Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. 2 (of 2)-12
[250] On this day, annually dedicated to kite-flying, picnics, and
good cheer, everybody tries to get up to as great an elevation as
possible, in the hope, as some say, of thereby prolonging life. It was
this day—4th October, 1878—which was fixed for the total
extermination of foreigners in Foochow.
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[251] See No. XXVI., note 180.
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[252] One of the prêtas, or the fourth of the six paths (gâti) of
existence; the other five being (1) angels, (2) men, (3) demons, (5)
brute beasts, and (6) sinners in hell. The term is often used
colloquially for a self-invited guest.
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[253] An imaginary building in the Infernal Regions.
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[254] Mencius reckoned “to play wei-ch‘i for money” among the five
unfilial acts.
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[255] See No. LV., note 310; and No. XCIV., note 137.
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[256] That is, in carrying out the obligations he had entered into,
such as conducting the ceremonies of ancestral worship, repairing the
family tombs, &c.
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[257] The long flowing robe is a sign of respectability which all but
the very poorest classes love to affect in public. At the port of
Haiphong, shoes are the criterion of social standing; but, as a
rule, the well-to-do native merchants prefer to go barefoot rather
than give the authorities a chance of exacting heavier squeezes, on
the strength of such a palpable acknowledgment of wealth.
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[258] See No. I., note 36.
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[259] See No. LVI., note 317; and No. XCVII., note 150.
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[260] The lictor had no right to divulge his errand when he first met
the cloth merchant, or to remove the latter’s name from the top to the
bottom of the list.
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[261] The clay image makers of Tientsin are wonderfully clever in
taking likenesses by these means. Some of the most skilful will even
manipulate the clay behind their backs, and then, adding the proper
colours, will succeed in producing an exceedingly good resemblance.
They find, however, more difficulty with foreign faces, to which they
are less accustomed in the trade.
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[262] See No. LXI., note 346.
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[263] See No. LXIV., note 18.
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[264] Such is the officially authorised method of determining a
doubtful relationship between a dead parent and a living child,
substituting a bone for the clay image here mentioned.
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[265] “In various savage superstitions the minute resemblance of soul
to body is forcibly stated.”—Myths and Myth-makers, by John Fiske,
p. 228.
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[266] An important point in Chinese etiquette. It is not considered
polite for a person in a sitting position to address an equal who is
standing.
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[267] By becoming his son and behaving badly to him. See No. CX., note
190, and the text to which it refers.
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[268] See No. CXXXI., note 250.
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[269] The story is intended as a satire on those puffed-up dignitaries
who cannot even go to a picnic without all the retinue belonging to
their particular rank. See No. LVI., note 315.
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[270] See No. XXIII., note 152.
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[271] The examiner for the bachelor’s, or lowest, degree.
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[272] The Chinese never cut the tails of their horses or mules.
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[273] One of the feudal Governors of by-gone days.
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[274] A Chinese Landseer.
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[275] Advertisements of these professors of physiognomy are to be seen
in every Chinese city.
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[276] In order to make some show for the public eye.
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[277] See No. LXIV., note 18.
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[278] A doctor of any repute generally has large numbers of such
certificates, generally engraved on wood, hanging before and about his
front door. When I was stationed at Swatow, the writer at Her
Majesty’s Consulate presented one to Dr. E. J. Scott, the resident
medical practitioner, who had cured him of opium smoking. It bore two
principal characters, “Miraculous Indeed!” accompanied by a few
remarks, in a smaller sized character, laudatory of Dr. Scott’s
professional skill. Banners, with graceful inscriptions written upon
them, are frequently presented by Chinese passengers to the captains
of coasting steamers who may have brought them safely through bad
weather.
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[279] The story is intended as a satire upon Chinese doctors
generally, whose ranks are recruited from the swarms of half-educated
candidates who have been rejected at the great competitive
examinations, medical diplomas being quite unknown in China. Doctors’
fees are, by a pleasant fiction, called “horse-money;” and all
prescriptions are made up by the local apothecary, never by the
physician himself.
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[280] This would be exactly at the hottest season.
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[281] The Jupiter Pluvius of the neighbourhood.
