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CHINA

A HISTORY OF THE LAWS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE

VOL. I.

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CHINA

A HISTORY OF THE LA^YS, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE TEOPLE

JOHN HENRY GRAY M.A. LL.D.

AKCUDEACON OF HONGKONG. EDITED BY

WILLIAM GOW GREGOR

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I ^ 3

WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS

|?onboit

M ACM ILL AN AND CO.

1878

\_T/ii' liiyht of Triinslation and Reprodiidion is rieserced]

LONDON :

R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR,

BREAD STREET HILL.

TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE

EARL GRANVILLE, K.G.

THESE VOLUMES

WRITTEN DURING A LONG RESIDENCE IN CHINA

ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THE AUTHOR

The Author of these volumes returned to China in the beginning of last year, and, at his request, I undertook what editorial work seemed necessary in connection with the publication.

W. G. G.

Streatham, S.W.

25 January, 1878.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK I.

PAtii: INTRODUCTORY 1

CHAPTER II.

GOVERNMENT 1!)

CHAPTER III.

PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS 4R

CHAPTER IV.

RELIGION. — CONFUCIANISM (ifi

CHAPTER V.

POPULAR GOBS AND GODDESSES 14.3

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

lAGE

EDUCATION AND THE PRESS 166

CHAPTER VII.

MARRIAGE 183

CHAPTER VIII.

DIVORCE 219

CHAPTER IX.

PARENTS AND CUII.DREN .... 229

CHAPTER X.

SERVANTS AND SLAVES 240

CHAPTER XI.

FESTIVALS 249

CHAPTER XII.

FUNERALS

•27S

CHAPTER XIII.

SUICIDES 329

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIV.

PAGE

TlXr.KS OF HONOUR AND VISITS OF CEREMONY 342

CHAPTER XV.

SUMl'TUARY LAWS 3G2

CHAPTER XVI.

AMUSEMENTS AND SPORTS 377

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

To face jinge A GOVERNOR LEAVING IIlS SHOE AT THE GATE OF A CITY ON

HIS DEPARTURE C

A WALLED VILLAGE lU

A SHAMPOOER AT WORK 11

POON'-KOO WONG IB

JUDICIAL TORTURE 32

JUDICIAL TORTURE 34

THE CANGUE . 45

FLOGGING A THIEF THROUGH THE STREETS 54

THE CANGUE 56

PRISONERS EXPOSED OUTSIDE A YAilUN 58

THE CANGUE ..... GO

THE CANGUE 64

HEAD OF A MALEFACTOR, EXPOSED AT NANKIN 68

SHACKLED AND MANACLED 7U

IN THE STOCKS 72

EXTERIOR OF A CONFUCIAN TEMPLE 00

xiv LIST OF ILLUSTUATIONS.

To fnce pige A BUDDHIST TEMPLE ... 124

BIRD-CATCHERS 128

BUDDHIST NUNS 132

PIH-TE 142

A RAIN-GOD CARRIED IN PROCESSION 148

TEMPLE OF THE FIVE GENII, CANTON 160

THE THREE PURE ONES 165

TUTOR TEACHING GIRLS AT HOME - . . . 168

A B.A. WORSHIPPING HIS ANCESTRAL TABLETS, AFTER TAKING

HIS DEGREE 174

A VISIT OF CONGRATULATION TO A SUCCESSFUL LITERARY

COMPETITOR 17(J

A PUBLIC READER 178

SUBSCRIPTION LISTS 18()

WIFE AND CHILDREN OF AN OPIUM-SMOKER ........ 218

TRIAL OF AN ADULTRESS IN AN ANCESTRAL HALL 220

FLOGGING AN ADULTERER 226

A child's FIRST VISIT TO ITS GODMOTHER 232

BANDAGING THE FEET 234

A DISOBEDIENT SON IN FETTERS 236

A SON BEING PUT INTO A CANGUE BY HIS FATHER 238

OPIUM-SMOKERS ' . . 246

AN OPIUM-SMOKER 248

DOORS OF A CHINESE GENTLEMA:n's HOUSE 250

;LIST OF ILLUSTiUTlOXy. xv

']\) face i,iujr

LADIES BKING CARRIED DY THEIR SLAVES 254

A DRAGON BOAT 2GU

A FLOWER-BOAT- -FESTIVAL OF SHU-YEE 262

FIREWORKS 272

REMOVED TO THE HALL TO DIE 280

DEDICATING THE GRAVE-CLOTHES ... 288

WORSHIPPING AT THE TOMBS OP ANCESTORS 320

A VISIT OF CEREMONY 352

A MANDARIN IN AN OPEN CHAIR 372

A PEEP-SHOW 382

ATHLETES . 384

GAMBLERS 38(5

QUAIL-FIGHTING 392

ATHLETES 304

CANDIDATES FOR MILITARY DEGREES 390

CHINA.

CHAPTEPt I.

INTRODUCTORY.

In the befijinning, so Chinese writers relate, when all was dark- ness and confusion, there carne from a vast mundane egg, which divided itself into two parts, a human being, who is, and lias always been known in Chinese annals as Poon-koo Wong. Of the upper portion of the shell, this being formed the heavens, and of the lower part he made the earth. To dispel the dark- ness by which all was enveloped, he created with his right hand, the sun to rule the da}^, and with his left hand, the moon to rule the night. He made the stars also. Then lie called into existence the five elements of earth, water, fire, metal, and wood.^ Chinese writers say also that, in order to people the earth, Poon-koo Wong made a cloud of vapour rise from a piece of gold, and a similar cloud from a piece of wood. By breathing on them he gave to the vapour which arose from the gold, a male principle ; and to that which ascended from the wood, a female principle. From the union of these two clouds or spirits, sprang a son and daughter, Ying Yee and Cha-noee ; and the descendants of this pair in due course of time, overspread the whole country. Thus, according to Chinese cosmogony, came into being the land of Han, and its vast population, in other words, the world and its inhabitants. In honour of Poon koo Wong there are many

The five elements denote five innate essences, and the nature of each essonce is indicated by its corresponding form of matter.

VOL. I. B

2 CHINA, [CHAP.

temples throughout China. The idol of this hero of antiquity is an almost nude figure made of wood or clay. Around the loins is a representation of an apron of leaves. Such, say the Chinese, was his only covering, there being no clothes in those earliest of days.

The primordia of all countries are enveloped in much that is obscure and fabulous, and it is extremely difficult for the his- torian to fix the period when civil history had its beginnings. China is no exception, but there can, I think, be no doubt of the great antiquity of the Chinese Empire. It is not, I believe, rash to say that it has survived a period of four thousand years, with- out having undergone any great change either in the laws by which it is governed, or in the speech, manners, and customs of its teeming population. It is generally allowed that celestial observations were made at Babylon two thousand two hundred and thirty-four years before the birth of Christ, and such obser- vations are probably the strongest evidence which any nation can produce in support of its claim to antiquity. These were not in any way associated with the history of sublunary events. Those made by the Chinese, on the contrary, have served to mark the events of their national history. They speak of an eclipse calculated in their country two thousand one hundred and fifty-five years before Christ. That this eclipse really took place was proved by the calculations of the missionaries of the order of Jesus, who visited China in the sixteenth century. Gaubil, one of the early Eoman Catholic missionaries to China — a man pre-eminently distinguished for his mathematical attainments — examined a series of thirty-six eclipses to which allusion is made in the writings of Confucius. After careful examination he concluded that of these thirty-six eclipses only two were false, and two uncertain. The correctness of the remaining thirty- two, he considered established beyond all reasonable doubt. The chronology of the Chinese, however, extends considerably beyond the first of these eclipses, and is substantiated by satis- factory evidence as far back as the reign of the Emperor Yaou. From the time of this sovereign, the history of China begins to assume the appearance of truth, whereas the account of all preceding reigns is clouded with fable and uncertainty.

I.] ITS ANTIQUITY AND NAMES. 3

To this large and ancient Asiatic Empire, many names are given by its inhabitants. The principal are Tchung Kwock, and Tien Chu. The term Tchung Kwock or JMiddlc Kingdom, was given to the country on the arrogant supposition that it is the grand central kingdom of the globe around which all the other petty states are arranged as so many different satellites. Tien Chu is the term in which the nation sets forth its heavenly origin in contradistinction to the inferior genesis of all other earthly states. By the tribes who dwell between China and the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, the country is called Cathay, or the Flowery Land ; and as, before the discovery of the Cape of Giood Hope, the highway from Europe to C!hina lay through these countries, this was the name Europeans became acquainted with. The word China is said to be derived from the name of an emperor of the short-lived dynasty of Tsin. This emperor, who was named Ching Wong, is said in Chinese annals to have been one of the greatest heroes of whom China, or indeed, any other land can boast. He extended his conquests over the countries immediately contiguous to the western frontier of his kingdom, and he drove the Tartar tribes in the north, back to their mountain fastnesses, and completed the construction of the Great Wall of China to prevent their incursions in future. This monarch is said to have died about two hundred years before Christ, so that tlie Great Wall of China may be con- sidered to be more than two thousand years old. It can never have been of any great use, except in checking the predatory raids of the nomadic tribes of Tartary. It is fifteen hundred miles long, and so extensive a line could with difficulty be pro- tected at all points. It is now merely regarded as a monument of great labour and antiquity.

China proper lies between 18^ and 41° north latitude. It has its eastern extremity, where it borders on the Corea, marked by 12-4° east longitude, while its western boundary, where it bor- ders on the Burmese Empire and Western Thibet, is cut by 98° east longitude. Thus it may be regarded as the greatest com- pact country in the world, as it incloses an area of upwards of one million three hundred thousand square miles. Of this vast extent of surface, one side only is entirely washed by the ocean.

3 2

4 CHINA. [chap.

The sea-board, however, extends over two thousand five liundred English miles. It includes many bays and estuaries, so studded witli islands, that one of the most favourite and appro- priate titles of the Emperor, is " the Sovereign of the ten thousand isles." The ocean by which this vast coast is washed, is divided into four sections. The portion of sea between Cochin China and the island of Hainan is called the Tonquin Gulf ; that between Hainan and Formosa, is known as the China Sea ; that which stretches from the north cape of Formosa along the shores of the respective provinces of Fo-kien, Che-kiang, and Kiang-soo is called the Eastern Sea ; and the front section which runs thence to the Corea, the Yellow Sea. As these seas, which form the southern and eastern boundaries of the empire, abound with shoals and banks — the most famous of which are the Pratas and the Paracelles — navigation is attended with no ordinary degree of risk and danger.

Of the oceans or seas of China, what are held to be the north, south, east, and west seas are regarded as objects worthy of adoration. They are worshipped by the officials at each vernal and autumnal equinox, and sacrifices are offered on these occa- sions. The ceremony of worshipping the eastern sea is per- formed at Loi-chow, a prefectoral city in the province of Shan- tung ; the western ocean is worshipped at Wing-tsi, a country or district city in the province of Sheu-si ; the southern ocean at Polo, in the province of Kwang-tung ; and the northern ocean at Man-chow, in the prefecture of Shing-king, which is beyond the great wall of China.

In 1725, the second year of his reign, the Emperor Yung Ching conferred titles and other honours upon the four dragons, which the Chinese suppose to inhabit these oceans. In honour of Hin Yan, Ching Hung, Shung Tai, and Tchu Ming — to introduce these dragons by their new names — theatrical representations are, I believe, on no account allowed.

The great political divisions of the country are eighteen provinces, viz., Shang-tung, Pe-cheli, Shan-si, and Shen-si in the north ; Kwang-tung and Kwang-si in the south ; Che-kiang Fo-kien and Kiang-soo in the east; Kan-soo, Sze-chuen, and Yun-nan in the west; and Kgan-hui, Kiang-si, Hoo-nam,

I I GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 5

Hoo-peh, Ho-nam, and Kwei-cliow, which may be regarded as the midland provinces.

Of these provinces Sze-chnen is the largest, Che-kiang tlie smallest, and Kwang-tung, from its almost tropical position, one of the most fertile. Each province is sub-divided into poos, districts, or counties, and prefectures or departments. A poo, the capital of which is a market town, consists of a number of towns and villages ; a district or county, the capital of which is a walled city, consists of a number of poos ; a prefecture or department, the capital of which is also a walled city, consists of a number of districts or counties, and a province, the capital of which is also a walled city, consists of a number of pre- fectures. The eighteen provinces of China Proper, in their collective capacity, contain upwards of four thousand walled cities, Pekin (which though a royal city, and the seat of the central government, is without exception the dirtiest place I ever entered) being the capital. The cities which rank next to the capital in point of importance, though vastly superior to it in almost every respect, are Nankin, Soo-chow, Hang-chow, and Canton. The market towns and villages of this vast empire are also very numerous.

The walls by which each county, and prefectoral, and pro- vincial capital city is inclosed are from thirty to fifty or sixty feet high. Those by which Pekin is surrounded are in appearance by far the most imposing. In many instances, however, the walls of Chinese cities are undertakings of great magnitude, and are remarkable, both for the extent of their circumference and for their massive appearance, their width affording space sufficient for two carriages travelling abreast.

Thus, for example, those which inclose the city of Xankin are eighteen English miles in circumference. At all events, it took me six hours to walk round them ; and I walked, witliout stopping once, at a rate exceeding three miles per hour. The walls of Chinese cities are castellated, and provided Mitli embrasures for artillery, and loop holes for musketry. At frequent intervals there are watch-towers and barracks for the accommodation of troops. On the top of the ramparts in some places are piled large stones, which in times of

C CHINA. [niiAP.

tumult or war are thrown upon tlie heads of assailants. Such stones are not by any means despicable missiles. At the com- mencement of the last war which England, in alliance with France, waged against Cliina, some soldiers of Her Majesty's 59th Eegiment were killed by them in the vicinity of the Tai-ping gate of Canton. This primitive mode of warfare belongs rather to the days when, as Plutarch relates, Pyrrhus was killed at Argos by a tile thrown by a woman, than to the nineteenth century ; or to those still more remote, when Abimelech, the unworthy son of Gideon, met his death at Thebez from a fragment of a millstone, Avliich in this case also a woman's hand had thrown. In consequence of their great antiquity, the walls of many of the northern cities are neglected and dilapidated. Those by which the more important and wealthy cities are inclosed, are in a very perfect condition, and as a matter of course receive constant attention. Owing to their great antiquity, however, portions of them not unfrequently give way with a great crash. The walls of Canton have to my own knowledge given way at different points, on two or three occasions. Thus in the month of June, 1871, a portion of the west wall of the city, Avhich was very old, and had become saturated with recent heavy rains, suddenly gave way, and buried in its ruins seven dwelling-houses. Fortunately the occupants had betaken them- selves to other dwelling-houses.

At the north, south, east, and west sides of each Chinese city, there are large folding gates of great strength. These are further secured by equally massive inner gates. Each of the principal outer gates of the city of Nankin is strengthened by three such inner gates. Of the gates of a Chinese city, the one which is held in lionour above all others is that at tlie south. Through the south gate, or gate of lionour, which is especially regarded as the emperor's gate, all officials coming to the city to hold office enter ; and when they vacate office, it is by the same gate that they depart. No funeral procession is allowed to pass through this gate, and the same prohibi- tion excludes the bearers of night-soil, or of anything which is regarded as unclean. The south gate of the capital of the

I.] CITIES AND TOWNS. 7

empire, is regarded as so sacred, tliat as a rule, it is kept closed, and only opened when the emperor has occasion to pass that way.

The streets of cities, towns, and villages are generally wider in the northern than in the southern pro\dnces of the empire. Those of Pelvin are very broad. Indeed in this respect they equal those of European cities. The narrowness of the streets in the south of China gives them the great advantage of coolness during the summer months. Many of them are so narrow as to shut out in a great measure the rays of a hot tropical sun ; and in some instances they are partially covered over during the hot season by the residents, wdth canvas, matting, or thin planks of timber. Many of the towns, also, in the north of Formosa, are protected in this way. The pathways which run in front of the shops are arched over, and as they are frequently constructed in the form of rude arcades, it is possible to pass from one part of the town to another, without exposing oneself to the sun or rain. Between the footpaths that are covered in this way, there is a thoroughfare for sedan chairs and beasts of burden. It appeared to me, however, that this centre thoroughfare is more generally used as a public dust-bin than as a street. The shopkeepers are in the habit of throwing into it all sorts of refuse, which is not so speedily removed by the scavengers of the town as it ought to be. Manka, which is one of the principal towns in the north of Formosa, is above all others remarkable for the arrangements of its streets after this fashion. At Hoo-chow, a prefectoral city in the province of Che-kiang, I passed through two streets which were constructed in the form of arcades, which are not however so perfect as those of Manka. The streets of Chinese cities are paved with granite slabs, bricks, or paving stones. Those of the city of Canton are paved with granite slabs. The streets of the city of Soo-chow — so Ions famous for the wealth of its citizens— are in some cases paved with granite slabs, and in others with paving-stones.

Under the streets of Chinese towns there are conduits into Avhich the rain percolates as it falls through the chinks between the granite slabs. Where the streets are paved with paving stones, there are channels or gutters on either side ; these,

8 CIirXA. [chap..

liowever, are so narrow as to prove of little or no service, so that they become pools of filth from which there is a fearful stench in the summer months. The streets of Pekiu are macadamised, or supposed to be so. They are considerably raised in the centre, so that the rain-water may easily flow into the conduits on either side. Eoad-metal is never laid on them, however, and in the rainy season they are filthy to a degree. In summer, they are so covered with dust as to render travelling upon them a thing to be avoided. In the evening, there is a most intolerable __stench ; for the conduits are then opened, and the stagnant water they contain is scooped out and scattered broadcast over the streets for the purpose of laying the dust. The names which are given to the streets of Chinese cities are generally very high-sounding. Thus we have the Street of Golden Profits ; the Street of Benevolence and Love ; the Street of Everlasting Love ; the Street of Longevity ; the Street of One Hundred Grandsons : the Street of One Thousand Grandsons ; the Street of Saluting Dragons ; the Street of the Sweeping Dragon ; the Street of the Eeposing Dragon ; the Street of Eefreshing Breezes ; the Street of One Thousand Beatitudes ; the Street of a Thousandfold Peace ; the Street of Five Happinesses; the Street of Ten Thousand Happinesses ; the Street of Ninefold Brightness ; the Street of Accumulated Goodness. Other streets are simply numbered, as First Street, Second Street, Third Street, and so on.

The shops of which the streets of Chinese cities are formed, and which are built of bricks, are of various sizes. They are entirely open in front. There is, however, no rule without an exception ; and many of the shops at Pekin are provided with glass windows. I saw them also in the banking establishments in Soo-cliow. These glass ^\■indows, however, are remarkably mean, and they will not bear comparison with the windows which add so much to the beauty and finish of the shops in the finer streets of English towns. At the door of each shop stand two or more long sign-boards, upon each side of which are painted in neat, bold letters in gold, vermilion, or other gay colours, the name of the " hong " and the various commodities which it con- tains for sale. The name of the hong or shop consists of two

1. 1 STRKKTS AND SIlol'S. 9

characters. In some instances a shopkeeper places above the door of his shop a small sign-board resembling in form some particular article which he has for sale. Thus a collannaker has a sign made in the form of a collar ; a hosier's sign resembles a stocking ; a bootmaker's a boot, and a spectaclemaker's a pair of spectacles. In some cases the signs are not shaped to re- present the articles, but representations of these, such as liats, fans, and even sticking-plaisters are painted on them. Some shopkeepers not satisfied with having sign-boards suspended from the side-posts of the doors of their shops, seek to make themselves still better known by painting their names and the wares in which they deal in large characters on the outer walls of the cities in which they reside. On the walls of the cities of Tang-yang and Chang-chow, on the banks of the Grand Canal, I observed this to be especially the case. Boards on which are recorded the names of each person residing in the house are also, in compliance with law, placed on the entrance door or outer wall of each dwelling-house. This custom appeared to me to be much more observed in the rural districts than in the cities and lowns. Above the entrance-door of each shop hang lanterns ; and, from the roof, lamps of glass or horn upon which are gaily-coloured representations of birds, flowers, gardens, temples. These innumerable, bright-painted sign- boards and lanterns give a Chinese street a most cheerful and animated appearance. The streets of Canton which, in this respect, are most conspicuous, are the Chaong-tan Kai ; the Chong-yune-fong ; the Tai-sing Kai ; the Sue-sze-tai Kai ; the Koo-taiKai; the Shaong-mun tai ; the Wye-oi Kai; and the Tai-fat-sze-cheen.

The shops are not distributed indiscriminately throughout Chinese towns, as is tlie case to a large extent in European cities. They are confined to certain quarters, and even in the streets appropriated to them, they do not occur promiscuously. Each branch of trade has its special place to which it is usually restricted. On each side of a street we should generally find shops of the same kind, Near the entrance of his shop, the master is often seated waiting with much patience for the arrival of customers, No female members of the tradesman's family

10 CHIXA. [niiAP,

reside in apartments either above or behind the shop. In the evening, therefore, when tlie shutters have been put up, the trades- man hastens to his home in the more retired joarts of the town, leaving his stock in charge of his assistants and apprentices.

