Peking; a historical and intimate description of its chief places of interest

Front matter

*iU

SECOND EDITION

REVISED AND ENLARGED

Preface

Several books have been written about Peking by foreigners, but among these only two are comprehensive — Monseigneur Favier's monumental work Peking and Father Hyacinth Bitchurin's Description of Peking *

This paucity of accurate accounts is chiefly due to the obstacles in the way of collecting precise information. The more one studies the fascinating old city, the more one realises the tantalising difficulties of learning, even from the Chinese themselves, anything but the merest outline of its history and monuments, t A proper appreciation of Peking is not, I believe, in the power of a Westerner to give — certainly not of one single person — since it pre-supposes a thorough knowledge of China's past, an infinite sympathy with Chinese character and religions, an intimate familiarity with the proverbs and household phrases of the poor, the songs of the streets, the speech of the workshop, no less than the mentality of the literati and the motives of the rulers.

*The little book of Father Hyacinth Bitchurin was for many years the only reliable description of Peking by a foreigner. Its accuracy is unquestioned. Bretschneider and other sinologues recognised it as the original authority and drew largely upon it for their own works.

fThe standard Chinese work dealing with Peking is the Jih Hsia Chiu Wen K'ao, an official publication dated 1774. It was largely drawn upon for a second edition of the Shun T'ien Fu Chih, a description of the metropolitan prefecture (first published 1593), brought out in 1886 by order of Li Hung-chang: A third book, the Ch'en Yuan Shih Loh (1788), was the foundation of Father Hyacinth's Description.

While these and other Chinese accounts contain many important data, they nevertheless often fail to give a cohesive summary of details which appeal to us as essential.

vm PKEFACE

With many misgivings, therefore, and craving the indulgence of the reader, this book appears at the suggestion of some who think that a description, covering a wider field than the usual "Guide," and yet without scholarly pretensions, may prove interesting to the average person. It aims at nothing original— is simply a gathering up of the information of others, a gleaning from what has already been given to the world in a far better and fuller but less portable form. Its purpose is simply to play the part of a friend to resident and visitor alike— a friend (in whose taste you perhaps have confidence) to take you by the arm for a stroll through the city and its suburbs.

There is no desire to indicate long lists of temples or palaces which ought to be seen as quickly as possible— lest the promised pleasures change into an endless vista of labours to be fulfilled, and the hours spent in Peking become hours of endurance rather than enjoyment. Too often the traveller is confused by accumulated misty glimmerings of historical facts, by shadowy ideas concerning this Prince or that Emperor, this General and that Monk, and stumbles about in a haze which, from insufficient interest and the absence of books of reference, he has no means of clearing up. t Better far to leave

-Books of reference are suggested for such readers as care to ?Wn tSUbject ^^ ^n^rity of works mentioned have been chosen because easily obtainable; many of the older ones are out of print, impossible to buy and difficult to consult except in the library

PKEFACE ix

half the monuments unseen and to see well the rest ; to see them not once but again and again ; to watch them in many lights and moods till they become part of life and life's recollections. Thus only can the true atmosphere of the city, so powerful and yet so illusive, be absorbed into mind and spirit. From the experience of many years the writer can truly say that the more intimately the scenes of Peking — after all — the model and sum of all the cities of North China — become known, the more deeply they are engraved on the inmost affections. It is not a hurried visit to one or two sights which will enable anybody to feel their spell, but a long and familiar friendship that endears them to us and gives each a motive and a significance entirely unrecognised and unsuspected by the passing eye.

Who can forget the soft enchantment of Buddhist temples, the green peace of tombs haunted by fearless things, "doves that flutter down at call, fishes rising to be fed?" Or the grandeur of past Imperial splendours? At first it is difficult for the Westerner to grasp the full meaning of these glories of ancient Chinese civilisation — far more difficult than those of Italy, for example, because, as Howells says in his Tuscan Cities, "a prime condition of our immediate sympathy with any life, or epoch, or civilisation is that we always, and every instant, and vividly find our dreary, tiresome, unstoried, unstoriable selves in it" — and we can more easily imagine ourselves taking afternoon tea with Lorenzo the Magnificent or even Caesar Borgia, than with Yung Loh or Ch'ien Lung.

x PKEFACE

Yet, if we would profit by Peking to the uttermost, we must put away all prejudices of our civilisation, and we must believe that it is not in one class of interests alone that much is to be enjoyed. Archaeology and history should combine to form the noblest impression of Peking, but observation of the life of the people at work, at prayer or at pleasure, with all the symbolical strangeness of Far Eastern life, is needed to complete the picture.

