New China and Old: personal recollections and observations of thirty years. ... With ... illustrations

Preface

. The investigation of subjects connected with the Empire of China does not, as some suppose, resemble the mere discovery of ancient fossils. We are not occupied simply and solely with the description of a civilization, and of manners and customs, fixed and petrified long ago. No longer can it be said of China that there are scarcely any signs of advance and reform and development. The great Empire may not indeed be, like her neighbour Japan, wide-awake ; as the brochure of the lamented Marquis Tseng seemed to imply ; yet most surely she stirs and turns in her sleep ; and awakening is close at hand. And we may notice something like the opening of earliest spring after a long winter ; though each budding tree and expanding flower stands still in the ancient soil, and has fossils thickly strewn round the roots.

My life as a messenger from the Church of England to China during the past thirty years has enabled me to notice some of these signs of upheaval and rejuvenescence. The alteration in the attitude of China towards Preface. vi Western Powers (signalized quite recently by a com paratively cordial recognition of the right which the Ministers of Western Powers should possess of audience with the Emperor) ; and the expansion in the thoughts and ambition of her statesmen (notably in the recon struction of the navy, and in the growing persuasion that China must be traversed by railways) — all these are symptoms of life and growth and energy which it is hard to mistake. I have endeavoured in the following pages to describe my own personal recollections and observations in connec tion with the several subjects discussed, such as politics ; city and country life ; official and private residences ; philosophy ; literature, education, and religion.

I may almost claim to touch old China as well as the new within the limits of my personal experience ; for China was old and decrepit in 1861, clinging tightly to her established regime and to her ancient traditions ; though so rudely shaken by foreign war and internal rebellion. But China in 1891 is almost like a new found land, notwithstanding the fact that the process of renovation is slow, and checked again and again by inroads of the old spirit. My multifarious duties as a Missionary in three great cities and centres of work, even had I possessed natural aptitude for the work of an explorer, would have left me little time for such minute observation and investigation as must have given higher value to my book. But I have endeavoured honestly to narrate what I have myself seen and heard ; and to answer by anticipation Preface. vii many questions with reference to the habits and thoughts of the Chinese which Western readers may desire to have answered ; and which are perhaps too often over looked by travellers or residents in Eastern lands.

I shall not be misunderstood if I add that my highest ambition in this book is to enlist the sympathy of my readers in that which I deem the noblest of all enter prises, namely, the task of bringing to China the bright beams of the knowledge of Him who is in very deed the Light of Asia — the Light of the World. Arthur E. Moule. Lewisham, April 1891. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE I. THE CHINESE EMPIRE. CAUSES OF ITS COHESION I II. AN INLAND CITY. HANGCHOW ... ... ... 35 III. AN OPEN PORT. SHANGHAI ... ... ... 75 IV. COUNTRY LIFE ... ... ... ... ... I07 V. THE HOUSE OF A MANDARIN ... ... ... 1 36 VI. BUDDHISM AND TAOISM AS THEY AFFECT CHINESE LIFE ... ... ... ... ... ... 163 VII. ANCESTRAL WORSHIP ... ... ... ... 1 93 VIII. SUPERSTITIONS ... ... ... ... ... 223 IX. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE ... ... ... 240 X. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA ... ■ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE The Western Lake at Ningpo — Frontispiece. Chinhai at the mouth of the Ningpo River ... ... ... ... 2 The Ming Tombs. Colossal figures of men guarding the approach 14 Mule-travelling in the North of China ... ... ... ... 36 Honorary Portals ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 38 The Pagoda of the Six Harmonies ... ... ... ... ... 42 Pa, or Portage, on the way to Hangchow 46 Chinese Gentlemen with Favourite Biids 47 Sedan Chair ... 54 The Ts'ien-tang River near Hangchow 58 Chinese Punch and Judy Show ... ... 69 Temple Stage at Ningpo 70 Kite Flying : 71 Opium Smokers ■■■ ••• 94 Ploughing with a Water Buffalo m In the Rain "2 Street Theatricals "6 A Chinese Gentleman and his Family 120 Entrance to a Yamun 142 Buddhist Temple near Hangchow 164 Buddhist Priests 16S Lohan Shrine near Hangchow 176 Buddhist Rock Sculptures near Hangchow 182 Temple of Confucius, Peking 216 Ningpo ; Canal, and Temples List of Illustrations. xii PAGE Interior of a Gentleman's House ; in Mourning ... ... ... 234 Pavilion on the Lake at Hangchow ... ... ... ... ... 244 Archery Practice ... ... ... ... ... 260 Tablets in memory of " Senior Wranglers "" Tsin-s" ... ... 266 A Tea Plantation in Chuki 282 Group on the Bridge of Everlasting Prosperity (an average audience for open-air preaching) ... ... ... ... ... ... 3°^ Note. — The small cuts in the text are from pictures lent by Eugene Stock, Esq., illustrating trades, drawn by a Christian Chinese artist, Matthew Tai.

