The Chinese as they are: their moral, social, and literary character. A new analysis of the language; with ... views of their ... arts and sciences

Preface

. The appearance of this httle work has been delayed by cir cumstances over which the Author had no control. This he regrets, but still cherishes a hope that the book wdl not find public interest in matters bearing upon China less intense than it was a twelvemonth since. China, with those countries which look up to her for models, may not unfitly be styled a moiety of the world. To the merchant, the antiquary, the Christian phdanthropist, and the lover of natural science, this moiety of the world presents a field wed calculated to enkindle desire, to awaken curiosity, and to make every man of enterprise ask, with the deepest anxiety, " How can I get through the thick fence which policy has thrown around it?" Providence, in her mysterious ar rangements, seems to be on the point of solving this pro blem ; whde hope invites us to put ourselves in readiness for a consummation so devoutly to be wished.

When the Author contemplated China a few years ago as a sphere of labour, he felt his mind bewildered in a laby rinth of doubts and perplexities. A sojourn in that country, however, dispeded those doubts and perplexities, and conb VI

PREFACE.

. vinced him that they were ad founded in a misconception of the Chinese character. It has, indeed, been the aim of the Tartar Government to render intercourse with foreigners as wayward and as contradictory as possible, because such a course tended to keep hght from flowing into the country, and replenished the coffers of half -paid officers. The Go vernment of China is purposely absurd, but the people are reasonable in their views and conceptions. Future inquiry will demonstrate the truth of this remark ; and should this work in any measure help forward such an inquiry, the Author will deem himself singularly happy. A larger work was designed ; but as so many books pre fer theh claims to the leisure of reading men, the Author has done rightly, perhaps, in yielding to those who suggested that a small one would be more acceptable.

The Author commends the chapter upon " the Chinese Language" to the special attention of the reader. It is not easy to be very interesting or very popular in treating a subject so far removed from the ordinary range of investiga tion ; still he thinks that the man who has a taste for philological researches, wdl find principles stated in it that are worthy of his best consideration, and a mode of dealing with the Chinese language suggested, which wid ultimately unravel ad the absurdities adhering to that or any other tongue. In the chapters on "Music" and "Phdosophy" some curious matters are given, which wid scarcely fail to cad up a train of ideas and reflections in those who dehght to trace the records of science as it existed in its primeval simplicity.

PREFACE.

. VII The Author has not made free with anything belonging to his predecessors, but has confined himself to what fed under his own notice, with the help of native works. In making this observation, he would not be understood as wishing to throw a hint of disparagement at the perform ances of gentlemen who have written upon the subject ; but he imagined he should best encourage a spirit of free inquiry and an independence of thought in others by en deavouring to set the example himself. In watching the progress of our armament in China, the Author is prepared to hear of delays, mistakes, and half executed measures, for such things cleave almost necessarily to every human undertaking. British skid and British valour wid easdy subdue the Chinese in battle ; but it wdl require the greatest moderation, sagacity, and tact, on the part of an officer appointed to govern a province, or an island, to make them acquainted with the blessings of peace under a new system of pubhc discipline.

At the same time, the habits of the natives are so friendly to good order, that as soon as they are practicady convinced that the civil administration has been changed, not for the worse, but for the better, they wdl rank with the most quiet, most happy, and best conducted subjects of the British emphe. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. PAGE Present Aspect of China — Causes and Probable Results of the War 1 CHAP. II. Opium Traffic — Opium Mania, and its Remedies, 10 CHAP. III. Physical and Moral Character of a Chinese, 14 CHAP. IV. A Chinese Woman, 27 CHAP. V. Circulation of the Scriptures, 49 CHAP. VI. A Summary of the Facilities and Difficulties in the way of Mis sionary Labour, \ . . 58 CHAP. VII. The Relations of Son, Neighbour, and Subject, in China, X CONTENTS. CHAP. VIII, I'AGE Music of the Chinese, 75 CHAP. IX.

