious :— 
 
 “ Whoever shall observe a line of conduct that offends propriety, 
 and that is contrary to the spirit of the laws, even without any 
 special infraction of any of their enactments, shall be punished with 
 forty blows, or eighty, if the impropriety be very great.” 
 
 These two clauses are sufficient to enable a Mandarin to subject 
 the inhabitants of a whole district to extortion, and to accumulate 
 for himself a handsome fortune in a short time. 
 
 But this is not enough ; the master-piece of Chinese legislation 
 
SYSTEM OP MUTUAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 437 
 
 is the vast system of responsibility, by which every subject of the 
 Emperor becomes in some measure security for the conduct of 
 his relative or his neighbour, his superior or his inferior. Public 
 functionaries are, as we shall see, principally subject to this ter¬ 
 rible responsibility ; but private persons are by no means exempt 
 from it. Thus, in each territorial division, composed of a hun¬ 
 dred families, there is a head, chosen by his fellow citizens, along 
 with six others, to watch over the payment of the taxes, and the 
 performance of other public duties. This head is responsible for 
 a crowd of offences that may be committed within his district 
 When the lands are badly cultivated, the punishment he may incur- 
 varies from twenty to eighty strokes, according to the extent of' 
 the land in question. 
 
 Here is a passage from the first chapter of the second volume :— 
 
 Ci The crime of high treason is that committed either against 
 the State, by overthrowing the established government or endea¬ 
 vouring to do so, or against the Sovereign, by destroying the 
 palace in which he resides, the temple where his family is wor¬ 
 shipped, or the tombs in which the remains of his ancestors lie 
 buried, or in endeavouring to do so. All persons who shall be 
 convicted of having committed these execrable crimes, or of 
 having intended to commit them, shall suffer death by a slow and 
 painful method, whether they be principals or accessories. All 
 the male relatives in the first degree of the persons convicted of 
 the above-mentioned crimes — the father, grandfather, and pa¬ 
 ternal uncles, as well as their sons, grandsons, and sons of their 
 uncles, without any regard being had to their place of abode, or to 
 any natural or accidental infirmities, shall be indiscriminately 
 beheaded. All persons who shall know others guilty of high 
 treason, or individuals having intention to commit such a crime, 
 and who shall connive at the said crime, by not denouncing the 
 authors of it, shall be beheaded.” 
 
 This frightful kind of responsibility is as revolting to common 
 sense as to the feelings of a Christian ; but it is quite natural 
 that it should be in constant and energetic action in China. When 
 we look at the case of a nation, composed of 300,000,000 of men, 
 without any religious faith, and given up exclusively to the 
 chances of speculation, we may conceive that some other than 
 ordinary methods have been found necessary to unite under the 
 same dominion elements so rebellious, and maintain the political 
 unity of these innumerable populations. 
 
 And yet all this rigour does not prevent political commotion ; 
 on the contrary, the annals of this strange people show that China 
 
 rr 3 
 
438 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 is the most revolutionary country in the world. With such sys¬ 
 tems, in fact, it is impossible to found anything but a factitious 
 kind of order: the least breath is sufficient to compromise the 
 solidity of an edifice so painfully, yet so badly, constructed ; but 
 it shows of what the Chinese would have been capable if they had 
 availed themselves of the light that Christianity has diffused so 
 abundantly among the nations of the West. China presents, in¬ 
 deed, an astonishing spectacle ; and there is something profoundly 
 mysterious in the ancient civilisation which has been able to resist 
 to this day the flux and reflux of so many revolutions, and to save 
 itself from total ruin, in spite of the instability of its foundation, 
 the defective morality of its citizens, and the falsehood of the 
 principles on which it acts. 
 
 But notwithstanding the numerous imperfections which we 
 have pointed out, the Penal Code of China is still a remarkable 
 monument of the human mind ; and there may even be found in 
 it some of the great principles of modern legislation: the right of 
 pardon granted to the Sovereign, the regard to extenuating cir¬ 
 cumstances, the right of appeal, the respect for individual liberty, 
 guaranteed by the responsibility of magistrates charged with the 
 repression of crime, and others, which serve to protect the people 
 in some measure against the tyranny of the Mandarins. 
 
 The science of jurisprudence does not exist in China; and the 
 office of advocate is unknown. In some of the edicts published by 
 the Emperor, for the confirmation of sentences pronounced against 
 great criminals, there is sometimes reference to decisions made 
 in preceding analogous cases ; but it is made only with the view 
 of illustrating the particular interpretation of a text in the code. 
 Such references to precedents cannot be considered to constitute 
 what is understood by jurisprudence. Every magistrate charged 
 with the administration of the law interprets it in his own way, 
 and by what he regards as the general spirit of the legislature ; 
 but there is no special doctrine to secure them from any departure 
 from it. 
 
 Measures are taken, however, not only to enable the magistrates 
 to understand perfectly the laws they are called on to apply, but 
 also to diffuse a knowledge of the code, as far as possible, among 
 the people at large. All officers and persons in the employment 
 of Government are ordered to make it their particular study; and 
 a special enactment of the Code ordains, that at the end of every 
 year, and in all localities, officers shall be examined upon their 
 knowledge of the laws by their respective superiors ; and if their 
 answers are not satisfactory, they are to be fined a month’s pay, if 
 
CHECKS TO BUREAUCRATIC INTRIGUE. 
 
 439 
 
 they hold a high office, or receive forty strokes of the bamboo if 
 they are of inferior rank. All individuals, labourers, artisans, and 
 others, who, on occasion of their first offence (if committed by ac¬ 
 cident, or through the fault of other persons) shall be able to 
 explain the nature and object of the law affecting them, shall be 
 pardoned and released. 
 
 The Chinese Mandarins enjoy considerable power; but their 
 position is not quite so brilliant as is commonly imagined. They 
 have, indeed, great facilities for the rapid acquirement of wealth ; 
 and if they are men of talent and capacity, they may arrive pretty 
 quickly at high office; but they are never sure of the morrow: a 
 caprice of the Emperor, or the denunciation of a rich and power¬ 
 ful enemy, may at any time cause them to be degraded and sent 
 into exile, or even put to death. 
 
 Public employments are as much sought after in China as in 
 Europe, or perhaps more so, if we may judge by the precautions 
 taken to avoid solicitations and repress that feverish eagerness for 
 office which has excited so much indignation among us in these 
 latter days. 
 
 These precautions are curious enough to make it worth while to 
 glance at them. Who knows whether something of the kind may 
 not be thought worthy of adoption in France? 
 
 The number of officers for each tribunal and for every depart¬ 
 ment is fixed by law ; and whoever shall be appointed unneces¬ 
 sarily, over and above this number—or shall cause another to be 
 so appointed—shall receive a hundred strokes of the bamboo, and 
 an increase of punishment for every supernumerary officer whose 
 nomination he shall have procured. Were such a law in force in 
 our country, the ardour of suitors and the goodwill of patrons 
 would probably be a good deal cooled. 
 
 When civil government officers, who are not distinguished for 
 eminent services rendered to the State, shall have been recom¬ 
 mended to the goodness of the Emperor as persons worthy of the 
 highest honours, these officers, and those who have recommended 
 them, are to be sent to prison and beheaded. 
 
 Addresses sent to the Emperor, in favour of any of the great 
 officers of the State, are considered as indicating the existence of 
 traitorous machinations subversive of government; and their au¬ 
 thors, as well as the officers whom they concern, if they have been 
 aware of the offence, are punishable with death. This excessive 
 severity cannot be intended merely to repress court intrigues, and 
 the attainment of high offices by ambitious though incapable per¬ 
 sons ; the law is principally anxious to guard against the slightest 
 
 r f 4 
 
440 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 infringement of the power of the Emperor. In so vast a population 
 as that of China, unrestrained by any moral or religious tie, the 
 Sovereignty is naturally suspicious, and trembles, in some measure, 
 before those great functionaries who are the depositaries of such 
 a portion of its power as would permit them, if they dared, to 
 shake off its yoke, and compromise the safety of the throne. The 
 law of China is, therefore, immoderately severe towards the slightest 
 offence indicative of want of due respect for the Emperor. It is 
 forbidden under penalty of eighty strokes of the bamboo, to em¬ 
 ploy the individual name of his Majesty in any address, or to make 
 use of it in instructing the people, or, under pain of a hundred 
 strokes, to assume it one’s self or bestow it on others. The bam¬ 
 boo also takes cognisance of the crime of throwing a stone, or any 
 other projectile, against any of the Imperial residences. 
 
 The laws which regulate the conduct of the public functionaries 
 in China, although very severe, are somewhat tempered by forms 
 having a certain resemblance to what in France is called the Con¬ 
 stitutional guarantee. When an officer of the government, either 
 at court or in the provinces, commits any offence against the laws, 
 whether in his public or private capacity, his superior, in all im¬ 
 portant cases, submits a circumstantial account of the affair to the 
 Emperor, and the culprit cannot be brought to trial without the 
 express sanction of his Majesty; privileged persons can only be 
 pursued for offences against the law upon the positive order of the 
 Emperor, to whom all proceedings are to be referred. But this 
 privilege ceases when the crime partakes of the nature of trea¬ 
 son ; these crimes are, “ rebellion, disloyalty, desertion, parricide, 
 massacre, sacrilege, impiety, discord, insubordination, and incest.’" 
 —(Vol. i. p. 27.) 
 
 It is especially with regard to the public functionaries that the 
 system of penal responsibility of which we have spoken above, is 
 most energetically applied. Every time that a tribunal or a body 
 of official persons, have incurred guilt by pronouncing erroneous 
 decisions, or such as being either too mild or too severe, are con¬ 
 trary to the laws, or who have even become chargeable with faults 
 of negligence, the registrar is considered as the principal author 
 of the crime : all the other participators are punished, but with 
 less severity in diminishing proportion up to the president, whose 
 punishment is the slightest of all. 
 
 In China, the lower the officer, the higher the responsibility, for 
 it is said the crime would not have been committed if he had re¬ 
 fused his assistance. Thus the subalterns are liable to the most 
 terrible punishments if they afford their concurrence in an illegal 
 
RESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT OFFICERS. 441 
 
 act, and to the resentment of their superiors if they refuse it. 
 Their position would therefore become an intolerable one, but that 
 in China official persons are never afraid of anything the law can 
 menace them with, as they always trust to finding some way of 
 wriggling out of it. 
 
 Another remarkable feature of the laws on this subject, is, that 
 they regard an erroneous sentence pronounced by any of the tri¬ 
 bunals as a crime. It is somewhat curious to European ideas to 
 see a judge whipped for having made a mistake; and in China not 
 only is a tribunal punishable for a wrong decision on a cause with 
 the facts of which it may be presumed to be well acquainted, but 
 even when a superior tribunal confirms the erroneous sentence of 
 an inferior, or in the reverse case, when a cause has been sent from 
 the superior to the inferior court. 
 
 The responsibility of the inferior officers is carried so far, that 
 there are eases in which they would be put to death for having 
 sealed a letter badly. If the Imperial seal is awkwardly placed, or 
 turned upside down, all the officers responsible for affixing it are 
 to receive eighty strokes ; and if the person to whom the docu¬ 
 ment is sent should on this account feel any doubts of its authen¬ 
 ticity, and hesitate to execute the orders it contains, and that any 
 military operation should thus have failed, the clerk in the office is 
 to be put to death. 
 
 The civil capacity of functionaries is restrained within certain 
 limits ; and this is perhaps one of the wisest arrangements of the 
 Chinese law. Not only all high officers of government, but even 
 their clerks and registrars, are forbidden to hold land in the district 
 under their control. No government officer in towns of the first, 
 second, or third order, may take a wi<e within the limits of his 
 jurisdiction, under pain of eighty strokes of the bamboo, or a 
 hundred if her father or mother have a suit before the courts ; 
 and he is to undergo the same punishment if he marry such a 
 woman to his son, grandson, brother, or nephew 7 . 
 
 The penal scale established by the code is very simple. The 
 most ordinary punishments are the cangue, and the bamboo applied 
 with the large or small end; the strokes varying in number up to 
 a hundred. A number above sixty is often combined with tem¬ 
 porary or perpetual banishment, and with the brand. The pun¬ 
 ishment of death is executed by strangulation or decapitation, 
 according to the gravity of the offence ; and there is also, for 
 great crimes, the “ slow and painful death,” or the torture of the 
 knife, which is inflicted in this manner: The executioner puts his 
 hand into a covered basket in which are a number of knives, marked 
 
442 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 with the names of various limbs and parts of the body, and draw¬ 
 ing out one at random, he cuts off the part indicated from the 
 body of the victim. The relatives generally endeavour in such 
 cases to shorten the unfortunate creature’s sufferings, by giving 
 money to the executioner that he may find as soon as possible the 
 knife destined to be plunged into the heart. 
 
 I he Chinese law, notwithstanding these atrocious severities, 
 adopted with a view to the repression of crime, has some features 
 not altogether unworthy of a modern code. There is especially a 
 system of extenuating circumstances, founded on more moral bases 
 than in the system pursued in France. With us the estimate of 
 the value of such circumstances is left to the consideration of a 
 jury, which has no other power than simply to declare that such 
 circumstances exist. In China the law itself foresees certain facts, 
 which when they are confirmed involve a diminution of punish¬ 
 ment, or sometimes its entire remission. 
 
 In certain cases, on occasion, for instance, of some great event, 
 the Emperor'issues a general act of grace, which has the effect of 
 a full pardon. This act, however, does not extend to those who 
 have committed treasonable offences, or some others which are 
 specified. The benefits of this amnesty extend to all who have 
 committed offences through inadvertence, or who are implicated 
 in them on account merely of their legal responsibility ; but spe¬ 
 cial pardons may be received by every criminal without exception. 
 
 Consideration for the relatives is often the inducement to a 
 diminution of the punishment of the guilty, who have legally 
 merited death ; but in such cases there must be children under 
 sixteen, or parents beyond seventy or particularly infirm, and the 
 crime must be of such a nature that it could be brought under the 
 operation of an act of grace. The case is then referred to the 
 Emperor, who gives the decision respecting it. If the culprit has 
 merited banishment, he will receive instead a hundred strokes of 
 the bamboo, and pay a fine. 
 
 Age and infirmity will sometimes obtain indulgence even for the 
 culprit himself; but in that case an explanatory memorial must be 
 addressed to the Emperor. It is often sufficient if the age or in¬ 
 firmity exist at the time of trial, even though they may not have 
 existed at the epoch of the crime. 
 
 The culprit who voluntarily surrenders to the magistrate, with¬ 
 out the crime having been otherwise discovered, obtains a pardon, 
 saving some civil reparation ; and confession always obtains a re¬ 
 duction of punishment — in some cases, specially provided for, 
 indeed, a complete pardon, saving always, as before, the civil repa- 
 
TREATMENT OF ACCUSED PERSONS. 
 
 443 
 
 ration. This appears judicious; and in this respect the Chinese 
 are perhaps in advance of other nations. In France a confession 
 will always obtain a reduction of punishment through a declaration 
 of extenuating circumstances; but would it not be better that the 
 law itself should provide for this reduction, which, being thus a 
 matter of right, would often induce the guilty to make confessions, 
 from the certainty of obtaining an amelioration of his lot ? 
 
 The criminal who gives himself up, and at the same time causes 
 the arrest of an accomplice, equally or more guilty than himself, 
 has, in China, a right to a pardon. 
 
 The Chinese law, like that of France, provides certain cases of 
 legal excuse. Thus, it is forbidden to enter an inhabited house by 
 night without due authority ; and if the master of it kill any one 
 in the attempt to do this in an improper hour, he is not punishable. 
 It is regarded as an act of legitimate self-defence. A husband 
 who kills an adulterous wife or her paramour is also held blameless. 
 
 The treatment of culprits in prison, and the inode in which they 
 are to undergo their punishment, is subject to minute regulation ; 
 and when a magistrate commits offenders to prison, and neglects 
 to take with respect to them the measures of rigour prescribed by 
 the law, he is punished with a number of strokes of the bamboo, 
 proportioned to the crimes which the said offenders have com¬ 
 mitted. It happens, therefore, sometimes, as may be supposed, 
 that a magistrate, rather than expose himself to the bamboo, con¬ 
 ducts himself towards his prisoners with an atrocious cruelty that 
 we could not have believed if we had not witnessed it. 
 
 One day, when we were passing along the road leading to Pekin, 
 we met a party of soldiers, with an officer at their head, escorting 
 a number of carts, in which were literally piled up a crowd of 
 Chinese, who were uttering horrible cries. As we stopped to 
 allow these cart-loads of human beings to pass, we were seized 
 with horror on perceiving that these unfortunate creatures were 
 nailed by the hand to the planks of the cart. A satellite whom 
 we interrogated, replied, with frightful coolness, “ We’ve been 
 routing out a nest of thieves in a neighbouring village. We got a 
 good many of them ; and as we hadn’t brought chains enough, we 
 were obliged to contrive some way to prevent their escaping. So 
 you see we nailed them by the hand.” 
 
 “ But do not you think there may be some innocent among 
 them ? ” 
 
 “Who can tell? They have not been tried yet. We are 
 taking them to the tribunal; and by-and-by, if there are any in¬ 
 nocent men among them, they will be separated from the thieves.” 
 
444 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The fellow seemed to think the thing quite a matter of course, and 
 was even a little proud of the contrivance. 
 
 Perhaps, what was most hideous of all in this dreadful spectacle, 
 was the mocking hilarity of the soldiers, who were pointing out to 
 one another with an air of amusement the contortions and grimaces 
 of the miserable creatures in their agony of pain. If a people can 
 exhibit such barbarity as this in quiet and peaceable times, it may 
 be imagined of what excesses they are capable under the excite¬ 
 ment of revolution and civil wa.r. In the provinces now in insur¬ 
 rection horrible abominations must be passing. 
 
 The Penal Code concerns itself greatly, as may be supposed, in 
 the organisation of the family, which, in China, is a political as 
 well as social institution; but, great as is the talk about filial 
 piety, it is certain that there is much less real harmony and affec¬ 
 tion in Chinese families than among Europeans. The reason is 
 obvious : in China the law and the bamboo, not duty and religion, 
 regulate filial regard, and endeavour to maintain the ties of family 
 by artificial means. In the beginning, doubtless, the law s passed 
 on this subject were the expression of a true and lively feeling ; 
 but the feeling has passed away, and the law remains. The fear 
 oi the cangue and the rattan has taken the place of filial love ; and 
 the attachment of children to their parents is little more than an 
 affair of habit. 
 
 Marriage, which forms the basis of domestic life, has been care¬ 
 fully and minutely regulated by Chinese legislation; and it is 
 deeply impressed with the character of the domestic tyranny that 
 is found in the manners of all nations placed out of the influence 
 of Christianity. In speaking of the rites and ceremonies observed 
 in the celebration of marriage, we have alluded to the despotic 
 authority of parents over their children. Thus it is not the future 
 wedded pair, but their respective families, w'ho make the first ad¬ 
 vances, fix the wedding presents, arrange the articles of the con¬ 
 tract, &c. All these preliminaries are adjusted through the inter¬ 
 vention of third persons, who serve as go-betweens, and haggle 
 about the price of the marriageable merchandise. When the 
 bargain is concluded, the parties are affianced. If either family 
 afterwards refuse to ratify the contract, its chief is condemned to 
 receive fifty strokes with the bamboo, and the marriage is ordered 
 to take place. In cases where there has been no contract, the 
 acceptance of the presents is considered as sufficient evidence of 
 the consent of the contracting parties. 
 
 It is thus easy to conclude a marriage without at all consulting 
 the persons most interested; but this is only the case with the first 
 
PUNISHMENT FOR IMPIETY. 
 
 445 
 
 marriage. The father of a family cannot compel a son who has 
 become a widower to marry a second time, under penalty of eighty 
 strokes of the bamboo. 
 
 If, between the betrothal and the marriage, the relations of the 
 bride promise her hand to another, the head of the family receives 
 seventy strokes, or eighty if she has been already presented and 
 approved. He who should accept a promise of marriage, knowing 
 that negotiations were begun with another, would also receive 
 eighty blows ; but in cases where either party can be proved to 
 have been guilty of theft or adultery, the contract becomes null 
 and void. 
 
 The Chinese law points out certain circumstances as obstacles to 
 the formation of an alliance. There are absolute hindrances, rela¬ 
 tive hindrances or mere retardatory obstacles. It is forbidden to 
 marry during the time fixed by law for the mourning for a father, 
 a mother, or a husband. A marriage contracted under these cir¬ 
 cumstances is not only declared null, but punished by a hundred 
 strokes of the bamboo. 
 
 The marriage contracted during the mourning for a grandfather 
 or grandmother, an uncle or an aunt, an elder brother or elder 
 sister, remains valid*, but is punished, nevertheless, by eighty 
 blows. A widow who has received from the Emperor any dis¬ 
 tinction of rank during the life of her husband, is punished by a 
 hundred strokes if she marry again, besides being degraded from 
 her rank, and separated from her new husband.f 
 
 Marriages contracted between persons bearing the same family 
 name, with any one concealing himself on account of some crime, 
 or with actors or musicians, are in themselves null and void; and 
 the delinquents are punished by a certain number of strokes of the 
 bamboo. 
 
 One of the consequences of the manner in which marriages are 
 made in China is the divorce, not merely for determinate causes, 
 but by mutual consent. It seems natural enough that persons 
 who have been married without being consulted, should have at 
 least the permission to separate if they cannot agree. The hus¬ 
 band may repudiate his lawful wife for the following causes — 
 some of which appear rather whimsical: sterility; immorality; 
 contempt of the husband’s father and mother; propensity to 
 slander or to theft; a jealous temper; or habitual ill-health. 
 
 Impiety, which is placed by the law of China in the class of 
 great crimes, is nothing but the failure in family duty. It is de- 
 
 * Vol.I. p. 188. 
 
 f Yol. I. p. 189. 
 
446 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 fined in the Code in the following manner: — “Impiety is the 
 failure in respect and care for those to whom you owe your being, 
 from whom you have had your education, and by whom you are pro¬ 
 tected. It is also impious to institute a law-suit against your near 
 relations, to insult them, not to wear mourning for them, and not 
 to respect their memories.” * 
 
 The punishments incurred by this crime of impiety are very 
 severe. Striking an elder relative is punished with death, and 
 also bearing false witness against him, or even addressing abusive 
 words to him, if he have heard the words, and complain of them. 
 Parricides are subjected to the torture of the knife; and should 
 they die in prison, their dead bodies are to undergo the mutila¬ 
 tion. 
 
 The law fixes the kind and duration of mourning which every 
 one is to wear on the death of a member of his family, and should 
 any one receive news of the death of his father or mother, or a 
 wife of her husband, without immediately putting on mourning, he 
 is punishable by sixty blows, and a year of banishment. The same 
 punishment is to be inflicted for leaving off the mourning before 
 the appointed time, or for taking part, during its continuance, in 
 any rejoicings. 
 
 Every government officer, on receiving intelligence of this 
 nature, must immediately cease the exercise of his functions, and 
 put on mourning. He must abstain from all public duty during 
 the Avhole period ; and if, with a view to avoid such suspension, 
 he should falsely represent the deceased person to have been a more 
 distant relation, he shall suffer the punishment of a hundred blows, 
 and the forfeiture of his place, besides being declared incapable of 
 ever holding any for the future. Military commanders, or persons 
 holding important civil offices at a great distance from the Court, 
 are however exempt from this law ; and the line of conduct they 
 are to observe on such occasions is to be determined by the ex¬ 
 press orders of the Emperor.” f 
 
 It will be seen by these details, that the filial piety of the 
 Chinese has need of the continual stimulus of the bamboo. 
 
 Among the ritual laws, there are some other rather curious 
 prpvisions :— “ All that concerns the science of the stars, as the 
 sun, the moon, the five planets, the twenty-eight principal con¬ 
 stellations, and others, as well as eclipses, meteors, comets, and 
 other celestial appearances, shall be observed by the officers com¬ 
 posing the astronomical council of Pekin. If the said officers 
 
 * Yol. I. p. 23. 
 
 f Yol. I. pp. 310, 311. 
 
THE SACRED PIGS. 
 
 447 
 
 neglect to observe exactly the said appearances, and to mark their 
 time in order to render an account of them to his Majesty 
 the Emperor, they shall be punished by sixty blows of the bam¬ 
 boo.” 
 
 Here is another arrangement, not entirely injudicious : — “It is 
 forbidden to magicians, sorcerers, and fortunetellers, to frequent 
 the houses of the civil and military officers of government, under 
 pretext of announcing the calamities that menace the nation, or 
 the fortunate events that may be in store for it; they are to have 
 five hundred strokes for every one of their predictions.” This 
 law does not, however, hinder them from casting the horoscopes 
 of private individuals who may apply to them, nor from prog¬ 
 nosticating births, nor consulting the stars in the accustomed 
 manner 
 
 The Chinese, notwithstanding their complete indifference in 
 matters of religion, have very precise and severe laws relating to 
 the official worship, and all negligence, imperfection, or irregularity 
 in the observance of the rites, is repressed by the bamboo, applied 
 equally to the delinquent and to the “ master of the ceremonies,” 
 whose vigilance is presumed to have been in fault. Thus when the 
 government officer charged with the education of the sacred pigs, 
 which are fattened in the pagodas for solemn sacrifices, does not 
 feed them in the manner prescribed by law, so that any one of them 
 becomes indisposed, or thin, the officer is to receive forty strokes 
 of the bamboo, and so many more for every additional sick pig. 
 The health of the swinish multitude becomes, therefore, a very 
 important affair; and a symptom of illness among them is enough 
 to throw a whole pagoda into consternation. 
 
 The Bonzes, as well as the Tao-sse, or Doctors of Reason, are 
 regarded by the law of China as civilly dead. They are forbidden 
 to visit their fathers and mothers, to sacrifice to their dead ances¬ 
 tors, or, which is still more remarkable, to wear mourning for any 
 of them, under pain of receiving a hundred stripes. 
 
 The penal code of China, of which we have endeavoured here to 
 give a slight sketch, often enters into the most minute details con¬ 
 cerning points with which European legislators would never think 
 of concerning themselves ; but in examining some of the countless 
 numbers of its prescriptions and regulations, we have more than 
 once had occasion to remark that the practice of the people was by 
 no means in accordance with them. Authority having lost the 
 strength and energy that it once had, the people live pretty much 
 as they please, without troubling themselves about the Code and 
 its regulations. The Mandarins exercise their power according to 
 
448 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 their own caprice ; and in the most serious affairs, when the law, 
 perhaps, directs them to torture a prisoner to obtain a confession, 
 or even to inflict the punishment of death, they pay no attention to 
 the law unless it suits them to do so. Their own pleasure forms 
 their only rule. 
 
 In the summer of 1849, we were crossing the province of Chan- 
 toung to go to Pekin. One evening we were proceeding in a hired 
 cart along the imperial road which is bordered by great trees. 
 Whilst the driver, seated upon one of the shafts of the vehicle, was 
 occupied in smoking his pipe and whipping his lean mules, our 
 eyes wandered carelessly over a dull and monotonous plain, that 
 stretched out before us as far as the eye could reach. 
 
 Presently, the Chinese Phaeton, after having shaken the ashes 
 out of his pipe, jumped down, and began looking to the right and 
 left, like a man who is seeking for something. He soon came run¬ 
 ning back, and, pointing to the tops of some trees at the road-side, 
 said, “Look there ! ” We raised our eyes in the direction in which 
 he was pointing with the handle of his whip, and perceived nume¬ 
 rous small cages suspended to the branches of the trees, and looking- 
 like some apparatus for bird-catching. “What is that?” said we. 
 “Look well,” he replied, “and you will soon know.” The cart 
 drove on, and soon, shuddering, we beheld in each of about fifty 
 cages, coarsely made with sticks of bamboo, a human head. 
 Almost all were in a state of putrefaction, and the features hide¬ 
 ously distorted. Some of the cages were broken, and the heads 
 hung in them only by the beards or the hair ; from others the heads 
 had fallen out altogether, and lay at the foot of the trees. We 
 could not long endure this disgusting sight. 
 
 As we drove away, the driver related to us that this district had 
 formerly been infested by bands of thieves, who ravaged the whole 
 country round, and yet contrived to escape the pursuit of the Man¬ 
 darins. At the beginning of this year, however, a Commissioner 
 Extraordinary had been sent from Pekin, with a considerable armed 
 force, and one day in a certain village he had seized almost the 
 whole gang, and, without waiting for any authority from the Em¬ 
 peror, had had them all beheaded, and their heads hung to the trees ; 
 on the road for a terror to evil doers. 
 
 This terrible execution had alarmed the whole district. “ I 
 would take good care,” said our driver, “never to pass this wav at 
 night.” 
 
 “ Why ? ” said we ; “ there can hardly be much fear of robbers 
 just now.” 
 
 “ No ; but because, when it is dark, those heads all utter fright- j 
 
JOURNEY TO HOANG-MEI-HIEN. 
 
 449 
 
 ful vociferations. You can hear them cry out from all the villages 
 round.” 
 
 We were not at all surprised that our driver should put faith in 
 this story, for the mere sight of these hideous cages affected our 
 imaginations so that we could not for days get rid of the impres¬ 
 sion. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 
 Departure from Kouang-tsi-hien. — Storm. — Government Couriers.—'Mode 
 of epistolary Correspondence. — Grand Festival at Hoang-mei-hien.—Fire¬ 
 works. — Chinese Music. — Idea we ought to have of the Music of the 
 Ancients. — Imperial Road to Pekin. — The Roads in China. — Halt upon 
 the Borders of Lake Pou-yang. — Embarkation. — Kakkerlacs on board the 
 Junk. — Glance over the Province of Hou-pe. — Agriculture in China. —■ 
 Imperial Festival of Labour. — Details concerning Agriculture. — Agricul¬ 
 tural Productions. — The Bamboo. — The Water Lily. — Imperial Rice. — 
 Observant Character of the Chinese. — Classification of Corn. — What 
 becomes of the Swallows during Winter. — Manner of making a Cat tell the 
 Time. — Method of hindering Asses from braying. 
 
 Just as we were about to leave Kouang-tsi-hien, we received a 
 visit from the Prefect of the town, whom we were happy to have 
 an opportunity of thanking for the manner in which we had been 
 treated. We asked what had become of the robber-chief. 
 
 “ Yesterday,” said he, “ I was employed the whole day in inter¬ 
 rogating him, and that was why I did not come to pay my respects 
 to you. I sat also during a part of the night without being able to 
 succeed in making him denounce his accomplices. That is just 
 like the kouen-kouan ; they stand by each other, even through 
 tortures and death. In a few days, when he has recovered, and 
 that the frenzy caused by the torture has disappeared, I will send 
 him off to the capital, with the necessary documents connected with 
 his case. The superior tribunals of Ou-tchang-fou will then under¬ 
 take it. The Ngan-tcha-sse, ‘ Inspector of Crimes,’ will endeavour 
 to make him speak, but I do not think he will succeed.” 
 
 It is customary for the judge, after having flagellated a prisoner 
 till he is covered with blood, and one mass of bruises, to have 
 remedies applied to restore his strength, so as to be able to torture 
 him again without danger of killing him ; and these remedies are 
 said to be so efficacious, that the torture can often be repeated 
 daily. 
 
 About an hour after we had quitted Kouang-tsi-hien, the sky 
 became covered with clouds, a violent clap of thunder broke over 
 
 G G 
 
450 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 our heads, and enormous drops of rain began to fall. We feared 
 for a time that we were going to have a tremendous storm, and 
 the people of our caravan looked about anxiously in all directions 
 for a place of refuge. The country we were traversing was wild 
 and sterile, and the habitations were so few that we could not just 
 then see any, except, at a very great distance, in a large village 
 that lay quite away from the road, and that we'could only have 
 reached by crossing the fields. 
 
 Our Weeping Willow was in extreme perplexity, and he came 
 every moment to our palanquins to ask what was to be done. 
 
 “ This is a most vexatious circumstance ! ” said he. 
 
 “ Yes, very,” we replied; “ we are going to have bad weather, it 
 seems.” 
 
 “ In that case what do you propose to do?” 
 
 “ Do ! what can we do ? It’s not easy to help it.” 
 
 “ But if the storm comes-” 
 
 “Well, we must submit as well as we can — be resigned ; we do 
 not see what else can be done.” 
 
 But our conductor did not at all relish the idea of resignation, 
 and continually returned to the charge, imagining, evidently, that, 
 if we liked, we could find some means of conjuring the storm, or 
 procuring shelter. He seemed to think that men like us ought 
 not to have been embarrassed about such a thing as that. For¬ 
 tunately for us, there was no storm after all; but after the few 
 large heavy drops, the rain began to fall quietly and regularly. 
 
 It continued to do so the whole day, and no one experienced the 
 smallest inconvenience. On the contrary, the atmosphere, which 
 before had been suffocating, became deliciously cool and fresh. 
 The mud was not immoderate, as we were on a sandy soil, and 
 one that was so dry and thirsty, that it drank in with avidity all 
 the water that fell from the sky. The palanquin-bearers ap¬ 
 peared quite delighted when they felt the rain running down their 
 backs, and thus obtained so easily the pleasure of a prolonged 
 bath ; they burst into peals of laughter ; they sang with all their 
 might and main ; and seemed to make a mere sport of their toil- 1 
 some vocation. The horsemen and pedestrians were not less < 
 pleased ; but, with bare heads, and for their entire clothing a thin 
 pair of drawers, they revelled with delight in the cool fresh rain. 
 We really envied them, but the Rites imperatively required that 
 we should remain shut up in our palanquins. 
 
 Towards noon we were joined by two travellers, with peaked 
 rattan caps, a threefold cotton girdle, and an enormous varnished j 
 box, worn in a cross-belt; on their feet they had sandals, fastened 
 
GOVERNMENT COURIERS. 
 
 451 
 
 with leathern thongs. They walked on in silence, swinging their 
 arms, with a long and uniform step, but with no appearance of 
 haste. Their eyes were constantly fixed on the ground, and they 
 scarcely turned their heads when they passed through the middle 
 of our caravan. In a few minutes they were far from us, and 
 soon after quite out of sight. These two men were Govern¬ 
 ment couriers, going to Pekin by the Imperial road, and the 
 varnished boxes on their backs contained despatches from the 
 Administration of Ou-tchang-fou. The Chinese Government 
 employs couriers on foot and on horseback, whose services are 
 performed with tolerable regularity; by this means it is made 
 acquainted with what is passing in the provinces, and amongst the 
 tributary nations. Relays of horses are kept at certain distances 
 all along the principal roads, but on ordinary occasions they do 
 not go faster than a trot. If the intelligence to be conveyed 
 demands more celerity, the estafettes gallop day and night, or 
 sometimes employ pedestrian couriers, whose pace is said to be 
 faster than that of a horse. Before being accepted to fill this 
 office, these men go through a long course of preparatory train¬ 
 ing, by making forced marches, loaded with a number of bags 
 filled with sand, which are hung about their limbs, and the quan¬ 
 tity of which they increase every day. By degrees they acquire 
 great strength and agility; and when afterwards they diminish 
 the weight to which their legs are accustomed, they are able to 
 walk for days together without difficulty. These couriers never 
 appear hurried ; you would say they were walking at an ordinary 
 pace, and yet they get along with extraordinary rapidity. 
 
 There is no such thing in China as a post, for the use of the 
 public; and when you wish to send letters you must trust to 
 the complaisance of some traveller, or send a messenger at your 
 own expense, which is, of course, a very costly method. Acci¬ 
 dents of various kinds also happen to the messengers on the 
 road ; and often, after all the expense you have been at, your 
 letters go astray. The missionaries, who are accustomed to the 
 prodigious facility of correspondence that exists in Europe, find it 
 very hard to endure the tediousness of these communications. 
 I ifty days suffice to bring a letter from Paris to Canton ; but from 
 Canton to Pekin takes three months. 
 
 The Chinese do not suffer much from this state of things; for- 
 having scarcely any domestic affections, they do not feel the need 
 of corresponding with their relations and friends, Looking at 
 everything only on the positive and material side, they have no 
 idea of the tender relations by which two hearts delight to draw 
 
 g g 2 
 
452 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 near in intimate correspondence, and communicate their joys and 
 their sorrows. They know nothing of the lively emotions that 
 the mere sight of a known hand-writing can awaken ; their 
 hands never tremble as they break the seal of a letter ; they do 
 not often settle even their commercial affairs by writing, but prefer 
 going to the place and treating viva voce. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the Chinese do not fre¬ 
 quently write letters; on the contrary, they address missives to 
 each other on all occasions; but there is never anything friendly 
 and confidential in them. They are mere commonplace for¬ 
 malities, consecrated by custom, and might be sent to any other 
 person, as well as the one to whom they are addressed. If, there¬ 
 fore, any one should happen to open and read a letter addressed 
 to any one else, provided he afterwards communicate its contents j 
 to the lawful owner of the epistle, it is a mere trifle, and no j 
 offence. If you see any one writing, and feel at all curious, you 
 have only to lean over his shoulder, and coolly read the characters 
 he is tracing; nobody minds doing that. 
 
 The first year of our residence in China, a fact of which we 
 were witnesses furnished us with the means of estimating the im¬ 
 portance and value of a letter in this country. We were staying 
 at the time with a literary man, a native of Pekin, who had left 
 his family eight years before to take the office of schoolmaster in 
 one of the towns of the south. Many conversations that we had 
 had with this Chinese had led us to suppose that he was not quite 
 of so cold and insensible a nature as most of his countrymen; his 
 manners were kind, and he had the appearance of possessing more 
 warmth of heart than is common here. One day we were on the 
 point of sending off a messenger to Pekin, and we asked him 
 whether he would not like to take the opportunity of sending 
 something to his family or friends. After considering for a mo¬ 
 ment, he said, “ Oh, yes ; I think I should write a letter to my old 
 mother; I have heard nothing of her for four years, and she does 
 not know where I am. Since there is such a good opportunity, it 
 would not be amiss if I were to write a few lines.” 
 
 We thought his filial piety did not seem of a very fervent com¬ 
 plexion ; but we merely told him that he had better, in that case, 
 write immediately, as the messenger was going off that evening. 
 
 “ Directly, directly,” he replied ; “ you shall have the letter in a few 
 minutes;” and he called to one of his pupils who was singing out 
 his classical lesson in the next room—probably some fine passage 1 
 out of Confucius upon the love that children owe to their pa¬ 
 rents. The pupil presented himself with the proper air of demure 
 modesty. 
 
AN AFFECTIONATE SON. 
 
 453 
 
 “ Interrupt your lesson for a moment,” said the master; “ take 
 your pencil, and write me a letter to my mother. But don’t lose 
 any time, for the courier is going directly. Here, take this sheet 
 of paper;” and the pupil accordingly took the paper, and set 
 about writing to his master’s mother. 
 
 The Chinese mostly write their letters upon fancy paper; upon 
 which are stamped, in red and blue, figures of birds, flowers, but¬ 
 terflies, and mythological personages. The Chinese character 
 being always of a fine black, is not lost amidst these fantastic 
 ornaments. 
 
 When the pupil ha.d left the room with his sheet of ornamented 
 paper, we asked the schoolmaster whether this lad knew his mother. 
 “Not in the least,” he answered. “I don’t think he knew whether 
 she was living or had already ‘ saluted the world.’ ” 
 
 “In that case, how can he write the letter? You did not even 
 tell him what he was to say.” 
 
 “Don’t he know quite well what to say ? For more than a year 
 he has been studying literary composition, and he is acquainted 
 with a number of elegant formulas. Do you think he does not 
 know perfectly well how a son ought to write to his mother?” 
 
 We had nothing to reply to this ; but we understood immediately 
 the difference between filial piety, as it is felt and practised in 
 China, and as it is so magnificently described and commented on 
 in their books. 
 
