The Chinese as They are: Their Moral, Social, and Literary Character. A New ...

Front matter

Google to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

Preface

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

When the Author contemplated China a few years ago as a sphere of labour, he felt his mind bewildered in a labyrinth of doubts and perplexities. A sojourn in that country,

however, dispdUed those doubts and perplexities, and con-

b

Yl PRBFACB.

Tinced him that they were all founded in a misconception of the Chinese character. It has, indeed, been the aim of the Tartar Government to render intercourse with foreigners as wayward and as contradictory as possible, because such a course tended to keep light from flowing into the country^ and replenished the coffers of half-paid officers. The Goyemment of China is purposely absurd, but the people are reasonable in their views and conceptions. Future inquiry will demonstrate the truth of this remark ; and should this work in any measure help forward such an inquiry, the Author will deem himself singularly happy.

A larger work was designed; but as so many books prefer their claims to the leisure of reading men, the Author has done rightly, perhaps, in yielding to those who su^ested that a small one would be more acceptable.

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

PBEFACE. Til

The Author has not made free with anything helonging to his predecessors, hut has confined himself to what fell under his own notice, with the help of native works. In making this observation, he would not be understood as wishing to throw a hint of disparagement at the performances of gentlemen who have written upon the subject; but he imagined he should best encourage a spirit of firee inquiry and an independence of thought in others by endeavouring to set the example himself.

In watching the progress of our armament in China, the Author is prepared to hear of delays, mistakes, and halfexecuted measures, for such things cleave almost necessarily to every human undertaking. British skill and British valour will easily subdue the Chinese in battle; but it will require the greatest moderation, sagacity, and tact, on the part of an officer appointed to govern a province, or an island, to make them acquainted with the blessings of peace under a new system of public discipline. At the same time, the habits of the natives are so Mendly to good order, that as soon as they are practically convinced that the civil administration has been changed, not for the worse, but for the better, they will rank with the most quiet, most happy, and best conducted subjects of the British empire.

Miscellaneous, 332

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

THE WAR.

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

B

THE CHINESE AS THET ARE.

and excuse; and forgetfulness made what speed she could, to draw her leaden veil over the whole. To explain and account for this, would lead us into a labyrinth of investigation, and cany us into fields preoccupied by others. The perusal of many papers in the " Chinese Repository," written by individuals of great research and experience, will throw light upon the subject : and to this work I refer with pleasure those who are desirous of information upon many interesting topics. But I may observe, by the way, that a great nation should have been so long content to occupy a position so undignified in the eye of one-half the world, is attributable perhaps to that paradoxical air which was industriously thrown over everything connected with China, and to that false philosophy which sought to prove that the notions and habits of the people were so singular and so eccentric, that they could never be reduced to the ordinary principles of humanity. But whatever may have been the causes of this forbearance, it encouraged the Chinese to proceed from one act of outrage to another, till they surrounded the factories with soldiers, kept the foreigners, with Her Majesty's superintendent, close prisoners, under a threat of starvation, and invited a hungry mob to rifle and carry off their property. No circumstance was omitted to make this imprisonment as insulting as it was terrible. The anxiety of Captain Elliot to comply with their demands, and the surrender of a large amoxmt of British property, seemed to betray fear and weakness, and thus softly wooed the haughty Tartar to fresh displays of pride and insolence : — he will not allow any of British name a footbreadth of soil, nor a fathom of sea-room, within the Celestial domains — ^he proscribes our manufactures as things polluted — ^and, to crown all, he reads us a lecture on morality, that there may be no comer in our hearts where we can hide ourselves from shame and degradation! He has ever treated us as a few poor leprous wretches, subsisting only through the superabundance of imperial clemency, —

CAUSES OF THE WAB.

