Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Volumes 1 and 2)
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Volumes 1 and 2)-21
[191] Constables, detectives, and others, are liable to be bambooed at
intervals, generally of three or five days, until the mission on which
they are engaged has been successfully accomplished. In cases of theft
and non-restoration of the stolen property within a given time, the
detectives or constables employed may be required to make it good.
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[192] Extended by the Chinese to certain cases of simple man
slaughter.
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[193] The Cantonese believe the following to be the usual
process:—“Young children are bought or stolen at a tender age and
placed in a ch‘ing, or vase with a narrow neck, and having in this
case a moveable bottom. In this receptacle the unfortunate little
wretches are kept for years in a sitting posture, their heads outside,
being all the while carefully tended and fed.... When the child has
reached the age of twenty or over, he or she is taken away to some
distant place and ‘discovered’ in the woods as a wild man or
woman.”—China Mail, 15th May, 1878.
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[194] Meaning that it would become known to the Arbiter of life and
death in the world below, who would punish him by shortening his
appointed term of years. See The Wei-ch‘i Devil, No. CXXXI.
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[195] One important preliminary consists in the exchange of the four
pairs of characters which denote the year, month, day, and hour of the
births of the contracting parties. It remains for a geomancer to
determine whether these are in harmony or not; and a very simple
expedient for backing out of a proposed alliance is to bribe him to
declare that the nativities of the young couple could not be happily
brought together.
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[196] The bridegroom invariably fetches the bride from her father’s
house, conveying her to his home in a handsomely-gilt red sedan-chair,
closed in on all sides, and accompanied by a band of music.
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[197] The Censorate is a body of fifty-six officials, whose duty it is
to bring matters to the notice of the Emperor which might otherwise
have escaped attention; to take exception to any acts, including those
of His Majesty himself, calculated to interfere with the welfare of
the people; and to impeach, as occasion may require, the high
provincial authorities, whose position, but for this wholesome check,
would be almost unassailable. Censors are popularly termed the “ears
and eyes” of the monarch.
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[198] In the Book of Rites (I. Pt. i. v. 10), which dates, in its
present form, only from the first century B.C., occurs this passage,
“With the slayer of his father, a man may not live under the same
heaven;” and in the Family Sayings (Bk. X. ab init.), a work which
professes, though on quite insufficient authority, to record a number
of the conversations and apophthegms of Confucius not given in the
Lun-yü, or Confucian Gospels, we find the following course laid down
for a man whose father has been murdered:—“He must sleep upon a grass
mat, with his shield for his pillow; he must decline to take office;
he must not live under the same heaven (with the murderer). When he
meets him in the court or in the market-place, he must not return for
a weapon, but engage him there and then;” being always careful, as the
commentator observes, to carry a weapon about with him. Sir John Davis
and Dr. Legge agree in stigmatizing this as “one of the objectionable
principles of Confucius.” It must, however, be admitted that (1) a
patched-up work which appeared as we have it now from two to three
centuries after Confucius’s death, and (2) a confessedly apocryphal
work such as the Family Sayings, are hardly sufficient grounds for
affixing to the fair fame of China’s great Sage the positive
inculcation of a dangerous principle of blood-vengeance like that I
have just quoted.
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[199] The Chinese theory being that every official is responsible for
the peace and well-being of the district committed to his charge, and
even liable to punishment for occurrences over which he could not
possibly have had any control.
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[200] See No. X., note 75.
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[201] See No. X., note 78.
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[202] No man being allowed to hold office within a radius of 500 li,
or nearly 200 miles, from his native place.
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[203] This is a very common custom all over China.
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[204] Of all the Buddhist sutras, this is perhaps the favourite with
the Chinese.
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[205] Contrary to the German notion that the spirit of the dead
mother, coming back at night to suckle the child she has left behind,
makes an impress on the bed alongside the baby.
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[206] Being, of course, invisible to all except himself.
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[207] A very ancient expression, signifying “the grave,” the word
“wood” being used by synecdoche for “coffin.”
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[208] The supposed residence of Kuan-yin, the Chinese Goddess of
Mercy, she who “hears prayers” and is the giver of children.