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[282] A sneer at the superstitious custom of praying for good or bad
weather, which obtains in China from the Son of Heaven himself down to
the lowest agriculturist whose interests are involved. Droughts,
floods, famines, and pestilences, are alike set down to the anger of
Heaven, to be appeased only by prayer and repentance.
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[283] Planchette was in full swing in China at the date of the
composition of these stories, more than 200 years ago, and remains so
at the present day. The character chi, used here and elsewhere for
Planchette, is defined in the Shuo Wên, a Chinese dictionary,
published A.D. 100, “to inquire by divination on doubtful topics,” no
mention being made of the particular manner in which responses are
obtained. For the purpose of writing from personal experience, I
recently attended a séance at a temple in Amoy, and witnessed the
whole performance. After much delay, I was requested to write on a
slip of paper “any question I might have to put to the God;” and,
accordingly, I took a pencil and wrote down, “A humble suppliant
ventures to inquire if he will win the Manila lottery.” This question
was then placed upon the altar, at the feet of the God; and shortly
afterwards two respectable-looking Chinamen, not priests, approached a
small table covered with sand, and each seized one arm of a forked
piece of wood, at the fork of which was a stumpy end, at right angles
to the plane of the arms. Immediately the attendants began burning
quantities of joss-paper, while the two performers whirled the
instrument round and round at a rapid rate, its vertical point being
all the time pressed down upon the table of sand. All of a sudden the
whirling movement stopped, and the point of the instrument rapidly
traced a character in the sand, which was at once identified by
several of the bystanders, and forthwith copied down by a clerk in
attendance. The whirling movement was then continued until a similar
pause was made and another character appeared; and so on, until I had
four lines of correctly-rhymed Chinese verse, each line consisting of
seven characters. The following is an almost word-for-word
translation:—
“The pulse of human nature throbs from England to Cathay,
And gambling mortals ever love to swell their gains by play;
For gold in this vile world of ours is everywhere a prize—
A thousand taels shall meet the prayer that on this altar lies.”
As the question is not concealed from view, all that is necessary for
such a hollow deception is a quick-witted versifier who can put
together a poetical response stans pede in uno. But in such matters
the unlettered masses of China are easily outwitted, and are a
profitable source of income to the more astute of their
fellow-countrymen.
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[284] An official who flourished in the eighth century of our era, and
who, for his devotion to the Taoist religion, was subsequently
canonized as one of the Eight Immortals. He is generally represented
as riding on a crane.
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[285] That is, by means of the planchette-table.
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[286] Our author was here evidently thinking of his own unlucky fate.
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[287] See No. CXXXI., note 252.
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[288] See No. LXXV., note 71.
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[289] Literally, “golden oranges.” These are skilfully preserved by
the Cantonese, and form a delicious sweetmeat for dessert.
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[290] A.D. 1573–1620, the epoch of the most celebrated “blue china.”
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[291] A satirical remark of Mencius (Book I.), used by the sage when
combating the visionary projects of a monarch of antiquity.
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[292] This disgusting process is too frequently performed by native
butchers at the present day, in order to give their meat a more
tempting appearance. Water is also blown in through a tube, to make it
heavier; and inexperienced housekeepers are often astonished to find
how light ducks and geese become after being cooked, not knowing that
the fraudulent poulterer had previously stuffed their throats as full
as possible of sand.
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[293] This was the man whose destiny it was really to die just then,
and appear before the Ruler of Purgatory.
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[294] The city of Canton boasts several “cat and dog” restaurants; but
the consumption of this kind of food is much less universal than is
generally supposed.
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[295] Not in our sense of the term. It was not death, but
decapitation, or even mutilation, from which the trader begged to be
spared. See No. LXXII., note 59.
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[296] The Chinese dog is usually an ill-fed, barking cur, without one
redeeming trait in its character. Valued as a guardian of house and
property, this animal does not hold the same social position as with
us; its very name is a by-word of reproach; and the people of Tonquin
explain their filthy custom of blackening the teeth on the ground that
a dog’s teeth are white.