The streets in which the gentry reside, consist generally of well-built houses, which, like the majority of houses in China, are of one story only. They extend, however, a considerable distance to the rear, and are so large and spacious as to be capable of containing a great number of persons. They are approached by large folding-doors. As the walls which front the streets are without windows, they present, in many cases, the appearance of encampments. Detached houses— of which there are many — bear a very striking resemblance to encampments. This is particularly true of the houses of the gentry wiio reside in the cities of Soo-chow, Yang-chow, Hang-chow, and Hoo- chow ; and it has often struck me in my peregrinations through the provinces of Kiang-si and Kiang-soo. Chinese houses have no fire-places. In the cool season, therefore, the occupants have to keep themselves warm by w^earing additional clothing, or by means of portable brass or earthenware vessels in which charcoal embers are kept burning. Owing to the houses and shops which form its streets not being generally of the same height, or arranged in a direct line, a Chinese town or village looks very irregular. This irregularity is due to the fact that the houses are built according to the principles of geomancy, which do not admit of the ridge beams of each house in a street being placed in a direct line. Were they so placed, evils of various kinds would, it is said, be the inevitable result.

In the cities of Pekin, Cheefoo, Nankin, Shanghai, and other northern and midland towns, there are public baths. Tliese in- stitutions are evidently built more for utility than show, and are most unassuming and unprepossessing erections. They are ap- parently, one and all, hot baths, warmed by means of furnaces. The vapour fills the bath-rooms, and gives them not merely the ap- pearance, but the properties of sweating-rooms. In some Chinese towns, so soon as tlie bath is ready, the proprietor advertises the fact by means of a servant who walks through the streets beating a well-toned gong, which he carries by his side. This plan was.

i.J ^lONUMKNTAL ARCfll'S. 11

1 noticed, especially practised by bath proprieters in the market town of Cheefoo. To each bathroom is attached au ante- chamber. This is used as an undressing-room, and servants take charge of the clothes of the bathers. On the walls of the ante- chamber of the public baths at Nankin were painted in large Chinese characters several moral sentences very much as follows : — Honesty is the best policy ; Do to your neighbour as you would have him do to you, &c., &c.

The streets or squares of Chinese cities are not adorned like the streets and squares of European cities, with stone, marble or bronze statues of the great, the brave, and the learned. In nearly all the principal cities of China there are, however, monumental arches erected in honour of renowned warriors, illustrious statesmen, distinguished citizens, learned scholars, virtuous women, or dutiful sons or daughters. In some in- stances such monuments are built of brick, in others of marble, in others of old red sandstone, but more generally of granite. A. Chinese monument of this nature consists of a triple arch or gateway, that is, a large centre gate, and a smaller gateway on each side. On a large polished slab, wdiich is placed above the middle gateway, are figures done in sculpture, or Chinese characters setting forth the object with which the citizens, by imperial permission, erected the arch.

Some of these monuments are built in the form of pavilions, or domes supported by granite columns. One of the largest monumental arches in China of which I have heard is in the city of Toong-ping Chow, in the province of Shan-tung. It is in honour of a learned scholar named Laong How, who, at the age of eighty- two years, succeeded in taking the very first place on the tripos list at the examination for theHan-lin, or doctor's degree. This arch, which is constructed of granite, and elaborately sculptured, was erected during the Tai-sung dynasty. The inscription on the slab, which is placed above the grand or centre arch, refers to the scholastic attainments, not only of Laong How, but of his son, who, it appears, had, three years prior to the success of his father, obtained precisely similar honours. The city, however, which is apparently conspicuous above all others for ornamental arches is that of Iloo-chow Foo, in the province of

1-2 CTITXA. [ciiAr.

Clie-kiang. As the excursionist enters this city by the south gate, an imposing sight, produced by these arches, meets his view. They span a portion of the Tai-naur Kai, or great south street of the city, and are placed in such close proximity to one another as to make this thoroughfare worthy of the name of the street of arches. Each of them is of vast dimensions and richly sculptured. These arches are all in honour of men who were born, and who lived and died in the prefecture of Hoo- chow. Two of them are in honour of a father and his son who had attained high literary honours. On another are recorded the names of thirteen men, natives of Iloo-chow, who, in one and the same year obtained at Pekin almost the highest honours which are offered by the Chinese government to stimulate the literati of the country. The only monument I saw in the form of a pavilion or dome, is at Choo-loong-slian, a suburban district of the city of Woo-see Hien, on the banks of the Grand Canal. It is in honour of certain members of the Wha family, who had successfully graduated in honours. Again, the only monumental arch I saw made of earthenware, stands in the vicinity of Yan-chow Foo, on the banks of the Poyang Lake. It was erected, I believe, to perpetuate the memory of a woman conspicuous by her virtue.

To save their cities from destructive fires, the Chinese observe many necessary precautions. In the streets of many of their cities wells are sunk, which are called Taiping-tsieng, or great peace wells. They are large and contain abundant supplies oi' water, and over the mouth of each a stone slab is placed, which is only removed when any of the neighbouring houses is on fire. It is provided by law, that there shall be placed in various parts of a Chinese city, large tubs to be kept at all times full of water. On the sides of each of these vessels, are written in large Chinese letters the words " peace tubs," or cisterns. On the tops of the houses also it is not unusual for the Chinese to place earthenware jars containing water, so that they may always have at hand sufficient water to enable them to suppress incipient fires. In each large city there are several fire brigades, maintained entirely by contributions on the part of the citizens. The fire engines, water buckets, and lanterns which belong to

I.] MUNICIPAL FIRE BRIGADES. 13

them, are kept, as a rule, in the different temples of the city; and each brigade is distinguished by a peculiar name. To each guild a fire brigade is attached, and the expenses of the brigade are defrayed by the membei's of the guild. The officers and men of the brigade are provided with a distinc- tive uniform or dress, and on their hats are recorded in large Chinese characters the name or number of their brigade, and the words Kow-fo or fire extinguisher.

Besides these provisions by the citizens themselves for the purpose of checking or putting out fires, the members of the local government of each city are called upon to render their assistance. By way of illustration let me take Canton. Each magistrate of the city has in his service several men, whose duty it is, on the occasion of a fire, to prevent robberies. Thus the Kwong-hip, or commandant of the Chinese garrison in Canton, has under him, besides others, eighty men, of whom twenty are to assist in preventing robberies when a fire takes place, and sixty to assist in putting out the fire. Of these men, forty are stationed at the Five Genii gate of the city, and forty in the western suburb. Under the immediate command of the governor there are two hundred men, wdiose duty in a great measure consists in helping firemen to subdue conflagrations. Throughout the city of Canton there are forty-eight guard houses, and from each of these, in the event of a fire, two men are told off to hasten to the scene. At the close or commencement of each succeeding month throughout the year, the provincial judge and the provincial treasurer, both of whom are very high officials, are supposed to inspect all the government servants whose duty it is to assist in putting out fires. Once more, with the view of making all Chinese officials active in the discharge of these duties, it is enacted that, in the case of eighty houses being destroyed by fire, all the officers of the city in which the conflagration occurred shall be degraded in rank one step ; and that in the case of ten houses being destroyed the matter shall be reported to the central govern- ment at Pekin. A few days after a conflagration the memliers of each respective fire brigade which was present on- the occasion, receive as an acknowdedgment of their good services roast pitjs,

14

CHINA

jars of wine, and small sums of money. Th' men to whom is assigned the dangerous duty of holding thehoses attached to the engines, receive on such occasions extra rtvards. Wounded firemen are remunerated according to th nature of their wounds. The Chinese are, in my opinio, most excellent firemen. They very quickly arrive at the scae of action, and, as a rule, they are most prompt in extingishing the flames. They are also very daring. During the late 'ar between Great Britain and China, when Canton was set on re by bomb shells from Sir M. Seymour's guns, I observed f)m the top of the British factory the various fire brigades steaily persevering iu their attempts to subdue the flames, in the ace of a constant fire of shot and shell.

Persons who, through carelessness or othevise, are the cause

of fires, are, when c

large fire occurring

suburb of the city of

of the (■

they W(

at the :

In the

named

collar, at

western

a fire was a

had destroy was daily ex

But it is a detailed d cipal arran frequently co

The population figure. In 1743 himdred millions < thlk n of Eie teeW "lury, tl wev^ lied b

1

erely punishi. I remember a of May, SG6, at Honam, a five ori'jin'.p.d in consequence apprehended loden collars of Heaven, druggist or W(joden the south- is dvuggip*

3 to gl

evA

coi&'.oe<

4

1-1

P0PULA10N. MORAL CHARACTER.

15

at

taken by the Chinese ii 1813, the population was 300,279,897; and in 1842, according:o Sacharoff, it had reached the stupen- dous figure of 414,66,994. This seems almost incredible. There is no doubtj he/ever, that this vast empire is densely populated in perhaps le majority of its districts. During the rebellion which disturld the peace of China from 1847 to 18G2, there was probably a ^nsiderable decrease of the population. Innumerable cities, to ns, and villages were then reduced ^ to ruinous heaps, and thenhabitants put to the sword.

Of the moral charater of the people, who have multiplied until they are " as th sand which is upon the sea shore," it is very difficult 1 speak justly. The moral character of the Chinese is a I ok written in strange letters, which are more complex arl difficult for one of another race, re- ligion, and language i decipher than their own singularly compounded word-symols. In the same individual virtues and vices, apparently icompatible, are placed side by side. Meekness, gentleness, docility, ■ industry, contentment, cheer- fulness, obedience to superiors, dutifulness to parents, and reverence for the age* are in one and the same person, the companions of insincdty, lying, flattery, treachery, cruelt\, jealousy, ingratitude, ivarice, and distrust of others. The Chinese are a weak nd timid people, and in consequence, like all similarly conatuted races, they seek a natural refuge deceit and fraud. But examples of moral inconsistency ' ^' no means conned to the Chinese, and I fear that lies too much aiphasis is laid on the dark side of ^ icter — to wich St. Paul's well-known description (then in h] own day is applicable — as if it had 1 amongst more enlightened nations. Were a the empire,with a view of acquiring a thorough of the Ei^lish people, to make himself familiar records of )ur police and other law courts, the ns that tak place in what we call the " com- world," and tb scandals of what we term "society," probably giv his countrymen at home a very one-

correctness of thi statement I had ample and painAil evidence when ithriiugh the centraprovinces in 1865-66.

H CHINA. [chap.

jars of wine, and small sums of money. The men to whom is assigned the dangerous duty of holding the hoses attached to the engines, receive on such occasions extra rewards. Wounded firemen are remunerated according to the nature of their wounds. The Chinese are, in my opinion, most excellent firemen. They very quickly arrive at the scene of action, and, as a rule, they are most prompt in extinguishing the flames. They are also very daring. During the late war between Great Britain and China, when Canton was set on fire by bomb shells from Sir M. Seymour's guns, I observed from the top of the British factory the various fire brigades steadily persevering in their attempts to subdue the flames, in the face of a constant fire of shot and shell.

Persons who, through carelessness or otherwise, are the cause of fires, are, when caught, severely punished. I remember a large fire occurring in the month of May, 1866, at Honam, a suburb of the city of Canton. The fire originated in consequence of the carelessness of three women, and upon being apprehended they were exposed for several days in cangues or wooden collars at the gates of a temple in honour of the Queen of Heaven. In the month of August, 1871, I saw a respectable druggist named Wong Kwok-hing exposed in a cangue or wooden collar, at the end of the Tung-hing Kai, a street in the south- western suburb of Canton. To the carelessness of this druggist a fire was attributed, which, in the preceding month of March, had destroyed upwards of forty houses. The unfortunate man was daily exposed in this degrading manner for a whole month.

But it is not necessary in these introductory remarks to give a detailed description of the characteristic features and muni- cipal arrangements of Chinese cities and towns. Tliese will frequently come before the reader in the course of this work.

The population of China is now estimated at a very high figure. In 1743 it did not, according to Grosier, exceed two hundred millions of souls. At a census which was taken during the reign of Kien-lung Wong, in the latter half of the six- teenth century, the population, according to the returns which were forwarded by each province to the central government at Pekin, amounted to 307,467,000 souls. According to a census

1.] POPULATION. MORAL CILVRAGTER. 15

taken by the Chinese in 1813, the popidation was 300,279,897; and in 1842, according to Sacliaroff, it had reached tlie stupen- dous figure of 414,686,994. This seems almost incredible. There is no doubt^ however, that this vast empire is densely populated in perhaps the majority of its districts. During the rebellion which disturbed the peace of China from 1847 to 18G2, there was probably a considerable decrease of the population. Innumerable cities, towns, and villages were then reduced ^ to ruinous heaps, and the inhabitants put to the sword.

Of the moral character of the people, who have multiplied until they are " as the sand which is upon the sea shore," it is very difficult to speak justly. The moral character of the Chinese is a book written in strange letters, which are more complex and difficult for one of another race, re- ligion, and language to decipher than their own singularly compounded word-symbols. In the same individual virtues and vices, apparently incompatible, are placed side by side. Meekness, gentleness, docility, industry, contentment, cheer- fulness, obedience to superiors, dutifulness to parents, and reverence for the aged, are in one and the same person, the companions of insincerity, lying, flattery, treachery, cruelty, jealousy, ingratitude, avarice, and distrust of others. The Chinese are a weak and timid people, and in consequence, like all similarly constituted races, they seek a natural refuge in deceit and fraud. But examples of moral inconsistency are by no means confined to the Chinese, and I fear that sometimes too much emphasis is laid on the dark side of their character— to which St. Paul's well-known description of the heathen in his own day is applicable — as if it had no parallel amongst more enlightened nations. Were a native of the empire, with a view of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the English people, to make himself familiar with the records of our police and other law courts, the transactions that take place in what we call the " com- mercial world," and the scandals of what we term "society," he would probably give his countrymen at home a very one-

' Of the correctness of this statement I had ample and painful evidence wheu travelling through the central provinces in 1865-66.

16 CHINA. [chap.

sided and depreciatory account of this nation. Moreover, we must remember that we are in possession of the innumerable blessings of Christianity. Where they do not take refuge in the indifference of atheism, the Chinese are the slaves of grossly superstitious religions ; and designing priests, geomancers, for- tune-tellers, and others, endeavour by cunning lies and artifices to keep them in a state of darkness worse than Egyptian. Under the political and social conditions of their existence, it is extra- ordinary what an amount of good is to be found in their national character. Their religion is a mass of superstitions. Their government is, in form, that which of all others is perhaps most liable to abuse^an irresponsible despotism. Their judges are venal ; their judicial procedure is radically defective, and has recourse in its weakness to the infliction of torture ; their punishments are — many of them — barbarous and revolting ; their police are dishonest, and their prisons are dens of cruelty. A considerable mass of the population does not know how to read,^ and nearly everywhere there is a prejudiced ignorance of all that relates to modern progress. Their social life suffers from the baneful effects of polygamy, and, to a certain extent, of slavery, aud their marriage laws and customs hold woman in a state of degrading bondage. This is a grave bill of indict- ment against the religious, political, civil, and social institutions of any nation; and yet, notwithstanding conditions so little favourable to the development of civil and social virtues, the Chinese may be fairly characterised as a courteous, orderly, industrious, peace-loving, sober, and patriotic people.

I quote from an official report on the Tien-tsin massacre, written in 1871, by Mr. G. F. Seward, then American consul at Shanghai : —

" The prevailing tendency among foreigners in China is to debase the Chinese to a very low place in the scale of nations, to belittle their intellectual capacity, to condemn their morals, to declare them destitute of vitality and energy. . Each person who argues the case finds facts ready for his use which seem to him to demonstrate his o"svn view.

" I confess that the case is different with me. Faith in the race is a matter of intuition with me. I find here a steady

^ This remark applies espfcially to the Hakkas or wandering people.

I.] MORAL CHARACTER AND PROGRESS. 17

adherence to the traditions of the past, a sober devotion to tlie calls arising in the various rehUions of life, an absence of shift- lessness, an honest and, at least, somewhat earnest grappling with the necessities and difficulties which beset men in their humbler stages of progress, a, capacity to moralize witlial, and an enduring sense of right and wrong. These all form wliat must be considered an essentially satislactory basis and groundwoi'k of national character. Among the people there is practical sense, among the gentry scholarly instincts, the desire for ad- vancement, the disposition to work for it with earnestness and constancy. Amongst the rulers, a sense of dignity, breadth of view, considering their information, and patriotic feeling. AVho "will say tliat such a people have not a future more wonderful even than their past ? Why may not the wheels of progress and empire roll on until the countries of Asia witness again their course ? "

These views are, in the main, I believe, sound ; and, as the wheels of progress and empire may be said to be typified in modern days by the wheels of the locomotive, which has invested man with new powers over time and space, it is not unlikely that the hope which Mr. Seward expresses may be fulfilled at no remote period. The first steam locomotive in China already draws its trains in the vicinity of Shanghai. It is more important that Chinese exclusiveness has percep- tibly yielded to the repeated assaults made upon it, certainly not always in a Cliristian spirit, by the Western nations. This exclusiveness and jealousy of foreigners is by no means to be wondered at. During centuries, which take us back to the beginnings of civil history, the Chinese have developed their civilisation and their thoroughly original type of nationality in a region which Nature herself has rendered difficult of access on its landward sides by barriers of mountain, jungle, and desert, and which for all practical purposes was inaccessible on its southern and eastern seaboard, until science converted the separating seas into the world's highways. Prejudices of race are barriers to intercourse of marvellous strength, and are only to be removed by the constant friction of generations. Up to the present time we have been regarded by the " flowery people " as barbarians ; and too often in our intercourse with them we have failed — not to speak of graver shortcomings — in courteous

VOT„ T. (•

18 CHINA. [CHAP. I-

appreciation. May the Embassy ^vhich, now for the first time, China has sent to our shores, mark the nearer approach of days when tlie West will be able to communicate, without let or hindrance, to this venerable Asiatic empire the multiplied benefits of a civilisation which, as we are too ready to forget, in boasting of its triumphs, had its earliest developments in the East.

VOON-KOO WONG.

CHAPTEPi IT.

GOVERNMENT.

The form of govcrmnent of this vast empire is an absolute monarchy. The emperor regards himself as the interpreter of the decrees of Heaven, and he is recognised by the people over whom he rules as the connecting link between the gods and themselves. He is designated by such titles as the Son of Heaven, the Lord of Ten Thousand Years, the Imperial Supreme; and he is supposed to hold communion with the deities at his pleasure, and to obtain from them the blessings of which he, personally, or the nation may stand in need. This miglity monarch is assisted in the administration of the government by a cabinet council, which consists of four great ministers of state. In addition to this council there are six supreme tribunals for the conduct, in detail, of all goverinnental business. These triljunajs, which are designated by the general appellation of Loo-poo, are as follows : — First, that whicli is termed Lee- poo. This ottice is divided into four departments. In the first of these, ofticers are selected to fill the various offices which are deemed necessary for the due administration of the affairs of the respective provinces and districts of the Empire. The second takes cognizance of all such officials. The third affixes tlie seal to all edicts and proclamations ; and the fourth keeps a register of the extraordinary merits and good services of distinguished men. The second board or tribunal is named Hoo- poo, and to it is entrusted the care and keeping of the imperial

c 2

20 CHINA. [chap.

revenue. The third board is named Lee-poo. To it is entrusted the superintendence of all the ancient usages and religious rites of the people, and the preservation of all temples endowed by the imperial government. The fourth board is named Ping- poo. It has the care of all the naval and military establish- ments throughout the empire. The fifth is called King-poo. It has the supervision of all criminal proceedings. The sixth and last, which is termed Kung-poo, superintends all public works, such as mines, manufactures, highways, canals, bridges, &c. Over each of these tribunals presides a chief minister, or counsellor, whose duty it is to lay the decisions of his par- ticular board before the cabinet council of four great ministers of state. "When the decisions of th^ boards have been thoroughly discussed by the cabinet, they are submitted with becoming reverence to the notice of his imperial majesty. The power of these ministers, however, is almost nominal, as the emperor regards himself as responsible to none but the gods, whom he is supposed to represent. The people are thus in the hands of the emperor as children in the hands of a parent. But though there is outwardly a contempt manifested by the emperor for any or every suggestion which may be made to him by his ministers, there can be no doubt that, in private, much heed is given by his majesty to the advice of all confi- dential servants of the State. Very few, indeed, of the sove- reigns of China have been sufficiently endued with the wisdom of this Avorld to be able to rule without the counsel or advice of others. The sanction of the emperor to all laws and edicts is conveyed by a seal, and all remarks made by his majesty are recorded in letters of red, by what is styled the vermilion pencil.