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[209] The great Supreme Ruler, who is supposed to have absolute sway
over the various other deities of the Chinese Pantheon.
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[210] Generally spoken of as an inauspicious phenomenon.
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[211] This is the Buddhist patra, which modern writers have come to
regard as an instrumental part of the Taoist religion. See No. IV.,
note 46.
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[212] To call attention to his presence. Beggars in China accomplish
their purpose more effectually by beating a gong in the shop where
they ask for alms so loudly as to prevent the shopkeeper from hearing
his customers speak; or they vary the performance by swinging about
some dead animal tied to the end of a stick. Mendicity not being
prohibited in China, there results a system of black mail payable by
every householder to a beggars’ guild, and this frees them from the
visits of the beggars of their own particular district; many, however,
do not subscribe, but take their chance in the struggle as to who will
tire out the other first, the shopkeeper, who has all to lose, being
careful to stop short of anything like manual violence, which would
forthwith bring down upon him the myrmidons of the law, and subject
him to innumerable “squeezes.”
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[213] Sc. a “sponge.”
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[214] Said to have been introduced into China from the west by a
eunuch named San-pao during the Ming dynasty.
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[215] The women’s apartments being quite separate from the rest of a
Chinese house, male visitors consequently know nothing about their
inhabitants.
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[216] See No. XIII., note 90.
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[217] A very ancient custom in China, originating in a belief that
these birds never mate a second time. The libation is made on the
occasion of the bridegroom fetching his bride from her father’s house.
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[218] A Chinese trousseau, in addition to clothes and jewels, consists
of tables and chairs, and all kinds of house furniture and ornaments.
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[219] Which ended some sixteen hundred years ago.
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[220] Corresponding with our five “senses,” the heart taking the place
of the brain, and being regarded by Chinese doctors as the seat not
only of intelligence and the passions, but also of all sensation.
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[221] These nunneries, of which there are plenty in China, are well
worth visiting, and may be freely entered by both sexes. Sometimes
there are as many as a hundred nuns living together in one temple, and
to all appearances devoting their lives to religious exercises;
report, however, tells many tales of broken vows, and makes sad havoc
generally with the reputation of these fair vestals.
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[222] In corresponding English, this would be:—The young lady said
her name was Eloïsa. “How funny!” cried Chên, “and mine is Abelard.”
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[223] That is, she was the last to take the vows.
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[224] The usual signal that a person does not wish to take any more
wine.
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[225] This would carry him well on into the third of the years during
which Yün-ch‘i had promised to wait for him.
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[226] The celebrated lake in Hu-nan, round which has gathered so much
of the folk-lore of China.
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[227] The instrument used by masons is here meant.
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[228] The guardian angel of crows.
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[229] In order to secure a favourable passage. The custom here
mentioned was actually practised at more than one temple on the river
Yang-tsze, and allusions to it will be found in more than one serious
work.
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[230] Alluding to a legend of a young man meeting two young ladies at
Hankow, each of whom wore a girdle adorned with a pearl as big as a
hen’s egg. The young man begged them to give him these girdles, and
they did so; but the next moment they had vanished, and the girdles
too.
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[231] The text has nai-tung (“endure the winter”), for the
identification of which I am indebted to Mr. L. C. Hopkins, of H.M.’s
Consular service.
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[232] Women, of course, being excluded.
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[233] Although the Chinese do not “shake hands” in our sense of the
term, it is a sign of affection to seize the hand of a parting or
returning friend. “The Book of Rites,” however, lays down the rule
that persons of opposite sexes should not, in passing things from one
to the other, let their hands touch; and the question was gravely
put to Mencius (Book IV.) as to whether a man might even pull his
drowning sister-in-law out of the water. Mencius replied that it was
indeed a general principle that a man should avoid touching a woman’s
hand, but that he who could not make an exception in such a case would
be no better than a wolf. Neither, according to the Chinese rule,
should men and women hang their clothes on the same rack, which
reminds one of the French prude who would not allow male and female
authors to be ranged upon the same bookshelf.
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[234] The Pæonia albiflora.
