Bright Celestials [A novel.] By John Coming Chinaman (A. Lamont)

Preface

. ' Bright Celestials ' is a story of Chinese life at Home and Abroad in relation to Christian Missionary enterprise. Its unique characteristic is that it is written from the Chinese point of view. Such questions as those of Opium, Chinese Emigration, Secret Societies, the Social Evil, the Christian Missionary problem and Chinese anti-foreign feeling are dealt with in relation to Western influence and Christianity. For the facts, in addition to those observed by myself in the East, I am indebted to my Chinese friend, Mr Teck Soon of Singapore. To that gentle man are also largely due the idea and structure of vi

PREFACE.

the story; and in thanking him for his invaluable help, I take the opportunity of gladly acknowledging his co-operation. My thanks are also due to my friend, Mr James A. Melville of Edinburgh, for literary advice and aid in preparing the manuscript for the press. ' Bright Celestials ' is intended as a tribute to the claims of Old and New China on Western thought and sympathy. If it helps to create an interest in Chinese matters among the British reading public, it will have fulfilled the chief purpose of its production. ARCHIBALD LAMONT. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. BLACK ROCK 1 II. THE WINE PARTY 8 III. A PERIOD OF REFLECTION 22 IV. FROM OLD TO NEW 32 V. THE GRADUATE'S FUNERAL 43 VI. THE COACHING DAYS 54 VII. EVEN WAY 69 VIII. SALISBURY 78 IX. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT 90 X. TURNABOUT 106 XL TRANSITION 115 XII.

THE COOLY CONTENTS. VIII CHAP. PAGE. XIII. PROTECTION 143 XIV. HOME RULE 155 XV. THE SOCIETY MAN 172 XVI. FROM NEW TO OLD 186 XVII. THE ODD CHRISTIAN 204 XVIII. THE SOCIAL CANCER 218 XIX. REDEMPTION 236 XX. RESPONSIBILITY 254 XXI. HOMEWARD BOUND 274 XXII. THE OLD AND NEW COVENANT C H A P TE R I. BLACK ROCK. The China Sea — the sea of sickness and typhoons — lashes lustily the shores of Fokien province. Rocky promontories offer a grand and effectual resistance to the incessant attacks of dashing foam, and lend protection to the creeks and bays in which Fokien Celestials prosecute their calling as fishermen. The Fokiens are the plodding Saxons, in contrast with the Cantonese, who are the adventurous Danes of Southern China. Pirates also there are among the Fokiens ; but piracy is the distinctive boast of the Cantonese.

And although not so foolhardy as their brethren of Canton province, the Fokien people are equally brave, yet with a method in their bravery. They are the most success ful of all the Chinese emigrants. They are a people who do and dare, and their watchwords are ' Order and Enterprise.' At the head of one of the Fokien bays is a serpentine creek, and at the head of this creek stands the town of Black Piock. Hither the reader's eye must turn mean while, for here begins our tale. A It is a low-roofed house — none of your perpen dicular tenements such as abound in the cities and towns of the Western world. It is a literal house, modest as to dimensions and inhabitants, and situated at the south-east side — people call it the back part — of the town. Close by the entrance is a narrow pathway, the parading place, for generations past, of hardy sons of toil, whose industry, if you have respect to the burdens on their shoulders, would gladden the heart of a Carlyle.

From earliest dawn till long after sunset there hurry along this narrow pathway Celestial citizens, whose title to such citizenship would seem to consist in the amount of diligence with which each burden-bearer, his two loads on a pole, constantly, and as if unconscious of the calculation, performs the double task of keeping these loads in even poise and himself in motion. The typical one-man-between -two-loads has scarcely passed when not a transformation but a transposition scene arrests attention. The phenomenon is one-load between-two-men. The bearers labour beneath the burden, as their bent forms and half-running speed clearly show. But their hearts are stout and brave ; and they pass on — not however before there is time to discern that the freight is as bulky as it is heavy. It is a stout black-coloured live pig, of a size one often reads about, but seldom sees.