now, he proposes to poison us with medicated waters, to hew us in pieces with the sword, to bum our ships, and, in a word, to sweep us from the earth. In addition to this, we have the infelicity of knowing, that many hundreds of our Chinese friends are ruined in circumstances, and exposed to all manner of danger in person, for no other offence than that of shewing us kindness. To wipe off these stains, to vindicate our character, and to shew that we can protect our subjects from insult and wrong, we have sent an armament, with a land force, to demand satisfaction, and, if not speedily made, to take it by force. If it be fit and right, in the nature of things, that wicked men and wicked nations should have full licence to play what pranks they please, without check or reproof, then this war is unjust; but if a limit ought to be put to such proceedings, and reason be inadequate, then our Government has .acted wisely in resorting to force. A firm and decided tone in asking for redress, and the appearance of a fleet in the Yellow Sea, at some former period, might have induced the Tartar Court to refrain from the customary phrases of abuse, to treat our representatives with courtesy, and to change a system of smuggling — for the whole of our transactions are scarcely worthy of a better name — ^into a lawful traffic. But I apprehend the matter has proceeded too far; success has made them bold, and they have cut off their own retreat. Their pride must now be signally humbled, before any nation can deal with them with either safety or honour.

As to the motives which induced the Tartar government to throw down the gauntlet with Britain, and hurl defiance in her teeth, I will take upon me to say, that it was not from any concern at the demoralizing effects which the use of opium had upon the population. I am not bound to make so great a compliment of my understanding, as to give men credit for any feelings so honourable, who, from the highest to the lowest, are hars and extortioners by a kindof official patent. The state of their currency — as Spanish

b2

THB CHINB8E AS THBT ARE.

dollars were, and are still, running out at the rate of several milHons a year, and the natives make but a limited use of the mineral stones of the country — was indeed calculated to make them serious, and to put them upon seeking for a remedy. So far, opium may be reckoned amongst the real causes of our expulsion from China. But this cause is weakened, and dwindles almost to nothing, when we consider, that these very Tartar authorities have been the chief promoters of this traffic, and have derived large profit from it. These profits appeared under the formality of fees, bribes, mulcts, forfeitures, but were substantially a duty upon the drug ; which duty, like water in the hydraulic spiral of Archimedes, did wind its way till it flowed into the imperial coffers, though of course greatly diminished by frequent attrition in its route. The real causes of the part they have taken with us, I believe, were, 1. The fear of truth and discovery; 2. a secret, though iU-defined abhorrence of our religion; and 3. a dread of our arms.

1 . They had always been in the habit of representing us in all official communications, as poor, untaught, iU-mannered, base, cunning, and destitute of humanity. The gratuitous distribution of books, the proceedings of our medical philanthropy, and our daily walks among and interviews with the people, gave a practical refutation to these calumnies, and shewed that their inventors were a set of unprincipled liars. I believe they are not accused of too great a sensitiveness about their reputation, and, therefore, whether they were held as dealers in truth or falsehood, was perhaps a matter of indifference. But they sagaciously foresaw, that in time the popular voice would demand an extension of those privileges which foreigners enjoyed, or rather, a repeal of those disabihties under which they laboured. A Tartar magistrate tramples upon the rights of a few individuals, a village, or a neighbourhood, with impunity; but he is somewhat afraid of public opinion, though in China it has to struggle with everything that can check

CAUSES OF THE WAB.

L its growth and maturity. They were apprehensive lest the inhabitants of distant towns and cities should say, " Wf saw with our own eyes, when on a visit to Canton, that the people find these foreigners kind and gentle in their manners, inteUigent, full of good works among the lame and the bHnd, distributors of good books, very honourable in their dealings, and, withal, very profitable to us in the way of buying and selling : allow them to come and settle among us, that we may share in all these advantages." — ^To cut off the possibility of such appeals as these, they deemed it right to look about for some expedient, and they soon found the opium traffic most opportune to their purpose. Nothing was necessary but to make the edicts against it a little more stringent and effective. This would produce a constructive immorality in the sale of the drug, and lead to bribery, disputes, violence, and lastly to piracy. Thus all the gmlt accruing from such deeds would be chargeable upon the foreigner, who would appear in the hght of a heinous wrong-doer, while they would stand in the favourable aspect of persons anxious to check vice and punish those concerned in its promotion. And that they managed matters well, we need go no farther for a proof than this fact, that there are many sensible men at home and abroad who think them sincerely bent upon the extermination of a fearful evil. Opium has indeed answered the purpose, — ^it has put many a crown into the pockets of a poorly-paid magistracy, — ^it has served as an admirable instrument for maintaining a system of wholesome terror in the empire; but it has been infinitely more valuable, as a pretext for insulting the British nation, and keeping her sons from doing good among the Chinese.