Religions of China, 94 CHAP. X. A Chinaman's Estimate of the Female Character, 102 CHAP. XI. Dramatic Entertainments ofthe Chinese, 106 CHAP. XII. Husbandry of the Chinese, 118 CHAP. XIII. Medical Missionary Society, 127 CHAP. XIV. Chinese Military and Navy, 134 CHAP. XV. Chinese Philosophy, 143 CHAP. XVI. Diet of the Chinese, 151 CHAP. XVII. Logic and Metaphysics, 160 CHAP. XVIII. The Chinese Language, ]g5 CHAP. XIX. Elocution among tho Chinese, 17g CONTENTS. XI CHAP. XX. PAGE Composition and Penmanship among the Chinese, 184 CHAP. XXI. Festivities and Processions, 192 CHAP. XXII. Strolling Doctors and Fortune-tellers, 204 CHAP. XXIII. Chinese Architecture, 212 CHAP. XXIV. Chinese Drawing, 219 CHAP. XXV. Surgery among the Chinese, 224 CHAP. XXVI. Medical Knowledge in China, 230 CHAP. XXVII.

Curious Conceptions of the Human Frame, 238 CHAP. XXVIII. Veterinary Art, &c '. . . . 2-13 CHAP. XXIX. Maladies in China, 218 CHAP. XXX. Gymnic Feats — Costume, 253 CHAP. XXXI. Thrifty Habits of tho Chinese, CONTENTS. CHAP. XXXII. PAGE Arts and Manufactures, 266 CHAP. XXXIIL Hongkong and its Neighbourhood, 279 CHAP. XXXIV. Chinese Roots, with their Derivatives, , 301 CHAP. XXXV. Aboriginal Inhabitants, or the " Meaou-tsze," 316 CHAP. XXXVI. Miscellaneous,

Chapter I. Present Aspect Of China Causes And Probable Results Of The

WAR. 1 HE pages of history teem with moral wonders, — some to delight, some to enlarge our conceptions, and not a few to awaken a spirit of research. But among the vast assortment, there are perhaps not many things better fitted to excite our curiosity than the patience which this country has exercised towards the Chinese. The expulsion of an ambassador, with ad the sacredness and majesty of his character — the death of the pious and high-minded Lord Napier, who was harassed into his grave — and the usage of Britons, who, whatever might be theh rank or merits, were uniformly treated with every mark of contempt and scorn that wily cunning and ingenious malice could devise, — were circumstances wed suited to provoke the resentment of a nation inured to conquest and dady enlarging its sway. But they were passed by with a patient shrug ; in vention exhausted her stores to find out motives to palliate and excuse ; and forgetfulness made what speed she could, to draw her leaden ved over the whole.

To explain and account for this, would lead us into a labyrinth of investigation, and carry us into fields preoccupied by others. The perusal of many papers in the " Chinese Repository," written by individuals of great research and experience, wid throw light upon the subject : and to this work I refer with pleasure those who are desirous of information upon many interest ing topics. But I may observe, by the way, that a great nation should have been so long content to occupy a position so undignified in the eye of one-half the world, is at tributable perhaps to that paradoxical ah which was indus triously thrown over everything connected with China, and to that false phdosophy which sought to prove that the no tions and habits of the people were so singular and so eccentric, that they could never be reduced to the ordinary principles of humanity.

But whatever may have been the causes of this forbearance, it encouraged the Chinese to proceed from one act of outrage to another, tdl they sur rounded the factories with soldiers, kept the foreigners, with Her Majesty's superintendent, close prisoners, under a threat of starvation, and invited a hungry mob to rifle and carry off theh property. No chcumstance was omitted to make this imprisonment as insulting as it was terrible. The anxiety of Captain Elliot to comply with theh de mands, and the surrender of a large amount of British pro perty, seemed to betray fear and weakness, and thus softly wooed the haughty Tartar to fresh chsplays of pride and insolence : — he wid not adow any of British name a foot breadth of sod, nor a fathom of sea-room, within the Celestial domains — he proscribes our manufactures as tilings poduted — and, to crown all, he reads us a lecture on morality, that there may be no corner in our hearts where we can hide ourselves from shame and degradation!

