The Middle Kingdom; a survey of the geography, government, education, social life, arts, religion, &c. of the Chinese Empire and its inhabitants. With a new map of the Empire

Front matter

THE MIDDLE KINGDOM. VOLUME I. LIFE, r," "Tdsro THE MIDDLE KINGDOM; _ SURVEY OF THK GEOGRAPHY, GOVERNMENT, EDUCATION, SOCIAL ARTS, RELIGION, &c, or THE CHINESE EMPIRE AND ITS INHABITANTS. WITH A KEW MAP OF THE EMPIRE. BY S. WELLS WILLIAMS, AUTHOR OF " EASY LEB80N6 IN dUNKSE," " ENGLISH AND CHINEBE YOOABULARY, DICTIONARY OF THE CHINESE L___.QC AQE," AO. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY & SONS, PUBLISHERS, 15 Astor Place. 1879. Entered, according to Act of Congreoe, In the rear 1847, dt 3. WELLS WILLIAMS, ta the Clerk's office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. Tbow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, B05-213 East \2th St.) NEW YORK. ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I. PoRTRilT OF KlYING. Title Page — representing an honorary portal. The two characters Shing chi, upon the top, snow that it is erected by imperial command The four characters underneath in the panel, Chung Kwoh Tsunglun, are the name of the work in Chinese, " A General Account of the Middle Kingdom."

The inscription on the right is Gin chtngaijin yu tsin Icih so, i. e. He who is benevolent loves those near, and then those who are remote. That on the left is an expression attribute:' to Confucius; Si fang chi jin yu shing chi yi, i. e. The people o( '.he west have sages. Plan of Pekin ., ... 5^ View of a street in Canton, , . . 130 Yak or Grunting Ox, . . . . 192 The Chinese Hog, . 254 Mode of carrying Pigs, . . . 255 Different styles of Official Caps, . . . 323 Mode of carrying high officers in Sedans, . 404 Prisoner suffering torture, ... . 405 Mode of exposure in the Cangue, ... 4x1 Publicly whipping a Thief through the streets, 413 Different forms of Chinese characters, 1 GIDEON NYE, JR., ©f Canton, C .ina: A TESTIMONIAL OF THE RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP or the author. CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Chapter I

general divisions and features of the empire. rui Names given to China — Area, divisions, and boundaries — Mountain ranges around and in the Empire — Desert of Gobi — Yellow river, Yangtsz" kiang avid other rivers — LaKes and islar.'s — Coast line — Great Wall and Canal — Five races within the Empiie .... 1

Chapter II. Geographical Description Of The Eastern Provinces

Climate of the provinces — Table of their divisions — Chihli ; the city of Peking, its divisions and municipality — Gardens near it — Tientsin — Shantung; its coast and capital — Shansi; Honan; its capital — Kiangsu; its cities Nanking, Suchau, Sl.a.ighai, &c. — Nganhwui ;— Kiangsi ; its rivers and towns — Chehkiang, its cities Hangchau, Ningpo, &c. ; the Chusan islands— Fuhkien ; its capital Fuhchau, Amoy, Changchau, &c ; Formosa. . . 43

Chapter III. Geographical Description Of The Western Provinces

Hupeh ; its capital Wuchang— Hunan ; — Shensi — Kansuh — Sz'- chuen — Kwangtung ; its capital Canton, Macao, Hongkong — Hainan I. — Kwangsi — Yx'nnan 120

Chapter IV Geographical Description Of Colonies

Their subdivisions— Manchuria ; its climate, area, provinces, and productions — Moukden — River Sagalien — Island of Tarakai — Inner Mongolia — Outer Mongolia ; its khanates ; Kiakhta and Kurun — Cobdo— Koko-nor — IlI ; its two Circuits — Tarbagatai and Kur-Kara usu— The capital Kuldsha— Eight Mohammedan cities— History of 111 and Khoten — Tibet ; its divisions, chief towns, inhabitants, and history — Ladak ; its capital Leh. . . . CONTENTS. 1191 353

Chapter V. Population And Statistics

Comparison of censuses — Reasons for admitting and doubting them — Revenue mil disbursements — Salaries • 206