 The pupil, obedient to his master’s orders, lost no time. He 
 returned soon afterwards, with his letter in an elegant envelope, 
 which he had even had the politeness to seal all ready; so that this 
 admirable son did not even give himself the trouble to read the 
 unctuous expressions of tenderness and respect that he had ad¬ 
 dressed to his mother. No doubt he had known them by heart 
 a long while, and had himself taught them to the pupil. He 
 wished, however, to write the address with his own hand; which 
 appeared to us rather superfluous, for the letter would have done 
 just as well for any other mother in the Celestial Empire as for 
 the one to whom it was addressed, and any other would doubtless 
 have felt as much satisfaction in the receipt of it. 
 
 We travelled the whole day through the fresh pouring rain, and 
 arrived in the evening at Hoang-mei-hien, a town of the third 
 order, situated on the banks of a little river, not far from the Im¬ 
 perial road. The proximity of the lake Pou-yang, the Blue River, 
 and the road to Pekin, gives a great commercial activity to this 
 town, and it receives all the merchandise sent from the north or 
 south of the Empire, for the great central mart of Han-keou. 
 
 g g 3 
 
454 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIEE. 
 
 Hoang-mei-hien was to be our last stage in the province of 
 ITou-pe; and we were received in it vdth a magnificence that we 
 had been little accustomed to since we had left the province of 
 Sse-tchouen. It might have been thought that the Mandarins of 
 this town intended to make us forget the annoyances we had 
 experienced for the previous month. 
 
 The Communal Palace, in which w r e Were lodged, was tastefully 
 fitted up, and besides the hangings of rich red silk, the lanterns, 
 and the sentences suspended on the walls, there were vases of 
 flowers that shed a delicious perfume through the apartments. 
 
 The ceremonial of visiting etiquette was observed in all its 
 rigour ; there seemed no end of our bows, and of the abundant 
 outpouring of fine hollow -words; and at last, to crown all, we 
 w^ere treated at night to a serenade and a brilliant display of fire¬ 
 works. 
 
 These were composed first of a prodigious quantity of crackers, 
 suspended in large bunches on bamboo poles, their dry and noisy 
 detonations never ceasing for a single moment. This perpetual 
 cracking noise was only interrupted by the explosion of a sort of 
 bomb shell, that v'ent off very suddenly and with great noise ; but 
 the grandest pieces were placed at the angles of the court, where 
 dragons and other fabulous beasts vomited fire at every pore. 
 There were rockets of various colours, that shot into the air with 
 splendid effect, and also a kind of wheel, called by the Chinese 
 ‘• a flying sun,” which pleased us most of all. It has merely to be 
 put on a large plate, and placed on the ground ; the wheel is then 
 kindled, and immediately it begins to turn rapidly, throwing out 
 bluish flames in all directions; and then suddenly springing into 
 the air, it rushes to an immense height, and lets fall a fiery rain of 
 all sorts of brilliant and varied colours. 
 
 The Chinese have always been passionately fond of powder, of 
 which they knew the use long before the Europeans, but their 
 taste is less decided for the kind made u$e of in war than for the 
 milder sort employed for fireworks. They were firework makers 
 before they were artillerists, and they have remained faithful to 
 their first inclinations, liking squibs and crackers a great deal 
 better than cannon. 
 
 In all their festivals and solemnities of whatever character — 
 births, marriages, funerals, meetings of friends, theatrical repre¬ 
 sentations, receptions of Mandarins, and great men—they are sure 
 to manage somehow or other to bring in fireworks. In the towns 
 and villages you hear them popping and cracking at almost every 
 hour of the night and day, so that one might take the whole 
 
CHINESE MUSIC. 
 
 455 
 
 Chinese Empire for one great pyrotechnic establishment. We have 
 said that in the poorest hovels, where the people have scarcely the 
 necessaries of life, you are always sure to find melon-seeds, and 
 we might have added also that fireworks are seldom wanting. 
 
 Of Chinese music we cannot speak so favourably as of their 
 pyrotechnic displays. It is probable that, for this grand evening’s 
 entertainments, all the most distinguished artists of Hoang-mei- 
 hien had been collected, and the orchestra was certainly consider¬ 
 able, and the instruments in great variety. There w r ere hautboys, 
 violins, flutes, very much like ours, and other both wind and 
 stringed instruments, of such whimsical forms that we cannot 
 attempt to give any description of them. Chinese music, it is 
 true, has a certain softness and melancholy in its tones, that 
 pleases you pretty well at first, but it is so intolerably monotonous, 
 that if prolonged it becomes exceedingly irritating to the nerves. 
 The Chinese have no semi-tones in their scales; indeed, one might 
 suppose they merely blew into their instruments, or twanged their 
 strings at random, from the inspiration of the moment; however, 
 it appears they have notes, and though their compositions are 
 doubtless not of much scientific value, you do sometimes hear 
 something like simple melodies in them, such as are heard in the 
 chants of savages, and which are more or less agreeable. 
 
 European books concerning China, and also the works of the 
 Chinese themselves, might lead you to suppose they attach great 
 importance to music, even to the point of regarding it as an es¬ 
 sential element in good government and the happiness of the 
 people. The Yo-king, or Book of Music, was counted among the 
 sacred books, but it was lost in the great fire ordered by the 
 Emperor Tsing-che-hoang-ti. Confucius speaks of this canonical 
 book with the greatest respect, and deplores the loss of such a pre¬ 
 cious monument of antiquity. The esteem and veneration professed 
 in ancient times for “ the rites and music,’’ might lead us to suppose 
 that before the introduction of the worship of Buddha and Lao-tze 
 these words designated the primitive religion of the Chinese, of 
 whose doctrines little is known, but which must have been based 
 on the great traditions confided to humanity. The Yo-king is 
 supposed to have been a collection of hymns and prayers, chanted 
 in the sacrifices and other religious solemnities, and containing 
 also religious doctrine and instruction, and the Book of Rites is 
 thought to have formed its compliment. 
 
 This opinion, that in the early age of China “music and the 
 rites ” was an expression for religion might be confirmed by many 
 passages from the annals and canonical books. In the Li-ki, for 
 
 g g 4 
 
456 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 instance, you find these words: “ Music is the expression of the 
 union of earth and heaven. With music and ceremonies nothing 
 in the Empire is difficult. Music acts upon the interior of man, 
 and brings it into connection with the spirit. Its principal end is 
 to regulate the passions; it teaches fathers and children, princes 
 and subjects, husbands and wives, their reciprocal duties. The 
 sage finds in music the rules of his conduct.” 
 
 The philosophers of antiquity sometimes go still further, even 
 to declaring that it is the chief support of authority, the bond of the 
 laws, &c.; and it is evident that reference is there made to the reli¬ 
 gious instruction contained in the “ Yo-king.” The Annals, and all 
 ancient waitings, agree in saying that music was, in the early ages, 
 the object of the continual meditations of sages, and of the care of 
 Government. 
 
 It is related that Chun, the founder of the Chinese monarchy, 
 inquired everywhere, when he visited different parts of the Empire, 
 whether they had changed nothing in music. We can hardly 
 suppose the question was merely of singing and notation. Ac¬ 
 cording to the school of Confucius, ceremonies and music are the 
 most prompt and efficacious methods for reforming manners, and 
 rendering the State prosperous. “ Under the first dynasties,” says 
 a famous Chinese moralist, “ the government had perfect unity, 
 the ceremonies and music embraced the whole Empire.” After 
 the first dynasties, there came divisions into the government, and 
 the ceremonies and music became only an empty name without 
 reality. The ancient poets call music the echo of wisdom, the 
 mistress and mother of virtue, the manifestation of the laws of 
 heaven. Its purpose is to make known the Chan-ty , “ the sove¬ 
 reign Lord,” and to lead man towards him. All these sayings are 
 very remarkable, and indicate evidently that among the ancient 
 Chinese, music was the expression of religious worship paid to the 
 Divinity ; it is, therefore, easy to understand the great importance 
 attached to it; but at present, as the above-quoted philosopher, 
 Yang-siou, remarks, music, that is to say, religion, is only an 
 empty name without reality. 
 
 The town of Hoang-mei-hien seemed determined to treat us in 
 grand style, and to keep it up to the last. The next morning, just 
 as we were about to set off, the Prefect and the principal func¬ 
 tionaries presented themselves, and we were informed that an ad¬ 
 dition of thirty soldiers, and two military Mandarins, was to be 
 made to our escort. These heroes were indeed already drawn up 
 in the court-yard ; at least, some were huddled in a corner, others 
 crouched on the ground, and some were leaning against the wall, 
 
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CHINESE. 457 
 
 smoking or fanning themselves. Their costume was tolerably 
 uniform, and the ensign was standing in a most irreproachable 
 attitude, and seemed to feel all the sublimity of his office. He 
 held gravely in both hands a long bamboo pole, on the top ot 
 which floated a triangular flag of a red colour, inscribed on one 
 side with the words “ Militia of Hoang-mei-hien, and on the 
 other with “ Bravery ! ” As we crossed the court, accompanied 
 by the authorities of the town, we were saluted by more fireworks: 
 we really hardly understood such a display ot magnificent courtesy. 
 An expression made use of by the Prefect, however, afforded an 
 explanation of these unaccustomed honours. At the moment 
 when we were entering our palanquins, after having long and 
 pompously thanked him for all his politeness, “ You see, said he, 
 
 “ that you have nowhere been treated with more attention than in 
 the province of Hou-pe.” “ Than in the town of Hoang-mei- 
 hein,” we replied, smiling; and with this amendment we entered 
 the palanquins, and were carried away through an immense crowd, 
 that thronged every avenue to the Communal Palace. 
 
 In all probability the order to give us this kind of ovation at 
 Hoang-mei-hien had proceeded from the palace of the Governor 
 of Ou-tchang-fou. They knew very well —for we had expressed 
 our opinion often enough, and loudly enough — that we had not 
 been satisfied with the treatment we had generally received in 
 Hou-pe. They were not sure that our complaints on this subject 
 might not lead to vexatious consequences, and they wished, before 
 allowing us to enter the next province, to do something to give us 
 a pleasant recollection of Hou-pe. 
 
 On leaving this town we completely changed the direction of 
 our route. Our course from the frontier of Thibet to Canton de¬ 
 scribed two sides of a triangle, of which Hoang-mei-hien occupies 
 the apex. One side of this triangle runs from east to west, and the 
 other from north to south. We met on this road a great number 
 of travellers, amongst whom it was easy for us to distinguish the 
 men of the north from their southern brethren. The latter might 
 be known by their pale and somewhat effeminate but refined and 
 intelligent faces, as well as by their more elegant costume ; they 
 were besides more talkative and playful; we often heard them 
 warbling some song, though in a harsh nasal voice, and teasing 
 each other with jokes and puns. Ihe heat was scorching, but they 
 seemed very little inconvenienced by it. Ihe northmen, on the 
 contrary, were suffocated by the heat and dripping with perspira¬ 
 tion. they spoke little and sung still less, and only endeavoured 
 to refresh themselves by continual chewing of bits of areca liut. 
 
458 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Their swarthy complexions, thick moustaches, more vigorous limbs, 
 and especially their sonorous language, all bristling with rough 
 aspirations, distinguished them strongly from the southern Chinese. 
 Almost all the travellers were traders, and travelling with the mer¬ 
 chandise that they were going to sell, or had just bought. Their 
 means of transport for it were carts with two horses, and caravans 
 of asses and mules, and especially barrows, guided by two men, one 
 pulling by a rope, the other pushing in a pair of shafts. Sometimes 
 when the wind was favourable they tried to lessen their toil by fix¬ 
 ing above their small vehicles a mat or even spreading a sail. This 
 contrivance must have afforded them much relief, or they would not 
 have adopted it, for they are not the men for any needless compli¬ 
 cation of machinery. 
 
 Ihe road we were following was broad enough, and at some 
 time or other, under former dynasties, had most likely been a fine 
 one, but it was now in a detestable state, almost everywhere broken 
 up, full of hillocks and hollows, and mud holes, and frightful ruts, 
 which the carts and barrows followed with the most scrupulous 
 assiduity. It was easy to see that time was the only functionary 
 who had charge of the road. The Chinese assert that the careless¬ 
 ness of Government with respect to the modes of communication 
 only dates from the accession of the Mantchoo-Tartar dynasty. 
 Ihe Government does in fact never concern itself about the roads, 
 except those which the Emperor has to traverse when he takes the 
 trouble to travel. As to the people, they must manage as well as 
 they can; and in the northern provinces, where navigable rivers 
 are not so numerous as in the south, accidents frequently happen, 
 and carriages upset and travellers crushed form incidents too com¬ 
 mon for anybody to concern themselves about; you merely pass 
 by on the other side. There are some districts in which the public 
 have endeavoured to supply for themselves a remedy for this de¬ 
 plorable negligence of the Government. In all lawsuits, disputes, 
 and quarrels, it is customary only to have recourse to the tribunals 
 at the last extremity; most people prefer choosing as arbiters 
 some old men of tried integrity and long experience, whose deci¬ 
 sions they respect. In such cases it is very common to condemn 
 the party declared to be in the wrong to mend a certain piece of 
 the road at his own expense by way of fine, and in these districts 
 the good state of the road is in a direct ratio with the quarrelsome 
 and litigious spirit of the inhabitants. 
 
 \\e found this days march on the Imperial road extremely 
 fatiguing ; the tumult of the travellers, and the thick dust in which 
 we were constantly enveloped, added much to the oppression of the 
 
HALT UPON THE BORDERS OE LAKE POU-YANG. 459 
 
 excessive heat. We regretted our little cross roads, where at least 
 we had the advantage of being able to rest Irom time to time under 
 the shade of a great tree, or drink a cup of ice-cold water from a 
 mountain spring. Before the end of the day we arrived once more 
 on the banks of that famous Blue River, which we seemed to meet 
 everywhere since our departure from the capital of Sse-tchouen, 
 and which we had passed on the ice not far from its source in tra¬ 
 versing one of the great valleys of Ihibet. On this day ve crossed 
 it in a large passage boat; this was the last time, and alter an 
 hour’s navigation vve landed at a little town called Hon-keou, that 
 is to say, “ Mouth of the Lake.” 
 
 The lake at which we had now arrived was the celebrated Pou- 
 yang, which the Chinese have brought into communication with 
 the Yellow River, by cutting a tongue of land that separated them. 
 At Hon-keou we had to settle a very knotty point, and one that to 
 us was of no little importance. To get to Nan-tchang-fou, the 
 capital of Kiang-si, we had to choose between two roads, equally 
 frequented by travellers; tlie one by water across the lake 1 ou- 
 yang, a real inland sea, which is delightful in fine weather, and with 
 a favourable breeze, but dreadfully tedious if the wind be conti ary, 
 and very dangerous if you happen to meet with a storm. The 
 other way was by land, but by roads generally bad, and nearly 
 impassable in the season of rain and tempest, for then you have to 
 journey almost incessantly through quagmires and ponds, lhere 
 are also no Communal Palaces in the towns where you stop, and 
 the inns are small, dirty, inconvenient, and destitute of every com¬ 
 fort. Between these two we had to choose, and the choice was 
 not easy. If any one would have secured us a good wind, we 
 should certainly have preferred the water; and on the other hand 
 it would be more prudent to go by land, if any one would under¬ 
 take that it should not rain. What our friend the Willow thought, 
 it was impossible to guess ; he was exceedingly ready to point out 
 the inevitable inconveniences in either course, but when it came to 
 taking a resolution, one way or the other, he wiped his tearful eyes 
 and had nothing more to say. 
 
 The case seemed so perplexing, that we thought it better to stay 
 a day at Hon-keou, in order to obtain a little more information. 
 “ Let us go to bed,” said we to our conductor, “ we are too tired 
 to-day to settle this grave question ; to-morrow we can reflect on 
 it with calmness and deliberation.” “ Yes, that plan is full of 
 wisdom,” said he; “in great enterprises precipitation is always 
 injurious.” 
 
 * On the following day, after consulting some experienced persons 
 
460 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of the locality, it was decided that on the whole we had better go 
 by the lake. There Avas a favourable breeze, the sky was clear, 
 and we heard from every one that there was no likelfhood of any 
 immediate change. The lake Pou-yang is about forty-five miles 
 long, by from fifteen to eighteen broad, and, with the good wind that 
 was blowing, one day would suffice to carry us to the end of our 
 voyage. A junk was hired, a Mandarin junk, we were told, but it 
 was really a merchantman, and the same evening we went on board 
 in order to be able to start at dawn on the following morning. 
 
 A tolerably spacious cabin had been reserved for the Willow 
 and ourselves, but we had scarcely retired to rest (as we supposed) 
 than we began much to regret that we had not passed the night 
 on shore. Swarms of kakkerlacs began to make war upon us in 
 the most pitiless manner. We heard them first skimming round 
 in circles, pursuing one another, bumping themselves against the 
 Avainscot, and performing all kinds of gambols, very amusing, 
 doubtless, for them, but far from agreeable to us. By degrees, 
 however, they became quieter, to rest a little probably, in order to 
 be ready for their more atrocious manoeuvres, and then they took 
 a little more exercise, to get up an appetite. Nothing comes 
 amiss to a kakkerlac: shoes, hats, coats, lamp-oil, ink and ink- 
 stands, tobacco, and even the tobacco pouch; but their favourite 
 dainties are the tops of your fingers, ears, and toes ; they would in 
 fact eat a traveller up, clothing, bedding and all, if they were let 
 alone — it Avould only be a question of time and patience. We 
 heard them constantly gnaAving, sometimes on one side, sometimes 
 on the other. Sometimes they had the insolence to pass over our 
 faces ; we could feel the tickling of their little feet and their cold 
 stomachs. At length, by dint of searching, they discovered some 
 small opening, and then they were not long in insinuating them¬ 
 selves beneath the coverlet, and beginning to promenade along our 
 arms and legs. 
 
 There was such a multitude of these disgusting insects on board 
 this junk, and they were so intolerably impertinent, that we had 
 to pass the whole night in chasing them; and even in this it was 
 necessary to be extremely cautious, and merely put them to flight 
 Avithout crushing them, for they give out such an intolerably fetid 
 odour when crushed, that one would really almost rather make 
 them the present of a toe, than come to this extremity. 
 
 These kakkerlacs swarm in the south of China, and as they have 
 a very marked predilection for whatever is dirty, and especially 
 old furniture and old rags, they choose mostly to invade the habi¬ 
 tations of the poor, though they do not by any means despise 
 those of the rich. They make their Avay into linen, books, and 
 
CHINESE KAIvKERLACS. 
 
 461 
 
 chinks of floors, and seem to find everywhere suitable board and 
 lodging; but the junks are their most favoured resort, and they 
 increase and multiply in them in a truly terrific manner. 
 
 It is not a disagreeable-looking creature, being of a pretty 
 chesnut colour, and about an inch long. It can hardly go further 
 in its flight than a grasshopper can leap, but to make amends it 
 can gallop with marvellous rapidity. Were it not for its bug-like 
 odour and its devastating and cunning propensities, it would not 
 be an uninteresting animal. 
 
 As soon as day broke, the army of kakkerlacs effected a retreat, 
 and retired into cantonments. The captain of the junk gave the 
 order to sail, and, strange to say, it did not appear that there was 
 anything to stop for; provisions had been laid in the evening 
 before, and all the men were on board,—not one failed to answer 
 to the roll-call. The capstan was then manned, and the anchor 
 began to rise to the measured song of the sailors, and the sound 
 of the tam-tam. An immense matting sail was unfurled, a packet 
 of fireworks let off, and ‘as the breeze caught the junk we began to 
 glide rapidly over the blue waters of the lake Pou-yang. 
 
 We had now left the province of Hou-pe, to enter that of 
 Kiang-si. Hou-pe signifies “ north of the Lake,” and serves to 
 designate the country lying northward of the great lakes Pou-yang 
 and Thing-toun. The province of Hou-pe is in all respects very 
 inferior to that of Sse-tchouen. The land, which is not very 
 fertile, is covered with a multitude of ponds and marshes, of which 
 the Chinese, industrious and patient as they are, can make but 
 little use. The villages have in general a very poor and wretched 
 appearance. The inhabitants have an unhealthy and rather wild 
 aspect, and are frequently affected by cutaneous diseases. We 
 have nowhere else noticed so much baldness, or so many scald- 
 heads, and there is little doubt that these infirmities proceed from 
 the stagnant waters amongst which these unfortunate people pass 
 their lives, and still more from the unwholesome diet to which 
 they are confined. It is said that in the province of Hou-pe, the 
 harvest of a year is seldom sufficient for a month s consumption. 
 The great populations of the towns are supplied from the neigh¬ 
 bouring provinces, and especially Sse-tchouen, which cannot in 
 ten years consume the produce of one. We remarked, neverthe¬ 
 less, in the province of Hou-pe, some tolerably fine plantations of 
 indigo, cotton and hemp, besides the numerous rice-fields that 
 border the lakes and rivers. 
 
 Although the eighteen provinces of the Chinese Empire cannot 
 all be placed on the same rank for fertility and the value of their 
 productions, it may nevertheless be said that on the whole China 
 
462 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 is an admirably fertile country, and cultivated with remarkable 
 intelligence. In no other country in the world has agriculture 
 been so highly honoured ; from the remotest antiquity, it has been 
 placed in the first rank among various kinds of industry. It has 
 been celebrated by the greatest moralists, such as Confucius and 
 Meng-tze; the magistrates have constantly, in their proclamations, 
 recommended the people to be assiduous in the culture of the 
 fields ; and the head of the State — the Emperor — never fails to 
 render homage to agricultural labour, at the opening of each year, 
 by a public ceremonial which dates as far back as the 12th 
 century before our era. On the twenty-third day of the third 
 Chinese moon—-that is to say, towards the end of the month of 
 March — the monarch goes to the sacred field accompanied by the 
 three princes of the blood, the nine Presidents of Courts, a great 
 number of other functionaries of secondary rank, and several 
 labourers. After having offered sacrifice upon an earthen altar, 
 he himself lays his hand upon the plough, and traces a certain 
 portion of a furrow ; following his example, the princes and minis¬ 
 ters, each in their turn, guide the plough, and trace some furrows; 
 and then the labourers complete the tillage of the field. 
 
 In order to enable the reader better to judge of the importance 
 attached to this ceremony, we will translate the programme of the 
 fete presented in the form of a memorial to the Emperor Kien 
 Long, and inserted, in 1767, in the gazettes of Pekin and the 
 provinces. 
 
 “ The Tribunal of Rites, and the other Tribunals, respectfully 
 announce the ceremony of the 23d day of the 3d moon, of the 
 thirty-second year of the reign of Kien Long (April 22, 1767). 
 The Emperor will perform in person the labour of tilling the 
 ground. On the evening before, the Mandarins of the secondary 
 palace of the Emperor will respectfully bear the tablet of the Tri¬ 
 bunal of ministers to the temple dedicated to the inventors and 
 protectors of agriculture. The Mandarins of the office of Public 
 Revenue will prepare the instruments of tillage and the boxes 
 filled with seed-corn, and transmit them to the Governor of the 
 capital. The latter, after having covered them with silk envelopes, 
 and enclosed them in boxes, will have them carried, and will him¬ 
 self accompany them to the Sacred Field. 
 
 “ Red tablets will be planted on the ground to mark and dis¬ 
 tinguish the different portions of land which the princes and great 
 persons have to till, and all the instruments of tillage will be 
 placed in order near the Imperial pavilion. 
 
 “On the day of the ceremony, the Mandarins of the Emperor’s 
 household, the Master of the Ceremonies, and the other officers of 
 
THE AGRICULTURAL EETE. 
 
 463 
 
 the Court will repair at the fifth watch (daybreak) to the outside 
 of the Imperial palace, there to wait the conclusion of the sacri¬ 
 fices. These being finished, the ten great officers of the first 
 guard will surround the Son of Heaven, and conduct him to his 
 palace to repose himself and quit his habits of ceremony. The 
 princes and great personages who have to perform the labour will 
 also quit theirs. In the mean time the plough and the whip, and 
 the boxes of seed-corn to be used by the Emperor, will be taken 
 out of their envelopes and placed on one side of the Sacred Field. 
 
 “•The Master of the Ceremonies, the Mandarins of the Imperial 
 household, and the other officers on duty, will assemble at noon 
 in the Sacred Field. The four titled old men, the fourteen 
 chanters, the thirty-six players of instruments, and twenty pea¬ 
 sants wearing straw hats, and holding spades, rakes, pitchforks, 
 and brooms in their hands, will place themselves in two lines, to 
 the right and the left of the Sacred Field, along with the fifty 
 standard bearers, the thirty-four old men of Pekin, and the thirty 
 labourers of the three orders. All being ranged in order, shall 
 stand waiting in silence. 
 
 “ The hour of tillage having come, the first Mandarin of Agri¬ 
 culture shall enter the palace to invite the Son of Heaven. Then 
 the Master of the Ceremonies shall take a flag and shall wave it 
 three times. The three princes, and the nine great personages 
 who are to till the ground, will then go to the spots marked out, 
 and all who have any office will repair to their posts, the rest 
 ranging themselves on two sides of the Sacred Field. 
 
 “ The ten great officers of the first, guard having surrounded 
 the Emperor, will conduct him to the Sacred Field, and his Ma¬ 
 jesty will advance, with his face turned towards the south. As 
 soon as he has reached the spot, the President ot the Iribunal of 
 Hites will say in a loud voice, ‘ Present the plough,’ and imme¬ 
 diately the Minister of Public Revenue, with his tace turned 
 towards the north, will kneel down on both knees, and will present 
 the handle of the plough to the Son ot Heaven, who will take hold 
 of it with his right hand. The President ol the Iribunal oi Rites 
 will then say in a loud voice, ‘ Present the whip,’ and immediately 
 the Governor of Pekin, with his tace turned towards the north, 
 will kneel down with both knees on the ground and will present 
 the whip, which the Son of Heaven will take in his left hand. 
 Two old men will then lead forth the oxen, and two labourers of 
 the first order will support the plough. The President ol the 
 Tribunal of Rites, and the first Mandarin of Agriculture, will walk 
 before them. At the first movement of his Majesty all those who 
 have flags will wave them, and the singers will begin their songs 
 
464 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 to the accompaniment of all the instruments, the Governor of 
 Pekin will bear the box of grain, and the Minister of Public 
 Revenue will follow him. The Emperor will till three furrows. 
 
 “When the Son of Heaven shall have finished his tillage, the 
 President of the Tribunal of Rites will say in a loud voice, 
 ‘ Receive the plough.’ The Minister of Public Revenue will then 
 kneel down to receive it. The President of the Tribunal of Rites 
 will then say in a loud voice, ‘ Receive the whip.’ The Governor 
 of Pekin will immediately kneel down to receive it. They will 
 cover the plough and the whip, as well as the boxes of seed-corn, 
 with the silk envelopes. Then the music will stop, and the Presi¬ 
 dent of the Tribunal of Rites will invite the Son of Heaven to 
 ascend the Imperial pavilion. The same President, and the first 
 Mandarin of Agriculture, will conduct his Majesty up the central 
 staircase, and his Majesty will seat himself with his face turned to 
 the south. 
 
 “ All the Princes, Mandarins, and great personages who have 
 no part in the remainder of the ceremony, will range themselves 
 on either side of the Emperor, and remain standing. Then the 
 three princes will begin to till the ground, and till five furrows, 
 each having an old man to guide their oxen, two labourers to hold 
 up the plough, and two inferior Mandarins of Pekin to walk after 
 them and sow the seed. When they have finished, they will come 
 and take their places. The nine first dignitaries of the Empire 
 will then begin to till and will make nine furrows, each having an 
 old man to guide the oxen, and two labourers to support the 
 plough, and two inferior Mandarins to walk after them and sow. 
 When they have finished they will come and take their places in 
 proper order, and remain standing; and the inferior Mandarins of 
 Pekin will cover the implements of husbandry and the boxes of 
 grain with their silk envelopes, and will carry them away. 
 
 “ The President of the Tribunal of Rites will then lead to the 
 foot of the Imperial pavilion, on the western side, all the Man¬ 
 darins of Pekin, the old men and the labourers, dressed according 
 to their condition, and each bearing an implement of husbandry. 
 Then all together, with their faces turned towards the north, will 
 kneel three times, and three times strike the earth with their fore¬ 
 heads, to thank the Son of Heaven. 
 
 “ After this ceremony, the old men and the labourers will go 
 and finish the tillage of the Sacred Field ; and then the President 
 of the Tribunal of Rites will come and inform his Majesty that 
 the ceremonies of the tillage are finished. The Emperor will then 
 descend from the pavilion by the eastern staircase, and will enter 
 
CHINESE RESPECT FOE AGRICULTURE. 
 
 465 
 
 a car of state, and will go out by the gate of Sien-nang, escorted 
 bv choirs of singers and bands of musicians.” 
 
 v A similar solemnity takes place in every province, the Governor 
 taking the part of the Emperor, and proceeding, with his principal 
 officers, to the field to be cultivated. Whatever influence the Go¬ 
 vernment and the Mandarins may have in the matter, it is certain 
 that the Chinese profess a great esteem for agriculture, and public 
 opinion ennobles in some measure all that relates to the labours of 
 the fields. How many times have we seen on the roads in the 
 northern provinces rich farmers, sometimes wearing silken robes, 
 standing waiting gravely with a three-pronged pitchfork the pas¬ 
 sage of the carts and caravans of mules, in order to collect the 
 dung. It was evident there was in their eyes nothing mean 
 and despicable in the occupation, and the travellers manifested no 
 surprise at it. The very word made use of for this action is ele¬ 
 gant and dignified; it signifies literally to gather — thus you 
 gather flowers, or the dung of horses — the expression is always 
 the same. 
 
 Chinese agriculture is, from the great division of territorial 
 property, seldom conducted on a large scale. There are, indeed, 
 in the north, farms of considerable extent, but whether the culti¬ 
 vation be on a large or a small scale, the Chinese use only the 
 most simple instruments. Their ploughs are frequently without 
 any forewheel, and only turn up the earth a very little way. 
 
 In the south, the rice-fields are usually tilled with buffaloes, 
 called “ aquatic oxen.” 
 
 In the north, our common domestic oxen are made use of, as 
 well as horses, mules, and asses; and more than once it happened 
 to us to see a plough drawn by a woman, while her husband 
 walked behind, and guided it. Pitiable it is to see the poor things 
 sticking their little feet into the ground as they go, and drawing 
 them painfully out again, and so hopping from one end of the 
 furrow to the other. One day we had the patience to wait a long 
 while at the side of a road, to watch whether the poor labouring 
 wife, who was drawing the plough, was allowed from time to time 
 to rest herself, and we saw with pleasure that there was a cessation 
 of work at the end of each furrow. The husband and wife then 
 sat down in pastoral fashion, on a little hillock, under the shade of 
 a mulberry tree, and refreshed themselves by smoking their pipes. 
 
 In the southern provinces, the Chinese prepare their lands, and 
 especially their rice-fields, with human manure, which they spread 
 over them in profusion. It is unquestionable that by this means 
 they give a strong impulse to vegetation; but it is possible, also, 
 
 II H 
 
466 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE, 
 
 that tlie rural produce under this system is of a less salubrious 
 nature, and it may be that to this cause is attributable the exist¬ 
 ence of several maladies among the inhabitants of the south that 
 are unknown in the north. Without being aware of the value 
 attached by the Chinese to this kind of manure, one would hardly 
 reconcile with their known character the liberality with which 
 countless small buildings are provided in all parts for the accom¬ 
 modation of travellers. There is no town or village where the 
 most eager competition does not take place on this point. On the 
 least frequented road, in the most desert places, you are astonished 
 to find these small edifices, built of straw, clay, or even stone. 
 You would really suppose yourself in a country where solicitude 
 for objects of public interest was carried even to excess ; but, in 
 reality, self-interest is the motive power that has been at work in 
 the production of these useful institutions. 
 
 When you enter a Chinese hamlet, or approach a farm, you are 
 often suddenly struck by a horrible stench that threatens to suffo¬ 
 cate you. Not that healthy, though somewhat powerful odour, 
 that escapes from cow-houses and sheep-folds, but an atrocious 
 mixture of all that is disgusting. The Chinese have, indeed, such 
 a passion for human manure of all kinds, that the barbers even 
 save the croppings of beards and the cuttings of nails, and sell 
 them to farmers to enrich the soil. 
 
 Small cultivators in China often employ spade husbandry; and 
 it is impossible not to admire the neat condition of their fields, 
 from which they remove every weed with the most invincible pa¬ 
 tience. The ground must be bad and sterile indeed, if they cannot 
 succeed in making it produce something. In places too dry for 
 the culture of rice, they sow the sweet potato, hemp, and cotton; 
 and if there is a corner quite unproductive, they plant in it some 
 useful trees, the mulberry, the tallow tree, or at least some pines 
 for turpentine. The Chinese farmer is incredibly anxious about 
 his harvest; if he dreads that a violent wind may shake out the 
 grains of rice by lashing the ears one against another, he binds 
 several stalks together into a kind of sheaf, so as to make them 
 afford each other a mutual support, and check the ravages of the 
 wind. In irrigation, also, they display great industry, often carry¬ 
 ing the water through bamboo tubes up the sides of mountains, 
 which are cut into terraces, and cultivated to the very top. They 
 have a thousand contrivances, in times of drought, to spread the 
 waters of rivulets and ponds over their fields, and enable them to 
 flow off again when the inundation is too great. They make use 
 chiefly of chain pumps, which they put in motion with their feet, 
 
VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 
 
 467 
 
 find which send the water from one reservoir to another with great 
 rapidity. Sometimes they fix at the edges of streams large wheels 
 of extreme lightness, which a very slight current is sufficient to 
 turn. These wheels are most ingeniously constructed, and sur¬ 
 rounded with vessels that take up the water from the rivulets and 
 pour it into large wooden tanks, whence it afterwards runs through 
 little rills over the fields. 
 
 Many provinces are so fertile, and cultivated with so much 
 care and skill, that three harvests a-year are regularly gathered. 
 When the first is pretty well advanced, they sow the second in 
 the intervals between the ridges, so that there are two different 
 ciops in the same field at the same time. All the cereals known 
 in Europe are found in China, and even exhibit varieties not 
 found elsewheie. In the north barley and wheat are more espe¬ 
 cially cultivated ; and in the south, rice, which is the principal 
 food of the lower classes, and the basis of aliment for all. It is, 
 however, a mistake to suppose that throughout the Empire the 
 Chinese live chiefly on rice; in the north and west it is not more 
 used than in France. It is only seen on the tables of the rich, and 
 then mostly on grand occasions. Wheat, buck-wheat, barley, 
 Indian corn, millet, form the daily food of the people, except in 
 the province of Kan-sou, where bread is made precisely as in 
 Europe ; everywhere else they spoil the wheaten flour, eating it in 
 the state of unfermented half-done paste, sometimes in the shape 
 of a bun, sometimes pulled out in ribbands like macaroni. Little 
 loaves about the size of a man’s fist are occasionally made, but 
 merely boiled in steam. 
 
 Besides possessing the cereals, fruits, and vegetables of Europe, 
 China has also, in her vegetable kingdom, a rich variety of other 
 productions, many of which would doubtless prosper in the south 
 of France, and especially in our superb possessions in Africa. 
 Amongst the most celebrated we must mention the bamboo, the 
 numerous uses of which have had great influence on the habits of 
 the Chinese. It is no exaggeration to say that the mines of China 
 are less valuable to her than her bamboos; and, after the rice and 
 silk, there is nothing that yields so great a revenue. The uses to 
 which the bamboo is applied are so many and so important, that 
 one can hardly conceive the existence of China without it. It 
 issues from the ground like the asparagus, of the diameter that it 
 afterwards remains when grown. The dictionary of Khang-hi defines 
 it as, “ a production that is neither tree nor grass ” ( fei-tsao fei- 
 mou), that is an amphibious vegetable, sometimes a mere plant, and 
 sometimes acquiring the proportions of a tree. The bamboo has 
 
 H h 2 
 
468 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 been known from the remotest times in China, of which it is a 
 native ; but the cultivation of the large kind dates only from the 
 end of the third century before the Christian era. Sixty-three 
 principal varieties of the bamboo are counted in the Empire ; they 
 differ from one another in diameter, height, the distance of the 
 knots, the colour, and the thickness of the wood, in their branches, 
 leaves, and roots, as well as in peculiar and whimsical conforma¬ 
 tions which are perpetuated in certain species. A forest of bam¬ 
 boos will yield a considerable revenue to its proprietor, if he knows 
 how to regulate the cutting. “ The grandchildren of the bamboo,” 
 says the Chinese proverb, “ never see their grandmother; but the 
 mother is never separated from her children.” 
 
 Among the useful and curious vegetable productions of China, 
 exclusive of the object of the most active commerce—tea—may be 
 counted the wax tree; the tallow tree; the paper mulberry ; the 
 li-tchi, or varnish tree ; the loung-yen , or dragon’s eye; the jujube ; 
 the star anise ; the cinnamon tree, of which the bark is very thick; 
 the orange, of which there are many species; the medlar, and a 
 number of other fruit trees peculiar to the southern provinces ; the 
 tree pteony; the camellia; the hortensia, brought from China by 
 Lord Macartney ; the small magnolia ; many kinds of roses ; the 
 odoriferous Queen Marguerite; the day lily ; the rhubarb ; the 
 jin-chen, or ginsing; and a prodigious diversity of ligneous herba¬ 
 ceous plants, cultivated for the beauty of their flowers, as well as 
 the cotton tree, and a great number of textile, economical, or 
 cereal productions, which would deserve to be naturalised in 
 Europe. 
 
 The cultivation of useful vegetables is a branch of industry to 
 which the Chinese have always especially devoted themselves; and 
 from the remotest epochs it has attracted the attention of the Go¬ 
 vernment, and received much encouragement. In the most popu¬ 
 lous provinces even the rivulets and ponds have been turned to 
 productive account, and nutritive aquatic plants, such as the tubers 
 of the Sagittarius and water lily, of which the Chinese make such 
 wonderful use, are sown in them. 
 
 The nymphaea, or water-lily, has always been a great favourite 
 in China. The poets have celebrated it in their verses, on account 
 of the beauty of its flowers; the Doctors of Reason have placed it 
 among the ingredients for the elixir of immortality ; and the eco¬ 
 nomists have extolled it for its utility. At the present day, it has 
 also become the symbol of the secret societies. 
 
 This plant, commonly called in China lien-hoa, has broad rounded 
 leaves, scolloped at the edges, fleshy, full of veins, and sloping to 
 
THE WATER-LILY. 
 
 Afi[) 
 
 
 
 
 
 the middle ; some swim on the surface of the water, others rise 
 above it to different heights. They are of a tender green on the 
 upper surface, rather darker underneath, and supported by long 
 stalks spotted with black. The root of the water-lily is longlived; 
 it is as thick as your arm, and sometimes as much as twelve or 
 fifteen feet long. The colour is pale yellow outside, and milk- 
 white within ; and it lies along the bottom of the water, or attaches 
 itself to the clay by bunches of fibres, which spring out at various 
 distances along it. From the midst of these fibres it sometimes 
 sends out shoots which increase its growth, but it commonly grows 
 at the two ends. The stalks of both leaves and flowers are pierced 
 quite to the extremity by holes rounded like those of the root, and 
 symmetrically arranged along them. 
 
 The flowers of the water-lily have numerous petals, disposed in 
 such a manner that when they are not completely open you might 
 take them for large tulips; afterwards they expand into a rose-like 
 form. In the middle of the flower is a large conical pistil, which 
 becomes a rounded, spongy fruit, divided throughout its length 
 into cells full of oblong seeds, enveloped in a kind of shell like the 
 acorn, and composed like it of two white lobes, between which is 
 the germ. The stamens are very delicate filaments terminating in 
 violet-coloured anthers. 
 