The frontispiece, and the engravings facing pp. 2, 36, 42, 46, 58, 70, no, 142, 164, 176, 182, 228, 244, 282, 308, are from photographs kindly placed at my disposal by the Rev. W. L. Groves, formerly a Church Missionary Society's Missionary at Ningpo. NEW CHINA AND OLD

Chapter I. The Cohesion Of The Chinese Emhre

DURING the month of August in 1862, I mounted the Great White Hill, which rises eastward of Ningpo, to a height of two thousand feet above the sea. Below the hill, surrounded by woods and dense jungle, in former years the haunt of leopards, lies the monastery of T'ien T'ung. These wooded hill-sides had been nearly fatal to the enterprising botanist and traveller Fortune th'rty-five years before. The neighbourhood abounds with wild pig, and the peasants construct pitfalls to catch these destructive animals, which ravage their beds of arti choke, Indian corn, and sweet potato. Deep holes are dug with a narrow mouth, and as the top of the pit is convex, and the lowest part concave, it is impossible for captured man or beast to scramble out even should the heavy fall itself not prove fatal. The mouth is carefully concealed by boughs ; and into one of these funnels Fortune had nearly fallen, B The Chinese Empire. 2 when he recovered his foothold by a desperate effort.

Knowing the dangerous nature of these beautiful hills, I secured a guide on my first ascent, and ascertained from him the safe paths on either shoulder of the hills which surround the great coombe where sleeps the monastery. It was a cloudless, breezy summer afternoon ; and through the clear air I could watch the city of Ningpo and the many windings of the tortuous river till it fell into the sea at Chinhai. The T'aip'ing rebels had been driven out of Ningpo only two months before by Captain Roderick Dew. They still hung round the neighbourhood ; and occasionally the boom of a gun reminded me of the possible proximity of the foe. I could discern indeed in the north-west the outline of the hills near the city of Yii-yao, which was at that very time being besieged by the English gun-boats and trained Chinese troops.

Two days later I ascended the eastern spur of the hill by moonlight. As I left the monastery at three a.m. the monks were being summoned to early matins ; and the sharp echoing blow on the wooden fish 1 was the only sound to disturb the deep repose of that summer night, save the call of a roaming deer, and the occasional clack of the watchers against wild boar, or the creak of the all-night-long revolution of the pumps in the rice-fields far below. I reached the summit with the first flush of dawn. My object was to see sunrise over 1 A hollow piece of wood in the shape of a fish ; struck to awaken the attention of the god to the prayers and incantations which follow. CHINHAI AT THE MOUTH OF THE NIKG-FO RIVER. In Danger from Civil War. 3 the wide Chusan Archipelago and the sea. The sky was somewhat overcast ; but the view was magnificent, and well repaid the toil of the long climb.

And what thoughts of China's possibilities did those two prospects suggest — the summer afternoon gaze at the distant T'aip'ings ; and the morning survey of Chusan ! Six weeks later the T'aip'ings suddenly reassembled their forces, and swooped down on Ningpo a second time, 100,000 strong, vowing vengeance against foreigners whom they had respected on the occasion of their first inroad. Some of our native converts, hiding in terror up to their necks in water amongst the rushes by the canal side, heard the host pass by ; a long, ceaseless tramp of twelve hours' duration. We were fast shut up in Ningpo, and in great danger for some days ; and we were saved only just in time by a detachment from General Gordon's trained troops at Shanghai. That great Rebellion almost ruined the reigning Manchu dynasty ; and the break up of the provinces and their distribution amongst the great powers of the West, seemed only a question of time.

