Waifs and Strays from the Far East; being a series of disconnected essays on matters relating to China

Preface

. CHAP. PAGE. I. DIFFERENT VIEWS OF THE CHINESE 1 II. THE TA TSING DYNASTY 5 ni. THE PREVIOUS DYNASTIES OF CHINA 11 IV. SECRET SOCIETIES AND THEIR POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE. 23 V. THE ARMAMENTS OF CHINA 39 VI. THE KINGDOM OF LIUCHIU 55 VII. LEGENDARY COREA 63 VIII. EARLY JAPANESE INVASIONS OF CHINA 70 IX. JAPANESE INFLUENCE ON CHINA 75 X. THE EXTENSION OF FOREIGN TRADE 88 XI. THE DOCTRINE OF PREVIOUS RIGHTS 98 xn. OPIUM 102 XIII. THE RIVAL EVANGELISERS OF CHINA 113 XIV, CHINESE VIEWS OF FOREIGN CULTURE 130 XV. A SUPERFICIAL VIEW OF BUDDHISM 134 XVI, ASTROLOGY 143 XVII. A CHINESE MUNCHAUSEN 149 XVIII. CHINESE DOMESTIC ROMANCE 153 XIX. CHINESE JEWS 202 XX. THE CHINESE THEORY OF CREATION 209 CONCLUSION . . . . , 219 J

Appendix

PREFACE.

. The following chapters are intended for English readers whose knowledge of Chinese matters hears an inverse ratio to the interest they take in the subject. No claim is made to origina lity or profound research. But at a time when all questions relating to China have, or should have, some attraction for those who have never visited that country, it may be permitted to an obscure writer to add his quota, however humble, to the stock of general information ; and the present volume will, it is hoped, shed some additional light upon certain points which have not, hitherto, been brought prominently before the reading public. In such a work, there cannot but be many shortcomings ; but its aim is, as far as possible, to combine an unavoidable superficiality with lucidity and distinctness, and its best apo logy is to be found in the Chinese motto upon the cover, — "There is no book from which something may not be learnt." F. H. B. Kiukiang Boad, Shanghai. November, 1876.

Chapter I

Different Views of the Chinese. If the great Lavater had ever come to China, it is more than possible that many vexed questions of the present day would long ago have been set at rest. By virtue of the simple though perfect and beautiful science which he discovered, he would have been able to read, almost at a glance, the real character which underlies the hard square faces, the small noses, the oblique and elongated eyes and stolid expression of these Eastern folk, and would pro bably have arrived at a surer and swifter estimate of their charac ter than the most accomplished sinologue of our time. And in all seriousness we cannot help believing that the verdict of such an authority upon this disputed point would have helped to simplify many matters which have arisen in the history of our relations with the Middle Kingdom, and which are even now a source of strife and mystification to hundreds.

What is the true attitude of the Chinese towards Western nations ? is a question that appears to us to be still becoming daily more perplexing, on account of the wide divergence of opinion which exists upon the point. The true reply, we firmly believe, can only be found in determin ing the true character of those with whom we have to deal : and this will prove the key to all the contradictory assertions and representations of those who, from their diplomatic position, or by virtue of their linguistic accomplishments, have spoken with au thority upon the subject. It will suffice for our present purpose to adduce what may be termed the two extreme views of China, politically considered, and Different Views of the Chinese. 2 to place each in striking contrast to the other. The two parties who hold these sharply antagonistic opinions may be called for con venience' sake the Sinonianiacs and the Sinophobists ; and we have only to give the slightest possible sketch of their respective creeds to convince our readers that, in comparison with such con tradictions as we here discover, the Mohammetan may be regarded as the co-religionist of the Christian, and the lion expected to eat straw like the ox.

