John Chinaman at home; sketches of men, manners and things in China,

Front matter

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HARDY to be Happy gh Married*

Preface

HEN I wont to China I had a great ambition. It was to gain the distinction of not writing a book on that country. I failed to do this because of the fascination of the subject, and my only excuse is that things Chinese are so many and so complicated that there is room for every independent inquirer and observer.

Many Europeans live in China for years without learning anything of the habits and customs of the people. They tell you that these are “ beastly,” and that they take no interest in them. As for the ordinary globe-trotter, to him it may be said, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “ Thou seest many things but thou observest them not.” To take no interest, however, in a nation that was contemporary with ancient Egypt, Babylon, Nineveh, Greece and Rome, and that has staying power in it still, is stupid. Though stupid in other respects, I was not in this, for I heard, read, and observed everything I could about a people who are always peculiar though not always zealous of good works during the three years and a half when I was Chaplain to the Forces at Hong Kong, and when I was from time to time on leave of absence in China proper. The villages in the New Territory, where I often went on military manoeuvres and field-days, taught me much.

PREFACE

It was not necessary to solve the problem of China or to give advice to the Foreign Office, as that has been done by every writer who has spent two days in Hong Kong and one in Canton. Only the everyday Celestial things that interested and puzzled me when I first came out have been described. It is a book for unlearned visitors to China. I have not spoken of my work as Chaplain to the Forces, as this has been done in a former book — “ Mr. Thomas Atkins.”

Whatever is said of China — a country which is a hundred and four times larger than England — will probably be true only of some parts. “ Customs differ every tenth li,” and it would be impossible that a population as great as that of the whole of Europe should all act alike.

To master the Chinese language thoroughly would require “ a head of oak, lungs of brass, nerves of steel, a constitution of iron, the patience of Job, and the lifetime of Methuselah.” How clever of the Chinese to be able to speak to each other ! I felt that unless Chinese were spoken in the other world it would be no good in my trying to learn it.

But even those who know his language cannot get a Chinaman to explain. Ask him why a thing is so and so. He answers that it always has been that way, and if you are not satisfied he thinks that it is you and not he who is unreasonable. Then the Chinese delight to astonish foreigners, and freely lie in order to do so. An inhabitant of Canton being told that the King of Great Britain was, on certain occasions, drawn in a carriage by eight cream-coloured horses, answered without a moment’s hesitation, “ China Emperor twenty-four ! ”

CHATTER I

PAGE

EIong Kong . . . . . .23

Meaning of the word and description — Population — No useless restrictions — The furthest sentry-box of the British Empire— A cosmopolitan Clapham Junction — “ Green hills with sea scattered amongst them ” — The Botanical Gardens — Birds and insects — Varied human beings — “Heard in the tram” — Climate — Cost of living — “Distended with food ” — Bathing parties — Some civilians nicer than others — Bachelor messes — Games — The races.

Chapter II

Wei-hai-wei — From Taku Bar to Tientsin — Wanted his coolies — A kaleidoscopic picture of military movements — A plague of flies — Peking an old curiosity shop — Its walls — -A screen against evil spirits — Like a park — The Lama monastery — The Temple of Confucius — Drowned in the streets — Civility — Street life — The Temple of Heaven — Pontifex Maximus — The Hall of Fasting — The Imperial and Forbidden Cities — Private apartments — The Summer Palace — Looting and worse — Northern and Southern Chinese.

Chapter III

A proposal of marriage — Pawnshops — “Mr. Marco Polo” — “Doctor temples" — The five genii — “The Temple of Horrors”

PAGE

— Pagodas — The largest mint in the world — The water clock — The execution ground — The most unique sight in Canton — Prisons — The greatest centre of gambling in the world — Many kinds of workers — Signboards — Fati and Fatshan — Street merchants — Names of streets — The boat population — The White Mountains.

Chapter IV

A bolt from the blue — Kong-Moon — How cold the tropics can be 1 Pirates — Dutch Folly — A silk country — Rafts — Lepers — Objects of interest — High-handed ladies— Soup and rats — Ducks — Tigers — Wuchow — A “ pencil pagoda ” — Cheating boats — A fire.