He has ever treated us as a few poor leprous wretches, subsisting only through the superabundance of imperial clemencv, CAUSES OF THE WAR. now, he proposes to poison us with medicated waters, to hew us in pieces with the sword, to burn our ships, and, in a word, to sweep us from the earth. In addition to this, we have the infelicity of knowing, that many hundreds of our Chinese friends are ruined in circumstances, and exposed to ad manner of danger in person, for no other offence than that of shewing us kindness. To wipe off these stains, to vindicate our character, and to shew that we can protect our subjects from insult and wrong, we have sent an arma ment, with a land force, to demand satisfaction, and, if not speeddy made, to take it by force. If it be fit and right, in the nature of things, that wicked men and wicked na tions should have sud licence to play what pranks they please, without check or reproof, then this war is unjust; but if a limit ought to be put to such proceedings, and rea son be inadequate, then our Government has acted wisely in resorting to force.

A firm and decided tone in asking for redress, and the appearance of a fleet in the Yellow Sea, at some former period, might have induced the Tartar Court to refrain from the customary phrases of abuse, to treat our representatives with courtesy, and to change a system of smuggling — for the whole of our transactions are scarcely worthy of a better name — into a lawful traffic. But I ap prehend the matter has proceeded too far ; success has made them bold, and they have cut off theh own retreat. Their pride must now be signady humbled, before any nation can deal with them with either safety or honour. As to the motives which induced the Tartar government to throw down the gauntlet with Britain, and hurl defiance in her teeth, I wid take upon me to say, that it was not from any concern at the demoralizing effects which the use of opium had upon the population.

I am not bound to make so great a compliment of my understanding, as to give men credit for any feelings so honourable, who, from the highest to the lowest, are hars and extortioners by a kind of official patent. The state of theh currency — as Spanish b dodars were, and are stdl, running out at the rate of several millions a year, and the natives make but a limited use of the mineral stones of the country — was indeed calculated to make them serious, and to put them upon seeking for a remedy. So far, opium may be reckoned amongst the real causes of our expulsion from China. But this cause is weakened, and dwindles almost to nothing, when we con sider, that these very Tartar authorities have been the clnef promoters of this traffic, and have derived large profit from it. These profits appeared under the formality of fees, bribes, mulcts, forfeitures, but were substantially a duty upon the drug ; which duty, like water in the hydraulic spiral of Archimedes, did wind its way tdl it flowed into the impe rial coffers, though of course greatly diminished by frequent attrition in its route.

The real causes of the part they have taken with us, I beheve, were, 1 . The fear of truth and discovery; 2. a secret, though dl-defined abhor rence of our religion; and 3. a dread of our arms. 1 . They had always been in the habit of representing us in all official communications, as poor, untaught, id-mannered, base, cunning, and destitute of humanity. The gratuitous distribution of books, the proceedings of our medical phdanthropy, and our dady walks among and interviews with the people, gave a practical refutation to these calumnies, and shewed that theh inventors were a set of unprincipled liars. I beheve they are not accused of too great a sensitiveness about theh reputation, and, therefore, whether they were held as dealers in truth or falsehood, was perhaps a matter of indifference.

But they sagaciously foresaw, that in time the popular voice would demand an extension of those privileges which foreigners enjoved, or rather, a repeal of those disabilities under which they laboured. A Tartar magistrate tramples upon the rights of a few individuals, a village, or a neighbourhood, with im punity; but he is somewhat afraid of public opinion, though in China it has to struggle with everything that can check CAUSES OF THE WAR. its growth and maturity. They were apprehensive lest the inhabitants of distant towns and cities should say, " We saw with our own eyes, when on a visit to Canton, that the people find these foreigners kind and gentle in theh man ners, intelligent, sud of good works among the lame and the bhnd, distributors of good books, very honourable in theh dealings, and, withal, very profitable to us in the way of buying and selling : adow them to come and settle among us, that we may share in ad these advantages." — To cut off the possibility of such appeals as these, they deemed it right to look about for some expedient, and they soon found the opium traffic most opportune to theh purpose.

