Miscellaneous Notices relating to China, and our commercial intercourse with that country; including a few translations from the Chinese Language

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MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES RELATING TO CHINA, AND OUR COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE WITH THAT COUNTRY. 4£art tf)e geconfcu BV SIR GEORGE THOMAS STAUNTON, BART, L.L.D. & F.R.S. (FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.) MDCCCXxvm.

ADVERTISEMENT.

. Those of the Author's friends, whose kind partiality has induced them to place some confi dence in his opinions on questions relating to China, and who may have honoured his published writings on that subject with their notice, will not be displeased, he trusts, to receive this unpub lished volume to complete their collection. Although a considerable portion of the contents have aheady appeared in print, it has been either without the Author's name, or in a less conve nient form. Devonshire Street, May 20, 1828. PACK 15 TABLE OF CONTENTS. MISCELLANEOUS Notices relating to ŒDitta, PART THE SECOND. I. — Essay on the literary habits and character of the Chinese, snot before printed) 1 II. — Preface to the Translation of the Chinese Penal Code, originaUy printed in quarto, 1810 III. — Notes annexed to the Translation of the Chinese Penal Code, re-printed from the quarto edition of 1810 — Marriage — Coinage — Salt Trade — Religion — Censorate — Foreign Trade and Intercourse — Medicine — Infanticide — Bribery and Corruption — Gaming — Eunuchs — Imprisonment — History of the Chinese Minister, Ho-chong-tong — Practical application of the Laws to Foreigners — Tenure of Land — Legal Interest of Money P. 71 to CONTENTS. i-As**.

Preface

TO THE TRANSLATION OF THE CHINESE PENAL CODE. In undertaking the work which is now submitted to the eye of the Public, the Translator was not unconscious of the difficulties and disadvan tages he would have to contend with in so novel an attempt. He was however encouraged to pro ceed by the persuasion that the work was in itself amply deserving of the labour which it might be necessary to bestow upon it ; that the intrinsic value, the unquestionable authenticity of the ma terials, and the general importance and curiosity of the subject, would fully compensate those par ticular defects and imperfections which, in an undertaking of this nature, were foreseen to be unavoidable, and, upon the whole, make amends for the too concise and almost obscure brevity of the text, in some places, its tedious and uninstructive prolixity in others, and its general unsuitableness for translation into an English idiom.

Under all circumstances he flattered himself, that a faithful version of the Fundamental Laws of the Penal Code of China might, with the addition of some supplementary matter, not only prove interest ingas far as regards its immediate subject, but hke wise afford a more compendious and satisfactory il lustration, than any other Chinese work that could have been selected, of the peculiar system aud con stitution of the Government, the principles of its internal policy, its connection with the national habits ancl character, and its influence upon the general state and condition of the people in that country. To account for the limited and defective nature of our information upon these interesting subjects, notwithstanding the number and variety of the literary communications concerning the Chinese empire, which we already possess in Europe, through the medium of the European languages, it will be requisite to advert particularly to the circumstances under which these communications have been made, and to the sources from which they have, for the most part, been derived.

It will not be necessary, in the course of this inquiry, to trace back the subject to any very remote period. It is well known that the Empire of China, bounded on one side by the ocean, and on the other by ranges of inaccessible mountains, or vast and seemingly impervious desarts, continued, until about the commencement of the 13th cen tury of our era, to be effectually secluded by these natural barriers from any direct and regular inter course with the rest of the inhabited globe. The various inquisitive and enlightened nations, which successively flourished in ancient times, both in Western Asia and in Europe, scarcely appear to have even suspected its existence. In the meanwhile, however, the people who, at a remote period of antiquity, first colonized this fertile and extensive region, were gradually emerg ing from primeval barbarism.