Chapter V

A general resemblance between Chinese cities — Wall literature — Oysters — Mice steeped in honey — Pewter ware — People very civil — Country round Swatow — Thatched men — Amoy celebrated for its pigs, its graves, and its dirt — The Temple of Ten Thousand Rocks — Pailaus — The Min River resembles the Rhine — The “Bridge of Ten Thousand Ages ” — Soap-stone — Foochow a centre of missionary effort — Apology for a good house — Not luxury — A friend’s grave.

CHAPTER IX Some Chinese Characteristics . . . .95

Fashion and custom differ with locality — What would the Chinosc not do if they were unanimous ? — Fish-fights and cricket-fights —

The braying of a donkey stopped — The Chinaman’s expression, his patience, his ability to sleep, his materialism, his integrity, his dirt — Chinese proverbial philosophy — Natural orators— Conjuring — Men of resource— Two impressive things — Early inventions —

Why do the Chinese not know more? — Great at organising — Guilds of beggars and thieves — Gambling propensities — Privacy not respected — A debtor and credit account with Heaven — Want of sympathy — Loss of face — Resemblance between the Chinese and the English.

Chapter X

What a Chinaman does not eat is not worth eating — “ That belong cocky-loachee ” — “ With soy sauce anything will go down ”

— Flowers eaten as vegetables — Woman’s milk sold for aged persons — Eggs one hundred years old — Eating one’s walking-stick — Kippered rats — Even house rat3 are eaten — Cat and snake restaurants — An overrated dish — A coolie can revel on twopence a day -r- Method of eating — Filial gruel — Invitations — Chinese hospitality — The attack began again — Two good soups — Curious dishes — Gratitude for repletion.

Chapter XI

Chinese medicine horrible — They cure, however, the man who is fated not to die — A recipe for ophthalmia — Large doses— A sort of multum in parvo — Dosed to death — A Chinaman loves free medicines — “It is his pig” — “A little dragon inside me”— Transforming medicines — To give courage — Blood bread — “Dragon’s clothes” — An old remedy — The doctor’s shop — A saying of Confucius — Pulses — Due proportions — Three classes of doctors — Payment by results — Simples — Acupuncture — Too patient — Jokes against doctors — Superstitious remedies.

Chapter XII Page

Many changes of raiment required — Prince Chen — Special clothes for every important occasion — Chinese clothes are in many respects better than ours — Ladies, like insects, should wear bright colours — Colours not thought to kill each other — Official distinctions — A mandarin’s answer — Fans — Pockets — Boots and shoes — Hair-dressing — Ornaments and paint — Dress of the poor — A Chinaman’s toilet — The queue — Beards.

Chapter XIII

The height of impertinence — A patriarchal encampment — In harmony with surroundings — Inside a house — No concealment — Houses as uncomfortable morally as they are physically — Chang Rung — Chinese inns — Houseboats — The Yamen— No repairs —

A potter’s field — Landscape gardening — The flower hermit — Floral calendars.

CHAPTER XIY

Why do we call a male servant “boy”? — Chinese servants conservative — In chronic indecision — Dirty cooks — Ingenious ones — Zeal without knowledge — Wages — To bury a father or catchee a wife — Peculations limited — Faithful servants — Never surprised — Pidgin English — Best servants in the North — Thought-readers — Cheap labour— Not ashamed of poor relations — A human hen — “The Amah Brigade” — Co-operation — Pull-man-cars —

The 16th Lancers.

Chapter XV

The most important of life’s duties — Wives married, concubines loved — The go-between — Presents interchanged — Betrothed from birth — Married to a tablet — The wedding ceremony — Teasing the bride — Parents-in-law must be remembered — “ Sifting four eyes ”

— Pretended reluctance — Mother- in-la wed — The seven reasons for divoroe— A paradox — Thought disgraceful for widows to marry.

Chapter XVI Page

. 167

Death and social position — No help given to the dying — More light — “ The devil who follows ” — Like an Irish wake — Sacerdotal ventriloquism — The first lifting of the coffin — A “ white affair ” — When at the point of death Chinese put on their best clothes — One reason why Chinese coffins are so large — A “ charming retreat ” — A favourite present — Uncomfortable graves — A mandarin makes sure of a lucky tomb — “ Blood burial ” — “ Won’t even leave his carcase ” — “ Buying the water ” — A hint — Flat beer.