 The Chinese distinguish four kinds of water-lily, the yellow, the 
 white, the red, and the pink, the three latter sometimes with single 
 flowers, sometimes with double. This plant may be propagated by 
 seeds, but more easily and rapidly by roots; it does not require any 
 kind of culture, and there is nothing comparable to the effect pro¬ 
 duced by this splendid flower on the ponds and basins of China. 
 It does not bud till towards the end of May, but its germination is 
 very rapid, and its great leaves, lying on the surface of the water 
 or raised majestically to various heights, form a covering of most 
 exquisite verdure, the beauty of which is of course enhanced when 
 it is enamelled by flowers of various dyes. They are larger than 
 poppies, and their dazzling tints are beautifully relieved by the 
 green leaves. The young Chinese poets are particularly fond of 
 celebrating the beauty of the water-lily gleaming in the moonlight 
 as the boats row about the basins illumined by swarms of glow¬ 
 worms and fire-flies. 
 
 The water-lily is very remarkable, too, in a utilitarian point of 
 view. Its seeds are eaten as nuts are in Europe, and boiled in 
 sugar and water they are considered delicious by epicures. The 
 gigantic root is a great resource for culinary preparations, and in 
 whatever way it is dressed, it is always excellent and wholesome. 
 
 II II 3 
 
470 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The Chinese pickle great quantities of it with salt and vinegar, to 
 eat with rice; reduced to a powder it is extremely agreeable when 
 boiled with milk or water, and in the summer it is eaten raw like 
 fruit, and is very refreshing. Finally, the leaves are constantly 
 made use of instead of paper for wrapping up all kinds of things, 
 and when dried are often mixed with tobacco, to render it a little 
 milder. 
 
 The Chinese owe their numerous discoveries in agriculture princi¬ 
 pally to their eminently observant character, which has enabled them 
 to turn to use an immense number of plants neglected in Europe. 
 They are very fond of the study of nature, and their greatest men, 
 and even their Emperors, do not disdain to attend to the smallest 
 circumstances connected with it, and to collect with care what¬ 
 ever promises to be of public utility. The celebrated Emperor 
 Khang-hi has thus rendered an important service to his country. 
 We find in the curious memoirs written by that prince the follow¬ 
 ing passage:—“I was walking,” says the Emperor Khang-hi, “ on 
 the first day of the sixth moon, in some fields where rice was 
 sown, which was not expected to yield its harvest till the ninth. 
 I happened to notice a rice plant that had already come into ear; 
 it rose above all the rest, and was already ripe. I had it gathered 
 and brought to me ; the grain was very fine and full, and I was 
 induced to keep it for an experiment, and see whether it would 
 on the following year retain this precocity, and in fact it did. All 
 the plants that proceeded from it came into ear before the ordinary 
 time, and yielded' their harvest in the sixth moon. Every year 
 has multiplied the produce of the preceding, and now for thirty 
 years it has been the rice served on my table. The grain is long, 
 and of a rather reddish colour, but of a sweet perfume, and very 
 pleasant flavour. It has been named ya-mi, or ‘Imperial rice,’ 
 because it was in my gardens that it was first cultivated. It is 
 the only kind that can ripen north of the Great Wall, where the 
 cold begins very early, and ends very late, but in the provinces of 
 the south, where the climate is milder, and the soil more fertile, it 
 is easy to obtain two harvests a-year from it, and it is a sweet 
 consolation to me to have procured this advantage for my 
 people.” 
 
 The Emperor Khang-hi did render in fact an immense service 
 to the populations of Mantchuria, by encouraging the culture of 
 this new kind of rice, which succeeds admirably in dry countries, 
 and has no need, like the common rice, of perpetual irrigation. It 
 would certainly prosper in France, and it is not the fault of the 
 missionaries if it has not long since been acclimated there. 
 
NIGHT-BLOWING COEN. 
 
 471 
 
 Whilst we were at the mission in the environs of Pekin, we 
 several times made it our business to send some of it to the 
 ministers of agriculture and commerce, but we have never heard 
 that any experiment was tried with it. How indeed could it be 
 expected that with our perpetual revolutions and rapid changes of 
 government, a minister could preserve sufficient tranquillity of 
 mind to occupy himself with a new kind of rice discovered by a 
 Mantchoo-Tartar Emperor? 
 
 The observant spirit with which the Chinese are gifted in the 
 highest degree, has led them to make a curious remark concern¬ 
 ing corn, which is, in their opinion, of the greatest importance. 
 One of our Christian converts asked us one day, if in France 
 the kinds of corn that flower in the night were very numerous. 
 The question puzzled us, and we were obliged to confess that not 
 being agriculturists, we did not know that any species flowered in 
 the' night, that we had never heard the phenomenon mentioned, 
 and that probably, even the farmers of our country would know 
 no more about it than we did. “Oh, no!” he exclaimed, “your 
 cultivators must know that, or how could they carry on their 
 agricultural labours with success? Do they sow their fields at 
 random without paying any attention to the sun and moon?” For 
 the second time we were forced to avow our profound ignorance, 
 and thereupon our neophyte began to explain to us some most 
 curious theories connected with the blooming of corn. He told us 
 that the numerous kinds of corn were all ranged under two cate¬ 
 gories, one of which invariably began to flower in the night, and 
 the other no less invariably in the day. “ The choice of the 
 ground, the time for sowing, and the kind of culture, should,” he 
 said, “be varied according to the species;” and he maintained 
 that for want of being acquainted with these two classifications, 
 and conforming to the rules derivable from them, people must 
 expose themselves to the risk of having very bad harvests. 
 
 We cannot undertake to say how far this observation is correct, 
 and we must own we never had sufficient zeal in the cause of 
 agricultural science to spend a night in a corn-field in order to 
 mount guard over the ears, and catch in the fact those that should 
 take it into their heads to blow. Indeed we are not sure that even 
 if we had we should have been much the forwarder, for we should 
 very likely not have been able to perceive the flowering of an ear 
 of corn, if it did take place. We must therefore leave it to those 
 better informed to decide on the value of this Chinese obser¬ 
 vation. 
 
 A very curious and original collection might be made of the 
 
 H h 4 
 
472 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 remarks of the Chinese, not only on agriculture, but also on many 
 other branches of natural history. We will mention a few that 
 we happen to remember, in order to give an idea of the sagacity 
 of this people. 
 
 Everybody knows that swallows go away in the autumn, and 
 return in the spring, and the Chinese have been as curious as our¬ 
 selves to know what became of them during their six months of 
 absence, and where they went to. It had been ascertained that 
 swallows, on whose claws certain marks had been made to know 
 them by, returned several successive years to the same house; it 
 was therefore certain that those that went away in the autumn 
 were the same that had returned in the spring. But where did 
 they go to ? The ancients supposed that they passed beyond the 
 seas, and others even that they plunged beneath the waters; but 
 these opinions are regarded by the Chinese as puerile fables, and 
 several observations have demonstrated to them, that swallows do 
 not, as is supposed, undertake long journeys, in order to go and pass 
 the winter in some warm country. It is written in the annals of 
 China that “the people being overwhelmed by the misfortunes that 
 afflicted them, during the reign of the Emperor Ngan-ty, more 
 than a thousand families deserted their villages, and went to seek 
 a refuge in the wildest mountain solitudes, in order to escape the 
 horrors of insurrection and famine. As there were no vegetable 
 crops they were reduced to feed on rats and swallows, which they 
 found collected in masses in the caverns and hollows of the rocks.” 
 Another historian reports the following analogous fact:—“The 
 Emperor Yang-ty having ordered some repairs on the banks of the 
 Yellow River, there were found immense multitudes of swallows 
 collected in the holes and caves of the rocks, and wherever the 
 shore was steep and solitary.” A Chinese naturalist, named Luchi, 
 says, after reporting these circumstances — 
 
 “ The ancients thought that swallows changed their climate, but 
 it is difficult to imagine how they should have done so, since 
 no one has ever seen them set out in the direction of southern 
 countries, nor proceed in troops, like the migratory birds that 
 come every year from Tartary, and return thither in the spring. 
 These draw themselves up into regular armies, and their passage 
 lasts several days, whilst the swallows, when they disappear from 
 one province, are not seen in any greater numbers in the other, 
 even in the provinces nearest the sea;” and the Chinese naturalist 
 concludes that the swallows do not emigrate, but remain always 
 about the same country, and that during the winter they merely 
 hide themselves in holes and caverns. We do not know what the 
 
THE CAT-CLOCK. 
 
 473 
 
 naturalists of Europe may say to this account, The following 
 anecdote, illustrative of another Chinese observation, will, we 
 fear, not be to their taste any more than to that of the clock- 
 makers. 
 
 One day when we went to pay a visit to some families of Chi¬ 
 nese Christian peasants, we met, near a farm, a young lad, who 
 was taking a buffalo to graze along our path. We asked him 
 carelessly, as w'e passed, whether it was yet noon. The child 
 raised his head to look at the sun, but it was hidden behind thick 
 clouds, and he could read no answer there. “ The sky is so 
 cloudy,” said he, “but wait a moment:” and with these words 
 he ran towards the farm, and came back a few minutes afterwards 
 with a cat in his arms. “Look here!” said he; “ it is not noon 
 yet;” and he showed us the cat’s eyes, by pushing up the lids with 
 liis hands. We looked at the child with surprise, but he was 
 evidently in earnest: and the cat, though astonished, and not 
 much pleased at the experiment made on her eyes, behaved with 
 most exemplary complaisance. “Very well,” said we; “thank 
 you;” and he then let go the cat, who made her escape pretty 
 quickly, and we continued our route. 
 
 To say the truth, we had not at all understood the proceeding ; 
 but we did not wish to question the little pagan, lest he should 
 find out that we were Europeans by our ignorance. As soon as 
 ever we reached the farm, however, we made haste to ask our 
 Christians whether they could tell the clock by looking into a 
 cat’s eyes. They seemed surprised at the question ; but as there 
 w'as no danger in confessing to them our ignorance of the proper¬ 
 ties of the cat’s eyes, we related what had just taken place. That 
 was all that was necessary ; our complaisant neophytes im¬ 
 mediately gave chase to all the cats in the neighbourhood. They 
 brought us three or four, and explained in what manner they 
 might be made use of for watches. They pointed out that the pupil 
 of their eyes went on constantly growing narrower until twelve 
 o’clock, when they became like a fine line, as thin as a hair, 
 drawn perpendicularly across the eye, and that after twelve the 
 dilatation recommenced. 
 
 When we had attentively examined the eyes of all the cats 
 at our disposal, we concluded that it was past noon, as all the 
 eyes perfectly agreed upon the point. 
 
 We have had some hesitation in speaking of this Chinese dis¬ 
 covery, as it may, doubtless, tend to injure the interest of the 
 clock-making trade, and interfere with the sale of watches; but all 
 considerations must give way to the spirit of progress. All im- 
 
474 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 portant discoveries tend in the first instance to injure private 
 interests, and we hope, nevertheless, that watches will continue to 
 be made, because, among the number of persons who may wish to 
 know the hour, there will, most likely, be some who will not give 
 themselves the trouble to run after the cat, or who may fear some 
 danger to their own eyes from too close an examination of hers. 
 
 The Chinese have also given us the benefit of their experience 
 in another similar case, which is not liable to the inconveniences 
 of the preceding, and has no tendency to compromise any in¬ 
 dustrial interest. At most it could only be disagreeable to asses, 
 by somewhat restraining them in the exercise of their free will. 
 In the north of China, where travelling by water is not so easy 
 as in the south, it is very common to make journeys in waggons, 
 or on the backs of asses or mules. You stop every evening, and 
 pass the night at one of the more or less comfortable hostelries 
 which, such as they are, you never fail to meet with on every road. 
 The great inconvenience of these inns is their intolerable noisi¬ 
 ness, which makes it a very hard matter to get a night’s rest in 
 them. If, unfortunately, there should be any asses in the court¬ 
 yard of the establishment, you may as well make up your mind 
 at once not to close your eyes, for these terrible animals, doubt¬ 
 less under pretence that music has always been held in honour 
 in the Empire, think themselves obliged, as good Chinese subjects, 
 to sing the whole night long, and yield to all the caprices of their 
 philharmonic instincts. 
 
 In 1840, we were once making a journey in a waggon in the 
 province of Pekin. Our equipage was under the guidance of 
 one of our catechists, an old schoolmaster, mounted on a magni¬ 
 ficent ass, so full of ardour and agility, that the two mules who 
 completed our team had all the difficulty in the world to keep up 
 with him. This ass, however, was so filled with the sense of his 
 own superiority, and so proud of it, that whenever he became 
 aware of the presence of any of his brethren, let them be at ever 
 so great a distance, he never failed to begin boasting of it in such 
 loud and sonorous tones, that his folly became quite insupportable. 
 When we got to an inn, instead of trying to rest himself, this 
 indefatigable beast passed the whole night in practising his music; 
 and there appeared to be something so peculiarly provoking in 
 the tones of his voice, that all the asses within hearing, influenced, 
 it would seem, by the power of some magnetic fluid, were quite 
 sure to respond in a magnificent bravura, so that altogether, it 
 became impossible to close our eyes. 
 
 One evening, when our catechist was vaunting the qualities of 
 
HOW TO QIIET AN ASS. 
 
 475 
 
 his ass, we could not help interrupting him. “Your ass,” said 
 we, “ is an abominable brute. During the whole journey he has 
 prevented our getting a wink of sleep.” 
 
 “Why did not you tell me so before ?” said the catechist; “ I 
 would soon have stopped his singing.” As the ancient school¬ 
 master was somewhat of a wag, and indulged occasionally in a 
 small joke, we took little notice of his reply, but that night we 
 slept quite soundly. 
 
 “Well, did the ass make a noise last night?” said he, when we 
 met in the morning. 
 
 “ Perhaps not; at all events, we certainly did not hear him.” 
 
 “ No, no ; I think not; I saw to that before I went to bed. 
 You must have noticed,” he continued, “ that when an ass is going 
 to bray, he always begins by raising his tail, and he keeps it ex¬ 
 tended horizontally as long as his song lasts. To insure his 
 silence, therefore, you have only to tie a large stone to the end of 
 his tail, so that he cannot raise it.” 
 
 We smiled, without reply, thinking this was another piece of 
 pleasantry ; but he cried, “ Come, now, and see ; you can easily 
 convince yourselves.” And accordingly we followed him to the 
 court-yard, where we beheld, sure enough, the poor ass with a large 
 stone attached to his tail, and with the air of having entirely lost 
 his accustomed spirits. His eyes were fixed on the ground, his 
 ears hung down, his whole appearance denoted humility and dejec¬ 
 tion. We felt quite compassionate towards him, and begged his 
 master to untie the stone directly ; and, as soon as ever he felt his 
 musical appendage at liberty, the creature raised, first his head, 
 then his ears, then his tail, and at last began to bray with all his 
 wonted enthusiasm. 
 
 CHAP. XIX. 
 
 Navigation of the Pou-yang.— Great Number of Junks. — Desert Tracts.— 
 Pauperism in China. — Bands of Mendicants. — Society for gratuitous 
 Coffins. — The King of the Beggars. — The Hen’s Feathers Inn. — Causes 
 of Pauperism. — Gaming. — Various Chinese Games. — Mode of eluding the 
 Law against Gamblers. Drunkenness. — The Vine, Wine, and Corn 
 Brandy. — Infanticide. — Its Causes. — Truth and Exaggeration concerning 
 Infanticide in China. — Yu-yng-tang, or Foundling Hospital. — Edict against 
 Infanticide. — Work of the Society of Holy Infancy. 
 
 Our navigation on the lake Pou-yang was performed without acci¬ 
 dent ; but it was much slower than we had anticipated, for instead 
 
476 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of one day’s journey we had two. We had not gone more than 
 half way when the wind changed, and began to blow right a-head, 
 so that we were compelled to make some long tacks. The weather 
 continued fine, however, and the breeze, though contrary, was not 
 of a nature to give us the smallest uneasiness. One day’s delay 
 was of no consequence ; but we cannot say that passing another 
 night on board the junk was quite so much a matter of indifference. 
 The kakkerlacs made war upon us with the same fury as on the 
 night before, but we got rid of this annoyance by having our beds 
 carried up on deck, and lying down among the sailors — for their 
 perpetual noise and gossip was, at any rate, less of a nuisance than 
 the torments of the kakkerlacs. 
 
 During these two days we seldom saw land, and we could hardly 
 persuade ourselves that we were really in the centre of the Chinese 
 Empire. The immense extent of water — the long waves raised by 
 the wind—the large vessels that were moving about in all directions, 
 made it look more like a sea than a lake. The innumerable junks 
 that are constantly ploughing the surface of the Pou-yang make 
 really a very pretty sight. They are of very various construction, 
 and the different points to which they are proceeding occasion a 
 great variety in the arrangement of their sails. Some are going- 
 before the wind, with all their matting majestically displayed, others 
 are struggling painfully with wind and wave, and great numbers 
 crossing, rapidly, this way and that, in contrary directions, and 
 looking like marine monsters chasing each other. The evolutions 1 
 of all these floating machines were so swift and various that the 
 picture changed every moment. 
 
 We might have gone by water as far as the capital of Kiang-si, 
 for on leaving the lake Pou-yang, we entered the mouth of a navi¬ 
 gable river that passes under the walls of Nan-tchang-fou ; but 
 with the wind and current against us, the navigation would have 
 been too laborious and tedious. 
 
 We preferred, therefore, resuming, by land, the journey that was 
 to bring us in two days to our third great halt. 
 
 The province of Kiang-si is regarded as one of the most popu- | 
 lous in China, and we were therefore greatly surprised to observe ] 
 on our route vast plains without cultivation, and without inhabitants, ! 
 the wild and dreary aspect of which reminded us of the steppes and ! 
 deserts of Mongolia. It is not uncommon in China to meet with de¬ 
 solate tracts of this kind, whether on account of the barrenness of the 
 soil, or from the thoughtless carelessness of the people of the locality, I 
 who prefer seeking a more precarious subsistence from the chances I 
 of trade and navigation, to trusting to the peaceful labours of the 
 
PAUPERISM IN CHINA. 
 
 477 
 
 field. These fallow grounds are most common in the neighbour¬ 
 hood of the great lakes, and on the banks of rivers. The inhabit¬ 
 ants leave the land when they can, and go and pass their lives in 
 the boats, so that it has often been thought that notwithstanding 
 the encouragement given to agriculture, China could yet supply 
 more completely the wants of her inhabitants, or support a greater 
 number of them. 
 
 It is certain that the Chinese Government does not know how r to 
 turn to account all the elements of abundance and riches that are 
 met with in this magnificent country. An intelligent administra¬ 
 tion, zealous for the public good, by guiding judiciously this patient 
 and industrious population, might develope prodigiously the im¬ 
 mense resources of the Empire, and procure for the masses a much 
 larger share of prosperity and comfort. 
 
 We will not venture to say it is easier in China than elsew'here 
 completely to extinguish pauperism. In all the great centres of 
 population, there will always be, unfortunately, many extremely 
 poor, and the class of the necessitous will be always considerable. 
 But the number of these might certainly be diminished ; and we 
 have noticed during our residence in China, that it is every year 
 on the increase. This circumstance may, perhaps, help to explain 
 the astonishing facility and rapid progress of the formidable insur¬ 
 rection that is threatening, at this moment, totally to overthrow this 
 colossal Empire. 
 
 At all epochs, and in the most flourishing and best governed 
 countries, there always have been, and there always will be, poor ; 
 but unquestionably there can be found in no other country such a 
 depth of disastrous poverty as in the Celestial Empire. Not a year 
 passes in which a terrific number of persons do not perish of famine 
 in some part or other of China; and the multitude of those who 
 live merely from day to day is incalculable. Let a drought, an 
 inundation, or any accident whatever, occur to injure the harvest 
 in a single province, and two thirds of the population are imme¬ 
 diately reduced to a state of starvation. You see them then form¬ 
 ing themselves into numerous bands — perfect armies of beggars — 
 and proceeding together, men, women, and children, to seek in the 
 towns and villages for some little nourishment wherewith to sustain, 
 for a brief interval, their miserable existence. Many fall down faint¬ 
 ing by the w'ayside, and die before they can reach the place w'here 
 they had hoped to find help. You see their bodies lying in the 
 fields, and at the road-side, and you pass without taking much 
 notice of them,—so familiar is the horrid spectacle. 
 
 In 1849, we were stopped for six months in a Christian commu- 
 
478 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 nity of the province of Tche-kiang, first by the torrents of rain that 
 fell, and then by a general inundation over all that part of the 
 country. It had the appearance of a vast sea, on the surface of 
 which trees and villages were floating. The Chinese, who foresaw 
 already the destruction of the harvest, and all the horrors of famine, 
 displayed the most remarkable industry and perseverance in strug¬ 
 gling against the misfortune from which they were suffering. After 
 having tried to raise dykes round their fields, they next attempted 
 to drain off the water by which they were filled ; but just when 
 they seemed on the point of succeeding in their difficult and toil¬ 
 some undertaking, the rain again came pouring down, and their 
 fields were once more covered. For three whole months we wit¬ 
 nessed their unceasing industry ; their labours were never discon¬ 
 tinued for a moment. The unfortunate creatures, standing in mud 
 and water up to their hips, were occupied, day and night, in work¬ 
 ing at their chain pumps, in order to turn into the beds of the 
 rivers and canals the waters that were desolating the country. The 
 inundation could not be mastered, however; and after all their 
 exhausting labour, the poor sufferers were compelled to abandon 
 the cultivation of their fields, and found themselves in a complete 
 state of destitution. Then they began to assemble in great bands, 
 and wander about the province with bags on their backs, begging 
 here and there for a little rice. They were hideous to look at; 
 half covered with rags, their hair bristling, their features contracted, 
 their lips livid; and these but lately peaceful and industrious 
 peasants were evidently driven by despair to be ready for every 
 excess. 
 
 The Christian community in which we lived was several times 
 visited by these famishing hordes; and though we were but little 
 richer than they, it was necessary to retrench something even from 
 our necessities, in order to be able to bestow a few handfuls of rice 
 on them. Whole villages were abandoned, and numerous families 
 went to seek a subsistence in the neighbouring provinces. 
 
 Calamities of this kind occur every year in some place or other; 
 and those who have made any savings are able to get through the 
 crisis, and wait for better days ; but the others, who are always in 
 much greater numbers, have no choice but to expatriate themselves, 
 or die of famine. 
 
 Besides these local and accidental miseries, there is also what 
 may be called a fixed and permanent pauperism, which like an 
 incurable leprosy extends its ravages over the whole nation. In 
 the great towns the multitude of paupers is terrific. You see them 
 continually, crawling through the streets, displaying their defor- 
 
GRATUITOUS COFFIN SOCIETY. 
 
 479 
 
 mities, their hideous wounds, their dislocated limbs, to excite public 
 commiseration. Every day many are starved to death. 
 
 The Chinese who are in easy circumstances do not object to 
 bestow a few sapecks in alms, but they know nothing of the feeling 
 of charity that induces any one to interest themselves in the poor— 
 to love them, and compassionate their distresses. They give a 
 handful of rice, or a piece of money, to the sick and unfortunate, 
 merely to rid themselves of their presence ; but further than this, 
 no one troubles himself about these miserable creatures, or inquires 
 whether they have any corner in which to obtain shelter to pass a 
 night. The poor have no home; they go and crouch somewhere 
 about the tribunals or pagodas, or they lie along the ramparts, 
 where they construct wretched little hovels with fragments of 
 matting that they have picked up on the wayside. 
 
 The Chinese, so ready and skilful at organising every kind of 
 \ society that has any commercial or industrial object in view, or 
 i even for resisting thieves, or the enticements of the gaming table, 
 have never yet formed any benevolent society for the solace of the 
 sick and the unfortunate, with the single exception of a society to 
 provide coffins gratis for the dead who have no relatives to under¬ 
 take their funerals. 
 
 As for this, though it is scarcely allowable to scrutinise the mo¬ 
 tives of those who perform any good action, it is impossible not to 
 doubt whether at bottom this does not owe its origin to a self- 
 interested motive. It is a superstition among the Chinese that the 
 souls of the dead are often changed into evil spirits, devils, who 
 take pleasure in tormenting the living, in creating diseases in them, 
 or interfering with them in various ways to their prejudice. The 
 best means of averting the malignant influences of these evil dis¬ 
 posed spirits, who are mostly so implacable against the living, 
 because their bodies have been deprived of sepulture, is of course 
 to buy coffins for those who die without having the means of 
 obtaining burial. This benevolent attention cannot, it is supposed, 
 fail to dispose them favourably towards the members of the society 
 for gratuitous coffins. With the exception of this, we have never 
 heard in China of any society, instituted with the purpose of pro¬ 
 viding for the wants of the indigent. 
 
 If, however, the opulent classes neglect to associate for the benefit 
 of the poor, the poor do not fail in retribution to form companies 
 for taking advantage of the rich. Every one brings to the common 
 stock some infirmity real or supposed, and this formidable capital 
 of human misery is turned as far as possible to profitable account. 
 The poor are formed into companies, regiments, and battalions, and 
 
480 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 this great army of paupers has a chief, who bears the title of 
 “ King of the Beggars,” and who is actually recognised by the 
 State. He is responsible for the conduct of his tattered subjects, 
 and it is on him the blame is laid when any disorders occur among 
 them that are too outrageous and dangerous to public peace to be 
 endured. The King of the Beggars at Pekin is a real power. 
 There are certain days on which he is authorised to send into the 
 country some of his numerous phalanxes and bid them ask alms, or 
 rather maraud all over the environs of the capital. The pencil of 
 Callot would be necessary to paint the burlesque, disorderly, scan¬ 
 dalous appearance of this army of vagabonds, marching proudly to 
 the conquest of some village. Whilst they swarm about like some 
 devastating insects, and seek by their insolence to intimidate every 
 one they meet, their king calls a meeting of the principal inhabit¬ 
 ants, and proposes for a certain sum to deliver them from the 
 hideous invasion. After a long dispute, the contracting parties 
 come to an agreement, the village pays its ransom, and the beggars 
 decamp to go and pour down like an avalanche upon some other 
 place. 
 
 These hordes sometimes reap tolerably abundant harvests in 
 their expeditions, but everything goes first into the hands of the 
 king, and he afterwards makes the distribution among his subjects, 
 who, without having read a line of Cabet, or Victor Considerant, 
 appear to have made great progress in their theories. These grand 
 new ideas are not monopolised by Europeans, and many people 
 will no doubt feel somewhat humiliated on being told that the 
 Asiatics, the Chinese even, have been for a long time reducing to 
 practice opinions supposed to have burst forth but yesterday from 
 the powerful brains of the philosophers of the West. 
 
 There exists at Pekin a phalanstery which surpasses in eccen¬ 
 tricity all that the fertile imagination of Fourier could have con¬ 
 ceived. It is called Ki-mao-f'an, that is, “ House of the Hen’s 
 Feathers.” By dint of carrying out the laws of progress, the 
 Chinese have found means to furnish to the poorest of the com¬ 
 munity a warm feather-bed, for the small consideration of one 
 fifth of a farthing per night. This marvellous establishment is 
 simply composed of one great hall, and the floor of this great hall 
 is covered over its whole extent by one vast thick layer of feathers. 
 Mendicants and vagabonds who have no other domicile come to 
 pass the night in this immense dormitory. Men, women, and 
 children, old and young, all without exception, are admitted. 
 Communism prevails in the full force and rigour of the expres¬ 
 sion. Every one settles himself and makes his nest as well as he 
 
THE HOUSE OF HEN S FEATHERS. 
 
 481 
 
 can for the night in this ocean of feathers; when day dawns he must 
 quit the premises, and an officer of the company stands at the door 
 to receive the rent of one sapeck each for the night’s lodging. In 
 deference no doubt to the principle of equality, half-places are not 
 allowed, and a child must pay the same as a grown person. 
 
 On the first establishment of this eminently philanthropic and 
 moral institution, the managers of it used to furnish each of the 
 guests with a covering, but it was found necessary to modify this 
 regulation, for the communist company got into the habit of carry¬ 
 ing off their coverlets to sell them, or to supply an additional 
 garment during the rigorous cold of winter. The shareholders 
 saw that this would never do, and they should be ruined, yet to 
 give no covering at all would have been too cruel, and scarcely 
 decent. It was necessary therefore to find some method of recon¬ 
 ciling the interests of the establishment with the comfort of the 
 guests, and the way in which the problem was solved was this. 
 
 An immense felt coverlet, of such gigantic dimensions as to 
 cover the whole dormitory, was made, and in the day time sus¬ 
 pended to the ceiling like a great canopy. When everybody had 
 gone to bed, that is to say, had laid down upon the feathers, the 
 counterpane was let down by pulleys, the precaution having been 
 previously taken to make a number of holes in it for the sleepers 
 to put their heads through, in order to escape the danger of suffo¬ 
 cation. As soon as it is daylight, the phalansterian coverlet is 
 hoisted up again, after a signal has been made on the tam-tam to 
 awaken those who are asleep, and invite them to draw their heads 
 back into the feathers, in order not to be caught by the neck and 
 hoisted into the air with the coverlet. This immense swarm of 
 beggars is then seen crawling about in the sea of dirty feathers 
 and inserting themselves again into their miserable rags, prepara¬ 
 tory to gathering into groups and dispersing about the various 
 quarters of the town to seek by lawful or unlawful means their 
 scanty subsistence. 
 
 Amongst the principal causes of pauperism in China may be 
 mentioned, besides the excessive carelessness of the Government 
 and the exuberance of the population, gambling, drunkenness and 
 debauchery. These vices of course are not peculiar to China; 
 they have been known in all ages and countries, and have always 
 brought disorder and misery in their train. It is true, however, 
 that the Chinese give themselves up to them with a passion never 
 exceeded among any nation that has ever existed. 
 
 Gaming is prohibited by the laws of the Empire, but all legis¬ 
 lation on this subject has been overpowered by the habits of the 
 
482 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 people, and China is now in fact one vast gaming-house.. Chinese 
 games are very numerous; they play at cards, chess, draughts, 
 dice, and tsei-mei, a game similar to the Italian morra. He who 
 loses is obliged to pay a cup of brandy. The Chinese are also 
 passionately "fond of cock-fights as well as of combats between 
 crickets, grasshoppers, &c., and these interesting amusements 
 always give occasion to wagers, often to a considerable amount. 
 Habitual gamblers prefer cards and dice; they assemble both in 
 private houses and in public establishments, a good deal like our 
 cafes, except that nothing but tea is drunk in them. There they 
 pass days and nights, playing with so much passion, that they 
 scarcely give themselves time even to take their food. There is 
 not a village that has not its gaming-house, and its professed 
 gamesters. 
 
 The Chinese are, as we have said, industrious and economical, 
 but their cupidity, their immoderate love of lucre, and their de¬ 
 cided taste for stockjobbing and speculation, easily tempts them 
 to gambling, when they are not engaged in traffic. They seek 
 eagerly for strong excitements, and when once they have got into 
 the habit of gambling they seldom or never recover from it. They 
 cast aside every obligation of station, duty, and family, to live only 
 for cards and dice; and this fatal passion gains such an empire 
 over them, that they proceed even to the most revolting extremi¬ 
 ties. When they have lost all their money, they will play for their 
 houses, their land, and their wives even, whose destiny often de¬ 
 pends on a cast of the dice. Nay, the Chinese gambler does not 
 stop here, for he will stake the very clothes he has on for one 
 game more, and this horrible custom gives rise to scenes that 
 would not be credible, did we not know that the passions always 
 tend to render men cruel and inhuman. 
 
 In the northern provinces, especially in the environs of the Great 
 Wall, you may sometimes meet, during the most intense cold of 
 winter, men running about in a state of complete nudity, having 
 been driven pitilessly from the gaming houses when they had lost 
 their all. They rush about in all directions like madmen to try 
 and save themselves from being frozen, or crouch down against 
 the chimneys, which in those countries are carried along the walls 
 of the houses, on a level with the ground. They turn first one 
 side towards the warmth, then the other, while their gambling 
 companions, far from trying to help them, look on with ferocious 
 and malignant hilarity. ” The horrible spectacle seldom lasts long, 
 for the cold soon seizes the unfortunate creatures, and they fall 
 down and die. The gamblers then return to their table, and begin 
 
CHINESE GAMBLERS. 
 
 483 
 
 to play again with the most perfect composure. Such facts as 
 these will appear fabulous to many persons, but having resided 
 several years in the north of China, we can testify to their perfect 
 authenticity. 
 
 These excesses seem surprising enough, but the truth is, that 
 Chinese gamblers have invented still more extraordinary methods 
 of satisfying their passion, which is really carried to absolute 
 madness. Those who have nothing more to lose will collect round 
 a table and actually play for their fingers, which they will cut off 
 reciprocally with frightful stoicism. We had thought to pass over 
 these revolting particulars, for we do not like to put the con¬ 
 fidence of our readers to too great a trial. We have a strong 
 objection to relating things that, although we know them to be 
 strictly true, have an improbable appearance. But these facts 
 concerning Chinese gamblers were known, and commented upon, 
 by the Arab travellers in the ninth century. Here is a passage 
 on the subject from the “ Chain of Chronicles,” from which we 
 have already quoted more than once : — 
 
 “ Amongst men of a volatile and boastful character, those who 
 belong to the lower classes, and who have no money, will some¬ 
 times play for the fingers of their hands. During the game, they 
 keep by them a vase containing nut, or sesame oil, for olive oil is 
 not known in this country. A fire is kept burning under it, and 
 between the two players is placed a small but very sharp hatchet. 
 The one who wins then takes the hand of the loser, places it on a 
 stone, and cuts off one of his fingers with the hatchet; the piece 
 falls, and the vanquished party immediately dips his hand into the 
 hot oil, which cauterises the wound. This operation does not 
 prevent the players from beginning again. Some will take a 
 match, dip it in oil, place it on their arms, and set fire to it; the 
 match burns, and you can smell the odour of the consuming flesh, 
 but the man goes on with his game, and exhibits no sign of pain.” 
 
 All players, as may be supposed, do not cut off their fingers 
 and roast their arms, and even in China gambling is not always 
 carried to these insane excesses ; but throughout the Empire it is 
 the cause of great misery, and nothing is more common than to 
 see numerous families reduced to wretched indigence by the con¬ 
 sequences of a few games of cards or dice. The evil has become 
 so general, that the laws are powerless against it. In vain do the 
 magistrates make eloquent proclamations against gamblers, and 
 quote passages from the most celebrated moralists, in support of 
 their fine speeches; nobody p4ys a game the less in any province 
 of the Empire. The magistrates themselves, in some measure, 
 
 11 2 
 
484 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 teach the people to disregard the laws ; they often visit the vil¬ 
 lages under pretence of seeking for gamblers, when in fact they 
 are insuring them perfect impunity, simply on condition of being 
 paid for their connivance. On their arrival, a good.dinner is given 
 to them, as well as a larger or smaller ingot of silver; and then 
 they continue their tour, after having duly exhorted the villagers 
 to persevere in the observance of the five social duties. 
 
 We once knew a Mandarin who objected to have money offered 
 to him when he went on a search for gamblers. His sentiments 
 were so noble, so elevated, that the mere idea of receiving a pre¬ 
 sent from the people under his jurisdiction excited his anger and 
 indignation. He loved money, nevertheless. How could he have 
 been a Mandarin if he did not ? He liked to get it, but he was 
 particular about having it offered in a manner that should not 
 wound the delicacy of his sentiments. When he came to a place, 
 he always managed to make it understood what sum he was to 
 receive, and then the way was, for the principal person in the 
 town, or village to invite him to take tea, and after that, to play 
 a game or two ; at which games the Mandarin was to be allowed 
 to & win. But it was necessary for those who played with him to 
 affect to be paying great attention, and trying to get the game, for 
 this worthy magistrate was not satisfied unless he had the gain and 
 the glory too, and chose to have both his pockets filled and his 
 skill admired. 
 
 The passion for gambling has now invaded all classes of society 
 in China; men, women, and children — everybody plays-—but the 
 lower classes are certainly the most inveterate and determined 
 gamblers. In almost every street of a great town, you meet little 
 ambulatory gaming-tables ; a pair of dice in a cup placed upon a 
 stool form an almost irresistible attraction to the workman re¬ 
 turning from his daily labour, and when once he has yielded to 
 the temptations of this fascinating display, he finds it afterwards 
 still more difficult to withstand them. He often loses the whole 
 of his hard earnings in a few hours. Children, too, crowd round 
 the tables as eagerly as their parents, and the old people are very 
 often the first to urge them down the abyss from which they can 
 scarcely ever rise again. 
 
 Drunkenness is also in China a cause of pauperism, scarcely 
 less efficient than the passion for gaming ; but this vice does not 
 create quite as much misery in the south as in the north of the 
 Empire, though the case is the reverse with the passion for gam¬ 
 ing, as the southern Chinese drink less but play more. It is, of 
 course, not their habitual beverage—tea — that intoxicates them, 
 
CULTURE OF THE VINE. 
 
 485 
 
 but a variety of alcoholic liquors which are very popular, and 
 within every one’s reach. 
 
 The grape has been known in China, and celebrated from the 
 remotest antiquity. The learned assert that the descriptions of 
 the Imperial Gardens in the Tcheou-ky—a work attributed to the 
 celebrated Tcheou-long, who ascended the throne in the year 1122 
 before Christ —can only refer to the vine ; and however this may 
 be, there is no doubt that there were many vines in the provinces of 
 Chen-si and Chan-si ages before the Christian era. The historian 
 Sse-ma-tsien speaks of a certain rich man who had a vineyard so 
 considerable that he made every year 10,000 measures of wine. 
 “ The wine of grapes,” he adds, “ having the property of keeping 
 many years, it used to be put into urns and buried.” At this 
 time wine was verv common, and caused a good deal of mischief. 
 The numerous songs composed under the dynasties of the Yuen 
 and Han are a proof that the Chinese have not always disdained 
 the juice of the grape; and the Emperor Ouen-ty has sung of 
 it with a lyric enthusiasm worthy of Anacreon or Horace. 
 
 According to the testimony of the Annals, the vine, like every¬ 
 thing else in China, has undergone many revolutions. When at 
 various times the Government has given orders for cutting down 
 the trees, the multitude of which was supposed to injure the corn, 
 the vine has not been excepted; on the contrary, it has sometimes 
 been specially pointed out, and pitilessly sacrificed to the culture 
 of cereals. Under some reigns the extirpation of the vine was so 
 complete in certain provinces, that the very remembrance of it 
 was lost; and subsequently, when permission was given to plant it 
 again, you might suppose, from the manner in which some historians 
 express themselves, that the vine was becoming known for the first 
 time. This is probably what gave rise to the idea that the vine 
 was only cultivated in China at a comparatively recent period, and 
 that it came from the West, though it is really indisputable that it 
 was known to the Chinese long before the Christian era. The 
 Annals contain accounts of various species that were brought from 
 Samarcand, Persia, Thibet, Tourfan, Hand, and other countries, 
 with which China has had relations. It would even be easy to show 
 that grape wine was in use under every dynasty, and every reign 
 to the 15th century. At present there still exists in China several 
 excellent kinds of grapes, and the three first of the Mantchoo 
 Emperors, Khang-hi, Yoang-tching, and Khien-long, sent for a 
 great number of new plants from foreign countries, and have in 
 their works taken credit to themselves for doing so. The Chinese 
 of our day, however, do not cultivate the vine on a large scale. 
 
486 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 and do not make wine of grapes; the fruit is only gathered for 
 eating either fresh or dried. The immense population of China, 
 and the consequent necessity of reserving the land for food, oc¬ 
 casions the vine to be neglected, and its products regarded as 
 objects of luxury. 
 