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[297] A celebrated scholar and statesman, who flourished towards the
close of the Ming dynasty, and distinguished himself by his
impeachment of the powerful eunuch, Wei Chung-hsien,—a dangerous step
to take in those eunuch-ridden times.
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[298] Mr. Yang was a man of tried virtue, and had he been able to
tolerate oculo irretorto, the loss of his money, the priest would
have given him, not merely a cure for the bodily ailment under which
he was suffering, but a knowledge of those means by which he might
have obtained the salvation of his soul, and have enrolled himself
among the ranks of the Taoist Immortals. “To those, however,” remarks
the commentator, “who lament that Mr. Yang was too worldly-minded to
secure this great prize, I reply, ‘Better one more good man on earth,
than an extra angel in heaven.’”
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[299] Alchemy was widely cultivated in China during the Han dynasty by
priests of the Taoist religion, but all traces of it have now long
since disappeared.
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[300] See No. XXII., note 143.
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[301] These are used, together with a heavy wooden bâton, by the
Chinese washerman, the effect being most disastrous to a European
wardrobe.
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[302] For thus interfering with the appointments of Destiny.
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[303] To provide coffins for poor people has ever been regarded as an
act of transcendent merit. The tornado at Canton, in April, 1878, in
which several thousand lives were lost, afforded an admirable
opportunity for the exercise of this form of charity—an opportunity
which was very largely availed of by the benevolent.
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[304] For usurping its prerogative by allowing Chia to obtain
unauthorized wealth.
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[305] See No. XIV., note 97.
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[306] See No. LIV., note 293.
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[307] The God of Literature.
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[308] See No. LXXVII., note 76.
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[309] See No. XXVI., note 182.
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[310] A fleshy protuberance on the head, which is the distinguishing
mark of a Buddha.
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[311] The eighteen personal disciples of Shâkyamuni Buddha. Sixteen of
these are Hindoos, which number was subsequently increased by the
addition of two Chinese Buddhists.
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[312] Literally, “wind and water,” or that which cannot be seen and
that which cannot be grasped. I have explained the term in my Chinese
Sketches, p. 143, as “a system of geomancy, by the science of which
it is possible to determine the desirability of sites,—whether of
tombs, houses, or cities, from the configuration of such natural
objects as rivers, trees, and hills, and to foretell with certainty
the fortunes of any family, community, or individual, according to the
spot selected; by the art of which it is in the power of the
geomancer to counteract evil influences by good ones, to transform
straight and noxious outlines into undulating and propitious curves,
and rescue whole districts from the devastations of flood or
pestilence.”
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[313] As a rule, only the daughters of wealthy families receive any
education to speak of.
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[314] A reprehensible proceeding in the eyes of all respectable
Chinese, both from a moral and a practical point of view; “for when
brothers fall out,” says the proverb, “strangers get an advantage over
them.”
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[315] Chinese tradesmen invariably begin by giving short weight in
such transactions as these, partly in order to be in a position to
gratify the customer by throwing in a trifle more and thus acquire a
reputation for fair dealing.
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[316] It was only his soul that had left the house.
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[317] See No. LVI., note 322.
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[318] See No. CXXIII., note 234.
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[319] A common saying is “Foxes in the north; devils in the south,” as
illustrative of the folk-lore of these two great divisions of China.
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[320] In no country in the world is adulteration more extensively
practised than in China, the only formal check upon it being a
religious one—the dread of punishment in the world below.
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[321] The text has here a word (literally, “mud”) explained to be the
name of a boneless aquatic creature, which on being removed from the
water lies motionless like a lump of mud. The common term for a
jelly-fish is shui-mu, “water-mother.”
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[322] See No. LXXIII., note 62.
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[323] There is a widespread belief that human life in China is held at
a cheap rate. This may be accounted for by the fact that death is the
legal punishment for many crimes not considered capital in the West;
and by the severe measures that are always taken in cases of
rebellion, when the innocent and guilty are often indiscriminately
massacred. In times of tranquillity, however, this is not the case;
and the execution of a criminal is surrounded by a number of
formalities which go far to prevent the shedding of innocent blood.
The Hsi-yüan-lu (see No. XIV., note 100) opens with the words,
“There is nothing more important than human life.”