It is enshrouded in a basket — if such description be permitted to the few strips of wicker-work interwoven as a single piece of mechanism whereby the front and hind legs of the prisoner pass down into a liberty that is vitiated by the hard and fast bondage of the rest of its body. This contrivance is indeed more cage than basket — the BLACK ROCK. 3 whole pig is visible to the naked eye of the beholder. In such glaring suspense the living freight quickly passes in music out of sight. That sound has scarcely died away when onward comes a second pig, here also borne aloft by two men on the orthodox bamboo pole, but — alas for the inequalities of fortune in the lives of pigs as in the lives of men ! — unlike his more fortunate predecessor, he is without the luxury of a merciful prison-basket.

With head and feet turned upwards towards the skies ; with legs fore and aft tightly bound by the rope that hangs from the bamboo ; with back dangerously near to brushing the ground beneath him, he is borne along, quarrelling ineffectually with the inconvenience of his position, but so far as we know, thinking little of the early destiny of death that is to reward all his sufferings. Other pigs also, including sows, with their numerous brood careering at will in the road and out of it, await in blissful ignorance their respective times of trial, imprisonment, and death — an order of things that will continue so long as man fulfils the dual condition of ruling creation and eating pork. The neglected Chinese dog deserves notice here Like the pig, he has his day, if he has never had his regular meal.

Chinese virtue is exercised otherwise than in feeding dogs. Hence it is that this pathway is a realistic Plato's cave, resembling that classic spot most of all in the picture of this forlorn dog that is more shadow than substance. His ugly sores and scabs, which serve as poor substitutes for decent hair, place him at a disadvantage when compared with the least lucky English dog, whose coat of hair the worst fortune usually leaves intact. Such are the conspicuous blemishes of the Chinese dog, more sinned against than sinning. A slim framework of bones, with nose turned downwards — his tyrant Chinese master dares not deprive him of this direction of his quest which is his sole prerogative — he seeks a morsel, and more if that were possible, in the casual rubbish heap, thereby informing the world that he too has a right to live.

There are other and more eminent actors and sufferers in the scene of this pathway. A woman trying to walk as best she can by means of and yet despite her feet — crushed by a relentless custom that claims to confer on the Chinawoman the double benefit of beautifying her person, and checkmating her inborn and perverse tendency to gad after the men — passes along, leaning on her staff. Close behind her in single file are her two little ones, children in their years and stature, but old men in their faces. The supreme worth and dignity of humankind warrant much more than a casual look at this woman and her boys. But Browning has wisely said, or in words to the same effect : — ' Leave now for pigs and dogs Man has for ever.' Upward progress in the town of Black Rock, the fountain-head of this story, is made by a passage over dead men's bones.

On the other side of the pathway is a graveyard. The patch of ground is a gentle slope, dotted frequently with the tombs of ancestors recent and remote, tombs of earth and stone, which, shaped in horse-shoe Omega fashion and neatly ornamented, speak BLACK ROCK. 5 to Celestials of Doom. As to the mystery of Death — Confucius would call it the mystery of Life — whether Death ends all, or means to sleep, perchance to dream, the materialism of China has not yet reached its scientific stage in its treatment of the theme. The 'superstitions' of China, like those of the remaining two-thirds of humanity, die hard. Hence these tombs, the marks of sedulous attention paid by each successive generation to its dead. These are the unutterable groanings, too deep for a nation's choicest words or time-honoured institutions.

They act the part of Banquo's ghost, stepping in betimes to mock and irritate the self-styled scientist, who, poor fool, imagines that he has solved all mystery when he has repeated his creed of dissolution, and reduced mankind to dust and ashes. The filial Chinaman, mourning for his fathers, like Rachel for her children, refuses to be comforted. Piunning through these haunts of dead men, to meet at a well on the rough roadside, is a stream of living water, called by a truth-loving community ' Corpses' Juice Well,' known for several generations past to be the best drinking water in the town. It is praised for the health-giving qualities which it possesses as a remedy for the opium-smoking disease. Near to this well — streaming from it— are the heroes of the' Flowery Land. Here meet together the dying living and the living-dead.