 In default of grape wine, the Chinese manufacture a spirituous 
 liquor from corn, and make a great consumption of it. The most 
 commonly used is that obtained from the fermentation of rice. It 
 is a kind of beer, the taste of which is sometimes very agreeable; 
 that of the best quality comes from Chao-hing, in the province of 
 Tche-kiang. As it is made from rice, the Europeans resident at 
 Macao and Canton generally pronounce it detestable ; but they are 
 always disposed to judge a priori of Chinese productions. One 
 day we took it into our heads to till some bottles with it, and, having 
 first sealed them with great care, we offered them to an English 
 connoisseur in wine. He tasted, and not only found it excellent, 
 but discovered that it was the produce of some celebrated vintage 
 in Spain. 
 
 He served it at dessert to some of his countrymen, who pro¬ 
 nounced a high eulogium upon it, and perceived in it the true 
 flavour and bouquet of Spanish wines. 
 
 It must be owned, however, that this rice wine was of quite ex¬ 
 ceptional quality ; that which is drunk commonly in China is not 
 very agreeable, and though containing but little alcohol, easily 
 gets into your head. The Chinese were acquainted with this 
 manufacture at least twenty centuries before the Christian era. 
 
 In order to procure the fermentation of the rice, they place it in 
 large jars, and mix it with a certain leaven, to which they give the 
 name of “mother of wine.” This leaven is made with the flour of 
 good wheat, in which all the bran has been left. This flour is mixed 
 with warm water, and then kneaded into a mass rather firmer than 
 bread dough. It is then placed in wooden moulds, and made into 
 masses of the shape of a brick, and weighing four or five pounds. 
 These are ranged on a board, and placed in a chamber her¬ 
 metically closed, and left to ferment. The makers know when 
 the fermentation is finished by a reddish colour reaching the 
 centre of the loaves. They are then exposed to the air to dry, 
 and in this state become articles of commerce. When this yeast 
 has been properly made it is rather better for being old, and even 
 the maggots that get into it do it no great harm, though the 
 makers try to keep them off by placing aromatic herbs between 
 the loaves. The preparation of this yeast requires great care and 
 practice; and the goodness of the wine depends on the quality of 
 
HOT BRANDY DRINKERS. 
 
 487 
 
 the yeast employed. In the north of China millet is used instead 
 of rice. The “ mother of wine” being only corn-flour fermented., 
 acidified and dried, it may be made equally well with oats, rye, or 
 barley ; and the flour of peas or beans is sometimes mixed with it, 
 as well as odoriferous herbs, almonds, the leaves and bark of trees, 
 and fruits dried and reduced to powder. Every locality has a 
 different receipt. 
 
 Corn brandy was not known in China at so ancient a date as 
 wine. The use of it does not seem to have been earlier than the 
 end of the 13th century. Before that epoch the Chinese were not 
 acquainted with the process of distillation. The first person, it is 
 said, who made corn brandy was only trying to correct the bad 
 taste of some old wine, by passing it through a still, and he w'as 
 much surprised to find that his process had produced a spirit. For 
 a long time spirits were only made from wine, and the possibility 
 of making alcohol from grain was found out by a mere chance. 
 A peasant of the province of Chang-tong, who wished to make a 
 large quantity of wine, found that the millet had not been pro¬ 
 perly stirred, and that instead of fermenting it had become 
 mouldy. Not being able, therefore, to use it for wine, he thought 
 he would try and make brandy of it, and his experiment succeeded 
 perfectly. Since then his method has been adopted, and a great 
 many useless manipulations thus spared. 
 
 The brandies of the north are made principally with large 
 millet (liolcus sorghum). There exist considerable manufactories 
 where its product is passed several times through the still, and 
 thus obtains the strength and energy of alcohol. These liquors 
 always retain an unpleasant taste; but it may be got rid of by 
 macerating green fruits or aromatic herbs in them. 1 he Chinese, 
 however, do not care about these niceties; they drink it with 
 avidity ; and they are so little in the habit of drinking anything 
 cold, that they have even their brandy served up to them smoking 
 hot. At the inns they bring and place on the table of their guests, 
 a little urn filled with brandy, and a miniature tripod, in the centre 
 of which is a small china bowl. Into this they pour some spirit, 
 and set light to it, and then place the urn upon it; so that you 
 have the pleasure of keeping your alcohol hot as long as you 
 remain at table. 
 
 This horrible drink is the delight of the Chinese, and especially 
 of those of the north, who swallow it like water. Many ruin them¬ 
 selves with brandy, as others do with gaming. In company, or 
 even alone, they will pass whole days and nights in drinking suc¬ 
 cessive little cups of it, until their intoxication makes them in- 
 
 x i 4 
 
488 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 capable of carrying the cup to their lips. When this passion has 
 once seized on the head of a family, poverty, with all its lugubrious 
 train, very soon makes its entrance into the house. 
 
 It is unfortunately the custom for the distilleries to supply brandy 
 on credit for a whole year, so that a tippler may go on for a long 
 time drawing from this inexhaustible spring. His troubles will 
 only begin in the last moon — the legal period of payment. Then 
 indeed he must pay, and with usury ; and as money does not usually 
 become more plentiful with a man from the habit of getting drunk 
 every day, he has to sell his house and his land, if he have any, 
 or to carry his furniture and his clothes to the pawnbroker’s. 
 
 One can hardly imagine what pleasure the Chinese find in 
 imbibing these burning drinks, which are absolutely like liquid 
 fire, and, moreover, very ill tasted. But many instances have been 
 mentioned to us of their having died a fiery death for the sake of 
 it; of men who have absorbed such a quantity of alcohol as to 
 have become fairly saturated with it, and to have, in a manner, 
 exhaled it at every pore. The slightest accident then, perhaps in 
 merely lighting a pipe, has been sufficient to envelope in flames 
 and consume these wretched creatures. We havie not ourselves 
 witnessed any occurrence of the kind, but many persons, on whom 
 we can place the most perfect reliance, have assured us that it is 
 far from uncommon in this country. 
 
 The Chinese law prohibits the fabrication of rice-wine and 
 spirits, on the ground that corn ought to be taken the greatest 
 care of, in a country where all the labour and industry of the 
 inhabitants is scarcely sufficient to supply the food required for 
 the immense population. But these laws are pretty much like 
 those that prohibit gaming — a perfect dead letter ; a fee to the 
 Mandarin removes all difficulties. The large establishments called 
 Chao-kouo require a permission from the Government to distil 
 brandy ; and this is sold to them only on condition that they shall 
 employ in their distilleries nothing but grain that is spoiled, and 
 unfit for any other purpose. But that does not form the slightest 
 hindrance to their using the very best grain the harvest pro¬ 
 duces. 
 
 Gambling and drunkenness, then, are the two permanent causes 
 of pauperism in China; but there is a third, still more disastrous. 
 
 Chinese society has a certain tone of decency and reserve that 
 may very well impose on those who look only at the surface, and 
 judge merely by the momentary impression ; but a very short 
 residence among the Chinese is sufficient to show that their virtue 
 is entirely external; their public morality is but a mask worn over 
 
HIDDEN PROFLIGACY. 
 
 489 
 
 the corruption of their manners. We will take care not to lift the 
 unclean veil that hides the putrefaction of this ancient Chinese 
 civilisation ; the leprosy of vice has spread so completely through 
 this sceptical society, that the varnish of modesty with which it is 
 covered is continually falling off and exposing the hideous wounds 
 which are eating away the vitals of this unbelieving people. Iheir 
 language is already revoltingly indecent, and the slang of the 
 worst resorts of licentiousness threatens to become the ordinary 
 language of conversation. There are some provinces in which 
 the inns, on the road have apartments entirely papered with re¬ 
 presentations of all kinds of shameless debauchery, and these 
 abominable pictures are known among the Chinese by the pretty 
 name of “ flowers.” 
 
 The ravages of pauperism, it may well be supposed, must be 
 terrible in a society in which gambling, drunkenness, and liber¬ 
 tinism are thus largely developed ; and, in fact, there do exist 
 countless multitudes perpetually stagnating in vice and misery, 
 •and always ready to enrol themselves under the banners of theft 
 and highway robbery. To this pauperism especially, we believe, 
 is to be ascribed the monstrous crime of infanticide, so common in 
 China, and for the prevention of which the charity of Europe, and 
 particularly of France, has been so deeply interested. Of late 
 years lively discussions have arisen upon this lamentable subject. 
 On one hand, an attempt has been made to deny the fact — which 
 is mere folly —and on the other, it has unquestionably been greatly 
 exaggerated ; as it mostly happens in cases of dispute, where so 
 few people stop calmly at the point of truth. Many accounts sent 
 from China have also served to embroil the controversy ; and 
 there has been, in our opinion, far too much generalisation from 
 the facts ascertained. It is worth while to try and find what is 
 really true and what false, in this monstrous barbarity with which 
 the Chinese nation is reproached. We will first quote some 
 passages from a letter of Mons. Delaplace, who for seven years 
 exercised his apostolic zeal in the missions of China. 
 
 “ Some persons ask whether it is true that infanticide is of 
 every-day occurrence in China. Although my voice may not go 
 for much, I can add it to the crowd of others to assure you that 
 thousands — millions — of infants perish in the waters of the 
 rivers, or in the jaws of beasts. The letters of missionaries that I 
 have read in the Annals generally assign as the cause of this 
 barbarity the misconduct of parents, the trouble and burden of a 
 numerous family, or simply caprice and custom. 1 his is but too 
 true, and I have witnessed the deplorable effects of these things 
 
490 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 both at Macao and in the other districts that I have visited during 
 the past five years. But it seems to me that to all these causes 
 must be added that of superstition, for it is that which occasions 
 more frightful, more irretrievable ravages than all the rest. If 
 the other missionaries do not speak of it, it may be that the evil is 
 not so striking in their parts of the country as it is here ; or that 
 since the custom originates in superstition, they may merely 
 comprise under this head whatever proceeds from it. However 
 this may be, you may receive what I have told you as from an 
 eye-witness ; but remember that my observations apply only to 
 the province of Homan, where they were made. I cannot pretend 
 to affirm anything concerning all China, where every province 
 has a language, customs, and superstitions peculiar to itself 1 . 
 
 “ The Chinese of whom I speak, that is to say, nearly all the 
 pagans of Ho-nan, believe in the metempsychosis. According to 
 their notions, every man has three houen. What is a houen ? you 
 will say; and the question is not easy to answer; for the idea at¬ 
 tached to this word is very vague ; but it may be said to signify 
 mind, spirit, vitality. Every individual, then, has three houen, 
 and at the death of their possessor one of them migrates into an¬ 
 other body, the other remains in the family, that is the domestic 
 houen ; and the third reposes in the tomb. To this last papers are 
 burnt, as a sort of sacrifice; to the domestic houen, which has its 
 abode in the tablet, amongst, the characters engraved upon it, 
 sticks of perfume are burned, and funeral repasts offered. These 
 honours paid, the family make themselves easy; the houen is 
 appeased, and what is there to fear ? 
 
 “ Such are the measures to be taken with respect to those who 
 die at a mature age ; but what is to be done for children ? Custom 
 does not permit the raising tablets to them, or rendering them any 
 kind of worship, as their houen is not supposed to be perfect; but, 
 although incomplete, it still exists; and in its imperfect state is 
 still more to be dreaded than that of grovrn men ; nothing can be 
 done to pay it honour, and yet its anger is to be dreaded. They 
 get out of this dilemma by a true Chinese method ; that is to say, 
 they endeavour to trick and deceive the houen. When a child 
 is very ill, in fact, in its last agony, they contrive matters so 
 that the houen, as it leaves the body shall not know the family 
 from which it has proceeded. They take the poor little dying 
 creature, and throw it into the water, or abandon it in some remote 
 spot, or bury it alive. Then the houen will be angry indeed ; 
 but will take vengeance on the fish, or the beast of the field, and 
 the family is saved. If the thing did not turn one sick with dis- 
 
HORRIBLE BARBARITY. 
 
 491 
 
 gust and horror, one might laugh at the precautions taken to 
 deceive the houen. 
 
 “ The person appointed to carry away the poor dying child does 
 not proceed in a straight line, but zigzag; going a little one way, 
 then turning back and walking in an opposite direction ; now east, 
 and now west, describing a number of triangles, one upon another, 
 in order that in this labyrinth of broken lines, the houen may not 
 be able to find its way, in case it should be inclined to return to 
 its former home. 
 
 “ Is not this pitiable, deplorable ? Such is actually the reason 
 why so many children are cast upon the highways, and they are 
 least unfortunate who are merely abandoned: their lives may be 
 sometimes prolonged or even saved, but others are sometimes im¬ 
 molated in a more cruel manner. 
 
 “ In the month of June last, a pagan of the neighbourhood 
 (about a mile from my house) seeing his child ill, dispatched it 
 himself with his hatchet ; his idea being that the houen of this 
 child would fasten upon another, and that all his children would 
 die. It was necessary, therefore, to torment the houen, and in 
 such a way that it should have no desire to lodge any more under 
 his roof. 
 
 “ Others, from a different motive, but one derived from the same 
 strange superstition, exercise the same cruelties. The houen is 
 regarded by them as a sort of evil spirit that desires to torture 
 human creatures. A new-born infant, dying so young, has not 
 afforded the houen sufficient means of slaking its thirst for bar¬ 
 barity. They must, therefore, do what they can to satisfy it, as 
 long as a breath remains in the little body. The houen, once 
 satisfied, will cease to torment the family. Here, therefore, is 
 another dying child to be hacked to pieces ; and two rules are to be 
 observed in the operation ; first, it must be cut into three portions, 
 the one composed of the head and breast, the second of the trunk 
 and thighs, the third of the legs and feet; secondly, it must be the 
 father or mother who shall thus mangle their own offspring. Do 
 you believe these horrors? I am certain that many even among 
 the missionaries have never heard them mentioned, and I repeat 
 that it is very possible that they may not be common all over 
 China. It may even be that the kind of people with whom I have 
 come in contact during the last three years, and the district of 
 country I have traversed may be exceptional even in Ho-nan. But 
 be assured that I am writing to you deplorable truths — truths so 
 much the more deplorable, that we cannot, for the reasons above 
 stated, even come near these poor little victims to bestow on 
 
492 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 them the gift of baptism. All is done in secret between the 
 father and mother, who reserve for themselves this ferocious pri¬ 
 vilege. 
 
 “ Since we are upon this subject, I will unveil to you another 
 horror ; I say unveil, for it is most probably new to you ; you must 
 have been in some such situation as I have found myself in, to 
 become acquainted with it:— 
 
 “ A man of a tolerably opulent family, a pagan of course, had 
 for his two first children successively two daughters. He wished to 
 know whether he should have a son. Can you guess what he did 
 to find it out ? He took a tcha-dze, a kind of cleaver used to chop 
 up straw for the food of animals, and having laid his little daughter 
 on the ground, he placed her neck under the blade of the instru¬ 
 ment, and pressed it down with all his strength, examining very 
 attentively the while in what way the blood issued from the gash, 
 for on that depended the presage. If it flowed gently along the 
 cleaver, it was a proof that it had no virtue and energy left, and 
 consequently could only expect in future to have daughters. If, 
 on the contrary, it spouted out, and especially if it touched the 
 knees of the infant, then, indeed, vital strength was displayed in 
 it, and he would be certain to obtain a boy. This custom was 
 surely the invention of him who has been called ‘ a murderer from 
 the beginning.’ Oh pagans ! true children of the demon, who 
 delight in blood, even as he does, when will your hearts be moved 
 by the charity of Jesus Christ ? ” 
 
 We have chosen this letter in preference to many others that we 
 might have taken from the Annals of the Propagation of the 
 Faith and oi the “ Holy Infancy,” because we were intimately 
 acquainted with its author, and know that though his feelings are 
 lively, he is a man of the most perfect prudence and discretion, 
 and would assuredly never write down any facts without having 
 inquired thoroughly into their authenticity. He is careful, we see, 
 to observe that the district where these atrocities took place may 
 form an exception, not only to China in general, but even to the 
 province of Ho-nan. He refrains from generalising upon what he 
 has seen or heard, even from persons most worthy of credit. Un¬ 
 fortunately, ‘this wise caution is not always observed by those who 
 speak of China; it is quite common for them to put down the act 
 of a single individual to the account of three hundred millions, 
 and make the whole Chinese Empire responsible for what passes in 
 a single district. This is one great cause of the numerous preju¬ 
 dices that exist in Europe on the subject of the Chinese. 
 
 In the part of the country alluded to by M. Delaplace, some, it 
 
INFANTICIDE. 
 
 493 
 
 seems, hack their children to pieces to torment the houen, and 
 prevent its wishing to return to them ; others hack them up also, 
 but with the view of sending the houen away content and pleased. 
 We can hardly expect to find much logic in heads crazed with 
 such superstitions; but it is still possible that these facts may be 
 exceptional, and of very rare occurrence. We have ourselves, 
 during our many journeys and our long residence in China, never 
 heard of these horrid practices. 
 
 As for ordinary infanticide—the suffocation and drowning of 
 infants — they are innumerable, more common, unquestionably, 
 than in any other place in the world, and their principal cause is 
 pauperism. From the information we have collected in various 
 provinces, it appears that persons in embarrassed circumstances 
 kill their new-born female children in the most pitiless manner. 
 The birth of a male child in a family is an honour and a blessing ; 
 but the birth of a girl is regarded as a calamity, especially with 
 necessitous parents. A boy is soon able to work and help his pa¬ 
 rents, who count upon his support for their old age; the family is 
 continued also by a boy, and a new link added to the genealogical 
 chain. A girl, on the contrary, is a mere burden. According to 
 Chinese manners, she must remain shut up till the period of her 
 marriage, and she cannot exercise any kind of industry, by which 
 she might make amends to her parents for the expenses she occa¬ 
 sions. It is therefore the girls only that are murdered, as they are 
 regarded as causes of indigence. In certain localities, where the 
 culture of cotton and the breeding of silkworms furnish young 
 girls with suitable occupations, they are allowed to live, and the 
 parents are even unwilling to see them marry and enter another 
 family. Interest is the supreme motive of the Chinese, even in 
 cases where the heart alone ought to have influence. 
 
 Must, then, the frequency of infanticide in China lead to the 
 conclusion that the Chinese, as a nation, are barbarous, ferocious, 
 regardless of the lives of those to whom they have given birth ? 
 We think not. There are, of course, degraded men to be found 
 among them ; men who shrink from no atrocity ; and even of the 
 Chinese in general, it may be said with truth, that they easily fall 
 into vice, and commit crimes. But can we be surprised at this ? 
 Should we not, on the contrary, have cause for surprise if it were 
 otherwise ? What motive can be capable of arresting the force of 
 passion in men without any religious belief, in whom self-interest 
 is the only rule of good and evil, who live in a sceptical society, 
 under atheistical laws, whose only sanction is the rod and the gal¬ 
 lows ? When we consider what takes place among Christian 
 
494 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 nations, we shall see that we have not quite so much room to cry 
 out about pagans. If there is anything to be surprised at, it is 
 that they have not made greater progress in evil. Christianity has 
 ennobled human blood, and inspired an infinite respect for human 
 life. Among Christians, religion, laws, national manners, all pro¬ 
 tect the lives of children as much as those of grown-up persons, 
 and nevertheless, infanticide, and wilful abortion, which is antici¬ 
 pated infanticide, are by no means unknown. Notwithstanding 
 the severity of the laws, the vigilance of magistrates, and the pre¬ 
 cautions of every kind with which the lives of new-born infants 
 are surrounded, crimes of this nature are continually engaging the 
 attention of justice, and leaving room to imagine that those that 
 remain unknown must attain a still more frightful amount. Need 
 we wonder, then, that infanticides should be common in China, 
 where the law gives the father such absolute power over the life of 
 the child, and where there are not, as among us, numerous institu¬ 
 tions of Christian charity, to collect these poor, forsaken little 
 ones, and tend them with pious solicitude ? Let the Foundling 
 Hospitals, the Houses of Refuge of various kinds, be suppressed, 
 and it will soon be seen whether the most civilised, gentle, and 
 charitable people of Europe, whose benevolence watches over the 
 misfortunes and miseries of the whole world, would not present a 
 spectacle not very different from that now seen in China. What 
 we havejust been relating of the Chinese has a strong resemblance 
 to what, it appears, was passing in Paris in the time of St. Vincent 
 de Paul. 
 
 “ The city of Paris being of such an immense extent, and its 
 inhabitants almost innumerable, there occur among them many dis¬ 
 orders which it is not always possible to prevent; and among 
 these one of the most pernicious is the exposure and abandonment 
 of new-born infants, whose unnatural mothers, or oilier inhuman 
 persons, not only place their lives, but also their souls, in peril, by 
 not attempting to procure for them the baptism that might bring 
 them into a state of salvation. 
 
 “ No year passes in which three or four hundred are not found 
 exposed in the city and suburbs, and according to the orders of 
 the police, it is the business of the commissioners of the Chatelet to 
 pick up these forsaken children, and take notes of the place and 
 the circumstances in which they are found. They used formerly 
 to carry them to a house called La Couche, in the Rue St. Landry, 
 where they were received by a certain widow, who lived there, 
 with one or two servants, and undertook the charge of them; but 
 not being able to attend to so great a number, or keep nurses to 
 
INFANTICIDE IN PARIS IN THE 17TH CENTURY. 495 
 
 suckle them, or bring up those who were weaned, for want of suf¬ 
 ficient funds, the greater part of these poor children perished ; 
 and sometimes the attendants, to escape the annoyance of their 
 cries, gave them drugs to put them to sleep that killed them. 
 Those who escaped this danger were given to anybody that came 
 to ask for them, and sold for the smallest sums, even for as little 
 as twenty sous. They were brought in this way sometimes to 
 make them suck diseased women, whose corrupt milk soon killed 
 them; or to introduce as supposititious children into families, or 
 Avith various bad intentions. There are cases, horrible to relate, 
 in which they have been bought in order to make use of them in 
 magical and diabolical operations; so that it seems these poor 
 innocents were all condemned to death, or something worse. 
 There was not one that escaped misfortune, for there was no one 
 who took the least care for their preservation ; and what is still 
 more deplorable, many died without baptism ; this widow having 
 declared that she had never caused any one of them to be bap¬ 
 tized.” 
 
 “ This disorder, so strange in a city so wealthy, so well provided 
 with police, so Christian as Paris, touched the heart of M. Vin¬ 
 cent, Avhen it became known to him ; but not seeing very Avell 
 what was to be done, he spoke to some of the ladies of Charity, 
 and begged them to go to the house, not to discover the evil, 
 for it was already well known, but to see whether it was not 
 possible to provide a remedy for it.” * 
 
 This, then, is the way in which, in the time of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, infants were treated in this Avealthy, Christian, and Avell- 
 ordered city of Paris. Need Ave, then, be surprised to hear of 
 infanticides among the miserably destitute lower classes of China? 
 
 In the accounts of missionaries, it has frequently been stated, 
 that it is common in China to see the bodies of infants floating 
 on the Avaters of the lakes and rivers, or lying on the road, and 
 becoming the prey of unclean animals. We are convinced of the 
 perfect correctness of these accounts; but it must not be supposed 
 that the custom is quite so general that you cannot take a walk 
 Avithout seeing the body of some infant in the jaws of dogs or 
 hogs. That would be a great mistake, and Ave feel it as a duty 
 to declare, that during more than ten years that we Avere in the 
 habit of travelling about China in all directions by land and Avater, 
 
 ! we never saw the body of a single forsaken infant, and Ave cer¬ 
 tainly did not go along Avith our eyes shut. We repeat, never- 
 
 * Life of St. Vincent de Paul, by Louis Abelly, vol. i. p. 143. 
 
496 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 theless, that we are quite certain the fact does occur, and we 
 should even be surprised if it did not, for this reason among 
 others. 
 
 There are in China no places set apart for cemeteries, as there 
 are in Europe ; every family inters its own dead on its own ground, 
 and burials are consequently very expensive, and persons not in 
 good circumstances are often much embarrassed for the means of 
 rendering the accustomed funeral honours to their relatives. 
 When the deceased is a father or a mother, all imaginable sacri¬ 
 fices must be made to obtain a coffin and a suitable funeral. 
 But with respect to dead children there is not the same anxiety, 
 and parents already poor will not reduce themselves to mendicity 
 for the sake of burying them. They content themselves therefore 
 with wrapping the body in a piece of matting, and placing it in 
 the current of a river, in the ravine of some solitary mountains, 
 or even occasionally with leaving it on the roadside, and it is 
 then far from impossible that it may become the prey of beasts, 
 but it would be wrong to conclude, when a body is seen under 
 such circumstances, that it had always been left exposed while 
 living, though that may happen sometimes, especially in the case 
 of female infants of whom the parents wish to rid themselves, but f 
 may sometimes hope perhaps that others will take them. 
 
 In the great cities you see near the ramparts crypts intended to 
 receive the dead bodies of infants whom the parents have no 
 means of burying. They are thrown into these wells, and from 
 time to time quick-lime is thrown in also to consume them. 
 There have been instances of unnatural parents throwing girls 
 alive into these pits, but it is gross exaggeration to say that they j 
 are filled with living infants whose cries are heard afar off. When 
 the imagination is powerfully excited, people hear many things not 
 to be heard by any one else. 
 
 At Pekin, every day just before morning dawns, five carts, each 
 drawn by an ox, traverse the five districts of the town ; namely, I 
 the north, south, east, west, and centre. A signal is made of the 
 passage of the cart, and those who have children dead or living j 
 that they wish to put away, bring them out, and give them to the ] 
 driver. The dead are thrown into the above-mentioned pit, the j 
 living carried to an asylum named Yu-yng-tang, or “ Temple of j 
 the New-born,” where nurses are provided at the expense of the j 
 State. These hospitals for forsaken children exist in all towns of j 
 any importance. 
 
 Many people in Europe are perfectly persuaded of the whole i 
 Chinese nation being so brutal and barbarous, that the crime j 
 
EDICT AGAINST INFANTICIDE. 
 
 497 
 
 of infanticide is tolerated among them by Government and 
 public opinion. This is not the case. The murder of infants is 
 regarded as a crime in China, and the magistrates have never 
 ceased to raise their voices against this horrible abuse of paternal 
 authority. Of this the following Edict, placarded in Canton to¬ 
 wards the end of 1848, may serve as one proof. 
 
 “ Edict against Infanticide. 
 
 “ The Criminal Judge of the province of Kouang-tong strictly 
 forbids the abandonment of female infants, and orders that people 
 shall cease this detestable custom, and fulfil the duties of life. I 
 have learned that in Canton and its environs the abominable 
 practice prevails of exposing female infants, in some cases because 
 the family is poor, and cannot maintain a numerous offspring ; in 
 others because the parents desire a son, and fear that the care to 
 be bestowed by the mother when a girl is born, may tend to 
 retard another birth. Although there exist many establishments 
 to receive foundlings of the feminine sex, this revolting practice 
 still prevails — a practice which is an outrage to morals and civi¬ 
 lisation, and which breaks the harmony of heaven. 
 
 “ I therefore severely prohibit it, and urge the following consi¬ 
 derations. 
 
 “ Consider the insects, fish, birds, and wild beasts ; all love 
 their little ones. How then can you massacre those udio are 
 formed of your own blood, and who are to you as the hairs of 
 your head? 
 
 “ Do not make yourself uneasy on account of your poverty, 
 for you can by the labour of your hands procure for yourselves 
 some resource; and though it may be difficult for you to marry 
 your daughters, that is no reason for abandoning them. The 
 two powers of heaven and earth forbid it. Children of both 
 sexes belong to the order of heaven ; and if a girl is born to you, 
 you ought to bring her up, even though she may not be worth 
 as much as a boy. If you kill her, how can you hope to have 
 sons? Will you not have to fear the consequences of your un¬ 
 worthy conduct, and especially the decrees of the justice of 
 heaven ? You stifle your paternal love, but you wdll repent of 
 this when it is too late. 
 
 “ I am a judge full of benevolence, goodness, and commisera¬ 
 tion. You are all, if you have daughters, to bring them up with 
 care; or if you are too poor for this, send them to the foundling 
 hospitals, or give them to some friend who may bring them up 
 for you. If you abandon them, you shall, as soon as you are 
 
 K K 
 
498 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 found out, be punished according to the laws, for you are un¬ 
 natural parents ; and for the crime of the murder of your children 
 you are unworthy of any indulgence. Discontinue, then, this 
 custom of devoting your children to death; cease to commit this 
 bad action, and to draw on yourselves reproof and calamity. 
 
 “ Let every one obey this special edict.” 
 
 We might quote a great number of proclamations of the first 
 Mandarins of the Empire, which speak in reprobation of the con¬ 
 duct of parents unnatural enough to put their girls to death, and 
 which threaten them with all the rigours of the law. 
 
 These proclamations certainly themselves show how frequent 
 infanticides must be in China, but at the same time they afford a 
 proof that Government and public opinion do not favour such 
 crimes. The Foundling Hospitals alluded to also testify to a cer¬ 
 tain amount of solicitude in the Chinese administration towards 
 these unfortunate little creatures. We know very well, neverthe¬ 
 less, that these establishments afford a very poor resource, and can 
 by no means remedy so extensive an evil; the Mandarins and 
 officers of the hospital are far too busy in making as much money 
 as they can out of it, to attend much to the treatment of the 
 children. 
 
 A good government might certainly do much for the welfare of 
 these establishments, which have existed in China for ages, and of 
 which the pagan nations of the West never had even the idea. It 
 is said that in Lacedemon, according to the laws of the sage Ly- 
 curgus, every child, at its birth, was examined with care, and if it 
 appeared ill-formed, thrown into an abyss at the foot of Taygetus. 
 The Romans, who fattened the fish in their ponds by throwing their 
 slaves to them, had assuredly no very tender and compassionate 
 feelings towards small children. Even the Chinese have not yet 
 reached that point. Their Government at least protests constantly 
 against every attempt on human life, and if it is powerless to oppose 
 a sufficient barrier to this progressive evil, it is because, to with¬ 
 draw men from vice and lead them to virtue, something more is 
 required than worldly motives, and philosophical considerations. 
 In every province of China the Government has expressed some 
 interest in the fate of forsaken children ; and if these works of 
 beneficence, however excellent and praiseworthy in themselves, 
 appear struck with sterility, it is because the religious idea, the 
 vital spark of faith, is wanting to vivify them and render them 
 fruitful. 
 
 The Society of Holy Infancy, founded at Paris only a few years 
 ago, by the zeal and charity of M. de Forbin Janson, has already 
 
PROVINCE OF KIANG-SI. 
 
 499 
 
 perhaps saved in China a greater number of children than the im¬ 
 mense revenues of all the hospitals of this vast Empire. It is 
 beatrtiful, it is glorious for Catholic France, thus to watch with 
 generous solicitude over the children of foreign nations, even of 
 those who reject with disdain the benefits of her inexhaustible 
 charity. Happy is the childhood of Catholic Europe, to whom 
 religion has thus inspired in their earliest years the heroic senti¬ 
 ments of beneficence and self-sacrifice. Society may count upon a 
 generation thus warmly interested in the salvation of infants 
 abandoned at the other extremity of the world, and whose touching 
 and marvellous works are making their influence felt in the most 
 distant countries. Strange indeed is it, that this Society of Holy 
 Infancy should be now struggling with more success against the 
 practice of infanticide, than the Emperor of China, with all his 
 treasures and his legions of Mandarins. 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 
 Uncultivated Tracts in the Province of Kiang-si. — The Guard-house. — The 
 Vinegar Polypus. — The Mandarin and his Steed. — Theft of Water-melons. 
 — Arrival at Nan-tchang-fou. — Mode of installing oneself in the Palace of 
 Literary Composition.— Solemn public Dinner. — Disappointment of the 
 Spectators. — Visit of the Prefect of the Town. — A Mongol Mandarin. — 
 His geographical Knowledge. —Labours of the Protestant Methodists in 
 China. — Chinese Astronomers. — Aspect of the Capital of Kiang-si. — 
 Manufacture of Porcelain. — Chinese Antiquaries. — Origin of the God of 
 Porcelain. — Pisciculture in Kiang-si. — New travelling Arrangements. 
 
 From the lake Pou-yang to Nan-tchang-fou , the capital of the pro¬ 
 vince of Kiang-si, the country that we travelled through for two 
 days was a mere desert, in which were seen here and there a few- 
 wretched huts built of reeds, and some patches of ground half cul¬ 
 tivated by poor peasants. Considered in relation to comfort and 
 civilisation, nothing could well be more gloomy and desolate than 
 its appearance; as far as our eyes could reach we saw nothing but 
 vast prairies scantily covered with dry yellowish grass, that crumbled 
 to dust beneath our feet; the dilapidated sheds, to which from 
 habit the name of inn is given, offer no refreshment to travellers, 
 but red rice boiled in water, and salt vegetables. We did not find 
 even tea, and those who had forgotten to bring a little store with 
 them had to drink hot water. This country, therefore, as may be 
 supposed, was not precisely calculated for a journey of pleasure; and 
 yet our two days’ march across this wild and desert tract was a real 
 
 K k 2 
 
500 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 refreshment to us, a source of that vague sweet melancholy feeling 
 that is often so soothing to the heart. It seemed to us as if we 
 were once more wandering amidst the wild solitudes of Mongolia, 
 The manners of those nomadic tribes, their tents, their flocks and 
 herds ; the long caravans of camels, the tall grass of the desert, the 
 grunting ox of Thibet, the yellow sheep, the Buddhist monasteries 
 with their numerous Lamas, all these recollections gradually 
 grouped themselves together, and furnished to our imaginations 
 most charming and varied pictures. We had been so long whirled 
 about in the restless crowds of the civilised Chinese, that our minds 
 had need of this calmness and repose. The tumult and agitation 
 of so many great towns had at last almost thrown us into a fever, 
 and for some days the peaceful silence of the desert was delightful. 
 
 Before arriving at Nan-tchang-fou, we stopped at a sort of guard¬ 
 house to allow the hottest time of the day to pass, and we -were very 
 graciously received by a Mandarin with a white ball, who had 
 about fifteen soldiers under his command. The refreshments that 
 he offered us were indeed in that weather not very tempting, tea, 
 rice-wine, roasted pistachio nuts, preserved ginger, and pickled 
 chives ; all these things did not seem likely to quench our intense 
 and burning thirst; and we gazed mournfully at these Chinese 
 dainties, without daring to touch them. The Weeping Willow, 
 indeed, drank hot wine and boiling tea, munched the chives and the 
 ginger, smoked one after another five or six pipes of tobacco, and 
 found himself afterwards perfectly refreshed. Our tongues and 
 throats really seemed to dry up more and more as we looked at him. 
 
 We inquired of the White Ball, whether it would not be possible 
 to procure anywhere a little cold water? “ Yes,” replied he, “a 
 few yards from here there is a very deep well, and the water is 
 excellent, but as cold as ice ; you must warm it a little before 
 drinking it, otherwise it will certainly give you the colic.” We 
 begged him to send for some, promising to take every precaution 
 against any illness it might occasion; and a good-natured soldier 
 took a large pail, and ran to draw us some of this dangerous water. 
 We then asked whether perhaps there was any vinegar in the 
 establishment. “ I have some,” he said ; “ but I am afraid you will 
 not like-it; it is polypus vinegar, made by the animal itself.” 
 “Polypus vinegar; oh! we are acquainted with that; it is the 
 best vinegar that can be got. But how does it happen that you 
 possess such a treasure as a tsou-no-dze (vinegar polypus) ? Were 
 you ever on the coast of Leao-tong?” “Yes; some years ago I 
 was sent on an expedition into that country, and I brought back a 
 tsou-no-dze with me.” 
 
THE VINEGAR POLYPUS. 
 
 501 
 
 During this conversation the soldier arrived with the pail, of ice- 
 cold water; the White Ball gave us some of his wonderful vinegar, 
 and with the help of a little brown sugar we compounded an ex¬ 
 quisite beverage. The Chinese gazed at us with astonishment as 
 we drank it. How it happened that these numerous and abundant 
 libations, instead of occasioning colic, only cheered and refreshed 
 us, they could not understand ; and they could only get over the 
 difficulty by declaring that the people of the West had a totally 
 different organisation from that of the Central Nation. 
 
 This tsou-no-dze is a creature that, on account of its extra¬ 
 ordinary property of making excellent vinegar, merits particular 
 mention. It is a monstrous assemblage of fleshy and glutinous 
 membranes, tubes, and shapeless appendages that give it a very 
 ugly and repulsive appearance; you would take it for an inert 
 dead mass ; but when touched, it contracts and dilates and assumes 
 various forms. It is an animal whose structure and character are 
 not better known than that of the other polypi. This tsou-no-dze 
 is found in the Yellow Sea, and the Chinese fish for it on the 
 coasts of Leao-tong, but it is rather scarce. Possibly it may be 
 more abundant in some other places, where it is neglected from 
 ignorance of its peculiar property. 
 
 This polyp is placed in a large vessel filled with fresh water, to 
 which a few glasses of spirits are added ; and after twenty or 
 thirty days this liquid is found transformed into excellent vinegar, 
 without going through any other process, and without the addition 
 of the smallest ingredient. The vinegar is as clear as spring water, 
 very strong, and of a very agreeable taste. After the first trans¬ 
 formation the source appears inexhaustible; for as it is drawn off 
 by degrees for consumption, it is only necessary to add an equal 
 quantity of pure water, without any more spirit, and the vinegar 
 remains equally good. 
 
 The tsou-no-dze, like the other polypi, is easily propagated by 
 germination ; you detach a limb which vegetates and grows, and 
 in a short time is found to possess the same property of changing- 
 water into vinegar. These details are not only based on the best 
 information we have been able to collect, but we ourselves pos¬ 
 sessed one of these polypi, and kept it for a year, using constantly 
 the delicious vinegar it distilled for us. At our departure for 
 Thibet, we presented it to the Christians of our mission in the 
 Valley of Black Waters. 
 
 After having abundantly quenched our thirst with the lemonade 
 thus obtained, we bade adieu to the gracious White Ball of the 
 guard-house. “ Since you have honoured my poor dwelling,” said 
 
 k k 3 
 
502 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 lie, “I will ask the favour of accompanying you as far as the river 
 which passes by Nan-tchang-fou.” “We cannot permit such an ex- 
 enditure of kindness on your part.” “ The Rites require it.” 
 “ Ah ! you are not a man of Kiang-si, since you are willing to 
 extend the demands of the Rites instead of limiting them! ” 
 
 “No! I am originally from the poor and humble province of 
 Sse-tchouen.” 
 
 “ Sse-tchouen ! We have traversed that province, and in our 
 opinion it is the finest, richest province of the Empire. A man of 
 Sse-tchouen cannot find himself very pleasantly situated in Kiang- 
 si, especially in such a desert as this district.” 
 
 “Kiang-si offers indeed few resources. Everything is dearer 
 than in the other provinces, and in fact it is the practice of Go¬ 
 vernment only to send here Mandarins whom it wishes to punish. 
 Everyone knows that.” 
 
 This little piece of confidence gave us the right to conclude that 
 our dear White Ball himself had been in a manner put in the 
 corner when he was sent to Kiang-si. 
 
 “ We must hope,” said we, “ that you will not remain long here, 
 and that the Emperor will give you in a better country a post 
 more appropriate to your virtues and merits.” 
 
 “ I was not born under a happy influence. Success appears 
 to fly from me ; but perhaps your good u ords will bring me better 
 fortune.” 
 
 Whilst we were thus talking with mutual compliments, a soldier 
 was saddling a lean horse that was kept tied to a stake’a few yards 
 from the guard-house, though such a precaution appeared quite 
 unnecessary, as there was not much danger of his running away. 
 As soon as he was saduled, they dragged him towards the Man¬ 
 darin of the White Ball, who jumped upon his back pretty nimbly. 
 