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[235] The various subdivisions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms
are each believed by the Chinese to be under the sway of a ruler
holding his commission from and responsible to the one Supreme Power
or God, fully in accordance with the general scheme of supernatural
Government accepted in other and less civilized communities.
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[236] This is by no means uncommon. The debt of gratitude between
pupil and teacher is second only to that existing between child and
parent; and a successful student soon has it in his power to more than
repay any such act of kindness as that here mentioned.
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[237] Which form the unvarying curriculum of a Chinese education.
These are (1) the Four Books, consisting of the teachings of
Confucius and Mencius; and (2) the Five Canons (in the
ecclesiastical sense of the word) or the Canons of Changes, History,
Poetry, the Record of Rites, and Spring and Autumn. The Four Books
consist of:—
(1) The Book of Wisdom, attributed by Chu Hi to Confucius. It is a
disquisition upon virtue and the moral elevation of the people.
(2) The Chung Yung, or Gospel of Tzŭ Ssŭ (the grandson of
Confucius) wherein the ruling motives of human conduct are traced from
their psychological source.
(3) The Confucian Gospels, being discourses of the Sage with his
disciples on miscellaneous topics.
(4) The Gospels of Mencius.
The Canon of Changes contains a fanciful system of philosophy based
upon the combinations of eight diagrams said to have been copied from
the lines on the back of a tortoise. Ascribed to B.C. 1150.
The Canon of History embraces a period extending from the middle of
the 24th century B.C. to B.C. 721. Was edited by Confucius from then
existing documents.
The Canon of Poetry is a collection of irregular lyrics in vogue
among the people many centuries before the Christian era. Collected
and arranged by Confucius.
The Record of Rites contains a number of rules for the performance
of ceremonies and guidance of individual conduct.
Spring and Autumn consists of the annals of the petty kingdom of Lu
from 722 to 484 B.C. Is the work of Confucius himself.
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[238] See No. XXIII., note 154.
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[239] To be presented to the Emperor before taking up his post.
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[240] Hoping thus to interest Buddha in his behalf.
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[241] In accordance with Chinese usage, by which titles of nobility
are often conferred upon the dead parents of a distinguished son.
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[242] In which Peking is situated.
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[243] A common form of revenge in China, and one which is easily
carried through when the prosecutor is a man of wealth and influence.
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[244] Another favourite method of revenging oneself upon an enemy, who
is in many cases held responsible for the death thus occasioned. Mr.
Alabaster told me an amusing story of a Chinese woman who deliberately
walked into a pond until the water reached her knees, and remained
there alternately putting her lips below the surface and threatening
in a loud voice to drown herself on the spot, as life had been made
unbearable by the presence of foreign barbarians. This was during the
Taiping rebellion.
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[245] Valuables of some kind or other are often placed in the coffins
of wealthy Chinese; and women are almost always provided with a
certain quantity of jewels with which to adorn themselves in the
realms below.
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[246] One of the most heinous offences in the Chinese Penal Code.
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[247] Deference to elder brothers is held by the Chinese to be second
only in importance to filial piety.
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[248] In a volume of Chinese Sketches, published by me in 1876,
occur (p. 129) the following words:—“Occasionally a young wife is
driven to commit suicide by the harshness of her mother-in-law, but
this is of rare occurrence, as the consequences are terrible to the
family of the guilty woman. The blood-relatives of the deceased repair
to the chamber of death, and in the injured victim’s hand they place a
broom. They then support the corpse round the room, making its dead
arm move the broom from side to side, and thus sweep away wealth,
happiness, and longevity, from the accursed place for ever.”
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[249] A wife being an infinitely less important personage than a
mother in the Chinese social scale.
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[250] Literally, of hand and foot, to the mutual dependence of which
that of brothers is frequently likened by the Chinese.
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[251] Any permanent change of residence must be notified to the
District Magistrate, who keeps a running census of all persons within
his jurisdiction.
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[252] To be thus beforehand with one’s adversary is regarded as primâ
facie evidence of being in the right.
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[253] By means of the status which a graduate of the second degree
would necessarily have.