Chapter XVII

Noisy grief — A “ longevity picture ” — “Weeping tears of blood”

“ Cloths to cry with ” — In “ dutiful grief ” — Mourning for parents — Expense of funerals — On the death of the Emperor — Confucius on the obligation of mourners — The duty of an eldest son.

CHAPTER XVIII Boys in China ...... 181

A proverb — Nothing so unfilial as to have no children — A boy is petted and indulged for not being a girl — He gets a 1 ‘ milk name ” and several other kinds of names — Boys sometimes Pressed as girls or as Buddhist priests — Games — Bird’s nests pbt robbed — Betting on flies and oranges — Boys work too much and too young — First day at school — “ Backing a lesson ” — Mere memory-boxes — Writing — Long hours — Severity — Answer of Mencius — Anecdote of — The trimetrical classic — Another school-book— Filial service — The cap of manhood— Parental power — What will the boy be ?

Chapter XIX

Girls do not count — Why boys are more valued — “Girls may not be drowned here” — Presents at the birth of children — A “ rearing marriage ” — “ She is his wife ” — Cruelty to child brides — Girls sold cheaply — Sometimes a girl is only pawned — Hoped to be born a dog — A scandal from which China is free — Easily pleased — Small feet — “ What medicine am I to give them ? ” — The Xing

PAGE and the Yang principles — Only a “side issue” — A “ Never-to-be-married” sisterhood— A terrible sin — Concubines or “little wives” — The volubility of tongues — He had never chastised his wife — Advice to girls — “ That tallest devil ! ”

Chapter XX

Germ of competitive examinations in China — The exceptions to those who can compete — Respect for learning — An examination enclosure — Severity of competition — Honours for those who succeed — The examiners “ wash their hearts ” — Pons asinorum —

The last made first — Cheating — Tracts distributed by the charitable rich — A noble maxim — Parables and novels with a purpose — Chess — An elegant present — Reverence the characters — Lettered-paper societies — Large books — Penny dreadfuls — Ignorance in excelsis — Western knowledge — Christianity wanted.

Chapter XXI

Polished and punctilious — Would the Sermon on the Mount have had a similar effect? — “Let your movements be graceful and deliberate ” — “ Short measure ” — “ Politeness before force ” — Easy to be rude— “ Little bit lie pidgin” — Salutations — A formal call — “ Neither boast nor grumble ” — Tea-drinking — “ Go slowly” — Foot-binding — “ She more quiet ” — Uncut nails — Polite attention — Friendly interest — Pose and attitude — “In honour preferring one another ” — A missionary’s mistake.

Chapter XXII

The “ Son of Heaven ” — His allowances — Yang Kuo— Chung’s flesh-screen— A college of censors — A sensible arrangement — Boards — Circumlocution — The theory of responsibility — The squeeze system — Public appreciation — Peacock’s feathers — Mandarins, how distinguished — Bled by vultures— On the opium couch — Pay, pay, pay ! — “ Bring me an honest man ” — A large and dilapidated house — “He is neglecting his duty" — “The vermilion pencil ” — How rank is shown.

Chapter XXIII Page

• • • •

. 229

Theory and practice — Convenient vagueness — “ Searchers ” — The ideal of an emperor — A Chinese court of “ justice ” — Inducements to confession — Ingenious tortures — “ Will the foreign devil not give me some opium ? ” — Tenacity of life — An experience— An execution — The Cangue — Have all Chinese nerves? — Hells — A female Nero — Reports on himself — Linchi — Punishments ordered but not always enforced.

Chapter XXIV

Extract from the Ping Fa — The army in a transition state —

“ Braves ” — Pay of soldiers — Tricks and tactics — Qualities of a good soldier — A military reform board — Coal-dust for gunpowder — The army awakening — A visit to a barrack — The weak part of the army — A military renaissance.

Chapter XXV

Polite to possibilities — Some answers of Confucius — Miracles of good government — “Heaven” was much to the philosopher —

Paid attention to the details of life — Laid no claim to originality — Cautious and conscientious — The keystone of the system — Senselessly overestimated — “ Those who know do not tell; those who tell do not know ” — Self-emptiness — “ Pills of immortality ”

— Doctrine of inaction — Darwin anticipated — We must be born again — The “ Three Precious Ones."