J. B.

Dedication

Acknowledgment

Preface

Contents

Chapter II

WALLED cities still exist all over China, grim reminders of the conquests and calamities against which their inhabitants sought to protect themselves. None, however, can compare with Peking. The exceptional height of her machicolated walls, the grandeur of her many-storied gates, recalling days of romantic warfare, awe and impress the spectator.

Kublai Khan first outlined the ramparts of the Tartar City in beaten mud during the thirteenth century. But the conquering Mings, mindful of the lessons of history and their own success in storming Peking, rebuilt these walls (a.d. 1421-1439) in their present imposing proportions and faced them with brick that in time has become durable as stone. Nevertheless as defences they failed again. The Manchus broke through in 1644 by treachery, the Allied armies in 1860 and in 1900 by weapons no masonry could resist, and finally the ^Republicans in 1911 by the force of ideas against which nothing is impregnable.

Towering 40 feet about the Manchu-Tartar City, higher than a two-story building, broader than Fifth

Avenue, these noble battlements encircle the capital with a circumference of 14 miles. The moral effect on those who dwell within them is curious. Strangers they impress painfully at first with a sense of imprisonment. But in time this feeling changes to a soothing sense of security — to the comfortable sensation that the massive grey arms can keep out the rush and worries of the outer world.

For many generations no one was allowed to mount the ramps lest he overlook the Palaces.6 It was only after 1860 that Prince Kung, anxious to propitiate foreigners, gave the order permitting them to walk on the walls — a privilege more precious then than now as the streets of those days were unpaved and generally impassable, either ankle-deep in mud or dust according to the season.

Delightful views of Peking may be had from the top of these fortifications. On a clear day the plan of the four cities is easily traced. In the centre lies the Forbidden City — the innermost heart of them, soaked in history and mystery — surrounded by two miles of massive pink-washed walls of its own with four picturesque pavilions at the corners and four gates, the southern, the Wu Men, the northern, the Shen Wu Men, the eastern, the Tung Hua Men, and the western, the Hsi Hua Men.

6 This, according to Chinese ideas, would have been irreverent. Hence the police long forbade the construction of high buildings in Peking.

Gate Tower — Tartar City.

Outside this is the Imperial City (Huang Ch'eng), formerly a fashionable residence quarter for Manchu and Chinese officials who were frequently on duty at Court. It covers an area of nearly two square miles and is also encircled by walls. The Hsi An Men gives access to the ; western section, the Hou Men (Ti An Men) or Bear Gate, to the northern section. The Tung An Men on the east side corresponds to the Hsi An Men on the west, and the place of the southern gate, which would correspond to the Hou Men on the north, is taken by the approaches to the Palaces.

Outside the Imperial City again is the Tartar or Manchu City. As its literary name, "City of the Nine Gates," indicates, it has nine entrances.7 But it is commonly known as the Nei Ch'eng or Inner City in contradistinction to the Chinese or Outer City (Wai Ch'eng). When the conquering Manchus took Peking they relegated the people they defeated, as we have seen, to this Outer City where they were permitted to live and trade. The Tartar City was reserved as a garrison for the troops charged with the defence of the capital— the Imperial Guard or Banner organizations.

7 The gates in the south wall are the Ch'ien Men, facing the Palaces, the Hata Men and the Shun Chih Men; in the north wall, the An Ting Men and the Teh Sheng Men; in the east, the Ch'i Hua Men and the Tung Chih Men, and in the west the P'ing Tse Men and the Hsi Chih Men. (The literary, or official, names of these gates are, respectively : the Cheng Yang Men, the Chung Wen Men, the Hsiian Wu Men, the An Ting Men, the Teh Sheng Men the Ch'ao Yang Men, the Tung Chih Men, the Fu Ch'eng Men and the Hsi Chih Men).