Besides the various councils there are two others — the Too- cha-yun, and the Tsung-pin-fow. The former is a board of censors. The censors are supposed to attend the meetings of the board or councils already described, to ascertain whether or not intrigues or plots are being concocted to weaken the stability of the government. Members of this board are not unfrequently sent into the provinces to ascertain how matters of business are being conducted there. Spies are sometimes sent Ity the

ii.l BOARDS OF GOVERNMENT. 21

censors to different parts of the Empire for the purp.QSg of scru- tinizing the public and private conduct of any otHcial or oflicials upon whom suspicion may rest. Of these emissaries the local authorities and principal citizens of all large and influential cities stand in great awe. His Excellency An, a commissioner fro7u this board, arrived at Canton in the autumn of the year 1862, and suddenly placed under arrest several unsuspecting oflicials and citizens of distinction ; and in obedience to his orders some of them, including the notorious Chong Shun and Too Pat, were executed in a most summary manner.

In the Pckin Gazette of November 12th, 1871, a statement was published — translated in the China Mail of December 23rd, 1871 — to the effect that a censor had brought to the imperial notice a case of triple murder, in which a native of Chekiang was the complainant. The petitioner stated that his brother was intercepted on his way from market to purchase peas, and was surrounded, on account of an old grudge, by a family of four brothers, with the assistance of two outsiders. Two men who were carrying the peas were killed on the spot. The murderers then carried off the petitioner's brother to their house, where they confined him, and afterwards put him to death by the sword. The matter was reported to the then district magistrate Ng, but, in consequence of the Taiping rebellion, it could not be investigated. Ng's successor in the magistracy, To by name, had the offenders arrested ; but through tlie artful device of an underling who had been bribed, they were set at large. Emboldened by their liberation, the murderers disentombed the coffins, and mutilated the remains of the deceased, with a view to the destruction of all means of identi- fication. Eor this offence another magistrate, AVong, sent out officers to arrest them, but the police were resisted. The suc- cessor of this magistrate ordered the military to assist in the apprehension of the murderers, but they managed to make their escape. The matter had been allowed to remain in abeyance for fourteen years, although three lives were concerned. The prefect had been petitioned twenty-five times, the inten- dant of the circuit nine times, the governor once, and the governor-general once, and yet the complainant had not been

22 CHINA. [CHAP.

able to obtain redress. Iteference had invariably been made to the magistrate to have the murderers arrested, but tliey were allowed to enjoy their ease at home.

The second of these two boards, the Tsung-pin-fow, consists of six high officials. These keep a register of the births, deaths, marriages, and relations of the princes of the blood royal, and report at times upon their conduct. The regi.ster in which the names of the lineal descendants of the imperial family are recorded is of yellow paper ; that in which the names of the collateral branches are recorded is of red paper. These records are submitted to the emperor every ten years, on which occa- sions his majesty confers titles and rewards. These titles are divided into four classes, the first being hereditary, the second honorary, the third for services rendered to the State, and the fourth rewards due to literary attainments. It is imperative upon the ministers constituting the board of Tsung-pin-fow to furnish at frequent intervals the various tribunals styled Loo- poo with reports as to which of the sons of the emperor possesses in the highest perfection the essential qualifications of a good sovereign. These reports, like all others, are submitted to the emperor. The emperor of China has the power of nomin- ating his successor, whether indeed the person nominated be a member of the blood-royal family or not. The desire to per- petuate his dynasty scarcely ever admits of the emperor select- ing one to fill the throne who is not a member of the reigning family. As a general rule each emperor is succeeded by his eldest son. Should the latter be regarded as incapable of ad- ministering the affaks of state, the second or third son is called upon to reign. When the emperor is childless, a selection is made from a collateral brancli of the same dynasty. As in almost all Chinese families, or clans, the members of tlie im- perial house are very numerous. At one time it was a practice to give official employment to each of these scions of royalty. The custom invariably entailed no ordinary degree of trouble and anxiety on the imperial government by giving rise to con- spiracies and rebellions, and it was abandoned. Each prince has now to rest satisfied with the high-sounding, but empty title of king — a royal rank of which he may be deprived in the

II.] Till': SONS OF TlIK KMI'Klloi;. 23

event of any act on his part being doeniod beneath the dignity of his family.

The people of China are taught to regard the emperor as the representative of heaven, and the empress as the representative of mother earth. In this position she is supposed to exert an influence over nature, and to possess a transforming power. One of her principal duties is to see that, at stated seasons of the year, worship is duly and reverently paid to the tutelary deity of silkworms. It is also her duty carefully to examine the weaving of the silk stuffs which the ladies of the imperial harem weave and make into garments for certain state idols. The empress is supposed to be profoundly ignorant of all political matters. There are instances on record, however, of empresses of China liaving manifested the greatest knowledge of these subjects. The present empress-dowager — the mother of the late sove- reign, Tung-cliee — succeeded, through her curious inquiries into state alfairs, in bringing to light a conspiracy of certain mem- bers of the cabinet council to depose and murder her son. The principal conspirators were decapitated, whilst others, not so deeply implicated, were sent into perpetual banishment. But besides the empress, the emperor has other wives. Tliese are eight in number, and have the rank and title of queens. These royal ladies are divided into two classes, the first of which consists of three, and the second of five queens. In addition to the wives there are, of course, several concubines.

The choice of an empress, and of queens, turns solely on the personal qualities or attractions of those selected, without any reference whatever to their connections or family reputation. They are selected in the following manner. The empress- dowager with her ladies, or, in her absence, a royal lady who has been invested with authority for the purpose, holds what may not inaptly be termed a " drawing-room," to attend which Tartar ladies and the daughters of bannermen are summoned from various parts of the empire. The lady pronounced to be the helle of the assembly is chosen to be in due time raised to the dignity of empress. TJjose who are placed next in personal attractions are selected for the rank of queens. The daughters of bannermen of the seventh, eiglith, and ninth ranks, a})pear

24 CHINA. [chap.

before the empress-dowager, in order that a certain number of them may be appointed to fill the respective oftices of " ladies " and women of the bedchamber. This ceremony is, I believe, observed once a year. Queens were chosen for the ancient kings of Persia in a similar manner— to use the words of the book of Esther, in which we find evidence of the practice — " out of the choice of virgins." The young ladies admitted into the imperial zenana are, as a rule, daughters of noblemen and gentlemen ; but as personal beauty is one of the chief qualifi- cations for the seraglio, the inmates of the palace are, in some instances, women who have been raised from the humbler walks of life. Indeed, a woman of the lower orders of society was, it is said, the mother of the Emperor Hien-fung. She was the keeper of a fruit stall, and being exceedingly fair and beautiful, she on one occasion attracted the attention of the chief minister of state, \^'hilst he was passing in pro- cession through the street in which she resided. Being greatly pleased with her beauty, he obtained for her a home under the imperial roof of Taou-kwang, where in due course she became the mother of the ill-fated sovereign, Hien-fung. I was residing in China when a wife was selected in this way for the late emperor, Tung-chee. The name of their new Empress was made known to the Chinese people by the Pekin GfAzette of the 11th of March, 1872. The proclamation issued in the names of the two empresses dowager, set forth that a lady named A-lut'e had been selected to become the kind com]3anion of the emperor, the sharer of his joys, and the partaker of his sorrows. The Gazette further informed the people that she was the daughter of Ch'ung Chi, a junior officer in the Hanlin College. His rank, as evidenced by his buttons, corresponded to that of a prefect or ruler of a department. Ch'ung Chi is, as a matter of course, of Mongolian blood. He is also a bannerman of the plain blue banner. He is the son of one Saishanga, an officer of some notoriety in the early part of the previous reign, who lost the favour of his sovereign in 1853, owing to his inability to cope with the Taiping rebellion. In consequence of the defeats which he sustained at the hands of the rebels, he was degraded, and withdrew from public life. In

11.] THE Eill'liESS AND gCEEXR. 25

1801, his private mansion-house in Pekin was confiscated by the government, and converted into the Tsnng-li Yamun. He is a man of great learning, having been Chiiang-ylian, or first graduate (senior wrangler or senior classic), at the triennial examination for the doctor's degree in 1865. The mother of A-lut'c is a daughter of the late Tuanhua, Prince of Cheng. This prince was the recognized leader of the anti-foreign party which, towards the close of the reign of Hien-fung, gave so nnich trouble to the representatives of foreign nations. This party, however, was in the month of ISTovember, 1861, most fortunately overthrown by the Prince of Kung, who was upheld by the empress-mother. The leaders of the defeated anti-foreign party were tried and decapitated, and as a mark of imperial favour Tuanhua was permitted to terminate his existence by suicide. In the same issue of the Pekin Gazette to which we have alluded, was a second decree, appointing three other ladies to be mem- bers of his imperial majesty's harem. Of the ladies in question, the first is a daughter of a clerk in the board of punishments ; the second is a daughter of a prefect ; and the third the daughter of Saishanga, the grandfather of A-lut'^. The ladies of the royal household are under the charge of eunuchs, who are called upon to discharge the usual duties of royal seraglios.

In each of the provinces into which the empire is divided there is a most formidable array of officials, all of whom act directly or indirectly under their respective boards or tribunals. Thus in the province of Kwang-tung,^ which I venture to select to illustrate the working of the government in each province, there are the following civil mandarins : — viz., a governor- general, a governor, a treasurer, a sub-commissioner, a literary chancellor, a chief justice, — the last four being of equal rank — six tcmtais of equal rank, ten prefects of equal rank, and seventy-two district or county rulers of equal rank. Each of these officials has a council to assist him in the discharge of the duties of his office. Besides these officials, every town and village in the empire has its governing body, so that the number of officials in each province is very great. The various

^ Kwang-tung has .an area computed at more than ninety-seven thousand square miles, and a population estimated at somewhere about nineteen millions.

2G CHINA. [chap.

classes of officers are in regular subordination. Thus, the governing body of a village is subordinate to the ruler of the district or county in which it is situated. The district or county ruler is subject to the prefect of the department of which his district is a part. The prefect is, in turn, subordinate to the tautai; the taiitai to the chief justice or criminal judge, and so on, step by step to the governor-general or viceroy. Each official stands in loco parentis to the subordinate immediately below him, while the mandarins are regarded as standing in a paternal relation to the people they rule. The principle per- vades all conditions of society down to the humblest subjects of the realm, those who are in the higher walks of life acting the part of parents to those of an inferior grade, while over all is the all-embracing paternity of the emperor.

Chinese officials of certain grades are not allowed to hold office in the provinces of which they are natives, nor are they, without imperial permission, allowed to con- tract marriages in the provinces in which they have been appointed to hold office. To preclude the possibility of their acquiring too much local influence in the districts, or prefectures, or provinces where they are serving, they are removed, in some instances triennially, and in others sexennially, to other posts of duty. All officers are supposed to be appointed by the emperor on the recommendation of the board of ceremonies, the members of this board being especially regarded as the advisers of his imperial majesty in the bestowal of political patronage. The candidates for office are, or, according to law, ought to be, men who have graduated at the great literary examinations. The members of the board of ceremonies, however, are not at all unwilling, for a consideration, to submit to the notice of his majesty for office the names of men whose literary rank has been bought rather than attained by study. The salaries attached to govern- ment offices are very small. This is a system which leads to most scandalous and irregular proceedings. Thus the mandarins of China, though drawing quarterly from the imperial exchequer the smallest possible amount of pay, are enabled, by the accu- mulated gains of fraud and avarice, to retire from office as men

ji.] MANDARINS. 27

of wealth and substance. They are, and have been for a con- siderable time past, the very curse of the country, the palmer- worm at the root of its prosperity. By their misrule they have plunged this fair land into that deplorable anarchy, con- fusion, and misery, for which it is now conspicuous amongst nations.

The military mandarins of the province of Kwang-tung are also very numerous. Of this class the Tartar general is of course recognized as the head.

The duties which devolve upon a governor-general, or gover- nor of a province are very arduous. He is responsible to the emperor, who is responsible to the gods, for the general peace and prosperity of his province. It is his duty to take cognizance of all the officials, and to forward triennially to the board of civil appointments at Pekin the name of each officer under his administration, Mith a short report on his general behaviour. The information is furnished to the viceroy or governor by the immediate superior of each officer. Should the governor-general be accused of any offence, an imperial commission to investigate tlie charge is at once appointed.

As I shall have occasion to point out more fully afterwards, there are nine marks of distinction by which the rank or position of officials of the Chinese Emi:)ire may be rea<iily recognised. A member of the iirst class, or highest order of rank, wears on the apex of his cap a dark-red coral ball, or button, as it is more generally called. Members of the second class wear a light- red ball or button of the same size. The third class is dis- tinguished by a ball of a light-blue, and the fourth by a ball of a dark-blue colour. An official of the fifth class is recognised by a ball of crystal, -ssdiilst a ball of mother-of-pearl is the distinguishing badge of the mandarin of the sixth class. Mem- bers of the seventh and eighth classes wear a golden ball, and of the ninth and last class, a silver ball. Each officer may be further distinguished by the decoration of a peacock's feather. This feather is attached to the base of the ball on the apex of his hat, and slopes downward. It is worn at tlie back. The first of tlie outer garments worn by an official is a long, loose robe of blue silk, richly embroidered with threads

28 CHINA. [chap.

of gold. It reaches the ankles of the wearer, and is bound round his waist by a belt. Above this robe is a tunic of violet colour, which extends a short way below the knees. The sleeves of this tunic are wide and very long, extending very considerably over the hands. They are usually folded back over the wrists. When an official is permitted to approach the imperial pre- sence with the view of conferring with his majesty, or of per- forming the kow-tow, which in China is the ordinary act of obeisance, etiquette prescribes that he shall wear the sleeves of the tunic stretched over his hands. This renders him more or less helpless. The custom is of ancient origin, and was adopted to preclude the possibility of any attempt on the life of the emperor by those whose duties call them occasionally into his presence. A custom precisely similar prevailed, it would appear, in the court of Persia. It is thus described by Mitford in his history of Greece : —

" The court dress of Persia had sleeves so long, that when unfolded they covered the hand ; and the ceremonial required of those who approached the royal presence to enwrap the hands so as to render them helpless."

On the breast-plate and back-plate of the tunic of a civil mandarin there is embroidered in silk, a bird with wings out- stretched, standing upon a rock in the midst of a tempestuous ocean, and gazing at the sun. This bird varies in kind according to the rank of the wearer. In the chapter on sumptuary laws, the reader will find a detailed account of the emblems used to indicate the different ranks of officials. Over his shoulders each officer wears a short tippet of silk, which is also richly embroidered, and which, by the device it bears, indicates the literary rank to which the wearer has attained. Piound his neck there is a long chain of one hundred and eight balls or beads. It is called the Chu-Chu, and is intended to remind the wearer of the land of which he is a native. Of the one hundred and eight beads of which the chain consists, seventy-two are supposed to represent so many precious stones, minerals, and metals native to China ; and the remaining thirty- six represent as many constellations or planets which shed their

.11] COURT DRESS: YAMUNS. 29

benign rays on the country. To the left side of this chain are attached two very short strings of smaller beads, supposed to impress upon the mind of the wearer the reverence he owes to his ancestors, and the filial piety at all times due to his parents and guardians. To the right side of the chain is at- tached a short string of smaller beads, to remind the wearer of the allegiance which he owes to the imperial throne of his country. These robes and decorations of state and office arc not confined to officials only. Honorary rank can be purchased, and it is common to see respectable citizens not at all con- nected with the service of the government attired in costly and magnificent robes, similar in their decorations to those worn by the highest officers of state.

Government residences are provided for all Chinese officials. They are called yamuns, and in some cases are very extensive, occupying several acres of land. From the roof of the halls of many of these official residences are suspended richly gilded boards, on which in large Chinese characters are set forth good and excellent words. Some of these boards are the gifts of suc- ceeding emperors to former occupants who had distinguished themselves by their faithful services. To the yamuns are attached public offices for the transaction of Ijusiness, and to those which are respectively occupied by district rulers, prefects, tautais, chief justices, and revenue commissioners, very extensive prisons are attached.

District rulers, prefects, and chief justices are the officials more particularly appointed to preside in courts for the admin- istration of justice in all cases which may come before them, whether of a civil or criminal nature. Each of these is assist- ed in the discharge of his duties by a deputy, or deputies. In order, however, to explain fully how justice is adminis- tered in China, it is necessary to state that an accused person is first brought before the gentry or elders of his village or district. Tliese punish an offender if his crime be of a minor nature, either by imprisonment in one of the public halls of the village, or by exposing him in a camjue for some time at the corner of one of the most frequented thoroughfares of the village, or in the immediate vicinity of the place where the

30 CHINA. [chap.

crime was committed. Should the case, however, appear to require the consideration of a higher tribunal, the prisoner, together with tlie depositions and comments on them, is for- warded by the gentry to the mandarin, or ruler of the poo to which the village belongs. A poo, as I have explained, is a political division of a province, and consists of a number of villages. On the 9th of July, 1873, I was present at an examination of this kind. It was held in the village of Fong- chuen, in the county of Pun-yu, and was conducted by the elder of the village. A thief, called Lee Ayune, had been caught the night before in the act of robbing a house. The elders were not satisfied with his confession of that crime, and insisted upon his making a public declaration of all his thefts during the preceding four years. The facts they carefully recorded, and at the close of his examination the prisoner was forwarded, with the depositions, to the ruler of the poo.

Should the mandarin, or ruler of the poo, find that it is within his jurisdiction to punish the prisoner, he does so. Should he decide that the case is one which ought to be submitted to the notice of his superior, he, without delay, sends the prisoner, together with the depositions, and his own comments on them, to the ruler of the district or county of which the poo is a divi- sion. The district ruler resides in the county town, which, like all county towns in China, is inclosed by a high castellated wall. Unless the case appears to require the consideration of a higher tribunal, the district ruler deals with it. Otherwise, he sends the prisoner to the prefect of his department. The prefects reside in their respective cities, which are also in- closed by high castellated walls. If the prefect sends the case to a higher tribunal, the prisoner is sent to the provincial capital. Here the provincial or criminal judge, or chief justice as we would term him, has his residence. The chief justice, who only tries those accused of capital offences, submits his decisions to the notice of the governor-general, or governor of tlie province, as the case may be ; and before a sentence of the chief justice can be carried into effect, it is necessary that the criminal should be taken into the presence of the governor- general, or governor, to make an acknowledgment of his guilt.

II.] AD.MINI8TRATI0N OF JUSTICE. 31

Until certain questions have been answered by the prisoner in the presence and in the hearino- of the governor-general or his deputy, the sentence recorded a'gainst his name can neither be ratified nor carried into effect. Should tlie prisoner stand convicted of treason, or piracy, or highway robliery, the gover- nor-general can order the execution of tlie prisoner without any reference whatever to the will of the emperor. Should a prisoner, however, be proved guilty either of patricide, or ma- tricide, or fratricide, &c., it is the duty of the governor-general to bring the case under the notice of the members of the board of punishments at Pekin ; and the president of this board submits it in turn to the consideration of the members of the cabinet or great council of the nation. In due course it is laid by this august body before the emperor. It is said that his majesty carefully examines the depositions in all such cases before con- firming the sentence and ordering the execution. It is also customary for the governor-general or governor to forward to Pekin at the close of each year a register of the names of criminals adjudged worthy of deatli. These registers are also received by the president of the board of punishments, and forwarded through the cabinet council to the emperor, who inspects each register, and with a vermilion pencil makes a red mark opposite to three or four names on each page. The registers are then returned to the provincial governors in order that the law may take its course wdth regard to the prisoners against whose names the imperial mark has been placed. On the receipt of the register from the emperor, the execution of these criminals is carried into effect without any loss of time. For the viceroy not to pay peremptory and implicit obedience to the imperial will in all matters would be regarded as higldy treasonable. The prisoners whose names have been passed over by the ver- milion pencil do not, however, obtain a free pardon. Their names are submitted a second and a third time to the imperial glance. Should they be passed over on the last occasion, the sentence of death is then commuted to transportation for life. In the prefectoral prison at Canton I saw three malefactors whose names had been submitted for the first time to the emperor, and whose good fortune it liad be?n, so far, to escape

32 CHINA. [chap.

the extreme penalty of the law. The governor of the prison, who on the occasion was standing by our side, cruelly observed in their hearing that they might not be so fortunate the next time their names were brought under the emperor's notice. One of the malefactors looked thoughtful, but the others, who were evidently desperadoes, seemed to think it a matter of the most perfect indifference whether they were executed or sent into exile for the period of their natural lives. They would probably have declared themselves in favour of an ignominious death at the hands of the common executioner. Such, however, is not the feeling of Chinese malefactors in general.