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[324] See No. LXVIII., note 30.
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[325] This story is inserted chiefly in illustration of the fact that
all countries have a record of some enormous bird such as the roc of
the “Arabian Nights.”
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[326] See No. XXXV., note 217.
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[327] The term here used refers to a creature which partakes rather of
the fabulous than of the real. The Kuang-yün says it is “a kind of
lion;” but other authorities describe it as a horse. Its favourite
food is tiger-flesh. Incense-burners are often made after the “lion”
pattern and called by this name, the smoke of the incense issuing from
the mouth of the animal, like our own gargoyles.
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[328] The Law of Inheritance, as it obtains in China, has been ably
illustrated by Mr. Chal. Alabaster in Vols. V. and VI. of the China
Review. This writer states that “there seems to be no absolutely
fixed law in regard either of inheritance or testamentary dispositions
of property, but certain general principles are recognised which the
court will not allow to be disregarded without sufficient cause.” As a
rule the sons, whether by wife or concubine, share equally, and in
preference to daughters, even though there should be a written will in
favour of the latter.
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[329] This has reference to the “seed-time and harvest.”
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[330] See No. I., note 36.
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[331] Clouds being naturally connected in every Chinaman’s mind with
these fabulous creatures, the origin of which has been traced by some
to waterspouts. See No. LXXXI., note 84.
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[332] “Boat-men” is the solution of the last two lines of the enigma.
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[333] The commentator actually supplies a list of the persons who
signed a congratulatory petition to the Viceroy on the arrest and
punishment of the criminals.
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[334] When the soul of the Emperor T‘ai Tsung of the T‘ang dynasty was
in the infernal regions, it promised to send Yen-lo (the Chinese
Yama or Pluto) a melon; and when His Majesty recovered from the
trance into which he had been plunged, he gave orders that his promise
was to be fulfilled. Just then a man, named Liu Ch‘üan, observed a
priest with a hairpin belonging to his wife, and misconstruing the
manner in which possession of it had been obtained, abused his wife so
severely that she committed suicide. Liu Ch‘üan himself then
determined to follow her example, and convey the melon to Yen-lo; for
which act he was subsequently deified. See the Hsi-yu-chi, Section
XI.
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[335] As the Chinese believe that their disembodied spirits proceed to
a world organised on much the same model as the one they know, so do
they think that there will be social distinctions of rank and
emolument proportioned to the merits of each.
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[336] A dying man is almost always moved into his coffin to die; and
aged persons frequently take to sleeping regularly in the coffins
provided against the inevitable hour by the pious thoughtfulness of a
loving son. Even in middle life Chinese like to see their coffins
ready for them, and store them sometimes on their own premises,
sometimes in the outhouses of a neighbouring temple.
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[337] See No. LXXIII., note 62.
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[338] The Chinese distinguish sixteen vital spots on the front of the
body and six on the back, with thirty-six and twenty non-vital spots
in similar positions, respectively. They allow, however, that a severe
blow on a non-vital spot might cause death, and vice versâ.
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[339] Certain classes of soothsayers are believed by the Chinese to be
possessed by foxes, which animals have the power of looking into the
future, &c., &c.
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[340] The Yü Li or Divine Panorama.
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[341] The Divine Ruler, immediately below God himself.
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[342] See No. XXVI., note 182.
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[343] See Author’s Own Record (in Introduction), note 28.
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[344] The three worst of the Six Paths.
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[345] That the state of one life is the result of behaviour in a
previous existence.
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[346] Lit.—the skin purse (of his bones).
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[347] Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
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[348] Violent deaths are regarded with horror by the Chinese. They
hold that a truly virtuous man always dies either of illness or old
age.
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[349] Good people go to Purgatory in the flesh, and are at once passed
up to Heaven without suffering any torture, or are sent back to earth
again.
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[350] The Supreme Ruler.
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[351] See No. I., note 36.
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[352] Supposed to be the gate of the Infernal Regions.
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[353] Hades.
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[354] Literally, “ten armfuls.”
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[355] To Heaven, Earth, sovereign, and relatives.
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[356] Held to be a great relief to the spirits of the dead.