Nothing was necessary but to make the edicts against it a httle more stringent and effective. This would produce a constructive immorality in the sale of the drug, and lead to bribery, disputes, violence, and lastly to phacy. Thus ad the guilt accruing from such deeds would be chargeable upon the foreigner, who would appear in the light of a heinous wrong-doer, whde they would stand in the favourable aspect of persons anxious to check vice and punish those concerned in its promotion. And that they managed matters wed, we need go no further for a proof than this fact, that there are many sensible men at home and abroad who think them sincerely bent upon the extermination of a fearful evil. Opium has indeed answered the purpose, — it has put many a crown into the pockets of a poorly-paid magistracy, — it has served as an admirable instrument for maintaining a system of wholesome terror in the empire ; but it has been infinitely more valuable, as a pretext for in sulting the British nation, and keeping her sons from doing good among the Chinese. 2.

There is something in the very ah of Christianity, however darkly exhibited in translations and tracts, that excites the hatred of the proud idolater, long before he can be supposed to understand the spirit and drift of it. Some thing hke intuition seems to warn him against it, as a code that aims its powerful shafts at human pride, and never grants any quarter tdl it has laid it flat in the dust. It is a savour of death to ad who are wed-pleased with them selves : to such, there is something deadly in the very per fume of it. The Tartars, fided to drunkenness with theh own vanity, see enough of Christianity to hate it, though theh ideas of its doctrines are necessarily most confused and most inadequate; and this hatred prompted them to drive out those who were anxious to set the religion of Christ before the people, under the plausible colour of banishing the use of the drug.

When they proscribed British manufactories, they leveded a secret blow at the Word of God. 3. Added to these two causes, was the dread of our arms. Taou-kwang and his courtiers had long contemplated the British hon, as he lay couching upon the plains of India, and the glare of his eyes pierced theh coward souls through and through. But at length they had reason to beheve that this hon was fast bound, so that one might pluck his hair and sport with Ids mane at pleasure. " What can the English do. If they sth, they wid lose India at once." I am not aware that this was at any time stated in a memo rial to the Imperial Government, but it was on the wings of report, in readiness to welcome the High Commissioner at the commencement of his late magnanimous proceedings. Tins, backed by the yielding facility of Elliot, who was anxious to save the lives of his countrymen at any cost or concession, tempted Lin to persevere in measures which, when analysed, seem very little better than the acts of a madman.

For what but the strong persuasion, that we were so encumbered with our Indian possessions that we could not move a hair's breadth without losing them, coidd have led him to chadenge a nation which, with a single frigate, can destroy the whole of the Imperial naw, and spread terror and desolation along the shores, from Canton to Teen-tsin? Surely he reckoned without his host; for PROBABLE RESULTS OF THE WAR. 7 while he was assuming this as a fact, it was proved to be a mistake by the sudden conquest of Afghanistan and the wholesome check given to the movements of the Burmese. But Taou-kwang has had the pleasure of a temporary vic tory over his fears ; he saw Great Britain at his feet, loaded with every indignity that he and his minions could devise for her; and what is very remarkable, he might see, if his ken could reach far enough, some on this side of the world who appear desirous that she should he there for ever.

As to the results of this dispute, we might say, that we know not what a clay may bring forth to ourselves, and, therefore, are but poorly qualified to foretel what may happen to a moiety of the world : there is, however, a pleasure in speculating, especiady when we feel deeply in terested in the issue. Dissatisfactions exist in China, as it appears from the records of many rebellions ; and an industrious and thriving people, as are many of her inhabitants, seems fitted for inhaling a few draughts of freedom. If the discontented spirits of the country and the foreigner should come to an understanding, emancipation from the Tartar yoke, and the setting up of some native prince, are events within the calculations of likelihood. Such a prince would feel it to be a matter of duty, or of policy at least, to cultivate the friendship of his patrons ; and the smadest proof he could shew of his gratitude would be, to lay open his vast territories to ad the fah appulses of commerce, rehgion, and science.