Chapter VI Natural History Of China

Minerals gems, and metals — Zoology; wild animals — Domesticated animals, birds, water-fowl, and birds reared for show — Reptiles — Fishes — Insects — Botany, trees, flowers, bamboo, &c. — Researches of the Chinese in Natural History. . 240

Chapter VII. Laws Of China And Plan Of Government

Theory of the Chinese polity, its features of responsibility and espionage — Code of laws — Emperor of China, his power, character, name, &c. — Orders of nobility and classes of society — Branches of central government — Cabinet and General council; six Boards- Colonial Office ; Censorate— Judiciary, and Imperial Academy — Minor bureaus — Provincial government.* . . .9*

Chapter VIII. Administration Of The Laws

Chaiacter and position ofthe high officers in the government, Changling, Ho, Sung, Lin, Kiying, &.c. — Emperor's responsibility — Edicts of officers — Their agents and modes of extortion — Village eldership — Evils of clans — Popular manifestoes — Prevalence of banditti — Judicial proceedings — Punishments and tortures — Style of officers.

Chapter IX. Education And Literary Examinations

Nature of Chinese education — Schools and schoolbooks Primary books — Deficiencies and results of education — Examinations for literary degrees— Mode of conducting them— Effects and objects of this competition — Influence of the Chinese literary gentry Extent and objects of female education. .... ... 42J P_BI 502 CONTENTS.

Chapter X. Structure Of The Chinese Language

Origin of this language — Six classes of characters — Modes of arrang. ing them — The two hundred and fourteen radicals — Six styles of writing — Mode of printing — Metallic types — Sounds ofthe Chinese language — Three dialects and their peculiarities — Grammar of the Chinese — Mode of studying the language 458

Chapter XI. Classical Literature Of The Chinese

Catalogue of the imperial library — Five Classics ; their names and character — Filial duty, and examples of it — Four Books ; their authors and character — Notice of Mencius — Confucius, his life and writings; interview with a boy — Dictionaries of the language. .

Chapter XII. Polite Literature Of The Chinese

Historical works— Sz'ma Kwang, a historian — History of the Three States — Philosophical writings— Chu Hi and his disquisitions — Sacred Commands of Kanghi ; and versification of it— Stories of the Rationalists — Novels — Story of Li Taipeh— Poetry of the Chinese — Ballads, pasquinades, and dramas — Proverbs. . . 54.

Preface

TO A NEW ISSUE. The recent events which have taken place in China, have drawn public attention to that empire more than ever before ; and this interest will doubtless increase in proportion to the accurate knowledge which will be obtained of the resources, condition, and policy of the country and its inhabitants. The changes now initiated in the external relations of China, will ere Iona* compel her rulers to fall in with the demands of foreign powers, or else they will gradually be driven away, and give place to others more in unison with the new order of things. The internal state of the empire is likely, under the pressure of these external forces, to become more and more disorganized and weak, requiring the strong arm of a new administration to rescue the people from sedition, rapine, and utter anarchy.

There is, however, great vitality and self-support in the democratic institutions and peaceful in dustry of the mass of the Chinese people, and these features of their personal and national character furnish grounds of hope that they will adapt themselves to the new influences coming upon them. To furnish intelligent persons with an aid to become acquainted with the condition of that large portion of their fellow-men com prised within the Chinese Empire, induces the re-issue of the Middle Kingdom. Since its publication, the several portions of the book have been closely examined in China, and found to be generally correct : so that the work is again presented to the public with the conviction that its statements will be found reliable, and the reader put in possession of information enabling him to form a judgment upon the state and prospects of the Chinese.

PKEFACE. The map has been corrected to show the extent of territory annexed to Russia in the northeast of Manchuria, and tbe topography of the ports opened to commerce has been im proved. Since the book was written some important events have transpired, both in the internal and external relations of China, which may be here very briefly referred to in the order of their occurrence. After the promulgation of the French treaty of Whampoa in 1846, the French embassador, M. de Lagrene, obtained a partial recognition of the Christian faith from the Emperor, and a qualified assent to the rights of its professors scattered throughout the empire ; which served at least to bring this important subject distinctly before the officers of government, even if it did not always control their conduct towards converts.