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[357] It is commonly believed that if the spirit of a murdered man can
secure the violent death of some other person he returns to earth
again as if nothing had happened, the spirit of his victim passing
into the world below and suffering all the misery of a disembodied
soul in his stead. See No. XLV., note 267.
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[358] A very common trick in China. The drunken bully Lu Ta in the
celebrated novel Shui-hu saved himself by these means, and I have
heard that the Mandarin who in the war of 1842 spent a large sum in
constructing a paddle-wheel steamer to be worked by men, hoping
thereby to match the wheel-ships of the Outer Barbarians, is now
expiating his failure at a monastery in Fukien. Apropos of which, it
may not be generally known that at this moment there are small
paddle-wheel boats for Chinese passengers, plying up and down the
Canton river, the wheels of which are turned by gangs of coolies who
perform a movement precisely similar to that required on the
treadmill.
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[359] In order that their marriage destiny may not be interfered with.
It is considered disgraceful not to accept the ransom of a slave girl
of 15 or 16 years of age. See No. XXVI., note 185.
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[360] The soil of China belongs, every inch of it, to the Emperor.
Consequently, the people owe him a debt of gratitude for permitting
them to live upon it.
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[361] Do their duty as men and women.
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[362] A Chinaman may have three kinds of fathers; (1) his real father,
(2) an adopted father, such as an uncle without children to whom he
has been given as heir, and (3) the man his widowed mother may marry.
The first two are to all intents and purposes equal; the third is
entitled only to one year’s mourning instead of the usual three.
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[363] As taxes.
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[364] Visitors to Peking may often see the junkmen at T‘ung-chow
pouring water by the bucketful on to newly-arrived cargoes of Imperial
rice in order to make up the right weight and conceal the amount they
have filched on the way.
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[365] That is, with a false gloss on them.
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[366] In order to raise to nap and give an appearance of strength and
goodness.
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[367] Costermongers and others acquire certain rights to doorsteps or
snug corners in Chinese cities which are not usually infringed by
competitors in the same line of business. Chair-coolies,
carrying-coolies, ferrymen, &c., also claim whole districts as their
particular field of operations and are very jealous of any
interference. I know of a case in which the right of “scavengering” a
town had been in the same family for generations, and no one dreamt of
trying to take it out of their hands.
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[368] Chiefly alluding to small temples where some pious spirit may
have lighted a lamp or candle to the glory of his favourite P‘u-sa.
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[369] This is done either by making a figure of the person to be
injured and burning it in a slow fire, like the old practice of the
wax figure in English history; or by obtaining his nativity
characters, writing them out on a piece of paper and burning them in a
candle, muttering all the time whatsoever mischief it is hoped will
befall him.
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[370] Popularly known as the Chinese Pluto. The Indian Yama.
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[371] The celebrated “See-one’s-home Terrace.”
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[372] Regarded by the Chinese with intense disgust.
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[373] Father’s, mother’s, and wife’s families.
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[374] I know of few more pathetic passages throughout all the
exquisite imagery of the Divine Comedy than this in which the guilty
soul is supposed to look back to the home he has but lately left and
gaze in bitter anguish on his desolate hearth and broken household
gods. For once the gross tortures of Chinese Purgatory give place to
as refined and as dreadful a punishment as human ingenuity could well
devise.
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[375] A long pole tipped with a kind of birdlime is cautiously
inserted between the branches of a tree, and then suddenly dabbed on
to some unsuspecting sparrow.
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[376] If this is done in Winter or Spring the Spirits of the Hearth
and Threshold are liable to catch cold.
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[377] I presume because God sits with his face to the south.
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[378] Pious and wealthy people often give orders for an image of a
certain P‘u-sa to be made with an ounce or so of gold inside.
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[379] Primarily, because no living thing should be killed for food.
The ox and the dog are specified because of their kindly services to
man in tilling the earth and guarding his home.
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[380] The symbol of the Yin and the Yang, so ably and so poetically
explained by Mr. Alabaster in his pamphlet on the Doctrine of the
Ch‘i.
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[381] One being male and the other being female. This calls to mind
the extreme modesty of a celebrated French lady, who would not put
books by male and female authors on the same shelf.