The blessings of religion and her handmaid, phdosophy, would have a scope in the Celestial land as wide as the prospect is goodly ; and commerce would pour wealth into the stores of the Chinese, whde it enriched the stranger. They need a multitude of things which the foreigner can make for them, and which they would purchase with eagerness if their taste were a httle consulted in the fashion of the articles. But what would they give us in return? Why, apart from theh silks and teas, they woidd supply us with beautiful paper for our wood-cuts, native books for that generation of students which wdl erelong spring up in this country, with curio sities of ad sorts, and with many ingenious manufactures ; and if these were not enough, theh mountains would make up the deficiency. A few mining companies, with the im provements of modern art, would extract many an unseen mass of treasure from the ancient hills of China, to stimu late adventure and enlarge the boundaries of knowledge.

The interdicts against opium have been one great cause of the increase in its consumption, for the inhibition gives a charm to enjoyment, and the seder and the custom-house officer a triple interest in the sale. Repeal the prohibition, and the inducements to sed and to smoke will be lessened by one-half, and the curse under which the country hes wid be lightened by just so much. The legislator's business is to see that every subject has his own: when he begins to make laws about morality, he encroaches upon the rights of the governed, and instead of being by appointment for the good of society, he becomes a pest to it. The Tartar au thorities have pursued a course which is as wicked in theory as it has been in practice. Mother Church legislated against heresy, and became herself the sink of everything that is filthy and abominable in false doctrine and practice.

In the same way, the former promoted the very thing that, in show, they were aiming to destroy. The tendency of the present controversy may be to put a stop to such unneces sary interference, and consequently some of the evils which ic has generated. If commerce be free, there wdl be found health enough in her general constitution to overcome any disease that may have seized upon one of her members; and many evils, when they have come to a crisis, wid cor rect themselves, if the priest and the magistrate wid but leave them alone. As a remedy for the evils which a free and unrestricted intercourse with foreigners and the aboli tion of those odious interdicts may leave unredressed, Christianity, with the Bible in her hand, comes to our aid; PROBABLE RESULTS OF THE WAR. and the only stipulation she wishes to make is "fair play."

The result of the present war may ultimately be to sweep away ad lets and hindrances, and to give the opium mer chant full licence to sed his drug where he pleases. Wed, and what of that, so long as we have equal licence to dis perse the Scriptures and to teach the natives the way of salvation?

Chapter II. Opium Traffic Opium Mania, And Its Remedies

It was not enough that every chest of opium paid a stipulated sum to the custom-house and the revenue cruiser; the smuggling boats were destroyed, and the whole business of importation taken into the hands of the government. I remember standing on the deck of the Lintin, an opium store-ship belonging to an American house, whde a boat, manned with seventy-five men and wed appointed with arms, took about 50,000 dodars' worth of opium on board, under the auspices of the government flag. At that time the harbour of Honghong was covered with boats, bearing the custom-house flag, which had come thither to lade with opium and other contraband articles. The opium schooners used to he as near to Canton as the river was to its banks, and there in the sud hght of day discharge their cargo. They had passed the government cruisers near the entrance of the Bogue and the forts themselves, without let or hindrance.

Among the thousands who have suffered in person and property for being either ready or constructively concerned in selling or using opium, three or four ordv* of the government officers are said to have been caded to ac count for their conduct ; though the manner in which they have acted in the matter is summed up iu the fodowin? story, which was often cited to me by an inhabitant of more than forty years in China. The magistrates in a OPIUM MANIA. 11 town upon the coast beheaded thirteen opium smugglers one morning; and before three o'clock the same day they sent to the foreigners, saying, We are ready to admit opium again upon the terms heretofore observed betweenus. — They had washed their hands in blood, and were now prepared to incur a new debt of gudt, to be liquidated in due time after the same manner.