2. There is something in the very air of Christianity, however darkly exhibited in translations and tracts, that excites the hatred of the proud idolater, long before he can be supposed to understand the spirit and drift of it. Something like intuition seems to warn him against it, as a

THE CHINE8S AS THET AEE.

code that aims its powerful shafts at human pride, and never grants any quarter till it has laid it flat in the dust. It is a savour of death to all who are well-pleased with themselves: to such, there is something deadly in the very perfume of it. The Tartars, filled to drunkenness with their own vanity, see enough of Christianity to hate it, though their ideas of its doctrines are necessarily most confused and most inadequate; and this hatred prompted them to drive out those who were anxious to set the rehgion of Christ before the people, under the plausible colour of banishing the use of. the drug. When they proscribed British manufactories, they levelled a secret blow at the Word of God.

3. Added to these two causes, was the dread of our arms. Taou-kwang and his courtiers had long contemplated the British lion, as he lay couching upon the plains of India, and the glare of his eyes pierced their coward souls through and through. But at length they had reason to beheve that this lion was fast bound, so that one might pluck his hair and sport with his mane at pleasure. " What can the English do? If they stir, they will lose India at once." I am not aware that this was at any time stated in a memorial to the Imperial Gfovemment, but it was on the wings of report, in readiness to welcome the High Commissioner at the commencement of his late magnanimous proceedings. This, backed by the yielding facility of Elliot, who was anxious to save the Hves of his countrymen at any-cost or concession, tempted Lin to persevere in measures which, when analysed, seem very Httle better than the acts of a madman. For what but the strong persuasion, that we were so encumbered with our Indian possessions that we could not move a hair's breadth without losing them, could have led him to challenge a nation which, mth a single frigate, can destroy the whole of the Imperial navy, and spread terror and desolation along the shores, from Canton to Teen-tsin? Surely he reckoned without his host; for

PROBABLE RESULTS OF THE WAR.

while he was assuming this as a fact, it was proved to be a mistake by the sudden conquest of Afghanistan and the wholesome check given to the movements of the Burmese. But Taou-kwang has had the pleasure of a temporary victory over his fears ; he saw Great Britain at his feet, loaded with every indignity^hat he and his minions could devise for her; and what is very remarkable, he might see, if his ken could reach far enough, some on this side of the world who appear desirous that she should lie there for ever.

As to the results of this dispute, we might say, that we know not what a day may bring forth to ourselves, and, therefore, are but poorly qualified to foretel what may happen to a moiety of the world: there is, however, a pleasure in speculating, especially when we feel deeply interested in the issue. Dissatisfactions exist in China, as it appears from the records of many rebellions ; and an industrious and thriving people, as are many of her inhabitants, seems fitted for inhaling a few draughts of freedom. If the discontented spirits of the country and the foreigner should come to an understanding, emancipation from the Tartar yoke, and the setting up of some native prince, are events within the calculations of hkehhood. Such a prince would feel it to be a matter of duty, or of policy at least, to cultivate the friendship of his patrons ; and the smallest proof he could shew of his gratitude would be, to lay open his vast territories to all the fair appulses of commerce, religion, and science. The blessings of religion and her handmaid, philosophy, would have a scope in the Celestial land as wide as the prospect is goodly; and commerce would pour wealth into the stores of the Chinese, while it enriched the stranger. They need a multitude of things which the foreigner can make for them, and which they would purchase with eagerness if their taste were a httle consulted in the fashion of the articles; But what would they give us in return? Why, apart from their silks and teas, they would supply us with beautifrd paper for our

THE CHINESE AS THET ARE.

