CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY. 
 
 THE 
 
 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
 COLLECTION ON CHINA 
 
 AND THE CHINESE 
 
__ Cornell University Library 
 
 DS S07.N87 
 
 ^^' iitlSffiJf. Jflngtlom and the land of the 
 
 3 1924 023 517 737 
 
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 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023517737 
 
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HON. JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG. 
 
PRINCE KUNG, CHINA. 
 
HE FLOWERY KINGDOM 
 
 AND 
 
 The band of the /Vlil(ddo 
 
 OR 
 
 CHINA, JAPAN AND COREA 
 
 CONTAINING THEIR 
 
 COMPLETE HISTORY DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME; 
 
 MANNERS, CUSTOMS AND PECULIARITIES OP 
 
 THE PEOPLE; SUPERSTITIONS; 
 
 IDOL WORSHIP; 
 
 INDUSTRIES ; NATURAL SCENERY, ETC., ETC. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A 
 
 GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE WAR 
 
 BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN, ITS CAUSES, LAND AND 
 NAVAL BATTLES, ETC., ETC. 
 
 By henry davenport NORTHROP, 
 
 Author of "Charming Bible Stories" "Peerless Reciter," etc., etc. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 HON. JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG, 
 
 LA.TE j3lMIGRICA.N" MINISTER TO THE COURT OF' CHUsTA.. 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY SUPERB ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 AMEEICAI^ BOOK CON^CERIf, 
 
 CLEVELAND. OHIO. 
 
 ^tllKi? t., I- 
 JNivph'^n Y 
 
Dssm 
 t4tn 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, by 
 
 J. R. JONES, 
 
 In the OiBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE Continent of Asia is waking up from the sleep of ages. Japan is thrilled by 
 the dawning light of Western civilization. China is learning that the world 
 moves, and she must shake off the lethargy of centuries and take her place 
 in the grand march of nations. Corea is suddenly stirred with a new life 
 and becomes a central figure in the great drama of the Orient. 
 
 Public interest in America and Europe is aroused, and all intelligent persons are 
 eager to obtain information concerning these Oriental countries from the most reliable 
 sources. This information is contained in this volume. 
 
 BOOK I treats of the History of China from the Earliest Times to the 
 Present Day. Dating back to the earliest dawn of history, China has outlived all the 
 great nations of ancient times, and is a living Empire to-day. No other nation in the 
 world has such a record. Against the flood that has swept mighty kingdoms into 
 oblivion, China has stood like an immovable rock. She is the wonder and the miracle 
 among the august Empires of the East. 
 
 The reader traces her surprising growth, her conquests and her power at a period 
 when " time was young." He sees the rise and fall of brilliant dynasties, while one 
 Emperor after another appears upon the checkered scene, each of whom is invested 
 with the proud title of " The Son of Heaven." He reads the graphic story of the 
 Han Rulers, who, in arms and conquests, are worthy to be ranked with Roman 
 Caesars. He learns why, for more than 2000 years, the Chinese have been proud to 
 call themselves the " Children of Han." 
 
 Then comes the Mongolian conquest. With tramping legions, with dashing 
 steeds and gleaming spears, the Northern hordes sweep down upon the plains of 
 the "Flowery Kingdom." The panorama of startling events moves on, and we are 
 brought to the dynasty by which China is governed at the present time. The 
 Manchus ascended the " Dragon Throne," and still sway their sceptre over nearly 
 400,000,000 of the human race. 
 
 The History of China within the present century is read with eager interest. 
 With the record of other great crises, a masterly and thrilling account is given of 
 the famous Taeping Rebellion. Suddenly a young- English officer appears upon the 
 scene. The world knows him now as the celebrated " Chinese Gordon," who per- 
 formed miracles of valor and conquest. Fertile in resources, brave and magnetic, silent 
 and stern, unyielding as granite, his story reads like that of the renowned old heroes 
 of classic fable. All lands are filled with his dazzling fame. 
 
 This is followed by an account of Prince Kung and the Regency, and the history 
 closes, with the reign of the present Emperor. 
 
 Then comes a full description of China and its people. The gorgeous splendors of 
 
 iii 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 the Emperor's Court and Palace are vividly pictured — the mystery that surrounds him, 
 the vast power he wields, the princes and nobles that attend upon him, the curious 
 ceremonies of his marriage, the awe with which his subjects prostrate themselves before 
 him, the palatial magnificence, the life of the Empress and the disdain for foreign sovereigns. 
 
 BOOK II contains a complete account of Japan and the Japanese. Japan is 
 the rising star among the nations of the Orient. The rapid strides she has made in 
 the last thirty years have surprised the civilized world. Almost at a single bound she 
 has taken rank among the enlightened nations of the earth. 
 
 The reader discovers the charm of her ancient history and the halo of renown 
 that surrounds her Valiant Heroes and Famous Rulers. He reads the account of her 
 old Feudal System ; the grand achievements of her powerful Tycoons and Daimios ; 
 the might and majesty of her Emperors, and the heroic deeds of her brave armies. 
 
 Japan is the " Land of the Rising Sun ; " she is set like a gem in the sea. Her 
 harbors invite the commerce of the world. Her soil is rich; her natural scenery 
 delights the eye of the traveller; she is wonderfully endowed by nature for the 
 products of agriculture and the beauty of flower, field and forest. The vivid descrip- 
 tions of her coasts and harbors, her headlands and landscapes, and likewise of her 
 myriad Temples, her Palatial Residences, her old Castles and fragrant Gardens, present 
 such a picture as only the far-famed Orient can furnish. This volume is especially rich 
 and entertaining in its descriptions of Life among the Japanese. 
 
 The reader obtains a delightful view of the ancient city of Kioto, the former 
 Capital. He wanders through the crowded streets of the great city of Tokio ; he is 
 taken into the homes of the people and is made acquainted with their peculiar charac- 
 teristics ; their habits of daily life ; their modes of dress ; their social customs, including 
 marriages and funerals ; their endless amusements, and charming festivals. 
 
 The curtain is lifted from the Court of the Mikado and he is made acquainted 
 with the grand State Ceremonies, the singular rules of Royal Etiquette, the gorgeous 
 Dress of Officials, the brilliant Maids of Honor, and the loyal respect shown to the 
 Emperor and Empress. The story of the Tycoons is fully told, with that of the Revo- 
 lution of 1868, by which they were swept from power. Tremendous changes since this 
 memorable period mark the History of Japan. 
 
 BOOK III contains a full description of Corea, the " Hermit Kingdom," and 
 furnishes a concise account of the war between China and Japan. The causes of the 
 Great Conflict are stated, and an accurate estimate of the two armies is given — ^their 
 numbers, discipline, equipments and the ability of their Commanders. The rapid move- 
 ments of the Japanese Army, its brilliant achievements at Ping-Yang, and the Great 
 Naval Battles are fully described. The whole course of stirring events is traced, and 
 the reader sees the rolling battle-clouds and hears the shock of contending legions. 
 
 This account of China, Japan and Corea is a most captivating story. It is tinged 
 with the golden colors of the Orient. .The subjects which it treats are of great interest, 
 as forces are at work in Asia which cannot fail to affect the destiny of the whole world. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 By Hon. JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG, 
 
 Latd American INd^iiiister to the Court of Ohina. 
 
 THE following pages will present to tlie reader a clear and eloquent narra- 
 tive of two nations which now occupy the attention of the civilized 
 world. Unhappily this interest is awakened by the fearful penalty of 
 war. In such a war Americans have no thought, but that it may 
 end in a lasting peace. There are no real points of difference between China 
 and Japan. They belong to the same race — they have no antagonisms invok- 
 ing the arbitration of the world. Divided, they become the prey of the ravening 
 Western powers which, for two centuries, have rended Asia, making implaca- 
 ble warfare upon venerable civilizations. 
 
 Those who study the progress of this unhappy war' will read in the pages 
 of this volume many interesting lessons as to its probable effect upon our 
 civilization. I have had occasion to recite some observations and experiences 
 on this theme, which I may, in a measure, repeat as my best thought upon the 
 larger consequences of the war and the influence which China, no matter what 
 the outcome of the contest with Japan, cannot fail to impress upon the destinies 
 of Asia, and perhaps the Western world. 
 
 And in this connection it is well to remember that two events in the 
 Christian era stand out from all others as the most momentous of modern 
 history — the overrunning of Asia and the invasion of Europe in the thirteenth 
 century by Genghis Khan, and in the fourteenth century by Timur, or Tamer- 
 lane. These conquerors came from the same Tartar race which now governs 
 the Chinese Empire. 
 
 Genghis was a son of a small chief, who lived beyond the Great Wall, the 
 head of one of those nomadic tribes which still lead a semi-pastoral, semi- 
 warlike life on the endless stretches of Mongolia. He was to conquer and 
 bring under suzerainty Northern China, overrun Persia, and invade Russia, 
 going as far as the Dnieper. Timur was the descendant of Genghis Khan. 
 A century later Timur crossed the Tigris, captured Delhi, Damascus, Baalbec, 
 and, marching his standards to the very gates of Moscow, cut a wider swath in 
 his conquests than any warrior of modern times. These invasions were sue- 
 
vi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 cessful because their leaders commanded myriads of soldiers of a warlike 
 temperament and had inexhaustible sources from which to recruit their armies. 
 
 We have been confronted with no such movement in recent days for the 
 reason that China, secure in herself, has lapsed into the ways of peace. She 
 has put aside the spear and taken up the pruning hook — is content to spin and 
 fish, to dig and delve. We have not disturbed the dormant mammoth. There 
 has been no modern diplomacy so daring as to provoke, to the last energies of 
 despair, the power which marched under the Tartar's ruthless lead. There 
 have been other invasions, world-changing, and effacing the growths of ages — 
 the taking of Constantinople, the rise of the Ottoman power, the Empire of 
 Charlemagne, the Napoleonic episode — but no such desolating, continent- 
 sweeping conquest as when the warriors of the race which now govern China 
 menaced the capital of Russia and seized the capital of Hindostan. 
 
 This lamentable contest between China and Japan is the first serious 
 conflict that China has known in modern times. There have been opium, 
 Tonquin and other small, despicable wars forced upon China for mercenary 
 purposes — to acquire territory, exact indemnities or crystallize a majority in 
 the House of Commons. China has dealt with them as the respectable house- 
 keeper in the Scottish lowlands dealt with Rob Roy and the freebooters. He 
 made his best terms with the thieves and bade them return to their thievery 
 and leave him the remainder in peace. 
 
 The situation changes. China and Japan are of the same race. We know 
 that there is no animosity so unrelenting as that between kinsmen. China 
 might bow to the guns of Europe, and return to her drifting, silent, peace 
 loving life. It will be different as regards Japan. This must be in its most 
 deplorable sense an internecine war. However or whenever it may end, the 
 outcome can only be the disintegration of China by Russia, aided perhaps by 
 France, or a vendetta between China and Japan to last for centuries, with 
 consequences not to be contemplated without sorrow by those who love Japan 
 for her beauty, her art and the charm of her sincere, gentle, exquisite ways. 
 
 Apart from this consideration, however, which affects the combatants 
 alone, there is a thought inspired by a remembrance of what the Tartars did 
 in other days under the lead of Genghis Khan. For centuries China, so 
 far as the outer world is concerned, has lain at peace — repellant to what we 
 call our civilization— wanting in enterprise, her people following the paths of 
 their fathers, silent, indifferent, perhaps contemptuous of mankind. The 
 more than four hundred millions who compose the Empire — compact, integral, 
 bound together by laws, customs, literature and faith, their ceremonies ordained 
 a thousand years before Christ — have not for centuries troubled Christendom. 
 
 A territory as large as that of the United States, with every variety of 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. vii 
 
 climate and the finest of water systems. A soil as rich as that of France. 
 The rivers and seas teem with fish. Her rice and fish alone enable her to 
 support a population that may be estimated at one-fourth or more, probably 
 one-third, of the human race. To compel the transformation of a people so 
 great in the inherent resources of power from the ways of peace to the ways 
 of war, is to assume a responsibility whose gravity it is impossible to over- 
 estimate. 
 
 This apathy of China has been explained upon many grounds, mainly 
 fanciful. She is the first nation, heathen though she be, to accept the divine 
 admonition that peace on earth should be the highest aim of human endeavor. 
 So, while civilized States, living under the accepted sacred light of Christian 
 truth, have undergone centuries of throatcutting and pillage until it has 
 become a canon of our ethics that war is the natural state of man, that war 
 must have its season for the good of society, that the generation is barren 
 which knows no war, China has remained at peace. 
 
 Not only has she remained at peace, but she has taught her people that 
 war is a crime, and the profession of arms ungracious and undeserving of 
 honor. This reverses the faith of the Christians since the days when the 
 Caesars won their crowns by the sword. A foolish, heathen fancy, no doubt, 
 but there is a good deal of the New Testament in it, and it has served the 
 higher interests of mankind. 
 
 For if China, since the Ming dynasty, had been so far " advanced in 
 civilization" as to realize that no god is so deserving of worship as the god 
 of war, history would now tell a different tale. If some modern Tartar ruler, 
 with the genius of Napoleon, had won the people's confidence, shown them the 
 imminent peril of their fine philosophies in the presence of the mad, raging, 
 warring outside world, and, so doing, had armed China, civilization would have 
 had her problem. The Chinaman contains within himself every faculty of the 
 soldier. He is fearless. He does not dread suicide. He has extraordinary 
 endurance. He can march all day upon a portion of rice. With reverence as 
 the basis of his faith, he knows what is so essential to a soldier — the law of 
 obedience. Moreover, the walking frota Moscow to Pekin is good, as the 
 caravans of the present day will' attest. 
 
 China has had no Napoleon to awaken the memories and possibilities of 
 Genghis Kh'an. If there has been no violent movement as the result of so 
 mighty an inspiration, there has been a slow, steady, glacierlike tendency to 
 edge away from the traditions and give the sword the place it holds among 
 Christian people. This is due to the influence of Li Hung Chang, the 
 Emperor's most powerful subject, and among the first to preach the gospel 
 of war. 
 
viii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 I saw a striking evidence of this change some years ago. It was my duty 
 to make an official visit to Ningpo, and exchange courtesies with the ruling 
 Mandarin, in company with the late Admiral John Lee Davis, then command- 
 ing our squadron in Asia. It was part of this mission to impress our Chinese 
 friends with the strength, and especially the discipline, of the American navy. 
 And where could this be better done than on board of a man-of-war ? When 
 the Mandarin made his visit he inspected the ship and witnessed a drill. The 
 function was finely done, and the Admiral was proud of his brave and 
 skilled men. 
 
 We returned the visit next day, and were received with fine Chinese 
 ceremony. Admiral Davis paying the Mandarin the compliment of taking with 
 him, in the blaze of full dress uniform, as many of his officers as could be 
 spared. After the tea drinking and gracious speeches, our host tendered 
 Admiral Davis a review of his Chinese soldiery. A battalion was put through 
 the manual of arms. The tactics and word of command were English. The 
 business was perfect, no military performance of that nature more commend- 
 able. I recall the Admiral's astonishment, amounting to chagrin : " To 
 think," he said, " that I should have asked that Chinese Mandarin to look at 
 my people, when his own soldiers could show them how to drill." This 
 incident made a deep impression. There in that quadrangle of Ningpo, visible 
 to the Admiral's keen, professional eyes, was a unit of the force which, under 
 proper conditions, might make a strange dream come true. It was my first 
 evidence of the awakening of the warlike spirit of China, and not only 
 awakened, but trained to the best offices of war. 
 
 I saw something at that time of Chinese troops at various ports. While 
 in no case was there the perfection of Ningpo, the development of the military 
 art wherever we visited was evident. At some points there were parcels of 
 Bannermen, grotesque, not military, tumbling over one another, guarding 
 some Tartar general. This was the incongruous mass, dumped into semblance 
 of martial form, pensioners, loungers, /who had never felt the real test of war. 
 The Taeping rebellion was little more than one body of Chinese troops falling 
 over another, soldiers pausing in the middle of an action to dine, and resuming 
 hostilities after dinner. Battles were continued like some of those Chinese 
 dramas which require a week for the exemplification of the plot. Matters, 
 however, were advancing with emphasis. The Ningpo incident was a pregnant 
 lesson. 
 
 There is no reason why the same discipline, the same teaching in the art 
 of war, which sent an American Admiral dazed and grieving out of the quad- 
 rangle at Ningpo, should not, if applied to the Chinese Empire, result in an 
 army as large as the armies of Europe combined. It would be as well armed 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. ix 
 
 as well drilled, as brave, and more easily handled in the commissary and quarter- 
 master's departments. It would need alone the motive and the leadership to 
 induce such an army to try conclusions with the Asiatic and. European world. 
 
 War is the science of force against force — mind against mind. There is 
 no reason why a Chinaman may not acquire it. In i860 a French 1 official 
 reported to his government that a few regiments of French troops could 
 conquer China. This was but a generation ago. Tonquin supervened, as 
 Jules Ferry sadly remembered, and in Tonquin we saw the progress that 
 China had made. That forlorn campaign was to the European powers the first 
 glimpse of reawakened China. The world learned that China had divined the 
 futility of matchlocks and calico forts, that she was studying, like the rest of 
 us, the appalling litany of war. To measure the pace of Chinese progress in 
 this sinister doctrine, we have but to compare China as seen by the French 
 officers in i860 — an Empire that could have been ridden down by a few French 
 regiments — and the China which checked France in Tonquin. 
 
 We have but to turn from th'e shuffling rabble which was wont to guard 
 the Tartar General to the firm, steady lines at Ningpo. We have but to con- 
 trast the discipline of the troops who followed Li Hung Chang and the English 
 General Gordon against the Taepings with the army now under Li's command 
 in the northern provinces. As to the power of this army in battle with Western 
 troops it would be idle to speculate. I presume that its condition is not so good 
 as that of the Japanese army ; that it suffers from lax administration ; from 
 confiding too much to foreigners, who do not show their best side to China ; 
 from an innate, inherited and pious aversion to war. This will yield to severe, 
 consistent discipline. And remember, likewise, that the Chinese are not an 
 " enthusiastic people." Their hearts are not " easily fired." They are not 
 prone to outbursts of public emotion. China moves as a glacier rather than as 
 the volcano or the cyclone. 
 
 But she moves ! You may defeat her to-day, you may defeat her to-mor- 
 row, you may bombard her Taku forts, you may even land an army, and, 
 marching over the low, alluvial fertile lands of Northern China, spring upon 
 Pekin. What then? You have no more gained the country than by the 
 capture of Boston you would gain the United States. It is like warring 
 upon waves. You may cut and slash and stab, the billows will serry up and 
 roll. It is fighting an impalpable enemy — as if assailing the air or the clouds. 
 Japan victorious, and she would have a country she could neither govern nor 
 hold. Victories again and again repeated could exact from China no more 
 than what China deigned to give — an indernnity, an island, or even an abandon- 
 ment of Corea — which would do China no harm and Japan no good. The 
 vendetta alone would remain. 
 
X INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 In the meantime, the awakening Chinese martial spirit is intensified. You 
 give it the truculent motives of hatred and revenge. China learns from Japan 
 the lesson that for two generations we have been trying to blast into her by- 
 cannon and fires — that if she would hold her own with the Christian she must 
 do what Christian nations have done. She must turn aside from the deliberate 
 and the harmonious legends of the God of love and peace, from the Sermon on 
 the Mount, and those pearly heaven-suffused Beatitudes, and, leaving them to 
 missionaries and Sunday-school children, accept the gospel that arms alone are 
 the price of a people's salvation. We have forced China to throw off the sloth 
 of peace and drink the wine of war. Japan will accelerate the process. Where 
 will it end ? What graver menace than a nation armed — a nation that could 
 put twenty millions of men in the field and not feel it as we did the burden of 
 our civil war ? And especially when it is a nation governed by the descendants 
 of the Tartars, from whom came Genghis and Timur. 
 
 The history of our efforts to press upon China our Western ideas in 
 religion and trade, when we study their consequences, illustrates my meaning. 
 We have been impatient to have China Anglicized — Americanized — one with 
 the Western world. The late Mr. Burlingame, Minister to China during the 
 Lincoln Administration, discussed this question with me, and recited the speech 
 of a wise old mandarin who sat in the ministry of Prince Kung. 
 
 Burlingame was urging upon the Government the wisdom of China throw- 
 ing herself into the arms of the Western powers. He pointed out, as every 
 American Minister has done since the days of Caleb Cushing, the inestimable 
 advantages that would accrue from the policy of progress. "You Western 
 people," replied the Chinese statesman, " are angry with us, because we do not 
 go ahead. You would have us become in a day as England or the United 
 States. You overlook the unique conditions of our society, the burdens of 
 many ages, the exigencies of ancient and venerated customs, the wants of a 
 teeming population, our inability to meet the crisis which a sudden change in 
 essential matters would impose, not alone upon this population, but upon those 
 who are responsible for its subsistance ; the conservative character of institu- 
 tions which have endured beyond the uttermost limits of your history. You 
 would have us topple over this past, with which for centuries we have been 
 content, unconscious of the blessings you now bring in open hands. You 
 would have us enter at once upon the hurrying channels of Western enter- 
 prise. Now, let me tell you! You are, as I have said, angry. But, if we 
 were to take your advice, you would be angrier still. You complain that we 
 go too slow. You would soon complain, because we were going too fast." 
 
 Had Mr. Buriingame lived to see the fulfilment of the work to which he 
 gave so much genius and enthusiasm he would have realized, so far as the 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. xi 
 
 United States was concerned, the prescience of the Chinese statesman. He 
 would have seen the consequences of that Chinese progress, which was his 
 fondly-cherished hope and dream. We remember with what acclaim he was 
 received when he came at the head of his stately embassy. The country rose 
 to him. He was to escort an ancient civilization into the family of nations. 
 It was fitting, as we all felt in our enthusiasm, that the youngest of nations 
 should give the fraternal hand to the oldest. 
 
 Apart from this sentiment, America saw in the avatar of the Burlingame 
 embassy the solution of so many problems. Surely the heavens were once 
 more on the side of America. We were starving for labor. This hardy, tire- 
 less, intelligent snd industrious people — and so cheap, too — would come and 
 build our railways. They would develop our Pacific Empire. They would 
 open the El Dorado mines and make the fields of California glisten and glow. 
 This opening of a cheap labor supply, at the very time when the Californias 
 needed it to become rich and imperial commonwealths, was accepted as one of 
 those timely interpositions of God's providence in which we see with what 
 wisdom He rules the world. 
 
 This was the prevailing rhetoric when the magnanimous Burlingame — no 
 finer American in my time — closed his mission, so far as China was concerned, 
 and went to Europe. I saw much of him on the eve of his departure, and 
 recall his pride over the welding of the two countries into an alliance, which 
 would endure to the good of both and the welfare of mankind. 
 
 But the Chinese statesman, who had warned Burlingame against a preci- 
 pitate acceptance by China of Western ideas, or any special relations between 
 the two countries other than what had existed for ages, was the wiser. Bui^ 
 lingame did not live to see it, but the reaction came. With what swiftness it 
 came ! Experience soon proved that in welcoming the Chinese we were not 
 receiving a new supply of labor like the African, but the overflow of a superior 
 race. Wherever this labor came into competition it won. The Chinese con- 
 quered upon every field of industry wherever he had fair play. He began in 
 the laundry. He ascended to the cigar shop, the vineyard, the fisheries, the 
 gardens. He would soon have reached the counting-house and the bank. 
 
 I recall the Burlingame incident as an illustration of what the Chinese 
 have done in commerce and industry. America was compelled to reverse the 
 Burlingame policy and protect her labor against a people who, without lessening 
 the strength of their own Empire, could have poured into these States a popula- 
 tion larger than that which now inhabits them. Success in peace and war arises 
 from these same conditions. The winner, in the field of labor is apt to be winner 
 in the field of strife. 
 
 The elements, which formed afi industrial invasion, against which, with 
 
xii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 all of our vaunted prowess and invincibility, we were compelled to defend our- 
 selves with questionable legislation, are the elements which made possible the 
 overrunning of Asia and the invasion of Europe. So that in cheerily urging 
 Japan into war, and in pressing upon China a policy like that which dictates 
 the armaments of Germany and France, we come within the admonition of the 
 Chinese statesman to Burlingame : " You complain that we go too slow. You 
 would soon complain that we go too fast." 
 
 We are, if we would but admit it, face to face with a vast problem. 
 Sir Harry Parkes, the famous British Minister to China, said to me one day 
 in Pekin that he had studied it for forty-three years, and could not comprehend 
 it. And Sir Harry Parkes was a statesman of consummate intelligence. The 
 late John T. Delane, editor of the London Times, and among the foremost 
 journalists of the age, advised a young friend of mine, connected with his paper, 
 and in a manner beginning his career in the press, to study the East. The 
 politics of the next generation, Mr.. Delane believed, would turn upon the 
 Chinese more than upon any other question. These were wise men who looked 
 out upon the far horizon. 
 
 As to the outcome of the present war, I have no idea that the great Powers 
 will permit it to be fought to a finish. A hurried peace will be imposed by 
 Russia or Great Britain as soon as either combatant has won a decisive victory. 
 There will be a peace with " compensations " to the intervening Powers in the 
 way of land or seaports. The pity of it is that China and Japan are fighting 
 under the very eyes of the ravening eagles who sit waiting in their eyrie, ready 
 to pounce upon one or the other as their prey. It is a miserable, unnecessary 
 business, if only one had the heart to write about it — as I have not — remember- 
 ing so much that was hopeful and full of promise in those fair, beautiful lands, 
 and seeing in this war the wreck of so much that was hoped for by those who 
 wished them well. 
 
 Our main concern should lie in the fact that within this war may be 
 enclosed the most serious question of the times. By forcing China into the 
 lists as an armed nation we assume a measureless responsibility. China, as I 
 have said, moves as the glacier — silent, vast, grinding, sure — undisturbed 
 through the ages, antedating the most ancient of Western civilization, vener- 
 able when Homer sang and before the Roman Empire was founded, and Time 
 as yet bringing no decay. But the glacier may have an impulse such as China 
 may receive from this war with Japan. Therein lies the gravity of the problem, 
 which is worthy of study in the light of what is written of Genghis Khan and 
 Timur. 
 
 John Russell Young. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 China: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGB. 
 
 Early History of the Celestial Em- 
 pire 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Story of the Han Rulers . . 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Mongol Conquest of China . . 44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The First Manchu Ruler .... 74 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Taeping Rebellion and Story 
 OF Chinese Gordon 91 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Prince Kung and the Regency . . 122 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Reign of the Emperor Kwangsu 145 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Emperor of China and His 
 Court 162 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Punishment of Criminals . . . 180 
 
 CHAPTER 'X. 
 Chinese Mechanics and Merchants 191 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 Chinese Marriage Customs .... 198 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Varieties of Chinese Life .... 213 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Food, Dress and Amusements of the 
 Chinese 235 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Religions of China . . 
 
 254 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Country Life in China 274 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Agricultural Products and Exports 280 
 
 xiii 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Japan and the Japanese. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 PACE. 
 
 Early History of Japan ..... 289 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Country and the People . 
 
 303 
 
 ^ CHAPTER XIX. 
 Domestic Life in Japan 321 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 The Residence of the Shoguns . . 333 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 The Great City of Tokio .... 355 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Shops and Industries of Tokio . . 369 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Popular Japanese Customs 382 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Shintoism and Buddhism in Japan . 401 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Amusements of the Japanese 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Peculiarities of the Japanese 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 417 
 
 434 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 The New- Year Festival in Japan . 455 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 Japanese Women 473 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Striking Features of Japanese- Life 48f 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Street Scenes in Yokohama . . 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 The New Japan 
 
 496 
 
 506 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 COREA AND THE WaR BETWEEN ChINA AND JaPAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Life and Travel in Corea 513 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 Outbreak of the War Between 
 China and Japan 523 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 The- Battle of Ping-Yang .... 533 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 Japan's Great Naval Victory . , . 549 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 PAGE, 
 
 Stirring Incidents of the Campaign 562 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 The Fall of Port Arthur .... 581 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 A Japanese Account of the War . 592 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 The Capital of China 599 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Service in a Chinese Temple 19 
 
 Floating Chinese Village 23 
 
 Cortege Accompanying a Mandarin .... 27 
 
 Town and Harbor of Victoria, Hong Kong . . 33 
 
 Sale of Prayers in a Chinese Temple .... 38 
 
 A Traveller's Habitual Escort 41 
 
 Image of Buddha 43 
 
 Types of Mongols 47 
 
 A Chinese Bridge 50 
 
 Battle with the Mongols 53 
 
 The Giant Chang 59 
 
 Street Scene in Pekin, China 65 
 
 A Movable Cook-Shop 68 
 
 Chinese Actors in Fantastic Costumes ... 71 
 
 Chinese Wedding Procession 77 
 
 Sending Prayers to Heaven by Burning Them . 82 
 
 Heads of Criminals Displayed for a Warning . 85 
 
 Chinese Court of Justice 95 
 
 Following the Dead to the Cemetery .... 99 
 
 Street in Nam-Dirah 103 
 
 A Chinese Festival 106 
 
 General View of the Fortifications of Pekin . Ill 
 
 Chinese Mandarin and His Wife 117 
 
 General Gordon 120 
 
 Chinese Pedler 126 
 
 The Famous Porcelain Tower 138 
 
 Chinese Cobblers 142 
 
 Chinese Restaurant 148 
 
 Chinese Out for an Airing 152 
 
 View of Tientsin, China 156 
 
 A Chinese Band 159 
 
 Opium Smokers 160 
 
 The Temple of Heaven, Pekin 164 
 
 Types of Chinese Women 168 
 
 Americans Dining with Prince Kung, of China 171 
 
 Chinese Mandarin 174 
 
 A Chinese Funeral Procession 175 
 
 Street Scene in Canton 178 
 
 Chinese Modes of Torture 182 
 
 Beheading a Chinese Criminal 186 
 
 Fighting Quails 190 
 
 Pagoda and Vases 193 
 
 Itinerant Chinese Barber 196 
 
 Embroidered Chinese Screen 202 
 
 Chinese Bride . Carried to the House of Her 
 
 Future Husband 205 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Bridal Feast 208 
 
 Deformed Feet of Chinesp Ladies 210 
 
 The Great Wall of China 21 G 
 
 Ivi-Hung Chang, Viceroy of China 220 
 
 Pavilion Near the Mencius Temple .... 224 
 
 A High-Caste Mandarin 231 
 
 Merchants' Club at Shanghai 238 
 
 Interior of a Chinese Theatre 244 
 
 Actor of Cochin- China 248 
 
 Porcelain Vases of Northern China .... 251 
 
 The Temple of Five Hundred Chinese Gods . 256 
 
 Temple at Nankin 260 
 
 Interior of a Chinese Temple, Showing their 
 
 Idols 266 
 
 Religious Ceremony in a Joss-House .... 270 
 
 A Chinese Pagoda 276 
 
 A Chinese Curiosity Shop 277 
 
 Chinese Baby in its Winter Cradle 278 
 
 A Native Chinese Missionary 281 
 
 A Mandarin Receiving a Visitor 282 
 
 A Mounted Military Bowman of Ancient Times 284 
 
 A Chinese Merchant of Canton 285 
 
 Courtyard of a Chinese Hostlery 286 
 
 Chinese Students 287 
 
 Emperor of Japan 291 
 
 Empress of Japan 295 
 
 View of Kioto, Japan 298 
 
 Great Bell of Kioto 300 
 
 A Japanese School 301 
 
 Japanese Ballet of Butterflies 307 
 
 View of Yokohama ; . . 310 
 
 Japanese Bonze 311 
 
 Japanese at Tea 314 
 
 Castle at Matsuyama, Japan 318 
 
 Japanese Family 323 
 
 A Japanese Residence 326 
 
 The Court of the Mikado 330 
 
 Yoritomo Invested with the Title of Shogun . '334 
 
 A Japanese Temple 336 
 
 Baptism of Buddha 342 
 
 A Japanese Lady in Her Palanquin 350 
 
 Japanese Custom of Freeing the Captives . . 359 
 
 Japanese Lady 362 
 
 The Hero Yashitzone 364 
 
 A Japanese Couch 366 
 
 Japanese Shop . 371 
 
 XV 
 
XVI 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Apothecary's Shop at Tokio 373 
 
 A Japanese Noble Passing Through the Streets 
 
 of Tokio 376 
 
 Highly Figured Japanese Vase 377 
 
 Ancient Japanese Warriors 386 
 
 Japanese Bride and Attendants 390 
 
 Interior of a Japanese Theatre 394 
 
 Lion Dance — Street Pastime in Tokio .... 398 
 
 Japanese Ferry-Boat of Ancient Times. . . . 403 
 
 Japanese Festival — Street Procession .... 406 
 Statues from the Temple of the Five Hundred 
 
 Genii 410 
 
 Figure from an Ancient Calendar 414 
 
 Japanese Musicians 418 
 
 Japanese Acrobats 422 
 
 A Wrestling Circus 428 
 
 A Group of Tea Pickers 437 
 
 Statue from a Japanese Temple 440 
 
 Interior of the Temple of Quannon .... 448 
 
 A Street Scene in Tokio on New Year's Day . 459 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Japanese Barbers 464 
 
 The Patron of Horsemanship 468 
 
 Bridge Making Extraordinary in Japan . . . 470 
 
 Ancient Japanese Archer 471 
 
 The Procession of the God of the Sea . . . 475 
 
 A Japanese Wedding 478 
 
 Japanese Vases 481 
 
 Japanese Buddhist Priests 492 
 
 A Japanese Pagoda 494 
 
 Ornamented Japanese Bronze Vase .... 498 
 
 Americans meeting the Emperor of Japan . . 502 
 
 Ancient Warrior and Weapons 504 
 
 Execution of a Criminal in Corea 519 
 
 Regular Troops of the Chinese Army .... 527 
 
 Map of Japan, Corea and Northeastern China . 565 
 
 Types of Coreans 571 
 
 The King of Corea and His Son 576 
 
 Fishers of Fousans 584 
 
 Corean Children .' . 588 
 
 A Corean Porter 594 
 
 FULL=PAQE PHOTOTYPE ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Gate Scene, Chien Mun, Pekin, China. 
 
 Prince Kung, China. 
 
 Daibstu, Kamakura, Japan. 
 
 Hon. John Russell Young. 
 
 Temple of Daibstu, Kamakura, Japan. 
 
 Commemorative Arch near Pekin, China. 
 
 Bronze Lions at Wan-Shou-Shau Gate, Pekin, China. 
 
 Stone Animals, near Pekin, China. 
 
 Street Scene in Tokio, Japan. 
 
 Hotel at Chang-Chia-Wan, Pekin, China. 
 
 Street Scene, Tien-Tsin, China. 
 
 Custom House, Shanghai, China. 
 
 Grand Canal and Pagoda at Chenza, Canton, China. 
 
 Ladies' Carriage, Japan. 
 
 Garden Surrounding the Palace of the Mikado, 
 
 Japan. 
 Map of China, Corea and Japan. 
 
 Pagoda at Shanghai, China. 
 
 Soochow Creek, Shanghai, China. 
 
 Snake or Rain Temple, Tien-Tsin, China. 
 
 Japanese Palanquin. 
 
 The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Tsungli 
 
 Yamen). 
 Girls Picking Tea. 
 A Japanese Tea Party. 
 The Great Wall of China. 
 Group of Japanese Girls. 
 A Japanese Doctor and His Patient. 
 Group of Natives, Japan. 
 Japanese Dancers. 
 Temple of Heaven, Pekin, China. 
 Examination Hall, Pekin, China. 
 Confucian Temple, Forbidden City, Pekin, China. 
 Grand Hotel, Yokohama, Japan. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 Lr)ir)a : r ron) br)e Ear lies b Tinjcs 
 
 io br)e Presepb Day. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE "CELESTIAL EMPIRE." 
 
 ALL Asia is astir. Old nations that 
 have slept the sleep of ages are 
 waking to modern ideas. For 
 centuries China was almost a 
 world by itself; now it forms a part of the 
 galaxy of eastern empires and is a centre 
 of interest to both Europe and America. 
 
 No nation in the world has been so rigid 
 and unchangeable as China, and none has 
 preserved with such tenacity the laws, cus- 
 toms and national peculiarities which existed 
 long before the Christian era. A most re- 
 markable people are the Chinese, comprising 
 nearly one-third of the human race, scattered 
 over a vast realm, maintaining little inter- 
 course with other countries, and lacking in 
 that spirit of enterprise which, for the last 
 few years, has distinguished the Japanese. 
 But modern civilization advances even in 
 Asia, and China is learning that she cannot 
 remain the China of three or four thousand 
 years ago. The ships of many nations touch 
 at her ports; commerce seeks entrance at her 
 gates ; her most intelligent people are asking 
 questions, and already the darkness is illu- 
 mined with the light of a new and better era. 
 2 
 
 The Chinese are unquestionably the oldest 
 nation in the world, and their history goes 
 back to a period to which no prudent his- 
 torian will attempt to give a precise date. 
 They speak the language and observe the 
 same social and political customs that they 
 did several thousand years ago, and they are 
 the only living representatives to-day of a 
 people and government which were contem- 
 porary with the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and 
 the ancient Jews. 
 
 Same To-Day as in Early Times; 
 
 So far as our knowledge enables us to 
 speak, the Chinese of the present age are in 
 all essential points identical with those of the 
 time of Confucius, and there is no reason to 
 doubt that before his time the Chinese 
 national character had been thoroughly 
 formed in its present mould. The limits of 
 the Empire have varied froni time to time 
 under circumstances of triumph or disunion, 
 but the Middle Kingdom, or China proper, 
 of the eighteen provinces has always pos- 
 sessed more or less of its existing proportions. 
 
 Another striking and peculiar feature 
 
 17 
 
18 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 about China is the small amount of influence 
 that the rest of the world has exercised 
 upon it. In fact it is only during the present 
 centuiy that that influence can be said to 
 have existed at all. Up to that point China 
 had pursued a course of her own, carrying 
 on her own struggles within a definite limit, 
 and completely indifferent to, and ignorant 
 of, the ceaseless competition and contests of 
 mankind outside her orbit, which make up 
 the history of the rest of the old world. 
 
 The long struggles for supremacy in 
 Western Asia between Assyrian, Babylonian, 
 and Persian, the triumphs of the Greek, fol- 
 lowed by the absorption of what remained 
 of the Macedonian conquests in the Empire 
 of Rome, even the appearance of Islam and 
 the Mahomedan conquerors, who changed 
 the face of Southern Asia from the Ganges 
 to the Levant, and long threatened to over- 
 run Europe, had no significance for the 
 people of China, and reacted as little on 
 their destiny as if they had happened in 
 another planet. 
 
 A Curious History. 
 
 All that pertains to China has a peculiar 
 interest to the reader. He is studying the 
 history of one of the most remarkable na- 
 tions that ever existed. At every step he 
 meets with surprises, and eagerly follows the 
 record of events, many of them startling and 
 unparalleled, although they transpired " when 
 time was young." As a curiosity in human 
 existence, the earlier history of this country 
 may justly receive careful notice. In these 
 ancient records we see the beginning and 
 progress of a people whose numbers, laws, 
 customs, conservatism and strange ideas are 
 the wonder of the modern world. We learn 
 the infancy of a people who have grown and 
 multiplied to their present vast proportions 
 and power. 
 
 Even though the details are noi recited the 
 recollection of the antiquity of China's insti- 
 tutions must be ever present with the stu- 
 dent, as affording an indispensable clue to 
 the character of the Chinese people and the 
 composition of their government. 
 
 The first Chinese are supposed to have 
 been a nomad tribe in the province of Shensi 
 which lies in the northwest of China, and 
 among them at last appeared a ruler, Fohi, 
 whose name at least has been preserved. 
 His deeds and his person are mythical, but 
 he is credited with having given his country 
 its first regular government. 
 
 The First Emperor. 
 
 One of his successors was Hwangti (which 
 means Heavenly Emperor), who was the first 
 to employ the imperial style of Emperor, the 
 earlier rulers having been content with the 
 inferior title of Wang, or prince. He adopted 
 the convenient decimal division in his admin- 
 istration as well as his coinage. His domin- 
 ions were divided into ten provinces, each of 
 these into ten departments, these again into 
 ten districts, each of which held ten towns. 
 He regulated the calendar, originating the 
 Chinese cycle of sixty years, and he encour- 
 aged commerce. He seems to have been a 
 wise ruler and to have been the first of the 
 great Emperors. His grandson, who was 
 also Emperor, continued his good work and 
 earned the reputation of being " the restorer 
 or even founder of true astronomy." 
 
 But the most famous of Hwangti's succes- 
 sors was his great grandson Yao, who is 
 still one of the most revered of all Chinese 
 rulers. He was "diligent, enlightened, 
 polished, and prudent," and if his words 
 reflected his actions he must have been most 
 solicitous of the welfare of his people. He 
 is specially remarkable for his anxiety to dis- 
 cover the best man to succeed him in the 
 

 
 
20 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 government, and during the last twenty-eight 
 years of his reign he associated the minister 
 Chun with him for that purpose. 
 
 On his death he left the crown to him, and 
 Chun, after some hesitation, accepted the 
 charge, but he in turn hastened to secure the 
 co-operation of another minister named Yu 
 in the work of administration, just as he had 
 been associated with Yao. The period cov- 
 ered by the rule of this triumvirate is con- 
 sidered one of the most brilliant and perfect 
 in Chinese history, and it bears a resem- 
 blance to the age of the Antonines. 
 
 High Idea of Princes. 
 
 These rulers seem to have passed their 
 leisure from practical work in framing moral 
 axioms, and in carrying out a model scheme 
 of government based on the purest ethics. 
 They considered that " a prince entrusted 
 with the charge of a State has a heavy task. 
 The happiness of his subjects absolutely 
 depends upon him. To provide for every- 
 thing is his duty ; his ministers are only put 
 in office to assist him," and also that " a 
 prince who wishes to fulfill his obligations, 
 and to long preserve his people in the ways 
 of peace, ought to watch without ceasing that 
 the laws are observed with exactitude." 
 They were staunch upholders of temperance, 
 and they banished the unlucky discoverer of 
 the fact that an intoxicating drink could be 
 obtained from rice. 
 
 They also held fast to the theory that all 
 government must be based on the popular 
 will. In fact the reigns of Yao, Chun, and 
 Yu are the ideal period of Chinese history 
 when all questions were decided by moral 
 right and justice, and even now Chinese 
 philosophers are said to test their maxims of 
 morality by the degree of agreement they 
 may have with the conduct of those rulers. 
 
 With them passed away the practice of 
 
 letting the most capable and experienced 
 minister rule the State. Such an impartial 
 and reasonable mode of selecting the head 
 of a community can never be perpetuated. 
 The rulers themselves may see its advan- 
 tages and may endeavor as honestly as these 
 three Chinese princes to carry out the ar- 
 rangement, but the day must come when the 
 family of the able ruler will assert its rights 
 to the succession, and take advantage of its 
 opportunities from its close connection with 
 the government to carry out its ends. 
 
 The Emperor Yu, true to the practice of , 
 his predecessors, nominated the President of 
 the Council as his successor, but his son Tiki 
 seized the throne, and became the founder of 
 the first Chinese dynasty which was called 
 the Hia from the name of the province first 
 ruled by his father. This event is supposed 
 to have taken place in the year 2197 B. C. 
 and the Hia dynasty, of which there were 
 seventeen Emperors, ruled down to the year 
 1776 B. C. These Hia princes present no 
 features of interest, and the last of them, 
 named Kia, was deposed by one of his prin- 
 cipal nobles, Ching Tang, Prince of Chang. 
 
 The Chang Rulers. 
 This prince was the founder of the second 
 dynasty, known as Chang, which held pos- 
 session of the throne for 654 years, or down 
 to 1 122 B. C. With the exception of the 
 founder, who seems to have been an able 
 man, this dynasty of twenty-eight Emperors 
 did nothing very noteworthy. The public 
 morality deteriorated very much under this 
 family, and ft is said that when one of the 
 Emperors wanted an honest man as minister 
 he could only find one in the person of a 
 common laborer. At last, in the 1 2th cen- 
 tury before our era, the enormities of the 
 Chang- rulers reached a climax in the person 
 of Chousin, who was deposed by a popular 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 21 
 
 rising headed by Wou Wang, Prince of 
 Chow. 
 
 This successful soldier, whose name signi- 
 fies the Warrior King, founded the third Chi- 
 nese dynasty of Chow, which governed the 
 Empire for the long space of 867 years down 
 to 255 B. C. During that protracted period 
 there were necessarily good and bad Empe- 
 rors, and the Chow dynasty was rendered 
 specially illustrious by the appearance of the 
 great social and religious reformers, Laoutse, 
 Confucius, and Mencius during the existence 
 of its power. The founder of the dynasty 
 instituted the necessary reforms to prove that 
 he was a national benefactor, and one of his 
 successors, known as the Magnificent King, 
 extended the authority of his family over 
 some of the States of Turkestan. 
 
 Confucius Appears. 
 
 But on the whole the rulers of the Chow 
 dynasty were not particularly distinguished, 
 and one of them in the eighth century B. C. 
 was weak enough to resign a portion of his 
 sovereign rights to a powerful vassal, Siang- 
 kong the Prince of Tsin, in consideration of 
 his undertaking the defence of the frontier 
 against the Tartars. At this period the 
 authority of the central government passed 
 under a cloud. The Emperor's perogative 
 became the shadow of a name, and the last 
 three centuries of the rule of this family 
 would not call for notice but for the genius 
 of Laoutse and Confucius, who were both 
 great moral teachers and religious reformers. 
 
 Laoutse, the founder of Taouism, was the 
 first in point of time, and in some respects he 
 was the greatest of these reformers. He 
 found his countrymen sunk in a low state of 
 moral indifference and religious infidelity 
 which corresponded with the corruption of 
 the times and the disunion in the kingdom. 
 He at once set himself to work with energy 
 
 and devotion to repair the evils of his day, 
 and to raise before his countrymen a higher 
 ideal of duty. He has been called the Chi- 
 nese Pythagoras, very learned yet obscure, 
 and the mysterious Taouism which he founded 
 holds the smallest or the least assignable part 
 in what passes for the religion of the Chinese. 
 As a philosopher and minister Laoutse will 
 always attract attention and excite specula- 
 tion, but as a practical reformer and politician 
 he was far surpassed by his younger and less 
 theoretical contemporary Confucius. 
 
 Influence of the Great Teacher. 
 
 Confucius was an official in the service of 
 one of the great princes who divided the 
 governing power of China among themselves 
 during the whole of the seventh century 
 before our era, which beheld the appearance 
 of both of these religious teachers and lead- 
 ers. He was a trained administrator with 
 long experience when he urged upon his 
 prince the necessity of reform, and advocated 
 a policy of union throughout the States. 
 His exhortations were in vain, and so far ill- 
 timed that he was obliged to resign the 
 service of one prince after another. In his 
 day the authority of the Chow Emperor had 
 been reduced to the lowest point. Each prince 
 was unto himself the supreme authority. 
 
 Yet one cardinal point of the policy of 
 Confucius was submission to the Emperor, 
 as implicit obedience to the head of the State 
 throughout the country as was paid to the 
 father of every Chinese household. Although 
 h6 failed to find a prince after his own heart, 
 his example and precepts were not thrown 
 away, for in a later generation his reforms 
 were executed, and down to the present day 
 the best points in Chinese government are 
 based on his recommendations. If " no in- 
 telligent monarch arose" in his time, the 
 greatest Emperors have since sought to con- 
 
22 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 form with his usages and to rule after the 
 ideal of the great philosopher. His name 
 and his teachings were perpetuated by a band 
 of devoted disciples, and the book which con- 
 tained the moral and philosophical axioms of 
 Confucius passed into the classic literature of 
 the country and stood in the place of a Bible 
 for the Chinese. 
 
 The list of the great Chinese reformers is 
 completed by the name of Mencius, who, 
 coming two centuries later, carried on with 
 better opportunities the reforming work of 
 Confucius, and left behind him in his Sheking 
 the most popular book of Chinese poetry and 
 a crowning tribute to the great master. 
 
 The Warlike Period. 
 
 From teachers we must again pass to the 
 chronicle of kings, although few of the later 
 Chow Emperors deserve their names to be 
 rescued from oblivion. One Emperor suf- 
 fered a severe defeat while attempting to 
 establish his authority over the troublesome 
 tribes beyond the frontier ; of another it was 
 written that " his good qualities merited a 
 happier day," and the general character of 
 the age may be inferred from its being desig- 
 nated by the native chroniclers " The warlike 
 period;" 
 
 At last, after what seemed an interminable 
 old age, marked by weakness and vice, the 
 Chow dynasty came to an end in the person 
 of Nan Wang, who, although he reigned for 
 nearly sixty years, was deposed in ignomin- 
 ious fashion by one of his great vassals, and 
 reduced to a humble position. His con- 
 queror became the founder of the fourth 
 Chinese dynasty. 
 
 During the period of internal strife which 
 marked the last four centuries of the Chow 
 dynasty, one family had steadily waxed 
 stronger and stronger among the princes of 
 China. The princes of Tsin, by a combina- 
 
 tion of prudence and daring, gradually made 
 themselves supreme among their fellows. It 
 was said of one of them that " like a wolf or a 
 tiger he wished to draw all the other princes 
 into his claws, so that he might devour 
 them." Several of the later Tsin princes, 
 and particularly one named Chow Siang 
 Wang, showed great capacity, and carried 
 out a systematic policy for their own aggran- 
 disement. 
 
 When Nan Wang was approaching the end 
 of his career, the Tsin princes had obtained 
 everything of the supreme power short of the 
 name and the right to wear the Imperial yel- 
 low robes. Ching Wang, or to give him his 
 later name as Emperor, Tsin Chi Hwangti, 
 was the reputed great-grandson of Chow 
 Siang Wang, and under him the fame and 
 power of the Tsins reached their culminating 
 point. This prince also proved himself one 
 of the greatest rulers who ever sat on the 
 Dragon Throne of China. 
 
 A Soldier and Statesman. 
 
 The country had been so long distracted 
 by internal strife, and the authority of the 
 Emperor had been reduced to such a shadow,, 
 that peace was welcome under any ruler, and 
 the hope was indulged that the Tsin princes^ 
 who had succeeded in making themselves 
 the most powerful feudatories of the Empire, 
 might be able to restore to the central gov- ■ 
 ernment something of its ancient power and 
 splendor. 
 
 Nor was the expectation unreasonable or 
 ungratified. The Tsins had fairly earned by 
 their ability the confidence of the Chinese 
 nation, and their principal representative 
 showed no diminution of energy on attain- 
 ing the throne, and exhibited in a higher 
 post, and on a wider field, the martial and 
 statesman-like qualities his ancestors had dis- 
 played when building up the fabric of their 
 
o 
 < 
 
 1-1 
 
 < 
 O 
 J 
 
 
 * » **< 
 
24 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 power as princes of the Empire. Their 
 supremacy was not acquiesced in by the 
 other great feudatories without a struggle, 
 and more -than one campaign was fought 
 before all rivals were removed from their 
 path, and their authority passed unchallenged 
 as occupants of the Imperial office. 
 
 Ruler at the Age of Thirteen. 
 
 It was in the middle of this final struggle, 
 and when the result might still be held 
 doubtful, that Tsin Chi Hwangti began his 
 eventful reign. When he began to rule he 
 was only thirteen years of age, but he quickly 
 showed that he possessed the instinct of a 
 statesman, and the courage of a born com- 
 mander of armies. On the one hand he 
 sowed dissension between the most formid- 
 able of his opponents, and brought about by 
 a stratagem the disgrace of the ablest general 
 in their service, and on the other he increased 
 his army in numbers and efficiency, until it 
 became unquestionably the most formidable 
 fighting force in China. 
 
 While he endeavored thus to attain inter- 
 nal peace, he was also studious in providing 
 for the general security of the Empire, and 
 with this object he began the construction of 
 a fortified wall across the northern frontier to 
 serve as a defence against the troublesome 
 Hiongnou tribes, who are identified with the 
 Huns of Attila. This wall, which he began 
 in the first years of his reign, was finished 
 before his death, and stilt exists as the Great 
 Wall of China, which has been considered 
 one of the wonders of the world. 
 
 He was careful in his many wars with the 
 tribes of Mongolia not to allow himself to be 
 drawn far from his own border, and at the 
 close of a campaign he always withdrew his 
 troops behind the Great Wall. Towards 
 Central Asia he was more enterprising, and 
 one of his best generals, Moungtien, crossed 
 
 what is now the Gobi Desert, and made 
 Hami the frontier fortress of the Empire. 
 
 In his civil administration Hwangti was 
 aided by the minister Lisseh, who seems to 
 have been a man of rare ability, and to have 
 entered heartily into all his master's schemes 
 for uniting the Empire. While Hwangti sat 
 on the throne with a naked sword in his 
 hand, as the emblem of his authority, dis- 
 pensing justice, arranging the details of his 
 many campaigns, and superintending the 
 innumerable affairs of his government, his 
 minister was equally active in reorganizing' 
 the administration and in supporting his 
 sovereign in his bitter struggle with the 
 literary classes who advocated archaic prin- 
 ciples, and whose animosity to the ruler 
 was inflamed by the contempt, not unmixed 
 with ferocity, with which he treated them. 
 The Empire was divided into thirty-six pro- 
 vinces, and he impressed upon the governors 
 the importance of improving communications 
 within their jurisdiction. 
 
 New Roads in All Directions. 
 
 Not content with this general precept, he 
 issued a special decree ordering that " roads 
 shall be made in all directions throughout 
 the Empire," and the origin of the main 
 routes in China may be found with as much 
 certainty in his reign as that of the roads of 
 Europe in the days of Imperial Rome. When 
 advised to assign some portion of his power 
 to his relatives and high officials in the pro- 
 vinces he refused to repeat the blunders of 
 his predecessors, and laid down the per- 
 manent truth that " good government is 
 impossible under a multiplicity of masters." 
 He centralized the power in his own hands, 
 and he drew up an organization for the civil 
 service of the State which virtually exists at 
 the present day. The two salient features in 
 that organization are the indisputable supre- 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 25 
 
 macy of the Emperor and the non-employ- 
 ment of the officials in their native provinces, 
 ai^d the experience of two thousand years has 
 proved their practical value. 
 
 When he conquered his internal enemies 
 he resolved to complete the pacification of 
 his country by effecting a general disarma- 
 ment, and he ordered that all weapons should 
 be sent in to his capital at Hienyang. This 
 " skilful disarming of the provinces .added 
 daily to the wealth and prosperity of the 
 capital," which he proceeded to embelUsh. 
 He built one palace within the walls, and 
 the Hall of Audience was ornamented with 
 twelve statues, each of which weighed twelve 
 thousand pounds. But his principal resi- 
 dence, named the Palace of Delight, was 
 without the walls, and there he laid out 
 magnificent gardens^ and added building to 
 building. In one of the courts of this latter 
 palace, it is said he could have drawn up 
 10,000 soldiers. 
 
 A Standing Army. 
 This eye to military acquirements in even 
 the building of his residence, showed the 
 temper of his mind, and, in his efforts to 
 form a regular army, he had recourse to 
 " those classes in the community who were 
 without any fixed profession, and who were 
 possessed of exceptional physical strength." 
 He was thus the earliest possessor in China 
 of what might be called a regular standing 
 army. With this force he succeeded in estab- 
 lishing his power on a firm basis, and he may 
 have hoped also to ensure permanence for his 
 dynasty ; but, alas ! for the fallacy of human 
 expectations, the structure he erected fell with 
 him. 
 
 Great as an administrator, and successful 
 as a soldier, Hwangti was unfortunate in one 
 struggle that he evoked. At an early period 
 of his career, when success seemed uncertain, 
 
 he found that his bitterest opponents were 
 men of letters, and that the literary class as 
 a body was hostile to his interests and per- 
 son. Instead of ignoring this opposition or 
 seeking to overcome it by the same agency, 
 Hwangti expressed his hatred and contempt, 
 not only of the literary class, but of literature 
 itself, and resorted to extreme measures of 
 coercion. The writers took up the gage of 
 battle thrown down by the Emperor, and 
 Hwangti became the object of the wit and 
 abuse of every one who could use a pencil. 
 His birth was aspersed. It was said that he 
 was not a Tsin at all, that his origin was of 
 the humblest, and that he was a substituted 
 child foisted on the last of the Tsin princes. 
 
 Grand Council Summoned. 
 
 These personal attacks were accompanied 
 by unfavorable criticism of all his measures, 
 and by censure where he felt that he deserved 
 praise. It would have been more prudent 
 if he had shown greater indifference and 
 patience, for although he had the satisfaction 
 of triumphing by brute force over those who 
 jeered at him, the triumph was accomplished 
 by an act of Vandalism, with which'his name 
 will be quite as closely associated in history 
 as any of the wise measures or great works 
 that he carried out. His vanquished oppo- 
 nents left behind them a legacy of hostility 
 and revenge of the whole literary class of 
 China, which has found expression in all the 
 national histories. 
 
 The struggle, which had been in progress 
 for some years, reached its culminating point 
 in the year 2 1 3 B. C, when a Grand Council 
 of the Empire was summoned at Hienyang. 
 At this council were present not only the 
 Emperor's chief military and civil officers 
 from the different provinces, but also the 
 large literary class, composed of aspirants to 
 office and the members of the academies and 
 
26 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 college of Censors. The opposing forces in 
 China were thus drawn up face to face, and 
 it would have been surprising if a collision 
 had not occurred. On the one side were the 
 supporters of the man who had made China 
 again an Empire, believers in his person and 
 sharers in his glory ; on the, other were those 
 who had no admiration for this ruler, who 
 detested his works, proclaimed his successes 
 dangerous innovations, and questioned his 
 right to bear the royal name. 
 
 "A Vile Flatterer." 
 
 The purpose of the Emperor may be 
 detected when he called upo.n speakers in 
 this assembly of his friends and foes to 
 express their opinions of his administration, 
 and when a member of his household rose to 
 extol his work and to declare that he had 
 "surpassed the very greatest of his predeces- 
 sors." This courtier-like declaration, which 
 would have been excusable even if it had had 
 a less basis of truth than it unquestionably 
 possessed in the case of Hwangti, was 
 received with murmurs and marks of dissent 
 by the Hterary class. One of them rose and 
 denounced the speaker as "a vile flatterer," 
 and proceeded to expatiate on the superior 
 merit of several of the earlier rulers. Not 
 content with this unseasonable eulogy, he 
 advocated the restoration of the Empire to 
 its old form of principalities, and the conse- 
 quent undoing of all that Hwangti had ac- 
 complished. ' 
 
 Hwangti interrupted this speaker and called 
 upon his favorite minister Lisseh to reply to 
 him and explain his policy. Lisseh began by 
 stating what has often been said since, and in 
 other countries, that " men of letters are, as a 
 rule, very little acquainted with what con- 
 cerns the government of a country, not that 
 government of pure speculation which is 
 nothing more than a phantom, vanishing the 
 
 nearer we approached to it, but the practical 
 government which consists in keeping men 
 within the sphere of their proper duties." 
 He then proceeded to denounce the literary 
 class as being hostile to the State, and to 
 recommend the destructiou of their works, 
 declaring that " now is the time or never to 
 close the mouths of these secret enemies and 
 to place a curb on their audacity." 
 
 The , Emperor at once from his throne 
 ratified the policy and ordered that no time 
 should be lost in executing the necessary 
 measures. All books were proscribed, and 
 orders were issued to burn every work 
 except those relating to medicine, agriculture, 
 and such science as then existed. The des- 
 truction of the national literature was carried 
 out with terrible completeness, and such 
 works as were preserved are not free from 
 the suspicion of being garbled or incomplete 
 versions of their original text. The burning 
 of the books was accompanied by the execu- 
 tion of five hundred of the literati, and by the 
 banishment of many thousands. 
 
 Inexcusable Tj^anny. 
 
 By this sweeping measure, to which no 
 parallel is to be found in the history of other 
 countries, Hwangti silenced during the last 
 few years of his life the criticisms of his chief 
 enemies, but in revenge his memory has had 
 to bear for two thousand years the sully of 
 an inexcusable act of tryanny and narrow- 
 mindedness. The price will be pronounced 
 too heavy for what was a momentary gratifi- 
 cation. 
 
 The reign of Hwangti was not prolonged 
 many years after the burning of the books. 
 In 210 B. C. he was seized with a serious 
 illness, to which he succumbed, partly 
 because he took no precautions, and partly, 
 no doubt, through the incompetence of his 
 physicians. His funeral was magnificent, 
 
28 
 
 CHINA: PAST 
 
 and, like the Huns, his grave was dug in the 
 bed of a river, and with him were buried his 
 wives and his treasure. 
 
 This great ruler left behind him an example 
 of vigor such as is seldom found in the list of 
 Chinese kings of effete physique and apathetic 
 life. He is the only Chinese Emperor, of 
 whom it is said that his favorite exercise was 
 walking, and his vigor was apparent in every 
 department of State. On one occasion when 
 he placed a large army of, it is said, 600,000 
 men at the disposal of one of his generals, 
 the commander expressed some fear as to 
 how this huge force was to be fed. Hwangti 
 at once replied, " Leave it to me. I will 
 provide for everything. There shall be want 
 rather in my palace than in your canip." 
 
 A Famous Ruler. 
 
 He does not seem to have been a great 
 general himself, but he knew how to select 
 the best commanders, and he was also so 
 quick in discovering the merits of the 
 generals opposed to him, that some of his most 
 notable victories were obtained by his skill in 
 detaching them from their service or by ruin- 
 ing their reputation by some intrigue more 
 astute than honorable. Yet, all deductions 
 made, Tsin Chi Hwangti stands forth as a 
 great ruler and remarkable man. 
 
 The Tsin dynasty only survived its founder 
 a few years. Hwangti's son Eulchi became 
 Emperor, but he reigned no more than three 
 years. He was foolish enough to get rid of 
 the general Moungtien, who might have been 
 the buttress of his throne; and the minister 
 Lisseh was poisoned, either with or without 
 his connivance. Eulchi himself shared the 
 same fate, and his successor, Ing Wang, 
 reigned only six weeks, committing suicide 
 after losing a battle, and with him the Tsin 
 dynasty came to an end. Its chief, nay its 
 only claim to distinction, arises from its hav- 
 
 AND PRESENT. 
 
 ing produced the great ruler Hwangti, and 
 its destiny was Napoleonic in its brilliance 
 and evanescence. 
 
 Looking back at the long period which 
 connects the mythical age with what may be 
 considered the distinctly historical epoch ot 
 the Tsins, we find that by the close of 
 the third century before the Christian era 
 China possessed settled institutions, the most 
 remarkable portion of its still existing liter- 
 ature, and mighty rulers. It is hardly open 
 to doubt that the Chinese annalist finds in 
 these remote ages as much interest and 
 instruction as we should in the record of 
 more recent times, and proof of this may be 
 discovered in the fact that the history of the 
 first four dynasties, which we must dismiss in 
 these few pages, occupies as much space in 
 the national history as the chronicle of events 
 from Tsin Chi Hwangti to the end of the 
 Ming dynasty in 1644, at which date the 
 official history of China stops, because the 
 history of the Manchu dynasty, which has 
 occupied the throne ever since, will only be 
 given to the world after it has ceased to rule. 
 
 Folly and Incompetence. 
 
 We must not be surprised at this discur- 
 siveness, because the teachings of human 
 experience are as clearly marked in those 
 early times as they have been since, and 
 Chinese historians aim as much at establish- 
 ing moral and philosophical truths as at giv- 
 ing a complete record of events. The conse- 
 quences of human folly and incompetence 
 are as patent and conspicuous in those days 
 as they are now. The ruling power is lost 
 by one family and transferred to another 
 because the prince neglects his business, 
 gives himself over to the indulgence of plea- 
 sure, or fails to see the signs of the times. 
 Cowardice and corruption receive their due 
 and inevitable punishment. The founders of 
 
EARLY HISTORY. 
 
 29 
 
 the dynasties are all brave and successful 
 warriors, who are superior to the cant of a 
 hyper-civilized state of society, which covers 
 declining vigor and marks the first phase of 
 effeteness, and who see that as long as there 
 are human passions they may be moulded by 
 genius to make the many serve the few and 
 to build up an autocracy. 
 
 Nor are the lessons to be learnt from his- 
 tory applicable only to individuals. The 
 faults of an Emperor are felt in every house- 
 hold of the community, and injure the State. 
 Indifference and obtuseness at the capital 
 entailed weakness on the frontier and in the 
 provincial capitals. The barbarians grew 
 
 defiant and aggressive, and defeated the 
 Imperial forces. The provincial governors 
 asserted their independence, and founded 
 ruling families. The Empire became atten- 
 uated by external attack and internal divi- 
 sion. But, to use the phrase of the Chinese 
 historians, "after long abiding disunion, 
 union revived." The strong and capable 
 man always appears in one form or another, 
 and the Chinese people, impressed with a 
 belief in both the divine mission of their 
 Emperor and also in the value of union, wel- 
 come with acclaim the advent of the prince 
 who will restore their favorite and ideal 
 system of one-man government. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE STORY OF THE HAN RULERS. 
 
 AS the Chinese are still proud to call 
 themselves the sons of Han it will 
 be understood that the period cov- 
 ered by the Han rulers must be an 
 important epoch in their history, and in more 
 than one respect they were the first national 
 dynasty. When the successors of Tsin Chi 
 Hwangti proved unable to keep the throne, 
 the victorious general who profited by their 
 discomfiture was named Liu Pang. He 
 had been a trusted official of the Emperor 
 Hwangti, but on finding that his descendants 
 could not bear the burden of government, 
 he resolved to take his own measures, and 
 he lost no time in collecting troops and in 
 making a bid for popularity by endeavoring 
 to save all the books that had not been 
 burned. This was in the year 202 B. C. 
 
 His career bears some resemblance to 
 that of Macbeth, for a soothsayer meeting 
 him on the road predicted, " by the expres- 
 sion of his features, that he was destined to 
 become Emperor. " He began his struggle 
 for the throne by defeating another general 
 named Pawang, who was also disposed to 
 make a bid for supreme power. After this 
 success Liu Pang was proclaimed Emperor 
 as Kao Hwangti, meaning Lofty and August 
 Emperor, which has been shortened into 
 Kaotsou. He named his dynasty the Han, 
 after the small state in which he was born. 
 
 Kaotsou began his reign by a pubHc pro- 
 clamation in favor of peace, and deploring 
 the evils which follow in the train of war. He 
 called upon his subjects to aid his efforts for 
 their welfare by assisting in the execution of 
 30 
 
 many works of public utility, among which 
 roads and bridges occupied the foremost 
 place. He removed his capital from Loyang 
 in Honan to Singanfoo in Sherisi, and as 
 Singan was difficult of access in those days, 
 he constructed a great high road from the 
 centre of China to this somewhat remote 
 spot on the western frontier. 
 
 The First Suspension Bridge. 
 
 This road still exists, and has been 
 described by several travellers in our time. 
 It was constructed by the labor of 100,000 
 men through the most difficult country, 
 crossing great mountain chains and broad 
 rivers. The Chinese engineers employed on 
 the making of this road, which has excited 
 the admiration of all who have traversed it, 
 first discovered and carried into execution 
 the suspension bridge, which in other coun- 
 tries is quite a modern invention. One of 
 these "flying bridges," as the Chinese called 
 them, is 150 yards across a valley 500 feet 
 below, and is still in use. 
 
 At regular intervals along this road Kaot- 
 sou constructed rest-houses for travellers, 
 and postal-stations for his couriers. No 
 Chinese ruler has done anything more use- 
 ful or remarkable than this admirable road 
 from Loyang to Singanfoo. He embellished 
 his new capital with many fine buildings, 
 among which was a large palace, the grand- 
 eur of which was intended to correspond 
 with the extent of his power. 
 
 The reign of Kaotsou was, however, far 
 from being one of unchequered prosperity. 
 
THE STORY OF THE HAN RULERS. 
 
 31 
 
 Among his own subjects his popularity was 
 great because he promoted commerce and 
 improved the administration of justice. He 
 also encouraged literature, and was the first 
 ruler to recognize the claims of Confucius, 
 at whose tomb he performed an elaborate 
 ceremony. He thus acquired a reputation 
 which induced the King of Nanhai — a state 
 composed of the southern provinces of China 
 with its capital at or near the modern Canton 
 — to tender his allegiance. But he was 
 destined to receive many slights and injuries 
 at the hands of a foreign enemy who at this 
 time began a course of active aggression that 
 entailed serious consequences for both China 
 and Europe. 
 
 A Desert Chieftain. 
 
 Reference has been made to the Hiongnou 
 or Hun tribes, against whom Tsin Hwangti 
 built the Great Wall. In the interval be- 
 tween the death of that ruler and the con- 
 solidation of the power of Kaotsou, a 
 remarkable chief named Meha, or Meta, had 
 established his supremacy among the dis-< 
 united clans of the Mongolian Desert, and 
 had succeeded in combining for purposes of 
 war the whole fighting force of what had 
 been a disjointed and barbarous confederacy. 
 The Chinese rulers had succeeded in keeping 
 back this threatening torrent from overflow- 
 ing the fertile plains of their country, as much 
 by sowing dissension among these clans and 
 by bribing one chief to fight another, as by 
 superior arms. 
 
 But Meha's success rendered this system 
 of defence no longer possible, and the desert 
 chieftain, realizing the opportunity of spoil 
 and conquest, determined to make his posi- 
 tion secure by invading China. If the enter- 
 prise had failed, there would have been an 
 end to the power of Meha, but his rapid suc- 
 cess convinced the Huns that their proper 
 
 and most profitable policy was to carry on 
 implacable war with their weak and wealthy 
 neighbors. Meha's success was so great 
 that in a single campaign he recovered all 
 the districts taken from the Tartars by the 
 general Moungtien. He turned the western 
 angle of the Great Wall, and brought down 
 his frontier to the river Hoangho. His light 
 cavalry raided past the Chinese capital into 
 the province of Szchuen, and returned laden 
 with the spoil of countless cities. 
 
 Rescued by a Maiden. 
 
 These successes were crowned by a signal 
 victory over the Emperor in person. Kaot- 
 sou was drawn into an ambuscade in which 
 his troops had no chance with their more 
 active adversaries, and to save himself from 
 capture, Kaotsou had no alternative but to 
 take refuge in the town of Pingching, where 
 he was closely beleaguered. It was impos- 
 sible to defend the town for any length of 
 time, and the capture of Kaotsou seemed in- 
 evitable, when recourse was had to a strata- 
 gem. The most beautiful Chinese maiden 
 was sent as a present to propitiate the con- 
 queror, and Meha, either mollified by the 
 compliment, or deeming that nothing was to 
 be gained by driving the Chinese to desper- 
 ation, acquiesced in a convention which, 
 while it sealed the ignominious defeat of the 
 Chinese, rescued their sovereign from his 
 predicament. 
 
 This disaster, and his narrow personal es- 
 cape, seem to have unnerved Kaotsou, for 
 when the Huns resumed their incursions in 
 the very year following the Pingching con- 
 vention, he took no steps to oppose them, 
 and contented himself with denouncing in 
 his palace Meha as " a wicked and faithless 
 man, who had risen to power by the murder 
 of his father, and one with whom oaths and 
 treaties carried no weight." Notwithstand- 
 
32 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ing this opinion, Kaotsou proceeded to nego- 
 tiate with Meha as an equal, and gave this 
 barbarian prince his own daughter in mar- 
 riage as the price of his abstaining from 
 further attacks on the Empire. Never, 
 wrote a historian, " was so great a shame 
 inflicted on the Middle Kingdom, which then 
 lost its dignity and honor." 
 
 Meha observed this peace during the life 
 of Kaotsou, who found that his reputation 
 was much diminished by his coming to terms 
 with his uncivilized opponent, but although 
 several of his generals rebelled, until it was 
 said that " the very name of revolt inspired 
 Kaotsou with apprehension," he succeeded 
 in overcoming them all without serious diffi- 
 culty. His troubles probably shortened 
 his life, for he died when he was only fifty- 
 three, leaving the crown to his son Hoeiti, 
 and injunctions to his widow, Liuchi, as to 
 the conduct of the administration. 
 
 A Wicked Empress. 
 
 The brief reign of Hoeiti is only remark- 
 able for the rigor and terrible acts of his 
 mother, the Empress Liuchi, who is the first 
 woman mentioned in Chinese history as 
 taking a supreme part in public affairs. 
 Another of Kaotsou's widows aspired to the 
 throne for her son, and the chief direction 
 for herself. Liuchi nipped their plotting in 
 the bud by poisoning both of them. She 
 marked out those who differed from her, or 
 who resented her taking the most prominent 
 part in public ceremonies, as her enemies, to 
 be removed from her path by any means. 
 At a banquet she endeavored to poison one 
 of the greatest princes of the Empire, but 
 her plot was detected and baffled by her son. 
 It is, perhaps, not surprising that Hoeiti did 
 not live long after this episode, and then 
 Liuchi ruled in her own name, and without 
 filling up the vacancy on the throne, until 
 
 the public dissatisfaction warned her that she 
 was going too far. 
 
 She then adopted a supposititious child as 
 her grandson, and governed as regent in his 
 name. The mother of this youth seems to 
 have made inconvenient demands on the 
 Empress, who promptly put her out of the 
 way, and when the son showed a disposition 
 to resent this action, she caused him to be 
 poisoned. She again ruled without a puppet 
 Emperor, hoping to retain power by placing 
 her relatives in the principal offices ; but the 
 dissatisfaction had now reached an acute 
 point, and threatened to destroy her. It may 
 be doubted whether she would have sur- 
 mounted these difficulties and dangers, when 
 death suddenly cut short her adventurous 
 career. 
 
 The popular legend is that this Chinese 
 Lucrezia Borgia died of fright at seeing the 
 apparitions of her many victims, and there 
 can be no doubt that her crimes did not con- 
 duce to make woman government more 
 popular in China. 
 
 Better Government. 
 
 It says much for the excellence of 
 lyaotsou's work, and for the hold the Han 
 family had obtained on the Chinese people, 
 that when it became necessary to select an 
 Emperor after the death of Liuchi the choice 
 should have fallen unanimously on the Prince 
 of Tai, who was the illegitimate son of 
 Kaotsou. On mounting the throne, he took 
 the name of Wenti. He began his reign by 
 remitting taxes and by appointing able and 
 honest governors and judges. He ordered 
 that all old men should be provided with 
 corn, meat, and wine, besides silk and cotton 
 for their garments. At the suggestion of 
 his ministers, who were alive to the dangers 
 of a disputed succession, he proclaimed his 
 eldest son heir to the throne. He purified 
 
o 
 la 
 o 
 ui 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 X 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 33 
 
34 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 the administration of justice by declaring 
 that prince and peasant must be equally sub- 
 ject to the law; he abolished the too 
 common punishment of mutilation, and had 
 the satisfaction of seeing crime reduced to 
 such low proportions in the Empire that the 
 jails contained only 400 prisoners. 
 
 Wenti was a strong advocate of peace, 
 which was, indeed, necessary to China, as it 
 had not recovered from the effects of the 
 last Hun invasion. He succeeded by diplo- 
 macy in inducing the Prince at Canton, who 
 had shown a disposition to assert his inde- 
 pendence, to recognize his authority, and 
 thus averted a civil war. 
 
 Purchasing Peace. 
 
 In his relations with the Huns, among 
 whom the authority of Meha had passed to 
 his son Lao Chang, he strove to preserve the 
 peace, giving that chief one of his daughters 
 in marriage, and showing moderation in face 
 of much provocation. When war was forced 
 upon him by their raids he did everything 
 he could to mitigate its terrors, but the ill 
 success of his troops in their encounters 
 with the Tartars broke his confidence, and 
 he died prematurely after a reign of twenty- 
 three years, which was remarkable as wit- 
 nessing the consolidation of the Hans. The 
 good work of Wenti was continued during 
 the peaceful reign of sixteen years of his son 
 Kingti. 
 
 The next Emperor was Vouti, a younger 
 son of Kingti, and one of his earliest con- 
 quests was to add the difficult and inaccess- 
 ible province of Fuhkien to the Empire. 
 He also endeavored to propitiate the Huns 
 by giving their chief one of the princesses of 
 his family as a wife, but the opinion was 
 gaining ground that it would be better to 
 engage in a war for the overthrow of the 
 national enemy than to purchase a hollow 
 
 peace. Wang Kua, a general who had com- 
 manded on the frontier, and who knew the 
 Hun mode of warfare, represented that suc- 
 cess would be certain, and at last gained the 
 Emperor's ear. 
 
 Vouti decided on war, and raised a large 
 army for the purpose. But the result was not 
 auspicious. Wang Kua failed to bring the 
 Huns to an engagement, and the campaign 
 which was to produce such great results 
 ended ingloriously. The unlucky general 
 who had promised so much anticipated his 
 master's displeasure by committing^ suicide. 
 Unfortunately for himself, his idea of engag- 
 ing in a mortal struggle with the Tartars 
 gained ground, and became in time the fixed 
 policy of China. 
 
 Annexing a Province. 
 
 Notwithstanding this check, the authority 
 of Vouti continued to expand. He annexed 
 Szchuen, a province exceeding in size and 
 population most European states, and he 
 received from the ruler of Manchuria a for- 
 mal tender of submission. In the last years 
 of his reign the irrepressible Hun question 
 again came up for discussion, and the episode 
 of the flight of the Yuchi from Kansuh 
 affords a break in the monotony of the 
 struggle, and is the first instance of that 
 western movement which brought the tribes 
 of the Gobi desert into Europe. The Yuchi 
 are believed to have been allied with the Jats 
 of India, and there is little or no doubt that 
 the Sacae, or Scythians, were their descend- 
 ants. They occupied a strip of territory in 
 Kansuh from Shachow to Lanchefoo, and 
 after suffering much at the hands of the 
 Huns under Meha, they resolved to seek a 
 fresh home in the unknown regions of West- 
 ern Asia. 
 
 The Emperor Vouti wished to bring them 
 back, and he sent an envoy named Chang 
 
THE STORY OF THE HAN RULERS. 
 
 35 
 
 Keen to induce them to return. That officer 
 discovered them in the Oxus region, but all 
 his arguments failed to incline them to leave 
 a quarter in which they had recovered power 
 and prosperity. Powerless against the Huns, 
 they had more than held their own against 
 the Parthians and the Greek kingdom of 
 Bactria. They retained their predominant 
 position in what is now Bokhara and Balkh, 
 until they were gathered up by the Huns in 
 their western march, and hurled, in conjunc- 
 tion with them, on the borders of the Roman 
 Empire. 
 
 Meantime, the war with the Huns them- 
 selves entered upon a new phase. A general 
 named Wei Tsing obtained a signal victory 
 over them, capturing 15,000 prisoners and 
 the spoil of the Tartar camp. This success 
 restored long-lost confidence to the Chinese 
 troops, and it was followed by several other 
 victories. One Chinese expedition, composed 
 entirely of cavalry, marched through the 
 Hun country to Soponomo on the Tian 
 Shan, carrying everything before it and 
 returning laden with spoil, including some 
 of the golden images of the Hun religion. 
 
 The Tartar King. 
 
 Encouraged by these successes, Vouti at 
 last took the field in person, and sent a for- 
 mal summons to the Tartar King to make 
 his submission to China. His reply was to 
 imprison the bearer of the message, and to 
 defy the Emperor to do his worst. This 
 boldness had the effect of deterring the Em- 
 peror from his enterprise. He employed his 
 troops in conquering Yunnan and Leaoutung 
 instead of in waging another war with the 
 Huns. But he had only postponed, not 
 abandoned, his intention of overthrowing, 
 once and for all, this most troublesome and 
 formidable national enemy. He raised an 
 enormous force for the campaign, which 
 
 might have proved successful but for the 
 mistake of entrusting the command to an in- 
 competent general. 
 
 In an ill-advised moment, he gave his 
 brother-in-law, Li Kwangli, the supreme 
 direction of the war. His incompetence en- 
 tailed a succession of disasters, and the only 
 redeeming point amid them was that Li 
 Kwangli was taken prisoner and rendered 
 incapable of further mischief Liling, the 
 grandson of this general, was entrusted with 
 a fresh army to retrieve the fortunes of the 
 war ; but, although successful at first, he was 
 out-manoeuvred, and reduced to the unpleas- 
 ant pass of surrendering to the enemy. 
 
 Death of a Great Ruler. 
 
 Both Li Kwangli and Liling adapted them- 
 selves to circumstances, and took service 
 under the Tartar chief. As this conduct ob- 
 tained the approval of the historian Ssemat- 
 sien, it is clear that our views of such a pro- 
 ceeding would not be in harmony with the 
 opinion in China of that day. The long war 
 which Vouti waged with the Huns for half a 
 century, and which was certainly carried on 
 in a more honorable and successful manner 
 than any previous portion of that historic 
 struggle, closed with discomfiture and defeat, 
 which dashed to the ground the Emperor's 
 hopes of a complete triumph over the most 
 formidable national enemy. 
 
 After a reign of fifty-four years, which must 
 be pronounced glorious, Vouti died, amidst 
 greater troubles and anxieties than any that 
 had beset him during his long reign. He 
 was unquestionably a great ruler. He added 
 several provinces to his Empire, and the suc- 
 cess he met with over the Huns was far from 
 being inconsiderable. He was a Nimrod 
 among the Chinese, and his principal enjoy- 
 ment was to chase the wildest animals with- 
 out any attendants. 
 
36 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Like many other Chinese princes, Vouti 
 was prone to believe in the possibility of 
 prolonging human life, or, as the Chinese 
 put it, in the draught of immortality. In 
 connection with this weakness an anecdote is 
 preserved that will bear telling. A magician 
 offered the Emperor a glass containing the 
 pretended elixir of eternal life, and Vouti was 
 about to drink it when a courtier snatched it 
 from his hand and drained the goblet. The 
 enraged monarch ordered him to prepare for 
 instant death, but the ready courtier at once 
 replied, " How can I be executed since I have 
 drunk the draught of immortality ? " To so 
 convincing an argument no reply was possi- 
 ble, and Vouti lived to a considerable age 
 without the aid of magicians or quack medi- 
 cines. 
 
 An Emperor Eight Years Old. 
 
 Of him also it may be said that he added 
 to the stability of the Han dynasty, and he 
 left the throne to Chaoti, the youngest of his 
 sons, a child of eight, for whom he appointed 
 his two most experienced ministers to act as 
 governors. As these ministers were true to 
 their duty, the interregnum did not affect the 
 fortunes of the State adversely, and several 
 claimants to the throne paid for their ambi- 
 tion with their lives. The reign of Chaoti 
 was prosperous and successful, but, unfortu- 
 nately, he died at the early age of thirty-one, 
 and without leaving an heir. 
 
 After some hesitation, Chaoti's uncle 
 Liucho was proclaimed Emperor, but he 
 proved to be a boor with low tastes, whose 
 sole idea of power was the license to indulge 
 in coarse amusements. The chief minister. 
 Ho Kwang, took upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of deposing him, and also of placing on 
 the throne Siuenti, who was the great-grand- 
 son, or, according to another account, the 
 grandson, of Vouti. The choice was a for- 
 
 tunate one, and "Ho Kwang gave all his 
 care to perfecting the new Emperor in the 
 science of government." As a knowledge 
 of his connection with the Imperial family 
 had been carefully kept from him, Siuenti 
 was brought from a very humble sphere to 
 direct the destinies of the Chinese, and his 
 greater energy and more practical disposition 
 were probably due to his not having been bred 
 in the enervating atmosphere of a palace. 
 
 Compelled to Poison Themselves. 
 
 He, too, was brought at an early stage of 
 his career face to face with the Tartar ques- 
 tion, and he had what may be pronounced a 
 unique experience in his wars with them. 
 He sent several armies under commanders 
 of reputation to wage war on them, and the 
 generals duly returned, reporting decisive and 
 easily obtained victories. The truth soon 
 .leaked out. The victories were quite imagi- 
 nary. The generals had never ventured to 
 face the Tartars, and they were given no 
 option by their enraged and disappointed 
 master but to poison themselves. 
 
 Other generals were appointed, and the 
 Tartars were induced to sue for peace, partly 
 from fear of the Chinese, and partly because 
 they were disunited among themselves. Such 
 was the reputation of Siuenti for justice that 
 several of the Tartar chiefs carried their 
 grievances to the foot of his throne, and his 
 army became known as "the troops of jus- 
 tice." It is said that all the tribes and coun- 
 tries of Central Asia as far west as the Cas- 
 pian sent him tribute, and to celebrate the 
 event he built a kiln or pavilion, in which 
 he placed statues of all the generals who had 
 contributed towards his triumph. 
 
 Only one incident marred the tranquility 
 of Siuenti's reign. The great statesman, Ho 
 Kwang, had sunk quietly into private life as 
 soon as he found the Emperor capable of 
 
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THE STORY OF THE HAN RULERS. 
 
 37 
 
 governing for himself, but his wife Hohien 
 was more ambitious and less satisfied with 
 her position, although she had effected a 
 marriage between her daughter and Siuenti. 
 This lady was only one of the queens of the 
 ruler, and not the Empress. Hohien, to 
 further her ends, determined to poison the 
 Empress, and succeeded only too well. Her 
 guilt would have been divulged by the doctor 
 she employed, but that Ho Kwang, by an 
 exercise of his authority, prevented the appli- 
 cation of tortur^ to him when thrown into 
 prison. 
 
 Thij narrow escape from detection did not 
 keep Hohien from crime. She had the satis- 
 faction of seeing her daughter proclaimed 
 Empress, but her gratification was dimin- 
 ished by the son of the murdered Hiuchi 
 being selected as heir to the throne. Hohien 
 resolved to poison this prince, but her design 
 was discovered, and she and all the members 
 of her family were ordered to take poison. 
 The minister. Ho Kwang, had taken no part 
 in these plots, which, however, injured his 
 reputation, and his statue in the Imperial 
 pavilion was left without a name. 
 
 A Head Hung on the Walls. 
 
 Siuenti did not long survive these events, 
 and Yuenti, the son of Hiuchi, became Em- 
 peror. His reign of sixteen years presents 
 no features of interest beyond the signal 
 overthrow of the Tartar chief. Chichi, whose 
 head was sent by the victorious general to 
 be hung on the walls of Singan. Yuenti was 
 succeeded by his son Chingti, who reigned 
 twenty-six years, and who gained the repu- 
 tation of a Chinese Vitellius. His nephew, 
 Gaiti, who was the next Emperor, showed 
 himself an able and well-intentioned prince, 
 but his reign of six years was too brief to 
 allow of any permanent work being accom- 
 plished. One measure of his was not with- 
 
 out its influence on the fate of his successors. 
 He had disgraced and dismissed from the 
 service an official named Wang Mang, who 
 had attained great power and influence under 
 Chingti. The ambition of this individual 
 proved fatal to the dynasty. On Gaiti's 
 death he emerged from his retirement, and 
 in conjunction with that prince's mother, 
 seized the government. 
 
 Crime to Gain the Throne. 
 
 They placed a child, grandson of Yuenti, 
 on the throne, and they'gave him the name 
 of Pingti, or the Peaceful Emperor, but he 
 never governed. Before Pingti was fourteen, 
 Wang Mang resolved to get rid of him, and 
 he gave him the poisoned cup with his own 
 hands. This was not the only, or perhaps; 
 the worst, crime that Wang Mang, perpe- 
 trated to gain the throne. Pressed for 
 money to pay his troops, he committed the 
 sacrilege of stripping the graves of the 
 princes of the Han family of the jewels 
 deposited in them. One more puppet prince 
 was placed on the throne, but he was soon 
 got rid of, and Wang Mang proclaimed him- 
 self Emperor. He also decreed that the Han 
 dynasty was extinct, and that his family should 
 be known as the Sin. 
 
 Wang Mang the usurper was certainly a 
 capable administrator, but in seizing the 
 throne he had attempted a task to which he 
 was unequal. As long as he was minister 
 or regent, respect and regard for the Han 
 family prevented many from revolting against 
 his tyranny, but when he seized the throne 
 he became the mark of popular indignation 
 and official jealousy. The Huns resumed 
 their incursions, and, curiously enough, put 
 forward a proclamation demanding the resto- 
 ration of the Hans. 
 
 Internal enemies sprang up on every side, 
 and Wang Mang's attempt to terrify them by 
 
CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 severity and wholesale executions only aggra- 
 vated the situation. It became clear that the 
 struggle was to be one to the death, but this 
 fact did not assist Wang Mang, who saw his 
 resources gradually reduced, and his enemies 
 more confident as the contest continued. 
 After twelve years' fighting, Wang Mang 
 was besieged at Singan. The city was soon 
 carried by storm, and Wang Mang retired to 
 
 Liu Hiuen, was placed on the throne, and 
 the capital was removed from Singan to 
 Loyang, or Honan. Nothing could have 
 been more popular among the Chinese 
 people than the restoration of the Hans. 
 It is said that the old men cried for joy 
 when they saw the banner of the Hans 
 again waving over the palace and in the 
 field. But Liu Hiuen was not a good ruler. 
 
 SALE OF PRAYERS IN A CHINESE TEMPLE. 
 
 the palace to put an end to his existence. 
 But his heart failed him, and he was cut 
 down by the foe. His last exclamation and 
 the dirge of his short-lived dynasty, which is 
 denied a place in Chinese history, was, " If 
 Pleaven had given me courage, what could 
 the family of the Hans have done?" 
 
 The eldest of the surviving Han princes, 
 
 and there might have been reason to regret 
 the change if he had not wisely left the con- 
 duct of affairs to his able cousin, Liu Sieou. 
 At last the army declared that Liu Sieou 
 should be Emperor, and when Liu Hiuen 
 attempted to form a faction of his own he 
 was murdered by Fanchong, the leader of 
 a confederacy known as the Crimson Eye- 
 
THE STORY OF THE HAN RULERS. 
 
 39 
 
 brows, on whose co-operation he counted. 
 The Crimson Eyebrows were so called 
 from the distinguishing mark which they 
 had adopted when first organized as a pro- 
 test against the tyranny of Wang Mang. At 
 first they were patriots, but they soon be- 
 came brigands. After murdering the Em- 
 peror, Fanchong, their leader, threw off all 
 disguise, and seizing Singan, gave it over to 
 his followers to plunder. Liu Sieoti, on be- 
 coming Emperor, took the style of Kwang 
 Vouti, and his first task was to overthrow 
 the Crimson Eyebrows, who had become a 
 public enemy. He entrusted the command 
 of the army he raised for this purpose to 
 Fongy, who justified his reputation as the 
 most skilful Chinese general of his day by 
 gaining several victories over a more numer- 
 ous adversary. Within two years Kwang 
 Vouti had the satisfaction of breaking up the 
 formidable faction known as the Crimson 
 Eyebrows, and of holding its leader Fan- 
 chong as a prisoner in his capital. 
 
 Constant W^ars. 
 
 Kwang Vouti was engaged for many more 
 years in subduing the numerous potentates 
 who had repudiated the Imperial authority. 
 His efforts were invariably crowned with 
 success, but he acquired so great a distaste 
 for war that it is said when his son asked 
 him to explain how an army was set in 
 battle array he refused to reply. But the 
 love of peace will not avert war when a 
 State has turbulent or ambitious neighbors 
 who are resolved to appeal to arms, and so 
 Kwang Vouti was engaged in almost con- 
 stant hostilities to the end of his days. 
 
 Chingtse, the Queen of Kaochi, which 
 may be identified with the modern Annam, 
 defied the Chinese, and defeated the first 
 army sent to bring her to reason. This 
 reverse necessitated a still greater effort on 
 
 the part of the Chinese ruler to bring his 
 neighbor to her senses. The occupant of 
 the Dragon Throne could not sit down 
 tamely under a defeat inflicted by a woman, 
 and an experienced general named Mayuen 
 was sent to punish the Queen of Kaochi. 
 
 The Boadicea of Annam made a valiant 
 defence, but she was overthrown, and glad 
 to purchase peace by making the humblest 
 submission. The same general more than 
 held his own on the northern and northwest 
 frontiers. When Kwang Vouti died, in 
 A. D. 57, after a brilliant reign of thirty- 
 three years, he had firmly established the 
 Han dynasty, and he left behind him the 
 reputation of being both a brave and a just 
 prince. 
 
 A Prosperous Reign. 
 
 His son and successor, Mingti, was not 
 unworthy of his father. His acts were char- 
 acterized by wisdom and clemency, and the 
 country enjoyed a large measure of peace 
 through the policy of Mingti and his father. 
 A general named Panchow, who was per- 
 haps the greatest military commander China 
 ever produced, began his long and remark- 
 able career in this reign, and, without the 
 semblance of an effort, kept the Huns in 
 order, and maintained the Imperial authority 
 over them. Among other great and import- 
 ant works, Mingti constructed a dyke, thirty 
 miles long, for the relief of the Hoangho, 
 and the French missionary and writer, Du 
 Halde, states that so long as this was kept 
 in repair there were no floods. 
 
 The most remarkable event of Mingti's 
 reign was undoubtedly the official introduc- 
 tion of Buddhism into China. Some knowl- 
 edge of the great Indian religion and of the 
 teacher Sakya Muni seemed to have reached 
 China through either Tibet, or, more prob- 
 ably, Burma, but it was not until Mingti, in 
 
40 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 consequence of a dream, sent envoys to 
 India to study Buddhism, that its doctrine 
 became known in China. Under the direct 
 patronage of the Emperor it made rapid 
 progress, and although never unreservedly 
 popular, it has held its ground ever since its 
 introduction in the first century of our era, 
 and is now inextricably intertwined with the 
 religion of the Chinese state and people. 
 Mingti died after a successful reign of eigh- 
 teen years in 75 A. D. His son, Changti, 
 with the aid of his mother, Machi, the 
 daughter of the general Mayuen, enjoyed a 
 peaceful reign of thirteen years, and died at 
 an early age lamented by his sorrowing 
 people. 
 
 The Huns Conquered. 
 
 After Changti came his son Hoti, who was 
 only ten at the time of his accession, and 
 who reigned for seventeen years. He was a 
 virtuous and well-intentioned prince, who 
 instituted many internal reforms, and during 
 his reign a new writing-paper was invented, 
 which is supposed to have been identical 
 with the papyrus of Egypt. 
 
 But the reign of Hoti is rendered illus- 
 trious by the remarkable military achieve- 
 ments of Panchow. The success of that 
 general in his operations with the Huns has 
 already been referred to, and he at last 
 formed a deliberate plan for driving them 
 away from the Chinese frontier. Although 
 he enjoyed the confidence of his successive 
 sovereigns, the Imperial sanction was long 
 withheld from this vast scheme, but during 
 the life of Changti he began to put in opera- 
 tion measures for the realization of this pro- 
 ject that were only matured under Hoti. He 
 raised and trained a special army for frontier 
 war. He enlisted tribes who had never 
 served the Emperor before, and who were 
 specially qualified for desert warfare. He 
 
 formed an alliance with the Sienpi tribes of 
 Manchuria, who were probably the ancestors 
 of the present Manchus, and thus arranged 
 for a flank attack on the Huns. 
 
 This systematic attack was crowned with 
 success. The pressure brought against 
 them compelled the Hiongnou to give way, 
 and as they were ousted from their posses- 
 sions, to seek fresh homes further west. In 
 this they were, no doubt, stimulated by the 
 example of their old opponents, the Yuchi, 
 but Panchow's energy supplied a still more 
 convincing argument. He pursued them 
 wherever they went, across the Gobi desert 
 and beyond the Tian Shan range, taking up 
 a strong position at modern Kuldja and 
 Kashgar, sending his expeditions on to the 
 Pamir, and preparing to complete his 
 triumph by the invasion of the countries of 
 the Oxus and Jaxartes. 
 
 A Brilliant Campaign. 
 
 When Hoti was still a youth, he com- 
 pleted this programme by overrunning the 
 region as far as the Caspian, which was prob- 
 ably at that time connected with the Aral, 
 and it may be supposed that Khiva marked 
 the limit of the Chinese general's triumphant 
 progress. It is affirmed with more or less 
 show of truth that he came into contact with 
 the Roman Empire or the great Thsin, as 
 the Chinese called it, and that he wished to 
 establish commercial relations with it. But, 
 however uncertain this may be, there can be 
 no doubt that he inflicted a most material 
 injury on Rome, for before his legions fled 
 the Huns, who, less than four centuries later, 
 debased the majesty of the Imperial City, 
 and whose leader, Attila, may have been a 
 descendant of that Meha, at whose hands 
 the Chinese suffered so severely. 
 
 After this brilliant and memorable war, 
 Panchow returned to China, where he died 
 
42 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 at the great age of eighty. With him dis- 
 appeared the good fortune of the Han 
 dynasty, and misfortunes fell rapidly on the 
 family that had governed China so long and 
 so well. Hoti's infant son lived only a few 
 months, and then his brother Ganti became 
 Emperor. The real power rested in the 
 hands of the widow of Hoti, who was ele- 
 vated to the post of Regent. Ganti was 
 succeeded in A. D. 124 by his son Chunti, 
 in whose time several rebellions occurred, 
 threatening the extinction of the dynasty. 
 
 Ambitious Schemes. 
 
 Several children were then elevated to the 
 throne, and at last an ambitious noble named 
 Leangki, whose sister was one of the Em- 
 presses, acquired the supreme direction of 
 affairs. He gave a great deal of trouble, 
 but at last, finding that his ambitious schemes 
 did not prosper, he took poison, thus antici- 
 pating a decree passed for his execution. 
 Hwanti, the Emperor who had the courage 
 to punish this powerful noble, was the last 
 able ruler of the Hans. His reign was, on 
 the whole, a brilliant one, and the Sienpi 
 tribes, who had taken the place of the 
 Hiognou, were, after one arduous campaign, 
 defeated in a pitched battle. The Chinese 
 were on the verge of defeat when their 
 general, Twan Kang, rushed to the front, 
 exclaiming : " Recall to your minds how 
 often before you have beaten these same 
 opponents, and teach them again to-day 
 that in you they have their masters." 
 