In China, the spendthrift, the man of lewd habits, the drunkard, and a large assortment of bad characters, slide into the opium-smoker ; hence the drug seems to be charge able with ad the vices of the country. Opium, doubtless, has her victims in persons who, but for her fascinating lures, might have escaped theh ruin; but in the great ma jority of instances she only adds one stain more to a charac ter already poduted. Investigations and some statistics may throw fight upon the subject, and shew in some measure how far the use of the drug has been the principal, and not the accomplice only, in the undoing of individuals. Many use it "in moderation," and are sufficiently masters of themselves to keep on the right side of slavery. But it is a subtle and traitorous inmate, and no one who has once felt the exhilarating effects of it, is sure that he will not one day fad a prey to its delusions.

This great metropolis has a choice of wretched and degraded sights, but nothing that I ever see reminds me of an opium-smoker. His lank and shriveded limbs, tottering gait, sadow visage, feeble voice, and the death-boding glance of his eye, are so superlative in their degree, and so closely blended in their union, that they at once bespeak him to be the most forlorn creature that treads upon the ground. Such sights, however, are not very common, for the miserable beings generady hide them selves from public view, so that, amidst many thousands of healthy and happy faces, we only see here and there one of these prodigies of evil habit. Too much leisure, more money than is required for the necessaries of life, a gudty conscience, an unquiet mind, and bad company, are the THE CHINESE AS THEY ARE. promoters, if not the causes, of opium-smoking.

Happy is that man who, when he has provided for the necessities of the body, has nothing to bestow upon its vices. Some have come to our hospitals to be cured, who said that a friend persuaded them to use it as a remedy for a disease that afflicted them. Quacks in China often advertise their skid in removing the inextinguishable craving for opium, but theh merits in this way, I should think, are very questionable. Among the remedies for this evil, I might mention the fodowing : — The downfall of the Tartar government, which has been the chief agent in nursing this abominable traffic, and the setting up of a power that woidd ensure as much liberty as the nation is able to bear ; — the repeal of ad pro hibitory edicts against its importation, and the laying open the whole country to the healthy influences of foreign com merce ; — the establishment of temperance and phdanthropic societies; — and, lastly, the Gospel of our Saviour, which was intended by its founder to be the cure for ad the vices to which human nature is prone.

Let these remedies have fair play in China, and in twenty-five years we, with God's help, wid turn that country upside-down in ad its moral relations. The interference of the ruler can only make the disease worse, by rendering the disposition to sed and to smuggle a hundred-fold more intense than it would have been u° left to itself. Besides, such interference is a direct encroachment upon the natural rights of man, and must be replete with those calamities which belong to everything that is wrong in principle. At this time there are certain princes in Siam, and in different parts of the Indian Arelupelago, who are setting on foot severe proceedings against the users and the venders of the drug, and wid be thought by some heroes in the cause of temperance : now, these are a set of miscreants who, by engrossing the entire traffic in wholesome articles, have left their subjects no chance of dealing in any thing save opium.

We have no REMEDIES. need of such helpers; we only want scope for those appli ances which tend to amend the heart and to purify the un derstanding, while they adow the inherent love of freedom to expand itself into a sober and magnanimous independ ence. " Not by constraint, but willingly," is the motto of that blessed book which it is our honour to deal out among the heathen, and of that religion winch is to make a man good here and happy hereafter. i 1

Chapter III. Physical And Moral Character Of

A CHINESE. I regard the physical and intedectual characters of man as things intimately joined together, — the body and the mind, — as the corresponding halves of unity, which mutuady in fluence and determine each other. Creation is a universe of adjustments, of which the different varieties of human nature furnish interesting examples. The mind of a Euro pean has been adjusted to the body of a European, and the mind of a Chinese to the body of a Chinese. Take the goodliest among Europeans, who belong to the Cauca sian race, and place him beside the choicest among the sons of China, who pertain to the Mongolian ; then take the fairest specimen of the intedectual productions of each, and set them together, and you have the fodowing analogy: As is she man in outward symmetry and beauty, so are his works, or the pledges he gives of his mental capacity.