It is the afternoon of a day in the mid-autumn of the year 1867. Seated at the table of Lin Ming Kuang, Literary Graduate, is a company of representative men, worthy citizens of Black Rock. They take a keen interest in local affairs, including the viands on the table. But their conversation shows that they are no less interested in the wider concerns of their lives as Celestials and as men. The women of the household are not in this scene. They are behind it. They prepare the dishes for this festival which mine host, the graduate, has commanded should be held to-day. The time-honoured custom of a mid-autumn festival adds strength and dignity to the injunctions of the head of the family, whose word in well-regulated Chinese families excites the envy of Western husbands, since it is absolute law.

Although the company of invited guests is not a large one, the women behind are kept busy. Victuals of rice, pork, fowl, frogs (which a sprinkling of pepper greatly improves), sea-slugs, and other dainties, dressed up in different bowls, hospitably overladen, and cone shaped as the degree of solidity will permit, are being brought from behind by men-servants for the guests in the front room. In this way is brought to its triumphant stage the work of these industrious women who remain in the back part of the house, their privileged and peculiar place. And when at intervals a lull takes place in the conversations of Ming Kuang and his guests, the subdued sound of voices behind is quite audible. The hostess has her own little group of female guests, helping her to execute the special tasks of the day on behalf of the lords of creation in front.

Such a hard and fast barrier as that which exists between the sexes appertains to the Chinese in common with other Oriental races. Chinese propriety demands that woman should be kept out of sight. Parliament, platform, and pulpit are a fortiori out of the question in BLACK ROCK. China. On our side are the Western Societies for the promulgation of Woman's Rights, on their side the Chinese rigorous restrictions on women : these are the two opposite extremities of the rope in the world' social tug-of-war.

Chapter II. The Wine Party

Our host, Lin Ming Kuang, is a scholar — according to the Chinese style of reckoning — a graduate of the first degree. He is between forty and fifty years of age, of middle height, and — if he may be described after the fashion of a detective proclamation — with the small beginnings of a whisker. His bearing is dignified beyond the average dignity of a Chinaman, and, with deliberation be it said, beyond the average dignity of a graduate. Propriety in actions, which means dignity in attitude, is the ideal quality of the Chinese people ; and where is such a quality to be found if it be not found in their scholars ? Our host is the typical embodiment of what ought to be expected of a Chinese scholar. He is the quintessence of those excellences that cast a halo round every educated Chinaman in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen.

But, like Socrates, Ming Kuang is not prepossessing in appearance, although his large, penetrative eye redeems him from ugliness. The unusually large upper lip that seems to dispute the existence of the lower one, the long, straight, sharp, angular nose sloping normally down wards, and the large massive forehead, are some of the more pronounced features of a face which distinctly bears the marks of decision of character. But the "pale cast of thought" modifying these marks of decision is necessary to Ming Kuang's keenly chiselled face. Unless he is encouraging his polite guests to lift their chop-sticks or beckoning them to drink wine, his look is one of sadness bordering on gloom. The best Western parallel is the Agnostic, who, so often susceptible to fits of mental depression, due rather to temperament than to philosophy, has theoretically satisfied himself, having weighed all his earlier thoughts and hopes of God and heaven in the balance of his wisdom, that these have been found wanting.

Not different is the impression given by the features of Ming Kuang seated at the head of his table. The guests at this afternoon wine-party — for such is the festival technically called — are four in number. These four, with their host and croupier (one of Ming Kuang's relatives), make the modest number of six at table. On the left side of the host (the side of honour) are the two brothers Wu, both graduates, but much younger than their host, who has begun to be venerable in their eyes. Both these young men have already studied hard, and yet, as they themselves acknowledge — though only to such a man as their friend Ming Kuang — they have still much to learn. Opposite, at the right side of the host, are the other two guests. The one next to the host is Pun Kwi, a man well advanced in middle life.