 After Hwanti's death the decline of the 
 Hans was rapid. They produced no other 
 ruler worthy of the throne. In the palace 
 the eunuchs, always numerous at the Chi- 
 nese Court, obtained the upper hand, and 
 appointed their own creatures to the great 
 governing posts. Fortunately this dissen- 
 sion at the capital was not attended by weak- 
 
 ness on the frontier, and the Sienpi were 
 again defeated. The battle is chiefly mem- 
 orable because the Sienpi endeavored to 
 frighten the Chinese general by threatening 
 to kill his mother, who was a prisoner in 
 their hands, if he attacked. 
 
 Not deterred by this menace, Chow Pow 
 attacked the lenemy, and gained a decisive 
 victory, but at the cost of his mother's life, 
 which so affected him that he died of griel 
 shortly afterwards. After some time dissen- 
 sions rose in the Han family, and two half 
 brothers claimed the throne. Pienti became 
 Emperor by the skilful support of his uncle. 
 General Hotsin, while his rival Hienti en- 
 joyed the support of the eunuchs. A deadly 
 feud ensued between the two parties, which 
 was aggravated by the murder of Hotsin, 
 who rashly entered the palace without an 
 escort. His soldiers avenged his death, 
 carrying the palace by storm, and putting 
 10,000 eunuchs to the sword. 
 
 End of a Famous Dynasty. 
 
 After this the last Emperors possessed 
 only the name of Emperor. The practical 
 authority was disputed among several gen- 
 erals, of whom Tsow Tsow was the most 
 distinguished and successful; and he and 
 his son Tsowpi founded a dynasty. In 
 A. D. 220 Hienti, the last Han ruler, re- 
 tired into private life as Prince of Chanyang, 
 thus bringing to an end the famous Han 
 dynasty, which had governed China for 475 
 years. 
 
 Among the families that have reigned in 
 China none have obtained as high a place in 
 popular esteem as the Hans. They ren- 
 dered excellent work in consolidating the 
 Empire and in carrying out what may be 
 called the Imperial mission of China. Yun- 
 nan and Leaoutung were made provinces for 
 the first time. Cochin China became a vas- 
 
THE STORY OF THE HAN RULERS. 
 
 43 
 
 sal state. The writ of the Emperor ran as 
 fer as the Pamir. The wealth and trade of 
 the country increased with the progress of 
 its armies. Some of the greatest public 
 works, in the shape of roads, bridges, canals, 
 and aqueducts, were constructed during this 
 period, and still remain to testify to the glory 
 of the Hans. 
 
 As has been seen, the Hans produced 
 several great rulers. Their fame was not 
 the creation of one man alone, and as a 
 consequence the dynasty enjoyed a length- 
 ened existence equalled by few of ita prede- 
 cessors or successors. No ruling family was 
 ever more popular with the Chinese than 
 
 this, and it managed to retain the throne 
 when less favored rulers would have ex- 
 piated their mistakes and shortcomings by 
 the loss of the Empire. With the strong 
 support of the people, the Hans overcame 
 innumerable difficulties, and even the natural 
 process of decay; and when they made their 
 final exit from history it was in a graceful 
 manner, and without the execration of the 
 masses, which generally attends the fall of 
 greatness and the loss of sovereign authority. 
 That this feeling retains its force is shown in 
 the pride with which the Chinese still pro- 
 claim themselves to be the sons of Han and 
 glory in their ancestry. 
 
 IMAGE OF BUDDHA. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 THE ignominious failure of the usurper 
 Wang Mang to found a dynasty- 
 was too recent to encourage any- 
 one to take upon himself the heavy 
 charge of administering the whole of the 
 Han Empire, and so the state was split up 
 into three principalities, and the period is 
 known from this fact as the Sankoue. One 
 prince, a member of the late ruling family, 
 held possession of Szchuen, which was called 
 the principality of Chow. The southern 
 provinces were goverened by a general 
 named Sunkiuen, and called Ou. 
 
 The central and northern provinces, con- 
 taining the greatest population and resources, 
 formed the principality of Wei, subject to 
 Tsowpi, the son of Tsow Tsow. A struggle 
 for supremacy very soon began between these 
 princes, and the balance of success gradually 
 declared itself in favor of Wei. 
 
 It would serve no useful purpose to enu- 
 merate the battles which marked this struggle, 
 yet one deed of heroism deserves mention, 
 the defence of Sinching by Changte, an 
 officer of the Prince of Wei. The strength 
 of the place was insignificant, and, after a 
 siege of ninety days, several breaches had 
 been made in the walls. In this strait 
 Changte sent a message to the besieging 
 general that he would surrender on the hun- 
 dredth day if a cessation of hostilities were 
 granted, " as it was a law among the princes 
 of Wei that the governor of a place which 
 held out for a hundred days and then surren- 
 dered, with no prospect of relief visible, 
 should not be considered as guilty." The 
 44 
 
 respite was short and it was granted. But 
 the disappointment of the besieger, already 
 counting on success, was great when a few 
 days later he saw that the breaches had been 
 repaired, that fresh defences had been impro- 
 vised, and that Sinching was in better condi- 
 tion than ever to withstand a seige. 
 
 On sending to inquire the meaning of 
 these preparations, Changte, gave the fol- 
 lowing reply : " I am preparing my tomb and 
 to bury myself in the ruins of Sinching." 
 Of such gallantry and resource the interne- 
 cine strife of the Sankoue period presents few 
 instances, but the progress of the struggle 
 steadily pointed in the direction of the 
 triumph of Wei. 
 
 Period of United Government. 
 
 A long period of dissension prevailed in 
 China. Then came the powerful Tang 
 dynasty, A. D. 617, which succeeded in 
 largely restoring the unity of the nation. 
 A termination was at last reached to the 
 internal division and weakness that had 
 lasted for more than 750 years. 
 
 The student reaches at this point firmer 
 ground in the history of China as an Empire, 
 and his interest in the subject must assume a 
 more definite form on coming to the begin- 
 ning of that period of united government and 
 settled authority which has been established 
 for nearly i ,000 years, during which no more 
 than four separate families have held posses- 
 sion of the throne. 
 
 After the rival dynasties of the Sungs and 
 Kins rose to supremacy, the Chinese were 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 45 
 
 subjugated by a race more powerful than 
 themselves. 
 
 We must consider, the origin and the 
 growth of the power of the Mongols, who 
 were certainly the most remarkable race of 
 conquerors Asia, or perhaps the whole world, 
 ever produced. 
 
 The home of the Mongols, whose name 
 signifies "brave men," was in the strip of 
 territory between the Onon and Kerulon 
 rivers, which are both tributaries or upper 
 courses of the Amour. They first appeared 
 as a separate clan or tribe in the ninth cen- 
 tury, when they attracted special attention 
 for their physical strength and courage 
 during one of China's many wars with the 
 children of the desert, and it was on that 
 occasion they gained the appellation under 
 which they became famous. 
 
 The Head of the Clan. 
 
 The earlier history of the Mdngol tribe is 
 obscure, and baffles investigation, but there 
 seems no reason to doubt their affinity to 
 the Hiongnou, with whose royal house 
 Genghis himself claimed blood relationship. 
 If this claim be admitted, Genghis and 
 Attila, who were the two specially typical 
 Scourges of God, must be considered mem- 
 bers of the same race, and their probability 
 is certainly strengthened by the close resem- 
 blance in their methods of carrying on war. 
 Budantsar is the first chief of the house of 
 Genghis whose person and achievements are 
 more than mythical. He selected as the 
 abode of his race the territory between the 
 Onon and the Kerulou, a region fertile in 
 itself, and well protected by those rivers 
 against attack. 
 
 It was also so well placed as to be beyond 
 the extreme limit of any triumphant pro- 
 gress of the armies of the Chinese emperor. 
 If Budantsar had accomplished nothing 
 
 more than this, he would still have done 
 much to justify his memory being preserved 
 among a free and independent people. But 
 he seems to have incited his followers to 
 pursue an active and temperate life, to 
 remain warriors rather than to become rich 
 and lazy citizens. He wrapped up this 
 counsel in the exhortation, " What is the use 
 of embarrassing ourselves with wealth ? Is 
 not the fate of men decreed by Heaven ? " 
 He sowed the seed of future Mongol great- 
 ness, and the headship of his clan remained 
 vested in his family. 
 
 Overthrown in Battle. 
 
 In due order of succession the chiefship 
 passed to Kabul Khan, who in the year 
 1 1 3 5 began to encroach on the dominion of 
 Hola, the Kin Emperor. He seems to have 
 been induced to commit this act of hostility 
 by a prophecy, to the effect that his children 
 should be emperors, and also by discourteous 
 treatment received on the occasion of his 
 visit to the court of Oukimai. Whatever the 
 cause of umbrage Kabul Khan made the 
 Kins pay dearly for their arrogance or short- 
 sighted policy. Hola sent an army under 
 one of his best generals, Hushahu, to bring 
 the Mongol chief to reason, but the inacces- 
 sibility of his home stood him in good stead. 
 The Kin army suffered greatly in its futile 
 attempt to cross the desert, and during its 
 retreat it was harassed by the pursuing 
 Mongols. 
 
 When the Kin army endeavored to make 
 a stand against its pursuers, it suffered a 
 crushing overthrow in a battle at Hailing, 
 and on the Kins sending a larger force 
 against the Mongols in 1 1 39, it had no 
 better fortune. Kabul Khan, after the 
 second sucsess, caused himself to be pro- 
 claimed Great Emperor of the Mojigols. 
 His success in war, and his ambition, which 
 
46 
 
 CHINA : PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 rested satisfied with no secondary position, 
 indicated the path on which the Mongols 
 proceeded to the acquisition of supreme 
 power and a paramount military influence 
 whithersoever they carried their name and 
 standards. 
 
 Union of Warlike. Races. 
 
 The work begun by Kabul was well con- 
 tinued by his son Kutula, or Kablai. He, 
 too, was a great warrior, whose deeds of 
 prowess aroused as much enthusiasm among 
 the Mongols as those of Coeur-de-Lion 
 evoked in the days of the Plantagenets. 
 The struggle with the Kins was rendered 
 more bitter by the execution of several 
 Mongols of importance, who happened to 
 fall into the hands of the Kins. When 
 Kutula died the chiefship passed to his 
 nephew, Yissugei, who greatly extended the 
 influence aud power of his family among the 
 tribes neighboring to the Mongol home. 
 Many of these, and even some Chinese, 
 joined the military organization of the domi- 
 nant, tribe, so that what was originally a 
 small force of strictly limited numbers, 
 became a vast and ever-increasing con- 
 federacy of the most warlike and aggressive 
 races of the Chinese northern frontier. Im- 
 portant as Yissugei 's work in the develop- 
 ment of Mongol power undoubtedly was, 
 his chief historical interest is derived from 
 the fact that he was the father of Genghis 
 Khan. 
 
 There are several interesting fables in con- 
 nection with the birth of Genghis, which 
 event may be safely assigned to the year 
 1 163 A. D. One of these reads as follows: 
 — "One day Yissugei was hunting in com- 
 pany with his brothers, and was following 
 the tracks of a white hare in the snow. They 
 struck upon the track of a wagon, and fol- 
 lowing it up came to a spot where a 
 
 woman's yart was pitched. Then said 
 Yissugei, ' This woman will bear a valiant 
 son.' He discovered that she was the 
 damsel Ogelen Eke {i. e., the mother of 
 nations), and that she was the wife of Yeke 
 Yilatu, chief of a Tartar tribe. Yissugei 
 carried her off and made her his wife." 
 
 Birth of the "Valiant Son." 
 Immediately after his overthrow of Temu- 
 jin, chief of one of the principal Tartar 
 tribes, Yissugei learned that the promised 
 " valiant son " was about to be born, and in 
 honor of his victory he gave him the name 
 of Temujin, which was the proper name of 
 the great Genghis. The village or encamp- 
 ment in which the future conqueror first saw 
 the light of day still bears the old Mongol- 
 name, Dilun Boldak, on the banks of the 
 Onon. When Yissugei died, Temujin, or 
 Genghis, was only thirteen, and his clan of 
 40,000 families refused to recognize him as 
 their leader. At a meeting of the tribe 
 Genghis entreated them with tears in his 
 eyes to stand by the son of their former 
 chief, but the majority of them mocked at 
 him, exclaiming, "The deepest wells are 
 sometimes dry, and the hardest stone is 
 sometimes broken, why should we cling to 
 thee?" 
 
 Genghis owed to the heroic attitude of 
 his mother, who flung abroad the cow-tailed 
 banner of his race, the acceptance of his 
 authority by about half the warriors who 
 had obeyed his father. The great advantage 
 of this step was that it gave Genghis time to 
 grow up to be a warrior as famous as any of 
 his predecessors, and it certainly averted 
 what might have easily become the irretriev- 
 able disintegration of the Mongol alliance. 
 
 The youth of Genghis was passed in one 
 ceaseless struggle to regain the whole of his 
 birthright. His most formidable enemy was 
 
o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 O 
 
 in 
 
 W 
 
 CL, 
 
 >< 
 
 H 
 
 t- 
 
 ^ 
 
48 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Chamuka, chief of the Juriats, and for a long 
 time he had all the worst of the struggle, being 
 taken prisoner on one occasion, and under- 
 going marked indignity. On making his 
 escape he had rallied his remaining followers 
 round him for a final effort, and on the 
 advice of his mother Ogelen Eke, who was 
 his principal adviser and staunchest sup- 
 porter, he divided his forces into thirteen 
 regiments of i,ooo men each, and confined 
 his attention to the defence of his own terri- 
 tory,. 
 
 Unexpected Victory. 
 
 Chamuka, led away by what he deemed 
 the weakness of his adversary, attacked him 
 on the Onon with as he considered the over- 
 whelming force of 30,000 men ; but the re- 
 sult dispelled his hopes of conquest, for 
 Genghis gained a decisive victory. Then 
 was furnished a striking instance of the 
 truth of the saying that "nothing succeeds 
 like success." The despised Temujin, who 
 was thought to be unworthy of the post of 
 ruling the Mongols, was lauded to the skies, 
 and the tribes declared with one voice, 
 "Temujin albne is generous and worthy of 
 ruling a great people." At this time also he 
 began to show the qualities of a statesman 
 and diplomatist. He formed in 1 1 94 a tem- 
 porary alliance with the Kin emperor, Mada- 
 cou, and the richness of his reward seems to 
 have excited his cupidity, while his expe- 
 rience of the Kin army went to prove that 
 they were not so formidable as had been 
 imagined. 
 
 The discomfiture of Chamuka has been 
 referred to, but he had not abandoned the 
 hope of success, and when he succeeded in 
 detaching the Kerait chief Wang Khan from 
 the Mongols, to whom he was bound by ties 
 of gratitude, he fancied that he again held 
 victory in his grasp. But the intrigue did 
 
 not realize his expectations. Wang Khan 
 deserted Genghis v/hile engaged in a joint 
 campaign against the Naimans, but he was 
 the principal suffererer by his treachery, 
 for the enemy pursued his force, and inflicted 
 a heavy defeat upon it. In fact, he was 
 only rescued from destruction by the timely 
 aid of the man he had betrayed. 
 
 But far from inspiring gratitude, this inci- 
 dent inflamed the resentment of Wang Khan, 
 who, throwing off the cloak of simulated 
 friendship, declared publicly that either the 
 Kerait or the Mongol must be supreme on 
 the great steppe, as there was not room for 
 both. Such was the superiority in numbers 
 of the Kerait, that in the first battle of this 
 long and keenly-contested struggle, Wang 
 Khan defeated Temujin near Ourga, where 
 the mounds that cover the slain are still 
 shown to the curious or skeptical visitor. 
 After this serious, and in some degree unex- 
 pected reverse, the fortunes of Genghis sank 
 to the lowest ebb. He was reduced to ter- 
 rible straits, and had to move his camp 
 rapidly from one spot to another. 
 
 Put Him to Death. 
 
 A small section of his followers, mindful 
 of his past success and prowess, still clung 
 to him, and by a sudden and daring coup he 
 changed the whole aspect of the contest. 
 He surprised Wang Khan in his camp at ' 
 night, and overwhelmed him and his forces. 
 Wang Khan escaped to his old foes, the Nai- 
 mans, who, disregarding the laws of hospi- 
 tality, put him to death. The death of 
 Wang Khan signified nothing less than the ' 
 wholesale defection of the Kerait tribe, which 
 joined Genghis to the last man. Then Geng- 
 his turned westwards to settle the question 
 of supremacy with the Naimans, who were 
 both hostile and defiant. 
 
 The Naiman chief shared the opinion of 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 49 
 
 Wang Khan 
 
 that there could not be two 
 masters on the Tian Shan, and with that 
 vigorous illustration which has never been 
 wanting to these illiterate tribes, he wrote, 
 "There cannot be two suns in the sky, two 
 swords in one sheath, two eyes in one eyepit, 
 or two kings in one empire." Both sides 
 made strenuous efforts for the fray, and 
 brought every fighting man they could into 
 the field. The decisive battle of the war 
 was fought in the heart of Jungaria, and 
 the star of Genghis rose in the ascendant. 
 The Naimans fought long and well, but they 
 were borne down by the heavier armed 
 Mongols, and their desperate resistance only 
 added to their loss. Their chief died of his 
 wounds, and the triumph of Genghis was 
 rendered complete by the capture of his old 
 enemy, Chamuka. 
 
 Nine White Yak-Tails. 
 
 As Genghis had sworn the oath of friend- 
 ship with Chamuka, he would not slay him, 
 but he handed him over to a relative, who 
 promptly exacted the rough revenge his past 
 hostility and treachery seemed to call for. 
 On his way back from this campaign the 
 Mongol chief attacked the Prince of Hia, 
 who reigned over Kansuh and Tangut, and 
 thus began the third war he waged for the 
 extension of his power. Before this assumed 
 serious proportions he summoned a Grand 
 Council or Kuriltai, at his camp on the 
 Onon, and then erected outside his tent the 
 royal Mongol banner of the nine white yak- 
 tails. 
 
 It was on this occasion that Temujin took, 
 and was proclaimed among the Mongol 
 chiefs by, the highly exalted name of 
 Genghis Khan, which means Very Mighty 
 Khan. The Chinese character for the name 
 signifies " Perfect Warrior," and the earher 
 European writers affirm that it is supposed 
 
 4 
 
 to represent the sound of " the bird of 
 heaven." At this assemblage, which was 
 the first of a long succession of Mongol 
 councils summoned at the same place on 
 critical occasions, it was supposed and agreed 
 that the war should be carried on with the 
 richer and less warHke races of the south. 
 
 Rewards and Decorations. 
 
 Among soldiers it is necessary to pre- 
 serve the spirit of pre-eminence and warlike 
 zeal by granting rewards and decorations. 
 Genghis realized the importance of this 
 matter, and instituted the order of Baturu or 
 Bahadur, meaning warrior. He also made 
 his two leading generals Muhula and Porshu 
 princes, one to sit on his right hand and the 
 other on his left. He addressed them before 
 council in the following words: — "It is to 
 you that I owe my empire. You are and 
 have been to me as the shafts ' of a carriage 
 or the arms to a man's body." Seals of 
 office were also granted to all the officials, so 
 that their authority might be the more evi- 
 dent and the more honored. 
 
 In A. D. 1207 Genghis began his war 
 with the state of Hia, which he had deter- 
 mined to crush as the preliminary invasion of 
 China. In that year he contented himself 
 with the capture of Wuhlahai, one of the 
 border fortresses of that principality, and in 
 the following year he established his control 
 over the tribes of the desert more fully, thus 
 gaining many Kirghiz and Naiman aux- 
 iliaries. In 1 209 he resumed the war with 
 Hia in a determined spirit, and placed him- 
 self in person at the head of all his forces. 
 Although the Hia ruler prepared as well as 
 he could for the struggle, he was really un- 
 nerved by the magnitude of the danger he 
 had to face. His army was overthrown, his 
 best generals were taken prisoners, and he 
 himself had no resource left but to throw 
 
60 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 himself on the consideration of Genghis. 
 For good reasons the Mongol conqueror 
 was lenient. He married one of the daugh- 
 ters of the king, and he took him into sub- 
 sidiary alliance with himself. / 
 
 Thus did Genghis absorb the Hia power, 
 which was very considerable, and prepared 
 to enrol it with all his own resources against 
 the Kin empire. The Mongols owed their 
 
 before the time of Genghis. War had be- 
 come a science. 
 
 But the Mongols carried the teaching of 
 the past to a further point than any of the 
 former or contemporary Chinese com- 
 manders, indeed, than any in the whole 
 world had done ; and the revolution which 
 they effected in tactics was not less remark- 
 able in itself, and did not leave a smaller im- 
 
 A CHINESE BRIDGE. 
 
 military success to their admirable discipline 
 and to their close study of the art of war. 
 Their military supremacy arose from their 
 superiority in all essentials as a fighting 
 power to their neighbors. Much of their 
 knowledge was borrowed from China, where 
 the art of disciplining a large army and 
 manoeuvring it in the field had been brought 
 to a high state of perfection many centuries 
 
 pression upon the age, than the improve- 
 ments made in military science by Frederick 
 the Great and Napoleon did in their day. 
 The Mongol played in a large way in Asia 
 the part which the Normans on a smaller 
 scale played in Europe. Although the land- 
 marks of their triumph have almost wholly 
 vanished, they were for two centuries the 
 dominant caste in most of the states of Asia. 
 
THE 
 
 MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 51 
 
 Having thus prepared the way for a larger 
 enterprise, it only remained to find a plaus- 
 ible pretext for attacking the Kins, the other 
 dynasty, ruling in southern China. With or 
 without a pretext Genghis would no doubt 
 have made war, but even the ruthless Mongol 
 sometimes showed a regard for appearances. 
 Many years before the Kins had sent as 
 envoy to the Mongol encampment Conghei, 
 a member of their ruling house, and his mis- 
 sion had been not only unsuccessful, but had 
 led to a personal antipathy between the two 
 men. In the course of time Conghei suc- 
 ceeded Madacou as emperor of the Kins, 
 and when a Kin messenger brought intelli- 
 gence of this event to Genghis, the Mongol 
 ruler turned towards the south, spat upon 
 the ground, and said, " I thought that. your 
 sovereigns were of the race of the gods, but 
 do you suppose that I am going to do 
 homage to such an imbecile as that ? " 
 
 All the Tribes Rallied. 
 
 The affront rankled in the mind of Chon- 
 chei,. and while Genghis was engaged with 
 Hia, he sent troops to attack the Mongol out- 
 posts. Chonghei thus placed himself in the 
 wrong, and gave Genghis justification for de- 
 claring that the Kins and not he began the war. 
 The reputation of the Golden dynasty, al- 
 though not as great as it once was, still 
 stood sufficienty high to make the most 
 adventurous of desert chiefs wary in attack- 
 ing it. Genghis had already secured the 
 co-operation of the ruler of Hia in his enter- 
 prise, and he next concluded an alliance 
 with Yeliu Liuko, chief of the Khitans, who 
 were • again manifesting discontent with the 
 Kins. 
 
 Genghis finally circulated a proclamation 
 among all the desert tribes, calling upon 
 them to join him in his attack upon the 
 common enemy. This appeal was heartily 
 
 and generally responded to, and it was at 
 the head of an enormous force that Genghis 
 set out in March, 121 1, to effect the con- 
 quest of China. The Mongol army was led 
 by Genghis in person, and under him his 
 four sons and his most famous general, 
 Chepe Noyan, held commands. 
 
 Ravages of War. 
 
 The plan of campaign of the Mongol 
 ruler was as simple as it was bold. From 
 his camp at Karakoram, on the Kerulon, he 
 marched in a straight line through Kuku 
 Khoten arid the Ongut country to Taitong, 
 securing an unopposed passage through the 
 Great Wall, by the defection of the Ongut 
 tribe. The Kins were unprepared for this 
 sudden and vigorous assault directed on their 
 weakest spot, and successfully executed be- 
 fore their army could reach the scene. Dur- 
 ing the two years that the forces of Genghis 
 kept the field on this occasion, they devas- 
 tated the greater portion of the three northern 
 provinces of Shensi, Shansi, and Pechihli. 
 
 But the border fortress of Taitong and the 
 Kin capital, Tungking, successfully resisted 
 all the assaults of the Mongols, and when 
 Genghis received a serious wound at the 
 former place, he reluctantly ordered the re- 
 treat of his army, laden with an immense 
 quantity of spoil, but still little advanced in 
 its main task of conquering China. The 
 success of Khitan Yeliu Liuko had not been 
 less considerable, and he was proclaimed 
 King of Leaou as a vassal of the Mongols. 
 The planting of this ally on the very thresh- 
 old of Chinese power facilitated the subse- 
 quent enterprises of the Mongols against the 
 Kins, and represented the most important 
 result of this war. 
 
 In 121 3 Genghis again invaded the Kin 
 dominions, but his success was not very 
 striking, and in several engagements of no 
 
52 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 very great importance the Kin arms met 
 witli some success. The most important 
 events of the year were, however, the depo- 
 sition and murder of Chonghei, the mur,der 
 of a Kin general, Hushahu, who had won a 
 battle against the Mongols, and the procla- 
 mation of Utubu as Emperor. The change 
 of sovereign brought no change of fortune 
 to the unlucky Kins. Utubu was only able 
 to find safety behind the walls of his capital, 
 and he was delighted when Genghis wrote 
 him the following letter: "Seeing your 
 wretched condition and my exalted fortune, 
 what may your opinion be now of the will 
 of heaven with regard to myself? At this 
 moment I am desirous to return to Tartary, 
 but could you allow my soldiers to take their 
 departure without appeasing their anger with 
 presents ? " 
 
 An Inhuman Massacre. 
 
 In reply, Utubu sent Genghis a princess 
 of a family as a wife, and also " 500 youths, 
 the same number of girls, 3000 horses, and 
 a vast quantity of precious articles." Then 
 Genghis retired once more to Karakoram, 
 but on his march he stained his reputation 
 by massacring all his prisoners — the first 
 gross act of inhumanity he committed during 
 his Chinese wars. 
 
 When Utubu saw the Mongols retreating, 
 he thought to provide against the most seri- 
 ous consequences of their return by removing 
 his capital to a greater distance from the 
 frontier, and with this object he transferred 
 his residence to Kaifong. The majority of 
 his advisers were against this change, as a 
 retirement could not but shake public confi- 
 dence. It had another consequence, which 
 they may not have contemplated, and that 
 was its providing Genghis with an excuse for 
 renewing his attack on China. The Mongol 
 at once complained that the action of the 
 
 Kin Emperor implied an unwarrantable sus- 
 picion of his intentions, and he sent his army 
 across the frontier to recommence his humilia- 
 tion. 
 
 On this occasion a Kin general deserted to 
 them, and thenceforward large bodies of the 
 Chinese of the north attached themselves to 
 the Mongols, who were steadily acquiring a 
 unique reputation for power as well as mili- 
 tary prowess. The great event of this war 
 was the siege of Yenking — on the site of 
 which now stands the capital Pekin — the 
 defence of which had been entrusted to the 
 Prince Imperial, but Utubu, more anxious 
 for his son's safety than the interests of the 
 state, ordered him to return to Kaifong. The 
 governor of Yenking offered a stout resist- 
 ance to the Mongols, and when he found 
 that he could not hold out, ^e retired to the 
 temple of the city and poisoned himself. His 
 last act was to write a letter to Utubu beg- 
 ging him to listen no more to the pernicious 
 advice of the man who had induced him to 
 murder Hushahu. 
 
 On to Central China. 
 
 The capture of Yenking, where Genghis 
 obtained a large supply of war materials, as 
 well as vast booty, opened the road to Cen- 
 tral China. The Mongols advanced as far 
 as the celebrated Tunkwan pass, which con- 
 nects Shensi and Honan, but when their gen- 
 eral, Samuka, saw how formidable it was,, 
 and how strong were the Kin defences and 
 garrison, he declined to attack it, and, mak- 
 ing a detour through very difficult country, 
 he marched on Kaifong, where Utubu little 
 expected him. The Mongols had to. make 
 their own road, and they crossed several 
 ravines by improvised "bridges made of 
 spears and the branches of trees bound 
 together by strong chains." But the Mon- 
 gol force was too small to accomplish any 
 
I '*i 
 
54 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 great result, and the impetuosity of Samuka 
 was nearly leading to his destruction. A 
 prompt retreat, and the fact that the Hoangho 
 was frozen over, enabled him to extricate his 
 army after much fatigue and reduced in 
 numbers, from its awkward position. 
 
 Sudden Successes. 
 
 The retreat of the Mongols inspired 
 Utubu with sufficient confidence to induce 
 him to attack Yeliu Liuko in Leaoutung, 
 and the success of this enterprise imparted a 
 gleam of sunshine and credit to the expiring 
 cause of the Kins. Yelin Liuko was driven 
 from his newly-created kingdom, but Geng- 
 his hastened to the assistance of his ally by 
 sending Muhula, the greatest of all his gen- 
 erals, at the head of a large army to recover 
 Leaoutung. His success was rapid and 
 remarkable. The Kins were speedily over- 
 thrown, Yeliu Liuko was restored to his 
 authority, and the neighboring King of 
 Corea, impressed by the magnitude of the 
 Mongol success, hastened to acknowledge 
 himself the vassal of Genghis. 
 
 The most important result of this cam- 
 paign was that Genghis entrusted to Muhula 
 the control of all mihtary arrangemeats for 
 the conquest of China. He is reported to 
 have said to his lieutenant: "North of the 
 Taihing mountains I am supreme, but all the 
 regions to the south I commend to the care of 
 Muhula," and he " also presented him with a 
 chariot and a banner with nine scalops. As 
 he handed him this last emblem of authority, 
 he spoke to his generals, saying, ' Let this 
 banner be an embelm of sovereignty, and let 
 the orders issued from under it be obeyed as 
 my own.' " The principal reason for entrust- 
 ing the conquest of China to a special force 
 and commander, was that Genghis wished to 
 devote the whole of his personal attention to 
 the prosecution of his new war with the King 
 
 of Khwaresm and the other great rulers of 
 Western Asia. 
 
 Muhula more than justified the selection 
 and confidence of his sovereign. In the year 
 1 2 18-19 he invaded Honan, defeated the best 
 of the Kin commanders, and not merely 
 overran, but retained possession of the places 
 he occupied in the Kin dominions. The dif- 
 ficulties of Utubu were aggravated by an 
 attack from Ningtsong the Sung Emperor, 
 who refused any longer to pay tribute to the 
 Kins as they were evidently unable to enforce 
 the claim, and the ICin armies were equally 
 unfortunate against their southern opponents 
 as their northern. Then Utubu endeavored 
 to negotiate terms with Muhula for the 
 retreat of his army, but the only conditions 
 the Mongol general would accept were the 
 surrender of the Kin ruler and his resigna- 
 tion of the Imperial title in exchange for the 
 principality of Honan. 
 
 Had his Eye on India. 
 
 Utubu, low as he had sunk, declined to 
 abase himself further and to purchase life at 
 the loss of his dignity." The sudden death 
 of Muhula gained a brief respite for the dis- 
 tressed Chinese potentate, but the advantage 
 was not of any permanent significance, first 
 of all because the Kins were too exhausted 
 by their long struggle, and, secondly, because 
 Genghis hastened to place himself at the head 
 of his army. The news of the death of 
 Muhula reached him when he was encamped 
 on the frontier of India and preparing to add 
 the conquest of that country to his many 
 other triumphs in Central and Western Asia. 
 He at once came to the conclusion that he 
 must return to set his house in order at 
 home, and to prevent all the results of 
 Muhula's remarkable triumphs being lost. 
 
 What was a disadvantage for China 
 proved a benefit for India, and possibly for 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 Europe, as there is no saying how much 
 further the Mongol encroachment might 
 have extended westward, if the direction of 
 Genghis had not been withdrawn. While 
 Genghis was hastening from the Cabul river 
 to the Kerulon, across the Hindoo Koosh 
 and Tian Shang ranges, Utubu died, and 
 Ninkiassu reigned in his stead. 
 
 One of the first consequences of the death 
 of Muhula was that the young King of Hia, 
 believing that the fortunes of the Mongols 
 would then wane, and that he might obtain 
 a position of greater power and indepen- 
 dence, threw off his allegiance, and adopted 
 hostile measures against them. The prompt 
 return of Genghis nipped this plan in the 
 bud, but it was made quite evident that the 
 conquest of Hia was essential to the success 
 of any permanent annexation of Chinese ter- 
 ritory, and as its prince could dispose of an 
 army which he boasted numbered half-a-mil- 
 lion of men, it is not surprising to find that 
 he took a whole year in perfecting his 
 arrangements for so grave a contest. 
 
 Battle on Ice. 
 
 The war began in 1225 and continued for 
 two years. The success of the Mongol 
 army was decisive and unqualified. The 
 Hias were defeated in several battles, and in 
 one of them fought upon the frozei^ waters 
 of the Hoangho, when Genghis broke the 
 ice by means of his engines, the Hia army 
 was almost annihilated. The King Leseen 
 was deposed, and Hia became a Mongol 
 province. 
 
 It was immediately after this successful 
 war that Genghis was seized with his fatal 
 -illness. Signs had been seen in the heavens 
 which the Mongol astrologers said indicated 
 the near approach of his death. The five 
 planets had appeared together in the south- 
 west, and so much impressed was Genghis 
 
 55 
 
 by this phenomenon that on his death-bed he 
 expressed "the earnest desire that hence- 
 forth the lives of our enemies shall not be 
 unnecessarily sacrified. " The expression of 
 this wish undoubtedly tended to mitigate the 
 terrprs of war as carried on by the Mongols. 
 
 How He Died. 
 
 The immediate successors of Genghis con- 
 ducted their campaigns after a more humane 
 fashion, and it was not until Timour revived 
 the early Mongol massacres that their oppo- 
 nents felt there was no chance in appealing 
 to the humanity of the Mongols. Various 
 accounts have been published of the cause 
 of Genghis's death, some authorities ascrib- 
 ing it to violence, either by an arrow, light- 
 ning or drowning, and others to natural 
 causes. The event seems to have unques- 
 tionably happened in his camp on the bor- 
 ders of Shansi on 27th August, 1227, when 
 he was about 65 years of age, during more 
 than fifty of which he had enjoyed supreme 
 command of his own tribe. 1 
 
 The area of the undertakings conducted 
 under his eye was more vast and included a 
 greater number of countries than was the 
 case with any other conqueror. Not a coun- 
 try from the Euxine to the China Sea 
 escaped the tramp of the Mongol horse- 
 men, and if we include the achievements of 
 his immediate successors, the conquest of 
 Russia, Poland and Hungary, the plundering 
 of Bulgaria, Roumania and Bosnia, the final 
 subjection of China and its southern tribut- 
 aries must be added to complete the tale of 
 Mongol triumph. The sphere of Mongol 
 influence extended beyond this large portion 
 of the earth's surface, just as the conse- 
 quence of an explosion cannot be restricted 
 to the immediate scene of the disaster. If we 
 may include the remarkable achievements of 
 his descendant Baber, and of that prince's 
 
56 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 decendant Akbar, in India three centuries 
 later, not a country in Asia enjoyed immun- 
 ity from the effect of their successes. 
 
 Perhaps the most important result of their 
 great outpouring into Western Asia, which 
 certainly was the arrest of the Mahome.dan 
 career in Central Asia, and the diversion, of 
 the current of the fanatical propagators of 
 the Prophet's creed against Europe, is not 
 yet as fully recognized as it should be. The 
 doubt has been already expressed whether 
 the Mongols would ever have risen to higher 
 rank than that of a nomad tribe but for the 
 appearance of Genghis. Leaving that sup- 
 position in the category of other interesting 
 but problematical conjectures, it may be 
 asserted that Genghis represented in their 
 highest forms all the qualities which entitled 
 his race to exercise governing authority. 
 
 The Mongol Napoleon. 
 
 He was, moreover, a military genius of 
 the very first order, and it may be ques- 
 tioned whether either Caesar or Napoleon can 
 as commanders be placed on a par with him. 
 Even the Chinese said that he led his armies 
 like a God. The manner in which he 
 moved large bodies of men over vast dis- 
 tances without an apparent effort, the judg- 
 ment he showed in the conduct of several 
 wars in countries far apart from each other, 
 his strategy in unknown regions, always on 
 the alert, yet never allowing hesitation or 
 over-caution to interfere with his enterprise, 
 the sieges which he brought to a successful 
 termination, his brilliant victories, a succes- 
 sion of "suns of Austerlitz," all combined 
 make up the picture of a career to which 
 Europe can offer nothing that will surpass, 
 if, indeed, she has anything to bear compari- 
 son with it. 
 
 After the lapse of centuries, and in spite of 
 the indifference with which the great figures 
 
 of Asiatic history have been treated, the 
 name of Genghis preserves its magic spell. 
 It is still a name to conjure with when record- 
 ing the great revolutions of a period which 
 beheld the death of the old system in China, 
 and the advent in that country of a newer 
 and more vigorous government which, slowly 
 acquiring shape in the hands of Kublai and 
 a more national form under the Mings, has 
 attained the pinnacle of its utility and strength 
 under the influence of the great Emperors of 
 the Manchu dynasty. But great as is the 
 reputation Genghis has acquired it is pro- 
 bably short of his merits. He is remembered 
 as a relentless and irresistible conquerer, a 
 human scourge; but he was much more. 
 He was one of the greatest instruments of 
 destiny, one of the most remarkable moulders 
 of the fate of nations to be met with in the 
 history of the world. His name still over- 
 shadows Asia with its fame and the tribute of 
 our admiration cannot be denied. 
 
 The Struggle Continues. 
 
 The death of Genghis did not seriously 
 retard the progress of the war against the 
 Kins. He expressed the wish that war 
 should be carried on in a more humane and 
 less vindictive manner, but he did not advo- 
 cate there being no war or the abandonment 
 of any of his enterprises. His son and suc- 
 cessor Ogotai was indeed specially charged 
 to bring the conquest of China to a speedy 
 and victorious conclusion. The weakness of 
 the Mongol confederacy was the delay con- 
 nected with the proclamation of a new Khan 
 and the necessity of summoning to a Grand 
 Council all the princes and generals of the 
 race, although it entailed the suspension and 
 often the abandonment of great enterprises. 
 
 The death of Genghis saved India but not 
 China. Almost his last instructions were to 
 draw up the plan for attacking and turning 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA 
 the great fortress of Tunkwan, which had 
 provided such an efficient defence for Honan 
 on the north, and in 1230, Ogotai who had 
 already partitioned the territory taken from 
 the Kins into ten departments, took the field 
 
 57 
 
 m person, givmg a joint command to his 
 brotlier Tuli, under whom served the experi- 
 enced generals Yeliu Chutsia, Antchar, and 
 Subutai. At first the Mongols met with no 
 great success, and the Kins, encouraged by a 
 momentary gleam of victory, ventured to 
 reject the terms offered by Ogotai and to 
 insult his envoy. The only important fight- 
 ing during the years 1 230-1 occurred r6und 
 Fongsian, which after a long siege sur- 
 rendered to Antchar, and when the campaign 
 closed the Kins presented a bold, front to the 
 Mongols and still hoped to retain their power 
 and dominions. 
 
 Attacked on Two Sides. 
 
 In 1232 the Mongols increased their armies 
 in the field, and attacked the Kins from the 
 two sides. Ogotai led the main force against 
 Honan, while Tuli, marching through Shensi 
 into Szchuen, assailed them on their western 
 flank. The difficulties encountered by Tuh 
 on this march, when he had to make his own 
 Toads, were such, that he entered the Kin 
 territories with a much reduced and exhausted 
 army. The Kin forces gained some advan- 
 tage over it, but by either a feigned or a 
 forced retreat, Tuli succeeded in bafflin'g their 
 pursuit, and in effecting a junction with his 
 brother Ogotai, who had met with better 
 fortune. Tuli destroyed everything along 
 his line of march, and his massacres and 
 sacks revived the worst traditions of Mongol 
 ferocity. 
 
 In these straits the Kins endeavored to 
 flood the country round their capital, to 
 which the Mongols had now advanced, but 
 the Mongois fell upon the workmen while 
 
 engaged in the task, and slew 10,000 of 
 them. When the main Kin army accepted 
 battle before the town of Yuchow, it was 
 signally defeated, with the loss of three of its 
 principal generals, and Ninkiassu fled from 
 Kaifong to a place more removed from the 
 scene of war. The garrison and townspeople 
 of Kaifong — an immense city with walls 36 
 miles in circumference, and a population dur- 
 ing the siege it is said of 1,400,000 families, 
 or nearly seven million people — offered a' 
 stubborn resistance to the Mongols, who 
 entrusted the conduct of the attack to Subutai, 
 the most daring of all their commanders. 
 
 The Mongols employed their most formid- 
 able engines, catapults hurling immense 
 stones," and mortars ejecting explosives and 
 combustibles, but twelve months elapsed 
 before the walls were shuttered and the 
 courage and provisions of the defenders 
 exhausted. Then Kaifong surrendered at 
 discretion, and Subutai wished to massacre 
 the whole of the population. But fortunately 
 for the Chinese Yeliu Chutsai was a more 
 humane and a more influential general, and 
 under his advice Ogotai rejected the cruel 
 proposal. 
 
 The Brave Kins. 
 
 At this moment, when it seemed impossible 
 for fate to have any worse experience in store 
 for the unfortunate Kins, their old enemies 
 the Sungs declared war upon them, and 
 placed a large army in the field under the 
 their best general, Mongkong. The relics 
 of the Kin army under their sovereign Nin- 
 kiassu, took shelter in Tsaichau, where they 
 were closely besieged by the Mongols on 
 one side and the Sungs on the other. Driven 
 thus into a corner, the Kins fought with the 
 courage of despair, and long held out against 
 the combined efforts of their enemies. At 
 last Ninkiassu saw the struggle could not be 
 
58 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 prolonged, and he prepared himself to end 
 his life and career in a manner worthy of the 
 race from which he sprang. 
 
 When the enemy broke into the city, and 
 he heard the stormers at the gate of his 
 palace, he retired to an upper chamber and 
 set fire to the building. Many of his gen- 
 erals, and even of his soldiers, followed his 
 example, preferring to end their existence 
 rather than to add to the triumph of their 
 Mongol and Sung opponents. Thus came 
 to an end in 1234 the famous dynasty of the 
 Kins, who under nine Emperors had ruled 
 Northern China for 118 years, and whose 
 power and military capacity may best be 
 gauged by the fact that without a single ally 
 they held out against the all-powerful Mon- 
 gols for more than a quarter of a century. 
 Ninkiassu, the last of their rulers, was not 
 able to sustain the burden of their authority, 
 but he at least showed himself equal to end- 
 ing it in a worthy and appropriately dramatic 
 manner. 
 
 Warnings not Heeded. 
 
 The folly of the Sungs had completed the 
 discomfiture of the Kins, and had brought to 
 their own borders the terrible peril which had 
 beset every other state in Asia, and which had 
 in almost every case entailed destruction. 
 How could the Sungs expect to avoid the 
 same fate, or to propitiate the most implac- 
 able and insatiable of conquering races ? 
 They had done this to a large extent with 
 their eyes open. More than once in the 
 early stages of the struggle the Kin rulers 
 had sent envoys to beg their alliance, and to 
 warn them that if they did not help in keep- 
 ing out the Mongols, their time would come 
 to be assailed and to share in the common 
 ruin. 
 
 But Ningtsong did not pay heed to the 
 ' warning, and scarcely concealed his gratifi- 
 
 cation at the misfortunes of his old opponents. 
 The nearer the Mongols came, and the worse 
 the plight to which the Kins were reduced, 
 the more did he rejoice. He forgave Tuli 
 the violation of Sung territory, necessary for 
 his flank attack on Honan, and when the 
 knell of the Kins sounded at the fall of Kai- 
 fong, he hastened to help in striking the final 
 blow at them, and to participate, as he hoped, 
 in the distribution of the plunder. By this 
 time Litsong had succeeded his cousin 
 Ningtsong as ruler of the Sungs, and it is 
 said that he received from Tsaichau the 
 armor and personal spoils of Ninkiassu, 
 which he had the satisfaction of offering up 
 in the temple of his ancestors. 
 
 Saw his Mistake. 
 
 But when he requested the Mongols to 
 comply with the more important part of the 
 convention, by which the Sung forces had 
 joined the Mongols before Tsaichau, and to 
 evacuate the province of Honan, he experi- 
 enced a rude awakening from his dream that 
 the overthrow of the Kins would redound to 
 his advantage, and he soon realized what 
 value the Mongols attached to his alliance. 
 The military capacity of Mongkong inspired 
 the Sung ruler with confidence, and he called 
 upon the Mongols to execute their promises, 
 or to prepare for war. The Mongol garri- 
 sons made no movement of retreat, and the 
 utmost that Litsong was offered was a por- 
 tion of Honan, if it could be practically 
 divided. The proposition was probably 
 meant ironically, but at all events Litsong 
 rejected it, and sent Mongkong to take by 
 force possesion of the disputed province. 
 
 The Mongol forces on the spot were fewer 
 than the Chinese, and they met with some 
 reverses. But the hope of the Sungs that 
 the fortune of war would declare in their 
 favor was soon destroyed by the vast pre- 
 
THE GIANT CHANG, 
 
60 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 parations of the Mongols, who, at a special 
 kuriltai, held at Karakoram, declared that 
 the conquest of China was to be completed. 
 Then Litsong's confidence left him, and he 
 sent an appeal for peace to the Mongols, 
 giving up all claim to Honan, and only ask- 
 ing to be left in undisturbed possession of 
 his original dominions. It was too late. 
 The Mongols had passed their decree that 
 the Sungs were to be treated like the Kins, 
 and that the last Chinese government was to 
 be destroyed. 
 
 An Army of Half a Million. 
 
 In 1235, the year following the immola- 
 tion of Ninkiassu, the Mongols placed half a 
 ^nillion men in the field for the purpose of 
 destroying the Sung power, and Ogotai divi- 
 ded them into three armies, which were to 
 attack Litsong's kingdom from as many 
 sides. The Mongol ruler entrusted the most 
 difficult task to his son -Kutan, who invaded 
 the inaccessible and vast province of Szchuen, 
 at the head of one of these armies. Not- 
 withstanding its natural capacity for offering 
 an advantageous defence, the Chinese turned 
 their opportunities to poor EKCount, and the 
 Mongols succeeded in capturing all its fron- 
 tier fortresses, with little or no resistance. 
 The shortcomings of the defence can be in- 
 ferred from the circumstances of the Chinese 
 annalists making special mention of one 
 governor having had the courage to die at 
 his post. 
 
 For some reason not clearly stated the 
 Mongols did not attempt to retain possession 
 of Szchuen on this occasion. They with- 
 drew when they were in successful occupa- 
 tion of the northern half of the province, and 
 when it seemed as if the other lay at their 
 mercy. In the two dual provinces of Kiang- 
 nan and Houkwang, the other Mongol armies 
 met with considerable success, which was 
 
 dimmed, however, by the death of Kuchu, 
 the son and proclaimed heir of Ogotai, 
 This event, entailing no inconsiderable doubt 
 and long-continued disputes a* to the suc- 
 cession, was followed by the withdrawal of 
 the Mongol forces from Sung territory, and 
 during the last six years of his life Ogotai 
 abstained from war, and gave himself up to 
 the indulgence of his gluttony. He built a 
 great palace at Karakoram, where his ances- 
 tors had been content to live in a tent, and 
 he entrusted the government of the old Kin 
 dominions to Yeliu Chutsai, who acquired 
 great popularity among the Chinese for his 
 clemency and regard for their customs. 
 
 Died of Grief. 
 
 Yeliu Chutsai adopted the Chinese mode 
 of taxation, and when Ogotai's widow, Tura- 
 kina, who acted as Regent after her husband's 
 death, ordered him to alter his system and 
 to farm out the revenues, he sent in his resig- 
 nation, and it is said, died of grief shortly 
 afterwards. Ogotai was one of the most 
 humane and amiable of all the Mongol rulers, 
 and Yeliu Chutsai imitated his master. Of 
 the latter the Chinese contemporary writers 
 said " he was distinguished by a rare dis- 
 interestedness. Of a very broad intellect, he 
 was able, without injustice and without 
 wronging a single person, to amass vast 
 treasures, and to enrich his family, but all 
 his care and labors had for their sole object 
 the advantage and glory of his masters. 
 Wise and calculating in his plans, he did 
 little of which he had any reason to repent." 
 
 During the five years following the death 
 of Ogotai, the Mongols were absorbed in the 
 question who should be their next Great 
 Kahn, and it was only after a warm and pro- 
 tracted discussion, which threatened to entail 
 the disruption of Mongol power, and the 
 revelation of many rivalries among the de- 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 61 
 
 scendants of Genghis, that Kuyuk, the eldest 
 son of Ogotal, was proclaimed Emperor. 
 At the kuriltai held for this purpose, all the 
 great Mongol leaders were present, including 
 Batu, the conqueror of Hungary, and after 
 the Mongol chiefs had, agreed as to their 
 chief, the captive kings, Yaroslaf of Russia, 
 and David of Georgia, paid homage to their 
 conqueror. We owe to the monk Carpino, 
 who was sent by the Pope to convert the 
 Mongol, a graphic account of one of the 
 most brilliant ceremonies to be met with in 
 the whole course of Mongol history. 
 
 Pushing Forward the Conquest. 
 
 The delay in selecting Kuyuk, whose prin- 
 cipal act of sovereignty was to issue a seal 
 having this inscription : " God in Heaven and 
 Kuyuk on earth ; by the power of God the 
 ruler of all men," had given the Sungs one 
 respite, and his early death procured them 
 another. Kuyuk died in 1248, and his 
 cousin Mangu, the son of Tuli, was appointed 
 his successor. By this time the Mongol 
 chiefs of the family of Genghis in Western 
 Asia were practically independent of the 
 nominal Great Khan, and governed their 
 states in complete sovereignty, and waged 
 war without reference to Karakoram. This 
 change left the Mongols in their original 
 home on the Amour absolutely free to devote 
 all their attention to the final overthrow of 
 the Sungs, and Mangu declared that he 
 would know no rest until he had finally sub- 
 jected the last of the Chinese ruling families. 
 In this resolution Mangu received the hearty 
 support of his ydunger,but more able brother, 
 Kublai, to whom was entrusted the direction 
 in the field of the armies sent to complete the 
 conquest of China. 
 
 Kublai received this charge in 1251,30 
 that the Sungs had enjoyed, first through the 
 pacific disposition of Ogotai, and, secondly, 
 
 from the family disputes following his death, 
 peace for more than fifteen years. The 
 advantage of this tranquility was almost nul- 
 lified by the death of Mongkong, a general 
 whose reputation may have been easily 
 gained, but who certainly enjoyed the confi- 
 dence of his soldiers, and who was thought 
 by his countrymen to be the best commander 
 of his day. 
 
 When the Chinese Emperor Litsong saw 
 the storm again approaching his northern 
 frontier, he found that he had lost the main 
 support of his power, and that his military 
 resources were inferior to those of his enemy; 
 He had allowed himself to be lulled into a 
 false sense of security by the long inaction of 
 the Mongols, and although he seems to have 
 been an amiable prince, and a typical Chinese 
 ruler, honoring the descendants of Confucius 
 with the hereditary title of Duke, which still 
 remains in that family, and is the only title 
 of its kind in China, and encouraging the 
 literary classes of his country, he was a bad 
 sovereign to be entrusted with the task of 
 defending his realm and people against a bold 
 and determined enemy. 
 
 A Wise Policy. 
 
 Kublai prepared the way for his campaigns 
 in Southern China by following a very wise 
 and moderate policy in Northern China 
 similar to that begun by Muhula, and carried 
 out with greater effect by Yeliu Chutsai. 
 He had enjoyed the advantage of a Chinese 
 education, imparted by an able tutor named 
 Yaochu, who became the prince's private 
 secretary and mentor in all Chinese matters. 
 At his instigation, or, at least, with his 
 co-operation, Kublai took in hand the restor- 
 ation of the southern portion of Honan, 
 which had been devastated during the wars, 
 and he gucceeded irl bringing back its popu- 
 lation and prosperity to that great province 
 
62 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 of Central China and retrieving the misfor- 
 tunes of past years. 
 
 He thus secured a base for his operations 
 close to the Sung frontier, while he attached 
 to his person a large section of the Chinese 
 nation. There never was any concealment 
 that this patronage of Chinese officials and 
 these measures for the amelioration of many 
 miUions of Chinese subjects, were the well 
 calculated preliminaries to the invasion of 
 Southern China, and the extinction of the 
 Sung dynasty. 
 
 A Bold Campaign. 
 If Kublai had succeeded in obtaining a 
 wise adviser in Yaochu, he was not less for- 
 tunate in procuring a great general in the 
 person of Uriangkadai, the son of Subutai, 
 and his remarkable and unvarying successes 
 were largely due to the efforts of those two 
 men in the cabinet and the field. The plan 
 of campaign, drawn up with great care and 
 forethought by the prince and his lieutenant, 
 had the double merit of being both bold and 
 original. Its main purpose was not one that 
 the Sung generals would be likely to divine. 
 It was determined to make a flank march 
 round the Sung dominions, and to occupy 
 what is now the province of Yunnan, and by 
 placing an army in the rear of their kingdom, 
 to attack them eventually from two sides. 
 At this time Yunnan formed an independent 
 state, and its ruler, from his position behind 
 the Sung territory, must have fancied him- 
 self secure against any attack by the Mon- 
 gols. He was destined to a rude awakening. 
 Kublai and Uriangkadai, marching across 
 Szchuen and crossing the Kinchakiang, or 
 "river of golden sand," which forms the 
 upper course of the Great River, on rafts, 
 burst into Yunnan, speedily vanquished the 
 frontier garrisons, and laid siege to the 
 capital, Talifoo. That town did not hold out 
 
 long,, and soon Kublai was in a position to 
 return to his own state, leaving Uriangkadai 
 with a considerable garrison in charge of 
 Yunnan. That general, believing that his 
 position would be improved by his resorting 
 to an active offensive, carried the standard of 
 his race against the many turbulent tribes in 
 his neighborhood, and invaded Burmah, 
 whose king, after one campaign, was glad to 
 recognize the supremacy of the Mongols. 
 
 The success and the boldness, which may 
 have been considered temerity, of this cam- 
 paign, raised up enemies to Kublai at the 
 court of Karakoram, and the mind of his 
 brother Mangu was poisoned against him by 
 many who declared that Kublai aspired to 
 complete independence. These designs so 
 far succeeded, that in 1257 Mangu finally 
 deprived Kublai of all his commands, and 
 ordered him to proceed to Karakoram. At , 
 this harsh and unmerited treatment Kublai 
 showed himself inclined to rebel and dispute 
 his brother's authority. If he had done this, 
 although the provocation was great, he would 
 have confirmed the charges of his accusers, 
 and a war would have broken out among the 
 Mongols, which would probably have rent 
 their power in twain in Eastern Asia. 
 
 Proved his Innocence. 
 
 But fortunately Yaochu was at hand to 
 give prudent advice, and, after much hesita- 
 tion, Kublai yielded to the impressive exhor- 
 tations of his experienced and sagacious 
 minister. He is reported to have addressed 
 Kublai in the following terms: — "Prince! 
 You are the brother of the Emperor, but you 
 are not the less his subject. You cannot, 
 without committing a crime, question his 
 decisions, and, moreover, if you were to do 
 so, it would only result in placing you in a 
 more dangerous predicament, out of which 
 you could hardly succeed in extricating your- 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 63 
 
 self, as you are so far distant from the capital 
 where your enemies seek to injure you. My 
 advice is that you should send your family 
 to Mangu, and by this step you will justify 
 yourself and remove any suspicions there may 
 be." 
 
 Kublai adopted this wise course, and pro- 
 ceeded in person to Karakoram, where he 
 succeeded in proving his innocence and in 
 discomfiting his enemies. It is said that 
 Mangu was so affected at the mere sight of 
 his brother that he at once forgave him with- 
 out waiting for an explanation and reinstated 
 him in all his offices. To ratify this reconcilia- 
 tion Mangu proclaimed that he would take the 
 field in person, and that Kublai should hold 
 joint command with himself When he 
 formed this resolution to proceed to China in 
 person, he appointed his next brother, Arik- 
 buka, to act as his lieutenant in Mongolia. 
 It is necessary to recollect this arrangement 
 as Mangu died during the campaign, and it 
 led to the separation of the Chinese empire 
 and the Mongolian, which were divided after 
 that event between Kublai and Arikbuka. 
 
 Rapid Movements. 
 Mangu did not come to his resolution to 
 prosecute the war with the Sungs any too 
 soon, for Uriangkadai was beginning to find 
 his isolated position not free from danger. 
 Large as the army of that general was, and 
 skilfully as he had endeavored to improve 
 his position by strengthening the fortresses 
 and recruiting from the warlike tribes of 
 Yunnan, Uriangkadai found himself threat- 
 ened by the collected armies of the Sungs, 
 who occupied Szchuen with a large garrison 
 and menaced the daring Mongol general 
 with the whole of their power. There 
 seems every reason to believe that if the 
 Sungs had acted with only ordinary prornpti- 
 tude they might have destroyed this Mongol 
 
 army long before any aid could have reached 
 it from the north. Once Mangu had formed 
 his resolution the rapidity of his movements 
 left the Sungs little or no chance of attack- 
 ing Uriangkadai. 
 
 A Council of War. 
 
 This campaign began in the winter of 
 1257, when the troops were able to cross 
 the frozen waters of the Hoangho, and the 
 immense Mongol army was divided into 
 three bodies, while Uriangkadai was ordered 
 to march north and effect a junction with his 
 old chief Kublai in Szchuen. The principal 
 fighting of the first year occurred in this part 
 of China, and Mengu hastened there with 
 another of his armies. The Sung garrison 
 was large, and showed great courage and 
 fortitude. The difficulty of the country and 
 the strength of several of their fortresses 
 seconded their efforts, and after two years' 
 fighting the Mongols felt so doubtful of suc- 
 cess that they held a council of war to decide 
 whether they should retreat or continue to 
 prosecute the struggle. 
 
 It has been said that councils of war do 
 not come to bold resolutions, but this must 
 have been an exception, as it decided not to 
 retreat, and to make one more determined 
 effort to overcome the Chinese. The cam- 
 paign of 1259 began with the siege of 
 Hochau, a strong fortress, held by a valiant 
 garrison and commander, and to whose aid 
 a Chinese army under Luwenti was hasten- 
 ing. The governor, Wangkien, offered a 
 stout resistance, and Luwenti succeeded in 
 harassing the besiegers, but the fall of the 
 fortress appeared assured, when a new and 
 more formidable defender arrived in the form 
 of dysentery. The Mongol camp was rav- 
 aged by this foe, Mangu himself died of the 
 disease, and those of the Mongols who es- 
 caped beat a hasty and disorderly retreat 
 
64 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 back to the north. Once more the Sungs 
 obtained a brief respite. 
 
 The death of Mangu threatened fresh dis- 
 putes and strife among the Mongol royal 
 family. Kublai was his brother's lawful 
 heir, but Arikbuka, the youngest of the 
 brothers, was in possession of Karakoram, 
 and supreme throughout Mongolia. He 
 was hostile to Kublai, and disposed to assert 
 all his rights and to make the most of his 
 opportunities. 
 
 A Generous Conqueror. 
 
 No Great Khan could be proclaimed any- 
 where save at Karakoram, and Arikbuka 
 would not allow his brother to gain that 
 place, the cradle of their race and dynasty, 
 unless he' could do so by force of arms. 
 Kublai attempted to solve the difficulty by 
 holding a grand council near his favorite 
 city of Cambaluc, the modern Pekin, and 
 he sent forth his proclamation to the Mon- 
 gols as their Khan. But they refused to 
 recognize one who was not elected in the 
 orthodox fashion at Karakoram ; and Arik- 
 buka not merely defied Kublai, but sum- 
 moned his own kuriltai at Karakoram, where 
 he was proclaimed Khakhan in the most 
 formal manner and with all the accustomed 
 ceremonies. Arikbuka was undoubtedly 
 popular among the Mongols, while Kublai, 
 who was regarded as half a Chinese on 
 account of his education, had a far greater 
 reputation south of the wall than north of it. 
 
 Kublai could not tolerate the open defi- 
 ance of his authority, and the contempt 
 shown for what was his birthright, by Arik- 
 buka; and in 1261 he advanced upon Kara- 
 koram at the head of a large army. A 
 single battle sufficed to dispose of Arik- 
 buka's pretensions, and that prince was glad 
 to find a place of refuge among the Kirghiz. 
 Kublai proved himself a generous enemy. 
 
 He sent Arikbuka his full pardon, he rein- 
 stated him in his rank of prince, aiid he left 
 him virtually supreme amongst the Mongol 
 tribes. He retraced his steps to Pekin, fully 
 resolved to become Chinese Emperor in 
 reality, but prepared to waive his rights as 
 Mongol Khan. Mangu Khan was the last 
 of the Mongol rulers whose authority was 
 recognized in both the east and the west, 
 and his successor, Kublai, seeing that its old 
 significance had departed, was fain to estab- 
 lish his on a new basis in the fertile, ancient, 
 and wide-stretching dominions of China. 
 
 Before Kublai composed the difficulty with 
 Arikbuka he had resumed his operations 
 against the Sungs, and even before Mangu 's 
 death he had succeded in establishing some 
 posts south of the Yangtsekiang, in the im- 
 passability of which the Chinese fondly be- 
 lieved. During the year of 1260 he laid 
 siege to Wochow, the modern Wouchang, 
 but he failed to make any impression on the 
 fortress on this occasion, and he agreed to 
 the truce which Litsong proposed. 
 
 Terms of the Treaty. 
 
 By the terms of this agreement, Litsong 
 acknowledged himself a Mongol vassal, just 
 as his ancestors had subjected themselves to 
 to the Kins, paid a large tribute, and forbade 
 his generals anywhere to attack the Mongols. 
 The last stipulation was partly broken by an 
 attack on the rear of Uriangkadai's corps, 
 but no serious results followed, for Kublai 
 was well satisfied with the manner in which 
 the campaign terminated, as there is no 
 doubt that his advance across the Yangtse- 
 kiang had been precipitate, and he may have 
 thought himself lucky to escape with the 
 appearance of success and the conclusion of 
 a gratifying treaty. It was with the reputa- 
 tion gained by his nominal success, and by 
 having made the Sungs his tributaries, that 
 
s 
 
 u 
 
 i4 
 H 
 
 z 
 w 
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 H 
 H 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 65 
 
66 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Kublai hastened northwards to settle his 
 rivahy with Arikbuka. 
 
 Having accomplished that object with 
 complete success he decided to put an end 
 to the Sung dynasty. The Chinese Em- 
 peror, acting with strange fatuity, had given 
 fresh cause of umbrage, and had provoked a 
 war by many petty acts of discourtesy, cul- 
 minating in the murder of the envoys of 
 Kublia, sent to notify his proclamation as 
 Great Khan of the Mongols. Probably the 
 Sung ruler could not have averted war if 
 he had shown the greatest forbearance and 
 humility, but this cruel and inexcusable act 
 precipitated the crisis and the extinction of 
 his attenuated authority. If there was any 
 delay in the movements of Kublai for the 
 purpose of exacting reparation for this out- 
 rage, it was due to his first having to arrange 
 a difficulty that had arisen in his relations 
 with the King of Corea. That potentate had 
 long preserved the peace with his Mongol 
 neighbors, and perhaps he would have re- 
 mained a friend without any interruption, had 
 not the Mongols done something which was 
 construed as an infraction of Corean liberty. 
 
 Uprising of the Coreans. 
 
 '1 he Corean love of independence took fire 
 at the threatened diminution of their rights, 
 they rose en masse in defence of their coun- 
 try, and even the king, Wangtien, who had 
 been well disposed to the Mongol rulers, 
 declared that he could not continue the alli- 
 ance, and placed himself at the head of his 
 people. Seeing himself thus menaced with 
 a costly war in a difficult country on the 
 eve of a more necessary and hopeful contest, 
 Kublai resorted to diplomacy. He addressed 
 Wangtien in complimentary terms and dis- 
 claimed all intention of injuring the Coreans 
 with whom he wished to maintain friendly 
 relations, but at the same time he pointed 
 
 out the magnitude of his power and dilated 
 on the extent of the Mongol conquests. 
 Half by flattery and half by menace Kublai 
 brought the Corean court to reason, and 
 Wangtien again entered into bonds of alli- 
 ance with Cambaluc and renewed his old 
 oaths of friendship. 
 
 Change of Rulers. 
 
 In 1263 Kublai issued his proclamation of 
 war, calling on his generals ''to assemble 
 their troops, to sharpen their swords and 
 their pikes, and to prepare their bows and 
 arrows," for he intended to attack the Sungs 
 by land and sea. The treason of a Chinese 
 general in his service named Litan served to 
 delay the opening of the campaign for a few 
 weeks, but this incident was of no import- 
 ance, as Litan was soon overthrown and 
 executed. Brief as was the interval, it was 
 marked by one striking and important event 
 — the death of Litsong, who was succeeded 
 by his nephew, Chowki, called the Emperor 
 Toutsong. Litsong was not a wise ruler, 
 but compared with many of his successors, 
 he might be more accurately styled unfortu- 
 nate than incompetent. 
 
 Toutsong, and his weak and arrogant 
 minister, Kiasseto, hastened to show that 
 there were greater heights of folly than any 
 to which he had attained. Acting on the 
 advice of a renegade Sung general, well 
 acquainted with the defences of Southern 
 China, Kublai altered his proposed attack, 
 and prepared for crossing the Yangtsekiang 
 by first making himself supreme on its tribu- 
 tary, the Han river. His earlier attack on 
 Wouchang, and his compulsory retirement 
 from that place had taught him the evil of 
 making a premature attack. His object 
 remained the same, but instead of marching 
 direct to it across the Yangtsekiang he took 
 the advice of the Sung general, and attacked 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 67 
 
 the fortress of Sianyang on the Han river, 
 with the object of making himself supreme 
 on that stream, and wresting from the Sungs 
 the last first-class fortress they possessed in 
 the northwest. 
 
 By the time all these preliminaries were 
 completed and the Mongol army had fairly 
 taken the field it was 1 268, and Kublai sent 
 60,000 of his best troops, with a large num- 
 ber of auxiliaries, to lay siege to Sianyang, 
 which was held by a large garrison and a 
 resolute governor. The Mongol lines were 
 drawn up round the town, and also its neigh- 
 bor of Fanching, situated on the opposite 
 bank of the river, with which communication 
 was maintained by several bridges, and the 
 Mongols built a large fleet of fifty war junks, 
 with which they closed the Han river and 
 effectually prevented any aid being sent up it 
 from Hankow or Wouchang. 
 
 A Long Siege. 
 Liuwen Hoan, the commandant of Sian- 
 yang, was a brave man, and he commanded 
 a numerous garrison and possessed supplies, 
 as he said, to stand a ten years' siege. He 
 repulsed all the assaults of the enemy, and, 
 undaunted by his isolation, replied to the 
 threats of the Mongols to give him no quar- 
 ter if he persisted in holding out, by boasting 
 that he would hang their traitor general in 
 chains before his sovereign. The threats and 
 vaunts of the combatants did not bring the 
 siege any nearer to an end. The utmost 
 that the Mongols could achieve was to pre- 
 vent any provisions or reinforcements being 
 thrown into the town. But on the fortress 
 itself they made no impression. Things had 
 gone on like this for three years, and the 
 interest in the siege had begun to languish, 
 when Kublai determined to make a supreme 
 effort to carry the place, and at the same 
 moment the Sung minister came to the con- 
 
 clusion to relieve it at all hazards. It was 
 evident that the crisis had arrived. 
 
 The campaign of 1270 began with a 
 heroic episode — the successful despatch of 
 provisions into the besieged town, under the 
 direction of two Chinese officers named 
 Changkoua and Changchun, whose names 
 deserve to be long remembered for their 
 heroism. The flotilla was divided into two 
 bodies, one composed of the fighting, the 
 other of the storeships. The Mongols had 
 made every preparation to blockade the 
 river, but the suddenness and vigor of the 
 Chinese attack surprised them, and, at first, 
 the Chinese had the best of the day. But 
 soon the Mongols recovered, and from their 
 superior position threatened to overwhelrr 
 the assailing Chinese squadron. In this 
 perilous moment Changchun, devoting him- 
 self to death in the interest of his country, 
 collected all his war-junks, and making a 
 desperate attack on the Mongols, succeeded 
 in obtaining sufficient, time to enable the 
 storeships under Changkoua to pass safely 
 up to Sianyang. The life of so great a hero 
 as Changchun was, however, a heavy price 
 to pay for the temporary relief of Sianyang, 
 which was more closely besieged than ever 
 after the arrival of Kublai in person. 
 
 All Were Destroyed. 
 The heroic deed of Changchun roused a 
 spirit of worthy emulation in the bosom of 
 his comrade, Changkoua, who having 
 thrown the needed supplies into Sianyang 
 was no longer wanted in that beleagured 
 city. He determined to cut his way back 
 with such forces as he could collect, and tc 
 take a part in the operations in progress for 
 the relief of the town. At the head of the 
 few remaining war-junks he succeeded in 
 breaking his way through the chains and 
 other barriers by which the Mongols sought 
 
68 
 
 to close the river, and for a brief space it 
 seemed as if he would evade or vanquish 
 such of the Mongol ships as were on the 
 alert. But the Mongols kept good watch, 
 and as Changkoua refused to surrender he 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 lamentations, and buried beside that of 
 Changchun, whose corpse had been rescued 
 from the river. 
 
 After this affair the Mongols pushed the 
 siege with greater vigor, and instead of con- 
 
 A MOVABLE COOK-SHOP. 
 
 and his small band were destroyed to the 
 last man. 
 
 After the brief struggle was ended the 
 Mongols sent the body of Changkoua into 
 Sianyang, where it was received with loud 
 
 centrating their efforts on Sianyang they 
 attacked both that fortress and Fanching 
 from all sides. The Mongol commander, 
 Alihaya, sent to Persia, where the Mongols 
 were also supreme, for engineers trained in 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 69 
 
 the working of mangonels or catapults, 
 engines capable of throwing stones of i6o- 
 Ibs. weight with precision for a considerable 
 distance. By their aid the bridges across 
 the river were first destroyed, and then the 
 walls of Sianyang were so severely damaged 
 that an assault appeared to be feasible. 
 
 Letter from the Mongol Emperor. 
 
 But Fanching had suffered still more from 
 the Mongol bombardment, and Alhaya, 
 therefore, attacked it first. The garrison 
 offered a determined resistance, and the fight- 
 ing was continued in the streets. Not a 
 man of the garrison escaped, and when the 
 slaughter was over the Mongols found that 
 they had only acquired possession of a mass 
 of ruins. But they had obtained the key to 
 Sianyang, the weakest flank of which had 
 been protected by Fanching, and the Chinese 
 garrison was so discouraged that Liuwen 
 Hoan, despairing of relief, agreed to accept 
 the terms. offered by Kublai. Those terms 
 were expressed in the following noble letter 
 from the Mongol Emperor : 
 
 "The generous defence you have made 
 during five years covers you with glory. It 
 is the duty of every faithful subject to serve 
 his prince at the expense of his life, but in 
 the straits to which you are reduced, your 
 strength exhausted, deprived of succor and 
 -without hope of receiving any, would it be 
 reasonable to sacrifice the lives of so many 
 brave men out of sheer obstinacy? Submit 
 in good faith to us and no harm shall come 
 to you. We promise you still more; and 
 that is to provide each and all of you with 
 honorable employment. You shall have no 
 grounds of discontent, for that we pledge 
 you our Imperial word." 
 
 It will not excite surprise that Liuwen 
 Hoan, who had been practically speaking 
 deserted by his own sovereign, should have 
 
 accepted the magnanimous terms of his con- 
 queror, and become as loyal a lieutenant of 
 Kublai as he had shown himself to be of the 
 Sung Toutsong. The death of that ruler 
 followed soon afterwards, but as the real 
 power had been in the hands of the Minister 
 Kiassetao, no change took place in the policy 
 or fortunes of the Sung kingdom. 
 
 At this moment Kublai succeeded in 
 obtaining the services cf Bayan, a Mongol 
 general who had acquired a great reputa- 
 tion under Khulagu in Persia. Bayan, whose 
 name signifies the noble or the brave, and 
 who was popularly known as Bayan of the 
 Hundred Eyes, because he was supposed to' 
 see everything, was one of the greatest mili- 
 tary leaders of his age and race. He was 
 entrusted with the command of the main 
 army, and under him served, it is interesting 
 to state, Liuwen Hoan. Several towns were 
 captured after more or less resistence, and 
 Bayan bore down with all his force on the 
 triple cities of Hankow, Wouchang and 
 Hanyang. Bayan concentrated all his 
 efforts on the capture of Hanyang, while the 
 Mongol navy under Artchu compelled the 
 Chinese fleet to take refuge under the walls 
 of Wouchang. None of these towns offered 
 a very stubborn resistance, and Bayan had 
 the satisfaction of receiving their surrender 
 one after another. Leaving Alihaya with 
 40,000 men to guard these places Bayan 
 marched with the rest of his forces on the 
 Sung capital, Lingan or Hangchow; the cele- 
 brated Kincsay of mediaeval travellers. 
 
 The National Defence. 
 The retreating fleet and army of the Sungs 
 carried with them fear of the Mongols, and 
 the ever-increasing representation of their 
 extraordinary power and irresistible arms'. 
 In this juncture public opinion compelled 
 Kiassetao to take the lead, and he called 
 
70 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 upon all the subjects of the Sung to contri- 
 bute arms and money for the purpose of 
 national defence. But his own incompe- 
 tence in directing this national movement 
 deprived it of half its force and of its natural 
 chances of success. Bayan's advance was 
 rapid. Many towns opened their gates in 
 terror or admiration of his name, and Liu- 
 wen Hoan was frequently present to assure 
 them that Kublai was the most generous of 
 masters, and that there was no wiser course 
 than to surrender to his generals. 
 
 "A Little Too Late." 
 
 The Mongol forces at last reached the 
 neighborhood of the Sung capital where 
 Kiassetao had succeeded in collecting an 
 army of 130,000 men, but many of them 
 were ill-trained, and the splendor of the 
 camp provided a poor equivalent for the 
 want of arms and discipline among the men. 
 Kiassetao seems to have been ignorant of 
 the danger of his position, for he sent an 
 arrogant summons to the Mongols to retire, 
 stating also that he would grant a peace 
 based on the Yangtsekiang as a boundary. 
 Bayan's simple reply to this notice was: "If 
 you had really aimed at peace, you would 
 have made this proposition before we crossed . 
 the Kiang. Now that we are the masters of 
 it, it is a little too late. Still if you sin- 
 cerely desire it, come and see me in person, 
 and we will discuss the necessary condi- 
 tions." Very few of the Sung lieutenants 
 offered a protracted resistance, and even the 
 isolated cases of devotion were confined to 
 the official class who were more loyal than 
 the mass of the people. 
 
 Chao Maofa and his wife Yongchi put an 
 end to their existence sooner than give up 
 their charge at Chichow, but the garrison 
 accepted the terms of the Mongols without 
 compunction and without thinking of their 
 
 duty. Kiassetao attempted to resist the 
 Mongol advance at Kien Kang, the modern 
 Nankin, but after an engagement on land and 
 water the Sungs were driven back, and their 
 fleet only escaped destruction by retiring pre- 
 cipitately to the sea. After this success 
 Nankin surrendered without resistance, 
 although its governor was a valiant and ap- 
 parently a capable man. He committed 
 suicide sooner than surrender, and among 
 his papers was found a plan of campaign, 
 after perusing which Bayan exclaimed, "Is 
 it possible that the Sungs possessed a man 
 capable of giving such prudent counsel ? If 
 they had paid heed to it should we ever have 
 reached this spot?" 
 
 After this success Bayan pressed on with 
 increased rather than diminished energy, and 
 the Sung Emperor and his court fled from 
 the capital. Kublai showed an inclination to 
 temporize and to negotiate, but Bayan would 
 not brook any delay. " To relax your grip 
 even for a moment on an enemy whom you 
 have held by the throat for a hundred years 
 would only be to give him time to recover 
 his breath, to restore his forces, and in the 
 end to cause us an infinity of trouble." 
 
 Repulsed with Heavy Loss. 
 The Sung fortunes showed some slight 
 symptoms of improving when Kiassetao was 
 disgraced, and a more competent general 
 was found in the person of Chang Chikia. 
 But the Mongols never abated the vigor of 
 their attack or relaxed in their efforts to cut 
 off all possibility to succor from the Sung 
 capital. When Chang Chikia hoped to im- 
 prove the position of his side by resuming 
 the offensive he was destined to rude disap- 
 pointment. Making an attack on the strong 
 position of the Mongols at Nankin he was 
 repulsed with heavy loss. The Sung fleet 
 was almost annihilated and 700 war-junks 
 
72 
 
 CHINA: PASl AND PRESENT. 
 
 were taken by the victors. After this the 
 Chinese never dared to face the Mongols 
 again on the water. The victory was due to 
 the courage and capacity of Artchu. 
 
 Bayan now returned from a campaign in 
 Mongolia to resume the chief conduct of the 
 war, and he signalized his return by the cap- 
 ture of Changchow. At this town he is said 
 to have sanctioned a massacre of the Chi- 
 nese troops, but the facts are veiled in uncer- 
 tainty; and Marco Polo declares that this 
 was only done after the Chinese had treach- 
 erously cut up the Mongol garrison. 
 Alarmed by the fall of Changchow the Sung 
 ministers again sued for peace, sending an 
 imploring letter to this effect : — " Our ruler 
 is young and cannot be held responsible for 
 the differences that have arisen between the 
 peoples. Kiassetao the guilty one has been 
 punished; give us peace and we shall be 
 better friends in the future." 
 
 The Surrender. 
 
 - Bayan's reply was severe and uncompro- 
 mising. " The age of your prince has 
 nothing to do with the question between us. 
 The war must go on to its legitimate end. 
 Furthur argument is useless." The defences 
 of the Sung capital were by this time re- 
 moved, and the unfortunate upholders of 
 that dynasty had no option save to come to 
 terms with the Mongols. .Marco Polo 
 describes Kincsay as the most opulent city 
 of the world, but it was in no position to 
 stand a siege. The Empress-Regent acting 
 for her son sent in her submission to Bayan, 
 and agreed to proceed to the court of the 
 conqueror. She abdicated for herself and 
 family all the pretensions of their rank, and 
 she accepted the favors of the Mongol with 
 due humility, saying, " The Son of Heaven 
 (thus giving Kublai the correct Imperial 
 style) grants you the favor of sparing your 
 
 life; it is just to thank him for it and to pay 
 him homage." 
 
 Bayan made a triumphal entry into the 
 city, while the Emperor Kongtsong was sent 
 off to Pekin. The majority of the Sung 
 courtiers and soldiers came to terms with 
 Bayan, but a few of the more desperate or 
 faithful endeavored to uphold the Sung cause 
 in Southern China under the general, Chang 
 Chikia. Two of the Sung princes were sup- 
 ported by this commander and one was pro- 
 claimed by the empty title of emperor. 
 Capricious fortune rallied to their side for a 
 brief space, and some of the Mongol detach- 
 ments which had advanced too far or with 
 undue precipitancy were cut up and de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 Capture of Canton. 
 The Mongols seem to have thought that 
 the war was over, and the success of Chang 
 Chikia's efforts may have been due to their 
 negligence rather than to his vigor. As 
 soon as they realized that there remained a 
 flickering flame of opposition among the 
 supporters of the Sungs they sent two 
 armies, one into Kwantung and the other 
 into Fuhkien, and their fleet against Chang 
 Chikia. Desperate as was his position, that 
 officer still exclaimed, " If heaven has not 
 resolved to overthrow the Sungs, do you 
 think that even now it cannot restore their 
 ruined throne?" but his hopes were dashed 
 to the ground by the capture of Canton, and 
 the expulsion of all his forces from the main- 
 land. One puppet emperor died and then 
 Chang proclaimed another as Tiping. The 
 last supporters of the cause took refuge on 
 the island of Tai in the Canton estuary, 
 where they hoped to maintain their position. 
 The position was strong and the garrison 
 was numerous ; but the Mongols were not 
 to be frightened by appearances. Their fleet 
 
THE MONGOL CONQUEST OF CHINA. 
 
 73 
 
 bore down on the last Sung stronghold with 
 absolute confidence, and, although the Chi- 
 nese resisted for three days and showed great 
 gallantry, they were overwhelmed by the 
 superior engines as well as the numbers of 
 the Mongols. 
 
 Chang Chikia with a few ships succeeded 
 in escaping from the fray, but the emperors 
 vessel was less fortunate, and finding that 
 escape was impossible, Lousionfoo, one of 
 the last Sung ministers, seized the emperor 
 in his arms and jumped overboard with him. 
 Thus died Tiping, the last Chinese Emperor 
 of the Sungs, and with him expired that ill- 
 fated dynasty. Chang Chikia renewed the 
 struggle with aid received from Tonquin, but 
 when he was leading a forlorn hope against 
 Canton he was caught in a typhoon and he 
 and his ships were wrecked. His invocation 
 to heaven, "I have done everything I could 
 to sustain on the throne the Sung dynasty. 
 When one prince died I caused another to 
 be proclaimed emperor. He also has per- 
 ished, and I still live ! Oh, heaven, shall I 
 be acting against thy desires if I sought to 
 place a new prince of this family on the 
 throne ?" sounded the dirge of the race he 
 had served so well. 
 
 Thus was the conquest of China by the 
 Mongols completed. After half a century 
 of warfare the kingdom of the Sungs shared 
 the same fate as its old rival the Kin, and 
 Kublai had the personal satisfaction of com- 
 pleting the work begun by his grandfather 
 Genghis seventy years before. Of all the 
 Mongol triumphs it was the longest in being 
 attained. The Chinese of the north and of 
 the south resisted with extraordinary powers 
 of endurance the whole force of the greatest 
 conquering race Asia ever saw. They were 
 not skilled in war and their generals were 
 generally incompetent, but they held out 
 with desperate courage and obstinacy long 
 after other races would have given in. 
 
 The student of history will not fail to see 
 in these facts striking testimony of the extra- 
 ordinary resources of China, and of the 
 capacity of resistance to even a vigorous 
 conqueror possessed by its inert masses. 
 Even the Mongols did not conquer until 
 they had obtained the aid of a large section 
 of the Chinese nation, or before Kublai had 
 shown that he intended to prove himself a 
 worthy Emperor of China and not merely a 
 great Khan of the Mongol Hordes, a bar- 
 barous conqueror and not a wise ruler. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FIRST MANCHU RULER. 
 
 THE history of China from this time 
 on presents a succession of wars 
 and conquests, and rising and 
 falling dynasties. The Mongol 
 dynasty gave way to the Ming, and this in 
 turn went into decline. In the first half of 
 the 17th century the country was conquered 
 by the Manchus who established the present 
 reigning Tsin dynasty. 
 
 How a small Tartar tribe succeeded after 
 fifty years of war in imposing its yoke on 
 the skeptical, freedom-loving, and intensely 
 national millions of China will always remain 
 one of the enigmas of history. The military 
 genius of Wou Sankwei, the widely prevalent 
 dissensions among the people, and the effete- 
 ness of the reigning house on the one hand, 
 and the , superior discipline, sagacity,- and 
 political knowledge of the Tartars on the 
 other,~ are some of the principal causes of the 
 Manchu success that at once suggest them- 
 selves to the mind. 
 
 But in no other case has a people, boldly 
 resisting to the end and cheered by occasional 
 flashes of victory, been subjected after more 
 than a whole generation of war, with a des- 
 pised an truly insignificant enemy in the 
 durable form in which the Manchus trod the 
 Chinese under their heel, and secured for 
 themselves all the perquisites and honor 
 accruing to the governing class in one of the 
 richest and largest empires under the sun. 
 
 The Chinese were made to feel all the 
 
 bitterness of subjection by the imposition of 
 
 a hated badge of servitude, and that they 
 
 proved unable to succeed under this aggra- 
 
 74 
 
 vation of circumstances, greatly increases the 
 wonder with which the Manchu conquest 
 must ever be regarded. But the most signifi- 
 cant feature of the Manchu conquest is that 
 it provides a durable proof of the possibility 
 of China being conquered by a small but 
 determined body of men. Once Wou Sank- 
 wei had opened the door to the foreigner, the 
 end proved easy, and was never in doubt. 
 The Chinese were subjugated with extraor- 
 dinary easey and the only testimony to their 
 undiminished vitality has been the quiet and 
 silent process by which the conquerors have 
 been compelled to assimilate themselves to 
 the conquered. 
 
 Lives and Property Respected. 
 
 While the Manchu generals and armies 
 were establishing their power in southern 
 China the young Emperor Chuntche, under 
 the direction of his prudent uncle, the regent 
 Ama Wang, was setting up at Pekin the 
 central power of a ruling dynasty. In doing 
 so little or no opposition was experienced at 
 the hands of the Chinese, who sliowed that 
 they longed once more for a settled govern- 
 ment ; and this acquiescence on the part of 
 the Chinese people in their authority no 
 doubt induced the Manchu leaders to adopt 
 a far more conciliatory and lenient policy 
 towards the Chinese than would otherwise 
 have been the case. Ama Wang gave 
 special orders that the lives and property of 
 all who surrendered to his lieutenants should 
 be scrupulously respected. 
 
 This moderation was only departed from 
 
THE FIRST MANCHU RULER. 
 
 75 
 
 in the case of some rebels in Shensi, who, 
 after accepting, repudiated the Manchu 
 authority, and laid close siege to the chief 
 town of Singan, which held a garrison of 
 only 3,000 Manchus. The commandant 
 wished to make his position secure by mas- 
 sacring the Chinese of the town, but he was 
 deterred from taking this extreme step by 
 the representations of a Chinese officer, who, 
 binding himself for the good faith of his 
 countrymen, induced him to enrol them in 
 the ranks of the garrison. They proved 
 faithful and rendered excellent service in the 
 siege; and when a relieving Manchu army 
 came from Pekin the rebels were quickly 
 scattered and pursued with unflagging bitter- 
 ness to their remotest hiding places. 
 
 A Bride Carried Off. 
 
 In the adjoining province of Shansi 
 another insurrection temporarily upset Man- 
 chu authority, but it was brought about by 
 an outrage of a Manchu prince. In 1649 
 Ama Wang sent an embassy to the principal 
 khan of the Mongols, with whom it was the 
 first object of the Manchus to maintain the 
 closest friendly relations, in order to arrange 
 a marriage between Chuntche and a Mongol 
 princess. The mission was entrusted to a 
 Manchu prince, who took up his residence 
 at Taitong, in Shansi, a place still held by a 
 Chinese garrison under an officer named 
 Kiangtsai. The Manchu prince and his 
 attendants behaved in a most arrogant and 
 overbearing manner, and at last their conduct 
 culminated in an outrage which roused the 
 indignation of the Chinese populace, and 
 converted a loyal city into a hostile centre. 
 
 The daughter of one of the most influen- 
 tial citizens of Taitong was being led through 
 the streets in honor of her wedding day when 
 several of the ambassador's associates broke 
 into the procession and carried off the bride. 
 
 The Chinese were shocked at this outrage, 
 and clamored for the prompt punishment of 
 its perpetrators. The governor, Kiangtsai, 
 supported the demand of the citizens, but, 
 unfortunately, the Manchu prince was indif- 
 ferent to the Chinese indignation, and made 
 light of his comrades' conduct. Then the 
 Chinese resolved to enact a terrible ven- 
 geance, and Kiangtsai organized a move- 
 ment to massacre every Manchu in the 
 place. He carried out his intention to the 
 letter, and the Manchu prince was the only 
 one to escape, thanks to the swiftness of his 
 horse. 
 
 Became a Rebel. 
 
 The inevitable consequence of this act 
 was that Kiangtsai passed from a loyal ser- 
 vant into a rebel. Ama Wang might have 
 condoned his offence out of consideration 
 for the provocation, but Kiangtsai, thinking 
 of his own safety, decided that there was no 
 course open to him save to pose as the 
 enemy of the Manchu. He seems to have 
 done everything that prudence suggested to 
 strengthen his position, and he showed the 
 grasp of a statesman when he turned to the 
 Mongols and sought to obtain their alliance 
 by begging them to restore the Empire,, 
 and to assert their national superority over 
 the Manchus. His poHcy at first promised 
 to be signally successful, as the Mongol 
 chief entered into his plans and promised to 
 render him all the aid in his power. 
 
 But his hopes on this score proved short- 
 lived, for Ama Wang, realizing the situation 
 at a glance, nipped the alliance between 
 Kiangtsai and the Mongols in the bud by 
 sending a special embassy with exception- 
 ally costly gifts to the Mongol camp. The 
 cupidity of the Mongols prevailed, and they 
 repudiated with scant ceremony the conven- 
 tion they had just concluded with Kiangtsai, 
 
76 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Then the Mahchus bore down from all sides 
 on Kiangstai, who had assumed the title of 
 Prince of Han. He had gathered round 
 him such a considerable force that he did 
 not hesitate to march out to meet the Man- 
 chus, and he trusted for victory to a skil- 
 fully-devised artifice as much as to superior 
 numbers. He sent forward, under a small 
 guard, a number of wagons containing can- 
 isters of gun-powder, and when the Tartar 
 cavalry saw this baggage train approaching 
 they at once concluded that it was a valu- 
 able prize, and pounced down upon it. The 
 Chinese guard having fired the train took to 
 flight, and the Manchus lost many men in 
 the ensuing explosion, but the most serious 
 consequence was that it threw the whole 
 Manchu army into confusion, and thus 
 enabled Kiangtsai to attack it at a disad- 
 vantage, and to overthrow it with a loss of 
 15,000 men. In a second battle he con- 
 firmed the verdict of the first, and it is 
 almost unnecessary to add that the reputa- 
 tion of Kiangtsai was raised to a high point, 
 and that the Manchus trembled on the 
 throne. If the Mongols had only joined 
 him, it is impossible to say what might not 
 have happened. 
 
 Takes the Field in Person. 
 
 So grave did the possible consequences of 
 these defeats appear that Ama Wang 
 decided to take the field in person, and to 
 proceed against Kiangtsai with the very best 
 troops he could collect. Matters had 
 reached such a pass that, if a general insur- 
 rection were to be averted, the Taitong ris- 
 ing would have to be put down without 
 delay. Ama Wang resolved to strike 
 promptly, yet he had the prudence to adopt 
 Fabian tactics in front of an opponent whose 
 confidence had been raised by two successes 
 in the field. The opposing armies each 
 
 exceeded 100,000 men, and Kiangtsai was 
 as eager to force on a battle as Ama Wang 
 was to avoid it. 
 
 During two months there was much man- 
 oeuvring and counter-manoeuvring, and at 
 last Kiangtsai, apprehensive of losing Tai- 
 tong and finding his supplies failing, retired 
 into that place, flattering himself that an 
 enemy who feared to attack him in the open 
 would never venture to assail him in a fort- 
 ress. But the object of Ama Wang was 
 accomplished, and he proceeded to invest 
 the place on all sides. Then Kiangtsai 
 realized his error, and saw that he had no 
 alternative between fighting at a disadvan- 
 tage to cut his way out and remaining 
 besieged until the want of supplies should 
 compel him to surrender. He chose the 
 more valiant course, and haranguing his 
 men in the following words he led them out 
 to assault the Manchua lines. "I- will not 
 lose a moment in exposing to you the dan- 
 ger which threatens us, it must be evident to 
 yourselves. Your valor alone can avail to 
 secure safety for us all. Success is not 
 impossible, but it will require a great efibrt 
 of valor on your part. Whom have we to 
 fight after all ? Men already weakened and 
 discouraged by two defeats, and who so 
 much feared a third battle that all our efforts 
 to bring them to an engagement failed. 
 The part which alone remains for us is not 
 doubtful. If we must perish, let it be with 
 arms in our hands. Is it not better to sell 
 our lives like brave men than to fall inglori- 
 ously under the steel of the Tartars?" 
 
 A Terrible Onslaught. 
 
 Such was the impetuosity of the Chinese 
 onslaught that after four hpurs' fighting the 
 Manchus were driven from their first 
 entrenchments. The Chinese were as much 
 elated as their adversaries were depressed by 
 
o 
 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 as 
 
 Hi 
 
 c 
 g 
 
 p 
 
 Q 
 
 
 77 
 
78 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 this initial success, and counted on victory. 
 A single incident served to change the for- 
 tune of the day. Kiangtsai placed himself 
 at the head of his men to lead them to the 
 attack of the remaining Manchu positions 
 when he was struck in the head by an 
 arrow. The death of their leader created a 
 panic among the Chinese troops, who, 
 abandoning all they had won, fled in irre- 
 trievable confusion back to Taitong, where 
 they were more closely beleaguered than 
 before by the Manchus. The discouraged 
 and disorganized Chinese offered but a feeble 
 resistance, and in a very short time the 
 Manchus were masters of Taitong; and the 
 most formidable Chinese gathering which 
 had, up to that time, threatened the new 
 dynasty was broken up. The Taitong insur- 
 gents acquired all their strength from the 
 •personal genius and ascendancy of Kiang- 
 tsai, and with his death they collapsed. 
 
 " King of the West." 
 In the province of Szchuen a Chinese 
 leader of very different character and capa- 
 city from Kiangtsai set up an administra- 
 tion. He distinguished himself by his brut- 
 ality, and although he proclaimed himself 
 Si Wang, or King of the West, he was exe- 
 crated by those who were nominally his sub- 
 jects. Among the most heinous of his 
 crimes was his invitation to literary men to 
 come to his capital for employment, and 
 when they had assembled to the number of 
 30,000, to order them to be massacred. He 
 ■dealt in a similar manner with 3,000 of his 
 <:ourtiers, because one of them happened to 
 omit a portion of his full titles. His 
 •excesses culminated in the massacre of 
 Chentu, when 600,000 innocent persons are 
 said to have perished. 
 
 Even allowing for the eastern exaggera- 
 tion of numbers, the crimes of this inhuman 
 
 monster have rarely, if ever, been surpassed. 
 His rage or appetite for destruction was not 
 appeased by human sacrifices. He made 
 equal war on the objects of nature and the 
 works of man. He destroyed cities, levelled 
 forests, and overthrew all the public monu- 
 ments that embellished his province. In the 
 midst of his excesses he was told that a 
 Manchu army had crossed the frontier, but 
 he resolved to crown his inhuman career by 
 a deed unparalleled in the records of his- 
 tory, and what is more extraordinary, he suc- 
 ceeded in inducing his followers to execute 
 his commands. His project was to massacre 
 all the women in attendance on his army, 
 and his motives can only be described in his 
 own words. 
 
 Murder by the Wholesale. 
 
 "The province of Szchuen is no more 
 than a mass of ruins and a vast desert. I 
 have wished to signalize my vengeance, and 
 at the same time to detach you from the 
 wealth which it offered, in order that your 
 ardor for the conquest of the Empire, which 
 I have sttU every hope of attaining, should 
 not flag. The execution of my project is 
 easy, but one obstacle which might prevent 
 or delay the conquest, I meditate, disturbs 
 my mind. An effeminate heart is not well 
 suited to great enterprises ; the only passion 
 heroes should cherish is that glocy. All of 
 you have wives, and the greater number of 
 you have several in your company. These 
 women can only prove a source of embar- 
 rassment in camp, and especially during 
 marches or other expeditions demanding 
 celerity of movement. Have you any appre- 
 hension lest you should not find elsewhere 
 wives as charming and as accomplished? In 
 a very short time I promige you others who 
 will give us every reason to congratulate 
 ourselves for having made the sacrifice which 
 
THE FIRST MANCHU 
 
 I propose to you. Let us, therefore, get rid 
 of the embarrassment which these women 
 cause us. I feel that the only way for me 
 to persuade you in this matter is by setting 
 you an example. To-morrow, without 
 further delay, I will lead my wives to the 
 public parade. See that you are all present, 
 and cause to be published, under most severe 
 penalties, the order to all your soldiers to 
 assemble there at the same time, each accom- 
 panied by his wives. The treatment I 
 accord to mine shall be the general law. " 
 
 RULER. 
 
 79 
 
 Killed by an Arrow. 
 
 When the assembly took place Si Wang 
 slew his wives, and his followers, seized with 
 an extreme frenzy, followed his example. It 
 is said that as many as 400,000 women were 
 slain that day, and Si Wang, intoxicated by 
 his success in inducing his followers to exe- 
 cute his inhuman behests, believed that he had 
 nothing to fear at the hands of the Manchus. 
 But he was soon undeceived, for in one of the 
 earliest affairs at the outposts he was killed 
 by an arrow. His power at once crumbled 
 away, and Szchuen passed under the 
 authority of the Manchus. 
 
 The conquest of Szchuen paved the way 
 for the recovery of the position that had 
 been lost in Southern China, and close seige 
 was laid to the city of Canton, where the 
 Chinese leaders had collected all their forces. 
 The Manchus adopted the astute course of 
 giving the highest nominal commands to 
 Chinese, and consequently many of their 
 countrymen surrendered to them more 
 readily than if they had been foreigners. 
 One officer, named Kiuchessa, who is said to 
 have been a Christian, remained faithful to 
 the Ming prince of Southern China until his 
 execution, and he refused to accept a pardon 
 as the price of his apostacy. 
 
 Outside Canton the Manchus carried 
 
 everything before them, and that city itself 
 at last was captured, after what passed for a 
 stubborn resistance. Canton was given over 
 to pillage, and the sack continued for ten 
 days. The Ming pretender fled to Yunnan, 
 and afterwards into Burmah, where he en- 
 joyed shelter for seven years. At this 
 moment of success Ama Wang, the wise 
 regent, died. His last years had been 
 full of anxiety from the dangers that had 
 arisen in the path of the Manchus, but he 
 lived long enough to see it much allayed, 
 and the most serious perils removed. He 
 gave all his time and energy to improving his 
 nephew in the work of government, and to 
 looking after his interests. Towards the 
 Chinese he assumed an attitude of modera- 
 tion, and even of studied conciliation, which 
 produced a beneficial effect on the public 
 mind. • To this attitude, as well as to the 
 successful measures of his government, must 
 be attributed the success he experienced in 
 tranquillizing the country. He was not the 
 first nor the last of the great rulers and 
 statesmen which the present imperial family 
 of China has produced in the last three cen- 
 turies. 
 