I have observed that governors-general or governors of pro- vinces are in certain cases invested with the power of life and death. I may add that before the empire became so dis- turbed by anarchy and rapine they were the only officials to whom such powers were delegated. Now, however, it is not at all unusual for district rulers to hold commissions by which they are empowered to put to death, without any reference whatever to a higher power, all traitorous and piratical subjects. Thus, when on a visit in 1860 to the district city to ¥a-yuue, I learned that a few days previous to my arrival not less than thirty rebels had been decapitated under the warrant of the district ruler.

The mode in which trials are conducted in China is startling to all who live in lands where trial by jury is adopted. Trials in Chinese courts of law are conducted by torture. This is carried to such an extent, that people at home can scarcely be expected to sive credence to an account of the atrocities of the mandarins in their endeavours to punish vice and to maintain virtue. As in England, however, before the seventeenth century, torture, although actually applied by the adndnistrators of justice, is not the law of the land. The courts in which trials are held are open to the general public ; but the cruelties for which they are notorious have left them deserted by visitors, so that they are now pracrically courts of justice with closed doors. In former times, moreover, it was usual, on the day of commission, to affix on the outer gates of the yamun a calendar or list of the cases to be tried, and of the prisoners' names. This custom has long

n.] COURTS OF JUSTICE. 33

been disused, and the calendar is now placed on a pillar in one of the inner courts of the yamun, where of course there is no chance of its attracting public attention. The judge when con- ducting a trial sits behind a large table, which is covered with a red cloth. The prisoner is made to kneel in front of the table as a mark of respect to the court, by whom he is regarded as guilty until he is proved to be innocent. The secretaries, inter- preters, and tui-nkeys stand at each end of the table, no one being allowed to sit but the judge. At the commencement of the trial, the charge is, as in an English court of justice, read aloud in the hearing of the prisoner, who is called upon to plead either guilty or not guilty. As it is a rare thing for Chinese prisoners — mercy being conspicuously absent in the character of their judges — to plead guilty, trials are very numerous. During the course of a trial the prisoner is asked a great many leading questions which have a tendency to criminate him. Should his answers be evasive, torture is at once resorted to as the only remaining expedient.

Let me describe a few of the simplest modes of torture. The upper portion of the body of the culprit having been uncovered, each of his arms — he being in a kneeling posture — is held tightly by a turnkey, while a third beats him most unmercifully be- tween the shoulders with a double cane. Should he continue to give evasive answers, his jaws are beaten with an instrument made of two thick pieces of leather, sewn together at one end, and in shape not unlike the sole of a slipper. Between these pieces of leather is placed a small tongue of the same material, to give the weapon elasticity. The force with which this im- plement of torture is applied to the jaws of the accused is in some instances so great as to loosen his teeth, and cause his mouth to swell to such a degree as to deprive him for some time of the pow^ers of mastication. Should he continue to maintain his innocence, a turnkey beats his ankles by means of a piece of hard wood, which resembles a school- boy's ruler, and is more than a foot long. Torture of this nature not unfrequently results in the ankle bones being broken. Should the prisoner still persist in declaring his inno- cence, a severer mode of torture is practised. This may be

VOT,. T. D

34 CHINA. [chap.

regarded as a species of rack. A large heavy tressel is placed in a perpendicular position, and the prisoner, who is in a kneel- ing posture, is made to lean against the board of it. His arms are then pushed backwards and stretched under the upper legs of the tressel, from the ends of which they are suspended by cords passing round the thumb of each hand. His legs are also pushed backwards, and are drawn, his knees still resting on the ground, towards the upper legs of the tressel by cords passing round the large toe of each foot. When the prisoner has been thus bound, the (|uestions are again put to him, and should his answers be deemed un- satisfactory, the double cane is applied with great severity to his thighs, which have been previously uncovered. I have known prisoners remain in this position for a considerable time, and the quivering motion of the whole frame, the piteous moans, and the saliva oozing freely from the mouth, afibrded the most incontestable evidence of the extremity of the torture. Upon being released from the rack, they are utterly unable to stand. They are therefore placed in baskets and borne by coolies from the court of justice, falsely so-called, to the house of detention on remand. In the course of a few days they are once more dragged out to undergo another ex- amination. Even this torture occasionally fails in extorting a confession of guilt. In all such cases another still crueller torture is enforced. The prisoner is made to kneel under a bar of wood, six Engbsh feet in length, and is supported by two upright pillars or posts of the same material. When the back of his neck has been placed immediately under it, his arms are extended along the bar, and made fast by cords. In the hollow at the back of his knee joints is laid a second bar of equal dimensions, and upon this two men place themselves, one at each end, pressing it down by their weight upon the joints of the prisoner's knees, between which and the ground chains are sometimes passed to render the agony less endurable. This bar is occasionally removed from the inner part of the prisoner's knee joints, in order that it may be made to rest on the tendo Achillis. When in this latter position, the same amount of pressure is applied to it, with the view of stretching

11.] THE USE OF TORTURE. 35

the ankle joints. I have twice witnessed this mode of torturing a culprit, and its severity on both occasions was painfully evident.

But where are the witnesses ? exclaims my reader. It would be wrong to say that no witnesses are examined in a Chinese court of justice. It is occasionally possible to see witnesses under examination before these dark tribunals. But as witnesses are also in some instances subjected to torture, it is a matter of no ordinary difficulty for a foreigner who is ignorant of Chinese, to distinguish which of the two unfortunate men kneeling before the judgment seat and receiving castigation is the prisoner, and which is the witness. I remember seeing on one occasion two men kneeling before the tribunal of the ruler of the Namhoi district of Canton. Both of them had chains around their necks, and as they were both occasionally beaten between the shoulders with a double cane, I very naturally concluded at first that they were companions in crime. One of them, however, as it turned out, was suspected of having a perfect knowledge of the guilt of the other, who was upon his trial ; and the witness, who was very unwilling to give evidence, received a castigation. In a case of murder which was tried, in 1860, in the same court, two men, father and son, named Kan Wye and Kan Tai-chu, M^ere called upon to bear testimony against the prisoner at the bar. They persistently declared that they were altogether ignorant of the circumstances of the case. This ignorance was regarded by the court as feigned, and they were accordingly beaten and detained in custody. The relatives of these unfortunate wit- nesses called at my house, and earnestly irrtreated me to ask the Allied Commissioners, for the city of Canton was then in possession of the English and French troops, to obtain the freedom of Kan Wye and his son. Having heard their statement, I promised to interest myself in the matter. The Allied Com- missioners, to whose notice I submitted the case, rendered all the assistance in their power, but without success. The governor- general, to whom they referred the matter, most positively affirmed that it was in the power of the two witnesses to give evidence of a very decided nature in the case. The father and son were frequently examined after tin's, and on each

D 2

'-f^:f^:4

GStT-^t

36

CHINA.

[CHA

occasion they were severely beaten for the tardy manner in whic they gave their evidence. This liarsh treatment proved, after few months, more than the son could endure, and he died i the prison. The relatives of the surviviug prisoner, who ha attained the ripe age of seventy years, fearing of course tht if his detention in jail were much longer continued he ah would die in prison, urged me to ask the Allied Commissionei to intercede once more for his liberation. Mr. Commissionc Pownall was on the occasion of my second appeal most kim and requested me to go to the yamun of the magistrate c Pun-yu in order to confer on the matter with that official i person. On my arrival at the yamun, I was told that the chit magistrate had gone from home, and that the hour of his retur was very uncertain. I entered the prisou, however, and had a interview with the old man. Upon approaching him I was nt a little distressed to see that his mouth was much swollen i consequence of severe blows which had been inllicted on tL preceding day. So swollen were his lips, gums, and tongU( that it was with great difficulty he held a conversation with tli interpreter who accompanied rae. On the foUowiug day anotht application was made by the Allied Commissioners to tli viceroy for the liberation of the old man. It also was withou success, and in the course of a few weeks from the time of m interview with him, and a few days after he had received anothc severe flogging for declaring that he was unable to give au evidence, the old man also died in prison.

All foreigners who resided at Canton during the periu that it was in the occupation of the allies, can, I am sur' bear ample testimony to the praiseworthy manner in whici the Allied Commissioners exerted themselves to put a sto] to the cruelties practised by the mandarins both in thei prisons and courts of law. These establishments were visiter daily by European policemen, whose duty was to report t the Allied Commissioners whether the mandarins were r( laxing or not in the severity of their treatment towards th prisoners under their charge. On one occasion it happenei that the chief magistrate of the district of Pun-yu, who hai bsen frequently warned to abandon the practice of torture, wa

I..]

JUDICIAL CRUELTIES.

37

caught by tlie European inspectors in the very act of inflicting a very severe punishment upon three prisoners, who had at- tempted to break out of gaol on the preceding day. He was arrested and brought into the presence of the Allied Com- missioners, who sentenced him to undergo an imprisonment of forty days. The officials and gentry of Canton, indignant that one of themselves should be degraded and punished by foreign rulers, endeavoured to stir up the people to revolt. The Allied Commissioners hearing of the movement, published without delay the following excellent proclamation : —

K*^.

" Proclamation hy the Allied Commissioners to the People of Canton.

" Inhabitants of Canton, one of your magistrates who is charged with the administration of the district Pun-yu, has been arrested, and is now in confinement in the Yamun of the Allied Commissioners, and it would appear from the petitions in his favour which have been presented to the Commissioners, that you are ignorant of the causes which have led to his punishment. ,

" In this matter the Allies have been guided by that regard for justice which is the ruling principle of their conduct, and as your magistrates are unwilling to inform you themselves of the motive of the punishment inflicted on their colleague, the Commissioners have now no hesitation in doing so, seeing that the vigorous measures to which they have had recourse have been adopted solely in the cause of humanity and in the interests of the people.

" The use of torture in judicial proceedings is revolting to the minds of all civilised people, and is also opposed to the laws of China. As long, therefore, as the present military rule con- tinues in Canton, the allied commanders cannot tolerate j^ractices that are contrary to humanity, on the part of any Chinese officials in carrying out their system of justice, nor can they suffer the people who, for the time, are intrusted to their pro- tection to be subjected under their eyes to useless cruelties of this nature.

" With this view they have constantly prohibited the use of torture in the native tribunals of this city, and they have repeatedly directed the attention of the magistrate of Pun-yu to the formal orders issued on this subject, but only to find that these orders have as frequently been disregarded by that

36 CHINA. [chap.

occasion they were severely beaten for tlie tardy manner in which they gave their evidence. This harsh treatment proved, after a few months, more than the son could endure, and he died in the prison. The relatives of the surviving prisoner, who had attained the ripe age of seventy years, fearing of course that if his detention in jail were much longer continued he also would die in prison, urged me to ask the Allied Commissioners to intercede once more for his liberation. Mr. Commissioner Pownall was on the occasion of my second appeal most kind, and requested me to go to the yamun of the magistrate of Pun-yu in order to confer on the matter with that official in person. On my arrival at the yamun, I w^as told that the chief magistrate had gone from home, and that the hour of his return was very uncertain. I entered the prison, however, and had au interview with the old man. Upon approaching him I was not a little distressed to see that his mouth was much swollen in consequence of severe blows which had been inflicted on the preceding day. So swollen were his lips, gums, and tongue, that it was with great difficulty he held a conversation with the interpreter who accompanied me. On the following day another application was made by the Allied Commissioners to the viceroy for the liberation of the old man. It also was without success, and in the course of a few weeks from the time of my interview with him, and a few days after he had received another severe flogging for declaring that he was unable to give any evidence, the old man also died in prison.

All foreigners who resided at Canton during the period that it was in the occupation of the allies, can, I am sure, bear ample testimony to the praisew^orthy manner in which the Allied Commissioners exerted themselves to put a stop to the cruelties practised by the mandarins both in their prisons and courts of law. These establishments were visited daily by European policemen, whose duty was to report to the Allied Commissioners whether the mandarins were re- laxing or not in the severity of their treatment towards the prisoners under their charge. On one occasion it happened that the chief magistrate of the district of Pun-yu, who had been frequently warned to abandon the practice of torture, was

II.] JUDICIAL CRUELTIES. 37

caught by the European inspectors in the very act of inflicting a very severe punishment upon tliree prisoners, who liad at- tempted to break out of gaol on the preceding day. He was arrested and broiight into tlie presence of the Allied Com- missioners, who sentenced liini to undergo an imprisonment of forty days. The officials and gentry of Canton, indignant that one of themselves should be degraded and punished by foreign rulers, endeavoured to stir up the people to revolt. The Allied Commissioners hearing of the movement, published without delay the following excellent proclamation : —

" Frodamation hy the Allied Commissioners to the People of Canton.

" Inhabitants of Canton, one of your magistrates wlio is charged with the administration of the district Pun-yu, has been arrested, and is now in confinement in the Yarnun of the Allied Commissioners, and it would appear from the petitions in his favour which have been presented to the Commissioners, that you are ignorant of the causes which have led to his punishment. ,

" In this matter the Allies have been guided by that regard for justice which is the ruling principle of their conduct, and as your magistrates are unwilling to inform you themselves of the motive of the punishment inHicted on their colleague, the Commissioners have now no hesitation in doing so, seeing that the vigorous measures to which they have had recourse have been adopted solely in the cause of humanity and in the interests of the people.

" The use of torture in judicial proceedings is revolting to the minds of all civilised people, and is also opposed to the laws of China. As long, therefore, as the present military rule con- tinues in Canton, the allied commanders cannot tolerate practices that are contrary to humanity, on the part of any Chinese officials in carrying out their system of justice, nor can they suffer the people who, for the time, are intrusted to their pro- tection to be subjected under their eyes to useless cruelties of this nature.

" ^Yitll this view they have constantly prohibited the use of torture in the native tribunals of this city, and they have repeatedly directed the attention of the magistrate of Pun-yu to the formal orders issued on this subject, but only to find that these orders have as frequently been disregarded by that

38 CHLVA. [chap.

functionary. At last the patience of the Allied Commissioners has been exhausted by a recent act of brutality, consisting of crushing the legs of three prisoners, winch has been committed by the Pun-yu, and they accordingly inflict on him a punish- ment sufficiently exemplary to deter others from following his example,

" Now that you have been made acquainted with the cause of the arrest of the Pun-yu, you should let justice take its course. His suspension need occasion you no anxiety, as other officers Imve been appointed to perform his functions. Continue, there- fore, to attend quietly to your ordinary occupations, without making any attempt to disturb the public tranquillity by foolisli demonstrations, which are certain to draw down on tlie heads of tlie authors of them the most prompt and severe punishment. Dated Canton, July 17th, 1871."

This proclamation had the desired effect. The district ruler, however, who was so justly shorn of the dignity of his office, refused, at the expiration of his term of imprisonment, to resume his duties, and returned in the course of the following month to Pekin, in search of employment in a portion of the empire where there would be no possibility of his suffering a check at the hands of foreign officials.

The legal process observed in civil cases is not very dissimilar to that in the investigation of criminal cases. Should a dispute arise between two persons with regard to the right to houses or land, it is usual for the disputants to have recourse to arbitra- tion. The persons called upon to arbitrate are, generally, the principal residents or elders of the street or neighbourhood. Should either party be dissatisfied with the decision of the arbitrators, the matter is taken into a court of law, and comes before the district ruler. The person taking the case into court ]ias to incur great expenses in bribing the underlings about the yamun, to allow his petition to be submitted to the notice of this official. The petitioner, having liberally paid these people, is allow^ed to take up his position at the folding doors of one of the inner courts of the yamun, and, as the district ruler passes in or out, he falls upon his knees immediately in front of the ruler's sedan chair. The magistrate calls upon his chair-bearers to stoj), in order that he may ascertain the nature of the sup- pliant's petition. When the district ruler has read the jietition.

11.] CIVIL CAUSES. 39

a day is at once appointed by him for the investigation of it. I have seen at Canton respectable men kneeling in this servile manner at tlie feet of the chief magistrate of Namhoi. In the hearing of civil cases it is not unusnal for the jndge to inflict torture. If of very great importance, the canse is appealed to a higher tribunal. It is not, however, to the provincial judge or chief justice that it is in the next instance submitted, but to the provincial treasurer. From his court there is a farther appeal to that of the governor, or governor-general of the province. The decision of the governor or viceroy, how- ever, is not final. An appeal can, in the next instance, be made to the governor or governor-general of the province adjoining that of which the disputants are natives, or in which they are residing. From the verdict of the highest tribunal of the neighbouring province, there is a last appeal to the emperor, through the great council of the nation. In former times it was in the power of persons engaged in law- suits to appeal from the highest tribunal of their respective provinces to tlie emperor in person. 'Now, however, it is imperative on those who are engaged in litigation to appeal to the tribunal of the adjoining province, before they can submit their case to the emperor.

In all Chinese courts of law there is bribery and corruption ; and the verdicts of the courts are much at the disposal of those who can pay the highest sum for them. There are in Chinese records many instances of officials, who have been bribed, seeking to defeat the ends of justice. One of the most memorable is a case of dispute which took place between two kinsmen, the one belonging to the clan or family Ling, and the other to that of Laong, who were respectively named Ling Kwei-hing, and Laong Tin-loi. In the case in question the corrupt practices and gross injustice of the mandarins were brought before the notice of the emperor, and received his majesty's marked and well- merited condemnation. Ling Kwei-hing the plaintiff, was a man of almost unbounded wealth and influence. Like Ahab, king of Israel, who in the midst of his riches pined so long as the vine- yard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, was withheld from him, so Ling Kwei-hing could not rest wutil a small estate, the property of

40 CHINA. [chap.

his relative Laong Tin-loi, slioulcl have become a portion of his already extensive domains. He sought to gratify his covetous- ness by claiming it as his own. The case was brought into the courts of law at Canton, and the judges of the various courts, who had been largely bribed, gave their verdict in favour of Ling Kwei-hing. Laong Tin-loi, knowing that justice w^as alto- gether on his side, and that the courts of law in which the case had been successively heard had been influenced against him through the plaintiff's wealth, resolved to set out on a journey to Pekin with the view of seeking redress at the hands of His Imperial Majesty, Yung-ching. This emperor, who, it is said, was remarkable for his love of justice, truth, and mercy, graciously received the suppliant. So fully satisfied Avas the emperor that Laong Tin-loi had suffered wrong at the hands of the mandarins, that he at once despatched an imperial commissioner named Hung Tai-pang to re-investigate the matter. The examination terminated in favour of Laong Tin-loi. Ling Kwei-hing, with every member of his family, one male excepted, was put to death. All the mandarins before whose respective tribunals the case had been brought, were deprived of rank and dismissed from the Imperial service. It would appear that Laong Tin-loi, previous to leaving Canton en route to Pekin, went to the temple in honour of Pak-Tai, situated in the Yoong-kwong street, or the western suburb of Canton to seek the blessing and cruidincr

o o o

care of tlie god. On his return, he placed on the walls of the temple — where it remains to this day — a votive tablet expressive of his gratitude. The house in which Laong Tin-loi resided, and in which several members of his family were put to death by Ling Kwei-hing, stands in the centre of the village of Tam- chune, and is sometimes visited as a place of interest by native sight-seers and holiday-makers. The subject of the foregoing narrative is the burden of a popular Chinese play which, to the great gratification of the masses, is often performed on the stage of the Chinese theatre.

With the view of encouraging officials in the efficient discharge of their duties, honours of various kinds and grades are held out to them ; and the viceroys, and governors, and other high officers of state La^■e special instructions to submit to the notice of His

II.] MANDARINS AND THEIR REWARDS. 41

Imperial Majesty tlie names of all officers; civil and military, serving under them and Avorthy of such honours. These are bestowed not only upon the living, liut also upon the meritorious dead. They are much sought after. Dresses of honour, in texture, colour, and shape, similar to those worn by the emperor and the other members of the imperial family, are occasionally conferred upon officials, both civil and military, for distinguished services ; and to receive from the emperor the imperial yellow jacket is considered one of the highest honours. Marks of approbation similar to this were, it would appear from the book of Esther (vi. 8), occasionally bestowed by the ancient kings of Persia upon their subjects. Such a distinction was conferred by Ahasuerus upon Mordecai the Jew ; for he said, " Let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to wear .... and let this apparel .... be delivered to the hand of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king deligiiteth to honour." We gather from the book of Genesis (xli. 42) that this custom prevailed also in Egypt. ISTor were the Jews strangers to it, if I rightly interpret a certain episode in the friendship of David and Jonathan (I Samuel xviii. 4.)

As I have already stated, conspicuous merits are in some instances recognized by posthumous honours. Thus the Pekin Gazette of November 11th, 1871, contained the following memorial : ^ —

" Tseng- Kho-Ean, Viceroy of the two Kiangs, and Chang-Chih- Man, Governor of Kiang-Soo, in a joint memorial humbly report to the throne the extraordinarily meritorious conduct of the late Chun-Choong-Yuen, Prefect of Kat-On, Prefecture in Kiang-Si, during the time the city was attacked by the Taiping rebels, eigh- teen years ago, in sacrificing his life to the cause of the government. When the city was besieged by the enemy, who numbered between 50,000 and 60,000, the mandarin in question defended it with a garrison of only 1800 men strong; yet frequent sorties were made, in which the rebels were slaughtered in great numbers beyond calculation. One day a breach in the wall had been made, but the deceased took active measures to have it mended, and while personally superintending its reconstruction, he missed his footing, and fell from the wall, injuring his legs badly. On

^ The translation here given was published in the Hong-Kong China Mail of December 23rd of the same vear.