Chapter XXVI

w

Fengshoi and Other Superstitions . . . 262

Hard to grasp — The two currents — Geometric superstitions no longer cope with financial considerations— A missionary’s answer — From a fengshui point of view — The green dragon and the white tiger — What are pagodas ? — The geomancer — The almanack — Sellers-of-lies — Palmists, spirit-mediums, and other humbugs — Planchettes — The phrenologist’s answer — Superstitions connected with birth, marriage, and death — Locked to life.

Chapter XXVII Page

Fly only in straight lines — A haunted house — A service of exorcism — Fighting fiends with fire-crackers — Foolish fears — Suicide — Prophylactics — Charms — Timidity of spirits — A cash sword — Propitiating evil spirits — In the hour of death — Three souls — Punishment of dishonest priests— “ The Universal Rescue ” feast — View of the intellectual capacity of spirits.

Chapter XXVIII

The buildings of a temple — A holy show — A confused idea — The dust of ages — A mixture of fear and fun— The soul of an idol —

“ Silks, porcelains, and fancy gods”— Use of a temple — The first thing done — What is prayed for — Opium given — Tears of blood — Patrons of vice — Animals worshipped — Also stocks and stones —

What meant by worship — Few services in temples — Not an easy chair — Religious processions — Dragon boat and other festivals — Trying to cheat God.

Chapter XXIX

A contemptuous toleration — Good beggars — Roast duck for supper — A “ purgatory pick-purse ” traffic — A bank for the spirit- world — A hint to Western clergymen— Ecclesiastical vestments — “Bald-headed asses ” — “ Buddha is such a kind god ” — Vain repetitions — Praying-wheels and circulating libraries — No thought — Relaxations— “Need not buy rice” — “ Let-live societies ” — A monastery described — N unneries .

Chapter XXX

A capon’s destiny — Kites— The opening of the seals — New Year’s wishes — Frightened by their faces — Decorations — The birthday of every one — Official and other devotions — No one has an empty mouth — Cathedral music — Gifts — Ladies break away from the monotony of their lives— Resolutions made — Words of good omen.

Chapter XXXI Page

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. 308

Without authority and without preparation — The selection of missionaries — Objections answered — Testimony of Chinese themselves— Method of work — Humanising as well as proselytising — Unpaid commercial travellers — China perfectly tolerant — Missionaries easy to attack — Even medical missions misunderstood — Curious questions — The ideal missionary — A “ London Christian ” — Missionaries are not such fools as they look.

CHAPTER XXXII “Foreign devils are very singular” — “Just like monkeys”

“ That’s the devil’s house ” — A foreigner is always suspected — A bare skin as a mark of respect — Our European odour — Foreign smoke and foreign dirt — The want of religion of foreigners — “Exceeding strange” — The Platonic intermingling of sexes not understood — “And she has manners too" — Morbid unrest — Curious rather than useful.

List of Illustrations

IN A CHINESE STREET

. Frontispiece

KOWLOON ....

Facing p.

SOUTH OATE, PEKING

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If

LOO-MAN-TZE STREET, PEKING .

ff

TEMPLE OP HEAVEN, PEKING

If

A LESS IMPORTANT STREET, PEKING .

•

If

CANTON ....

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If

FIVB HUNDRED GENII .

ff

THE TEMPLE OP HORRORS

If

A GORGE ....

» f

APPROACH TO A MONASTERY

> f f J

FOOCHOW ....

f >

WATER BUFFALO

ff

A MULE LITTER

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ff

ACTORS .....

If

BRIDGE AT PEKING

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f I

22 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

a mandarin’s wife in full uniform

Facing p. 132

RECEPTION-ROOM IN A YAMEN . . ,, 144

CHAIR COOLIES AND MARKET COOLIES. . ,, 153

A WEDDING CHAIR .... ,, 159

STREET BOYS ..... „ 183

SMALL-FOOTED MAIDENS . . . ,, 194

ENTRANCE TO A PROVINCIAL EXAMINATION HALL ,, 201

PART OF IMPERIAL PALACE, PEKING . . „ 220

AN AUDIENCE HALL, PEKING . . ,, 228

A CHINESE COURT .... „ 230

CHINESE SOLDIERS — OLD STYLE . . „ 240

THE ALTAR OF HEAVEN, PEKING . . „ 250

Chapter I

Moaning of the word and description — Population — No useless restrictions — The furthest sentry-box of the British Empire — A cosmopolitan Clapham Junction — “Green hills with sea scattered amongst them" — The Botanical Gardens — Birds and insects — Varied human beings — “ Heard in the tram” — Climate — Cost of living — “Distended with food” — Bathing parties — Some civilians nicer than others — Bachelor messes — Games — The races.