Whence comes this power of recuper ation and cohesion which has raised China from the dust, and lifted her within a quarter of a century to a fore most position amongst the coming powers of the earth ? Then glance once more before we descend the Great White Mountain at the beautiful outline of the Chusan Archipelago ; the last dip of the long spurs of the Himalayan range into the Eastern Sea. Watch that fair cluster of rocky islands which lies half-way up the coast, and includes the emerald gem P'u-du, the sacred centre of Buddhism in the far East. With a com paratively equable climate, very much might be done to develop its resources ; but apart from this, its position (dominating China north and south, and watching the mouths of China's chief artery, the Yang-tse) would give to any foreign possessor of Chusan control over the destinies of the Empire, and constant menace to Japan as well, scarcely two days' steam to the eastward.

Now Chusan was actually captured and held by England for many months, and it was exchanged for Hongkong only on the express condition that it should never be ceded to any other foreign power. What would have been the fate of the Empire had England with a powerful squadron and a strong garrison held that place of supreme advantage during these last twenty-five years ? The Chinese with characteristic wiliness pretended to despise the place when Tinghai its capital was held by England. A native historian, describing the " Opium War," calls Chusan " a solitary island, not worth de fending at the cost of weakening the mainland armies." A piece of special pleading this, for a time of special distress and perplexity ; for most assuredly English power, planted and consolidated in Chusan, must have meant the control well-nigh of a suzerain over the Chinese Empire !

And yet, as if to throw out all reasonable calculations as to the destinies of this strange land, Hongkong is described by the same Chinese writer as " occupying a prominent and central position in Canton waters ; and if fortified by England," he remarks, " it would be a Yet Unbroken. 5 perpetual menace to Canton." With reference to this island the old Emperor Tao-Kwang vowed in words, echoed by actors in more recent warfare, that not one cent of money would he pay for the confiscated opium, and not one inch of territory would he yield to England. Yet Hongkong has been held and fortified by England for many long years ; and this without affecting Chinese independence, or disturbing the consolidation of the Empire. And we ask what is the secret of the solidarity and uniformity of this vast and cumbersome Empire ?

In her long history we see centrifugal and centri petal energies at work ; and by some strange magnetic power, the discordant and inharmonious elements in the Empire, disintegrating and flying off from time to time, seem ever drawn back again and reunited. The intrepid French explorer M. Bonvalot, who, accompanied by the equally adventurous traveller Prince Henri d'Orleans, has recently traversed the stupendous uplands of Central Asia, is reported by an interviewer to have spoken as follows — " China is not in a position to resist a European power. There is no cohesion. I maintain that a force of 10,000 men armed in European style, could march through China without encounter ing serious resistance. The natives have no idea of patriotism. Their only serious idea, and it is one always present, is to find enough to eat."

Now whether we regard these sentences as sober deductions from prolonged observation, or as hasty conclusions from insufficient data, they are at first sight distinctly con tradictory of recent events. Three particulars are mentioned in which China is supposed to be wholly deficient — fighting power, patriotism, and cohesion. I take these points one by one as themes for brief discussion. France is " a great European power " ; and yet five years ago China showed herself by no means indisposed to measure swords with so formidable an antagonist. It is true that war was never actually declared ; but hos tilities were actively engaged in. Taken at a disadvantage in the river Min, the Chinese squadron was annihilated, but in no sense disgraced ; whilst on the Formosan coast the Chinese forces managed to beat off the vacil lating and uncertain attempts of the enemy to effect a landing ; and the forts at Chinhai defied the French squadron five miles off, and were unharmed by their random fire.

An extraordinary exhibition of ancient Chinese tactics, side by side with modern methods of warfare, was to be seen during that struggle. As we steamed up the river Yung from Chinhai (which commands its mouth) to Ningpo, every bend of the winding river, and every hill within range, was swarm ing with Chinese troops working in long lines like ants upon the earthworks and batteries. Every one of these mud forts could have been assaulted and captured with ease from the rear. China's more ancient mind is unable to realize the possibility and the fairness of so cowardly a proceeding as a strategic movement from behind. Meanwhile the Tower Hill at Chinhai, and the lew rocks which guard the narrow entrance, fortified with great skill and under the guidance of modern Chivalry. 7 science, and armed with European ordnance of heavy calibre, kept the French fleet at bay.