 Choosing an Emperor. 
 Some of the elder princes of the Manchu 
 family attempted to succeed to his position, 
 but the principal ministers and courtiers com- 
 bined together and insisted that the Emperor 
 Chuntche was old enough to rule for him- 
 self, and that they would not recognize any 
 other master. This extreme step settled the 
 question, and Chuntche assumed the reins of 
 government.' He at once devoted his atten- 
 tion to administrative reforms. It is said 
 that corruption had begun to sway the public 
 examinations, and that Chuntche issued a 
 special edict, enjoining the examiners to give 
 fair awards and to maintain the purity of the 
 
80 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 service. But several examiners had to be 
 executed and others banished beyond the 
 Wall before matters were placed on a satis- 
 factory_basis. He also adopted the astro- 
 nomical system in force in Europe, and he 
 appointed the priest Adam Schaal head of 
 the Mathematical Board at Pekin. 
 
 But his most important work was the in- 
 stitution of the Grand Council, which still 
 exists, and which is the supreme power 
 under the Emperor of the country. It is 
 composed of only four members — two 
 Manchus and two Chinese — who alone pos- 
 sess the privilege of personal audience with 
 the Emperor whenever they may demand it. 
 They are far higher in rank than any member 
 of the Six; Tribunals or the Board of Censors, 
 whose wide liberty of expression is limited 
 to written memorials. 
 
 As this act gave the Chinese an equal 
 place with the Manchus in the highest body 
 of the Empire it was exceedingly welcome, 
 and explains, among other causes, the popu- 
 larity and stability of the Manchu dynasty. 
 When allotting Chuntche his place among 
 the founders of Manchu greatness allowance 
 must be made for this wise and far-reaching 
 measure, the consequences of which cannot 
 be accurately gauged. 
 
 Embassies from Europe. 
 
 Another interesting event in the reign of 
 Chuntche, was the arrival at Pekin of more 
 than one embassy from European States. 
 The Dutch and the Russians can equally 
 claim the honor of having had an envoy 
 resident in the Chinese capital during the 
 year 1656, but in neither case could the 
 result be described as altogether satisfactory. 
 After some delay and difficulty and on 
 making the required concessions to the 
 dignity of the Emperor — which means the 
 performance of the Kotao, or making the 
 
 prostration by beating the ground with the 
 forehead — the Dutch merchants, who^were 
 sent as envoys, were admitted to audience, 
 but although they bribed freely, the only 
 favor they obtained was the right to present 
 tribute at stated intervals, which was a 
 doubtful gain. The Emperor restricted their 
 visit to once in every eight years, and then 
 they were not to exceed one hundred 
 persons, of whom only twenty might pro- 
 ceed to the capital. 
 
 An Official from Siberia- 
 
 .The most interesting circumstance in con- 
 nection with this embassy is that it provided 
 Nieuhoff, the secretary, to the envoys, with 
 the material for a description of Pekin at a 
 time when it had not recovered from the 
 effects of the wars we have described. The 
 conquest of Siberia by the Cossack Irmak 
 had brought the Russians into immediate 
 contact with the Chinese, and it was held 
 desirable to establish some sort of diplomatic 
 relations with them. An officer was accord- 
 ingly sent from Siberia to Pekin, but as he 
 persistently refused to perform the Kotao, he 
 was denied audience, and returned without 
 having accomplished anything. The com- 
 mencement of diplomatic relations between 
 Russia and China was therefore postponed to 
 a later day. 
 
 With Tibet, Chuntche succeeded in estab- 
 lishing relations of a specially cordial nature, 
 which preserve their force to the present 
 time. In 1653 he received a visit from the 
 Grand Lama of Lhasa, and he conferred 
 upon him the title of Dalai, or Ocean Lama,, 
 because his knowledge was as deep and pro- 
 found as the ocean. It says much for the 
 influence of China, and the durability of the 
 tie thus established, that the supreme Lama 
 of Lhasa, has been generally known by this 
 title ever since its being conferred on him. 
 
THE FIRST MANCHU RULER. 
 
 81 
 
 During the last years of the reign of 
 Chuntche, the growth of the naval power of 
 Koshmga, son of Ching Chelong, attracted 
 considerable attention. When Canton fell, 
 many Chinese escaped in their junks, and as 
 the Manchus had no fleet they were unable 
 to follow the fugitives, and the Chinese 
 derived fresh confidence from this security at 
 sea. The daring and activity of Koshinga 
 became the solace and admiration of his 
 countrymen. He first established his head- 
 quarters on the island of Tsong-ming, at the 
 mouth of the river Yangtsekiang, and had he 
 been content with operations along the sea- 
 coast, he might have enjoyed immunity from 
 attack, and an indefinite scope for plunder 
 for many years. But his ambition led him 
 to take an exaggerated view of his power, 
 and, by attempting too much, he jeopardized 
 all he had gained, and finally curtailed his 
 sphere of enterprise. 
 
 The Opportunity Lost. 
 
 In 1656, he sailed up the river to attack 
 Nankin, and his enterprise was so far well- 
 timed that the Manchu garrison was then 
 very weak, and the chances of a popular 
 rising in his favor were also at their highest 
 point. But he seems to have relied for suc- 
 ces mainly on the latter contingency, and in 
 the desire to spare his men, he postponed his 
 attack until the favorable opportunity had 
 passed away, and the Manchu garrison being 
 strongly reinforced, the townspeople were 
 both afraid to revolt, and Koshinga to deliver 
 his attack. When at last he nerved himself 
 to assault the place, the Manchus anticipated 
 his intention by delivering a night attack 
 upon his camp, which was completely suc- 
 cessful. Three thousand of his best men were 
 slain, and Koshinga and the remainder were 
 only too glad to seek shelter in their ships. 
 
 The repulse at Nankin destroyed all 
 6 
 
 Koshinga's dreams of posing as a national 
 deliverer. After this episode he could only 
 hope to be powerful as a rover of the sea, 
 and the head of a piratical confederacy. 
 
 In 1 66 1, the health of Chuntche became 
 so bad that it was evident to his courtiers 
 that his end was drawing near, although he 
 was little more than thirty years of age. 
 Authorities differ as to the precise cause of 
 his death. Philippe Couplet says that it was 
 small-pox, but the more general version was 
 that it was grief at the death of his favorite 
 wife and infant son. Probably his domestic 
 affliction aggravated his malady, and nullified 
 the efforts of his physicians. On his death- 
 bed he selected as his successor the second 
 of his sons, who afterwards became famous 
 as the Emperor Kanghi, and the choice 
 proved an exceedingly fortunate one. 
 
 The reign of Chuntche was specially 
 remarkable as witnessing the consolidation 
 of Manchu authority, the introduction of the 
 Chinese to a share in the administration, and 
 the adoption of a policy of increased moder- 
 ation towards the subject people. 
 
 Engraved on Iron Tablets. 
 
 When Kanghi was placed on the throne 
 he was only eight years old, and the admin- 
 istration was consequently entrusted to four 
 of the chief and most experienced officials. 
 These co-regents devoted themselves to their 
 duty with energy and intelligence. Their, 
 first act was to impeach the principal 
 eunuchs who had acquired power under 
 Chuntche, and to issue a decree prohibiting 
 the employment of any of that unfortunate 
 class in the public service. This law was 
 engraved on iron tablets weighing more than 
 1,000 pounds, and the Manchu rulers have 
 ever since remained faithful to the pledge 
 taken by these Manchu regents in the name 
 of the young Emperor Kanghi, 
 
82 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 The very first year of Kanghi's reign wit- 
 nessed the zenith and the fall of the power of 
 of Koshinga. After the failure of his attack 
 on Nankin, Koshinga fixed his designs on 
 
 to carry out this plan, Koshinga had to oust, 
 not the aboriginal tribes who held most of 
 the interior of the island, but the Dutch 
 traders who had seized most of the ports and 
 
 SENDING PRAYERS TO HEAVEN BY BURNING THEM. 
 
 the island of Formosa, which offered, as it 
 seemed, the best vantage ground for a naval 
 confederacy such as he controlled. In order 
 
 had fortified them. Koshinga found willing 
 allies in the Chinese emigrants who had fled 
 from the mainland to Formosa. They rose 
 
THE FIRST MANCHU RULER. 
 
 83 
 
 up against the Dutch, and before they were 
 subdued the warlike aboriginal tribes had to 
 be recruited against them. 
 
 But the Dutch, who had been on the 
 island for 3 5 years, flattered themselves that 
 they could hold their own, and that it might 
 •lot be impossible to live on friendly 
 terms with Koshinga. They themselves had 
 acquired their place in Formosa by the retire- 
 ment of the Japanese from Taiwan, in 1624, 
 when the Dutch, driven away by the Portu- 
 guese from Macao, sought a fresh site for 
 their proposed settlement in the Pescadore 
 group, and eventually established themselves 
 at Fort Zealand. The Dutch seem to have 
 been lulled into a sense of false security by 
 their success over the Chinese settlers, and 
 to have believed that Koshinga was not as 
 formidable ks he was considered to be. 
 
 End of a Remarkable Career. 
 
 Koshinga did not strike until all his plans 
 were completed, and then he laid siege to 
 Fort Zealand. The Dutch fought well, but 
 they were overpowdered, and lost their pos- 
 sessions, which passed to the Chinese adven- 
 turer. Koshinga assumed the style of King 
 of Formosa, but he did not long survive this 
 triumph. In the year after this conquest he 
 died of a malady which was aggravated by 
 resentment at the insubordination of his eldest 
 son, and thus terminated his remarkable 
 career when he was no more than thirty- 
 eight. The Chinese province of Formosa 
 endured for another twenty years, but its 
 spirit and formidableness departed with 
 Koshinga. In his relations with the English 
 and Dutch merchants he showed all the pre- 
 judice and narrow-mindedness of his country- 
 men. 
 
 One of the earliest incidents in the reign 
 of Kanghi was an agitation got up by some 
 of the most bigoted cnurtiers, and fanned by 
 
 popular ignorance and fanaticism, against the 
 Christian priests, who had obtained various 
 posts under the Chinese government. They 
 had not not been very successful as the 
 propagators of religion, but they had 
 undoubtedly rendered the Chinese valuable 
 service as mathematicians and men of 
 science. The Emperor Chuntche had treated 
 them with marked consideration, and there 
 was little to cause surprise in this favor being 
 resented by the Chinese officials, and in their 
 intriguing to discredit and injure the 
 foreigners whose knowledge was declared to 
 be superior to their own. They formulated 
 a charge against them of "propagating a false 
 and monstrous religion," which was easily 
 understood and difficult • to refute. The 
 Abbe Schaal was deposed from the President- 
 ship of the Mathematical Board, and cast 
 into prison. 
 
 A Narrow Escape. 
 The other Europeans were also incarcerated. 
 They were all tried on a common charge, and, 
 the case being taken as proved, all condemned 
 to a common death. The only respite granted 
 between sentence and execution was for the 
 purpose of discovering some specially cruel 
 mode of execution that might be commensu- 
 rate to the offence, not merely of being a Chris- 
 tian, but of holding offices, that were the pre- 
 scriptive right of the followers of Confucius. 
 The delay thus obtained enabled one of the 
 regents, named Sony, and a man of an 
 enlightened and noble mind, to take steps to 
 save these victims of ignorance. Supported 
 by the mother of Kanghi, he succeeded in 
 gaining his point, and in obtaining a reversal 
 of the iniquitous sentence of ignorant 
 jealously, but the reprieve came too late to 
 save the life of the Abbe Schaal, who escaped 
 the public executioner, only to perish from 
 the consequences of his sufferings in prison. 
 
84 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Unfortunately, Sony did not live long 
 after this for his country to profit by his 
 clemency, or to display it in other acts rf 
 the government. It was during these inci- 
 dents that the young Emperor Kanghi gave 
 the first indication of his capacity to judge 
 important matters for himself, by deciding 
 after personal examination that the astro- 
 nbmical system of Europe was superior to 
 that of China, and by appointing Father 
 Verbiest to succeed the Abbe Schaal. 
 
 The death of the regent Sony threatened 
 not merely disorders within the supreme 
 administration, but an interruption of the 
 good work of the government itself. 
 Kanghi, with, no doubt, the support of his 
 mother, solved the difficulty by assuming 
 the personal direction of affairs, although he 
 was then only fourteen years of age. Such 
 a bold step undoubtedly betokened no ordi- 
 nary vigor on the part of a youth, and its 
 complete success reflected still further credit 
 upon him. He seems to have been specially 
 impelled to take this step by his disapproval 
 of the tryannical and overbearing conduct of 
 another of his regents, Baturu Kong, who 
 had only been kept in check by the equal 
 influence of Sony, and who promised him- 
 self on his rival's death a course of unbridled 
 power. 
 
 The Regency Dissolved. 
 
 Baturu Kong had taken, the most promi- 
 nent part in the agitation against the Chris- 
 tians, and the success of his schemes would 
 have signified the undoing of much of the 
 good work accomplished during the first 
 twenty years of Manchu power. The vigi- 
 lance and resolution of the young Emperor 
 thwarted his plans. By an imperial decree 
 the regency was dissolved, and Kong was 
 indicted on twelve separate charges, each 
 sufficient to receive the punishment of death. 
 
 A verdict of guilty was returned, and he and 
 his family suffered the supreme punishment 
 for treason. This act of vigor inaugurated 
 the reign of Kanghi, and the same resolu- 
 tion and courage characterized it to the end. 
 In this early assertion of sovereign power, 
 as in much else, it will be seen that Kanghi 
 bore a striking resemblance to his great con- 
 temporary, Louis the Fourteenth of France. 
 
 Kwei Wang Taken Prisoner. 
 
 The interest of the period now passes 
 from the scenes at court to the camp of 
 Wou Sankwei, who, twenty years earlier, had 
 introduced the Manchus into China. During 
 the Manchu campaign in Southern China he 
 had kept peace on the western frontier, grad- 
 ually extending his authority from Shensi 
 into Szchuen and thence over Yunnan. When 
 the Ming prince, Kwei Wang, who had fled 
 into Burmah, returned with the support of 
 the King of that country to make another 
 bid for the throne, he found himself con- 
 fronted by all the power and resources of 
 Wou Sankwei, who was still as loyal a 
 servant of the Manchu Emperor as when he 
 carried his ensigns against Li Tseching. 
 Kwei Wang does not appear to have ex- 
 pected opposition from Wou Sankwei, and 
 in the first encounter he was overthrown and 
 taken prisoner. 
 
 The conqueror, who was already under 
 suspicion at the Manchu Court, and whom 
 every Chinese rebel persisted in regarding as 
 a natural ally, now hesitated as to how he 
 should treat these important prisoners. Kwei 
 Wang and his son — the last of the Mings — 
 were eventually led forth to execution, 
 although it should be stated that a less 
 authentic report affirms they were allowed to 
 strangle themselves. Having made use of 
 Wou Sankwei, and obtained as they thought 
 the full value of his services, the Manchus 
 
I— I 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 Pu 
 i4 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 n 
 Eh 
 < 
 
 < 
 
HEADS OF CRIMINALS DISPLAYED FOR A WARNING. 
 
 85 
 
86 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 sought to treat him with indifference and to 
 throw him into the shade. But the splendor 
 of his work was such that they had to con- 
 fer on him the title of Prince, and to make 
 him Viceroy of Yunnan and the adjacent 
 territories. He exerted such an extraor- 
 dinary influence over the Chinese subjects 
 that they speedily settled down under his 
 authority; revenue and trade increased, and 
 the Manchu authority was maintained with- 
 out a Tartar garrison, for Wou Sankwei's 
 army was composed exclusively of Chinese, 
 and its nucleus was formed by his old garri- 
 son of Ningyuen and Shanhaikwan. 
 
 A Cunning Plot. 
 
 There is no certain reason for saying that 
 Wou Sankwei nursed any scheme of per- 
 sonal aggrandizement, but the measures he 
 took and the reforms he instituted were cal- 
 culated to make his authority to become 
 gradually independent of Manchu control. 
 For a time the Manchu Government sup- 
 pressed its apprehensions on account of this 
 powerful satrap, by the argument that in a 
 few years his death in the course of nature 
 must relieve it from this peril, but Wou 
 Sankwei lived on and showed no signs of 
 paying the common debt of humanity. Then 
 it seemed to Kanghi that Wou Sankwei was 
 gradually establishing the solid foundation of 
 a formidable and independent power. The 
 Manchu generals and ministers had always 
 been jealous of the greater fame of Wou 
 Sankwei. When they saw that Kanghi 
 wanted an excuse to fall foul of him, they 
 carried every tale of alleged self-assertion on 
 the part of the Chinese Viceroy to the Im- 
 perial ears, and represented that his power 
 dwarfed the dignity of the Manchu throne 
 and threatened its stability. 
 
 At last Kanghi resolved to take some de- 
 cisive step to bring the question to a climax. 
 
 and he accordingly sent Wou Sankwei an 
 invitation to visit him at Pekin. This was 
 in 1 67 1, when Kanghi had reached the age 
 of eighteen. There was nothing unreason- 
 able in this request, for Wou Sankwei had 
 not visited Pekin since the accession of 
 Kanghi, and any tender of allegiance had 
 been made by deputy. « 
 
 It was the practice of the time that all the 
 great governors should have a son or other 
 near relative at the Manchu Court as a host- 
 age for their good conduct, and a son of 
 Wou Sankwei resided in this character at 
 Pekin. He had been treated with special 
 honor by the Manchu rulers, and was mar- 
 ried to a half sister of the Emperor Kanghi. 
 He received the title of a Royal Duke, and 
 was admitted into the intimate life of the 
 Palace. When he heard of the invitation to 
 his father he sent off a message *to him, 
 warning him of the disfavor into which he 
 had fallen, and advising him not to come to 
 Pekin. The advice, although prompted by 
 affection, was not good, but Wou Sankwei 
 took it, and excused himself from going to 
 court on the ground that he was very old, 
 and that his only wish was to end his days 
 in peace. He also deputed his son to tender 
 his allegiance to the Emperor and to per- 
 form the Kotao in his name. 
 
 The Old Man's Answer. 
 
 But Kanghi was not to be put off in this 
 way, and he sent two trusted officials to Wou 
 Sankwei to represent that he must comply 
 with the exact terms of his command, and 
 to point out the grave consequences of his 
 refusing. There is no doubt that they were 
 also instructed to observe how far Wou 
 Sankwei was borne down by age, and what 
 was the extent of his military power. The 
 envoys were received with every courtesy 
 and befitting honor, but when they repeated 
 
THE FIRST MANCHU RULER. 
 
 87 
 
 Kanghi's categorical demand to come to 
 Pekin on penalty of being otherwise treated 
 as a rebel, he broke loose from the restraint 
 he had long placed upon himself, and there 
 and then repudiated the Manchu authority 
 in the most indignant and irrevocable terms, 
 which, at least, exposed the hollowness of 
 his statement that he felt the weight of years 
 and thought only of making a peaceful end. 
 His rely to the envoys of Kanghi was as 
 follows : — " Do they think at the Court that 
 I am so blind as not to see the motive in 
 this order of summons? I shkll, indeed, 
 present myself there if you continue to press 
 me, but it will be at the head of twice forty 
 thousand men. You may go on before, but 
 I hope to follow you very shortly with such 
 a force as will speedily remind those in power 
 of the debt they owe me." Thus did the 
 great Wou Sankwei cast off his allegiance to 
 the Manchus, and enter upon a war which 
 aimed at the subversion of their authority. 
 
 A Daring Conspiracy. 
 
 Such was the reputation of this great com- 
 mander, to whose ability and military 
 prowess the Manchus unquestionably were 
 indebted for their conquest of the empire, 
 that a large part of southern China at once 
 admitted his authority, and from Szchuen to 
 the warlike province of Hunan his lieutenants 
 were able to collect all the fighting resources 
 of the State, and to array the levies of those 
 provinces in the field for the approaching 
 contest with Kanghi. 
 
 While Wou Sankwei was making these 
 extensive preparations in the south, his son 
 at Pekin had devised an ingenious and daring 
 plot for the massacre of the Manchus and 
 the destruction of the dynasty. He engaged 
 in his scheme the large body of Chinese slaves 
 who had been placed in servitude under their 
 Tartar conquerors, and these, incited by the 
 
 hope of liberty, proved very ready tools to 
 his designs. They bound themselves together 
 by a solemn oath to be true to one another, 
 and all the preparations were made to mas- 
 sacre the Manchus on the occasion of the 
 New Year's Festival. 
 
 This is the grand religious and social cere- 
 mony of the Chinese. It takes place on the 
 first day of the first moon, which falls in our 
 month of February. All business is stopped, 
 the tribunals are closed for ten days, and a 
 state of high festival resembling the Carnival 
 prevails. The conspirators resolved to take 
 advantage of this public holiday, and of the 
 excitement accompanying it to carry out their 
 scheme, and the Manchus appear to have 
 been in total ignorance until the eleventh 
 hour of the plot for their destruction. The 
 discovery of the conspiracy bears a close 
 resemblance to that of the Gunpowder Plot. 
 A Chinese slave, wishing to save his master, 
 gave him notice of the danger, and this 
 Manchu ofificer at once informed Kanghi of 
 the conspiracy. 
 
 Arrested and Executed. 
 
 The son of Wou Sankwei and the other 
 conspirators were immediately arrested and 
 executed without delay. The Manchus thus 
 escaped by the merest accident from a danger 
 which threatened them with annihilation, and 
 Kanghi, having succeeded in getting rid of 
 the son, concentrated his power and attention 
 on the more difficult task of grappling with 
 the father. 
 
 But the power and reputation of Wou 
 Sankwei were so formidable that Kanghi 
 resolved to proceed with great caution, and 
 the Emperor began his measures of offence 
 by issuing an edict ordering the disbandment 
 of all the native armies maintained by the 
 Chinese Viceroys, besides Wou Sankwei. 
 The object of this edict was to make all the 
 
88 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 governors of Chinese race to show their 
 hands, and Kanghi learnt the full measure of 
 the hostility he had to cope with by every 
 governor from the sea coast of Fuhkien to 
 Canton defying him, and throwing in their 
 lot with Wou Sankwei. The piratical con- 
 federacy of Formosa, where Ching, the son 
 of Koshinga, had succeeded to his authority, 
 also joined in with what may be called the 
 national party, but its alliance proved of little 
 value, as Ching, at an early period, took 
 umbrage at his reception by a Chinese 
 official, and returned to his island home. 
 
 A Cavalry Raid. 
 
 But the most formidable danger to the 
 young Mahchu ruler came from an 
 unexpected quarter. The Mongols, seeing 
 his embarrassment, and believing that the 
 hours of the dynasty were numbered, 
 resolved to take advantage of the occasion 
 to push their claims. Satchar, chief of one 
 of the Banners, issued a proclamation, calling 
 his race to his side, and declaring his inten- 
 tention to invade China at the head of 
 100,000 men. It seemed hardly possible for 
 Kanghi to extricate himself from his many 
 dangers. With great quickness of percep- 
 tion Kanghi saw that the most pressing 
 danger was that from the Mongols, and he 
 sent the whole of his northern garrisons to 
 attack Satchar before the Mongol clans could 
 have gathered to his assistance. The Man- 
 chu cavalry, by a rapid march, surprised 
 Satchar in his camp, and carried him and 
 his family off as prisoners to Pekin. The 
 capture of their chief discouraged the Mon- 
 gols and interrupted their plans for invading 
 China. Kanghi thus obtained a respite from 
 what seemed his greatest peril. 
 
 Then he turned his attention to dealing 
 with Wou Sankwei, and the first effort of his 
 armies resulted in the recovery of Fuhkien, 
 
 where the governor and Ching had reduced 
 themselves to a state of exhaustion by a 
 contest inspired by personal jealousy, not 
 patriotism. From Fuhkien his successful 
 lieutenants passed into Kwantung, and the 
 Chinese, seeing that the Manchus were not 
 sunk as low as had been thought, abandoned 
 all resistance, and again recognized the Tar- 
 tar authority. The Manchus did not dare 
 to punish the rebels except in rare instances, 
 and, therefore, the recovery of Canton was 
 unaccompanied by any scenes of blood. 
 But a garrison of Manchus was placed in 
 each town of importance, and it was by 
 Kanghi's order that a walled town, or " Tar- 
 tar city," was built within each city for the 
 accommodation and security of the dominant 
 race. 
 
 The Old Warrior Defeated. 
 
 But notwithstanding these successes Kang- 
 hi made little , or no progress against the 
 main force of Wou Sankwei, whose sup- 
 remacy was undisputed throughout the 
 whole of south-west China. It was not until 
 1677 that Kanghi ventured to move his 
 armies against Wou Sankwei in person. 
 Although he obtained no signal success in 
 the field the divisions among the Chinese 
 commanders were such that he had the satis- 
 faction of compelling them to evacuate 
 Hunan, and when Wou Sankwei took his 
 first step backwards the sun of his fortunes 
 began to set. Calamity rapidly followed 
 calamity. Wou Sankwei had not known 
 the meaning of defeat in his long career of 
 fifty years, but now, in his old age, he saw 
 his affairs in inextricable confusion. His 
 adherents deserted him, many rebel officers 
 sought to come to terms with the Manchus, 
 and Kanghi's armies gradually converged on 
 Wou Sankwei from the east and the north. 
 
 Driven out of Szchuen, Wou Sankwei 
 
THE FIRST MANCHU RULER. 
 
 89 
 
 endeavored to make a stand in Yunnan. He 
 certainly succeeded in prolonging the struggle 
 down to the year 1679, when his death put 
 a sudden end to the contest, and relieved 
 Kanghi from much anxiety, for although the 
 success of the Manchus was no longer 
 uncertain, the military skill of the old 
 Chinese warrior might have indefinitely pro- 
 longed the war. Wou Sankwei was one of 
 the most conspicuous, and attractive figures 
 to be met with in the long course of Chinese 
 history, and his career covered one of the 
 most critical periods in the modern existence 
 of that empire. 
 
 A Brilliant Career. 
 
 From the time of his first distinguishing 
 himself in the defence of Ningyuen until he 
 died, half a century later, as Prince of Yun- 
 nan, he occupied the very foremost place in 
 the minds of his fellow-countrymen. The 
 part he had taken, first in keeping out the 
 Manchus, and then in introducing them into 
 the State, reflected equal credit on his ability 
 and his patriotism'. In requesting the Man- 
 chus to crush the robber Li and to take the 
 throne which the fall of the Mings had ren- 
 dered vacant, he was actuated by the purest 
 motives. There was only a choice of evils, 
 and he selected that whifh seemed the less. 
 He gave the empire to a foreign ruler of 
 intelligence, but he saved it from an unscru- 
 pulous robber. He played the part of king- 
 maker to the family of Noorhachu, and the 
 magnitude of their obligations to him could 
 not be denied. They were not as grateful as 
 he may have expected, and they looked 
 askance at his military power and influence 
 over his countrymen. 
 
 Probably he felt that he had not been well 
 treated, and chagrin undoubtedly induced 
 him to reject Kanghi's request to proceed to 
 Pekin. If he had only acceded to that 
 
 arrangement he would have left a name for 
 conspicuous loyalty and political consistency 
 in the service of the great race, which he 
 had been mainly instrumental in placing over 
 China. But even as events turned out he 
 was one of the most remarkable personages 
 the Chinese race ever produced, and his 
 military career shows that they are capable 
 of producing great generals and brave 
 soldiers. 
 
 The Uprising Ended. 
 
 The death of Wou Sankwei signified the 
 overthrow of the Chinese uprising which had 
 threatened to extinguish the still growing 
 power of the Manchu under its youthful 
 Emperor Kanghi. Wou Shufan the grand- 
 son of that prince endeavored to carry on the 
 task of holding Yunnan as an independent 
 territory, but by the year 168 1 his posses- 
 sions were reduced to the town of Yunnanfoo, 
 where he was closely besieged by the Man- 
 chu forces. Although the Chinese fought 
 valiantly, they were soon reduced to extremi- 
 ties, and the Manchus carried the place by 
 storm. The garrison were massacred to the 
 last man, and Wou Shufan only avoided a 
 worse fate by committing suicide. The 
 Manchus not satisfied with his death, sent his 
 head to Pekin to be placed on its principal 
 gate in triumph, and the body of Wou Sank- 
 wei himself was exhumed so that his ashes 
 might be scattered in each of the eighteen 
 provinces of China as a warning to traitors. 
 
 Having crushed their most redoubtable 
 antagonist, the Manchus resorted to more 
 severe measures against those who had sur- 
 rendered in Fuhkien and Kwantung, and 
 many insurgent chiefs who had surrendered, 
 and enjoyed a brief respite, ended their lives 
 under the knife of the executioner. The 
 Manchu soldiers are said to have been given 
 spoil to the extent of nearly two millions 
 
90 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 sterling, and the war which witnessed the 
 final assertion of Manchu power over the 
 Chinese was essentially popular with the 
 soldiers who carried it on to a victorious 
 conclusion. A very short time after the 
 final overthrow of Wou Sankwei and his 
 family, the Chinese regime in Formosa was 
 brought to an end. 
 
 Kanghi, having collected a fleet, and con- 
 cluded a convention with the Dutch, deter- 
 mined on the invasion and conquest of 
 Formosa. In the midst of these preparations 
 Ching, the son of Koshinga died, and, no 
 doubt, the plans of Kanghi were facilitated 
 by the confusion that followed. The Man- 
 chu fleet seized Ponghu, the principal island 
 of the Pescadore group and thence the Man- 
 chus threw a force into Formosa. It is said 
 that they were helped by a high tide, and by 
 the superstition of the islanders, who ex- 
 claimed, "The first Wang (Koshinga), got 
 possession of Taiwan by a high tide. The 
 fleet now comes in the same manner. It is 
 the will of Heaven." Formosa accepted the 
 supremacy of the Manchus without further 
 ado. Those of the islanders who had ever 
 recognized the authority of any government, 
 accepted that of the Emperor Kanghi, shaved 
 their heads in token of submission, and 
 
 became so far as in them lay respectable 
 citizens. 
 
 The overthrow of Wou Sankwei and the 
 conquest of Formosa completed what may 
 be called the pacification of China by the 
 Manchus. From that period to the Taeping 
 rebellion, or for nearly 200 years, there was 
 no internal insurrection on a large scale. 
 On the whole the Manchus stained their 
 conclusive triumph by few excesses, and 
 Kanghi 's moderation was scarcely inferior to 
 that of his father, Chuntche. The family of 
 Wou Sankwei seems to have been rooted out 
 more for the personal attempt of the son at 
 Pekin than for the bold ambition of the 
 potentate himself The family of Koshinga 
 was spared, and its principal representative 
 received the patent of an earl. Thus, by 
 a policy judiciously combined of severity 
 and moderation, did Kanghi make himself 
 supreme, and complete the work of his race. 
 Whatever troubles may have beset the gov- 
 ernment in the last 220 years it will be 
 justifiable to speak of the Manchus and the 
 Tatsing dynasty as the legitimate authorities 
 in China, and instead of foreign adventures, 
 as the national and recognized rulers of the 
 Middle Kingdom. They gained an empire 
 and have kept their great prize. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE TAEPING REBELLION AND STORY OF 
 "CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 THAT part of Chinese history which 
 lies within the present century, 
 has a special interest to all readers 
 The year 1850 found Hienfung on 
 the throne, confronted by old abuses in the 
 administration of the government and great 
 national discontent. During this year an 
 abundant harvest and voluntary contributions 
 served to remove the worst features of the 
 prevailing scarcity and suffering. But these 
 temporary and local measures could not 
 improve a situation that was radically bad, 
 or allay a volume of popular disaffection 
 that was rapidly developing into unconcealed 
 rebellion. 
 
 The storm at length burst under the Tae- 
 ping leader, Tien Wang. This individual 
 had a very common origin and sprang from 
 an inferior race. Hung-tsuien — such was 
 his own name — was the son of a small 
 farmer near Canton, and was a hakka, a 
 despised race of tramps who bear some 
 resemblance to the gypsies. He seems to 
 have passed all his examinations with special 
 credit, but the prejudice on account of his 
 birth prevented his obtaining any employ- 
 ment in the civil service of his country. He 
 was therefore a disappointed aspirant to 
 office, and it is not surprising that he became 
 an enemy of the constituted authorities and 
 the government. As he could not be the 
 servant of the state he set himself the ambi- 
 tious task of being its master, and with this 
 object in view he resorted to religious prac- 
 
 tices in order to acquire a popular reputation 
 and a following among the masses. 
 
 Tien Wang announced his decision to 
 seize the throne by issuing a proclamation, 
 in the course of which he declared that he 
 had received " the Divine commission to ex- 
 terminate the Manchus, and to possess the 
 Empire as its true sovereign ; " and, as it 
 was also at this time that his followers 
 became commonly known as Taepings, it 
 may be noted that the origin of this name is 
 somewhat obscure. According to the most 
 plausible explanation it is derived from the 
 small town of that name, situated in the 
 southwest corner of the province of Kwangsi, 
 where the rebel movement seems to have 
 commenced. Another derivation gives it as 
 the style of the dynasty which Tien Wang 
 hoped to found, and its meaning as " Univer- 
 sal peace." 
 
 A Daring Chieftain. 
 
 Tien Wang was a man of great native 
 force, very resolute and daring, and gather- 
 ing to himself a large number of discon- 
 tented spirits he gained some successes, 
 finally leading his rebellious followers to 
 Nankin, where they maintained themselves 
 with some difficulty against two Imperial 
 armies raised by the loyal efforts of the 
 inhabitants of the central provinces. This 
 was at the beginning of 1857, and there is 
 no doubt that if the Government had avoided 
 a conflict with the Europeans, and concen- 
 
 91 
 
92 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 trated its efforts and power on the contest 
 with the Taeping rebels they would have 
 speedily annihilated the tottering fabric of 
 Tien Wang's authority. But the respite of 
 four years secured by the attention of the 
 central government being monopolized by 
 the foreign question enabled the Taepings to 
 consolidate their position, augment their 
 fighting forces, and present a more formid- 
 able front to the Imperial authorities. 
 
 Prompt Action Required. 
 
 When Prince Kung, who may be styled 
 the Chinese Premier, learned from Lord 
 Elgin the full extent of the success of the 
 Taepings on the Yangtse, of which the 
 •officials at Pekin seemed to possess a very 
 imperfect and inaccurate knowlege, the 
 Manchu authorities realized that it was a 
 vital question for them to reassert their 
 authority without further delay, but on 
 beginning to put their new resolve into 
 practice they soon experienced that the posi- 
 tion of the Taepings in 1861 differed materi- 
 ally from what it was in 1857. 
 
 The course of events during that period 
 must be briefly summarized. In 1858 the 
 Imperialists under Tseng Kwofan and Chang 
 Kwoliang renewed the seige of Nankin, but 
 as the city was well supplied with provisions, 
 and as the Imperialists were well known to 
 have no intention of delivering an assault, the 
 Taepings did not feel any apprehension. 
 After the investment had continued for nearly 
 a year, Chung Wang, who had now risen to 
 the supreme place among the rebels, insisted 
 on quitting the city before it was completely 
 surrounded, with the object of beating up 
 levies and generally relieving the pressure 
 caused by the besiegers. 
 
 In this endeavor he more than once 
 experienced the unkindness of fortune, for 
 when he had collected 5,000 good troops 
 
 he was defeated in a vigorous attempt to 
 cut his way through a far larger Imperial 
 force. Such, however, was his reputation 
 that the Imperial commanders before Nankin 
 sent many of their men to assist the officers 
 operating against him, and Chung Wang, 
 seizing the opportunity, made his way by 
 forced marches back to Nankin, overcoming 
 such resistance as the enfeebled besiegers 
 were able to offer. The whole of the year 
 1859 w^^ passed in practical inaction, but at 
 its close the Taepings only retained posses- 
 sion of four towns, besides Nankin, on the 
 Yangtse. 
 
 A Remarkable Campaign. 
 
 It again became necessary for Chung 
 Wang to sally forth and assume the offensive 
 in the rear and on the line of supplies of the 
 beleaguering Imperialists. His main diffi- 
 culty was in obtaining the consent of Tien 
 Wang, who was at this time given over to 
 religious pursuits or private excesses, and 
 Chung Wang states that he only consented 
 when he found that he could not stop him. 
 In January, i860, Chufig Wang began what 
 proved to be a very remarkable campaign. 
 He put his men in good humor by distribu- 
 ting a large sum of money among them, and 
 he succeeded in eluding the Imperial com- 
 manders, and in misleading them as to his 
 intentions. While they thought he had gone 
 off to relieve Ganking, he had really hastened 
 to attack the important city of Hangchow, 
 where much spoil and material for carrying 
 on the war might be secured by the victor. 
 He captured the city with little or no loss, 
 on March 19, i860, but the Tartar city held 
 out until relieved by Chang Kwoliang, who 
 hastened from Nankin for the purpose. 
 
 Once again the Imperial Commanders in 
 their anxiety to crush Chung Wang had re- 
 duced their force in front of Nankin to an 
 
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"CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 93 
 
 excessively low condition, and the Taeping 
 leader, placed in a desperate position, seized 
 the only chance of safety by hastening from 
 Hangchow to Nankin at full speed, and at- 
 tacking the Imperial lines. This battle was 
 fought early in the morning of a cold, snowy 
 day — May 3, i860 — and resulted in the loss 
 of 5, 000 Imperialists, and the compulsory 
 raising of the siege. The Taeping cause 
 might have been resuscitated by this signal 
 victory if Tien Wang had only shown him- 
 self able to act up to the great part he had 
 assumed ; but not merely was he incapable 
 of playing the part of either a warrior or a 
 statesman, but his petty jealousy prevented 
 his making use of the undoubted ability of 
 his lieutenant Chung Wang, who, after the 
 greatest and most opportune of his successes 
 was forbidden to re-enter Nankin. 
 
 Takes Possession of Soochow. 
 
 The energy and spirit of Chung Wang 
 impelled him to fresh enterprises, and see- 
 ing the hopelessness of Tien Wang, he deter- 
 mined to secure a base of operations for 
 himself, which should enable him to hold 
 his own in the warring strife of the realm, 
 and perhaps to achieve the triumph of the 
 cause with which he was associated. It 
 says much for his military energy and skill 
 that he was able to impart new vigor to the 
 Taeping system, and to sustain on a new 
 field his position single-handed against the 
 main forces of the Empire. He determined 
 to obtain possession of the important city of 
 Soochow, on the Grand Canal, and not very 
 far distant from Shanghai. 
 
 On his way to effect this object he gained 
 a great victory over Chang Kwoliang, who 
 was himself killed in the battle. As the 
 ex-Triad chief possessed great energy, his 
 loss was a considerable one for the govern- 
 ment, but his troops continued to oppose 
 
 the advance of the Taepings, and fought 
 and lost three battles before Chung Wang 
 reached Soochow. That place was too large 
 to be successfully defended by a small force,, 
 and the Imperialists hastily abandoned it. 
 At this critical moment — May, i860 — Ho 
 Kweitsin, the Viceroy of the Two Kiang, 
 implored the aid of the English and French, 
 who were at this moment completing their 
 arrangements for the march on Pekin, against 
 these rebels, and the French were so far 
 favorable to the suggestion that they offered 
 to render the assistance provided the Eng- 
 lish would combine with them. 
 
 Curious Incident. 
 
 The British minister, Mr. Bruce, however, 
 declined the adventure, which is not sur- 
 prising, considering that England was then 
 engaged in serious hostilities with the Chi- 
 nese, but the incident remains unique of a 
 country asking another for assistance during 
 the progress of a bitter and doubtful war. 
 The utmost that Mr. Bruce would do was to 
 issue a notification that Shanghai would not 
 be allowed to again fall into the hands of an 
 insurgent force. The Viceroy who solicited 
 the aid was at least consistent. He mem- 
 orialized the Throne, praying that the de- 
 mands of the Europeans should be promptly 
 granted, and that they should then be em- 
 ployed against the Taepings. His memorial 
 was ill-timed. He was summoned to Pekin 
 and executed for his very prudent advice. 
 With the possession of Soochow, Chung 
 Wang obtained fresh supplies of money, 
 material, and men, and once more it was 
 impossible to say to what height of success 
 the Taepings might not attain. But Chung 
 Wang was not satisfied with Soochow 
 alone; he wished to gain possession of 
 Shanghai. 
 
 Unfortunately for the realization of his 
 
94 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 project, the Europeans had determined to 
 defend Shanghai at all hazards, but Chung 
 Wang believed either that they would not, 
 or that their army being absent in the north 
 they had not the power to carry out this 
 resolve. The necessity of capturing Shang- 
 hai was rendered the greater in the eyes of 
 Chung Wang by its being the base of hos- 
 tile measures against himself, and by a 
 measure which threatened him with a new 
 peril. 
 
 Two Americans in the War. 
 
 The wealthy Chinese merchants of Shang- 
 hai had formed a kind of patriotic associa- 
 tion, and provided the funds for raising a 
 European contingent. Two Americans,Ward 
 and Burgevine, were taken into their pay, and 
 in July, i860, they, having raised a force of 
 100 Europeans and 200 Manilla men, began 
 operations with an attack on Sunkiang, a large 
 walled town about twenty miles from Shang- 
 hai. This first attack was repulsed with some 
 loss, but Ward, afraid of losing the large re- 
 ward he was promised for its capture, renewed 
 the attack, and with better success, for he 
 gained possession of a gate, and held it until 
 the whole Imperial army had come up and 
 stormed the town. 
 
 After this success Ward was requested to 
 attack Tsingpu, which was a far stronger 
 place than Sunkiang, and where the Taepings 
 had the benefit of the advice of several Eng- 
 lishmen who had joined them. Ward at- 
 tacked Tsingpu on August 2, i860, but he 
 was repulsed with heavy loss. He returned 
 to Shanghai for the purpose of raising another 
 force and two larger guns, and then renewed 
 the attack. It is impossible to say whether the 
 place would have held out or not, but after 
 seven days' bombardment Chung Wang sud- 
 denly appeared to the rescue, and, surprising 
 Ward's force, drove it away in utter con- 
 
 fusion, and with the loss of all its guns and 
 stores. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, Chung Wang 
 then thought the time opportune for attack- 
 ing Shanghai, and he accordingly marched 
 against it, burning and plundering the vil- 
 lages along the road. The Imperialists had 
 established a camp or stockade outside the 
 western gate, and Chung Wang carried this 
 without any difficulty, but when he reached 
 the walls of the town he found a very differ- 
 ent opponent in his path. The walls were 
 lined with English and French troops, and 
 when the Taepings attempted to enter the 
 city they were received with a warm fire, 
 which quickly sent them to the rightabout. 
 
 Compelled to Retreat. 
 
 Chung Wang renewed the attack at dif- 
 ferent points during the next four or five 
 days, but he was then obliged to retreat. 
 Before doing so, however, he sent a boast- 
 ing message that he had come at the invita- 
 tion of the French, who were traitors, and 
 that he would have taken the city but for 
 foreigners, as " there was no city which his 
 men could not storm." At this moment the 
 attention of Chung Wang was called off to 
 Nankin, which the Imperialists were invest- 
 ing for a sixth time, under Tseng Kwofan, 
 who had been elevated to the Viceroyalty of 
 the Two Kiang. Tien Wang, in despair, sent 
 off an urgent summons to Chung Wang to 
 come to his assistance, and although he went 
 with reluctance he felt that he had no course 
 but to obey. 
 
 Chung Wang found matters in great con- 
 fusion at Nankin, and the chief Wangs quite 
 incapable of following a wise course under 
 the critical circumstances of the hour. When 
 they enunciated such ridiculous statements 
 that Tien Wang, as the lord of Heaven, had 
 only to say the word, and there would be 
 

 95 
 
96 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 peace, he curtly admonished them to buy 
 rice and prepare for a seige. Having done 
 what he could to place Nankin in an effi- 
 cient state of defence, Chung Wang hastened 
 back to Soochow to resume active prepara- 
 tions. It is unnecessary to describe these in 
 detail; but although Chung Wang was 
 twice defeated by a Manchu genera,! named 
 Paochiaou, he succeeded, by rapidity of 
 movement, in holding his own against his 
 more numerous adversaries. 
 
 "The Ever Victorious Army." 
 
 In the meantime an important change had 
 taken place in the situation. The peace be- 
 tween China and the foreign powers com- 
 pelled a revision of the position at Shanghai. 
 Admiral Hope sailed up to Nankin, inter- 
 viewed the Wangs, and exacted from them a 
 pledge that Shanghai should not be at- 
 tacked for twelve months, and that the Taep- 
 ing forces should not advance within a radius 
 of thirty miles of that place. In conse- 
 quence of this arrangement Ward and 
 Burgevine were compelled to desist from re- 
 cruiting Europeans ; but after a brief interval 
 they were taken into the Chinese service for 
 the purpose of drilling Chinese soldiers, a 
 measure from which the most important 
 consequences were to flow, for it proved to 
 be the origin of the Ever Victorious Army. 
 
 These preparations were not far advanced 
 when Chung Wang, elated by his capture of 
 Ningpo and Hangchow, resolved to disre- 
 gard Tien Wang's promise, and make a 
 second attack on Shanghai, the possession of 
 which he saw to be indispensable if his cause 
 was to attain any brilliant triumph. He 
 issued a proclamation that " the hour of the 
 Manchus had come ! Shanghai is a little 
 place, and we have nothing to fear from it. 
 We must take Shanghai to complete our 
 dominions." The death of Hienfung seems 
 
 to have encouraged Chung Wang to take 
 what he hoped would prove a decisive step. 
 
 On the 14th of January, 1862, the Taep- 
 ings reached the immediate vicinity of the 
 town and foreign settlement. The surround- 
 ing country was concealed by the smoke of 
 the burning villages, which they had ruth- 
 lessly destroyed. The foreign settlement 
 was crowded with thousands of fugitives, 
 imploring the aid of the Europeans to save 
 their houses and property. Their sufferings, 
 which would at the best have been great, 
 were aggravated by the exceptional severity 
 of the winter. The English garrison of twa 
 native regiments and some artillery, even 
 when supported by the volunteers, was far 
 too weak to attempt more than the defence 
 of the place ; but this it was fortunately able 
 to perform. 
 
 Important Capture. 
 
 The rebels, during the first week after 
 their reappearance, plundered and burned in 
 all directions, threatening even to make an 
 attack on Woosung, the port at the mouth 
 of the river, where they were repulsed by the 
 French. Sir John Michel arrived at Shang- 
 hai with a small reinforcement of Enelish 
 troops, and Ward, having succeeded in dis- 
 ciplining two Chinese regiments about one 
 thousand strong in all, sallied forth from. 
 Sunkiang for the purp'ose of operating on 
 the rear of the Taeping forces. Ward's cap- 
 ture of Quanfuling, with several hundred 
 rebel boats which were frozen up in the 
 river, should have warned the Taepings 
 that it was nearly time for them to retire. 
 
 However, they did not act as prudence 
 would have dictated, and, during the whole 
 of February their raids continued round 
 Shanghai. The suburbs suffered from their 
 attacks, the foreign factories and boats were 
 not secure, and several outrages on the per- 
 
"CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 97 
 
 sons of foreigners remaine4 unatoned for. 
 It was impossible to tolerate any longer their 
 enormities. The English and French com- 
 manders came to the determination to attack 
 the rebels, to enforce the origin^ agreement 
 with Tien Wang, and to clear the country 
 round Shanghai of the presence of the Taep- 
 ings for the space of thirty miles. 
 
 Guns on the Walls. 
 
 On the 2 1 St of February, therefolre, a joint 
 force composed of 336 English sailors and 
 marines, 160 French seamen, and _ 600 men 
 from Ward's contingent, accompanied by 
 their respective commanders, with Admiral 
 Hope in chief charge, advanced upon the 
 village of Kachiaou, where the Taepings 
 had strengthened their position, and placed 
 guns on the walls. After a sharp engage- 
 ment the place was stormed. Ward's men* 
 leading the attack with Burgevine at their 
 head. The drilled Chinese behaved with 
 great steadiness, but the Taepings were 
 not to be dismayed by a single defeat. 
 They even resumed their attacks on the 
 Europeans. 
 
 On one occasion Admiral Hope himself 
 was compelled to retire before their superior 
 numbers, and to summon fresh troops to his 
 assistance. The reinforcements consisted of 
 450 Europeans and 700 of Ward's forces, 
 besides seven howitzers. With these it was 
 determined to attack Tseedong, a place of 
 great strength, surrounded by stone walls 
 and ditches seven feet deep. The Taepings 
 stood to their guns with great spirit, receiv- 
 ing the advancing troops with a very heavy 
 fire. When, however. Ward's contingent, 
 making a detour, appeared in the rear of the 
 place, they hastily evacuated their positions, 
 but the English sailors had carried the walls, 
 and, caught between two fires, they offered a 
 stubborn but futile resistance. More than 
 7 
 
 seven hundred were killed, and three' hun- 
 dred were taken prisoners after fighting with 
 the most resolute bravery. 
 
 The favdrable opinion formed of the Ever 
 Victorious Army by the action at Kachiaou 
 was confirmed by the more serious affair at 
 Tseedong ; and Mr. Bruce at Pekin brought 
 it under the favorable notice of Prince Kung 
 and the Chinese Government. Having taken 
 these hostile steps against the rebels, it neces- 
 sarily followed that no advantage would ac- 
 crue from any further hesitation with regard 
 to allowing Europeans to enter the Imperial 
 service for the purpose of opposing them. 
 Ward was officially recognized, and allowed 
 to purchase weapons and to engage officers! 
 An Englishman contracted to convey nine 
 thousand of the troops who had stormed 
 Ganking frorii the Yangtse to Shanghai. 
 These men were Honan braves, who had 
 seen considerable service in the interior of 
 China, and it was proposed that they should 
 garrison the towns of Kiangsu accordingly 
 as they were taken from the rebels. 
 
 Repulsed with Heavy Loss. 
 
 The arrival of General Staveley from 
 Tientsin at the end of March, with portions 
 of two English regiments (the 3 ist and 67th) 
 put a new face on affairs, and showed that 
 the time was at hand when it would be pos- 
 sible to carry out the threat of clearing the 
 country round Shanghai for the space of 
 thirty miles. 
 
 The first place to be attacked towards the 
 realization of this plan was the village of 
 Wongkadza, about twelve miles west of 
 Shanghai. Here the Taepings ofifered only 
 a brief resistance, retiring to some stronger 
 stockades four miles further west. General 
 Staveley, considering that his men had done 
 enough work for that day, halted them, in- 
 tending to renew the attack the next morn- 
 
98 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ing. Unfortunately, Ward was carried away 
 by his impetuosity, and attacked this inner 
 position with some five hundred of his own 
 men. Admiral Hope accompanied him. 
 The Taepings met them with a tremendous 
 fire, and after several attempts to scale the 
 works they were repulsed with heavy loss. 
 Admiral Hope was wounded in the leg, 
 seven officers were wounded, and seventy 
 men killed and wounded. 
 
 The attack was repeated in force on the 
 following day, and after some fighting the 
 Taepings evacuated their stockades. The 
 next place attacked was the village of 
 Tsipoo; and, notwithstanding their strong 
 earthworks and three wide ditches, the rebels 
 were driven out in a few hours. It was then 
 determined to attack Kahding, Tsingpu, 
 Nanjao and Cholin; at whi^h places the 
 Taepings were known to have mustered in 
 considerable strength. 
 
 Attempt to Burn Shanghai. 
 
 The first place was taken with little resis- 
 tance, and its capture was followed by prepa- 
 rations for the attack on Tsingpu, which 
 were hastened rather than delayed by a des- 
 perate attempt to set fire to Shanghai. The 
 plot was fortunately discovered in time, and 
 the culprits captured and summarily executed 
 to the number of two hundred. Early in 
 May a strong force was assembled at Sun- 
 kiang, and proceeded by boat, on account of 
 the difficulties of locomotion, to Tsingpu. 
 The fire of the guns, in which the expedition 
 was exceptionally strong, proved most de- 
 structive, and two breaches being pronounced 
 practicable the place was carried by assault. 
 The rebels fought well and up to the last, 
 when they found fight impossible. The 
 Chinese troops slew every man found in the 
 place with arms in his hands. 
 
 A few days later Nanjao was captured. 
 
 but in the attack the French commander, 
 Admiral Protet, a gallant officer who had 
 been to the front during the whole of these 
 operations, was shot dead. The rebels, dis- 
 heartened by these successive defeats, rallied 
 at Cholin, where they prepared to make a 
 final stand. The allied force attacked Cholin 
 on the 20th of May, and an English detach- 
 ment carried it almost at the point of the 
 bayonet. With this achievement the opera- 
 tions of the English troops came for the 
 moment to an end, for a disaster to the 
 imperial arms in their rear necessitated their 
 turning their attention to a different quarter. 
 
 A Cunning Stratagem. 
 
 The troops summoned from Ganking had 
 at last arrived to the number of five or six 
 thousand men ; and the Furai Sieh, who was 
 ,on the point of being* superseded to make 
 room for Li Hung Chang, thought to 
 employ them before his departure on some 
 enterprise which should redound to his 
 credit and restore his sinking fortunes. The 
 operation was as hazardous as it was am- 
 bitious. The resolution he came to was to 
 attack the city and forts of Taitsan, a place 
 northwest of Shanghai, and not very distant 
 from Chung Wang's headquarters at Soo- 
 chow. The Imperialist force reached Taitsan 
 on the 1 2th of May, but less than two days 
 later Chung Wang arriv^ in person at the 
 head of ten thousand chosen troops to 
 relieve the garrison. 
 
 A battle ensued on the day following, 
 when, notwithstanding their great superiority 
 in numbers, the Taepings failed to obtain 
 any success. In this extremity Chung Wang 
 resorted to a stratagem. Two thousand of 
 his men shaved their heads and pretended to 
 desert to the Imperialists. When the battle 
 was renewed at sunrise on the following 
 morning this band threw aside their assumed 
 

 FOLLOWING TliE DEAD TO THE CEMETERY. 
 
 99 
 
100 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 character and turned upon the Imperialists. 
 A dreadful slaughter ensued. Of the seven 
 thousand Honan braves and the Tartars from 
 Shanghai, five thousand fell on the field. 
 The consequences of this disaster were to 
 undo most of the good accomplished by 
 General Staveley and his force. The Im- 
 perialists were for the moment dismayed, and 
 the Taepings correspondingly encouraged. 
 General Staveley's communications were 
 threatened, one detachment was cut off, and 
 the general had to abandon his intended plan 
 and retrace his steps to Shanghai. 
 
 Discovered Just in Time. 
 
 Chung Wang then laid regular siege to 
 Sunkiang, where Ward was in person, and 
 he very nearly succeeded in carrying the 
 place by escalade. The attempt was fortu- 
 nately discovered by an English sailor just 
 in time, and repulsed with a loss to the rebels 
 of one hundred men. The Taepings con- 
 tinued to show great daring and activity 
 before both Sunkiang and Tsingpu ; and 
 although the latter place was bravely 
 defended, it became clear that the wisest 
 course would be to evacuate it. A body of 
 troops was therefore sent from Shanghai to' 
 form a junction with Ward at Sunkiang, and 
 to effect the safe retreat of the Tsingpu gar- 
 rison. 
 
 The earlier proceedings were satisfactorily 
 arranged, but the last act of all was grossly 
 mismanaged and resulted in a catastrophe. 
 Ward caused the place to be set on fire, 
 when the Taepings, realizing what was being 
 done, hastened into the town, and assailed 
 the retiring garrison. A scene of great con- 
 fusion followed ; many lives were lost, and 
 the Commandant who had held it so cour- 
 ageously was taken prisoner. Chung Wang 
 could therefore appeal to some facts to sup- 
 port his contention that he had got the better 
 
 of the Europeans and the ImperiaUsts in the 
 province of Kiangsu. 
 
 From the scene of his successes Chung 
 Wang was once more called away by the 
 timidity or peril of Tien Wang, who was 
 barely able to maintain his position at 
 Nankin, but when he hastened dff to assist 
 the chief of the Taepings he found that he 
 was out of favor, and that the jealousy or 
 fear of his colleagues brought about his 
 temporary disgrace and loss of title. Shortly 
 after Chung Wang's departure Ward was 
 killed in action and Burgevine succeeded to 
 the command, but it soon became apparent 
 that his relations with the Chinese authori- 
 ties would not be smoofh. General Ching 
 was jealous of the Ever-Victorious Army 
 and wished to have >all the credit for himself. 
 
 A Sharp Quarrel. 
 
 Li Hung Chang who had been appointed 
 Futai or Governor of Kiangsu entertained 
 doubts of the loyalty of this adventurer, and 
 a feud broke out between them at an early 
 stage of their relations. Burgevine was a 
 man of high temper and strong passions, 
 who was disposed to treat his Chinese col- 
 leagues with lofty superciliousness, and who 
 met the wiles of the Futai with peremptory 
 demands to recognize the claims of himself 
 and his band. Nor was this all. Burgevine 
 had designs of his own. Although the pro- 
 ject had not taken definite form in his mind 
 — for an unsubdued enemy was still in pos- 
 session of the greater part of the province 
 
 the inclination was strong within him to play 
 the part of military dictator with the 
 Chinese ; or failing that, to found an inde- 
 pendent authority on some convenient spot 
 of Celestial territory. 
 
 Burgevine's character was described at a 
 later period as being that of "a man of large 
 promises knd few works." " His popularity 
 
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 pel 
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"CHINESE GORDON." ' 
 
 101 
 
 was great among a certain class. He was 
 extravagant in his generosity, and as long as 
 he had anything would divide it with the so- 
 called friends, but never was a man of any 
 administrative or military talent ; and latterly, 
 through the irritation caused by his unhealed 
 wound and other causes, he«was subject to 
 violent paroxysms of anger, which rendered 
 precarious the safety of any man who ten- 
 dered to him advice that might be distasteful. 
 He was extremely sensitive of his dignity, 
 and held a higher position in Soochow than 
 any foreigner did before." The Futai antici- 
 pated, perhaps, more than divined his wishes. 
 In Burgevine he saw, very shortly after their 
 coming into contact, not merely a man whom 
 he disliked and distrusted, but one who, if 
 allowed to pursue his plans unchecked, 
 would in the end form a greater danger to 
 the Imperial authority than even the Tae- 
 pings. It is not possible to deny Li's shrewd- 
 ness in reading the character 'of the man 
 with whom he had to deal. 
 
 Patriotism of the Merchants. 
 
 Although Burgevine had succeeded to 
 Ward's command; he had not acquired the 
 intimacy and confidence of the great Chinese 
 merchant, Takee and his colleagues, at 
 Shanghai, which had been the main cause of 
 his predecessor's influence and position. In 
 Ward they felt implicit faith ; Burgevine was 
 comparatively unknown, and where known 
 only regarded with suspicion. The patriot- 
 ism of the Shanghai merchants consisted in 
 protecting their own possessions. Having 
 succeeded in this they began to consider 
 whether it was necessary to expend any 
 longer the large sums voluntarily raised for 
 the support of the contingent. 
 
 The Futai Li, in order to test his obedi- 
 ence, proposed that Burgevine and his men 
 should be sent round by sea to Nankin to 
 
 take part in the siege of that city. The ships 
 were actually prepared for their conveyance, 
 and the Taotai Wou, who had first fitted out 
 a fleet against the rebels, was in readiness to 
 accompany Burgevine, when Li and his col- 
 league, as suspicious of Burgevine's com- 
 pliance as they would have been indignant at 
 his refusal, changed their plans and counter- 
 manded the expedition. Instead of carrying 
 out this project, therefore, they laid a number 
 of formal complaints before General Staveley 
 as to Burgevine's conduct, and requested the 
 English Government to remove him from his 
 command, and to appoint an English ofiicer 
 in his place. 
 
 An Unsafe Adventurer. 
 
 The charges against Burgevine did not at 
 this time amount to more than a certain 
 laxness in regard to the expenditure of the 
 force, a disregard for the wishes and predju- 
 dices of the Chinnese Government, and the 
 want of tact, or of the desire to conciliate, in 
 his personal relations with the Futai. If 
 Burgevine had resigned, all would have been 
 well, but he regarded the position from the 
 stand-point of the adventurer who believes 
 that his own interests form a supreme law 
 and are the highest good. As cornmander 
 of the Ever- Victorious Army he was a per- 
 sonage to be considered even by foreign 
 governments. He would not voluntarily 
 surrender the position which alone preserved 
 him from obscurity. Having come to this 
 decision it was clear that even the partial 
 execution of his plans must draw him into 
 many errors of judgment which could not 
 but embitter the conflict. 
 
 The reply of the English commander was 
 to the effect that personally he could not 
 interfere, but that he would refer the matter 
 to London as well as to Mr. Bruce at Pekin. 
 In consequence of the delay thus caused the 
 
102 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 project of removing the force to Nankin was 
 revived, and, the steamers having been char- 
 tered, Burgevine was requested to bring down 
 his force from Sunkiang and to embark it at 
 Shanghai. This he expressed his willingness 
 to do on payment of his men who were two 
 months in arrear, and on the settlement of 
 all outstanding claims. Burgevine was sup- 
 ported by his troops. Whatever his disUke 
 to the proposed move, theirs was immeasur- 
 ably greater. They refused to move without 
 the payment of all arrears ; and on the 2d 
 of January they even went so far as to openly 
 mutiny. 
 
 Struck a Mandarin. 
 
 Two days later Burgevine went to Shang- 
 hai, and had an interview with Takee. The 
 meeting was stormy. Burgevine used per- 
 sonal violence towards the Shanghai mer- 
 chant, whose attitude was at first overbearing, 
 and he returned to his exasperated troops 
 with the money, which he carried off by 
 force. The Futai Li, on hearing of the 
 assault on Takee, hastened to General 
 Staveley to complain of Burgevine's gross 
 insubordination in striking a mandarin, which 
 by the law of China was punishable with 
 death. Burgevine was dismissed' from the 
 Chinese service, and the notice of this re- 
 moval was forwarded by the English General, 
 with a recommendation to him to give up his 
 command without disturbance. This Burge- 
 vine did, for the advice of the English general 
 was equivalent to a command, and on the 
 6th of January, 1863, Burgevine was back 
 at Shanghai. 
 
 Captain Holland was then placed in tem- 
 porary command, while the answer of the 
 Home Government was awaited to General 
 Staveley's proposition to entrust the force to 
 the care of a young captain of engineers, 
 named Charles Gordon. Chung Wang re- 
 
 turned at this moment to Soocho^, and in 
 Kiangsu the cause of the Taepings again 
 revived through his energy. In February 
 a detachment of Holland's force attacked 
 Fushan, but met with a check, when the 
 news of a serious defeat at Taitsan, where 
 the former Futai Sieh had been defeated, 
 compelled its speedy retreat to Sunkiang. 
 Li had some reason to believe that Taitsan 
 would surrender on the approach of the 
 Imperialists, and he accordingly sent a large 
 army, including 2,500 of the contingent, to 
 attack it. 
 
 The affair was badly managed. The 
 assaulting party was stopped by a wide 
 ditch ; neither boats nor ladders arrived. 
 The Taepings fired furiously on the exposed 
 party, several officers were killed, and the 
 men broke into confusion. The heavy guns 
 stuck in the soft ground and had to be aban- 
 doned ; and despite the good conduct of the 
 contingent the Taepings achieved a decisive 
 success (13th February). Chung Wang 
 was able to feel that his old luck had not 
 deserted him, and the Taepings of Kiangsu 
 recovered all their former confidence in 
 themselves and their leader. This disaster 
 inflicted a rude blow on the confidence of 
 Li and his assistants ; and it was resolved 
 that nothing should be attempted until the 
 English officer, at last appointed, had as- 
 sumed the active command. 
 
 Gordon in Command. 
 
 Such was the position of affairs when on 
 24th of March, 1863, Major Gordon took 
 command of the Ever- Victorious Army. At 
 that moment it was not merely discouraged 
 by its recent reverses, but it was discontented 
 with its position, and when Major Gordon 
 assumed the command at Sunkiang ther>e 
 was some fear of an immediate mutiny. 
 The new commander succeeded in allaying 
 
CO 
 
 o 
 
104 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 their discontent, and believing that active 
 employment was the best cure for insubor- 
 dination resolved to relieve Chanzu without 
 delay. The Taepings were pressing the 
 siege hard and would probably have cap- 
 tured the place before many days when 
 Major Gordon attacked them in their stock- 
 ades and drove them out with no inconsider- 
 able loss. 
 
 The Next Move. 
 
 Having thus gained the confidence of his 
 men and the approbation of the Chinese 
 authorities Major Gordon returned to Sun- 
 kiang where he employed himself in ener- 
 getically restoring the discipline of his force, 
 and in preparing for his next move which at 
 the request of Li Hung Chang was to be the 
 capture of Quinsan. On the 24th of April the 
 force left Sunkiang to attack Quinsan, but it 
 had not proceeded far when its course had' 
 to be altered to Taitsan, where, through an 
 act of treachery, a force of 1,500 Imperialists 
 had been annihilated. It became necessary 
 to retrieve this disaster without delay, more 
 especially as all hope of taking Quinsan had 
 for the moment to be abandoned. 
 
 Major Gordon at once altered the direc- 
 tion of his march, and joining en' route 
 General Ching, who had, on the news, broken 
 up his camp before Quinsan, hastened as 
 rapidly as possible to Taitsan, where he 
 arrived on the 29th of April. Bad weather 
 obliged the attack to be deferred until 
 the 1st of May, when two stockades on 
 the west side were carried, and their defen- 
 ders compelled to flee, not into the town as 
 they would have wished, but away from it 
 towards Chanzu. On the following day, the 
 attack was resumed on the north side, while 
 the armed boats proceeded to assault the 
 place from the creek. The firing continued 
 from nine in the morning until five in the 
 
 evehing, when a breach seemed to be practi- 
 cable, and two regiments were ordered to the 
 assault. The rebels showed great courage 
 and fortitude, swarming in the breach and 
 pouring a heavy and well-directed fire upon 
 the troops. 
 
 The attack was momentarily checked; 
 but while the stormers remained under such 
 cover as they could find, the shells of two 
 howitzers were playing over their heads and 
 causing frightful havoc among the Taepings 
 in the breach. But for these guns, Major 
 Gordon did not think that the place would 
 have been carried at all; but after some 
 minutes of this firing at such close quarters, 
 the rebels began to show signs of wavering. 
 A party of troops gained the wall, a fresh 
 regiment advanced towards the breach, and 
 the disappearance of the snake flag showed 
 that the Taeping leaders had given up the 
 fight. Taitsan was thus captured, and the 
 three previous disasters before it retrieved. 
 
 Gordon's Difficulties. 
 
 On the 4th of May the victorious force 
 appeared before Quinsan, a place of consider- 
 able strength and possessing a formidable 
 artillery directed by a European. The 
 town was evidently too strong to be carried 
 by an immediate attack, and Major Gordon's 
 movements were further hampered by the 
 conduct of his own men, who, upon their 
 arrival at Quinsan, hurried off in detachments 
 to Sunkiang for the purpose of disposing of 
 their spoil. 
 
 Ammunition had also fallen short, and 
 the commander was consequently obliged to 
 return to refit and to rally his men. At 
 Sunkiang worse confusion followed, for the 
 men, or rather the officers, broke out into 
 mutiny on the occasion of Major Gordon 
 appointing an English officer with the rank 
 of lieutenant-colonel to the control of the 
 
•CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 105 
 
 commissariat, which had been completely 
 neglected. The men who had served with 
 Ward and Burgevine objected to this, and 
 openly refused to obey orders. Fortunately 
 the stores and ammunition were collected, 
 and Major Gordon announced that he would 
 march on the following morning, with or 
 without the mutineers. Those who did not 
 answer to their names at the end of the first 
 half-march would be dismissed, and he spoke 
 with the authority of one in complete accord 
 with the Chinese authorities themselves. 
 
 Anxious for the Fray. 
 
 The soldiers obeyed him as a Chinese 
 official, because he had been made a tsung- 
 ping or brigadier-general, and the officers 
 feared to disobey him as they would have 
 liked on account of his commanding the 
 source whence they were paid. The muti- 
 neers fell in, and a force of nearly 3,000 men, 
 well-equipped and anxious for the fray, 
 returned to Quinsan, where General Ching 
 had, in the meanwhile, kept the rebels closely 
 watched from a strong position defended by 
 several stockades, and supported by the 
 Hysan steamer. Immediately after his ar- 
 rival. Major Gordon moved out his force to 
 attack the stockades which the rebels had 
 constructed on their right wing. These 
 were strongly built; but as soon as the 
 defenders perceived that the assailants had 
 gained their flank they precipitately withdrew 
 into Quinsan itself. General Ching wished 
 the attack to be made on the Eastern Gate, 
 opposite to which he had raised his own 
 intrenchments, and by which he had 
 announced his intention of forcing his way; 
 but a brief inspection showed Major Gordon 
 that that was the strongest point of the 
 town, and that a direct attack upon it could 
 only succeed, if at all, by a very considerable 
 sacrifice of men. 
 
 Like a prudent commander Major Gordon 
 determined to reconnoitre; and, after much 
 grumbling on the part of General Ching, he 
 decided that the most hopeful plan was to 
 carry some stockades situated seven miles 
 \vest of the town, and thence assail Quinsan 
 on the Soochow side, which was weaker than 
 the others. These stockades were at a 
 village called Chumze. On the 30th of May 
 the force detailed for his work proceeded to 
 carry it out. The Hyson and fifty imperial 
 gunboats conveyed the land force, which 
 consisted of one regiment, some guns, and a 
 large body of Imperialists. 
 
 The rebels at Chumze offered hardly the 
 least resistance; whether it was that they 
 were dismayed at the sudden appearance of 
 the enemy, or, as was stated at the time, 
 because they considered themselves illtreated 
 by their comrades in Quinsan. The Hyson 
 vigorously pursued those who fled towards 
 Soochow, and completed the efifect of this 
 success by the capture of a very strong and 
 well-built fort covering a bridge at Ta Edin. 
 An Imperialist garrison was installed there, 
 and the Hyson continued the pursuit to with- 
 in a mile of Soochow itself 
 
 A Lively Panic. 
 
 The defenders of Quinsan itself were 
 terribly alarmed at the cutting off of their 
 communications. They saw themselves on 
 the point of being surrounded, and they 
 yielded to the uncontrollable impulse of 
 panic. During the night, after having suf- 
 fered severely from the Hyson fire, the garri- 
 son evacuated the place, which might easily 
 have held out; and General Ching had the 
 personal satisfaction, on learning from some 
 deserters of the flight of the garrison, of lead- 
 ing his men over the eastern walls which he 
 had wished to assault. The importance of 
 Quinsan was realized on its capture. Major 
 
106 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Gordon pronounced it to be the key of Soo- 
 chow, and at once resolved to establish his 
 headquarters there, partly because of its 
 
 The change was not acceptable, however, 
 to the force itself; and the artillery in parti- 
 cular refused to obey orders, and threatened 
 
 =-V 
 
 ^r 
 
 /•' 
 
 
 
 
 .-^: 
 
 
 
 A CHINESE FESTIVAL. 
 
 natural advantages, but also and not less on 
 account of its enabling him to gradually des- 
 troy the evil associations and vicious habits 
 which the men had contracted at Sunkiang. 
 
 to shoot their officers. Discipline was, how- 
 ever, promptly reasserted by the energy of 
 the commander, who ordered the principal 
 ringleader to be shot and the Ever Victori- 
 
"CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 107 
 
 ous Army became gradually reconciled to 
 its new position at Quinsan. After the cap- 
 ture of Quinsan there was a cessation of 
 active operations for nearly two months. It 
 was the height of summer and the new 
 troops had to be drilled. The difficulty with 
 Ching, who took all the credit for the cap- 
 ture of Quinsan to himself, was arranged 
 through the mediation of Dr. Macartney, 
 who had just left the English army to 
 become Li's right-hand man. 
 
 Removal of a Commander. 
 
 Two other circumstances occurred to em- 
 barrass the young commander. There were 
 rumors of some meditated movement on 
 the part of Burgevine, who had returned 
 from Pekin with letters exculpating him and 
 who endeavored to recover the command in 
 spite of Li Hung Chang, and there was a 
 further manifestation of insubordination in 
 the force, which, as Gordon said, bore more 
 resemblance to a rabble than the magnificent 
 army it was popularly supposed to be. The 
 artillery had been cowed by Major Gordon's 
 vigor, but its efficiency remained more doubt- 
 ful than could be satisfactory to the general 
 responsible for its condition, and also relying 
 upon it as the most potent arm of his force. 
 He resolved to remove the old commander, 
 and to appoint an English officer, Major 
 Tapp, in his place. 
 
 On carrying his determination into effect 
 the officers sent in " a round robin," refusing 
 to accept the new officer. This was on the 
 25th of July, and the expedition which had 
 been decided upoij against Wokong had con- 
 sequently to set out the following morning 
 without a single artillery officer. In face of 
 the inflexible resolve of the leader, however, 
 the officers repented, and appeared in a body 
 at the camp begging to be taken back, and 
 expressing their willingness to accept " Major 
 
 Tapp or anyone else " as their colonel. They 
 were promptly reinstated. 
 
 With these troops, part of whom had only 
 just returned to a proper sense of discipline, 
 Gordon proceeded to attack Kahpoo, a place 
 on the Grand Canal south of Soochow, where 
 the rebels held two strongly-built stone forts. 
 The force had been strengthened by the addi- 
 tion of another steamer, the Firefly, a sister 
 vessel to the Hyson. Major Gordon arrived 
 before Kahpoo on the 27th of July; and the 
 garrison, evidently taken by surprise, made 
 scarcely the least resistance. The capture 
 of Kahpoo placed Gordon's force between 
 Soochow and Wokong, the next object of 
 attack. At Wokong the rebels were equally 
 unprepared. 
 
 The Place Surrendered. 
 
 The garrison at Kahpoo, thinking only of 
 its own safety, had fled to Soochow, leaving 
 their comrades at Wokong unwarned and to 
 their fate. So heedless were the Taepings at 
 this place of all danger from the north, that 
 they had even neglected to occupy a strong 
 stone fort situated about i ,000 yards north 
 of the walls. The Taepings attempted too 
 late to repair their error, and the loss of this 
 fort caused them that of all their other stock- 
 ades. Wokong itself was too weak to offer 
 any effectual resistance; and the garrison on 
 the eve of the assault ordered for the 29th of 
 July sent out a request for quarter, which 
 was granted, and the place surrendered with- 
 out further fighting. Meanwhile an event of 
 far greater importance had happened than 
 even the capture of these towns, although 
 they formed the necessary preliminary to 
 the investment of Soochow. Burgevine had 
 come to the decision to join the Taepings. 
 
 Disappointed in his hope of receiving the 
 command, Burgevine remained on at Shang- 
 hai, employing his time in watching the vary- 
 
108 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ing phases of a campaign in which he longed 
 to take part, and of which he believed that it 
 was only his due to have the direction, but 
 still hesitating as to what decision it behoved 
 him to take. His contempt for all Chinese 
 officials became hatred of the bitterest kind 
 of the Futai, by whom he had been not 
 merely thwarted but overreached, and pre- 
 disposed him to regard with no unfavorable 
 eye the idea enjoining his fortunes with those 
 of the rebel Taepings. 
 
 Jealous of Gordon. 
 
 ■To him in this frame of mind came some 
 of the dismissed officers and men of the 
 Ward force appealing to his vanity by declar- 
 ing that his soldiers remembei'ed him with 
 affection, and that he had only to hoist his 
 flag for most of his old followers to rally 
 round him. There was little to marvel at 
 if he also was not free from some feeling of 
 jealousy at the success and growing fame of 
 Major Gordon, for whom he simulated a 
 warm friendship. The combination of mo- 
 tives proved altogether irresistible as soon as 
 he found that several hundred European 
 adventurers were ready to accompany him 
 into the ranks of the Taepings, and to en- 
 deavor to do for them what they failed to 
 perform for the Imperialists. 
 
 On the I Sth of July, Dr. Macartney wrote 
 to Major Gordon stating that he had positive 
 information that Burgevine was enlisting men 
 for some enterprise, that he had already col- 
 lected about 300 Europeans, and that he had 
 even gone so far as to choose a special flag, 
 a white diamond on a red ground, and con- 
 taining a black star in the centre of the dia- 
 mond. On the 2 1st of the same month 
 Burgevine wrote to Major Gordon saying 
 that there would be many rumors about 
 him, but that he was not to believe any 
 of them, and that he would come and see 
 
 him shortly. This letter was written as 
 a blind, and, unfortunately. Major Gordon 
 attached greater value to Burgevine's word 
 than he did to the precise information of Dr. 
 Macartney. He was too much disposed to 
 think that, as the officer h&d to a certain 
 extent superseded Burgevine in command, 
 he was bound to take the most favorable 
 view of all his actions, and to trust implicitly 
 in his good faith. Major Gordon, trusting 
 to his word, made himself personally respon- 
 sible to the Chinese authorities for his good 
 faith, and thus Burgevine escaped arrest. 
 
 Burgevine's plans had been deeply laid. 
 He had been long in correspondence with 
 the Taepings, and his terms had been ac- 
 cepted. He proclaimed his hostility to the 
 Government by seizing one of their new 
 steamers. 
 
 Immediate Danger. 
 
 At this very moment Major Gordon came 
 to the decision to resign, and he hastened 
 back to Shanghai in order to place his with- 
 drawal from the force in the hands of the 
 Futai. He arrived there on the very day 
 that Burgevine seized the Kajow steamer at 
 Sunkiang, and on hearing the news he at 
 once withdrew his resignation, which had 
 been made partly from irritation at the 
 irregular payment of his men, and also on 
 account of the cruelty of General Ching. 
 Not merely did he withdraw his resignation, 
 but he hastened back to Quinsan, into which 
 he rode on the night of the very same day 
 that had witnessed his departure. The im- 
 mediate and most pressing danger was from 
 the possible defection of the force to its old 
 leader, when, with the large stores of artil- 
 lery and ammunition at Quinsan in their pos- 
 session, not even Shanghai, with its very 
 weak foreign garrison, could be considered 
 safe from attack. 
 
o 
 
 PL. 
 
 125 
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 CO 
 
t— I 
 
 o 
 
 Eh 
 I— I 
 
 O 
 
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 PL, 
 
 Eh 
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 O 
 
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"CHINESE GORDON.' 
 
 109 
 
 As a measure of precaution Major Gor- 
 don sent some of his heavy guns and stores 
 back to Taitsan, where the English com- 
 mander, General Brown, consented to guard 
 them, while he hastened off to Kahpoo, now 
 threatened both by the Soochow force and 
 by the foreign adventurers acting under 
 Burgevine. He arrived at the most critical 
 moment. The garrison was hard pressed. 
 General Ching had gone back to Shanghai, 
 and only the presence of the Hyson pre- 
 vented the rebels, who were well armed and 
 possessed an efficient artillery, from carrying 
 the fort by a rush. The arrival of Major 
 Gordon with 150 men on board his third 
 steamer, the Cricket, restored the coniidence 
 of the defenders, but there was no doubt that 
 Burgevine had lost a most favorable oppor- 
 tunity, for if he had attacked this place in- 
 stead of proceeding to Soochow it must have 
 fallen. 
 
 Moving on the Rebel Stronghold. 
 
 General Ching, who was a man of almost 
 extraordinary energy and restlessness, re- 
 solved to signalize his return to the field by 
 some striking act while Major Gordon was 
 completing his preparations at Quinsan for a 
 fresh effort. His headquarters were at the 
 strong fort of Ta Edin, on the creek leading 
 from Quinsan to Soochow, and having the 
 Hyson with him, he determined to make a 
 dash to some point nearer the great rebel, 
 stronghold. On the 30th of August he had 
 seized the position of Waiquaidong, where, 
 in three days, he threw up stockades, admir- 
 ably con.structed, and which could not have 
 been carried save by a great effort on the 
 part of the whole of the Soochow garrison. 
 
 Towards the end of September, Major 
 Gordon, fearing lest the rebels, who had now 
 the supposed advantageof Burgevine's pres- 
 ence and advice, might make some attempt 
 
 to cut off General Ching's lengthy communi- 
 cations, moved forward to Waiquaidong to 
 support him ; but when he arrived, he found 
 that the impatient mandarin, encouraged 
 either by the news of his approach or at the 
 inaction of the Taepings in Soochow, had 
 made a still further advance of two miles, so 
 that he was only 1,000 yards distant from 
 the rebel stockades in front of the East Gate. 
 Major Gordon had at this time been rein- 
 forced by the Franco-Chinese corps, which 
 had been well disciplined, under the com- 
 mand of Captain Bonnefoy, while the neces- 
 sity of leaving any strong garrison at Quin- 
 san had been obviated by the loan of 200 
 Belooches from General Brown's force. 
 
 Effective Fire of the Gunboat. 
 
 The rebel position having been carefully 
 reconnoitred, both on the east and on the 
 south. Major Gordon determined that the first 
 step necessary for its proper beleaguerment 
 was to seize and fortify the village of Pata- 
 chiaou, about one mile south of the city wall. 
 The village, although stockaded, was evacu- 
 ated by the garrison after a feeble resist- 
 ance, and an attempt to recover it' a few 
 hours later by Mow Wang in person resulted 
 in a rude repulse chiefly on account of the 
 effective fire of the Hyson. Burgevine, 
 instead of fighting the battles of the failing 
 cause he had adopted, was travelling about 
 the country : at one moment in the capital 
 interviewing Tien Wang and his ministers, 
 at another going about in disguise even jn 
 the streets of Shanghai. 
 
 But during the weeks when General 
 Ching might have been taken at a disadvan- 
 tage, and when it was quite possible to 
 recover some of the places which had been 
 lost, he was absent from the scene of military 
 operations. After the capture of Patachiaou 
 most of the troops and the steamers that had 
 
110 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 taken it were sent back to Waiquaidong, but 
 Major Gordon remained there with a select 
 body of his men and three howitzers. The 
 rebels had not resigned themselves to the 
 loss of Patachiaou, and on the ist of October 
 they made a regular attempt to recover it. 
 They brought the Kajow into action, and, as 
 it had found' a daring commander in a man 
 named Jones, its assistance proved very con- 
 siderable. They had also a 32-pounder gun 
 on board a junk, and this enabled them to 
 overcome the iire of Gordon's howitzers and 
 also of the Hyson, which arrived from Wai- 
 quaidong during the engagement. But not- 
 withstanding the superiority of their artillery, 
 the rebels hesitated to come to close quarters, 
 and when Major Gordon and Captain Bon- 
 nefoy led a sortie against them at the end of 
 the day they retired precipitately. 
 
 Wishes to Surrender. 
 
 At this stage Burgevine wrote to Major 
 Gordon two letters — the first exalting the 
 Taepings, and the second written two days 
 later asking for an interview, whereupon he 
 expressed his desire to surrender on the pro- 
 vision of personal safety. He assigned the 
 state of his health as the cause of this change, 
 but there was never the least doubt that the 
 true reason of this altered view was dissatis- 
 faction with his treatment by the Taeping 
 leaders and a conviction of the impossibility 
 of success. Inside Soochow, and at Nankin, 
 it was possible to see with clearer eyes than 
 at Shanghai that the Taeping cause was one 
 that could not be resuscitated. 
 
 But although Burgevine soon and very 
 clearly saw the hopelessness of the Taeping 
 movement, he had by no means made up his 
 mind to go over to the Imperialists. With 
 a considerable number of European followers 
 at his beck and call, and with a profound 
 and ineradicable contempt for the whole 
 
 Chinese official world, he was loth to lose 
 or surrender the position which gave him 
 a certain importance. He vacillated between 
 a number of suggestions, and the last he 
 came to was the most remarkable, at the 
 same time that it revealed more clearly than 
 any other the vain and meretricious charac- 
 ter of the man. 
 
 A Scheme of Treachery. 
 
 In his second interview with Major Gor- 
 don he proposed that that officer should join 
 him, and combining the whole force of the 
 Europeans and the disciplined Chinese, seize 
 Soochow, and establish an independent 
 authority of their own. It was the old fili- 
 bustering idea, revived under the most 
 unfavorable circumstances, of fighting for 
 their own hand, dragging the European 
 name in the dirt, and founding an indepen- 
 dent authority of some vague, undefinable 
 and transitory character. Major Gordon 
 listened to the unfolding of this scheme of 
 miserable treachery, and only his strong 
 sense of the utter impossibility, and indeed 
 the ridiculousness of the project, prevented 
 his contempt and indignation finding forcible 
 expression. 
 
 Burgevine, the traitor to the Imperial 
 cause, the man whose health would not 
 allow him to do his duty to his new masters 
 in Soochow, thus revealed his plan for defy- 
 ing all parties, and for deciding the fate of 
 the Dragon Throne. The only reply he 
 received was the cold one that it would be 
 better and wiser to confine his attention to 
 the question of whether he intended to yield 
 or not, instead of discussing idle schemes of 
 "vaulting ambition." 
 
 Meantime, Chung Wang had come down 
 from Nankin to superintend the defence of 
 Soochow; and in face of a more capable 
 opponent he still did not despair of success, 
 
112 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 or at the least of making a good fight of it. 
 He formed the plan of assuming the offensive 
 against Chanzu whilst General Ching was 
 employed in erecting his stockades step by 
 step nearer to the eastern wall of Soochow. 
 In order to prevent the realization of this 
 project Major Gordon made several demon- 
 strations on the western side of Soochow, 
 which had the effect of inducing Chung 
 Wang to defer his departure. 
 
 At this conjuncture serious news arrived 
 from the south. A large rebel force, assem- 
 bled from Chekiang and the silk districts 
 south of the Taho lake, had moved up the 
 Grand Canal and held the garrison of 
 Wokong in close confinement. On the loth 
 of October the Imperialists stationed there 
 made a sortie, but were driven back with the 
 loss of several hundred men killed and 
 wounded. 
 
 Hard Fought Battle. 
 
 Their provisions were almost exhausted, 
 and it was evident that unless relieved they 
 could not hold out many days longer. On 
 the 1 2th of October Major Gordon therefore 
 hastened to their succor. The rebels held 
 a position south of Wokong, and, as they 
 felt sure of a safe retreat, they fought with 
 great determination. The battle lasted three 
 hours; the guns had to be brought up to 
 within fifty yards of the stockade, and the 
 whole affair is described as one of the hardest 
 fought actions of the war. On the return of 
 the contingent to Patachiaou, about thirty 
 Europeans deserted the rebels, but Burge- 
 vine and one or two others were not with 
 them. 
 
 Chung Wang had seized the opportunity 
 of Gordon's departure for the relief of 
 Wokong to carry out his scheme against 
 Chanzu. Taking the Kajow with him, and 
 a considerable number of the foreign adven- 
 
 turers, he reached Monding, where the 
 Imperialists were strongly intrenched at the 
 junction of the main creek from Chanzu 
 with the canal. He attacked them, and a 
 severely contested struggle ensued, in which 
 at first the Taepings carried everything 
 before them. But the fortune of the day 
 soon veered round. The Kajow was sunk 
 by a lucky shot, great havoc was wrought 
 by the explosion of a powder-boat, and the 
 Imperialists remained masters of a hard- 
 fought field. 
 
 Succeeded in Escaping. 
 
 The defection of the Europeans piaced 
 Burgevine in serious peril, and only Major 
 Gordon's urgent representations and acts of 
 courtesy to the Mow Wang saved his life. 
 The Taeping leader, struck by the gallantry 
 and fair dealing of the English officer, set 
 Burgevine free, and the American consul 
 thanked Major Gordon for his great kindness 
 to that misguided oflficer. Burgevine came 
 but of the whole complication with a reputa- 
 tion in every way tarnished. He had not 
 even the most common courage which would 
 have impelled him to stay in Soochow and 
 take the chances of the party to which he 
 had attached himself. Whatever his natural 
 talents might have been, his vanity and 
 weakness obscured them all. With the in- 
 clination to create an infinity of mischief, it 
 must be considered fortunate that his ability 
 was so small, for his opportunities were 
 abundant. 
 
 The conclusion of the Burgevine incident 
 removed a weight from Major Gordon's 
 mind. Established on the east and south of 
 Soochow, he determined to secure a similar 
 position on its western side, when he would 
 be able to intercept the communication still 
 held by the garrison across the Taho lake. 
 In order to attain this object it was necessary, 
 
"CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 113 
 
 in the first place, to carry the stockades at 
 WuHungchow, a village two miles west of 
 Patachiaou. The place was captured at the 
 first attack and successfully held, notwith- 
 standing a fierce attempt to recover it under 
 the personal direction of Chung Wang, who 
 returned for the express purpose. 
 
 This success was followed by others. 
 Another large body of rebels had come up 
 from the south and assailed the garrison of 
 Wokong. On the 26th of October one of 
 Gordon's lieutenants. Major Kirkham, in- 
 flicted a severe defeat upon them, and vigor- 
 ously pursued them for several miles. The 
 next operation undertaken was the capture 
 of the village of Leeku, three miles north of 
 Soochow, as the preliminary to investing the 
 city on the north. Here Major Gordon re- 
 sorted to his usual flanking tactics, and with 
 conspicuous success. The rebels fought 
 well; one officer was killed at Gordon's side, 
 and the men in the stockade were cut down 
 with the exception of about forty, who were 
 made prisoners. 
 
 The Force too Small. 
 
 Soochow was then assailed on the northern 
 as well as on the other sides, but Chung 
 Wang's army still served to keep open com- 
 munications by means of the Grand Canal. 
 
 That army had its principal quarters at 
 Wusieh, where it was kept in check by a 
 large Imperialist force under Santajin, Li's 
 brother, who had advanced from Kongyin 
 on the Yangtse. Major Gordon's main diffi- 
 culty now arose from the insufficiency of his 
 force to hold so wide an extent of country; 
 and in order to procure a reinforcement from 
 Santajin, he agreed to assist that commander 
 against his able opponent Chung Wang. 
 With a view to accomplishing this the Taep- 
 ing position at Wanti, two miles north of 
 Leeku, was attacked and captured. 
 8 
 
 At this stage of the campaign there were 
 13,500 men round Soochow, and of these 
 8,500 were fully occupied in the defence of 
 the stockades, leaving the very small number 
 of 5, 000 men available for active measures 
 in the field. On the, other hand, Santajin 
 had not fewer than 20,000, and possibly as 
 many as 30,000 men under his orders. But 
 the Taepings still enjoyed the numercial 
 superiority. They had 40,000 men in 
 Soochow, 20,000 at Wusieh, and Chung 
 Wang occupied a camp, half-way between 
 these places, with 18,000 followers. The 
 presence of Chung Wang was also estimated 
 tc be worth a corps of 5,000 soldiers. 
 
 Petty Rivalries. 
 
 Had Gordon been free to act, his plan of 
 campaign would have been simple and 
 decisive. He would have effected a junction 
 of his forces with Santajin, he would have 
 overwhelmed Chung Wang's 18,000 with 
 his combined army of double that strength, 
 and he would have appeared at the head of 
 his victorious troops before the bewildered 
 garrison of Wusieh. It would probably 
 have terminated the campaign at a stroke. 
 Even the decisive defeat of Chung Wang; 
 alone mfght have entailed the collapse of a 
 cause now tottering to its fall. But Major 
 Gordon had to consider not merely the mili- 
 tary quality of his allies, but also their 
 jealousies and differences. 
 
 General Ching hated Santajin on private 
 grounds as well as on public. He desired a 
 monopoly of the profit and honor of the 
 campaign. His own reputation would be 
 made by the capture of Soochow. It would 
 be diminished and cast into the shade were 
 another Imperial commander to defeat Chung^ 
 Wang and close the line of the Grand Canal. 
 Were Gordon to detach himself from General 
 Ching he could not feel sure what that 
 
114 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 jealous and impulsive commander would do. 
 He would certainly not preserve the vigilant 
 defensive before Soochow necessary to ensure 
 the safety of the army operating to the north. 
 The commander of the Ever-Victorious 
 Army had consequently to abandon the 
 tempting idea of crushing Chung Wang and 
 to have recourse to slower methods. 
 
 An Unexpected Retreat. 
 
 On the 19th of November Major Gordon 
 collected the whole of his available force to 
 attack Fusaiquan, a place on the Graind 
 Canal six miles north of Soochow. Here 
 the rebels had barred the canal at three dif- 
 ferent points, while on the banks they occu- 
 pied eight earthworks, which were fortu- 
 nately in a very incomplete state. A 
 desperate resistance was expected from the 
 rebels at this advantageous spot, but they 
 preferred their safety to their duty, and 
 retreated to Wusieh with hardly any loss. 
 In consequence of this reverse Chung Wang 
 withdrew his forces from his camp in face of 
 Santajin, and concentrated his men at Mon- 
 ding and Wusieh for the defence of the Grand 
 Canal. The investment of Soochow being 
 now as complete as the number of troops 
 under the Imperial standard wouM allow. 
 Major Gordon returned to General Ching's 
 stockades in front of that place, with the 
 view of resuming the attack on the Eastern 
 Gate. General Ching and Captain Bonnefoy 
 had met with a slight repluse there on the 
 14th of October. The stockade in front of 
 the east gate was known by the name of 
 the Low Mun, and had been strengthened to 
 the best knowledge of the Taeping engineers. 
 Their position .was exceedingly formidable, 
 consisting of a line of breastworks defended 
 at intervals with circular stockades. 
 
 Major Gordon decided upon making a 
 night. attack, and he arranged his plans from 
 
 the information provided by the European 
 and other deserters who had been inside. 
 The Taepings were not without their spies 
 and sympathizers also, and the intended' 
 attempt was revealed to them. The attack 
 was made at two in the morning of the 27th 
 of November, but the rebels had mustered 
 in force and received Major Gordon's men 
 with tremendous volleys. Even then the 
 disciplined troops would not give way, and 
 encouraged by the example of their leader, 
 who seemed to be at the front and at every 
 point at the same moment, fairly held their 
 own on the edge of the enemy's position. 
 
 The Troops Confused. 
 
 Unfortunately the troops in support 
 behaved badly, and got confused from the 
 heavy fire of the Taepings which never 
 slackened. Some of them absolutely retired 
 and others were landed at the wrong places. 
 Major Gordon had to hasten to the rear to 
 restore order, and during his absence the 
 advanced guard were expelled from their 
 position by a forward movement led by Mow 
 Wang in person. The attack had failed, 
 and there was nothing to do save to draw 
 off the troops with as little further loss as 
 possible. This was Major Gordon's first 
 defeat, but it was so evidently due to the 
 accidents inseparable from a night attempt, 
 and to the fact that the surprise had been 
 revealed, that it produced a less discourag- 
 ing effect on officers and men than might 
 have seemed probable. Up to this day Major 
 Gordon had obtained thirteen distinct vic- 
 tories besides the advantage in many minor 
 skirmishes. 
 
 Undismayed by this reverse Major Gordon 
 collected all his troops and artillery from the 
 other stockades, and resolved to attack the 
 Low Mun position with his whole force. He 
 also collected all his heavy guns and mor- 
 
'CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 115 
 
 tars and connonaded the rebel stockade for 
 some time ; but on an advance being ordered 
 the assailants were compelled to retire by 
 •the fire which the Taepings brought to bear 
 on them at every available point. Chung 
 Wang had hastened down from Wusieh to 
 take part in the defence of what was rightly 
 regarded as the key of the position at Soo- 
 chow, and both he and Mow Wang super- 
 intended in person the defence of the Low 
 Mun stockade. 
 
 Superb Bravery. 
 
 After a further cannonade the advance was 
 again sounded, but this second attack would 
 .also have failed had not the officers and 
 anen boldly plunged into the moat or creek 
 .and swum across. The whole of the stock- 
 ades and a stone fort were then carried, and 
 the Imperial forces firmly established at a 
 •point only 900 yards from the inner wall of 
 Soochow. Six officers and fifty men were 
 Icilled, and three officers, five Europeans and 
 128 men were wounded in this successful 
 attack. The capture of - the Low Mun 
 stockades meant practically the fall of Soo- 
 •chow. Chung Wang then left it to its fate, 
 and all the other Wangs except Mow Wang 
 -were in favor of coming to terms with the 
 Imperialists. Even before this defeat Lar 
 "Wang had entered into communications 
 •with General Ching for coming over, and, as 
 3ie had the' majority of the troops at Soo- 
 •chow under his orders, Mow Wang was 
 practically powerless, although resolute to 
 defend the place to the last. 
 
 Several interviews took place between the 
 Wangs and General Ching and Li Hung 
 Chang. Major Gordon also saw the former, 
 and had one interview with Lar Wang in 
 person. The English officer proposed as 
 ■the most feasible plan his surrendering one 
 of the gates. During all this period Major 
 
 Gordon had impressed on both of his 
 Chinese colleagues the imperative necessity 
 there was, for reasons of both policy and 
 prudence, to deal leniently and honorably by 
 the rebel chiefs. All seemed to be going 
 well. General Ching took an oath of 
 brotherhood with Lar Wang, Li Hung 
 Chang agreed with everything that fell from 
 Gordon's lips. The only one exempted from 
 this tacit understanding was Mow Wang, 
 always in favor of fighting it out and defend- 
 ing the town ; and his name was not men- 
 tioned for the simple reason that he had 
 nothing to do, with the negotiations. 
 
 A Gallant Enemy. 
 
 For Mow Wang Major Gordon had 
 formed the esteem due to a gallant enemy, 
 and he resolved to spare no efforts to save 
 his life. His benevolent intentions were 
 thwarted by the events that had occurred 
 within Soochow. Mow Wang had been 
 murdered by the other Wangs, who feared 
 that he might detect their plans and prevent 
 their being carried out. The death of Mow 
 Wang removed the only leader who was 
 heartily opposed to the surrender of Soo- 
 chow, and on the day after this chief's 
 murder the Imperialists received possession 
 of one of the gates. The inside of the city 
 had been the scene of the most dreadful con- 
 fusion. Mow Wang's men had sought to 
 avenge their leader's death, and, on the 
 other hand, the followers of Lar Wang had 
 shaved their heads in token of their adhesion 
 to the Imperialist cause. 
 
 Some of the more prudent of the Wangs, 
 not knowing what turn events might take 
 amid the prevailing discord, secured their 
 safety by a timely flight. Major Gordon 
 kept his force well in hand, and refused to 
 allow any of the men to enter the city, where 
 they would certainly have exercised the 
 
116 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 privileges of a mercenary force in respect of 
 pillage. Instead of this Major Gordon en- 
 deavored to obtain for them two months' pay 
 from the Futai, which that official stated his 
 inability to procure. Major Gordon there- 
 upon resigned in disgust, and on succeeding 
 in obtaining one months' pay for his men, 
 he sent them back to Quinsan without a dis- 
 turbance. 
 