ONG KONG, the moaning of which is either “ Good

Harbour,” or “Fragrant Streams,” is one of a group of islands off the south-east coast of China. It is ten miles long, with a mean breadth of about threo miles ; it is rugged and mountainous, and there is but little of it that can be cultivated. The colony embraces the peninsula of Kowloon, some four miles in extent off the mainland, and, in addition, the neighbouring territory, including, with islands, about 370 square miles, which has recently been leased (that is, given through fear) to Great Britain.

The population of Victoria, the capital of the island and of Kowloon opposite it, is 325,631 Chinese and 18,581 non- Chinese. Most of the Chinese are males ; they leave their wives at Canton, from whence they come, because they do not trust European morals or because these ladies can live cheaper there. Do the grass widowers want their clothes mended? There are women wearing owlish spectacles who sit at street-corners and earn a living with their needles.

The worst of the Chinese is that there are so many of them. They get on your nerves. No matter what you are doing, you feel that you are being overlooked. The celestial part of Hong Kong is more crowded than any place except a herring-barrel, and there are always more people wanting to come into it. In Hong Kong there is no “ squeezing,” a fact which, in the opinion of the Chinese, compensates even for the necessity of acquiring cleaner habits. It was a pathetic sight during a water famine to see the orderly way in which thousands of Chinese, each having empty buckets, were marshalled in long lines by British European soldiers to get water that was brought from a distance in water-boats. This paternal care of Government is not appreciated, however, when it forcibly cleanses a house in which a person has had plague. To prevent such sanitary nonsense, as the Chinese think it, they will conceal a dead person as long as possible in a house if unable to dump the corpse down in the street.

In things indifferent, however, there is in Hong Kong an amount of liberty that agreeably surprises foreign visitors. They are not worried about passports or asked what they are going to do or how much money they have. There are none of the useless restrictions which the meddlesome officialism of French and German colonies invent. Approximate to decent behaviour in our Hong Kong shop for all nations, and you can do what you like.

An Irish soldier, when ordered to Hong Kong, remarked that they could not send him further from home without sending him nearer. Hong Kong is the furthest sentry-box of the British Empire, and is nearly as important to us as Malta and Gibraltar. China is likely to be the cockpit where European nations will fight. It certainly is the problem of the twentieth century, and we must keep a strong fleet in her waters to watch the solution of the problem. For this fleet Hong Kong is the coaling-station. As for foreign ships of war, they come to Hong Kong in such numbers and so often that no fewer than 240 guns wore fired in salutes in the harbour in one day.

But in addition to being a most important outpost of empire, Hong Kong is a sort of cosmopolitan Clapham Junction, whero passengers change and goods are transhippod for everywhere. If we British cannot take prido in the way wo came by the place, we may in what we have done with it. When wo took Hong Kong, sixty-four years ago, there were only a few fishermen’s or pirates’ huts upon it ; now it is, if not the first or second, at least the third port in the world. The harbour, which looks like a lake, is ten miles long and from one to five wide. It is surrounded by many-coloured hills of trap and granite. Words cannot depict the cloud-effocts over these hills or the beauty of the sun setting behind them.

There is not the tropical vegetation of Ceylon and Penang, but Hong Kong has a weird beauty of its own. The view at night from the sea, when the lights of the ships and of the houses on the hillsides seem to mingle with the stars, is unsurpassed. “ Well, at all events,” I said to a grumbler who was looking with me at one of the views, “ you cannot deny Hong Kong beauty.” “ What is it, after all,” she answered, “ but green hills with sea scattered amongst them ? ” To this kind of women, the sigh of a lover, a drop of dew, and a primrose on a river brink are only wind, water, and vegetable. Another lady remarked in my hearing : “ Hong Kong is a place to see, but not to live in.” May she never be in a worse place !