The great danger for foreigners in Ningpo lay in the certain expectation that as soon as the forts were silenced and the mouth of the river forced, the whole of the Chinese land force would run ; and falling back on Ningpo first, would plunder and massacre in their mingled rage and terror. But by not a few European observers, signs were discerned during this strange anomalous struggle of a change coming over China. Chivalrous actions, worthy of the best days of her gallant enemy, were not unknown on Chinese soil. The tiny French colony at Ningpo, consisting of the French Bishop, with the priests and sisters of mercy, was scrupulously protected from insult and violence by the Chinese authorities, notwithstanding the tension of the political situation, and the strong indignation against the French manifested by the coast land populations.

Meanwhile in the harbour of Shanghai a strange and well-nigh unique drama was being enacted. A solitary French man-of-war remained in port, after negotiations were broken off, and after desultory warfare had commenced. The port of Shanghai lies twelve miles up the river Hwang-p'u. Near Woosung, where the Hwangp'u joins the gigantic Yang-tse, and flows with it to the outer sea, the river is crossed by a bar, which the Chinese call the " Heaven-sent barrier " ; and the narrow channel they were now preparing to close. Beyond the bar again, dominating both the Hwang-p'u and the Yang-tse, frown the celebrated Woosung forts, armed with the heaviest Krupp guns, and built with great strength and solidity. The Frenchman lay moored off the city of Shanghai. He was requested to leave the port, but declined to do so ; and threatened to shell the city if he was molested.

The Chinese replied by moving up three Armstrong gunboats, " the terror of Western nations," as one of them was called ; anchoring them on either side of the Frenchman. Meanwhile the ship was duly supplied with provisions from the shore. At last, as the conflict between France and China was imminent, and the relations between the two countries were hopelessly strained, the Frenchman expressed his willingness to leave if he was guaranteed safety in passing the Woosung forts. The Shanghai authorities responded by placing some of their own officers on board the French man-of-war, and by accompanying her with a gun-boat of their own. The two vessels steamed down the river, and passed unchallenged the sullen, silent forts. The Chinese saw their inimical guests safely to the mouths of the Yang-tse, bowed to them, and stepped on board their own vessel.

The Frenchman passed out to sea ; the Chinese returned to Shanghai ; and most surely the palm of chivalrous courtesy fell to the Chinese. It is easy to reply that this was an act merely of prudential and politic prevision ; but this very power of self-control, and the refusal to seize the opportunity for hasty reprisals, afford no uncertain marks of civiliza tion ; and prove also the power which the authorities can exercise when they please over the unthinking hordes of the excited populace. Patriotism. 9 This French embroglio proved further the existence, or possibly signalized the birth, of real patriotism amongst the Chinese. M. Bonvalot's reported dictum to the effect that the Chinese nation has no idea of patriotism, may have been true in former times, when news travelled with extreme slowness, and when the nation had no means whereby to express its patriotism.

But the telegraph wires stretch now and hum across vast regions of China, and the newspapers and magazines published in Shanghai, T'ien-tsin, Hankow, Foochow, and elsewhere, convey recent and current news both from the Empire itself, and from the great West, to large numbers of intelligent readers. And these newspapers had at this time a very clear ring of patriotic resolution to maintain the honour of the Central Realm against the masterful and domineering French aggressors. Patriotism probably has never been really extinct in China ; and during the wars with England, which marked the first half of this century, individual cases of patriotic utterance and self-devotion were not unknown. On the other hand, the want of patriotic feeling was curiously shown during the T'aip'ing rebellion, by the friendly and fraternizing temperament of the T'aip'ing forces at Ningpo, while the English and French Admirals, Hope and Protet, and General Gordon were daily fighting them only one hundred miles off round Shanghai, and were slaying the brethren of the same Heavenly Dynasty of Great Peace which was triumphant and friendly at Ningpo.