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[254] A sham entertainment given by the Fu-t‘ai, or governor, to all
the successful candidates. I say sham, because the whole thing is
merely nominal; a certain amount of food is contracted for, but there
is never anything fit to eat, most of the money being embezzled by the
underlings to whose management the banquet is entrusted.
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[255] Much more so than at present.
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[256] Thereby invoking the Gods as witnesses. A common method of
making up a quarrel in China is to send the aggrieved party an olive
and a piece of red paper in token that peace is restored. Why the
olive should be specially employed I have in vain tried to
ascertain.
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[257] Of course there is no such thing as spelling, in our sense of
the term, in Chinese. But characters are frequently written with too
many or too few strokes, and may thus be said to be incorrectly spelt.
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[258] A ceremonial visit made on the third day after marriage.
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[259] Contrary to all Chinese notions of modesty and etiquette.
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[260] Alluding to a well-known expression which occurs in the
Historical Record, and is often used in the sense of deriving
advantage from connection with some influential person.
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[261] Without any regard to precedence, which plays quite as important
a part at a Chinese as at a western dinner-party. In China, however,
the most honoured guest sits at (what may be called) the head of the
table, the host at the foot. I say “what may be called,” as Chinese
dining-tables are almost invariably square, and position alone
determines which is the head and which the foot. They are usually made
to accommodate eight persons; hence the fancy name “eight-angel
table,” in allusion to the eight famous angels, or Immortals, of the
Taoist religion. (See No. V., note 48.) Occasionally, round tables are
used; especially in cases where the party consists of some such number
as ten.
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[262] It is almost impossible to give in translation the true spirit
of a Chinese antithetical couplet. There are so many points to be
brought out, each word of the second line being in opposition both in
tone and sense to a corresponding word in the first, that anything
beyond a rough rendering of the idea conveyed would be superfluous in
a work like this. Suffice it to say that Miao has here successfully
capped the verse given; and the more so because he has introduced,
through the medium of “sword” and “shattered vase,” an allusion to a
classical story in which a certain Wang Tun, when drunk with wine,
beat time on a vase with his sword, and smashed the lip.
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[263] This is the vel ego vel Cluvienus style of satire, his own
verse having been particularly good.
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[264] Many candidates, successful or otherwise, have their verses and
essays printed, and circulate them among an admiring circle of
friends.
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[265] Accurately described in Tylor’s Primitive Culture, Vol. I., p.
75:—“Each player throws out a hand, and the sum of all the fingers
shown has to be called, the successful caller scoring a point;
practically each calls the total before he sees his adversary’s hand.”
The insertion of the word “simultaneously” after “called” would
improve this description. This game is so noisy that the Hong-kong
authorities have forbidden it, except within certain authorised
limits, between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.—Ordinance No. 2 of
1872.
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[266] This delicate stroke is of itself sufficient to prove the truth
of the oft-quoted Chinese saying, that all between the Four Seas are
brothers.
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[267] The “substitution” theory by which disembodied spirits are
enabled to find their way back to the world of mortals. A very
interesting and important example of this belief occurs in a later
story (No. CVII.), for which place I reserve further comments.
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[268] Such is the dominant belief regarding the due selection of an
auspicious site, whether for a house or grave; and with this
superstition deeply ingrained in the minds of the people, it is easy
to understand the hold on the public mind possessed by the
pseudo-scientific professors of Fêng-Shui, or the geomantic art.
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[269] The bridegroom leads off the procession, and the bride follows
shortly afterwards in an elaborately-gilt sedan-chair, closed in on
all sides so that the occupant cannot be seen.
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[270] Here again we have the common Chinese belief that fate is fate
only within certain limits, and is always liable to be altered at the
will of heaven.
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[271] This is another curious phase of Chinese superstition, namely,
that each individual is so constituted by nature as to be able to
absorb only a given quantity of good fortune and no more, any
superfluity of luck doing actual harm to the person on whom it falls.
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[272] The word here used is fan, generally translated “barbarian.”
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[273] The disciples of Shâkyamuni Buddha. Same as Arhans.