In 1847, the governor of Hongkong, Sir John F. Davis, under direction from the Foreign Office, made a demand upon the governor-general at Canton to open that city to the ingress of foreigners, as was the case at all the other open ports, and forcibly occupied tbe forts at the mouth of the river and near the city, to add strength to the demand; but the popular excitement was so great that he waived the fulfilment of the engagement on the part of Kiying, that access should be opened to it, for two years. The right of entrance into the walled cities at the ports opened to commerce, was not clearly expressed in any of the treaties, and the people of Canton were supported in their resistance to this demand by their local rulers. At the expiration of the stipulated period in April 1849, their determination was stronger than before, and the English authorities, having found that practically it was a point of less importance, indefinitely adjourned the arrangement with Kiying.

The Court of Peking had decided to place the management of foreign affairs in the hands of the governor-general at Canton, and the interposition of a stone wall around his palace enabled him to delay public affairs, and weary out the foreign ministers, which he could not so easily have done had he been obliged to ..ant them personal interviews. This shortsighted policy worked out

PREFACE.

. its evil consequences in a few years, and was one of the leading causes which brought about the troubles of 1856. The insurgents under Tai-ping Wang, which have since attained so much notoriety, commenced their career about 1849 ; and soon became a formidable enemy to the Manchus. Their partial adop tion of Christianity as a principle of action has attracted much attention towards them in western countries, but it seems from the first to have been subordinate to their political designs ; and the examples in the Bible were regarded rather as countenancing the destruction of their enemies, than its tenets commanding them to do them good. In the providence of God, it is often seen that such imperfectly instructed people are used to further His plans by their fanatical spirit and cruel excesses ; and when they have fulfilled their mission of punishment, and prepared the way, are removed to give place to a higher and purer agency : and such may be the position of the Nanking insurgents.

Their present leader, named Hung Sia-tsiuen, was associated at first with another one, called Fung Yun-shan, who early disappeared from the scene. The former obtained some knowledge of Christianity from tracts given him in 1833 by the native Evangelist Liang Afah, and increased it by studying a few months in 1846 with Rev. I. J. Roberts, an American missionary in Canton. It seems probable, that as he found his early confused notions of the Shang-ti of the Confucian classics assuming a definite shape by the perusal of the Bible, where that term was employed to designate the true God, he conceived the idea of adopting it as his standard of authority, and following its principles as far as they would further his designs. He began to teach his newly discovered doctrines to his friends, and gathered around him a party, which was soon known as the Shangti Hwui, i.e. the Association of the Supreme Ruler ; and by this name attracted the attention and persecution of the rulers, who saw in it the germ of a conspiracy to overthrow the dynasty.

They, as well as the Chinese generally, regard the worship of Shangti as a prerogative of the Emperor, and an association with such a name was indicative of treasonable designs. Hung had

PREFACE.

. now joined to himself several determined coadjutors, and their forces were strong enough to stand a siege of many months against the Imperialist forces, in Yung-ngan chau, a city near the east ern frontier of Kwangsi province. They left this place with a great decrease of their strength, and proceeded northward in 1 852 towards Kwei-lin, the capital of the province. Being unable to capture this city, they advanced through the province of Hunan till they reached the Yangtse-kiang, increasing in numbers and power, and marking their path with rapine and slaughter of their foes. They went down the Great River to Nanking, which fell into their hands in December, 1852, and has since remained their headquarters. In the spring of 1853, foreign vessels visited them at Nanking, and their recognition as an independent power was urged by enthusiastic persons, who saw in them an important agency in evangelizing the empire.

The degree to which these insurgents have really adopted Christianity is still a matter of doubt, for the publications of their leaders must not be taken as an index of the belief and practice of the mass of followers. The chiefs most known at this date were five kings, called the Eastern, Northern, Western, and Southern kings, with an Assistant king. Of these, Yang, the Eastern king, was apparently the most crafty ; he was recognised also as the younger brother of Jesus, through whom the Holy Ghost, made known the divine will respecting the operations of the expedition. These revelations began at an early period, and the account given of them bears a strong resemblance to those described by Moham med. The leaders substituted the Bible for the Confucian classics, but do not seem to have done much to teach it, though many copies of portions of it were circulated, with digests of their own views of its doctrines.