To one of these Banners every Manchu belonged as well as those Mongols and Chinese who assisted in the conquest of China. The colours of the banners were supposed to represent the elements. A supersitition older than the Manchus had already divided Peking into quarters, each of which was thought to be influenced by one of these elements, so that the arrangement fitted in nicely with popular prejudices. The Yellow Banners stationed in the north of the city represented earth, said by the Chinese to subdue the element of water. The White Banners held the north-east and north-west of the City immediately to the south of the Yellow Banners they represented metal which is supposed to subdue the element of wood. The Eed Banners occupied the district in the centre from the Ch'i Hua Men to the P'ing Tse Men : they represented fire which subdues metal. Lastly, the Blue Banners were quartered at the extreme south of the Tartar City : they represented water which subdues fire. Just as each element was supposed to neutralise the other so those wise old sovereigns (profiting by the lesson of mutinous troops and rebellious generals) argued that their armed units, thus subdivided, would, in the event of insurrection, subdue one another. In any case the principle of harmonious distribution which even the modern servant pursues in the smallest household details — so deeply is it ingrained in the Chinese mind — was satisfied

The southern wall of the Tartar City serves also as the northern wall of the Chinese City. To the east, west and south, however, it has lower walls of its own pierced

THE WONDEKFUL WALLS OF PEKING 21

by seven gates and built (1553-1564) in the reign of Chia Ching by his Minister Liu Powen.8 More picturesque and more dilapidated than the grander defences of the Tartar City, they enclose a curious combination of town and suburb. Sometimes they look down upon the busiest commercial streets of Peking and again, perhaps half a mile beyond, on fields, vegetable gardens or groups of farm houses with all the peace of a country village.

One of the finest coups d' 'ceil of Peking is from the Ch'ien Men (Front Gate) which had such a sacred character that no corpse was allowed to pass through it. This view is indeed the key to the whole city, and the visitor who means to study it must begin here. Here he commands the wonderful prospect of the Palaces, the leading feature in every view of Peking, so that the eye is always returning to rest upon them. Because of the vast sweeping lines of their roofs, they look larger even than they are — look mountainous. Their yellow tiles shining against the dark background of the hills remain the supreme memory of the capital — a picture changing, yet ever beautiful, beneath every caprice of hour and light, whether the noonday sun shines down on them so heavily

8 The names of these gates are the Chang Yi Men (or Kuang Ning ■Men) and the Hsi Pien Men on the west; the Yu An Men (or Chiang ■Ts'o Men) the Yung Ting Men and the Tso An Men (or Nan Hsi .Men) on the south and the Sha Wo Men (or Kuang Chii Men) and the Tung Pien Men on the east.

Men means gate, therefore it is tautology to refer, as people | sometimes do, to the Ch'ien Men Gate.

that it seems to raise about them a swimming golden halo, or they lie under a blanket of glittering snow— whether the moonlight softly touches them with silver figures, or the storm wraps them in copper clouds. A symbol of the colourful past, they dominate the city, and always will, however much may change about them with the times.

The proximity of the hideous railway stations somewhat spoils the effect of the Ch'ien Men tower, and the masses of ugly foreign-style buildings, dotted here and there over the city, mar the harmony of the general view. That wonderful vista of the state entrance to the Palaces with the tree-covered Coal Hill in the distance was still more picturesque when Peking was untouched by modern influences. At the same time, since the outer gate-tower has been repaired, the squares tidied up and the whole avenue paved, the magnificent buildings beyond have approaches more worthy of them than the old dirt and desolation.

Immediately below us, as we stand looking down from this point of vantage, is the front door of Peking. The actual entrance as we see it now has been greatly enlarged and improved. Before the two wide passages were pierced under the wall, the main traffic of the city poured through the single bottle neck of the inner tower — a most inadequate inlet to a great capital. The central doorway of the outer pavilion, which might nave helped to relieve the congestion, was only used by the sovereign under the old regime. After the establishment of the Eepublic, the Sacred Entrance became a general

THE WONDEEFUL WALLS OF PEKING 23

thoroughfare to mark the disappearance of Imperial prerogatives. It remained open for three days but was closed again by popular demand after the mutiny of 29th February 1912.

