Up the Yang-tse ... Reprinted from the 'China Review.' With sketch maps

Front matter

UP THE YANG-TSE. BY E. H. P^KKER. (REPRINTED FROM THE 'CHINA REVIEW.') WITH SKETCH MAPS. HONG-KONG-. Printed at the 'China Mail' Opficb. 18 9 1. PRINTED AT THE ' CHINA MAIL ' OFFICE, HONGKONG. ERRATA. Page 2, Line 6, for It is icas, read This was. ,, 84, ,, 9, ,, boilers has, ,, boilers have. „ 94, ,, 29, ,, caul of pips, ,, caulof2>igs. ,, 117, ,, 13, ,, of sandwich men, ,, sandwich men „ 154, ,, 9, ,, no passing, ,, now passing. ,, 154, ,, 36, ,, maypipes, „ magpies. ,, 196, ,, 35, ,, losts its, ,, loses its. „ 208, ,, 6, „ though, „ through, ,, 216, ,, 6, ,, noticed, ,, notice. Yang-tsc, , Yang-tsze, Yang-tsz should be Yang-tsz throughout. CONTENTS. Page. The Yang-tse Gorges and Rapids in Hu-pei 1 The Rapids of the Upper Yang-tse 20 The ' Vade-meoum' of the Traveller through the Gorges of the Great River 27 Special Observations 49 A Journey in North Sz Ch'uan, 52 Nan-Ch'uan and the Kung-t'an River 113 Up the Kia-ling River 174 TnE Great Salt Wells 204 North Kwei Chou 246 The Wilds of Hu-peh 275 Sz Ch'uan Plants oOL Index . .

Preface

. In publishing this reprint, I have expunged useless matter to the best of my ability, and I venture to call attention to the Index, which has been compiled with care. E, H. Parkek. 1891. i. THE YANG-TSE GORGES AND RAPIDS IN HU-PEI. At daybreak on the morning of the 24th of November, 1880, we rolled over uncomfortably in our beds as the noisy crew made preparations to start from I-ch'ang. Having had the advantage of reading Blakiston's, Gill's, Rocher's and others' experiences with Sz-ch'uan boat-crews, we had taken the precaution of arranging to sleep on board, and to have everything ready to start ou the evening of the 23rd, thinking that, with this prevision, we might at least count upon leaving some time, not later than midnight the next day. This hope was, however, the less sanguine in that the skipper had applied on tbe 21st for permission to substitute 'noon' on the 24th for 'early dawn,' as had been distinctly stipulated in the contract.

The necessity of drawing up a written contract has been touched upon by more than one traveller upon this route ; and, in endorsing their recommendations, we may add, specifically, that no particular form of contract appears to have been sanctioned by custom ; and, generally, that, in this as in all matters in China, the European voyageur may rest assured that, in every question which concerns his own comfort or interests, his own wits will pull him through better than any established native practice. In the present instance one distinct proviso was that we should start at daybreak on the 24th ; another that ten per cent, of the total boat-hire should be dependent in any case on the hirer's favour, and be certainly forfeited unless all the baggage safely reached its destination. Half the hire was to bff paid in advance ; one-fifth more after arrival at the K'wei Kwan (K'wei-chou Fu); and the balance, including the optional portion, after boat and freight should have arrived at Ch'ung-k'ing.

In due course we appeared on board ; furniture, baggage, and servants. It is was at 10 p.m. on the 23rd; and, somewhat to our surprise, we saw the whole crew asleep on the forward deok. We were fnrther agreeably disappointed (not to say incredulous) when the skipper stepped into our sleeping apartment, redolent of pork and wine, and inquired whether he might count upon our not delaying him in any way next morning, as he proposed to start before day break. In reply he was informed that, as far as we were concerned, he was at liberty to start there and then; and with this understand ing we retired to our respective couches, or lairs. The ordinary passage-boat which travels between I-ch'ang and Ch'ung-k'ing is known as the K'wa-tsz ch'uan, and is disposed in the following way. The forward deck, thirty feet long by twelve across, is at night time the sleeping quarters of the crew and trackers.