 The poor animal staggered under the load, although the cavalier 
 was not of excessive dimensions ; and we could not make out how 
 he was to accompany us, if he were mounted in that fashion. 
 
 “Come,” he cried, “let us set off';” and at the same time he hit 
 his courser a thump on the head with the handle of his whip. 
 The animal shook his ears, sneezed, executed a few heavy gambols, 
 and then returned to his former state of majestic immobility. 
 “ Come,” cried the ardent cavalier again, “ are you not going to 
 get into your palanquins ? Do let us set off.” “ Directly,” said 
 we; “do you try to go on before us, for it is easy to see that 
 your quadruped will hardly be able to keep up with our bearers.” 
 
 “Yes,” said the White Ball, “that's it, 1 will go first;” and 
 again he bestowed a vigorous cuff on the head of the steed, who 
 
EQUESTRIAN FEATS OF TEE WHTTE BALL. 503 
 
 made two or three jumps forward, and then stumbled and fell on 
 his knees as if to entreat his rider to leave him to his repose. The 
 military Mandarin glided softly along his neck, and stretching out 
 his arms, measured his length in the middle of the road. While 
 the rider was employed in picking himself up again, the horse 
 returned with the most perfect composure to his beloved stake, 
 which he contemplated in the most affectionate manner. The 
 Mandarin was not at all discouraged, but merely observed, “ The 
 stupid beast stumbled, we will try again ; ” and as he spoke he con¬ 
 trived once more to seat himself on his high-mettled racer, which 
 two of the soldiers had dragged fonvard again, while a third was 
 belabouring him behind with a broomstick. At last they suc¬ 
 ceeded in getting him into motion, and then we entered our 
 palanquins and followed; but he remained all the way so far 
 behind that no one would have dreamed that he was supposed to 
 form part of our company. 
 
 There are very few horses in the south of China, as private 
 people do not make use of them either for travelling or for rural 
 labour. At certain distances on the principal roads you meet with 
 relays, established for the service of Government; and these 
 horses come from Tartary, and are in general of a pretty good 
 breed, but they cannot well endure the heat of the southern 
 countries; in a few years they lose their strength, and become at 
 last completely unserviceable. 
 
 After two hours’ march we arrived on the banks of a great 
 river named Tchang. On the opposite bank was the town of 
 Nan-tchang-fou, the capital of the province of Kiang-si. A large 
 ferry-boat lay ready to carry us across, and our whole caravan 
 entered it, with the exception of our supposed companion, the 
 Mandarin, of the White Ball, who was behind, nobody knew how 
 far. 
 
 At the moment when the boat was about to start, two of our 
 bearers begged the master to wait a moment, and leaped ashore 
 again. They then immediately ran to a field of water-melons, 
 stole as many as they could carry, and, jumping quickly on board 
 again, were soon out of reach. The owner witnessed the theft 
 from his house, that stood but a little way off, and ran after them, 
 but to no purpose, as he was too late. W hilst he was vociferating 
 and gesticulating on the shore, the marauders had divided the 
 water-melons among them, and were refreshing themselves quite at 
 their ease, without troubling themselves at all about the unfor¬ 
 tunate proprietor, who cursed them with all the strength of his 
 lungs. 
 
 k k 4 
 
504 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 When we had crossed the river Tchang, we found some public 
 functionaries waiting for us on a broad quay that ran the whole 
 length of the suburb. dhey entered into conference with the 
 W eeping W illow, while we remained seated in our palanquins, and 
 the crowd circulated about us, apparently without suspecting that 
 they were exotic personages who had just landed in the capital of 
 Kiang-si. The deliberations of our men of business were so im¬ 
 moderately prolonged, that at last we got out of our boxes, to go 
 and inquire what they were talking about, and why they kept us 
 so long waiting in the street. The Mandarins of the place had 
 not yet, it appeared, made up their minds as to where we were to 
 lodge, and they were consequently endeavouring to get some 
 advice from the W 7 illow, who certainly would not be able to 
 relieve them from their perplexity. The passers-by immediately 
 noticed the strangeness of our costume, and the magic yellow caps 
 and led girdles did not fail to produce their effect. An immense 
 crowd had soon collected round us. “ See ! ” said we to the 
 official personage of Nan-tchang-fou, “ the lower classes of the 
 people are already assembling from all corner^ upon the quay; 
 i> it proper that we should not yet know where we are to 
 lodge ? ” 
 
 The Mandarins, already bewildered by the concourse of people, 
 did not know what to do, but our servant Wei-chan came up and 
 pointed out to us a large stately building. “That,” he said, “was 
 a Wen-tchang-koun, or Palace of Literary Composition.” We 
 bad, it will be remembered, already lodged once during our 
 journey at one of these establishments, and we had a very 
 agieeable recollection of it. We did not deliberate much longer 
 therefore, but resolved to go and instal ourselves there. To 
 succeed in our attempt nothing more was required than a little 
 steadiness, and we returned accordingly to our palanquins, and 
 called out to the bearers in the most imperious tone we could 
 command, “ To the Wen-tchang-koun ! ” 
 
 To the. Wen-tchang-koun ? ” they repeated ; “ we obey ; ” 
 and immediately they took up the palanquins ; and Wei-chan, 
 who perfectly understood these sudden evolutions, put himself at 
 t e head of the convoy, shouting to the crowd to make way with 
 a 1 due respect. The waves of the multitude divided as if by en¬ 
 chantment ; the Weeping Willow, and the Mandarins of the town, 
 who had not yet made up their minds, followed us by a kind of 
 instinct; all the other members of the caravan did the same ; and 
 we entered thus the Palace of Literary Composition with that 
 “ * )au ghty majesty ” which is so much to the taste of the Chinese. 
 
A BOLrD STROKE EOR A LODGING. 
 
 505 
 
 The guardians of the establishment, seeing a procession arrive, 
 escorted by an immense crowd, of course supposed the new comers 
 were persons of distinction. The folding doors were all thrown 
 wide open to admit us, and after having traversed several halls and 
 corridors, we stopped at the most remote, by the contrivance of 
 Wei-chan, who conducted the enterprise with marvellous audacity. 
 We then issued from our palanquins, and desired to see the chief 
 guardian of the Wen-tchang-koun. “ Open the superior apart¬ 
 ments directly,” said we, “ and prepare the evening meal. We 
 
 [ shall remain here some days. Let every one do his duty, and 
 then all will be content.” 
 
 We then addressed the functionaries of the town, who had come 
 to receive us at the quay, but who had no idea what to do with 
 us. “ Do you,” said we, “ go to the Prefect of the city ; tell him 
 that we are in the enjoyment of good health, and that we have in¬ 
 stalled ourselves at the Wen-tchang-koun, in a manner conform¬ 
 able to our tastes.” We concluded with a profound bow to the 
 variously coloured balls, who departed looking extremely mystified, 
 and as if they were made to play a part that they did not in the 
 least understand. 
 
 When every one else was gone, the Weeping Willow remained 
 planted before us without saying a word, his little tearful eyes 
 twinkling curiously, and seeming about to ask what we were going 
 to do with him. “ Master Lieou,” said we, “ you had to conduct 
 us to the capital of Kiang-si; we are arrived at that capital, 
 and your mission therefore is finished ; where are you going to 
 lodge ? ” 
 
 “ Where am I going to lodge ? ” he repeated, with an air of 
 open-mouthed astonishment. “How do I know? ” 
 
 “ You have certainly a better right to know than anybody 
 i else.” 
 
 “That is possible, but nevertheless I do know nothing about it.” 
 “Go and look for the head keeper of the establishment; he will 
 put you somewhere. To-morrow we shall most likely have a visit 
 from some of the authorities, and you can settle your affairs with 
 them.” 
 
 The Willow thought there was some sense in what we said, and 
 went in search of the keeper accordingly, while we ascended the 
 stairs to take a view of the lodging that we had thus appropriated. 
 
 Wei-chan, with the assistance of some of the servants of the 
 house, had already put everything in order in the cool and spa¬ 
 cious apartments which overlooked the town as well as the course 
 of the river that we had just crossed, and the surrounding country. 
 
506 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 An open gallery, provided with large porcelain seats, and vases 
 of flowers, looked on the quay, where the crowd had assembled 
 around us while the Willow and the Mandarins carried on their 
 debate. We took a few turns backwards and forwards in this 
 charming gallery ; the sun had just set, and the delicious freshness 
 of the evening was beginning to make itself felt. Some of the 
 Chinese, who were still stationed on the quay, perceived us; the 
 news flew round with the speed of lightning, and soon all heads 
 were held as high in the air as possible, and all eyes were directed 
 towards the gallery of the Wen-tchang-koun. Every one that 
 passed stopped to contemplate us at leisure, and by degrees the 
 crowd became so dense, that there was no possibility of passing at 
 all. As we had so elevated a position, at so great a distance from 
 the multitude, we could not be inconvenienced by their looks, 
 eager as they were; and we therefore quietly continued our 
 promenade, happy to be able to satisfy, without inconvenience, the 
 very legitimate curiosity of the inhabitants of Nan-tchang-fou. 
 We were only deprived of the advantage of hearing the conver¬ 
 sation, in which there doubtless occurred many curious and inte¬ 
 resting reflections. 
 
 The Maitre d’Hotel of the Wen-tchang-koun now came to 
 inform us that the supper was ready, and to ask where we would 
 please to have it served. 
 
 We looked at one another, the same thought occurring to both, 
 and inquired whether there would be any inconvenience in our 
 taking it on this gallery. 
 
 “ None at all,” he replied; “on the contrary, it will be lighter 
 and cooler here, and besides, the Hundred families* collected 
 down there will be able to see you.” As we asked nothing better 
 than to be agreeable to the “hundred families,” especially when 
 they kept at a respectful distance, it was resolved that we should 
 sup in the open air. 
 
 A brilliantly varnished table was brought and placed in the 
 middle of the gallery; and, when the crowd observed the atten¬ 
 dants placing on it numerous little dishes of dainties, by which 
 Chinese repasts are usually commenced, a loud murmur arose all 
 along the quay, and they evidently anticipated great amusement 
 from seeing in what fashion the Western Devils consumed their 
 food. They expected to see something extremely curious. Men 
 from beyond the seas, and with such singular physiognomies, must 
 certainly eat and drink in a manner quite unknown to the people 
 
 * “ Hundred families ” is a Chinese phrase, meaning the people. 
 
A PUBLIC DINNER. 
 
 507 
 
 of the Central Nation. Our prayer before the meal, and especially 
 the two signs of the cross, drawn on a large scale, promised them 
 from the commencement something interesting. Amidst these 
 innumerable spectators there must have been some who understood 
 the meaning of this sign, for there are Christians at Nan-tchang- 
 fou, but the majority must have considered this a very odd way to 
 begin supper. They expected, therefore, to get a glimpse into 
 European manners. 
 
 Wei-chan brought us the rice-wine smoking hot in a pewter urn, 
 and poured out some little porcelain cups of it, which we drank in 
 the most scrupulous conformity to the Rites. We then began to 
 pick some melon-seeds, exactly as if we had been born on the 
 borders of the Yellow River, instead of the Garonne. The 
 spectators, somewhat astonished, began to take less interest in our 
 manoeuvres—all thiswas familiar to them. We passed some time in 
 drinking these little cups of rice-wine, and crunching the melon- 
 seeds ; not that we were in the habit of doing so, we generally 
 directed our attention to what was more substantial; but this time, 
 either from vanity, and the desire to display our knowledge of 
 their customs, or out of mischief, to disappoint the curious gazers, 
 we resolved to eat and drink in the most rigorously orthodox Chinese 
 fashion. 
 
 The disenchantment of the worthy inhabitants of Nan-tchang- 
 fou was complete w’hen they saw us adjust our ivory chop-sticks 
 between our fingers with perfect ease and gravity, and, seizing 
 little morsels here and there, carry them dexterously to our mouths, 
 and go through our exercise with these instruments as if we had 
 done nothing else all our lives, — there was a movement among 
 the crowd as much as to say, “ We have been prettily taken in ; 
 those men are not nearly such barbarians as we thought; they 
 might almost belong to the Flowery Kingdom.” 
 
 As the exhibition thus by no means realised all that it had 
 promised, the disappointed crowd after a time began to disperse, 
 and soon there remained no one on the quay but some dealers in 
 fruit and provisions, and a few idle people, who smoked their 
 pipes, casting glances from time to time, with an observant eye, 
 upon the two French missionaries, who, stimulated by excellent 
 appetites, were dexterously disposing of the minute dainties served 
 up to them. 
 
 As we were about to rise from table, we beheld a procession of 
 Mandarins draw up before the gate of the palace. In a few 
 minutes an officer of the establishment appeared upon the balcony, 
 and presented us with a sheet of red paper, on which was inscribed 
 
508 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the name of the Prefect of the district. “ Invite him to enter,” we 
 said; and the magistrate immediately presented himself, accom¬ 
 panied by the functionaries of his tribunal. After the usual salu¬ 
 tations and compliments, the Prefect, whose face showed him to 
 be of Mantchoo-Tartar descent, requested to know why we had 
 established ourselves at the Wen-tchang-koun. 
 
 “ Because, when we landed on this side of the river, our es¬ 
 cort were unable to tell where we should go,” was our reply ; 
 “we therefore chose the Wen-tchang-koun.” 
 
 “These people were very stupid ! Your lodging was prepared 
 in the centre of the town.” 
 
 “We are obliged for your attention, but w'e do not think the 
 lodging in the interior of the town can be so agreeable as this. 
 We Europeans like fresh air, and this balcony suits us ad¬ 
 mirably.” 
 
 “ No doubt the situation is most agreeable in the heat of 
 summer; but this building is not quite at the disposal of the 
 municipal authorities ; it is the property of the Literary Corpo¬ 
 ration.” 
 
 “ We know it; and we also know that the Literary Corporation 
 delights in the exercise of those social virtues which are inculcated 
 in the sacred and classic writings. The literati and Bachelors cf 
 Arts in all civilised countries are scrupulously observant of the 
 rites of hospitality toward strangers. If you should ever deign 
 to visit the humble empire of France, the learned men of the 
 country would not fail to lodge y r ou in every Wen-tchang-koun on 
 your route.” 
 
 “Ah! I am unworthy ! I am unworthy!” cried the Prefect, 
 with a shower of quick little bows. “ Nevertheless,” he continued, 
 resuming a vertical position, “ I came to invite you to leave this 
 palace, and repair to the lodging I have prepared in the interior 
 of the town.” 
 
 “ Ah ! we are unworthy so much attention! ” replied we, execut¬ 
 ing in our turn a great many bows. “You see how comfortable 
 we are ; reason invites us to remain, and the Rites, which are 
 founded on reason, enjoin you to leave us in peace.” 
 
 “Well said! very well said!” cried the Mandarin, laughing. 
 “ I see that it will be difficult to persuade you to leave the Wen- 
 tchang-koun.” 
 
 “ V^ery difficult — almost impossible ; you had better not think 
 of it any more ; let us talk of something else.” 
 
 The advice was taken, and the conversation turned to less em¬ 
 barrassing topics. We spoke of our travels,^ of China, of the 
 
A MONGOL MANDARIN. 
 
 509 
 
 countries of the West,-—in short, a little of everything. The 
 Prefect was most agreeable, and said not another word about 
 turning us out, which complaisance we rewarded by the polite 
 attention of accompanying him to the gate of the “ Palace of 
 Literary Composition.” 
 
 Our position was thus triumphantly established at Nan-tchang- 
 fou, and all that remained for us to do was to arrange the rest of 
 our journey to Canton. The next day and the following day we 
 passed in the capital of Kiang-si, and we were visited by many 
 Mandarins, and by the chiefs of the learned body whose palace 
 we occupied. Every one was very obliging, nor did they find 
 fault with our manner of installing ourselves in the Wen-tchang- 
 koun. I hey contented themselves with laughing good-naturedly 
 at the neatness and decision with which we had got out of our 
 difficulties, and the cool manner in which we had established our¬ 
 selves to our liking. 
 
 Among the numerous visitors we received at Nan-tchang-fou, 
 there was one who interested us by his rough, almost savage be¬ 
 haviour, which was without a tinge of the supple, insincere courtesy 
 that characterises the Chinese. 
 
 We were one day reclining on porcelain seats in our balcony, 
 breathing the fresh air from the river, and watching the passers- 
 by on the quay below, when a young Mandarin entered abruptly, 
 without being announced, bade us good-day with a proud and 
 independent bow, to which we were unaccustomed in China, and, 
 pushing forward a bamboo seat with his foot, sat down opposite 
 us. We were at first inclined to recall him forcibly to the obser¬ 
 vance of the Rites, and to soften a little the bluntness of his 
 behaviour. But his countenance pleased us ; it was lively, intel¬ 
 ligent, full of candour and integrity, and we thought that his 
 conduct might denote a haughty character, but not necessarily an 
 impudent one. 
 
 “ You treat us like old friends,” we said; “ between friends 
 etiquette is superfluous.” 
 
 “ The Chinese are very ceremonious,” replied he ; “ but I am 
 not a Chinese, I am a Mongol.” 
 
 “ A Mongol! Ah! we ought to have guessed it. We our¬ 
 selves have spent a good deal of time in the Land of Grass; we 
 are acquainted with the Eight Banners, and have pitched our tent 
 in all the pastures of Tartary, from the great Kouren, near the 
 Kalkhas, to the Koukou-noor on the shores of the Blue Sea.” 
 
 At the sound of these names, so poetical and sweet to the ears 
 of a Tartar of the Steppes, the young Mongol rose in a transport 
 
510 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 of delight, seizing our hands, and patting us on the shoulder, to 
 testify his friendship. 
 
 “What!” he exclaimed, “you know the great Kouren and the 
 Kou-kou-noor ? You have encamped in the Land of Grass ? No 
 doubt you can speak the Mongol language.” 
 
 “Yes, brother,” we replied, “we understand the tongue of 
 Tchinggis and Timour.” 
 
 From that moment Chinese was set aside, and the conversation 
 carried on in Mongol. This young man belonged to one of the 
 noblest families of the tribe of Gechekten, with which we had 
 resided for two years. Probably we had met him more than once 
 during our journeys in the desert. He told us, that having gone to 
 Pekin in the suite of his sovereign, when the tributary princes paid 
 their annual visit to the Emperor at the commencement of the 
 year, he had been seized with a desire to stay in the capital. His 
 aim was to learn Chinese, study its literature, and, having passed 
 the necessary examinations, to enter the magistracy. 
 
 After several years’ study, he had obtained the degree of bache¬ 
 lor, and a few months before meeting us had been sent as super¬ 
 numerary Mandarin to a tribunal of the capital of Kiang-si. 
 
 Perhaps our old predilection for the Mongols influenced us, but 
 we thought there was something superior to the Chinese character 
 in this child of the desert. The civilisation of Pekin, engrafted on 
 this strong, vigorous disposition, appeared to have produced a new 
 type, uniting and blending with advantage Chinese intelligence 
 and penetration with the rough frankness and energy of the Mongol 
 Tartars. 
 
 During the time we spent at Nan-tchang-fou we saw this young 
 Mandarin several times, and his society was always welcome. His 
 conversation recalled most agreeably the long time we had spent in 
 the deserts of Tartary. He was also intelligent and well informed, 
 and quite free from that affected disdain for foreign countries, and 
 especially for the men and things of Europe, which the Chinese 
 love to exhibit. On the contrary, he listened attentively, and with 
 sincere admiration, to all that we told him of the nations of the 
 West. He even went so far as to ask us whether in coming from 
 France to China we had followed the route round Cape Horn, the 
 Cape of Good Hope, or through the Red Sea. “ Sea voyages 
 must be very comfortable when you are used to them,” said he, 
 “ but for my part, if I wanted to reach your country, I would 
 rather travel with a caravan, in the Mongol fashion. I should start 
 from Pekin, and cross the desert to Kiaktha, on the frontiers of 
 Siberia. Thence I should traverse the kingdom of the Oros (Rus- 
 
MISTAKES OF TIIE METHODISTS. 
 
 511 
 
 sians), and the various Western States, until I reached the grand 
 Empire of France.” 
 
 “ And if you wished to visit the In-ki-li ? ” (English). 
 
 “ Oh, I know that the country of the Red-haired people is sur¬ 
 rounded by water on all sides. They are islanders. If I wished 
 to visit them, I should sell my camels and hire a fire-junk” (steam¬ 
 boat). 
 
 We did not inform him of the improbability of finding pur¬ 
 chasers for camels in Paris, lest it should lower that city in his 
 estimation. 
 
 i Of late years there is a remarkable tendency among the educated 
 Chinese to the study of geography and of foreign nations, and this 
 appears to us an immense step towards the development amongst 
 them of the taste for European science. Since the war with the 
 English, there have appeared several very complete Chinese 
 geographies, containing very correct information concerning the 
 various parts of the world, and especially the kingdoms of Europe. 
 It is evident that a European hand has been engaged in their com¬ 
 position, and from the flattering strain with which the United 
 States are mentioned in them, it is strongly to be suspected that an 
 American has had something to do with these publications. 
 
 The Methodist ministers, who lie in ambush in all the five ports 
 open to Europeans, having remarked that the prodigious quantity 
 of Bibles furtively scattered along the shores of the Empire have 
 not proved remarkably efficacious in working the conversion of the 
 Chinese, have at last given up this harmless and useless system of 
 Propagandism. They seem convinced now that bales even of well- 
 bound and cautiously distributed Bibles will not make much 
 impression on the Chinese nation, and they have lost some of their 
 faith in the miraculous effect of this measure. However, their 
 vocation being to print books and disperse them, they have com¬ 
 posed certain little scientific works, by which they hope to captivate 
 the minds of the Chinese. 
 
 In 1851, a few days before our departure from China, we chanced 
 to get sight of one of these productions. It was simply a technical 
 treatise on the Electric Telegraph. 
 
 Truly, a man must be profoundly ignorant of the Chinese nation 
 to offer such a book for its instruction. The theory of the Electric 
 Telegraph for men whose language does not even contain terms to 
 express the simplest phenomena of electricity ! It is scarcely 
 credible. We feel assured, that throughout the Celestial nation 
 there is not one man capable of understanding this work; for, in 
 order to express new ideas, the author has had recourse to new 
 
512 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 combinations of characters, forming a very original jargon, which 
 the Chinese will not be in a hurry to construe. Doubtless every¬ 
 body must wish for the moment when the Chinese shall abandon 
 their ancient prejudices, and cultivate the modern sciences ; but all 
 instruction ought to proceed methodically, which Methodists at 
 least should understand. Would there be a single Christian in 
 China if the Catholic missionaries, instead of teaching the catechism 
 to their neophytes, had begun by placing in their hands a treatise 
 on grace, with dissertations on the Jansenist heresy ? 
 
 This proceeding has been adopted partly in consequence of a 
 false idea of the Chinese which has been conceived in Europe. 
 Because they are said to know how to calculate eclipses, and so 
 held in high favour some Jesuit astronomers who visited the court 
 in the first reigns of the Mantchoo dynasty, it has been supposed 
 that the nation was devoted to astronomic science, and consisted of 
 three hundred millions of Aragos, more or less busied with stars 
 and planets. And yet if there is on the earth a nation absorbed by 
 the affairs of this world, and who trouble themselves little about 
 what passes among the heavenly bodies, it is assuredly the Chinese. 
 The most erudite among them just know of the existence of astro- | 
 nomy, or, as they call it, tien-iven—“ celestial literature.” But they | 
 are ignorant of the simplest principles of the science, and those 
 who regard an eclipse as a natural phenomenon, instead of a dragon 
 who is seeking to devour the sun and moon, are enlightened indeed. 
 
 If foreign astronomers formerly exercised so much power at the 
 court, and enjoyed such fame, is it not a proof that the native pro¬ 
 fessors of the science were incompetent? Until the Jesuits came 
 to their assistance, they were unable to draw up a good almanac, 
 and, since their expulsion from Pekin, the members of the Tribunal 
 of Mathematics have relapsed into their former ignorance, and 
 every year Government is obliged to send the almanac to Canton, 
 to be corrected by Europeans. The Chinese, we are convinced, i 
 would have great aptitude for all the sciences. From their quick : 
 penetration and incomparable patience, they would make rapid : 
 progress; but hitherto they have studied nothing for its own sake, 
 they look only on the practical and productive side of things. 3 
 Physiology, chemistry, astronomy, mathematics, are considered 
 only in their bearing upon sapecks. In their hands everything 
 becomes a trade. If the books on astronomy and electricity, that 
 the Methodists compose for them, furnished recipes for amassing a ' 
 large fortune in a short time, they would soon conquer their repug j 
 nance to study them. They would listen very attentively to any 
 one who should teach them how to augment their incomes, but 
 
PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE. 
 
 513 
 
 would laugh in derision at a proposal merely to increase their 
 knowledge: they would consider such an offer merely as a bad 
 joke. 
 
 We took advantage of our leisure time to view Nan-tchang-fou, 
 which is one of the most celebrated of the provincial towns. We 
 had already passed through it in 1840, but secretly, and in too 
 great a hurry to have a very correct idea of it. Like other Chinese 
 towns,, it contains no public monuments worthy of attention. 
 Pagodas, tribunals, and a few triumphal arches, erected in honour 
 of widows and virgins, form its most striking architectural works. 
 The streets are large and tolerably clean, the warehouses and shops 
 magnificently adorned and laid out. On the whole, the town is 
 the most regular and' handsome, next to Tehing-tou-fou, the 
 capital of Sse-tchouen, that we saw throughout the Empire. 
 Although Kiang-si is a poor province, incapable of self-support, 
 the commerce of Nan-tchang-fou is considerable. This results 
 from its position on the line of communication between the great 
 centres of population and activity, such as Nan-kin, Canton, Han- 
 keou, and Pekin. All goods from the north or the south must go 
 by Nan-tchang-fou. 
 
 When we call Kiang-si a poor province, we refer to agricultural 
 produce, for its manufactures have been among the most important 
 in China for centuries past. This province.contains all the largest 
 porcelain factories, and Nan-tchang-fou is naturally the repository 
 for the sale of their productions. It contains several immense 
 shops, filled with china and porcelain of every kind, from those 
 great urns covered with richly coloured reliefs, representing various 
 scenes in Chinese life, to tiny cups, so frail and delicate, that they 
 have been called egg-shell china. 
 
 The chief porcelain factory is at King-te-tching, east of Pou- 
 yang, on the banks of the great river which fa'ls into that lake. 
 King-te-tching is not a regular town, not being surrounded by 
 walls. Nevertheless, it contains more than a million of inhabitants, 
 almost all employed in the manufacture of china. It is difficult 
 to describe the bustle and activity that reigns throughout the town. 
 All day long clouds of smoke and columns of flame ascending 
 from its chimneys, and at night the whole place appears on fire — 
 a stranger would imagine it was one immense conflagration. More 
 than 500 separate factories, and thousands of furnaces, are con¬ 
 stantly at work upon the china vases, which are sent in prodigious 
 quantities into all the provinces of China, and thence all over the 
 world. 
 
 In this, as in all Chinese manufactures, the division of labour is 
 
 L L 
 
514 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 carried to an infinitesimal extent. Each workman lias his parti¬ 
 cular department; one paints a certain flower; another a bird; 
 one lays on the red colour, another the blue. A china vase, when 
 finished and ready for sale, has passed through the hands of more 
 than fifty different workmen. 
 
 Father D’Entrecolles, who was entrusted with the mission to 
 Kiang-si in the beginning of the 18th century, and had, therefore, 
 often occasion to visit King-te-tching, where a number of the 
 workmen have embraced Christianity, has furnished us with very 
 curious and detailed accounts of the manufacture of china. By 
 the assistance of these precious documents and numerous specimens 
 of kao-lin and pe-tun-ze*, our manufacturers succeeded at last in 
 making a perfect copy of the Chinese and Japanese vases, which 
 were so long the envy and despair of the European imitators. 
 
 The manufacture of china dates from a very ancient period in 
 the Celestial Empire. It was already in a flourishing condition 
 under the dynasty of Han, about the commencement of the 
 Christian era; and Chinese antiquaries still possess beautiful 
 specimens dating from that time. They are not as transparent as 
 those made at present, but the-enamel is finer, and the colouring 
 more vivid. Amateurs preserve specimens of some kinds of which 
 the Chinese have lost the secret of fabrication ; such as the double 
 cups, in which the outer part is perforated like lace, and the inner 
 cup solid and of dazzling whiteness. Then there are some orna¬ 
 ments with magic figures, which are only visible when the vessel 
 is full. These figures are drawn on the inside, and the colours 
 have undergone a particular preparation, which renders them in¬ 
 visible when dry. There is also a kind of biscuit china, the entire 
 surface of which is covered with lines crossing in all directions, 
 as if the vase were composed of a thousand different pieces. It 
 looks like the most delicate and exquisite of mosaics. The secret 
 of the fabrication of this kind, however, as well as of many others, \ 
 is now entirely unknown. 
 
 According to the Annals of China, the whole art has been com¬ 
 pletely lost several times in the course of those tremendous revo¬ 
 lutions which have so often shaken that empire to its foundations. 
 
 It had to be invented anew, and this was not always with as much : 
 success as before. 
 
 There is a class of Chinese amateurs who devote themselves ex¬ 
 clusively to the collection of antique bronzes and porcelain, which 
 they call liou-toung, or “ old vase.” They are esteemed as works of j 
 
 * Essential materials for the manufacture of china. 
 
THE GOD OF PORCELAIN. 
 
 515 
 
 art, but chiefly prized for the mysterious value attached to the things 
 of past ages, though the Chinese workmen are cunning enough to 
 imitate these kou-toung so as to deceive the most practised eye, 
 and many antiquaries exhibit in their cabinets, with the most 
 perfect good faith, pretended ancient porcelain, which is two or 
 three months old at the utmost. The makers of the sham kou- 
 toung generally use a kind of reddish earth. After the first baking 
 of the vessels they are thrown into a kind of greasy broth, where 
 they undergo a second cooking, and after this they are buried in a 
 sewer, where they lie for forty or fifty days, and are then dug up 
 
 ! again. In this manner is prepared most of the “fine old china of 
 the dynasty of Youen.” 
 
 The porcelain manufactory possesses a patron deity, whose 
 origin is thus described by Father d’Entrecolles : — “ As each 
 profession has its particular idol, divinity being as easily con¬ 
 ferred as the title of count or marquis amongst certain European 
 nations, it is not surprising that there is a god of porcelain. He 
 owes his existence to the following circumstance: — It is said that 
 a long time ago a certain Emperor desired to have some china 
 according to a particular design which he furnished. It was 
 represented to him that it was impossible to execute his orders; 
 but remonstrance served only' to heighten his desire. As an 
 emperor during his lifetime is the chief god of China, and sets no 
 bounds to his will, the master manufacturers redoubled their 
 efforts, and treated the unhappy workmen with the utmost se¬ 
 verity, and these poor creatures lavished their money and their 
 labour, getting only kicks and cuffs in return. At last, one of 
 them, in despair, threw himself into the blazing furnace, and was 
 immediately consumed, and the porcelain which was baking in 
 this fire came out perfectly beautiful and quite to the Emperor’s 
 taste. Since then this unfortunate man, at first regarded as a 
 hero, has become the tutelary idol who presides over porcelain 
 factories. It is not stated, however, that this example has led any 
 of his countrymen to aspire to similar honours.” * 
 
 The province of Kiang-si possesses another trade, less important 
 and valuable doubtless than the china manufacture, but worthy of 
 remark on account of its peculiarity, and the profits of which are 
 not to be despised. This province is very marshy, and abounds 
 in ponds ; there is scarcely a cottager who cannot boast of at 
 least one close to his house, and these are turned to account for 
 
 * Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, vol. iii. p. 221. 
 l L 2 
 
516 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the rearing of fish, which yield annually a considerable revenue to 
 their cultivators. 
 
 During the last few years much attention has been turned in 
 France to the art of pisciculture, as it has been called, and pains 
 have been bestowed on the artificial production and rearing of 
 fish. But, however new to Europeans, this art is very well 
 known in China. In Kiang-si it is practised after the following 
 fashion:— 
 
 In spring a number of men go round the provinces selling 
 spawn. Their establishment consists of a wheelbarrow loaded 
 with barrels containing a thick liquid more like mud than any¬ 
 thing else. It is impossible to distinguish the smallest animalcule 
 in it with the naked eye. For a few sapecks you may buy a 
 bowlful of this mud, enough to sow a large pond ; it is merely 
 thrown into the water, and in a few days the young come forth. 
 When they have attained some size they are fed with tender vege¬ 
 tables chopped up and thrown into the water, the quantity being 
 augmented as they increase in size. The growth of these fish is 
 incredibly rapid. In a month at most they are strong and active, 
 and require abundant nourishment. Morning and evening the 
 proprietors of fish-ponds ransack the fields for suitable plants, 
 which they carry home in enormous quantities. The fish rise to 
 the surface, and throw themselves eagerly on their food, which 
 they devour speedily, keeping up all the time a kind of murmur¬ 
 ing noise, like a number of rabbits. Their voracity can only be 
 compared to that of silk-worms just before spinning their cocoon. 
 After being fed thus for about a fortnight they generally attain a 
 weight of two or three pounds, after which they grow no more. 
 They are then taken out and sold alive in the towns. 
 
 The fish-ponds of Kiang-si contain only this one kind of fish, 
 which is of an exquisite flavour; if there are any other sorts, at 
 least we never saw them, and we are also unaware whether the 
 spawn undergoes any preparation before it is sold. 
 
 We stayed five days at Nan-tchang-fou, during which time our 
 chief occupation was to arrange the rest of our journey to Canton. 
 The Governor of the province, the Prefect of the town, and the 
 functionaries, civil and military, all showed us the greatest atten¬ 
 tion, and took pains to carry out the plans we had formed. 
 
 The extreme heat of the weather, and our own need of repose, 
 decided us to continue our journey by water. From Nan-tchang- 
 fou we could follow the course of a large river as far as the 
 mountain Mei-ling, which is just half way, and can be crossed in 
 a single day ; after this, the river Kiang would take us all the rest 
 
THE MISSION OF KIANG-SI. 
 
 517 
 
 of the way to Canton. We knew that this route was infinitely 
 preferable to the land journey, particularly if we were furnished 
 with Government junks, and well-provisioned. Our efforts were 
 crowned with perfect success ; we were provided with a well- 
 armed vessel of war for escort, and two superb junks, one for the 
 Mandarins and their suite, and one for ourselves. We had 
 expressly stipulated that we should be alone, that we might be at 
 ease and free to attend to our exercises, and live as best pleased 
 us; we took with us our own servant Wei-chan and a cook ; a 
 first-rate artiste, according to the Prefect of Nan-tchang-fou. 
 
 The commissariat department w r as arranged by the Governor 
 on a truly sumptuous scale. In order that we might be treated 
 perfectly according to our wishes, he issued a decree enjoining a 
 contribution of five ounces of silver from every town we should 
 pass, a sum amounting to about fifty francs. This was to be en¬ 
 tirely devoted to the furnishing of our table; but as the towns 
 stand close together along this river, we had a large sum of money 
 over when we reached Canton. It will be seen further on to what 
 use we put it. 
 
 It must be confessed, that the authorities of Nan-tchang-fou 
 behaved very handsomely, and treated us with extraordinary pomp, 
 and this dignified and liberal conduct contrasts strongly with the 
 shabby treatment of the Russian colonel, who every ten years 
 conducts an embassy from Kiaktha to Pekin. According to a law, 
 which is faithfully executed, the representative of the Czar has a 
 daily allowance of one sheep, a cup of wine, a pound of tea, a jar 
 of milk, two ounces of butter, two fish, a pound of salted vege¬ 
 tables, four ounces of fermented beans, four ounces of vinegar, 
 one ounce of salt, two saucers of lamp-oil, and once in nine days 
 a Chinese dinner of four courses. 
 
 The escort, which had accompanied us from the capital of 
 Hou-pe, took leave of us at Nan-tchang-fou. The Weeping 
 Willow bade us a touching farewell, and we accepted his tearful 
 good wishes with gratitude. As we were about to embark, we 
 were accosted by two worthy citizens, with pleasant, open counte¬ 
 nances, who wished us a good journey. We knew the moment we 
 looked in their faces with whom we had to do. 
 
 “You are Christians,” we said. 
 
 “ Yes, father,” they replied, looking all around to see that they 
 were not observed. We hastily asked news of the mission, and of 
 our fellow-labourers, and were then obliged to leave them, tc enter 
 our junk. 
 
 LL 3 
 
518 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 The mission of Kiang-si, entrusted to the brotherhood of St. 
 Lazarus, counts now nearly ten thousand Christians, dispersed 
 throughout the province ; they are in general poor, and very timid. 
 Every year a certain number of conversions take place, but the 
 propagation of the faith goes on but slowly ; as it does everywhere 
 throughout the Celestial Empire. 
 
 CHAP. XXI. 
 
 Departure from Nan-tchang-fou. — A Mandarin Junk. — Comfort and Luxury 
 
 of Water-Carriage-Vehicles and Hotels. — Fiacre and Cabriolet Stands at 
 
 Pekin. -—-Chinese light Literature. — Collections of Maxims and Proverbs. 
 — Passage of the Mountain Mei-ling. — Nan-hioung, the frontier Town.— 
 Chinese Rope Dancers. — Little Feet of the Women. — Origin of this 
 Custom.—Navigation of the Tigris. — Recollections of our Entry into China 
 in 1840. —View of the Port of Canton. — European Vessels. ■—-First Night 
 in Canton. — Our Martyrdom in Tartary. — Savings on the Road bestowed 
 upon our Servant Wei-chan. — Stay at Macao.—Death of M. Gabet.— 
 Departure for Pekin. — Arrival at Marseilles in 1852. 
 
 The junk on board which we embarked to ascend the river Tchang 
 was a little floating palace. We had a drawing-room, dining-room, 
 and bed-chamber of exquisite cleanliness and luxuriously furnished, 
 and the paintings and gildings lavishly distributed around were 
 heightened in effect by that beautiful Chinese polish which has not 
 its equal in the world. In the forepart of the vessel were the 
 sailors’ quarters and the kitchen, and the men worked the junk and 
 carried on their various occupations without ever coming to our 
 end of the boat. On each side were large windows, curiously cut, 
 and filled in with glass instead of paper ; a piece of extraordinary 
 magnificence in China. It would be impossible to enjoy a more 
 convenient and elegant mode of river navigation than that with 
 which the Prefect of Nan-tchang-fou had provided us. Accustomed, 
 during our residence in China, to travel in merchant vessels and 
 transports, we had not supposed the Chinese capable of fitting up 
 a junk with so much comfort. 
 
 The river we were ascending was not very rapid, but when the 
 wind was insufficient or unfavourable, recourse was had to the oars. 
 
 This was the case the first day. The captain, who no doubt had 
 received minute instructions concerning the voyage, came to inquire 
 whether we were satisfied with our accommodation, and whether 
 the motion of his “ ignoble junk” did not disturb our repose. 
 “ We are most comfortable ; your delightful vessel is a Paradise ; 
 
LUXURIOUS JUNKS. 
 
 519 
 
 but the motion is very great towards the stern, and the sailors 
 make a great deal of noise in rowing.” 
 
 “These inconveniences can be removed,” said the captain; “I 
 will go and see to it.” He made us a low bow, and went away. 
 
 A few moments after, the noise of the oars ceased, and the junk 
 appeared perfectly motionless; but on looking out of window, w r e 
 perceived by the trees on the bank that we were passing rapidly 
 along. We seemed moved by magic. The small boat had been 
 launched, and by means of a rattan cable attached to the prow, we 
 were being quietly towed against the current. This was indeed a 
 polite attention ; but we thought it right to tell the captain that it 
 was unnecessary ; being accustomed to the navigation ot stormy 
 seas, the gentle motion of a junk on a river was little likely to 
 disturb us. “ Whether the sailors row on board or in the boat 
 makes no difference to the fatigue,” was the captain’s reply. “ Be¬ 
 sides, I only carry out the orders I received at Nan-tching-fou. It is 
 customary to tow junks when they carry Mandarins of high rank.” 
 