To begin then, with our Sinophobist friends : China, as represented by them, is unknown in such a capacity to the Chinese Government. What we understand by China is, to the Imperial authorities, simply the Central State of all the states under Heaven, over which the Potentate commonly called the Em peror of China, rules and reigns supreme. But as a country among countries, there is no such place as China. The Exalted Monarch acknowledges no dominion smaller than the entire world — the P'u T'ien Hsia — the 'All Under Heaven.' He is the High-Priest of Humanity. Any attempt, therefore, to place Western Sovereigns up on an equality with him, is simply sacrilege. He is the Universal Lord — they are the rulers, more or less loyal, of certain outlying Tributary states, all of which are as much subject to his sway as the Central State which is divided into Eighteen Provinces, and called ' China ' by the barbarians who know no better.

Consequent ly — (we are still sketching the doctrine attributed to the Chinese Government by its Sinophobist detractors) — war with China is looked upon by the Emperor and represented to the people as rebellion ; peace, as a return of the rebellious State — Eng, Fah, or whichever else it may be — to submission. The independent ex istence of such a ' state,' apart from the Great Ching Empire, is not recognised. Every Treaty, therefore, every Letter of Credence, every diplomatic despatch, written in the sacred character, teems with insults, hidden indeed from the dull eyes of our representatives, but easily discovered by the keener glance of the amateur champions of our rights. The very title stipulated for by our Mi nisters and accorded by the Chinese Government, means, to them, the exacl reverse of what it seems to. ' K'ing-ch'ai Ta-chen ' — Different Views of the Chinese. 3 Great Imperial Minister — surely, is not that an adequate ac knowledgment of a Foreign Minister's rank, and of the equality of his Sovereign with the Emperor ?

On the contrary, replies our cri tic, with astounding logic : there being only one Emperor in the World, according to the Chinese idea, the ' Imperial ' refers to him, not to the Western monarch ; so that the Foreign representative is here really described as a servant of the Emperor of China. Nothing satisfies men of this school. They see treachery and co vert insults, systematic evasions, premeditated assassinations even, lurking everywhere ; and the aim of the Chinese Government, according to them, is to be hoodwink, circumvent and grossly insult the ' public messengers ' of these troublesome tributary states as lung as they are pestered with their presence in Peking, and even tually, if necessary, to rid themselves of the entire body of barbar ians in every open port, by a general and discriminate massacre.

Turning, however, to the no less rabid and probably far more mischievous party of the Sinomaniacs, what a marvellously dif ferent picture do we behold! A great, admirable, almost reverend nation, a prey to the selfishness and savage onslaughts of a few Western traders. A Government of almost perfect organisation — lavish of concessions, moderate in its responsive demands, cour teous and just in its dealings with the rapacious foreigner, preserv ing a firm and dignified position when forced at the cannon's mouth to permit the importation of a poisonous drug, and pursu ing a simple, straight-forward policy and unswerving course of friendly, cordial co-operation, gradually uprooting the grievances and grudges of the past and sternly insisting that no more seeds of mischief be sown ! Such is China's portrait as painted by the glow ing fancy of certain writers, and such apparently is the appear ance she presents to the remarkably oblique vision of the distant doctrinaires; for mark you, most of the men who imagine they see this imposing picture never came to China, but content themselves with admiring her afar off.

We need not dwell upon either view for long. Like all extreme opinions, they are uncontestibly both erroneous. The Sinomaniac, blinded by sophistries and utterly Different Views of the Chinese. devoid of all practical experience, shows his ignorance by the most glaring blunders when he treats of things in detail ; formulates a theory, twisting every occurrence into violently distorted shapes to suit it; and rapidly acquires the malignancy which is inseparable from the bigot and the man of one idea, in supporting his pet con viction. The Sinophobist, on the other hand, attaches exaggerated importance to metaphorical expressions which have their origin in Oriental conceit and ignorance of geography, and tortures a high flown and somewhat meaningless figure of speech into the declara tion or assumption of a specific political right.