Without either receiving assistance, or encounteringopposition, from their less fortunate neighbours, they slowly but regularly advanced upon the strength of their internal resources and local advantages, nearly, if not entirely, to their present state of civilization and improvement. The commencement of the 13th century is the period at which the Chinese first submitted in a body to the sway of a foreign conqueror ; and although the dynasty, established by the successful invaders, was not of any long duration, it must have had a material, and even in some degree a permanent effect, upon the relations between China and contemporary Powers ; more especially, as r this revolution in the East was, it will be perceived, at no considerable interval of time, seconded in the West, by the fortunate era of the restoration of letters, and of the introduction of the most im portant of the improvements in navigation in modern Europe.

As a new spirit of curiosity and enterprize had been thus excited, and means apparently adequate to its complete gratification discovered, it might naturally be supposed that one of the first objects would have been, that of taking advantage of the ad ditional facilities which seemed to have been afforded for a communication with the Chinese empire ; that the early accounts, however vague and imper fect, which had been given by casual travellers, of its extent, magnificence, and political importance, would have soon led, in the ordinary course of events, to an intimate acquaintance and a regularly established intercourse with that remote and recently discovered, but, at the same time, highly interesting portion ofthe civilized world. At the end, however, of several centuries, these expectations are still but very imperfectly realized.

This great Empire, too well assured of the com petency of its own natural and artificial resources, to be induced to seek, and, if not too powerful, at least too distant and compactly united, to be liable to be compelled to enter into alliances and close connections with the Powers of Europe, has never as yet, except in a precarious and limited degree, admitted of any species of intercourse with them. It continues to this day wholly re gardless and independent of those nations of the West, whose general superiority in policy and in arms has triumphantly extended their power and influence over almost every other existing society of mankind. A considerable portion of the intercourse which actually subsists between China and the Nations of Europe owes its orgin, as is well known, to the influence of religious motives ; and was es tablished under rather favourable auspices, by the indefatigable zeal and appropriate talents of the early missionaries of the Catholic church.

These ecclesiastics, having been for the most part of the Society of Jesus, were not wanting in the sagacity, or neglectful of the policy, which had, on so many other occasions, crowned the projects of their order with success. It is difficult indeed to say how far, under such circumstances, even the most ancient of the institutions, upon which the fabric of the Chinese government is founded, or the most deeply rooted of the prejudices and c attachments, by which it continues to be sustained, could have withstood their powerful and under mining influence, had they not happened to have lost the support and countenance both of the head of the Catholic church, and of their respective temporal sovereigns. The consequent extinction of that order havingsubverted the system of politics, which until then the Missionaries in China had successfully observed ; having caused the adoption of a plan of conversion more strict, and probably more orthodox, but, in the same proportion, more unaccommodating to the prejudices ofthe people, and more alarming to the jealousy of the government ; and having also, generally speaking-, thrown the profession into less able hands, the cause of Christianity and of Europe, necessarily lost much of its temporary lustre and influence.

In addition to this unfavourable change of circumstances, the French Revolution has subsequently had the effect of considerably reducing both the amount of the funds which support, and the number of the labourers who cultivate the Christian vineyard in China ; under which accumulated disadvantages the intercourse with Europeans, as far as the Missionaries are concerned, it will easily be conceived, must of late years, in spite of every exertion, have been gradually on the decline. Although, among the few Missionaries whom the Emperor of China still retains in his ser vice at Pekin, and among the larger number who are clandestinely employed in maintaining and propagating the Christian faith in the provinces, there are, no doubt, many amiable and respectable, and perhaps even some learned men, they can scarcely be expected to make any material addition, under their present difficulties, to the stock of useful and valuable information which Europe has already derived from the same quarter.

The literary labours of the Missionaries, con sisting of original descriptions and of translations, are, however, already numerous and extensive. Their works seem, at first sight, to have been penned with such diligence, and formed upon plans so comprehensive, as to promise satisfaction on every subject connected with the Chinese em pire, in which European curiosity can be inte rested. But, on a closer examination, we find rea son to lament that their attention had not been more directed to the objects that were principally desirable, and we begin to suspect that their situation, or some other circumstances, must have had a tendency to disqualify them from represent ing those objects with all the accuracy and fidelity of disinterested and impartial observers. At the same time, it is impossible to conceive any set of persons more advantageously placed for the purpose of collecting and communicating the information that was most required.