wood-cuts, native books for tliat generation of students which will erelong spring up in this country, with curiosities of all sorts, and with many ingenious manufactures ; and if these were not enough, their mountains would make up the deficiency. A few mining companies, with the improvements of modem art, would extract many an unseen mass of treasure from the ancient hilU of China, to stimulate adventure and enlarge the boundaries of knowledge. The interdicts against opium have been one great cause of the increase in its consumption, for the inhibition gives a charm to enjoyment, and the seller and the custom-house officer a triple interest in the sale. Repeal the prohibition, and the inducements to sell and to smoke wiU be lessened by one-half, and the curse under which the country hes will be lightened by just so much. The legislator' s business is to see that every subject has his own: when he begins to make laws about morality, he encroaches upon the rights of the governed, and instead of being by appointment for the good of society, he becomes a pest to it. The Tartar authorities have pursued a course which is as wicked in theory as it has been in practice. Mother Church legislated against heresy, and became herself the sink of everything that is filthy and abominable in false doctrine and practice. In the same way, the former promoted the very thing that, in show, they were aiming to destroy. The tendency of the present controversy may be to put a stop to such unnecessary interference, and consequently some of the evils which it has generated. If commerce be free, there will be found health enough in her general constitution to overcome any disease that may have seized upon one of her members; and many evils, when they have come to a crisis, wiU correct themselves, if the priest and the magistrate wiU but leave them alone. As a remedy for the evils which a free and unrestricted intercourse with foreigners and the aboHtion of those odious interdicts may leave unredressed, Christianity, with the Bible in her hand, comes to our aid;

PROBABLE RESULTS OF THE WAS. ^

and the only stipiilation she wishes to make is ''fair play." The result of the present war may ultimately he to sweep away all lets and hindrances^ and to give the opium merchant fuU licence to sell his drug where he pleases. Well, and what of that, so long as we have equal licence to disperse the Scriptures and to 'teach the natives the way of salvation?

CHAPTER IL

OPIUM TRAFFIC OPIUM MANIA, AND ITS REMEDIES.

It was not enough that every chest of opium paid a stipulated sum to the custom-house and the reyenue cruiser; the smuggling boats were destroyed, and the whole business of importation taken into the hands of the government. I remember standing on the deck of the Lintin, an opium store-ship belonging to an American house, while a boat, manned with seventy-five men and weU appointed with arms, took about 50,000 dollars' worth of opium on board, under the auspices of the government flag. At that time the harbour of Honghong was covered with boats, bearing the custom-house flag, which had come thither to lade with epium and other contraband articles. The opium schooners used to He as near to Canton as the river was to its banks, and there in the full Hght of day discharge their cargo. They had passed the government cruisers near the entrance of the Bogue and the forts themselves, without let or hindrance. Among the thousands who have suflered in person and property for being either really or constructively concerned in selling or using opium, three or four only of the government oflicers are said to have been called to account for their conduct; though the manner in which they have acted in the matter is summed up in the following story, which was often cited- to me by an inhabitant of more than forty years in China. The magistrates in a

OPIUM MAKIA. 1 1

town upon the coast beheaded thirteen opium smugglers one morning; and before three o'clock the same day they sent to the foreigners, saying. We are ready to admit opium again upon the terms heretofore observed between us. — ^They had washed their hands in blood, and were now prepared to incur a new debt of guilt, to be Hquidated in due time after the same manner.

In China, the spendthrift, the man of lewd habits, the drunkard, and a large assortment of bad characters, sHde into the opium-smoker; hence the drug seems to be chargeable with all the vices of the country. Opium, doubtless, has her victims in persons who, but for her fascinating lures, might have escaped their ruin; but in the great mar jority of instances she only adds one stain more to a character already polluted. Investigations and some statistics may throw light upon the subject, and shew in some measure how far the use of the drug has been the principal, and not the accomplice only, in the undoing of individuals. Many use it "in moderation,'' and are sufficiently masters of themselves to keep on the right side of slavery. But it is a subtle and traitorous inmate, and no one who has once felt the exhilarating effects of it, is sure that he wiU not one day fall a prey to its delusions. This great metropohs has a choice of wretched and degraded sights, but nothing that I ever see reminds me of an opium-smoker. His lank and shrivelled limbs, tottering gait, sallow visage, feeble voice, and the death-boding glance of his eye, are so superlative in their degree, and so closely blended in their union, that they at once bespeak him to be the most forlorn creature that treads upon the ground. Such sights, however, are not very common, for the miserable beings generally hide themselves from pubHc view, so that, amidst many thousands of healthy and happy faces, we only see here and there one of these prodigies of evil habit. Too much leisure, more money than is required for the necessaries of life, a guilty conscience, an unquiet mind, and bad company, are the promoters, if not tlie causes, of opium-smoking. Happy is that man who, when he has provided for the necessities of the hody, has nothing to hestow upon its vices. Some have come to our hospitals to be cured, who said that a friend persuaded them to use it as a remedy for a disease that afflicted them. Quacks in China often advertise their skill in removing the inextinguishable craving for opium, but their merits in this way, I should think, are very questionable.