Both towers of the Ch'ien Men are modern, the original ones having been destroyed by fire in 1900. The outer lou (tower) was then connected with the inner by curving walls. A typical Chinese bazaar where caps and cap buttons, belt buckles of worked brass and gold, pipes and snuff bottles, jade and enamels, matches and cheap kerosene lamps were sold, ran between the gates. When the Boxers fired these booths in 1900 as a punishment for selling foreign goods, the flames caught the great rafters of the tower. Dry as tinder with the dryness of ages, these beams that the Mings brought centuries before to Peking ignited easily. Columns of smoke and flame shooting skywards met and mingled in an enormous black and orange whirl — a barbarically splendid sight. A few months after the Siege the scene was repeated when the inner tower accidentally caught fire, some say through the carelessness of Indian troops.

The Chinese, fearful of ill-luck overtaking the city, hastened to rebuild both towers, which are practically the only monuments in Peking restored since Ch'ien Lung's time. The construction of the inner one — requiring nearly five years to complete — was a remarkable sight. Its eightstoried bamboo scaffolding astounded Western architects. Not a nail, saw or hammer was used. Poles and bamboos were lashed together with overlapping ends thus permitting any height to be reached without injury to or waste of lumber and with the minimum of labour in construction and removal, while a sloping gangway of boards tied together allowed the workmen to carry up the bricks and mortar in cloths according to their custom. Finally the painters were ordered to paint false muzzles of cannon on the wooden shutters as before. In the face of their recent lesson from the genuine guns of the Allied artillery, this shows how little the Manchus learned from adversity,

On the south side of the Ch'ien Men we see, close under the gate, two small yellow roofs which, though seemingly insignificant, cover two important temples.9 Neither contains anything worth seeing from the artistic point of view. Each boasts only a single altar. But though many of the larger and finer shrines were never visited by the sovereign, he did not fail to stop here whenever he sacrificed at the Temple of Heaven or the Temple of Agriculture or whenever he returned after an absence from the capital — such as the flight in 1900.

The temple on the east side of the gate is of lesser importance— a shrine dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy (Kuan Yin). What gives it an interest for Westerners is the fact that in its tiny courtyard — a space scarcely larger than a ship's cabin — American soldiers killed on or near the wall in 1900 were temporarily buried.

9 Roofs covered with yellow tiles always meant that a building was either Imperial property or under Imperial patronage.

THE WONDEKFUL WALLS OF PEKING 25

The western temple, or Kuan Ti Miao,10 is dedicated to Kuan Yii, a Han dynasty hero who opposed the usurper Ts'ao Ts'ao, the classical villain of the Chinese stories. While nobly attempting to do his duty, Kuan Yii was killed and afterwards beheaded in a.d. 219. His head was buried at Loyang (a former capital) in Honan by his enemies who greatly admired his courage, and his grave may still be seen there. His body, but with a golden head added to it, was buried by his supporters in Hupei province. "Kuan Ti has been styled the patron saint of the Manchu dynasty, and indeed there are legends which, if they could be converted into history, might be held to justify his claim to that position." . . . According to one of these stories, Kuan Ti issued from his temple in Peking during an attack which was being made on the Forbidden City by a band of rebels in 1813, and intervened so vigorously on behalf of the Imperial House that the rebels were soon put to flight. Several other miracles of a similar nature are attributed to him. No wonder then that "every Emperor of the Manchu dynasty from Shun Chih to Kuang Hsu showed favour to the cult of Kuan Ti, and showered honours upon him, since they so often needed his support to prop the insecure fortunes of the reigning house." Various temples were erected to him in the capital including "a private chapel within the

10 See Chapter : "Temples of the Tartar City" and "The Cult of Military Heroes in China," by R. F. Johnston (New China Review, 1921) upon which this account is based.

precincts of the so-called Coal Hill where ... on stated occasions the young ex-Emperor still deputes one of the princes to perform religious rites. . . ."