The Tartar Monarchs of China have not shown themselves so utterly devoid of common sense in other matters as they are represented as doing in the particular instance before us; and we deny that there is any more significance attached to the Imperial titles so strongly reprobated than there is to the imaginary claim of the Emperor to the Brotherhood of the Sun and Moon. The Hwang-ti of China no more believes himself to be Emperor of the Earth than a long suc cession of English monarchs considered themselves Kings of France, in spite of that title being appended to their names for a period of no less than four hundred and thirty years. The truth, therefore, lies between the two extremes. And re verting to the physiognomical solution of the difficulty to which we have before alluded, we fancy that in the Chinese we should find a strong development of obstinacy tempered with a quick perception of self-interest, an intelligent appreciation of Western accomplishments in spite of their ingrained conservatism and con ceit, and sufficient energy of purpose and strength of will to carry out all the reforms which, as time wears on, and brings experience with it, are shown to be requisite to the future welfare of the Empire and the prosperity of the Chinese people.

Chapter II

The Ta Tsing Dynasty. It is perhaps a moot question whether the Chinese are or are not what we Westerns understand by the term ' loyal.' That they are full of national pride, and overflow with extravagant ideas respect ing the importance of their country, is of course undeniable. The old tradition which represent China as being the Middle Kingdom of the world, surrounded by insignificant and distant states which are far inferior to her, whether they pay actual tribute or not, is doubtless firmly ingrained in the uneducated mass of the population, just as much as ever it was. But even this form of patriotism is shallow in the extreme; while as for pure loyalty, it seems absolutely inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Chinese character. And yet the Chinese, in common with all other Oriental nations, attribute titles to the Emperor which allow ing even free scope for the range of Eastern metaphor, would seem at first sight to imply a very hearty and earnest devotion both to his person and to the dynasty he represents.

In every act of State policy, he figures as the Autocrat of Universal Benevolence. He is the Son of Heaven, reigning by Divine grace and in virtue of his own inherent perfection, not by the will of the people. When Hung Siu-ts'euen, the Tien Wang, was in the early bloom of his short prosperity, and aspired to play the rival to the Ta Tsing monarch, he fully recognised the fact that what loyalty there was to be found in the breasts of the people sprang in no small measure from hereditary belief in the semi-divine character of the ruling prince ; and it was to this, as much as to other and more apparent motives, that we trace his assumption of the religious titles which he claimed. The Sou of Heaven could have no other rival than the Elder Brother, or the Heavenly Prince ; that element of greatness, at least, must be preserved if he wished to appear in the eyes of his compatriots in any way worthy to contest the sovereignty of the Empire with Tao-kuang.

But in this extreme reverence for the Imperial office we do not recognise what can he defined with scrupulous exactitude as loyalty, pure and simple. It is a superstitious tradition ; it is not that personal devotion which would induce a man to lay down his life with cheerfulness and pride for a cherished lord. Towards the person of the Emperor, indeed, it is impossible for an ordinary Chinaman to harbour feelings of loyalty. He is to him simply a dim abstraction, enshrined in the mystic retirement of the Forbidden City, whose name is too sacred to be written, and who wields unchallenged and universal power. The peasant knows little or nothing of his Sovereign's private life or family, and certainly never saw his face. The only character in which the Emperor is ever placed before his mind, in any way calculated to win his attachment, is that of the People's Father ; and there is no doubt that upon many of the peasantry of China the effect of this is, so far, good.

A public deed of charity or beneficence, which in Western countries appears, truly enough, as a Parliamentary measure, an act emanating from the Government, in China is referred exclusively to the Emperor's grace. It is the Emperor who provides grain for the starving population of a flooded province, it is the Emperor who showers honours upon sons and widows whose virtues call for Celestial recognition, it is the Emperor whose gifts of money and coloured silks reward particular instances of bravery or merit, it is the Emperor who weeps tears of blood for the sufferings of the people whose father and mother he is. This agreeable fiction no doubt has its good results; but we should hesitate to say whether the superficial sentiment which springs from it among the rank and file have made his Throne one whit the firmer.

The Son of Heaven is to them any ruler under whom they are able to earn their living, eat their rice, and pass their days in as little molestation as may be ; and it matters far less to them whether the Occupant of the Dragon Throne be a wise or foolish prince, than whether the mandarins to whom they are immediately subject are lenient or tyrannical. Turning therefore to the mandarins themselves, it is hardly to be expected that they can possess any very great attachment to a foreign autocracy under which certain of the more important posts in the Empire are reserved for the Imperial clan. A large num ber of these officers are practically beyond the power of the Crown, and having virtually no greater responsibility than to supply it with a certain tribute yearly for the Imperial expenditure, prey upon the province or district in their charge and keep the surplus of their depredations for themselves.