 Such journeys as this are real parties of pleasure. You enjoy 
 the most profound and undisturbed tranquillity, and the landscapes 
 which are gradually unfolded along the banks, offer the amusement 
 of an inexhaustible variety. We forgot for some days the fatigue 
 we had suffered for more than two years. Hie paternal goodness 
 of Providence granted us this interval of calmness and repose, as a 
 compensation for our sufferings in the frightful deserts of 1 artary 
 and Thibet, and we accepted these hours ot recreation from the 
 hand of God, with hearts full of gratitude, as we had received with 
 resignation those of trial and tribulation. 
 
 We passed two weeks in our floating hermitage, without once 
 going out of it; so pleasantly situated were we. When w 7 e came 
 to any town liable to contribution, whether lying on the right or 
 left bank of the river, we anchored, and our Mandarin conductors 
 went to the tribunal to demand the prescribed sum. Generally 
 the payment was made with tolerable exactness; but there were 
 from time to time some little difficulties to conquer. I he func¬ 
 tionaries did not always show any remarkable eagerness to bring 
 on board the number of sapecks fixed by the tariff, Ihey some¬ 
 times sent us deputations to try and strike a bargain with us, and 
 to allege a thousand and one reasons why they should be dispensed 
 from furnishing the whole sum specified. We were very accom¬ 
 modating, and willing to receive absolutely nothing, provided only 
 that they would make out a statement declaring the motives of the 
 refusal, and signed by the authorities of the town. But no one 
 would ever agree to this, and the matter always ended by their 
 
 l l 4 
 
520 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 sending the sapecks. When we became too much encumbered 
 with this hard cash, Wei-chan used to get them changed into bank 
 notes, payable to the bearer, and kept them himself under lock and 
 key ; we merely taking a memorandum of their amount. 
 
 It is not customary in China to travel at night, either by land or 
 water, and every evening we got snugly into port. Our anchoring 
 was performed with considerable ostentation. The war-frigate 
 used to precede us, and choose a suitable place : our junk and that 
 of our conductors were brought up alongside ; and when everybody 
 was ready and in full dress, a gun was fired, and the anchors 
 dropped, of course to the accompaniment of the tam-tam, and the 
 discharge of fireworks. In the evening we used to go from one 
 vessel to another to pay visits to our travelling companions. The 
 captain of the frigate was an old sailor, originally from Fo-kien ; 
 and we could not manage to keep up very long conversations with 
 him, as he only spoke the dialect of his own province, mingled with 
 a few Chinese expressions, more or less disfigured ; so, after having 
 exchanged many gestures and much pantomime with him. we went 
 on board the junk of the civil Mandarin. He was a Pekin citizen 
 of the purest breed, and had most refined and elegant manners, as 
 became a native of the capital of the Flowery Kingdom. By his 
 language, also, it was easy to see that he came from the metropolis ; 
 but, unluckily, he did not much care to talk, and the melancholy 
 expression of his face made it evident that he was suffering from 
 some keen sorrow. We respected his grief, therefore, and con¬ 
 tented ourselves with making him very short and purely ceremo¬ 
 nious visits. 
 
 In the morning, as soon as it was daylight, another gun was fired 
 to announce the moment of our departure, and we began again our 
 delightful trip. Railroads, steamboats, even stage-coaches, and all 
 our rapid means of locomotion, are assuredly marvellous inventions, 
 which every one admires, and which we never fail to appreciate 
 when we are in a hurry to get from one place to another; but 
 these hasty journeys are, it must be owned, seldom interesting. We 
 may run over the whole world in this way without having much 
 idea of the countries we have traversed, or the nations we have 
 visited. In Europe, at the present day, travellers are forwarded 
 exactly like bales of merchandise. Henceforward those who wish 
 to make travelling a pleasure and a luxury, will be obliged to come 
 to China, and get a Mandarin junk, in which they may glide gently 
 from province to province, over the rivers and canals by which the 
 Empire is traversed. The rich citizens of the Kingdom of Flowers 
 find in all the great ports pretty boats, fitted up with all the com- 
 
MODES OF LOCOMOTION. 
 
 521 
 
 forts of Chinese civilisation, to be let on hire. These voyages, or 
 rather long excursions, are made in the easiest style, the travellers 
 stopping wherever convenience or the pleasure of the moment may 
 suggest. As the most important towns are commonly situated on 
 the banks of rivers, it is easy by this plan to study the country, 
 and make youcself acquainted with the manners and customs of the 
 inhabitants. In general the Chinese are not sedentary; and as, 
 without crossing the frontiers of their own country, they can make 
 themselves acquainted with almost all climates and productions of 
 the earth, though their means of transport are slow and often 
 inconvenient, they are always very ready to set off on a journey. 
 In the southern provinces most of the travelling is done by water, 
 but, with the exception of the aristocratic boats just mentioned, tra¬ 
 vellers find only dirty, crowded junks, where they are heaped one 
 upon another, without seeming to think it at all unpleasant. They 
 will remain shut up in them for months with incomprehensible 
 patience, living on rice boiled in water, and passing their time in 
 smoking and picking melon seeds. Those who are of an economi¬ 
 cal turn of mind, and wish to spare these luxuries, sleep almost the 
 whole day, as well as the whole night. Nothing disturbs them,—• 
 neither heat, nor the smoke of tobacco or opium, nor the noisy 
 conversations that are constantly going on all round them. 
 
 In the north the modes of locomotion are more fatiguing, but 
 perhaps less tedious. People in easy circumstances travel in palan¬ 
 quins or in a kind of coach or waggon ; others on horseback, on 
 asses or mules, or they are drawn in a kind of wheelbarrow, or go 
 on foot. The' Chinese coaches are not on springs, and there are 
 no seats in them, so that you must always sit cross-legged, like a 
 tailor. As the roads also are terribly rough, you are constantly 
 jolted up and down, and in imminent danger of a broken head. 
 Prudent people take the precaution to have the sides of the vehicle 
 cushioned, in order to soften a little the blows they are constantly 
 receiving right and left. Upsets are of every-day occurrence, and 
 this is perhaps one reason why the Chinese have acquired so much 
 skill in the difficult art of setting fractured limbs; but it would 
 certainly be a preferable plan to make better roads and carriages, 
 so that the limbs might not want setting quite so often. 
 
 The most frequented roads of the north are provided with 
 numerous inns, which must not always be judged of by their names. 
 To look at the pompous signs by which they are decorated you 
 would imagine you had met with the most virtuous men in the 
 universe, and that the landlord amidst his guests was a very patri¬ 
 arch surrounded by a numerous family. The inscriptions in large. 
 
5 22 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 letters on the gate, promise you peace, concord, disinterestedness, 
 generosity, all kinds of virtues, in addition to abundance of good 
 cheer, and the accomplishment of all your wishes. But you have 
 hardly crossed the threshold, before you discover that you have 
 got into a den of thieves, where you will be likely to be both pil¬ 
 laged and starved. Experienced travellers know 'perfectly well 
 m hat they have to trust to with respect to the inexhaustible abun¬ 
 dance promised by the signs, and take care to have with them an 
 assortment of provisions. It is customary for every one to carry a 
 little bag of tea, suspended to his girdle; and those who are not 
 inclined to content themselves with a kind of bun made of wheat 
 and rice boiled in water, are also accompanied by an oblong trunk, 
 divided into various compartments filled with potted meat, salt fish, 
 and sour krout. I he Chinese call these provisions for travelling 
 han-leang ; that is to say, “ dry and cold.” 
 
 In the considerable towns you do find sometimes tolerably well- 
 kept inns, with private rooms for those who desire them; and such 
 as Europeans, whose habits are not too luxurious, might occupy 
 with pleasure, though of course they are not so elegant as those of 
 our best hotels. You can, however, take your meals at the table 
 d hote , or have the dishes you desire served to you separately, as in 
 ours, and you are mostly well and promptly attended. 
 
 As it is customary to commence by drinking tea, and amusing 
 youiself with little trifling dainties, the cooks (or, to give them a 
 more stately and appropriate appellation, the “ Mandarins of the 
 Kettle ) have time for their culinary operations. They bring the 
 dishes ordered, in the most ostentatious manner, and when the 
 waiters of the establishment put down the dishes before the guests, 
 they sing out their names in a loud voice, so as to be heard by 
 every one. This plan, as may be supposed, is found very useful 
 in exciting the vanity of the guests, and inducing them to ask for 
 expensive things, that perhaps they would willingly have done 
 without if they had been dining in private. When the repast is 
 finished, the head waiter of the hotel comes to the door, and com¬ 
 mences a kind of song, of which the subject is the nomenclature 
 °f ^he dishes, and the burden, the sum total of the expenses. 
 When the guests go out—and this, it must be owned, is a critical 
 and solemn moment— those who have dined economically depart 
 with an humble and contrite air, and try to avoid the notice of the 
 company; while the Chinese lords, who have eaten sumptuously, 
 and of high-priced viands, march out with their pipes in their 
 mouths, their noses in the air, and casting proud and disdainful 
 glances on all around. If the fashion ■were adopted in the taverns 
 
PEKIN HACKNEY COACHES. 
 
 523 
 
 of Europe, of proclaiming aloud what everybody had taken, it is 
 to be feared that many a guest would give himself an indigestion 
 out of pure vanity. 
 
 The Chinese, when travelling, are habitually abstinent, and in 
 some of the provinces they have a practice to which we found it very 
 difficult to accustom ourselves. Before setting out in the morning, 
 they swallow a large cup of warm water, in which they have pre¬ 
 viously dissolved a few grains of salt. I hev are gifted with aston¬ 
 ishing powers of appetite and digestion, which seem to be entirely 
 under their control. They support hunger and thirst with the 
 greatest facility, and yet, when the opportunity presents itself, 
 they can swallow vast quantities of rice without suffering the 
 slightest inconvenience. Their stomachs s,eem thus to be of al¬ 
 most unfathomable depth. We have travelled in districts of the 
 north where there was really scarcely anything to be bought, and 
 the Chinese, who did not like the trouble of carrying provisions, 
 used to take at one meal all the food they required for twenty-four 
 hours. In the morning, as soon as ever they were up, they break¬ 
 fasted, dined, and supped all at once. 
 
 Many important cities of the south are built in the water, like 
 Venice, and the magnificent canals, that serve for streets, are fur¬ 
 rowed by innumerable little boats. Pekin offers a very remarkable 
 peculiarity — namely, in some of the populous quarters, you find 
 coach stands, where small vehicles, drawn by one or two mules, 
 can be taken on hire by the hour or by the drive, exactly like 
 hackney coaches and cabriolets in Paris and London. This 
 custom is very ancient in the Celestial Empire, and does not at all 
 seem to have been borrowed from Europe. Probably it existed 
 when our good forefathers were running wild in the woods. 
 
 But although the Chinese have been in possession of coaches 
 longer than we have, their coaches are still greatly inferior to ours. 
 Those of Pekin are scarcely any better than the detestable travel¬ 
 ling waggons of which we have already spoken. Ihey are smaller, 
 more elegantly painted and varnished, and fitted up inside with red 
 or green silk; but they are never on springs, and this inconvenience 
 is felt even more in the capital than in the country. 
 
 The principal streets, which were formerly paved with large 
 flag-stones, not having undergone any repair for, perhaps, two 
 hundred years, have lost almost as many stones as they have re¬ 
 tained ; so that you come continually to great square holes, and, 
 as may be supposed, this is not very convenient for carriages; 
 and they often proceed by a series of jumps from one side to the 
 other. 
 
524 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 Their wheels are, indeed, of enormous solidity, and thev very 
 seldom break; but that does not prevent the vehicle from upset¬ 
 ting. During our stay at Pekin, we were induced once to take a 
 drive in one of these abominable machines, and we were so atro¬ 
 ciously maltreated in the course of it, that we resolved never again 
 to have recourse to that method of locomotion. The Chinese 
 accommodate themselves to it wonderfully, and sit tranquilly 
 smoking their pipes, and seeming, by the elasticity that is so re¬ 
 markable in them, to defy the roughest jolts and the most unex¬ 
 pected bumps. We never heard that any one of them had fractured 
 ns skull. 1 he drivers of these coaches have no other seat than 
 the pole, but they manage to preserve their equilibrium. 
 
 In general it may be said that all methods of locomotion in 
 China are either fatiguing, or dangerous, or tedious, and these 
 coaches unite all these advantages in one. The Mandarin junks 
 are, unquestionably, the best and the most comfortable, fSince 
 leaving Nan-tchang-fou to ascend the river Tcliang, our days had 
 flowed on with indescribable calmness and rapidity, and we profited 
 by this period of peace and tranquillity to collect our notes 
 and revive the recollections which have enabled us to compose this 
 narrative I his glance cast back upon our past tribulations was a 
 source of pleasant emotion. One can only enjoy the sweets of 
 repose after long fatigue. W hen the sailor has got into port, he 
 likes to look back on the furious tempests of the ocean, and the 
 ecstasies of felicity are reserved by Providence for hearts bruised 
 and worn by suffering. 
 
 The sweet quiet interval of this peaceful voyage procured for 
 us also a better acquaintance with the light literature of China 
 Uur servant, Wei-chan, was a great reader, and whenever he went 
 ashore he used to come back with a stock of little pamphlets that 
 he afterwards devoured in his own cabin. These ephemeral produc¬ 
 tions of the ready pens of the literary class usually consist of tales 
 novels, poems, biographies of illustrious men or of notorious vil¬ 
 lains, and fantastic and marvellous stories of various kinds. The 
 Greeks fixed the abode of their monsters and ephemeral creatures 
 in the Last, and the Chinese have returned the compliment bv 
 placing theirs in the West, beyond the great seas. There dwell 
 their Dog-men, their nation with ears long enough to trail on the 
 ground as they walk; there is the kingdom of Women, and of the 
 people with a hole right through them at the breast; the Man¬ 
 darins of which people, when they go out, merely pass a stick 
 through this hole, and have themselves carried thus between two 
 
CHINESE MAXIMS AND PROVERBS. 
 
 525 
 
 domestics. If the bearers are strong enough, they often string on 
 several gentlemen at once. 
 
 These tales are a good deal in the style of Gulliver’s Adventures, 
 and some of them are full of the most disgusting obscenity ; for 
 the Chinese are fond of indulging their imaginations with this kind 
 of reading, which, indeed, can teach them little that they did not 
 know before. 
 
 We found in the collection of Wei chan some very curious pro¬ 
 ductions, that we read with the most lively interest. These were 
 collections of proverbs, maxims, and popular sentences, from 
 which we made some extracts that we will give here, as we believe 
 the reader will peruse them with pleasure, as specimens of Chinese 
 character and modes of thought. There are some indeed that have 
 subtlety and salt enough not to be disdained by La Rochefoucauld. 
 
 “The sage does good as he breathes — it is his life.” 
 
 “ One may be decorous without being chaste; but one cannot 
 be chaste without being decorous.” 
 
 “My books speak to my mind, my friends to my heart; all the 
 rest to my ears.” 
 
 “ The wise man does not speak of all he does, but he does no¬ 
 thing that cannot be spoken of.” 
 
 “ Attention to small things is the economy of virtue.” 
 
 “ Raillery is the lightning of calumny.” 
 
 “ Man may bend to virtue, but virtue cannot bend to man.” 
 
 “ Repentance is the spring of virtue.” 
 
 “ Virtue does not give talents, but it supplies their place. 
 Talents neither give virtue nor supply the place of it.” 
 
 “ He who finds pleasure in vice, and pain in virtue, is a novice 
 both in the one and the other.” 
 
 “ One may do without mankind, but one has need of a friend.” 
 
 “ Ceremony is the smoke of friendship.” 
 
 “If the heart does not go with the head, the best thoughts give 
 only light; this is why science is so little persuasive and probity so 
 eloquent.” 
 
 “ The pleasure of doing good is the only one that never wears 
 out.” 
 
 “ To cultivate virtue is the science of men ; to renounce science 
 is the virtue of women.” 
 
 “ You must listen to your wife, and not believe her.” 
 
 “If one is not deaf or stupid, what a position is that of a father- 
 in-law ! If with a wife and a daughter-in-law, one has also sisters 
 and sisters-in-law, daughters and nieces, one ought to be a tiger to 
 be able to hold out.” 
 
526 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 “ The happiest mother of daughters is she who has only sons.” 
 
 “ The minds of women are of quicksilver, and their hearts of 
 wax.” 
 
 “ The most curious women willingly cast down their eyes to be 
 looked at.” 
 
 “ The tongues of women increase by all that they take from 
 their feet.” 
 
 £< The finest roads do not go far.” 
 
 “ When men are together, they listen to one another ; but women 
 and girls look at one another.” 
 
 “ The most timid girl has courage enough to talk scandal.” 
 
 “ The tree overthrown by the wind had more branches than 
 roots.” 
 
 “ The dog in the kennel barks at his fleas, but the dog who is 
 hunting does not feel them.” 
 
 “ He who lets things be given to him, is not good at taking.” 
 
 <e At court people sing that they may drink; in a village people 
 drink that they may sing.” 
 
 “ Great souls have wills, others only feeble wishes.” 
 
 “ The prison is shut night and day, yet it is always full; the 
 temples are always open, and yet you find no one in them.” 
 
 “ All errors have only a time ; after a hundred millions of objec¬ 
 tions, subtleties, sophisms, and lies, the smallest truth remains 
 precisely what it was before.” 
 
 “ Who is the man most insupportable to us ? He whom we have 
 offended, and whom we can reproach with nothing.” 
 
 “ Receive your thoughts as guests, and treat your desires like 
 children.” 
 
 “ Whoever makes a great fuss about doing good, does very 
 little : he who wishes to be seen and noticed when he is doing 
 good, will do it long ; he who mingles humour and caprice with it 
 will do it badly. He who only thinks of avoiding faults and re¬ 
 proaches, will never acquire virtues.” 
 
 “For him who does everything in its proper time, one day is 
 worth three.” 
 
 “The less indulgence one has for oneself, the more one may 
 have for others.” 
 
 “ Towers are measured by their shadow, and great men by those 
 who are envious of them.” 
 
 “ We must do quickly what there is no hurry for, to be able to 
 do slowly what demands haste.” 
 
 “He who wishes to secure the good of others, has already 
 secured his own.” 
 
CHINESE PORTERS. 
 
 527 
 
 “The court is like the sea ; everything depends upon the wind.” 
 
 “ What a pleasure it is to give! There would be no rich people 
 if they were capable of feeling this.” 
 
 “The rich find relations in the most remote foreign countries; 
 the poor not even in the bosom of their own families.” 
 
 “ The way to glory is through the palace ; to fortune through 
 the market; to virtue through the desert.” 
 
 “The truths that we least wish to hear are those which it is most 
 to our advantage to know.” 
 
 “ One forgives everything to him who forgives himself nothing.” 
 
 “ It is the rich who want most things.” 
 
 “ Who is the greatest liar ? He who speaks most of himself.” 
 
 “ A fool never admires himself so much as when he has com¬ 
 mitted some folly.” 
 
 “ When a song gives much fame, virtue gives very little.” 
 
 “ One never needs one’s wit so much as when one has to do with 
 a fool.” 
 
 “ All is lost when the people fears death less than poverty.” 
 
 After a delightful voyage of fifteen days, we arrived at the foot 
 of the mountain Mei-ling, when we bade adieu to our Mandarin 
 junk, and returned to our palanquin. At sunrise we began to 
 climb the steep and rugged sides of Mei-ling. There are several 
 paths, but as they all present nearly the same difficulties, you do 
 not give yourself much trouble about the choice. 
 
 The multiplicity of paths is occasioned by the great numbers of 
 travellers and porters who are obliged to cross the mountain, which 
 is in fact the sole passage for all the merchandise that the commerce 
 of Canton is continually pouring into the interior provinces of the 
 Empire. It is impossible to see without pain all these unfortunate 
 creatures loaded with enormous burdens, dragging themselves 
 slowly up these tortuous and almost perpendicular paths. The 
 men whom their poverty condemns thus to this terribly hard 
 labour, live, it is said, a very short time. We remarked, never¬ 
 theless, among the long files of porters, some old men, bending 
 painfully under their load, and scarcely able to support their totter¬ 
 ing steps. 
 
 At certain distances you find bamboo sheds, where travellers go 
 to refresh themselves a little in the shade, to drink some cups of 
 tea, and smoke a pipe of tobacco, to restore their sinking spirits. 
 
 We arrived towards noon at the summit of the mountain, where 
 there is a sort of triumphal arch, in the form of an immense por¬ 
 tal ; on one side of which ends the province of Kiang-si, and on 
 
528 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 the other begins that of Canton. We could not cross this frontier 
 without emotion, for we had now at last set foot in the province 
 which is in direct communication with Europe. It seemed as if 
 we were only a short way from Canton, and Canton represented to 
 us Europe—France, that country so dear to our recollections. 
 We descended the mountain slowly and cautiously, on account of 
 the masses of rock with which the way was thickly strewn, and 
 we arrived in the evening at Nan-hioung. This town is celebrated 
 for its storehouses and its vast port, where all the junks stop that 
 come up the river from Canton. We went to lodge on the quay, 
 in a spacious and magnificent communal palace; and as the last 
 fifteen days had been so agreeable, we hastened to express to the 
 Prefect of the town our wish to complete the journey down the river 
 to Canton as before in a Mandarin junk. 
 
 The next day all was strictly regulated in conformity with our 
 request; but it was settled that we should pass the day at Nan- 
 hioung, in order to give the captains of the junks time to make 
 their preparations. 
 
 As soon as we rose from table we were invited to go and smoke 
 and take tea in a spacious court under the umbrageous shelter of 
 an avenue of great trees. It happened that there was then at 
 Nan-hioung a celebrated troop of rope-dancers, and the Prefect of 
 the town had thought proper to indulge us with a representation. 
 When we entered the court in company with the Mandarins we 
 were received with some music, which was certainly loud enough, 
 but of rather equivocal pretensions in other respects. The ropes 
 were already stretched, and the artists speedily commenced their 
 evolutions. The Chinese are very skilful rope-dancers, as might 
 naturally be supposed from their great elasticity and suppleness of 
 limb ; but the most distinguished of the troop were two women, 
 who, notwithstanding the incredible smallness of their little goat’s 
 feet, performed prodigies of agility. 
 
 We have already said that, though the women are forbidden to 
 play any dramatic part, they are allowed to dance on the rope and 
 figure in the exercises of equitation. They show themselves in 
 general indeed more skilful than the men in these performances, and 
 in the north of China there are ambulatory horse-riding companies 
 in which the women excel in the management of the horses and the 
 most difficult feats of the circus. One can hardly imagine how they 
 can stand on one leg, pirouette, pass through hoops, and cut all 
 kinds of capers, while the horse is galloping and bounding in the 
 circle. The fashion of little feet is general in China, and dates, 
 it is said, from the highest antiquity. Europeans sometimes ima- 
 
ORIGIN OF THE FASHION OF TINY FEET. 
 
 529 
 
 ginethat the Chinese in the excess of their jealousy have invented 
 this custom in order to keep their women in doors, and prevent 
 their gadding abroad. But though this jealousy may perhaps find its 
 account in this strange and barbarous mutilation, there is no rea¬ 
 son to attribute to it the invention. It has been introduced gra¬ 
 dually without any deliberately formed purpose, like other fashions. 
 It is said that in some remote antiquity, a certain princess excited 
 universal admiration for the delicate smallness of her feet; and as 
 she was besides gifted with remarkable attractions she naturally 
 gave the tone to Chinese fashion, and the ladies of the capital 
 adopted her as the type of elegance and good taste. The admira¬ 
 tion for small feet made rapid progress ; it was admitted that, at last, 
 a criterion of beauty had been discovered; and as people have 
 always a passion for new follies, the Chinese ladies sought by all 
 possible methods to follow the fashion. Those who were already 
 of mature age, however, resorted in vain to bandages and various 
 means of compression ; they found it impossible to suppress the 
 legitimate developments of nature, and to give to their basis the 
 elegance they so much desired. Young ladies had the consolation 
 of obtaining some success, but not to the extent they wished. It 
 was reserved for the succeeding generation to witness the complete 
 triumph of little feet. Mothers devoted to the new mode did not 
 fail, when a daughter was born to them, to compress the feet of 
 the poor little creature with tight bandages that hindered their 
 growth ; and the results of these measures having appeared highly 
 satisfactory, they were generally adopted throughout the Empire. 
 
 Chinese women, rich and poor, in town and country, are all 
 lame ; at the extremity of their legs they have only shapeless 
 stumps, always enveloped in bandages, and from which all the life 
 has been squeezed out. Upon these stumps, they draw pretty, 
 little, richly embroidered boots, and support themselves upon them 
 by constantly keeping themselves exactly balanced. Their step is 
 a kind of hop, and resembles that of the Basque people when 
 mounted on stilts. As they are practised in it from their infancy, 
 however, the Chinese women do not find as much difficulty as 
 might be supposed ; not more than many lame people among us, 
 who can often run pretty quickly. When you meet these women 
 in the streets, you would think, from their little tottering steps, that 
 they were just ready to fall; but there is often some affectation in 
 that, as they consider this kind of step graceful. In general they 
 are so much at their ease, that when they think they are not seen 
 they run and jump and frolic about quite prettily. The favourite 
 game of young Chinese girls is battledore and shuttlecock ; but 
 
 M M 
 
530 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 instead of a battledore they make use of one of their little boots, 
 to send the shuttlecock backwards and forwards; and as they 
 sometimes pass whole days in this sport, one may venture to con¬ 
 clude that they do not suffer.much pain or fatigue from the stumps 
 that serve them for feet. 
 
 All the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire are mad upon this 
 point of the little feet of women, and young girls who have not been 
 properly tortured with bandages in their infancy find it no easy 
 matter to get married. The mothers, therefore, are of course 
 extremely solicitous upon this point. The Mantchoo-Tartar 
 women have preserved the use of feet as large as nature made 
 them; but the manners of the country have, nevertheless, influ¬ 
 enced them so far that they have invented shoes with very high 
 soles, terminating in a point, upon which they can totter even 
 more lamely than their Chinese sisters. 
 
 This fashion of little feet is unquestionably most barbarous, 
 absurd, and injurious to the development of the physical strength ; 
 but what means are there of putting a stop to the deplorable prac¬ 
 tice ? It is decreed by Fashion, and who would dare resist her 
 dictates? The Europeans, besides, have no right to be so very 
 severe upon the Chinese; for they also set a considerable value 
 upon small feet, and many of them subject themselves to pain 
 every day by wearing shoes that are not really large enough for 
 them. What would the Chinese women say, too, if any one should 
 tell them that beauty does not consist in having imperceptible 
 feet, but it does in having an intangible waist, and that, though it 
 is not desirable to have the feet of a goat, it is to have the shape 
 of a wasp ? 
 
 Who knows but that the Chinese and European ladies would 
 end by making mutual concessions, and adopting both fashions at 
 once ? Under pretext of increasing their beauty, they would not 
 fear to disfigure completely the works of their Creator. 
 
 The performance of the rope-dancers lasted all the evening, and 
 their manoeuvres were very amusing; but we could only give 
 them a divided attention, for the thought that in a few days we 
 should be at Macao occupied us incessantly, and occasioned us 
 too lively emotion to permit of our bestowing due admiration on 
 their skill. 
 
 The next morning we embarked on board the junks, which 
 were built and decorated precisely like those that had carried us 
 as far as the mountain of Mei-ling. What now remained to us of 
 our long and toilsome journey was nothing more than an agree¬ 
 able excursion. We had nothing to do but to allow ourselves to 
 
CANTON BY LAMPLIGHT. 
 
 531 
 
 float quietly on to Canton. As soon as the anchor was raised, and 
 that our junk began to move rapidly on her way, the recollections 
 ot having ascended this river in 1840, on our first entrance into 
 the Empire, came thronging back into our minds, and filling them 
 with sweet melancholy. This is what we wrote at that time to 
 some kind friends in France, on giving them an account of our 
 departure from Canton, and our first introduction into China. 
 Our letter was dated from a mission situated at a short distance 
 from the Mei-ling mountain : — 
 
 “ Towards six o’clock they made my toilette, a la Chinoise. 
 They shaved my head, with the exception of the spot at the top, 
 on which I have now been letting the hair grow these two years 
 past; they then put me on a false head of hair, which they 
 arranged in plaits, and I found myself in possession of a magnifi¬ 
 cent tail, that descended nearly to my knees. My complexion, 
 not too fair before, as you know, was artificially improved by the 
 addition of a yellowish tinge all over it; my eyebrows were cut 
 off, in the fashion of the country ; the long and thick moustaches, 
 that I had been cultivating for some time, disguised the European 
 cut of my nose, and, finally, Chinese robes completed my meta¬ 
 morphosis. 
 
 “ As soon as it was dark, we took our way to the junk, that, 
 proceeding up the river from Canton, was to conduct us to Nan- 
 hioung on the confines of the province of Kiang-si. A great 
 Chinese fellow, mounted on a long system of legs, opened the 
 march ; the courier followed him. I followed the courier, and a 
 Chinese seminarist, bound for the mission of Kiang-si, followed 
 me ; so that we formed a kind of thread to guide ourselves through 
 the great labyrinth called Canton.” 
 
 This city, as I said, produced on me the impression of one 
 great ambuscade. Its streets are narrow, tortuous, and winding 
 like a corkscrew. You might suppose it was not true for the 
 people of Canton, that the shortest line between any two given 
 points was a straight one. 
 
 Now, if to these capricious-looking streets, with the fronts of 
 the houses all whimsically carved, you throw in a profusion of 
 little lanterns, big lanterns, lanterns of all shapes and sizes, orna¬ 
 mented with Chinese characters of all colours, you will have an 
 idea of Canton seen hastily by lamplight. 
 
 “ Amidst all the immense population by which the streets were 
 thronged, our grand business was not to lose sight of each other, 
 or break the chain that our party formed. But, alas! presently 
 we found it was broken. .At the corner of a dark street, the 
 
 mm2 
 
532 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 courier who formed the next link to me lost sight of the Chinese 
 who preceded him, and who alone knew the way. Once out of 
 sight, in which direction were we to look for him? The street 
 we were in was no thoroughfare, and we did not know which of 
 the turnings he had taken. Our perplexity was great, so we cried 
 aloud for our guide in all directions, and fortunately at last he 
 made his appearance. Having noticed that no one was following 
 him, he had retraced his steps, and picked us up again just where 
 he had dropped us. We then resumed our march gaily, and soon 
 found ourselves, with thankful hearts, on board our junk. The crew 
 had not yet finished their preparations, and we could not go on till 
 the next day, so that we passed the night in the river, opposite 
 the town, and, so to speak, under the very beard of the Vice¬ 
 roy.* 
 
 “ The river of Canton during the night presented really the 
 most fantastic spectacle I had ever witnessed. It seemed to be 
 almost more populous than the town. The water is covered by a 
 prodigious quantity of vessels of all dimensions and of inde¬ 
 scribable forms. The greater part are shaped like fish; and 
 among these the Chinese have chosen for models those of the 
 most extraordinary figure. Some of the vessels are built like 
 houses, and these have rather an equivocal reputation; but all are 
 richly decorated; many resplendent with gilding, and elegantly 
 carved into transparent lace-work, like the wood carvings of some 
 of our ancient cathedrals. All these floating habitations, hung 
 round with pretty lanterns, are cruising about incessantly, without 
 ever becoming entangled one with the other. The skill of their 
 occupants in this respect is really admirable; you see they are an 
 aquatic population : born, living, and dying on the water. 
 
 “ Every one seems to find on the river whatever is necessary 
 for his subsistence. During the night I was amusing myself a 
 long while in watching the passing and repassing before our junk 
 of a crowd of small craft, that were nothing else than provision- 
 shops ; bazaars in miniature. They were selling in them soup, 
 fried fish, rice, cakes, fruit, &c.; and to complete the effect of 
 the picture, you must add the incessant beating of tam-tams, and 
 letting off of fireworks, 
 
 “The next day, Wednesday, we set off early in the morning, 
 with hearts full of hope. Our little bark suited us delightfully ; 
 the crew was not numerous, consisting only of three young men, 
 who were the sailors, and their aged mother, who sat at the helm 
 
 * This viceroy was Ki-chan, and we did not then imagine we should one 
 day become acquainted with him in the capital of Thibet. 
 
ENTRANCE INTO CHINA IN 1840. 
 
 533 
 
 and filled the office of pilot. They appeared simple-hearted fellows, 
 and we rejoiced at this, as we thought they would not be sharp 
 enough to find us out. 
 
 “ The Tigris, as this part of the river is called by Europeans, 
 did not display any remarkable scenery on its banks. It goes on 
 winding through a long chain of mountains, and when its rather 
 shallow bed is not enclosed between high-pointed rocks, it shows 
 on both banks more or less extensive plains of fine whitish sand ; 
 some fields of rice and wheat, and rich plantations of bamboo and 
 weeping willow; many high hills, for the most part sterile and 
 bare; some lightly covered by a layer of reddish soil, and some 
 scattered groups of pines, and withered grass on which buffaloes 
 were carelessly feeding. These are the things that meet the eve 
 as you proceed up the river. 
 
 “In several places we saw enormous masses of calcareous stone, 
 that look as if they had been cut by the hand of man from the 
 summit to the base, in order to open a passage for the river. I 
 asked the Chinese whether they could account for this, and the 
 question did not puzzle them the least in the world. Thev said, 
 ‘Oh, yes; the Emperor Yao, aided by his Prime Minister, Chan, 
 divided this mountain, to facilitate the flowing off of the waters 
 after the great inundation.’ This great inundation, according to 
 the Chinese chronology, corresponds to the time of Noah’s deluge. 
 
 ‘‘ One of the shores rose perpendicularly in a colossal wall of a 
 single block, and was enriched besides by a phenomenon, which I 
 was a long time without comprehending. I could see at a great 
 height on the rock two kinds of galleries cut in it, upon which 
 were moving something like human figures amidst innumerable 
 lights. From time to time some flaming matter fell from these 
 galleries and was extinguished in the river. As our junk ap¬ 
 proached the spot, we saw moored at the base of the rock a crowd 
 of little skiffs, filled with passengers. It was a celebrated place of 
 idolatrous pilgrimage. Those who came to practise their super¬ 
 stitious rites there passed from their boats into a subterranean 
 passage, and then ascended by a staircase cut in the rock to the 
 upper galleries. There are found here certain idols that attract 
 pilgrims from a great distance.”* 
 
 In passing up the river again, after an interval of six years, we 
 took pleasure in recalling our former impressions, and in contem¬ 
 plating the points that had struck us forcibly at the period of our 
 entrance into China. We saw again with emotion the mountains 
 
 * Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, No. 88. p. 212., &c. 
 m m 3 
 
534 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 that form a sort of natural dike to the waters of the Tigris ; that 
 pagoda dug in the living rock ; those custom-house officers ranged 
 along the shore, who in our former passage had given us so many 
 frights. By degrees, as we advanced, the bed of the river enlarged 
 itself, and the Canton junks became more numerous. The sound 
 of the oars and the shrill nasal song of the sailors tilled the air 
 with a wild and melancholy harmony, that we listened to with a 
 mingled feeling of joy and sadness. It seemed to us as if we were 
 about to. enter the Celestial Empire for the first time, and had just 
 bade adieu for ever to the European colonies of Canton and 
 Macao. But, instead of that, we were now about to see them 
 once more ! 
 
 On the sixth day after our departure from Nan-hioung, the 
 Tigris had ceased to roll its blue waters through mountains; and 
 we entered on a richly cultivated plain, where from time to 
 time we inhaled a powerful and invigorating breeze, that seemed 
 to expand our chests. It was a breeze from the sea, and Canton 
 was not far off! Standing motionless on the deck of the junk, 
 straining our eyes in that direction, we felt all the tremor that 
 precedes the strong emotions of a return after long absence. The 
 last rays of the sun were just fading on the horizon, when we pei'- 
 ceived something like an immense forest, stripped of its leaves and 
 branches, and retaining only the trunks of the great trees. The 
 current, the breeze, and the tide, were now sweeping us on rapidly 
 to the roads of Canton ; and soon, among the innumerable masts of 
 Chinese junks, we distinguished some more elevated than the rest, 
 and the peculiar structure of whose yards made us give a sudden 
 start, and filled our eyes with tears. Among the native vessels of 
 China arose the grand and imposing forms of a steam-ship and 
 several East Indiamen ; and amidst the flags of all colours that 
 were waving in the air, we perceived those of the United States, 
 of Portugal, and of England. That of France was not among 
 them; but when one has been long at the other side of the world, 
 on an inhospitable soil, in China, in short, it seems that all the 
 people of the West form one great family. The mere sight of a 
 European flag makes the heart beat, for it awakens all the recol¬ 
 lections of our country. 
 
 In traversing the port of Canton on our Mandarin junk, our 
 eyes sought with eager curiosity for all that was not Chinese. We 
 passed alongside of an English brig, and we could not gaze enough 
 at the sailors in their glazed hats, who, ranged in a line along the 
 deck, were watching us passing ; assuredly without suspecting that 
 they had under their eyes two Frenchmen just returned from the 
 high table-land of Asia. Probably they were amusing themselves 
 
AN ACCOMPLISHED INTERPRETER. 
 
 535 
 
 at our Chinese costume, while we were going into ecstasies at their 
 astonishing physiognomies. Those rubicund visages, those blue 
 eyes, those long noses and fair hair, those curious narrow clothes, 
 pasted, as it seemed, upon their limbs— how droll it all was ! A 
 pretty trim little vessel, painted green and covered with a white 
 awning, now passed us; and in it were seated three European 
 gentlemen, smoking cigars, enjoying apparently a pleasure trip. 
 How grotesque in the eyes of an Asiatic would their costume have 
 appeared ! They wore black hats and white trousers, waistcoats, 
 and jackets. A Thibet man would have burst out laughing to see 
 those faces, naked of beard or moustache, but having instead a 
 bunch of red curly hair on each cheek. We understood now how 
 absurd Europeans must look in countries which have no knowledge 
 of their customs and fashions. 
 
 After making many intricate turns through this vast port, we 
 landed at last at a little wharf, where a Mandarin was waiting for 
 us. They put us into palanquins, and we were transported at a 
 rapid pace to the centre of the town, and to the house of a civil 
 functionary of inferior rank. 
 
 At length, then, we had reached Canton ! This was in the month 
 of October, 1846, six months after our departure from Lha-ssa. 
 
 When we quitted the capital of Thibet, it seemed to us as if we 
 should never reach the end of the journey we were undertaking. 
 It appeared to be full of so many difficulties and hardships, that in 
 all human probability we should perish of fatigue and privation on 
 the way; but Providence had been our guide, and led us in perfect 
 safety through all the dangers by which we had been surrounded. 
 As soon as we had entered the apartments assigned to us, we fell 
 on our knees, and returned thanks to God for all the mercies He 
 had showered upon us during these laborious journeys—journeys 
 that were truly undertaken in the hope of glorifying His name and 
 extending His kingdom upon earth. 
 
 A short time after our arrival at Macao, we received a visit from 
 a long Chinese, who presented himself in the quality of official 
 interpreter to the administration. After he had made an imposing 
 display of his whole stock of knowledge of English, French, 
 Portuguese, and Spanish, we told him that if he would be so kind 
 as to speak Chinese, we should probably get on a great deal better; 
 but to this he would not agree. Under the pretext that lie was an 
 interpreter, the wretched man persisted in his unintelligible jargon. 
 We asked him whether M. van Bazel, the Dutch Consul, was then 
 at Canton, and as he replied, “Yes! yes! Signor!” we begged him 
 to get a letter carried for us to that gentleman immediately. 
 
 si m 4 
 
536 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 We had known M. van Bazel a long time, and we knew how 
 much sympathy and devotion he had always shown to the Catholic 
 missionaries. We begged him to send us some newspapers, as we 
 had had no news from Europe for more than three years. 
 