42 - • ■ CHINA. [chap.

the eiglitli day of the twelfth moon in that year he "vvent out again to attack the enemy, but was wounded in several places so that blood trickled down to his ancles. Famine raged within the city, and the people had to live on the flesh of dogs, and to use fuel in lieu of candles ; yet in this time of extreme difficiilty and misery he most indefatigably maintained his position until the beginning of next year, when the rebels stormed the city from all sides, having previously laid powder mines underground to destroy the walls. Having effected an entrance at the west gate, the rebels were bravely met by the deceased official and iiis eldest son, when they were both killed, and their heads cut off for exposure at the east gate. Of all the precedents on record none could equal with the present in point of merit. The memorialists therefore pray that authority be granted for a memorial temple to be erected to the dedication of the deceased official, who bravely defended an isolated city with a handful of men against a formidable enemy, numbering several tens of thousands strong, with no prospect of any relief from outside, and no food for the sufferers within. The son, moreover, shared the fate of the father, and this was an act of loyalty as well as filial piety, which should not be compared with an ordinary case of self-sacrifice. Therefore a temple should be erected to their memory and to that of their followers in the noble cause."

As another example of posthumous honours I may cite the case of one of the memorialists themselves. When the news of the death of Tseng Kwo-fan from apoplexy, in March, 1872, reachefl the ears of the emperor, an edict was immediately issued, bestowing upon that departed worthy the posthumous title of Tai-Foo (vice-tutor to the emperor), with the epitaph Wen-Chen (correct principles of literature). This title is seldom conferred, and during the past thousand years it has been bestowed upon seven persons only. A public funeral was also granted to the remains of this great man, and to defray the expense of it a sum of three thousand taels was drawn from the imperial exchequer. A public sacrifice, at the expense of the government, w^as offered to the manes of the departed viceroy. By the command of the emperor, this ceremony was conducted by Muk Tang-foo, the Tartar general of Kiang-soo. Imperial commands were also given that tablets bearing the names and titles of the deceased should be placed, one in the temple in honour of " Illustrious

II.] - OFFICIAL DEGRADATION. 43

Faithful Servants," and another in that which is dedicated to "Perfect and Virtuous Ministers of State." The decree gave permission for the erection of temples in his lionour at Honan, the province in which lie was born, and in Kiang-soo, the province which, at tlie time of his death, he was so successfully governing. The edict further gave orders that the hereditary title of Marquis should at once be conferred upon his eldest son, and that his successor in office be commanded to report to the central government the names of all his surviving children, with a view of their being appointed to posts of honour. It added that any entry standing against his name in the official register must at once be erased. This last provision may re- quire explanation. In China governmental registers are kept in which are recorded, in some the merits, and in others the demerits of the various civil and military officials of tlie empire. This custom, which is of great antiquity, was also practised by other nations. In the respective books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther there are several passages which afford evidence of the diligence shown in early ages by the Persian government, in keeping a record of the services of its officers ; and in several Greek writers there are also allusions to this practice.

With the view of deterring officials, civil and military, from the commission of vice, it is also in the power of rulers of provinces to memorialise the throne for the punishment of all such delinquents. In a copy of the Peldn Gazette which was published on 12th of November, 1871, I observed an imperial edict in reply to a memorial on the part of one Lee Hung-chang, requesting the degradation and dismissal of mandarins for misconduct and a manifest incapacity to arrest offenders. The edict ordered that the magistrate of Toong-ping Heen, in the province of Chili, who had most signally failed in capturing the perpetrators of a daring robbery, should at once be deprived of his button, and that, should he fail within a given time to arrest the offenders, he should be placed under arrest for examination and punishment. It contained the imperial commands for the immediate dismissal of one named Pui Fook-tak from the magistracy of Nam-woh Heen. He was represented as a man of ordinary abilities, and, although the offence prefeiTed against

44 CHINA. [CHAP.

him had not l3een substantiated, yet it was clear that he had called into his service men of evil reputation, and had in conse- quence lowered the dignity of his office. But promotion and honour on the one hand, and degradation and disgrace on the other, fail in a very lamentable manner to make the officials of China honest men.

Although Chinese officials are perhaps as a class the most corrupt state servants in the world, there are amongst them men of high integrity and honour. These exceptional men are held in much esteem by the people, who avail themselves of every opportunity of doing them honour. During my long residence at Canton I only met with one such worthy. He was named Acheong, and for two years as governor ruled over the vast province of Kwang-tung. So many and great were the blessings which he conferred upon the people by his excellent administration, that they actually adored him; and when he left Canton they rose en viassc to do him honour. I had an oppor- tunity of witnessing his departure, and the ovation which he received from the citizens, who thronged the streets, was most impressive. In the imposing procession which escorted him to the place of embarkation, and which took at least twenty minutes to pass a given point, were carried the silk umbrellas which had been presented to him by the people, and the red boards — of which there were probably more than three hundred — upon which high-sounding titles had been inscribed in honour of the faith- ful minister. The route was spanned at frequent intervals by arches. From these banners were suspended which bore in large letters, painted or embroidered, such sentences as " The Friend of the People ; " " the Father of the People ; " " the Father and Mother of the People ; " " the Bright Star of the Province ; " " the Benefactor of the Age." Deputations awaited his arrival at various temples, and he alighted from his chair to exchange farewell compliments with them, and to partake of the refreshment provided for the occasion. But the formal arrange- ments could not speak so clearly to his popularity as the enthu- siasm of the people. The silence generally observed when a Chinese ruler passes through the streets was again and again broken by hearty exclamations of " When will your Excellency

THE CANGUE.

II.] AN HONEST MANDARIN. 45

come back to us ? " At many points the crowd was so great as to interrupt the line of march, and the state chair was frequently in danger of being upset. It was evident that the mottoes which were inscribed on the banners hung out on the route of this virtuous servant of the state, faithfully interpreted the public feelin<^.

CHAPTEPw III.

PRISONS AND PUNISHMENTS.

In tliis chapter I propose to give a description of Chinese prisons, respecting the cruelties practised in which so much was said and written in the early part of 1858 — the year in which Canton was assaulted and captured by the allied armies of Great Britain and France. When I have described these " habitations of cruelty," I shall proceed to give an account of the various degrees of punishment which are meted out to those who have been convicted of breaking the laws of their country. Many of these punishments are barbarous and cruel in the extreme. For example, in the gaol of the city of Chin-kiang I saw a poor wretch who for three days and three nights had not been allowed to sit down. His wrists were bound together by a long chain, the end of which was made fast to one of the rafters of the roof of his cell. In some instances prisoners are tied up by ropes which are made fast under their arms, their feet not being allowed to touch the ground. Some of the modes of capital punishment in China may justly be described as examples of abominable and revolting cruelty. I need not, however, anticipate details which it will be my unpleasant duty to narrate in the course of this chapter ; and the facts which I have to bring before the reader will speak for themselves.

The prisons of China consist, according to their class, of a certain number of wards each. Thus, for example, the prisons of the respective counties of Xamhoi and Pun-yu, in the province of Kwang-tung, which are tirst-class county prisons,

iiiAP. III.] COUNTY PRISONS. 47

consist, besides cells in which prisoners on remand are confined, of six large wards, in each of which are four large cells, making in all twenty-four cells. The same arrangements may be said to prevail in all county prisons. The walls of the various wards abut one upon another, and form a parallelogram. Round the outer wall of this parallelogram a paved pathway runs, upon which the gates of the various wards open. This pathway is flanked by a large outer wall, which constitutes the boundary wall of the prison. The cells are of considerable dimensions. In ea.ch ward the four cells are arranged two on a side, so as to form the tv/o sides of a square, and resemble cattle-sheds, the front of each being inclosed by a strong palisading of wood, which extends from the ground to the roof They are paved with granite, and each is furnished with a raised wooden dais, on which the prisoners sit by day and sleep by night. They are polluted with vermin and filth of almost every kind, and tlie prisoners seldom or never have an opportunity afforded them of washing their bodies, or even of dressing their hair, water in Chinese prisons being a scarce commodity, and hair-combs articles almost unknown. In each cell are placed large tubs for the use of the prisoners ; and it is difficult to conceive how human beings can breathe the stench — for the air seems notliing else — which arises from these tubs, more particularly during the hot season. In the centre of each ward is a small shrine in which stands an idol of a deity called Hong-koong-chu-shou. This god, who receives the homage of the prisoners, is supposed to possess the power of melting into tenderness and contrition the hard and stubborn hearts of the wayward and wicked. The natal anniversary of this most suggestive and melancholy mockery of deity is celebrated by the prisoners with an attempt at feasting. The expense of the repast which is provided on such occasions is defrayed by the governor of the gaol. This Cerberus, however, takes very good care to repay himself by appropriating, at intervals, portions of the small sums of money doled out daily for the maintenance of his unwilling guests.

The approach to the prison is by a narrow passage, at the entrance of which there is an ordinary sized door. Above this entrance door is painted a tiger's head with large staring eyes

48 CHINA. [chap.

and widely-extended jaws. Upon entering, tlie visitor finds an altar on which stands the figure of a tiger hewn in granite. This image is regarded as the tutelary deity of the prison gates. The turnkeys, with the view of propitiating it, and securing its watchfulness, worship it morning and evening, gaolers in China being held responsible for the safe custody of the miserable beings who are intrusted to their care. On a visit which I paid to the prison of the Namhoi magistrate at Canton, I saw one of the turnkeys presenting offerings of fat pork to this stone tiger, before which he was also burning incense and making genu- flexions. At the base of the large wall which I have described as forming the prison boundary, there are several hovels — for by no other name can they be designated — in 'some of which all the female felons are lodged, and in others whole families, who have been seized and detained as hostages by the mandarins. There is a law which admits of the seizure and detention as hostages of families, members of which, having broken the laws of the empire, have fled from justice. Such hostages are not liberated until the offending relatives have been secured, and consequently they are not unfrequently imprisoned during a period of five, ten, or twenty years. Indeed, many of them pass the period of their natural lives in captivity. Thus the mother, or aunt, of Hung Sow-tsuen, the leader of the Taiping rebellion, died, after an imprisonment of several years, in the prison of the Namhoi magistrate at Canton. During her captivity I frequently visited the unoffending old woman, and grievously indeed did she feel her imprisonment for no crime or offence of her own. Should the crime of the fugitive be a very aggravated and heinous one, such, for example, as an attempt upon the life of the sovereign of the empire, it is not unusual to put the immediate, although perfectly innocent, relations of the offender to death, whilst those who are not so nearly related to him are sent into exile. In 1803 an attempt was made to assassinate the emperor Ka-hing. The assassin was no sooner apprehended than he was sentenced to be put to death by torture ; and his sons, who were in the happy days of childhood, were put to death by strangling.

The mortality in Chinese prisons is so great that a dead-

III.] rrvISON DEAD-HOUSES. 49

house is reganlecl as a very necessary adjunct. The bodies of all who die in prison are thrown into the dead-house, and remain there until tlie necessary preliminaries, which are of a very simple kind, have been arranged for their interment. In the course of my repeated visits to the prisons of Canton ^ during a period extending from 1858 to 1861 inclusive, I frequently saw these receptacles full of corpses, presenting the most revolting and disgusting appearance. Some of the unhappy men had evidently died from the effects of severe and often repeated floggings. Others, it was clear, had fallen victims to one or other of the various diseases which not unfrequently prevail in Chinese prisons, and which such dens are only too well fitted to create and foster. In the month of March, 1859, I saw in the dead-house attached to the prison of the Pun-yu magistrate at Canton, five dead bodies, all with the appearance of death from starvation — a capital punishment which Chinese rulers not unfrequently inflict upon kidnappers and other grave oS'enders. The opinion which I have expressed with regard to the cause of the death of these flve men was fully supported by three or four gentlemen who were with me, and of whom one was, by profession, a medical practitioner. Immediately in front of the door of the dead-house, and at the base of the outer boundary wall of the prison, there is a small door of sufficient size to admit of a corpse being passed through. Through the aper- ture the corpses of all who die in prison are passed into the adjoining street to be carried away for burial. It would be paying too much reverence to the remains of a deceased prisoner, to allow them to be carried through the gates of the yamuu to which the prison is attached. Besides, if this were done, the Chinese authorities would consider the gates of the yamuu polluted. I may remark in passing that according to the Latin

^ Besides the two county prisons in the city of Canton there is in the Cha,-Fan street a gaol in which prisoners from the more distant parts of the jjrovince are confined. There are also prisons in the streets called Shii- Yin-Lee and Koo-Wa- Lee. The former of these prisons was built in the eighth year of the reign of the Emperor Taou-kwang ; and the latter, at an expense of six thousand three hundred taels, was erected in the fifty-first year of the reign of Keen-lung-Wong. In the prison of the district magistrate of Namhoi from four hundred to six hundred prisoners, and in that of the district magistrate of Pun-yu, from two hundred to three hundred j^risouers, are generally confined at one time. VOL. L E

50 CHINA. [cuAP.

historian Livy, the corpses of all jDrisoners who died in the pri- sons of ancient Kome were, in a similarly ignominious manner, cast into the adjoining street.

In point of appearance the unfortunate inmates of Chinese prisons are, perhaps, of all men, the most aliject and miserable. Tlieir death-like countenances, emaciated forms, and long, coarse, black hair, which according to prison rules they are not allowed to shave, give them the appearance rather of demons than of men, and strike the mind of the beholder with im- pressions of gloom and sorrow that are not easily forgotten. All prisoners in each ward, with only one exception, wear fetters. The exception is the prisoner who is supposed to be more re- spectable, and who conducts himself better than any of his fellows in crime. He is alloM'ed the full freedom of his limbs, and upon him, as a mark of confidence and trust, devolves the privilege of acting as an overseer over his fellows-prisoners in the same ward. A custom similar to this prevailed in ancient Egypt ; for we read that the keeper of a prison in that country committed to the charge of Joseph all the prisoners who were in the same ward with him.

The dress worn by Chinese prisoners consists of a coat and trowsers of a coarse, red fabric. On the back of the coat is written in large characters the name of the prison in wdiich its wearer is confined, so that should he escape from durance he would at once be recognised as a runaway or prison-breaker, and his recapture would in all probability be as speedily effected.

The imperial clemency is occasionally extended to prisoners, especially on the accession of an emperor, or on the occasion of his marriage, or on the completion of any of the decades of his age or reign. Thus, an amnesty edict was published in the Peldn Gazette of February 12tli, 1872. It began by stating that the late emperors of China were ever merciful and kind, and that, in respect to his love for his subjects, their successor was not one -whit behind them. " The four last Manchu emperors," said the edict, " had each issued a special amnesty on entering the eleventh year of their reigns. The present emperor wishes ■to emulate this merciful example, and requests the Board of Punishments to devise a scheme for commutin!? the offence of

III.] PRISON OFFICIALS. 51

all prisoners throughout the empire, except those of the worst character. In the meantime let all prisoners who are suffering for petty offences be at once liberated," For the promotion of the comfort of prisoners, liumone persons sometimes give or bequeath sums of money. For instance, in the tenth year of Taou-kwang, a provincial treasurer in the province of Kwang- tung, named Ow, gave ten thousand dollars to the salt monopoly^ the interest from which sum was to be expended annually in pro- viding the prisoners in the principal gaol of the city of Canton with a few creature comforts. Many of the high officials of the province, in imitation of Treasurer Ow's example, invested other sums, the interest of wliich was to be employed in providing medicine, and fans in summer, and warm underclothing in winter, for all the prisoners in the large gaols in the city.

Each prison is presided over by a governor, who has under him a considerable number of turnkeys. Thus, each large ])rison in Canton has a governor, twenty-four turnkeys, thirty-seven Avatchmen, and fifteen spearmen. In a barrack beyond the doors or gates of each prison is a resident force of ten soldiers. There are also, according to law, a physician, five clerks, and six bearers of firewood and water ; but whether these latter officials are usually found in Chinese prisons I am unable to say. The turnkeys, watchmen, spearmen, &c., from the great amount of misery which they daily witness, must, I apjorehend, be more casehardened than the most incorrigible of the criminals. The policemen who are attached to the yamun are also men of vile character, and it is unfortunately too common for them to share the booty with the thief, and hoodwink or satisfy the magistrate.

The governor of a Chinese prison purchases his appointment from the local government. He receives no salary from the state although he does this. He is compelled, therefore, to re- coup himself by exacting money from such relatives or friends of prisoners as are in good circumstances, and anxious, natu- rally, tliat their unhappy friends should experience as little as possible of the sad deprivations and cruelties for which Chi- nese prisons are so justly and so universally notorious. It was, if I mistake not, customary at one time for governors of gaols in Great Britain to purchase their appointments, and for services

E 2

52 CHINA. ' [CHAP.

rendered to receive from the imperial exchequer no salaries. Like the governors of Chinese gaols to-day, they enriched them- selves by exacting from the relatives or friends of prisoners sums varying, I suppose, according to their means or standing. Prisoners, of course, who were without influential friends, or who had none at all, like thousands of criminals in Chinese prisons to-day, remained neglected and forgotten, or died from sheer inability to obtain even the commonest necessaries of life. These days were brought to a close by the indefatigable labours of the great philanthropist, John Howard, and it would, indeed, be an unspeakable mercy to Chinese prisoners were a Chinese Howard to appear. To each prison a granary is attached, in which rice of the cheapest and coarsest kind is stored by the governor. This rice is one of his perquisites, and he retails it to the prisoners at a most remunerative price. Vegetables and firewood for culinary purposes, both of which are daily offered for sale to the prisoners, are supplied by him. As the govern- ment allowance to each prisoner per diem does not exceed twenty-five cash, the reader does not require to be told that prisoners who are without friends are not often able to buy even vegetables and firewood. In the prison of the Namhoi magis- trate at Canton, I once saw a prisoner who, unable to purchase firewood, was endeavouring to satiate the cravings of hunger by eating unboiled rice.

The law provides that once a month each prison shall be inspected by a government official. It is his duty to ascertain how many prisoners have died in prison during the month, and to make inquiries respecting the conduct of the various turnkeys^ watchmen, and spearmen employed. After each inspection this officer is supposed to forward his report to the viceroy or governor. Should it appear that, owing to the neglect of the officers of the prison, two per cent, of the men under confine- iicient have died during the course of the month, an entry, not only against the name of the governor of the prison, but against that of the deputy magistrate under whose jurisdiction the prison is placed, is made in the book of faults. Should three per cent, have died, two entries are made in tliis book ; and in the case of the mortality reaching four per cent., both the

111.] PRISON FARE.— HOUSES OF DETENTION. 53

governor and the deputy magistrate are dismissed from oflice. in the event of six or seven per cent, of the prisoners dying, the ruler of the country or district to which the prison belongs is degraded one step. Corresponding to the book of faults there is a book of merits, in which, if the results of the inspections are satisfactory, entries are made which secure proportionate rewards for the officials concerned.

Besides the prisons in which convicts are confined there are also within the precincts of the yamun houses of detention. These are neither so large nor so strongly inclosed as the com- mon gaols. There is, generally, in such houses of detention a tolerably large chamber. This is set apart for the reception of pri- soners on remand who have friends able and willing to satisfy the demands of the governor. By this arrangement such prisoners avoid the misery of being shut up in the same ward with men, in many instances, of the vilest character, and often covered with tilth, or suffering from various kinds of cutaneous diseases. The arrangement is a great advantage to the governor of the gaol, and to all prisoners who can afford to pay for it, but a great disadvantage to the otlier prisoners. The space required for the convenience of prisoners who have friends to look after their wants leaves very little room, indeed, for the reception of the great majority of the poor prisoners. They are huddled together in a common ward, sometimes so crowded that its inmates find it difficult to lie down in it. In the streets adjoin- ing the yamuns, there are other houses of detention, at all events in the city of Canton. In not a few cases I have seen these houses so densely crowded as to remind me of the heartrending history of the Black Hole of Calcutta. I had an opportunity of inspecting one of these "lock-ups" in the hot month of August, 1861. It was crowded to excess ; and — certainly not to my astonishment, for the heat was intense — all the prisoners were in a state of complete nudity. Had as many Europeans been incarcerated in so small a cell, they must all have inevitably perished. The confinement of prisoners on remand in sucii places is often much protracted, the administra- tion of justice in China being attended with long delays.