The idols in all the temples were destroyed, as being a violation of the second commandment; the seventh day of rest was observed by religious services ; and a ritual for worship was promulgated. The practice of opium smoking, and all licentious conduct, were prohibited, and for a while were repressed to a considerable extent ; but as polygamy was allowed.

PREFACE.

. 7 and the moral sense of the body was not very strong, both these prohibitions erelong proved powerless. The worship of ancestors was allowed, and there was little mention in their writings of the atonement of Jesus, and faith in his death, as a means of salva tion ; still less were the vital truths of the New Testament promi nently urged. The book of Joshua was often referred to in them, as if the Manchus were to be regarded in the same light as the old Canaanites, and these insurgents as the appointed means of their destruction. In 1854, the whole force moved upon Peking, but were repulsed with great slaughter, and returned to Nanking. The struggle left the interjacent region in a dreadful condition of ruin and distress, for it is hard to say whether of the two bodies, the insurgents or the imperialists, harass and plunder the people the most.

In 1856, a feud arose between the leaders, which resulted in the destruction of all the kings, except General Shih Tah-kai, the Assistant king, and of many thousands of their followers ; but the particulars and causes of this struggle are not well known, though it consolidated the power in the hands of Hung or Taiping Wang. In 1859, they were reduced so low by the persevering assaults of Ho, the active governor-general of Kiangnan, that their extinction seemed probable; but in the spring of 1860, they were unexpectedly rein forced by the whole army of the imperialists joining them, owing to the inability of Ho to pay their rations. They soon swept the provinces of Kiangsu and Chehkiang, captured Su-chau and Hang chau, their rich and populous capitals, and drove all the Emperor's officers to Shanghai.

Large bodies also proceeded up the Yangtse kiang to Sz'chuen, so that they now command that river, and have control ofthe girdle of China. The cohesion of the main body of the insurgents for so many years indicates a vitality and energy of principle among them, which shows that their leaders have a following they can depend on to some degree ; but our knowledge of the intelligence or vir tue of this rank and file is still too imperfect to enable us to draw any conclusions. Their adoption of any feature of Christianity

PREFACE.

. even if it is only an external rite like a day of rest, or abstaining from the worship of idols, is favorable to the reception of a highei and purer style of belief; and opens the way for the full accept ance and teaching of evangelical faith. If the sacred Scriptures have been circulated to any considerable extent by them during the last ten years, the volumes have doubtless attracted the serious attention of thousands of tbe most cultivated minds among the literary aristocracy of China, to a degree that their mere distribution by the hands of a missionary would never have done ; and the results of such a preparatory work must be great and beneficial, though no estimate of their extent or degree can be made. It is very doubtful whether the insurgents could now rule the empire with their present ideas, for the changes they pro pose are too radical and extensive to obtain the cooperation of the gentry, who are not yet prepared to discard Confucius.

The preparatory steps in such a vast work as the evangelization ofthe Chinese people, are perhaps not less important than the final ones, which they usher in ; and to make ready the way seems to be the position of the party and principles of Tai-ping Wang. The weakness of the central government encouraged others to raise the standard of rebellion. Shanghai and Amoy were cap tured by bands of rovers in 1853, Canton was beleaguered by large bodies, and the provinces were generally in a disturbed state. These risings were gradually put down by the authorities, aided by the inherent weakness ofthe insurgents, whose followers dispersed at the first reverse. The flame of rebellion in the vicinity of Canton was quenched in the blood of fully half a million of human beings, over eighty thousand of whom perished by the executioner's hand in the city itself.

Large numbers of men emigrated to California and Melbourne, and this exodus gave great stimulus to the coolie trade, which had assumed the form of a regular traffic in 1850. In October 1856, the affair ofthe lorcha Arrow at Canton, com plicated matters with the English government. Sir John Bowring demanded an apology for Chinese soldiers having boarded this vessel otf the city, but Yeh refused to give it, though he sent be/

PREFACE.

. 9 .rew to the English consulate to be examined. The dispute went on, until Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, changing the ground of debate, demanded a personal interview with the governor-general, and bombarded the city wall opposite his palace, into which he forced an entrance. The Chinese soon after fired into an Ame rican boat coining from Whampoa, and refused to apologize for the unprovoked outrage ; Commodore Armstrong in consequence attacked and destroyed the Barrier Forts with the force under his command. In December 1856, the Chinese burned the foreign residences at Canton, and gradually compelled all foreigners to withdraw from the city and river. These events were carefully discussed in the British Parliament, and the Ministry appealed to the country in the spring of 185V, on an adverse vote of the Com mons to carry on a war with China in consequence ; they were sus tained by the new House, and decided to resort to arms.