A covering or awning of coarse mats, resting upon short vertical poles fixed into sockets in the gunwales, and upon longitudinal and horizontal bamboos supported lengthwise and athwarts by those poles, after the fashion of a gabled house without the main beam, is put up at night, and when the boat ' lays to ' from stress of weather, beiDg stowed away on the roof of the passenger accommodation at other times. On to this forward deck the trackers likewise crowd at meal times, and under its movable planks are stowed their clothes and frowsy bedding; the rice in bins, together with the other articles of food required during the voyage ; and the contraband or smuggled merchandize which the crew may choose to venture. In the middle of this deck is the galley, always open except at night, and in this snug retreat abides the cook, or rather his lower regions, his visible upper half being engaged from morn to night in boiling vast quantities of rice, and in preparing messes fearful and savoury for the trackers and for the skipper's family respectively.

The men seem to feed, about every three or four hours during the working day, on rice coaxed down with a swill of bean-curd, cabbage, oil, and other rancid things, either separate and varied, or in conglomeration. Three or Gorges and Rapids in Hu-pei. 3 four times during the voyage, also, they get a ration of pork and fowl, a treat known as shau shenfu or ' roast to the gods,' which is moreover repeated as an extra encouragement to them from time to time at the expense of the skipper or the passenger, when they have succeeded in passing a dangerous rapid, or achieved any other exceptional success. About six feet from the prow is rigged athwart-ships a powerful beam; and connected with this by means of strong ropes is the main sweep, which extends thirty feet or so ahead, and, worked by three or four men, has a powerful effect in veering the boat round in any particular direction.

A similar beam is rigged athwart-ships in front of the mast, and in support of the mast, which runs up in front of the foremost passenger com partment. Side sweeps, worked by eight men apiece, move on short stanchions attached to this latter beam. Behind the mast are the passenger cabins, each about ten or twelve feet square, by eight high, with the exception of the fourth or hindmost, which is not so deep fore and aft as the other three. The foremost we use as a sitting, dining, and guest room ; the second as a bedroom ; and the other two as store and servants' rooms : when carpetted or covered with sheepskin rugs, these compartments can be made very tolerably comfortable. Beneath them are the bulk heads, in which the traveller's baggage is packed, each compart ment being separate, and as^ far watertight as any Chinese-made compartment can be.

Behind is a sort of after deck, which can be covered in with mats like the forward deck, and which, besides being what may be called the tiller-room, can also be used for passengers' cooking, servants' promenade, and general miscellaneous purposes. Sloping up again behind this is the poop, a mysterious region, protected by doors, in which the skipper and his harem dwell. The sail is the usual ragged affair, with bamboos in place of reefs, and the mast-head serves besides to bear the strain of the tracking rope, being relieved, however, by a second line passed round two cat-heads fixed perpendicularly in front of the second thwart-beam. The tracking is usually done with the fei-tan, or 'flying hawser,' a bamboo affair of two strands: the next-sized hawser is called the erh-hsing-tan, or ' second-go hawser ;' and the largest, only used at the most dangerous rapids, the tso-tan, or ' sitting hawser.' From a book published by Rear- Admiral Ho Chin-shin,* called the Using Ch'uan Pi Tan, or the ' Sz Ch'nan Traveller's Fade Mecum,' we have gathered a number of valuable local terms which we shall give in the narrative.

At 1-ch'ang we exchanged visits with his Excellency the Admiral, and found him a personage of great frankness, ami anxious to do all in his power to oblige. We are indebted to him amongst other things for a hung ch'uan, or 'red-boat,' a handy little sampan manned by a naval lieutenant and five stalwart braves, which follows or precedes us alternately all the way, and makes itself generally useful, whether in assisting trackers to dis engage their line, in carrying them to and from the shore, or in rendering small services to ourselves, whom it is commissioned to protect and to escort as far as Wu-shan on the frontiers of Sz Ch'uan. The dilatory deputy who was sent down by the Sz Ch'uan authorities to assist our boat up to Ch'ung-k'ing has not put in an appearance yet: he himself, together with his reasons, will doubt less turn up some time or other, when it is to his advantage to be to tbe front.