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[274] There is no limit as to age in the competitive examinations of
China. The San-tzŭ-Ching records the case of a man who graduated
at the mature age of eighty-two.
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[275] In 1665, that is between fourteen and fifteen years previous to
the completion of the Liao Chai.
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[276] See No. I., note 36.
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[277] Religion and the drama work hand in hand in China.
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[278] Always the first step in the prosecution of a graduate. In this
case, the accused was also an official.
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[279] Of what date, our author does not say, or it would be curious to
try and hunt up the official record of this case as it appeared in the
government organ of the day. The unfortunate man was in all
probability insane.
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[280] A.D. 1675. His full name was Wu San-kuei.
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[281] Such is the literal translation of a term which I presume to be
the name of some particular kind of jade, which is ordinarily
distinguished from the imitation article by its comparative
coldness.
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[282] A.D. 1682; that is, three years after the date of our author’s
preface. See .
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[283] A curious note here follows in the original, not however from
the pen of the great commentator, I Shih-shih:—“In 1696 a severe
earthquake occurred at P‘ing-yang, and out of seventeen or eighteen
cities destroyed, only one room remained uninjured—a room inhabited
by a certain filial son. And thus, when in the crash of a collapsing
universe, filial piety is specially marked out for protection, who
shall say that God Almighty does not know black from white?”
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[284] Or “Director of Studies.”
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[285] The Chinese distinguish five degrees of homicide, of which
accidental homicide is one (see Penal Code, Book VI.) Thus, if a gun
goes off of itself in a man’s hand and kills a bystander, the holder
of the gun is guilty of homicide; but were the same gun lying on a
table, it would be regarded as the will of Heaven. Similarly, a man is
held responsible for any death caused by an animal belonging to him;
though in such cases the affair can usually be hushed up by a money
payment, no notice being taken of crimes in general unless at the
instigation of a prosecutor, at whose will the case may be
subsequently withdrawn. Where the circumstances are purely accidental,
the law admits of a money compensation.
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[286] Women in China ride à califourchon.
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[287] Which, although tolerably stout and strong, is hardly capable of
sustaining a man’s weight.
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[288] The Chinese acknowledge seven just causes for putting away a
wife. (1) Bad behaviour towards the husband’s father and mother. (2)
Adultery. (3) Jealousy. (4) Garrulity. (5) Theft. (6) Disease. (7)
Barrenness. The right of divorce may not, however, be enforced if the
husband’s father and mother have died since the marriage, as thus it
would be inferred that the wife had served them well up to the time of
their death; or if the husband has recently risen to wealth and power
(hence the saying, “The wife of my poverty shall not go down from my
hall”); or thirdly, if the wife’s parents and brothers are dead, and
she has no home in which she can seek shelter.
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[289] This elegant simile is taken from a song ascribed to Pan
Chieh-yü, a favourite of the Emperor Ch‘êng Ti of the Han dynasty,
written when her influence with the Son of Heaven began to wane. I
venture to reproduce it here.
“O fair white silk, fresh from the weaver’s loom;
Clear as the frost, bright as the winter’s snow!
See! friendship fashions out of thee a fan,
Round as the round moon shines in heaven above.
At home, abroad, a close companion thou,
Stirring at every move the grateful gale.
And yet I fear, ah, me! that autumn chills,
Cooling the dying summer’s torrid rage,
Will see thee laid neglected on the shelf,
All thought of by-gone days, like them, by-gone.”
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[290] Signifying that it would be impossible for him to enter.
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[291] The result of A-ch‘ien’s depredations as a rat.
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[292] I have already discussed the subject of drunkenness in China
(Chinese Sketches, pp. 113, 114), and shall not return to it here,
further than to quote a single sentence, to which I adhere as firmly
now as when the book in question was published:—“Who ever sees in
China a tipsy man reeling about a crowded thoroughfare, or lying with
his head in a ditch by the side of some country road?”