The French government also had causes of grievance, one of which was the murder in Kwangsi of a Roman Catholic missionary, Rev. M. Chapdelaine, under circumstances of peculiar bar barity. Conferences were held between the courts of London and Paris in reference to these matters, and they agreed on an armed remonstrance with the Imperial Government. The United States and Russia were invited to join, but declined furnishing any troops, or cooperating in the plan so as to use their forces. The special ministers from these four powerful nations arrived in China in the year 1857, and the first step of the belligerents was the capture of Canton in December. Yeh was taken prisoner and sent to Calcutta, where he died. After they had arranged the local administration of the city, Lord Elgin and Baron Gros invited Mr. Reed and Admiral Count Putiatine to join them in a full representation and remonstrance to the Court of Peking, in the hope that these simultaneous statements from four western nations would have a beneficial effect.

They willingly did so, and in pursuance of their plans met off the mouth of the Pei-hc in April 1858, their united squadrons amounting to nearly forty vessels.

PREFACE.

. A second series of four letters was forwarded by them from this point to the prime minister Yu-ching; aud Tan, the governor. general of Chihli, accordingly came down to open negotiations. Many conferences were held with him at Taku by the Russians and Americans, but the belligerents regarded his powers as inade quate to settle all the points, and decided to take the forts and go to Tientsin. This was done May 20tb, and several steamers pro ceeded about sixty miles without much opposition up to that city. Soon after reaching it, two high officers, Kwei-liang and Hwa sha-na, came down from Peking, invested with full powers to treat with the foreign ministers. The first was now prime minister (Yu ching having died), and the other was tbe President of the Board of Civil Office ; both of them were well acquainted with the policy of their own government.

The negotiations were now opened between the Imperial Com missioners and their foreign visitors, each party employing their subordinates in arranging the details of the treaties ; but as the action of the latter was quite independent, the result was that their several treaties, when compared, were found to differ some what, though they were all linked together by what are called "favored nation" clauses. The negotiations of Tientsin formed an interesting epoch in the history of Eastern Asia. When the four greatest western powers there stood vis-a-vis with the greatest of pagan powers, in the persons of their representatives, it was the beginning of a new order of influences with the latter. Among other new points, an article allowing the profession of Christianity by the natives of China was introduced into each treaty, and their stipulations may often prove a defence to converts agaiust the rage of unbelievers.

On the return of the foreign ministers to Shanghai, the tariff and commercial relations underwent a thorough revision. The two Imperial Commissioners came overland to that city, and saw more of the position and manners of foreigners, and the extent of their trade, than they had learned before. They agreed to a plan which had already been in operation in that port four years,

PREFACE.

. by which the customs were managed by foreign clerks nndei tha control of the native collector ; this bad proved on the whole so beneficial, that they were ready gradually to extend it to all the ports open to foreign trade. These had been increased, by the new treaties, to thirteen. The five old ones were Canton, Amoy, Fuhchau, Ningpo, and Shanghai ; the eight new ones were Kiung chau in Hainan I. ; Swatau ; Taiwan and Tanshwui in Formosa , Tangchau and Niuchwang in the northeast provinces ; and Hankau and another not yet specified, on the Yangtse kiang. The exchange of the ratifications of the treaties was to take place in June, 1859. The Hon. F. Bruce, M. Bourboulon, and Hon J. E. Ward, the English, French, and American ministers, met in Shanghai in that month. The Imperial Commissioners had tarried there during the winter, for the purpose of conferring with the first-named upon some unsettled points.

He declined to see them, however, and soon after all parties proceeded towards Peking, the Chinese preferring to go by land. The passage by the Pei-ho to Tientsin was found to be obstructed at the mouth by a barrier of beams and stakes, defended by new forts on shore ; in endeavoring to remove these obstacles, the English and French forces suffered a defeat, which compelled them to return to Shanghai. The American minister proceeded on to Peking by way of Pehtang, where he arrived July 28th. A. discussion there ensued with Kweiliang respecting the ceremonies to be observed at an audience with the Emperor, who required the American minister to kneel in his presence ; but this obeisance being refused, the audience was not granted. The ratifications were exchanged at Pehtang, and the treaty went into effect in January, 1860.