 The interpreter departed on his errand, and soon came back, 
 accompanied by a porter, carrying an enormous bale of English 
 newspapers, to which the Dutch Consul had had the kindness to add 
 some bottles of claret, in order to help us, as he said, to revive the 
 recollections of our country. 
 
 We passed the whole night rummaging in this incoherent mass 
 of news that was piled up in the middle of our room, and in one of 
 the very first newspapers that chance threw r into our hands, we read 
 an article that we thought rather curious. It was as follows: — 
 
 “We have lately received intelligence of the lamentable death 
 of the two fathers of the Mongol Tartar Mission.” After a 
 slight glance at the Tartar countries, the author of the article con¬ 
 tinues:— 
 
 “ A French Lazarist of the name of Hue took up his abode 
 about three years ago among some Chinese families established in 
 the valley of Black Waters, about six hundred miles from the 
 Great Wall. Another Lazarist, whose name is not known to us, 
 joined him with the purpose of forming a mission for the conversion 
 of the Mongol Buddhists. They studied the Tartar language with 
 the Lamas of the neighbouring monasteries; and it appears that, 
 having been regarded as foreign Lamas, they were treated in a 
 friendly manner, especially by the Buddhists, who are very igno¬ 
 rant, and who took the Latin of their breviaries for Sanscrit, which 
 they uo not understand, but for which they have much veneration. 
 
 “When the Missionaries believed themselves sufficiently in¬ 
 structed in the language, they proceeded into the interior, with 
 the intention of commencing the work of conversion. After that 
 period very little was heard of them, until in May last information 
 was received that they had been fastened to the tails of wild 
 horses and dragged to death. The immediate cause of this event 
 is not yet known.” 
 
 It may well be imagined that this article astonished us a little; 
 and we thought w'e had some reason to doubt its perfect accuracy. 
 Nevertheless, all the details were so well arranged, that the whole 
 really seemed to bear upon it the stamp of truth, and nothing less 
 than our return in person, safe and sound, seemed capable of re¬ 
 futing it. 
 
 On the following day we held at an early hour a grand recep¬ 
 tion, at which w r ere assembled all the high dignitaries of Canton, 
 
CLOSING ACCOUNTS. 
 
 537 
 
 and the Mandarins who had accompanied us from the capital of 
 Kiang-si. Our journey being concluded, we thought it would be 
 proper to render publicly our accounts to the Chinese administra¬ 
 tion. We therefore ordered our servant Wei-chan to bring in all 
 the money that we had saved since our departure from Nan-tchang- 
 fou. There was an enormous heap of it, so that the eyes of the 
 assistants quite sparkled as they looked at it. 
 
 “ There is,” said we, “ a considerable sum. According to the 
 orders of the governor of Kiang-si, all the towns through which 
 we passed had to pay us a contribution for our maintenance, but 
 our conscience forbade us to incur any unnecessary expense. This 
 money therefore must now be resigned to those to whom it be¬ 
 longs. If it is yours,” we added, addressing the functionaries of 
 Canton, “ take it.” They protested with energy that they had 
 no claim to this money. 
 
 The Mandarins of our escort, to whom we offered it, did the 
 like ; every one displayed a disinterestedness truly exemplary, and 
 all unanimously declared, that this sum having been legally allotted 
 to us, could belong to no one else but to ourselves. 
 
 We replied that Missionaries did not leave their home to go 
 and amass riches in foreign countries. “ Your Government,” we 
 said, “ having forced us to leave Thibet, and having brought us 
 against our own will to Canton, we could not help travelling at its 
 expense ; but now that we are about to quit the Empire, we do 
 not wish to carry away a single sapeck. Since no one else seems 
 to lay claim to this money, we would ask whether it may be al¬ 
 lotted to our servant. Does any one object to our proposal?” 
 
 The council having signified its approval of this suggestion, we 
 informed Wei-chan that this little treasure belonged to him, and 
 for fear the Mandarins should afterwards take it into their heads 
 to seize upon it, we advised him to carry it away immediately and 
 place it in security. Wei-chan did not wait to be told twice, but 
 instantly took possession of the cash and disappeared, and we never 
 saw him again. 
 
 The Imperial Commissioner Ky-yn was still at that time Vice¬ 
 roy of the province of Canton. He offered us a junk to take us 
 the same day to Macao; but, as we expressed a wish to remain 
 for a while at Canton, where we had some European friends, we 
 were escorted, at our request, to the Dutch factory. The excellent 
 M. van Bazel sent a receipt for us to the Viceroy, and from that 
 moment our official relations with the Chinese authorities were 
 j terminated. 
 
 Two days afterwards we had clasped in our arms our old friends 
 
538 
 
 THE CHINESE EMPIRE. 
 
 and dear brethren at Macao. For a long time we felt in the midst 
 of them like men awakened from a deep sleep. We were astonished 
 to see no longer around us the Thibetan, Tartar, and Chinese 
 physiognomies, and to hear sounding in our ears only that beau¬ 
 tiful native tongue whose harmonious accents made every fibre of 
 our souls thrill with joy, and our eyes gush full of delicious tears. 
 France was still far from us, and yet we seemed to have found it 
 again. There was in the roads a French corvette, La Victorieuse, 
 and we used to like to go and walk on the sea-shore merely to look 
 at the flag floating at its mast. When we went to visit our little 
 France, as we called it, we seemed to be breathing the air of our 
 country and living in the very midst of it. 
 
 A month after our arrival at Macao, M. Gabet, forgetting his 
 infirmities and sufferings, and listening only to his devotion to the 
 sacred cause in which he was engaged, embarked for Europe, in 
 the hope of exciting the zeal and charity of the Catholics in favour 
 of the interesting populations of Tartary and Thibet, for whose 
 salvation he would gladly have laid down his life. We hoped at 
 the time soon to meet again this companion of all our wanderings, 
 the friend whose existence was in some measure identified with our J 
 own. But such was not the will of God. One day we received 
 the afflicting news that this indefatigable and courageous Mis¬ 
 sionary had yielded his last breath on the coast of Brazil. When, 
 amid the snows of high Asia, we had been so solicitous to recall 
 the vital warmth into the nearly frozen limbs of our friend, we 
 little thought that God had appointed him to find a grave on the 
 burning shores of South America. 
 
 After a tolerably long residence at Macao, we ourselves set off 
 once more on the road to Pekin, thus traversing China for the 
 third time, and, as we have already stated in our former work, the 
 shattered state of our health subsequently obliged us to return to 
 France, after having visited on our way India, Egypt, Palestine, 
 and Syria. 
 
 We embarked first for China in the year 1838, and we were not 
 permitted to see our native country again till 1852. We landed at 
 last in the month of June at the period of the glorious solemnities 
 of the Fete-Dieu, when the city of Marseilles presented a spectacle 
 that will never be effaced from our recollection. O God! how 
 beautiful was our Catholic France; how worthy of the love of all 
 her children! Blessed be the Lord that He permitted us to 
 endure some sufferings among foreign nations, since He reserved 
 for us in the end such happiness as few men have ever felt, and 
 which our feeble and imperfect powers are altogether inadequate 
 to express. 
 

 k 
 
 
 
 "3 
 
 
INDEX. 
 
 + 
 
 Absolutism, its perfection in China, 
 55. 
 
 Abstinent Women,” sect of, 422. 
 Academy, the famous Imperial, of 
 Han-Lin, 61. 
 
 Actors, Chinese, character of, 170, 171. 
 Acupuncture, 278. 
 
 Advertisements, Chinese, 318. 
 
 Ages, Chinese'classification of various, 
 414. 
 
 Agricultural festival, the celebrated 
 annual, 60. 462. 
 
 Agriculture, state of, in China, 465. 
 Watchful care of the farmers, 4 66, 
 Vegetable productions, 468. The 
 Water-lily, 468. Imperial rice, 470. 
 Corn, 471. Night-blowing corn, 
 471. Observant character of the 
 Chinese on agriculture, &c., 471. 
 Almanac, the Imperial, 63. 
 
 Americans ( Ya-me-li-kien), 222. 
 Ancestors, worship of, 412. 
 
 Animals of the Chinese Empire, 347. 
 Annalists of the Celestial Empire, 
 duties of, 61. 
 
 Annals, the, of China, 61. 66. 
 Antiquaries, Chinese, 514. 
 
 Apathy, political, of the Chinese, 62. 
 Arabs, their intercourse with China, 
 217. et seq. 
 
 Arches, triumphal, erected to virgins 
 and widows, 8. Those at Ning-po, 
 15. 
 
 Architecture of Chinese halls of justice, 
 26. Character of Chinese, 379. 
 Ancient towers, 379. Religious, of 
 the Chinese, 400. 
 
 Areca nut, fondness of the Mantchous 
 for chewing the, 48. 
 
 Aristocracy of Khioung-tcheou, 17. 
 Literary, 56. 
 
 Arms, Chinese, 258, 259. 
 
 Army, government of the, 60. Its 
 constitution in the provinces, 65. 
 Number of troops in the whole 
 empire, 253, 254. Grand review, 
 257. Military and naval officers, 
 261. Nullity of the army opposed 
 to Europeans, 262. Inexhaustible 
 resources of China for a great army, 
 263. 
 
 Artillery, Chinese, 258, 259. Canal 
 batteries, 259. Gunpowder known 
 to the Chinese at a remote period, 
 348. 
 
 Arts of the Chinese, origin of, lost in 
 the darkness of ages, 347. 
 
 Asia, remark of M. Drouyn de Lhuys 
 on the causes of the great invasions 
 of the barbaric hordes of, 315. 
 State of the European rule in Asia, 
 327. 
 
 Asiatics, immutability of, 301. Their 
 ancient and modern governments, 
 305. 
 
 Ass, method of hindering an, from 
 braying, 474, 475. 
 
 Associations (or houis) of every kind 
 in China, 321. Anti-gambling so¬ 
 ciety, 322. Lao-niou-houi, or “ So¬ 
 ciety of the Old Bull,” 323. Pecu¬ 
 niary societies, 363. Society for 
 gratuitous coffins, 479. Society of 
 beggars, 480. Society of the Holy 
 Infancy, 498. 
 
 Astronomy, College of, in Pekin, 63. 
 Ignorance of the Chinese of, 512. 
 
 Authority, Chinese respect for, 81, 
 
540 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Bachelors, crupper, 198. 
 
 Bandits, Chinese, 431. 
 
 Bibles scattered along the coast by the 
 Methodists, uselessness of the, 511. 
 
 Blue Mountains of China (Thsin-ling), 
 344. 
 
 Blue River, (Yang-tze-kiang), the, 
 111, 112. 114. 168. 176. 208. 240. 
 Shipwrecks on the, 339. 345. 516. 
 
 Bombast of Chinese official reports. 
 73. 
 
 Bonzes, magnificent monastery of, 22. 
 The Bonze prophecy concerning the 
 destruction of Tching-tou-fou, 51. 
 Their persecution of the Christians in 
 712,82.88. Contemptuous neglect 
 of, by the Chinese, 398. Method of 
 perpetuating the sect of Bonzes, 
 399. Their ancient monasteries, 
 399. Their famous libraries, 399. 
 Their holy island of Pou-tou, 399. 
 Visit to the superior of the Bonzes, 
 402. An indiscreet novice, 403. 
 Their respect for the written cha¬ 
 racter, 404. Regarded as civilly 
 dead, 447. 
 
 Bcnzesses, convents of, 405. 
 
 “ Book of Places,” the, or names and 
 titles of all the functionaries of the 
 Empire, 65. 
 
 Books, Tatar and Chinese, published 
 at the expense of the .Government, 
 61. The San-dze-king, or Sacred 
 Trimetrical Book, 74. The Sse- 
 chou, or Four Classical Books, 75. 
 The Ta-hio, or Grand Study, 75. 
 The Tchoung-young, or the In¬ 
 variable Centre, 77. The Lun-yu, 
 or Philosophical Conversations, 78. 
 The Classical Book of Meng-tze, or 
 Mincius, 78. The Five Sacred 
 Books (King), 80. The Book of 
 Changes (y-King), 80. Destruction 
 of the ancient books by the Emperor 
 Thsin-che-Hoang, 81. 
 
 Boots of honour, custom of conferring, 
 317. 
 
 Bouvet, Father, Chinese missionary, 
 95. 
 
 Brandy, corn, manufacture of, 487. 
 
 Brick-tea, 9, 10. 
 
 Bridge, celebrated suspension, of Lou- 
 ting-Khaio, 7. 
 
 Buddhism, 389. Period of its intro¬ 
 duction into China, 389. Legend 
 of Buddha, 390. 393. Dogmas and 
 moral precepts, 393. Buddhists per¬ 
 secuted by the Brahmins, 394. 
 Causes of these persecutions, 394. 
 Dispersion of the Buddhists through 
 the various countries of Asia, 395. 
 The “ Gandgour ” and “ Dand- 
 gour,” 399. Magnificent temple of 
 Buddha in the island of Pou-tou, 400. 
 
 Cadi of Cadis, office of, 2S1. 
 
 Calendar, the Chinese, 83. 
 
 Camel batteries, account of, 259. 
 
 Canals of China, state of the, 125. At¬ 
 tention paid to the construction of, 
 365. The great canal of the Em¬ 
 peror Yang-ti, 365. 
 
 Cangue, punishment of the, 174. A 
 citizen of Tou-ki-hien in the, 175. 
 His deliverance, 175. 
 
 Canton, appearance of, by lamplight, 
 531. 
 
 Carayon, M., the Lazarist, death of, 3, 
 note. 
 
 Castor-oil plant, the, 127. 
 
 Cat-clock, method of making a cat tell 
 the time, 473. 
 
 Celestial Empire (Tien-chao), a name 
 of China, 225. 
 
 Ceremonies, Court of. See Rites. 
 
 Censorship, office of universal, of Pekin 
 (Tou-tcha-yeun), its duties, 61. 
 
 Census, the, of China, 59. 
 
 Centralisation, existence of, throughout 
 all the revolutions of China, 66. 
 
 “ Chain of Chronicles, The,” of the 
 Arabs, 216. 
 
 Changes, Book of (y-King), the, 80. j 
 
 Chan-hai-kouan, one of the gates of the 
 Great Wall, 343. 
 
 Chan-tong, first appearance of the cho¬ 
 lera at, 286. Province of, descend¬ 
 ants of Confucius residing in, 57. 
 
 Chan-yu-ting, or Hall of Holy In¬ 
 structions, 228. 
 
 Che-king, or Book of Verses, the, of 
 Confucius, 80. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 541 
 
 Chen-woung, the Emperor, 809. His 
 minister, Sse-ma-kouang, 309. 
 Children, adoption or purchase of, 
 where a man has no male descend¬ 
 ants, 416. 
 
 China and Chinese, origin of the words, 
 222, 223. Names borne by the coun¬ 
 try from time to time, 222. 224. The 
 word Tchina, 223. Conquest of, by 
 Thsing-che-houang, 223. Its rela¬ 
 tions with India, 223. The Arab 
 name Sin-Sina and the Latin Sinau- 
 Sinensis, 223. Exclusiveness not a 
 character of the ancient Chinese, 
 236. Evil forebodings concerning 
 the Empire, 237. Future possibili¬ 
 ties of Chinese civilisation, 264. 
 Uniformity of the Chinese type, in 
 face, manners, language, &e., 299. 
 The mutability of the East, 302. 
 The inconstancy of the Chinese in 
 matters of religion, 305. And in 
 matters of government, 307. Com¬ 
 pared with the French, 307. Liberty 
 enjoyed by the Chinese, 320. Their 
 liberty of the press, 326. Early 
 hours of the Chinese, 336. Sketch 
 of the geography of the Chinese 
 Empire, 342. Boundaries of, 342, 
 343. Extent of its entire area, 344. 
 Mountains, 344. Rivers and lakes, 
 
 345. Climate, 345. Productions. 
 
 346. Chinese industry, 348. Arts 
 and manufactures, 347. Decay of 
 the productive art, 348. Early deve¬ 
 lopment of its internal trade, 350. 
 Present state of commerce with Eu¬ 
 ropeans, 351. Port of Canton, 351. 
 Imports and exports, 351, 352. Chi¬ 
 nese political economists, 353, et seq. 
 The commercial heart of China, 363. 
 Character of the true Chinese, 366. 
 Coin of the Empire, 367. Infini¬ 
 tesimal trade, 367. Religion, 382, 
 et seq. Cordiality and sincerity rare 
 among the Chinese, 411. Their 
 hidden profligacies, 489. 
 
 China. See Porcelain. 
 
 Cholera, China the birth-place of the, 
 286. 'Circumstances under which it 
 first appeared at Chan-tong, 286. 
 
 Terror of the inhabitants, 286. Its 
 course through Asia to Europe, 288. 
 
 Chou-king, or Book of History, the, of 
 Confucius, 80. 
 
 Christians, discovery of a family of, at 
 Khioung-tcheou, 17. A Christian 
 ot Tching-tou-fou, 28. Cessation of 
 persecution of, 12. 23. Martyrs of 
 Tching-tou-fou, 28. See Christianity. 
 
 Christianity in China: — Persecutions 
 of Christians at Ou-chang-fou, 28. 
 Immense numbers of, in China, 29. 
 M. Guizot’s embassy to China res¬ 
 pecting concessions to Chinese Chris¬ 
 tians, 39. Existence of Christianity 
 in China as early as the 5th and 6th 
 centuries, 40, note. Report ad¬ 
 dressed to the Emperor concerning 
 the Christians, and the Emperor’s 
 answer, 41. Edicts in their favour, 
 42. Insufficiency of the edicts, 43. 
 Duty of the French government 
 respecting its Chinese missionaries, 
 44. Services rendered by the mis¬ 
 sionaries to the Chinese government, 
 84. Chinese missions mostly un¬ 
 successful, 87. Introduction of Chris¬ 
 tianity into China in the 5th and 6th 
 centuries, S8. The monument and 
 inscription at Si-ngan-fou, 88. The 
 priest Olopen, 88. The Bonze per¬ 
 secution, 88. The Roman priest 
 Sohan, 88. Liberality of the Em¬ 
 peror Tai-tsoung, 88. The priests 
 Y-sou and Niu-chou, 89. The il¬ 
 lustrious Kouo-tze-y, 89. Missions 
 from the Nestorians of high Asia, 91. 
 Timotheus, the Nestorian Patriarch, 
 91. Missions in the 13th and 14th 
 centuries, 91. Plan Carpin and 
 Rubruk, 91. Institution of an arch¬ 
 bishopric in Pekin in the 14th cen¬ 
 tury, 92. The archbishop Jean de 
 Montcorvin, 92. Foundation of 
 Macao, 93. St. Francis de Xavier, 
 93. Father Ricci, 93. Missions of 
 the 17th century, 94. 97. The 
 
 Christians protected by the Emperor 
 Khang-hi, 96. Persecutions under 
 the Emperor Young-tching, 96. Fa¬ 
 vour of the Emperor Kien-long, 97, 
 
542 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Persecutions of Kia-king, 97. Aban¬ 
 donment of the missions, 97. Nu¬ 
 merous departures of the new mis¬ 
 sionaries, 97. The Church never 
 discouraged, 98. Difficulties in pro¬ 
 pagating the faith in China, 98. 
 Present sterile state of Christianity 
 in China, 99, et seq. Causes of this. 
 99. Motives of the government 
 for persecuting the Christians, 100. 
 Speech of the Emperor Young-tching 
 to the Jesuits, 101. The Christian 
 religion known by the name of Tien- 
 tchou-kiao, 102. The propagation 
 of Christianity regarded as a political 
 movement, 102. Existence of reli¬ 
 gious liberty in the five free ports, 
 103. Chinese Christians in Manilla, 
 103. Chinese indifference in mat¬ 
 ters of religion, 104. An expected 
 convert, 105. Community of Chris¬ 
 tians at the town of Tchoung-king, 
 131. Release of three Christians from 
 imprisonment at Tchang-cheou-hien, 
 143. M. Hue’s interview with 
 some Christians at Leang-chan-hien, 
 147. 158. “ Kaio-you,” the name 
 
 of the Christians of China, 149. Im¬ 
 prisonment of the head of the Tehao 
 family, 149. Christian women in 
 China, 159. 163. State of Chris¬ 
 tianity in the province of Sse-tchouen, 
 194. Opinion entertained by the 
 Emperor Young-tching of the Chris¬ 
 tian religion, 397. State of Chris¬ 
 tianity in the province of Hou-pe, 
 425. M. llizzolatti, 425. 
 
 Chun, founder of the Empire, 456. 
 
 Chusan, archipelago of, 399. 
 
 Civil government of the provinces, 
 64. 
 
 Civil officers. See Mandarin. 
 
 Civilisation, Chinese, origin of, un¬ 
 known, 434. 
 
 Clet, M., his tomb in the “ Red Moun¬ 
 tain,” 424. 
 
 Climate, the, of China, 345. 
 
 Coffins, Chinese notions respecting, 23. 
 Society for gratuitous, 479. 
 
 Coin of the Empire, 367. 
 
 College, National, of Pekin, 63. The 
 
 College of Astronomy, 63, The 
 College of Medicine, 63. 
 
 Colonial office of Pekin ( Ly-fan-yueri), 
 61. 
 
 Commerce, administration of, 65. 
 
 Commissariat, duties of the department 
 of the, 65. 
 
 Communal palaces, or Koung-kouans, 
 15. Grand reception of M. Hue at 
 one, 108. Magnificent one at Kien- 
 tcheou, 1 14. 
 
 Communication, state of the channels 
 of, in China, 128. 
 
 Confucius, his ideas of government, 55. 
 Hereditary titles of his descendants, 
 57. His descendants in Chang-tong, 
 57. His praise of politeness, 72. 
 Extracts from his Ta-hio, or Grand 
 Study, 75. Conditions on which he 
 allows to sovereigns the right of go¬ 
 verning nations, 77. His Chou- 
 king, or Rook of History, 80. His 
 Che-king, or Rook of Verses, 80. 
 His Rook of Spring and Autumn, 
 81. His philosophy a counterpoise 
 to the Imperial power, 306. Re¬ 
 marks on his religion and doctrine, 
 382, et seq. 
 
 Conversation, polite, 135. 
 
 Cookery, Chinese, 126. Talent of the 
 Celestials for Cookery, 128, 
 
 Cormorant fishing on the lakes, 335. 
 Description of the bird, 335. 
 
 Couriers, government, 449. 
 
 Courts, the six sovereign, of the Em¬ 
 pire, their duties, 59. 
 
 Criminal jurisdiction, sovereign Court 
 of, 60. 428. 
 
 Criminals, Chinese, 26. 428. Treat¬ 
 ment of, 428. Horrible details of a 
 trial, 428. Their right of appeal, 
 433. The most ordinary punish¬ 
 ments, 433. General and special 
 pardons, 442. Treatment of accused 
 persons, 443. 
 
 Custom-houses, Chinese, 214, 215. 
 Custom-house officers, 214. 
 
 Customs, Chinese attachment to, 82. 
 See Rites. 
 
 “ Cymbals of the Oppressed,” the, 
 228. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 543 
 
 “ Dandgour,” the, of Buddha, S99. 
 
 D’Andrada, Fernand, his establish¬ 
 ment of the Portuguese power in 
 China, 92. 
 
 Dchiamdchan, the Lama, 5. 
 
 Dead, special dangers from the pre¬ 
 sence of the, 289. Terrible act of 
 vengeance, 291. Chinese customs 
 respecting the dead, 409. 
 
 Death, calmness with which it is viewed 
 by Chinese, 95. 
 
 De Foutaney, Father, missionary to 
 China, 95. 
 
 De Mailla, Father, Chinese missionary, 
 his letter on the demolition of the 
 Christian religion in China, 96, 97. 
 
 Desert tracts of land in China, 476. 
 499. 
 
 Desfleches, Monseigneur, Bishop of 
 Sinite, his letter to M. Hue, 137. 
 
 Despotism, restrictions on Oriental, 
 326. 
 
 De Visdelou, Father, Chinese mis¬ 
 sionary, 95. 
 
 Dinner, Chinese, description of a, 27. 
 Dinner party, description of a, 125. 
 127. Misstatements of Europeans 
 respecting Chinese cookery, 126. 
 
 Distilleries (Chao-kouo), 488. 
 
 Divination, treatise on (y-King), 80. 
 The Koua, or lines of divination, 80. 
 
 Divorce, Chinese law of, 446. 
 
 Doctors of medicine, 272. 275, 276. 
 Laws concerning, 289 . Disgusting 
 practice, 289. 
 
 Drama, the, of China. 169. Theatrical 
 tastes of the people, 169. Exten¬ 
 sive collections of Chinese dramatic 
 pieces, 170. Their literary merit, 
 170. Observations of M. Edward 
 Biot on them, 170. Character of 
 the audiences, 170. 
 
 Drunkenness, frequency of, 214, 
 
 Dufraisse, Monseigneur, his martyr¬ 
 dom, 28. 
 
 Dykes on the Yellow River, 65. 
 
 Early hours of the Chinese, 337. 
 
 Education in China, 63. 65. 71. Wide 
 diffusion of primary instruction, 71. 
 Difference between the people of the 
 
 North and South, 72. Fondness for 
 polite and decorous observance, 72. 
 Chief branches of instruction, 73. 
 Method of saying lessons in schools, 
 
 74. The San-dze-king, or Sacred 
 Trimetrical Book, 74. The Sse- 
 chou, or Four Classical Books, 75. 
 Extract from the Ta-hio of Confu¬ 
 cius in favour of self-improvement, 
 
 75, 76. Inculcation of virtue, 77. 
 Method of teaching the classical 
 writings in schools, 80. Study of 
 the Five Sacred Books, 80. Cha¬ 
 racter of Chinese instruction, 81. 
 The Chan-yu-ting, or Hall of Holy 
 Instructions, 228. 
 
 Emperor, the, his answer to the report 
 respecting the missionaries, 38. His 
 titles in the Chinese language, 55. 
 His name of “ The Son of Heaven,” 
 55. His absolute authority, 55. 
 Checked by public opinion, 56. 
 His family, 57. His harem, 60. 
 Government of his palace, 63. His 
 body-guards, 63. An emperor’s 
 opinion of the law courts, 68. Cha¬ 
 racter of the present Emperor, 265. 
 English (ln-ki-li, Houng-mao-jin), 
 222 . 
 
 Epistolatory correspondence, mode of, 
 451. 
 
 Etiquette, Chinese attention to the 
 minutias of, 72. 
 
 Eunuchs of the palace, their former 
 importance, 63. Their present poli¬ 
 tical inactivity, 63. Anecdote of a 
 eunuch in power, 229. 
 
 Europe, names given by the Chinese to 
 the kingdoms of, 222. 
 
 Exclusiveness not a character of the 
 ancient, but only of the modern, 
 Chinese, 236. 
 
 Famines, annual, in China, 477- 
 Feet, little, fashion of, among Chinese 
 ladies, 528. Origin ofthe custom, 529. 
 Fey-yue-ling mountain, 8. 10. 
 
 Filial piety the single governing prin¬ 
 ciple of the Chinese Empire, 434. 
 Difference between filial piety felt 
 and expressed, in China, 453. 
 
544 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Fire, wells of, in Sse-tchouen, 188. 
 
 Fire-engines, Chinese, 140. 
 
 Fires, their frequency in China, 139. 
 Pillage at fires, 140. 
 
 Fireworks, Chinese fondness for, 454. 
 
 Fish, rearing of, in Kiang-si, 516. 
 
 Fishing cormorants, 335. 
 
 Fo-kien, province of, Christianity in, 
 
 101 . 
 
 Fou, a first order of town, 23. note. 
 
 Fou, the Chinese prefecture so called, 
 64. 
 
 Fou-hi, the founder of Chinese civilisa¬ 
 tion, 80. 
 
 Fou-ki-hien, town of, 172, 173. 
 
 Fou-lang-sai, Chinese term for French¬ 
 men, 222. 
 
 Foundling hospitals in China, 496. 
 
 Fou-youen, or sub-governor of a pro¬ 
 vince, 64. 
 
 France compared with China in some 
 respects, 307. 324. 
 
 French cemetery in Pekin, 84. 
 
 Frenchmen (Si-yang-jin, or Fou-lang- 
 sai), 222, 223. 
 
 Gabet, M., his death, 538. 
 
 Gaming, passion of the Chinese for, 
 322. 481. Excesses of the gamblers, 
 482. 
 
 “ Gandgour,” or the Verbal Instruc¬ 
 tions of Buddha, 399. 
 
 Garden of Flowers, prefecture of the, 
 24. 
 
 Gardens, Chinese, 121. 124. 
 
 Garrison towns, condition and govern¬ 
 ment of, 252. 
 
 Gaubil, Father, Chinese missionary, 
 96. His letter on the persecution 
 and dispersion of the Chinese Chris¬ 
 tians, 96. 
 
 Gazette, Pekin, account of the, 61, 62. 
 
 Geography, Chinese knowledge of, 216. 
 Names given by the Chinese to the 
 kingdoms of Europe, 222. Ten¬ 
 dency of the Chinese for geographical 
 inquiry of late, 510. Geographical 
 knowledge of a Mongol Mandarin, 
 510. 
 
 Gerbillon, Father, Chinese missionary, 
 95. 
 
 Gobi, desert of, or “ Sea of Sand,” 343. 
 
 God, the idea of, expressed by the term 
 Tien-tchou, 102. 
 
 Government, Chinese, constitutive prin¬ 
 ciples of, 54. Ideas of Confucius, 
 55. The Emperor, 54, et seq. The 
 communal organisation, 57. Civil 
 and military officials, 57. Machinery 
 of the celestial government, 58, et seq. 
 Central administration of Pekin, 58. 
 The six sovereign courts or minis¬ 
 ters, 59. The local administration 
 of Pekin, 63. Administration of 
 the provinces, 64. “ The Book of 
 
 Places,” or names and titles of all 
 the functionaries of the Empire, 65. 
 Existence of central isation throughout 
 all the revolutions of China, 66. 
 Rapacity of the Mandarins, 66. 
 Venality ofjustice, 66. Chief causes 
 of this, 67. Doctrines of political 
 government of Confucius, 76. Condi¬ 
 tions on which Confucius allows to 
 sovereigns the right of governing 
 nations, 77. Motives of the govern¬ 
 ment for persecuting the Christians, 
 100. Injurious innovations of the 
 Mantehous, 233. Their fatal effects 
 on the Empire, 234. Inconstancy of 
 the Chinese in matters of govern¬ 
 ment, 307. Government condem¬ 
 nation of all religions, 396, et seq. 
 The whole Empire governed by the 
 single principle of filial piety, 434. 
 The vast system of responsibility, 
 437. 
 
 Great Wall, 342, 343. 
 
 Guards of the Emperor, 63. 
 
 Gunpowder known to the Chinese at 
 a remote period, 348. Chinese fond¬ 
 ness for, 454. 
 
 Hackney coaches, the, of Pekin, 523. 
 
 Flan, dynasty of, conquests of the, 
 223. 
 
 Han-keou, town of, its immense trade, 
 363. 
 
 Han-Lin, famous Imperial academy of, 
 61. 
 
 Han-tchouan, town of, 317. 
 
 Han-yang, town of, 335. Animation 
 
INDEX. 
 
 545 
 
 of the place, 335. Cool reception of 
 the travellers at, 337. 
 
 Ilan jin, or men of Han, a name of 
 China, 222. 
 
 Harem, the, of the Emperor, 60. 
 
 Heon, a title bestowed upon Mandarins, 
 57. 
 
 Hiang-you, or “ odoriferous ” pastry, 
 
 21 . 
 
 Hien, the Chinese prefecture so-called, 
 64. 
 
 Hing-ngan, mountains of, 341. 
 
 Hing-pou, or supreme court of criminal 
 jurisdiction, 60. 
 
 History, Book of (Chou-king), of Con¬ 
 fucius, 80. Study of, in China, 206. 
 The great work of Sse-ma-tsien, 206. 
 Famous historical workofMa-touan- 
 lin, 206. 
 
 Historiographers, College of, 61. 
 
 Hoang-chou, or August Elevations, a 
 title of the Emperor, 55. 
 
 Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, the, 345. 
 
 Hoang-mao-jin, “ Men of the Red 
 Hair,” Chinese name for the English, 
 222 . 
 
 Hoang-mei-hien, town of, 454. 
 
 Hoang-te, or August Sovereign, a title 
 of the Emperor, 55. 
 
 Hoang-tsao-ping (Yellow Grass 
 
 Plains), valley of, 6. 
 
 Hoa-yuen, a garden of flowers, perfec¬ 
 tion of, 24. 
 
 Hong-kong, establishment of, 93. 
 
 Hon-keou, town of, 459. 
 
 Horses in the south of China, 503. 
 
 Hospitality, instances of, 183. 
 
 Ho-tsing, or wells of fire, 188, 189. 
 
 Houen, the. See Metempsychosis. 
 
 Houis, or societies. See Associations. 
 
 Houng-tse Lake, 345. 
 
 Hou-pe, province of, 185. 208. Re¬ 
 marks on, 461. 
 
 Hou-pou, or the court for the manage¬ 
 ment of the revenue, 60. 
 
 Hue, the Abbe: Arrangements for 
 his departure, 1. Farewell of the 
 Thibetan escort, 5. Aspect of the 
 road, 5. Suspension-bridge over the 
 river Lou, 7. Family of the con¬ 
 ductor, 7. Crossing the Fey-yue- 
 
 ling mountain, 8, 10. Creating a 
 sensation, 11. Riot in the town of 
 Ya-tcheou, 12. Departure from Ya- 
 tcheou, 13. Arrival at Khioung- 
 tcheou, 1.5. Discovery of a family of 
 Christians, 16. Visit to a magnifi¬ 
 cent Bonze monastery, 21. Reach 
 Tching-tou-fou, 23. Lodgings in 
 the court of justice, 25. Retrospect, 
 25. Invitation to dinner with the 
 Prefects of the town, 26. Attended 
 by two Mandarins of honour, 30. 
 The trial, 32. Appearance before 
 the Viceroy, 46. Arrangements for 
 the departure, 82. Last visit to 
 the Viceroy, 83. Departure from 
 Tching-tou-fou, 86. Observations 
 on Chinese Christianity, 87, et seq. 
 Honours paid on the road, 106. 
 Grand reception at a communal 
 palace, 108. Trickery of Mandarin 
 Ting, 109. Arrival at Kien-tcheou, 
 114. Disputes with the Mandarins 
 of Kien-tcheou, 116. Arrival at 
 Tchoung-king, 131. A nocturnal 
 apparition, 137. Letter from the 
 Bishop of Sinite, 137. Departure 
 from Tchoung-king, 140. Addition 
 to the escort of a military Mandarin 
 and eight soldiers, 141. Arrival 
 at Tchang-cheou-hien, 141. Leave 
 Tchang-cheou-hien, 144. Bad and 
 dangerous road, 144. Arrival at 
 Leang-chan-hien, 3 46. Letter from 
 a Christian family there, 149. Im¬ 
 prisonment of the head of this family, 
 149. A trial demanded, 149. The 
 trial presided over by the Mission¬ 
 aries, 152. Acquittal of the accused 
 and punishment of the military Man¬ 
 darin Lu, 156. Triumphal departure 
 from Leang-chan-hien, 158. Arrival 
 at Yao-tchang, 3 65. Hotel of the 
 Beatitudes 1, 65. Lodgings in a 
 theatre, 166. Navigation of the 
 Blue River, 168. Arrival at Fou- 
 ki-hien, 172. ' Quarrel with a doctor, 
 173. Leave Fou-ki-hien, 176. Ar¬ 
 rival at Ou-chan, 176. Departure 
 from the province of Sse-tchouen, 
 185. Entry into the province of 
 
 N N 
 
546 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hou-pe, 185. Arrival at Pa-toung, 
 185.196. And at Kouei-tcheou, 209. 
 Disembarcation at I-tchang-fou, 210. 
 Terrific threats, 212. Arrival at I- 
 tou-hien, 215. And at Song-tche- 
 hien, 225. Hospitality of the Man¬ 
 darin, 226. 238. Quit Song-tche- 
 hien, 239. Navigation of the Blue 
 River, 240. A disappointment, 240. 
 Arrival at Kin-tcheou, 245. Leave 
 Kin-tcheou, 266. Fatigues of the 
 road, 267. The nocturnal proces¬ 
 sion, 269. Arrival at Kuen-kang- 
 liien, 271. Dangerous illness, 272. 
 Recovery, 289. Arrival at Tien- 
 men, 295. And at Han-tchouan, 
 317. Leave Han-tchouan, 330. 
 Bad reception at Han-yang, 335. 
 Arrival at Ou-tchang-fou, 340. At¬ 
 tempt to see the Governor of the 
 province, 368. Forcing the guard, 
 and obtaining an interview, 370, 371. 
 Success of the visit, 373. Departure 
 from Hou-pe, 422. Farewell visit to 
 the Governor, 423. The tombs of 
 the martyrs, 424. No provisions to 
 be had, 427. A visit to the Prefect, 
 428. Journey to Hoang-mei-hien, 
 449. A storm, 450. Arrival at 
 Nan-tchang-fou, 504. Solemn pub¬ 
 lic supper, 506. Departure from 
 Nan-tchang-fou, 518, Passage of 
 the mountain Mei-ling, 527. Arrival 
 at Nan-hioang, 528. A toilette a la 
 Chinoise, 531. Reach Canton, 535. 
 And Macao, 535. Conclusion, 537, 
 538. Arrival at Marseilles, 538. 
 
 <; Hundred Families,” a term for the 
 people of China, 506. 
 
 Hurricanes of Tsing-khi-hien, 11. 
 
 Ibn-vahab, his journey to China, and 
 interview with the Emperor, 217, et 
 seq. 
 
 Imbert, M., his account of the salt and 
 fire wells of Sse-tchouen, 188. 193. 
 
 Impiety, laws concerning, 445. 
 
 Industrial exhibitions of the Chinese, 
 349. 
 
 Industry of the Chinese, 193. 
 
 Infanticide, frequency of, 489. Testi¬ 
 
 mony of M. Delaplace respecting, 
 489. Methods of killing children, 
 especially females, 493. Infanticide 
 in Paris in the 17 th century, 494. 
 Accounts of missions to China re¬ 
 specting, 495. Edicts against in¬ 
 fanticides, 484. Work of the Holy 
 Infancy, 498. 
 
 Inns, description of the, of China, 522. 
 
 In-ki-li, a Chinese term for the English, 
 
 222 . 
 
 Inspector of Crimes, or Ngan-tsha-sse, 
 the, of Sse-tcheouen, 31. His pero¬ 
 ration, 35. 
 
 Insurrection of the present time, re¬ 
 marks on the, 188. 334. 
 
 Interest of money, 354. Legal interest 
 fixed at 30 per cent, per annum, 355. 
 
 Interments, customs of the Chinese at, 
 411. Mortuary repasts, 412. 
 
 Islands, floating, description of the, 331, 
 332. Great numbers of in China, 
 332. 
 
 I-tchang-fou, town of, 210. Lodgings 
 of M. Hue at, 211. His conversa¬ 
 tion with the prefect of, 211. 
 
 Itinerary, the Chinese, 8. 
 
 I-tou-hien, town of, 215. Its accom¬ 
 plished Mandarin, 215. 
 
 Japan, Christianity in, 93. 
 
 Judge, his responsibility, 441. 
 