I visited a great many Chinese prisons and lock-ups, and

fA CHINA. [riiAi'.

found them all very like each other, both as to their construction and management. Of all the prisons, however, wliich I have visited, that which inspired me with the most melancholy in- terest was the prefectoral prison at Tai-wan Too, the metropolis of Formosa. Xo fewer than one hundred and ninety-seven souls, the crew of H.B.M.'s hired transport ship Nai'ludclha, were, during the first war which Great Britain waged with China, confined in this prison ; and from it they were all, with one exception only, eventually led forth to execution. In tlie cells which these unfortunate men are said to have occupied, I found many Chinese prisoners who Avere endeavouring to in- terrupt the dull monotony of their life by making fans, and I bought specimens of their labour. On withdrawing I visited the plot of ground — the common execution-ground — on which the officers and crew of the Karhuddha were decapitated. Several skulls were bleaching in the sun, and one of them, from the very high frontal bone, appeared to be the skull of a European. From the prisons of China let us now turn to the various degrees of the other punishments to which Chinese convicts are subjected. Cases of petty larceny are generally dealt with by flogging. The culprit is handcuffed, and, with the identical article which he stole, or one similar, suspended from his neck, is marched through the streets of the neighbourhood in which the theft was committed. He is preceded by a man beating a gong, and, at each beat of the gong, an officer who walks behind gives him a severe blow with a double rattan across the shoulders, exclaiming, " This is the punishment due to a thief" As the culprit has to pass through three or four streets, his punishment, though regarded by the Chinese as one of the minor ones, is certainly not lacking in severity. The flow of blood is often very great. I remember the case of a thief who had stolen a watch from one of his countrymen, and whom I saw flogged through the Honam suburb of Canton, where I was then rer^iding. The officer appointed to flog him was very cor- pulent, and, from his great earnestness in the discharge of his duty, l)ecame quite breathless before the various streets along which the culprit was sentenced to pass had been fully traversed. The person from whom the watch had been stolen, seeing that

III.] MINOR PUNISHMENTS. 55

the tliief might escape tlie full severity of his penalty, snatched the double rattan from the hand of the exhausted officer, and applied it himself most niimei'cifnlly to the thief's back. Women ^vho are convicted of tliieving, are, in some instances, punished in this way, Occasionally a long bamboo is used in cases of petty larceny. When this is the case, however, the culjOTt receives his flogging in court in front of the tribunal. He is at once denuded of his trousers, and the number of blows vai'ies according to the nature of the larceny from ten to three hundred. I savvaj)unishment of this kind inflicted on an aged man, wdio at each blow groaned piteously. His sufferings awakened no sympathy in court. It was apparently a source of delight to the judge and his olTticers, and the face of each official was expanded by a broad grin. The cangue, or wooden, collar, is another mode by wdiich petty offenders in China are punished. The form of the cangue is represented in the annexed illustration. Caugues vary in w'eight, some being considerably larger and heavier than others. The period for which an offender is sen- tenced to wear the cangue varies from a fortnight to three months. . During the whole of this time the caugue is not removed from the neck of the prisoner either by day or by night. Its form prev^ents the pri.soner stretching himself on the ground at full length, and, to judge from the attenuated appear- ance of prisoners who have undergone it, the punishment must be severe to a degree. The name of the prisoner and the nature of his offence are written on the cangue in large letters, " pour encourager les autres." The authorities often make the offender stand from sunrise to sunset at one of the principal gates, or in front of one of the chief temples, or public halls of the city, and he is regarded as an object of universal scorn and contempt. On one occasion at Canton I sa"^ three salt merchants treated in this way for attemjjting to smuggle salt. They were, evi- dently, persons in a respectable position amongst their fellows, and they apparently felt their painful and humiliating position very keenly. Passing, in January, 181)6, through the streets of the city of Chun-tso-sheng, in the province of Kiang-soo, I observed twelve farmers of apparent respectability wearing the

56 CHLVA. [CHAP.

cangue at' the gates of the temple in honour of Shing-Wong. It was the day on which the fair, or great market, was being held, and the farmers were surrounded by a number of inquisi- tive spectators. Their offence was either unwillingness or inability to pay their land taxes. At the city of Woo-chang I saw three farmers who were being punished in this way for a similar offence.

At Soo-chow I saw an old farmer who had a cangue round his neck, and who was bound by a chain to a stone pillar at the entrance gate of the monastery called Pow-on Sze. He also was suffering for a similar offence. On the same day, and in the same city, I saw two men wearing cangues, and bound to a stone pillar at the grand entrance to the temple of Shing Wong. From the inscription on their cangues I learned that they had been fighting with each other. There was a snow storm, and the fettered pugilists, who were most thinly clad, suffered severely from the inclemency of the weather. The old farmer, however, had wisely provided himself with thick winter clothing, and seemed, under the circumstances, tolerably happy. Of all the wretched creatvires whom I ever saw undergoing this sentence, jjerhaps the most miserable was a Cliinese } outh, who had been made to sit, for stand he could not, in one of the principal streets of Manka, a small commercial town in the north of the island of Formosa. Very emaciated and begrimed with dirt, he had the appearance of one in articulo mortis. Prisoners un- dergoing this punishment are, in some instances, made to beg their daily bread from door to door, in order that they may not be a burden upon the state. At Chinkiang I saw a wretched- looking man asking alms of all whom he met. His success as a beggar was by no means great, for all that lie received during the time I was in the same street with him, was a cup of tea and a boiled land crab, which he received with apparent grati- tude from a sympathising shopkeeper. At Soo-chow I saw another miserable-looking being to whose neck a cangue was fastened, begging in the streets for what his keepers refused to give him, namely, the common necessaries of life. At Chan- chee-kow, a city situated at the base of the great wall of China,

TIIK CANGUK.

ni.] CANGUES AND CAGES. 67

I saw a prisoner beggiiit:^ for his bread from door to door. He had a large cliain round his neclc, and the end of it was fastened to a strong wooden fetter, encircling the calf of his left leg. He was, without exception, the most villanous-looking man I ever saw. As he asked and received alms at the hands of the members of the Mohammedan guild in the city, he was pro- bably an unworthy follower of the prophet of Mecca. These prisoners are obliged to return every night to their respective prisons. I noticed in my travels through the central provinces that cangues were placed at the gates of cities, and at the doors of yamuns or public offices, as a warning to evil-doers.

The next mode of punishing a criminal is that of confining liim in a cage. The cages are of different forms. One is too short to allow the prisoner to place himself in a recumbent position, and too low to admit of his standing. Another is a narrow cage, not high enough to admit of the offender standing altogether upright. To the top is attached a wooden collar or cangue, by which the neck of the criminal, which it is made to fit, is firmly held. Another cage resembles the former in all respects but one. The difference consists in its being longer than its occupant, so that whilst his neck is held fast by the wooden collar attached to the top of the cage, the tips of his toes barely touch the floor. Indeed, the floor, which is only a few inches from the ground, is sometimes removed, so that the prisoner may be suspended by the neck. This punishment almost invariably proves fatal. In 1860, a man was exposed in this manner in front of the outer gates of the yamun of the district city of Shun-tuk or Tai- laong. He had been convicted of plundering a tomb. At the close of the third day, after extreme sufferings, he breathed his last. I saw several of these cages in the prefectoral prison at Canton. It appeared to me that this cruel punishment was much more practised in district and prefectoral cities than in provincial capitals. The victims are, as a rule, thieves and robbers. They are often punished by being bound to stones by means of long chains passed round their necks. The stones are not large, but sufficiently heavy to inconvenience them as they walk to and from the prison to the entrance gates of the yamun in front of wliich they are daily exposed. These stones are

58 CHINA. [,HAP.

their inseparable companions by night and by day, throughout the whole period of their incarceration. In some instances they are bound to long bars of iron, and' are daily exposed to the scorn of all the passers by. At Manka I. saw six or seven men who were being punished in this manner.

In all cases of conspiracy and rebellion the laws of China are especially severe. It is, however, not unusual, as a maik of imperial clemency, to punish persons who have been seduced into rebellion by others, l)y cutting off their ears rather than their heads, and setting them at liberty. In a tea saloon at Tat- leng-shee, a village near Canton, at which I used to halt, I w^as several times served with tea and cakes by a waiter one of whose ears had been cut off. This young man, I learned, had been induced to join the rebels who, during the years 1853-54, so greatly disturbed the peace of Kwangtung, and of the adjoining province of Kwangsi. Having been taken in one of the man}^ unsuccessful assaults which the rebels made on Canton he was cast into prison, where he lay for several months. On his trial it appeared that he was a simple unwary fellow, and he was merely dismissed from the judgment-seat minus an ear. AVhen travelling on on'e occasion from Ki-lung in the island of Formosa to the coal districts in the vicinity of that town, I observed that one of the sedan-chair bearers was without an ear. Like the waiter in the tea saloon, he had been convicted of sedi- tious practices. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that all one-eared persons in China have been guilty of sedition. I lived on the most friendly terms with an iron merchant of the clan or family, Foong, or Fung, who was minus his right ear. It was a source of great sorrow to him, as strangers were disposed to conclude from it that he had at one time been guilty of sedition. The very contrary was the case, for the rebels had cut off the ear of the loyal old man. They captured him at the head of a regiment of braves whom he was leading against them. For- tunately he prevailed upon them to spare his life.

During this rebellion the imperialist forces who had driven the rebels from several villages in the vicinity of Canton, pro- ceeded to cut off the ears of many of the innocent and unoffend- ing villagers, asserting that they ought not to have allowed the

III.] PUNISrTMENT;S OF REBELS. 59

rebels to enter. In one of these villages wliicli I visited I saw not only men, but l)oys of ten or twelve years of age who had been treated in this brutal manner. I had my attention also directed to a very aged man who had been cruelly scalped ; and, upon leaving the village, a man who was following me took me to a place beyond its precincts, where three headless human bodies were lying. They were peasants who, for no offence whatever, had been decapitated by the brutal soldiers. The women were all bitterly lamenting the calamities with which their unoffending village had been visited. Again, when the city of Canton was recaptured in 1854, several of the insurgents were punished for their sedition in a very singular manner. The infuriated royalists, with the view of marking their prisoners of war for life, cut the principal sinew of the neck of each, so that his head inclined towards the shoulder.^

For capital and other offences of a serious nature there are six classes of punishments. The first class is called Ling-chee. It is inflicted upon traitors, parricides, matricides, fratricides, and nmrderers of husbands, uncles, and tutors. The criminal is bound to a cross, and cut either into one hundred and twenty, or seventy-two', or thirty-six, or twenty-four pieces. Should there be extenuating circumstances, his body, as a mark of imperial clemency, is divided into eight portions only. The punishment of twenty-four cuts is inflicted as follows : the first and second cuts remove the eye-brows ; the third and fourth, the shoulders; the fifth and sixth, the breasts ; the seventh and eighth, the

^ The cruel custom of maiming the bodies of prisoners of war was evidently practised by the ancient Egyptians. Dr. Eicliardson describes the picture of a liattle-field whicli, it would appear, is painted on the walls of the temple of Medinet Habou, iu the following terms : — "The south, and part of the east wall is covered with a battle scene, and the cruel punishment of the vanquished, by cutting oft' their hands and maiming their bodies, is performed in the presence of the chief, who has seated himself in repose on the back part of his chariot to witness the execution of his horrid sentence. Three heaps of amputated hands are counted over before him, and an equal number of scribes with scrolls in their hands are minuting down the accouut. As many rows of prisoners stand behind to undergo a similar mu ilation in their turn, their hands tied behind their backs or lashed over their heads or thrust into eye-shaped manacles ; some of their heads are twisted completely round ; some of them are turned back to back and their arms lashed together round the elbows ; and thus they are marched up to punishment."

60 CHINA. [chap.

parts between each hand and elbow ; the ninth and tenth, the parts between each elbow and shoulder ; the eleventh and twelfth, the flesh of each thigh ; the thirteenth and fonrteenth, the calf of each leg ; the fifteenth pierces the heart ; the sixteenth severs the head from the body ; the seventeenth and eighteenth cut off the hands ; the nineteenth and twentieth, the arras ; the twenty- first and twenty-second, the feet ; the twenty-third and twenty- fourth, the legs. That of eight cuts is inflicted as follows: the first and second cuts remove the eye-brows; the third and fourth, the shoulders ; the fifth and sixth, the breasts ; the seventh pierces the heart ; the eighth severs the head from the body. A great many political offenders underwent executions of the first class at Canton during the vice-royalty of His Excellency Yeh. On the 14th day of December, 1864, the famous Hakka rebel leader, Tai Chee-kwei by name, was put to death at Canton in this manner. I most inadvertently visited the execution-ground five minutes after the criminal had been thus put to death by torture, and I saw the fragments of his remains scattered over a portion of this renowned Aceldama. His hands and feet were amongst the most conspicuous portions of his remains.

All leaders of sedition, however, are not punished in this cruel and unmerciful way. For example, in 1872, a man named Soo Ying-chee, who came from the southern parts of the pro- vince of Kwang-tung, and who for several years had proved a source of great trouble to the government at Canton, was simply decapitated. Soo Kee-chaong, the adopted son of Soo Ying-chee, and a partaker of his crimes, was put to death at the same time in a similar manner. In all probability the imperial clemency — shown to them in regard to the mode of their execution — was owing to the fact that they were taken prisoners by an act of deception, the Viceroy having assured Soo Ying-chee and his son by adoption, that he would, upon their laying down their arms, promote them to great honour. There is nothing surprising in the fact that Soo Ying-chee at once listened to this proposal, as it is very common not only for the various provincial governments, but for the central government of the countrv, to enlist on their side powerful

THE CANT.TE.

III.] MODES OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. 01

leaders of treasonable and seditious parties by offering tliem rank, titles, money, and a free pardon. To this policy the reader will remember the ancient Jews, also, had recourse. Thus David, in order to secure the services of Abner, who was uphold- ing the cause of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, promised that on the downfall of Ish-bosheth and the amalgamation of the two kingdoms Abner should be appointed to the command of the great army of the nation.

To resume the subject of .Chinese executions. On the nine- teenth day of the first month of the seventh year of Tung-chee (February 12th, 1868), a woman named Lau Laam-shi was cut into twenty-four pieces on the common execution ground of Canton for having poisoned her husband. She was a native of Yung-yuen, a district or county in the prefecture of Wei-chow. Being enamoured of a rich neighbour named Chan Asze, Avhose second wife or concubine she hoped to become if she could get rid of her husband, who was a peasant, she resolved to remove the obstacle in the way of what she regarded as her advancement in life by poison. At the time of her execution she was slightly inebriated. When being bound to the cross upon which she was to suffer, she begged the executioner to despatch her witli haste. He first, very roughly, blindfolded her with a piece of rope. She received in all twenty-four cuts, the fifteenth of which pierced her heart. The ropes by which her arms and neck were bound to the cross were then cut, and the upper part of the body fell forward, the lower part remaining tightly bound to the perpendicular beam of the cross. As the upper part fell forward, an assistant executioner pulled the he. . d l>y

the hair to enable the executioner to sever it from the trunk. This unfortunate woman had been two years in prison, having committed the crime for which she suffered in the fifth year of Tung-chee, or a.d. 1866. On the ninth day of the eleventh month of the eighth year of the same Emperor's reign, that is, on the 11th December, 1869, a woman named Mok Yu-shee was similarly punished for murdering her husband. In her crime she was assisted by her paramour, Lou San-koo, who ^^'as also brought to justice. At her execution her guilty paramour, so soon as she had been bound to the cross upon which she was

62 , CHINA. [chap,

to be cut into pieces, was made to kneel before her, and his head was then at one blow severed from his body.

The second class of capital punishment, which is called Ghan or decapitation, is the penalty due to murderers, rebels, pirates burglars, ravishers of women, &c., &c. Prisoners wiio are sen- tenced to decapitation are kept in ignorance of the hour fixed for their execution until the preceding day. Sometimes they have only a few hours' — in some instances, only a few minutes' warning. On the 26th of September, 1872, I was present in the gaol of the Xamhoi magistrate at Canton a few minutes previous to twenty-two malefactors being made ready for exe- cution. When I entered the ward in which the majority of these men were confined, they were in perfect ignorance of the ignominious death which they were to undergo in the course of an hour. Xor did they know until a few minutes before being pinioned. My Chinese servant who accompanied me very nearly revealed to them the fact that in a few minutes they would be led forth to execution. The foolish fellow, who had been cautioned before we went in not to refer to the fate await- ing the criminals, at once asked the turnkey in a rather loud tone to point out the men who were that day to suffer. The prisoners, who had gathered round us, were much startled, and the turnkey pacified them by assuring them that no such event was at hand.

When the time has arrived for making the condemned men ready for execution, an officer in full costume, carrying in his hand a board on which is pasted a list of the names of the prisoners who are that day to atone for their crimes, enters the prison, and, in the hearing of all the prisoners in the ward assembled, read-s aloud the list of the condemned. Each prisoner whose name is called at once answers to it, and he is then made to sit in a basket to be carried once more into the presence of a judge. As he is carried through the outer gate of the prison, he is interrogated through an interpreter, by an official who acts on the occasion as the Viceroy's representative. The questions put to each prisoner, are very much like the following : — What is your name ? What is your family or clan name ? Of what district are you a native ? How long have you been con-

in.] EXECUTIONS OF THE SECOND CLASS. 63

fined in this prison ? Of what crime have you been convicted ? When and where was your crime committed ? Had you any accomplices, and if so what are their names ? Are you guilty ? The representative of the viceroy, who has a list before him of the name, surname, native place, &c., of each prisoner, compares the answers which he receives with his list, and findinir that they agree, he orders him to be carried to execution. As tlie prisoners pass the outer gate of the gaol which admits them into the court}-ard of the yamun, they encounter the gaze of an idle crowd, who have come to see the procession of the cou- demned. As a rule on these occasions they seem quite uncon- cerned. Noticeably, they are very quiet. Sometimes, however, they make a parade of their indifference. On one occasion — it was in the year 1870—1 was in the courtyard of the chief magistrate of Xamhoi when thirty-five men were brought out of prison to be made ready for execution ; and three or four of these, upon seeing so many people assembled, laughed outright, Avhile one, who was evidently a wag, jocosely remarked that he had at last attained to a position of gentility, having two servants to carry him in a basket. When the prisoners who are to be executed, arrive in the courtyard of the yamun to which the prison is attached, their friends generally provide them either Avith a few cakes, or a little soup, or with pieces of betel nut to chew, or with wine, and a small dish of fat pork. What is most generally given to these men by their friends, or in the absence of their friends, by friendly turnkeys, is betel nut. The effect is that of a narcotic. It gives the countenance a very flushed appearance, which has led many foreigners to suppose that Chinese malefactors are made more or less drunk by opium or wine, before they are carried to execution. Fat pork and wine, however, are preferred on such occasions to betel luit ; but it is not every prisoner who has friends to procure these luxuries for him.

It is surprising to witness the nonchalance with which many of these prisoners partake of these viands. Others of them may be seen smoking cigarettes with perfect calmness. Some, however, weep in anticipation of the dreadful fate which is immediately before them. But there is very little time either

64 CHINA. [chap.

for reflection or refreshment. The process of pinioning takes place in the courtyard of the yanmn, and whilst the prisoners are still sitting in their baskets, and is entered upon withoiit much delay. Indeed the custom of giving condemned men sometliing to eat prior to their execution is, in some cases, observed wlien the prisoners are on the way to execution. In December, 1866, I saw three Tartar soldiers being fed with fat pork and wine by their respective relatives on their way to the execution -ground. As the prisoners were pinioned, the food prepared for them had, as a matter of necessity, to be put into their mouths by tlieir friends. The process of pinioning the malefactors having been accom- plished they are conveyed through the right or eastern arch of the three-arched gateway, into the presence of the magistrate whose judgment-seat has been removed from the court and placed in the porch of the inner approach to his official resi- dence. His last duty to these men consists in summoning each into his presence, in order that a strip of bamboo, on which a piece of paper bearing the criminal's name has been previously pasted, may be bound to his head. This is done that when they are conveyed through the streets of the city to the execu- tion-ground, the citizens may note what criminals have been led forth to execution. In March, 1860, I witnessed an execu- tion of the second class at Canton. There were only three crimi- nals ; one was a military mandarin, named Poon Fat-yune. He had held a commission as colonel in the imperial army of China, and had been accused and convicted of cowardice. While he was commandant of the forces at Kwei-chow Foo, the city had been assaulted and captured by rebels, and as the latter were en- tering by the north gate,_^Poon Fat-yune, it appeared, was taking his departure by the south gate. The other two were pirates, and from their emaciated appearance it was evident that they had suffered great privations in prison. The mandarin was exe- cuted under an imperial warrant, the pirates under that of the viceroy of the province. Tlie latter were carried to the common execution-ground, which is beyond the city walls, in the open baskets which are ordinarily used for this purpose at Canton.^

' At Foo-chow malefactors are conveyed to tlie place of execution in cages, and at Pekiu in carts.

THK <AN(JUF..