 Nine Headless Bodies. 
 
 The departure of the Ever Victorious 
 Army for its headquarters was regarded by 
 the Chinese officials with great satisfaction 
 and for several reasons. In the flush of the 
 success at Soochow both that force and its 
 commander seemed in the way of the Futai, 
 and to diminish the extent of his triumph. 
 Neither Li nor Ching also had the least 
 wish for any of the ex-rebel chiefs, men of 
 ability and accustomed to command, to be 
 taken into the service of the government. Of 
 men of that kind there were already enough. 
 General Ching himself was a sufficiently for- 
 midable rival to the Futai, without any as- 
 sistance and encouragement from Lar Wang 
 and the others. Li had no wish to save 
 them from the fate of the rebels; and al- 
 though he had promised, and General Ching 
 had sworn to, their personal safety, he was 
 bent on getting rid of them in one way or 
 another. 
 
 He feared Major Gordon, but he also 
 thought that the time had arrived when he 
 could dispense with him and the foreign- 
 drilled legion in the same way as he had got 
 rid of Sherard Osborn and his fleet. The 
 departure of the Quinsan force left him free 
 to follow his own inclination. The Wangs 
 were invited to an entertainment in the 
 Futai's boat, and Major Gordon saw them 
 both in the city and subsequently when on 
 their way to Li Hung Chang. The exAct 
 
 circumstances of their fate were never 
 known ; but nine headless bodies were dis- 
 covered on the opposite side of the creek, 
 and not far distant from the Futai's quarters. 
 It then became evident that Lar Wang; 
 and his fellow Wangs had been brutually 
 murdered. Major Gordon was disposed to 
 take the office of their avenger into his owa 
 hands, but the opportunity of doing so for- 
 tunately did not present itself He hastened 
 back to Quinsan, where he refused to act 
 any longer with such false and dishonorable 
 colleagues. The matter was reported to 
 Pekin. Both the mandarins sought to clear 
 themselves by accusing each the other; and 
 a special decree came from Pekin conferring^ 
 on the English officer a very high order and 
 the sum of 14,000 dollars. Major Gordon 
 returned the money, and expressed his regret 
 at being unable to accept any token of honor 
 from the Emperor in consequence of the 
 Soochow affair. 
 
 Gordon Again in the Field. 
 
 A variety of reasons, all equally credit- 
 able to Major Gordon's judgment and single- 
 mindedness, induced him after two months' 
 retirement to abandon his inaction and to 
 sink his difference with the Futai. He saw- 
 very clearly that the sluggishness of the 
 Imperial commanders would result in the 
 prolongation of the struggle with all its at- 
 tendant evils, whereas, if he took the field, 
 he would be able to bring it to a conclusion 
 within two months. Moreover, the Quinsan 
 force, never very amenable to discipline, 
 shook off all restraint when in quarters, and 
 promised to become as dangerous to the 
 government in whose way it was as to the 
 enemy against whom it was engaged to 
 fight. 
 
 Major Gordon, in view of these facts, 
 came to the prompt decision that it was his 
 
'CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 117 
 
 duty, and the course most calculated to do I of February, 1 864, he accordingly left 
 good for him to retake the field, and strive | Quinsan at the head of his men who showed 
 
 CHINESE MANDARIN AND HIS WIFE. 
 
 as energetically as possible to expel the 
 rebels from the small part of Kiangsu still 
 remaining in their possession. On the i8th 
 
 great satisfaction at the return to active cam- 
 paigning. Wusieh had been evacuated on 
 the fall of Soochow, and Chung Wang's 
 
118 
 
 CHINA:' PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 force retired to Changchow, while that chief 
 himself returned to Nankin. A few weeks 
 later General Ching had seized Pingwang, 
 thus obtaining the command of another en- 
 trance into the Taho Lake. Santajin estab- 
 lished his force in a camp not far distant 
 from Changchow, and engaged the rebels in 
 almost daily skirmishes. 
 
 This was the position of affairs when 
 Major Gordon took the field towards the end 
 of February, and he at once resolved to carry 
 the war into a pew country by crossing the 
 Taho lake and attacking the town of Yesing 
 on its western shores. By seizing this and 
 the adjoining towns he hoped to cut the 
 rebellion in two, and to be able to attack 
 Changchow in the rear. The operations at 
 Yesing occupied two days ; but at last the 
 rebel stockades were carried with tremend- 
 ous loss, not only to the defenders but also 
 to a relieving force sent from Liyang. Five 
 thousand prisoners were also taken. 
 
 Marching Onward. 
 
 Liyang itself was the next place to be 
 attacked; but the intricacy of the country, 
 which was intersected by creeks and canals, 
 added to the fact that the whole region had 
 been desolated by famine, and that the rebels 
 had broken all the bridges, rendered this 
 undertaking one of great difficulty and some 
 risk. However, Major Gordon's fortitude 
 vanquished all obstacles and when he ap- 
 peared before Liyang he found that the rebel 
 leaders in possession of the town had come 
 to the decision to surrender. At this place 
 Major Gordon came into communication 
 with the general Paochiaou, who was cover- 
 ing the siege operations against Nankin 
 which Tseng Kwofan was pressing with 
 ever-increasing vigor. 
 
 The surrender of Liyang proved the more 
 important, as the fortifications were found to 
 
 be admirably constructed, and as it containecf 
 a garrison of fifteen thousand men and a plenti- 
 ful supply of provisions. From Liyang, Major 
 Gordon marched on Kintang, a town due 
 north of Liyang, and about half-way between 
 Changchow and Nankin. The capture of 
 Kintang, by placing Gordon's force within 
 striking distance of Changchow and its com- , 
 munications, would have compelled the rebels 
 to suspend these operations and recall their 
 forces. 
 
 A Resolute Garrison. 
 
 Unfortunately the attack on Kintang re- 
 vealed unexpected difficulties. The garrisor* 
 showed extraordinary determination ; and 
 although the wall was breached by the heavy 
 fire, two attempts to assault were repulsed 
 with heavy loss, the more serious inasmuch, 
 as Major Gordon was himself wounded below 
 the knee, and compelled to retire to his boat. 
 This was the second defeat Gordon had ex- 
 perienced. 
 
 In consequence of this reverse, whicfe 
 dashed the cup of success from Gordon's 
 hands when he seemed on the point of 
 bringing the campaign to a close in the most 
 brilliant manner, the force had to retreat to 
 Liyang, whence the commander hastened 
 back with one thousand men to Wusieh. 
 He reached Wusieh on the 25th of March, 
 four days after the repulse at Kintang, and 
 he there learnt that Fushan had been taken 
 and that Chanzu was being closely attacked. 
 The Imperialists had fared better in the 
 south. General Ching had captured Kash- 
 ingfoo, a strong place in Chekiang, and on 
 the very same day as the repulse at Kintang 
 Tso Tsung Tang had recovered Hangchow. 
 
 Major Gordon, although still incapacitated 
 by his wound from taking his usual foremost 
 place in the battle, directed all operations 
 from his boat. He succeeded, after numer- 
 
■CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 119 
 
 ous skirmishes, in compelling tlie Taepings 
 to quit their position before Chanzu ; but 
 they drew up in force at the village of 
 Waisso, where they offered him battle. 
 Most unfortunately Major Gordon had to 
 entrust the conduct of the attack to his 
 lieutenants, Colonels Howard and Rhodes, 
 while he superintended the advance of the 
 gunboats up the creek. Finding the banks 
 were too high to admit of these being use- 
 fully employed, and failing to establish com- 
 munications with the infantry, he discreetly 
 returned to his camp, where he found every- 
 thing in the most dreadful confusion owing 
 to a terrible disaster. 
 
 Routed with Great Loss. 
 
 The infantry in fact had been out-man- 
 oeuvred and routed with tremendous loss. 
 Seven officers and 265 men had been killed, 
 and one officer and sixty-two men wounded. 
 Such an overwhelming disaster would have 
 crushed any ordinary commander, particu- 
 larly when coming so soon after such a rude 
 defeat as that at Kingtang. It only roused 
 Major Gordon to increased activity. He at 
 once took energetic measures to retrieve this 
 disaster. He sent his wounded to Quinsan, 
 collected fresh troops, and, having allowed 
 his own wound to recover by a- week's rest, 
 resumed in person the attack on Waisso. 
 On the loth of April Major Gordon pitched 
 his camp within a mile of Waisso, and paid 
 his men as the preliminary to the resumption 
 of the offensive. 
 
 The attack commenced on the following 
 morning, and promised to prove of an ardu- 
 ous nature ; but by a skilful flank movement 
 Major Gordon carried two stockades in per- 
 son, and rendered the whole place no longer 
 tenable. The rebels evacuated their position 
 and retreated, closely pursued by the Imper- 
 ialists. The villagers who had suffered from 
 
 their exactions, rose upon them, and very 
 few rebels escaped. The pursuit was con- 
 tinued for a week, and the lately victorious 
 army of Waisso was practically annihilated. 
 The capture of Changchow was to be the 
 next crowning success of the campaign. 
 For this enterprise the whole of the Ever- 
 Victorious Army was concentrated, including 
 the ex-rebel contingent of Liyang. On the 
 23d of April Major Gordon carried the 
 stockades near the west gate. In their cap- 
 ture the Liyang men, although led only by 
 Chinese, showed conspicuous gallantry, thus 
 justifying Major Gordon's belief that the 
 Chinese would fight as well under their own 
 countrymen as when led by foreigners. 
 Batteries were then constructed for the bom- 
 bardment of the town itself. Before these 
 were completed the Imperialists assaulted, 
 but were repulsed with loss. On the follow- 
 ing day (April 27th) the batteries opened 
 fire, and two pontoon bridges were thrown 
 across, when Major Gordon led his men to 
 the assault. 
 
 A Bridge of Casks. 
 
 The first attack was repulsed, and a second 
 one, made in conjunction with the Imperial- 
 ists, fared not less badly. The pontoons 
 were lost, and the force suffered a greater 
 loss than at any time during the war, with 
 the exception of Waisso. The Taepings also 
 lost heavily ; and their valor could not alter 
 the inevitable result. Changchow had conse- 
 quently to be approached systematically by 
 trenches, in the construction of which the 
 Chinese showed themselves very skilful. The 
 loss of the pontoons compelled the formation 
 of a cask-bridge ; and, during the extensive 
 preparations for renewing the attack, several 
 hundred of the garrison came over, reporting 
 that it was only the Cantonese who wished to 
 fight to the bitter end. 
 
120 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 On the nth of May, the fourth anniver- 
 sary of its capture by Chung Wang, Li 
 requested Major Gordon to act in concert 
 with him for carrying the place by storm. 
 The attack was made in the middle of the 
 day, to the intense surprise of the garrison, 
 who made only a feeble resistance, and the 
 town was at last carried with little loss. 
 
 GENERAL GORDON. 
 
 The commandan', Hoo Wang, was made 
 prisoner and executed. This proved to be 
 the last action of the Ever Victorious Army, 
 which then returned to Quinsan, and was 
 quietly disbanded by his commander before 
 the 1st of June. 
 
 To sum up the closing incidents of' the 
 Taeping war, Tayan was evacuated two 
 days after the fall of Changchow, leaving 
 
 Nankin alone in their hands. Inside that 
 city there was the greatest misery and suffer- 
 ing. Tien Wang had refused to take any 
 of the steps pressed on him by Chung Wang, 
 and when he heard the people were suffering 
 from want, all he said was, " Let them eat 
 the sweet dew." Tseng Kwofan drew up his 
 lines on all sides of the city, and gradually 
 drove the despairing rebels be- 
 hind the walls. Chung Wang 
 sent out the old women and 
 children ; and let it be recorded 
 to the credit of Tseng Kwot- 
 siuen that he did not drive them 
 back, but charitably provided 
 for their wants, and despatched 
 them to a place of shelter. 
 
 In June Major Gordon visited 
 Tseng's camp, and he found his 
 works covering twenty-four to 
 thirty miles, and constructed in 
 the most elaborate fashion. The 
 Imperialists numbered eighty 
 thousand men, but were badly 
 armed. Although their pay 
 was very much in arrear, they 
 were well fed and had great 
 confidence in their leader ,Tseng 
 Kwofan. On the 30th of June, 
 Tien Wang, despairing of suc- 
 cess, committed suicide by swal- 
 lowing golden leaf. Thus died 
 the Hungtsiuen who had erected 
 the standard of revolt in Kwangsi 
 thirteen years before. His son was proclaimed 
 Tien Wang on his death becoming known, but 
 his reign was brief. 
 
 The last act of all had now arrived. On 
 the 19th of July the Imperialists had run 
 a gallery under the wall of Nankin, and 
 charged it with forty thousand pounds of 
 powder. The explosion destroyed fifty yards 
 of the walls, and the Imperialists, attacking 
 
"CHINESE GORDON." 
 
 121 
 
 on all sides, poured in through the breach. 
 Chung Wang made a desperate resistance 
 in the interior, holding his own and the Tien 
 Wang's place to the last. He made a fur- 
 ther stand with a thousand men at the 
 southern gate, but his band was over- 
 whelmed, and he and the young Tien Wang 
 fled into the surrounding country. In this 
 supreme moment of danger Chung Wang 
 thought more of the safety of his young 
 chief than of himself, and he gave him an 
 exceptionally good pony to escape on, while 
 he himself took a very inferior animal. As a 
 consequence Tien Wang the Second escaped, 
 while Chung Wang was captured in the hills 
 a few days later. 
 
 Captured and Beheaded. 
 
 Chung Wang, who had certainly been the 
 hero of the Taeping movement, was beheaded 
 on the 7th of August, and the young Tien 
 Wang was eventually captured and executed 
 also, by Shen Paochen. For this decisive 
 victory, which extinguished the Taepifig re- 
 bellion, Tseng Kwofan, whom Gordon called 
 " generous, fair, honest and patriotic," was 
 made a Hou, or Marquis, and his brother 
 Tseng Kwotsiuen an Earl. 
 
 Although Gordon took no direct part in 
 the closing scene of Taeping power at Nan- 
 kin, everybody felt, and history accepts the 
 view, that the triumphant and speedy sup- 
 pression of the rebellion was due to his ex- 
 traordinary military successes. He himself, 
 with characteristic modesty, was disposed to 
 minimize the importance of his services ; and 
 he often declared that the Imperialists were 
 certain to have overcome the Taepings eventu- 
 ally, although their caution and military in- 
 experience might have prolonged the strug- 
 gle. Another opinion to which he strongly 
 adhered was, that the Chinese did not require 
 European leading, that they were very good 
 
 under their own officers, and that the inevi- 
 table consequence of their being placed under 
 Europeans was that they became rebels to 
 their government. 
 
 These opinions show the disinterested spirit 
 in which he served the Chinese. He fought 
 the Taepings not for any empty or vain- 
 glorious desire to make a military reputa- 
 tion, but because he saw an opportunity of 
 rendering a great service.to a suffering people, 
 among whom the horrors of a civil war had 
 spread death and disease. It is impossible 
 to exaggerate the impression made by his 
 disinterestedness on the Chinese people, who 
 elevated him for his courage and mihtary 
 prowess to the pedestal of a national god of 
 war. The cane which he carried when lead- 
 ing his men to the charge became known as 
 "Gordon's wand of victory; " aiid the troops 
 whom he trained, and converted by success 
 from a rabble into an army, formed the 
 nucleus of China's modern army. 
 
 Brilliant Services. 
 
 The service he rendered his adopted coun- 
 try was, therefore, lasting as well as striking, 
 and the gratitude of the Chinese has, to their 
 credit, proved not less durable. The name 
 of Gordon is still one to conjure with among 
 the Chinese, and if ever China were placed in 
 the same straits, she would be the more will- 
 ing, from his example, to entrust her cause 
 to an English officer. As to the military 
 achievements of General Gordon in China, 
 nothing fresh can be said. They speak in- 
 deed for themselves, and they form the most 
 solid portion of the reputation which he 
 gained as a leader of men. In the history 
 of the Manchu dynasty he will be known as 
 " Chinese Gordon ; " although for others his 
 earlier soubriquet must needs give place, from 
 his heroic and ever-regrettable death, to that 
 of " Gordon of Khartoum." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PRINCE KUNQ AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 WHILE the suppression of the 
 Taeping rebellion was in pro- 
 gress, events of great interest 
 and rmportance happened at 
 Pekin. When the allied forces approached 
 that city in i860, the Emperor Hienfung fled 
 to Jehol, and kept himself aloof from all the 
 peace negotiations which were conducted to 
 a successful conclusion by his brother, Prince 
 Kung. After the signature of the convention 
 in Pekin, ratifying the Treaty of Tientsin, 
 he refused to return to his capital ; and he 
 even seems to have hoped that he might, by 
 asserting his Imperial prerogative, transfer the 
 capital from Pekin to Jehol, and thus evade 
 one of the principal concessions to the for- 
 eigners. But if this was impossible, he was 
 quite determined, for himself, to have nothing 
 to do with them, and during the short re- 
 mainder of his life he kept his Court at Jehol. 
 While his brother was engaged in meeting 
 the difficulties of diplomacy, and in arranging 
 the conditions of a novel situation, Hienfung, 
 by collecting round his person the most big- 
 oted men of his family, showed that he pre- 
 ferred those counsellors who had learnt 
 nothing from recent events, and who would 
 support him* in his claims to undiminished 
 superiority and inaccessibility. Prominent 
 among the men in his confidence was Prince. 
 Tsai, and among his advisers were several 
 inexperienced and impulsive members of the 
 Manchu family. They were all agreed in the 
 policy of recovering, at the earliest possible 
 moment, what they considered to be the 
 natural and prescriptive right of the occupant 
 122 
 
 of the Dragon Throne to treat all othei 
 potentates as in no degree equal to himself. 
 But the continued residence of the Empe- 
 ror at Jehol was not popular with either his 
 own family or the inhabitants of Pekin. 
 The members of the Manchu clan, who re- 
 ceived a regular allowance during the Empe- 
 ror's residence at Pekin, were reduced to the 
 greatest straits, and even to the verge of 
 starvation, while the Chinese naturally re- 
 sented the attempt to remove the capital to 
 any other place. This abnegation of author- 
 ity by Hienfung, for his absence meant 
 nothing short of that, could not have been 
 prolonged indefinitely, for a Chinese Empe- 
 ror has many religious and secular duties to 
 perform which no one else can discharge, 
 and which, if not discharged, would reduce 
 the office of Emperor to a nonenity. 
 
 His Case Hopeless. 
 
 Reports began to be spread of the serious 
 illness of the Emperor, and a pamphlet which 
 enjoyed considerable circulation stated that 
 " his doctors declared his case to be hopeless, 
 and that, even if he promptly abandoned 
 some pernicious habits, he could not hope to 
 live beyond six months." All the available 
 evidence went to show that he did not take 
 any precautions, but during the summer 
 nothing definite was stated as to his health, 
 although rumors of the gravity of Hienfung's 
 complaint continued to circulate so freely 
 that the announcement of his death at any 
 moment would not have caused surprise. 
 The superstitious were the more disposed to 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 123 
 
 believe that something extraordinary might 
 happen, because a comet appeared'in the sky 
 and remained some weeks ; for in China, as 
 in mediaeval Europe, it was held — 
 
 "When beggars die there are no comets seen, 
 The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of 
 princes." 
 
 In August Prince Kung hastened to Jehol, 
 the object of his journey, and indeed the 
 journey itself, being kept secret. Not merely 
 was Hienfung dying, but it had become known 
 to Prince Kung and his friends that he had 
 left the governing authority during the minor- 
 ity of his son, a child less than six years of 
 age, to a Board of Regency composed of 
 eight of the least intelligent and most arro- 
 gant and self-seeking menibers of the Im- 
 perial family, with Prince Tsai at their head. 
 The Emperor died on the 22d of August. 
 A few hours later the Imperial decree notify- 
 ing the last wishes of the ruler as to the 
 mode of government was promulgated. The 
 Board of Regency assumed the nominal 
 control of affairs, and Hjenfung's son was 
 proclaimed Emperor under the style of 
 Chiseang. 
 
 Intrigue to Obtain Power. 
 
 In all of these arrangements neither Prince 
 Kung nor his brothers, nor the responsible 
 ministers at the capital, had had the smallest 
 part. It was an intrigue among certain 
 members of the Imperial clan to possess 
 themselves of the ruling power, and for a 
 time it seemed as if their intrigue would be 
 only too successful. Nothing happened 
 during the months of September and Octo- 
 ber to disturb their confidence, for they 
 remained at Jehol, and at Pekin the routine 
 of government continued to be performed 
 by Prince Kung. That statesman and his 
 colleagues employed the interval in arrang- 
 
 ing their own plan of action, and in making 
 sure of the fidelity of-a certain number of 
 troops. 
 
 Throughout these' preparations Prince 
 Kung was ably and energetically supported 
 by his brother. Prince Chun, by his col- 
 league, Wansiang, and by his aged father- 
 in-law,, the minister Kweiliang. But the 
 conspirators could not keep the young 
 Emperor at Jehol indefinitely, and when, 
 at the end of October, it became known that 
 he was on the point of returning to Pekin, 
 it was clear that the hour of conflict had 
 arrived. At Jehol the Board of Regency 
 could do little harm; but once its preten- 
 sions and legality were admitted at the 
 capital, all the ministers would have to take 
 their orders from it, and to resign the func- 
 tions which they had retained. The main 
 issue was whether Prince Kung or Prince 
 Tsai was to be supreme. 
 
 Arrival of the Emperor. 
 
 On the 1st of November the yourig Em- 
 peror entered his capital in state. ' It was 
 said that he was driven through the streets 
 in a carriage, sitting on his mother's lap, 
 while the Empress Dowager, or the princi- 
 pal widow of Hienfung, occupied another 
 seat in the same carriage; but no European 
 actually saw the cortege, because Prince Kung 
 had asked the ministers as a favor to keep 
 their suites at home until the procession 
 reached the palace. A large number ot 
 soldiers, still dressed in their white mourn- 
 ing,- accompanied their Sovereign from Jehol;' 
 but Shengpao's garrison was infinitely more 
 numerous, and thoroughly loyal to the cause 
 of Prince Kung. The majority of the Re- 
 gents had arrived with the reigning prince; 
 those who had not yet come were on the 
 road, escorting the dead body of Hienfung 
 towards its resting-place. 
 
124 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 If a blow was to be struck at all, now was , 
 the time to strike it. The Regents had not 
 .merely placed themselves in the power of 
 their opponent, but they had actually brought 
 ■with them the young Emperor, without whose, 
 person Prince Kung could have accomplished 
 little. Prince Kung had spared no effort to 
 secure, and had fortunately succeeded in 
 obtaining, the assistance and co-operation of 
 •.the Empress Dowager, Hienfung's principal 
 •widow, named Tsi An. Her assent had been 
 obtained to the proposed plot before the 
 .arrival in Pekin, and it now only remained 
 ito carry it out. 
 
 Not Given a Choice. 
 
 On the day following the entry into the 
 capital. Prince Kung hastened to the palace, 
 and, producing before the astonished Regents 
 an Imperial Edict ordering their dismissal, 
 he asked them whether they obeyed the 
 .decree of their Sovereign, or whether he 
 must call in his soldiers to compel them. 
 Prince Tsai and his companions had no 
 <:hoice save to signify their acquiescence in 
 what they could not prevent ; but, on leav- 
 ing the chamber in which this scene took 
 place, they hastened towards the Emperor's 
 apartments in order to remonstrate against 
 their dismissal, or to obtain from him some 
 counteredict reinstating them in their posi- 
 tions. They were prevented from carrying 
 out their purpose, but this proof of contu- 
 macy sealed their fate. They were promptly 
 arrested, and a second decree was issued 
 ■ordering their degradation from their official 
 and hereditary rank. To Prince Kung and 
 his allies was entrusted the charge of trying 
 and punishing the offenders. 
 
 The next step was the proclamation of a 
 new Regency, composed of the two em- 
 presses, Tsi An, principal widow of Hien- 
 fung, and Tsi Thsi, mother of the young 
 
 Emperor. Two precedents for the adminis- 
 tration being entrusted to an empress were 
 easily found by the Hanlin doctors during 
 the Ming dynasty, when the Emperors Chit- 
 song and Wanleh were minors. Special 
 edicts were issued and arrangements made for 
 the transaction of business during the con- 
 tinuance of the Regency, and as neither of 
 the empresses knew Manchu it was specially 
 provided that papers and documents, which 
 were always presented in that language, 
 should be translated into Chinese. 
 
 Concurrently with these measures for the 
 settlement of the Regency happened the 
 closing scenes in the drama of conspiracy 
 which began so successfully at Jehol and 
 ended so dramatically at Pekin. For com- 
 plete success and security it was necessary 
 that all the ringleaders should be captured, 
 and some of them were still free. 
 
 Arrested and Executed. 
 
 The bravest, if not the ablest, of the late 
 Board of Regency, Sushuen, remained at 
 large. He had been charged with the high 
 and honorable duty of escorting the rernains 
 of Hienfung to the capital. It was most 
 important that he should be seized before he 
 became aware of the fate that had befallen 
 his colleagues. Prince Chun volunteered to 
 capture the last, and in a sense the most for- 
 midable, of the intriguers himself, and on 
 the very day that the events described 
 happened at Pekin he rode out of the capital 
 at the head of a body of Tartar cavalry. 
 
 On the following night Prince Chun 
 reached the spot where he was encamped, 
 and, breaking into the house, arrested him 
 whilst in bed. Sushuen did not restrain his 
 indignation, and betrayed the ulterior plans 
 entertained by himself and his associates by 
 declaring that Prince Chun had been only 
 just in time to prevent a similar fate befalling 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 125- 
 
 himself. He was at once placed on his trial 
 with the other prisoners, and on the loth of 
 November the order was given in the, Em- 
 peror's name for their execution. Sushuen 
 was executed on the public ground set apart 
 for that purpose; but to the others, as a 
 special favor from their connection with the 
 Imperial family, was sent the silken cord, 
 with which they were perrnitted to put an 
 end to their existence. 
 
 Strange Stroke of Misfortune. 
 
 The events of this introductory period 
 may be appropriately concluded with the 
 strange stroke of misfortune that befell Prince 
 Kung in the spring of 1865, and which 
 seemed to show that he had indulged some 
 views of personal ambition. The affair had 
 probably a secret history, but if so the truth 
 is hardly likely to be ever known. The 
 known facts were as follows : On the 2d of 
 April, 1865, there appeared an edict degrad- 
 ing the Prince in the name of the two Regent- 
 Empresses. The charge made against him 
 was of having grown arrogant and assumed 
 privileges to which he had no right. He 
 was at first "diligent and circumspect," but 
 he has now become disposed "to overrate 
 his own importance." In consequence, he 
 was deprived of all his appointments and dis- 
 missed from the scene of public affairs. 
 
 There was not much likelihood that a man 
 who had taken so decisive a share in arrang- 
 ing the accession of the ruling prince, and in 
 the appointment of the Regents during his 
 minority, would tamely acquiesce in being 
 set on one side by the decree of two women. 
 All his friends on the Imperial Council peti- 
 tioned the Throne, representing in the plainest 
 terms the great inconvenience that would be 
 entailed by the withdrawal of Prince Kung 
 from the control of public affairs. It was 
 significantly observed in one of these memo- 
 
 rials that "if the Imperial household be the 
 first to begin misunderstandings " there was 
 no telling where the excitement would not 
 extend. These representations could not 
 fail to produce their due effect. 
 ' Five weeks after his fall Prince Kung was 
 reinstated, on the 8th of May, in all his 
 ofifices, with the exception of that of Presi- 
 dent of the Council. This episode, which 
 might have produced grave complications,, 
 closed with a return to almost the precise- 
 state of things previously existing. There- 
 was one important difference. The two em- 
 presses had asserted their predominance. 
 Prince Kung had hoped to be supreme, and- 
 to rule uncontrolled. From this time forth- 
 he was content to be their minister and ad- 
 viser, on terms similar to those that wouli 
 have applied to any other official. 
 
 Trouble in Remote Quarters. 
 
 The year 1865, which witnessed this very 
 interesting event in -the history of the Chinese 
 Government, beheld before its close the de- 
 parture of Sir Frederick Bruce from Pekin^ 
 and the appointment of Sir Rutherford Al- 
 cock, who had been the first British minister 
 to Japan during the critical period of the in- 
 troduction of foreign intercourse with that 
 country, to fill the post of Resident Min-- 
 ister at Pekin. 
 
 While the events which have been set 
 forth were happening in the heart of China^ 
 other misfortunes yet had befallen the exe- 
 cutive in the more remote quarters of the 
 realm, but resulting none the less in the loss 
 and ruin of provinces, and in the subversion 
 of the Emperor's authority. Two great 
 uprisings of the people occurred in opposite 
 directions, both commencing while the Taep- 
 ing rebellion was in full force, and continu- 
 ing to disturb the country for many years 
 after its suppression. The one had for its- 
 
126 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 scene the great south-western province of 
 Yunnan ; the other the two provinces of the 
 north-west,, Shensi and Kansuh, and extend- 
 ing thence westwards to the Pamir. They 
 resembled each other in one point, and that 
 was that they were instigated and sustained 
 by the Mahomedan population alone. 
 
 The Panthays and the Tungani were 
 either indigenous tribds or foreign immi- 
 
 The Panthay rising calls for description in 
 the first place, because it began at an earlier 
 period than the other, and also because the 
 details have been preserved with greater 
 fidelity. Mahomedanism is believed to have 
 been introduced into Yunnan in or about the 
 year 1275, and it made most progress 
 among the so-called aboriginal tribes, the 
 Lolos and the Mantzu. The oflScials were 
 
 CHINESE PEDLER. 
 
 grants who had adopted or imported the 
 tenets of Islam. Their sympathies with the 
 Pekin Government were probably never very 
 great, but they were impelled in both cases 
 to revolt more by local tyranny than by 
 any distinct desire to cast off the authority 
 of the Chinese; but, of course, the obvious 
 embarrassment of the central executive en- 
 couraged by simplifying the task ofrebeUion. 
 
 mostly Chinese or Tartars, and, left practi- 
 cally free from control, they more often 
 abused their power than sought to employ it 
 for the benefit of the people they governed. 
 In the very first year of Hienfung's reign 
 (185 1) a petition reached the capital from a 
 Mahomedan land proprietor in Yunnan 
 named Ma Wenchu, accusing the Emperor's 
 officials of the gravest crimes, and praying 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 127 
 
 that "a just and honest nian" might be 
 sent to redress the wrongs of an injured and 
 long-suffering people. 
 
 The petition was carefully read and favor- 
 ably considered at the capital ; but beyond a 
 gracious answer the Emperor was at the 
 time powerless to apply a femedy to the evil. 
 Four years passed away without any open 
 manifestation of the deep discontent smoul- 
 dering below the surface. But in 1855 the 
 Chinese and the Mahomedan laborers quar- 
 relled in one of the principal mines of the 
 province, which is covered with mines of 
 gold, iron, and copper. It seems that the 
 greater success of the Mahomedans in the 
 uncertain pursuit of mining had roused the 
 -displeasure of the Chinese. Disputes ensued, 
 in which the Mussulmans added success in 
 combat to success in mining ; and the official 
 appointed to superintend the mines, instead 
 of remaining with a view to the restoration of 
 order, sought his personal safety by precipi- 
 tate flight to the town of Yunnan. During 
 his absence the Chinese population raised a 
 levy en masse, attacked the Mahomedans 
 who had gained a momentary triumph, and 
 compelled them by sheer weight of numbers 
 to beat a hasty retreat to their own homes in 
 a different part of the f>royince. 
 
 Ill- Will Against the Mahomedans. 
 
 This success was the signal for a general 
 outcry against the Mahomedans, who had 
 long been the object of the secret ill-will of 
 the other inhabitants. Massacres took place 
 in several parts of Yunnan, an«l the followers 
 of the Prophet had to flee for their lives. 
 
 Among those who were slain during these 
 popular disorders was a young chief named 
 Ma Sucheng; and when the news of his 
 murder reached his native village, his younger 
 brother, Ma Sien, who had just received a 
 small military command, declared his inten- 
 
 tion to avenge him, and fled to join the 
 Mahomedan fugitives in the mountains. In 
 this secure retreat they rallied their forces, 
 and, driven to desperation by the prornptings 
 of want, they left their fastnesses with the 
 view of regaining what they had lost. In 
 this they succeeded better than they could 
 have hoped for. The Chinese population 
 experienced in their turn the bitterness of 
 defeat ; and the mandarins had the less 
 difficulty in concluding a temporary under- 
 standing between the exhaused combatants. 
 Tranquillity was restored, and the miners 
 resumed their occupations. 
 
 Plot for a General Massacre. 
 
 But the peace was deceptive, and in a little 
 time the struggle was renewed with increased 
 fury. In this emergency the idea occurred 
 to some of the officials that an easy and 
 efficacious remedy of the difficulty in which 
 they found themselves would be provided by 
 the massacre of the whole Mussulman popu- 
 lation. In this plot the foremost part was 
 taken by Hwang Chung, an official who 
 bitterly hated the Mahomedans. He suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining the acquiescence of all 
 his colleagues with the exception of the 
 Viceroy of the province, who exposed the 
 iniquity of the design, but who, destitute of 
 all support, was powerless to prevent its exe- 
 cution. At the least he resolved to save his 
 honor and reputation by committing suicide, 
 and he and his wife were found one morning 
 hanging up in the hall of the yamen. His 
 death simplified the execution of the project 
 which his refusal might possibly have pre- 
 vented. 
 
 The 19th of May, 1856, was the date 
 fixed for the celebration of this Chinese 
 St. Bartholomew. But the secret had not 
 been well kept. The Mahomedans, whether 
 warned or suspicious, distrusted the authori- 
 
128 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ties and their neighbors, and stood valiantly 
 on their guard. At this time they looked 
 chiefly to a high priest named Ma Tesing for 
 guidance and instruction. But although on 
 the alert they were, after all, taken to some 
 extent by surprise, and many of them were 
 massacred after a more or less unavailing 
 resistance. But if many of the Mussulmans 
 were slain, the survivors were inspired with a 
 desperation which the mandarins had never 
 contemplated. From one end of Yunnan to 
 the other the Mahomedans, in face of great 
 personal peril, rose by a common and spon- 
 taneous impulse, and the Chinese population 
 was compelled to take a hasty refuge in the 
 towns. 
 
 They Held the City. 
 
 At Talifoo, where the Mahomedans formed 
 a considerable portion of the population^ the 
 most desperate fighting occurred, and after 
 three days' carnage the Mussulmans, under 
 Tu Wensiu, were left in possession of the 
 city. Their success inspired them with the 
 hope of retaining the freedom they had won, 
 and, impressed with the conviction that noth- 
 ing would atone for their acts of rebellion in 
 the eyes of the government, they had no 
 choice save to exert themselves for the reten- 
 tion of their independence. The rebels did 
 not remain without leaders, whom they will- 
 ingly recognized and obeyed ; for the kwan- 
 shihs, or chiefs, who had accepted titles of 
 authority from the Chinese, cast off their 
 allegiance and placed themselves at the head 
 of the popular movement. The priest Ma 
 Tesing was raised to the highest post of all 
 as Dictator, but Tu Wensiu admitted no 
 higher authority than his own within the 
 walls of Talifoo. Ma Tesing had performed 
 the pilgrimage to Mecca, he had resided at 
 Constantinople for two years, and his repu- 
 tation for knowledge and saintliness stood 
 
 highest among his co-religionists. He was 
 therefore a man in high repute. 
 
 While Ma Tesing exercised the supremacy 
 due to his age and attainments, the young- 
 chief Ma Sien led the rebels in the field.. 
 His energy was most conspicuous, and in 
 the year 1858 he* thought he was suiificientljr 
 strong to make an attack upon the city of 
 Yunnan itself. His attack was baffled hy 
 the resolute defence of an officer named Lin 
 Tzuchin, who had shown great courage as a 
 partisan leader against the insurgents before 
 he was entrusted with the defence of the 
 provincial capital. Ma Sien was compelled 
 to beat a retreat, and to devote himself to the 
 organization of the many thousand Ijen or 
 Lolos recruits who signified their attachment 
 to his cause. For the successful defence of 
 Yunnan, Lin was made a Titu, and gradually 
 collected into his own hands such authority 
 as still remained to the Emperor's lieutenants. 
 
 Suicide of a Mandarin.' 
 
 On both sides preparations were made for 
 the renewal of the struggle, but before the 
 year 1858 ended Ma Sien met with a second 
 repulse at the town of Linan. The year 
 1859 was not marked by any event of signal 
 importance, although the balance of success, 
 inclined on the whole to the Mussulmans, 
 But in the following year the Mahomedans. 
 drew up a large force, computed to exceed 
 50,000 men, round Yunnanfoo, to which they 
 laid vigorous siege. The Imperialists were 
 taken at a disadvantage, and the large 
 number of people who had fled for shelter 
 into the town rendered the small store of 
 provisions less sufficient for a protracted 
 defence. Yunnanfoo was on the point of 
 surrender when an event occurred which not 
 merely relieved it from its predicament, but 
 altered the whole complexion of the struggle. 
 
 The garrison had made up its mind to 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 129 
 
 yield. Even the brave Lin had accepted the 
 inevitable, and begun to negotiate with the 
 two rebel leaders, Ma Sien and the priest 
 Ma Tesing. Those chiefs, with victory in 
 their grasp, manifested an unexpected and 
 surprising moderation. Instead of demand- 
 ing from Lin a complete and unconditional 
 surrender, they began to discuss with him 
 what terms could be agreed upon for the 
 cessation of the war and for the restoration 
 of tranquillity to the province. At first it 
 was thought that these propositions con- 
 cealed some intended treachery, but their 
 sincerity was placed beyond dispute by the 
 suicide of the mandarin Hwang Chung, who 
 had first instigated the people to massacre 
 their Mahomedan brethren. 
 
 Deserters to the Government. 
 
 The terms of peace were promptly ar- 
 ranged, and a request was forwarded to Pekin 
 for the ratification of a convention concluded 
 iinder the pressure of necessity with some of 
 the rebel leaders. The better to conceal the 
 fact that this arrangement had been made 
 with the principal leader of the disaffected. 
 Ma Sien changed his name to Ma Julung, 
 and received the rank of general in the 
 Chinese service ; while the high priest ac- 
 cepted as his share the not inconsiderable 
 pension of ^28,000 a month. 
 
 It is impossible to divine the true reasons 
 which actuated these instigators of rebellion 
 in their decision to go over to the side of 
 the government. They probably thought 
 that they had done sufficient to secure all 
 practical advantages, and that any persistence 
 in hostilities would only result in the increased 
 misery and impoverishment of the province. 
 They thought that their kinsmen and fol- 
 lowers would obtain justice and security; 
 and, as for themselves, no moment would be 
 more opportune for securing the largest pos- 
 
 sible personal advantage with the minimum 
 of risk. But they were also influenced by 
 other considerations. Powerful as they were, 
 there were other Mahomedan leaders seeking 
 to acquire the supreme position among their 
 co-religionists ; and foremost among these 
 was Tu Wensiu, who had reduced the whole 
 of Western Yunnan to his sway, and reigned 
 at Talifoo. 
 
 The Mahomedan cause, important as it 
 was, did not afford scope for the ambitions of 
 two such men as Ma Julung and Tu Wensiu. 
 The former availed himself of the favorable 
 opportunity to settle this difficulty in a prac- 
 tical and, as he shrewdly anticipated, the 
 most profitable manner for himself person- 
 ally, by giving in his adhesion to the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Every Man for Himself. 
 
 This important defection did not bring in 
 its train any certainty of tranquillity. Incited 
 by the example of their leaders, every petty 
 officer and chief thought himself deserving 
 of the highest honors, and resolved to fight 
 for his own hand. Ma Julung left Yunnan- 
 foo for the purpose of seizing a neighboring 
 town which had revolted, and during his 
 absence one of his lieutenants seized the 
 capital, murdered the Viceroy, and threat- 
 ened to plunder the inhabitants. Ma Julung 
 was summoned to return in hot haste, and as 
 a temporary expedient the priest Ma Tesing 
 was elected Viceroy. 
 
 When Ma Julung returned with his army 
 he had to lay siege to Yunnanfoo, and 
 although he promptly effected an entrance 
 into the city, it took five days' hard fighting 
 in the streets before the force in occupation 
 was expelled. The insurgent officer was 
 captured, exposed to the public gaze for one 
 month in an iron cage, and then executed in 
 a cruel manner. Ma Tesing was deposed 
 
130 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 from the elevated position which he had held 
 for so short a time, and a new Chinese Vice- 
 roy arrived from Kweichow. The year 1863 
 opened with the first active operations against 
 Tu Wensui, who, during these years of dis- 
 order in central Yunnan, had been governing 
 the western districts with some prudence. 
 It would have been better if they had not 
 been undertaken, for they only resulted in 
 the defeat of the detachments sent by Ma 
 Julung to engage the despot of Talifoo. 
 
 Rejected with Disdain. 
 
 Force having failed, they had recourse to 
 diplomacy, and Ma Tesing was sent to sound 
 Tu Wensiu as to whether he would not imi- 
 tate their example and make his peace with 
 the authorities. These overtures were re- 
 jected with disdain, and Tu Wensiu pro- 
 claimed his intention of holding out to the 
 last, and refused to recognize the wisdom 
 or the necessity of coming to terms with 
 the government. The embarrassment of 
 Ma Julung and the Yunnan officials, already 
 sufficiently acute, was at this conjuncture 
 further aggravated by an outbreak in their 
 rear among the Miaotze and some other 
 mountain tribes in the province of Kwei- 
 chow. To the difficulty of coping with a 
 strongly placed enemy in front was thus 
 added that of maintaining communications 
 through a hostile and difficult region. 
 
 A third independent party had also come 
 into existence in Yunnan, where an ex-Chi- 
 nese official named Liang Shihmei had set 
 up his own authority at Linan, mainly, it 
 was said, through jealousy of the Mahome- 
 dans taken into the service of the govern- 
 ment. The greatest difficulty of all was to 
 reconcile the pretensions of the different 
 commanders, for the Chinese officials, and 
 the Futai Tsen Yuying in particular, re- 
 garded Ma Julung with no friendly eye. 
 
 With the year 1867, both sides having 
 collected their strength, more active opera- 
 tions were commenced, and Ma Julung pro- 
 ceeded in person, at the head of the best 
 troops he could collect, to engage Tu 
 Wensiu. 
 
 The Red Flag. 
 
 It was at this time that the Imperialists 
 adopted the red flag as their standard in 
 contradistinction to the white flag of the 
 insurgents. A desultory campaign ensued, 
 but although Ma Julung evinced both cour- 
 age and capacity, the result was on the whole 
 unfavorable to him; and he had to retreat 
 to the capital, where events of some import- 
 ance had occurred during his absence in the 
 field. The Viceroy, who had been staunchly 
 attached to Ma Julung, died suddenly and 
 under such circumstances as to suggest a 
 suspicion of foul play; and Tsen Yuying 
 had by virtue of his rank of Futai assumed 
 the temporary discharge of his duties. The 
 retreat of Ma Julung left the insurgents free 
 to follow up their successes; and in the 
 course of 1868, the authority of the Em- 
 peror had disappeared from every other part 
 of the province except the prefectural city 
 of Yunnanfoo. 
 
 This bad fortune led the Mussulmans who 
 had followed the advice and fortunes of Ma 
 Julung to consider whether it would not be 
 wise to rejoin their co-religionists, and to at 
 once finish the contest by the destruction of 
 the government. Had Ma Julung wavered 
 in his fidelity for a moment they would have 
 all joined the standard of Tu Wensiu, and 
 the rule of the Sultan of Talifoo would have 
 been established from one end of Yunnan to 
 the other, but he stood firm and arrested 
 the movement in a summary manner. 
 
 Tu Wensiu, having established the security 
 of his communications with Burmah, whence 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 13i 
 
 he obtained supplies of arms and munitions 
 of war, devoted his efforts to the capture of 
 Yunnanfoo, which he completely invested. 
 The garrison was reduced to the lowest 
 straits before Tsen Yuying resolved to come 
 to the aid of his distressed colleague. The 
 loss of the prefectural town would not 
 merely entail serious consequences to the 
 Imperialist cause, but he felt it would per- 
 sonally compromise him as the Futai at 
 Pekin. In the early part of 1869, there- 
 fore, he threw himself into the town with 
 three thousand men, and the forces of Tu 
 Wensiu found themselves obliged to with- 
 draw from the eastern side of the city. A 
 long period of inaction followed, but during 
 this time the most important events hap- 
 pened with regard to the ultimate result. 
 
 No Hope of Success. 
 
 Ma Julung employed all his artifice and 
 arguments to show the rebel chiefs the utter 
 hopelessness of their succeeding against the 
 whole power of the Chinese Empire, which, 
 from the suppression of the Taeping rebel- 
 lion, would soon be able to be employed 
 against them. They felt the force of his 
 representations, and they were also op- 
 pressed by a sense of the slow progress 
 they had made towards the capture of 
 Yunnanfoo. Some months after Tsen Yu- 
 ying's arrival, those of the rebels who were 
 encamped to the north of the city hoisted 
 the red flag and gave in their adhesion to 
 the government. 
 
 Then Ma Julung resumed active opera- 
 tions against the other rebels, and obtained 
 several small successes. A wound received 
 during one of the skirmishes put an end to 
 his activity, and the campaign resumed its 
 desultory character. But Ma Julung's ill- 
 ness bad other unfortunate consequences ; 
 for during it Tsen Yuying broke faith with 
 
 those of the rebel leaders who had come 
 over, and put them all to a cruel death. 
 The natural consequence of this foolish 
 and ferocious act was that the Mahomedans 
 again reverted to their desperate resolve to 
 stand firmly by the side of Tu Wensiu. 
 
 The war again passed into a more active 
 phase. Ma Julung had recovered from his 
 wounds. A new Viceroy, and a man of 
 some energy, was sent from Pekin. Lin 
 Yuchow had attracted the notice of Tseng 
 Kwofan among those of his native province 
 who had responded to his appeal to defend 
 Hoonan against the Taepings sixteen years 
 before ; and shortly before the death of the 
 last Viceroy of Yunnan, he had been made 
 Governor of Kweichow. To the same pa- 
 tron at Pekin he now owed his elevation to 
 the Viceroyalty. It is said that he lost the 
 energy which once characterized him ; but 
 he brought with him several thousand 
 Hoonan braves, whose courage and military 
 experience made them invaluable auxiliaries 
 to the embarrassed authorities in Yunnan. 
 
 Many Towns Recovered. 
 
 The details of the campaign that followed 
 would fail to be instructive, and the mention 
 of names that are not merely uncouth but 
 unpronounceable would only repel the 
 reader. The result is the principal, or, in- 
 deed, the single fact worthy of our consid- 
 eration. In the course of the year 1870 
 most of the towns in the south and the 
 north of Yunnan were recovered, and com- 
 munications were re-opened with Szchuen. 
 As soon as the inhabitants perceived that the 
 government had recovered its strength, they 
 hastened to express their joy at the change 
 by repudiating the white flag which Tu 
 Wensiu had compelled them to adopt. The 
 Imperialists even to the last increased the 
 difficulty of their work of pacification by 
 
132 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 exhibiting a relentless cruelty ; and while 
 the inhabitants thought to secure their safety 
 by a speedy surrender, the Mussulmans 
 were rendered more desperate in their re- 
 solve to resist. 
 
 The chances of a Mahomedan success 
 were steadily diminishing when Yang Yuko, 
 a mandarin of some military capacity, who 
 had begun his career in the most approved 
 manner as a rebel, succeeded in capturing 
 the whole of the salt-producing district 
 which had been the main source of their 
 strength. In the year 1872 all the prelimi- 
 nary arrangements were made for attacking 
 Talifoo itself A supply of rifles had been 
 received from Canton or Shanghai, and a 
 few pieces of artillery had also arrived. With 
 these improved weapons the troops of Ma 
 Julung and Tsen Yuying enjoyed a distinct 
 advantage over the rebels of Talifoo. 
 
 A Terrible Plague. 
 
 The horrors of war were at this point in- 
 creased by those of pestilence, for the plague 
 broke out at Puerh on the southern frontier, 
 and, before it disappeared, devastated the 
 whole of the province, completing the effect 
 of the civil war, and ruining the few districts 
 which had escaped from its ravages. The 
 direct command of the siege operations at 
 Talifoo was entrusted to Yang Yuko, a 
 hunchback general, who had obtained a re- 
 putation for invincibility ; and when Tsen 
 Yuying had completed his own operations 
 he also proceeded to the camp before the 
 Mahomedan capital for the purpose of tak- 
 ing part in the crowning operation of the 
 war. 
 
 Tu Wensiu and the garrison of Talifoo, 
 although driven to desperation, could not 
 discover any issue from their difficulties. 
 They were reduced to the last stage of desti- 
 tution, and starvation stared them in the face. 
 
 In this extremity Tu Wensiu, although there 
 was every reason to believe that the Im- 
 periahsts would not fulfil their pledges, and 
 that surrender simply meant yielding to a 
 cruel death, resolved to open negotiations 
 with Yang Yuko for giving up the town. The 
 Emperor's generals signified their desire for 
 the speedy termination of the siege, at the 
 same time expressing acquiescence in the 
 general proposition of the garrison being 
 admitted to terms. Although the Futai and 
 Yang Yuko had promptly come to the 
 mutual understanding to celebrate the fall of 
 Talifoo by a wholesome massacre, they ex- 
 pressed their intention to spare the other 
 rebels on the surrender of Tu Wensiu for 
 execution and on the payment of an indem- 
 nity. 
 
 The terms were accepted, although the 
 more experienced of the rebels warned their 
 comrades that they would not be complied 
 with. On the 15th of January, 1873, Tu ' 
 Wensiu, the original of the mythical Sultan 
 Suliman, the fame of whose power filled the 
 world, and who had been an object of the 
 solicitude of the Indian government, accepted 
 the decision of his craven followers as express- 
 ing the will of Heaven, and gave himself up 
 for execution. 
 
 Rode in State to His Death. 
 
 He attired himself in his best and choicest 
 garments, and seated himself in the yellow 
 palanquin which he had adopted as one of 
 the few marks of royal state that his oppor- 
 tunities allowed him to secure. Accom- 
 panied by the men who had negotiated the 
 surrender, he drove through the streets re- 
 ceiving for the last time the homage of his 
 people, and out beyond the gates to Yang 
 Yuko's camp. Those who saw the cortege 
 marvelled at the calm indifference of the 
 fallen despot. He seemed to have as little 
 
PAGODA AT SHANGHAI, CHINA. 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 133 
 
 fear of his fate as consciousness of his sur- 
 roundings. The truth soon became evi- 
 dent. He had baffled his enemies by taking 
 slow poison. Before he ueached the presence 
 of the Futai, who had wished to gloat over 
 the possession of his prisoner, the opium had 
 done its work, and Tu Wensiu was no 
 more. It seemed but an inadequate triumph 
 to sever the head from the dead body, and 
 to send it preserved in honey as the proof of 
 victory to Pekin. 
 
 A Frightful Slaughter. 
 
 Four days after Tu Wensiu 's death, the 
 Imperialists were in complete possession of 
 the town, and a week later they had taken 
 all their measures for the execution of the 
 fell plan upon which they had decided. A 
 great feast was given for the celebration of 
 the convention, and the most important of the 
 Mahomedan commanders, including those 
 who had negotiated the truce, were present. 
 At a given signal they were attacked and 
 murdered by soldiers concealed in the gal- 
 lery for the purpose, while six cannon shots 
 announced to the soldiery that the hour had 
 arrived for them to break loose on the de- 
 fenceless townspeople. The scenes that fol- 
 lowed are stated to have surpassed descrip- 
 tion. It was computed that 30,000 men 
 alone perished after the fall of the old 
 Pathay capital, and the Futai sent to Yun- 
 nanfoo twenty-four large baskets full of 
 human ears, as well as the heads of the 
 seventeen chiefs. 
 
 With the capture of Talifoo the great 
 Mahomedan rebellion in the south-west, to 
 which the Burmese gave the name of 
 Panthay, closed, after a desultory struggle 
 of nearly eighteen years. The war was con- 
 ducted with exceptional ferocity on both 
 sides, and witnessed more than the usual 
 amount of falseness and breach of faith 
 
 common to Oriental struggles. Nobody 
 benefited by the contest, and the prosperity 
 of Yunnan, which at one time had been far 
 from inconsiderable, sank to the lowest pos- 
 sible point. 
 
 A new class of officials came to the front 
 during this period of disorder, and fidelity 
 was a sufficient passport to a certain rank. 
 Ma Julung, the Marshal Ma of European 
 travellers, gained a still higher station ; and 
 notwithstanding the jealousy of his col- 
 leagues, acquired practical supremacy in the 
 province. The high priest. Ma Tesing, who 
 may be considered as the prime instigator of 
 the movement, was executed or poisoned in 
 1874 at the instigation of some of the Chinese 
 officials. Yang Yuko, the most successful 
 of all the generals, only enjoyed a brief 
 tenure of power. It was said that he was 
 dissatisfied with his position as commander- 
 in-chief, and aspired to a higher rank. He 
 also was summoned to Pekin, but never got 
 further than Shanghai, where he died, or was 
 removed. But, although quiet gradually 
 descended upon this part of China, it was 
 long before prosperity followed in its train. 
 
 Wide-Spread Discontent. 
 
 About six years after the first mutterings 
 of discontent among the Mahomedans in the 
 south-west, disturbances occurred in the 
 north-west provinces of Shensi and Kansuh, 
 where there had been many thousand fol- 
 lowers of Islam since an early period of 
 Chinese history. They were generally 
 obedient subjects and sedulous cultivators 
 of the soil ; but they were always liable to 
 sudden ebullitions of fanaticism or turbul- 
 ence, and it was said that during the later 
 years of his reign Keen Lung had meditated 
 a wholesale execution of the male popula- 
 tion above the age of fifteen. The threat, if 
 ever made, was never carried out, but the 
 
134 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 report suffices to show the extent to which 
 danger was apprehended from the Tungan 
 population. 
 
 The true origin of the great outbreak in 
 1 862 in Shensi seems to have been a quarrel 
 between the Chinese and the Mahomedan 
 militia as to their share of the spoil derived 
 from the defeat and overthrow of a brigand 
 leader. After some bloodshed, two Impe- 
 rial Commissioners were sent from Pekin to 
 restore order. The principal Mahomedan 
 leader formed a plot to murder the commis- 
 sioners, and on their arrival he rushed into 
 their presence and slew one of them with his 
 own hand. His co-religionist deplored the 
 rash act, and voluntarily seized and sur- 
 rendered him for the purpose of undergoing 
 a cruel death. But, although he was torn to 
 pieces, that fact did not satisfy the out- 
 raged dignity of the Emperor. 
 
 The Hated Mahomedan. 
 
 A command was issued in Tungche's 
 name to the effect that all those who per- 
 sisted in following the creed of Islam should 
 perish by the sword. From Shensi the out- 
 break spread into the adjoining province of 
 Kansuh ; and the local garrisons were van- 
 quished in a pitched battle at Tara Ussu, 
 beyond the regular frontier. The insurgents 
 did not succeed, however, in taking any of 
 the larger towns of Shensi, and after threat- 
 ening with capture the once famous city of 
 Singan, they were gradually expelled from 
 that province. The Mahomedan rebellion 
 within the limits of China proper would not, 
 therefore, have possessed more than local 
 importance, but for the fact that it encour- 
 aged a similar outbreak in the country 
 further west, and that it resulted in the sever- 
 ance of the Central Asian provinces from 
 China for a^period of many years. 
 
 The uprising of the Mahomedans in the 
 
 frontier provinces appealed to the secret fears 
 as well as to the longings of the Tungan 
 settlers and soldiers in all the towns and 
 military stations between Souchow and Kash- 
 gar. The sense of a common peril, more 
 perhaps than the desire to attain the same 
 object, led to revolts at Hami, Barkul, 
 Urumtsi, and Turfan, towns which formed a 
 group of industrious communities half-way 
 between the prosperous districts of Kansuh 
 on the one side, and Kashgar on the other. 
 
 Another Insurrection. 
 
 The Tungani at these towns revolted 
 under the leading of their priests, and imi- 
 tated the example of their co-religionists 
 within the settled borders of China by mur- 
 dering all who did not accept their creed. 
 After a brief interval, which we may attribute 
 to the greatness of the distance, to the vigi- 
 lance of the Chinese garrison, or to the 
 apathy of the population, the movement 
 spread to the three towns immediately west 
 of Turfan, Karashar, Kucha, and Aksu, 
 where it came into contact with, and was 
 stopped by, another insurrection under 
 Mahomedan, but totally distinct, auspices. 
 West of Aksu the Tungan rebellion never 
 extended south of the Tian Shan range. 
 
 The defection of the Tungani, who had 
 formed a large proportion, if not the majority, 
 of the Chinese garrisons, paralyzed the 
 strength of the Celestials in Central Asia. 
 Both in the districts dependent on Hi, and in 
 those ruled from Kashgar and Yarkand, the 
 Chinese were beset by many great and per- 
 manent difficulties. They were with united 
 strength a minority, and now that they were 
 divided among themselves almost a hopeless 
 minority. 
 
 The peoples they governed were fanatical, 
 false, and fickle. The ruler of Khokand and 
 the refugees living on his bounty were always 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 i;j5 
 
 on the alert to take most advantage of the 
 least sUp or act of weakness on the part of 
 the governing classes. Their machinations 
 had been hitherto bafifled, but never before 
 had so favorable an opportunity presented 
 itself for attaining their wishes as when it 
 became known that the whole Mahomedan 
 population was up in arms against the 
 Emperor, and that communications were 
 severed between Kashgar and Pekin. The 
 attempts made at earlier periods on the part 
 of the members of the old ruling family in 
 Kashgar to regain their own by expelling 
 the Chinese are a part of history. 
 
 Fled from the Country. 
 
 In 1857 Wali Khan, one of the sons of 
 Jehangir, had succeeded in gaining temporary 
 possession of the city of Kashgar, and seemed 
 for a moment to be likely to capture Yark- 
 and also. He fell by his vices. The people 
 soon detested the presence of the man to 
 whom they had accorded a too hasty wel- 
 come. After a rule of four months he fled 
 the country, vanquished in the field by the 
 Chinese garrison, and followed by the exe- 
 crations of the population he had come to 
 deliver. 
 
 The invasion of Wali Khan further embit- 
 tered the relations between the Chinese and 
 their subjects ; and a succession of governors 
 bore heavily on the Mahomedans. Popular 
 dissatisfaction and the apprehension in the 
 minds of the governing- officials that their 
 lives might be forfeited at any moment to a 
 popular outbreak added to the dangers of 
 the situation in Kashgar itself, when the 
 news arrived of the Tungan revolt, and of 
 the many other complications which ham- 
 pered the action of the Pekin ruler. 
 
 The news of the Mahomedan outbreak in 
 China warned the Tungani in Hi that their 
 opportunity had come. But although there 
 
 were disturbances as early as January, 1863, 
 these were suppressed, and the vigilance of 
 the authorities sufficed to keep things quiet 
 for another year. Their subsequent inca- 
 pacity, or hesitation to strike a prompt blow, 
 enabled the Mahomedans to husband their 
 resources and to complete their plans. A 
 temporary alliance was concluded between 
 the Tungani and the Tarantchis and they 
 hastened to attack the Chinese troops and 
 officials. 
 
 The year 1865 was marked by the pro- 
 gress of a sanguinary struggle, during which 
 the Chinese lost their principal towns, and 
 some of their garrisons were ruthlessly 
 slaughtered after surrender. The usual 
 scenes of civil war followed. When the 
 Chinese were completely vanquished and 
 their garrisons exterminated, the victors quar- 
 relled among themselves. The Tungani and 
 the Tarantchis met in mortal encounter, and 
 the former were vanquished and their chief 
 slain. When they renewed the contest, 
 some months later, they were, after another 
 sanguinary struggle, again overthrown. 
 
 Horrors of Civil 'War. 
 
 The Tarantchis then ruled the state by 
 themselves, but the example they set of 
 native rule was, to say the least, not en- 
 couraging. One chief after another was 
 deposed and murdered. The same year wit- 
 nessed no fewer than five leaders in the 
 supreme place of power ; and when Abul 
 Oghlan assumed the title of Sultan the cup 
 of their iniquities was already full. In the 
 year 1871 an end was at last put to these 
 enormities by the occupation of the province 
 by a Russian force, and the installation of a 
 Russian governor. Although it is probable 
 that they were only induced to take this step 
 by the fear that if they did not do so Yakoob 
 Beg would, the fact remains that the Russian 
 
136 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 government did a good thing in the cause of 
 order by interfering for the restoration of 
 tranquillity in the valley of the Hi. 
 
 The Mahomedan outbreaks in southwest- 
 ern and northwestern China resulted, there- 
 fore, in the gradual suppression of the 
 Panthay rebellion, which . was completed in 
 the twelfth year of Tungche's reign, while 
 the Tungan rising, so far as ,the Ceritral 
 Asian territories were concerned, remained 
 unquelled for a longer period. The latter 
 led to the establishment of an independent 
 Tungan confederacy beyond Kansuh, and 
 also of the kingdom of Kashgaria ruled by 
 Yakoob Beg. The revolt in Hi, after several 
 alternations of fortune resulted in the brief 
 independence of the Tarantchis, who were 
 in turn displaced by the Russians under 
 a pledge of restoring the province to the 
 Chinese whenever they should return. 
 
 Only a Question of Time. 
 
 Judged by the extent of the territory 
 involved, the Mahomedan rebellion might 
 be said to be not less important than the 
 Taepiiig ; but the comparison on that ground 
 alone would be really delusive, as the numeri- 
 cal inferiority of the Mahomedans rend,ered 
 it always a question only of time for the cen- 
 tral power to be restored. 
 
 The young Emperor Tungche, therefore, 
 grew up amidst continual difficulties, although 
 the successes of his principal lieutenants affor- 
 ded good reason to believe that, so far as 
 they arose from rebels, it was only a question 
 of time before they would be finally removed. 
 The foreign intercourse still gave cause for 
 much anxiety, although there was no appre- 
 hension of war. It would have been un- 
 reasonable to suppose that the relations 
 between the foreign merchants and residents 
 and the Chinese could become, after the sus- 
 picion and dangers of generations, absolutely 
 
 cordial. The commercial and missionary 
 bodies, into which the foreign community 
 was naturally divided, had objects of trade 
 or religion to advance, which rendered them 
 apt to take an unfavorable view of the pro- 
 gress made by the Chinese government in 
 the paths of civilization, and to be ever skep- 
 tical even of its good faith. 
 
 Trying to Obtain Justice. 
 
 The main object with the foreign diplo- 
 matic representatives became not more to 
 obtain justice for their countrymen than to 
 restrain their eagerness, and to confine their 
 pretensions to the rights conceded by the 
 treaties. A clear distinction had to be 
 drawn between undue coercion of the Chi- 
 nese government on the one hand, and the 
 effectual compulsion of the people to evince 
 respect towards foreigners and to comply 
 with the obligations of the treaty on the 
 other. Instances repeatedly occurred in 
 reference to the latter matter, when it would 
 have been foolish to have shown weakness,, 
 especially as there was not the least room to 
 suppose that the government possessed at 
 that time the power and the capacity to 
 secure reparation for, or to prevent the 
 repetition of attacks on foreigners. 
 
 Under this category came the riot at 
 Yangchow in the year 1868, when some 
 missionaries had their houses burnt down, 
 and were otherwise maltreated. A similar 
 outrage was perpetrated in Formosa; but 
 the fullest redress was always tendered as 
 soon as the Executive realized that the 
 European representatives attached import- 
 ance to the occurrence. The recurrence of 
 these local dangers and disputes served to 
 bring more clearly than ever before the 
 minds of the Chinese Ministers the advisa- 
 bility of taking some step on their own part 
 towards an understanding with Europeaa 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 137 
 
 governments and peoples. The proposal to 
 depute a Chinese ambassador to the West 
 could hardly be said to be new, seeing that 
 it had been projected after the Treaty of 
 Nankin, and that the minister Keying had 
 manifested some desire to be the first man- 
 darin to serve in that novel capacity. 
 
 The American Minister. 
 
 The favorable opportunity of doing so pre- 
 sented itself when Mr. Burlingame retired 
 from his post as Minister of the United 
 States at Pekin. In the winter of 1867-68 
 Mr. Burlingame accepted an appointment as 
 accredited representative of the Chinese gov- 
 ernment to eleven of the principal countries 
 of the world, and two Chinese mandarins 
 and a certain number of Chinese students 
 were appointed to accompany him on his 
 tour. The importance of the Burlingame 
 Mission was certainly exaggerated at the 
 time, and the speculations to which it gave 
 rise as to the part China was about to take 
 in the movement of the world were no doubt 
 based on erroneous data ; but still it would 
 be a mistake to say that it failed to produce 
 any of the beneficial effect which had been 
 expected. It was something for the outer 
 world to learn in those days that the Chinese 
 represented a great power. 
 
 Mr. Burhngame was sanguine as to the 
 future development of China and the inten- 
 tion of her Executive, and the expectations 
 of his audiences both in America and in 
 Europe over leapt all difficulties and spanned 
 at a step the growth of years ; but only 
 shallow minded observers will deny that Mr. 
 Burlingame's widest stretches of fancy were 
 supported by an amount of truth which 
 events are making clearer every year. Of 
 course those who only looked on the surface, 
 who saw the difficulties under which China 
 staggered, and the dogged pride with which 
 
 she refused the remedy forced upon her by 
 foreigners, who had At least as much their 
 own interests as hers in view, declared that 
 Mr. Burlingame's statements were " enthu- 
 siastic fictions." 
 
 The Chinese themselves did not attach as 
 much importance as they might have done 
 to his efforts, and Mr. Burlingame's Mission 
 will be remembered more as an educational 
 process for foreigners than as signifying any 
 decided change in Chinese policy. His 
 death at St. Petersburg, in March, 1870, put 
 a sudden and unexpected close to his tour, 
 but it cannot be said that he could have 
 done more towards the elucidation of Chinese 
 questions than he had already accomplished, 
 while his bold and optimistic statements, 
 after awakening public attention, had already 
 begun to produce the inevitable reaction. 
 
 Great Popular Outbreak. 
 
 In 1869 Sir Rutherford Alcock retired, 
 and was succeeded in the difficult post of 
 English representative in China by Mr. 
 Thomas Wade. In the very first year of 
 his holding the post an event occurred 
 which cast all the minor aggressive acts that 
 had preceded it into the shade. It may 
 perhaps be surmised that this was the Tient- 
 sin massacre — an event which threatened to 
 reopen the whole of the China question, and 
 which brought France and China to the 
 verge of war. It was in June, 1870, on the 
 eve of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian 
 war, that the foreign settlements were startled 
 by the report of. a great popular outbreak 
 against foreigners in the important town of 
 Tientsin. 
 
 At that city there was a large and ener- 
 getic colony of Roman Catholic priests, and 
 their success in the task of conversion, small 
 as it might be held, was still sufficient to 
 excite the ire and fears of the literary and 
 
138 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 official classes. The origin of mob violence 
 is ever difficult to discover, for a trifle suf- 
 
 were spread about as to the cruelties and evil 
 practices of those devoted to the service of 
 
 THE FAMOUS PORCELAIN TOWER. 
 
 fices to set it in motion. But at Tientsin 
 specific charges of the most horrible and, it 
 need not be said, the most baseless character 
 
 religion 
 
 These rumors were dihgently cir- 
 culated, a-nd it need not cause wonder if, 
 when the mere cry of " Fanquai"— Foreign 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 139 
 
 Devil — sufficied to raise a disturbance, tiiese 
 -allegations resulted in a vigorous agitation 
 -against the missionaries, who were already 
 the mark of popular execration . 
 
 It was well known beforehand that an 
 attack on the missionaries would take place 
 unless the authorities adopted very efficient 
 measures of protection. The foreign resi- 
 ■dents and the consulates were warned of the 
 •coming outburst, and a very heavy responsi- 
 "bility will always rest on those who might, 
 by the -display of greater vigor, have pre- 
 "vented the unfortunate occurrences that 
 -ensued. At the same time, allowing for the 
 prejudices of the Chinese, it must be allowed 
 that not only must the efforts of all foreign 
 missionaries be attended with the gravest 
 peril, but that the acts of the French priests 
 -and nuns at Tientsin were, if not indiscreet, 
 -at least peculiarly calculated to arouse the 
 anger and offend the superstitious predilec- 
 tions of the Chinese. 
 
 Might Have Been Prevented. 
 
 Had the officia' . in the town acted with 
 promptitude and instituted an official inquiry, 
 it is probable that the outbreak might have 
 Tjeen averted. Such a course had proved 
 availing on equally critical occasions in some 
 •of the towns along the Yangtse; and the 
 responsibility of not taking it rested in equal 
 proportions between the Chinese officials and 
 the French Consul. At that time Chung 
 How, the Superintendent of Trade for the 
 three Northern Ports, was the principal offi- 
 cial in Tientsin; but although some represen- 
 tations, not as forcible however as the 
 occasion demanded, were made to him by 
 M. Fontanier, the French Consul, on the 
 1 8th of June, three days before the massacre, 
 no reply was given, and no precautions were 
 taken. 
 
 On the 2 1st a large crowd assembled out- 
 
 side the Mission House. They very soon 
 assumed an attitude of hostility, and it was 
 clear that at any moment the attack might 
 begin. M. Fontanier hastened off in person 
 to Chung How, but his threats seem to have 
 been as unavailing as his arguments. On 
 his return he found the attack on the point 
 of commencing. He made use of menaces, 
 and he fired a shot from his revolver, whether 
 in self-defence or in the heat of indignation 
 at some official treachery will never be 
 known. The mob turned upon him, and he 
 was murdered. The Chinese then hastened 
 to complete the work they had begun. 
 Chung How, Hke Surajah Dowlah, was not 
 to be disturbed, and the attack on the Mis- 
 sion House and Consulate proceeded, while 
 the officials responsible for order remained 
 inactive. Twenty-one foreigners in all were 
 brutally murdered under circumstances of 
 the greatest barbarity, while the number of 
 native converts who fell at the same time can 
 never be ascertained. 
 
 Feeling of Great Alarm. 
 
 This event naturally produced the greatest 
 feeling of alarm, and for the moment it was 
 feared that the rioters would proceed to 
 attack the rest of the foreign settlement. 
 The mandarins still refrained from interven- 
 tion, and as there happened to be no gun- 
 boat at Tientsin, the foreign residents were 
 for the moment placed in an extremely dan- 
 gerous predicament. They, of course, took 
 all the measures they could to defend them- 
 selves, but it was said at the time that if the 
 mob had only attacked at once they would 
 probably have overcome such resistance as 
 the Europeans could then have offered. 
 They did not do so, however, chiefly because 
 they distrusted or failed to realize their 
 strength; and the massacre of Tientsin did 
 not assume the larger proportions that were 
 
140 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 at one moment feared. The turbulent ele- 
 ments were partially quieted. 
 
 The Tientsin massacre was followed by a 
 wave of anti-foreign feeling over the whole 
 country; but although an official brought 
 out a work — entitled "Death-blow to Cor- 
 rupt Doctrine" — which obtained more than 
 a passing notoriety, and notwithstanding that 
 some members of the Imperial Family, and 
 notably, as it was stated. Prince Chun, 
 regarded the movement with favor, the argu- 
 ments .of Prince Kung and the more moderate 
 ministers carried the day, and it was resolved 
 to make every concession in the power of 
 the government for the pacific settlement of 
 the dispute that had arisen with France. 
 Compensation was offered and accepted, and 
 the unfortunate affair was settled. 
 
 Marriage of the Emperor. 
 
 It had been known for sometime that the 
 young ruler had fixed his affections on 
 Ahluta, a Manchu lady of good family, 
 daughter of Duke Chung, and that the 
 Empresses had decided that she was worthy 
 of the high rank to which she was to be 
 raised. The marriage ceremony was deferred 
 on more than one plea until after the 
 Emperor had reached his sixteenth birthday, 
 but in October, 1872, there was thought to 
 be no longer any excuse for postponement, 
 and it was celebrated with great splendor on 
 the 1 6th of that month. 
 
 The arrangements were made in strict 
 accordance with the precedent of the 
 Emperor Kanghi's marriage in 1674, that 
 ruler having also married when in occupa- 
 tion of the throne, and before he had attained 
 his majority. It was stated the ceremonial 
 was imposing, that the incidental e.xpenses 
 were enormous, and that the people were 
 very favorably impressed by the demeanor of 
 their young sovereign. Four months after 
 
 the celebration of his marriage the formal 
 act of conferring upon Tungsche the per- 
 sonal control of his dominions was performed. 
 In a special decree issued from the Board of 
 Rites the Emperor said that he received "the 
 commands of their Majesties the two 
 Empresses to assume the superintendence of 
 business." 
 
 This edict was directed to the Foreign 
 Ministers, who in return presented a col- 
 lective request to be received in audience. 
 Prince Kung was requested " to take his 
 Imperial Majesty's orders with reference to 
 their reception." The question being thus 
 brought to a crucial point, it was not 
 unnatural that the Chinese Ministers should 
 make the most vigorous resistance they could 
 to those details which seemed to and did 
 enroach upon the prerogative of the Emperor 
 as he had been accustomed to exercise it. 
 For, in the first place, they were no longer 
 free agents, and Tungche had himself to be 
 considered in any arrangement for the recep- 
 tion of foreign envoys. 
 
 A Spirited Controversy. 
 
 The discussion of the question assumed a 
 controversial character, in which stress was 
 laid on the one side upon the necessity of 
 the kotow (touching the head to the ground), 
 even in a modified form, while on the other 
 it was pointed out that the least concession 
 was objectionable as the greatest, and that 
 China would benefit by the complete settle- 
 ment of the question. It says a great deal 
 for the fairness and moderation of Prince 
 Kung and the ministers with him that, 
 although they knew that the Foreign govern- 
 ments were not prepared to make the Audi- 
 ence Question one of war, or even of th- 
 suspension of diplomatic relations, they 
 determined to settle the matter in the way 
 most distasteful to themselves and most 
 
w 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 i3 
 
GIRLS PICKING TEA. 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 141 
 
 agreeable to foreigners, thus showing a con- 
 ciliatory disposition. 
 
 On the 29th of June, 1873, Tungche re- 
 ceived in audience the ministers of the principal 
 Powers at Pekin, and thus gave completeness 
 to the many rights and concessions obtained 
 from his father and grandfather by the treaties 
 of Tientsin and Nankin. The privilege thus 
 secured caused lively gratification in the 
 minds of all foreign residents, to whom it 
 signified the great surrender of the inherent 
 right to superiority claimed by the Chinese 
 Emperors, and we have recently seen that it 
 has been accepted as a precedent. 
 
 The Illustrious Dead. 
 
 The sudden death of Tseng Kwofan in 
 the summer of 1 872 removed unquestionably 
 the foremost public man in China. Afl:er 
 the fall of Nankin he had occupied the 
 highest posts in the Empire, both at that 
 city and in the metropolis. He was not 
 merely powerful from his own position, but 
 from his having placed his friends and depen- 
 dents in many of the principal offices 
 throughout the Empire. At first prejudiced 
 against foreigners, he had gradually brought 
 himself to recognize that some advantage 
 might be derived from their knowledge. 
 
 But the change came at too late a period 
 to admit of his conferring any distinct benefit 
 on his country from the more liberal policy 
 he felt disposed to pursue with regard to the 
 training of Chinese youths in the science and 
 learning of the West. It was said that had 
 he been personally ambitious he might have 
 succeeded iii displacing the Tartar regime. 
 But such a thought never assumed any prac- 
 tical shape in his mind, and to the end of his 
 days Tseng Kwofan was satisfied to remain 
 the steadfast supporter and adherent of the 
 Manchus. In this respect he has been 
 closely imitated by his most distinguished 
 
 lieutenant, Li Hung Chang, who succeeded 
 to some of his dignities and much of his 
 power. 
 
 Another of Tseng's proteges, Tso Tsung 
 Tang, had been raised from the Vice-royalty 
 of Chekiang and Fuhkien to that of Shensi 
 and Kansuh. The promotion was of the 
 more doubtful value, seeing that both those 
 provinces were in the actual possession of 
 the rebels ; but Tso threw himself into the 
 task of reconquering them with remarkable 
 energy, and within two years of his arrival 
 he was able to report that he had cleared the 
 province of Shensi of all insurgents., He 
 then devoted his attention to the pacification 
 of Kansuh ; and after many desultory engage- 
 ments proceeded to lay siege to the town 
 of Souchow, where the Mahomedans had 
 massed their strength. 
 
 A Signal Victory. 
 
 At the end of the year 1872 the Imperial 
 army was drawn up in front of this place, but 
 Tso does not seem to have considered him- 
 self strong enough to deliver an attack, and 
 confined his operations to preventing the in- 
 troduction of supplies and fresh troops into 
 the town. Even in this he was only partially 
 successful, as a considerable body of men 
 made their way in in January, 1873. In the 
 following month he succeeded in capturing, 
 by a night attack, a temple outside the walls, 
 upon which the Mahomedans placed con- 
 siderable value. The siege continued during 
 the whole summer, and it was not until the 
 month of October that the garrison was 
 reduced to such extremities as to surrender. 
 The chiefs were hacked to pieces, and about 
 four thousand men perished by the sword. 
 The women, children, and old men were 
 spared, and the spoil of the place was handed 
 over to the soldiery. 
 
 It was Tso's distinctive merit that, far 
 
142 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 from being carried away by these successes, 
 he neglected no mihtary precaution, and 
 devoted his main efforts to the reorganiza- 
 tion of the province. In that operation he 
 may be left employed for the brief remainder 
 of Tungche's reign ; but it may be said that 
 in 1874 the campaign against Kashgariahad 
 been fully decided upon. A thousand Man- 
 chu cavalry were sent to Souchow. Sheep- 
 
 Chinese predominance, ^at the same time 
 their insular position has left them safe front 
 the attack of the Pekin government. The 
 attempt made by the Mongol, Kublai Khan^ 
 to subdue these islanders had been too disas- 
 trous to invite repetition. In Corea the pre- 
 tensions of the ruler of Yeddo had been 
 repelled, if not crushed; but wherever the 
 sea intervened the advantage rested more or 
 
 CHINESE 
 
 skins, horses, and ammunition in large 
 quantities were also despatched to the far 
 west, and General Kinshun, the Manchu 
 general, was entrusted with the command of 
 the army in the field. 
 
 The year 1874 witnessed an event that 
 claims notice. There never has been much 
 good-will between China and her neighbors 
 in Japan. The latter are too independent in 
 their bearing to please the advocates of 
 
 COBBLERS. 
 
 less decisively with him. The island of For- 
 mosa is dependent upon China, and the 
 western districts are governed by officials, 
 duly appointed by the Viceroy of Fuhkien. 
 But the eastern half of the island, separated 
 from the cultivated districts by a range of 
 mountains covered with dense if not impene- 
 trable forests, is held by tribes who own no 
 one's authority, and who act as they deem fit. 
 In the year 1868 or 1869 a junk from 
 
PRINCE KUNG AND THE REGENCY. 
 
 143 
 
 Loochoo was wrecked on this coast, and the 
 crew were murdered by the islanders. The 
 civil war in Japan prevented any prompt 
 claim for reparation, but in 1873 the affair 
 was revived, and a demand made at Pekin 
 for compensation. The demand was refused, 
 whereupon the Japanese, taking the law into 
 their own hands, sent an expedition to For- 
 mosa. China replied with a counter-demon- 
 stration, and war seemed inevitable. In this 
 crisis Mr. Wade offered his good services in 
 the interests of peace, and after considerable 
 controversy he succeeded in bringing the two 
 governments to reason, and in inducing them 
 to agree to as equitable terms as could be 
 obtained without having recourse to arms. 
 The Chinese paid an indemnity and the 
 Japanese evacuated the island. 
 
 Fortunes of Prince Kung. 
 
 In all countries governed by an absolute 
 sovereign it is as interesting as it is difficult 
 to obtain some accurate knowledge of the 
 character of the autocrat. A most important 
 change had been effected in the government 
 of China, yet it is impossible to discover what 
 its preciie significance was, or to say how far 
 it influenced the fortunes of the country. 
 The Empresses had retired into private life, 
 and for a time their Regency came to an end. 
 Prince Kung was only the minister of a young 
 prince who had it in his power to guide affairs 
 exactly as he might feel personally disposed. 
 
 Prince Kung might be either the real gov- 
 ernor of the state or only the courtier of his 
 nephew. It depended solely on that prince's 
 character. There were not wanting signs 
 that Tungche had the consciousness, if not 
 the capacity of supreme power and that he 
 wished his will to be paramount. Such 
 evidence as was obtainable agreed in stating 
 that he was impatient of restraint, and that 
 the prudent reflections of his uncle were not 
 
 over much to his fancy. On the loth of 
 September the young ruler took the world 
 into his confidence by announcing in a Ver- 
 milion Edict that he had degraded Prince 
 Kung and his son in their hereditary rank as 
 princes of the Empire for using " language 
 in very many respects unbecoming." 
 
 Whether Tungche took this \ ery decided 
 step in a moment of pique or because he 
 perceived that there was a plan among his 
 chief relatives to keep him in leading-strings, 
 must remain a matter of opinion. At the 
 least he must have refused to personally 
 retract what he had done, for on the very fol- 
 lowing day (September nth) a Decree 
 appeared from the Two Empresses rein- 
 stating Prince Kung and his son in their 
 hereditary rank and dignity, and thus re- 
 asserting the power of the ex-Regents over 
 the sovereign. 
 
 Startling Rumors. 
 
 Not long after this disturbance in the 
 interior of the palace, of which only the 
 ripple reached the surface of pubUcity, there 
 were rumors that the Emperor's health was 
 in a precarious state, and in the month of 
 December it became known that Tungche 
 was seriously ill with an attack of small-pox. 
 The disease seemed to be making satisfactory 
 progress, for the doctors were rewarded ; 
 but on the i8th of December an edict 
 appeared ordering or requesting the Em- 
 presses Dowager to assume the personal 
 charge of the administration. Six days later 
 another edict appeared which strengthened 
 the impression that the Emperor was making 
 good progress towards recovery. But ap- 
 pearances were deceptive, for, after several 
 weeks' uncertainty, it became known that the 
 Emperor's death was inevitable. On the 
 I2th of January, 1875, Tungche "ascended 
 upon the Dragon, to be a guest on high," 
 
144 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 without leaving any offspring to succeed him. 
 There were rumors that his illness was 
 only a plausible excuse and that he was 
 really the victim of foul play ; but it is not 
 likely that the truth on that point will ever 
 be revealed. Whether he was the victim of 
 an intrigue similar to that which had marked 
 his accession to power, or whether he only 
 died from the neglect or incompetence of his 
 medical attendants, the consequences were 
 equally favorable to the personal views of 
 the two Empresses and Prince Kung. They 
 resumed the exercise of that supreme author- 
 ity which they had resigned little more than 
 twelve months before. The most suspicious 
 circumstance in connection with this event 
 was the treatment of the young Empress 
 Ahluta^ who, it was well known, was preg- 
 nant at the time of her husband's death. 
 
 The Queen's Mysterious Death. 
 
 Instead of waiting to decide as to the suc- 
 cession until it was known whether Tungche's 
 posthumous child would prove to be a son 
 or a daughter, the Empress Dowager hast- 
 ened to make another selection and to place 
 the young widow of the deceased sovereign 
 in a state of honorable confinement. Their 
 motive was plain. Had Ahluta's child hap- 
 pened to be a son, he would have been the 
 legal Emperor, as well as the heir by direct 
 descent, and she herself could not have been 
 excluded from a prominent share in the gov- 
 ernment. To the Empress Dowagers one 
 child on the throne mattered no more than 
 another ; but it was a question of the first 
 importance that Ahluta should be set on one 
 side. In such an atmosphere there is often 
 grievous peril to the lives of inconvenient 
 personages. 
 
 Ahluta sickened and died. Her child was 
 
 never born. The charitable gave her credit 
 for having refused food through grief for 
 her husband, Tungche. The skeptical hst- 
 ened to the details of her illness with scorn 
 for the vain efforts to obscure the dark deeds 
 of ambition. In their extreme anxiety to 
 realize their own designs and at the same 
 time not to injure the constitution, the two 
 Empresses had been obliged to resort to a 
 plan that could only have been suggested by 
 desperation. For the first time since the 
 Manchu dynasty occupied the throne, it was 
 necessary to depart from the due line of suc- 
 cession, and to make the election of the 
 sovereign a matter of individual fancy or 
 favor instead of one of inheritance. 
 
 Choice of a New Emperor. 
 The range of choice was limited ; for the 
 son of Prince Kung himself, who seemed to 
 enjoy the prior right to the throne, was a 
 young man of sufficient age to govern for 
 himself; and, moreover, his promotion 
 would mean the compulsory retirement from 
 public life of Prince Kung, for it was not 
 possible in China for a father to serve under 
 his son, until Prince Chun, the father of the 
 present reigning Emperor, estabHshed quite 
 recently a precedent to the contrary. The 
 name of Prince Kung's son, if mentioned at 
 all, was only mentioned to be dismissed. The 
 choice of the Empresses fell upon Tsai Tien, 
 the son of Prince Chun or the Seventh 
 Prince, who on the 13th of January was 
 proclaimed Emperor. As he was of too 
 tender an age to rule for himself, his nom- 
 ination served the purposes of the two Em- 
 presses and their ally Prince Kung, who 
 thus entered upon a second lease of undis- 
 puted power. They ruled in reality, the boy 
 Emperor only in name. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANQSU. 
 
 THUS after a very brief interval the 
 governing power again passed into 
 the hands of the Regents who had 
 ruled the state so well for the 
 twelve years following the death of Hien- 
 fung. The nominal Emperor was a child of 
 little more than three years of age, to whom 
 was given the style of " Kwangsu," or " il- 
 lustrious succession," and the Empresses 
 •could look forward to many years of author- 
 ity in the name of so young a sovereign. 
 The only opposition to their return to power 
 seems to have come from the Palace 
 €unuchs, who had asserted themselves dur- 
 ing the brief reign of Tungche and hoped to 
 gain predominance in the Imperial councils. 
 But they found a determined mistress in the 
 person of Tse An, the Eastern Empress, as 
 she was also called, who took vigorous 
 action against them, punishing their Jeaders 
 with death and effectually nipping in the bud 
 all their projects for making themselves su- 
 preme. 
 
 The return of the Empresses to power 
 Tvas followed by a great catastrophe in the 
 relations between England and China. For 
 the moment it threw every other matter into 
 the shade, and seemed to render the out- 
 break of war between the two countries 
 almost inevitable. In the year 1874 the 
 government of India, repenting of its brief 
 infatuation for the Panthay cause, yet still 
 reluctant to lose the advantages it had prom- 
 ised itself from the opening of Yunnan to 
 trade, resolved upon sending a formal mis- 
 sion of exploration under Colonel Horace 
 10 
 
 Browne, an officer of distinction, through 
 Burmah to that province. 
 
 The difficulties in the way of the under- 
 taking seemed comparatively few, as the 
 King of Burmah was friendly and appeared 
 disposed at that time to accept his natui-al 
 position as the dependent of Calcutta. The 
 Pekin authorities also were outwardly not 
 opposed to the journey ; and the only oppo- 
 sition to be apprehended was from the Yun- 
 nan officials and people. 
 
 Long Journey Across China. 
 
 It was thought desirable, with the view of 
 preparing the way for the appearance of this 
 foreign mission, that a representative of the 
 English embassy at Pekin, having a knowl- 
 edge of the language and of the ceremonial 
 etiquette of the country, should be deputed 
 to proceed across China and meet Colonel 
 Browne on the Burmese frontier. The officer 
 selected for this delicate and difficult mission 
 was Mr. Raymond Augustus Margary, who 
 to the singular aptitude he had displayed in 
 the study of Chinese added a buoyant spirit 
 and a vigorous frame that peculiarly fitted 
 him for the long and lonely journey he had 
 undertaken across China. His reception 
 throughout was encouraging. Mr. Margary 
 performed his journey in safety; and, on the 
 26th of January, 1875, only one fortnight 
 after Kwangsu's accession, he joined Colonel 
 Browne at Bhamo. A delay of more than 
 three weeks ensued at Bhamo, which was 
 certainly unfortunate. Time was given for 
 the circulation of rumors as to the approach 
 
 145 
 
146 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 of a foreign invader along a disturbed fron- 
 tier held by tribes almost independent, and 
 whose predatory instincts were excited by 
 the prospect of rich plunder at the same 
 time that their leaders urged them to oppose 
 a change which threatened to destroy their 
 hold on the caravan route between Bhamo 
 and Talifoo. 
 
 When on the 17th of February Colonel 
 Browne and his companions approached the 
 limits of Burmese territory, they found them- 
 selves in face of a totally different state of 
 affairs from what had existed when Mr. Mar- 
 gary passed safely through three weeks 
 before. The preparation for opposing the 
 English had been made under the direct en- 
 couragement, and probably the personal 
 direction, of Lisitai, a man who had been a 
 brigand and then a rebel, but who at this 
 time held a military command on the fron- 
 tier. 
 
 Last News Received. 
 
 As Colonel Browne advanced he was met 
 with rumors of the opposition that awaited 
 him. At first these were discredited, but on 
 the renewed statements that a large Chinese 
 force had been collected to bar his way, Mr. 
 Margary rode forward to ascertain what truth 
 there was in these rumors. The first town 
 on this route within the Chinese border is 
 Momein, which, under the name of Tengyue, 
 was once a military station of importance, 
 and some distance east of it again is another 
 town, called Manwein. Mr. Margary set 
 out on the 19th of February, and it was 
 arranged that only in the event of his find- 
 ing everything satisfactory at Momein was 
 he to proceed to Manwein ; and on the first 
 suspicious occurrence he was to retreat at 
 once to the main body. 
 
 Mr. Margary reached Momein in safety, 
 and reported in a letter to Colonel Browne 
 
 that all was quiet at that place, and that 
 there were no signs of any resistance. That 
 letter was the last news ever received from 
 Mr. Margary. On the 19th of February he 
 started from Momein, and the information 
 subsequently obtained left no doubt that he 
 was treacherously murdered on that or the 
 following day at Manwein. An ominous 
 silence followed, and Colonel Browne's party 
 delayed its advance until some definite news 
 should arrive as to what had occurred in 
 front, although the silence was sufficient to 
 justify the worst apprehensions. 
 
 A Brave Little Band. 
 
 Three days later the rumor spread that 
 Mr. Margary and his attendants had been 
 murdered. It was also stated that an army 
 was advancing to attack the English expedi- 
 tion; and on the 22nd of February a large 
 Chinese force did make its appearance on the 
 neighboring heights. There was no longer 
 any room to doubt that the worst had hap- 
 pened, and it only remained to secure the 
 safety of the expedition. 
 
 These Chinese numbered several thousand 
 men under Lisitai in person, while to oppose 
 them there were only four Europeans and 
 fifteen Sikhs. Yet superior weapons and 
 steadfastness carried the day against greater 
 numbers. The Sikhs fought as they retired, 
 and the Chinese, unable to make any im- 
 pression on them, abandoned an attack 
 which was both perilous and useless. 
 
 The news of this outrage did not reach 
 Pekin until a month later, when Mr. Wade 
 at once took the most energetic measures to 
 obtain the amplest reparation in the power of 
 the Pekin government to concede. The first 
 and most necessary point in order to ensure 
 not merely the punishment of the guilty, but 
 also that the people of China should not 
 have cause to suppose that their rulers 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANGSU. 
 
 147 
 
 secretly sympathized with the authors of the 
 attack, was that no punitive measures should 
 be undertaken, or, if undertaken, recognized, 
 until a special Commission of Inquiry had 
 been appointed to investigate the circum- 
 stances on the spot. Mr. Margary was an 
 officer of the English government traveling 
 under special permission and protection. 
 
 Mysterious Delay. 
 
 The Chinese government could not expect 
 to receive consideration if it failed to enforce 
 respect for its own commands, and the 
 English government had an obligation which 
 it could not shirk in exacting reparation for 
 the murder of its representative. The 
 treacherous killing of Mr. Margary was evi- 
 dently not an occurrence for which it could 
 be considered a sufficient atonement that 
 some miserable criminals under sentence of 
 death, or some desperate individuals anxious 
 to secure the worldly prosperity of their 
 families, should undergo painful torture and 
 public execution in order to shield official 
 falseness and infamy. Although no one 
 ever suspected the Pekin government of 
 having directly instigated the outrage, the 
 delay in instituting an impartial and search- 
 ing inquiry into the affair strengthened an 
 impression that it felt reluctant to inflict pun- 
 ishment on those who had committed the 
 act of violence. 
 
 Nearly three months elapsed before any 
 step was taken towards appointing a Chinese 
 official to proceed to the scene of the out- 
 rage in company with the officers named by 
 the English minister; but on the 19th of 
 June an edict appeared in the Pekin Gazette 
 ordering Li Han Chang, Governor-General 
 of Houkwang, to temporarily vacate his 
 post, and " repair with all speed to Yunnan 
 to investigate and deal with certain matters." 
 Even then the matter dragged along but 
 
 slowly. It was not till the end of the year 
 that the Commission to ascertain the fate of 
 Mr. Margary began Uts active work on the 
 spot. 
 
 The result was unexpectedly disappoint- 
 ing. The mandarins supported one another. 
 The responsibility was thrown on several 
 minor officials, and on the border-tribes or 
 savages. Several of the latter were seized, 
 and their lives were offered as atonement fbr 
 an offence they had not committed. The 
 furthest act of concession which the Chinese 
 Commissioner gave was to temporarily sus- 
 pend Tsen Yuhing the Futai for remissness ; 
 but even this measure was never enforced 
 with rigor. The English officers soon found 
 that it was impossible to obtain any proper 
 reparation on the spot. 
 
 Strong Demand for Reparation. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wade, who was knighted 
 during the negotiations, refused to accept 
 the lives of the men offered, whose compli- 
 city in the offence was known to be none at 
 all, while its real instigators escaped without 
 any punishment. When the new year, 1876, 
 opened, the question was still unsettled, and 
 it was clear that no solution could be dis- 
 covered on the spot. Sir Thomas Wade 
 again called upon the Chinese in the most 
 emphatic language allowed by diplomacy to 
 conform with the spirit and letter of their en- 
 gagements, and he informed the government 
 that unless they proffered full redress for 
 Mr. Margary 's murder it would be impossi- 
 ble to continue diplomatic relations. To 
 show that this was no meaningless expres- 
 sion. Sir Thomas Wade left Pekin, while a 
 strong reinforcement to the English fleet 
 demonstrated that the government was re- 
 solved to support its representative. 
 
 In consequence of these steps, Li Hung 
 Chang was, in August, 1876, or more than 
 
148 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 eighteen months after the outrage, entrusted 
 with full powers for the arrangement of the 
 difficulty; and the small seaport of Chefoo 
 was fixed upon as the scene for the forth- 
 coming negotiations. Even then the Chinese 
 sought to secure a sentimental advantage by 
 requesting that Sir Thomas Wade would 
 change the scene of discussion to Tientsin, 
 or at least that he would consent to pay Li 
 Hung Chang a visit there. This final effort 
 
 Ambassador, whose dispatch had been de- 
 cided upon in the previous year. When the 
 secret history of this transaction is revealed 
 it will be seen how sincere were Li Hung 
 Chang's wishes for a pacific result, and how 
 much his advice contributed to this end. 
 
 The most important passage in the Chefoo 
 Convention was unquestionably that com- 
 manding the different viceroys and gov- 
 ernors to respect, and afiford every protec- 
 
 CHIKESE RESTAURANT. 
 
 to conceal the fact that the English demanded 
 redress as an equal and not as a suppliant 
 having been baffled, there' was no further 
 attempt at delay. 
 
 The Chefoo Convention was signed in that 
 town, to which the Viceroy proceeded from 
 Tientsin. Li Hung Chang entertained the 
 Foreign Ministers at a great banquet ; and 
 the final arrangements were hurried forward 
 for the departure to Europe of the Chinese 
 
 tion to, all foreigners provided with the 
 necessary passport, and warning them that 
 they would be held responsible in the event 
 of any such travellers meeting with injury 
 or maltreatment. The next most important 
 passage was that arranging for the despatch 
 of an Embassy to London bearing a letter of 
 regret for the murder of the English official. 
 The official selected for this duty was Kwo 
 Sungtao, a mandarin of high rank and unex- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANGSU. 
 
 149 
 
 ceptionable character. It was a delicate 
 mission with which he was entrusted. 
 
 The letter was submitted to Sir Thomas 
 Wade in order that its terms should be 
 exactly in accordance with Chinese etiquette, 
 and that no phrase should be used showing 
 that the Chinese government attached less 
 importance to the mission than the occasion 
 demanded. The Embassy proceeded to 
 Europe, and, whatever may be thought of 
 its immediate effect, it must be allowed that 
 it established a precedent of friendly inter- 
 course with that country, which proved an 
 additional guarantee of peace. 
 
 A curious incident arising from the pas- 
 sion of gambling which is so prevalent in 
 China, and bearing incidentally upon the 
 national character, may be briefly referred 
 to. The attention of the Pekin government 
 was attracted to this subject by a novel form 
 of gambling, which not merely attained enor- 
 mous dimensions, but which threatened to 
 bring the system of public examination into 
 disrepute. This latter fact created a pro- 
 found impression at Pekin, and roused the 
 mandarins to take unusually prompt meas- 
 ures. 
 
 Lottery on a Large Scale. 
 
 Canton was the headquarters of the gam- 
 bling confederacy v/hich established the lot- 
 teries known as the Weising, but its ramifica- 
 tions extended throughout the whole of the 
 province of Kwantung. The Weising, or 
 examination sweepstakes, were based on the 
 principle of drawing the names of the suc- 
 cessful candidates at the official examinations. 
 They appealed, therefore, to every poor vil- 
 lager, and every father of a family, as well as 
 to the aspirants themselves. The subscribers 
 to the Weising lists were numbered by hun- 
 dreds of thousands. It became a matter of 
 almost as much importance to draw a suc- 
 
 cessful number or name in the lottery as to 
 take the degree. The practice could not 
 have been allowed to go on without intro- 
 ducing serious abuses into the system of 
 public examination. 
 