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[382] The symbol on Buddha’s heart; more commonly known to the western
world as Thor’s Hammer.
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[383] Emblems of Imperial dignity.
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[384] Supposed to confer immortality.
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[385] Unfit for translation.
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[386] This is ingeniously expressed, as if mothers were the prime
movers in such unnatural acts.
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[387] On fête days at temples it is not uncommon to see cages full of
birds hawked about among the holiday-makers, that those who feel
twinges of conscience may purchase a sparrow or two and relieve
themselves from anxiety by the simple means of setting them at
liberty.
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[388] Bones are used in glazing porcelain, to give a higher finish.
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[389] The seven periods of seven days each which occur immediately
after a death and at which the departed shade is appeased with food
and offerings of various kinds.
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[390] To warm them.
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[391] When they are born again on earth.
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[392] Heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and kidneys.
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[393] Many millions of years.
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[394] The following recipe for this deadly poison is given in the
well-known Chinese work Instructions to Coroners:—“Take a quantity
of insects of all kinds and throw them into a vessel of any kind;
cover them up, and let a year pass away before you look at them again.
The insects will have killed and eaten each other, until there is only
one survivor, and this one is Ku.”
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[395] He who “turns the wheel;” a chakravartti raja.
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[396] The capital city of the Infernal Regions.
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[397] The ghosts of dead people are believed to be liable to death.
The ghost of a ghost is called chien.
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[398] On the “Three Systems.” See note 347, Appendix.
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[399] Women are considered in China to be far more revengeful than
men.
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[400] See Author’s Own Record (in Introduction), note 28.
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[401] While in Purgatory.
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[402] It was mentioned above that the rewards for virtue would be
continued to a man’s sons and grandsons.
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[403] That is, go to heaven.
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[404] Of meat, wine, &c.
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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
This book was published in two volumes, of which this is the second.
The first volume was released as Project Gutenberg ebook #43627,
available at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43627. Referenced
content not present in this electronic text can be found in Volume I.
The table of contents is reproduced as printed in Volume I.
Obvious typographical errors repaired. Punctuation, spelling,
hyphenation, use of accented characters and stylistic presentation
standardized when a predominant preference was found in this book.
Capitalization and hyphenation of Chinese personal names has been
standardized. Otherwise left as printed.
Missing page numbers are numbered blank pages in the original.
Footnote numbers were re-indexed in this electronic text, internal
references renumbered correspondingly.
For less common abbreviations and Roman numerals, title attributes
have been provided for the convenience of screenreader users.
Footnote 72, ‘excepting’ changed to ‘except’ (except in the matter of
light).
Footnote 92, ‘of’ added (first quarter of the present century).
Footnote 124, ‘denôuement’ changed to ‘dénouement’ (important to the
dénouement of the story).
Footnote 140, ‘dénoûement’ changed to ‘dénouement’ (The dénouement
of the Yü-chiao-li).
Footnote 172, ‘Ibu’ changed to ‘Ibn’ (Ibn Batuta writes as follows).
Footnote 324, ‘LXVII.’ changed to ‘LXVIII.’ (See No. LXVIII.).
Page 19, ‘of’ added (a number of curious stones).
Page 65, ‘be’ changed to ‘he’ (but he soon reflected).
Page 145, ‘sung’ changed to ‘sang’ (whereupon he sang the following
lines).
Page 198, ‘he’ changed to ‘be’ (that he would be only too happy).
Page 208, ‘according’ changed to ‘accordingly’ (accordingly, when the
King was looking).
Page 254, ‘Ch‘êng’ changed to ‘Ch‘ên’ (This frightened Ch‘ên).
Page 255, ‘Ch‘êng’ changed to ‘Ch‘ên’ (Ch‘ên himself was a
cattle-farmer).
Page 286, ‘servants’ changed to ‘servant’ (rode away, telling his
servant).
Page 287, ‘a Mr. Ts‘ui’ changed to ‘Mr. Ts‘ui’ (who lived next door to
Mr. Ts‘ui).
Page 41, ‘He then bit her across the neck’ should probably be ‘He then
hit her across the neck’.