Receiving a nominal sa lary, barely sufficient to pay then servants — if they did 'pay them, which they very often don't — it is only natural that they should live upon the resources which their position places at their dispo sal, and respecting which no questions are asked so long as the tribute is transmitted regularly to Peking. This is a system which is no doubt very congenial to a vast number of officials ; but the basis upon which it rests is insecure in the extreme. Who shall say what disruption might ensue from the pressure brought to bear upon the Government by two European Powers ? The country with which we may some day be engaged in conflict is a divided one. The Chinese have a theory, — whence derived we cannot say — that the natural life of a dynasty is, or should be, limited to a couple of hundred years ; a term which the Ta Tsing has already exceeded.

Are they beginning to chafe under the Tartar yoke ? Would a Chinese monarchy be more popular than the present rule ? Would the country hail the appearance of a second Warren Hastings to oust the Manchus, establish military law, and place a native on the Throne ? Would a Chinese Emperor, chosen and protected by European arms, introduce a better system of Govern ment, exercise a purifying influence on official corruption, smoothe the way for foreign intercourse, and inaugurate a more hopeful future for the Chinese people, where the Manchus have failed ? We must remember what it was that led the people to implore the in terference and protection of the Tartar General, when King Stork replaced King Log. What were the circumstances to which the present Tartar dynasty owes its establishment upon the throne of China ?

Wearied out with the maladministration of the Mings, and torn with intestine distractions in consequence of their conti nued misdirection of affairs, the country at last collapsed, and a rebellion of more than ordinary magnitude broke out about the year 1636 of our own era under the leadership of a bold adventur er named Li Tsze-ching, who, after a struggle of eight years' dura tion, succeeded in reducing a third of the empire to his sway. The reigning Emperor, finding himself alone and unsupported, com mitted suicide in his palace ; while an Imperial General, as a last resource, implored the assistance of the Manchus against the rebel chief, who by this time had obtained possession of the capital. The request was acceded to without hesitation; the Manchus lost no time in coming to the rescue, but, as might have been expected, availed themselves of the golden opportunity to seize the reins of Government.

This, after a Seven Years' war, involv ing terrible bloodshed, they eventually accomplished; obtained possession of the Imperial throne, and have kept it ever since. Such, at least, is the orthodox and popular belief, and we have certainly no legal proof that the account is not authentic in this last particular ; but there is a secret though deeply-rooted idea among the Chinese that the line of descent has not been preserved intact. The Sovereigns of the present dynasty have been nine in number ; viz., (to adopt the designations of their respective reigns) Shun-chi, who gained the throne as above related, in 1644 : — Kang-hi, of happy memory, — Yung-ching, Kien-lung, who reigned from 1736 to 1796 and received the Embassy of Lord Macartney in 1790 — Kia-king — Tao-kuang, with whom Sir Henry Pottinger had to do — Hien-feng, familiar to us during the mission of Lord Elgin— Tung-chi, who died in January 1875, and Kuang-hsu, the present Emperor.

Now the impression we refer to takes its rise, we believe, from the partial disclosure of some Court intrigue which is said to have occurred during the reign of Yung-ching, and although the story has no political significance, even suppos ing it to be true, it is at least interesting enough to excuse us for narrating it. The Empress had long hoped, in vain, for the blessing of a son ; but the entire family born to her consisted of a Princess. When this daughter was a child in arms, the wife of a certain Minister of state, Kien-chai by name, a native of Che kiang, gave birth to a son, who was forthwith carried to the Palace to be presented to the Emperor. A brilliant idea now struck the Empress. Childless herself — from a Chinese point of view — she determined on retaining the son of the noble and sending back her own daughter in his place.