 The profits of the owners of the lottery 
 were so enormous that they were able to pay 
 not less than eight hundred thousand dollars 
 as hush-money to the Viceroy and the other 
 high officials of Canton. In order to shield 
 his own participation in the profits, the Vice- 
 roy declared that he devoted this new source 
 of revenue to the completion of the river de- 
 fences of Canton. 
 
 Severe Penalties Threatened. 
 
 In 1874 the whole system was declared 
 illegal, and severe penalties were passed 
 against those aiding, or participating in any 
 way in, the Weising Company. The local 
 officers did not, however, enforce with any 
 stringency these new laws, and the Weising 
 fraternity enjoyed a further but brief period 
 of increased activity under a different name. 
 The fraud was soon detected, and in an Edict 
 of August II, 1875, it was very rightly laid 
 down that " the maintenance of the purity of 
 government demands that it be not allowed 
 under any pretext to be re-established," and 
 for their apathy in the matter the Viceroy 
 Yinghan and several of the highest officials 
 in Canton were disgraced and stripped of 
 their official rank. 
 
 In China natural calamities on a colossal 
 scale have often aggravated political troubles. 
 The year 1876 witnessed the commencement 
 of a drouth in the two great provinces of 
 Honan and Shansi which has probably never 
 been surpassed as the cause of a vast amount 
 of human suffering. Although the provinces 
 named suffered the most from the prevalent 
 drought, the suffering was general over the 
 whole of Northern China, from Shantung 
 
150 
 
 CHINA : PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 and Pechihli to Honan and the course of the 
 Yellow River. 
 
 At first the government, if not apathetic, 
 was disposed to say that the evil would be 
 met by the grant of the usual allowance 
 made by the Provincial Governors in the 
 event of distress; but when one province 
 after another was absorbed within the famine 
 era, it became no longer possible to treat the 
 matter as one of such limited importance, and 
 the high ministers felt obliged to bestir them- 
 selves in face of so grave a danget. Li Hung 
 Chang in particular was most energetic, not 
 merely in collecting and forwarding supplies 
 of rice and grain, but also in inviting con- 
 tributions of money from all those parts of 
 the Empire which had not been affected by 
 famine. 
 
 Efforts to Relieve the Famine. 
 
 Allowing for the general sluggishness of 
 popular opinion in China, and for the absence 
 of any large amount of currency, it must be 
 allowed that these appeals met with a large 
 and liberal response. The foreign residents 
 also contributed their share, and even the 
 charity of London found a vent in sending 
 some thousands of pounds to the scene of the 
 famine in Northern China. This evidence of 
 foreign sympathy in the cause of a common 
 humanity made more than a passing impres- 
 sion on the minds of the Chinese people. 
 
 While the origin of the famine may be 
 attributed to either drought or civil war, 
 there is no doubt that its extension and the 
 apparent inability of the authorities to grapple 
 with it may be traced to the want of means 
 of communication, which rendered it almost 
 impossible to convey the needful succor into 
 the famine districts. The evil being so ob- 
 vious, it was hoped that the Chinese would 
 be disposed to take a step forward on their 
 own initiative in the great and needed work 
 
 of the introduction of railways and other 
 mechanical appliances. The Viceroy of the 
 Two Kiang gave his assent to the construc- 
 tion of a short line between Shanghai and 
 the port of Woosung. 
 
 The great difficulty had always been to 
 make a start; and now that a satisfactory 
 Commencement had been made the foreigners 
 were disposed in their eagerness to overlook 
 all obstacles, and to imagine the Flowery 
 Land traversed in all directions by railways. 
 But these expectations were soon shown to 
 be premature. Half of the railway was open 
 for use in the summer of 1876, and during 
 some weeks the excitement among the Chi- 
 nese themselves was as marked as among 
 the Europeans. The hopes based upon this 
 satisfactory event were destined to be soon 
 dispelled by the animosity of the officials, 
 They announced their intention to resort to 
 every means in their power to prevent the 
 completion of the undertaking. The situa- 
 tion revealed such dangers of mob violence 
 that Sir Thomas Wade felt compelled to 
 request the Company to discontinue its 
 operations, and after some discussion it was 
 arranged that the Chinese should buy the 
 line. 
 
 Opposition to the Railway. 
 
 After a stipulated period the line was 
 placed under Chinese management, when, 
 instead of devoting themselves to the interests 
 of the railway, and to the extension of its 
 power of utility, they wifully and persistently 
 neglected it, with the express design of de- 
 stroying it. At this conjuncture the Viceroy 
 allowed the Governor of Fuhkien to remove 
 the rails and plant to Formosa. The fate of 
 the Woosung railway destroyed the hopes 
 created by its construction, and postponed 
 tc) a later day the great event of the introduc- 
 tion of railways into China. Notwithstand- 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANGSU. 
 
 151 
 
 ing such disappointments as this, and the 
 ever present difficulty of conducting relations 
 with an unsympathetic people controlled by 
 suspicious officials, there was yet observable 
 a marked improvement in the relations of the 
 different nations with the Chinese. 
 
 Opening New Ports. 
 
 Increased facilities of trade, such as the 
 opening of new ports, far from extending the 
 area of danger, served to promote a mutual 
 good-will. In 1876 Kiungchow, in the 
 island of Hainan, was made a treaty port, or 
 rather the fact of its having been included in 
 the treaty of Tientsin was practically 
 accepted and recognized. In the following 
 year four new ports were added to the list. 
 One, Pakhoi, was intended to increase trade 
 intercourse with Southern China. Two of 
 the three • others, Ichang and Wuhu, were 
 selected as being favorably situated for com- 
 merce on the Yangtse and its affluents, while 
 Wenchow was chosen for the benefit of the 
 trade on the coast. 
 
 The close of the great work successfully 
 accomplished during the two periods of the 
 Regency was followed within a few weeks 
 by the disappearance of the most important 
 of the personages who had carried on the 
 government throughout these twenty years 
 of constant war and diplomatic excitement. 
 Before the Pekin world knew of her illness, 
 it heard of the death of the Empress 
 Dowager Tsi An, who as Hienfung's princi- 
 pal widow had enjoyed the premier place in 
 the goverrlment, although she had never 
 possessed a. son to occupy the throne in 
 person. In a proclamation issued in her 
 name and possibly at her request, Tsi An 
 described the course of her malady, the soli- 
 citude of the Emperor, and urged upon him 
 the duty of his high place to put restraint 
 upon his grief. Her death occurred on 1 8th 
 
 April, from heart disease when she was only 
 forty-five, and her subsequent obsequies were 
 as splendid as her services demanded. For 
 herself she had always been a woman of 
 frugal habits, and the successful course of 
 recent Chinese history was largely due to 
 her firmness and resolution. Her associate 
 in the Regency, Tsi Thsi, who was always 
 more or less of an invalid, survived her. 
 
 The difficulty with Russia had not long 
 been composed, when, on two opposite sides 
 of her extensive dominion, China was called 
 upon to face a serious condition of affairs. 
 In Corea, "the forbidden land" of the Far 
 East, events were forced by the eagerness 
 and competition of European states to con- 
 clude treaties of commeace with that primi- 
 tive kingdom, and perhaps also by their fear 
 that if they delayed Russia would appropriate 
 some port on the Corean coast. 
 
 Corea a Source of Trouble. 
 
 To all who had official knowledge of 
 Russia's desire and plan for seizing Port 
 Lazareff, this apprehension was far from 
 chimerical, and there was reason to believe 
 that Russia's enroachment might compel 
 other countries to make annexations in or 
 round Corea by way of precaution. Practi- 
 cal evidence of this was furnished by the 
 English occupation of Port Hamilton, and 
 by its subsequent evacuation when the neces- 
 sity passed away, but should the occasion 
 again arise the key of the situation will 
 probably be found in the possession not of 
 Port Hamilton or Quelpart, but of the Island 
 of Tsiusima. Recourse was had to dip- 
 lomacy to avert what threatened to be a 
 grave international danger ; and although the 
 result was long doubtful, and the situation 
 sometimes full of peril, a gratifying success 
 was achieved in the end. 
 
 In 1 88 1 a draft commercial treaty was 
 
152 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 drawn up, approved by the Chinese author- 
 ites and the representatives of the principal 
 powers at Pekin, and carried to the Court of 
 Seoul for acceptance and signature by the 
 American naval officer, Commodore Schu- 
 feldt. The Corean king made no objection 
 to the arrangement, and it was signed with 
 the express stipulation that the ratifications 
 of the treaty were to be exchanged in the 
 following year. Thus was it harmoniously 
 
 aroused the jealousy of Japan, which has 
 long asserted the right to have an equal 
 voice with China in the control of Corean 
 affairs ; and the government of Tokio, on 
 hearing of the Schufeldt treaty, at once took 
 steps not merely to obtain all the rights to 
 be conferred by that document, to which no 
 one would have objected, but also to assert 
 its claim to control equally with China the 
 policy of the Corean Court. With that ob- 
 
 CHINESE OUT 
 
 arranged at Pekin that Corea was to issue 
 from her hermit's cell, and open her ports 
 to trading countries under the guidance and 
 encouragement of China. There can be no 
 doubt that if this arrangement had been 
 carried out, the influence and the position of 
 China in Corea would have been very 
 greatly increased and strengthened. 
 
 But, unfortunately, the policy of Li Hung 
 Chung — for, if he did not originate, he took 
 the most important part in directing it 
 
 FOR AN AIRING. 
 
 ject, a Japanese fleet and army were sent to 
 the Seoul river, and when the diplomatists 
 returned for the ratification of the treaty, 
 they found the Japanese in a strong position 
 close to the Corean capital. 
 
 The Chinese were not to be set on one 
 side in so open a manner, and a powerful 
 fleet of gunboats, with 5,000 troops, sent to 
 the Seoul river to uphold their rights. Under 
 other circumstances, more especially as the 
 Chinese expedition was believed to be the 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANGSU. 
 
 153 
 
 superior, a hostile collision must l^ave en- 
 sued, and the war which has so often seemed 
 near between the Chinese and Japanese 
 would have become an accomplished fact; 
 but fortunately the presence of the foreign 
 diplomatists moderated the ardor of both 
 sides, and a rupture was averted. By a 
 stroke of judgment the Chinese seized Tai 
 Wang Kun, the father of the young king, 
 and the leader of the anti-foreign party, and 
 carried him off to Pekin, where he was kept 
 in imprisonment for some time, until matters 
 had settled down in his own country. 
 
 Rivalry Between China and Japan. 
 
 The opening of Corea to the Treaty 
 Powers did not put an end to the old rivalry 
 of China and Japan in that country, of which 
 history contains so many examples ; and the 
 attack on the Japanese Legion in 1884 was 
 a striking revelation of popular antipathy or 
 of an elaborate anti- Japanese plot headed by 
 the released Chinese prisoner, Tai Wang 
 Kun. 
 
 At the opposite point of the frontier China 
 was brought face to face with a danger 
 which threatened to develop into a peril of 
 the first magnitude, and in meeting which 
 she was undoubtedly hampered by her 
 treaties with the general body of foreign 
 Powers and her own peculiar place in the 
 family of nations. It is the special misfor- 
 tune of China that she cannot engage in 
 any, even a defensive, war with a maritime 
 power without incurring the grave risk, or, 
 indeed, the practical certainty that, if such a 
 war be continued for any length of time, she 
 must find herself involved with every other 
 foreign country through the impossibility of 
 confining the hostility of her own subjects to 
 one race of foreigners in particular. 
 
 In considering the last war with a Euro- 
 pean country in which China was engaged, 
 
 due allowance must be made for these facts, 
 and also for the anomalous character of that 
 contest when active hostilities were carried 
 on without any formal declaration of war — a 
 state of things which gave the French many 
 advantages. Towards the end of the year 
 1882, the French Government came to the 
 decision to establish a "definite protectorate" 
 over Tonquin. Events had for some time 
 been shaping themselves in this direction, and 
 the colonial ambition of France had long 
 fixed on Indo-China as a field in which it 
 might aggrandize itself with comparatively 
 little risk and a wide margin of advantage. 
 The weakness of the kingdom of Annam 
 was a strong enough temptation in itself to 
 assert the protectorate over it which France 
 had, more or less, claimed for forty years ; 
 but when the reports of several French ex- 
 plorers came to promote the conviction that 
 France might acquire the control of a con- 
 venient and, perhaps, the best route into 
 some of the richest provinces of interior 
 China without much difficulty, the tempta- 
 tion became irresistible. 
 
 France is Quick to Act. 
 
 French activity in Indo-China was height- 
 ened by the declaration of Garnier, Rocher 
 and others that the Songcoi, or Red River, 
 furnished the best means of communicating 
 with Yuiman, and tapping the wealth of the 
 richest mineral province in China. The 
 apathy of England in her relations with 
 Burmah, which presented, under its arrogant 
 and obstructive rulers, what may have 
 seemed an insuperable obstacle to trade in- 
 tercourse between India and China, afiforded 
 additional inducement to the French to act 
 quickly ; and, as they felt confident of their 
 ability and power to coerce the Court of 
 Hue, the initial difficulties of their undertak- 
 ing did not seem very formidable. 
 
154 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 That undertaking was, in the first place, 
 •defined to be a protectorate of China, and, 
 as the first step in the enterprise, the town of 
 Hanoi, in the delta of the Red River, and 
 the nominal capital of Tonquin, was cap- 
 tured before the end of the year 1882. 
 
 Tonquin stood in very much the same re- 
 lationship to China as Corea ; and, although 
 the enforcement of the suzerain tie was lax, 
 there was no doubt that at Pekin the opin- 
 ion was held very strongly that the action of 
 France was an encroachment on the rights 
 •of China. But, if such was the secret opin- 
 ion of the Chinese authorities, they took no 
 immediate steps to arrest the development of 
 French policy in Tonquin by proclaiming it 
 a Chinese dependency, and also their, inten- 
 tion to defend it. While Li Hung Chang 
 and the other members of the Chinese Gov- 
 ernment were deliberating as to the course 
 they should pursue, the French were acting 
 with great vigor in Tonquin, and committing 
 their military reputation to a task from 
 which they could not in honor draw back. 
 
 Movements of the "Black Flags.'' 
 During the whole of the year 1883 they 
 •were engaged in military operations with the 
 Black Flag irregulars, a force half piratical 
 and half patriotic, who represented the 
 national army of the country. It was be- 
 lieved at the time, but quite erreoneously, 
 that the Black Flags were paid and incited 
 by the Chinese. Subsequent evidence showed 
 that the Chinese authorities did not take 
 even an indirect part in the contest until a 
 much later period. After the capture of 
 Hanoi, the French were constantly engaged 
 with the Black Flags, from whom they cap- 
 tured the important town of Sontay, which 
 was reported to be held by Imperial Chinese 
 troops, but on its capture this statement was 
 found to be untrue. 
 
 The French were in the full belief that the 
 conquest of Tonquin would be easily effected, 
 when a serious reverse obliged them to realize 
 the gravity of their task. A considerable 
 detachment, under the command of Captain 
 Henri Riviere, who was one of the pioneers 
 of French enterprise on the Songcoi, was 
 surprised and defeated near Hanoi. Riviere 
 was killed, and it became necessary to make 
 a great effort to recover the ground that had 
 been lost. Fresh troops weie sent from 
 Europe, but. before they arrived the French 
 received another check at Phukai, which the 
 Black Flags claimed as a victory because the 
 French were obliged to retreat. 
 
 Extreme Measvires by the French. 
 
 Before this happened the French had taken 
 exteme measures against the King of Annam, 
 of which state Tonquin is the northern pro- 
 vince. The King of that country, by name 
 Tuduc, who had become submissive to the 
 French, died in July, 1883, and after his 
 death the Annamese, perhaps encouraged by 
 the difficulties of the French in Tonquin, 
 became so hostile that it was determined 
 to read them a severe lesson. Hue was at- 
 tacked and occupied a month after the death 
 of Tuduc, and a treaty was extracted from 
 the new king which made him the depend- 
 ent of France. When the cold season began 
 in Tonquin, the French forces largely in- 
 creased, and, commanded by Admiral Cour- 
 bet, renewed operations, and on the nth of 
 December attacked the main body of the 
 Black Flags at Sontay, which they had 
 reoccupied and strengthened. 
 
 They offered a desperate and well sustained 
 resistance, and it was only with heavy loss 
 that the French succeeded in carrying the 
 town. The victors were somewhat recom- 
 pensed for their hardships and loss by the 
 magnitude of the spoil, which included a 
 
thp: reign of the emperor kwangsu. 
 
 ir,5 
 
 large sum of money. Desultory fighting 
 continued without intermission ; Admiral 
 Courbet was superseded by General Millot, 
 who determined to signalize his assumption 
 •of the command by attacking Bacninh, which 
 the Black Flags made their headquarters 
 after the loss of Sontay. On the 8th of 
 M^rch, he attacked this place at the head 
 of 12,000 men, but so formidable were its 
 defences that he would not risk an attack 
 in front, and by a circuitous march of four 
 days he gained the flank of the position, and 
 thus taken at a disadvantage, the Black 
 Flags abandoned their formidable lines, and 
 retreated without much loss, leaving their 
 artillery, including some Krupp guns, in the 
 hands of the victors. 
 
 A Treaty of Peace. 
 
 At this stage of the question diplomacy 
 intervened, and on the i ith of May a treaty 
 of peace was signed by Commander Fournier, 
 during the ministry of M. Jules Ferry, with 
 the Chinese government. One of the prin- 
 cipal stipulations of this treaty was that the 
 French should be allowed to occupy Lang- 
 son and other places in Tonquin. When the 
 French comn^ander in Tonquin sent g, force 
 under Colonel Dugenne to occupy Langson 
 it was opposed in the Bade defile and 
 repulsed with some loss. The Chinese ex- 
 onerated themselves from all responsibility 
 by declaring that the French advance was 
 premature, because no date was fixed by the 
 Fournier convention, and because there had 
 not been time to transmit the necessary 
 orders. \ 
 
 On the other hand, M. Fournier declared 
 on his honor that the dates in his draft were 
 named in the original convention. The 
 French government at once demanded an 
 apology, and an indemnity fixed by M. Jules 
 Ferry, in a moment of mental excitement, at 
 
 the ridiculous figure of ^50,000,000. An 
 apology was offered, but such an indemnity 
 was refused, and eventually France obtained 
 one of only ^800,000. 
 
 After the Bade affair hostilities were at 
 once resumed, and for the first time the 
 French carried them on not only against 
 the Black Flags, but against the Chinese. 
 M. Jules Ferry did not, however, make any 
 formal declaration of war against China, and 
 he thus gained an advantage of position for 
 his attack on the Chinese which it was not 
 creditable to French chivalry to have asserted. 
 The most striking instance of this occured at 
 Foochow, where the French fleet, as repre- 
 senting a friendly power, was at anchor above 
 the formidable defences of the Min river. In 
 accordance with instructions telegraphed to 
 him, the French admiral attacked those 
 places in reverse and destroyed the forts on 
 the Min without much difficulty or loss, 
 thanks exclusively to his having been allowed 
 past them as a friend. 
 
 Upholding the Laws of Neutrality. 
 
 The French also endeavored to derive all 
 possible advantage from there being no for- 
 mal declaration of war, and to make use of 
 Hongkong as a base for their fleet against 
 China. But this unfairness could not be 
 tolerated, and the British minister at Pekin, 
 where Sir Harry Parkes had in the autumn 
 of 1883 succeeded Sir Thomas Wade, issued 
 a proclamation that the hostilities between 
 France and China were tantamount to a state 
 of war, and that the laws of neutrality must 
 be strictly observed. The French resented 
 this step, and showed some inclination to 
 retaliate by instituting a right to search for 
 rice, but fortunately this pretension was not 
 pushed to extremities, and the war was 
 closed before it could produce any serious 
 consequences. 
 
156 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 The French devoted much of their atten- 
 tion to an attack on the Chinese possessions 
 in Formosa, and the occupation of Kelung ; 
 a fort in the northern part of that island was 
 captured, but the subsequent success of the 
 French was small. The Chinese displayed 
 great energy and resource in forming de- 
 fences against any advance inland from 
 Kelung or Tamsui, and the French govern- 
 
 may be gathered from the fact that the com- 
 pulsory retreat, in March, 1885, of the French 
 from before Langson, where some of the 
 Chinese regular troops were drawn up with 
 a large force of Black and Yellow Flags— 
 the latter of whom were in Chinese pay — did 
 not imperil the negotiations which were then 
 far advanced towards completion. On the 
 9th of June of the same year a treaty of 
 
 VIEW OF TIENTSIN, CHINA. 
 
 ment was brought to face the fact that there 
 was nothing to be gained by carrying on 
 these desultory operations, and that unless 
 they were prepared to send a large expedi- 
 tion, it was computed of not less than 50,000 
 men, to attack Pekin, there was no alternative 
 to coming to terms with China. 
 
 How strong this conviction had become 
 
 peace was signed by M. Patenotre and Li 
 Hung Chang which gave France nothing 
 more than the Fournier convention. 
 
 The military lessons of this war must be 
 pronounced inconclusive, for the new forces 
 which China had organized since the Pekin 
 campaign were never fully engaged, and the 
 struggle ended before the regular regiment 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANGSU. 
 
 157 
 
 sent to Langson had any opportunity of 
 showing their quality. But the impression 
 conveyed by the fighting in Formosa and 
 the northern districts of Tonquin was that 
 China had made considerable progress in the 
 military art, and that she possessed the 
 nucleus of an army that might become for- 
 midable. But while the soldiers had made 
 no inconsiderable improvement, as much 
 could not be said of the officers, and among 
 the commanders there seemed no grasp of 
 the situation, and a complete inability to con- 
 duct a campaign. 
 
 Incapable Commanders. 
 
 Probably these deficiencies will long remain 
 the really weak spot in the Chinese war 
 organization, and although they have men 
 who will fight well, the only capacity their 
 commanders showed in Tonquin and For- 
 mosa was in selecting strong positions and 
 in fortifying them with consummate art. 
 But as the strongest position can be turned 
 and avoided, and as the Chinese, like all 
 Asiatics, become demoralized when their 
 rear is threatened, it cannot be denied that, 
 considerable progress as the Chinese have 
 made in the military art, they have not yet 
 mastered some of its rudiments. All that can 
 be said is that the war between France and 
 China was calculated to teach the advisability 
 of caution in fixing a quarrel upon China., 
 Under some special difficulties from the char- 
 acter of the war and with divided councils at 
 Pekin, the Chinese still gave a very good 
 account of themselves against one of the 
 greatest Powers of Europe. 
 
 During the progress of this struggle a 
 coup de'tat was effected at Pekin of which at 
 the time it was impossible to measure the 
 whole significance. In July, 1884, the 
 Chinese world was startled by the sudden 
 fall and disgrace of Prince Kung, who had 
 
 been the most powerful man in China since 
 the Treaty of Pekin. A decree of the 
 Empress Regent appeared dismissing him 
 from all his posts and consigning him to an 
 obscurity from which after many years he 
 had not succeeded in emerging. The causes 
 of his fall are not clear, but they were pro- 
 bably of several distinct kinds. While he 
 was the leader of the peace party and the 
 advocate of a prompt arrangement with 
 France, he was also an opponent of Prince 
 Chun's desire to have a share in the practical 
 administration of the state, or, at least, an 
 obstacle in the way of its realization. 
 
 Prince Chun, who was a man of an 
 imperious will, and who, on the death of the 
 Eastern Empress, became the most important 
 personage in the palace and supreme Council 
 of the Empire, was undoubtedly the leader 
 of the attack on Prince Kung, and the 
 immediate cause of his downfall. Prince 
 Kung, who was an amiable and well inten- 
 tioned man rather than an able statesman, 
 yielded without resistance, and indeed he 
 had no alternative, for he had no following 
 at Pekin, and his influence was very slight 
 except among Europeans. 
 
 Sudden Death of Prince Chun. 
 Prince Chun then came to the front, tak- 
 ing an active and prominent part in the 
 government, making himself President of a 
 new Board of National Defence and taking 
 up the command of the Pekin Field Force, a 
 specially trained body of troops for the 
 defence of the capital. He retained posses- 
 sion of these posts after his son assumed the 
 government in person, notwithstanding the 
 law forbidding a father serving under his 
 son, which has already been cited, and he 
 remained the real controller of Chinese 
 policy until his sudden and unexpected death 
 in the first days of 189 1. 
 
158 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Some months earlier in April, 1890, China 
 had suffered a great loss in the Marquis 
 Tseng, whose diplomatic experience and 
 knowledge of Europe might have rendered 
 his country infinite service in the future. 
 He was the chosen colleague of Prince 
 Chun, and he is said to have gained the ear 
 of his young sovereign. While willing to 
 admit the superiority of European inventions, 
 he was also an implicit believer in China's 
 destiny and in her firmly holding her place 
 among the greatest Powers of the world. 
 In December, 1890, also died Tseng Kwo 
 Tsiuen, uncle of the Marquis, and a man 
 who had taken a prominent and honorable 
 part in the suppression of the Taeping 
 rebellion. 
 
 Tax on Opium. 
 
 In 1885 an important and deUcate negotia- 
 tion between England and China was 
 brought to a successful issue by the joint 
 efforts of Lord Salisbury and the Marquis 
 Tseng. The levy of the lekin or barrier tax 
 on opium had led to many exactions in the 
 interior which was injurious to the foreign 
 trade and also to the Chinese government, 
 which obtained only the customs duty raised 
 in the port. After the subject had been 
 thoroughly discussed in all its bearings a 
 convention was signed in London, on 19th 
 July, 1885, by which the lekin. was fixed at 
 eighty taels a chest, in addition to the cus- 
 toms due of thirty taels, and also that- the 
 whole of this sum should be paid in the 
 treaty port before the opium was taken out 
 of bond. 
 
 This arrangement was greatly to the 
 advantage of the Chinese government, which 
 came into possession of a large revenue that 
 had previously been frittered away in the 
 provinces, and much of which had gone into 
 the pockets of the Mandarins. The Emperor 
 
 issued an edict in 1890 formally legalizing 
 the cultivation of opium, which, although 
 practically carried on, was nominally illegal. 
 An immediate consequence of this step was 
 a great increase in the area under cultivation, 
 particularly in Manchuria,^nd so great is the 
 production of native opium now becoming 
 that that of India may yet be driven from the 
 field as a practical revenge for the loss 
 inflicted on China by the competition of 
 Indian tea. But at all events these measures 
 debar China from ever again posing as an 
 injured party in the matter of the opium 
 traffic. 
 
 During these years the young Emperor 
 Kwangsu was growing up. In February, 
 1887, in which month falls the Chinese New 
 Year, it was announced his marriage was 
 postponed in consequence of his delicate 
 health, and it was not until the new year of 
 1889, when Kwangsu was well advanced in 
 his eighteenth year, that he was married to 
 Yeh-ho-na-la, daughter of a Manchu general 
 named Knei Hsiang, who had been specially 
 selected for this great honor out of many 
 hundred candidates. 
 
 Magnificent Marriage Ceremonies. 
 
 The marriage was celebrated with the 
 usual state, and more than ;^ 5,000,000 is 
 said to have been expended on the attendant 
 ceremonies. At the same time the Empress 
 Regent issued her farewell edict and passed 
 into retirement, but there is reason to believe 
 that she continued to exercise no inconsider- 
 able influence over the young Emperor. 
 
 The marriage and assumption of govern- 
 ing power by the Emperor Kwangsu brought 
 to the front the very important question of 
 the right of audience by the foreign ministers 
 resident at Pekin. This privilege had been 
 conceded by China at the time of the Tient- 
 sin massacre, and it had been put into force 
 
159 
 
160 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 on one occasion during the brief reign of 
 Tungche. The time had again arrived for 
 giving it effect, and, after long discussions as 
 to the place of audience and the forms to be 
 observed, Kwangsu issued in December, 
 1890, an edict appointing a day soon after 
 the commencement of the Chinese New Year, 
 for the audience, and also arranging that it 
 should be repeated annually on the same 
 date. 
 
 In March, 1891, Kwangsu gave his first ' 
 
 ians' made on him the idea which they 
 carried away of the Emperor Kwangsu was 
 pleasing and almost pathetic. His air is one 
 of exceeding intelligence and gentleness, 
 somewhat frightened and melancholy look- 
 ing. His face is pale, and though it is dis- 
 tinguished by refinement and quiet dignity it 
 has none of the force of his martial ancestors, 
 nothing commanding or imperial, but is alto- 
 gether mild, delicate, sad and kind. 
 
 " He is essentially Manchu in features, his 
 
 OPIUM SMOKERS. 
 
 reception to the foreign ministers, but after 
 it was over some criticism and dissatisfaction 
 were aroused by the fact that the ceremony 
 had been held in the Tse Kung Ko, or Hall 
 of Tributary Nations. As this was the first 
 occasion on which Europeans saw the young 
 Emperor, the fact that he made a favorable 
 impression on them is not without interest, 
 and the following personal description of the 
 master of so many millions may well be 
 quoted : 
 
 "Whatever the impression 'the Barbar- 
 
 skin is strangely pallid in hue, which is, no 
 doubt, accounted for by the confinement of 
 his life inside these forbidding walls and the 
 absence of the ordinary pleasures and pur- 
 suits of youth, with the constant discharge 
 of onerous, complicated and diflficult duties 
 of state which, it must be remembered, are, 
 according to Imperial Chinese etiquette, 
 mostly transacted between the hours of two 
 and six in the morning. His face is oval 
 shaped with a very long narrow chin and a 
 sensitive mouth with thin nervous lips ; his 
 
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR KWANGSU. 
 
 161 
 
 nose is well shaped and straight, his eye- 
 brows regular and very arched, while the 
 eyes are unusally large and sorrowful in ex- 
 pression. The forehead is well shaped and 
 broad, and the head is large beyond the 
 average." 
 
 Owing to the dissatisfaction felt at the 
 place of audience, which seemed to put the 
 Treaty Powers on the same footing as tribu- 
 tary states, the foreign ministers have en- 
 deavored to force from the government the 
 formal admission that a more appropriate 
 part of the Imperial city should be assigned 
 for the ceremony, but as the Powers them- 
 selves were not disposed to lay too much 
 stress on this point, no definite concession 
 was yet made, and the Chinese ministers 
 held out against the pressure of some of the 
 foreign representatives. But, although no 
 concise alteration was made in the place of 
 audience, the question was practically settled 
 by a courteous concession to the new English 
 minister, Mr. O'Conor, who succeeded Sir 
 John Walsham, and it is gratifying to feel 
 that this advantage was gained more by tact 
 than by coercion. 
 
 When Mr. O'Conor wished to present his 
 credentials to the Emperor, it was arranged 
 that the Emperor should receive him in the 
 Cheng Kuan Tien Palace, which is part of 
 the Imperial residence of Peace and Plenty 
 within the Forbidden City. The British 
 representative, accompanied by his secre- 
 taries and suite in accordance with arrange- 
 ment, proceeded to this palace on the; 1 3th 
 
 of December, 1892, and was received in a 
 specially honorable way at the principal or 
 Imperial entrance by the officials of the 
 Court. Such a mark of distinction was con- 
 sidered quite unique in the annals of foreign 
 diplomacy in China, and has since been a 
 standing grievance with the other ministers 
 at Pekin. 
 
 It was noticed by those present that the 
 Emperor took a much greater interest in the 
 ceremony than on previous occasions. This 
 audience, which lasted a considerable time, 
 was certainly the most satisfactory and en- 
 couraging yet held with the Emperor 
 Kwangsu by any foreign envoy, and it also 
 afforded opportunity of confirming the favor- 
 able impression which the intelligence and 
 dignified demeanor of the Emperor Kwangsu 
 made on all who have had the honor of 
 coming into his presence. One incident in 
 the progress of the audience question de- 
 serves notice, and that was the Emperor's 
 refusal, in 1891, to receive Mr. Blair, the 
 United States Minister, in consequence of 
 the hostile legislation of our country against 
 China. The anti-foreign outbreak along the 
 Yangtsekiang, in the summer of 1891, was 
 an unpleasant incident, from which at one 
 time it looked as if serious consequences 
 might follow ; but the ebullition fortunately 
 passed away without an international crisis, 
 and it may be hoped that the improved 
 means of exercising diplomatic pressure at 
 Pekin will render these attacks less frequent, 
 and their settlemeiit and redress more rapid. 
 
 11 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE EMPEROR OF CHINA AND HIS COURT. 
 
 THE foregoing concise and graphic 
 history from the able pen of the 
 well-known historian, Mr. D. C. 
 Boulger, may appropriately be fol- 
 lowed by Mr. Robert K. Douglas's interest- 
 ing and entertaining account of the manners 
 and customs , of the Chinese. This enables 
 the reader to see China as it has been in the 
 past and as it is at the present time. He is 
 now conducted from one point of observation 
 to another, while before him are pictured thp 
 customs, the domestic life, the manners, dress, 
 idol-worship and singular ideas and habits of 
 this remarkable people. 
 
 With the exception of fashions in trivial 
 matters, nothing has changed in China for 
 many centuries. Every institution, every 
 custom, and every idea has its foundation in 
 the distant ages and draws its inspiration from 
 the sages of antiquity. Immutability in all 
 that is essential is written on the face of the 
 empire. No fear of organic change perplexes 
 monarchs, or anyone else, in that changeless 
 land, and the people love to have it so. 
 Sovereigns reign and pass away, dynasties 
 come and go, and even foreign powers take 
 possession of the throne, as at the present 
 time, when a line of Manchu emperors reigns 
 at Pekin ; but the national life in all its char- 
 acteristics goes on unmoved by political 
 change and revolutionary violence. 
 
 One of the most remarkable spectacles in 
 the world's history is that of this strange 
 empire which, having been time after time 
 thrown into the crucible of political unrest, 
 has always reappeared identical in its main 
 162 
 
 features and institutions, and absorbing rather 
 than being absorbed by the foreign elements 
 which have occasionally thrust themselves 
 into the body politic. 
 
 The political constitution, the social rela- 
 tions and customary ceremonies were crys- 
 tallized in their present forms by those 
 ancients on whom, according to the opinion 
 of the people, rested the mantle of perfect 
 wisdom. If the death of the emperor is an- 
 nounced, it is proclaimed in words used by 
 Yao, who lived before the time of Abraham. 
 
 \ Fondness for Antiquity. 
 
 If a mandarin writes a controversial de- 
 spatch, he bases his arguments on the sayings 
 of Confucius ; if a youth presents himself at 
 the public examinations, he is expected to 
 compose essays exclusively on themes from 
 the four books and five cleissics of antiquity ; 
 and if a man writes to congratulate a friend 
 on the birth of a daughter, he does so in 
 phraseology drawn from the national primi- 
 tive odes, which were sung and chanted be- 
 fore the days of Homer. 
 
 This immutability gives certain advantages 
 in writing on Chinese society, since the author 
 is not called upon 
 
 ' ' To shoot folly as it flies 
 And catch the manners living as they rise." 
 
 It is enough for him to keep in view the 
 rock from which the people have hewn their 
 lives, and to draw from the current literature, 
 which reflects that foundation, the picture 
 which he may propose to sketch. 
 "What, then, are the constituent elements 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 163 
 
 of Chinese society ? They are very simple, 
 and are free from the complications and 
 €nlacements of European life. At the head 
 is the emperor and his court, next comes the 
 bureaucracy, and after them the people. With 
 the exception of some few families, such as 
 those of Confucius, of Tseng, and five or six 
 ■others, there is no hereditary aristocracy of 
 high rank and importance. All are equal 
 until the examiners have elected into an aris- 
 tocracy of talent those whose essays and 
 poems are the best. The remaining divisions 
 of "farmers, mechanics, and traders," repre- 
 sent one level. 
 
 High-Sounding Titles. 
 
 Above these classes the Emperor reigns 
 supreme. The possessor of a power which 
 is limited only by the endurance of the people, 
 the object of profound reverence and worship 
 by his' subjects, the holder of the lives of " all 
 under heaven," the fountain of honor as well 
 as the dispenser of mercy, he occupies a 
 position which is unique of its kind, and 
 unmatched in the extent of its influence. 
 There is much magic in a name, and the 
 titles by which the potentate is known help 
 us to realize what he is in the eyes of the 
 people. 
 
 He is the "Son of Heaven," he is the 
 ■"Supreme Ruler," the "August Lofty One,'' 
 the "Celestial Ruler," the "Solitary Man," 
 the "Buddha of the present day," the 
 "Lord;" and, in adulatory addresses, he is 
 often entitled the " Lord of Ten Thousand 
 Years." As the Son of Heaven, he rules 
 "by the express command of the celestial 
 powers, and is sustained on the throne by 
 the same supreme authorities, so long as he 
 rules in accordance with their dictates. He 
 alone is entitled to worship the azure heaven, 
 and at the winter solstice he performs this 
 jite after careful preparation, and with solemn 
 
 ritual, a description of which cannot fail to 
 be of interest to the reader. 
 
 The Temple of Heaven, where this august 
 ceremony is performed, stands in the southern 
 portion of the city of Pekin, and consists of a 
 triple circular terrace, two hundred and ten 
 feet wide at the base, and ninety feet at the 
 top. The marble stones forming the pave- 
 ment of the highest terrace are laid in nine 
 concentric circles. On the centre stone, 
 which is a perfect circle, the Emperor kneels, 
 facing the north, and "acknowledges in 
 prayer and by his position that he is inferior 
 to Heaven, and to Heaven alone. Round 
 him on the pavement are the nine circles of as 
 many heavens, consisting of nine stones, then 
 eighteen, then twenty-seven, and so on, in 
 successive multiples of nine until the square 
 of nine, the favorite number of Chinese phil- 
 osophy, is reached in the outermost circle of 
 eighty-one stones." 
 
 The Burnt Sacrifice. 
 
 On the eyening before the winter solstice 
 the Emperor is borne in a carriage drawn 
 by elephants to the mystic precincts of the 
 temple, whence, after offering incense to 
 Shangti, "the Supreme Ruler," and to his 
 ancestors, he proceeds to the hall of pene- 
 tential fasting. There he remains until 5.45 
 A.M., when, dressed in his sacrificial robes, 
 he ascends to the second terrace. This is 
 the signal for setting fire to the whole burnt 
 sacrifice, which consists of a bullock two 
 years old and without blemish. The Su- 
 preme Ruler having been thus invoked, the 
 Emperor goes up to the highest terrace, and 
 offers incense before the sacred shrine, and 
 that of his ancestors. 
 
 At the same time, after having knelt 
 thrice and prostrated himself nine times, he 
 offers bundles of silk, jade cups, and other 
 gifts in lowly sacrifice. A prayer is then 
 
164 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 165 
 
 read by an attendant minister, while the 
 Emperor kneels in adoration, to an accom- 
 paniment of music and dancing. One solemn 
 rite has still to be performed before the sacri- 
 ficial service is complete. While the Em- 
 peror remains on his knees, officers appointed 
 for the purpose present to him " the flesh of 
 happiness," and the "cup of happiness." 
 Thrice he prostrates himself before the sacred 
 emblems, and then receives them with solemn 
 reverence. It is curious to find these marked 
 resemblances to Jewish and Christian wor- 
 ship in the Chinese ritual. 
 
 Claims Divine Authority. 
 
 By this solemn sacrifice the Emperor 
 assumes the office of Vice-regent of Heaven, 
 and by common consent is acknowledged to 
 be the co-ordinate of Heaven and earth, and 
 the representative of man in the trinity of 
 which those two powers form the other per- 
 sons. As possessor of the Divine authority, 
 he holds himself superior to all who are 
 called gods, and takes upon himself to grant 
 titles of honor to deities, and to promote 
 them in the sacred hierarchy. 
 
 On one occasion a memorial was pre- 
 sented to the throne by the Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Kiangtsu, asking the Emperor 
 to confer higher honors on the Queen of 
 Heaven, the God of the Wind , the God of 
 the Sea, and the God of the city of Shanghai, 
 in consideration of their having brought the 
 tribute rice safely on its way to Tientsin, and 
 for having favored the vessels bearing it with 
 gentle zephyrs and a placid sea. To this re- 
 quest the Emperor was pleased to accede, 
 and the gods and goddesses reaped the re- 
 ward of his benignity by the issue of patents 
 which were held to vouch for their promo- 
 tion on the heights of Olympus. 
 
 One other instance of this form of super- 
 stition may be mentioned, which is remark- 
 
 able as having for its advocate the redoubt- 
 able Tseng Kwofan, the father of the Mar- 
 quis Tseng, and the foremost man of the 
 day in the empire. To him, more than to 
 any other mandarin, is due the suppression 
 of the Taeping rebellion. He was the inti- 
 mate adviser of the throne, and was held in 
 the highest esteem as a learned and enlight- 
 ened man. 
 
 This viceroy, in conjunction with the 
 Viceroy of Fuhkien, "petitioned the throne 
 to deify two female genii who had worked a 
 great number of miracles for the good of 
 the people." In the district of Chiangtu, 
 write the viceroys, "there is a place called 
 Hsien-nii-chen, which has long had a temple 
 to the two genii, Tu and Kang. This temple 
 was once upon a time the scene of a benefi- 
 cent miracle, which is duly recorded in the 
 history of the district. Moreover, in the 
 eighth year of Hiengfung (1858), when the 
 Taeping rebels were attempting to cross on 
 rafts at Fuchiao, on the east side of Yang- 
 chow, a frightful storm of thunder and rain 
 burst over the place and drowned countless 
 numbers of them. 
 
 Lamps and Fairy Godesses. 
 
 "The refugees from the city all stated 
 that, on the night in question, when the 
 rebels were attempting to cross, they saw the 
 opposite bank lined, as far as the eye could 
 reach, with bright azure-colored lamps, and 
 in the midst of the lamps were seen the 
 fairy goddesses. Scared by this apparition 
 the rebels abandoned the attempt, and the 
 town and neighborhood were saved from fall- 
 ing into their hands." "Some time ago," the 
 memorialists add, "Tseng Kwofan petitioned 
 the throne to deify the two female genii, Tu 
 and Kang ; but the Board of Rites replied 
 that the local histories only mention Kang, 
 and asked what authority there was for 
 
166 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ranking Tu among the genii. There appeared 
 to be no doubt in respect to Kang. 
 
 "The memoralists have, therefore, re-in- 
 vestigated the whole case, and find that 
 Kang was a priestess in Tu's temple, and 
 that she ascended from the town in question 
 on a white dragon up to fairyland, and that 
 in consequence of this the inhabitants placed 
 her on a par with Tu and worshipped them 
 together. The names of the fairies, Tu and 
 Kang, are to be found in the official registers, 
 and they have long been objects of worship. 
 Such are the representations of the local 
 gentry and elders, and the memoralists 
 would earnestly repeat their request that 
 his majesty would be graciously pleased to 
 deify the two genii, Tu and Kang, in ac- 
 knowledgment of the many deliverances 
 they have wrought, and in compliance with 
 the earnest wish of the people." 
 
 In the pages of the Pekin Gazette, such 
 memorials, presented by the highest officials 
 in the empire, are constantly to be met with, 
 and are treated with all seriousness both by 
 the suppliants and the Son of Heaven. 
 
 His Subjects Adore Him. 
 
 In harmony with these lofty attributes his 
 subjects, when admitted into his presence, 
 prostrate themselves in adoration on the 
 ground before him, and on a certain day in 
 the year he is worshipped in every city in 
 the empire. At daylight on the day in 
 question the local mandarins assemble in 
 the city temple, where, in the central hall, 
 a throne is raised on which is placed the 
 imperial tablet. At a given signal the as- 
 sembled officials kneel thrice before the 
 throne, and nine times strike their heads 
 on the ground as though in the presence 
 of the Supreme Ruler. 
 
 In speaking of this title, the Supreme 
 Ruler, it is interesting to go a step beyond 
 
 the English rendering of the term, and to 
 look at the native characters which repre- 
 sent it. They form the word Hwangti, and 
 are of considerable interest both as indicating 
 the very lofty idea entertained by the inven- 
 tors of the first character of what an emperor 
 should be; and, in the case of the second, as 
 confirming a theory which is now commonly 
 accepted, that the Chinese borrowed a num- 
 ber of their written symbols from the cunei- 
 form writing of Babylonia. The character 
 Hwang was formerly made up of two parts, 
 meaning "ruler" and "one's self," and thus 
 conveys the very laudable notion, in har- 
 mony with the doctrines taught by Confu- 
 cius, that an emperor, before attempting to 
 rule the empire, should have learnt to be the 
 master of his own actions. 
 
 Supreme White Ruler. 
 
 In the same spirit Mencius, about two 
 hundred years later, said, " The greatest 
 charge is the charge of one's self" An 
 idea which appears in the mouth of Polonius, 
 where he says — 
 
 "This above all : to thine own self be true. 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." 
 
 By a clerical error the character is now 
 written with the omission of a stroke in the 
 symbol for one's self, and, so altered, the 
 compound reads, " the white ruler." The 
 second character means " the supreme." 
 
 The Emperor is also the Buddha of the 
 present day. This is a title which has little 
 meaning among the skeptical Chinese, who 
 agree with Confucius in preferring to leave 
 the question of a future existence unex- 
 plored. But in the weary wastes of Mon- 
 golia and Tibet, the ignorant natives give an 
 interest to their dreary existences by blindly 
 following the superstitious teaching of their 
 priests. In Tibet, more especially, Budd- 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 167 
 
 hism has gained complete possession of the 
 people, and the priestly profession is. crowded 
 with men who seek for power, and who find 
 it easier to make a living out of the supersti- 
 tious fears of the people than from the barren 
 soil at their feet. 
 
 Not content with managing the spiritual 
 concerns of their followers, these men have 
 made themselves masters of the political 
 situation, and in the hand of their chief, the 
 Grand Lama, rests the government of the 
 country. To these people the title of the 
 " Buddha of the present day " is full of mean- 
 ing, and a command from the potentate at 
 Pekin is readily obeyed as coming from the 
 suzerain of the land, and the spiritual head 
 of their religion. The Grand Lama is sur- 
 rounded by several dignitaries, and on the 
 death of any one of these ecclesiastics the 
 re-embodiment of his spiritual essence is re- 
 ferred to Pekin, and is not considered valid 
 until the sanction of the Emperor has been 
 received. On occasions the Emperor actu- 
 ally forbids the transmigration of the soul of 
 any dignitary who may be under his ban, 
 which thus remains in a state of suspended 
 animation during his good pleasure. 
 
 A Strange Decree. 
 The Pekin Gazette tells us, that one such, 
 a Hut'ukht'u, was once impeached for desert- 
 ing his post, and carrying off his seal of 
 office, in consequence of a disturbance which 
 arose through a distribution of alms. For 
 this dereliction of duty his title and seal were 
 cancelled, and it was at the same time 
 decreed by the Emperor that his soul should 
 not be allowed to transmigrate at his 
 decease. On receiving this extinguishing 
 sentence the offender came to Pekin for the 
 purpose of appealing, and soon afterwards 
 his death produced the crisis in his spiritual 
 state which the sentence contemplated. 
 
 The sympathy produced by his condition 
 prompted the despatch of petitions to Pekia 
 to plead for his soul, and such success 
 attended them that an edict was shortly 
 afterwards issued in the following terms: 
 " We decree that as is besought of us, search 
 may be made to discover the child in whose 
 body the soul of the decased Hut'ukht'u has 
 been re-born, and that he be allowed to 
 resume the government of his proper lama- 
 sery, or dominion." 
 
 Compelled to Fall on Their Faces. 
 
 The title of "the solitary man" is emi- 
 nently applicable to a potentate who thus not 
 only claims temporal dominion, but who 
 assumes the position of high priest over the 
 household of the gods. It is a common 
 complaint with emperors and kings that they 
 have no fellows ; but here is one of their 
 number whose cherished attributes place him 
 beyond the reach of mortals. With the 
 exception of those immediately about his 
 person, his subjects are not allowed to gaze 
 upon his face. When he goes abroad the 
 people are compelled to fall on their faces to 
 the ground until his cavalcade has passed on, 
 and on all occasions he is to them a mystery. 
 
 A sovereign so exalted and so worshipped 
 would naturally expect to receive from 
 foreigners entering his presence, homage 
 equal to that to which he is accustomed 
 from the pliant knees of his subjects, and at 
 first, no doubt, the refusul of British repre- 
 sentatives to kotow, or prostrate themselves 
 before him, came as a surprise. From the 
 time of Lord Macartney's mission, in 1792, 
 down to a few years back, the question of 
 the kotow was a burning one, and was as 
 consistently resisted by foreign ministers as 
 it was urgently pressed by the Chinese. At 
 the present time, on two or three occasions 
 on which the European ministers have been 
 
168 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 granted audiences, they have paid the 
 Emperor the same reverence, and no more, 
 that they pay to their own sovereigns. 
 
 Gazette, and to the plays and novels of the 
 people, for sketches of his monotonous and 
 dreary existence. The palace, as befitting 
 
 
 
 'A 
 
 TYPES OF CHINESE WOMEN. 
 
 Being so entirely withdrawn from the pub- 
 lic gaze, very little can possibly be known of 
 the Emperor's private life, and we are driven 
 to that very candid periodical, the Pekin 
 
 the abode of so exalted a personage, is so 
 placed as effectually to cut off its occupants 
 from the rest of the empire. Situated in the 
 " Forbidden City," it is surrounded with a 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 169 
 
 triple barrier of walls. Beyond the inner and 
 secret enclosure is the Imperial city, which is 
 enclosed by a high wall topped with tiles of 
 the Imperial yellow color ; and outside that 
 again is the Tartar city, which forms the 
 northern part of the capital. 
 
 Strict guard is kept day and night at the 
 gates of the Forbidden City, and severe pen- 
 alties are inflicted on all unauthorized persons 
 who may dare to enter its portals. One of 
 the highest distinctions which can be con- 
 ferred on officials whom the Emperor delights 
 to honor, is the right to ride on horseback 
 within these sacred precincts. Only on rare 
 occasions, and those almost exclusively occa- 
 sions of ceremony, does the Emperor pass 
 out of the palace grounds. These no doubt 
 present a miniature " of the empire. There 
 are lakes, mountains, parks, and gardens in 
 which the Imperial prisoner can amuse him- 
 self, with the boats which ply on the artificial 
 lakes, or by joining mimic hunts in miniature 
 forests ; but it is probable that there is not 
 one of the millions of China who has not a 
 more practical knowledge of the empire than 
 he who rules it. 
 
 Stirring Before Daylight. 
 
 Theoretically he is supposed to spend his 
 ■days and nights in the affairs of state. The 
 gates of the Forbidden City are opened at 
 midnight, and the halls of audience at 2 a.m. 
 Before daylight his cabinet ministers arrive 
 and are received at veritable levees, and all 
 the state sacrifices and functions are over by 
 10 o'clock. Even the court amusements are 
 held before the dew is off the. grass. The 
 following programme, taken from the Pekin 
 Gazette, describes a morning's work at Court : 
 
 "To-morrow, after bDsiness, about 6 
 o'clock A.M., the Emperor will pass through 
 the Hwa-Yuen and Shinwu gates to the 
 Takaotien temple to offer sacrifice. After- 
 
 wards His Majesty will pass through the 
 Yung-suy-tsiang gate, and, entering the 
 King-shansi gate, will proceed to the Show- 
 hwang temple to worship. His Majesty will 
 then pass through the Pehshang gate from 
 the Sishan road, and, entering the Shinwu 
 gate, will return to the palace to breakfast. 
 His Majesty will then hold an audience, and 
 at 7 o'clock will ascend to the Kientsing 
 Palace to receive congratulations on his 
 birthday. At 8 o'clock he will take his seat 
 to witness the theatrical performance." 
 
 Putting On the Purple. 
 
 And if wrestlers and conjurers are sum- 
 moned into the Imperial presence, they must 
 be ready at an equally uncongenial hour to 
 show their skill. But such relaxations are 
 the glints of surllight which" brighten the 
 sombre life of the solitary man. The sov- 
 ereign announced his assumption of the Im- 
 perial purple in 1875, when he was quite an 
 infant, in the following edict : 
 
 " Whereas, on the fifth day of the moon " 
 (January 12, 1875), "at the yeo hour" (5-7 
 P.M.), "His Majesty the Emperor departed 
 this life, ascending upon the Dragon to be a 
 guest on high, the benign mandate of the 
 Empress Dowager and Empress Mother was 
 by us reverently received, commanding us to 
 enter upon the inheritance of the great suc- 
 cession. Prostrate upon the earth we be- 
 wailed our grief to Heaven, vainly stretching 
 out our hands in lamentation. For thirteen 
 years, as we humbly reflected, His Majesty 
 now departed reigned under the canopy of 
 Heaven. In reverent observance of the an- 
 cestral precepts, he made the counsels 
 prompted by maternal love his guide, apply- 
 ing himself with awestruck zeal to the toil- 
 some performance of his duty. The welfare 
 of the people and the policy of the State 
 were ever present in his utmost thoughts. 
 
170 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Not in words can we give expression to the 
 sadness which pierces our heart and shows 
 itself in tears and blood." 
 
 The Pekin Gazette bears testimony to the 
 desire which was felt by the Emperor's 
 tutors to rear the tender thought aright. And 
 in that journal the following memorial on this 
 subject was published with approval. " His 
 Majesty, being still of tender age, it is 
 beyond question expedient that effectual 
 training in the right path be studied. All 
 those who surround His Majesty, and are in 
 near employment about his person, should 
 be without exception of tried capacity and 
 solid character. No youthful and thought- 
 less person should be suffered to be in at- 
 tendance." 
 
 A Wife for the Emperor. 
 
 From time to time the outer world was 
 informed of the progress which this tenderly 
 guarded youth was making in his studies. 
 At last the time came — in 1 889 — for him to 
 assume the reins of power hitherto held by 
 the dowager empresses, and to take to him- 
 self a consort. The question of choosing a 
 wife for the Imperial recluse was a more 
 serious matter to arrange than the transfer of 
 power. It was necessary that the lady 
 should be of the same nationality as himself 
 — a Manchu — and that she should satisfy the 
 requirements of the Dowager Enripresses as 
 to looks and appearance. 
 
 Levees of aspirants to the honor were held 
 by the Dowagers, and a lady having been 
 chosen, the personage most interested in the 
 event was made aware of the selection. 
 According to custom, and possibly to pro- 
 vide against any disappointment which the 
 appearance of the bride might produce in the 
 imperial breast, two young ladies were also 
 chosen to accompany the Empress as second- 
 ary wives. This trio forms the nucleus of 
 
 the royal household, in which secondary- 
 wives are counted by tens and fifties. 
 
 As is natural in the case of any matter- 
 affecting so exalted a personage as the Son. 
 of Heaven, the ceremonies connected with 
 his marriage are marked by all the dignity 
 and splendor which are peculiar to Oriental 
 states. Unlike his subjects, even of the 
 highest rank, who are bound as a preliminary 
 to pay court to the parents of their future 
 brides, the Emperor finds it sufficient to issue^ 
 an edict announcing his intention to marry 
 the lady on whom his choice may have 
 fallen, and she, trembling with the weight 
 of the honor, blushingly obeys the command. 
 Unlike his subjects, also, the Emperor is by 
 law entitled to wives of three ranks. 
 
 The first consists of the Empress, who is- 
 alone in her dignity except when, as has- 
 happened, on some rare occassions, twa 
 Princesses have shared the imperial" throne. 
 The second rank is unlimited as to number; 
 and it is- from these ladies that, in case of the 
 death of the Empress, the Emperor com- 
 monly chooses her successor. The third 
 rank is filled up as the taste of the Emperor 
 may direct, and it is rarely that the ladies of 
 this grade ever succeed to the lofty dignity 
 of the throne. 
 
 Imposing Ceremonies. 
 
 To the wedding of the Empress alone are 
 reserved the courtly ceremonials which grace 
 the imperial marriage. These ceremonies 
 are ten in number. First comes an edict 
 announcing the intended marriage. The 
 Board of Ceremonies next proclaims the fact 
 throughout the empire, and having consulted 
 the Imperial astronomers as to the choice of 
 a fortunate day for sending the customary 
 presents to the bride-elect, prepares for the 
 occasion ten horses with accoutrements, ten 
 cuirasses, a hundred pieces of silk and two 
 
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 W 
 
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 Q 
 
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 Z 
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 171 
 
172 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 hundred pieces of nanking. To the Board 
 of Rites belongs the duty of preparing a 
 golden tablet and a golden seal on which the 
 scholars of the Hanlin College inscribe the 
 necessary decrees relating to the marriage. 
 
 Armed with these imperial pledges a 
 President of the Board invites the imperial 
 order for the presentation of the gifts. When 
 this has been received, the officials, at early 
 dawn on the day appointed, place a table in 
 the hall of "Great Harmony" for the recep- 
 tion of the imperial seal, while others set 
 out a pavilion ornamented with dragons, in 
 which the cuirasses, the silks and the cloths 
 are reverently deposited. 
 
 The Imperial Mandate. 
 
 When the assembly is complete, the master 
 of ceremonies orders every one to his al- 
 lotted place, and exhorts all to assume a 
 grave and decorous attitude. In the hear- 
 ing of this attentive gathering a commis- 
 sioner, after bowing the knee, reads aloud 
 the Imperial mandate, which runs as follows : 
 "The august ruler has, in accordance with 
 the wishes of the revered Dowager Em- 
 press, promised to take Miss of the 
 
 as his consort, and orders the min- 
 
 isters to take the, seal of the empire with the 
 nuptial presents, in accordance with the 
 sacred rites." 
 
 So soon as the herald has ceased speaking 
 a Secretary of State takes the seal from the 
 table and hands it to an Imperial messenger 
 who, in company with officials carrying the 
 paviHon and other gifts, and preceded and 
 followed by the Imperiarguards, goes to the 
 house of the future Empress. Everything 
 there has been prepared for his reception. 
 A table has been placed in the centre of the 
 hall between two others, draped with ap- 
 propriate hangings. On the arrival of the 
 messenger the father Of the lady salutes him 
 
 on the threshold, and kneels while he carries 
 the Imperial gifts to the tables in the great 
 hall. On the centre table the envoy places 
 the Imperial seal, and on the others the vari- 
 ous portable presents, while the horses are 
 arranged on the right and left of the court- 
 yard. 
 
 When all are disposed in order, the father 
 of the lady receives the gifts kneeling, and 
 prostrates himself nine times as a token of 
 his gratitude for the Imperial favor. The 
 departure of the messenger, who carries the 
 Imperial seal away with him, is surrounded 
 with the same ceremonies as those which 
 greeted his arrival. 
 
 Two banquets form the second part of the 
 ceremony. The mother of the bride is, by 
 order of the Emperor, entertained by the 
 Imperial princesses in the apartments of the 
 Dowager Empress, while the Imperial cham- 
 berlains and high officials offer the same 
 hospitality to her father. 
 
 The Nuptial Presents. 
 
 On the wedding-day officers appointed for 
 the purpose present to the bride two hun- 
 dred ounces of gold, ten thousand ounces of 
 silver, one gold and two silver tiaras, a thou- 
 sand pieces of silk, twenty caparisoned 
 horses, and twenty others with equipments. 
 To her father and mother are, in like mari- 
 ner, offered gold, silver and precious orna- 
 ments ; pieces of silk, bows and arrows, and 
 countless robes. 
 
 The declaration of the marriage follows. 
 An ambassador is sent with an Imperial 
 letter to the father of the future empress. 
 On his knees, this much genuflecting man 
 listens to the words of his future son-in-law, 
 and makes nine prostrations in the direction 
 of the Imperial seal, which again stands on 
 his table. On this occasion his wife and two 
 ladies of his household |:ake part in the cere- 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 173 
 
 mony. Six times they bow low, thrice they 
 bend the knee, and twice as often they pros- 
 trate themselves before the seal. This done, 
 they receive from the envoy the tablet of 
 gold, on which is inscribed the declaration 
 of marriage, and retire with this evidence of 
 the fulfilment of their hopes to the apartments 
 of the bride. 
 
 On the eve of the eventful day ministers 
 are sent to announce the auspicious event to 
 Heaven, and Earth, and to the deities of the 
 Imperial temple. On the following morning, 
 so soon as the august procession is formed,' 
 the Emperor enters his sedan-chair, and is 
 borne to the Tzuning palace, where the 
 dowager Empress awaits him seated on a 
 throne of state. With dutiful regard he 
 kneels, and thrice, and again nine times bows 
 low at the feet of his mother. 
 
 The Great Seal. 
 
 Having thus manifested his respect, he 
 proceeds to the " Hall of Great Harmony,'' 
 accompanied by bands discoursing music 
 from an infinite variety of instruments, 
 There, at a signal given, the members of the 
 Board of Rites kneel and prostrate them- 
 selves before their august sovereign. This 
 done, a herald advances and reads aloud the 
 Imperial decree, which runs as follows: 
 " The Emperor, in obedience to the desire of 
 the Empress his mother, agrees that the 
 
 princess shall be his consort. In this 
 
 propitious month, and under, this favorable 
 constellation, he -has prepared the customary 
 gifts and the usual contract, and now com- 
 mands his ministers to escort the chosen 
 bride to his palace." 
 
 In harmony with this last clause, the 
 Imperial 'envoy, followed by chamberlains 
 and officers of the guard, and accompanied 
 with music, takes the great seal and starts 
 on his mission. Following in his train come 
 
 officers carrying the tablet and seal of gold, 
 and bearers with the sedan-chair destined for 
 the bride. In strange contrast to the ordi- 
 nary state of the streets, tht thoroughfares 
 on this occasion are swept, garnished, and 
 made straight. 
 
 On arriving, over these unwontedly smooth 
 ways, at the dwelling of the bride, the envoy 
 is received with every mark of honor and 
 reverence, not only by the father of the 
 bride, but by the elder ladies of the house- 
 hold, dressed in their most brilliant costumes. 
 In the grand hall the father kneels before the 
 envoy, who hands the seal to a lady in wait- 
 ing, while his lieutenant delivers the tablet 
 and the Imperial letter to the ladies appointed 
 to receive them. As these things are borne 
 to the private apartments of the bride, her 
 mother and ladies kneel in token of rever- 
 ence, and then, following in their wake, 
 listen with devout respect to the terms of the 
 letter addressed to the bride. 
 
 The Bride Escorted to the Palace. 
 
 When this ceremony is concluded, the 
 bride, with her mother and ladies in attend- 
 ance, advances to the " Phoenix Chair," in 
 which, preceded by ministers bearing the 
 Imperial seal, and followed by musicians and 
 guards of honor, she proceeds to the palace. 
 On arriving at the gate, the officers and 
 attendants dismount from their horses, while 
 porters bearing aloft nine umbrellas orna- 
 mented with phoenixes lead the procession 
 to the Kientsing gate. Beyond this the 
 attendants and officials are forbidden to go, 
 and the bride proceeds alone to meet her 
 affianced husband. 
 
 One more ceremony has to be performed 
 to complete the marriage. A banquet is 
 spread for the august pair, at which they 
 pledge each other's troth in cups of wine, 
 and thus tie the knot which death alone un- 
 
174 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ravels. This, hpwever, does not quite con- 
 clude the laborious ceremonial which falls to 
 the lot of the bride. On the morning after 
 the wedding it becomes her duty to testify 
 her respect to the dowager Empress by 
 bringing her water in which to wash her 
 hands, and by spreading viands before her, 
 in return for which courtesies the dowager 
 
 entertains her 
 ■welcome. 
 Meanwhile 
 
 daughter-in-law at a 
 
 feast of 
 
 the Emperor receives the 
 
 CHINESE MANDARIN. 
 
 homage of the princes, dukes, and officers of 
 state, and for some days the palace is given 
 up to feasting and rejoicing — an echo of 
 which reaches the remotest parts of the 
 •empire when the proclamation announcing 
 the joyful event is made known in the pro- 
 vinces. The long and formal ceremonies are 
 now concluded and the Emperor is married. 
 But the Imperial mentors not only teach 
 the Emperor how to live, but they teach the 
 "still harder lesson how to die." On the 
 approaching death of the late Emperor, the 
 
 following valedictory manifesto was put in 
 his mouth : 
 
 " It was owing to the exalted love of Our 
 late Imperial father. Our canopy and support, 
 that the Divine Vessel (that is, the throne) 
 was bestowed upon Our keeping. Having 
 set foot in Our childhood on the throne. We 
 from that moment had, gazing upwards, to 
 thank their two majesties the Empresses for 
 that, in ordering as Regents the affairs of 
 government, they devoted night and day to 
 the laborious task. When, later, in obe- 
 dience to their divine commands, We 
 personally assumed the supreme power. 
 We looked on high for guidance to the 
 Ancestral precepts of the Sacred Ones 
 before Us, and in devotion to Our govern- 
 ment and love towards Our people, made 
 the fear of Heaven and the example of 
 Our Forefathers the mainspring of every 
 act. 
 
 "To be unwearied day by, day has 
 been Our single purpose. Our bodily 
 constitution has through Our life been 
 strong, and when, in the nth moon of 
 this year. We were attacked by small- 
 pox. We gave the utmost care to the 
 preservation of Our health ; but for some 
 days past Our strength has gradually 
 failed, until the hope of recovery has 
 passed away. We recognize in this the 
 will of Heaven." And then the dying man 
 named his successor in the person of his first 
 cousin. 
 
 So soon as the august patient has ceased 
 to breathe, his heir strips from his cap the 
 ornaments which adorn it, and " wails and 
 stamps " in evidence of his excessive grief. 
 The widow and ladies of the harem in the 
 same way discard the hair-pins and jewelry 
 which it is ordinarily their delight to wear, 
 and show their practical appreciation of the 
 position by setting to work to make the 
 
la 
 o 
 
 u 
 
 o 
 
 « 
 
 < 
 
 D 
 
 u 
 
 175 
 
176 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 mourning clothes and habiliments. The 
 coffin prepared for the remains having been 
 carried into the principal hall of the palace, is 
 inspected by the heir, and receives its august 
 burden. By an ordinance, which is probably 
 more honored in the breach than in the per- 
 formance, the new Emperor and his courtiers 
 sacrifice their queues as a token of their sor- 
 row, and the ladies of the harem, not to be 
 outdone, submit their flowing locks to the 
 scissors of their attendants. 
 
 Periods of Mourning. 
 
 For three years, which by a fiction is 
 reduced to twenty-seven months, the y&ung 
 Emperor mourns the decease of his prede- 
 cessor. The exigencies of administration, 
 however, make it necessary that he should 
 confine the period of unrestrained grief to a 
 hundred days ; while twenty-seven days are 
 considered sufficient for the expression of the 
 regrets of the concubines of the third rank. 
 During the twenty-seven months members of 
 the Imperial family are not supposed to 
 marry or indulge in any of the pleasures of 
 married life. 
 
 A curious punishment was inflicted on a 
 late Emperor for an infraction of this last 
 rule. Most inopportunely a son was born to 
 him at a time which proved that, in accord- 
 ance with Chinese notions, its existence must 
 have begun during the mourning for the 
 deceased Emperor. The question then arose 
 how the august offender was to be dealt with. 
 Banishment would have been the sentence 
 naturally passed on any less exalted person- 
 age, but as it was plainly impossible to send 
 the Son of Heaven into exile, it was deter- 
 mined to banish his portrait across the 
 deserts of Mongolia into a far country. 
 
 On a day of good omen the will of the 
 deceased Emperor is carried, with much 
 pomp and circumstance, to the gate of 
 
 "Heavenly Rest." From the balcony above 
 this portal the contents of the document are 
 announced to the assembled crowd. The 
 terms of the testament having been commu- 
 nicated to the people of the capital, it is 
 printed in yellow, and distributed not only 
 throughout the empire, but throughout every 
 region which owes allegiance to the Son of 
 Heaven — Corea, Mongolia, and Manchuria, 
 and Liuchiu, and Annam. 
 
 When the time named by the astrologers 
 arrives for the removal of the coffin to the 
 temporary palace on the hill within the Impe- 
 rial enclosure, a procession, formed of all 
 that is great and noble in the empire, accom- 
 panies the Imperial remains to their appointed 
 resting-place, where, with every token of re- 
 spect, they are received by the Empress and 
 the ladies of the harem. 
 
 The Three Names. 
 In a mat shed adjoining the temporary 
 palace the Emperor takes up his abode for 
 twenty-seven days. With unremitting atten- 
 tion he presents fruits and viands to the de- 
 ceased, accompanying them with sacrificial 
 libations and prayers. The choice of a post- 
 humous title next occupies the attention of 
 the ministers, and from that moment the 
 names which the late sovereign has borne in 
 life disappear from Imperial cognizance. To 
 every Emperor are given, during life, and at 
 his death, three names. The first may be 
 called his personal name; the second is 
 assigned him on coming to the throne, and 
 resembles the titles given to the occupants of 
 the papal chair; the third is the style chosen 
 to commemorate his particular virtues or 
 those which he is "supposed to have pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 So soon as the posthumous title has been 
 decided upon it is engraved upon a tablet and 
 seal; and in order that the spiritual powers 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 177 
 
 should be made acquainted with the style 
 adopted, especially appointed ministers an- 
 nounce the newly chosen epithet to Heaven, 
 and Earth, and to the gods of the land and 
 of grain. On the completion of these long- 
 drawn-out ceremonies a day is chosen for 
 the removal of the coffin to its tomb. In a 
 wooded valley, forty or fifty miles west of 
 Pekin, lie all that is mortal of the emperors 
 of the present dynasty. Thither, by easy 
 stages," the coffin, borne by countless bearers, 
 is carried, over a road levelled and carefully 
 prepared for the cortege. 
 
 Funereal Pomp. 
 
 As in duty bound, the Emperor accom- 
 panies the coffin, but does not find it neces- 
 sary to join in the actual procession. By 
 pursuing devious ways he reaches the travel- 
 ling palaces, at which the halts are made, in 
 time to receive the coffin, and without having 
 experienced the fatigue of the slow and dreary 
 march. Finally, with many and minute cere- 
 monies, among which occurs the presentation 
 to the deceased of food, money, and clothes, 
 the remains are laid to rest in the august 
 company of Imperial shades. 
 
 With much the same pomp and ceremonial 
 a deceased Empress is buried in the sacred 
 precincts, and the proclamation of her death 
 is received in the provinces with much the 
 same demonstrations of grief and sorrow as 
 that which greets the announcement of the 
 decease of a Son of Heaven. 
 
 Some years ago, on the death of the Em- 
 press Dowager, a curious proclamation, 
 prescribing the rites to be performed on the 
 occasion, was issued to the people of Canton. 
 From this paper we learn that the notification 
 of the death was received from the hands of 
 the Imperial messenger by the assembled 
 local officials, and was borne on the " dragon 
 bier" to the Examination Hall. As the 
 12 
 
 procession moved along the officers fell on 
 their knees and, looking upwards, raised a 
 cry of lamentation. On reaching the pre- 
 cincts of the hall the mandarins, from the 
 highest to the lowest, thrice bowed low, and 
 nine times struck their foreheads on the 
 ground. So soon as the notification had 
 been placed on the table prepared for it, the 
 herald cried aloud, " Let all raise the cry of 
 lamentation." 
 
 Anon, the same officer proclaimed, "Pre- 
 sent the notification," upon which the officer 
 appointed for the purpose presented the 
 paper to the governor-general and governor 
 of the province, who received it on their 
 knees and handed it to the provincial treas- 
 urer, who, in like manner, passed it to the 
 secretary charged with the duty of seeing 
 that it was reverently copied and published 
 abroad. At another word of command the 
 mandarins retired to a public hall, where 
 they passed the night abstaining from meat 
 and from all carnal indulgence. 
 
 Mourning in White Apparel. 
 
 For three days similar ceremonies and 
 lamentations were performed, and for nine 
 times that period white apparel was donned 
 by the mandarins, who had already dis- 
 carded the tassels and buttons of their caps 
 on the first arrival of the Imperial messenger. 
 From the same date all official signatures 
 were written with bliie ink, and seals were 
 impressed with the same color. No drums 
 were beaten, no courts were held, and a blue 
 valance was hung from the chair and table 
 of all officers in lieu of the ordinary red one. 
 
 On each of the first three days a state 
 banquet was offered to the deceased, when, 
 in the presence of the assembled mandarins, 
 the herald cried aloud, " Serve tea to Her 
 Majesty."' Upon which attendants, preceded 
 by the governor-general and governor. 
 
178 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ascended the dais, and, kneeling, poured out 
 a cup of tea, which they handed to the 
 governor-general. With every token of res- 
 pect this ofiScer placed the cup before the 
 
 STREET SCENE IN CANTON. 
 
 tablet representing the late Empress. With 
 the same ceremonies rice, water, and wine 
 were offered to the spirit of the deceased 
 Empress. Finally, at a word from the 
 herald, the viands were committed to the 
 
 flame, and with prostrations and bows the 
 ceremony came to an end. 
 
 Such is the side of the shield presented to 
 us in the pages of the Pekin Gazette. It 
 represents a cloistered vir- 
 tue which, even if genuine, 
 we should admire more if 
 it sallied out to seek its ad- 
 versaries. Probably, how- 
 ever, a truer presentment 
 of the inner life of the 
 palace is to be found in the 
 native novels and plays, 
 where the natural effects 
 of confining the Son of 
 Heaven within the narrow 
 limits of the Forbidden 
 City, and of depriving him 
 of all those healthy exer- 
 cises which foster a sound 
 mind in a sound body, are 
 described as resulting from 
 the system. It can only be 
 men of the strongest will 
 cmd keenest intellects, who 
 would not rust under such 
 conditions, and these quah- 
 ties are possessed as rarely 
 by Emperors as by ordi- 
 nary persons. 
 
 For the most part we see 
 the Emperor portrayed as 
 surrounded by sycophants 
 and worse than sycophants, 
 who fawn upon him and 
 add flattery to adulation in 
 their attempts to gain and 
 to hold his favor. Ener- 
 vated by luxury, he, in a vast majority of 
 cases, falls a ready victim to these blandish- 
 ments, and rapidly degenerates into a weak 
 and flabby being. It is true that occa- 
 sionally some hardy Son of Heaven enjoys 
 
THE EMPEROR AND HIS COURT. 
 
 179 
 
 a long reign, but the more common course 
 of events is that a short and inglorious rule 
 ig brought to a premature close by the effects 
 of debauchery and inanition. 
 
 In so complicated an administrative ma- 
 chine as that of China it is difficult to say 
 what part the Emperor really takes in the 
 government of the country. We know that 
 iome have been powerful for good and many 
 more for evil. Over the Imperial princes and 
 nobles the Emperor holds complete sway. 
 He regulates their marriages, and in cases 
 of failure of issue he chooses sons for their 
 adoption. He appoints their retinues, and 
 orders all their goings with curious minute- 
 ness. Over them as over all his other sub- 
 jects, his will is, theoretically, law. 
 
 No Indian Rajah, no Shah of Persia, ever 
 possessed more autocratic power. We have 
 some knowledge of the debasing effect of 
 eastern palace life from the histories of the 
 better known countries of Asia, and we may 
 safely draw the deduction that, since the 
 same conditions produce the same effects, 
 the records of the Forbidden City would, if 
 ■written at length, reflect the normal condi- 
 tion of society in the old palace of Delhi or 
 that at Teheran. 
 
 Rewrarded for Bravery. 
 
 As has already been said, the hereditary 
 aristocrats of rank and importance form but 
 a small and unimportant body, while the 
 lower grades are well supplied with men who 
 have earned distinction in the battle-field and 
 in other arenas of honor. For example, the 
 man who was first to mount the wall of 
 Nanking when it was recaptured from the 
 rebels was rewarded by a title of the fourth 
 rank. To all such distinguished persons 
 annual allowances are made, and though in- 
 dividually small in amount, the total sum 
 becomes a serious burden on the provincial 
 
 exchequers, when by Imperial favor the 
 number of those holding patents of nobility 
 is nmltiplied. On one occasion the governor 
 of Kiangsi complained that he had to pro- 
 vide 50,000 taels a year for the incomes of 
 the four hundred and eighty-three hereditary 
 nobles residing within his jurisdiction. This 
 number he considered to be quite large 
 enough, and he begged his Imperial master 
 to abstain from throwing any more nobles 
 on the provincial funds. In Hunan the 
 number, he alleged, was confined to four 
 hundred, in Nanking to three hundred and 
 forty-eight, in Soochow to a hundred and 
 fifty, and in Anhui to a hundred and seventy- 
 six. Beyond these areas his investigations 
 had not travelled. 
 
 The Chinese Nobility. 
 
 The hereditary nobility of China may be 
 divided into the Imperial and National. Of 
 the former there are twelve denominations 
 which, with certain subdivisions, extend over 
 eighteen classes of persons ennobled because 
 of their descent. These are, of course, under 
 the present dynasty, exclusively Manchus. 
 The members of the National nobility may 
 be Manchus or Chinese elevated for their 
 merits to one of nine degrees. The five su- 
 perior of these, viz. : Kung, Hou, Pih, Tzu, 
 Nan, the English in general describe by duke, 
 marquis, earl, viscount, and baron; the re- 
 maining four, for convenience sake, they call 
 orders of knighthood. 
 
 The highest of these and the five above 
 sepecified are each divided into first, second, 
 and third classes, making in all twenty.-six 
 degrees. Unless the title given be conferred 
 in perpetuity it loses one degree of nobility 
 with each step of descent. Thus the Kung, . 
 duke, of the first class will reach the lowest 
 round in twenty-six generations; the first 
 class Tzu, viscount, in fourteen. 
 
CHAPTBR IX. 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 IT has often been said that the laws of a 
 nation furnish the best and truest 
 description of the manners and cus- 
 toms of the. people. In all respects 
 the Chinese Code is an exceptionally' good 
 instance of the truth of this maxim. Unlike 
 many of the legal systems of the east and 
 west, it avoids all useless redundancies, and 
 represents in a concise form, the laws which 
 are intended to govern the courts of justice. 
 Further, following the bent of the national 
 mind, it does not concern itself only with the 
 duties of men as citizens, but follows them 
 into their homes and provides legislation for 
 their social conduct, their relations in the 
 family, and even for the clothes which they 
 should wear. 
 
 Regarded as a whole it is obvious that its 
 provisions are mainly directed to keeping the 
 people quiet and loyal. The Emperor is 
 surrounded with enactments which are in- 
 tended to ensure that such divinity shall 
 hedge him in " that treason can but peep to 
 what it would," and ^every disturbing motive 
 and exciting cause is studiously suppressed 
 among his subjects. 
 
 The code begins by enumerating the pun- 
 ishments to be inflicted for offences, and 
 defines them as (i) flogging with a straight 
 polished piece of bamboo, the branches cut 
 away and reduced to five Chinese feet five 
 inches in length, varying in breadth from one 
 to two inches, and in weight from one and a 
 half to two Chinese pounds, and when used 
 to be held by the smaller end ; (2) the canque, 
 consisting of " a square frame of dry wood, 
 180 
 
 three feet long, two feet nine inches broad, 
 and weighing in ordinary cases twenty-five 
 pounds," which is carried on the shoulders; 
 (3) the capital punishment, which is inflicted 
 either by strangulation or by the execu- 
 tioner's sword. 
 
 Most punishments for the less serious 
 crimes are redeemable by fines, and even 
 capital sentences, in such cases as are not 
 legally excluded from the benefits of general 
 acts of grace and pardon, are commutable 
 for sums of money varying in amount with 
 the heinousness of the crime and with the 
 wealth of the criminal. A man sentenced to 
 a hundred blows with the bamboo can save 
 his skin by the payment of five ounces of 
 silver, and an officer above the fourth rank 
 who is sentenced to be strangled may avoid 
 the cord by paying twelve thousand ounces 
 into the coffers of the state. 
 
 Pardon Often Granted. 
 
 But besides these pecuniary modifications, 
 there are certain conditions which are held 
 to justify the mitigation of sentences. In 
 the case of an offender surrendering himself 
 to justice, he shall, in some circumstances, 
 be entitled, to a reduction of two degrees 
 of punishment, and in others he absolves 
 himself from all consequences by giving 
 himself up. If, again, "an offender under 
 sentence of death for an offence not excluded 
 from the contingent benefit of an act of 
 grace, shall have parents or grandparents 
 who are sick, infirm or aged above seventy 
 years, and who have no other son or grand- 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 181 
 
 son above the age of sixteen to support 
 them, this circumstance shall be submitted 
 to the consideration of His Imperial Ma- 
 jesty." 
 
 In any case offenders under fifteen years 
 of age, or over seventy, are allowed to re- 
 deem themselves from any punishment less 
 than capital. Even when the crime is capital, 
 if the offender is less than ten or more than 
 eighty, his case, unless he be charged with 
 treason, is to be recommended to the con- 
 sideration of the Emperor; and no punish- 
 ment, except for treason and rebellion, shall 
 be visited on those who are less than seven 
 or more than ninety. 
 
 Flogging and Imprisonment. 
 
 Especial regulations lighten punishments 
 to be inflicted on four classes of the popula- 
 tion. Astronomers sentenced to banish- 
 ment may submit to one hundred blows 
 •with the bamboo instead, and redeem them- 
 selves from further punishment, unless they 
 have been guilty of "poisoning, murdering, 
 wounding, robbing, stealing, killing by magic, 
 or of any such offences as may subject the 
 party to the punishment of being branded." 
 
 Artificers and musicians who have incurred 
 sentences of banishment may be flogged, 
 and, instead of being sent to Central Asia, 
 may be kept in the magistrate's yamun and 
 employed in the service of government; 
 while women who are sentenced to banish- 
 ment can always redeem themselves by pay- 
 ing a fine. 
 
 In cases where women are convicted of 
 ■offences punishable by flogging, it is pro- 
 vided that they shall be allowed to wear 
 their upper garment unless the crime should 
 be adultery, when that privilege is withdrawn. 
 
 Such are some of the main provisions 
 which condition the laws laid down in the 
 code. These apply with strange minuteness 
 
 to all sorts and conditions of men, from the 
 Emperor in his palace down to actors who 
 are regarded as the meanest of his subjects. 
 In every kingdom and Empire the life and 
 repose of the sovereign is jealously guarded 
 by all the precautions which the law can 
 provide, and in eastern countries, wh^re the 
 dagger and poison are the constant terror 
 of potentates, the preventive measures are 
 always carefully devised. 
 
 No doubt many of the observances prac- 
 ticed at the Chinese Court, such, for instance, 
 as standing with the hands joined as in sup- 
 plication, and kneeling when addressing the 
 sovereign, were instituted as safeguards from 
 harbored weapons or from violence. In the 
 code, pains and penalties of every intensity 
 are laid down as the portion of those who 
 directly or indirectly raise any suspicion of 
 evil design against the throne. 
 
 Barbarous Punishments. 
 
 Any one passing without proper authoriz- ' 
 ation through any of the gates of the For- 
 bidden City incurs a hundred blows of the 
 bamboo. This law is invariably enforced, 
 and quite lately the Pekin Gazette announced 
 the infliction of the penalty on a trespasser, 
 and the degradation of the officer of the 
 guard at the gate through which he had en- 
 tered. Death by strangulation is the punish- 
 ment due to any stranger found in any of 
 the Emperor's apartments; and with that 
 curious introspection which Chinese laws 
 profess, any one passing the palace gate 
 with the intention of going in, although he 
 does not do so, is to have a definite number 
 of blows with the bamboo. 
 
 Every workman engaged within the 
 palace has a pass given to him, on which 
 is a detailed description of his figure and 
 appearance, and which he is bound to give 
 up to the officer of the identical gate 
 
182 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 through which he was admitted. To carry- 
 drugs or weapons into the Forbidden City is 
 to court a flogging in addition to perpetual 
 banishment, and any one " who shall shoot 
 arrows or bullets, or fling bricks or stones 
 towards the Imperial temple, or towards any 
 Imperial palace, shall suffer death by being 
 strangled at the usual period." 
 
 No convicted person or relative of a con- 
 
 thereon while the Emperor's retinue is pass- 
 ing is to be strangled. If the Emperor ar- 
 rives unexpectedly at a place, "it shall be 
 sufficient for those who are unable to retire 
 in time, to prostrate themselves humbly on. 
 the roadside." 
 
 But there are other and more insidious 
 dangers than these to be guarded against. 
 Doctors and cooks have it readily within 
 
 CHINESE MODES OF TORTURE. 
 
 victed person is to be employed about the 
 Imperial city, and any one found disputing 
 or quarrelling within the precincts of the 
 palace is to be punished with fifty blows. If 
 the quan-elling leads to a personal encounter 
 the penalty is doubled. Even the roads 
 along which the Emperor travels and the 
 bridges which he crosses are not to be pro- 
 faned by vulgar use, and any one intruding 
 
 their power to do all the evil that the dagger 
 or club can accomplish, and it is, therefore, 
 enacted that if a physician inadvertenly 
 mixes medicines for the Emperor in any 
 manner that is not sanctioned by established 
 practice, or if a cook unwittingly introduce ; 
 any prohibited ingredients into the dishes 
 prepared for his Imperial master, they shall 
 each receive a hundred blows. The same. 
 
•THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 183 
 
 punishment is due to the cook, if he puts 
 any unusual drug into an article of food, 
 and, in addition, he is compelled to swallow 
 the compound. 
 
 Marriage is regarded as an incentive to 
 political peace and quiet. It is considered, 
 and rightdy considered, that a householder is 
 less likely to disturb the peace of the realm 
 than a waif and stray, and the Government 
 therefore considers marriage a subject worthy 
 of careful legislation. In Chinese parlance 
 the State is the father and mother of the 
 people, and it is part of its office to see that 
 parents do not neglect their duty in this 
 respect towards their offspring. 
 
 Shall Receive Fifty Blows. 
 
 When a marriage contract is in contem- 
 plation it shall be made plain to both of the 
 families interested that neither the bride nor 
 bridegroom are " diseased, infirm, aged, or 
 under age." If, no objection having been 
 raised on any of these scores, the preliminary 
 contract be made and the lady afterwards 
 wish to decline to execute it, the person who 
 had authority to give her away shall receive 
 fifty blows, and the marriage shall be at once 
 completed. If a. son, when at a distance 
 from his family, enters • into a marriage con- 
 tract in ignorance of an engagement which 
 his father may have made on his behalf at 
 home, he shall give up his own choice and 
 shall fulfil the contract made for him by his 
 pa.rent. 
 
 Bigamy is punished with ninety blows, 
 and the same fate awaits any man who, dur- 
 ing the lifetime of his wife, raises a concubine 
 to the rank which she enjoys. The times and 
 seasons proper for marriages are, in western 
 lands, left to individual taste and judgment; 
 but in China, where etiquette is a matter of 
 State policy, it is necessary to lay down rules 
 for the guidance of the people in such mat- 
 
 ters. The same authority which makes it 
 incumbent on a son on the death of his 
 father or mother to go unshaved for a hun- 
 dred days, and if he is in office to retire into 
 private life for twenty-seven months, forbids 
 him to marry while in mourning for a parent, 
 under a penalty of a hundred blows for dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 The same punishment is to be inflicted on 
 any misguided widow who embraces a second 
 husband before her weeds should be legally 
 dispensed with ; while the frisky widow, who, 
 having been ennobled by the Emperor during 
 the lifetime of her first husband, should dare 
 to marry again, is ordered to be bambooed, 
 to lose her rank, and to be separated from 
 her second venture. 
 
 Strict Matrimonial Laws. 
 
 Marriage is strictly forbidden within cer- 
 tain recognized degrees of relationship, and 
 even persons of the same surname who in- 
 termarry are liable to separation, and to for- 
 feit the wedding presents to Government. 
 Indeed, the matrimonial prohibitions are both 
 numerous and far-reaching. A man may not 
 marry an absconded female criminal — a la.w, 
 one would imagine, which it cannot often be 
 necessary to enforce. A mandarin may not 
 marry the daughter of any one living under 
 his rule, nor may he make either a female 
 musician or comedian his wife. A priest of 
 Buddha or of Tao may not marry at all. A 
 slave may not marry a free woman, and so on. 
 
 But though the State in its wisdom is a 
 great promoter of marriage, it affords many 
 loopholes for escape to people who find that 
 they have made mistakes. Of course the 
 law of divorce only applies to the wife, and 
 apart from the supreme crime of wives, the 
 following seven causes are held to justify the 
 annulling of the marriage ; namely, barren- 
 ness, lasciviousness, disregard of her hus- 
 
184 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 band's parents, talkativeness, thievish pro- 
 pensities, envious and suspicious temper, and 
 inveterate infirmity. 
 
 It must be admitted that this list offers 
 many chances of escape to a restless husband, 
 and the further enactment that when " a 
 husband and wife do not agree, and both 
 parties are desirous of separation, the law 
 limiting the right of divorce shall not be 
 enforced to prevent it," leaves nothing to be 
 desired. 
 
 Of all offences treason is, in the opinion of 
 Chinese legislators, the gravest and most 
 worthy of severe and condign punishment. 
 So atrocious is it that capital punishment 
 as laid down in the general provisions is 
 considered an insufficient requital, and the 
 equivalent of the old English sentence, "To 
 be hung, drawn, and quartered," is met with 
 in China in the shape of an even more cruel 
 sentence, namely lingchi, or death by a slow 
 and lingering process. 
 
 Gashes on the Body. 
 
 A culprit, condemned to this form of death, 
 is tied to a cross, and, while he is yet alive, 
 gashes are made by the executioner on the 
 fleshy parts of his body, varying in number 
 according to the disposition of the judge. 
 When this part of the sentence has been 
 carried out, a merciful blow severs the head 
 from the body. 
 
 It is a principle of Chinese jurisprudence 
 that in great crimes all the male relatives of 
 the principal are held to be participators in 
 his offence. Thus, for one man's sin, whole 
 families are cut off, and in cases of treason 
 " all the male relatives of the first degree, at 
 or above the age gf sixteen, of persons con- 
 victed — namely, the father, grandfather, sons, 
 grandsons, paternal uncles and their sons 
 respectively — shall, without any regard to the 
 place of residence, or to the natural or 
 
 acquired infirmities of particular individuals, 
 be indiscriminately beheaded." 
 
 But this is not all. Every male relative, 
 of whatever degree, who may be dwelling 
 under the roof of the offender, is doomed to 
 death. An exception is made in the case of 
 young boys, who are allowed their€ives, but 
 on the condition that they are made eunuchs 
 for service in the Imperial palace. In the 
 appendix to Stanton's translation of the code 
 an imperial edict is quoted from the Pekin 
 Gazette in which a case is detailed of a sup- 
 posed treasonable attempt on the life of the 
 Emperor Kiaking (1796-1820). 
 
 Horrible Cruelty. 
 
 As the Imperial cortege was entering one 
 of the gates of the palace a man pushed 
 through the crowd, with, as it was con- 
 sidered, the intention of murdering the 
 Emperor. He was promptly seized by the 
 guards and put on his trial, when he made, 
 or is said to have made, a confession of his 
 guilt. In grandiloquent terms the Emperor 
 proclaimed the event to the Empire, and 
 ended by confirming the sentence of lingchi 
 on the offender, and by condemning his sons, 
 " being of tender age, to be strangled." 
 
 Lingchi is the invariable fate pronounced 
 on any one who kills three people in a house- 
 hold, or on a son who murders his father or 
 mother. Some of the most horrible passages 
 in the Pekin Gazette are those which announce 
 the infliction of this awful punishment on 
 madmen and idiots who, in sudden outbreaks 
 of mania, have committed parricide. For 
 this offence no infirmity is accepted, even as 
 a palliation. The addition of this form of 
 execution to those generally prescribed is an 
 instance of the latitude which is taken by the 
 powers that be in the interpretation of the 
 code. 
 
 To read the list of authorized punishments 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 185 
 
 one would imagine that the Chinese were 
 the mildest mannered men who ever had 
 culprits before them. Admitting that tor- 
 ture is necessary in China to extract con- 
 fessions from obdurate witnesses, the kinds 
 authorized are probably as unobjectionable 
 as could well be devised. But they are but. 
 a shadow of the pain and penalties actually 
 inflicted every day in all parts of the Empire. 
 Even in the appendix to this code it was 
 found advisable to add the Imperial sanction 
 to more stringent measures in cases of rob- 
 bery or homicide. 
 
 Instruments of Torture. 
 
 Instruments for crushing the ankles, and 
 for compressing the fingers, are there ad- 
 mitted on the canonical list. The first of 
 these, it is laid down, shall consist of "a 
 middle piece of wood, three (Chinese) feet 
 four inches long, and two side pieces three 
 feet each in length. The upper end of each 
 piece shall be circular and rather more than 
 one inch in diameter, the lower end shall be 
 cut square and two inches in thickness. At 
 a distance of six inches from the lower ends, 
 four hollows or sockets shall be excavated — 
 one on each side of the middle piece and 
 one in each of the other pieces to correspond. 
 The lower ends being fixed and immovable, 
 and the ankles of the criminal under exami- 
 nation being lodged within the sockets, a 
 painful compression is effected by forcibly 
 drawing together the upper ends.'' 
 
 The finger squeezers are necessarily 
 smaller, but are arranged on much the 
 same principle. 
 
 But even these tortures are considered 
 insufficient to meet the requirements of the 
 courts of justice. Mandarins, whose minds 
 have grown callous to the sufferings of their 
 fellow-creatures, are always ready to believe 
 that the instruments of torture at their dis- 
 
 posal are insufficient for their purposes. 
 Unhappily, it is always easy to inflict pain; 
 and in almost every yamun throughout the 
 Empire an infinite variety of instruments of 
 torture are in constant use. 
 
 To induce unwilling witnesses to say what 
 is expected of them, they are not unfrequently 
 made to kneel on iron chains on which their 
 knees are forced by the weight of men stand- 
 ing on the calves of their legs. Others are 
 tied up to beams by their thumbs and big 
 toes. Others are hamstrung, while some 
 have the sight of their eyes destroyed by 
 lime or the drums of their ears deadened by 
 piercing. 
 
 This list might be extended indefinitely, 
 but enough has been said to show that, like 
 so many Chinese institutions, the penal code 
 only faintly represents the practice which is 
 actually in force. 
 
 Penalty for Murder. 
 
 Beheading is the ordinary fate of a mur- 
 derer, while accessories to the deed, when 
 not actual perpetrators, enjoy the privilege 
 of being strangled. In the case of the mur- 
 der of a mandarin the accessories as well as 
 the principal are beheaded, and if a man 
 strikes a mandarin so as to produce a severe 
 cutting wound his f^te is to be strangled. 
 
 The charge has of late years been con- 
 stantly made against missionaries, that they 
 kill children and others to procure from 
 parts of the body drugs for medicinal pur- 
 poses. This sounds so barbarous that it 
 will readily be believed that the charge had 
 its origin in the wild imaginations of the 
 most ignorant of the people. But this is not 
 quite so. Some sanction is certainly given 
 to the idea by the code, which provides, for 
 instance, that "the principal in the crime of 
 murdering, or of attempting to murder any 
 person, with a design afterwards to mangle 
 
186 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 the body, and divide the hmbs of the de- 
 ceased for magical purposes, shall suffer 
 death by a slow and painful process." 
 
 Even, if the crime is only in contempla- 
 tion the principal offender on conviction 
 shall be beheaded, and the chief inhabitant 
 of the village or district who, on becoming 
 aware of the design, shall fail to report it, 
 shall suffer to the extent of a hundred blows. 
 
 the throne that "alarming rumors were cir- 
 culated among the people concerning the 
 cutting off of queues, the imprinting of 
 marks on the body by 'paper men,' and the 
 appearance of black monsters which played 
 the part of incubi on sleeping persons." 
 
 It would be natural to expect that the 
 governor being learned in all the wisdom of 
 China would have reproved these foolish 
 
 BEHEADING A CHINESE CRIMINAL. 
 
 Like most uncivilized nations the Chinese 
 are firm believers in magic, and place full 
 belief in those arts of the sorcerer which 
 have a congenial home among the inhabit- 
 ants of Central Africa, and of which dim 
 traces are still to be found in the highlands 
 of Scotland, and among the most ignorant 
 of English rustics. Not long since the gov- 
 ernor of the province of Kiangsu reported to 
 
 imaginings, and would have used his influ- 
 ence to check the spread of such ridiculous 
 rumors. But the course he took, with the 
 subsequent approval of the Emperor, was a 
 very different one. He professed to have 
 discovered at Soochow a " wizard," named 
 Feng, and others who, after trial, were all 
 condemned to be beheaded. Several others 
 in different parts of the province suffered 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 187 
 
 the same penalty, and a man named Hu and 
 his wife were arrested on a confession made 
 by Feng that they had imparted to him the 
 words of the incantation necessary to invoke 
 the "paper men." 
 
 As the statements made by the Hus were 
 " stubbornly evasive, the prefect with the 
 district magistrate and other officers sub- 
 jected the prisoners to repeated interroga- 
 tions, continued without intermission even 
 by night, instituting rigorous and searching 
 inquiry in an unprejudiced spirit ; as a result 
 of which the woman Hu at length made the 
 following confession. She acknowledged 
 having met a man whose name she did not 
 know, and whose manner of speech was 
 that of a person from distant parts, who 
 gave her some foreign money and taught her 
 the words of an incantation, and how to 
 send off the "paper men" to go and crush 
 people. 
 
 Head Stuck on a Pole. 
 
 "She told this to her husband, and he, 
 animated by the desire of gain, communi- 
 cated the secret to their acquaintance Feng. 
 On the woman being confronted with Hu, he 
 made full confession to the same effect ; and 
 after it had been established by thrice re- 
 peated interrogatories that the confessions 
 were truthful, the governor arrived at the 
 conclusion that, in having been so bold as to 
 follow the advice of an adept in unholy arts ; 
 in practising incantation ; and in communi- 
 cating the secret, the guilt of the two pris- 
 oners was such that death could barely ex- 
 piate it. 
 
 " He gave orders forthwith to the pro- 
 vincial judge, directing him to cause Hu and 
 the woman to be subjected together to the 
 extreme penalty of the law, and to cause 
 the head of Hu to be exhibited on a pole as 
 a salutary warning. It is now ascertained 
 
 on inquiry," adds the sapient governor, 
 "that the entire province is free from practi- 
 tioners of unholy arts of this description, 
 and that the population is in the enjoyment 
 of its accustomed tranquillity, whereby 
 grounds are afforded for allaying the anxie- 
 ties of the Imperial mind." 
 