Having devoted themselves to a residence for life among the people of that empire, it was naturally one of their first objects to acquire a knowledge of their manners, habits, and language. The active duties of their profession necessarily led them to cultivate the favour of the rich, to conciliate the affections of the poor, and to associate generally with every class of the inhabitants. As they appeared exclusively in the character either of artists or of men of science, they were in no danger of becoming objects of jealousy to any rank, or .to any party ; they had generally a free communication with every department of the court and of the govern ment, and at times were admitted to a familiar intercourse even with the sovereign himself. It is, however, to be recollected on the other hand, that, with the Missionaries, science and literature were objects only of a secondary consi deration, infinitely inferior in their estimation to that sacred cause in which they were united, which they were bound to support, and to which all others were to be made subservient ; that they were persons who had all of them professedly re nounced the world, and who, having abstracted themselves accordingly from its various pursuits, had been in great measure incapacitated from ac quiring that particular experience which is necessary towards appreciating the merits and charac teristic features of other countries, by the most obvious and indispensable of tests, a comparison with their own.

It was also inevitable, that per sons thus situated should be, generally speaking, under the influence of a strong pre-disposition in favour of a people, for the sake of whose conver sion they had renounced their country, and devoted their lives ; and of a government, from whom, at one period, they had received extraordi nary kindness-and indulgence, and upon the con tinuance of whose protection the success of their future undertakings vvas foreseen almost entirely to depend. Although having, personally, access to all the principal objects of curiosity, and chief sources of information, and possessing sufficiently the requisite talents of description, we too often find that a want of substantial impartiality and discri minating judgment in their writings, has tended to throw a false colouring on many of the objects which they delineate, and has sometimes produced those inconsistencies by which errors and misre presentations of this description are often found to contribute to their own detection.

In like manner, although their intimate know ledge of the language of China enabled the Mis sionaries to explore and illustrate the antiquities of the empire, by the perusal and translation of the obscure and disputed texts of its most ancient poets, historians, and philosophers, an extreme anxiety to place those productions in the most favourable and pleasing light, has led them, in some instances, to engraft so much of the Euro pean character and style upon the Chinese origi nals, that the authenticity of their versions has, however unjustly, been in such cases more than suspected. Other works again, such as the Chinese press abundantly affords, concerning the present state of the empire, its civil, political, and legal institutions, they have, it must be acknowledged, in great measure neglected, either as comparatively unimportant in their estimation, or as insufficient and ill-suited for conveying those highly favourable ideas, with which they seem themselves to have been impressed, of the character of the Chinese peo ple, and the principles of the Chinese government.

By the foregoing observations, it is by no means intended to detract from the real merits of the learned and pious writers of this class ; either by denying, that they have afforded to the European world a vast collection of useful and interesting information, or by asserting, that they have, in any particular instances, been guilty of wilful de ception or misrepresentation. It is merely wished to point out some of the causes which render it unsafe to rely implicitly on their authority, to state the particular bias under which they wrote, and to notice some of the effects of which that bias was necessarily productive. The communications between European states and the dominions of China, which a spirit of commercial enterprize gave rise to, although they have been, at times, of considerable importance to several of the Continental nations, and are at pre sent, with respect to Great Britain, of such a nature and extent, as to be very essentially contributive to her national prosperity, yet they did not, until a very late period, produce any fruits deserving of particular notice, either to science or literature.