He is a retired merchant, who has spent more than twenty years in Canton, and who has just returned to spend the remainder of his days in his native town of Black Rock. The fourth guest is the Head-man of one of the wards of Black Rock. He acts as the champion of his fellow-townsmen in presenting their rights and demands to the civil and military authorities. Like his host and the other guests, he too is ' had in reputation ' among the people. His position as Head-man has heavy responsibility as well as honour. He is one of the 'commoners' in the complicated Chinese governmental system. And according to the measure of trust which his fellow-townsmen repose in him as the mouthpiece of Democracy, he is powerful with the Emperor's Executive Government, including the district mandarin. And the trust of his con stituency this Head-man enjoys to no mean extent.

Freighted, however, as he is with the heavy duties and responsibilities of his ward, he can drink wine and be sociable like his neighbours. That a Chinaman who is a ruler takes time to dine is a lesson, moreover, which foreign ambassadors in Chinese territory have learned much to their profit. According to report, ambassadors from the West, untutored in this important respect, have come to the East and been made wise. Diligent in clinging to the truth that ' a little learning is a dangerous thing,' these apt pupils have so thoroughly excelled their tutors as to make dining their sole occupation. It is a case of Specialisation of Function. This age is an age of concentration, without which no one can expect to rise either to fortune or to fame. The company are already well through their meal.

First, the croupier served the wine in small cups for the guests, then for the host, and lastly for himself, and between the various dishes he has repeated the task. From the successive bowls brought by the servant and placed by the croupier in the centre of the table, the guests have taken morsels by means of their chop sticks, the host encouraging them from time to time- The usual almond tea has been served. The indispensable bowl of hot water has been placed on the table, and here each one for himself washes his chop-sticks and spoon. Then at a given signal it is announced that drinking wine must cease. It is not that the host grudges the wine, for he encourages his guests to make the best use of their short time. ' We shall now fill our cups and eat our rice ' — in this way he warns himself and his guests that their ' revels now are ended.' The hard and fast Chinese custom forbids wine after rice.

To violate this custom in ordinary instances is a mark of gross impiety. It would mean for a Chinaman disloyalty to his filial obligations. As a sign that the last dish has come, duck boiled in salted cabbage has been placed on the table, surrounded by the usual smaller dishes of salted onion, cucumber and pork, accompaniments for the rice. The conservative salt of Chinese custom (to say nothing of the particular quality of Chinese wine) does much to preserve this people from drunkenness, which accordingly is not and cannot be their national vice. So far, the conversation has been measured and general. But now the spirit of reserve that prevailed when they first sat down to table loses its spell over them, and they become more lively. ' That foreign teacher came to our town yesterday, and is still here, I suppose,' remarked the elder brother Wu.

There was nothing but politeness in the state ment itself ; but the tone in which it was uttered did not bespeak Scholar Wu's deep affection for the foreigner. ' Which of the foreign teachers do you mean ? ' asked Ming Kuang, whose interest was excited by the remark. ' I can recognise three of them now,' he continued, not waiting for an answer to his question. ' One of them has thick whiskers, and is always reading or writing while he sits in his chair. He takes notes of everything that is said to him. A poor shopkeeper not far from here, a worshipper of God in the foreigners' Ceremony Hall, told me that when that teacher gets out of his chair at the end of his journey, before eating rice, he copies out from his smaller book, which he carries in his hand, all that he has noted down in the interval.

The book into which he copies all his notes is a very large one, and is encased in a tin box made for the purpose. He is very laborious. No one wishing to be high in our august Emperor's court could work harder. Then, again, I can recognise two other foreign teachers, who come this way at intervals. The last time they were here they were together. The one is tall and quiet ; the other is a stout man who speaks to everybody. From what I have seen and heard of him, I believe he is deeply versed in our manners and customs. These two men are younger than the teacher who carries the big book. I should like to know if the foreign teacher here just now is one of these, Wu, and if so, which of them he is.' ' I think it must be the man with the book,' replied Wu. ' He seemed to me to be a middle-aged man, although it was difficult for me to see much of him.