The repulse of the English and French forces at Taku led those nations to send out a large allied force to demand and exact repa ration of the Emperor. Their ultimatum having been refused, they landed about eighteen thousand men at Pehtang, dispersed the Chinese army and captured the forts on the Pei-ho, from whence they gradually advanced on Peking. Lord Elgin and Baron Gros, their plenipotentiaries, were again met at Tientsin by

PREFACE.

. Kweiliang (Hwashana had killed himself), about two years aftei they had parted with him, and there resumed negotiations. He was not prepared to assent to their demands, and the forces moved up the river, taking one town after another, and meeting with no serious opposition until near Tung-chau. A body of Chinese and Tartar soldiers here made resistance, but were completely dispersed, and the metropolis of China lay defenceless before the invading army. The summer palace of Yuen-ming Yuen out side of the walls was pillaged, and in consequence of the rough treatment and death of a score of prisoners, who had been captured and taken there by the Chinese, the whole vast establish ment was burned bv the English — a harsh act, which it is to be hoped will at least effect, their object in doing it, and compel the Chinese to treat prisoners more kindly.

The treaties with Eng land and France were exchanged with Prince Kung, one of the imperial family, the Emperor himself having early fled to the northward. An indemnity of about twenty millions of dollars waa exacted by the allies, to be paid in instalments, and the army returned to the mouth of the river. Tientsin and Canton »re to be retained for a while as guaranties for the payment of the money, and complete fulfilment of the treaties. China may therefore now be regarded as opened to full inter course with foreign nations. The future of her political history looks dark and disastrous. Her former isolation was one of her strong defences. Her inhabitants are ignorant and poor, ill fitted to cope with the science and power of western nations, while the dreadful evils caused by the use of opium are continually increasing with the enlarged supply from India and native growth.

Torn by internal factions, harassed by banditti, misgoverned and oppressed by venial and cruel officials, and too weak or disunited to remedy their wrongs, even if they knew the best means of doing so, the people of China present a melancholy spectacle of a great nation in decrepitude. On the other hand, their industry, thrift, peaceful education, and habits of self-government in all their loci. matters, are powerful and permanent preservatives against anarchy

PREFACE.

. and dissolution ; and when the purifying, elevating, and regene rating influences of true Christianity come to their aid, certainly a new era in the history of the Middle Kingdom will begin. Her inhabitants are already beginning to mix among their fellow men, either as laborers or emigrants, and this dispersion will doubtless rapidly increase ; its benefits will more or less reiict upon the masses left in their own homes. The contingencies of the con tinuance of the present central government, or the inauguration of a new dynasty, with the bloodshed and misery necessarily attendant on such changes, are still obscure ; but we are encouraged to hope for the best solution of the dark future in the Divine promises on record relating to the prevalence of truth in the land of Sinim.

PREFACE.

. On my return to the United States from China, I found an unex. pected degree of interest in the community regarding the pios pects in that empire for the extension of traffic and intercourse ; and in many circles, a still greater desire to know how far the recent changes and openings were likely to advance the intro duction and diffusion of Christianity among its inhabitants. A residence at Canton and Macao of twelve years in daily and familiar contact with the people, speaking their language and studying their books, it was supposed might enable me to explain parts of their polity and character not commonly understood here, and give such views of their condition as would illustrate their social state, and encourage to greater efforts in evangelizing them. To reply to these, and other inquiries respecting their geography, population, arts, customs, and science of the Chinese, I delivered a series of lectures in Utica, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and other cities, the proceeds of which were devoted to the manufacture of a fount of Chinese type then making for the missions.

Having gone to China under the patronage of the American Board of Foreign Missions as a printer, this object in lecturing was in keeping both with my station in the mission, and the gene rai subjects of the lectures, in which I endeavored to take a sur vev of the empire and its inhabitants. The inquiries made by intelligent persons guided me in the topics chosen for lecturing. The sequel need hardly be told, nor are the lectures here referred to as an apology for these volumes. Others, far belter able to