With the exception of the Travels of Mr. Bell of Antermony, and the Translation of a Chinese Novel, by an obscure hand, but illustrated by the D name of its Editor, scarcely any thing of importance respecting- China, derived from a commercial origin, appeared in England, until the period of the Embassy of the late Earl of Macartney. His Lordship's mission was certainly an important step towards obtaining a more accurate and inti mate knowledge of the Chinese empire. That empire was, on that occasion, in some degree laid open to the view of persons, whose talents and judgment were worthy of their country, and of an enlightened age ; and who, it was natural to expect, would be disposed to describe the country and its inhabitants, as they really found them, and to state the opinions they might be led to form on the different objects which occurred, with candour and sincerity. — If, in estimating the credit due to their impartiality, some allowance for the national prejudices of Englishmen should be deemed requisite, the tendency of those prejudices would, at all events, be very dissimilar to that of the bias which had influenced their predecessors in the same field of inquiry.

When also it is considered that, in passing rapidly over the narrow path to which they were confined, the opportunities of observation must have been comparatively few and limited, it will justly be deemed a subject of pride and satisfaction, and a very material addition to the immediate advantages which that expedition produced to this country, that it has, in so short a time, and under such unfavourable circumstan ces, been the means of throwing an entire new hght upon, and of correcting and extending our ideas of that extraordinary and interesting empire ; that, in short, if it has not led to the discovery of a new world, it has, as it were, enabled us to recover a portion of the old, by removing, in a considerable degree, those obstacles by which our con templation of it had been intercepted.

The short residence in China of Lord Macartney's Embassy, although it scarcely afforded any opportunity of either confirming or disproving the various geographical, historical, and statistical details, with which we had been furnished by the Missionaries, was amply sufficient to discover that the superiority over other nations, in point of knowledge and of virtue, which the Chinese have long been accustomed to assume to themselves, and which some of their European historians have too readily granted them, was in great measure fallacious; their knowledge was perceived to be defective in those points in which we have, in Europe, recently made the greatest progress, and to which we are therefore propor tionately partial. Their virtues were found to consist more in ceremonial observances, than in d moral duties — more in profession, than in practice; and their vices, when traced and discovered upon occasions where they were the least expected, seemed to deserve a more than ordinary degree of reprobation.

The first impressions occasioned by a discovery, that the Chinese people and government were in many respects the converse of that which, agreeably to the most authentic accounts, they might have been expected to be found, were naturally unfavourable. But if the English visitors at the court of Pekin had been permitted to remain any considerable time, and with a sufficient degree of freedom, in the interior of the empire, they might gradually have acquired a more direct and extensive know ledge of the governors and of the governed in China ; they might, by constant and familiar intercourse with the several classes of the inhabi tants, have learned more of their manners, habits, and ordinary conduct, and have been enabled to judge of, and to characterize, their influencing motives on different occasions, upon surer grounds.

If they had possessed equal opportunities with the missionaries, who preceded them, of exerting their judgment upon the Chinese character, though they certainly would not have coincided in all their sentiments and opinions, they might, perhaps, have found something to compensate the evils they had justly reprobated and lamented, and they might even have at last determined, that a con siderable proportion of the opinions most generally entertained by Chinese and Europeans of each other was to be imputed either to prejudice, or to misinformation ; and that, upon the whole, it was not allowable to arrogate, on either side, any violent degree of moral or physical superiority. In regard to the diffusion of knowledge among the natives, they might not indeed meet with such illustrious instances as those of a Newton, a Locke, or a Bacon ; nor even, perhaps, find, generally, any tolerable proficiency in the sciences, which in Europe the writings of those great men have con tributed so much to advance and to establish ; but, nevertheless, such a sufficiency, in all ranks and conditions, of the information essential or most useful to each ; such a competency and suit ableness of the means to the end, as might, upon a general view of the whole population, fairly entitle the Chinese to be put in competition with some, at least, of the nations of Europe, in respect to all the essential characteristics of civilization.