A scholar is compelled to starve his curiosity when he is in the midst of a crowd. But these barbarians seem all of them to be very like each other. Old and young alike have whiskers. It is very strange. There can be no reverence or decorum among such a set of people.' At this point the Head-man broke in on the conversa tion to say that the foreigner who had just come to Black Eock was the same one that a year ago had been stoned and otherwise ill-treated by their fellow-townsmen for preaching foreign doctrine. It was, of course, only a few fellows of the baser sort who had used such violence towards the foreigner ; but the rest of the community did not think it right to prevent such violence, as all alike were suspicious of the foreigner's doctrine. It sounded well enough, but it was clear that it tended to make men despise their ancestral tablets. ' 0 yes, I remember,' said Ming Kuang. ' He is the most elderly of the foreign teachers.

It was he whom the people stoned, and he is the man who carries the big book. My opinion is that the people ought not to have stoned him until they first heard clearly what he had to say on behalf of himself and his doctrine. He is very courageous to come back again to our place. I am told that if he did not come back again he would consider himself unfaithful to his duty.' ' Well, teacher,' said the Head-man, ' I do not think that even the least polite of our people will ill-treat him again. Yesterday, the district warder, who is responsible to me for burials, showed to me by clear proof that that foreign teacher's heart is good.' ' Why ? ' sceptically asked the elder Wu. ' Yes,' ventured the younger Wu, who had remained silent till now. ' It is not easy for us to believe that any foreigner's heart can be good.

These red-haired foreigners have already disturbed the peace of our Empire in many ways.' ' As to what red-haired foreigners usually are,' rejoined the Head-man, ' I dare not with my slight words speak emphatically in the presence of such distinguished scholars as are here.' ' You unduly honour us,' interjected the host. ' Give us the benefit of your weighty opinion, good friend. ' What do you think of the foreign teacher ? ' ' Venerable teacher, I shall tell you simply what I know, and you can do the thinking,' responded the Head-man. ' Well, the district warder but a few hours ago told me that a wayside traveller, an opium-devil, whose relatives live far away from this town, became seriously ill last night at an inn and died. The inn is close to the foreigners' Ceremony Hall. Not knowing what to do with the corpse, the innkeeper got it removed out to one of those tablet shrines for people without posterity, leaving it lying on the top of some straw there.

That place is just opposite to the room occupied by the foreign teacher. This morning the foreign teacher's heart was moved to pity at the sight of the corpse ; and sending for the warder, requested him to bury the corpse, promising at the same time to pay for the coffin and the expenses of burial. The expenses, amounting to three dollars three hundred cash, the foreigner has duly paid, showing by such an act that his heart is well disposed, and that he deserves happiness.' ' That sounds well, good friend,' said the elder Wu, still in a suspicious vein. ' But all foreigners have an eye to business. In this way he tries to avoid another stoning, that he may thus get a free hand to propagate his harmful teaching.' ' Teacher Wu is suspicious of even the best acts of foreigners,' slowly remarked the host, with a quiet, deliberate smile. 'My worthy friend Kwi, who has spent so many years at Canton, where foreigners abound, can speak weighty words on this subject.' 'Venerable teacher,' replied the merchant, 'I am unworthy of such an honour as that of giving my unimportant opinion.

But such as it is I give it. To do the foreigners justice, they are very exact and proper in their commercial transactions with people. They don't seem to think it desirable, however, to make merit. Like merchants among ourselves, of course, they make all the money they can. But their words are always straight, and they fulfil their promises.' ' While you were in Canton, Kwi,' asked the host, ' did you hear the foreigner preach the doctrine just as the teacher does who is here in Black Bock just now . " 'Yes, once or twice. But I never went very near the spot where the preacher stood.' ' What is your opinion of the foreigner's doctrine ? ' asked Ming Kuang, following up his previous question. ' Alas ! teacher, my words are slight. I think that their doctrine is good. They tell us to reverence and obey our parents ; and they further tell us to reverence and obey the Heavenly Father.