Chapter II

After tossing uneasily, alternately too hot and too cold, in a superfluity of blankets, I rose to see how far so much yelling and straining had brought us, thinking that we must at least have arrived at the mouth of the Ich'ang gorge, which is only three miles from the city. I found, however, that two hours vigorous yuloing with the two side sweeps had only brought us half a mile along the left-hand bank ; another half hour's drifting and pulling took us to the other side, near the river-otters fisheries, little more than opposite the Consulate, whence we had started to the firing of guns three hours before. The crew, (in which term in future we shall include the permanent staff of eight, and the twenty-three hired trackers), were now regaled with their first meal. The cook on these occasions has the bowls, basins *He bas since changed his adoptive surname of IIo for his real surname of Lo. t The livers of these animals have since been prescribed as a certain cure for the malady of Prince Ch'un, the Emperor's father.

Goiges and Bapids in Hu-pei. 5 and chopsticks all ready : every man helps himself with a wooden dipper to a fill of rice from the tub; each four or five share the contents of a basin of tasty soup, bean-curd, cabbage, wooden looking peas, or other strange compound; fish-like mouths place themselves in position at the bowl edges ; a steady shovelling with the chopsticks goes on ; chewing is eschewed ; and all is over. Previous to entering the gorge, passed a temple called Kwan yin Mian, and a place called Tsz-yang, both on the right bank, and rounded a nasty-looking corner where the water rushed past some angry low-lying rocks in threatening fashion. On tbe left bank at the entrance of the gorge is the village or boat-station of Nan-chin, a place duly identified on the sketch-map of Admiral Ho.

The first aspect of this gorge, of which we had heard and read so much, was somewhat disappointing. The scenery was undoubtedly fine, and, to my thinking, resembled tbe best parts of the Rhine or the barely Becond-rate Norwegian fiords more than anything else. So far Switzerland was not to be mentioned, even in a whisper. The day's journey was accomplished almost entirely by laborious tracking, during which the regulation amount of agility, howling, and other unnecessary display was got through by the crew. We had one or two opportunities of taking a walk amongst the rocks, and at four o'clock came to anchor, or rather made fast with hawsers fore and aft to the bank, at a spot between P'ing-slinn Pa and Shih P'ai, just above the mid-gorge Customs Station at which Blakiston appears to have anchored.

In no place, thus far, did the current seem to be particularly strong. Owing to the method of progression employed, tbe Chinese junks which ascend tbe gorges and rapids submit themselves to all the dangers which exist. Hugging the banks, they have to sheer out at each projecting rock, where, of course, they must encounter the brunt of the current, and where, if rapid or shallow there be, it is most probable they will find it. The rock passed, they are swept along in the eddy which intervenes between this and the next jutting rock, and, whilst thus drifting clumsily along, every favourable position for the bow places the stern at a corresponding disadvantage ; and vice versa. One man, armed with a flexible bamboo pole, is frequently all that stands between a rock and apparent annihilation. A light draft, full-powered steamer, such as has been recommended for the navigation of the higher Yang tsz, would have the choice of any part of the deep channel ; and, where it should become absolutely necessary to approach the banks, would certainly be provided with powerful steering apparatus, always available headway, boats and steel hawsers, and cool und silent manipulators.

On the way from Hankow to Ich'ang, our steamer shot easily through races which seemed to give certain junks there more trouble than anything we have encountered so far. There was an ominous silence when we woke on tbe morning of the 2oth. The hsia-feng, or adverse wind — i.e. south-west — had set in, and nothing could be done until it either dropped or changed itself into a shang-fing, or favourable — i.e. north-east — wind. I went for a walk on the North or left-bank, and after severe climb ing discovered a family in a sort of cave-house, perhaps 400 feet above the river. The host offered me his long brass pipe, and gave me the names of the places above-mentioned. A few cotton trees were growing in the tiny patches of rocky soil which he had terraced up, and two or three of the wood-oil (Eleococca verrucosa) or fung trees found nutriment in the vicinity.