The virtues of the Chinese, although very inferior, no doubt, to their professions, and of a lower order than those which Christianity has happily implanted, or invigorated, in the European world, they might also have found as little alloyed, either with the sanguinary or the selfish vices, as among any people for whose guidance the salutary light of revelation has not yet penetrated. Even the crime of infanticide, for instance, which has been considered such an indelible stain upon the Chinese character, might be found to admit of some extenuation, if it was discovered to be rarely, if ever, practised, except inthe anguish of hopeless poverty, or in cases of such unhappy and defective formation, as might be conceived to render life a painful burden. The criminality of the Chinese, in this respect, might also be safely contrasted with the legalized cruelty and unnatural indifference of Roman fathers under similar circum stances.

Passing from the people to the govern ment, the obvious and undeniable defects of the latter might justly be compared with the acknowledged corruptions and imperfections of those of Europe ; and it might, perhaps, be found, upon a general view, that the happiness of the people was not more frequently neglected or interrupted, upon the one system than upon the other. There would still, no doubt, remain, both in the habits of the people, and the principles of the government, some exceptionable traits, which are happily not to be exactly paralleled in Europe ; but, on the other hand, some very considerable and positive moral and political advantages might be found peculiar to the Chinese ; attributable to the system of early and universal marriage, except, indeed, as far as that system may be considered to conduce to the misfortune of a redundant popula tion ; to the sacred regard that is habitually paid to the ties of kindred ; to the sobriety, industry, and even intelligence of the lower classes ; to the almost total absence of feudal rights and privileges ; to the equal distribution of landed property ; to the natural incapacity and indisposition of the government and people to an indulgence in am bitious projects and foreign conquests ; and lastly, to a system of penal laws, if not the most just and equitable, at least the most comprehensive, uniform, and suited to the genius of the people for whom it is designed, perhaps of any that ever existed .

The foregoing conjectures respecting the degree of estimation in which the Chinese government and people will be held by the other civilized nations of the world, when the veil is more completely withdrawn, which has hitherto intercepted their view, and baulked their curiosity, although they neither have been nor can be verified, under present circumstances, by adequate personal in quiry, yet their reasonableness and probability may even now be investigated with advantage, and and tried upon almost every point, by the interesting evidence which the Chinese, in their own numerous and respectable literary productions, have themselves afforded. After making every allowance for national par tialities, prejudices, and defects, whatever they may be, it will generally be found, that the best and most authentic information of the state of any country, having pretensions to civilization, is con tained in the works of the natives, and in the vernacular language.

Although the character of the Chinese government, in common with that of those of all other Asiatic nations, necessarily prevents the press from becoming, in any considerable degree, a vehicle for the investigation of political questions, or for the introduction of innovations of any kind, yet there are no previous licences demanded, or restrictive regulations enforced ; nor in the case of publications upon ordinary subjects, any checks whatever imposed upon their number or variety, On the contrary, the encouragement given to pursuits which are purely literary, has always been considered as one of the remarkable features of Chinese policy. These pursuits are professedly the sole channel of introduction to political advancement in the state, to offices, rank, and honours of almost every description.

With the prospect of such rewards, the number of competitors in the paths of literature must necessarily be infinite ; and, in point of fact, the first rudiments, at least, of literary knowledge, are almost universally diffused among the natives of every class and denomination. Through the concurrence of these causes the productions of the press in China not only open a wide field of investigation to the literary and philosophical inquirer, but are, in a much greater degree than could otherwise have been expected, calculated to supply that species of information which the present system of our intercourse with the Chinese, affords so little pros pect of obtaining by personal communication. It is not, indeed, to be expected, that an acquaintance with Chinese literature, however inti mate, can materially add to our present stock of theoretical knowledge upon natural and philoso phical subjects ; and in respect to the Ethics and ■ Antiquities of the Chinese, it may, perhaps, be considered that the translations already effected by the .Missionaries afford a sufficient specimen : but there are many other objects of research, which surely are neither uninteresting nor unimportant.