HI.] EXECUTIONS AT CANTON. 65

The colonel, seated in a sedan chair, the blinds of Mliich M'ere closely drawn, was borne to the same place by four well- dressed bearers. The procession was headed by a company of spearmen ; the two j^irates came next, followed by tlie colonel ; and behind the prisoners, marched another company of soldiers, armed, some with spears, some with swords, and others with matchlocks. These were followed by three equerries who pre- ceded a large sedan chair of state, in which was seated the Wye-Yune or deputy ruler of the county Namhoi, in whose presence, as sheriff, the execution was to take place. After three equerries who rode behind this chair, was carried another sedan chair of state, in which was seated an official whose duty it was to pay adoration to the Five Genii on the occasion. In close proximity to the place of execution, there is a small temple in honour of these gods, and they are regarded as having the power of preventing the spirits of decapitated criminals being hurried by revengeful feelings into inflicting injuries on the judge, magistrates, and others who have admin- istered the law. In the rear of these state chairs a herald on horseback carries in his right hand a small yellow banner bear- ing t^vo Chinese characters implying " By Imperial decree." Without this banner the Wye-Yune or sheriff dare not authorize the executioner to strike the fatal blow. On arriving at the ground, where the executioner was conspicuous by the bright blade he carried, the spearmen filed off and arranged themselves on each side of a table covered with red cloth. The Wye-Yune took his seat in a chair, also covered with red cloth, in front of the table. The pirates were unceremoniously ejected from their baskets upon the mud with which a night of rain had covered the ground. A large mat was spread for the more delicate knees of the colonel, and he was supported by two of his servants wearing Chinese livery. This last attention of his servants was rendered necessary by the fact that tlie colonel M-as in a state of inebriety. A large basin of intoxicating wine called sam-chu, together with a dish of fat pork, had been administered to him before he quitted the precincts of the yamun. When an assistant executioner had placed the prisoners in a kneeling position, with their heads bent forward VOL. I. F

66 CHINA. [CHAP.

— for in China they do not use the block-r-the Wye-Yune, who was still seated at the table, ordered the executioner, through a herald, to deal the fatal strokes. In less than twelve seconds the unhappy men were standing in the presence of that God of whose might, majesty, holiness, justice, and mercy, they had lived and died in a state of ignorance. One of the servants of the colonel immediately placed lighted tapers on the ground near the feet of the headless corpse of his master, whilst the other burned gold and silver paper, supposed to represent money, to supply the wants of the departed soul in the world of spirits. At the close of these religious ceremonies, they proceeded to WTap the headless trunk in the large mat upon which he had knelt to receive the fatal blow. A coffin w^as then brought, in which his remains were conveyed to the residence of his family.^ The headless corpses of the pirates lay, uncared for, where they fell. The two bodies were eventually pressed into one shell, and removed by the Ng-Sock, members of a pariah class, for interment in the cemetery of malefactors. This cemetery is termed the pit for the bones of ten thousand men. The weapon of the executioner w^as shaped like a scimitar, and must have had an exceedingly sharp edge, for the malefactors fell l)efore it like blades of grass before the sc}i;he of the mower.

As a rule, malefactors are very patient and submissive when being placed in line for execution. When a large number, say thirty, are executed together, they are ranged in rows of four or five, and several executioners are employed. Sometimes the prisoners are violent and abusive. A scene occurred in 1865, (28rd January), in which a prisoner — one of fifteen who were being executed at Canton — addressed the executioner as follows: • — " A man who is beheaded can only come to earth again to fill the low^est and vilest office, namely, that of an executioner. And an executioner cannot fail to die an ignominious death. You may therefore expect my return to earth again, and in about eighteen years' time I shall probably not only fill your contemptible office, but at the same time cut off your head." A curious scene

^ For the privilege of K-moviDg ILe body the friends of the colonel would probably have to pay a snm of money to the executioners. A case came under my notice in which the friends of a Chinese Mohammedan who was executed for theft paid the executioners ten dollars for this privilege.

in.] EXECUTIONS AT CANTON. 67

occurred in the following year, 18GG (June 8tli), when sixteen men were executed. One of them had a very fierce altercation v/ith a deputy executioner, in the course of which some very strong Chinese expletives were freely exchanged. The cause of this quarrel was because the malefactor would not bend his neck. He said that his neck was long, and that it presented a target which no skilful swordsman could possibly miss. The chief executioner endeavoured to persuade the obstinate malefactor that he was not an enemy, but a friend ; and that it was not by his decree, but by that of the emperor that he was in his present painful position. He added that he was desirous of inflicting as little pain as possible, and that, if the criminal would only consent to bend his neck, his head would be severed from his body by a single blow. These arguments had their weight, and the malefactor consented to do as he was bid.

The late M. A. Correa, Esq., who was the Canton correspond- ent of the Hongkong China Mail, describes an extraordinary scene which took place in 1869, when twenty-eight criminals were executed at Canton. They commenced shouting at the top of their voices, " Preserve life ! preserve life ! " and — " two of them, in . the last line, who were already kneeling to receive their fate, suddenly sprang to their feet, and though they were manacled, the strength of four or five soldiers — in attendance with others upon the presiding magistrate — failed to place them in their former position. The executioner becoming somewhat excited, and evidently thinking there was no time to lose, gave them the coup dc grdce while they were standing. No sooner was this bloody act brought to a close, than the sheriff with sword and mace-bearers, and a lot of ragged attendants, left the scene. At this moment, a number of the populace came upon the ground, and gazed on the headless bodies of their countrymen with the most perfect apathy and indifference."

It is not unusual to expose the heads of malefactors as a warning to others. On the public execution-ground at Canton, there w^as formerly a receptacle for this purpose. It w^as removed several years ago, and the heads are now cast into coarse earthenware tubs containing quicklime. It is very com- mon to expose those of burglars and pirates in the immediate

r 2

68 CHINA. . [chap.

viciuity of the scenes of their crimes, and I have seen the heads of pirates exposed in cages, attached to the tops of long poles, by the sea-shore at ]\Iacao ; and in many of the towns and villages in the neighbourhood of Canton, I have seen the heads of burglars bleaching under the burning rays of a tropical sun. At the town of Chung-lok-tam, which is in the province of Kwang-tung, at a distance of thirty English miles from its capital, I saw, in 1861, upwards of thirty heads of burglars, which were hanging in cages in close proximity to the market- place. On the banks of the Toon-ting lake, and at Ecliing, a city on the river Yang-tsze, I saw heads exposed in this way. On the banks of the Grand Canal I saw a head suspended from a monumental arch, and another, for want of a better elevation, placed on a tomb. On entering the city of :N"ankin, I noticed the head of a man suspended by the tail from the branch of a tree. This criminal had murdered a woman. When travelling on the plains of Inner Mongolia in 1865, similar sights met my eye on three or four occasions.

I have stated that all traitors, parricides, matricides, fratricides, murderers, burglars, pirates, liighway robbers, &c , &c., suffer either the first or the second class of punishment. An ex- ception is made in favour of criminals who are upwards of eighty, and of those under sixteen years of age. At present, for example, in the prison of the cliief magistrate of the Namhoi district, at Canton, there is a youth named Chu Chan-mang, who, in 1861, poisoned his schoolmaster in the neighbour- ing town of Fat-shan. A lingering death would certainly have been his fate, had he not been under sixteen years of age. The probability is that he will have to spend his days in a Chinese prison.

The third class of punishment is called Nam-kow, or death by strangulation. This is inflicted on kidnappers, and all thieves who, with violence, steal articles the value of which amounts to five hundred dollars and upw^ards. The manner in wdiich this form of capital punishment is inflicted, is as follows:— A cross is erected in the centre of the execution ground, at the foot of wdiich a stone is placed, and upon this the prisoner stands. His body is made fast to the perpendicular

III.] TRANSPOHTATKJN. 69

beam of the cross by a baud passing round the waist, whilst his arms are bound to tlie transverse beam. The executioner then places round the neck of the prisoner a thin but strong piece of twine, which he tightens to the greatest extent and tics in a firm knot round the upper part of the perpendicular beam. Death by this cruel process is very slow, and is ap})arently attended with extreme agony. The body remains on the cross during a period of twenty-four hours,, the sheriff, Ijefore leaving the execution ground, taking care to attach his seal to the knot of the twine which passes round the neclc (if the malefactor. In the years 1SGG-G7, many persons convicted of kidnapping coolies were put to death at Canton by strangulation. In the month of December of the former year, I saw a group of three kidnappers who were suspended in this way from crosses. The crosses were placed in a row, at a distance of a few feet only from one another. At the top of each cross, and immediately above the head of the malefactor, was a strip of paper setting forth his name and offence.

The fourth class of punishment is called ]\Ian-kwan, or transportation for life. The criminals who are thus punished, are embezzlers, forgers, &c., &c. The places of banishment in the north of China and Tartary are named respectively Hack-looiig- kong, Elee, Xing-koo-tap, and Oloo-muk-tsze. To one of these places all convicts from the midland and southern provinces are sent. The labour of the unhappy men varies in a great measure according to their former outward circumstances of life. Those who are of a robust nature and who have been accustomed to agri- cultural pursuits, are daily occupied in reclaiming and cultivating waste lands. Others, more especially those who have been sent from the southern provinces, where the heat in summer is almost tropical, are in consequence of the severity of the cold which prevails in northern latitudes, made to work in government iron foundries. The aged, and those who have not been accustomed to manual labour, are daily employed in sweep- ing the state temples and other public buildings. , One of the old hong merchants of Canton, who had been transported to one of these northern settlements for bankruptcy — probably fraudulent — was, in consideration of his age and former position,

70 CHINA. [CHAP.

set to sweep the courtyards of a state temple. Convicts who have held official rank have to labour, some in the imperial gardens and others in the imperial stables, which are at the respective northern cities of Jehole and Yit-hoi. Certain convicts have their names and crimes tattooed on their cheeks, not only in the language of China, but in that also of Mantchuria. In some instances a convict from China proper is conveyed beyond the Great Wall of China and discharged, with an assurance that his life will be forfeit should he ever return. When travel- ling in Mongolia, I met a Chinese youth who asked alms of me in the Canton dialect, A native of the district city of Sam-sui, which is situated at a distance of thirty English miles from the city of Canton, he had been transported for some offence into the wilds of Mongolia, and his sorrowful condition made me wish that I could have taken him back to Canton as one of my attendants. In some portions of the empire convicts are sent out from prison each morning to beg their daily bread. At the small market town of Yim-poo, which is in the vicinity of Canton, a convict from Nankin used to find employment either as a porter, or a sedan-chair bearer, or as a farm labourer. Every night he returned to the yamun, where he was a prisoner ; and in this way, he told me, he had spent twenty years of his life. He w^as very anxious to be permitted to return to Xankin to die there, so as to receive the sacred rites of ancestral worship from his posterity. If these day ticket-of-leave men are found to abuse their partial liberty by extorting money from shop- keepers, stealing, and other lawless acts, they are sent back into confinement.

The fifth class of punishment is termed INIan-low, or transportation for ten or fifteen years. The criminals of this class are petty burglars, persons who harbour those who have broken the laws, &c., &c. Such offenders are generally sent to the midland provinces of the empire, w^here the arrangements for convict labour are similar to those of the penal settlements of the north. Convicts of this class, who are natives of the midland provinces, are sent eitlier to the eastern, or western, or southern provinces of the empire. The barbarous practice of tattooing the cheeks is also resorted to with these. I have seen

■JHACKLKD AND MAXAf'I.ED.

in.] PENAL SETTLEMENTS. 71

many so tattooed in the prisons of Canton. The sixth class is called Man-tow, or transportation for three years. A punish- ment of this nature is the portion of whoremongers, gamblers, salt smugglers, &c,, &c. A convict of this class is transported to one of the provinces immediately bordering upon that of which he is a native, or in which his crime w^as committed.

Convicts are removed to the penal settlements in large num- bers at a tilne. They are made to travel sixteen English miles per diem. The journey when possible is performed by water, otherwise the convicts are generally obliged to walk. When on the march, the convicts are bound together in companies varying from two to five each. The chains or ropes by which they are bound, pass round their necks. Their feet are also fettered, and their arms bound in various ways. The ancient Egyptians were accustomed to bind their prisoners in a similar manner. In the illustrations which may be traced in the ancient sculptures of that country, we occasionally see long trains of prisoners being conducted in procession. In some instances they are represented as bound together in companies of two, or three, or four, or five each. To the custom of shackling prisoners we find many references in the sacred scriptures. Such a practice is, at all events, clearly set forth in the following passages — 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ; Ps. ii. 3; Ps. cxlix. 8. In some instances they are conveyed to their destination in waggons. "When leaving Jehole in Inner Mongolia, I observed a large tilted waggon, full of convicts, entering the city. When the journey is performed on foot, many, especially of the ageil and infirm, die by the way in consequence, I suppose, of bad nourish- ment and over-fatigue. Female convicts in particular are unable to stand these journeys, especially such as have small or contracted feet.

Before closing this chapter, it remains for me to notice a mode of summary execution sometimes resorted to by the elders of a district. It consists in casting an offender, bound hand and foot, into the nearest river or pond. It is only legal when the death warrant under which the prisoner suffers, bears the signa- tures, if not of all, at least of a certain numl)er of the elders of his village. The crimes which evoke s-uch speedy justice are

72 CHINA. [chap.

various. Thus on a Sunday morning in the year 1859, whilst on my way to church, I observed a large and excited crowd approaching the banks of the Canton river. They were taking two men to the river to drown them. They cast them into the current bound hand and foot. These wretched men, I after- wards learned, had either kidnapped or decoyed several of their fellow-countrymen on board a foreign vessel, by which they were conveyed as bondmen to the colonial possession of a European kingdom. Again, in the afternoon of the 1st of August, 1868, two men, who were also accused and convicted of kidnapping their countrymen, were, at the command of the elders, bound hand and foot together, and cast into the creek which skirts, on the north side, the foreign settlement of Shameen. There can, I think be no doubt that the drowning of these men was carried out in the immediate vicinity of the foreign settlement and in presence of two or three members of the foreign com- munity, to point out to foreigners the inevitable fate of all Chinese engaged by them to kidnap coolies for bond-ser- vice either in the West Indian possessions of Great Britain, or in the countries of Xorth and South America. The drowning of these men was, I may add, at no very great distance from the doors of the private residence of the British West Indian Emigration Agent.

During the Canton rebellion of 1854-55, many of the rebels were put to death in this way by the elders of the villages to which they respectively belonged. Indeed, on one occasion, in the year 1854, not less than fifteen men were drowned at Honam, Canton. These men were flung one morning at eight o'clock into that portion of the Canton river which flows past the plot of ground where the English and other foreign resi- dences then stood. In some instances, however, rebels were not put to death by drowning, but were permitted by the elders — their own clansmen in many instances — to choose such forms of death as were least obnoxious to them. Thus at Si-chu, in the district of Namhoi, and at various villages in the neigh- bouring district of Shun-tuk many seditious persons terminated their lives, some by opium, some by a cup of poison which the Chinese call Tai-soee-yok, others l^y a poison called Woo-mun-

111.] SUMMARY EXECUTIONS. 73

kaong ; some by strangulation. These unfoitunale offonders preferred capital punishment at the hands of the elders of their respective villages, and in the presence of their families, to fall- ing into the hands of the mandarins by wliom they ^yould have been first tortured, and then decapitated. In one instance which came under my own notice a M^oman named Mak Shee, wdio resided in the vilhnge of Laong-hoo, wliich is in the vicinity of tlie market-town of Sinnam, so reviled tlie elders of the village in question for putting lier husband, whom they had found guilty of sedition, to death — calling upon them, now that they had taken away the support of her life, to supply her and her children with bread — that eventually they ordered her to be bound hand and foot and cast into the waters of a neighbouring river. When visiting the silk districts of Kwang-tung in 1862, I learned on reaching the market-town of Koon-shan, that, only a few days before, the gentry and elders had ordered twenty-one men who had attacked and captured two large cai-go boats heavily laden with silk, to be put to death by drowning. These unfortunate wretches were, it appeared, all bound together before they were plunged into the stream.

Although the penal code of China is extremely severe, especially in cases which touch the safety and stability of the throne, or the peace of the empire, it has many very humane traits. Thus it is in accordance with the tenor of the laws for a judge to grant a free pardon to an only son who has been sentenced to undergo transportation for a definite or indefinite period of time. This pardon is, of course, granted to the delinquent for the sake of his parents. Again, should three brothers, the only sons of their parents, com- bine in committing a crime deserving of decapitation or trans- portation, the two youngest would on conviction be punished according to law, whilst the first-born would be pardoned, though equally guilty. Should a father be transported, the law allows his son to accompany him into exile. AVives, also, whose husbands are convicts, are, by the same merciful consideration, allowed to sojourn with their husbands in tlie penal settlements. The imperial clemency is also extended to all offenders who are idiots, or who have mutilated or crippled bodies, and are

74 CfllXA. [chap hi.

thereby rendered unequal to labour. Further, the law does not admit of convicts being sent into banishment during the first month of the year, which is regarded as a month of rest and indulgence to all ; nor yet during the sixth menth, as the heat of summer is then supposed to have reached its height, and travelling is in consequence attended with much personal risk and inconvenience.

In this and the preceding chapter I have described much that must have filled the reader with pain and indignation. No one can read unmoved, of courts of justice where iniquity and reckless cruelty prevail — of officials whose venality is a pit in which many an innocent family has perished — of gaols in which human beings are penned in dens of noisome filth and squalor, with, in too many instances, barely such necessaries as suffice to keep life in their emaciated bodies — of barbarous punishments which recall the darkest pages of European history. It is a very obvious reflection, but I cannot close without remark- ing how profoundly grateful we ought to be that our heritage has fallen to us in a land whose judges are incorrupt, and whose laws are imbued with the spirit of that Word which teaches rulers and people alike " to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God."

CHAPTEE IV

RELIGION.

From various passages in the writings wliicli the Chinese regard as canonical, it may he gathered that they were at one time favoured with a knowledge of that Being' whom to know spiritually is life eternal, and that in Him, whom they worship as Wang-Teen, and Avhom they speak of as Shang-Te, they worshipped God. The Shoo-King and the She-King ascribe to this Being the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and im- mutability; and the worship once rendered to Teen seems to have been in many respects similar to that of the patriarchs under the Old Testament dispensation. At the earliest period when we have any accoimt of it, this primitive religion was asso- ciated with an idolatrous worship of the spirits of departed ancestors, and of spirits supposed to preside over the various operations of KTature. In this corrupt development the Chinese almost entirely lost sight of that God whom they had acknow- ledged as the Creator of the universe and its Supreme Euler. With this religion, which still holds its place as the national or established religion of the land, the name of Confucius is asso- ciated. It is to him as the compiler and editor of what have been termed the canonical books of the Chinese, and the most illus- trious and influential teacher of morality they have produced, that its permanence as a distinct system and its supremacy in the state over the religions by which it is surrounded are mainly due. ^ Confucius flourished in the latter half of the sixth century before Christ — a century remarkable in the East for its spiritmil

76 CHINA. [ciiAP.

and intellectual activity. Among his own countrymen, Laou-tsze tlie founder of Taovnsm, and among the Greeks, Pythagoras, were propounding philosophical systems which in some points bear a curious resemblance to each other. In India Buddha was successfully promulgating his new doctrines. Tlie birth of Confucius took place in the year 551 B.C. in Tsow, a district now of the province of Shan-tung. The Chinese never permit a sage to be born without such accompanimeuts, and it is said to have been signalized by supernatural events. The more modest account of his genealogy — for one narrative places at the head of his pedigree the Emperor Hwang-te, who flourished more than two thousand years before the Christian era — proves him to have been a scion of a ducal house, and traces his descent from a brother of Chow, the last sovereign of the Yin dynasty. Many of his ancestors were certainly ministers and soldiers of distinc- tion, and one of them especially was remarkable for liis humility and his devotion to literature. His father, Shuh Leang-heih, was a soldier of great bravery, and Confucius was the child of his second marriage, when he was upwards of seventy years of age. A story of his early years represents him as indicating the bias of his mind in his play, in which he often imitated the arrangement of sacrificial vessels, and went through ceremonial postures. At the age of fifteen he was, he tells us, devoted to learning. When he was nineteen he married. Shortly after he seems to have held his first political appointment as keeper of the stores of grain in his native principality of Loo. In the fol- lowing year he was put in charge of the public fields and lands. His reputation soon spread among the states into which the kingdom was divided, and subsequently during a public career which extended over fifty years, he received invitations from various courts to hold offices, Avhich his self-respect — a feature not less conspicuous in his character than his genuine humility ^ — often induced him to decline. Notwithstanding the love of pleasure in princes, and the machinations of the courtiers by whom he was opposed, he rendered substantial services in his various offices; but his official influence was entirely subordinate to that which he exercised as the recognized authority upon all questions relating to the early hi&toiy of the empire, and as the

IV.] RELIGION.-CONFUCIANISM. 77

eloquent expounder of those great moral principles wliicli his historical studies had convinced him should form the basis of legislation. He luid begun early in life — in his twenty-second year — to labour as a public teacher, and he succeeded in making himself the centre of a very large circle of disciples, whose devotion is a proof of his extraordinary force of character, and of the moral excellence of his life. His reputation was such that he is said to have had three thousand disciples. From these he selected seventy-two, wliom he divided into four classes. He set apart the first for the study of morals ; the second was required to devote itself to the art of reasoning; the third to devising the best forms of government ; and the fourth to exercising the power of public teaching.