 This case affords an excellent example of 
 the gross superstition which exists even 
 among the most highly educated Chinamen, 
 and it also draws a picture which, to those 
 who can read between the lines, stands out 
 very clearly, of the gross cruelty and shame- 
 ful abuse of the use of torture. 
 
 Compelled to Lie. 
 
 There cannot be a doubt that Feng, having 
 under the influence of torture falsely con- 
 fessed his own guilt, was further called upon 
 by the same pressure to give up the names 
 of his associates, and that, in his agony, he 
 wrongfully implicated Hu and his wife. 
 The " repeated interrogations " to which this 
 couple were subjected mean the infliction of 
 sufferings so acute that even the prospect of 
 death became a welcome vision, and by a 
 self-condemning lie they escaped by means 
 of the executioner's sword from the hands of 
 the more inhuman torturer. 
 
 It must not be supposed that this particular 
 governor was more ignorant than the rest of 
 his kind. The code, which was based on the 
 laws existing during the Ming dynasty, was 
 thoroughly revised by a committee of the 
 highest functionaries of the realm, and 
 received the Imperial approval in 1647, ^^er 
 careful consideration. In it we find, there- 
 fore, the mind which was in these grandees, 
 and that they deliberately adopted a section 
 providing that "all persons convicted of writ- 
 ing and editing books on sorcery and magic, 
 or of employing spells and incantations, in 
 order to influence the minds of the people, 
 
188 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 shall be beheaded." This was a fair warn- 
 ing to all parties concerned. 
 
 Lesser punishments, on what principle 
 awarded it is impossible to say, are incurred 
 by magicians who raise evil spirits by means 
 of magical books and dire imprecations, by 
 leaders of corrupt and impious sects, and by 
 members of superstitious associations in 
 general. Even fortune-tellers, unless they 
 divine by the recognized rules of astrology, 
 are liable to be bambooed. 
 
 As Bad as Others. 
 
 By analogy, persons who rear venomous 
 animals, and prepare poisons for the purpose 
 of murder, are treated on a par with those 
 who commit murder. 
 
 In all Chinese legislation the principal that 
 the family is the basis of government is con- 
 spicuously apparent. The authority of the 
 father is everywhere recognized, and it is 
 only in supreme cases that the State inter- 
 feres between the head of a household and 
 his family belongings. If a man discovers 
 his wife in criminal relations with another 
 man, and kills her on the spot, he is held 
 blameless; and if a husband punishes his 
 wife for striking and abusing his father, 
 mother, grandfather, or grandmother, in such 
 a way as to cause her death, he shall only be 
 liable to receive a hundred blows. 
 
 With equal consideration a man who kills 
 a son, a grandson, or a slav , is punished 
 with seventy blows and a year and a half's 
 banishment, and this only when he falsely 
 attributes the crime to another person. 
 Though the code affords no direct justifica- 
 tion for punishing disobedient sons with 
 death, or for infanticide, it is an incontro- 
 vertible fact that in cases which constantly 
 occur, both crimes are practically ignored by 
 the authorities. A particularly brutal case, 
 of the murder of an unfilial son, was recently 
 
 reported. The report was in the form of a 
 memorial addressed to the throne by the 
 governor of Shansi, in which that officer 
 stated that there had been in his district a lad 
 named Lui, who was' endowed by nature with 
 an " unamiable and refractory disposition." 
 
 On one occasion he stole his mother's 
 head ornaments, and another time he pilfered 
 2,000 cash belonging to her. This last mis- 
 demeanor aroused her direst anger, and she 
 attempted to chastise him. Unwilling to en- 
 dure the indignity, Lui seized her by the 
 throat, and only released her on the expostu- 
 lation of his sister. This behavior so angered 
 the old lady, that she determined on the 
 death of her son. 
 
 A Helpless Victim. 
 
 Being physically incapable of accomplish- 
 ing the deed herself, she begged a sergeant 
 of police on duty in the neighborhood to act 
 as executioner. This he declined to do, but 
 softened his refusal by offering to flog Lui. 
 To do this conveniently he bound the lad, 
 and, with the help of three men, carried him 
 off to a deserted guard-house on the out- 
 skirts of the village. Thither Mrs. Lui 
 followed, and implored the men to bury her 
 son alive. 
 
 Again the sergeant declined, and empha- 
 sized his refusal by leaving the hut. The 
 other men were more yielding, and having 
 thrown Lui on the ground they proceeded, 
 with the help, of his mother and sister, to 
 pull down the walls and to bury their victim 
 in the ruins. When the case came on for 
 trial it was decided " that the death in this 
 case was properly deserved, and that his 
 mother was accordingly absolved from all 
 blame." The sergeant, however, was sen- 
 tenced, for his comparatively innocent part in 
 the affair, to receive a hundred blows, and 
 the three men and the daughter each re- 
 
THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 189 
 
 ceived ninety blows, which was considered 
 only a just punishment. 
 
 This case is significant of the supreme 
 power which practically rests in the hands of 
 parents, and is exemplified by the countless 
 acts of infanticide which go unpunished 
 every year. In the volume of the Pekin 
 Gazette from which the above account is 
 taken, a wretched case is reported, in which 
 a husband drowned an infant born to his 
 wife, of which he had reason to believe he 
 was not the father. On another and subse- 
 quent issue the case came before the man- 
 darins, but the infanticide was not so much 
 as mentioned in the finding. 
 
 Children Placed at Disadvantage. 
 
 Throughout the whole code sons and 
 daughters, as well as daughters-in-law, 
 stand at a marked disadvantage with regard 
 to their parents. Not only is parricide pun- 
 ished by lingchi, but even for striking or 
 abusing a father, mother, paternal grandfather 
 or grandmother, the punishment is death ; 
 and the same penalty follows on a like 
 offence committed by a wife or her husband's 
 father, mother, or paternal grandparents. 
 
 A still more one-sided provision ordains 
 that "a son accusing his father or mother ; a 
 grandson, his paternal grandparents ; a prin- 
 cipal or inferior wife, her husband or her hus- 
 band's parents, or paternal grandparents, 
 shall in each case be punished with a hun- 
 dred blows and three years' banishment, 
 even if the accusation prove true, and that 
 the individuals so accused by their relatives, 
 if they voluntarily surrender and plead guilty, 
 shall be entitled to pardon." If such accu- 
 sation should, however, turn out to be either 
 in part or wholly false, " the accuser shall 
 suffer death by being strangled." 
 
 Though neither wives nor slaves are so 
 entirely in the hands of their husbands and 
 
 masters as sons and daughters are in those 
 of their parents, they suffer, from a Western 
 point of view, many and great legal inequali- 
 ties. A wife who strikes her husband is 
 liable to be punished with a hundred blows, 
 while the husband is declared to be entitled 
 to strike his wife so long as he does not pro- 
 duce a cutting wound. 
 
 Punishment of Insolent Slaves. 
 
 Death by beheading is the punishment for 
 a slave who strikes his master; but if a 
 master, in order to correct a disobedient 
 slave or hired servant, chastises him in the 
 canonical way, and the offender "happens to 
 die," the master is " not liable to any punish- 
 ment in consequence thereof." 
 
 One of the strangest sections in the code 
 is that which deals with quarrelling and 
 fighting, and in which every shade of offence 
 is differentiated with strange minuteness. On 
 what part of the body a blow is struck, with 
 what it is struck, and the result of the blow, 
 are all set out with their appropriate penal- 
 ties. Tearing out "an inch of hair," break- 
 ing a tooth, a toe, or a finger, with countless 
 other subdivisions, are all tabulated in due 
 form. It is commonly observed that people, 
 and therefore nations, admire most those 
 qualities in which they are deficient, and on 
 somewhat the same principle Chinese legis- 
 lators delight to hold up to opprobrium 
 those social misdemeanors to which they 
 are most prone. 
 
 If an impartial observer of Chinese mari- 
 ners and customs were to name the two 
 most prominent civil vices of the Chinese, he 
 would probably give his decision in favor of 
 bribery and gambling. Against both these 
 vices the code speaks with no uncertain 
 sound. The mandarin who accepts a bribe 
 of one hundred and twenty taels of silver 
 and upwards, when the object is in itself 
 
190 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 lawful, or eighty taels and upwards when 
 the object is unlawful, is pronounced guilty 
 of death by strangulation. It is no exaggera- 
 tion to say that if this law were enforced it 
 would make a clean sweep of ninety-nine out 
 of every hundred officials in the Empire. 
 
 Gambling also is denounced with equal 
 fervor, and eighty blows is the punishment 
 for any person found playing at any game of 
 chance for money or for goods. The same 
 
 FIGHTING QUAILS. 
 
 penalty awaits, in theory, the owner of a 
 gaming-house, with the additional fine of 
 the loss of the house to Government. The 
 existence of such a law, side by side with the 
 open and palpable violation of it in streets 
 and alleys, as well as on country roads and 
 in village lanes, reduces it to an absurdity. 
 At breakfast-time workmen stream out of 
 their places of employment, and throw dice 
 or lots for their meal at the nearest itinerant 
 cookshop. 
 
 Coohes, in moments of leisure, while away 
 the time with cards and dice as they sit at 
 the sides of the streets, and the gaming- 
 houses are always full of eager excited 
 crowds, who are wiUing to lose dverything 
 they possess, and more also, in satisfaction 
 of the national craving. Like opium, games 
 of chance have a peculiar fascination for 
 Chinamen. One of the commonest games 
 is known as fantan, and is so simple that 
 it can be played by 
 any one. The croupier 
 throws down a heap of 
 cash, and each gambler 
 stakes on what the re- 
 mainder will be when 
 the pile has been 
 counted out in fours. 
 This and other games 
 are pubUcly played at 
 the gambling -houses, 
 the owners of which 
 purchase security for 
 their trade by bribing 
 the mandarins and their 
 police. Quail-fighting, 
 cricket - fighting, and . 
 public events are also 
 made subjects of 
 wagering, and the ex- 
 pected appearance of 
 the names of the suc- 
 cessful candidates at the local examinations 
 is a fruitful source of desperate gambling. 
 With the object possibly of discouraging 
 speculation and games of chance, the code 
 fixes the legal rate of interest at thirty-six 
 per cent., but the enactment, if that is its 
 object, fails signally to effect its purpose. 
 
 The love of games is so deeply imbedded 
 in the Chinese nature that all sorts of expe- 
 dients are resorted to in order to escape 
 detection. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CHINESE MECHANICS AND MERCHANTS. 
 
 NEXT to farmers in popular estima- 
 tion stand mechanics, and even a 
 deeper state of poverty than that 
 which afflicts agriculturists is the 
 common lot of these men. They live per- 
 petually on the verge of destitution, and this 
 from no fault of their own and in spite of 
 their untiring devotion to their callings. No 
 one can have seen these men at work in the 
 streets, or in their workshops, without being 
 struck with the indefatigable industry which 
 they display. 
 
 From an hour in the morning at which 
 European workmen are still in bed until a 
 time at night long after which the same men 
 have ceased to toil and spin, the patient 
 Chinaman plods on to secure for himself 
 and family a livelihood which would be con- 
 temned by all but the patient Asiatic. 
 
 As in every branch of science and art, 
 mechanics in China have remained for cen- 
 turies in a perfectly stagnant condition. 
 The tools and appliances which were good 
 enough for those who worked and labored 
 before our era, still satisfy the requirements 
 of Chinese craftsmen. The rudest tools are 
 all that a workman has at his disposal, and 
 the idea never seems to occur to him that an 
 improvement in their structure is either called 
 for or necessary. 
 
 The abundant population and over-crowded 
 labor market may have something to do with 
 the disinclination of the people to the use of 
 labor-saving machinery. It is not so long 
 ago that, in civilized countries, there arose 
 an outcry that the adoption of railways 
 
 would be ruin to all those who made their 
 living by the earlier methods of travelling, 
 and it need not therefore surprise us to find 
 Chinamen ranging themselves in opposition 
 to any contrivances which may appear to 
 compete with human labor. 
 
 The mason who wishes to move a block 
 of stone knows no better means for the pur- 
 pose than the shoulders of his fellow-men 
 supplemented by bamboos and ropes. The 
 carpenter who wants to saw up a fallen tree 
 does so with his own hand, without a 
 thought of the easier device of a saw-mill. 
 So it is with every branch of industry. 
 Many of the contrivances employed are 
 extremely ingenious, but since their inven- 
 tion no further advance has been made 
 towards relieving the workman from any 
 part of his toil. 
 
 Great Mechanical Skill. 
 
 In many cities. Canton, for example, 
 bricklayers and carpenters stand in the 
 street for hire, and often, unhappily, remain 
 all the day idle. Even when employed their 
 wages are ridiculously small compared with 
 the pay of their colleagues in our own 
 country, or even in Europe, whose hours of 
 labor are short compared with theirs, and 
 whose relaxations furnish a relief from toil 
 to which Chinamen are complete strangers. 
 In the higher branches of mechanical skill, 
 such, for instance, as gold, silver and ivory 
 work, Chinamen excel, and they are excep- 
 tionally proficient in the manufacture of 
 bronzes, bells, lacquer ware and cloisonne. 
 
 191 
 
192 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 With the appliances at their command 
 their skill in casting bells of great size and 
 sonorousness is little short of marvellous. 
 The famous bell at Pekin weighs 120,000 
 pounds, and is one of five of the same 
 weight and size which were cast by order of 
 the Emperor Yunglo (1403-1425). Like 
 all Chinese bells, it is struck from outside 
 with a mallet, and its tones resound through 
 the city to announce the changes of the 
 watch. 
 
 Jacks of All Trades. 
 
 A feature in the workaday life of China 
 is the number of itinerant craftsmen who 
 earn their , livelihood on the streets. Every 
 domestic want, from the riveting of a bro- 
 ken saucer to shaving a man's head, is 
 supplied by these useful peripatetics. If a 
 man's jacket wants mending, or his shoes re- 
 pairing, he summons a passing tailor and 
 cobbler, and possibly, while waiting for his 
 mended clothes, employs the services of a 
 travelling barber to plait his queue, or it 
 may be to clean his ears from accumulated 
 wax. 
 
 Even blacksmiths carry about with them 
 the very simple instruments of their trade, 
 and the bellows which blow the flame are 
 commonly so constructed as to serve when 
 required as a box for the tools and for a seat 
 to rest the owner when weary. 
 
 It is characteristic of Chinese topsy-turvy- 
 dom that that class of society which has done 
 most to promote the material prosperity of 
 the nation, should, in theory at least, be 
 placed on the lowest round of the social 
 ladder. The principle, " that those who think 
 must govern those who toil," is justly upheld 
 in China, but why the men who have made 
 her the rich country which she is, and who 
 have carried the fame of her wealth and 
 power into every market in Asia, should be 
 
 subordinate in the social scale to laborers 
 and mechanics it is difficult to understand. 
 
 The merchants and traders of China have 
 gained the respect and won the admiration 
 of all those who have been brought into con- 
 tact with them. For honesty and integrity 
 they have earned universal praise, and on this 
 point a Shanghai bank manager, in acknowl- 
 edging a valedictory address, presented to 
 him on his leaving the country, bore the 
 following testimony: "I have," he said, 
 " referred to the high commercial standing of 
 the foreign community. The Chinese are in 
 no way behind us in that respect ; in fact, I 
 know of no people in the world I would 
 sooner trust than the Chinese merchant and 
 banker. I may mention that for the last 
 twenty-five years the bank has been doing a 
 very large business with Chinese at Shanghai, 
 amounting, I should say, to hundreds of 
 millions of taels, and we have never yet 
 met with a defaulting Chinaman." 
 
 Chinese Merchant Princes. 
 
 It was such men as these that built up the 
 commerce which excited the wonder and ad- 
 miration of Marco Polo and other early 
 European travellers; and it is to their labors 
 and to those of their descendants that the 
 existence of the crowded markets, the teem- 
 ing wharfs and the richly laden vessels of the 
 present day are due. However much in 
 theory the Chinese may despise their mer- 
 chant princes, their intelligence gains them a 
 position of respect, and their riches assure 
 them consideration at the hands of the man- 
 darins, who are never backward in drawing 
 on their overflowing coffers. 
 
 It is noticeable that while novelists are 
 never tired of satirizing the cupidity of the 
 mandarins, the assumption of the literati, 
 and the viciousness of the priesthood, they 
 refrain from reflections on a class which at 
 
CHINESE MECHANICS AND MERCHANTS. 
 
 193 
 
 least honestly toils and only asks to be 
 allowed to reap the rewards of its own un- 
 tiring industry. As for everything else 
 in China, a vast antiquity is claimed 
 for the beginning of commerce. In 
 the earliest native works extant men- 
 tion occurs of the efforts made to barter 
 the products of one district for those 
 of another, and to dispose of the super- 
 fluous goods of China by exchange with 
 the merchandise of the neighboring 
 countries. The subject was not consid- 
 ered beneath the notice of the earliest 
 philosophers, and Confucius on several 
 occasions gave utterance to his views on 
 the matter. Wise as many of his sayings 
 were, it.is a fact that his dicta on practical 
 affairs were for the most part either plati- 
 tudes or fallicies. 
 
 It is not difficult to determine in which 
 class his best quoted pronouncement on 
 trade should be placed. " Let the pro- 
 ducers," said the sage, " be many .and 
 the consumers few. Let there be activity 
 in the production and economy in the 
 expenditure. Then the wealth will al- 
 ways be ample." 
 
 It might have occurred even to Con- 
 fucius that, if the producers of a certain 
 commodity were in the majority, and 
 the consumers in the minority, -the only 
 people who could possibly benefit would 
 be the few, more especially if they further 
 reduced the demand for the product by 
 following the philosopher's advicei and 
 practising economy in the use of it. 
 
 Fortunately, the merchants of China 
 have not found it necessary to accept 
 Confucius as an infallible guide in mer- 
 cantile concerns ; and they, in common 
 with the rest of their countrymen, have 
 benefited by the disenthralment from the 
 
 bondage which still binds the literary 
 13 
 
 classes to the chariot-wheels of the sage. 
 The same problems which were at an early 
 
 PAGODA AND VASES. 
 
 date worded out in the commercial centres 
 of Europe have been presented for solution 
 to the frequenters of the marts in the Flowery 
 
194 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Land, and occasion as much controversy as 
 they did long ago. 
 
 Long before the establishment by Lom- 
 bard Jews of banks in Italy (A. D. 808), the 
 money-changers of China were affording 
 their customers all the help and convenience 
 which belong to the banking system ; arid 
 three hundred years before the establish- 
 ment at Stockholm of the first bank which 
 issued notes in Europe, paper currency was 
 passing freely through all the provinces 
 of the Empire. A later development of 
 trade has been the adoption of guilds, whose 
 halls are often among the handsomest build- 
 ings to be met with in the busy centres of trade. 
 
 For Mutual Protection. 
 
 The idea first took shape in a curious way. 
 Provincial mandarins on visiting the capital 
 found that they were quite unable to cope 
 singly with the exactions of the officials and 
 the insults which their local pronunciations 
 and provincial attires drew upon them from 
 the people. They determined, therefore, to 
 combine for mutual protection, and to estab- 
 lish guilds as common centres for protection 
 in case of need, and for the more congenial 
 purpose of social intercourse. 
 
 Strange as it may seem to those who only 
 hear of the opposition shown by Chinamen 
 to foreigners, it is yet a fact that a like host- 
 ility, though in a mitigated ' form, is com- 
 monly displayed towards natives of other 
 provinces and districts. Like the provincial 
 mandarins at Pekin, travelling merchants 
 found the advantage of being of being able 
 to show a united front to the annoyances 
 which they suffered from the natives of 
 " outside provinces," and, following the ex- 
 ample set in the capital, they founded pro- 
 vincial guilds in all parts of the country 
 where trade or pleasure made their presence 
 either necessary or convenient. 
 
 Natives of Canton visiting Chehkiang or 
 Hunan are now no longer subjected to the 
 insults to which they were accustomed at 
 the native inns. In their provincial guilds 
 they may count on security and comfort, 
 and, if merchants, they are sure to find 
 among the frequenters of the clubs, either 
 customers for their goods or vendors of the 
 products which they may wish to buy. The 
 more strictly mercantile guilds serve invalu- 
 able purposes in the promotion of trade. 
 Each is presided over by a president, who is 
 helped in the administration by a specially 
 elected committee and a permanent secretary. 
 
 This last is generally a graduate, and thus 
 in virtue both of his literary rank and of his 
 connection with the guild has ready access 
 to the mandarins of the district. Through 
 his instrumentality disputes are arranged, 
 litigation is often prevented, and the Lekin 
 taxes due from the members of the guild for 
 the passage of their goods into the interior of 
 the country are compounded for by lump 
 sums. 
 
 Where Revenue Comes From. 
 
 The revenue of the guilds is derived from 
 a payment of one-tenth of one per cent, on 
 all sales effected by members. At first sight 
 this percentage appears insignificant, but so 
 great is the volume of internal trade, that 
 the amount realized not only covers every 
 requirement, but furnishes a surplus for lux- 
 urious feasts. In one guild at Ningpo the 
 reserve fund was lately stated to be 700,000 
 dollars, to which must be added the amount 
 realized by the deposit exacted from each 
 new member of 3,000 dollars. 
 
 Against the income account must be set 
 down large outgoings in several directions. 
 In the case of a member going to law with 
 the sanction of the guild he receives half his 
 law expenses, and a not inconsiderable sum 
 
CHINESE MECHANICS AND MERCHANTS. 
 
 195 
 
 is yearly disbursed in payment of the funeral 
 expenses of those members who die away 
 from their homes. Besides these outgoings 
 money is advanced on cargoes expected, and 
 is lent for the purchase of return ventures. 
 The rules regulating the guilds are numerous 
 and are strictly enforced. 
 
 The favorite penalty for any infraction is 
 that the offender shall provide either a 
 theatrical entertainment for the delectation 
 of his brother members or a feast for their 
 beneiit. If any member should be recalcit- 
 rant and refuse to submit to the authority of 
 the committee, he is boycotted with a sever- 
 ity which might well excite the emulation of 
 promoters of the system in the Emerald Isle. 
 
 Fines for Dishonesty. 
 
 Allied to these mercantile associations are 
 the guilds which are strictly analogous to the 
 trades-unions among ourselves. Each trade 
 has its guild, which is constituted on precisely 
 the same lines as those above described. So 
 far as it is possible to judge, the action of the 
 Chinese trades-unions appears to tend to the 
 promotion of fair play and a ready kind of 
 justice. Unjust weights, or unfairly loaded 
 goods, are unhesitatingly condemned, and 
 substantial fines are inflicted on members 
 found guilty of taking advantage of such 
 iniquities. 
 
 By the influence of the unions wages are 
 settled, the hours of work are determined, 
 and the number of apprentices to be taken 
 into each trade is definitely fixed. Silk- 
 weavers are not allowed to work after nine 
 o'clock in the evening, nor are any workmen 
 permitted to labor during the holidays pro- 
 claimed by the guild. On one occasion, 
 at Wenchow, the carpenters were called 
 upon by the mandarin to contribute*^ more 
 than the recognized work of one day in the 
 year for the repeiiring of public buildings. 
 
 The men struck, and the mandarin, fearing a 
 popular tumult, was wise enough to give 
 way. Perhaps, also, the recollections of a 
 terrible retribution which was, in 1852, meted 
 out to a magistrate near Shanghai, for blindly 
 ignoring the just demands of the people 
 under him, may have encouraged a yielding 
 disposition. 
 
 Acted Like Savages. 
 
 In this instance the people, in an access 
 of rage such as that to which Chinamen are 
 occasionally subject, and which in an instant 
 converts them from peaceful citizens into 
 brutal savages, invaded the magistrate's 
 yamun, and, having made the wretched man 
 their prisoner, bit off his ears, each man 
 taking his part in the outrage to prevent 
 the possibility of a separate charge being 
 brought against any particular rioter. 
 
 An even more brutal display of- violence 
 once took place at Soochow. It happened 
 that more gold leaf was required for the use 
 of the Emperor's palace than the trade as 
 constituted at Soochow could supply. In 
 this difficulty the master manufacturer took 
 the unwise step of asking the leave of the 
 magistrate to engage extra apprentices. 
 
 Possibly with the knowledge that no one 
 had been punished for the atrocity described 
 above, which, having occurred in the neigh- 
 borhood, must have been well known, they 
 determined to inflict an even more brutal 
 punishment on the erring manufacturer. 
 " Biting to death is not a capital offence," 
 was proclaimed amongst them, and, acting 
 upon this dictum, they captured the offender 
 and literally bit him to death. 
 
 On being admitted as an apprentice a lad 
 has, as a rule, to stand treat to the workmen, 
 and in the more skilled trades he has to 
 serve five years before he is admitted to the 
 rank of journeyman. Though the conduct 
 
196 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 of these societies is generally beneficial, they 
 are occasionally apt, like all similarly consti- 
 tuted bodies, to act tyranically. 
 
 Barbers, for example, are in many parts 
 of the country forbidden to add the art of 
 shampooing to their ordinary craft, it having 
 been determined by the union that to sham- 
 poo was beneath the dignity of the knights 
 
 ITINERANT CHINESE BARBER. 
 
 of the razor. During the last six days of 
 the year, when the heads of the whole male 
 portion of the Empire are shaved, barbers 
 are forbidden to clean the ears of their cus- 
 tomers, as it is their wont to do during the 
 rest of the months. Any one found breaking 
 this rule is liable to be mobbed, and to have 
 his tools and furniture thrown into the street. 
 
 By a long-established custom, barbers and 
 the sons of barbers used to be reckoned 
 among the pariah classes who were disquali- 
 fied for competing in the competitive exami- 
 nations. Though complaints of this depri- 
 vation had been long and loud, no formal 
 action was taken in the matter until the union 
 took up the question. 
 
 In their collective capacity the 
 members appealed to the governor 
 of Chehkiang, who, approving of 
 the spirit of the memorial, pre- 
 sented the matter to the Emperor, 
 and obtained for the barbers the 
 removal of the disabihty. It is 
 too much to expect that the unions 
 should always refrain from bring- 
 ing to bear the influence which 
 they collectively possess for their 
 direct financial advancement. 
 Strikes are of frequent occur- 
 rence, and victory is commonly 
 with the workmen, except when 
 their claims are manifestly unjust. 
 The mandarins recognize that 
 they cannot flog a whole trade, 
 and the poverty of the men se- 
 cures them against those exac- 
 tions which would probably be 
 demanded from their employers 
 were they to appear in court. 
 These facts are fully recognized 
 by the masters, who prefer rather 
 to yield to the demands of their 
 men than to fall into the clutches 
 of their rulers. As in all primitive and un- 
 educated states of society, the Chinese have 
 a rooted objection to machinery of all kinds. 
 Just as they now oppose steam navigation in 
 the inland waters of the Empire, so, until, 
 quite lately, they rebelled against the im- 
 portation of all labor-saving contrivances. 
 Some years ago a Chinaman, imbued with 
 
CHINESE MECHANICS AND MERCHANTS. 
 
 197 
 
 Western ideas, landed at Canton a machine 
 for sewing boots, and especially the leather 
 soles worn by the natives. At this innova- 
 tion the cobblers at once took alarm. They 
 rose in their thousands and destroyed the 
 new-fangled machine. 
 
 In the same way the promoters of the 
 first steam cotton-mills were compelled to 
 submit to the destruction of machinery 
 which, if it had been allowed to work would 
 have given employment to many thousands 
 of people. 
 
 The absence of a hereditary aristocracy 
 deprives the Chinese of a most useful and 
 potent link between the crown and its sub- 
 jects. England has learned from her own 
 history how great is the protection afforded 
 to the nation by the presence of a body of 
 powerful nobles who are strong enough to 
 resist the encroachments of the sovereign 
 
 and to moderate and guide the aspirations of 
 the people. In China no such healthy influ- 
 ence is to be found, and the result is that 
 there is a constant straining and creaking in 
 the social machine, which has many a time 
 ended in fierce outbreaks, and not infre- 
 quently in the overthrow of dynasties. 
 
 It was remarked by a Chinese statesman, 
 at the time of the Taeping rebellion, that 
 two hundred years was the normal length of 
 a Chinese dynasty, and this bears substantial 
 evidence to the want of some such mediat- 
 ing influences as hereditary and representa- 
 tive institutions are alone able to afford. The 
 voice of the people finds no expression in 
 any recognized form of representation. Po- 
 litically, they are atoms whose ultimate 
 power of asserting their claims to justice lies 
 only in the sacred right of rebellion, which 
 they are not slow to exercise on occasion. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 BY the highest and most revered 
 authorities marriage is described, 
 and rightly described, as the great- 
 est of the five human relationships. 
 It is the foundation of the State, and it holds 
 out that prospect, which is so dear to the 
 heart of every Chinaman, of obtaining sons 
 who shall perform at the tombs of their 
 parents the sacrifices which are necessary for 
 the repose of their spirits. In one respect, 
 matrimonial alliances in China have an advan- 
 tage over those in Western lands. They can 
 never be undertaken in a hurry. There can 
 be no running off of the young lady to the 
 registry office some morning before her par- 
 ents come down to breakfast, nor can a 
 special license be obtained in a moment to 
 gratify a sudden caprice. 
 
 In the houses of all well-to-do people the 
 ceremony is surrounded by rites which make 
 haste impossible, and the widest publicity is 
 secured for the event. In dealing with social 
 matters in so huge an Empire as China, it is 
 necessary to remember that practices vary in 
 detail in different parts of the country. But 
 throughout the length and breadth of the 
 land the arrangement of marriages of both 
 sons and daughters is a matter which is left 
 entirely in the hands of the parents, who in 
 every case employ a go-between or match- 
 maker, whose business it is to make himself 
 or herself — both men and women follow this 
 strange calling — acquainted accurately with 
 the circumstances of both families and the 
 personal qualifications of the proposed bride 
 and bridegroom. 
 198 
 
 It is obvious that considerable trust and 
 confidence have to be placed in these people, 
 and it is also a fact that they not uncom- 
 monly betray this trust and confidence in the 
 interests of rich people who are able to make 
 it worth their while to represent a plain and 
 ungainly girl as a Hebe, or a dissolute youth 
 as a paragon of virtue. 
 
 Archdeacon Gray, in his " China," de- 
 scribes a tragie scene which occurred at a 
 wedding at which he was present. A dying 
 mother, anxious to see her son married before 
 she closed her eyes for ever, insisted on the 
 marriage ceremony being performed at her 
 bedside. On the completion of the rite the 
 bridegroom raised the bride's veil and gazed 
 on the features of a leper. The scene which 
 followed was of a most painful description, 
 and ended by the bride being incontinently 
 repudiated and sent back to her parents. 
 
 Professional Match-makers. 
 
 "To lie like a match-maker " is a common 
 expression, and a published correspondence 
 exists between a Chinese bridegroom and his 
 friend, in which the former bitterly complains 
 that his bride, far from being the beauty 
 described by the go-between, is fat and 
 marked deeply with small-pox. His friend, 
 being of a practical turn of mind, and not 
 being himself the victim, recommends the 
 bridegroom to make the best of the bargain, 
 and with cheap philosophy reminds him that 
 if the young lady is stout she is probably 
 healthy, and that, though disfigured, she 
 may very possibly be even as " an angel from 
 
CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 199 
 
 heaven," to use his own words. This was 
 certainly very comforting. 
 
 From the time that the match-maker is 
 employed, until the bond is tied, there are 
 six ceremonies to be performed. 
 
 The parents of the young man send the 
 go-between to the parents of the girl to in- 
 quire her name and the moment of her birth 
 that the horoscopes of the two may be ex- 
 amined, in order to ascertain whether the 
 proposed alliance will be a happy one. If 
 the eight characters of the horoscopes seem 
 to augur aright, the man's friends send the 
 match-maker back to make an offer of mar- 
 riage. 
 
 If that be accepted, the lady's father is 
 again requested to return an assent in writ- 
 ing. Presents are then sent to the girl's 
 parents according to the means of the 
 parties. The go-between requests them to 
 choose a lucky day for the wedding. The 
 preliminaries are concluded by the bride- 
 groom going or sending a party of friends 
 with music to bring his wife to his house. 
 
 Betrothal of Children. 
 
 So soon as the first of these ceremonies is 
 performed, the betrothal is considered bind- 
 ing ; and in the cases of the engagement of 
 children, nothing but disablement, or the af- 
 fliction of leprosy, is considered potent 
 enough to dissolve it. Certain supersti- 
 tions, however, render the contract more 
 easily dissoluble when the pair are of marri- 
 ageable age. 
 
 If, for instance, a china bowl should be 
 broken, or any valuable article lost within 
 three days of the engagement, the circum- 
 stance is considered sufficiently unlucky to 
 justify the instant termination of the under- 
 taking, and in cases where facts unfavorable 
 to the one side, whether socially, physically 
 or morally, have, in the meantime, come to 
 
 the knowledge of the other Jjarty to the con- 
 tract, advantage is taken of some such acci- 
 dents to put an end to the negotiations. 
 
 In accordance with usage, the letters 
 which pass between the parents during the 
 preliminaries are couched in good set terms, 
 the sender of presents describes them as 
 " mean " and "contemptible," while the re- 
 cipient regards them as "honorable" and 
 "priceless." The parent of the bride speaks 
 of his daughter as "despicable," and his 
 house as "a cold dwelling," while the bride- 
 groom's people designate her as "your hon- 
 ored beloved one," and her home as " a ven- 
 erable palace." 
 
 "The Best Man." 
 
 The Chinese love of indirectness comes 
 I out conspicuously in the betrothal cere- 
 monies. The bridegroom does nothing, and 
 his father, who is the real negotiator, is rep- 
 resented by a friend of the bridegroom, who 
 alone passes backwards and forwards be- 
 tween the two houses. The first duty of 
 this "best man" is to carry to the lady's 
 father a statement of the hour, day, month 
 and year of the bridegroom's birth, together 
 with the maiden name of his mother ; and 
 to receive in return a document containing 
 the same particulars concerning the bride. 
 
 On receipt of these facts the fathers of the 
 pair spread the documents on the family 
 altars, and beseech the blessings of their 
 ancestors on the match. Astrologers are 
 next consulted, and, should the horoscopes 
 of the young people be propitious, the best 
 man is again sent with a letter making a 
 formal proposal of marriage. 
 
 The following authentic letters, appropriate 
 to this occasion, are good specimens of the 
 bland self-depreciatory tone which is in- 
 dulged in by fond fathers when exchanging 
 presents. 
 
200 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 The first is from the parents of the would- 
 be bridegroom, and runs thus : " Prostrate, I 
 beseech you not to disdain this cold and 
 mean application, but to listen to the match- 
 maker, and to bestow your honorable 
 daughter on my slavish son, that the pair 
 may be bound together with silken threads, 
 and be united in jadelike joy. In bright 
 spring-time I will offer wedding gifts, and 
 present a pair of geese. And let us hope 
 that we may anticipate long-enduring happi- 
 ness, and look forward through endless gen- 
 erations to the completion of the measure of 
 their sincere attachment. May they sing of 
 the Unicorn, and enjoy every felicity. Pros- 
 trate, I beg you to look favorably upon my 
 proposal, and to bend the mirrorlike bright- 
 ness of your glance upon these lines." 
 
 A Lucky Day in Spring. 
 
 In reply the lady's father, who was proba- 
 bly a wealthy man, and whose references 
 therefore to his impecunious condition are 
 intended only to exaggerate the wealth and 
 position of the would-be bridegroom, writes: 
 "A respectful communication. I have re- 
 ceived your notice of a lucky day in spring 
 for the ceremony of exchanging bridal pres- 
 ents. Your younger brother, being a plain 
 and unpretentious man, cannot escort his 
 daughter with a hundred chariots." [This 
 is a reference to a king in the eighth century 
 before Christ, who brought home his bride 
 attended by an escort of this extent.] 
 
 " She shall not, however, be without cotton 
 skirts, hair-pins, and wooden brooches, as I 
 will surely arrange for the trousseau of my 
 impoverished green-windowed " (that is, poor) 
 " daughter. If you say that you seek the 
 palace of the moon " (wedlock), " I shall ask 
 for a sceptre from the grassy field, and so 
 frustrate your design." 
 
 This phrase has reference to a man in 
 
 ancient times, who was told by a fairy that if 
 he would plant some jewels in a certain 
 grassy field, he should obtain a charming 
 wife. He obeyed, and shortly afterwards 
 made overtures of marriage to a lady who 
 was renowned for her beauty and accomplish- 
 ments. Her father, not particularly desiring 
 the match, gave his consent on condition that 
 the bridegroom presented the lady with a 
 jade sceptre. Remembering the buried 
 jewels, the bridegroom dug in the field and 
 found to his delight a sceptre exactly answer- 
 ing to the description demanded. Of course, 
 the marriage took place, and the pair lived 
 happily ever afterwards. 
 
 The S)mibol of Marriage. 
 
 Historical allusions of this kind abound in 
 such communications, and a curious sym- 
 bohsm is employed in the various rites. The 
 plum-tree is held to symbolize marriage, 
 probably because it is conspicuous for its 
 beauty in spring-time, when, in China, as 
 elsewhere, "young men's fancy lightly turns 
 to thoughts of love," and no youth sighs in 
 verses for a bride, nor does any maiden in 
 the harem lament in numbers her lonely con- 
 dition, without references to the beauty of 
 the blossom, and the excellence of the fruit. 
 
 The letter of the bridegroom's father is 
 sent on a lucky day chosen by the astrolo- 
 gers, and is handed to the best man, with 
 much ceremony, at the family altar, before 
 which the writer performs the kotow in 
 honor of his departed ancestors. On arriv- 
 ing at the bride's dwelling the groomsman is 
 received with much state and is conducted by 
 his host to the ancestral hall, where a master 
 of ceremonies stands ready to direct the 
 rites. At a word from this potentate they 
 both prostrate themselves before the ances- 
 tral tablets which stand on the altar, and 
 having risen from their knees resume their 
 
CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 201 
 
 positions, the one on the east and the other 
 on the west side of the hall. 
 
 The groomsman then, with a few appro- 
 priate phrases, presents his host with the 
 letter, and at the same time offers for his ac- 
 ceptance boxes of confectionary and a hve 
 pig, or, in some parts of the country, a pair 
 of wild geese. The choice of these birds as 
 a nuptial present is so odd that one is apt to 
 consider it as one of the peculiar outcomes 
 of the topsy-turvy Chinese mind. But it is 
 not quite so ; for we find from George Sand 
 that at the marriage of French peasants in 
 Berry, a goose, though a dead one^ was com- 
 monly borne in the bridegroom's procession. 
 
 Gifts and Music. 
 
 "Near," writes the authoress, "this bearer 
 of a flowering and ribboned thyrsus is an ex- 
 pert spit-bearer, for under the foliage is a 
 trussed goose which forms the object of the 
 ceremony ; around it are the carriers of the 
 presents and the good singers, that is to say 
 those who are clever and knowing and who 
 are going to engage in an [amicable] quarrel 
 with the followers of the bride." It is odd 
 to find the East and West allied in so curious 
 a detail, but such marriage customs seem to be 
 scarcely less widely spread than the rite itself. 
 
 So soon as the cakes and the box contain- 
 ing the letter have been placed on the altar, 
 the host again prostrates himself and reads 
 the letter, while the groomsman is led off to 
 be regaled with tea and viands in the guest- 
 chamber. The reply is handed to the 
 groomsman with the same ceremonies as 
 that with which the letter was received, and 
 he is then invited to a feast which etiquette 
 bids him refuse twice and accept on the third 
 occasion. On an adjournment to the ances- 
 tral hall he is presented with return presents 
 of cakes, and wends his way back to report 
 proceedings to his principal. 
 
 Presents consisting of silks and satins, ear- 
 rings, bracelets, and hair-pins, are next sent 
 to the bride, and return gifts are offered by 
 her parents. A sumptuous dinner, given by 
 the bridegroom to his friends, announces the 
 completion of this ceremony, which is known 
 as Napi, or "The Presentation of Silks." 
 
 The Dragon and Phoenix. 
 
 When sending the presents it is customary 
 for the bridegroom to prepare two large cards 
 containing the particulars of the engagement. 
 On the one which he keeps is pasted a paper 
 dragon, and on that which he sends to his 
 bride, a phoenix, emblems which are held to 
 symbolize the Imperial qualities of the one 
 and the brilliant beauty of the other. 
 
 To each card are attached two pieces of 
 red silk, which are tokens of the invisible 
 bonds with which Fate has from their infancy 
 connected the ankles of the pair, for, in China, 
 as with us, marriages are said be made in 
 heaven. To that power is left the choice of 
 a lucky day for the final rite. The astrolo- 
 gers who interpret the signs of the sky com- 
 monly pronounce a full moon to be the for- 
 tunate time, and so soon as this fixture is 
 arranged, the bridegroom's father sends gifts 
 of wine and mutton to the lady. 
 
 Etiquitte requires it that the groomsman 
 should ask the bride's father to name the 
 day, and that he should in his turn beg that 
 the bride's future father-in-law should 'decide 
 the point. This is the cue for the grooms- 
 man to produce from his sleeve the letter of 
 which he is the bearer, announcing the lucky 
 date, which is already well known to all con- 
 cerned. To this the host replies in stilted 
 terms, expressing his concurrence, but adding 
 his regret at having to part with his "insig- 
 nificant daughter" so soon. 
 
 For some days before the date fixed the 
 bride assumes all the panoply of woe, and 
 
202 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 weeps and wails without ceasing. On the 
 day immediately preceding the wedding her 
 trousseau and household furniture are sent 
 to her future home, and though the trunks 
 are always locked, cases have been known in 
 which the bridegroom's female relatives, 
 being unable to restrain their curiosity, have 
 
 EMBROIDERED CHINESE SCREEN 
 
 picked the loclcs to examine the dresses of 
 the bride. 
 
 On the eventful day the bridegroom either 
 goes himself, attended by a procession of 
 friends and musicians, with flying banners 
 bearing felicitous mottoes, to carry away his 
 bride, or sends his faithful friend similarly 
 
 attended. In many parts of the country this 
 ceremony takes place in the evening, and is 
 a mere formality, whereas in others, as will 
 be presently shown, it retains more of its 
 original significance. 
 
 On entering the bride's house the bride- 
 groom is received by his father-in-law, who 
 conducts him to the central 
 hall, and there offers him 
 a goblet of wine, from which 
 the visitor pours out a liba- 
 tion to the emblematic geese 
 in token of his nuptial fi- 
 delity, accompanying the 
 action with a deep rever- 
 ence to the family altar in 
 confirmation of his vow. 
 The bride, covered from 
 head to foot with a red 
 veil, is now introduced on 
 the scene, and makes obei- 
 sance in the direction of 
 the spot where the bride- 
 groom is standing, for he 
 is as invisible to her as she 
 is to him. 
 
 The procession then re- 
 forms, and the bride having 
 been lifted into her sedan- 
 chair by two women of 
 good fortune, that is to say, 
 who have both husbands 
 and children living, is borne 
 to her future home to the 
 airs of well-known wedding 
 melodies. 
 On arriving at the portal of the house the 
 bridegroom taps the door of the sedan-chair 
 with his fan, and in response, the instructress 
 of matrimony, who prompts every act of the 
 bride, opens the door and hands out the still 
 enshrouded young lady, who is carried bodily 
 over a pan of lighted charcoal, or a red-hot 
 
CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 203 
 
 coulter laid on the threshold, while at the 
 same moment a servant offers for her accept- 
 ance some rice and preserved prunes. 
 
 It is curious to observe that the ceremony 
 of lifting the bride over the threshold is found 
 existing in all the four continents, and we also 
 know that in ancient Rome the bridegroom 
 received his bride with fire and water. It has 
 been conjectured that the act of lifting the 
 bride over fire may have some reference to 
 purification, but we have no duly authorita- 
 tive statement on the meaning of the act. 
 
 The First Sight. 
 
 In the reception hall the bridegroom awaits 
 the bride, who prostrates herself before him, 
 and he then for the first time lifts her veil and 
 gazes on her features. The moment must 
 be a trying one, especially on occasions when 
 the go-between has concealed defects or 
 exaggerated charms. Perhaps it is as well 
 that etiquette forbids the utterance of a word, 
 and in a silence which must often be golden, 
 the bridegroom conducts his bride to the 
 divan, when they seat themselves side by 
 side, it being traditional that the one who sits 
 on a part of the dress of the other is likely to 
 hold rule in the household. 
 
 But the marriage has yet to be consecrated. 
 For this purpose the young people repair to 
 the hall, where, falling on their knees before 
 the ancestral altar, the bridegroom announces 
 to his ancestors that, in obedience to his 
 parents' commands, he has taken so-and-so 
 to wife, beseeching them at the same time to 
 bestow their choicest gifts on himself and 
 his partner. Prostrations in honor of heaven, 
 earth, and the bridegroom's parents complete 
 the ceremony, and the newly wedded couple 
 retire to the semi-privacy of their apartments 
 to enjoy a repast in which they pledge one 
 another in the wedding goblet. 
 
 In some parts of the country it is cus- 
 
 tomary for the groom to join the guests at 
 their feast in the outer hall, where he forms 
 the subject of countless jokes, and is expected 
 to submit to a like severe ordeal in the matter 
 of riddles as that which enlivened Samson's 
 wedding. 
 
 It is impossible not to recognize that many 
 of the ceremonies which have been described 
 are relics of the primitive right of marriage 
 by capture. In the procession which, gen- 
 erally at night, goes to carry the bride to 
 her new home is plainly observable a sur- 
 vival of the old-world usage, in compliance 
 with which young men sallied out to snatch 
 their consorts from their foes. 
 
 ' ' Lo, how the woman once was Wooed ! 
 Forth leapt the savage from his lair. 
 He felled her, and to nuptials rude, 
 He dragged her, bleeding, by the hair. 
 From that to Chloe's dainty wiles, 
 And Portia's dignified consent. 
 What distance ! " 
 
 Perched in a Tree. 
 
 But even within the Chinese Empire we 
 find almost every gradation between these 
 wide extremes. In Western China, among 
 some of the native tribes it is customary for 
 the bride to perch herself on the high branch 
 of a large tree, while her elderly female rela- 
 tives station themselves on the lower limbs 
 armed with switches. Through this protect- 
 ing force the bridegroom has to make his 
 way, and is duly assailed by the dowagers 
 before he reaches the object of his search. 
 
 At Chinese weddings also it is not unusual 
 for the bridegroom to be compelled to run 
 the gauntlet on the way to the bride's cham- 
 ber between rows of waiting women, who go 
 through the farce of pretending to bar his 
 progress. But the most perfect survival of 
 the old rite is found among the Lolo tribes 
 of China, who indulge in a long prelude of 
 alternate feasting and lamentation before the 
 
204 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 wedding, as if the occasion were one for 
 mourning rather than rejoicing. 
 
 At last, as the late Mr. Baber writes: "A 
 crisis of tearfulness ensues, when suddenly 
 the brothers, cousins, and friends of the hus- 
 band burst upon the scene with tumult and 
 loud shouting, seize the almost distraught 
 maid, place her pick-a-back on the shoulders 
 of the best man, carry her hurriedly and 
 violently away, and mount her on a horse, 
 which gallops off to her new home. Vio- 
 lence is rather more than simulated, for 
 though the male friends of the bride only 
 repel the attacking party with showers of 
 flour and wood-ashes, the attendant virgins 
 are armed with sticks, which they have the 
 fullest liberty to wield." 
 
 Carrjdng off the Bride. 
 
 This practice of carrying off the bride has 
 its counterpart among the more civilized 
 Chinese in the act of bearing the lady over 
 the threshold of her house; and it exists in 
 full force in Orissa, where General Campbell 
 tells' us in his " Personal Narrative of Service 
 in Khondistan," he once "saw a man bear- 
 ing away upon his back something enveloped 
 in en ample covering of scarlet cloth ; he was 
 surrounded by twenty or thirty young fel- 
 lows, and by them protected from the des- 
 perate attacks made upon him by a party of 
 young women. On seeking an explanation 
 of this novel scene," adds the writer, " I was 
 told that the man had just been married, and 
 his precious burden was his blooming bride, 
 whom he was conveying to his own village." 
 
 Again, in certain districts in China, where 
 the aborigines predominate, each girl, in her 
 choice of her husband, is solely led "by nice 
 direction of a maiden's eyes," and pairs off 
 without any troublesome formalities with the 
 youth she admires and who admires her. 
 But to return to the orthodox Chinese ; the 
 
 marriage ceremonies having been completed, 
 the young couple take up their abode in the 
 house of the bridegroom's father, and, speak- 
 ing generally, the contract remains binding 
 until death does them part. 
 
 But the obligation is more social and re- 
 ligious than legal, and cases constantly occur 
 in which the tie is broken by mutual con- 
 sent, and freedom for the future secured 
 without the interference of any court or 
 proctor. On one occasion, in a case of an 
 appeal to Pekin, it came out incidentally in 
 the proceedings that one of the parties in the 
 case had previously married a bride who, 
 being discontented with the house to which 
 she had been brought, incontinently left her 
 spouse, and married another man. 
 
 In popular history, also, there is a well- 
 known case of a woodcutter who, having 
 some knowledge of books, and being a de- 
 voted student, disgusted his flippant and 
 foolish wife by attending more to the works 
 of Confucius than to felling trees. Finding 
 expostulation vain, his short-sighted partner 
 deserted him and married a more business- 
 like man. Left to himself, the woodcutter 
 acquired such scholastic proficiency that he 
 passed all the examinations with ease, and, 
 by a coincidence, was appointed prefect over 
 the district where he had formerly lived. 
 
 Nothing Said. 
 
 Among the men employed to make smooth 
 the roadway for his arrival was his wife's 
 second husband, to whom it chanced that 
 she was in the act of bringing his dinner 
 when her first venture's cortege passed by. 
 A recognition was mutual, but as the prefect 
 had equally consoled himself, nothing was 
 said about the restitution of conjugal rights. 
 
 Difficulties oflien arise, however, in cases 
 where the husband is not a consenting party 
 to the arrangement, but in such instances 
 
Q 
 W 
 
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 O 
 
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 Q 
 
 3 
 
 M 
 W 
 
 S 
 
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 205 
 
206 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 the husband commonly takes the law into 
 his own hands, and recovers his errant wife 
 by force, or engages friends and neighbors 
 to intervene and persuade the lady to return. 
 The use of force not unfrequently brings the 
 matter before the magistrate, but otherwise 
 the law does not interfere — unless, indeed, 
 formal complaint of a bigamous marriage is 
 made, when the law orders that the offend- 
 ing woman shall be strangled. As a rule, 
 however, public opinion is sufficient to bring 
 the difference to a satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 Seven Grounds for Divorce. 
 
 But apart from these irregular matri- 
 monial causes, the law puts it in the power 
 of the man to annul his marriage on any one 
 of seven distinct grounds, among which dis- 
 obedience to father-in-law or mother-in-law, 
 and over-talkativeness are named. But ev^n 
 on occasions when these legal plaints are in 
 question, a decree without any nisi is gener- 
 ally granted by a court composed of the 
 elders of the neighborhood, and not by the 
 mandarins. In this and similar matters local 
 social pressure takes the place of a wider 
 pubHc opinion. 
 
 There are no newspapers in China beyond 
 those published at the treaty ports, and peo- 
 ple's attention, instead of being distracted by 
 subjects of general or foreign importance, is 
 centered in the affairs passing around them. 
 The very stationary nature of the population 
 adds force to this peculiarity. In most vil- 
 lages and small towns the majority of people 
 are related to each other through the con- 
 stantly widening circles of relatives which 
 each marriage in the family tends to multiply. 
 
 A minute acquaintance with every one 
 else's affairs is the natural consequence of 
 this kinship. No Chinaman ever stands alone. 
 He forms one only of a general body, and 
 to the opinion of this body he is compelled 
 
 to yield obedience. He would no more ven- 
 ture to refuse to submit even those concerns 
 which we should consider most private to 
 the arbitration of. his neighbors than an 
 Englishman would dream of flouting the de- 
 cision of a judge and jury. 
 
 In a well-known farce this peculiarity of 
 Chinese society is amusingly illustrated. The 
 hero of the play is a man, who, having 
 married a Miss Plumblossom, has taken to 
 himself a Miss Willow as a secondary wife, 
 in accordance with the custom which will be 
 presently described. To each lady a court- 
 yard of the house is assigned, Plumblossom 
 occupying the front part and Willow the 
 rear premises. The first scene opens with 
 the husband approaching his dwelling after a 
 long absence. 
 
 A Wordy Warfare. 
 
 The evening is drawing in, and he tells his 
 servant to drive to the back door without 
 disturbing the elder lady. He is cordially 
 greeted by Willow, in whose company he is 
 enjoying a repast, when Plumblossom, hav- 
 ing become aware of his arrival, presents 
 herself upon the idyllic scene. Peace in- 
 stantly vanishes. In piercing accents the 
 intruder reproaches Willow for having 
 robbed her of her privilege as mistress of 
 the household of receiving her husband after 
 his absence. Nothing daunted, this young 
 lady defends herself, and replies with coun- 
 ter-reproaches in the shrillest of trebles, 
 while the husband attempts to throw oil upon 
 the troubled waters by occasional words of 
 expostulation. 
 
 So great is the tumult that the neighbors 
 are disturbed, and on the essentially Chinese 
 principle that every one else's business is 
 your business, they determine to interfere, 
 quoting as their justification a saying of a 
 certain philosopher that, in cases of disturb- 
 
CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 207 
 
 ance if the neighbors do not interfere, they 
 become participators in the guilt of the dis- 
 putants. Two graybeards are therefore de- 
 puted to inquire on the spot into the circum- 
 stances of the quarrel. Their arrival on the 
 scene, instead of prompting a desire on the 
 part of the husband to eject them inconti- 
 nently, and to tell them to mind their own 
 business, is regarded by all concerned as the 
 most natural thing in the world. 
 
 Peace Finally Secured. 
 
 The ladies submit their cases to their de- 
 cision, and, though it is some time before 
 the storm has sufficiently subsided to enable 
 them to arrive at the rights of the quarrel, 
 they eventually consider themselves in a 
 position to deliver judgment. They pro- 
 nounce that, in the interests of peace in the 
 neighborhood, it is necessary that the hus- 
 band should apportion his residence equally 
 between the two courtyards, residing in one 
 from the first of each month to the full 
 moon, and in the other from the full moon 
 to the end of the month. 
 
 To this the ladies as well as the husband 
 agree, but a further question is raised, which 
 lady is to have which half of the month ? 
 Plumblossom claims the time of the waxing 
 moon, and considers the waning period quite 
 good enough for Willow. That young lady, 
 on the contrary, claims that as it was then 
 the first part of the month, and that as she 
 was in possession, that period of the month 
 should belong to her. This knotty point 
 the graybeards find a difficulty in deciding, 
 and they, therefore, determine to leave it to 
 the throw of the dice. 
 
 The ladies readily produce a trio of those 
 endless sources of amusement, and Plum- 
 blossom throws first. To her infinite delight 
 she throws two sixes and a cinque, and 
 thinks herself secure. But, to the surprise 
 
 of all, still better fortune befriends Willow, 
 who throws sixes and breaks 'out into a 
 paean of triumph, amid the strains of which 
 her rival retires discomfited. 
 
 It seems almost anomalous after this ap- 
 parent instance to the contrary to say that 
 polygamy is not practised in China. But in 
 the strictest sense that is true. A man goes 
 through the full ceremonies of marriage with 
 one woman only, except on very rare occa- 
 sions. A certain godlike Emperor of anti- 
 quity gave, we are told in the canonical his- 
 tories, his two daughters in marriage to his 
 successor. With such an example as this 
 before them, the Chinese have always con- 
 sidered such double marriages admissible, 
 and in many of the best-known romances 
 the heroes marry two young ladies of the 
 same household, and, if the authors are ta 
 be believed, always with the happiest re- 
 sults. 
 
 Naughty Fickleness. 
 
 In a popular novel which has been tran- 
 slated into several European languages, the 
 hero makes love to a young lady through 
 the medium of her waiting-maid, and with 
 a despicable fickleness becomes enamored of 
 another paragon of learning and virtue, re- 
 siding in another part of the country, who 
 ultimately proves to be the cousin of his 
 first love. Towards to the end of the work, 
 when the mists and doubts which surround 
 the plot begin to clear, the two ladies find 
 that their happiness is centred in the same 
 object, and, as they have become inseparable, 
 they determine to endow the hero, who is 
 eminently unworthy of them, except for the 
 beauty of his verses, with the double prize. 
 
 But such marriages, though they exist, 
 are very exceptional, and the secondary 
 wives which men take are received into the 
 household with a much abridged form of 
 
208 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ceremony. No nuptial sedan-chair bears 
 tliem in tri-umph to their new homes, and 
 they enter the portals unattended by the 
 musicians and processionists who accompany 
 the first bride on her wedding-day. And, in 
 fact, the relation of such a one to the mis- 
 tress of the establishment is very much what ^ 
 Hagar's was to Sarah in Abraham's house- 
 hold. By conventional laws she owes obedi- 
 ence to the first wife, and only rises to a 
 
 and though the advent of a secondary wife is 
 occasionally resented, this is not by any means 
 always the case. 
 
 Not unfrequently ladies are pleased to have 
 it so, considering that an addition to the 
 household adds to their dignity. In com- 
 phmentary language the chH is compared to 
 the moon, and the secondary wife to a star, 
 and in a well-known collection of published 
 letters several are met with in which friends 
 
 THE BRIDAL FEAST. 
 
 level with her in case progeny should be 
 denied to the clii, as the Chinese term the 
 wife, and be granted to her. 
 
 A case of this kind occurred in the instance 
 of the late Emperor, who was the son of one 
 of the young ladies who accompanied the 
 Empress to the palace, and whose birth 
 raised his mother to the rank of Empress. 
 It i.s difficult for us who live under so entirely 
 different a condition of things to realize such 
 a state of domestic society as is here described. 
 
 are congratulated on having taken " a star " 
 to add lustre to the " moon." 
 
 It is impossible to suppose that, things 
 being as has been described, the status of a 
 wife can be anything but, to say the least, 
 unfortunate. As has been remarked, how- 
 ever, " though the lot of Chinese women is 
 less happy than that of their sisters in Europe, 
 their ignorance of a better state renders their 
 present or prospective one more supportable ; 
 happiness does not consist in absolute enjoy- 
 
CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 209 
 
 ment, but in the idea which we have formed 
 of it. A Chinese woman does not feel that 
 any injustice is done her by depriving her of 
 the right to assent to whom her partner shall 
 be ; her wishes and her knowledge go no 
 further than her domestic circle, and when 
 she has been trained in her mother's apart- 
 ments to the various duties and accomplish- 
 ments of her sex, her removal to a husband's 
 house brings to her no great change." 
 
 Blissful Ignorance. 
 
 This is no doubt to a great extent true in 
 common life. Ignorance is unquestionably 
 a protecting shield against many of the 
 wounds inflicted by the repinings and re- 
 grets which arise from a perfect knowledge. 
 And Chinese women are, as a rule, provided 
 with an ample shield of this description. 
 There are, however, exceptions. History 
 tells us of women who have ruled the 
 Empire, directed armies, and made them- 
 selves illustrious in every walk of life com- 
 monly trodden by men ; and novelists assure 
 us by their creations that not a few women 
 have an abundant taste and skill in literature. 
 
 The heroines of most novels have a pretty 
 art in composing verses and writing essays, 
 and so make congenial companions for the 
 heroes, whose chief claims to distinction are 
 gained not in the battlefield, or by personal 
 prowess, but in their studies before the 
 examiners. 
 
 A monotonous and quiet existence is the 
 most favorable role which a Chinese woman 
 can expect to play. Confucius laid it down, 
 and it is rank blasphemy to dissent from him, 
 that a woman should not be heard of outside 
 her own home. Unhappily neither ignor- 
 ance, nor the placid nature which belongs to 
 most of them, is able to save them in all 
 cases from the miseries inherent in the state 
 of abject dependence which belongs to them. 
 14 
 
 In the estimate of the other sex. Chinamen 
 agree with a certain well-known Kentucky 
 editor, who described women as " a side 
 issue," and this view of the sex we find 
 stereotyped in some of the ideographic char- 
 acters of the language. 
 
 If a husband is driven to make mention of 
 his wife he speaks of her as his " dull thorn,'' 
 or by some equally uncomplimentary term. 
 In ordinary life he regards her less as a com- 
 panion than as a chattel, which in times of 
 adversity may be disposed of by sale. In 
 seasons of famine an open market is held of 
 the wives and daughters of the poorer suf- 
 ferers; and not long since, during a period 
 of dearth in Northern China, so great a traf- 
 fic sprung up in women and girls, that in 
 some places nearly every available cart and 
 conveyance were engaged to transport the 
 newly-purchased slaves to the central pro- 
 vinces . 
 
 Cruel Husbands. 
 
 When such is the position which women 
 occupy in China, it cannot but be that they 
 occasionally suffer ill-usage at the hands of 
 such husbands as are capable of cruelty. It 
 is not at all uncommon for husbands to pun- 
 ish their wives severely, sometimes, no doubt, 
 under great provocation, for Chinese women, 
 untutored, unloved, and uncared for, have 
 all the faults and failings of unreclaimed 
 natures ; but at others for little or no reason ! 
 
 The Abbe Hue tells a story of "a Chinese 
 husband, who had a wife with whom he had 
 lived happily for two years. But having con- 
 ceived the idea that people were laughing at 
 him, because he had never beaten her, he 
 determined to make a beginning in such a 
 way as to impress every spectator, and ac- 
 cordingly, though he had no fault to find 
 with her," he beat her mercilessly. 
 
 Although this story carries with it the im- 
 
210 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 primatur of the worthy Abbe, it may properly 
 be received with a certain amount of caution. 
 But even if this particular instance may be an 
 exaggeration, the facts that the question, 
 "Does your husband beat you?" is very 
 commonly put to English ladies by Chinese 
 women, and that the indignant negative with 
 which the inquiry is happily always answered, 
 invariably excites astonishment and incred- 
 ulity, are sufficient to prove that Chinese 
 women are not unusually subject to ill-treat- 
 ment at the hands of their natural protectors. 
 Occasionally, however, the wife has her 
 revenge, and in the collections of ancedotes 
 which abound there are plenty of stories of 
 
 DEFORMED FEET OF CHINESE LADIES 
 
 hen-pecked husbands and masterful wives. 
 In one case a certain man who at times suf- 
 fered much at the hands of his wife was 
 driven to seek refuge from her violence be- 
 neath his bed. Unwilling to allow her victim 
 to escape her, the harridan called upon him 
 to come out. " I won't," replied the man ; 
 "and when a man and husband says he won't, 
 he won't." 
 
 But experience shows that, after all, the 
 rule tends in the opposite direction, and that 
 which makes the position of a wife more 
 than ordinarily pitiable, especially among the 
 poorer classes, is that she has no one to 
 appeal to, and no one to whom she can fly 
 
 for refuge. By the accident of sex she is 
 viewed as a burden by her parents from her 
 birth onwards, and, if they succeed in marry- 
 ing her off, they are only too glad to wash 
 their hands of her altogether. Among our- 
 selves a man is taught that he should leave 
 his father and mother and cling, to his wife, 
 but the theory in China is that a man should 
 cling to his father and mother and compel 
 his wife to do the same. 
 
 When admitted into her new home it be- 
 comes her duty to wait on her parents-in- 
 law in the same way as she has been accus- 
 tomed to serve her own father and mother, 
 and it is often from these elders that the un- 
 happy bride suffers the great- 
 est hardships and cruelty. 
 So many are the disabilities 
 attaching to married life in 
 China that many girls prefer 
 going into. Buddhist nun- 
 neries, or even committing 
 suicide, to trusting their fu- 
 tures to the guardianship of 
 men of whom they know 
 practically nothing. 
 
 Ai-chdeacon Gray, in his 
 "China," states that in 1873, 
 eight young girls, residing near Canton, 
 "who had been affianced, drowned them- 
 selves in order to avoid marriage. They 
 clothed themselves in their best attire, and 
 at eleven o'clock, in the darkness of the 
 night, having bound themselves together, 
 threw themselves into a tributary stream of 
 the Canton river." In some parts of the 
 same province anti-matrimonial associations 
 are formed, the members of which resist to 
 the death the imposition of the marriage yoke. 
 "The existence of this Amazonian 
 League," writes a missionary long resident 
 in the neighborhood, "has long been 
 known, but as to its rules and the num- 
 
CHINESE MARRIAGE CUSTOMS. 
 
 211 
 
 ber of its members, no definite information 
 has come to hand. It is composed of young 
 widows and marriageable girls. Dark hints 
 are given as to the methods used to escape 
 matrimony. The sudden demise of be- 
 trothed husbands, or the abrupt ending of 
 the newly-married husband's career, suggest 
 unlawful means for dissolving the bonds." 
 
 This is the sordid view of the position. 
 Happily, in this and in all other matters 
 there is a reverse side to the shield, and in 
 their own peculiar way the Chinese certainly 
 enjoy a modicum of wedded bliss. In a 
 modern Pekinese play, one of the characters, 
 a widower, describes the even current of his 
 late married life by saying that he and his 
 wife lived together as ho.st and guest, and in 
 most novels we read of husband and wife 
 living harmoniously, if not rapturously to- 
 gether. In poetry also the love of home is 
 constantly insisted on, and the misery of 
 being separated from wife and children is 
 the common plaint of the traveller and the 
 exile. 
 
 Dreary Solitude. 
 
 In a poem entitled " Midnight Thoughts," 
 which was translated by Sir John Davis, the 
 poet, after describing his inability to rest in 
 the remote district in which he finds himself, 
 goes on to say : 
 
 " This solitary desertion ! — how bitter do I find it ! 
 
 Let me then push my roving to a distance : 
 
 Let me visit the passes and mountains a hundred 
 
 leagues hence, 
 Like some devotee of Buddha, wandering amid 
 
 clouds and torrents, 
 Ignorant of what is passing elsewhere. 
 How shall I forget the melancholy of my own home ? 
 Thus dull and mournful through life's whole course, 
 My sorrows and pains can never have an end." 
 • 
 
 In the lines put in the mouths of the stay- 
 at-home wives the melancholy of the traveller 
 becomes a keen longing, and they lament in 
 
 tearful notes the absence of their lords. But 
 there is other and more direct evidence of the 
 existence of happiness in the married state. 
 Cases constantly appear in the Pekln Gazette 
 in which wives, unwilling to survive their 
 husbands, conimit suicide rather than live 
 without them. One such instance was that 
 of the wife of Kwo Sunglin, brother of a late 
 minister to the English court. Through a 
 long illness this lady nursed him with devoted 
 tenderness until death came, when she ended 
 her own existence by taking poison. 
 
 Died in Grief. 
 
 Another case was once reported to the 
 Emperor, in which a young widow, aged 
 twenty-seven, declared her intention not to 
 survive her lord, and remained for three days 
 without nourishment. "At length," writes 
 the memorialist, " having made an effort to 
 rise and perform the mourning rites of pros- 
 tration, she threw herself weeping on the 
 ground, and breathed her last." The most 
 curious phase of this devotion is the form 
 which it takes in some of the southern prov- 
 inces, where after the manner of Sutteeism, 
 the widow commits suicide in public in the 
 presence of an applauding crowd. 
 
 In an instance described by an eye-witness, 
 a vast procession escorted the young widow, 
 who was dressed in scarlet and gold, and 
 was borne in a richly decorated chair to the 
 scene of the tragedy. On arriving at the 
 scaffold, on which stood a gallows, the lady 
 mounted the platform, and having welcomed 
 the crowd, partook, with some female rela- 
 tives, of a prepared repast, which, adds the 
 narrator, she appeared to appreciate ex- 
 tremely. She then scattered rice, herbs, and 
 flowers among the crowd, at the same time 
 thanking them for their attendance and 
 upholding the motives which urged her to 
 the step she was about to take. 
 
212 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 She then mounted on a chair, and having 
 waved a final adieu to the crowd, adjusted 
 the noose round her neck, and drawing a red 
 handkerchief over her face, gave the signal 
 for the removal of the support. With extra- 
 ordinary self-possession, while hanging in 
 mid-air, she placed her hands before her, 
 and continued to make the usual form of 
 salutation until complete unconsciousness 
 ensued. Such devotion to the fond memory 
 of husbands invariably receives the approval 
 of the people, and when reported to the 
 Emperor gains his entire approbation. 
 
 From the above account of this particular 
 phase of Chinese society it will be seen that 
 it represents a condition of things which 
 leaves much to be desired. Nor is the cause 
 of the mischief far to seek. In the very sub- 
 ordinate position occupied by the women of 
 China we see the origin of the evil. In a 
 State where women are degraded, the whole 
 community suffers loss, and the first symtoms 
 of the approach of a healthy and beneficial 
 civilization is the elevation of women to their 
 legitimate and useful position in society. 
 
 At present no trace of the dawn of a bet- 
 ter day appears on the horizon of China, but 
 the example which has been set by Japan 
 leads one to hope that the day is not far dis- 
 
 tant when the slow-moving Chineman will 
 be induced to follow in the footsteps of their 
 more advanced neighbor. Until quite re- 
 cently the position of women in the Land of 
 the Rising Sun was every whit as unworthy 
 as that now occupied by their Chinese sisters. 
 Happily the experience gained in western 
 lands has taught the Japanese that the un- 
 trammelled society of educated and pure- 
 minded women exercises a wholesome and 
 elevating effect on a nation. 
 
 With the intuitive perception which they 
 possess for what is best and wisest in foreign 
 systems, they have, by a course of sound 
 education, begun to prepare the women of 
 the country for the new position which it is 
 intended that they should occupy, and 
 already an example is being set by the em- 
 press and other leaders of fashion, of the 
 better part they are expected to play. 
 
 This change cannot be without its influence 
 on China, and though we know that the sur- 
 face of small pools is more easily agitated 
 than the face of larger waters, yet it cannot 
 but be that the spirit of reform which is now 
 abroad will influence even the sluggish tem- 
 perament of the Chinese nation, and will 
 eventually stir to the depths the minds of 
 this hitherto changeless people. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 IT may be asked in surprise why no 
 mention has been made of the profes- 
 sional classes — the doctors, the law- 
 yers and others ; and the answer may 
 be returned in the words of the celebrated 
 chapter on the snakes in Iceland, " There 
 are none." That is to say, there are none 
 in the sense to which we are accustomed. 
 There are plenty of doctors, but they can 
 only be described as belonging to a profes- 
 sional class in the sense in which itinerant 
 quacks, who profess to cure -all the ills 
 which flesh is heir to by bread pills, can lay 
 claim to that distinction. They are the 
 merest empirics, and, having no fear of 
 medical colleges or examination tests before 
 their eyes, prey on the folly and ignorance 
 of the people without let or hindrance. 
 
 The physicians who are privileged to pre- 
 scribe for the Emperor are the only mem- 
 bers of the profession to whom failure means 
 disgrace. When the late Emperor was at- 
 tacked by small-pox, an improvement in his 
 symptoms with which the doctor's skill was 
 credited, brought a. shower of distinctions 
 on the fortunate physicians. Unhappily for 
 them, however, the disease took a fatal turn, 
 and when his Imperial Majesty " ascended on 
 a dragon to be a guest on high," the lately- 
 promoted doctors were degraded from their 
 high estate, and were stripped of every title 
 to honor. 
 
 Suph of the drugs in common use as have 
 any curative properties are derived from 
 herbs, while the rest are probably useless 
 when not absolutely harmful. No Harvey 
 
 ^has yet risen to teach the Chinese laws of the 
 circulation of the blood, nor has the study of 
 anatomy disclosed to them the secrets of the 
 human frame. 
 
 Amputation is never resorted to, it being 
 a part the creed of the people that any 
 mutilation of the body is an act of disrepect 
 to the parents from whom it was received ; 
 and cases have constantly occurred where 
 mandarins, who have met with violent acci- 
 dents, and who have been assured by foreign 
 doctors that amputation alone could save 
 their lives, have deliberately chosen to go to 
 their graves rather than lose a limb. On the 
 same principle, a criminal condemned to die 
 considers himself fortunate if he is allowed to 
 make his exit by strangulation or the hang- 
 man's cord rather than by decapitation. 
 
 Doctors Poorly Paid. 
 
 Between the ignorance of the doctors and 
 the fees they receive, there is a just ratio. 
 No physician, in his wildest moments of 
 ambition, expects to receive more than a 
 dollar for a visit, and many are not paid 
 more than a fifth of that sum. But, what- 
 ever the amount may be, due care is taken to 
 wrap the silver in ornamental paper bearing 
 the inscription " golden thanks." 
 
 On entering the presence of his patient the 
 doctor's first act is to feel the pulses on both 
 wrists. Not only are they entirely ignorant 
 of the difference between arteries and veins, 
 but they believe that the pulses of the wrists 
 communicate with, and indicate the condition 
 of, the different organs of the body. By the 
 
 213 
 
214 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 beating of the pulse of the left arm they pro- 
 fess to read the state of the heart, while that 
 on the right represents the health of the 
 lungs and liver. If these guides are deemed 
 insufficient to make patent the disorder 
 under which the patient is suffering, recourse 
 is had to the tongue, which is supposed to 
 yield a sure augury of the nature of the 
 malady. 
 
 Singular Notions. 
 
 Their great object is, as they say, "to 
 strengthen the breath, put down the phlegm, 
 equalize and warm the blood, repress the 
 humors, purge the liver, remove noxious 
 matters, improve the appetite, stimulate the 
 gate of life, and restore harmony." A dual 
 system of heat and cold pervades, they be- 
 lieve, the human frame, and it is when one 
 of these constituents is in excess that illness 
 supervenes. The Chinese delight in numeri- 
 cal categories, and they profess to find in the 
 five elements of which they believe a man's 
 body to be composed, an intimate relation to 
 the five planets, the five tastes, the five colors, 
 and the five metals. 
 
 " The heart," they say, " is the husband, 
 and the lungs are the wife." and if these two 
 main organs cannot be brought to act in har- 
 mony, evil at once arises. In the native 
 pharmacopoeia there are enumerated four 
 hundred and forty-two principal medicines as 
 being in common use. Of these three hun- 
 dred and fourteen are derived from vegeta- 
 ble products, fifty from minerals, and seventy- 
 eight from animal substances. 
 
 Among the monstrous tonics prescribed 
 by the Galens of China, are asbestos, stalac- 
 tite, fresh tops of stag-horns, dried red 
 spotted lizard-skins, dog-flesh, human milk, 
 tortoise-shell, bones and teeth of dragons, 
 shavings of rhinoceros-horns, and other pos- 
 sible and impossible nostrums. Two thou- 
 
 sand years B. C. the Emperor H wangti wrote, 
 it is said, a work on the healing art. In the 
 centuries which have elapsed since that time 
 little advance has been made in the science, 
 the principal exceptions being a knowledge 
 of acupuncture and of vaccination. 
 
 It is uncertain when acupuncture was first 
 practiced in China, but the faith of the people 
 in its efficacy for all cases of rheumatic affec- 
 tions and for dyspepsia is unbounded. So 
 soon as the physician has made up his mind 
 that a particular bone or muscle is in a state 
 of inflammation, he thrusts a substantial 
 steel needle into the part affected, and stirs it 
 ruthlessly about. Happily for the patients, 
 their race is heir to a lymphatic temperament 
 which preserves it from many of the evils 
 which would certainly arise from such treat- 
 ment among a more inflammatory people. 
 
 Thrusting in a Needle. 
 
 The treatment for dyspepsia is even more 
 calculated to produce danger and disorders 
 than that applied to the joints and bones. A 
 Chinese doctor does not hesitate to thrust 
 the needle into the patient's stomach or liver, 
 and the system of blistering wounds thus 
 caused adds considerably to the danger sur- 
 rounding the operation. 
 
 For many years the Chinese have em- 
 ployed inoculation as a preventive against 
 small-pox, but it was not till the arrival at 
 Canton of Dr. Pearson, in 1820, that the 
 knowledge of vaccination was introduced 
 into the Empire. A pamphlet on the sub- 
 ject, translated into Chinese by Sir George 
 Staunton, spread the knowledge of fhe art 
 far and wide, and though by no means uni- 
 versally used, it still allays to some degree 
 the terrible scourge of small-pox which is 
 ever present in China. It is seldom that a 
 child escapes from an attack of the disease, 
 and the percentage of deaths is always con- 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 215 
 
 siderable, enough to create a panic among 
 people better informed. 
 
 In the north of the cotintry, it has been 
 observed that the disease becomes epidemic 
 every winter. The reason for this regular 
 recurrence of the malady is probably to be 
 found in the fact that the infection clings to 
 the fur clothes worn by the people, which 
 are, as a rule, sent to the pawnshops on the 
 return of every spring, and are only brought 
 out again on the approach of winter. 
 Throughout all the central and southern 
 provinces leprosy is endemic. In the pro- 
 vince of Canton it is reckoned that there are 
 ten thousand people afflicted with this terri- 
 ble malady. Though it is not regarded as 
 infectious, contagion is avoided ; and outside 
 most of the large cities there are leper vil- 
 lages, where the victims to the disease are 
 supposed to segregate. 
 
 The Horrible Leprosy. 
 
 The law on this subject is not, however, 
 strictly enforced, and in the streets of such 
 cities as Canton, for example, beggars suf- 
 fering from the disease appeal for alms to 
 the passers-by by exposing their §wollen and 
 decaying limbs to their gaze. Many are the 
 strange remedies resorted to for cures in the 
 first stages of the malady, but so soon as 
 the disease is fully developed, the wretched 
 sufferers resign themselves to their fate. It 
 is recognized among the natives, as has been 
 found to be the case elsewhere, that it is 
 only by constant association with a leper 
 that there is danger of infection, and that 
 cleanliness is as potent a protection against 
 the disease as damp climates and unhealthy 
 food are promoters of it. 
 
 Epidemics of cholera and diphtheria 
 sweep periodically over the land, and the 
 people ^re powerless to allay their progress 
 ■or to diminish their intensity. Though they 
 
 have succeeded in reaching that stage in 
 which disease is recognized as a departure 
 from the usual and harmonious working of 
 the organism, they have yet never learnt, in 
 the words of Harvey, "to search and study 
 out the secrets of nature by way of experi- 
 ment." 
 
 Charms for Cholera. 
 
 In the presence of cholera, instead of tak- 
 ing any medical precautions, they have re- 
 course to charms, to the worship of their 
 gods, and, as a religious exercise, to the 
 practice of vegetarianism. Being deprived, 
 therefore, of every rational weapon with 
 which to combat the malady, one would be 
 inchned to expect that the disease would be 
 endemic, instead of only epidemic. If the 
 theory of infection is without qualification 
 true, and, if no precautions whatever are 
 taken to prevent the spread of the disease, 
 it would be only natural to suppose that the 
 areas of infection would increase and mul- 
 tiply. 
 
 No care is taken to isolate the patients ; 
 no such safeguard is invoked as the destruc- 
 tion of the clothes of the victims, whose 
 dead bodies are frequently allowed to remain 
 encoffined in the dwellings of the survivors. 
 And yet the outbreak disappears almost as 
 suddenly as it came, leaving no trace behind 
 it except in the sad memories of those who 
 mourn the loss of relatives and friends. The 
 natives believe that the outbreaks are the re- 
 sults of atmospheric conditions, and they 
 assert that they have seen the evil approach 
 in the shape of clouds, which have swept 
 over provinces, leaving disease and death in 
 their train. Some color is given to this 
 theory by the fact, as already stated, that 
 the disease comes and goes without any ap- 
 parent cause, and certainly not as a result of 
 any unusual sanitary or unsanitary conditions. 
 
216 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Much the same may be said of the out- 
 breaks of diphtheria, which constantly prove 
 so fatal in the north of the country. In a 
 recent epidemic in Pekin, it was stated by a 
 resident English doctor that in a household 
 of twenty-six persons, twenty-four were car- 
 ried off by this fatal disease. Indeed, the 
 whole history of epidemics in China seems to 
 suggest that we have not yet arrived at the 
 true solution either of the origin of the out- 
 breaks or of the cause of their cessation. 
 
 As in most Eastern countries, the cities 
 
 THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 
 
 and villages of China swarm with mangy 
 and half-starved curs of all degrees. Ill fed, 
 uncared for, these scavengers range through 
 the streets and lanes, picking up a precarious 
 livelihood from the refuse which is thrown 
 out as unfit for the food of either man or 
 beast. If we add to these conditions that 
 the climate over the greater part of the 
 Empire is almost tropical in its heat, and that 
 the water available to slake the thirst of the 
 dogs is none of the purest, it will be admitted 
 that no surrounding is wanting to promote 
 
 and encourage outbreaks of hydrophobia. 
 It is a remarkable fact, however, that, 
 though the disease exists, it is not more pre- 
 valent than it is. Chinese doctors recognize 
 it, and their medical works treat of it, de- 
 scribing both the symptoms and the remedies 
 for its cure. One well-known authority gives 
 the following prescription as a sure and un- 
 failing treatment for the victims of the malady : 
 "Take the curd of the black pea dried and 
 pulverized, mix it with hemp oil, and form it 
 into a large ball ; roll this over the wound 
 for some time, then break it open 
 and the inside will present a hair- 
 like appearance. 
 
 " Continue the rolling until, on 
 breaking it open, it is found to have 
 lost the hair-like aspect. The pa- 
 tient must avoid eating dog-flesh 
 or silkworms, and he must not 
 drink wine or inhale the fragrance 
 from hemp for a hundred days. 
 Neither may he eat with safety 
 diseased meat or anything in a state 
 of decomposition. He must daily 
 partake of plum kernels. 
 ' When the poison of the dog has 
 entered the heart of the victim, and 
 has produced feelings of misery and 
 wretchedness, the stomach swells, 
 and there is an abundant secretion 
 of saliva ; it is then proper to try the effect 
 of the skull, teeth, and toes of a tiger ground 
 up, and given in wine in doses of one fifth of 
 an ounce. If a speedy cure does not follow, 
 the person becomes mad, and barks like a 
 dog. The eyes become white and glaring, 
 and death quickly ensues." 
 
 These remedies are of a kind that are used 
 
 in many of the other diseases which afflict 
 
 Chinese humanity, and are equally efficacious. 
 
 Tumors are very common amongst the 
 
 Chinese, and as the use of the knife is prac- 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 217 
 
 tically forbidden, the sufferers fail to get that 
 relief which a knowledge of practical surgery 
 would, in a great majority of cases, readily 
 procure for them. 
 
 With a knowledge so imperfect, and a 
 profound ignorance of physical science, it is 
 not surprising that the Chinese should be 
 firm believers in the magical arts. Second 
 sight, miraculous interpositions, and super- 
 natural appearances are common-places in 
 their systems of belief Not only in the 
 novels and story-books which delight the 
 people, but in the more serious works of 
 philosophers and students, we find constant 
 references to these occult phenomena. 
 
 Messages from the land of spirits are de- 
 livered by means of the planchette, which is 
 skilfully manipulated and interpeted by the 
 cunning professors of the art ; and the fig- 
 ures and features of individuals whom the 
 gazers desire to see are produced in mirrors 
 by the exercise of that ready imagination 
 which belongs to the credulous. Fortune- 
 telling by means of astrology is regarded as 
 a genuine science, and the law protects those 
 who practice it from the punishment which is 
 prescribed for those charlatans who follow 
 less established methods. 
 
 That Famous Stone. 
 From all time the philosopher's stone has 
 been regarded as a verity, and it is confi- 
 dently asserted that the Taoist philosophers 
 of antiquity were able by its means to achieve 
 the conversion of dross into the precious 
 metals. History tells us of Emperors and 
 statesmen who have exhausted their lives 
 and treasures in attempting to discover this 
 priceless stone, and the elixir of longevity. 
 The inevitable failures in which the efforts of 
 these men have ended, has doubtless con- 
 vinced the more educated classes of the 
 futility of the search. 
 
 But, like all popular superstitions, this one 
 dies hard among the ignorant population, 
 and there are at the present day many 
 thousands in China who confidently believe 
 in the possibility of manufacturing gold, and 
 of prolonging life indefinitely. A less base- 
 less superstition is the faith of the people in 
 the plant known as ginseng. The properties 
 of this plant are said to be invigorating and 
 life-giving. To the debauchee it gives 
 strength, and to the old man it gives vitality 
 and power. So precious are these qualities 
 that the best plants are in theory reserved 
 entirely for the Emperor's use. 
 
 How Revenue is Raised. 
 
 A large proportion of the revenue of 
 Corea is derived from the export duty levied 
 on this plant, and one of the principal 
 streets of Pekin is devoted to the sale of it. 
 The plant grows from twelve to eighteen 
 inches in height, with five long leaves on 
 each stalk like a horse-chestnut. In spring 
 it bears a cluster of purple flowers on the 
 top of the stem, replaced in summer-time by 
 bright red berries, which the searchers for 
 the root look out for. Only Emperors and 
 millionaires can afford the genuine article, 
 for a root four or five inches long realizes 
 perhaps fifty dollars. Extravagant as this 
 figure may seem, it is a moderate^ computa- 
 tion, and not infrequently, a thousand taels of 
 silver are paid for a pound's weight of the 
 root. 
 
 The plant is grown in Manchuria as well 
 as in Corea, and the returns for 1890 state 
 that the export duty from Manchuria into 
 China realized in that year four hundred and 
 fifty thousand taels. This sum does not, 
 however, by any means represent the 
 amount of the plant exported. Its rare 
 value, the small compass in which it can 
 be carried, the greed of the peasants, and 
 
218 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 the corruption rife amongst the customs of- 
 ficials, all tend to encourage smuggling. 
 
 That an illicit trade in the root is com- 
 monly carried on is fully recognized by the 
 Government, who have enacted that any one 
 found attempting to smuggle more than ten 
 taels weight of the medicine is to be for- 
 warded to the Board of Punishments at 
 Pekin, and that, in case of a less amount 
 being in question, the case may be dealt 
 with by local authorities. 
 
 Quack Lawyers. 
 
 In legal affairs the people are even worse 
 off than in the matter of medical advice. 
 They have no one to give them, for love or 
 money, even as much help as is to be got 
 for the body at the apothecaries' stalls. The 
 only legal advisers are those clerks and 
 secretaries who guide the mandarins by the 
 light of the penal code to a right judgment 
 in all matters entailing a knowledge of law. 
 Like magistrates' clerks among ourselves, 
 they are carefully trained in legal practice, 
 and were they but free from the itching palm 
 which distinguishes the official classes, they 
 would be a most useful section of the com- 
 munity. Having a tabulated code to which 
 they are bound by law to conform, less 
 knowledge and ingenuity are required to 
 equip them for their profession than is the 
 case with our lawyers. The absence of 
 public opinion, also, shelters them from criti- 
 cism, and leaves them practically a free 
 hand, mitigated only by the fear of a pos- 
 sibly inquisitive censor, to work their will 
 either for good or ill among the people. 
 
 The strange continuity of the Chinese 
 Empire is, in the opinion of some, to be at- 
 tributed to the respect with which the fifth 
 commandment of the Decalogue is observed, 
 and as this observance of filial piety is re- 
 garded as the fundamental virtue of social 
 
 life, it is worthy of our careful attention, and 
 withal of our imitation. 
 
 Being held in this supreme estimation, it 
 is needless to say that Confucius laid great 
 stress upon it. He deplored that he was not 
 able to serve his father, being dead, as he ex- 
 pected his son to serve him, and he defined 
 the virtue as consisting in not being disobedi- 
 ent, in serving the parent when alive accord- 
 ing to propriety, when dead in burying him 
 according to propriety, and in sacrificing to 
 him according to propriety. The manner of 
 performing this duty, like other Confucian 
 instructions, is laid down with curious minute- 
 ness. 
 
 Duties to Parents. 
 
 At cock-crow it is . the duty of the son or 
 daughter, who should first be dressed with 
 scrupulous care, to go to their parents' apart- 
 ments to inquire after their welfare, and to 
 attend to their wants, and he or she, more 
 commonly she, must so continue at their 
 beck and call until the night again closes 
 upon them. Those duties must not be per- 
 formed in a perfunctory way, but everything 
 must be done with the expression of cheer- 
 fulness, and fihal respect and love. 
 
 "When his parents are in error," says the 
 Book of Rites, " the son, with a humble 
 spirit, pleasing countenance, and gentle tone, 
 must point it out to them. If they do not 
 receive his reproof he must strive more and 
 more to be dutiful and respectful towards 
 them until they are pleased, and then he 
 must again point out their error. And if the 
 parents, irritated and displeased, chastise 
 their son until the blood flows from him, 
 even then he must not dare . to harbor the 
 least resentment; but, on the contrary, 
 should treat them with increased respect and 
 dutifulness." 
 
 This kind of devotion to parents seems so 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 219 
 
 strained and artificial that one would be 
 tempted at first sight to imagine that it rep- 
 resents merely an ideal, were it not that the 
 records of the past and the experiences of 
 the present reveal the existence of a precisely 
 similar practice. For many centuries the 
 youth of both sexes — for though daughters 
 do not partake of the privileges of sons, 
 they share in all their duties — have had held . 
 up to them twenty-four instances of filial piety 
 for their guidance and imitation. 
 
 Stories of Filial Piety. 
 
 They are told, for instance, of a man 
 named Lai, who, in order to make his parents 
 forget their great age, being himself an 
 elderly person, used to dress himself in parti- 
 colored embroidered garments like a child, 
 and disport himself before them for their 
 amusement. They are told of a lad whose 
 parents were too poor to provide themselves 
 with mosquito curtains, and who used to lie 
 naked near their bed that the insects might 
 attack him unrestrainedly, and thus cease to 
 annoy his parents. They are told of a poor 
 man who, finding it impossible to support 
 both his mother and his child, proposed to 
 his wife that they should bury the child 
 alive, for, said he, " another child may be 
 born to us, but a mother, once gone, will 
 never return." 
 
 His wife having consented, the man dug a 
 hole of the depth of three cubits, when lo! 
 he came upon a pot of gold, bearing the fol- 
 lowing inscription : " Heaven bestows this 
 treasure on a dutiful son ; the magistrate may 
 not sieze it, nor shall the neighbors take it 
 from him." In this story we have an instance 
 of Chinese filial piety, and an illustration of 
 the effect of the Confucian warning against a 
 selfish attachment to wife and children. 
 
 It is a commonplace of Chinese morality 
 that one or all of these should readily be 
 
 sacrificed in the interests of parents, and it is 
 interesting to find that this man, who is said 
 to have been saved by a miracle from com- 
 mitting murder, has been handed down 
 through more than twenty centuries as a 
 model of virtue. It is unnecessary to quote 
 any more of the twenty-four instances, but it 
 is instructive to glance at the state of things 
 existing at the present day, as depicted in the 
 Pekin Gazette, where cases may be met with 
 which are scarcely less singular than those 
 already referred to. 
 
 It is not long since that the great Viceroy 
 Li Hung Chang besought the Emperor that 
 a memorial arch might be erected in honor 
 of a man within his jurisdiction. This person 
 had been, we are told, from his youth up a 
 devoted student of the ancient odes from a 
 knowledge of which he early imbibed the 
 principles of filial piety. With devotion he 
 waited upon his widowed mother during her 
 life-time, and when she died he was pros- 
 trated with grief and misery. 
 
 Guarding a Tomb Eight Years. 
 
 In his loving devotion he was quite unable 
 to tear himself away from her tomb, by the 
 side of which he took up his abode day and 
 night for eight years, being protected from 
 the sun by day'and the dews by night by a 
 shed which his neighbors erected over him 
 as he lay on the ground. Since that time he 
 has devoted himself to distributing medicine 
 among the sick, and to reading the book of 
 "Filial Piety " to his neighbors. Such filial 
 piety should not, the viceroy thought, be left 
 unnoticed, and he therefore suggested the 
 erection of a memorial arch, which was 
 graciously accorded. 
 
 But the strangest development of this 
 virtue is the practice favored by dutiful sons 
 and daughters of cutting off pieces of their 
 own flesh to make soup for their aged or in- 
 
220 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 disposed parents. A notable example of 
 this was reported to the throne some time 
 ago by the same viceroy, who seems fortu- 
 nate in the number of filial sons and daughters 
 within his jurisdiction. 
 
 This particular instance refers to a young 
 lady, a Miss Wang, who from her earliest 
 years "exhibited a decorous propriety of 
 conduct coupled with a love of study. She 
 
 LI-HUNG CHANG, VICEROY OF CHINA. 
 
 was a diligent reader of Liu Hiang's " Lives 
 of Virtuous Women," and the poems of Muh 
 Lan. 
 
 At the age of thirteen, when her parents' 
 desire to betroth her reached her ears, she 
 retired to her room, and, with a pointed 
 weapon, drew blood from her arm, with 
 which she wrote a sentence announcing her 
 intention to remain single in order that she 
 
 might devote herself to the care of her par- 
 ents. At the age of eighteen she again 
 refused a proposed matrimonial alhance; 
 and when the remains of her father and her 
 second brother, who had perished at the 
 capture of Wuchang by the rebels, were 
 brought back to Kaoyeo, she exclaimed, 
 with tears, that since she could not leave her 
 mother to follow her father to the grave, she 
 would at least varnish his 
 coffin with her blood. 
 
 Thereupon she gashed 
 her arm with a knife, allow- 
 ing a stream of blood to 
 mingle with the lacquer of 
 the coffin. She had reached 
 the age of twenty-six when 
 her father's obsequies were 
 completed, and again her 
 mother and elder brother 
 urged her to marry, but she 
 steadfastly declined, and 
 devoted herself to waiting 
 upon her mother, with 
 whom she shortly after- 
 wards removed to Choh 
 Chow, on her brother re- 
 ceiving an appointment at 
 Pekin as a reward for his 
 father's services. 
 
 She allowed no hands 
 but her own to wait upon 
 her mother, and when, in 
 1862, her mother was at- 
 tacked with a dangerous illness, she cut a 
 piece of flesh from her left thigh to be admin- 
 istered as a remedy. In less than a year, a 
 fresh attack of illness supervened, when she 
 cut a piece of flesh from her right thigh, 
 recovery ensuing as before. 
 
 On subsequent occasions, when her parent 
 was suffering frortl slight ailments, she ap- 
 plied burning incense sticks to her arms and 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 221 
 
 used the calcined flesh to mingle with the 
 remedies prescribed, and always with suc- 
 cessful results. 
 
 After her mother's death, in 1872, she re- 
 fused all sustenance during a period of three 
 days, and was afterwards with difficulty per- 
 suaded to taste food. Her brother shortly 
 afterwards died, whereupon she escorted his 
 remains to the ancestral home at Kaoyeo, 
 and afterwards returning thence performed 
 the same journey once more in attendance 
 on her mother's coffin. 
 
 "The devotion and energy she had dis- 
 played," adds the viceroy, " exceed what 
 might be expected from one of the opposite 
 sex, and it is solicited, in view of the wide 
 repute which has been gained by her virtues 
 at Choh Chow, that a monument may be 
 erected in her honor under imperial sanc- 
 tion." 
 
 Position of Women. 
 
 The surprise expressed by the viceroy 
 that a woman should be capable of ardent 
 filial piety affords some indication of the 
 esteem in which women are held in China. 
 From their cradles to their graves they 
 stand at a distinct disadvantage as compared 
 with men. In the ancient Dook of odes 
 mention is made of the custom of giving 
 tiles to female infants for playthings, and 
 sceptres to boys ; and in the same way 
 throughout their careers women are regarded 
 as "moulded out of faults," and as being al- 
 together unworthy of equal fellowship with 
 men. 
 
 Following in the footsteps of their ancient 
 philosophers, Chinamen have learnt to re- 
 gard women with disdain and, in ignorance 
 of the good that is in them, to credit them 
 with much that is evil. Some of the char- 
 acters in which the language is written afford 
 an apt illustration of this perverted idea. 
 
 The character used to represent a woman 
 is a corruption of an Accadian heiroglyphic 
 meaning the same thing. When we have 
 two women together the compound is in- 
 tended to convey the meaning of "to 
 wrangle." The addition of a third woman 
 makes a symbol for " intrigue," and in con- 
 firmation of the idea conveyed by these 
 characters, we find the compound composed 
 of "women" and "together" means "to 
 suspect," " to dislike," "to loathe." 
 
 An Old Saying. 
 
 It was a saying reverenced among the 
 Chinese that a woman should never be heard 
 of outside of her home, an idea which is still 
 preserved in the symbol for "rest," "quiet," 
 which is a woman under her domestic roof. 
 This ideograph is singularly appropriate in a 
 country where women are in much the same 
 untutored state as that enjoyed by Turkish 
 ladies when Byron wrote — 
 
 "No chemistry for them unfolds its gases , 
 No metaphysics are let loose in lectures ; 
 No circulating library amasses 
 Religious novels, moral tales, and strictures 
 Upon the living manners as they pass us ; 
 No exhibition glares with annual pictures ; 
 They stare not on the stars from out their attics. 
 Nor deal (thank God for that !") in mathematics." 
 
 No husband or male relative ever appears 
 outside his own portal in company with his 
 wife or female belongings, and social inter- 
 course is thus entirely robbed of the soften- 
 ing influences and elevating tendencies which 
 are everywhere due to the presence of 
 women. It is a mistake, however, to sup- 
 pose that women do not in many respects 
 hold their own, even in the oppressive atmos- 
 phere of China ; for there, as elsewhere, as 
 Rosalind says in the play, " Make the doors 
 upon a woman's wit, and it will out at the 
 casement ; shut that, and 'twill out at the 
 
222 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 keyhole ; stop that, 'twill fly with the smoke 
 out at the chimney." 
 
 But their sphere of influence is confined 
 to their own homes. If they have friends 
 and acquaintances elsewhere, they are among 
 the ladies in other households, to whom 
 they pay visits in closed sedan-chairs — -of 
 course, this has references to the wealthy 
 classes — and to whose dwellings they are ad- 
 mitted by the side doors. In the same half 
 furtive manner they receive the return visits 
 and entertain their friends in the "fragrant 
 apartments," from which even the head of 
 the household is rigidly excluded. What 
 we call society is therefore confined to the 
 men, who pay visits, give dinners, and enjoy 
 picnics and excursions like people of all 
 countries. 
 