The oil of this tree is used as a varnish for hoats and furniture, and also, when mi.xed with lime, sand, and clay, (san-ho-fu), for manufacturing the hard cement employed in building the forts, such as those at Chinkiang and Canton. Looking down, I found the boat had suddenly started, and I was compelled to make my way for two miles along the precipitous bank with the trackers. Directly we got on board, at a projecting ledge which marked. the limit of possible tracking, a favourable wind sprung up, and in half an hour we made as much progress as we had done the whole previous day. Sailing past the Nan-fo or Southern Eddy, we emerged in the afternoon from the gorge proper at Ju-i, also called Wu-i, where begins a rocky desert somewhat resembling the Consulate island opposite Swatow (after a sand-bath) spread out along the Suez Canal.

During this and the next day the sand raised by the wind almost concealed the surrounding scenery from our view, and gave the country the appearance of being immersed in a fog. We passed the same afternoon Hung Shih, or 'Red Rock,' and Chiu-ming Shih, or 'Life Rescue Rock,' and after a little more tracking anchored or moored at a small village called Lei-p'i Shih, or Gorges and Rapids in Hu-pei, 7 ' Thunder-clap Rock.' All the places above mentioned appear in the route-map called the Hsia-chiang Chiu-sheng T'u-chih, or Sketch of Life Saving on the Yang-tsze liapids and Gorges. When, as frequently happens, the tow-line gets foul of the rocks, the trackers are stopped by a tattoo of three strokes at a time on the drum. This is called ta k'wan, or ' beating easy,' a term also applied, according to Admiral Ho's book, to the quick tattoo by which on other occasions the men are encouraged to redouble their efforts.

Fu-lsz is the term applied to the trackers, whether permanent, or hired and additional, (t'ien fu-tsz). The half-dozen or so of sailors who remain always on board the boat to handle the sail, pay out the line, beat the drum, and so on, are termed hsia shou, or ' hands :' the two masters or mates chia-chang, or ' managers.' Owing to the jumble of dialects spoken on the frontiers of Hu Peh and Sz Ch'uan, it is difficult to be sure of the exact meaning of these terms. Even the erudite Admiral, who occasionally quotes the poet Tu to illustrate the dangers of the route, sometimes uses characters which are manifestly wrong ; whilst the illiterate boatmen and military escort officers are still less to be depended upon. We anchored at 3.30 p.m., after a not very hard day's work, on the afternoon of the 25th, and took advantage of the remaining daylight to ramble over the hills and inspect the country homesteads.

The dialect of the people differs here very slightly from that of Hankow; but the upper even tone, which is so high and so distinctly a monotone at that place, shews a tendency higher up to 'curl upwards' at the end, after the style of the still transitional Hakka shang p'ing. There seems some reason to believe that the Hakkas of Canton Province are tbe descendants of emigrants from Sz Ch'uan, Hu Pei, and Kiang Si. Probably, if this be so, the confusion caused by the madcap vagaries of Chang Hsien-tsung in Sz Ch'uan, and the imperial butcheries which followed, both at the close of the seventeenth century, would sufficiently account for this wholesale immigration into the southern province. The houses that I entered were much better built than those which one encounters on the lower banks of the Great River.

The reason probably is that there is high ground on the upper river, where it is possible to build without fear of inundation. When I walked from Kewkiang to Hankow in the winter of 1872, I noticed that the dwellings improved greatly as soon as ever I got beyond the reach of the summer overflows of the Yang-tsze.

Chapter III

An hour or so after starting on the morning of the 26th of November, we passed two minor rapids called the Sittu Lu-chio and the Ta Lu-chio, or the 'Little' and 'Great Deer's Horns.' The native sketch-map states that these places are only very dangerous in summer aud autumn, and doubtless the ' strong rapid in ,Iune ' of Blakiston's larger chart refers to this spot. The two rapids are separated from each other by ouly a few hundred yards. Our own score or so of trackers pulled us successfully through with the middle-sized hawser. We reached Shan-tou-p'ing, or Hill Lozenge Plain — the Shan-tow-pien of Blakiston — at noon, and received the usual complimentary cards aud salutes from the gunboats and red boats at the station. In addition to the red-boat which accompanies us to the Sz Ch'uan frontier, other boats of the same description escort us along their beats, varying from 30 to 50 li, (ten to sixteen miles).