That both the Emperor and the Minister were parties to the arrangement cannot, of course, be doubted. The adopted youth grew up as the Emperor's son, and according to every known law of romance ought to have received the hand of the exiled Princess in marriage. A different fate, however, was in store for both. The Princess was married to a literary grandee of Soochow^, with whom she lived for many years, being regarded by the people of the city as a special favourite or prot4ge"e of the Empress. This belief was fostered by a present from the Palace of two handsome barges, for the use of the Princess, which bore her name and were always exempted from duty by Imperial decree. The youth meanwhile was married to a mandarin's daughter of pure Tartar blood ; and shortly afterwards, upon the death of the old Emperor, assumed undisputed possession of the throne under the title of Kien-lung.

This is the legend firmly believed by multitudes of Chinese who, however, dare not of course discuss it openly or circulate it in print ; and they argue that considerable colour is lent to it by the very frequent visits of this Emperor to the city of Hangchow, to the tomb of his (alleged) father. It is a singular fact, too, that the wife of the succeeding monarch, Kia-king, made strenuous efforts to revive the ancient costume of the Mings ; but the Emperor feared the change might be impolitic. The story is graceful and romantic, though we know so little of the intrigues and mysteries of Eastern Courts that it is difficult to offer an opinion upon its merits. That the youthful Emperor Kuang-hsu is to all intents and purposes a Tartar, cannot for a moment be doubted ; indeed, even according to the above theory, he is descended from a Tartar ancestress ; but if there is any truth in it at all, he has at least a very strong dash of Chinese blood in his veins.

It is however impossible that China will ever recognise him as in any way the representative of a Chinese stock; and more than doubtful whether the country would be at all better off (to suppose a possible contingency) by the restoration of such a dynasty as the Ming than she is at present. Whatever changes may eventually take place, the immediate predecessors of the now reigning family will never again be represented on the Dragon Throne. The only Chinese, to-day, who has made any special mark, is Li Hung chang, a man immeasurably inferior to the late Tseng Kuo-fan both in ability and patriotism. But events are marching steadily onwards, and we believe a crisis is looming in the distance. China is destined to be the scene of a great drama, in which the tragic element will inevitably have a place ; hut what the plot will be, or who are cast by fate for the most prominent characters in the play, we none of us can tell before the curtain lifts.

One thing however may be affirmed without presumption; that whatever changes may occur in the political administration of the Empire, neither a Chinese nor a Tartar dynasty will ever prove a useful or trustworthy ally of ours without constant watchfulness and care. Chinese or Tartar, what matters it to us ? Unless one may be more pliable than the other. But we shall look in vain for perfect frankness and good faith from either, while duplicity is a characteristic of Oriental nations, and China rules the East.

Chapter III

The (Previous Dynasties of China. We hazarded a belief in the last chapter that the question of a possible restoration of a Chinese Dynasty to the throne of China was comparatively unimportant to ourselves as foreigners. But there is another view of the matter which demands our notice, and that is, the interest of the Chinese themselves in the contingency. There is probably no country in the world which has been subject to so many conquests, revolutions and dynastic changes as the Em pire of China ; and it may therefore be not wholly unprofitable to take a bird's-eye view of its chequered past career, and strive to form some notion, however crude, of the influences for good or ill which have been thereby brought to bear upon it. Of course we do not propose to summarise the history of China.

Life is too short for us to even contemplate so colossal and so practically use less a task. But there are a few salient points which present themselves to every student, however superficial, of the intellectual peculiarities as well as the political fortunes of this people, and from a careful observation of these phenomena we may possi bly arrive at a conclusion which, even though imperfect, will nevertheless be a step towards a clearer apprehension of many problems which are yet unsolved. The early history of the Middle Kingdom is, we need hardly say, a sealed book. A Chinaman will expatiate to you, with al most pathetic pride, upon the glories of its ancient Emperors, the immortal Yao and Shun, whose reigns constitute, in the minds of the Chinese generally, their country's Golden Age ; when the The (Previous Dynasties ofi China. 12 principles of virtue were the mainspring of its political and social life, and the wise precepts of the sages were no dead letter, but a living force.