This latter doctrine is, however, not very plain to me.' ' Ay, good friend, that's it,' interrupted the elder Wu. ' And because it is not plain you don't know how it leads those who follow it into treacherous snares.' ' I could not help noticing,' continued Pun Kwi, ' that the many foreigners in Canton City despise the red haired teacher, who seems to be of the same nation and language as themselves. There is little or no friendship between the foreign teacher and the other foreigners whose work it is to trade.' ' Do you think that there can be two sets of foreigners ? ' asked the younger Wu. ' That must be so, I think,' responded Pun Kwi. ' I venture to think,' said Ming Kuang, as a judge would sum up evidence, 'that this foreign teacher who carries the big book is not ignorant of what our ancient sages have taught us.

One of our own townsmen, who professes belief in the foreigners' teaching, told me, however, that what we have learned from our sages is not enough, and that the Supreme Being has sent foreigners here to teach us further. " That we must be saved," is what the foreigner strongly emphasises. I have asked the friend of the foreigners what is meant by being "saved," and the answer I have invariably received is that to be saved means to get into heaven after death. This of course sounds pleasant enough. But what astonishes me is that a scholarly man like that foreign teacher with the big book should not only believe this himself, but also be so anxious as he seems to teach our countrymen the same thing.' ' After what our venerable host has said about the foreign teacher's being a scholar,' said the elder Wu, ' I dare not argue on the point of that foreign teacher's capabilities.

But 1 should point out to my good friends here that the doctrine of Buddha, which came from India to China many centuries ago, is believed by the common people among us to this day. But we who have studied our sages and exercised our minds know quite well that what Buddha has taught us about happiness after death and the tortures of hell is not worthy of our serious thought.' ' It is the worship of Jesus Christ that the foreigners proclaim in these parts,' said the Head-man. 'Yes, it is very mysterious,' said the host. 'These men seem to vary at times between the worship of Jesus Christ and the worship of the Supreme Being. That friend of the foreigner to whom I have already alluded told me the other day that Jesus Christ who lived in this world two thousand years ago was the Son of the Supreme Being, and that He rose from the dead, and is living now.

That is rather a heavy demand to make on one's belief, is it not ? ' 'If we cannot believe it, venerable teacher,' said the elder Wu, 'we must conclude that it is not true.' ' To come to such a conclusion seems, in a way, right enough,' replied the host. ' But this foreign teacher seems to know all that we know, and more. He speaks very boldly about men's bad hearts and wrong actions, and about their need for repentance and reformation. And he speaks about a time of judgment after death. That he can speak so boldly is a great mystery to me.' Beaders not knowing the language of which the fore going is a modified translation may congratulate them selves. The criticisms passed upon all foreigners alike by these Celestials were cruelly candid and unreserved. The merciful summary here given of the remarks of Lin Ming Kuang and his guests establishes it as an axiom that the Chinese dinner does not overshadow all other topics.

It is very remarkable but quite account able. Things Chinese are always arranged in inverse order. Tea has already been served. The large ornamented pipes and the small cigarettes (an importation by Pun Kwi from Hong-Kong) are now being operated upon by the host and his guests. By a gradual process the conversations between these friends became more strictly private in their B character. The host entered into a quiet talk with the merchant. The subject was one lying close to the Chinese heart. As for Chinese duty, it stretches back into the past in filial piety, and the worship of ancestors. Chinese duty is retrospective. But Chinese happiness is prospective. A Chinaman is possessed of the germs of such happiness when he has the good fortune to have male children. Both Ming Kuang and Pun Kwi are heads of families only in name.