The marines aud ofiicers so far have all been Hu Nan men. Admiral Ho boasted with pardonable pride of the exceptionally large share taken by his co-pruviucials in both the civil and the military government of China. We went on shore after tiffin and walked for a couple of miles along the sandy aud rocky bank, many of the boulders upon which were worn deep with the friction of innumerable bamboo hawsers. These ropes will endure a much greater pulling strain than any hempen article of the same calibre, but they are not so limber, and consequently will not coil so quick ly and so small, nor will they stand a sudden cross-strain half so well. A hempen hawser could never hold out against the severe friction of the granite rocks, and would probably rot with the rapid changes of temperature and with wet, whereas the water strengthens the bamboo fabric.

These latter are renewed at least after each voyage down and up. At 3 p.m. we reached the rapid of T'a Tung, or Otter's Cave,— the Kwa-dung of Blakiston. This rapid does not appear to be more than a furlong in length, but it was the most serious business we had as yet encountered and we watched with keen interest from the shore our ricketty looking craft as she was slowly dragged through the seething waters. At Gorges and Rapids in Hu-pei. 9 this place we took on thirty extra trackers, and requisitioned the big hawser, about four inches in circumference. At least two hun dred yards of rope were paid out, and the trackers were out of both sight and hearing of those on board the boat. But a couple of men are always ready at a moment's notice to throw off their clothes, spring into the water, and free the tow-line from any obstacle in which it may catch.

Men, too, are posted on prominent boulders at distances from each other, to signal orders from the boat, and likewise to keep the hawser free. Another hour's tracking and sailing and drifting in eddies, brought us to Mei-jin T'o, or 'Beauty's Eddy,' after sailing through which we arrived at Chii-ch'i, 'Crooked Creek,' or 'Lane Creek,' (variously written), and IIS Yen or Hi Yai-lsz, both meaning ' Black Rock.' All the above places are given in the Admiral's Itinerary, and also in the Route Map above alluded to. And here I may state that I use no names of places unless they are approved by the boatmen them selves. The Admiral's Itinerary gives the name of every single place passed by the traveller on both north and south banks, and contaius at least a dozen others in each of the intervals between every couple of names given by me.

At Hi Yen we noticed five white hay-cock looking mounds on the hill (left bank) which we were informed marked the fang or ' stage.' We had, it was said, achieved two great fang, or 180 li from Ich'ang, the first great 'stage' being Hwang-ling Miau. Shortly after starting on the morning of the 27th, we came to the entrance of the Niu-kan, (' Cow's Liver,' the Lu-kan of Blakiston), or Ma Fei (' Horse's Lungs') Gorge. This place is also known as the K'ung Ling Hsia, a term of doubtful etymology, by some of the boatmen unmistak ably pronounced T'ung Ling. Captain Gill selects this word as an instance of the difficulty of obtaining the exact pronunciation of Chinese places, and points out how his companion, Mr. Baber, arrived at Liu Lin or ' Willow Grove.' In this case, however, the words T'ung and K'ung are both used, though the latter is the only one given in the two native books so often here cited, whilst Liu Lin is another place at the entrance to the gorge.

A rather far-fetohed derivation given by the author of the Sketch Map is K'ung ' empty,' and Ling, an obscure character referring to some part of a boat, 'because the boats have to empty themselves of their cargoes occasionally.' I succeeded in taking a very fair sketch of the entrance just before passing the three consecutive rocks in mid-stream called the T'ou, Erh, and San Chu, or ' First, Second, and Third Pearls.' The morning was still somewhat misty, or it may have been dusty, yet not so much so as to seriously mar the prospect, which was finer than anything even in the latter part of the Ich'ang Gorge, and almost equal to a first rate fiord in Norway: perhaps on a par with Lake Thun, barring the snow-capped mountains in the distance, which are so striking an ornament of Swiss scenery.

We were exceedingly fortunate in having a favourable breeze all the way up the Cow's Liver, a gorge which takes its name from an overhanging mass which is supposed to, and indeed does, resemble somewhat the hepatic organ of that ruminant. A solitary tree of considerable size, perched on the summit of one of the hills on the left bank, and marked in the native Route Map, was also easily identified. Above the Cow's Liver Gorge are the three Ch'ing T'an, or ' Clear Rapids,' (also called by some the Rsin T'an, or ' New Rapids.') At certain times of the year, — the spring and late winter, — these rapids are perhaps the most formidable on the Upper Yang-tsze. We were told, notwithstanding, that we should find the Yeh T'an, on the other side of Kwei-chou, much more dangerous. There are three rapids at this place, known as Nos. 1, 2, and 3, counting from up-river.