As men of science, we have yet much to learn respecting the arts, which, with the advantage of long and uninterrupted experience, and a propor tionate degree of practical skill, are successfully cultivated by an eminently industrious and in genious people. As men of letters, we have yet to comprise, within the circle of our philology, the various branches of a new species of Belles Lettres, contained in a highly refined and most singular language : we have, lastly, as statesmen and philosophers, to examine more closely, and to dive more deeply into the principles, operation, and consequences, of the civil policy, characteristic laws, and general system of a government and constitution, not indeed the best or the purest, but certainly the most anciently, and, if we may judge from its duration, the most firmly established, and the most conformable to the genius and character of the people, of any of which mankind has had experience.

The great, and indeed almost the only obstacle, which exists to inquiries of this nature, is the circumstance of the literature of China being buried in a language by far the least accessible to a foreign student of any that was ever invented by man. Among the languages of Europe, several agree to a considerable extent, even in their phraseology, and all are connected by various analogies. The languages of the Asiatic nations are indeed radically different from those of Europe, and their study is, to Europeans, proportionately difficult; but in one point, at least, all the written languages of the world coincide, that of the Chinese only excepted. — In all, ideas are expressed by a combination of letters, representing, not the ideas themselves, but certain particular sounds with which these ideas, either by accident or convention, have become identified.

It is exclusively in the Chinese language, that the seemingly visionary scheme of a philosophical character, immediately expressive, according to an established and received classification, of the ideas as they arise in the mind, under an entire disregard of the sounds employed to give them utterance, has ever been generally adopted as the universal medium of communication; a plan of which it may justly be said, that the practice is no less inconvenient and perplexing, than the theory is beautiful and ingenious. e Experience has nevertheless in various instances proved, that these difficulties, however great, are by no means insurmountable, even by ordinary zeal and application. It is also to be considered, that they would be more seriously felt by those, by whom the first steps should be taken towards introducing and recommending the knowledge of the Chinese language in this country, than by those who might afterwards follow in the same path of literature.

The modes of acting and think ing peculiar to a people who have scarcely ever been placed in circumstances tending in any respect towards an assimilation with the rest of man kind, especially when conveyed in a language whose style and idioms are frequently as little conformable to our received notions of propriety, as they are reconcileable to our ordinary rules and distinctions of grammar, cannot indeed be expected to prove in any form of translation altogether agreeable to the taste of European readers. It seems requisite that the students in this branch of oriental literature should become numerous, that its peculiarities should be traced and explained by a more correct knowledge of the people them selves, and that the minds of the readers should be somewhat habituated to them, as they already are in a considerable degree, to the peculiarities in the style and idioms of other Eastern languages.

Yet, even in the present state of our knowledge of the Chinese people, and of our political relations with the Chinese empire, it is not unreasonable to hope, that communications derived from authentic sources in the original language, may have some effect in drawing attention to, and exciting an interest in, the hitherto neglected literature of that country ; — it is necessary indeed, that the work selected should, in one esssential point at least, be unexceptionable, however defective in others ; that its translation should combine as many advantages, and as few objections as possible, and in particular, that the excellence of the matter, should render the manner in which it was conveyed a consideration of com paratively little importance. Among the multifarious publications of the Chinese, ancient as well as modern, which are still extant, and hitherto untranslated into any Euro pean language, the Ta-Tsing-Leu-Lee, or Im perial Code of Penal Laws, certainly ranks with those of the first class, in respect to the importance of the subject of which it treats, and the pre eminence of the authority by which it was origi nally established, as well as, at different periods down to the present time, successively sanc tioned and confirmed.

As in this work also, the two very desirable qualities of a comparatively simple style, and a compendious form, happen fortunately to be united, its contents are certainly, in many respects, less difficult of access than those of most other publications of a similar extent in the Chinese language and character. It has justly been observed by Mr. Gibbon, that " the laws of a nation form the most instructive portion of its history." But the laws of the Chinese, if taken in the most comprehensive sense of the term, framed, as they have been, by the wisdom and experience of a long series of ages, and suitably provided, as they are, for the government of an empire, unparalleled in the history of the world in extent and population, must, it will readily be imagined, be proportionally numerous and complicated.