This state of selfish isolation in the provinces is, I believe, passing slowly away. But whatever opinions may be held as to the warlike character of the Chinese, and as to their patriotism, it seems strange to deny the cohesion of the different elements in the gigantic Empire. These elements have been in the past discordant, and the discord still exists ; yet an element of fusion and cohesion seems to be immanent in Chinese character and in the nation's history. Semi-historical China goes back as far as the year B.C. 2249, when the first astronomical observations, verified by modern calculations, are recorded in Chinese annals. Supposing the original Empire, within narrow northern limits, to have been united under one ruler, discord soon appeared. Dr. Edkins, one of the highest authorities on Chinese history and literature, believes the capital of the Empire to have been fixed about thirty-five cen turies ago at Hweite Fu in Honan (the garden of China at that time).

The Chow dynasty (B.C. I IOO — 250) under which Confucius flourished (born B.C. 551, died B.C. 478), was a feudal kingdom, with dukes, marquises, earls, counts, and barons, accepting investiture from a king, as in European mediæval days ; and that king was oftentimes a nonentity, leaving the feudal princes to internecine quarrels, and the country to misery, con fusion, and unrest. Against this deplorable and ap parently hopeless state of anarchy, Confucius toiled and preached mostly in vain ; wandering from state to state with varying fortunes, and with a close full of gloom and despair. Later on followed a similar period when Diplomacy. 1 1 the central power had lost its control, and vassal states engaged in a ceaseless struggle. Three Chinese works relate the story of this period — The History of the Warring States, The National History of Sze ma Chien, and a romance forming an expanded history of the feudal ages.

These warring states, mean while, were awed by the shadow of the great north western house of Ch'in, and their mutual quarrels for leadership (though none aspired to the Imperial yellow) were absolutely suicidal in the presence of such a danger. This period gave scope to diplomacy of the highest order. Su-ch'in and Chang-i were statesmen full of energy, and with antagonistic views and methods of action. The first laboured to unite the discordant states in a confederacy against the dreaded north-western power. He succeeded, and was able to launch at the Prince of Ch'in a copy of the sixfold league. For fifteen years the armies of Ch'in were held at bay by the strange harmony of such inharmonious elements ; a harmony which was the fruit of the talent and energy of one man. He accomplished the well-nigh superhuman task of serving six states at once, and promoting equally the interests of all.

Chang-i, with talents of a similar order, but stimulated by envy or revenge, devoted his energies only too success fully to undo the welding work of Su. Flattered and menaced by turns, the six states one by one left the confederacy, and sought the favour of the Prince of Ch'in. When Chang-i died, they revolted again ; until at last, in the year B.C. 220, the house of Ch'in under its energetic and unscrupulous head, Shih Hwang-ti, usurped the Imperial throne, swept away these belligerent states, and made China one and indivisible from the deserts of Tartary to the borders of Burmah, and from the foot of the Himalayas to the shores of the Eastern Sea.1 The very name of the Empire of China is supposed by some to owe its origin to the name of this great conqueror's house. Shih Hwang-ti shut China in from incursion by the 1250 miles of the Great Wall ; and he aimed at shutting ancient China out by the destruction of the ancient documents of the race, compiled, edited, and transmitted by Confucius.

The memory and rising influence of the Sage lay like a high barrier across the ambitious path of the usurper. The design of pulling down old China, and rebuilding the Empire as a new realm, to be inscribed with his name as its founder and head, was checked and foiled so long as the works and memory of this great laudator tempo ris acti stood in the way. Then followed the burning of the books ; but the books and the fame of Confucius rose from the ashes ; and we shall find in the sequel that this same magic influence now, as in those ancient days, has done much to unite old China to the new land, and to bring cohesion in the place of disruption or forceful union. The rule of the Chin dynasty was short-lived, and the Han dynasty succeeded, during which and while " Ping-ti " the "Emperor Peace" was reigning, HE was born who is called even in the great Imperial Dictionary of the 1 See Diplomacy in Ancient China, Dr. W. A. P. Martin.

History. 13 Emperor K'ang-hyi, (the standard dictionary of China,) the " Saviour of the World." This dictionary was published during K'ang-hyi's long reign, A.D. 1661 — 1722. A few years pass, and from A.D. 184 to 265 we find China again broken up into three warring states ; and the history of that eighty years' war forms the subject of a standard book of stirring interest. But these states were united again under one rule, A.D. 265 ; and under the great Tang dynasty (founded A.D. 620) we find China once more one and undivided. The Empire of China is still called by some the great Tang country. The Mongol Tartars usurped the supreme rule A.D. 1269, and under Kublai Khan attained great magnificence and power. These Mongols were invited by one of the Sung Emperors to assist him in expelling the Manchus, who had made incursions into the Empire.