Among the remedies for this evil, I might mention the following: — ^The downfall of the Tartar government, which has been the chief agent in nursing this abominable traffic, and the setting up of a power that would ensure as much Hberty as the nation is able to bear; — ^the repeal of all prohibitory edicts against its importation, and the laying open the whole country to the healthy influences of foreign commerce; — ^the establishment of temperance and philanthropic societies; — and, lastly, the Gospel of our Saviour, which was intended by its founder to be the cure for all the vices to which human nature is prone. Let these remedies have feir play in China, and in twenty-fiye years we, with God'e help, will turn that country upside-dovm in all its moral relations. The interference of the ruler can only make the disease worse, by rendering the disposition to sell and to smuggle a hundred-fold more intense than it would have been if left to itself. Besides, such interference is a direct encroachment upon the natural rights of man, and must be replete vdth those calamities which belong to everything that is vnrong in pnnciple. At this time there are certain princes in Siam, and in diflerent parts of the Indian Archipelago, who are setting on foot severe proceedings against the users and the venders of the drug, and will be thought by some heroes in the cause of temperance : now, these are a set of miscreants who, by engrossing the entire traffic in wholesome articles, have left their subjects no chance of dealing in any thing save opium. We have no

• REMEDIES. 13

need of sucli helpers; we only want scope for those appliances which tend to amend the heart and to purify the understanding, while they allow the inherent love of freedom to expand itself into a sober and magnanimous independence. " Not by constraint, but wiUingly," is the motto of that blessed book which it is our honour to deal out among the heathen, and of that rehgion which is to make a man good here and happy hereafter.

Chapter III. Physical And Mobal Character Of A Chinese

I REGARD the physical and intellectnal characters of man as things intimately joined together, — ^the body and the mind, — ^as the corresponding halves of unity, which mutually influence and determine each other. Creation is a universe of adjustments, of which the diflferent varieties of human nature furnish interesting examples. The mind of a European has been adjusted to the body of a European, and the mind of a Chinese to the body of a Chinese. Take the goodliest among Europeans, who belong to the Caucasian race, and place him beside the choicest among the sons of China, who pertain to the Mongolian; then take the fairest specimen of the intellectual productions of each, and set them together, and you have the following analogy: As is the man in outward symmetry and beauty, so are his works, or the pledges he gives of his mental capacity. I shall^ therefore, trace a few of those outward lineaments and proportions which nature has impressed upon a Chinese, in close association with some of his leading habits and natural talents. The head of a Chinese is broad behind and narrow in front, when compared with the general standard of Europeans. If, according to a very general opinion, the forepart of the head represent intellectual capability, the advantage is in our favour : a conclusion which is warranted by everything that research brings to light. It has been

PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHASACTEB OF A CHINESE. 15

remarked sometimes, that the Chinese have not mingled with the rest of mankind, and so have not experienced that sharpening effect which one man exerts upon another. But the Chinese empire is a compound of several nations, who had many conflicts.with each other before the Christian era; so that, if the rubs and jostlings of men can strike out anything like intellectual wonders, this moiety of the world must have exhibited enough of this sort of stimulus for the purpose. Christianity will not put them upon a level with us in works of the mind; for Greece had done marvellous things in sculpture, painting, architecture, medicine, and in the sublime and subtile parts of geometrical analysis, long ere the light of the Gospel had shone upon her. I anticipate that, when religious culture and the invigorating sentiments of freedom shall have done their work, none of the different varieties of mankind will find reason to complain; what they lose in one respect they gain in another; and it will appear that a beautiful scheme of compensation runs through their whole economy. Of our superiority over the Chinese, the Ethiop, or the Indian, we are not the owners, but the stewards only, and consequently are bound to use it for their benefit.