 LfOng Dinners. 
 
 The only dinner-parties, therefore, of which 
 the outside world has any knowledge are 
 those which lose to us half their attractions 
 by being robbed of the presence of ladies, 
 and which are rendered abnormally tedious 
 by their great length. 
 
 " 'Tis merry in hall 
 Where beards wag all, " 
 
 says the old ballad, and Chinamen seem to 
 be of the same opinion. Before the guests 
 are seated a long and protracted struggle 
 ensues to induce the punctiliously modest 
 guests to take the places assigned to them. 
 
 When this formality is satisfactorily ar- 
 ranged, innumerable courses are served, 
 with long intervals of waiting, which would 
 be excessively wearying were they not en- 
 livened either by theatricals or some game 
 such as the Italian Morra, in which he who 
 makes a mistake in the number of fingers 
 shown pays forfeit by drinking three or more 
 glasses of wine. If at the conclusion of the 
 
 feast the guests are sober, which they very 
 frequently are not, and if they are scholars 
 the probability is that they settle down to 
 writing quatrains of poetry on given sub- 
 jects, when again the punishment for failure 
 is the consumption of a certain quantity of 
 wine. 
 
 Beautiful Scenery. 
 
 Like the Japanese, Chinamen are ardent 
 lovers of beautiful scenery, and delight in 
 picnicing in favored spots to admire the 
 prodigality of Nature. Wherever mountains, 
 lakes, or, streams contrive to form attractive 
 landscapes, there in the spring and summer 
 seasons parties congregate and exchange 
 ideas on everything under heaven except Im- 
 perial politics. 
 
 The etiquette observed at these gatherings 
 is all laid down with scrupulous exactitude, 
 and is rigidly adhered to. Even a morning 
 call is surrounded with an amount of cere- 
 mony which to an American suggests infinite 
 boredom. It is not considered proper for 
 the visitor to walk to his friend's house, and 
 unless he be a military mandarin, when he 
 commonly rides, he sallies out in -his sedan- 
 chair, followed by one or more servants, and 
 armed with red visiting-cards about eight 
 inches long and three wide, on which is in- 
 scribed his name, with sometimes the addi- 
 tion of the words, "Your stupid younger 
 brother bows his head in salutation." 
 
 On approaching his friend's house, a ser- 
 vant goes ahead with one of these cards and 
 presents it at the door. If the host be out, 
 the porter tells the servant " to stay the gen- 
 tlemen's approach," but if he should be at 
 home the front doors are thrown open and 
 the visitor is carried in his sedan into the 
 courtyard, where the host attired in his robes 
 of ceremony, greets him with many bows. 
 
 Thence he is conducted to the central 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 223 
 
 hall, where, after much friendly contention as 
 to the seats they shall occupy, the guest 
 finally and invariably is induced to take the 
 place of honor on his host's left hand. 
 
 The practice universally followed of the 
 speaker applying adulatory terms towards 
 his interlocutor and depreciatory ones towards 
 himself, adds to the stilted formalities on 
 such occasions. Everything connected with 
 the person spoken to — his age, his neighbor- 
 hood, his name, his relations, etc. — are "hon- 
 orable," "respected," "lofty," and "distin- 
 guished." while the speaker's are "con- 
 temptible" and "rude." His friend's house 
 is a "palace," his is "a reed hut." 
 
 "Is the Chariot Well?" 
 But perhaps the strangest of these set 
 phrases are the indirect terms by which one 
 man addresses another. On receiving a 
 visitor, a common expression is, " Is the 
 honorable chariot well ? " meaning, of course, 
 the man who drives in the chariot, or "you." 
 In the same way, the term "beneath the 
 council-chamber," and "at the feet," are 
 similarly used, implying a wish that those 
 addressed may become Ministers of State, 
 "the feet," of course, being those of the Son 
 of Heaven. But, however much acquaint- 
 ances may discuss subjects relating to them- 
 selves, no mention is ever made of their 
 wives or daughters, who are as completely 
 tabooed, except between very intimate friends, 
 as though they did not exist. 
 
 This estrangement between the sexes is 
 carried out in deed as well as in word. It 
 is laid down on authority that in no case 
 may a woman and a man touch each other 
 in giving and receiving, and so literally was 
 this command accepted, that it was held by 
 many that it was even improper for a man 
 to save a woman from drowning. 
 
 A hypothetical case was put to Mencius 
 
 on the subject: "If one's sister-in-law is 
 drowning, ought she to be drawn out with 
 the hand?" To which Mencius replied, "It 
 is wolfish not to draw out a drowning sister- 
 in-law." And probably most people will 
 agree with the philosopher. Even brothers 
 and sisters, so soon as they have ceased to 
 be children, are entirely separated, and are 
 allowed intercourse only on formal condi- 
 tions. Outside the family circle young men 
 do occasionally, like Romeo, "with love's 
 light wings o'er-perch the walls" of etiquette 
 which surround the objects of their admira- 
 tion, and we have abundance of evidence in 
 native novels that communications are kept 
 up between young ladies and stranger 
 youths, but always with a most circumspect 
 regard to the conventionalities. 
 
 Punishment for Eloping. 
 
 Prenuptial elopements occur but rarely, 
 and the penalty which awaits the hasty pair 
 in case of capture is imprisonment, which 
 lasts as long as the vindictiveness of the 
 parents determines. Commonly a maidser- 
 vant acts as the Mercury between the lovers, 
 and in one well-known novel the heroine 
 nurses the hero in this vicarious way through 
 a long illness, and eventually marries him 
 out of regard for the scrupulous way in 
 which he had confined himself to orthodox 
 behavior. 
 
 In another romance the heroine, who, like 
 most heroines in Chinese novels, was a 
 Phoenix of learning and possessed of an 
 exquisite poetic talent, tests the hero's capa- 
 bilities by setting him themes on which he 
 is expected to write pieces of poetry, but 
 she declines to write the themes, on the 
 ground that things written in the women's 
 apartments should not be handed about to 
 be seen of men. In such an artificial state 
 of society dangers must arise, and the appre- 
 
224 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 , hension of it prompts mothers to desire to 
 marry their daughters at as early an age as 
 possible. 
 
 It not unfrequently happens that, as in 
 India, mere infants are betrothed, and noth- 
 ing but the death of cither is considered suf- 
 ficient to annul the bond. Even this event 
 is not always accepted by the survivor, when 
 the survivor is a girl, as a cancelling of the 
 
 ^fltt^Tt 
 
 PAVILION NEAR THE MENCIUS TEMPLE. 
 
 engagement. The Pekin Gazette bears testi- 
 mony to the occurrence of such cases, though 
 it must be acknowledged that the flourish of 
 trumpets with which they are announced to 
 the throne suggests the idea that they form 
 the exceptions rather than the rule. Per- 
 sonal feeling cannot enter into the considera- 
 tion which prompts this action, for the 
 probability is that the couple have never 
 seen one another, and it can therefore only 
 
 be out of regard for the letter of the law, 
 which custom decides must be observed. 
 
 A few years since a young lady was held 
 up to admiration in a memorial to the throne 
 for having starved herself to death on hearing 
 of the decease of her betrothed, and cases are 
 often officially reported in which the surviving 
 young lady refuses positively to listen to any 
 other marriage proposals. 
 
 One maiden lately earned distinction by 
 clasping her betrothed's memorial tablet to 
 / her arms and going through the marriage 
 ceremony with it. It is quite possible, how- 
 ever, that the edge of these young ladies' 
 adherence to the rules of propriety may be 
 sharpened by an appreciation of the more 
 than usually precarious lottery which mar- 
 riage is in China. It is true that young men 
 occasionally pay the same honor to the 
 memory of their deceased lovers, and are 
 content to wed the shades of their mistresses ; 
 but the same constancy is not expected of 
 them, nor if it existed would be approved of 
 by the censors of Chinese morals. 
 
 Funeral Customs. 
 
 Having spoken of marriage, we now turn 
 to Chinese customs observed in the burial of 
 the dead. 
 
 "I venture to ask about death," said Chi 
 Lu to Confucius. " While you do not know 
 about life, how can you know about death?" 
 was the unsatisfying reply. 
 
 And though this is the orthodox Confu- 
 cian view of the momentous question, the 
 people at large have bettered the instruction 
 of the sage and have developed a full faith 
 in an after life, in which those who have done 
 good pass to the blissful regions of the west, 
 where, surrounded with peace and happiness, 
 they live an eternal round of joy ; and those 
 that have done evil are relegated to the in- 
 fernal regions, where executioners even more 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 225 
 
 cruel than those to which they are accus- 
 tomed on earth, torture with merciless bru- 
 tality. 
 
 Authors of works of a religious nature 
 delight in describing in detail the horrors 
 that await the spirits of evil-doers. They 
 are sawn asunder, they are devoured by wild 
 beasts, they are thrown into caldrons of 
 boiling oil, they are committed to the flames, 
 and if there are any other shameful and vio- 
 lent deaths, they form a treasured part of the 
 punishments of the condemned.. 
 
 Dressed for Death. 
 
 These beliefs find expression in the elabo- 
 rate ceremonial which surrounds the burial 
 of the dead. On the approach of death the 
 invalid is borne into the central hall, where, 
 on a bed of boards, he is gently laid with his 
 feet towards the door. In preparation for 
 the decease his robes and hat of office, if he 
 be a mandarin, and, if a commoner, his best 
 attire, are placed beside him, and when the 
 last supreme moment arrives he is dressed in 
 state, and so meets his fate in full canonicals. 
 
 After death a priest is summoned, who, 
 after having saved the soul from perdition by 
 the use of incantations, calls upon one of the 
 three spirits which are said to inhabit every 
 man, to hasten to the enjoyment of bliss in 
 the empyrean regions of the west. Of the 
 two other spirits, one is supposed eventually 
 to remain with the corpse in the grave, and 
 the other to be attached to the ancestral 
 tablet which ultimately finds its place in the 
 family hall. 
 
 When this ceremony is completed, the 
 chief mourner, in the company of friends 
 and supporters — for grief is supposed to 
 have so broken him down as to have ren- 
 dered him unable to walk without the help of 
 a friendly arm and of a sustaining staff — 
 goes to the nearest river or stream "to buy 
 15 
 
 water" to lave the features of the dead. 
 Having thrown some copper cash into the 
 water, accoinpanied sometimes by a small 
 fish, wl^ich is supposed to announce the 
 transaction to the river god, he fills a bowl 
 from the current and returns to perform his 
 sacred office. 
 
 The coffin is a massive structure, made of 
 four boards, from three to four inches in 
 thickness, of a hard and durable wood. In 
 this the body is laid on a bed of quicklime 
 and charcoal, and the cover is hermetically 
 sealed with cement. This is necessary for 
 the sake of the survivors, since custom pro- 
 vides that the coffin should remain above 
 ground for seven times seven days, and it 
 sometimes happens that the inability of the 
 astrologers to discover a lucky day for the 
 interment, entails a still longer pre-sepulchral 
 period. 
 
 A Tragic Incident. 
 
 Much virtue exists in the style and nature 
 of the coffin, and most men as they advance 
 in years provide themselves with their future 
 narrow beds, if, indeed, their sons have not 
 been sufficiently filially minded to make them 
 presents of them. A tragic incident, in which 
 an old man's coffin formed a leading feature, 
 was lately described in the Pekin Gazette. 
 A certain Mr. Chia had a son who was as 
 dissolute as he was disrepectful, and who, in 
 a moment of financial pressure, sold the 
 coffin which his father, with prudent fore- 
 sight, had prepared for his final resting-place. 
 
 On the theft being discovered, Chia at 
 once charged his son with the crime, and in 
 his anger swore that if the coffin were not 
 returned he would, so soon as he recovered 
 from an illness from which he was suffering, 
 bring him before the authorities and cause 
 him to be put to death. This threat so 
 enraged the young man that, in a moment 
 
226 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 of drunken fury, he strangled his father. 
 For such a crime there could be only one 
 sentence, and the wretched criminal was con- 
 demned to the slow and lingering process of 
 being sliced to death. 
 
 Before closing the coffin it is customary to 
 put in the mouth of the deceased five prec- 
 ious substances, which vary in value with the 
 wealth of the family. The Chinese do not 
 offer any explanation of this practice, not 
 even the very reasonable Roman explanation, 
 that the money so placed serves as the wage 
 due to Charon for the passage over the Styx. 
 
 Valuablfes Buried. 
 
 In some parts of the country, also, it is 
 usual to deposit by the side of the body any 
 object or objects, such as books, pipes, etc., 
 which may have been especially valued by 
 the deceased. The coffin is closed in the 
 presence of the family, who prostrate them- 
 selves before the bier. When the day chosen 
 by the soothsayers for the interment arrives, 
 offerings of cooked provisions are placed 
 bes'ide the coffin, and the mourners, dressed 
 in coarse white sackcloth, perform endless 
 prostrations before it. 
 
 Should the deceased have been a man of 
 consideration, a vast concourse assembles to 
 follow him to the grave. A curious super- 
 stition attaches to the first raising of the 
 coffin. At the moment that the bearers lift 
 the sarcophagus, the relatives all fly from the 
 room, it being believed that should any mis- 
 adventure occur, the spirit of the deceased 
 would avenge itself on all those who were 
 present at the moment of the removal. The 
 number of bearers is regulated by the posi- 
 tion of the family, and varies from sixty-four 
 to four. 
 
 When the procession is formed, a man 
 carrying a long streamer of white cloth, 
 known as the " soul-cloth," marches in front. 
 
 followed by two men bearing banners, on 
 which are inscribed sentences implying a 
 hope that the deceased may be enjoying 
 himself in the company of the blessed. 
 After these comes a man holding up a white 
 cock, which is supposed to summon the soul 
 to accompany the body, and behind him 
 follow two sedan-chairs, in the first of which 
 is carried the ancestral tablet of the dead 
 man, and in the second his portrait. 
 
 Supporting themselves by the shafts of 
 these sedan-chairs, two of the principal 
 mourners drag themselves along. The 
 eldest son, if there be one, immediately 
 precedes the coffin, and affects complete 
 inability to walk without the help of the 
 staff of wood, or of bamboo, according to 
 whether he is mourning for his father or his 
 mother, which he carries in his hand. 
 
 Scattering Paper Money. 
 
 Behind the coffin follow the female rela- 
 tives and friends. Even on this solemn 
 occasion the frivolous rules for the separation 
 of the sexes are rigorously observed, and a 
 white cord, held at the ends by two men, is 
 sometimes used to separate the male from 
 the female mourners. As the procession 
 advances, paper money is scattered on all 
 sides to appease the hunger of any destitute 
 ghosts which may be haunting the road. 
 With the coffin a pot of rice is lowered into 
 the grave, and grains and tea are scattered 
 over it. In some parts of the south it is 
 customary to bury effigies of cows in the 
 grave as correctives against evil influences. 
 
 As the grave-diggers shovel in earth to 
 earth, the priest takes the white cock, and, 
 standing at the foot of the tomb, makes the 
 bird bow thrice towards the coffin. This 
 strange rite is repeated by the chief mourners, 
 and the " soul-cloth " is then burned to ashes. 
 After a short exhortation from one of the 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 227 
 
 deceased, the procession re-forms, and returns 
 to the house in the same order in which it 
 set out. 
 
 On crossing the threshold of their home, 
 it is sometimes customary for the mourners 
 to purify themselves by stepping over a fire 
 made of straw, after which their first duty is 
 to carry the deceased's tablet, with every 
 token of respect, to the principal room, 
 where it remains for a hundred days. The 
 mourners then proceed to celebrate " the feast 
 of the dead," and with that the funeral cere- 
 mony may be said to be brought to a close. 
 For thirty days the nearest relatives of the 
 deceased abstain from shaving their heads or 
 changing their clothes, and for twenty-seven 
 months sons are expected to wear all the 
 panoply of woe. 
 
 Brief Period of Mourning. 
 
 Married daughters, having passed aut of 
 the family circle, are not always invited to 
 the obsequies ; but when they are, they are 
 not expected to mourn for more than seven 
 days. At the end of that time they adorn 
 themselves once again in jewelry and 
 colors, and so return to their homes, it being 
 considered contrary to etiquette for them to 
 carry the signs of lamentation into their hus- 
 bands' presence. 
 
 Many of the ceremonials surrounding fun- 
 erals vary in different parts of the country as 
 much as the shapes given to the tombs. In 
 some parts it is the practice for the mourn- 
 ■ers to put on mourning only on the third day 
 after the death has taken place, it being con- 
 sidered that it is within the bounds of possi- 
 "bility that a trance, and not death, may hold 
 the patient senseless. For a considerable 
 period those who are husbands are bound to 
 be as strangers to their wives, and all are for^ 
 bidden to seek recreation "at the theatres or 
 ■concert-rooms. 
 
 For seven days a widow mourning the 
 loss of her husband is supposed to show her 
 grief by sitting on the ground instead of on 
 chairs, and by sleeping upon a mat instead of 
 upon her bed. On the seventh day it is custo- 
 mary for friends to send presents of cakes 
 and banners, the first of which are presented 
 as offerings to the dead man, while the ban- 
 ners are hung ronnd the hall in which the 
 coffin reposes. By this time all hope of his 
 return to life has disappeared, and the letters 
 which accompany the gifts of friends are 
 burnt in the sacred fire and are so transmitted 
 to the manes of the dead in the blessed 
 regions of the West. 
 
 On the same day priests offer up prayers 
 for the flight of the soul to its new abode, 
 and construct a bridge by an arrangement of 
 tables and stools over which the effigy of the 
 deceased is carried, thus emblematizing the 
 removal of the soul from Hell to Heaven. 
 
 Fear of Ghosts. 
 
 In many of the ceremonies we see traces 
 of the old-world fear that the ghostly pres- 
 ence of the dead may possibly haunt the 
 survivors. The priest at the grave commonly 
 adjures the spirit to remain with the body ; 
 and, as a rule, a sufficiently weighty super- 
 incumbent mass of earth, stone or masonry 
 is placed over the tomb to prevent the pos- 
 sibility of a resurrection. In the hilly south 
 the graves are dug on the sides of hills, and 
 the tomb is shaped like a horseshoe. 
 
 In the north, where the country is for the 
 most part flat, conically shaped mounds sur- 
 rounded by a bank and ditch form the ordi- 
 nary graves, ^ealthy families generally 
 have grave-yards of their own, surrounded 
 by a belt of cypress trees, which are sup- 
 posed to offer complete protection from a 
 huge monster who, ghoul-like, delights in 
 devouring the dead. The tombs of nobles 
 
228 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 are often approached by an avenue of stone 
 figures, representing ministers of state, war- 
 riors, horses, camels, sheep, tigers, etc., and 
 the same kinds of statues ornament the Im- 
 perial tombs ; the figures are, as a rule, 
 more than life-size, and in many cases are 
 executed with considerable taste and skill. 
 
 The body of a member of a family who 
 dies away from home is invariably brought 
 back to the ancestral hall with one exception. 
 If his home should be within the walls of a 
 city, no ceremonial punctilios and no senti- 
 mental feelings avail to counterbalance the 
 law which forbids the introduction of a dead 
 body within the walls of a city. 
 
 Honors to Mandarins. 
 
 Occasionally some mandarin who has died 
 in his country's service, after having gained 
 honors and distinctions, is allowed by the 
 special edict of the Emperor to be borne 
 through the streets of his native city, but 
 even the body of such a one is not allowed 
 to rest within the walls. This rule may 
 possibly show that the Chinese are not en- 
 tirely blind to the laws of sanitation, and the 
 regulation which forbids all intramural burial 
 seems also to point in the same direction. 
 
 No such ceremonies as those described 
 above attend the funerals of infants, un- 
 married children, concubines or slaves, and 
 it is no uncommon sight to see in the north 
 of China the bodies of these unfortunates 
 thrown out upon the plains and on the hills 
 to be devoured by beasts of prey. Crema- 
 tion is never practiced in China except in the 
 case of Buddhist priests, and the only con- 
 tingency in which the practice is sanctioned 
 by the penal code is when relatives " happen 
 to die in a distant country and the children 
 or grandchildren are unable to bring the 
 corpse to be interred in the native district of 
 the deceased." 
 
 In all other circumstances, the penalty o 
 a hundred blows is to be awarded to anj 
 one "who consumes a corpse with fire oi 
 commits it to the waters." In bygone days 
 it was the practice, on the death of an Em- 
 peror, to immolate the favorite wives at the 
 tomb of the deceased potentate, and at the 
 grave of Shunchi, the first Entperor of the 
 present dynasty, thirty persons were buried 
 beside him. His son Kanghk'si (1661- 
 1 721), however, put an end to the practice 
 by commanding that the four wives who 
 had paid him the compliment of wishing to 
 accompany him into Hades should be for- 
 bidden to sacrifice their lives for so useless a 
 purpose. 
 
 Other curious Chinese customs relate to 
 the Emperor and his Court. The Son of 
 Heaven admits no equality on the part of 
 any other sovereign in the world, and this 
 refusal has occasioned a vast amount of con- 
 troversy. No one can have an audience with 
 him as an equal. 
 
 Audiences ^A^ith the Emperor. 
 
 The audience question has occupied a 
 prominent place in recent negotiations with 
 China, and probably many people are sur- 
 prised that so ordinary a matter should have 
 been so constantly a subject of debate. But 
 Chinese ways are not our ways, and a cere- 
 mony which among civilized nations is 
 regarded as a common act of courtesy 
 between sovereigns, has in China become 
 complicated by the absurd pretensions of the 
 Government to a superiority over all the 
 world. 
 
 Like a spoilt heir who has been brought 
 up in secluded surroundings, the Chinese 
 have long been surfeited with dominion and 
 glory in the midst of neighboring tribes, who 
 stand on a lower level of civilization than that 
 which they occupy. In the long history oi 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 229 
 
 the Empire such an event as an ambassador 
 being received as representing a sovereign on 
 terms of equality with the Emperor, has never 
 been known ; and this pretension to supre- 
 macy, which materially contributes to the 
 maintenance of the power which the Empire 
 possesses, enters into the life of the nation 
 and is, to a great extent, a matter of life and 
 death in its present unregenerate state. 
 
 Court of the " Son of Heaven." 
 The proposal, therefore, that the foreign 
 ministers resident in Pekin should be re- 
 ceived in the manner common in civilized 
 countries, has deen persistently combated by 
 the mandarins. It must be confessed that 
 precedent has been in their favor. The 
 Portuguese and Dutch ambassadors, who 
 visited Pekin in the seventeenth and eigh- 
 teenth centuries, all submitted to the degra- 
 dation of appearing as envoys of tributaries 
 at the court of the Son of Heaven. 
 
 From an account given of the mission of 
 Alexander Metello de Sousa Menezes, in 
 1727, we learn that at the audience granted 
 to him by the Emperor Yungcheng, " his 
 excellency entered the western gates [of the 
 reception hall], ascended the steps of the 
 throne, and, kneeling, presented his creden- 
 tials ; he then rose, went out by the same 
 way, and in front of the middle door that was 
 open the ambassador and retinue performed 
 the usual act of obedience, that is, knelt and 
 struck their heads on the ground nine times. 
 About a century earlier a Dutch embassy 
 was treated with even greater contempt. 
 The ambassador and his staff met " with a 
 vile reception and degrading treatment. 
 They were required to humiliate themselves 
 at least thirty different times ; at each of 
 which they were obliged, on their kndes, to 
 knock their heads nine times against the 
 ground, which," adds Barrow, in his " Travels 
 
 in China," " Mr. Van Braams, in his journal, 
 very coolly calls performing the salute of 
 honor." 
 
 Lord Macartney, in 1793, had the honor 
 of being the first who refu.sed to submit to 
 this degrading ceremony. Happily at this 
 time a sovereign was on the throne who had 
 sufficient independence to sanction a depar- 
 ture from the ordinary routine, and who had 
 sufficient good sense to do honor to the self- 
 respect of the ambassador. On arriving at 
 Pekin Lord Macartney found that the Empe- 
 ror Kienlung was at his hunting-palace at 
 Jehol (whither, in i860, the Emperor Hien- 
 feng fled before the allied forces of England 
 and France). By Kienlung's invitation. Lord 
 Macartney proceeded to Jehol, and was there 
 received by him in a magnificent tent in the 
 palace garden. 
 
 His Majesty Appears. 
 
 In accordance with Eastern custom, the 
 audience was granted at sunrise, and further, 
 in accordance with practice, the ambassador 
 was required to be in attendance some hours 
 before the arrival of the Emperor. This 
 delay was sufficiently discourteous, but it was 
 an improvement on the treatment to which 
 the Dutch ambassador had been subjected in 
 the preceding century, when the unfortunate 
 envoy was left sitting "all night in the open 
 air, and upon the blue stones till morning." 
 
 Soon after daylight the sound of music 
 announced the Emperor's approach, and 
 without further delay his majesty took his 
 seat upon a throne set up in the tent. On all 
 sides he was surrounded by princes of the 
 blood and the highest officers of state, some 
 of whom conducted the ambassador from the 
 tent in which he had awaited the Emperor's 
 arrival to the Imperial presence. 
 
 " The ambassador, pursuant to instructions, 
 received from the president of ceremonies, held 
 
230 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 a large magnificent square gold box, embel- 
 lished with jewels, containing his majesty's 
 letter to the Emperor, between both hands, 
 raised above his head, and mounting the 
 steps which lead to the throne, and bending 
 upon one knee, presented the box with a 
 suitable laconic address, to his Imperial 
 Majesty, who received it graciously with his 
 own hands, put it by his side and represented 
 the satisfaction he felt at the testimony which 
 his Britannic Majesty gave to him of his 
 esteem and good will in sending him an em- 
 bassy, with a letter, and rare presents ; that 
 he, on his part, entertained sentiments of the 
 same kind towards the sovereign of Great 
 Britain, and hoped that harmony would 
 always be maintained among their respective 
 subjects." 
 
 Ceremonies Set Aside. 
 
 At a feast which was subsequently given 
 to Lord Macartney and the chief Tartar 
 tributaries, the Emperor marked his regard 
 for the English ambassador by sending him 
 several dishes from his own table, and by 
 presenting to him and his staff cups of wine 
 with his own hand. 
 
 The reception thus accorded to Lord 
 Macartney showed a marked advance towards 
 the customs of civilized nations. The kotow 
 was not insisted upon, and though the am- 
 . bassador bent one knee in presenting his cre- 
 dentials, the audience, taken as a whole, was 
 as satisfactory as could have been expected. 
 To the Emperor Kienlung succeeded Kia 
 King, who was as bigoted and narrow-minded 
 as his father had been liberal and enlightened. 
 
 To him Lord Amherst was accredited in 
 1816, and from the first opening of negotia- 
 tions it became at once obvious that the new 
 Emperor was determined to return from the 
 position taken up by his predecessor to the 
 preposterous pretensions of former times. 
 
 Even before Lord Amherst's arrival at Pekin 
 he was met by the asseverations of the com- 
 missioners deputed to meet him that he 
 could only be admitted into the Imperial 
 presence by consenting to perform what Van 
 Braams described as " the salute of honor." 
 This he positively declined to do, and the 
 commissioners, who had distinct orders to 
 arrange an audience, were at their wits' end 
 how to reconcile the Imperial commands 
 with the ambassador's attitude. The symJ;»ol 
 used to express on paper the word " deceit " 
 is made up, as has been said, of parts signi- 
 fying a " woman's weapon." 
 
 Way Out of a Difficulty. 
 
 In China " a man's weapon " would be 
 equally applicable, and, in this particular in- 
 .stance, the commissioners determined to use 
 this well-worn arm to rid themselves of the 
 difficulty. In later communications with 
 Lord Amherst they agreed to waive the 
 point, and assured him that all that would 
 be demanded of him would be such a genu- 
 flection as had been performed by Lord 
 Macartney. 
 
 To the Emperor, however, they reported 
 that the ambassador was ready to obey his 
 commands, and they even drew up a docu- 
 ment in which the whole ceremony was min- 
 ntely described, and in which the ambas- 
 sador and suite were made to perform the 
 kotow on several occasions. In pursuance 
 of his arrangement with these double-faced 
 gentlemen. Lord Amherst went to Yuen- 
 Ming-Yuen, where the Emperor was then 
 residing. 
 
 It was, however, plainly impossible for the 
 commissioners to admit him into the Im- 
 perial presence, since they knew that it 
 would be beyond their power to make him 
 perform the kotow, and were equally aware 
 that the absence of the act would bring 
 
VARIETIES OF CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 231 
 
 down the wrath of the Emperor upon them. 
 The manoeuvre which they adopted in 
 this difficulty is interesting. They per- 
 suaded the Emperor to order the ambas- 
 sador into his presence the instant he ar- 
 rived at the palace. As the journey had 
 been long and tedious, and the ambassador 
 was way-worn and weary, he excused him- 
 self from obeying this very discourteous 
 command, as the commissioners expected he 
 would do, on the ground of fatigue. They 
 then prompted the Emperor to dismiss him 
 from the court, and the luckless ambassador 
 was obliged to return with his mission un- 
 fulfilled. 
 
 An Opportunity Lost. 
 
 In accordance with civilized usage, the re- 
 sidence of the foreign ministers at Pekin 
 would naturally entail their being received in 
 audience by the Emperor; and, if Lord 
 Elgin, when in command of Pekin, had in- 
 sisted upon the fugitive Emperor Hienfeng 
 returning to the capital to receive him in 
 audience, no further difficulties on the sub- 
 ject would have arisen. But the opportun- 
 ity was allowed to lapse, and a true solution 
 of the difficulty has still to be arrived at. 
 
 The death of Hienfeng, in 1861, and the 
 long minority of his successor Tungchi, 
 postponed any further consideration of the 
 matter until 1873. In that year the Em- 
 peror, having attained his majority, and hav- 
 ing signalized the event by taking to himself 
 three wives, accepted the reins of power 
 from the Dowager Empresses, who had gov- 
 erned the Empire during the past twelve 
 years. The time had thus arrived when the 
 audience question had again to be consid- 
 ered ; and, after much negotiation with the 
 ruling powers, it was arranged that the 
 foreign ministers should be collectively 
 gremted a reception at such time and place 
 
 as the Emperor might determine. This was 
 the best that could be done. 
 
 The Chinese authorities, recognizing that 
 the kotow was no longer in question, directed 
 all their efforts towards persuading the min- 
 isters to bow the knee after the precedent set 
 by Lord Macartney. But against this pro- 
 position the ministers showed a determined 
 front, and the Chinese, being compelled to 
 give way on this point also, turned their at- 
 tention to obtaining some advantages in re- 
 turn for the concessions accorded. 
 
 The Dutch and Portuguese ministers, who 
 
 rfe'^^Ai*/ 
 
 A HIGH-CASTE MANDARIN. 
 
 had bowed to the ground in the presence of 
 the Son of Heaven, had been received in the 
 Imperial audience-chamber within the pal- 
 ace ;- and Lord Macartney, who had bent the 
 knee, had been allowed to place his creden- 
 tials in the hands of the Emperor. As the 
 present generation of ministers had refused 
 either to kotow or genuflect, it became neces- 
 sary to emphasize the superiority of the Em- 
 peror over the sovereigns whom they rep- 
 resented, by refusing them admittance within 
 the gates of the palace. 
 
 A pavilion, known as the Tzu-Kuang Ko, 
 was, therefore, chosen for the ceremony. 
 
232 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 According to the best authorities, this build- 
 ing is that in which the Mongol princes and 
 Corean ambassadors are feasted at the New 
 Year. It is here, also, that Manchu military- 
 exercises are performed, and wrestling 
 matches are held for the amusement of the 
 Emperor. 
 
 The edifice was, therefore, not one in 
 which ministers of sovereigns on an equality 
 with the Emperor would naturally have been 
 received. The native guide-books describe 
 it as the place where " New Year receptions 
 are granted to the outer tribes," and the 
 choice of it was doubtless intended by the 
 mandarins to be a Set-off against the conces- 
 sions they had made. But it was also part of 
 the arrangement that the ministers should 
 not give their credentials into the hands of 
 the Emperor, but should deposit them on a 
 table set in the hall for the purpose ; and 
 that they should then be presented by Prince 
 Kung to the Emperor. 
 
 Costumes for the Occasion. 
 
 On the day appointed (June 29) the min- 
 isters were early astir, as the Emperor had 
 fixed the audience at the very inconvenient 
 hour of between six and seven in the morn- 
 ing. The place of audience being close to 
 the Roman Catholic cathedral and mission 
 house, the five representatives of Western 
 powers — England, France, America, Russia 
 and the Netherlands — met there to attire 
 themselves in costumes befitting the august 
 occasion. Thence they were escorted to the 
 Shih-ying Kung, where confectionery, tea 
 and Chinese wine from the Emperor's but- 
 tery were offered them. 
 
 Here they were kept waiting for more 
 than an hour, and were then led to a tent 
 pitched on the west side of the pavilion of 
 audience. They might have reasonably 
 hoped that this move meant the immediate 
 
 arrival of the Emperor. But, if this was 
 their expectation, they were disappointed, 
 and it was only after a further delay of at 
 least an hour and a half that the representa- 
 tive of Japan, who, being an ambassador, 
 was introduced separately, was summoned to 
 the Imperial presence. 
 
 The five European representatives were 
 next introduced, and Tvere led by a door on 
 the west side of the pavilion into the central 
 aisle of the hall. As they faced the north- 
 ern end, where the Emperor was seated on 
 his throne, they bowed in concert. They 
 then " advanced a few paces and bowed 
 again, then advanced a few paces further, 
 bowing again, and halted before a long 
 yellow table about halfway up the hall." 
 
 How they were Seated, 
 The Emperor, who was surrounded by 
 his advisers and courtiers, was, it was ob- 
 served, seated cross-legged according to the 
 Manchu custom. When all had taken up 
 their appointed positions, the minister of 
 Russia, as doyen of the corps, read aloud 
 an address in French, which was made 
 intelligible to the Emperor by an interpreter, 
 who delivered a version in Chinese for his 
 benefit. 
 
 Says Sir Thomas Wade : " As soon as 
 the address was delivered we laid our letters 
 of credence upon the table. The Emperor 
 made a slight bow of acknowledgment, and 
 the Prince of Kung, falling upon both knees 
 at the foot of the throne, his majesty appeared 
 to speak to him — I say appeared, because no 
 sound reached my ears. We had been told, 
 however, that the Emperor would speak in 
 Manchu, and that the prince would interpret. 
 Accordingly, as soon as his highness rose, 
 he descended the steps, and informed us that 
 his majesty declared that the -letters of cre- 
 dence had been received. 
 
VARIETIES OF' CHINESE LIFE. 
 
 233 
 
 "Then, returning to his place, he again fell 
 upon his knees, and the Emperor, having 
 again spoken to him in a low tone, he again 
 descended the steps, and, coming up to us, 
 informed us that his majesty trusted that our 
 respective rulers w^ere in good health, and 
 expressed a hope that foreign affairs might 
 all be satisfactorily arranged between the 
 foreign ministers and the Emperor. This 
 ■closed the audience, which may have lasted 
 a. little more than five minutes. We than all 
 -withdrew in the usual fashion, moving back- 
 ward and bowing." 
 
 Departure From Precedent. 
 
 , Sir Thomas Wade, and probably the other 
 ministers, recognized that this reception con- 
 stituted a marked departure from precedent, 
 although they were fully alive to the short- 
 comings it manifested. To begin with, the 
 Imperial decree granting the audience was 
 Avorded in a dictatorial tone, which was, to 
 say the least, discourteous. " The Tsungli 
 Yamun " (answering nearly to our Cabinet at 
 Washington), so runs this document, " hav- 
 ing presented a memorial to the effect that 
 the foreign ministers residing in Pekin have 
 implored us to grant an audience that they 
 may deliver letters from their Governments, 
 we command that the foreign ministers resi- 
 ding in Pekin, who have brought letters from 
 their Governments, be accorded audience. 
 E.espect this." 
 
 The long periods of waiting in the Shih- 
 ying Kung, and afterwards in the tent, were 
 ■doubtless intended to mark the condescension 
 of the Emperor in granting the audience, 
 and, together with the very perfunctory cere- 
 mony in the hall, were indications which 
 forbade the cherishing of any high hopes as 
 to the effects likely to be produced by the 
 reception. With a self-complacency which 
 almost amounted to an impertinence, a 
 
 Chinese statesman informed one of the 
 foreign ministers after the audience that the 
 princes who waited on the Emperor had 
 been surprised and pleased at the demeanor 
 of himself and his colleagues. 
 
 Such a remark illustrates the supercilious 
 contenipt with which the Chinese dignitaries 
 regard foreigners generally, and emphasizes 
 an ignorance which would be remarkable 
 considering that the foreign legations had 
 then been established in Pekin for twelve 
 years, if we did not know how entirely the 
 courtiers hold themselves aloof from the for- 
 eign ministers. 
 
 It had been proposed that an annual 
 reception should be given to the foreign 
 plenipotentiaries, but the sudden death of 
 the Emperor from small-pox put an end to 
 this scheme. Another long minority suc- 
 ceeded, and it was not until the assumption 
 of the ruling power, by the present Emperor, 
 in 1 89 1, that a reception was again held. 
 The decree published in the Pekin Gazette 
 announcing this event was laconic, but at 
 least had the advantage over that published 
 on the previous occasion, in that the deroga- 
 tory expressions therein used were omitted. 
 
 Request for an Audience. 
 
 The decree was dated March 4, and ran 
 thus : "At 1 1 .30 to-morrow the Emperor 
 will receive in audience at the Tzu-Kuang 
 Ko all the nations." The ceremony on this 
 occasion was almost identical with that which 
 took place in 1873. The intervening eigh- 
 teen years had not taught the Chinese any- 
 thing as regards foreigners, and their attitude 
 then and now was and is as ante-foreign as 
 ever it has been. 
 
 On his arrival at Pekin in 1893, Mr. 
 O'Conor requested an audience, which was 
 granted him with a change of venue. Instead 
 of the Tzu-Kuang Ko, the Cheng-Kuang 
 
234 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Tien, a temple which stands outside the 
 palace enclosure, was chosen for the cere- 
 mony. Here again the same forms were 
 followed, and the event was as barren of 
 results as were those of 1873 and 1891. 
 
 So matters stand at present, and the ques- 
 tion suggests itself, " Of what use have these 
 audiences been?" In civilized countries the 
 reception of a minister by the sovereign to 
 whose court he is accredited is a testimony 
 of the friendship of that monarch towards 
 his royal master. It also facilitates negotia- 
 tions between the two countries. It serves, 
 therefore, a substantially useful purpose. 
 
 In China, however, neither of these ends 
 can possibly be attained by such receptions 
 as those accorded to the foreign ministers. 
 The Emperor, so far as it is possible to 
 judge, is in the hands of his advisers, who, 
 as Sir Thomas Wade told us some years ago, 
 are as bitterly anti-foreign as ever, and in 
 whose word, the foreign ministers solemnly 
 declared, in 1 89 1 , that " no faith could be 
 put." 
 
 As to facilitating negotiations between 
 
 China and foreign countries, the wildest en- 
 thusiasts could not hope for any such result. 
 It may be said that this is but the beginning- 
 of things, and that we have no right to ex- 
 pect any great and rapid change in the atti- 
 tude of the Chinese court towards us. This 
 would be plausible if in the thirty years dur- 
 ing which the legations have been established 
 in Pekin there has been shown any advance 
 of friendliness. 
 
 On no occasion could any such change be 
 better manifested than at an Imperial recep- 
 tion, but time has made no change in the 
 manner in which our ministers are received; 
 for it is impossible to see any sign of a pro- 
 gressive movement in the exchange of the 
 Cheng-Kuang Tien for the Tzu-Kuang Ko 
 as an audience-chamber. 
 
 The fact is that other nations are too much 
 inclined to pursue here, as in other dealings 
 with China, the cap-in-hand attitude. They 
 have humbly implored, to use the Emperor's 
 own words, to be admitted into the Imperial 
 presence, and have reaped reward. They have 
 been suppliants and have been treated as such. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE CHINESE. 
 
 IT is probable that in the congested dis- 
 tricts of Southern China the population 
 is more dense than in any other coun- 
 try, and the struggle for existence is 
 proportionately severe. If it were not for 
 the small wants and meagre diet of China- 
 men, such swarms of human beings as are to 
 be seen in Canton, for example, where, the 
 land being unable to contain the inhabitants, 
 the streets may be said to have been carried 
 on to the surface of the river, could not exist. 
 Two bowls of rice with scraps of vegetables 
 or pieces of fish added, suffice for the daily 
 food of countless thousands of the people. 
 With all classes rice and vegetables form the 
 staple food, as we find illustrated by the fact 
 that the native equivalents of these words are 
 used to express food generally. In his invi- 
 tation to partake of the most sumptuous 
 viands the host will ask his guest "to eat 
 rice," and a servant announcing a feast will 
 proclaim that "the vegetables are served." 
 
 To the production of grain and vegetables 
 every available scrap of land and all the 
 energies of the people are devoted. There 
 is probably not an acre of meadow land in 
 China. Flocks of sheep and herds of cattle 
 are, therefore, unknown ; and the beasts 
 which are reared on the sides of the hills, 
 and with artificial food, are so few in number 
 that the flesh is obtainable only by the 
 wealthiest of those who are freed from the 
 Buddhistic belief in the transmigration of 
 souls. Pigs, fowls, ducks, and fish are more 
 cheaply obtained, and it is probable that pork 
 forms quite half the meat which is eaten. 
 
 Ducks are reared in enormous quantities, the 
 eggs as well as those of fowls being for the 
 most part hatched by artificial heat. 
 
 There being no ownership in rivers, the 
 fishing industry is carried on without let or 
 hindrance. By net, by line, by the clever 
 use of light to attract, and of noise tO' 
 frighten, the fish are captured from the 
 streams and supply a cheap and most useful 
 article of food. Every kind of living creature 
 which moves in the waters is eaten, and even 
 water snakes form a common article of food. 
 These, with eels, carp, and tench, are, when 
 caught, commonly kept in tanks, where they 
 are carefully fed, and are sold as required- 
 Most of the fishing-boats have tanks in which, 
 the captured fish are kept alive, and though 
 the flesh suffers from the artificial food and 
 surroundings, the prudent economy of the 
 system recommends it to the frugal minds 
 of the natives. 
 
 Disgusting Articles of Food 
 
 These, then, with rice at their head, are 
 the staples of life. But the same poverty 
 which induces Chinese parents to murder 
 their female infants prompts them occasion- 
 ally to take advantage of less savory viands 
 to satisfy their hunger. It is an undoubted 
 fact that rats, dogs, and horseflesh are sold 
 in Canton and elsewhere. The passing trav- 
 eller may see dried rats hung up in poulterers' 
 shops, and a little investigation will prove 
 indisputably to him that horseflesh, even 
 when the animal has met its death in another 
 way than at the butcher's shambles, is greed- 
 
 235 
 
236 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ily devoured. Necessity sometimes supplies 
 strange articles of diet. 
 
 It is an unquestionable fact that China- 
 men will eat, and apparently without any ill 
 effects, meat which would poison Enghsh- 
 men and Americans. The flesh of horses 
 which have died of glanders, and of other 
 animals which have succumbed to diseases 
 of all sorts, are eaten by the beggars and 
 other poverty-stricken people, who infest the 
 streets of all large cities. A superstition 
 also attaches to the flesh of dogs and cats, 
 especially black ones. It is considered emi- 
 nently nutritious, and is recommended by 
 the doctors as a wholesome and invigorating 
 diet in the summer season, as well as a gen- 
 eral preventative against disease. 
 
 Strange Remedy for Baldness. 
 
 The same high authorities prescribe a 
 course of rat's flesh for people inclined to 
 baldness. The late Archdeacon Gray, who 
 probably knew Canton better than any living 
 foreigner, in speaking, in his work on China, 
 of a cat and dog restaurant, says: "The 
 flesh is cut into small pieces and fried, with 
 water chestnuts and garlic in oil. In the 
 window of the restaurant dogs' carcases are 
 suspended for the purpose, I suppose, of at- 
 tracting the attention of passers by. Pla- 
 cards are sometimes placed above the door, 
 setting forth that the flesh of black dogs and 
 cats can be served up at a moment's notice ; " 
 and then he proceeds to give a translation 
 of a bill of fare such as hangs on the walls 
 of the dining-rooms. 
 
 The supposed medicinal properties of these 
 horrible articles of food no doubt prompt 
 many people to partake of them. In the 
 northern cities of the Empire it is usual in 
 the autumn to see men selling locusts fried 
 in oil at the corners of streets, much as peo- 
 ple offer roasted chestnuts for sale in our 
 
 own thoroughfares. The locusts so dealt 
 with are regarded as a luxury, and are con- 
 sidered to be more nutritive and better fla- 
 vored if they are thrown into the boiling oil 
 alive. But whatever the food niay be, other 
 than grain, it is cut up into small pieces to 
 suit the requirements of the chopsticks, 
 which are invariably used to transfer the food 
 from the plate to the mouth. 
 
 Onions and Garlic. 
 
 Knives and forks are unknown for this 
 purpose, and the two sticks, which to for- 
 eigners are such stumbling-blocks at native 
 dinners, furnish all that a Chinaman wants 
 with which to supply himself with even the 
 most oleaginous food. The presence of ex- 
 cessive quantities of oil and fat in Chinese 
 cooking is to Europeans its great offence, 
 and the large admixture of onions and garlic 
 adds another obnoxious feature to ordinary 
 viands ; but, apart from these peculiarities, 
 the food is always well cooked, and authori- 
 ties affirm that it is eminently digestible. 
 
 The following Chinese dishes, taken from 
 the menu of the 'dinner which was given by 
 the Chinese of Hong Kong- to the Duke of 
 Connaught, give a good idea of the sort of 
 fare which a Chinese host presents to his 
 guests on state occasions : 
 
 "Birds'-nest soup. Stewed shell-fish. 
 Cassia: mushrooms. Crab and sharks' fins. 
 ' Promotion ' (boiled quail, etc.). Fried ma- 
 rine dehcacies. Fish gills. Sliced teal. 
 Pekin mushrooms. Beches-de-mer. Sliced 
 pigeon. Macaroni." 
 
 The mention of some of these dishes is 
 enough to explain why it is that foreigners 
 come away hungry from a Chinese dinner- 
 party; nor are their appetites encouraged by 
 the fact that the feasters, in the enjoyment of 
 the good things provided, generally find it 
 necessary to discard some of their clothing 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 237 
 
 to adjust their heightened temperatures. 
 Their system of dress is admirably adapted 
 for this kind of emergency. Like their food 
 it possesses some admirable qualities, some 
 doubtful ones, and others which are repul- 
 sive. Its general character is looseness ; 
 nothing fits tightly to the person, and com- 
 plete freedom is thereby secured to the limbs. 
 
 Hurried by Them. 
 
 It is a canon of Chinese art that the out- 
 line of the human frame should never be 
 more than dimly indicated. For this reason 
 a sculpture gallery is abhorrent to them, as 
 was amusingly shown on the occasion of a 
 visit paid to the British Museum by the first 
 Chinese Minister at the Court of St. James. 
 At the first sight of the beautiful objects in 
 the Greek and Roman galleries he looked 
 around him in bewilderment, and then, Real- 
 izing the situation, hurried by them with 
 significant haste, looking neither to his right 
 hand nor to his left. 
 
 On this principle the dress of all China- 
 men partakes of the nature of robes, which 
 reach from the neck to the ankles — conceal- 
 ing loose vests, and trousers which among 
 the better classes are encased in gaiters of 
 materials suited to their conditions. Above 
 the upper part of the robe there is com- 
 monly worn a jacket made of stuffs accord- 
 ing to the season, silks in summer, and 
 wadded cotton or fur in the winter months. 
 The dresses of the mandarins and their 
 wives are, as has been already stated, strictly 
 regulated by sumptuary laws. 
 
 Since the rise of the Manchus to power, 
 the buttons on the caps have been added to 
 distinguish the various grades in the official 
 hierarchy. The first to institute this system 
 was Tsungte, the immediate predecessor of 
 Shunchi, the first Emperor of the present 
 Manchu line, who reigned in Manchuria 
 
 from 1636 to 1644. At his command every 
 official was obliged to wear a gold button on 
 his cap to distinguish him from the common 
 herd. By degrees further distinctions were 
 introduced. To a high official was assigned 
 a gold button set in pearls, while to a gen- 
 eral was given one surronnded with precious 
 stones. From this beginning the present 
 system arose. 
 
 Another and a far greater innovation than 
 this was introduced by the Manchu invaders. 
 As a badge of conquest, they compelled the 
 whole male population to shave the front 
 part of the head and to wear the queue, 
 which now distinguishes the Chinese from 
 the rest of mankind. The manner in which 
 this badge was adopted, and the tenacity 
 with which it is now adhered to, are worthy 
 of note as illustrating the character of the 
 people. 
 
 Fond of His Cue. 
 
 At first it was fiercely resisted, even unto 
 death. The vanquished everywhere took up 
 arms against it, and it was only by violence 
 varied with cajolery that the Manchus were 
 eventually able to compel its adoption. 
 When once it was accepted, however, it 
 came to be regarded with the greatest affec- 
 tion, and no greater indignity can be inflicted 
 on a loyal Chinaman of the present day than 
 to cut off the queue, against the adoption ot 
 which his ancestors fought so strenuously. 
 
 But with the Taepings and other rebels 
 the disappearance of the quene, and the 
 growth of the hair on the head, have been 
 accepted as badges of antagonism to the 
 present dynasty, and the discovery in a dis- 
 affected district of a man with these distin- 
 guishing marks secures him but a short 
 shrift before he is called upon to expiate his 
 disloyalty on the execution ground. But to 
 return to the dress of the officials. The cap 
 
238 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 varies in shape and material according to the 
 reason. In summer it consists of a round 
 •cone made of fine straw or bamboo, and is 
 covered with a tassel of red silken cords 
 which, radiate from the apex. In winter it 
 is turned up at the brim, and is covered with 
 dark satin, over which falls in the same way 
 a similar tassel. 
 
 The button is fixed in a gold setting above 
 
 irrespective of the condition of the theremo- 
 meter. 
 
 The wives of mandarins render their offi- 
 cial attire as splendid as rich silks, gay colors, 
 and bright embroideries can make them. In 
 shape they are identical with those worn by 
 women of every degree in the Empire, and 
 consist of a loose tunic reaching to the 
 knees, which buttons at the neck and under 
 
 MERCHANTS CLUB AT SHANGHAI. 
 
 the tassel at the centre of the crown. The 
 changes of uniform at the summer and win- 
 ter seasons are carefully regulated by law, 
 and, in obedience to Imperial edicts, pub- 
 lished as the periods approach, every man- 
 darin, from the great wall on the north to 
 the boundaries on Tonquin on the south, 
 makes his official change of attire on the 
 ■days exactly specified by the Emperor, quite 
 
 the right arm. A pair of trousers drawn in' 
 at the ankle completes the attire on ordinary 
 occasions, but on high days and holidays an 
 embroidered petticoat, which hangs square 
 both before and behind, is worn by ladies. 
 
 The hair is always carefully dressed and 
 gayly adorned, but in ways and fashions 
 which differ in every part of the Empire. 
 Flowers, both natural and artificial, are 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 239 
 
 largely used as ornaments to the head, and 
 richly chased and jewelled hairpins are added 
 to give taste to the coiffure. These last are 
 often of considerable value, and are com- 
 monly presents either from parents or hus- 
 bands. They not unfrequently form the 
 principal part of the property belonging to 
 the owners, and in cases of emergency they 
 are the first things resorted to for the pur- 
 pose of raising money. They are sometimes 
 given also by their fair owners to friends as 
 tokens of regard, and in many plays and 
 novels their disappearance from the heads of 
 ■wives is made to arouse the same suspicions 
 in the minds of the ladies' husbands as the 
 loss of Desdemona's handkerchief did in the 
 poisoned brain of Othello. 
 
 Diminutive Feet. 
 
 The striking feature, however, in the 
 ■women's appearance and gait is their mis- 
 shapen feet. In most lands the desire is to 
 give freedom of movement, but an absurd 
 fashion, backed by the weight of centuries, 
 has crippled and disabled countless genera- 
 tions of the women in China. No sufficient 
 •explanation has ever been given of the origin 
 of this very unnatural custom, which is all 
 ithe m.ore objectionable as Chinawomen, 
 speaking generally, are gifted \Yith finely 
 shaped hands and feet. 
 
 The saying of a French lady that one 
 must suffer to be beautiful is certainly true — 
 accepting the Chinese estimate of the fashion 
 — in the case of the poor ladies of China. 
 The size and shape of the foot which fashion 
 requires are only to be attained by a disloca- 
 tion which causes great pain in the first 
 instance, and ofl:en permanent suffering. At 
 an early age, generally when the child is 
 about four or five, the process begins by the 
 feet being bound tightly round in the re- 
 quired shape. The four smaller toes are 
 
 bent under the foot, the big toe is some- 
 times brought backwards on the top of the 
 foot, and the instep is forced upwards and 
 backwards. In this way the foot is clubbed 
 and is forced into a shoe from about three 
 to four inches long. 
 
 A Fashion that Inflicts Pain. 
 The little victims of this cruel fashion 
 unquestionably suffer great pain in the early 
 stages, but as a rule the skin, which at first 
 is dreadfully abrased, becomes gradually 
 hardened, and as those whose feet are 
 squeezed into shoes of the size mentioned 
 are ladies who are not required to move 
 about much, their feet probably answer all 
 the purposes expected of them. 
 
 This is not saying much. A lady scarcely 
 walks at all. If she goes out she is either 
 carried in a seda:n-chair, or, in the north of 
 the country, in a carriage. Within doors 
 she either hobbles about, leaning on a stick 
 or on the shoulder of a waiting-maid, or is 
 carried on the back of a servant. It is 
 obvious that this extreme compression would 
 render women of the poorer classes quite 
 unfitted to fulfil their necessary avocations, 
 and with them therefore the feet are allowed 
 greater scope. 
 
 The custom is entirely confined to the 
 Chinese ; the Manchu conquerors having 
 never submitted their own women to the tor- 
 ture and discomfort of the practice, neither, 
 also, have the boat populations thought it' 
 necessary to deform themselves for the sake 
 of fashion. It is even said that in the neigh- 
 borhood of Ningpo a movement is on foot 
 among the Christian population to abolish 
 this fetish of fashion, but it is doubtful 
 whether its promotion by converts from the 
 national religion will do much to advance 
 even so rational an object. 
 
 In their desire to make beautiful what is 
 
240 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 naturally so ugly, the women delight to 
 adorn the shoes with rich and bright 
 ♦ embroidery ; and fortunately for them the 
 swaying gait which the fashion compels them 
 to assume in walking has come to be re- 
 garded as a winsome beauty. Poets are 
 never tired of describing in verse the leaf- 
 shaped eyebrows, the willow waists, and the 
 swaying movements of Chinese ladies, which 
 they liken to boughs gently waving in the 
 wind. 
 
 It is well that it is possible to find some- 
 thing to say in favor of the cruel custom of 
 crippling the feet of the women, and cynic- 
 ally minded Chinamen add to their approval 
 of the grace which it imparts to the step, 
 their appreciation of the fact that it prevents 
 ladies from gadding about. This it certainly 
 does, and even the exercise which they are 
 tempted to take in their gardens is confined 
 .0 very limited excursions. 
 
 Beautiful Flu wars and Gardens. 
 
 The love of flowers seems to be inherent 
 in the people of the extreme East, and their 
 gardens are to both the men and women of 
 China a never-failing delight. With much 
 taste they lay out the ground and dispose 
 the flowers to the best possible advantage. 
 As landscape gardeners they are unsurpassed, 
 and succeed by skilful arrangement in giving 
 an impression of extent and beauty to even 
 paltry and naturally uninteresting pieces of 
 ground. By clever groupings of rock-work, 
 by raising artificial hills, and by throwing 
 high bridges over ponds and streams, they 
 produce a panorama which is full of fresh 
 points of view and of constant surprises. 
 
 As De Guignes wrote, in describing 
 Chinese gardens, the object of the owner is 
 to imitate " the beauties and to produce the 
 inequalities of nature. Instead of alleys 
 planted symmetrically or uniform grounds, 
 
 there are winding footpaths, trees here and 
 there as if by chance, woody or sterile hill- 
 ocks, and deep gullies with narrow passages, 
 whose sides are steep or rough with rocks, 
 and presenting only a few n.iserable shrubs. 
 They like to bring together in gardening, in 
 the same view, cultivated grounds and arid 
 plains ; to make the field uneven and cover 
 it, with artificial rock-work ; to dig caverns 
 in mountains, on whose tops are arbors half 
 overthrown and around which tortuous foot- 
 paths run and return into themselves, pro- 
 longing, as it were, the extent of the grounds 
 and increasing the pleasure of the walk." 
 
 Profusion of Blossoms. 
 
 In the more purely floral parterres, the 
 plants are arranged so as to secure brilliancy 
 of bloom with harmony of color. Over the 
 greater part of China the land is favored 
 with so fertile a soil and so -congenial a 
 climate that flowers grow and blossom with. . 
 prodigal profusion. Roses, hydrangeas, peo- 
 nies, azaleas and a host of other plants 
 beautify the ground, while creepers of every 
 hue and clinging growth hang from the 
 boughs of the trees and from the eaves of 
 the summer-houses and pavilions which are 
 scattered over the grounds. 
 
 With the instinctive love of flowers which 
 belongs to Chinamen, the appearance of the 
 blooms on the more conspicuous flowering 
 shrubs is eagerly watched for. Floral calen- 
 dars are found in every house above the 
 poorest, and expeditions are constantly made 
 into the country districts to enjoy the sight 
 of the first bursting into blossom of fa- 
 vorite flowers. The presence of ponds gives 
 a sense of coolness to the pleasure-grounds, 
 and the white and pink water-lilies which 
 adorn their surface furnish excuses to revel- 
 lers for holding endless wine-feasts on their 
 margins. 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 241 
 
 In the literature frequent references are 
 made to such entertainments, and numerous 
 volumes have been carefully compiled of the 
 more highly esteemed poems made on such 
 occasions in praise of the camellia, apricot, 
 peach, chrysanthemum, hibiscus and an 
 endless array of other flowers by the minor 
 poets of the country. 
 
 The manner and convenience of travel 
 supply a faithful index of the stage of civil- 
 ization to which the people of a country 
 have arrived, and in the conveyances in 
 vogue in China we see repeated the strange 
 contradictions which have met us as we have 
 glanced at each feature of Chinese society. 
 In every case there is much to be admired ; 
 but in every case what is good and excellent 
 is marred by some defacing or neutralizing 
 quality. 
 
 Discomforts of Travelling. 
 
 Just as the outward appearance of their 
 furniture is spoiled by the exquisite discom- 
 fort of their chairs and divans ; and their 
 stately ceremonies, by dirt and squalor ; so 
 their means of travelling, which in some 
 ways are luxurious, are discredited by the 
 discomfort of the carts, the mud and ruts of 
 the roads, and the miserable condition of the 
 inns. With us the question of pace enters 
 largely into our ideas of travelling, but in 
 the leisurely East, where hurry is unknown, 
 the speed with which a journey can be made 
 is not of the slightest consequence. 
 
 We have an excellent illustration of this 
 on the waters of the Yang-tsze Kiang. 
 Steamers go up the river to Ichang, a dis- 
 tance of fifteen hundred miles from the 
 mouth. For four hundred miles above 
 that point there are a succession of rapids, 
 to ascend which, in a native boat at certain 
 seasons of the year, occupies six or seven 
 weeks, or just about the length of time 
 16 
 
 it takes a fast steamer to make its way from 
 Ichang to London. It has been shown 
 to the Chinese how it would be possible to 
 remove the greater part of the obstacles 
 which make the voyage so difficult, and 
 how, when this is done, steamers might 
 readily continue their way up the river. 
 
 But nothing will induce the Government, 
 the local officials, or the merchants inter- 
 ested, to support the scheme, and all delib- 
 erately prefer to put up with the delay, dan- 
 gers and frequent losses incurred under the 
 present system to encouraging an enterprise 
 which would save four-fifths of the time em- 
 ployed, and would reduce the peril and loss 
 to a minimum. 
 
 The particular kinds of conveyance used 
 in China vary with the nature of the coun- 
 try. In the north, where the huge delta 
 plain and immense table-lands from the sur- 
 face, carts are commonly used, and these 
 again furnish an instance of the mixed 
 nature of Chinese civilization. They are 
 made on two wheels, without springs and 
 without seats. 
 
 Chinese Carts. 
 As has been said, the Chinese have no 
 idea of comfort as we understand the word, 
 and these vehicles are a complete justifica- 
 tion of the statement. To an American 
 they are the acme of misery. The occupant 
 seats himself on the floor of the cart, and is 
 thrown hither and thither as the ruts may 
 determine and the skill of the driver may 
 permit. The novice, when going to sea, is 
 commonly advised to attempt to avoid the 
 inevitable fate which awaits him by allowing 
 his body to sway with the movements of the 
 vessel, and in the same way those who drive 
 in Chinese carts are recommended to yield 
 their persons to the strange bumps and 
 rockings of the springless vehicles, but, so 
 
242 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 far as the experience of the present writer 
 goes, no better result follows in this than in 
 the other case. 
 
 It is remarkable that, though carts have 
 been in use for thirty or more centuries, the 
 Chinese have made no attempt to improve 
 their very rough construction. Springs are 
 unknown and the only method occasionally 
 adopted to mitigate the horrors of driving is 
 that of placing the axles and wheels behind 
 the body of the cart, and at the rear ex- 
 tremity of the beams of wood which consti- 
 tute the support of the vehicle, and when 
 produced in front form the shafts. 
 
 No Provision for the Driver. 
 
 In this way the cart is swung between the 
 animal drawing it and the axle. No seat is 
 provided for the driver, who commonly takes 
 possession of the off shaft, and seriously in- 
 terferes with the ventilation available for the 
 passenger by almost entirely blocking up the 
 only opening which serves both as door and 
 window. Carts of the ordinary kind stand 
 for hire in the streets of Pekin and of other 
 northern cities, and are constantly employed 
 as far south as the banks of the Yang-tsze- 
 Kiang. 
 
 For carrying purposes large wagons are 
 used which are commonly drawn by seven 
 animals, a pony being in the shafts and the 
 rest being arranged three abreast in front. 
 Such conveyances when loaded travel from 
 fifty to eighty Chinese miles a day, or from 
 about sixteen to twenty-six English miles. 
 In the neighborhood of Newchwang an im- 
 mense traffic is carried on by means of these 
 vehicles, and during the busiest two months 
 of the year it is reckoned that upwards of 
 thirty thousand carts, drawn by more than 
 two hundred thousand animals, pass between 
 the inland districts and the port, bringing the 
 native products to the wharves of New- 
 
 chwang, and carrying back the cotton cloths 
 and hardware which are brought from the 
 despised lands of the " barbarians." 
 
 Sedan-chairs and horseback are also usual 
 means of travelling, and in the southern half 
 of the Empire these modes of locomotion 
 are alone employed on terra firma, the roads 
 being too narrow to allow of the passage of 
 anything on wheels. 
 
 But in this part, as all over the Empire, 
 the many rivers and canals which fertilize 
 the land and add beauty to its features, are 
 the favorite highways of travel and com- 
 merce. The better class of passenger vessels 
 are large and commodious, and contain all 
 the conveniences to which Chinamen are ' 
 accustomed in their own homes. They are 
 commonly from sixty to eighty feet long, 
 and are divided into three rooms. 
 
 Sails and Oars. 
 
 The principal apartment, which occupies 
 about half the boat, is approached in front 
 through a vestibule, and is connected with 
 the bedroom which separates it from the 
 stern. The fore part of the boat is decked 
 over with movable planks, and affords dark 
 and airless cabin accommodation for the crew. 
 The vessels are supplied with masts on which, 
 when the wind is favorable, sails are hoisted. 
 Under less fortunate conditions oars and tack- 
 ing are used to propel them. From this kind 
 of vessel to the merest sampan, the waters of 
 China furnish every variety of boats. 
 
 There is one other means of locomotion 
 which remains to be mentioned, and that is 
 one which has attracted more attention than 
 perhaps it deserves. We refer to the wheel- 
 barrow, of which Milton wrote : 
 
 "Sericana, where Chinese drive, 
 With sail and wind their cany wagons light." 
 
 The Chinese are intensely poor, and as 
 the possession of a horse and cart is far be- 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 243 
 
 yond the means of the vast majority, wheel- 
 barrows are very commonly used to carry 
 goods and passengers. To lighten the task 
 of the porter the wheels are placed in the 
 centre of the barrow, and thus directly bear 
 the weight of the burden. 
 
 But this arrangement naturally reduces 
 the space available for use, since the load, 
 whether living or dead, has to be placed 
 on the two sides of the wheel, from which 
 it is protected by a casing. On the northern 
 plains, if the wind should be aft, a sail is 
 very commonly hoisted, in which case consid- 
 eiable distances can be traversed in the day. 
 
 Wretched Chinese Inns. 
 
 In Western lands the prospect of his inn 
 at the end of a journey cheers the traveller. 
 No such consolation is afforded to wayfarers, 
 or at least to foreign wayfarers, in China. 
 The exchange from horseback, or from the 
 racking of a native cart, to an inn is not 
 much to the advantage of the last. No com- 
 fort is provided, no privacy is secured, and 
 no quiet is obtained. The rooms are mean 
 and infinitely dirty, and, in the north, sur- 
 round the courtyard, which serves as the 
 stables for the mules, ponies, and donkeys of 
 the travellers. It is not uncommon to see 
 as many as fifty donkeys in one inn yard, 
 and the pandemonium which they occasion 
 at night can be but faintly imagined. 
 
 The poetical description of a room at an 
 inn in Szechuan, which a traveller found 
 scratched on the wall of this apartment, 
 aptly supplements the above. The original, 
 which was in Chinese verse, is rendered as 
 follows : 
 
 " Within this room you'll find the rats. 
 
 At least a goodly store. 
 Three catties each they are bound to weigh. 
 
 Or e'en a little more ; 
 At night you'll find a myriad bugs. 
 
 That sting and crawl and bite ; 
 
 If doubtful of the truth of this, 
 Get up, and strike a light." 
 
 So much has been said of the dark side of 
 Chinese life, that it is a pleasure to turn to 
 those amusements which break the dreary 
 monotony of existence. The great body of 
 the people are hard workers, and, being so, 
 find, like all other laboriously employed 
 people, that amusements are necessary to life 
 and health. From another motive the idle 
 classes — that is, the literati, as they are 
 called, or the unemployed graduates, and the 
 ladies — find that to kill time they must seek 
 excitement in some form of diversion. 
 
 For these reasons the theatres are gener- 
 ally well filled by all sorts and conditions of 
 men, and no opportunity is missed of engag- 
 ing a company for the entertainment of the 
 neighborhood. As such opportunities are 
 prompted by many and different motives, 
 actors are in constant request. Not un- 
 frequently the excuse is a desire to do honor 
 to the local deities. 
 
 t Offerings to the Snake God. 
 Either a fall of rain after a prolonged 
 drought makes a Thespian display an appro- 
 priate token of gratitude to the snake god, 
 or the elfin fox deity is held to regard a like 
 festivity as a due acknowledgment for his 
 clemency in dispersing an epidemic ; but, 
 whatever the religious objects may be, 
 arrangements are commonly made to hold 
 the performance in the courtyard of one of 
 the temples. For the expenses the whole 
 village or town is responsible, and so soon 
 as the required sum, from twenty to a hun- 
 dred dollars a day, is raised — a matter which 
 generally gives rise to countless bickerings 
 — a troupe of actors is engaged, and the ves- 
 tibule of a local temple is made to undergo 
 the metamorphosis necessary to the occa- 
 sion. 
 
244 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 The very simple requirements of the 
 Chinese stage make this a matter of easy- 
 arrangement. There is practically no scen- 
 ery in a Chinese theatre. A few coarsely 
 painted views hung at the back of the stage 
 are all that is necessary to furnish it. The 
 actors make their exits and entrances by 
 a door at the side of these paintings, and the 
 whole series of plays — for the performances 
 go on for days together — are acted without 
 
 which it is considered necessary for the audi- 
 ence to understand. Commonly, however, 
 he prefaces these confidences by repeating a 
 few lines of poetry, which are .supposed to 
 indicate the general tenor of the very com- 
 plete explanation which is to follow. As 
 each player treads the boards this formula is 
 gone through. 
 
 Fortunatety the characters are not numer- 
 ous, and, as a rule, consist of the heavy 
 
 INTERIOR OF A 
 
 any change, of scenery. This has at first 
 sight the advantage of simplicity, but it 
 imposes on the characters the inconvenient 
 necessity of explaining their individualities, 
 and of describing their whereabouts. 
 
 To us an awkward spectacle is presented 
 when an actor comes forward and begins, 
 " I am So-and-so, the son of Such-an-one," 
 and then goes on to describe his trade, the 
 members of his household, and everything 
 
 CHINESE^ THEATRE. 
 
 father' and mother, a young lady of the nature 
 of a heroine, a young man or two, a sprink- 
 ling of statesmen and courtiers in case the 
 play is historical, with servants and attend- 
 ants. For the most part the plots are quite 
 straightforward, and no mystery is ever pre- 
 sented to tax the intelligence of the audience. 
 With typical Chinese minuteness the mo- 
 tives, desires, and actions of the characters 
 are fully explained, and the only people who 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 245 
 
 are supposed to be mystified are either the 
 personages in the play who are wronged, or 
 the mandarins who are called upon to ad- 
 judicate on the crimes committed by the vil- 
 lains of the dramas. In all cases the action 
 IS direct, and is unhampered with any of 
 those issues which add so much to the inter- 
 est of Western performances. 
 
 Contemptible Characters. 
 
 In a vast majority of cases the object of 
 the play is to elevate virtue, and to hold up 
 tyranny and wrong to just execration. The 
 means adopted to these ends are not always 
 such as to commend them in our eyes. The 
 ■dialogue is often coarse, and the virtuous 
 characters are commonly contemptible crea- 
 tures. It is a peculiarity which runs through 
 the whole of Chinese society that the utter- 
 ances of high-sounding moral sayings and 
 extremely virtuous platitudes are held to be 
 quite sufficient to atone for heinous moral 
 •delinquencies and personal pusillanimity. 
 
 Just as in real life Imperial edicts and offi- 
 cial proclamations abound with lofty senti- 
 ments and righteous phrases, while every 
 -word is falsified by the degraded and iniqui- 
 tous actions of the writers, so an Emperor 
 on the stage yields to a barbarous foe with- 
 out striking a blow for his country, but ac- 
 companies the action with so many fine 
 -words and lofty sentiments that he covers 
 liimself with all the glory of a Black Prince 
 at CreCy or a Henry V. on the field of Agin- 
 ■court. 
 
 In the same way a man breaks every com- 
 mandment in the decalogue, but if he takes 
 care at the same time to sprinkle his dis- 
 course with well-seasoned exhortations to 
 the practice of filial piety, and the exercise 
 of profound reverence for Confucius, he re- 
 tires from the boards purged of all his of- 
 fences, if not in the full odor of sanctity. 
 
 This Pharisaical sanctimoniousness to some 
 extent runs through the farces and lighte;- 
 pieces in which the people dehght. Some of 
 them are very comical, and might well be 
 adapted for first pieces at , our own theatres. 
 In some we find incidents with which we are 
 all familiar. 
 
 For example, Desdemona's handkerchief 
 reappears in a Pekin farce, in which a jealous 
 waterman finds fault with his wife for asso- 
 ciating too constantly with a Buddhist priest 
 — the disturbers of households are generally 
 represented as priests. The lady suspects a 
 friend of her husband of having instilled 
 jealously into her good man's mind, and in- 
 duces him to quarrel with his associate. The 
 friend being determined to prove the justice 
 of his suspicions, watches for the priest, and 
 catches him in the act of paying a clandes- 
 tine visit to the lady. 
 
 A Mixed Play. 
 
 In the struggle which ensues the priest 
 drops a handkerchief which had been given 
 him by his inamorata. His opponent seizes 
 the token and presents it to the husband, 
 who recognizes it as one which he had given 
 to his faithless consort. With a more dis- 
 cerning poetic justice than that which befell 
 Desdemona, the priest and the lady in this 
 case suffer an equally dire fate with that 
 which overtook that unfortunate heroine. As 
 seen, however, on the Chinese stage, the 
 native dramas have drawbacks other than 
 those mentioned above. All the female parts 
 are played by young men or boys, and the 
 dialogue is constantly interrupted by lines of 
 poetry which are sung, as are all Chinese 
 songs, in a shrill falsetto. 
 
 The musicians, also, are seated on the 
 stage, and keep up so continuous an accom- 
 paniment as to make much of what the 
 actors say inaudible. Not only do they ac- 
 
246 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 company the songs, but on the expression 
 of any lofty sentiment they come down with 
 a crash of their instruments to add emphasis 
 to the utterance. It has been said that 
 these performances are given from a desire 
 to do honor to the gods : but other excuses 
 are very commonly found for indulgence in 
 the pastime. On high days and festivals — 
 at New Year's time, often on the first and 
 fifteenth of the month, and on other holi- 
 days — subscriptions are raised for the pur- 
 pose of engaging troupes of actors who are 
 always ready at hand. 
 
 Popular Dramas. 
 
 As a rule, the theatres are of the Thes- 
 pian kind, and, if enclosed at all, are pro- 
 vided only with temporary coverings of mat, 
 which are erected in a night, and can be de- 
 molished in a night. In surveying the gen- 
 eral tendency of Chinese plays it cannot be 
 said that it is elevating in character, and this 
 is so far recognized that, though the drama 
 is universally popular, and is patronized by 
 the Court and by the leaders of the people, 
 the actors are frowned upon and are officially 
 regarded as pariahs of society. 
 
 Neither they nor their sons are allowed to 
 present themselves at the competitive exam- 
 inations, and the doors of official life are 
 thus closed to them. Not long since a 
 memorial was presented to the throne 
 protesting against a certain man — the son 
 of an actor — who had passed his examina- 
 tion being allowed a degree. No personal 
 charge was brought against the man himself 
 beyond that of having concealed his origin 
 before the examiners, but his descent was 
 fatal to him ; his certificates were cancelled, 
 and he was relegated to the outcast class 
 from which he had sprung. 
 
 As a substitute for regular plays marion- 
 ettes are very common, and are so manipu- 
 
 lated as to express action with great clever- 
 ness. Figures of a smaller kind are simil- 
 arly exhibited in peep-shows, which are fre- 
 quently to be met with at street corners, and 
 on the open spaces in front of the temples. 
 As conjurers and acrobats the Chinese are 
 very proficient, and often maifage to intro- 
 duce an amount of acting into their tricks 
 which adds greatly to the effect produced. 
 
 On one occasion the present writer wit- 
 nessed the performance of a conjurer, who, 
 with the help of a little boy, was showing 
 off his skill in the Consular compound at 
 Tientsin. The man made a cabbage to 
 grow from a seed which he planted in the 
 presence of his audience, he swallowed a 
 sword, and, after doing a number of. similar 
 tricks, he inquired whether he should cut off 
 his assistant's head. The answer being in 
 the affirmative, the man turned to seize his 
 victim, who, however, had fled on hearing 
 the inhuman assent to his decapitation. 
 
 "The Blood Spurted." 
 
 After a keen and long pursuit he was, 
 however, caught, and was led, struggling and 
 weeping, to the block, to which he was pin- 
 ioned. The conjurer then handed round his 
 weapon that the keenness of the edge might 
 be tested, and having taken up his position 
 dealt what seemed to be a fierce blow on the 
 bare neck of the boy, at which, what ap- 
 peared to be blood spurted out in all direc- 
 tions, and at the same instant that he drew 
 a cloth over the quivering form he held aloft 
 a dummy head, which bore just sufficient re- 
 semblance to the features of the lad to favor 
 the illusion that he had,, indeed, been but- 
 chered to make a holiday. 
 
 In the more occult arts of necromancy 
 and enchantment Taoist priests are the ac- 
 knowledged masters. From time immemo- 
 rial these followers of Laotzu have, in popu- 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 247 
 
 lar belief, possessed the power of controlling 
 the elements, of annihilating space and of 
 making themselves invisible. In one well- 
 known historical battle a Taoist priest in- 
 voked such a storm of rain and hail in the 
 face of the opposing forces that they fell 
 easy victims to the swords of their adver- 
 saries. 
 
 Story of Empty Oranges. 
 
 On another accepted occasion it is said 
 that as a troop of coolies were carrying 
 oranges to the capital, they were overtaken 
 by a lame Taoist priest, who offered to ease 
 them of their burdens, and who carried the 
 whole quantity with the greatest ease for the 
 rest of the journey. On arrival at the palace, 
 however, the fruit were found to be hollow, 
 and the coolies were only saved from con- 
 dign punishment by the appearance of the 
 priest, at whose word the oranges were again 
 converted into rich and luscious fruit. 
 
 Another well-known instance of super- 
 natural power is that attributed to Tieh 
 Kwai, who possessed the power of projecting 
 himself wheresoever he would. On one 
 occasion the magician sent forth his inner 
 self to the mountain of the gods. Before 
 starting on his spiritual journey he left a 
 disciple to watch over his body, promising to 
 return in seven days. Unfortunately, when 
 six days had expired the watcher was called 
 away to the death-bed of his mother, and 
 being thus placed in a dilemma between his 
 duties as a son, and his obligation to his 
 friend, determined to carry the body of his 
 master to his mother's home. 
 
 Being there detained, he was unable to 
 keep his tryst at the appointed time, and the 
 disembodied spirit, finding that its earthly 
 habitation had disappeared, was compelled, 
 rather than suffer extinction, to enter the 
 carcase of a beggar which lay by the road- 
 
 side, and in this guise Tieh Kwai passed the 
 remainder of his existence. 
 
 Clairvoyance is largely practiced, and on 
 the principle that accumulated evidence 
 proves the truth of a theory, it is difficult 
 not to accept many of" the facts " stated by 
 native eye-witnesses. Like our own pro- 
 fessors of the art Chinese clairvoyants read 
 the secret thoughts of their audiences, de- 
 scribe absent persons with minute accuracy, 
 and by "crystal-gazing," and other means, 
 are often said to be instrumental in detecting 
 criminals, and in discovering the whereabouts 
 of lost persons and things. The use of the 
 planchette is very common, and though the 
 Chinese, from their phlegmatic nature, are 
 not easily subjected to magnetic influences, 
 the effects produced are certainly remarkable. 
 
 Expert Gymnasts. 
 
 As gymnasts they are in no way inferior 
 to the best performers among ourselves, and 
 it is not necessary to believe the wonderful 
 stories told by early European travellers in 
 China of the proficiency of native acrobats to 
 credit them with noteworthy skill and agility. 
 Even women possess unwonted power of 
 strength and balance. 
 
 But, above and beyond all the other 
 amusements of the Chinese, gambling holds 
 a conspicuous place. Although it is strictly 
 forbidden by law, it is winked at, and even 
 encouraged by the authorities. It not un- 
 frequently happens that magistrates even 
 convert the outer rooms of their yamuns into 
 gambling-houses, and share in the profits 
 derived from the business. In every city 
 these dens of corruption abound, and, as a 
 rule, consist of two apartments. In the 
 outer one the stakes are laid in copper cash, 
 and in the inner room silver only is risked. 
 
 Not content with the ordinary games of 
 chance, such as those afforded by cards. 
 
248 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 roulette and other tables, the ingenuity of the 
 people is exercised in inventfng new means 
 of losing their money. When there are no 
 examinations to be decided and wagered on, 
 the proprietor of a gambling-house will some- 
 times take a sheet of paper on which are 
 inscribed eighty characters, and having 
 marked twenty, will deposit it in a box. 
 
 ACTOR OF COCHIN-CHINA. 
 
 Copies of the sheet bearing the same eighty 
 characters are distributed among gamblers 
 whose supreme object is to mark the same 
 twenty characters as those on the sheet in 
 the box. 
 
 When all the papers have been received, 
 the box which contains the overseer's paper, 
 and which stands conspicuously on the table, 
 
 IS unlocked. If a gambler has marked only 
 four of the characters selected by the over- 
 seer, he receives nothing. If he has marked 
 five of them, he receives seven cash ; if six, 
 seventy cash ; if eight, seven dollars ; and if 
 ten, fifteen dollars. 
 
 In the streets the same spirit of specu- 
 lation flourishes, and every itinerant vendor 
 of eatables, whether of fried locusts, 
 sweets, or the more satisfying rice 
 with fish or vegetables, keeps a set 
 of dice for the use of those customers 
 who prefer to run the risk of winning 
 their meals for nothing, or of losing 
 both their money and their food, to 
 paying the ordinary price for their 
 viands. In dwelling-houses cards are 
 everywhere played, and to the ladies 
 they supply an inexhaustible source of 
 amusement. The cards are smaller and 
 more numerous than in our packs, and 
 lend themselves to an endless variety 
 of games. 
 
 Only One Coin. 
 The coinage of China, like every other 
 institution of the Flowery Land, has 
 two aspects — the one that which it pro- 
 fesses to be, and the other that which 
 it really is. Strange as it may seem, 
 the Chinese have only one coin, which 
 is known to them as chien, and to us 
 as cash. In value a cash ptofesses to 
 be about one-tenth of a half-penny, but as 
 a matter of fact it varies in almost every 
 district, and it is even not at all uncommon 
 to find two kinds of cash current in one 
 neighborhood. In some parts of the country 
 people go to market with two entirely distinct 
 sets of cash, one of which is the ordinary 
 mixture of good and bad, and the other is 
 composed exclusively of counterfeit pieces. 
 Certain articles are paid for with the spuri- 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 249 
 
 ouscash only. But in regard to other com- 
 modities this is a matter of special bargain, 
 and accordingly there is for these articles a 
 double market price. Independently, again, 
 •of the confusion arising from the use of 
 genuine and counterfeit coins side by side, is 
 added the uncertainty due to the system of 
 counting. A hundred cash means varying 
 numbers, other than a hundred, which are 
 determined by the usage of each locality. 
 
 A stranger, therefore, is liable to suffer 
 loss at the hands of tradespeople, who still 
 further complicate matters by almost invaria- 
 bly naming a higher price for each article 
 ihan that which they are prepared to accept. 
 The weight of any considerable sum in cash 
 is an additional objection to these most in- 
 convenient coins. A dollar's worth of cash 
 weighs about eight pounds, and the transpor- 
 tation of any large sum in specie is, there- 
 fore, a serious matter. For the purpose of 
 ■carriage the cash are made with square holes 
 in the centre, by means of which they are 
 strung in nominal hundreds and thousands. 
 
 Lumps of Silver. 
 
 It is obvious, of course, that for the pur- 
 chase of anything commanding more than a 
 very low value some other currency must be 
 employed, and this is supplied by lumps of 
 silver, the values of which are in every case 
 tested by the scales. In common parlance 
 the price of goods is reckoned at so many 
 taels weight, a tael being, roughly speaking, 
 the equivalent of an ounce, and for the sake 
 •of general convenience silver is cast into 
 "shoes," as they are called from their shape, 
 weighing a specified number of taels or 
 ounces. 
 
 For smaller amounts than are contained in 
 a "shoe," broken pieces of silver are used, 
 but in eveiy case the value is reckoned, not 
 by the piece, but by the weight. In strict 
 
 accuracy even the cash is undeserving the 
 name of coin, since instead of being moulded 
 it is roughly cast, and both in design and 
 manufacture does little credit to a nation 
 which is unquestionably possessed of a large 
 share of artistic taste. Of late the Governor- 
 general of Canton has established a mint at 
 that city, at which he coins both gold and 
 silver tokens. 
 
 The Oldest Bank Note. 
 
 These, however, pass current only in the 
 locality, and so far the Imperial Government 
 has shown no inclination to follow the excel- 
 lent example set by this satrap. For many 
 centuries bank bills and notes have been 
 issued at the well-established banks in the 
 principal centres of commerce, and during 
 the Mongol dynasty the central Government 
 introduced the practice of issuing Imperial 
 notes to the people. A note which was 
 passed into currency during the reign of an 
 emperor of the succeeding Ming dynasty, 
 who reigned from 1368 to 1399, is exhibited 
 in a show-case in the King's Library in the 
 British Museum, and is a specimen of the 
 oldest note which is known to exist. 
 
 Its date carries us back long before the 
 general adoption of bank-notes in Europe, 
 and three hundred years before the establish- 
 ment of the Stockholm bank, which was the 
 first bank in Europe to issue notes. At the 
 present time notes are largely used at Pekin, 
 but the very uncertain state of the currency 
 renders a large depreciation inevitable, and 
 makes tradespeople sometimes unwilling to 
 accept them. 
 
 Imperfect and undeveloped though it is, 
 the coinage of China has a very long ances- 
 try, and can trace its descent from about 
 2000 B. C. One of the earliest shapes which 
 the coins took was that of a knife, no doubt 
 in imitation of the real weapon, which was 
 
250 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 early used as a medium of exchange. These 
 knife coins originally consisted of the blade 
 and handle, the last of which was terminated 
 in a round end which was pierced in imita- 
 tion of the article which they were intended 
 to represent. By degrees the blade became 
 shortened, until it entirely disappeared. The 
 handle next suffered diminution, and eventu- 
 ally the round end with a hole in the centre 
 was all that was left, and it is that which is 
 perpetuated at the present day in the modern 
 cash. 
 
 The prominence which the artists of Japan 
 have of late acquired, and the very inferior 
 specimens of Chinese work which now com- 
 monly reach our shores, have blinded people 
 to the real merits of the pictorial art of China. 
 We are not now speaking of the common 
 brightly colored paintings on rice-paper which 
 are brought from Canton by travellers, but of 
 the works of men who paint, and have 
 painted, for the love of the art, and not only 
 for the taels they can earn by their brushes. 
 
 Superb Paintings. 
 
 A few years ago a magnificent collection 
 of Japanese paintings was exhicited at the 
 British Museum, and was arranged in such 
 a manner as to show that the art of China 
 and Japan is one. For this purpose the 
 paintings were arranged chronologically, be- 
 ginning with some early specimens of Chi- 
 nese art, and leading up to the time when 
 the Japanese learned the use of the brush 
 from their more cultivated neighbors. 
 
 A comparison of the pictures thus dis- 
 played was enough to prove to demonstra- 
 tion that the artistic flame which has burned 
 so brightly in Japan was lit by the genius 
 of Chinese masters. The same marked 
 and peculiar features characterize the 
 arts of the two countries. In both the 
 power of representing with fidelity birds, 
 
 fishes, and flowers is remarkable, and an 
 exquisite skill in harmonizing colors, and of 
 giving life and vigor to forms, distinguishes 
 the works of artists on both shores of the 
 Yellow Sea. 
 
 In like manner the same faults are observ- 
 able in both schools. Perspective is com- 
 monly defective, the anatomy of the human 
 form is entirely misunderstood, and the 
 larger animals, such as horses and cattle, 
 suffer distortion at the hands of the artists. 
 One noticeable feature in the technicalities 
 of the art is the absence of shadow, the 
 effect of which is produced by such skilful 
 drawing that the omission is scarcely ob- 
 served. 
 
 Ideal Landscapes. 
 
 , As in the case of every fine art in China, 
 the most precise rules are laid down to 
 guide the painter, and the effect is observable 
 in a certain uniformity in pictures of land- 
 scapes and in the groupings of figures. The 
 ideal landscape of the guide-books consists 
 of a cloud-capped mountain, in the bosom 
 of which a temple nestles surrounded by 
 trees, one of which must be a weeping wil- 
 low. On a rocky eminence should stand a 
 gaunt and bowed pine-tree. Near this must 
 be a waterfall crossed by a rustic bridge, 
 forming a link in a winding path which leads 
 up to the temple, while in the far distance 
 should be seen sailing-boats wending their 
 ways on the much-winding river which flows 
 ronnd the foot of the mountain. The addi- 
 tion of a couple of aged chess-players seated 
 under a willow tree on a prominent plateau 
 on the side of the hill is recommended as 
 being likely to give life to the scene. 
 
 In two branches of their art Chinese 
 draughtsmen may be said especially to excel. 
 In the certainty with which they draw their 
 outlines they are probably unmatched, ex- 
 
PORCELAIN VASES OF NORTHERN CHINA. 
 
 251 
 
252 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 cept by the Japanese, and in the beauty of 
 their miniature painting they have iew equals. 
 The skilful use of his brush which every 
 schoolboy has to gain in copying the heir- 
 oglyphic characters of the language accus- 
 toms him to sketch forms with accuracy, and 
 gives him an assured confidence in the draw- 
 ing of his outlines. 
 
 Skillful Draughtsmen. 
 
 As, in addition, he is habituated to the 
 use of Indian ink instead of lead pencils, he 
 is aware that a false line must always remain 
 against him as evidence of his want of skill. 
 The mastery thus acquired gives him that 
 wonderful power of unfalteringly expressing 
 on paper the scenes he wishes to delineate 
 which so often excites the astonishment of 
 foreign draughtsmen. 
 
 This practice with the brush stands the 
 miniature painter in equally good stead, and 
 enables him to lay on his colors with such 
 certainty, and with so unfailing a steadiness 
 of hand and eye, that he is able to represent 
 with clearness, and often with exquisite 
 beauty, patterns of microscopic minuteness. 
 No better specimen of this last phase of the 
 art can be instanced than the best examples 
 of painting on porcelain. For delicacy of 
 touch and richness of coloring tliese are 
 often masterpieces, and possess a beauty 
 which must charm every tutored eye. 
 
 According to tradition the first beginnings 
 of art in China are to be traced back many 
 centuries before Christ, and were devoted, as 
 in all primitive societies, to the adornment of 
 the palaces of kings and the houses of the 
 great nobles. If historians are to be trusted, 
 the rude efforts of these early artists boi-e 
 traces of the characteristics which have 
 marked so distinctly the later developments 
 of the art. 
 
 The introduction of Buddhism, with its 
 
 religious mysteries, its sacred biographies 
 and its miraculous legends, supplied a fresh 
 motive to the artists of China, who at once 
 caught the inspiration, although they treated 
 the subjects after the marked national man- 
 ner. In the troublous period which suc- 
 ceeded the fall of the Han dynasty (A. D. 
 220), art, like all the other accomplishments 
 which flourish best in time of peace, fell into 
 decay, and it was not until the establishment 
 of the Tang dynasty (A. D. 618)— the 
 golden age of hterature and culture — that 
 art occupied again its true prominence in the 
 estimation of the people. 
 
 Scenes in Nature. 
 
 It is at this period that we find the objects 
 of nature represented with the fidelity and 
 skill with which we are familiar in Chinese 
 work. Throwing aside the martial notions 
 of the earliest masters, and the religious 
 ideas imported from India, the native artists 
 sought their subjects in the fields and woods, 
 on the mountain side and by the river's bank. 
 They transferred to their canvasses the land- 
 scapes which met their eyes, the flowers 
 which grew around them, the birds as they 
 flew or perched, and the fishes as they darted 
 and swam in the clear water of the streams. 
 
 These they depicted with the minuteness 
 common to their craft, and rivalled in life- 
 like rendering the work of the celebrated 
 Tsao (A. D. 240), of whom it is said that, 
 " having painted a screen for his sovereign, 
 he carelessly added the representation of a 
 fly to the picture, and that so perfect was the 
 illusion that on receiving the screen Sun 
 Kuan raised his hand to brush the insect 
 away." 
 
 As time advanced the lamp of art again 
 grew dim, and it required the fresh impetus 
 of a new dynasty to revive its brilliancy. 
 The Sung dynasty (A. D. 960-1278) was 
 
FOOD, DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 253 
 
 rich in philosophers, poets, and painters, and 
 while Chu Hi wrote metaphysical treatises, 
 and the brothers Su sung of wine and the 
 beauties of nature. Ma Yuen, Muh Ki, Li 
 Lungyen, and a host of others painted birds 
 and flowers, landscapes and figures, dragons 
 and monkeys, together with all kinds of other 
 beasts which walk on the face of the earth, 
 or are supposed to do so. 
 ' With the rise to power of the Mongol 
 dynasty in the 1 3th century the taste for the 
 religious art of India revived, but did not 
 eclipse the expression on canvas of that love 
 of nature for which both the Chinese and 
 Japanese are so conspicuous. But still paint- 
 ing did not reach the high level to which it 
 had attained in the earlier periods, and as of 
 every other institution of China, we are 
 obliged to say of the pictorial art, "the old 
 is better." 
 
 During the last dynasty, however, there 
 were artists whose power of coloring was as 
 great or even greater than that of any 
 of their predecessors, so far as we are 
 able to judge. With infinite skill and minute 
 realism they painted figures in a way which 
 commands just admiration. In the British 
 Museum there are exhibited some specimens 
 
 of this branch of the art which undoubtedly 
 display great pdwer of composition and infi- 
 nite skill in the art of coloring. 
 
 •As a rule, however, the coloring of Chi- 
 nese pictures, though always harmonious, is 
 somewhat arbitrary and leaves on the eye an 
 unpleasant feeling of flatness. In sense of 
 humor the Chinese are certainly inferior to 
 the Japanese. There is not in their work the 
 same fertility of invention or happy choice of 
 ideas as are to be found on the other side of 
 the Yellow Sea. But Chinamen are not by 
 any means devoid of this quality, and in 
 many of their albums we find comic sketches 
 reminding one irresistibly, though at a dis- 
 tance, of the masterpieces of our most suc- 
 cessful comic artists. The absence of the 
 use of profile lines deprives the Chinese por- 
 trait-painter of the full power of presenting 
 life-like representations of his models, as he 
 almost invariably draws full-face portraits. 
 When by chance, however, he strikes off a 
 side face the effect is often good and the like- 
 ness accurate. But in any circumstances the 
 artistic feeling is there, and it needs but the 
 touch of a torch from a higher civilization 
 to make this and other branches of the art 
 glow into more perfect life. 
 
CHAPTKR XIV. 
 
 THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 RELIGIOUS sentiment is not a char- 
 acteristic of the Chinese. Their 
 views on the subject of faith are 
 wanting in definitiveness, and are 
 so indistinct and blurred that it might surpass 
 the v/it of man to determine what is the pre- 
 vailing religion of the country. The multi- 
 tude of Buddhist temples which cover the 
 face of the land might naturally suggest that 
 the majority of the people profess the religion 
 of Buddha ; while conversations with native 
 scholars would unquestionably lead one to 
 believe that the educated classes were to a 
 man Confucianists. 
 
 Taoism, the third religion which holds 
 sway in China, does not make the same pre- 
 tension to popularity as do the . other two 
 faiths. As a matter of fact, however, it 
 would probably be difficult to find many 
 Chinamen who are Confucianists pure and 
 simple, or many who rest contented with the 
 worship provided in Buddhist temples. 
 
 A combination of the two — an amalgam 
 in which the materialism of Confucius and 
 the religious faith of Sakyamuni mutually 
 supplement one another — enters into the life 
 of the people at large ; while Taoism suppHes 
 a certain amount of superstitious lore which 
 these lack. It is necessary to remark by 
 way of caution that the term " religion " ap- 
 plied to Confucianism is rather a popular 
 than an exact form of expression. Religion 
 implies the dependence of man on a Deity, 
 and if we apply this definition to the doctrines 
 of Confucius, we find that it in no way repre- 
 sents the teachings of that philosopher. His 
 254 
 
 whole system is devoted to inculcating the 
 duty which each man owes to his fellow- 
 men, and stops short with the obligations 
 under which every one rests in his relation 
 to society. 
 
 Of these three systems Confucianism is 
 the only one which took its rise on the soil 
 of China. The other two faiths came, as 
 have most of those influences which have 
 modified the institutions of China, from be- 
 yond the western frontiers of the Empire. 
 Confucianism, however, was formulated by 
 one man, who was essentially a typical 
 Chinaman both in the strength and weak- 
 ness of his character. 
 
 Story of Confucius. 
 
 In the year 55 1 B. C, Confucius was born 
 in what is now the department of Yenchow, 
 in the province of Shantung. Legend sur- 
 rounds his birth \\ith many of the signs and 
 wonders which are commonly said to herald 
 the appearance of Eastern sages. We are 
 told that the future uncrowned king first 
 saw the light in a cavern on Mount Ni, and 
 that while two goddesses breathed fragrant 
 odors on the infant, a couple of dragons kept 
 watch during the auspicious night at the foot 
 of the mountain. 
 
 His appearance was not prepossessing. 
 He had the lips of an ox, the back of a 
 dragon, while on his head grew a formation 
 which earned for him the name of Chiu, "a 
 mound." As the lad grew up he developed 
 that taste for ritual which was the marked 
 characteristic of his whole career. Like 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 255 
 
 Saint Athanasius on the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean Sea, he amused himself in early 
 boyhood by rehearsing the sacrificial rites, 
 and by practising the postures of ceremony 
 prescribed by the older rituals. 
 
 At the age of fifteen he tells us that he 
 "bent his mind to learning," and four years 
 later he married a lady who, like the wives 
 of many other celebrated men, was a thorn 
 in the flesh to her husband. Confucius 
 endured the burden without complaint until 
 his wife had borne him a son, when he 
 sought release from his bondage at the hands 
 of the very complaisant marital laws of the 
 •country. 
 
 History and Ballads. 
 
 The literature of China at this time was 
 limited in extent, and consisted mainly of the 
 historical records and popular ballads which 
 were to be found in the royal archives. To 
 a study of these Confucius devoted such 
 time as he could spare from his official 
 duties as keeper of the royal stores, and from 
 the hours which he devoted to the instruction 
 of a faithful band of students who, even at 
 this time, had gathered round him. 
 
 When he was twenty-nine " he stood firm," 
 and certainly neither at this time nor at any 
 subsequent period did his faith in his own 
 convictions show the least sign of faltering. 
 His circumstances were not affluent. An 
 official life was, therefore, necessary to his 
 existence, and he had no sooner equipped 
 himself with a full panoply of ritualistic 
 knowledge than he cast about to find a ruling 
 sovereign who would be willing to guide the 
 policy of the kingdom by his counsel. 
 