But his most famous and most popular shrine in Peking is undoubtedly the one at the Ch'ien Men, which was built for him by a Ming Emperor in 1387. It is on record that the Emperor Ch'ung Cheng, the last of that line, accompanied by his Prime Minister Chou Yen-ju paid a nocturnal visit to this little temple and called upon the resident soothsayer to summon the spirit of the great warrior. While His Majesty was burning incense at the altar, Kuan Ti suddenly materialised himself and went down on his knees, as though he were a minister of state being received in audience by his sovereign. The Emperor saluted him in return, and questioned him about the national and dynastic prospects. "There is no hope," was the spirit's reply, "there are too many baneful influences at work. " Here the Prime Minister broke in with the remark: "What baneful influences are you talking about?" The spirit smiled faintly and answered : "You yourself are worst of all." It was not long after this incident that Chou Yen-ju, who was a corrupt and incompetent official, was impeached for ten heinous misdeeds and sentenced to commit suicide — too late to avert disaster from the monarch whom he served so badly."

Kuan Ti still ranks next to Confucius in the spread of his worship which is connected with the Official Cult, and a shrine to him was, and still is, often an accessory of public buildings, not excepting Buddhist and even Lamaist temples like the Yung Ho Kung. Moreover his name is a household word for valour and patriotism and "time has raised him to a pitch of popularity which is really independent of his position in the official roll of divinities, and would hardly be affected now by the total withdrawal of official recognition."

For his good advice and assistance in time of trouble, many high sounding titles have been bestowed upon him, including the quaint appellation of "Demon Queller of the Three Worlds" which was accompanied by a special patent, or golden warrant, and the presentation of an embroidered robe and state cap, deposited in this very temple under the Tartar walls.

Every emperor down to the days of Kuang Hsu showed his appreciation of the popular hero by offering "small sacrifices" at this his central shrine, rebuilt in 1828. Let into the wall of the reception room, where Their Majesties rested behind the tiny sanctuary, is an unusually thick slab of old jade carved in a bamboo design. The leaves are cunningly arranged to form the characters of a poem, and an inscription attributes the picture to the brush of Kuan Ti himself. The tablet was brought to Peking from the south under the early Manchus with Kuan Ti's iron seal which disappeared in the Boxer convulsion.11

11 Among his other offices, Kuan Ti held the honorary and invisible presidency of the well known "Heaven and Earth Association," cr Triad Society, an organisation akin to the Boxers. "All lodges," says an authority on this much dreaded secret society, "have shrines to Kuan Ti, the God of War, whom the members seem to regard as their tutelar deity."

No one should leave Peking without making a complete tour of the Tartar walls. But those who have neither the time nor the energy for such a trip should at least walk from the Ch'ien Men as far as the Hata Men, the next gate to the east, and the short distance beyond the latter (about a mile) to the Observatory.

The stretch of wall between the Ch'ien Men and the Hata Men12 is historic ground. From this vantage point the Chinese bombarded the Legations in 1900, and foot by foot the besieged garrison contested it. The remains of one of the barricades, constructed of materials taken from the wall itself, are still visible above the Water Gate where some of the bitterest struggles of those memorable days took place and the guns of the Relief Column shelled the Palace in just retribution.

After the Siege the Powers demanded this portion of the wall handed over to them to be patrolled by their troops as a measure of protection to the Diplomatic Quarter lest such a commanding position might at any time prove a menace to its safety. To defend it adequately iron gates were put up, loop holes made, subterranean passages constructed, and a wireless mast erected by the Americans in order that no subsequent uprising should ever again cut off the Legations from communication with the sea.

Later the paved walk from gate to gate, a favourite promenade of Peking residents, was made. Smooth and

12 Popularly so-called after the Hata Wang (prince) whose palace used to be near by.

free from vegetation, this strip contrasts favourably with the remaining 13 miles of wall under Chinese control where a narrow pathway, rough and uneven, meanders between the shrubs and grasses that spring up after the summer rains like a luxuriant jungle, forcing their way through the brick pavement from the rich mud below.