The Botanical Gardens are beautifully laid out, and contain so many large, thick-leaved indiarubber trees that you can always get a shaded walk. There is generally some new flowering tree to be seen. Most tropical trees have leaves all the year, the old ones not falling off until the young ones appear ; and the buds that will mature into green leaves are red when they first come out, blushing like debutantes. The trees in spring have the tints of autumn in Western lands, and the azaleas flower with a glory that would have made Solomon look foolish. In the New Territory, rice, fruit, sugar, and vegetables grow, and so plentiful are pineapples that they sell for two cents each, wholesale.

It is worth coming to Hong Kong to see the moths, beetles, butterflies, and spiders. From the tip of one wing of an Atlas moth to the tip of another is sometimes as much as eleven inches. One butterfly looks as if it were dressed in a swallow-tailed coat of black and blue velvet. On warm days cicada make a whizzing sound by the vibration of two flaps under the abdomen.

So many beautiful birds labelled to belong to Hong Kong are in the museum and so few outside that it would almost seem as if they had nearly all obtained the immortality of stuffing. However, I have seen a few very beautiful ones outside, generally near Stanley, the place where the British tried first to live in.

And the specimens of human beings seen in the streets of Victoria are not less varied — Chinese, Cingalese, Japanese, Koreans, Malays, Parsees, Portuguese. Like a statue a Sikh policeman stands at a street-corner, and Indian soldiers wearing brilliant turbans stride by on pipe-stem legs inserted into very long shoes.

The sanitary arrangement of Victoria falls between two stools, being a mixture of the no-drainage or carrying-away system that best suits Chinese cities and the European plan. The almost entire absence of dust and mud in Hong Kong in all seasons is agreeable and healthy.

Hong Kong is built as it were in three layers or storeys. Business is done on the ground floor, on the second storey are dwelling-houses and gardens, and to top-side, as the Peak is called, come in summer Europeans who can afford to be cool. The Peak includes the hills, eighteen hundred and twenty-five foot high, south of Victoria. It is connocted with tho town by a cable tramway. The journey occupies only seven minutes, but in less time than this a reputation may be slain, and “ Heard in tho tram ” is the authority for many a lie. Those who travel up and down in tho tram two or threo or four times a day got very tired of each other. One can meet a person twice a day with breezy enthusiasm, but the third time the smile of recognition is sickly, and the fourth time there is an incipient scowl. To those not accustomed to the tram the houses on either side look as if they were toppling over. New-comers hold on to their seats and murmur, “ Oh my ! ” It is a funny experience being carried in a chair on tho Peak. You only want a feeding-bottle and a rattle to be a baby once more, and when those who bear you talk you aro reminded of Balaam’s ass.

From November to April the climate of Hong Kong is usually delightful. Practically, no rain falls during this period, which is that of the north-east monsoon ; day after day brings a clear blue sky, a warm sun, and a cool, dry, northerly wind. In the evening fires are often required. The remainder of the year is the hot and rainy season, and when it does rain in Hong Kong it knows how to do it. The rainfall in twenty-four hours has been as much as in a whole year in England. Even on the lower levels the thermometer rarely goes above 90° F., but this is much more trying than the same temperature in places with a drier atmosphere. Walk a hundred yards, and when in motion you may not feel very warm, but when you stop you are bathed in perspiration. Then the Peak of Hong Kong, which saves those who live on it, destroys those who do not, for it prevents the wind that prevails in summer from ventilating the city of Victoria. At the Peak the thermometer is from six to eight degrees lower than at Victoria. There are fewer Chinese, and the nights are noiseless. There is, however, one great drawback to the Peak. Every now and then in spring and summer it is shrouded in a fog that suggests suicide, and mildews gowns, hats, and other vanities. This last is not altogether a disadvantage, as the airing of their clothes gives ladies something to do during the hot part of the day, when they cannot go out. If you live on the Peak your clothes rot ; if you live below, you rot. True, some escape with their lives, but they will probably have lost first their teeth, then their hearing, and then their minds.

Very often it is their own fault, for people in Kong Kong take liberties with their health such as they would not take at home. They should avoid chills, keep out of the sun and club bars, and remember that the man who eats little eats much, because he lives longer to eat. If only grown-up people were as wise as children ! Children thrive on the Peak, and sealed bottles of very good milk can be bought for them.