In his constant endeavour to promote in the mind of the nation a reverent regard for those principles by which the great emperors Yaou and Shun had been directed nearly two thousand years before, Confucius devoted himself to reducing the tradi- tions and rough records of antiquity into a perfect form, and he succeeded before his death in compiling and editing what have been termed the Five Canonical Books of the Chinese, that is, the five "King" which they reverence as embodying the truth upon the highest subjects from those whom they venerate as holy and wise men. These books consist of: —

I. The Yih-King, or Book of Changes, a cosmological and ethical treatise, the crude beginnings of which are ascribed to Fuh-he, the reputed founder of Chinese civilization.

II. The Shoo-King, or Book of Historical Documents, in which we have an account of the reigns of Yaou and Shun, and of the dynasties of Hea and Shang, as also of many of tlie sovereigns of Chow. The narrative frequently assumes the form of a dialogue, and contains much of a didactic nature.

III. The She-King, or Book of Poetry, a collection of poems to which Confucius attached great value as a means of moulding the national character.

IV. The Le-ke, or Eecord of Kites. This is a national cere- monial, and the Chinese consider the observance of its cere- monies and usages to be essential to the maintenance of social order and the promotion of virtue.

78 CHINA. [chap.

V. Cli'im Ts'ew, or Spring and Autumn, a history of his time, and of several reigns immediately preceding it, the title being derived from the events of every year being arranged under the names of the seasons, two of which are named by synecdoche for the whole four.

The first four, "King," are said to have been compiled and edited by Confucius. In the fourth, however, there is said to be much from later bauds. Only the fifth, " Spring and Autumn," is an original work by the sage himself.

The four SJioos, or writings rank next to these books in the estimation of the Chinese. In three of these, the Lun-Yu, or Digested Conversations between Confucius and his disciples ; the Ta Heo, or Great Learning ; and the Cliung Yung, or Doctrine of the Mean, we have a record of his doctrines and sayings, by his disciples. Tlie fourth of the SJioos consists of the works of Mencius, a celebrated writer of the Confucian school, who died B.C. 317.

When death was removing him from the scene of his labours Confucius must have felt that his efforts for his country had been crowned with but scanty success. He died at the age of seventy-four, leaving the land for which he had lived more than ever the prey of the evils which he had vainly endea- voured to extirpate. "The kings," he said on his death-bed, " will not hearken to my doctrines. I am no longer, therefore, of service upon earth, and it is time for me to quit it." After his death his name was, as to the present day it continues to be, held in the highest veneration by all classes of society.^ The tenets of other ancient philosophical schools have been super-

^ To this statement there was one notable exception. "When, towards the close of the third century, Che Hwangte — a manof inordinate ambition — had succeeded in establishing the supremacy of the Tsin dynasty, he ordered the sacred books which Confucius had written to be destroyed, in order that they might not suggest an unfavourable comparison between his own and former reigns. This order was tremblingly obeyed — the Yih-King alone being exempted from the general destruction, as it was not a historical work. It was then customary, as it is now, for the literati to commit to memory the writings of their favourite philosophers, and as they naturally showed themselves hostile to his rule, this Yandal completed his infamous scheme by putting more than four hundred of them to death. Under succeeding sovereigns, however, and especially under the auspices of the Emperor Han-ou-te, these lost works were successfully recovered or restored.

IV.] RELIGION.— CONFU(.'IANISM. 79

seded, but those which came from tlje lips of Confucius are to- day read, admired, and embraced by a large portion of the great human family. Throughout the empire his works are regarded as the standard of religious, moral, and political wisdom. It is only by a knowledge of them that literary and political dis- tinction can be won ; and filial piety, which after the death of parents assumes the form of ancestral worship, must be con- ■sidered the central doctrine of his system, and regarded at this hour as the national religion of the Chinese.

Although Confucius has sometimes been ranked with founders of religion like Buddha and Mohammed, this is rather owing to his labours on the "King," and to his extraordinary repu- tation as a moral teacher, than to any claim wdiich he has to be considered as a distinctively religious teacher. There are (.'ertainly no grounds for supposing that he added any new doctrine either to the metaphysical speculations or the rehgious system of these books. In his recorded sayings, there is no information as to his views, either on the subject of man's creation, or of the future which awaits him beyond the grave. On the contrary, we learn in the three Shoos — in which his disciples have done for the Chinese sage what Boswell did for Dr. Johnson — that his talk was not about religious questions, but about history, poetry, and the rules of propriety, and above all about whatever concerned the growth of social virtue in the individual or the state. The providential government of an overruling Providence was recognized by Confucius. He taught that in this world the good are rewarded and the bad punished. On one occasion, when in danger from the fury of the people of K'wang, who mistook him for an old enemy of theirs — a tax- gather— he made the memorable declaration : — " After the death of King Wan, was not the cause of truth lodged here in me ? Had Heaven wished to let this cause perish, I, a future mortal, could not have got such a relation to that cause. So long as Heaven does not let the cause of truth perish, what can the people of K'wang do to me ? "

Confucius evidently attached great importance to the solemn ]niblic worship of Shang-Te, by the head of the state in person assisted by his ministers. " By the ceremonies of the sacrifices

80 CHINA. [chap.

to heaven and earth," we find him saying to his disciples, when he is speaking of the wisdom of the ancients, " they served God : and by the ceremonies of the ancestral temple they sacrificed to their ancestors. He who understands the ceremonies of the sacrifices to heaven and earth, and the meaning of the several sacrifices to ancestors, would find the government of a kingdom as easy as to look into his palm." It has been sometimes repre- sented that in their worsliip of heaven and earth, the Chinese adore as two separate divinities, the physical firmament and the solid globe. There is sufficient evidence, however, in their literature that this gross view of their religion is erroneous ; and the passage which I have just quoted show\s that in the mind of Confucius, the object of their adoration in the worship of heaven and earth, is the Supreme Being. Indeed in the year 1700 — after the idolatrous elements of their religion had been at work for nearly four thousand years — the monotheism of the Chinese was the subject of official affirmation by the Emperor Kanghe to Pope Alexander VII. In the edict which he then issued, he made the singular statement tliat the " religious customs of China are political." In the passage which we quoted from the Doctrine of the Mean, Confucius looks at the great religious ceremonies of the nation from a political point of view. It is doubtless to the fact that he fell so far short of realising man's position here as a fallen spiritual being, whose relations are directly with a personal God, and have their issues in eternity, that the marked absence of religious sentiment among the Chinese at the present day is in a large measure owing. His dim and imperfect knowledge on a subject of such vital im- portance, cannot be a matter of surprise to us when we reflect that, like Socrates and Plato, lie was unenlightened by that Divine Eevelation which has disclosed to man the great end of his creation, and enabled him to look forward to death, not merely with submission, but with joyful anticipation and hope.

Identifying himself with all that belonged to the intellectual condition of liis age, Confucius virtually constituted himself the interpreter of the national religion, but his work lay essentially in tlie social and political world. His mind was intensely

IV.] RELIGION.— CONFUCIANISM. 81

practical. His attitude towards religion was tluit of one who held it folly to waste, in vain attempts to light up the obscurity in which the future of man is veiled, those energies which ought to be strenuously devoted to discharging the duties of life. The saint of Confucius is neither the absorbed ascetic of Buddha, nor the contemplative recluse of Laou-tsze. He is the dignified head of the well-ordered family; the dutiful and patriotic citizen who seeks after righteousness in his doings and pro- priety in his conduct, distinguished by reverence towards his parents and towards the emperor, both of whom virtually stand between him and God. But the " superior man " of Confucius is not conspicuous merely for his dutifulness and reverence. He must be possessed of sincerity, knowledge, magnanimity, and energy ; and with all his reverence for authority, Confucius held that a sovereign's claim to the allegiance of his subjects might become void through his wickedness, so that his people might be justified in dethroning him.

Although his moral system is founded on self-culture, it was clearly from a social and political standpoint that he dealt with man. He spent his life in promotinga reverent recognition by those who ruled and those who were ruled, of the duties which belong to the several relations of society. Without seeking to revolu- tionize existing institutions, he endeavoured to open the eyes of his countrymen to their moral significance. " There is govern- ment," as he once put it, " when the prince is prince and the minister is minister, when the father is father and the son is son." He held it to be especially incumbent upon rulers that they should be virtuous, for the effect of their example upon the people is as that of wind upon the grass, which it bends in the direction in which it blows. But he sought to hedge up the path of each official, and indeed of every man in the state by a variety of forms and ceremonies of a nature to remind him of the duties of his position, and to strengthen in him a sense of propriety — which in his view was of the greatest im- portance.

The doctrine most prominent in his system is that of filial piety. In the family he found the prototype of the state ; and to this day the Chinese government is only to be understood

VOL. I. G

82

CHINA. [<-HAP.

through the relation which exists between a father and his son. Tn recognition of the sanctity of fatherhood, the child reverences the parent ; the parent the magistrate ; and the magistrate the emperor.^ The " superior man," Confucius taught, " bends his attention to what is radical. That being established, all right practical courses naturally grow up. Filial piety and paternal submission !— are they not the root of all benevolent actions ? " '^ In his scholarly and exhaustive prolegomena to his translations of the Chinese classics. Dr. Legge relates an incident which illustrates the strong vein of practical common sense which distinguished the philosopher. About the year 500 B.C., while Confucius occupied the post of Minister of Crime at the court of Loo, a father against whom his son had been guilty of some offence, asked for the punishment of the latter at the hands of the law. Exercising his discretion, however, the new Minister of Crime, from whom no doubt such a decision was little expected, gave orders that not only the son, but the father also, should be put in prison. The head of the Ke is said to have remonstrated. "You are playing with me, Sir Minister of Crime. Formerly you told me that in a state, or a family filial duty was the first thing to be insisted upon. What hinders you now from putting to death this unfilial son, as an example to all ^the people ? " Whereupon Confucius replied with a sigh, "When superiors fail in their duty, and then proceed to put their inferiors to death, it is not right. This father has not taught his son to be filial ; to grant his prayer would be to murder the innocent. The manners of the age have long been in a melancholy condition ; we cannot expect the people not to be transgressing the laws."

As one of the fruits of the teaching of Confucius, we find that singular prominence is still given to the doctrine of filial piety. No one T believe can have resided in China

1 To teach the people their duties to their parents and their rulers it is provided that the magistrates of cities and towns and the elders of villages shall, on the first and fifteenth days of each month, read aloud in the public halls, with which cities, towns, and even villages are provided, certain portions of the Book of Sacred Instructions.

■ ^ The Chinese Classics, translated - into Ennjlish . By James Legge, D.D. Confucian Analects, h.'\.ch. \\. 2

IV.] RELT(;i()N.-coNrrciANrs:\i. 83

without noting the marked respect which children pay to their parents and guardians. Their filial piety manifests itself not only in the ordinary duties, Init in signal instances of self-denial. It is quite usual for sons to go to prison, and into banishment, for offences committed by their parents. In 18G2, I found in the district city of Tsung-fa, a youth suffering incarceration in the stead of his grandfather, who had been committed to prison for bankruptcy. Availing itself of this sentiment, the government seizes the parents of offenders when it is unable to effect the capture of the offenders themselves. I may mention the case of a Chinese assistant or overseer on board a foreign store-ship at Kuin- sing-moon, who hastened at once to surrender, when he heard that his parents had been imprisoned at Canton because he w^as suspected of having taken part with the rebels in 1854. Of course the parents were liberated, but the son was decapi- tated within forty-eight hours after his surrender. One of the most striking acts of Chinese filial devotion is cutting a piece of fiesh from the thigh or arm, in order that it may be prepared with other ingredients as a restorative for a parent in extreme cases of sickness. Such acts of piety are not very unusual. At Pit-kong in the county of Shun-tuk, I was acquainted with a youth who had cut a large piece of flesh from his arm out of devotion to his mother, who was supposed to be suffering from an incurable disease. He was evidently proud of the scar which remained. At the silk town of Yung-ak in the same district there was living, in the year 1864, an old woman of the clan or family Ho, whose recovery from a sickness which threatened to prove fatal was attributed to her daughter-in-law, who had cut a piece of flesh from her arm to supply the restorative. That such acts are encouraged by the government is evident from this extract which we quote from the Fekin Gazette of July 5, 1870 :—

" Ma-Hsin-Yi, the Governor-General of the two Kiangs (Kiang-man and Kiang-si), memorializes the throne to the effect that a young girl of Kiang-ning Fu cut off two joints of one of her fingers, and put the flesh thereof into the medicine which her mother was taking for a disease which the physicians had

G 2

84 CHINA. [CHAP.

pronounced incurable. The traditional and orthodox Chinese custom, for which (as the memorial says) there are numerous precedents even in recent years, is to cut off a portion of the flesh of the thigh. This the young girl, aged only fifteen, at first actually attempted to do, but had not either strength or courage to complete the operation. The governor-general indulges in boundless laudations of this act of filial piety, which had of course its reward in the immediate recovery of the mother. He begs that the emperor will bestow some exemplary reward on the child, such as the erection of a triumphal arch in the neighbourhood to commemorate the act. By this means," he says, " filial piety all over the world will receive encourage- ment."

It is no exaggeration to say that to the tenacious hold which the teaching of Confucius has enabled this doctrine — which is the foundation of order in the state — to take upon the mind of this people is due to a large extent its wonderful national longevity. It is impossible not to ask how China has contrived to outlive the nations of antiquity with which she was con- temporary, the ruined masses or scattered fragments of whose " Eternal Babylon," " Eternal Mneveh," and " Eternal Thebes," are all that remain to us of their vanished grandeur. It would seem as if in their keeping of the fifth commandment the Chinese had found the blessing which God has attached to its fulfilment. To this people by whom God himself has been very much forgotten, but by whom this law written in their hearts, and preached with such power by one so essentially their representative man, has been exalted and honoured. He has granted length of days in the land wdiich He has given them.

Upon the broad basis of this doctrine of fiKal piety, Confucius may be said to have re-established the superstructure of ances- tral worship — a form of worship which more than any other feature of the ancient religion of the Chinese, or of the religions which now flourish by its side, has taken hold of the national mind. Through the length and breadth of the land there is not a dwelling which does not contain a shrine or altar before w^hich, morning and evening, adoration is paid to departed ancestors ; and at stated seasons of the year the people may be found making pilgrimages to the tops of high hills, and to distant and

IV.] RELIGION.— CONFUCIANISM. 85

secluded vales, where, before the tombs of their ancestors, they prostrate themselves in awe and reverence. The worship thus paid is regarded as the continuation of the homage and rever- ence shown them upon earth, rather than as worship rendered to a god ; for they do not seem to consider these spirits to be invested witli attributes Avhich render them greatly superior to the conditions of being under which they existed in tlie flesh. They believe that tlie happiness of tliese spirits depends in a great measure on the worship and offerings of posterity, and that those who are careful to render it to tliem secure the favour of the gods. Sometimes they ascribe to the sj)irits of their ancestors the power of exercising a providential care over them, and of punishing them should they neglect to discharge their religious duties. On several occasions, and at all seasons of the year, I have seen Chinese at the tombs of their ancestors seek- ing to obtain oracular information. The state worship which is rendered in the Temple of Imperial Ancestors is celebrated with the greatest solemnity and splendour, and it can only be offered, like that wliich is paid to Teen, by the Emperor himself and his principal mandarins.

The worship of ancestors had its natural development in the canonization and worship of the spirits of great sages, heroes, benefactors of mankind, such as the ancient patrons of agricul- ture and silk-weaving, eminent statesmen, philanthropists, dis- tinguished physicians, and niartyrs to virtue. Conspicuous among the multitude of canonized wortliies who fill the Pan- theon of China are Kwan-te, the god of war, Confucius himself, " the most holy teacher of ancient times," Man-chaug, a god of learning, Teen-how, the Queen of Heaven, and others of whom the reader will find some account in the chapter of mytho- logical sketches.

Parallel with their worship of the spirits of ancestors and of deified mortals is that which they render to the Shin or spirits whom they suppose to preside over Nature in her different departments or operations. To sun, moon, and stars, to the elements, to the seasons, to fertile land and waving grain, to every high hill, to streams and rivers, to clouds, rain, wind, and thunder, to the four seas and to the passing year, they assign

86 CHINA. [chap.

tutelary spirits whom they worship. For them the encircling air is peopled with such beings, both good and bad. " How vast is the influence of the Kwei-shin ! " is the language in which Confucius speaks of them. " If you look for them you cannot see them ; if you listen you cannot hear them ; they embody all things; without them things cannot be. When we are com- manded to fast, purify, and dress ourselves, in order to sacrifice to them, all things appear full of them." Conspicuous amongst these are the gods of tlie land and of the grain, of the sun, moon, and stars, and Lung- Wong, the Dragon King, or Neptune of the Chinese. The belief of the Chinese in such beings reminds one of the ministry of angels and genii in which the ancient Persians — from whom the Jews are said to have borrowed much of their angel lore — had such implicit faith.

During the four thousand years over which their history extends, the Chinese have never disgraced their religion with the stories of illicit love which are conspicuous in the Greek and Eoniau mythologies; and they have never fashioned an image of that Being whom they recognize as Supreme. But the essential monotheism of their religion has suffered from a perpetual eclipse ; and, as if the one pura element in it were not already sufficiently obscured by creature worship, the people have been virtually driven into idolatry by the jealousy with which the worship of Wang-Teen has been confined to the emperor and his court. In the present day no very sharp lines are drawn between the national gods of the Chinese and those of Taouism and Buddhism, and the people are often guided in their superstition simply by the reputation which an idol enjoys, or the supposed efficacy of certain rites.

Another cause of the uncertainty of their monotheism is to be found in the materialistic speculations of the school of Confucianists who flourished in the Soong dynasty A.D. 960- 1271. These philosophers — the most prominent of whom was Choo-foo-tsze, who died ad, 1200 — fixing upon the crude specu- lations of the Yih-King as their point of departure, endeavoured to explain the creation of the universe. Without explaining his meaning, Confucius had said that the Tae-Keih or Great Ex- treme was at the beginning of all things, and into this, as an

IV.] KELIGIUX.— CONFL'CIANISM. 87

ultimate principle, they resolved the personal God of the Shoo- King and She-King. I need not attempt to discuss their precise position among philosophers. It is sufficient to state that the practical effect of their speculations was to pervert the body of the Utcrati to materialism or atheism.

In the midst of conflicting views and systems, the Chinese are unanimous in the reverence with which they continue to regard Confucius ; and, as their religion is rather a body of ceremonies than a system of doctrine, we may gather a clearer idea of it from the worship which is paid to this deified philoso- pher. Services are held in his honour twice a month. He is worshipped M'ith great solemnity by all the mandarins, civil and military, throughout the empire, in the middle months of spring and autumn of each year. At Pekin the worship is led by the emperor in person, and in a provincial capital by the governor-general. For the two days preceding the ceremony the mandarins are supposed to fast. On the eve of the solem- nity, a bullock, and several sheep and pigs, are conducted in procession with banners and bands of music to the temple of Confucius, by an official attired in court costume. There the animals are paraded before the altar, on which incense is kept burning in honour of the occasion. When the butcher, kneeling knife in hand before the altar, has received the command to rise and slay the victims, they are conducted to an adjoining slaughter-house. Their carcasses, shorn of hair and wool,^ are afterwards conveyed to the temple, and arranged on the high altar as expiatory sacrifices, if we may use the expression, in honour of the great heathen philosopher. Thank-offerings, con- sisting of flowers, fruits, and wines, in three different kinds respectively, together with nine different kinds of silk fabrics — all in white — are laid upon the same altar. On the succeeding day, the emperor or the governor-general who is to act as Ponti- fex Maximiis — Shing-Si-Koon is the term used by the Chinese — proceeds to the temple. He is first called upon to wasli his hands. When he has done so, and when the civil and military officers of the district, who on such occasions Nvear court costume, have arranged themselves in solemn order with their faces

' The blood, hair, and wool of the victims are buried in the earth.

88 CHINA. [PHAP.

turned towards the altar of the sage — the civil officers on the east, and the military officers on the west, side of the grand quadrangle of the temple — a master of ceremonies calls aloud " Ying-shan," or, " Eeceive the Spirit." When he has called a second time to those assembled — this time in the words " Ku- ying-shan-sok