It is not, however, generally known that the Chinese, with their usual
quaintness, distinguish between five kinds of drunkenness, different
people being differently affected, according to the physical
constitution of each. Wine may fly (1) to the heart, and produce
maudlin emotions; or (2) to the liver, and incite to pugnacity; or (3)
to the stomach, and cause drowsiness, accompanied by a flushing of the
face; or (4) to the lungs, and induce hilarity; or (5) to the kidneys,
and excite desire.
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[293] “The very name of Buddha, if pronounced with a devout heart
1,000 or 5,000 times, will effectually dispel all harassing thoughts,
all fightings within and fears without.”—Eitel.
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[294] A religious and social offence of the deepest dye, sure to
entail punishment in the world to come, even if the perpetrator
escapes detection in this life.
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[295] The Buddhist rosary consists of 108 beads, which number is the
same as that of the compartments in the Phrabat or sacred footprint
of Buddha.
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[296] It here occurred to me that the word hitherto translated “well”
should have been “shaft;” but the commentator refers expressly to the
Tso Chuan, where the phrase for “a dry well,” as first used, is so
explained. We must accordingly fall back on the supposition that our
author has committed a trifling slip.
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[297] See No. LI., note 285.
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[298] That is, as to whether or not there were extenuating
circumstances, in which case no punishment would be inflicted.
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[299] Such is the invariable result of confinement in a Chinese
prison, unless the prisoner has the wherewithal to purchase food.
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[300] The provincial examiner for the degree of bachelor.
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[301] To worship at his tomb.
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[302] See No. XLIII., note 248.
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[303] See No. LIII., note 288.
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[304] Such is the Chinese idiom for what we should call “bitter”
tears. This phrase is constantly employed in the notices of the death
of a parent sent round to friends and relatives.
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[305] A disgraceful state of things, in the eyes of the Chinese. See
the paraphrase of the Sacred Edict, Maxim 1.
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[306] An illegal form of punishment, under the present dynasty, which
authorizes only bambooing of two kinds, each of five degrees of
severity; banishment, of three degrees of duration; transportation
for life, of three degrees of distance; and death, of two kinds,
namely, by strangulation and decapitation. That torture is
occasionally resorted to by the officers of the Chinese Empire is an
indisputable fact; that it is commonly employed by the whole body of
mandarins could only be averred by those who have not had the
opportunities or the desire to discover the actual truth.
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[307] Lagerstrœmia indica.
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[308] That is, old Mr. Jen’s body had been possessed by the
disembodied spirit of Ta-ch‘êng’s father.
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[309] Five is considered a large number for an ordinary Chinese woman.
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[310] In order to leave some one behind to look after their graves and
perform the duties of ancestral worship. No one can well refuse to
give a son to be adopted by a childless brother.
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[311] That is, of rising to the highest offices of State.
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[312] The Chinese term used throughout is “star-man.”
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[313] Chinese official life is divided into nine grades.
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[314] Prostrating himself three times, and knocking his head on the
ground thrice at each prostration.
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[315] The retinue of a high mandarin is composed as follows:—First,
gong-bearers, then bannermen, tablet-bearers (on which tablets are
inscribed the titles of the official), a large red umbrella, mounted
attendants, a box containing a change of clothes, bearers of regalia,
a second gong, a small umbrella or sunshade, a large wooden fan,
executioners, lictors from hell, who wear tall hats; a mace (called a
“golden melon”), bamboos for “bambooing,” incense-bearers, more
attendants, and now the great man himself, followed by a body-guard of
soldiers and a few personal attendants, amounting in all to nearly one
hundred persons, many of whom are mere street-rowdies or beggars,
hired at a trifling outlay when required to join what might otherwise
be an imposing procession. The scanty retinues of foreign officials
in China still continue to excite the scorn of the populace, who love
to compare the rag-tag and bob-tail magnificence of their own
functionaries with the modest show even of H.B.M.’s Minister at
Peking.
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[316] A land journey of about three months, ending in a region which
the Chinese have always regarded as semi-barbarous.
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[317] This use of paper money in China is said to date from A.D. 1236;
that is, during the reign of the Mongol Emperor, Ogdai Khan.
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[318] This contingency is much dreaded by the Chinese.
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[319] A yojana has been variously estimated at from five to nine
English miles.
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