Such is the theory taught by the Confucian writers, and such is the orthodox belief. There is a school of modern cri ticism, it is true, which sees nothing more in the history of these old heroes than a Chinese version of the cosmogonical allegories common to all nations of the East. Yao is said to be identical with Ouranos, and Shun with Vishnu, while Yii, the third Empe ror of the great hierarchy, was simply the Greek Minos, the Manu of the Hindoos and the supposed progenitor of the whole Aryan race. Fu-hi, the earliest philosopher, whose works form the groundwork of most later systems, was an impersonation of Feng, the wind : the Sacred Yih-king are a palpable forgery of the earlier Han. It is however only fair to state that these extreme views, so consistent with the destructive spirit of the age, are held by a very scant proportion of sinologues having a claim to emin ence.

But it cannot be denied that the theory is plausible, while there seems, as far at least as we have been aide to discover, but little collateral evidence in favour of the more flattering hypothe sis. One thing is certain: native historians are almost entirely silent upon the subject, or at best throw very meagre light upon its present obscurity ; while no assistance is rendered by any of those ancient monuments which, in the case of other countries, have been of such value to the antiquarian in filling up the gaps in their imperfect records, and elucidating the riddles of the past. We kuow nothing of the date when the colonisation of China took place, and but little more of the tribes who first settled on its boundless plains. Nor has any satisfactory solution been offered of the identity of the ancient worthies whose names are so reve renced by their descendants after a lapse of well-nigh fifty centuries.

There have been certain philologists, principally we believe among the early Catholic missionaries, who, inspired by a fine enthusiasm for the nation in which they saw so grand a field for evangelistic enterprise, and led astray by the ideographical nature of the written character, attempted to trace a connection between their names and those of Adam, Abraham, Abel, Enoch and Noah ; but such speculations are as vain as they are, at first sight, cap tivating, while the reckless theorising of later and less cultured writers amount to a mere exegetical impertinence.* One of the more moderate, though not perhaps least prejudiced, of Western commentators places the commencement of the historic period in the reign of Huan-ti, an Emperor said to have flourished 2697 be fore the Christian era, three hundred years before the time of Yao, and two hundred years after the existence of Fu-hi.

Huan ti is called the first legislator of China. It was one of his Minis ters who invented the celebrated cycle of sixty years ; to other statesmen of his reign is attributed the construction of the astronomical, musical and ceremonial systems ; while the Empress busied herself with the cultivation of the silkworm. But this hypothesis is doubtful in the extreme, nor is the contemplation of times so manifestly obscure, not to say fabulous, in any way connected with the object we have now in view. It will suffice for our purpose to confine our observations to the twenty-two acknowledged dynasties that have reigned successively in China ; the first of which, known to posterity as the 'Hia Ch'ao, belongs still to the semi-historic period. Even here we feel that we may be assuming too much. The history of the first four dynasties — the 'Hia, the Shang, the Chow and the 'Tsin — is somewhat vague ; and while the very act of formulating the meagre details at one's command imparts an air of tangibility to them which they do not in them selves possess, that is all the greater reason for excessive guarded ness.

Still there can be no doubt that even by this time China was growing in power, and that the neighbouring tribes were beginning to regard her with something of respect. Latterly, as we know, the changes of Government were perpetual, and the * For instance. A missionary lately attempted to prove the identity of P'an Ku-sliih, the 'Adam' of the Chinese, with Cush, the father of Nimrod ; and this is how he did it. In the name Cush we recognise the Hebrew cus, a cup— his sym bol being a golden goblet ; P'an is the Chinese for basin, and Ku-shih the nearest approach a Chinaman can make to the pronunciation of Cush ; consequently, the two men are evidently identical ! 'The force of bathos can no further go.' Chinese people passed many times beneath a foreign yoke. Out of the twenty-two dynasties which at various times held sway, a comparatively fair proportion were 'barbarian;' for it is a curious fact that in moralising upon these vicissitudes the Chinese con temptuously stigmatise their early conquerors as 'hu-jin, or savages, complacently oblivious that their present rulers belong to the same nomadic stock.