They came with alacrity to assist the Emperor ; and then seated themselves calmly in the peaceful and steadied throne. The chagrined and astonished Emperor had caught a Tartar indeed. During this regime the elder Polos and their celebrated son Marco (a.D. 1275 — 90) visited China, and resided at Court. Peking was made the capital of the whole realm (A.D. 1408), under the Ming dynasty (the restoration of which purely native line forms the dream of many a secret society and petty insurrection ; a dream fostered by plays which the Manchu Govern ment, with politic forbearance, tolerates and ignores). Then in A.D. 1618 came the Manchus. Even in these early days the masterful character of England was felt by the Chinese ; and the forts of Canton were bombarded and stormed in A.D. 1637 ; the first warning of the louder cannonade and more staggering blows which 200 years later resounded from Canton to Nankin, and opened China finally (August 29th, 1842) to European trade.

Canton indeed was visited by Western traders as early as the third century ; so that that much-enduring city has been afflicted by the barbarian presence for 1600 years. Then once more the great and apparently unwieldy Empire, shaken by foreign and disastrous war, was rent asunder by the T'aip'ing rebellion ; the uprising of the Heavenly Dynasty of Great Peace. Calamities followed fast and thick on the decrepit Manchu power. Peking was occupied by the English and French in 1860; and in 1861, the T'aip'ings, who had previously occupied Nankin, swooped down and captured by a gallant rush the port of Ningpo, which brought them at once into close contact and semi-friendly relations with foreigners. China seemed so entirely without cohesion — the ruling dynasty tottering to its fall, and the usurping T'aip'ings devoid of governing power — that the tripartite division of the Empire between Russia, England, and France, appeared imminent to very many careful observers.

And then partly through the intervention of foreign skill and energy under Admiral Sir James Hope, General Gordon, Captain Roderick Dew, and other illustrious leaders, but largely also through her own indomitable patience and resolution, the tide turned ; the T'aip'ings were vanquished ; the storm-cloud cleared ; and since then the great Empire, one and undivided, has been slowly HE MING TOMBS. COLOSSAL FIGURES OF MEN GUARDING THE APPROACH Re-union. Consolidation. 15 renewing her youth. She has consolidated her power, crushing with stern and relentless severity the two Mahometan insurrections in Kashgar and Yunnan ; she has centralized her control over her fleets and armies, making them national instead of provincial forces ; although gross cases still occur of semi-independent policy on the part of Chinese Viceroys ; independent on the one side of Imperial edicts, and selfishly independent on the other as regards the wants and woes of a neighbouring Viceroyalty.1 She has purchased abroad in Germany and England a large ironclad fleet of formidable ships of war ; she has secured the eminent services of an English captain for the organizing and training of her northern squadron (an adviser and instructor from whom with surely suicidal haste the Government has recently parted) ; China builds in her own great arsenals at Shanghai, Foochow, and elsewhere vessels of formidable dimensions ; and in the same arsenals, supplemented by many branch establishments in Hangchow, Nankin, &c, she provides herself with large supplies of ammunition.

The army is largely trained on European models ; and though these navies and squadrons have had only small opportunity for test ing their strength, and will probably need for some years to come foreign officers and advisers to ensure efficiency, yet even the engagement in the river Min, mentioned above, was sufficient to show that in discipline and cool courage the Chinese cadets had not been taught in vain. In a recent number of a Chinese newspaper (the 1 Cf. North China Daily News, Sept. 27th, 1890. Kuaug-pao) the following very rose-coloured views of the development of manufactures in China appear — " In the last twenty years China has learnt to turn out steamers, ironclads, torpedoes, and fire-arms of the best quality ; and she will soon surpass foreign countries in the new rifle which is now being made in Shanghai, the bullet of which will penetrate a steel plate of a quarter of an inch in thickness at one hundred yards It is also proposed that China shall make her own steel ; " (preparatory to the development of the great railway system).