We got out and walked whilst our boat was being towed up num bers three and two, and passed on tbe way a junk lying bottom upwards upon the bank, where she was undergoing repairs : her cargo of cotton was being dried on the beach. No. 3 rapid is about a quarter of a mile long, the worst part not taking up, perhaps, more than one third this distance. At least two hundred yards of tow-line were paid out, and the operation safely accomplished with the assistance of about 50 extra coolies. No. 2 rapid gave very little trouble. We then got into the boat, and closely scanned the hazardous business of passing rapid No. 1, a terrible sloping race of not more than 20 or 30 yards in length. The boat was moored close to the shore, at the shore-edge of the rapid, and actually touching it. Two middle-sized hawsers, each about 150 yards long, were laid out amongst the stones, and the bow of the ship was steadied by the strongest hawser, made fast to a rock, and lying at right angles to the course the junk was to follow.

Angry rocks peeping through the foaming and roaring rapid were within a foot of her prow as, with a few pulls of the bow-sweep, she was sheered into the literally up-hill torrent. As soon as the two towing hawsers were taut, the steadying rope was let go and hauled in : the waters hissed and roared around the boat ; her head plunged ; everything creaked and groaned ; and the bamboo lines slipped and snapped round their fastenings as she slowly, very slowly, crawled along. Just as we had cleared the worst part, and were at the ' top ' of the current, we nearly came to utter grief, for we had passed a junk at anchor lying in shore between our two lines, the hindmost of which the shore people could not or would not let loose, and which the skipper was loth to cut, although the mates and cook were shrieking for a meat-knife, which was fortunately not at hand.

I did not quite see how we got safely out of the scrape, but as the two hawsers were neutralizing each other's efforts by pulling in different ways, I expected to see the boat go darting down every moment. Happily the thinner of the two lines held out until the offending second one was eased, and we glided into slack water to a salute of three guns vouchsafed by some obsequious official. In recognition of their efforts, I presented 1000 cash to the extra hirelings, and 1000 more to our own crew. In the evening the man who had taken the money from my hand came to enquire if it was all intended for him, or to be divided. The squabbling over this division was so protracted and noisy that I half vowed to give no more presents at all. I forgot to mention that, in the Cow's Liver Gorge, we passed the dead body of a man floating down stream, over which a kite was hovering.

The only notice our crew took of it was to say, ' he has his small hose on.' The whole of the three Clear Rapids passed by us were on the left or north side of the river. There seemed to be rapids on the other side too, besides more than one fierce current between, — that is, crossing over from bank to bank. Between each of the three left-bank rapids,— that is, sailing upwards or downwards,— the current for a hundred yards or more is so slack that ferry-boats cross straight over with the aid of a single lu or side sweep. I have no technical information by which I can form a competent opinion whether or no a steamer could make her way up at this time of the year, — which, as already stated, is not the worst, — or what the rate of the current is, now, or at other times. Judging from its appearance as contrasted with the strongest summer currents off Kew-kiang and Chin-kiang, I should say that, if those were seven knots, this would be nine or ten ; if five, this seven ; and so on, mutatis mutandis.

Whether a steamer with nothing but steam power, and drawing four or five feet of water, could, with her increased resistance to the current as compared with a junk, make her way up is for mariners to decide ; but, anyhow, she could be towed up with 200 or 300 men, and she could have either steel hawsers or bamboo hawsers made stronger than those used by the Chinese, besides having steam to ease the strain on the lines, and to give her way. Her steam power would at all events be suf ficient to work her into an eddy, or into slack water, should she by any chance break loose. The break-force spar used in the bows by Sz Ch'uan boatmen might be worth the attention of European river captains. One of these lies along each of the sides of the ship's bows, a little in advance of her prow, like a couple of carelessly rigged bowsprits, and is loosely held in a rope loop.