 Judges, Chinese, compared with Roman 
 judges, 433. 
 
 Judgment halls, description of the, 26. 
 31, 32. 
 
 Juggling and sleight-of-hand, perfection 
 of, in China, 172. 
 
 Julien, M. Stanislas. His mastery 
 over the Chinese language, 208. 
 His publication on the travels of a 
 Chinese in India, 216. 
 
 Junk, a river, sketch of a passage in, 
 111, et seq. Junk travelling, 519. 
 Navigation of the Blue River, 512, 
 513. War-junks, 530. Junk races, 
 249. 
 
 Justice, mode of administering, 432. 
 
 Kaio-you, the name of the Chinese 
 Christians, 149. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 547 
 
 Kakkerlac, the insect so called, 42C. 1 
 461. Quantities of the, at Hon-keou, 
 460. 
 
 Kan-Sou, province of, 10. 
 
 Kao-pan (theatre of examinations), the, 
 of Pa-toung, 197. 208. 
 
 Kao-wang, the divinity so called, 83. 
 
 Kan-fou, town of, 350. Besieged and 
 destroyed, 351. 
 
 Khang-hi, the Emperor, the protector 
 of the Christian religion in Pekin, 
 96. His death, 96. 
 
 Khata, or “ scarf of felicity,” trade in 
 the, 10. 
 
 Khioung-tcheou, town of, 15. Dis¬ 
 covery of a Christian family there, 
 
 15. Aristocracy of the inhabitants, 
 
 16, 17. 
 
 Khiou-ping, or nine orders of civil and 
 military officials, 58. 
 
 Khom-dan, town of, 217. 220. 
 
 Kia-king, the Emperor, his exile of 
 the Dragon of Rain, 143. 
 
 Kiang rivers, appearance of the, 532. 
 
 Kiang-si, province of, 461. Remarks 
 on, 476. Uncultivated tracts in the 
 province of, 499. 
 
 Ki-chan, Chinese ambassador at Lha- 
 ssa, 2. His improvements in the 
 province of Sse-tchouen, 16. 
 
 Kien-long, the Emperor, his additions 
 to the empire, 342. 
 
 Kien-teheou, town of, 114. M. Hue’s 
 disputes with the Mandarins of, 116. 
 
 King, or the Five Sacred Books, the, 
 80. 
 
 King-pou, or grand tribunal of crimes 
 at Pekin, 37. 
 
 Kin-tcheou, town of, 245. The town 
 in a state of siege, 248. Battle 
 between the townspeople and the 
 Mantchou Tartars, 249. Junk 
 races at, 250. 
 
 Kioung-tcheou, brick tea of, 9. 
 
 Kiun-ke-tchou, one of the imperial 
 councils, 58. Its duties, 59. 
 
 Koua, or lines of divination, 80. 
 
 Kouan-kouen, or Chinese bandit, 
 punishment of one, 428. Meaning 
 of the term, 431, 
 
 Kouang-fou, the, 58. 
 
 Kouang-ping, son of the god of war 
 (Kouang-ti), 186. 
 
 Kcuang-pou, or supreme court of 
 public works, 60. 
 
 Kouang-ti, god of war, and patron of 
 the Mantchous, 186. Official wor¬ 
 ship paid to him, 186. 
 
 Kouang-tsi-hien,town of, 429. Punish¬ 
 ment of a criminal at, 429. 
 
 Kouan-tse, the political economist, his 
 views, 354. 
 
 Kouei-tcheou, town of, 209. 
 
 Koung, the highest title bestowed upon 
 Mandarins, 57. 
 
 Koung-kouans, or communal palaces, 
 15. Grand reception of M. Hue at 
 one, 108. Magnificence of one at 
 Kien-tcheo, 121. Its gardens, 124. 
 
 Kouo-tze-y, the illustrious, his charac¬ 
 ter, 89. 
 
 Kuen-kang-hien, town of, 271. 
 
 Ky-yn, imperial commissioner, 23. 
 His report to the Emperor concern¬ 
 ing the Christians, 40. 
 
 Lagrenee, M., his mission to China, 23. 
 His attempt to ameliorate the con¬ 
 dition of the Chinese Christians, 
 39. 
 
 Lakes, the, of China, 345. 
 
 Lampoons, Chinese, 318. 
 
 Language, Chinese, remarks on, 200, 
 et seq. Its antiquity, 201. Its wide 
 diffusion, 201. The written and the 
 spoken languages, 201. The primi¬ 
 tive characters, 201. Ideographic 
 characters, 202. Reading and writ¬ 
 ing Chinese, 204. The vulgar style 
 of language, 204. The academic 
 style, 204. The Houan-hoa, or lan¬ 
 guage -of instructed persons, 205. 
 Dialects of some of the provinces, 
 205. Supposed difficulty of the 
 study of Chinese, 207. M. Abel 
 Remusat, 207. M. Stanislas Julien, 
 208. 
 
 Language, the Mantchou Tatar, 24. 
 
 Lao-tze, the philosopher, remarks on 
 the life and opinions of, 384, et seq. 
 
 Law courts, the Emperor’s opinion of, 
 
 68 . 
 
 N N 2 
 
548 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Laws, Chinese, 433. The Ta-tsing 
 Lu-li, or Laws and Statutes of the 
 Grand Dynasty of the Tsing, 433. 
 Sir George Staunton’s translation of 
 this work, 433. Penal character of 
 the legislation of the empire, 433. 
 435. The system of responsibility, 
 437. Unscientific character of the 
 law, 438. Laws which regulate the 
 conduct of officials, 440. Responsi¬ 
 bility of government officials, 440. 
 Laws concerning marriage, 444. 
 
 Leang, the military Mandarin of M. 
 Hue’s escort, 83. 
 
 Leang-chan-hien, town of, 146. Chris¬ 
 tians of, 147. 158. 
 
 Leao-tong, tobacco of, 73.130. Country 
 of, added to China, 342. 
 
 Le Comte, Father, Chinese mission¬ 
 ary, 95. 
 
 Leou-pou, or the six sovereign courts 
 of the government, 59. Enume¬ 
 ration of them, and their duties, 59. 
 
 Letters, Man of, sketch of a, 70. 
 
 Lha-ssa, Chinese ambassador at, 2. 
 
 Li, Chinese measure of length, 4. 
 
 Liberty, large amount of political, in 
 China, 320. Freedom of locomo¬ 
 tion in China, 321. Liberty of the 
 press in ancient Chinese institutions, 
 321. 324. 
 
 Libraries, public, do not exist in China, 
 207. The famous, of the bonzes, 
 399. 
 
 Library, the Imperial, of Pekin, extent 
 of, 205. The library of the great 
 Buddhist temple of Pou-tou, 401. 
 Its librarian, 402. 
 
 Lieou (“ The Willow”), the Man¬ 
 darin, 377. Description of him, 
 378. Appointed to the escort, 378. 
 
 Li-ki, or Book of Rites, the, of Con¬ 
 fucius, 81. 
 
 Li-pou, the, or highest sovereign court, 
 59. 
 
 Literary aristocracy, the, or corpora¬ 
 tion of men of letters, 56. Its in¬ 
 fluence, 56. Almost the only nobility 
 recognised, 57. 
 
 Literary Composition, palace of, at 
 Nan-tchang-fou, 504. 
 
 Literary Corporation, the, of Pa-toung, 
 197. Literary examinations, 197. 
 Corruption both among the examiners 
 and the examined, 197. 
 
 Literature, government of, in the pro¬ 
 vinces, 64. Held in great honour 
 in Fou-ki-hien, 172. The Wen- 
 tchang-koun, or Temple of Literary 
 Composition, there, 172. Low con¬ 
 dition of, in China, 199. Contempt 
 of the Chinese for the belles lettres, 
 199. Importance of Chinese lite¬ 
 rary monuments, 205. The historian 
 Sse-ma-tsien, 206. The annals of 
 Sse-ma-kouang, 206. French trans¬ 
 lation of this work, 206. Historical 
 encyclopasdia of Ma-toun-lin, 206. 
 Analysis of the work, 206. Chinese 
 light literature, 524. 
 
 Locomotion, various modes of, 521. 
 
 Lou, the river, 7. 
 
 Lou-ting-khaio, town of, 7. Bridge 
 at, 7. 
 
 Lo-yang, town of, first named the Cen¬ 
 tral Kingdom, 224. 
 
 Lu, a military Mandarin, appointment 
 of, to the escort, 141. Caught in 
 flagrante delicto, 148. Excluded 
 from table, 150. His punishment, 
 156. 
 
 Lun-yu, or Philosophical Conversa¬ 
 tions, the book so called, 78. 
 
 Ly-fan-yuen, or colonial office of Pekin, 
 
 61. 
 
 Ly-pou, or sovereign court of rites, 
 constitution of, 60. 
 
 Macao, foundation of, 93. Its decline, 
 93. Return of M. Hue to, 535. 
 
 Magistrates. See Mandarins. 
 
 Maize, Kao-leang, its cultivation in 
 the province of Sse-tchouen, 128. 
 
 Mandarins, character of the, 2. Ridi¬ 
 culous position of one, 13. Their 
 communal palaces, 15. Their opium¬ 
 smoking, 19. The Mandarin of 
 Tching-tou-fou, 24. Their treat¬ 
 ment of the Christians, 45. Titles 
 bestowed on the most distinguished 
 Mandarins, 57. Marks by which 
 the various grades of Mandarins are 
 
INDEX. 
 
 549 
 
 known, 57. The name mandarin un¬ 
 known to the Chinese themselves, 
 58. Probable orgin of the name, 
 58. Rapacity of the Mandarins 
 throughout the empire, 66. Sketch 
 of the private life of a Mandarin and 
 his family, 67. The Mandarins of 
 the escort, 83. Lessons they some¬ 
 times receive, 107. Trickery of 
 Mandarin Ting, 109. M. Hue’s 
 disputes with the Mandarins of 
 Kien-tcheou, 116. Description of a 
 military Mandarin of the escort, 141. 
 The veracious Mandarin of Tchang- 
 cheou-hien, 142. Disputes with 
 the Mandarins of Leang-chan-hien, 
 146. Catching a Mandarin in fla¬ 
 grante delicto, 148. Duty of a Man¬ 
 darin when dead bodies are found 
 under suspicious circumstances, 180. 
 A valiant Mandarin, 213. The ac¬ 
 complished Mandarin of I-tou-hien, 
 215. The hospitable Mandarin of 
 Long-tche-hien, 226. General con¬ 
 duct of the Mandarins, 227. Their 
 responsibility for inferiors, 247. 
 Their responsibility for suspicious 
 deaths, 292. Airs of a young Man¬ 
 darin, 298. Boots of honour con¬ 
 ferred on popular Mandarins, 317. 
 Their conduct criticised by lampoons, 
 &c., 318. Treatment of the tyran¬ 
 nical Mandarin of Ping-fang, 319. 
 Degeneracy of the magistrates 
 throughout the empire, 330. Re¬ 
 strictions on the marriage of Man¬ 
 darins, 417. Their power and emo¬ 
 luments, 439. A scrupulous Manda¬ 
 rin, 484. A Mongol Mandarin, 509. 
 His geographical knowledge, 510. 
 
 Manilla, Chinese Christians in, 103. 
 
 Mantchou Tartars, language of the, 24. 
 Their generosity, 109. Their in¬ 
 jurious innovations since their con¬ 
 quest of China, 233. Fatal effects 
 of their policy on the empire, 235. 
 Their exclusion of foreigners, 236. 
 239. Their battle with the Chinese 
 of Kin-tcheou, 249. Their unpopu¬ 
 larity throughout the empire, 266. 
 
 Mantchuria added to China, 342. 
 
 Manufactures of the Chinese Empire, 
 347. 
 
 Marco Polo, his travels, 92. His ac¬ 
 count of China, 53. 
 
 Marriages, Chinese, 160. Customs 
 respecting, 414, 415. Polygamy, 
 416. Obstacles to the marriage of 
 civil and military officers, 417. Re¬ 
 ceiving a proposal, 41 7. The wed¬ 
 ding, 418. Laws concerning mar¬ 
 riage, 444. 
 
 Materialism of the Chinese, 104. 
 
 Ma-touan-lin, his historical encyclo¬ 
 paedia, 206. Analysis of the work, 
 206. 
 
 Maxims, collection of Celestial, 525. 
 
 Mayor, or Sian-yo, method of electing 
 him, 57. 
 
 Medicine, college of, in Pekin, 63. 
 Chinese work on (Si-yuen), “The 
 Washing of the Pit,” 179. Medical 
 jurisprudence of the Chinese, 179. 
 Chinese medicine, 275, et seq. 284. 
 Profession of medicine free in China, 
 288. Disgusting practice, 289. 
 
 Mei-ling, the mountain, passage of the, 
 527. 
 
 Melons, water, great number and beauty 
 of those of Tien-men, 296. Passion 
 of the Chinese for the water-melon 
 seed, 297. 
 
 Mendicants, bands of, 479. The 
 “ House of the Hens’ Feathers,” 480. 
 
 Meng-tze, his classical book, 78. His 
 place in the estimation of his country¬ 
 men, 78. Eulogiurn of M. Abel 
 Remusat on him, 79. Compared 
 with Confucius and Socrates, and 
 Diogenes, 79, 80. 
 
 Merchandise, display of Chinese, 147. 
 
 Metempsychosis, belief in, of nearly all 
 the pagans of Ho-nan, 490. The 
 Ilouen, 490. 
 
 Methodists, Protestant, their labours 
 among the Chinese, 511. 
 
 Military, government of the, 60. 
 
 Military government of the provinces, 
 65. 
 
 Military officials. See Mandarin. 
 
 Mincius, the philosopher. See Meng- 
 tze. 
 
550 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ming-jin, or Men of Ming, a name of 
 China, 223. 
 
 Monasteries, the, of the Bonzes, 22. 
 399. 
 
 Montcorvin, Jean de, archbishop of 
 Pekin, 92. 
 
 Montesquieu, his picture of Chinese 
 government, 53. 
 
 Monuments erected to virgins and 
 widows, 14. Those of Ning-po, 15. 
 
 Mosquitoes, swarms of, 267. 
 
 Mountains, their appearance in the 
 province of Sse-tchouen, 128. 
 
 Mountains of China, 342. 344. 
 
 Mourning, Chinese, 408. Singular 
 method of lamenting the dead, 409. 
 Regulation sorrows, 410. Long 
 period of mourning, 413. Laws 
 concerning, 446. 
 
 Music, Chinese, remarks on, 455. 
 Musical instruments, 455. The Yo¬ 
 king, or Book of Music, 455. Idea 
 we ought to have of the music of the 
 ancients, 456. 
 
 Musk, odour of, throughout the Celes¬ 
 tial Empire, 14. 
 
 Murder, terrific variety of the Chinese 
 modes of, 180. 
 
 Nan, a title bestowed upon Mandarins, 
 57. 
 
 Nan-hioang, town of, 528. Its vast 
 storehouses and port, 528. 
 
 Nan-tchang-fou, town of, 504. Appear¬ 
 ance of, 513. 
 
 Nautical races, 249. 
 
 Naturalists, Chinese, 472. 
 
 Navy, the Chinese, 65. 260. Number 
 of sailors and of the war-junks, 260. 
 Naval and military officers, 261. In¬ 
 exhaustible resources of China for a 
 great navy, 264. 
 
 Nei-ko, one of the two imperial coun¬ 
 cils, 58. Its duties, 59. 
 
 Newspapers, Chinese, 61, 62. 
 
 Ngan-tsha-sse, the, of Sse-tcheouen, 
 31. See Inspector of Crimes. 
 
 Ning-po, city of, great number of 
 monuments in, 15. 
 
 Niu-chou, the Christian priest, 89. 
 
 Nobility, the organisation of, 57. 
 
 Officers, civil and military. See Man¬ 
 darin. 
 
 Olopen, the priest, 88. 
 
 “ One man and two eyes,” story of, 51. 
 
 Opium, smugglers in, 18. Introduction 
 of opium into China, 18. Immense 
 quantity consumed, 19. Method of 
 smoking it, 19. Strictures on opium- 
 dealers, 19, 20. Deplorable conse¬ 
 quences of opium-smoking, 20. 
 Chinese and English opium, 21. 
 English opium consumers, 21. 
 
 Ou-clian, town of, 176. Description 
 of the prefect of, 176. 
 
 Ou-tchang-fou, persecution of Chris¬ 
 tians at, 28. 44. 
 
 Ou-tchang-fou, town of, 340. 342. Its 
 importance, 342. 
 
 Pagodas, vast numbers of, throughout 
 the empire, 380. Ornaments and 
 decorations of the, 381. 
 
 Palace, the, imperial government of, 63. 
 
 Palaces, communal, or Koung-kouans, 
 15 . 
 
 Palanquin-bearer, the, 7. 
 
 Palanquin travelling, 168. 
 
 Pan-houi-pan, the Chinese authoress, 
 159. 
 
 Pao-hing, viceroy of Sse-tchouen, 46. 
 His interview with M. Hue and his 
 companions, 47, 48. Portrait of 
 him, 47. His despatch to the Em¬ 
 peror, 48. His last interview with 
 M. Hue, 83. His death, 85. note. 
 
 Pao-ngan, or “ Hidden Treasure,” the 
 Mandarin, sketch of the private life 
 of, 67. His two sons, 69. 
 
 Paper, respect for even scraps of waste 
 paper on which letters are written or 
 printed, 404. 
 
 Pardons, general and special, 442. 
 
 Parmentier, his introduction of opium 
 into China, 18. 
 
 Pastry, odoriferous, or hiang-you, 21. 
 
 Pa-toung, town of, 185. 197. 208. 
 
 Pauperism in China, 477, 478. Bands 
 of mendicants, 479. Causes of 
 pauperism, 481. 
 
 Peacocks, rarity of, in China, 126. 
 
 Pecuniary societies, objects of, 362. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 55 1 
 
 Pekin, local administration of, 63. Go¬ 
 vernment of the Imperial palace of, 
 63. Great scientific establishments 
 of, 63. French cemetery in, 84. 
 Pekin Gazette, the, account of, 62. 
 Extent of the Imperial Library of, 
 205. 
 
 Pe-lien-kiao, or sect of the White 
 Lily, 101. 
 
 Perboyre, his martyrdom, 28. 43. 
 
 Scene of his death, 331. 368. 424. 
 
 Perocheau, M.,his letter to M. Hue, 87. 
 
 Persecutions at Tching-tou-fou, 28. 
 At Ou-tchang-fou, 44. 
 
 Pey-chou, or saying a lesson at school, 
 74. 
 
 Philosophical Conversations (Lun-yu), 
 the, of Meng-tze, 79. 
 
 Phou-yong Lake, the, 345. 
 
 Phy, a title bestowed upon Mandarins, 
 57. 
 
 Physicians, Chinese, 272. The regular 
 practitioner, 273. 275, 276. 
 
 Pigs, the sacred, laws concerning, 447. 
 
 Ping-fang, town of, 319. Its treat¬ 
 ment of a tyrannical Mandarin, 319. 
 
 Ping-hou, the lake, 331. Navigation 
 of, 331. 
 
 Ping-pou, or Sovereign Court of War, 
 60. 
 
 Pipe for smoking opium, 19. 
 
 I Pisciculture in Kiang-si, 515. 
 
 Placards, Chinese, 318. 
 
 Plan-carpin, the missionary, his travels, 
 91. 
 
 Poem, specimen of a Chinese descrip¬ 
 tive, 121. 
 
 Polarity of the loadstone known to the 
 Chinese 2500 b. c., 348. 
 
 Police, the, of China, 64. 
 j Politeness of the Chinese, 15. 17. 72. 
 Its antiquity, 72. Praised by Con¬ 
 fucius, 73. Instance of politeness 
 in the Viceroy of Sse-tchouen, 109. 
 
 Political economy, Chinese, 353. 
 Kouan-tse, the celebrated economist, 
 353. System of Chinese economists 
 upon interest of thirty per cent, 355. 
 Tchao-yng, the economist, 355. 
 
 Politics, aversion of the Chinese to 
 discuss, 62. 
 
 Polygamy in China, 161. Although 
 existing, not a legal Chinese insti¬ 
 tution, 416. 
 
 Population of China, 333. The method 
 of registration, 333. Density of the 
 multitudes in some localities, 333. 
 Causes of the vast increase in the 
 population, 334. 
 
 Porcelain, manufacture of, 514. Cu¬ 
 rious and detailed account of, by 
 Father D’Entrecolles, 514. History 
 of the art of, 514. The god of por¬ 
 celain, 515. 
 
 Porters, long caravans of, 9. 
 
 Portuguese, their re-discovery of China, 
 92. Their foundation of Macao, 93. 
 
 Post-office, the, unknown in China, 451. 
 
 Pou-tching-sse, the, of Sse-tcheouen, 
 31. Description of him, 33. His 
 examination of M. Hue, 33, 34. 
 
 Pou-tou, holy island of, 399. Immense 
 number of Bonze monasteries in the, 
 
 399. Beauty of the island, 399. 
 Magnificence of its principal temples, 
 
 400. 
 
 Pou-yang, lake, 459, 460. Navigation 
 of the, 475. Immense number of 
 junks on the, 476. 
 
 Productions, vast variety of the, of 
 China, 346. 
 
 Press, liberty of the, an ancient institu¬ 
 tion in China, |ii. 324. China and 
 France compared, 324. 
 
 Promenade, public, not known in China, 
 335, 336. 
 
 Proverbs, collection of Celestial, 25. 
 
 Provinces, administration of the, 21. 
 64. 
 
 Punishments, the most ordinary, 433. 
 441. Arbitrary infliction of, 433. 
 Penal character of the whole legisla¬ 
 tion of the Chinese, 433. 436. For 
 impiety, 446. A frightful example, 
 448. 
 
 Rain, superstitious practices to obtain, 
 in times of drought, 143. The Dra¬ 
 gon of Rain exiled by the Emperor, 
 143. 
 
 Readers, public (chou-chou-ti), of 
 China, 325. 
 
552 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Reading, method of teaching, 74. Read¬ 
 ing Chinese, 203. 
 
 Reason, Doctors of, 384. 389. 
 
 Regattas, 249. 
 
 Religion ; all religions condemned by 
 the Chinese government, 396. The 
 emperor Khang-hi’s Collection of 
 Sentences, 396. Paternal instruc¬ 
 tion of Young-tching, 396. For¬ 
 mula of scepticism, 397. The Bon¬ 
 zes neglected and treated with con¬ 
 tempt, 398. Magnificent libraries of 
 the Bonzes, 399. Bonzesses, 405. 
 Sect of “ Abstinent women,” 422. 
 The “ Doctrine of the Lettered,” 
 382. Confucius, 382. “ Doctors of 
 
 Reason,” 384. 389. Buddhism, 389 
 —395. Inconstancy of the Chinese 
 in matters of, 305. See Christianity. 
 
 Religious edifices. See Pagodas. 
 
 Remusat, M. Abel, his eulogium on 
 the classical book of Men-tze, 79. 
 His remarks on Chinese politeness, 
 132. His acquirement of the Chi¬ 
 nese language, 207. His remarks 
 on the restrictions of Oriental arbi¬ 
 trary power, 326. His remarks on 
 the life and opinions of the philoso¬ 
 pher Lao-tze, 384. 
 
 Representation, Palace of, in Pekin 
 ( Toun-tchin-sse), its duties, 61. 
 
 Revenue, the management of, 57. 59. 
 Department of the revenue in the 
 provinces, 64. 
 
 Revolution, general presentiment of, in 
 China, 238. Great number of revo¬ 
 lutions of the Chinese empire, 307. 
 
 Rice wine, manufacture of, 487. 
 
 Riot in Ya-tcheou, 12. 
 
 Rites, Tribunal of, 3. Constitution of 
 the Sovereign Court of, 60. Book 
 of (Li-ki), the, 81. Parting cere¬ 
 monies, 86. Custom of offering hot 
 towels after meals and on journeys, 
 108. Etiquette of ceremonious visits, 
 132. Polite conversation, 135. Sin¬ 
 gular character of Chinese polite¬ 
 ness, 182, 183. 
 
 Ricci, Father Matthew, missionary to 
 China, 93. His labours and death, 
 94. 
 
 Roads of China, state of the, 128. 
 The imperial high road, 458. 
 
 Robbers, Chinese, 323. Summary 
 punishment of, 324. 
 
 Roman empire, called Ta-thsin by the 
 Chinese, 88. Its introduction of 
 Christianity into China, 88. 
 
 Rope-dancers, 528. 
 
 Rubruk, the missionary, his travels, 91. 
 
 Sailors, Chinese, 113. 
 
 Salt, a government monopoly, 65. 512. 
 
 Salt-wells in Sse-tchouen, 188. 
 
 San-dze-king, or Sacred Trimetrical 
 Book, 74. Analysis of its contents, 
 74. 
 
 “ Scarf of Felicity,” or Khata, trade in 
 the, 10. 
 
 Scepticism; its frightful spread in 
 China, ii. 196, Formula of scepti¬ 
 cism, 127. 
 
 Schal, Father Adam, missionary to 
 China, 94. 
 
 Schoolmaster, sketch of a Chinese, 70. 
 
 Schools in China, 71. Chief branches 
 of instruction in, 73. Description of 
 a, 74. 
 
 Science, establishments for the promo¬ 
 tion of, in Pekin, 63. State of 
 scientific knowledge among the Chi¬ 
 nese, 193. 
 
 Serica and the Seres, 224. 
 
 Shipwrecks on the Blue River, 244. 
 246. 
 
 Shops, Chinese, 51. 
 
 Sian-yo, or mayor, method of electing 
 him, 57. 
 
 Si-gnan-fou, monument and inscription 
 at, 88. 
 
 Si-hou, or Western Lake, the, 345. 
 
 Silk, Chinese, 224. 
 
 Sinae-Sinenses, the, of the Romans, 
 223. 
 
 Si-yang-jin, Fou-lang-sai, Chinese 
 names for the French, 222. 
 
 Smoking, opium. See Opium. 
 
 Smuggler, discovery of a, 209. 
 
 Smugglers in opium, vast numbers of, 
 18 '. 
 
 Snuff-taking in China, 131. Snuff¬ 
 boxes, 131. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 553 
 
 Social amusements of the Chinese, 73. 
 
 Socialists, Chinese, of the eleventh cen¬ 
 tury, 307. A socialist chief of the 
 time, 308. A great social experi¬ 
 ment, 311. 
 
 Societies (or houis). See Associations. 
 
 Sohan, the priest, his mission to China, 
 
 88 . 
 
 Soldiers, Mantchou, 252, 253. Num¬ 
 ber of troops in the empire, 253, 254. 
 Chinese soldiers, 254. 
 
 Song, dynasty of, 121. Its construc¬ 
 tion of superb roads throughout the 
 empire, 128. 
 
 Songs, ancient Chinese (Che-king), 
 collection of, made by Confucius, 
 80. 
 
 Song-tcbe-hien, town of, 225. Hos¬ 
 pitable Mandarin of, 225. His 
 really paternal rule, 226. 
 
 South, Mountains of the (Nan-ling), 
 344. 
 
 Sou-tsoung, the emperor, 89. 
 
 Spring and Autumn, Book of (Tchun- 
 thsiou), the, of Confucius, 81. 
 
 Sse, or commissioners of provinces, 31. 
 
 Sse-chou, or Four Classical Books, the, 
 75. 
 
 Sse-ma-kouang, prime minister, 121, 
 309. His poem, “The Garden of 
 Sse-ma-kouang,” 121. His Annals 
 of the Empire, 206. His ascendancy, 
 44. His death and magnificent fune¬ 
 ral, 314. 
 
 Sse-ma-tsien, the Chinese historian, 
 206. His great work, 206. 
 
 Sse-tchouen (Four Valleys), province 
 of, 10. Its fertility, 13. Improve¬ 
 ments in, under the administration 
 of Ki-chan, 14. Extent and im¬ 
 portance of, 185. Temperature of, 
 185. Fertility of, 185. Productions 
 of, 185. Inhabitants of, 185, 186. 
 Language of, 186. Their god of 
 war, Kouang-ti, 186. Wells of salt 
 and wells of fire in, 188. State of 
 Christianity in, 194. 
 
 Sse-ye, counsellors or pedagogues of 
 prefectures, 177. 
 
 Staunton, Sir George, his translation 
 of the Chinese code of laws, 433. 
 
 Streets, Chinese, 51. 
 
 Suffering, Chinese dread of, 181. 
 
 Sugar, cultivation of the cane in the 
 province of Sse-tchouen, 128. Sugar 
 used in China, 128. 
 
 Suicide common in China, 181. A 
 frequent method of -wreaking ven¬ 
 geance on an enemy, 181, 182. 
 
 Superstitions of the Chinese at the 
 appearance of the cholera, 286. Chase 
 after a soul, 406. Mode of averting 
 the malignant influences of evil dis¬ 
 posed spirits, 479. 
 
 Swallows, Chinese notions respecting 
 the migratory habits of, 472. 
 
 Tachard, Father, missionary to China, 
 95. 
 
 Tagales, the aboriginal inhabitants of 
 the Philippines, 103. 
 
 Ta-hio, or Grand Study, the, 75. 
 
 Tai-hou, or Great Lake, the, 345. 
 
 Tai-tsoung, the Emperor, his protection 
 of the Christians in the 8th century, 
 88 . ' 
 
 Tao-kouang, the Emperor, 40. His 
 edict in favour of Christians, 41. 
 His death, 62. His recommendation 
 to his subjects to despise all religions, 
 106. 
 
 Tao-sse, or Doctors of Reason, 384. 
 Treated with neglect and contempt, 
 398. 
 
 Tatars, their conquest of China, 63. 
 Their military watch over the high 
 civil functionaries, 65. 
 
 Ta-thsin, or the Roman Empire. See 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 Ta-tsien-lou, town of, 3. Departure 
 of M. Hue from, 4. 
 
 Taxes, the, of China, 59. Those of the 
 provinces, 64. 
 
 Tchang river, the, 503. 
 
 Tchang-cheou-hien, town of, 141. 
 
 Tchang-hi, the Emperor, his opinion of 
 the law courts, 68. 
 
 Tehao family, of the town of Leang- 
 chan-hien, imprisonment of the head 
 of the, 149. His acquittal, 156. 
 
 Tchao-yng, the political economist, 
 355. 
 
 O O 
 
554 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tcheou dynasty of, 224. Tcheou, the 
 Chinese prefecture so called, 64. 
 Tcheou, a second order of town, 
 
 23. note. 
 
 Tcheou-koung, uncle of the Emperor 
 Tching-wang, 224. 
 
 Tchina, or China, origin of the word 
 223. 
 
 Tffhinggis Khan, his invasions, 315. 
 Causes of his inundation of the world 
 with blood, 316. 
 
 Tching-tou-fou, city of, appearance of 
 the suburbs of, 21. A Christian of, 
 22. Tribunal of, 23. A prefect of, 
 
 24. Persecution of Christians in, 28. 
 Description of the city, 51. Its in¬ 
 habitants, 52. 
 
 Tching-wang, the Emperor, 224. 
 
 Tchoung-hoa, or Flower of the Centre, 
 a name for China, 225. 
 
 Tehoung-king, town of, 131. 209. 
 
 Tchoung-kouo,or Empireof the Centre, 
 a name of China, 224. 
 
 Tchoung-tching, town of, 116. 
 
 Tchoung-young, or Invariable Centre, 
 the book so called, 76. 
 
 Tchu-hi, his elementary lessons and 
 conversations, 206. 
 
 Tchun-thsiou, or Book of Spring and 
 Autumn, the, of Confucius, 81. 
 
 Tea, ceremony of taking, 135. Brick- 
 tea, 9, 10. Tea-porters, 9. 
 
 Tembowski, M., and the Russian 
 mission of 1821, 253, 254. 
 
 Temples, religious, the magnificent, of 
 Pou-tou, 399. See Pagodas. 
 
 Te-siou, the moralist, 334. 
 
 Thang-jin, or Men of Thang, a name 
 of China, 222. 
 
 Theatre, Chinese, 166. 170. Universal 
 theatrical tastes of the Chinese, 169. 
 
 Thoung-thing Lake, the, 345. 
 
 Thsin-che-Hoang, the Emperor, his 
 destruction of the ancient books, 81. 
 His conquest of China, 223. 
 
 Thsing-jin, or Men of Thsing, a name 
 of China, 222. 
 
 Tien-chao, the Celestial Empire, a 
 name of China, 225. 
 
 Tien-dze, or Son of Heaven, the title 
 par excellence of the Emperor, 55. 
 
 Tien-hia, Beneath the Heavens, a name 
 of China, 225. 
 
 Tien-men, town of, 295. Visit from 
 the Mandarins of, 296. Their atten¬ 
 tion, 296. Famed for the number 
 and beauty of its water-melons, 297. 
 
 Tien-tchou, the Chinese name for the 
 idea of God, 102. 
 
 Tien-tchou-kiao, the Christian religion 
 so called, 102. 
 
 Tien-te, or Celestial Virtue, the name 
 of the present pretender to the throne, 
 55. 
 
 Tigris river, the appearance of, 533. 
 
 Timotheus, Patriarch of the Nestorians, 
 his missions to China, 91. 
 
 Ting, the Mandarin of the escort, 83. 
 His devotion to Kao-\iang, 83. 
 Trickery of, 109. His hilarity, and 
 the causes of it, 113. His opinion 
 of the souls of women, 163. His 
 dramatic performances, 167, 169. 
 
 His discovery, 184. His wrath on 
 the Blue River, 210. His fright in 
 a tempest, 242. His vow, 242, 245. 
 His adieu, 376. His filial piety, 
 376. 
 
 Titles of the Emperor, 55. Hereditary, 
 do not exist except in the Imperial 
 family and in the descendants of 
 Confucius, 57. The titles bestowed 
 on distinguished Mandarins, 57. 
 Titles not hereditary, but carried back 
 to the ancestors, 58. Ti-tou, or 
 highest military officer, 65. 
 
 Tobacco, the, of Leao-tong, 73. 130. 
 Cultivation of, throughout the em¬ 
 pire, 128, 129. Passionate fond¬ 
 ness of the people for, 129. Called 
 tambakou by the Mantchous, 130. 
 Mark of a Pekin dealer in tobacco, 
 131. Snuff-taking, 131. 
 
 Toun-tchin-sse, or Palace of Represen¬ 
 tation of Pekin, duties of, 61. 
 
 Tou-tcha-yuen, or Office of Universal 
 Censorship of Pekin, duties of, 61. 
 
 Towers, ancient, of the Chinese, 379. 
 
 Towns, three orders of Chinese, 23, 
 note. Chinese provincial, account of, 
 64. Uniformity of the plan of, 379. 
 
 Trade, vast internal, of China, 342, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 555 
 
 Infinitesimal trade of the Chinese, 
 367. 
 
 Travelling, freedom of, in China, 321. 
 
 Trial ; a great trial presided over by 
 missionaries, 152. Details of a 
 Chinese, 428, et seq. 
 
 Tribunals, the, description of, 26. 31, 
 32. 
 
 Tsein-tche, the political economist, ex¬ 
 tract from his writings, 357. 362. 
 
 .Tse-liou-tsing, town of, 191. Chris¬ 
 tians of, 191. 
 
 Tsien, a third order of town, 23, note. 
 
 Tsing-khi-hien, town of, 11. Hurri¬ 
 canes of, 11. 
 
 Tsoung-ping, or vice-admiral, 65. 
 
 Tsoung-tou, or governor-general of a 
 province, 64. 
 
 Tze, a title bestowed upon Mandarins, 
 57. 
 
 Vaeher, M., death of, 3, note. 
 
 Vegetable productions of China, 467. 
 
 Verbiest, Father, missionary to China, 
 94. 
 
 Verses, Book of (Che-king), the, of 
 Confucius, 80. 
 
 Vine, culture of the, 485. 
 
 Vinegar polypus, description of the, 
 500, 501. 
 
 Virgins, honours paid to, 14. 
 
 Visits, ceremonious. See Rites. 
 
 Volcanoes in China, 344. 
 
 Voltaire, his picture of Chinese govern¬ 
 ment, 53. 
 
 Urbanity of the Chinese, 72. 
 
 Wang-ngan-che, a socialist chief of the 
 11th century, 308. His opponent, 
 the minister, 309. His ascendency 
 over the Emperor Chen-tsoung, 313. 
 His expulsion from China, 315. 
 
 War, Sovereign Court for the manage¬ 
 ment of, 60. 
 
 War, the, with the English, 257, 263. 
 
 War-god (Kouang-ti), 186. 
 
 Watchman and crievs, 139. 
 
 Water communications of China, 365. 
 
 Water-lily (lien-hoa), a favourite in 
 all times in China, 468, 469. 
 
 Watson, Colonel, his introduction of 
 opium into China, 18. 
 
 Wei-chan (M. Hue’s servant), his 
 quarrel with an importunate visitor, 
 174. His proposal, 268. His at¬ 
 tention and intelligence, 376. His 
 extravagant zeal, 427. Savings on 
 the road bestowed on him, 537. 
 
 Wells of salt and wells of fire, 188. 
 
 Wen-tchang-koun, or Temple of Lite¬ 
 rary Composition, in Fou-ki-hien, 
 172. That of Nan-tchang-fou, 504. 
 506. 
 
 Wheeler, vice-president, his introduc¬ 
 tion of opium into China, 18. 
 
 White lily (Pe-lien-kaio), sect of the, 
 
 101 . 
 
 Widows, honours paid to, 14. 
 
 Wine, warm, drunk by the Chinese, 
 73. Chinese manufacture of, 485, 
 486. Corn wine, 486. The mother 
 of wine, 486. 
 
 Women, Christian, of China, 158. 
 Abject condition of women through¬ 
 out the empire, 159, et seq. Poly¬ 
 gamy, 161. The condition of wo¬ 
 men ameliorated in Chinese Chris¬ 
 tian families, 161. The Mandarin 
 Ting’s opinion of women’s souls, 163. 
 Influence of women in the conversion 
 of nations, 164. Customs at mar¬ 
 riages, 415, et seq. Secondary, or 
 “little wives,” 416. Domestic un¬ 
 happiness, 420. Servitude of wo¬ 
 men, 420. An affectionate husband, 
 421. Sect of “ Abstinent Women,” 
 423. 
 
 Works, Public, Supreme Court of, 60. 
 
 Writing, method of teaching, 73. Value 
 set on fine writing, 74. History of 
 Chinese writing, 203. 
 
 Xavier, St. Francis de, his mission to 
 Japan, 93. 
 
 Ya-lou, river, the, 342. 
 
 Ya-me-ly-kien, “ Men of the Gaudy 
 Banner,” Chinese name for the 
 Americans, 222. 
 
 Yang-ti, the Emperor, great canal of 
 365. 
 
556 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Yang-tze-kiang, Blue River, the 111. 
 Navigation of, 111. 114. 168. 176. 
 208. 240. Shipwrecks on the, 339, 
 345. 376. 
 
 Yao-tchang, town of, 165. Its site, 
 168. 
 
 Ya-tcheou, town of, 12. Riot in, 12. 
 Yellow River (Hoang-ho), the 345. 
 Yen-tsing, or wells of salt, 188. 
 Y-King, or Book of Changes, the, 8. 
 Yn mountains, 342. 
 
 Yo-King, or Book of Music, the, 455. 
 
 Young-tching, the Emperor, his per¬ 
 secution of the Christians, 96. His 
 speech to the Jesuits in justification 
 of his course, 101. His paternal in¬ 
 structions, 396, 397. 
 
 Y-sou, the priest, his mission to China, 
 89. 
 
 Yu, or jade-stone, the, 347. 
 
 Yuen, dynasty of, its construction of 
 the vast system of canals, 129. 
 
 Yun-nan, province of, opium smuggling 
 in, 18. 
 
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