Walking eastward, we look down on our left upon the Legation Quarter where many men of many minds have constructed an inharmonious whole, contrasting most unfavourably with the dignified unity of the Palaces beyond. Truly the Chinese understand better than we how to adapt their buildings to the surrounding landscape, the frame to the picture, and the picture to the frame. On our right lies the Chinese City. In summer when all the trees — of which almost every little courtyard contains one or two — are in leaf, it gives the impression not of a town but of a huge park dominated by the blue dome of the Temple of Heaven which rises like a graceful stone flower above the foliage.

The Hata Men, or Gate of Sublime Learning, is typical of all the other towers ; 99 feet high, it allows free and uninterrupted passage for the good spirits who soar through the air, according to the necromancers, at a height of 100 feet, The system of double doorways connected by walls which extend in semi-circular form — the convex side towards the country as a double protection to the inner Men that opens direct into the city — is common to most of the gates. So are the archways of solid granite, the painted cannon on the portholes and the heavy wooden doors which, until a few years ago, were closed at night. The brass cannon, which under the last Mings and early Manchus flanked the city gates, have disappeared long ago. It is odd to see the enceintes that for so many centuries were filled with armed men and noisy with the blare of trumpets and gongs (for to terrify the enemy by deafening him was half the battle according to the old Oriental idea) now devoted to peaceful industrial purposes such as coal yards or open air bazaars where cheap pottery is sold.

From the south-east corner of the wall beyond the Hata Men we look down upon the canal and the ramparts of the Chinese City. The pavilion there is also worth inspecting. The Chinese call it the Fox Tower and believe it to be haunted by a fox for whose ghostly comings and goings its doors are left open. This was the tower shelled by the Eussians in 1900, and we can see where the huge hole in the splendid roof has been economically but shamefully repaired with pieces of zinc. The grand pillars and cross-beams which show the wonderful construction of the tower, the ladders covered with a velvet carpet of dust leading from story to story, were, fortunately, uninjured. An abode of bats and swallows nowadays, the tower in its perpetual dusk evokes an errie feeling as one enters. Little imagination is required to believe it indeed haunted. But the ghosts we see there are the ghosts of Mongol or Ming or Manchu warriors in velvet and satin uniforms, holding in their shadowy hands bows and arrows and twisted pikes or clumsy jingals.

The " Fox Tower "—Tartar City Wall.

THE WONDEBFUL WALLS OF PEKING 31

The most important landmark of the east wall, however, is the Observatory, part of which is built on a buttress higher than the wall itself, though the only entrance to it is through the old buildings below. The tall tower of the Persian astronomers13 erected here by Kublai Khan about a.d. 1280 stood at what was then the south-east angle of his capital. When the Ming Emperor Yung Loh tore down the southern wall and extended the city southwards to the present line of the Hata Men and Ch'ien Men, he also repaired this building and appointed native astronomers to serve the crude bronze instruments of the day. Thus long before the Jesuit Fathers brought Western knowledge to China, we find that the Chinese had worked out an astronomical system of their own. They believed the earth was the centre of the universe and that the sun, moon and stars were carried about it, like portable stoves about a person to warm him. Their world and themselves were out of proportion.

In 1685, when six Jesuits came from France, they brought with them a large bronze azimuth and celestial globe as presents from Louis XIV to the Emperor K'ang Hsi. They found the famous Father Verbiest in charge of the Board of Astronomy in succession to the great Father Schall. Verbiest controlled the Observatory until 1688 and introduced Western mathematical precision in

13 It is curious to observe that among the astronomers here we find at that time a Byzantine called "Gaisue" (Yule, Marco Polo).

the science of astronomy instead of the old approximate methods. The Chinese proved themselves apt pupils. They soon learned to compute eclipses, but when the moment of the eclipse arrived, the Members of the Honourable Board reverted to their old superstitions. Arrayed in official robes, they assembled in the courtyard and frantically beat torn toms to scare away the dragon about to swallow the sun or moon.