 He was essentially a man of peace, and 
 his opinions were such as required a period 
 of undisturbed calm for their full develop- 
 ment. The times, however, were against 
 him. It was an age of war, when the hand 
 
 of every one was against his neighbor, and 
 when the strength of the right arm comman- 
 ded more respect than wisdom in council. 
 Sovereign after sovereign, attracted by the 
 novelty of his teachings and the repute which 
 was already beginning to attach itself to him, 
 invited him to their courts, and for a time 
 gave heed to the words of wisdom which fell 
 from his lips. But their hearts were not 
 with him, and more material attractions were 
 apt to prevail over the sayings of the sage. 
 
 On one occasion the present of a number 
 of beautiful singing girls so captivated the 
 attention of the Duke of Lu that the advice 
 of Confucius was neither sought nor regar- 
 ded. Disgusted by this afiront, the sage 
 shook the dust of the state from his feet and 
 transferred his services to a rival ruler. On 
 another occasion he was driven from the 
 Court of Wei, where he had established him- 
 self, by the undue preference shown by the 
 duke for the society of the duchess to that of 
 himself 
 
 A Fabulous Animal. 
 
 As he advanced in years his political influ- 
 ence declined, and his stay at the regal 
 courts became shorter and less satisfactory 
 than formerly. At the age of sixty-nine his 
 health failed, and the capture of a Lin — a 
 fabulous animal which is said to appear as a 
 forerunner of the death of illustrious person- 
 ages — was effected at the same time. In the 
 dearth of notable personages which had over- 
 taken the land the appearance of these ani- 
 mals was of such rare occurrence that the 
 huntsmen were ignorant of its identity. 
 
 The sage, however, at once recognized the 
 creature, and, with that full appreciation of 
 himself which never failed him, he at once 
 came to the conclusion that his own end was 
 near. " The course of my doctrine is* run," 
 he said, as tears coursed down his cheeks. 
 
256 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 An interval, however, elapsed between the 
 omen and its fulfilment, and the two years 
 which yet remained to him he devoted to the 
 compilation of the " Spring and Autumn 
 Annals" — ^the only work which is attribu- 
 table to his pen. His end now approached, 
 and one morning he was heard to mutter, as 
 he paced up and down in front of his door, 
 " The great mountain must crumble, the 
 
 many of the great leaders of mankind, the 
 fame and repute which were denied to Con- 
 fucius during, his lifetime have been fully and 
 generously recognized by posterity, who 
 have attached to every word he uttered, and 
 to every act of his life, an importance and 
 meaning to which, it must be allowed, they 
 are not always entitled. 
 
 Confucius was not an original thinker. 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF FIVE HUNDRED CHINESE GODS. 
 
 strong beam must break, and the wise man 
 wither away Hke a plant." 
 
 In these words his disciples recognized the 
 foreshadowing of his death, and the sage, 
 disappointed in every one but himself, and 
 filled with unavailing regrets that there 
 should have been no intelligent monarch 
 who would have made him his guide, phil- 
 osopher, and friend, shortly took to his bed 
 and died (479 B. C). As in the case of 
 
 He uttered no new thoughts and enunciated 
 no new doctrines. He himself said that he 
 was " a transmitter," and the one object of 
 his life was, as ,he professed, to induce the 
 rulers of the land to revert to the ideal sys- 
 tem which guided the councils of the semi- 
 mythical sovereigns Yao and Shun (B. C, 
 2356-2205). In the adulatory State Rec- 
 ords, to which Confucius had access, the 
 good that these monarchs did was embalmed 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 257 
 
 for the admiration of posterity, but the evil, 
 if there were such, was interred with their 
 bones. 
 
 The stilted sayings and highly moral re- 
 flections which are attributed to them in the 
 Book of History and other Records, appeared 
 to Confucius to be the acme of wisdom, and 
 he sought a remedy for all the political ills 
 which surrounded him in the reproduction 
 of the condition of things which prevailed 
 at the earlier period. His leading dogma 
 was the comfortable doctrine that man is 
 born good, and that it is only by contamina- 
 tion with the world and the things of the 
 world that he is led to depart from the strict 
 paths of rectitude and virtue. It was only 
 necessary, therefore, for a sovereign to give 
 full vent to his natural strivings after good 
 to enable him to emulate the glowing exam- 
 ples of Yao and Shun. 
 
 How to Gain Wisdom. 
 
 He made no allowance for the evil pas- 
 sions and moral turpitudes which disgrace 
 mankind, and he entirely failed to recognize 
 that " there is a power that shapes our ends, 
 rough-hew them as we may." On the con- 
 trary, he held that man was alone arbiter 
 of his own fate, and that by a strict regard 
 to conventionalities, and by the careful ob- 
 servance of the rites proper between man 
 and man, it was possible to attain such a 
 height of wisdom and righteousness as to 
 •constitute an equality with Heaven itself 
 
 His svstem, therefore, began with the cul- 
 tivation of the individual, and this was to be 
 perfected by a strict observance of the min- 
 utest details of conduct. In his own person 
 he set an illustrious example of how a great 
 and good man should demean himself He 
 cultivated dignity of manner and scrupulous 
 respect to those to whom respect was due. 
 When he entered the palace of his sovereign 
 17 
 
 he walked with a bent head and humble mien, 
 and towards parents he inculcated through- 
 out his career the duty of paying minute 
 obedience and the most affectionate atten- 
 tion to their every wish and command. 
 
 In the manner in which he took his food, 
 in the way in which he dressed, even in the 
 attitude in which he lay in bed, he set him- 
 self up as an example for all men to follow. 
 People, he believed, were as grass before the 
 wind, and that, if they were bent by the in- 
 fluence of a superior in a certain direction, 
 they would naturally follow that inclination. 
 That the example of the sovereign was as 
 the wind, and that he had but to allow his 
 virtue to shine forth to ensure the reforma- 
 tion of the whole state. Such a man " would 
 plant the people, and forthwith they would 
 be established ; he would lead them on, and 
 forthwith they would follow him ; he would 
 make them happy, and forthwith multitudes 
 would resort to his dominions ; he would 
 stimulate them, and forthwith they would be 
 harmonious. While he -lived, he would be 
 glorious. When he died, he would be bit- 
 terly lamented." 
 
 Incapable Rulers. 
 
 Such a sovereign need but to exist and an 
 age of peace and prosperity would settle on 
 the land. When, therefore, a state was dis- 
 turbed and rebellious, the main fault was not 
 to be attributed to the people, but to the 
 sovereign who ruled them ; and hence it fol- 
 lowed that the duties of ruler and people 
 were reciprocal, and that while the people 
 owed respect and obedience to virtuous sov- 
 ereigns, they were exempt from the duty of 
 loyalty to rulers who had departed from the 
 paths of virtue. 
 
 According to his theory, it was an easy 
 matter for a sovereign to rule his people 
 righteously. " Self-adjustment and purifica- 
 
258 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 tion, with careful regulation of his dress and 
 the not making a movement contrary to the 
 rules of propriety — this is the way for the 
 ruler to cultivate his person." Having cul- 
 tivated his own person, he is able to rule the 
 Empire, and Confucius could find no excuse, 
 therefore, for a sovereign who failed to fulfil 
 these very easy conditions. 
 
 Skeptical Views. 
 
 In such a system there is no room for a 
 personal Deity, and Confucius withheld all 
 sanction to the idea of the existence of such 
 a Being. He refused to lift his eyes above 
 the earth or to trouble himself about the 
 future beyond the grave. "When we know 
 so little about life, was his reply to an inqui- 
 sitive disciple, " how can we know anything 
 about death?" and the best advice he could 
 give his followers with regard to spiritual be- 
 ings was to keep them at a distance. 
 
 But while ignoring all direct supernatural 
 interference in the concerns of man, he ad- 
 vocated the highest morality among his fol- 
 lowers. Truth and Sincerity, Righteousness 
 and Virtue were the main themes of his dis- 
 courses, and though he himself failed on many 
 occasions to observe the truth, he yet pro- 
 fessed and felt the greatest respect and re- 
 gard for that virtue. He was a plain, un- 
 imaginative man, but used the mundane 
 weapons at his command with mighty and 
 far-reaching effect. 
 
 Once only he reached to the high level of 
 perfect Christianity, and in the enunciation 
 of the command " to do unto others as you 
 would they should do unto you," he sur- 
 passed himself. From his limited stand- 
 point he had no future bliss to offer to his 
 followers as a reward for virtue, nor any pun- 
 ishments after death with which to awe those 
 who were inclined to depart from the paths 
 of rectitude. His teaching was of the earth, 
 
 earthy, and as such was exactly suited to the 
 comnjonplace, matter-of-fact tone of the Chi- 
 nese mind. And thus it has come about 
 that, though, during his lifetime, his influence 
 was confined to a small knot of faithful disci- 
 ples, his system has since been accepted as 
 the guiding star of the national policy and 
 conduct. 
 
 Confucius was not the only teacher of 
 note who appeared about this time to warn 
 the people of the probable consequences of 
 the violence and misrule which was spread- 
 ing over the Empire like a flood. For many 
 centuries men calling themselves Taoists, 
 who were plainly imbued with the philoso- 
 phical mysticism of Brahminical India, had 
 preached the vanity of attempting to stem 
 the tide of disorder, and had, like the Mani- 
 chaeans, withdrawn as far as possible from 
 the cr,owd of men into selfish retirement. 
 
 Disagreed ^Vith Confucius. 
 
 The views of these men were vague and 
 shadowy, and it was not until the appearance 
 of Laotzu, who was a contemporary of but 
 senior to Confucius, that their aspirations 
 found expression in a formulated system. In 
 almost every respect Laotzu, or the old 
 philosopher, was poles asunder from Con- 
 fucius. Of his childhood and youth we 
 know nothing, and, unlike Confucius, whose 
 every act of daily life is faithfully recorded, 
 we are left in complete ignorance of his per- 
 sanal history until we meet him as an old 
 man, holding the office of keeper of the 
 records at the Court of Chow. 
 
 We are told that his surname was Li, and 
 that his personal name was Urh, which is, 
 being interpreted, "an ear" — a sobriquet 
 which is said to have been given him on ac- 
 count of the unusually large size of those 
 organs. 
 
 His birth, we are told, took place in the 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 259 
 
 year 604 B. C, at the village of Chiijen, or 
 "Oppressed Benevolence," in the parish of 
 Li, or "Cruelty," in the district of Ku, or 
 "Bitterness," and in the state of Tsu, or 
 "Suffering." If these places were as 
 mythical as John Bunyan's " City of De- 
 struction " and "Vanity Fair," their names 
 could not have been more appropriately 
 chosen to designate the birthplace of a sage 
 who was driven from office and from friends 
 by the disorders of the time. It is remark- 
 able that the description of his large ears 
 and general appearance tallies accurately 
 with those of the non-Chinese tribes on the 
 western frontiers of the Empire. 
 
 Indian Philosophy. 
 
 His surname, Li, also reminds one of the 
 large and important tribe of that name which 
 was dispossessed by the invading Chinese, 
 and was driven to seek refuge in what is 
 now Southwestern China. But, however, 
 that may be, it is impossible to overlook the 
 fact that he imported into his teachings a 
 decided flavor of Indian philosophy. 
 
 His main object was to explain to his fol- 
 lowers the relations between the universe and 
 that which he called Tao. The first mean- 
 ing of this word is, " The way," but in the 
 teachings of Laotzu it was much more than 
 that. " It was the way and the waygoer. It 
 was an eternal road ; along it all beings and 
 all things walked, but no being made it, for 
 it is being itself; it was everything and noth- 
 ing, and the cause and effect of all. All 
 things originated from Tao, conformed to 
 Tao, and to Tao they at last returned." 
 
 Like Confucius, Laotzu held that the 
 nature of man was originally good, but from 
 that point their systems diverged. In place 
 of the formalities and ceremonies which were 
 the corner-stones of the Confucian cult, 
 Laotzu desired to bring his followers back 
 
 to the state of simplicity before the absence 
 of the virtues which Confucius lauded had 
 forced on the minds of men the conscious- 
 ness of their existence. He would have 
 them revert to a halcyon period when filial 
 piety, virtue and righteousness belonged to 
 the nature of the people, and before the re- 
 cognition of their opposites made it neces- 
 sary to designate them. 
 
 Instead of asserting themselves, he urged 
 his disciples to strive after self-emptiness. 
 His favorite illustration was that of water, 
 which Seeks the lowliest spots, but which at 
 the same time permeates everything, and by 
 its constant dropping pierces even the hard- 
 est substances. By practising modesty, 
 humility and gentleness, men may, he 
 taught, hope to walk safely on the path 
 which leads to Tao, and protected' by those 
 virtues they need fear no evil. 
 
 The Mother of All Things. 
 
 To such men it requires no more effort ito 
 keep themselves pure and uncontaminated 
 than it does to the pigeon to preserve un- 
 tarnished the whiteness of its feathers, or to 
 the crow to maintain the sable hue of its 
 pinions. 
 
 Tao was the negation of effort. It was 
 inactive, and yet left nothing undone. >It 
 was formless, and yet the cause of form. It 
 was still and void. It changed not, and yet 
 it circulated everywhere. It was impalpable 
 and invisible. It was the origin of heaven 
 and earth, and it was the mother of all 
 things. To such a prophet as Laotzu war 
 was hateful, and he inculcated the duty of 
 turning the other cheek to the smiter, and 
 of retreating before all forms of violence. 
 Unlike Confucius, he advocated the duty of 
 recompensing evil with good, and injury with 
 kindness ; but he" joined hands with that 
 sage in ignoring the existence of a personal 
 
260 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Deity. Thus, in some particulars, they held 
 common views. 
 
 Tao was all and in all. It was uncon- 
 ditioned being, which, as an abstraction .too 
 
 every evil. It did not strive with man, but let 
 
 each one who strayed from its paths find out 
 
 for himself the evil consequences of his acts. 
 
 As a political system Taoism was plainly 
 
 Mm 
 
 I <- 
 
 
 Vj««^f T--«Eaj (k- 
 
 
 TEMPLE AT NANKIN. 
 
 subtle for words, is the origin of heaven and 
 earth, including God Flimself; and, when 
 capable of being expressed by name, is the 
 mother of all things. It was a mighty pro- 
 tector who guarded its faithful sons against 
 
 impracticable. If the Chinese state and the 
 surrounding nations could have been con- 
 verted bodily to it, an ideal such as Laotzu 
 sketched out may have found a place in 
 existence. But in camps and amid the clash 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 261 
 
 of arms its adoption was plainly incompatible 
 with the existence of a nation, and Laotzu, 
 finding that his preaching fell on deaf ears, 
 resigned his missionary effort, and, leaving 
 China behind him, started in a westerly direc- 
 tion — whither we know not. 
 
 No record has come down to us of his 
 last days, nor have we any more knowledge 
 of where death overtook him than we have of 
 his origin. As a meteor he flashed across 
 the meridian of China, and then disappeared 
 into darkness. 
 
 A comparison of the doctrines advocated 
 by Laotzu with the Brahminic philosophy, 
 proves to demonstration that he drew his 
 inspiration from India. The Tao of Laotzu 
 as expounded in the Taoteching, a work 
 which is popularly attributed to him, was 
 the Brahma of the Brahmins, from which 
 everything emanates and to which every- 
 thing returns ; " which is both the fountain 
 from which the stream of life breaks forth 
 and the ocean into which it hastens to lose 
 itself" 
 
 A Crop of Heresies. 
 
 The whole conception of the system was 
 foreign to the Chinese mind, and his persbnal 
 influence was no sooner withdrawn from his 
 disciples than heresies cropped up and de- 
 based views took the place of the singularly 
 pure and subtle metaphysical thoughts of 
 the teacher. The doctrine that life and 
 death were mere phases in the existence of 
 man encouraged the growth of an epicurean 
 longing to enjoy the good things of life in 
 oblivion of the hereafter. This tendency led 
 to an inordinate desire to prolong hfe, and 
 there were not wanting among the followers 
 of Laotzu those who professed to have 
 gained the secret of immortality. 
 
 Several of the reigning sovereigns, at- 
 tracted by these heterodox views, professed 
 
 themselves Taoists ; and even Chi Hwangti, 
 the builder of the Great Wall, fell a victim 
 to the prevailing superstition. More than 
 once he sent expeditions to the Eastern Isles 
 to procure the plant of immortality, which 
 was said to flourish in those favored spots. 
 Death and poverty have always been states 
 abhorrent to common humanity, and to the 
 elixir of immortality, Taoist priests, in the 
 interests of the cause, added a further con- 
 quest over nature, and professed to have 
 fathomed the secret of being able to trans- 
 mute common metals into gold. 
 
 Believers in Magic. 
 
 These are superstitions which die hard, 
 and even at the present day alchemists are 
 to be found poring over crucibles in the vain 
 hope of being able to secure to themselves 
 boundless wealth ; and seekers after magic 
 herbs, though hesitating to promise by their 
 use an endless life, yet attribute to them the 
 virtue of prolonging youth and of delaying 
 the approach of the time when " the strong 
 men shall bow themselves, and the grinders 
 cease because they are few, and those that 
 look out of the windows be darkened." 
 
 Coupled with these corruptions came a 
 desire for visible objects of worship, and, fol- 
 lowing the example of the Buddhists, the 
 Taoists deified Laotzu, and associated two 
 other gods with him to form a trinity. The 
 establishment of these deities gave rise to a 
 demand for new gods to personify the various 
 personal wants and wishes of the people. 
 
 At the present day a Taoist temple is a 
 veritable Pantheon, and it is scarcely pos- 
 sible to imagine a craving on the part of 
 either man or woman for which there is not 
 a particular god or goddess whose province 
 it is to listen to their cries. Thus the whole 
 tendency of modern Taoism has been towards 
 the practice of magic and the most debased 
 
262 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 superstitions and it h^s found multitudes cf 
 willing adherents. 
 
 If a man desires that his horoscope should 
 be cast, or that the demon of disease should 
 be expelled from the body of his wife or 
 child, or that a spirit should be called from 
 the other world, or that the perpetrator of a 
 theft or murder should be discovered, a 
 Taoist priest is invariably sent for, who, by 
 the exercise of his arts,, succeeds in so far 
 mystifying the inquirer as to satisfy his 
 demands. These preyers on the follies of 
 their fellow-men reap so rich a harvest from 
 the practice of their rites and incantation, 
 that the calling is one that is eagerly sought 
 after. 
 
 A Pompous High Priest. 
 
 Being thus largely supported, the Taoist 
 hierarchy has grown into a large and power- 
 ful body, and is presided over by a high 
 priest, who is chosen for the office by divine 
 selection from a certain family bearing the 
 name of Chang, among whom the spiritual 
 afflatus is supposed to rest. ' This ecclesiastic 
 hves surrounded by wealth and dignity, and 
 at stated intervals presents himself at Pekin 
 to offer his allegiance to the Emperor. 
 
 As agreeable supplements to their monas- 
 teries, the Taoist priests encourage the estab- 
 lishment of nunneries, into which young girls 
 retreat, either at the bidding of their parents 
 or of their own free choice as a means of 
 escape from the uncertainties of marriage or 
 from the miseries of their homes. Such 
 retreats are not always the abodes of purity 
 and peace, and, as occasionally has hap- 
 > pened,the occurence of disorders and impro- 
 prieties has compelled the law to interfere for 
 their suppression. 
 
 The descent from the lofty aspirations of 
 Laotzu to the magic, jugglery, and supersti- 
 tion of the modern-day Taoists is probably 
 
 as great a fall as has ever been recorded in 
 the history of religions. Laotzu attempted 
 to lead his disciples beyond the attractions of 
 self and the seductions of the world. His 
 so-called followers devote their energies to 
 encouraging the debased superstitions of 
 their fellow-men, and so fatten on their 
 follies. 
 
 Cravings of Human Nature. 
 
 But there are instinctive longings in the 
 minds of men, even in those of Chinamen, 
 which neither Confucianism, nor Taoism in 
 its earlier phase, could supply. Deep down 
 in the hearts of civilized and uncivilized 
 peoples is a desire to peer into the future, 
 and seek for verities beyond the limited circle 
 of pains and miseries which bounds the pres- 
 ent life. To Chinamen this want was supplied 
 by Buddhism, which was introduced into the 
 Flowery Land by native missionaries from 
 India. So early as 219 B. C. the first fore- 
 runners of the faith of Sakyamuni reached 
 the Chinese capital of Loyang. But the 
 time was not ripe for their venture. The 
 stoical followers of Confucius and Laotzu 
 presented a determined and successful oppo- 
 sition to them, and, after a chequered experi- 
 ence of Chinese prisons and courts, they 
 disappeared from the scene, leaving no traces 
 of their faith behind them. 
 
 In A. D. 61 a second mission arrived in 
 China, whose members met with a far more 
 favorable reception. A settled government 
 had followed the time of disorder which had 
 previously prevailed, and, though the Con- 
 fucianists raged and persecuted, the mission- 
 aries held their own, and succeeded in lay- 
 ing the solid foundation of a faith which was 
 destined in later ages, to overspread the whole 
 Empire. 
 
 Even at this early period a schism had 
 rent the Church in India, where the Hina- 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 263 
 
 yana and Mahayana schools had already 
 divided the allegiance of the followers of 
 Buddha. The Hinayana school, which held 
 more closely to the moral asceticism and 
 self-denying, self-sacrificing charity which 
 were preached by the founder of the faith, 
 established iiself more especially among the 
 natives of Southern India and of Ceylon. 
 
 The Mahayana school, on the other hand, 
 which may be described as a philosophical 
 system, which found expression in an elab- 
 orate ritual, an idolatrous symbolism, and in 
 ecstatic meditation, gained its main support- 
 ers among the more hardy races of North- 
 ern India, Nepal, and Tibet! 
 
 Gained Many Converts. 
 
 It was this last form of the faith which 
 found acceptance in China. It supplied ex- 
 actly that which Confucianism and Taoism 
 lacked, and, notwithstanding the opposition 
 of the stalwarts of the Confucian doctrine, 
 it spread rapidly and gained the ready adhe- 
 sion of the people. And though the mis- 
 sionaries sanctioned the deification of Buddha 
 and the worship of gods, they still main- 
 tained the main features of the faith. 
 
 The doctrine of Metempsychosis, the 
 necessity of gaining perfect emancipation 
 from all passions, all mental phenomena, and, 
 greatest of all, from self, were preached in 
 season and out of season, and gained a firm 
 hold among their proselytes. It is the fate 
 of all religions to degenerate in course of 
 ages from the purity of their origins, and 
 Buddhism in China affords an illustrious ex- 
 ample of this phenomenon. Not content 
 with the liberal share of superstition which 
 was santioned by the Mahayana system, the 
 people turned aside to the later Tantra 
 school in search of a sanction for still more 
 fanatical practices. 
 
 Like the Taoists, the Buddhist monks pro- 
 
 fessed to be adepts in the arts of magic, and 
 claimed to themselves the power of being 
 able to banish famine, remove pestilence, 
 and drive away evil spirits, by their incanta- 
 tions. They posed as astrologers and exor- 
 cists, and made dupes of the people from the 
 highest to the lowest. 
 
 Governed by the Senses. 
 
 With the choice before them of a holy 
 life, from which desire and self are wholly 
 eradicated,, and a religious profession which 
 ministers to the senses and to the ordinary 
 intelligence, the modern Chinese have had no 
 hesitation in throwing in their lot with the 
 more mundane school. With the five com- 
 mandments of Buddha, "thou shalt not kill; 
 thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt not commit 
 any unchaste act ; thou shalt not lie ; thou 
 shalt not drink any intoxicating liquor," the 
 ordinary Chinese Buddhist does not much 
 concern himself. He clings, however, to the 
 doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and 
 though he not uncommonly lapses into the 
 sin of eating meat and fish, yet his diet for 
 the most part is, to his credit it must be said, 
 confined to the Lenten fare of vegetables and 
 grain. 
 
 In all religious works this dogma is 
 strenuously insisted on, and even in popular 
 literature authors not infrequently picture 
 the position of men who, by the mercy of 
 Buddha, have narrowly escaped from the sin 
 of devouring their best friends in the guise 
 of a carp or a ragout. The plain and un- 
 disguised adoption of idolatry by the Chinese 
 made the existence of temples a first neces- 
 sity, and at the present time these sacred 
 edifices are to be found wherever men meet 
 and congregate whether in the streets of 
 cities or in village lanes. 
 
 Among the countless idols which adorn 
 their halls the first places are invariably 
 
264 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 given to the trinity of Buddhas — the past 
 Buddha, the present Buddha and the fiuddha 
 which is to come. These three figures 
 dominate the principal hall of every temple. 
 In rear of this is commonly a dagoba in 
 which is concealed a relic of Buddha — it 
 may be the paring of a nail, a tear-drop or a 
 lock of hair — and at the back of that again 
 are the deities which are supposed to preside 
 over all the ills that flesh is heir to. 
 
 As is the case everywhere, women are the 
 most constant devotees, and on the pedestals 
 of the favorite deities are commonly to be 
 seen scores of votive offerings expressing 
 the gratitude of these worshippers for 
 mercies vouchsafed to them. But there is 
 a reverse side to the shield from the gods' 
 point of view. It not unfrequently happens 
 that deities who, either from forgetfulness or 
 malevolence, have turned a deaf ear to the 
 prayers of suppliants, are violently assaulted 
 and defaced. 
 
 Rebellion Against an Idol. 
 
 At Foochow, where a long drought had 
 wrought havoc among the neighboring 
 farms, the people rose against the god of 
 sickness, who was supposed to be the cause of 
 the plague, and having made a paper junk 
 bearing a paper effigy of the offending deity, 
 they launched him on the river at the same 
 moment that they set fire to the vessel. This 
 emblematized banishment was supposed to 
 do away with the evil influences which had 
 prevailed, and the showers which subse- 
 quently fell were held fully to j ustify the ex- 
 emplary rite. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the term "priest " does 
 not apply to Buddhists. They offer no sacri- 
 fice to the gods, but are merely monjcs who 
 perform services and pronounce incantations 
 for the benefit of their followers. The prac- 
 tice of contemplative meditation, which is 
 
 one of the features of the Mahayana school^ 
 has multiplied these social drones by directly 
 encouraging the establishment of monasteries 
 and their allied nunneries. 
 
 Each monastery is governed by an abbot, 
 who has the power of inflicting punishment 
 on offending brothers, and the discipline 
 commonly preserved is in direct ratio to the 
 vigilance and conscientiousness of that func- 
 tionary. If the popular belief is to be 
 accepted, neither the discipline nor the 
 morality of the monasteries is above sus- 
 picion, and in popular farces and tales the 
 character who appears in the most compro- 
 mising positions, and is discovered in the 
 perpetration of the most disgraceful acts, is. 
 commonly a Buddhist priest. 
 
 How Vacanies are Filled. 
 
 Outwardly, however, an air of peace and 
 decorum is preserved, and there is seldom a 
 lack of aspirants for the sacred office when 
 vacancies occur. Commonly the neophytes 
 join as mere boys, having been devoted to 
 the service of Buddha by their parents. At 
 other times a less innocent cause supplies 
 candidates for the cowl. Like sanctuary of 
 old, Buddhist monasteries are held to be 
 places of refuge for malefactors, and of this 
 very raw and unpromising material a large 
 proportion of the monks are made. 
 
 But from whatever motive he may join, 
 the neophyte, on entering, having discarded 
 his secular garments, and donned the gown 
 and cowl of the monkhood, marks his sepa- 
 ration from the world by submitting to the 
 loss of his queue and to the shaving ' of his 
 head. The duties of the monks are not 
 labrious, and they enjoy in the refectory 
 good though plain food. In the nunneries, 
 which are almost as numerous as monas- 
 teries, much the same routine is followed as 
 is practiced by the monks. The evil of the 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 265 
 
 system is, however, more apparent in the 
 sisterhoods than in the monasteries, and a 
 bad reputation for all kinds of improprieties 
 clings to them. 
 
 It must not, "however, be supposed that 
 there is no such thing as religious zeal 
 among Buddhist monks. Mendicant friars 
 often endure hardships, practice austerities, 
 and undergo self-inflicted tortures in the 
 cause of their religion. Others banish them- 
 selves to mountain caves, or condemn them- 
 selves to perpetual silence to acquire that 
 virtue which ensures to them an eternal life 
 in the blissful regions of the west. But such 
 cases are the exceptions, and to the majority 
 of both monks and nuns the old saying 
 applies, "The nearer the church the further 
 from God." 
 
 Superstitious Observances. 
 
 Such is, stated briefly, the position of the 
 three principal religions in China. Both 
 Mahommedanism and Christianity have their 
 followings ; but the numbers of their adher- 
 ents are so comparatively small that, at 
 present, they cannot be said to influence 
 in any way the life of the nation. Mean- 
 while, the people, disregarding the distinc- 
 tive features of the three creeds — Confu-' 
 danism, Taoism, and Buddhism — take from 
 each such tenets and rites as suit their 
 immediate views and necessities, and super- 
 adding numerous superstitious observances 
 . which have existed from before the time 
 when Confucius and Laotzu were, have 
 established a religious medley which, hap- 
 pily, satisfies all the needs of which they 
 are conscious. 
 
 Many of the forms employed to coti- 
 memorate the annual festivals have in them 
 that touch of nature-worship which makes 
 the whole primitive world kin. In the 
 seventh month, for example, a festival in 
 
 honor of a star-goddess, famous for her skill 
 in embroidery, is held, at which young girls 
 display specimens of needlework, and offer 
 up supplications before the altar of the god- 
 dess, praying that a share of her skill may 
 be bestowed upon them. 
 
 At the same time, to show that they are 
 worthy disciples of the deity, they attenipt 
 on their knees to thread their needles, held 
 above their 'heads, to the accompaniment of 
 music discoursed by blind musicians. The 
 moon is worshipped in the eighth month, 
 and moon-cakes, especially prepared for the 
 occasion, are offered by the light of her 
 beams in adoration of the goddess. The 
 sun also comes in for his share of adoration. 
 ■ To these and similar celebrations Buddhism 
 lends its countenance, and on the eighth of 
 the fourth month the saint himself submits 
 tp be bathed in effigy for the edification of 
 the faithful, who testify their zeal by pouring 
 handfuls of cash on his brazen forehead. 
 
 Religious Edifices. 
 Incidentally, we have brought to our atten- 
 tion in this connection the construction of 
 religious edifices or temples, and Chinese 
 dwelling-houses. We are all familiar with 
 drawings of the quaint roofs with their up- 
 turned corners, which , characterize the archi- 
 tecture of the country. The form at once 
 suggests that, as is probably the case, this 
 dominant style of building is a survival of 
 the tent-dwellings of the Tartar peoples. It 
 is said that when Jenghiz Khan, the founder 
 of the Mongol dynasty, invaded China, in 
 the thirteenth century, his followers, on pos- 
 sessing themselves of a city, reduced the 
 houses to a still more exact counterpart of 
 their origins by pulling down the walls, and 
 leaving the roofs supported by the wooden 
 pillars which commonly bear the entire 
 weight of those burdens. 
 
266 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 What at once strikes the eye in the 
 appearance of a Chinese city, even of the 
 capital itself, is the invariable sameness in 
 the style of building. Palaces and temples, 
 public offices and dwelling-houses, are built 
 on one constant model. No spire, no dome, 
 no tower, rises to relieve the monotony cf 
 
 INTERIOR OF A CHINESE TEMPLE, SHOWING THEIR IDOLS 
 
 the scene, which is varied only, so far as 
 the buildings are concerned, by the different 
 colored tiles — green, yellow, and brown — 
 which indicate roughly the various uses 
 which the buildings they cover are designed 
 to serve, and by occasional pagodas, remind- 
 ing us of the faith of the people. 
 
 In his " History of Indian and Eastern 
 
 Architecture," the late Mr. Fergusson sug- 
 gested, as a reason for this absence of variety 
 the fact that " the Chinese never had either a 
 dominant priesthood or an hereditary no- 
 bility. The absence of the former class is 
 important, because it is to sacred art that 
 architecture has owed its highest inspiration, 
 and sacred art is never so 
 strongly developed as under 
 the influence of a powerful 
 and splendid hierarchy. In 
 the same manner the want of 
 an hereditary nobility is 
 equally unfavorable to do- 
 mestic architecture of a dura- 
 ble description . Private feuds , 
 and private wars were till 
 lately unknown, and hence 
 there are no fortalices, or 
 fortified mansions, which by 
 their mass and solidity give 
 such a marked character to 
 a certain " class^of domestic 
 edificesin the West." 
 
 There are, however, other 
 factors which have operated 
 even more powerfully than 
 these two in producing this 
 monotonous conformity to 
 one model, and that is the 
 sterility of the imaginative 
 powers of the Chinese 
 people, and the steadfast 
 conservatism of the race. 
 Just as the arts and sci- 
 ences, which in the dim past they acquired 
 from more cultured races in Western Asia, 
 have remained crystallized in the stage in 
 which they received them, and just as their 
 written language has not, like that of Ancient 
 Egypt and Assyria, advanced beyond a primi- 
 tive phonetic stage, so their knowledge of 
 architecture has been perpetuated without 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 267 
 
 the smallest symptom of development or the 
 least spark of genius. Even when they 
 have an example of ; better things before 
 them, they deliberately avert their eyes, and 
 go on repeating the same type of mean and 
 paltry buildings. 
 
 Filthy Streets. 
 
 At all the treaty ports, and notably at 
 Shanghai, there have been reared on the 
 foreign settlement houses in every kind of 
 western architecture, bordering wide and 
 well-made roads, and provided with every 
 sanitary improvement, and yet, in the ad- 
 joining native cities, houses are daily built 
 on exactly the original model, the streets are 
 left as narrow and filthy as ever, and no ef- 
 fort is made to improve the healthiness of 
 the areas. It might be supposed that in a 
 nation where there exists such a profound 
 veneration for everything that is old, the 
 people would have striven to perpetuate the 
 glories of past ages in great and noble 
 monuments that Emperors would have raised 
 palaces to themselves at records of their 
 greatness, and that the magnates of the land 
 would have built houses which should en- 
 dure as homes for generations of descend- 
 ants. 
 
 But it would seem as though their no- 
 madic origin haunted them in this also, and 
 that, as in shape so in durability, " the re- 
 collection of their old tent-houses, which 
 were pitched to-day and struck to-morrow, 
 still dominates their ideas of what palaces 
 and houses should be." Throughout the 
 length and breadth of China there is not a 
 single building, except it may be some few 
 pagodas, which by any stretch of the imagin- 
 ation can be called old. 
 
 A few generations suffice to see the state- 
 liest of their palaces crumble into decay, and 
 a few centuries are enough to obhterate all 
 
 traces even of royal cities. The Mongol 
 conqueror, Kublai Khan, whose wealth, 
 magnificence and splendor are recorded with 
 admiration by travellers, built for himself a 
 capital near the city of Pekin. If any his- 
 torian should wish to trace out for himself 
 the features of that Imperial city, he would 
 be compelled to seek amid the earth-covered 
 mounds which alone mark the spot where 
 the conqueror held his court, for any relics 
 which may perchance survive. 
 
 Above ground the city, with all its bar- 
 baric splendors, has vanished as a dream. 
 For this ephemeralness the style and nature 
 of the buildings are responsible. A Chinese 
 architect invites damp, and all the destruc- 
 tive consequences which follow from it, by 
 building his house on the surface of the soil; 
 he ensures instability by basing it on the shal- 
 lowest of foundations, and he makes certain 
 of its overthrow by using materials which 
 most readily decay. 
 
 The Roof Built First. 
 
 The structure consists of a roof supported 
 by wooden pillars, with the intervals filled in 
 with badly baked bricks. It is strictly in ac- 
 cordance with the topsy-turvy Chinese 
 methods that the framework of the roof 
 should be constructed first, before even the 
 pillars which are to support it are placed in 
 position. But, like most of the other con- 
 tradictory practices of the people, this one is 
 capable of rational explanation. 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the pillars are 
 not sunk into the ground, but merely stand 
 upon stone foundations. The weight of the 
 roof is, therefore, necessary for their sup- 
 port, and to its massive proportions is alone 
 attributable the temporary substantialness of 
 the building. To prevent an overthrow the 
 summits of the pillars are bound together by 
 beams, and much ingenuity and taste is 
 
268 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 shown in the adornment of the ends of 
 these supports and cross-pieces, which ap- 
 pear beneath the eaves of the upturned 
 roof. For the most part the pillars are 
 plain, and either square or round, and at the 
 base are slightly cut in, after the manner of 
 the pillars in the temples of ancient Egypt. 
 
 Dragons and Serpents. 
 
 Occasionally, when especial honor, either 
 due to religious respect or official grandeur, 
 attaches to a building, the pillars are carved 
 into representations of dragons, serpents, or 
 winding foliage, as the taste of the designer 
 may determine. But in a vast majority of 
 buildings the roof is the only ornamented 
 part, and a great amount of paihs and skill 
 is devoted to add beauty to this part of the 
 structure. 
 
 A favorite method of giving an appear- 
 ance of lightness to the covering of a house 
 or temple which would otherwise look too 
 heavy to be symmetrical, is to make a double 
 roof, so as to break the long line necessitated 
 by a single structure. The effect produced 
 by looking down on a city studded with 
 temples and the palaces of nobles is, so far 
 as color is concerned, brilliant and pictur- 
 esque, and reminds the traveller of the view 
 from the Kremlin over the glittering gilt- 
 domed churches of Moscow. 
 
 The damp from the soil which is so detri- 
 mental to the stability of the building is 
 made equally injurious to the inhabitants by 
 the fact that all dwellings consist of the 
 ground floor only. With very rare excep- 
 tions such a thing as an upper story is 
 unknown in China, one reason, no doubt, 
 being that neither the foundations nor the 
 materials are sufficiently trustworthy to sup- 
 port anything higher than the ground floor. 
 The common symbol for a house indicates 
 the ground plan on which dwellings of the 
 
 better kmd are desigiied. It is one which is 
 compounded of parts meaning a square 
 within a doorway. 
 
 On entering the front door the visitor 
 passes into a courtyard, on either side of 
 which are dwelling-rooms, and at the end of 
 which is a hall, with probably rooms at both 
 extremities. Doors at the back of thjs hall 
 communicate with another courtyard, and in 
 cases of wealthy families, a third courtyard 
 succeeds, which is devoted to the ladies of 
 the household. Beyond this is the garden, 
 and, in the case of country houses, a park. 
 The whole enclosure is surrounded with a 
 blank wall, which is pierced only by the 
 necessary doors. All the windows "face 
 inwards. 
 
 Monotony of Architecture. 
 
 To the wayfarer, therefore, the appearance 
 of houses of the better sort is monotonous 
 and drear, and suggests a want of life which 
 is far from the actual fact, and a desire for 
 privacy which, so far as the apartments 
 devoted to the male inmates are concerned, 
 is equally wide of the mark. In accordance 
 with Chinese custom, the front courtyard 
 may be considered to be open to any who 
 may choose to wander in, and a desire to ex- 
 clude all strangers would be held to argue 
 that there was something wrong going on 
 which the owner wished to conceal. 
 
 The courtyards are decorated with flowers 
 and vases according to the taste of the in- 
 habitants, and occasionally a forest tree 
 arises in their midst, which gives a grateful 
 shade from the heat of the day. The rooms, 
 when well-furnished, are rather artistically 
 pretty than comfortable. To begin with, the 
 floors are either of pounded clay or of badly 
 made bricks. No carpet, except in the north 
 of the country, protects the feet from the 
 damp foundation, and if it were not for the 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 269 
 
 thick wadded soles of the shoes worn, and 
 the prevailing habit of reclining on divans, 
 and of sitting cross-legged, the result to the 
 health of the people would be very serious. 
 
 In the south, these divans are of wood, 
 and in the north they take the shape of Kang, 
 or stove bed-places. These last are com- 
 monly built of brick, and occupy one side of 
 the room. They are made hollow, for the 
 insertion of burning brushwood or coal, 
 which affords warmth to the room generally, 
 and especially to the occupants of the Kang. 
 
 A Pillow of Wood. 
 
 Mats placed on the brickwork form the 
 resting-place of the wadded bedclothes, 
 which supply all the furniture for the night 
 which a Chinaman requires, except the 
 pillow. To us the idea of a pillow is some- 
 thing spft and yielding, which gives rest, and 
 an elastic support to the whole head. To a 
 Chinaman it conveys quite a different notion . 
 A hard, rounded cylinder of wood or 
 lacquer-ware has, to him, a charm which 
 lulls to sleep in an attitude which would be 
 intolerable to us. It supports only the neck, 
 and leaves the head without anything on 
 which to recline. 
 
 In some parts of the country, where 
 women, by the use of bandoline, dress their 
 hair in protrusive shapes, this kind of pillow 
 has, at least, one advantage. After the 
 longest night's rest they are able to rise 
 without the slightest derangement of their 
 coiffures, which thus remain for days, and 
 sometimes for weeks, without renewal. 
 
 Unlike their Asiatic neighbors, the Chi- 
 nese have been accustomed to the use of 
 chairs for centuries. A record of the time 
 when they were habituated to the common 
 Oriental custom of sitting on the ground, is 
 pre.served in the word for "a feast," the pri- 
 mary meaning of which is " a mat," suggest- 
 
 ing the usual Eastern practice of spreading 
 food on a mat or rug on the floor. But, 
 though they have advanced so far, they have 
 by no means arrived at the knowledge of an 
 easy chair. Angular in shape, stiff and un- 
 yielding in its materials, a Chinese chair is 
 only welcome when rest is not an object. 
 
 Its very uncomfortable structure and ma- 
 terial suggests a foreign origin for it, and 
 even at the present time, the use of chairs is 
 not universal throughout the Empire. When 
 the Emperor lately received the foreign min- 
 isters, he did so seated cross-legged on a 
 cushion ; and on all native state occasions in 
 the north of the country this mode of sitting 
 is commonly in vogue. 
 
 Choice Furniture. 
 
 In wealthy households the woods used for 
 furniture are those brought from the Straits 
 Settlements and Borneo, such as camagon, 
 ebony, puru, redwood and rosewood; while 
 less opulent people are content to use chairs, 
 bedsteads, and tables made of bamboo and 
 stained woods. But, whatever the material, 
 considerable labor and artistic skill are used 
 to give grace and beauty to the various arti- 
 cles. As in the case of the roofs already 
 spoken of, the ornaments in tables are chiefly 
 centered in the space beneath the overlap- 
 ping tops. 
 
 Ornamental work, bearing a strong resem- 
 blance to Greek patterns, is commonly em- 
 ployed with admirable effect, and though the 
 general appearance of a well-furnished Chi- 
 nese room is somewhat disfigured by the 
 angular shape of the furniture, the skill with 
 which the different articles are arranged 
 makes up to a great extent for the want of 
 rounded forms and soft materials. 
 
 Just as the Chinese show a genius for 
 artistic landscape gardening, so in their 
 rooms they display a taste in decoration and 
 
270 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 harmonizing colors which imparts an air of 
 comfort and elegance to their dwellings. 
 Carved stands, on which are placed diverse 
 shaped vases containing flowering plants or 
 shrubs, dwarfed into quaint and attractive 
 forms, are varied and mingled with rockwork 
 groups in miniature, while on the tables are 
 disposed strangely bound books, and orna- 
 ments of every shape and kind. 
 
 rich men is the wood-carving which adorns 
 the cornices of the rooms and the borders of 
 the doorways. 
 
 With that richness of ornament which be- 
 longs to the East, fruits, flowers, creeping 
 plants, and birds are represented by the 
 artists in an endless variety of beauty, and 
 through this fretted embroidery a cool stream 
 of air circulates in the apartments. In any 
 
 The walls are commonly hung with scrolls, 
 bearing drawings of landscapes by celebrated 
 masters, in which mountain scenery, falling 
 water, and pavilions shaded by queerly 
 shaped trees, form conspicuous elements. 
 On others are inscribed the choice words 
 of wisdom which fell from the lips of the 
 sages of ancient China, written in black, 
 cursive characters on red or white grounds. 
 But one of the chief glories of the houses of 
 
 RELIGIOUS CEREMONY IN A JOSS-HOUSE. 
 
 but a hot climate the absence of carpets, 
 tablecloths, and cushions would give an ap- 
 pearance of discomfort, but with the ther- 
 mometer standing at the height which the 
 neighborhood of the tropics gives to it, the 
 aspect of a Chinese room suggests a grate- 
 ful and refreshing coolness. 
 
 The studies of scholars have furniture 
 peculiar to them. The table is supplied 
 with the four requisites for writing, viz.: 
 
:he religions of china. 
 
 271 
 
 paper, pencil-brushes, ink, and ink-stone, 
 while against the walls stand shelves on 
 which, by a curious survival of the practice 
 common in the libraries of Babylonia, the 
 books are arranged on their sides, their 
 lower edges, on which are inscribed the 
 titles of the works they contain, being alone 
 apparent. 
 
 The fpllowing is a description of one of 
 the Foos, or ducal residences, in Pekin. 
 
 "A Foo has in front of it two large stone 
 lions, with a house for musicians and for 
 gatekeepers. Through a lofty gateway, on 
 which are hung tablets inscribed with the 
 owner's titles, the visitor enters a large 
 square court with a paved terrace in the 
 centre, which fronts the principal hall. Here, 
 on days of ceremony, the slaves and depend- 
 ants may be ranged in reverential posture 
 before the owner, who sits as the master of 
 the household, in the hall. Behind the 
 principal hall are two other halls, both 
 facing, like it, the south. 
 
 Internal Arrangements. 
 
 " These buildings all have fiye or seven 
 compartments, divided by pillars which sup- 
 port the roof, and the three or five in the 
 centre are left open to form one large hall, 
 while the sides are partitioned off to make 
 rooms. Beyond the gable there is usually 
 an extension called the Urfang, literally, the 
 ear-house, from its resemblance in position 
 to that organ. On each side of the large 
 courts fronting the halls are side houses of 
 one or two stories. The garden of a Foo is 
 on the west side, and is usually arranged as 
 an ornamental park, with a lake, wooded 
 mounds, fantastic arbors, small Buddhist 
 temples, covered passages, and a large open 
 hall for drinking tea and entertaining guests, 
 which is called Hwating. 
 
 " Garden and house are kept private, and 
 
 effectually guarded from intrusion of strangers 
 by a high wall, and at the doors by a numer- 
 ous staff of messengers. The stables are 
 usually on the east side, and contain stout 
 Mongol ponies, large Hi horses, and a good 
 supply of sleek, well-kept mules, such as 
 North China furnishes in abundance. A 
 prince or princess has a retinue of about 
 twenty, mounted on ponies or mules." 
 
 Facing Southward. 
 
 By something more than a sumptuary 
 law, all houses of any pretension face south- 
 ward, and their sites, far from being left to 
 the mere choice of the proprietors, are deter- 
 mined for them by the rules and regulations 
 of Feng Shui. This Feng Shui is that 
 which places a preliminary stumbling-block 
 in the way of every Western improvement. 
 If a railway is proposed, the objection is at 
 once raised that it would destroy the Feng 
 Shui of the neighborhood by disturbing the 
 sepulchres of the dead. If a line of tele- 
 graph is suggested, the promoters are 
 promptly told that the shadows thrown by 
 the wires on the houses they pass would out- 
 rage the Feng Shui of the neighborhood 
 and bring disaster and death in their train. 
 
 In the minds of the people Feng Shui 
 has a very positive existence, but with the 
 mandarians, who are not all so grossly 
 ignorant, it has been found that when state 
 necessities require it, or when a sufficient 
 sum of money is likely to bei their reward, 
 the terrors of Feng Shui disappear like the 
 morning mists before the sun. The two 
 words Feng Shui mean " Wind " and 
 " Water," and are admittedly not very de- 
 scriptive of the superstitution which they 
 represent. 
 
 So far as it is possible to unravel the in- 
 tricacies of subtle Oriental idea, Feng Shui 
 appears to be a faint inkling of natural 
 
272 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 science overlaid and infinitely disfigured by 
 superstitution. As it is now interpreted, its 
 professors explain that what astrology is to 
 the star-gazer, Feng Shui is to the observer 
 of the surface of our planet. The features 
 of the globe are, we are told, but the reflex 
 of the starry heaven, and just as the con- 
 junction of certain planets presage misfor- 
 tune to mankind, so the juxtaposition of cer- 
 tain physical features of the earth are fraught 
 with like evil consequences to those under 
 their influence. 
 
 The Dragon and Tiger. 
 
 But, in addition to this, it is believed that 
 through the surface of the earth there run 
 two currents representing the male and 
 female principles of Nature, the one known 
 as the "Azure Dragon," and the other as 
 the "White Tiger." The undulations of 
 the earth's surface are held to supply to the 
 professors of Feng Shui, aided as they 
 always are by magnetic compasses, the 
 "whereabout of these occult forces. 
 
 To obtain a fortunate site these two cur- 
 rents should be in conjunction, forming as it 
 were a bent arm with their juncture at the 
 elbow. Within the angle formed by this 
 combination is the site which is calculated to 
 bring wealth and happiness to those who are 
 fortunate enough to secure it either for build- 
 ing purposes or for a graveyard. As it is 
 ■obvious that it is often impossible to secure 
 such a conjunction, the necessary formation 
 has to be supplied by artificial means. 
 
 A semicircle of trees planted to cover the 
 back of a house answers all the purposes of the 
 "Azure Dragon " and "White Tiger," while 
 in a level country, a bank of earth of the 
 same shape, surrounding a tomb, is equally 
 effective. Through the mist and folly of this 
 superstition there appears a small particle of 
 reason, and it is beyond question that the 
 
 sites chosen by these professors are such as 
 avoid many of the ill effects of the climate. 
 
 Many years ago, when we first settled at 
 Hong Kong, the mortality among the soldiers 
 who occupied the Murray Barracks was ter- 
 rible. By the advice of the colonial surgeon, 
 a grove of bamboos was planted at the back 
 of the buildings. The effect of this arrange- 
 ment was largely to diminish the sickness 
 among the troops, and it was so strictly 
 in accordance with the rules of Feng Shui 
 that the natives at once assumed that the 
 surgeon was a past-master in the science. 
 
 Again, when we formed the new foreign 
 settlement on the Shamien site at Canton, the 
 Chinese prophesied that evil would befall the 
 dwellings, and " when it was discovered that 
 every house built on Shamien was overrun as 
 soon as built with white ants, boldly defying 
 coal-tar, carbolic acid, and all other foreign 
 appliances ; when it was noticed that the 
 English consul, though having a special 
 residence built for him there, would rather 
 live two miles off under the protecting 
 shadow of a pagoda, it was a clear triumph 
 Feng Shui and of Chinese statesmanship." 
 
 Barring Out Evil. 
 
 In front of every house which is protected 
 at the rear by the approved genial influences, 
 there should be a pond, and the approach to 
 the door should be winding, for the double 
 purpose of denying a direct mode of egress to 
 the fortunate breath of nature secured by the 
 conditions of the site, 'and of preventing the 
 easy ingress of malign influences. For the 
 same reason a movable screen is commonly 
 placed in the open doorway of a house, 
 which, while standing in the way of the 
 admission of supernatural evil, effectually 
 wards off the very actual discomfort of a 
 draught. 
 
 With equal advantage a pair of stone 
 
THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 273 
 
 lions placed at the doorway of a house which 
 is unfortunate enough to be faced by a 
 straight lane or street are said to overcome 
 the noxious currents which might'be tempted 
 by the direct access to attack the dwelling. 
 
 Temple architecture differs little from that 
 of the houses, and varies in the same way 
 from splendor to squalor, from gorgeous 
 shrines built with the costly woods of Borneo 
 and roofed in with resplendent glazed tiles to 
 lath-and-plaster sheds covered in with mud 
 'roofing. In country districts, and more 
 especially in hilly regions, Buddhists show a 
 marked predilection for the most sheltered 
 and beautiful spots provided by nature, and 
 there rear monasteries which might well 
 tempt men of less ascetic mould than that 
 they profess to be made of to assume the 
 cowl. 
 
 Sumptuous Temples of Buddha. 
 
 The contemplative life which they are in 
 theory supposed to lead is held to tempt them 
 to retire from the busy haunts of men and 
 to seek in the deep ravines and sheltered 
 valleys the repose and quiet which in more 
 public positions would be denied them. It 
 says much for the charity of the people that 
 out of their .poverty such sumptuous edifices 
 can be raised to the glory of Buddha. 
 
 Many owe their existence to the benefi- 
 cence of Emperors, and others to the super- 
 stition of notables who, in the performance 
 of vows, have reared stately temples to the 
 beneficent avatars of Buddha who have 
 listened to their prayers. The majority, 
 however, are built from the doles secured by 
 the priests from the wretched resources of 
 the people. With indefatigable labor these 
 religious beggars draw into their nets fish 
 great and small, and prey on the superstition 
 of the people for the glorification of their 
 faith. 
 
 18 
 
 Sometimes, however, the self-denial is not 
 confined to the donors. Devout priests 
 arouse the zeal of their congregations by 
 placing thfentselves in penitential positions 
 until the building money is collected, and 
 thus add to their claims on the people by 
 appealing to their pity. Not long ago, a 
 begging priest, zealous for the faith, erected 
 for himself a wooden case like a sentry-box 
 in one of the public thoroughfares of Pekin. 
 Long and sharp nails were driven into the 
 case on all sides from without, leaving their 
 points projecting inwards. 
 
 A Shrewd Beggar, 
 
 In this case the priest took his stand, and 
 declared his intention of remaining there 
 until the sum required for building the 
 temple for which he pleaded had been col- 
 lected. The construction of the case made 
 it impossible that he could either sit down 
 or lean in any position which would secure 
 him against the points of the nails. 
 
 For two years he stood, or professed to 
 have stood, in this impossible position, which 
 was mitigated as time went on by the with- 
 drawal of the nails, one by one, as the sum 
 of money which each was held to represent 
 was collected from the passers-by. 
 
 For the most part the bridges of China 
 are high wooden structures, such as those 
 with which the willow-pattern plates have 
 made us familiar, but occasionally, and espe- 
 cially on the highways to the capital, sub- 
 stantial stone bridges stretching in a series of 
 arches across the streams are met with, care- 
 fully wrought and adorned with all kinds of 
 fantastic devices. 
 
 A noticeable instance of a bridge of this 
 kind is one which crosses the river Hwen 
 oh the west of Pekin. Though upwards of 
 six hundred years old, its neighborhood to 
 the capital has secured its preservation. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 COUNTRY LIFE IN CHINA. 
 
 OF the four classes into which the 
 people of China are traditionally 
 divided, the first is that of lit- 
 erati or scholars. These are 
 those, who, having graduated at the Exami- 
 nation Halls, are waiting in the often forlorn 
 hope of obtaining official appointments. 
 They have certain privileges attaching to 
 their order, and are generally recognized by 
 the mandarins as brevet members of their 
 own rank. They have, under certain condi- 
 tions, the right of entree into the presence of 
 the local officials, and the law forbids that 
 they should be punished or tortured until 
 they have been stripped of their degrees by 
 an Imperial edict. 
 
 As it would be beneath the dignity of a 
 graduate to take to trade, and as there are 
 many thousands more of them than there 
 are places for them to fill, the country is 
 burdened with an idle population who are 
 too proud to work, but who are not ashamed 
 to live the life of hangers-on to the skirts of 
 those who are better off than themselves. 
 
 As a rule they are poor men, and the 
 temptation to enrich themselves by means of 
 illegal exactions is often too strong, for the 
 resistance of their feeble virtue. The 
 glamour which surrounds their names as 
 graduates, and the influence which they pos- 
 sess with the mandarins, incline the people, 
 who by long usage are accustomed to yield, 
 to bow their necks unresistingly to their ex- 
 actions. To the mandarins they are a con- 
 stant source of annoyance. They arrogate 
 to themselves the powers which belong by 
 274 
 
 right to the official class and absorb some of 
 the illegal gains which, but for them, would 
 naturally find their way into the exchequers 
 of the yamuns. Being, however, no wiser 
 than the rest of their race, they, though pos- 
 sessed of all the learning and knowledge 
 within their reach, show the same remarka- 
 ble tendency towards superstitious follies as 
 is observable in the most ignorant of their 
 countrymen. It is difficult to read without . 
 a smile such memorials as one which was 
 presented to the throne, at the instigation of 
 some local scholars, with regard to the mi- 
 raculous interpositions of the god of war in 
 favor of the town of Kiehyang in Kwang- 
 tung. 
 
 The Bandits Frightened. 
 
 "In 1844," runs this strange statement, 
 " when the city was threatened with capture 
 by the leader of a secret association, the 
 banditti were affrighted and dispersed by 
 means of a visible manifestation of the spirit 
 of this deity ; and the efforts of the govern- 
 ment troops in coping with the insurgents 
 again in 1853, were similarly aided by the 
 appearance of supernatural phenomena." 
 
 As depositories of the wisdom of the 
 sages of antiquity, the literati pose as the 
 protectors of the national life. In his sacred 
 edict, Kanghsi (1662-1723) warned the 
 people against giving heed to strange doc- 
 trines, and thus gave new expression to a 
 celebrated dictum of Confucijis, which has 
 guided the conduct of his followers in all 
 matters relating to foreign religions and cus- 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN CHINA. 
 
 275 
 
 toms. "The study of strange doctrines is 
 injurious, indeed," said the sage ; and in the 
 spirit of this saying the Hterati have at dif- 
 ferent periods persecuted the rehgions of 
 Buddha and Laotsze with the same acri- 
 mony which is now characterizing their ac- 
 tion towards Christianity. 
 
 To foreigners and all their ways they are 
 implacable foes. The outrages on the Yang- 
 tse-Kiang in 1 89 1 were entirely their handi- 
 work. Once only in the history of the Em- 
 pire have they in their turn suffered persecu- 
 tion. The same Emperor who built the 
 great wall, and established for himself an 
 Empire, sought to confirm his power by de- 
 stroying the national literature, and by be- 
 heading all those scholars who still clung to 
 the traditions of their fathers. It is said 
 that persecution strengthens the character 
 and improves the moral fibre of its victims. 
 
 A Race of Bigots. 
 
 This persecution in the third century B. C; 
 may for a time have had such salutary ef- 
 fects; but, if so, all traces of these virtues 
 have long been swept away, and China has 
 become possessed of a race of scholars who 
 for ignorance, bigotry, violence and corrup- 
 tion are probably unsurpassed by educated 
 men in any country calling itself civilized. 
 
 Under happier circumstances, the existence 
 of this large body of scholars might be of 
 infinite advantage to the literature of the 
 country. With time to work and oppor- 
 tunities for research they might add lustre to 
 the writings of their countrymen and en- 
 large the borders of their national knowl- 
 edge. But the system of looking backwards 
 for models of excellence, rather than for- 
 -wards, has so contracted the field of their 
 labors, that those who write only add coni- 
 mentary to commentary on works already 
 annotated beyond recognition. 
 
 Instead of striking out for themselves new 
 grounds of investigation, they have deliber- 
 ately chosen the futile task of perpetually 
 fixing their eyes on a particular object in a 
 particular way, with the natural result that 
 their vision has become contracted and their 
 minds moulded on narrow and pedantic 
 lines. The mental activity of these men, 
 not having, therefore, any power to operate 
 in a beneficent way, exerts itself with unpre- 
 cedented vigor and hardihood in local affairs. 
 
 Infamous Placards. 
 
 No dispute arises, but one or more of 
 these social pests thrusts himself forward be- 
 tweeji the contending parties, and no fraud 
 in the revenue or wholesale extortion is free 
 from their sinister influence. The case of 
 Chow Han, who instigated the anti-Christian 
 crusade in Hunan, furnishes an instance of 
 the overwhelming power which these men 
 are occasionally able to exert. To him are 
 due the infamous placards which were used 
 to stimulate the outbreaks against foreigners 
 at Wusueh and other places ; and when the 
 crime was brought home to him, and the 
 Chinese Cabinet, at the instance of the 
 foreign ministers, ordered his arrest, not 
 only did the viceroy of the province fail to 
 comply with the command, but he actually 
 released, at the bidding of the offender, a 
 man charged with active participation in the 
 riots. i , 
 
 It is true that a futile commission was sent 
 into Hunan to investigate the charges against 
 him, but instead of bringing him to justice, 
 the commissioners pronounced him mad, 
 and recommended that he should be left un- 
 trammelled, except by a mild system of 
 supervision. 
 
 In common estimation the workers of the 
 soil stand next to the literati. From the 
 earliest dawn of legendary history, agricul- 
 
276 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 ture has been regarded as a high and en- 
 nobling calling. To Shennung, the divine 
 
 2727 years B. C, is ascribed the invention of 
 the plough and the first introduction of th^ 
 
 A CHINESE PAGODA. 
 
 husbandman, one of the legenaary emperors 
 of ancient China, who is said to have lived 
 
 art of husbandry. The connection thus 
 established between the throne and the 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN CHINA. 
 
 277 
 
 plough has been kept up through all suc- 
 ceeding ages, and at the present time the 
 Emperor, in the early spring of each year, 
 turns a furrow to inaugurate the beginning 
 of the farming season ; an example which is 
 followed in every province by the viceroy or 
 governor, who follows suit in strict imitation 
 of his Imperial master. 
 
 With the same desire to set an example to 
 her sex, the Empress, so soon as the mul- 
 berry-trees break into foliage, follows the 
 
 gentler craft of pick- 
 
 ing the leaves to sup- 
 ply food for the palace 
 silkworms. "Give 
 chief place," wrote the 
 Emperor Kanghsi, 
 " to husbandry and 
 the cultivation of the 
 mulberry tree, in order 
 to procure adequate 
 supplies of food and 
 raiment ; " to which 
 excellent advice his 
 son added, " Suffer 
 not a barren spot to 
 remain in the wilds, 
 or a lazy person to 
 ahi<}e in the cities ; 
 then a farmer will not """ 
 lay aside his plough 
 and hoe; nor the 
 
 house-wife put away her silkworms or her 
 weaving." 
 
 These commands have sunk deep into the 
 national character, and the greatest devotion 
 to their calling, sharpened, it is true, by a 
 keen sense of self-interest, is everj.'where 
 shown by Chinese farmers. From these men 
 it is impossible to withhold the highest praise 
 for their untiring industry. With endless 
 labor and inexhaustible resource they wrest 
 from the soil the very utmost that it is capa- 
 
 ble of producing. Unhappily to, them, as to 
 other classes of the community, the law as 
 it is administered is oppressively unjust. It 
 makes them poor and keeps them poor. 
 
 The principal imperial tax is derived from 
 the land, and by the law of succession it is 
 generally necessary, on the decease of the 
 head of the family, to subdivide his posses- 
 sions, which thus become a diminishing 
 quantity to each generation of successors to 
 his wealth. Low grinding poverty is the re- 
 
 ?S St * 
 
 CHINESE CURIOSITY SHOP. 
 
 suit, and it is remarkable, though not sur- 
 prising, to obsA-ve the large number of 
 crimes which are attributable to disputes 
 arising out of feuds in connection with the 
 inheritance of the land and its products. 
 
 Probably there is no potentate on the earth 
 who can say as truly as the Emperor of 
 China can "The Empire is mine." Not only 
 the lives and property of his subjects are at 
 his disposal, but the land which they till is 
 part of the heritage which belongs to him. 
 
278 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 Just as he alone sacrifices to Heaven, and as 
 he alone is the one Emperor over all the 
 earth — in accordance with the dictum of an 
 ancient sage, " There is one sun in the sky 
 and one Emperor over the earth " — so he is 
 the universal landlord of the soil of China. 
 Although the Empire as a whole is thickly- 
 populated, there are always some districts 
 which remain uncultivated. 
 
 CHINESE BABY IN ITS WINTER CRADLE. 
 
 To find a parallel to the agricultural con- 
 dition of the country, we must look to 
 colonial empires, where settlers apply for un- 
 inhabited lands, and receive the rights over 
 them in exchange for small annual payments. 
 This is the principle on which lands have 
 been appropriated in times past, and still are 
 leased out to farmers. As a rule, the land 
 so let is taken up by a clan, the members of 
 
 which cultivate it. Ten families constitute, 
 as a rule, a village holding, each family farm- 
 ing about ten acres. To such a community 
 is allotted a common village plot, which is 
 cultivated by each family in turn, and from 
 which the tribute grain is collected and paid. 
 The surplus, if any, is divided between the 
 families. 
 
 Towards the end of the year a meeting is 
 held, at which a division of the profits 
 is made on one condition. Any farmer 
 who is unable to produce the receipt for 
 the income tax on his farm ceases to be 
 entitled to any benefit arising from the 
 village plot. The land is classified ac- 
 cording to its position and productive- 
 ness, and pays taxes in proportion to 
 the advantages which it enjoys. Two 
 dollars and a half per acre is an average 
 rental for the best land. It was once 
 complained, in a memorial to the throne, 
 that by faulty administration the tax 
 frequently amounted to six times its 
 nominal assessment. 
 
 Five. Harvests Free. 
 
 By way of a set-off against that exac- 
 tion, a merciful provision in the law lays 
 it down that a farmer who reclaims lands 
 from a state of nature shall be allowed 
 to reap five harvests before being visited 
 by the tax-collector. 
 
 It often happens that an unjust gov- 
 ernment, by timely concessions, gains for 
 itself credit for wisdom and lenity when it is 
 entitled to approval only for having had the 
 wit to see exactly how far the people will en- 
 dure the weight of its exactions. Such 
 popularity is gained as easily as a spend- 
 thrift acquires a reputation for generosity, 
 and is enjoyed by the Chinese government 
 by virtue of certain exemptions from the 
 land-tax, which are granted when the country 
 
COUNTRY LIFE IN CHINA. 
 
 279 
 
 labors under aggravated circumstances of 
 distress. 
 
 When the Emperor passes through a dis- 
 trict, it may be on a visit to the Imperial 
 tombs, the people are required to contribute 
 their labor, and the magnates their money, 
 towards making smooth the way before him. 
 The presence of the potentate disarranges 
 the course of existence and the prosecution 
 of industries in the neighborhood. Fields 
 are left unploughed and crops unsown until 
 the tyranny is overpassed, and for the bene- 
 fit of the sufferers the land-tax for the year 
 is forgiven them. 
 
 The Grain Tax. 
 
 The same indulgence is granted to farmers 
 in provinces which are visited with long, 
 droughts, excessive floods, or plagues of 
 locusts. The probability is that the govern- 
 ment, recognizing that the attempt to enforce 
 the tax in such districts would be futile, has 
 the wisdom to make a virtue of necessity. 
 The grain-tax is also levied from the lands 
 <;lassified as "good," and this, with the land- 
 tax, the salt-tax, and customs dues, form the 
 main bulk of the revenue of the Empire. 
 According to a recent calculation, these 
 sources of revenue produce ^^99,^75,000. 
 
 In a country such as China, which is sub- 
 ject to evfery variety of temperature, from 
 tropical heat to almost arctic cold, the pro- 
 ducts are necessarily as various as the sys- 
 tems of agriculture are different. In the 
 southern provinces, where rice is the staple 
 crop of the farmer, irrigation is an absolute 
 necessity. The rice plants are put out in 
 fields inundated with water, and the crops 
 are gathered in when the ground is in the 
 same condition. This need makes it impera- 
 tive that the fields should be banked in, and 
 that a constant supply of water should be 
 obtainable. 
 
 For this last purpose the farmers exercise 
 that particular ingenuity with which they are 
 especially endowed. Wherever it is possible, 
 streams from the hills are carried by aque- 
 ducts to the different farms, and the water is 
 distributed by minute channels in such a way 
 as to carry the fertilizing current to the 
 various fields and crops. When such sup- 
 plies are wanting, water is raised from canals, 
 rivers, and wells in several ways. By a sys- 
 tem of buckets fastened to an endless chain, 
 and passing over an axle, which is turned 
 either by the feet of men or by a connecting- 
 wheel worked by oxen, the water is raised 
 from the river or canal to the level of the 
 fields, where it is discharged into troughs at 
 the rate sometimes of three hundred tons a 
 day. This is the sakiyeh of the Egyptians ; 
 and should any traveller from the banks of 
 the Nile visit the plains of China, he might 
 recognize in the method adopted for raising 
 water from wells the shaduf of the land of 
 the Pharaohs. 
 
 Irrigating Rice Fields. 
 
 A long horizontal pole, at one end of 
 which is a bucket, and on the other end a 
 certain weight, is fixed on an upright in such 
 a position that on raising the loaded end the 
 bucket descends into the well, and with the 
 help of the counterbalancing weight can be 
 raised full of water with ease and rapidity. 
 If the level of the river or canal be only 
 triflingly lower than the field to be irrigated, 
 two men standing on the bank and holding a 
 bucket between them by ropes draw water 
 with great rapidity by dipping the bucket 
 into the stream and by swinging it up to the 
 bank, where its contents are emptied into the 
 trough prepared to receive them. 
 
 In the north of the country wheat, millet 
 and other grains are largely grown, the rain 
 supply furnishing all the moisture needed. 
 
CHAPTTKR XVI. 
 AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND EXPORTS. 
 
 WHETHER in the north or in 
 the south, the greatest care 
 and ingenuity are used in 
 providing manure for the 
 land. Nothing is wasted. The usual ani- 
 mal and vegetable manures are carefully 
 collected and spread over the fields, while 
 scraps of all kinds which contain any ferti- 
 lizing matter, and which in most countries 
 are disregarded, are turned to account by 
 these most frugal tillers of the soil. Accus- 
 tomed as we are to large farms and ex- 
 tended systems of agriculture, Chinese farms 
 appear to partake' more of the nature of mar- 
 ket gardens than of agricultural holdings. 
 
 The implements used are primitive in the 
 extreme, and are such as, we learn from the 
 sculptures, were used in ancient Assyria. 
 Two only may be said to be generally used, 
 the plow and the hoe. The first of these is 
 little more than a spade fastened to a single 
 handle by bamboo bands. As a rule, it is 
 drawn by a buffalo or buffaloes, and some 
 travellers even claim to have seen women 
 harnessed in the same yoke with these beasts 
 of burden. 
 
 From the shape of the share the Chinese 
 plow does little more than disturb the sur- 
 face of the soil, and rarely penetrates more 
 than four or five inches. In the compound 
 character which is used to express it on 
 paper, the use of oxen as beasts of draught, 
 and the results which it is instrumental in 
 bringing about, find expression in the three 
 component parts — oxen, sickle and grain. 
 The spade is seldom used, and the hoe is 
 280 
 
 made to take its place. Rakes and bill- 
 hooks complete the farmer's stock-in-trade. 
 The bamboo, which is made to serve 
 almost every purpose, forms the material 
 of each part of the rake; while the bill- 
 hook has a treble debt to pay, serving as 
 a pruning-knife in the spring, a scythe in 
 the summer, and a sickle when the grain 
 is ripe to harvest. 
 
 An Ancient Calendar. 
 
 One of the earliest works existing in the 
 language is an agricultural calendar, which 
 describes the various processes of nature and 
 the industries of the agriculturist throughout 
 the year. It warns the farmer when to look 
 for the first movements of spring, and de- 
 scribes for his benefit the signs of the differ- 
 ent seasons. It tells him when to sow his 
 seed, and when he may expect to reap his 
 harvest; and it follows with the love of a 
 naturalist the movements and habits of the 
 beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. 
 
 This work was penned in about the eigh- 
 teenth century B. C, and since that time the 
 dignity which attaches by tradition to agri- 
 culture has led to the publication, from time 
 to time, of large and numerous works on 
 the subject. Probably two of the best 
 known of these books illustrate the two 
 leading branches of the farmer's art, the 
 cultivation of rice and the growth of the 
 mulberry for the food of silkworms. Every 
 process in both industries is minutely de- 
 scribed and illustrated. 
 
 The glimpses which these pictures give us 
 
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND EXPORTS. 
 
 281 
 
 of country life in China suggest a domes- 
 ticity and brightness which form a strong 
 contrast to the fate of the poorer classes 
 whose lots are cast in the crowded lanes 
 and streets of the cities. 
 Madame de Stael said in 
 one of her books that 
 she had travelled all 
 over Europe and had 
 met with nothing but 
 men and women. We 
 may extend 'the range 
 to China, and may see 
 in the pictures drawn 
 in the above-mentioned 
 work, of the farmyards, 
 the dwellings, the kitch- 
 ens, and the store-rooms 
 of the silk producers of 
 China, pleasing parallels 
 to the brighter aspects of 
 English agricultural life. 
 The employment of 
 women in arranging and 
 managing the silkworm 
 industry, gives an inter- 
 est to their lives, and is 
 a sure preventive against 
 that languor which so 
 often overtakes the un- 
 employed women of the 
 cities. The cultivation 
 of silk can be traced 
 back almost as far as 
 the beginning of agri- 
 culture, and up to the 
 advent of the Mongol 
 dynasty, in the thir- 
 teenth century, it flour- 
 ished exceedingly. With the arrival, how- 
 ever, of the hordes of Jenghis Khan came 
 the introduction of Indian cotton, which, 
 from its cheapness and utility, was speedily 
 
 preferred to the silken products of the looms 
 of China. 
 
 For four hundred years the industry was 
 neglected, and continued to exist only in the 
 
 A NATIVE CHINESE MISSIONARY. 
 
 provinces of Szechuan, Honan, Kwangtung 
 and Chehkiang, where just enough stuff was 
 manufactured to supply the wants of the 
 government and the local consumers. With 
 
282 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 the establishment of the present Manchu 
 dynasty and the arrival of foreigners, the 
 demand for the material which had given 
 its name to China all over the ancient world 
 — serica — led to a revival of the industry, 
 and at the present time silk is produced in 
 
 A MANDARIN RECEIVING A VISITOR 
 
 every province in the Empire. In those 
 northern districts where the cold forbids 
 the growth of the mulberry tree the worms 
 are fed on a kind of oak, while all over the 
 central and southern provinces the mulberry 
 orchards bear evidence of the universality of 
 
 the industry. At Ning-po alone a hundred 
 thousand bales of silken goods are turned 
 out every year, and in most of the districts 
 of Central China the people are as dependent' 
 for their livelihood on the trade as the peo- 
 ple of England are on the production of coal 
 and iron. The prefect of Soo- 
 chow, desiring to take advan- 
 tage of this widespread calling, 
 proposed to levy a small tax 
 on every loom. The result, 
 however, proved that his 
 power was not commensurate 
 with his will. The people re- 
 fused as one man to pay the 
 issessment, and threatened to 
 st p their looms if the tax 
 were insisted upon. The 
 matter was referred to Pekin, 
 and with the cautious wisdom 
 which characterizes the action 
 of the government towards 
 the people, the proposal was 
 left unenforced. A crop as 
 general, or even more general 
 than silk, is opium. In every 
 province the poppy is grown 
 in ever-increasing quantities, 
 and in Yun-nan, one of the 
 principal producing regions, 
 the late Mr. Baber estimated, 
 as a result of his personal 
 experience, the poppy-fields 
 constituted a third of the 
 whole cultivation of the prov- 
 ince. It is difficult to deter- 
 mine when the poppy was 
 first grown in China, but the references to 
 it which are met with in the literature of the 
 eleventh and twelfth centuries confirm the 
 fact that it was then cultivated, and that the 
 same kind of cakes were made from the 
 seeds of the plant as are now commonly 
 
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND EXPORTS. 
 
 283 
 
 eaten in the province of Szechuan. The 
 habit of smoking opium is of a far later 
 date, and gave rise to a marked opposition 
 to the drug by the government of the coun- 
 try. But, like most Chinese enactments, the 
 one forbidding the habit was only partially 
 enforced, and it is certain that the practice 
 of smoking opium had become confirmed 
 among the people before the Indian drug 
 was first imported. From that time until 
 within the last few years the government 
 showed a pronounced hostility to the trade, 
 but stultified its professions by never effec- 
 tually carrying out its own prohibitions 
 against the growth of the poppy. 
 
 Lovers of Opium. 
 
 Several motives conduced to these results. 
 The growth of the poppy not only brought 
 large profits to the farmers, but filled the 
 pockets of the mandarins, who, while pro- 
 testing against the cultivation, accepted 
 bribes to ignore the evidence of their eyes. 
 Repeated Imperial edicts became dead let- 
 ters in face of these opposing interests, and 
 year by year the white patches widened and 
 multiplied throughout the Empire. In a 
 country like China, where the value of sta- 
 tistics is unknown, it is difficult to arrive at 
 any accurate idea as to the number of opium 
 smokers in the country. 
 
 In Szechuan it is reckoned that seven- 
 tenths of the adult male population smoke 
 opium. On the shores of the rivers and 
 canals the practice is universal, and affords 
 the people the same relief from malarial 
 fevers that the peasants in the fens of Lin- 
 colnshire derive from eating morphia. By 
 all such people the native opium is the only 
 form obtainable, and at Tiensin it is esti- 
 mated that nine chests of native opium are 
 consumed to one chest of the foreign prepa- 
 ration. 
 
 Since the legalization of the opium trade 
 (i860) even the nominal restrictions placed 
 upon native growers have been withdrawn, 
 and the government has the advantage of 
 deriving a large revenue from the crops. 
 From the province of Kansuh, which is one 
 of the poorest in the Empire, the tax on 
 opium amounts to at least twenty thousand 
 dollars a year, and this in face of the con- 
 stant complaints published in the Pekin Ga- 
 zette of the smuggling which prevails in that 
 and other districts. 
 
 The small compass into which opium can 
 be packed encourages illicit traffic in it. 
 Candidates for examination going to their 
 provincial cities, merchants travelling from 
 province to province, and sailors trading 
 between the coast ports, find it easy to 
 smuggle enough to supply their wants; 
 while envoys from tributary states whose 
 baggage by international courtesy is left 
 unexamined, make full use of their . oppor- 
 tunities by importing as much of the drug 
 as they can carry free of duty. 
 
 Wholesale Smuggling. 
 
 Some years ago, when an Imperial Com- 
 missioner was entering the port of Canton, 
 the custom-house authorities had notice 
 given them that the commissioner's fol- 
 lowers were bringing a large venture dis- 
 guised as personal effects in their luggage. 
 The question arose what was to be done, 
 and, with the timidity common to subordi- 
 nate officials, the provincial authorities de- 
 termined to ignore the information they had 
 received rather than offend so potent a mag- 
 nate as the commissioner. By this derelic- 
 tion of duty the customs were the poorer by 
 some twenty thousand taels. 
 
 So portable is the drug in its prepared 
 state that in the provinces, where silver is 
 not always obtainable, it is used as currency, 
 
284 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 and travellers are commonly in the habit of 
 paying their hotel bills with pieces of opium 
 of the value demanded by the landlord. 
 This is not the place to discuss at length 
 the effect of opium smoking on the people. 
 The whole subject, however, is so sur- 
 rounded with sentimental enthusiasm that 
 a fapt, however small, bearing on the ques- 
 tion is worth recording. It is commonly 
 said by the opponents of the trade that so 
 
 lieve their sufferings. By deprivation they 
 are cured for the time being of the habit, 
 and in no instance have fatal consequences 
 resulted from this Spartan method. 
 
 Unmindful of the lesson thus taught, mis- 
 sionaries are not unfrequently in the habit of 
 attempting to cure opium smokers by ad- 
 ministering morphia pills. That they effect 
 cures by this means is very certain, but the 
 doubt arises whether the remedy is not worse 
 
 A MOUNTED MILITARY BOWMAN OF ANCIENT TIMES. 
 
 pernicious a hold does the habit of smoking 
 acquire over those who indulge in it that 
 only by the use of palliatives can a con- 
 firmed smoker be weaned from the habit 
 without endangering his life. One fact dis- 
 poses of this assertion. In Hong Kong 
 jail, where opium smokers of every degree 
 of habituation are constantly imprisoned, no 
 notice is taken of their craving for the drug, 
 and no remedies are found necessary to re- 
 
 than the disease. The processes through 
 which the opium has to go before it reaches 
 the lungs of the smoker unquestionably de- 
 prive it of some of its deleterious ingredients. 
 When, however, opium is eaten in the shape 
 of morphia, the safeguards provided by the 
 pipe are absent, and the man who gives up 
 his pipe for the pill finds that his last state 
 is worse than his first. 
 
 Next to silk, however, the product which 
 
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND EXPORTS. 
 
 285 
 
 we most nearly associate with China is tea, 
 which proclaims its nationality by the two 
 names tea and cKa, by which it is known 
 all over the world. The English who took 
 their first cargoes from the neighborhood of 
 Amoy, know it by the name, or rather our 
 grandmothers knew it by the name, by which 
 it is known in that part of China. Te is the 
 Amoy pronunciation of the word which is 
 called cKa in the central, western and north- 
 ern provinces of the Empire. The 
 Russians, therefore, who have al- 
 ways drawn their supplies through 
 Siberia, call the leaf cKa, while the 
 French and ourselves know it by 
 its southern name. There is rea- 
 son to believe that the plant has 
 been known and valued in China 
 for some thousands of years, and 
 in one of the Confucian classics 
 mention is made of the habit of 
 smoking a leaf which is popularly 
 believed to have been that of the tea 
 plant. But however this may be, 
 it is certain that for many cen- 
 turies the plant has been cultivated 
 over a large part of Central and 
 Southern China. At the present 
 time the provinces of Hunan, Fuh- 
 kien, Kwangtung and Ganhwuy 
 produce the best varieties. From 
 them we get our Souchong, Flow- 
 ery Pekoe, Oolong, Orange Pekoe 
 and green teas ; and it is in those provinces 
 that the competition of the teas of India and 
 Ceylon is most severely felt. 
 
 No doubt the farmers have themselves 
 principally to blame in this matter. The 
 long monopoly which they enjoyed tempted 
 them to palm off on their customers teas of 
 an inferior kind. Trees which had long 
 passed the normal period of bearing were 
 robbed of their leaves to fill the chests sent 
 
 to London and Paris; pruning was neg- 
 lected, and weeds were left to grow apace. 
 The inevitable' nemesis followed, and now, 
 when too late, the farmers are becoming 
 conscious of the folly of their neglect. 
 
 In ordinary times great care is taken in 
 selecting the seed, and when after careful 
 tending the seedlings have reached a height 
 of four or five inches, they are planted out 
 in the plantations in rows, two or three feet 
 
 A CHINESE MERCHANT OF CANTON. 
 
 apart. For two years the plant is allowed 
 to grow untouched, and it is only at the end 
 of the third year that it is called upon to 
 yield its first crop of leaves. After this the 
 plant is subjected to three harvests: namely, 
 in the third, fifth and eighth months. 
 
 The leaves when plucked are first dried in 
 the sun, and the remaining moisture is then 
 extracted from them by the action of nude- 
 footed men and women, who trample on 
 
286 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 them, as Spanish peasants tread out the juice 
 of the vine. They are then allowed to heat 
 for some hours, and after having been rolled 
 in the hand, are spread out in the sun, or, if 
 the weather be cloudy, are slowly baked over 
 charcoal fires. 
 
 Among the wealthier natives the infusion 
 is not generally made as with us, in tea-pots, 
 but each drinker puts a pinch of tea into his 
 cup, and, having added boiling water, drinks 
 the mixture as soon as the full flavor of the 
 
 COURTYARD OF A CHINESE HOSTELRY. 
 
 tea has been extracted, and before the tannin 
 has been boiled out of the leaves. By high 
 and low, rich and poor, the beverage is 
 drunk, and- the absence of nervous affections 
 among the people is strong evidence of the 
 innoxious effect of the infusion in this respect. 
 Not only is it drunk in every household in 
 the Empire, but tea-houses abound in the cit- 
 ies, in the market-places and by the highways. 
 Like the London coffee-shops in the time of 
 the Stuarts, the tea-houses in the cities form 
 
 the places of meeting between merchants for 
 the transaction of business and between friends, 
 who congregate to discuss local affairs and the 
 latest official scandals. Women only are, by 
 social regulations, excluded from these hospi- 
 tableplaces of entertainment, which commonly 
 occupy prominent positions in the principal 
 streets of towns. But where such sites are not 
 easily attainable, Buddhist priests, with a fine 
 disregard of the holiness of their temples, very 
 commonly let off a portion of the precincts to 
 enterprising tea-men. 
 The form in which 
 tea is exported for 
 general European 
 and American use is 
 not that which is 
 suited for land trans- 
 port. In carrying 
 goods by road cubic 
 space is a matter of 
 vital importance. 
 For centuries the 
 Chinese have sup- 
 plied the Tibetans 
 with tea in so com- 
 pressed a form as to 
 be readily portable 
 by carts, on beasts of 
 burden, or on men's 
 shoulders. In these 
 ways it has long been 
 customary to carry bricks of tea across the 
 mountain ranges which mark the western 
 frontier of China; and when a demand for 
 tea sprang up in Russia, like circumstances 
 suggested a like method. 
 
 The principal place for preparing the brick 
 tea is Hankow, where six or more factories 
 are constantly engaged in the manufacture 
 of it. Something has to be sacrificed to 
 expediency, and it is incontestable that the 
 Russians and other consumers of brick tea 
 
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS AND EXPORTS. 
 
 287 
 
 lose in flavor what they gain by the smaller 
 compass. The dust of tea, and therefore 
 a poor kind of tea, is best suited for forming 
 bricks, and even the inferiority thus entailed 
 is increased by the process employed to weld 
 the masses together. 
 
 This is done by a method of steaming, 
 which encourages an evaporation of both 
 flavor and freshness, and when it has effected 
 its purpose by moistening the dust, the mix- 
 ture is put into wooden molds and pressed 
 into the shape of bricks. It is left to stand 
 in the molds for a week, and the bricks are 
 then wrapped up separately in paper and 
 packed in bamboo baskets, sixty- 
 four filling a basket. As a rule, 
 tea-growers are rich and well-to- 
 do men, whereas the ordinary 
 agriculturist is raised above the 
 rank of a peasant, and has little 
 to congratulate himself upon be- 
 yond the fact that his calling is 
 held up to general approbation, 
 and that it inherits a record 
 which is as old as that of the 
 race itself. 
 
 One of the largest products 
 is straw braid from Northern 
 China. This most useful class 
 of goods found a place in the market after 
 the opening of the port of Tientsin (i860), 
 and rapidly commended itself to the foreign 
 merchant. But just as in tea, so in this 
 braid, the Chinese producers have grown 
 careless of the quality which they present 
 to their customers. The inevitable result 
 of this course has followed, and at the pres- 
 ent time the elasticity which characterized 
 the earlier movements of the trade has 
 ceased to be observable. 
 
 Wool from the plains of Mongolia and 
 the table-lands of Thibet, and tobacco from 
 the southern provinces of the Empire, form 
 
 considerable items in the list of exports, 
 together amounting in value to 2,620,164 
 taels. Arsenic also is produced in consid- 
 erable quantities in the country, and al- 
 though the home consumption is larger 
 than might be expected, there is yet a 
 surplus left for the benefit of foreigners. 
 The native farmers use it with a freedom 
 which suggests the possibility of danger, in 
 protecting growing plants, and especially 
 rice plants, from' the insects which infest 
 them. 
 
 As an ingredient in the pastille which is 
 used to smoke out mosquitoes, and in the 
 
 CHINESE STUDENTS. 
 
 manufacture of the tobacco which is smoked 
 in hubble-bubble pipes, it is largely employed. 
 To the tobacco it is said to impart a pungent 
 flavor and an invigorating tonic. Its prop- 
 erty as a strengthening medicine is highly 
 valued by doctors, who prescribe it largely 
 for their patients. The absence of all legis- 
 lation regulating the sale of drugs makes it 
 easy for evil-minded persons to possess 
 themselves of this and other poisons; and 
 the gross ignorance of the Chinese, even 
 the most highly educated, in all matters 
 related to diagnoses secures a praictical im- 
 munity to poisoners. 
 
288 
 
 CHINA: PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 It is true that occasionally cases of poi- 
 soning by arsenic are reported in the Pekin 
 Gazette, but almost invariably it is found 
 that the murder is discovered, not by the 
 recognition of the symptoms produced by 
 the poison, but by the confession of the 
 murder or his accomplices. When the un- 
 ravelling of a crime depends on these coin- 
 cidences, it is fair to assume that, in a great 
 majority of cases, the offence is never dis- 
 covered at all. 
 
 The Luxuriant Bamboo. 
 
 Like silk, the bamboo is a universal prod- 
 uct in China, and the multitude of uses to 
 -which the shrub is turned justifies its eleva- 
 tion to an equal rank of usefulness, so far as 
 the natives are concerned, with that article 
 of merchandise. Its use is incomparably 
 more general than that of silk, and enters 
 into the life of every being in the Empire, 
 from the Son of Heaven to the scavenger in 
 the streets. It grows over the greater part 
 of the country in great profusion and in a 
 number of varieties, and from the moment 
 it first shows itself above the ground it is 
 forced into the service of man. The shoots 
 come out of the ground nearly full-sized, 
 four to six inches in diameter, and are cut 
 like asparagus for the table. Sedentary 
 Buddhist priests raise this Lenten fare for 
 themselves or for sale, and extract the taba- 
 sheer from the joints of the old culms, to 
 sell as a precious medicine for almost any- 
 thing that ails one. The roots are carved 
 into fantastic and ingenious images and 
 stands, or divided into egg-shape divining- 
 blocks to ascertain the will of the gods, or 
 trimmed into lantern handles, canes and 
 umbrella sticks. 
 
 The tapering culms are used for all pur- 
 poses that poles can be applied to in carrying, 
 propelling, supporting, and measuring, for 
 
 which their light, elastic, tubular structure, 
 guarded by a coating of siliceous skin, and 
 strengthened by a thick septum at each joint, 
 mostadmirably fits them. The pillars and 
 props of houses, the framework of awnings, 
 the ribs of mat sails, and the handles of rakes 
 are each furnished by these culms. 
 
 So, also, are fences and all kinds of frames, 
 coops, and cages, the wattles of abatis, and 
 the ribs of umbrellas and fans. The leaves 
 are sewn into rain-cloaks for farmers and 
 sailors, and into thatches for covering their 
 huts and boats; they are pinned into linings 
 for tea-boxes, plaited into immense umbrellas 
 to screen the huckster and his stall from the 
 sun and rain, or into coverings for theatres 
 and sheds. The wood, cut into splints of 
 proper sizes and forms, is woven into baskets 
 of every shape and fancy, sewn into win- 
 dow-curtains and door-screens, plaited into 
 awnings and coverings for tea-chests or 
 sugar-cones, and twisted into cables. 
 
 Universally Used. 
 
 The shavings and curled shreds aid softer 
 things in stuffing pillows ; while other parts 
 supply the bed for sleeping, the chopsticks 
 for eating, the pipe for smoking, and the 
 broom for sweeping. The mattress to lie 
 upon, the chair to sit upon, the table to eat 
 on, the food to eat, and the fuel to cook it 
 with, are also derivable from bamboo. The 
 master makes his ferule from it, the carpen- 
 ter his foot measure, the farmer his water- 
 pipes and straw-rakes, the grocer his gill 
 and pint cups, and the mandarin his dreaded 
 instrument of punishment. 
 
 When such are the uses to which the 
 bamboo is put in the land of its growth, it is 
 surprising that there should be any surplus 
 for exportation. But the demand for it for 
 ornamental and useful purposes in Europe 
 is constant. 
 
BOOK 11. 
 
 Japan and the Japarpeds. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 EARLY HISTORY OF JAPAN. 
 
 THE history of Japan commences with 
 the conquefor who came from the 
 isles of the south. According to 
 the annals of the Empire, he was a 
 native prince and lord of a small territory at 
 the southern extremity of the island of 
 Kiousiou. Obscure tradition attributes to 
 him a distant origin : the birthplace of his 
 ancestors, if not his own, is said to have 
 been the little archipelago of the Liou-Kiou 
 Islands, which forms the link between For- 
 mosa, southern China, and Japan. 
 
 Six centuries before his time, an expedi- 
 tion from Formosa and the Asiatic continent, 
 headed by a certain Prince Taipe or Taifak, 
 had reached the shores of Kiousiou, having 
 proceeded from island to island ; but it was 
 in the year 660 B. C. that the iirst historical 
 personage, Sannoo, whose memory is cele- 
 brated under the name of Zinmou, makes 
 his appearance. Although he was the 
 youngest of four sons, his father had named 
 him his successor from his fifteenth year. 
 He ascended the throne at the age of forty- 
 five years, without any opposition on the part 
 of his brothers. 
 
 An old retainer, whose adventurous life 
 had led him to the distant isles behind which 
 the sun rises, loved to describe to him the 
 
 beauty of their shores, on which the gods 
 themselves formerly sought refuge. "Now," 
 said he, "they are inhabited by barbarous 
 tribes, always at war with one another. If 
 the prince desires to profit by their divisions, 
 their men of arms, however skilful they may 
 be in the management of the lance, the bow, 
 and the sword, being dressed only in coarse 
 fabrics, or the skins of savage beasts, cannot 
 resist a dicipHned army protected by helmets 
 and iron cuirasses." 
 
 A Fleet of War-Junks. 
 
 Zinmou lent a willing ear to the sugges- 
 tions of the old retainer ; collected all his 
 disposable forces, placed them under the 
 orders of his elder brothers and his sons, 
 embarked them upon a flotilla of war-junks 
 perfectly equipped, and, assuming command 
 of the expedition, set sail, after taking leave 
 of his home, which neither he nor his broth- 
 ers were ever to see again. 
 
 After he had doubled the southeast point 
 of Kiousiou, he sailed along the eastern side 
 of the island, keeping close to the shore 
 after the fashion of the ancient Normans, 
 making occasional descents, giving battle 
 when he was resisted, and forming alliances 
 when he found the nob'es or chiefs of clans 
 
 289 
 
290 
 
 JAPAN AND 
 
 disposed to assist him in his enterprise, thus 
 showing a friendly spirit. 
 
 It was evident that all this coast had been 
 the theatre of former invasions. The popu- 
 lation was composed of the ruling class, and 
 serfs attached to the land. In some of the 
 chapels of the national Kamis, stone arms 
 are exhited, which were used by the primi- 
 tive populations at the epoch when, under 
 certain unknown circumstances, they came 
 in contact with a superior civilization. 
 
 Armed With Bows and Arrows. 
 
 When Zinmou made his appearance, 
 Walls and palisades protected the families of 
 the soldiers and the masters of the country. 
 The latter were armed with bows and long 
 arrows ; a great sword with a carved hilt and 
 a naked blade, worn in the folds of the 
 girdle, completed their equipment. 
 
 Their richest adornments consisted of a 
 chain of magatamas, or cut gems, which they 
 wore hanging on the side above the right hip. 
 Among these stones were rock crystal, ser- 
 pentine, jasper, agates, amethysts, and to- 
 pazes. Some were in the form of a ball or 
 an egg, others cylindrical ; one a crescent, 
 another a broken ring. The women had 
 necklaces of a similar kind. It is said that 
 the use of the magatamas has still some con- 
 nection with certain religious solemnities in 
 the islands of Liou-Kiou, and at Yeso, in the 
 north of Japan ; and it is concluded thence 
 that it must have been common to all the 
 populations of the long chains of islands 
 extending from Formosa to Kamtschatka. 
 
 If this custom has disappeared from the 
 Central region of the Japanese archipelago, 
 the cause of the phenomenon must be sought 
 in the superior culture which characterizes 
 the inhabitants of these countries, and which 
 has led them to renounce the display of the 
 fa-lily wealth on their persons. 
 
 THE JAPANESE. 
 
 After a difficult voyage of ten months, 
 interrupted by occasional brilHant feats of 
 arms and by profitable negotiations, Zinmou 
 reached the northeastern extremity of the 
 island of Kiousiou. He was at a loss how 
 to get further, when he discovered a fisher- 
 man who was floating upon the waves, 
 squatting upon the shell of a huge turtle. 
 He hailed him immediately, and employed 
 him as a pilot. 
 
 Thus Zinmou succeeded in crossing the 
 strait which separates Kiousiou from the land 
 of Niphon, and coasted along in the direction 
 of the east, operating with prudent caution, 
 and leaving behind him no important point 
 without having secured its possession. 
 Nevertheless, as the native tribes continu- 
 ally opposed him at sea as well as on land, 
 he disembarked and fortified himself upon 
 the peninsula of Takasima, where he devoted 
 three years to the construction and equip- 
 ment of an auxiliary fleet. 
 
 Remarkable Conquests. 
 
 Then he set out again, and achieved the 
 conquest of the coast and archipelago of the 
 Inland Sea ; after which he disembarked the 
 greater part of his army, and penetrating into 
 Niphon, he established his rule over the rich 
 countries, intersected by fertile valleys and 
 wooded mountains, which extend from Osaka 
 to the borders of the Gulf of Yeddo. From 
 that time all the cultivated countries and all 
 the civilized peoples in ancient Japan were 
 under the power of Zinmou. 
 
 The conqueror inaugurated and established 
 the preponderance of the south over the des- 
 tinies of the Japanese people. Whether the 
 race which ruled before him over the native 
 inhabitants had been of Turanian origin or 
 not, it also submitted in its turn to this last 
 and decisive invasion, to which the Empire 
 of the Mikados owes its ancient glory and its 
 
EMPEROR OF JAPAN. 
 
 291 
 
292 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 It was the same old story others victims of their own devotion to him, 
 
 actual existence 
 
 of the strong subduing the weaker. 
 
 It does not follow, however, that Japanese 
 civilization was a simple importation. Zin- 
 mou appears to have been in certain respects, 
 especially that of religion, a tributary of the 
 people whom he had conquered. The diverse 
 elements with which he had to deal — the 
 native clans and the Tartar emigrants, with 
 the invaders who had come from the islands 
 of the south, the ancient nobles lately con- 
 quered, and their new sovereign, who was 
 won over to their favorite customs — were 
 thus fused into one national body. 
 
 The tribes which remained aloof from the 
 pacific constitution of the Empire were the 
 Ainos,' who had been driven further and fur- 
 ther towards the north, and the Yebis, 
 dispersed during the strife of the invasion, 
 and who lived in the forests on the products 
 of hunting and rapine. 
 
 Mixture of Races. 
 
 But it would be vain to attempt an analysis 
 of the various elements which have con- 
 tributed to the formation of the national 
 character of the Japanese. The civilization 
 of the country appears to be the result of a 
 combination of the indigenous and the foreign 
 elements. There has been a mixture of races 
 without an absorption of native qualities, 
 among the islanders of the extreme east, and, 
 as was the case among the islanders of Great 
 Britain, the alliance has produced a new and 
 original type. 
 
 When the divine warrior Zinmou had 
 accomplished his ambitious aims, seven years 
 had elapsed since his departure from Kiou- 
 siou, — seven years, accompanied with how 
 much fatigue, suffering and trouble of every 
 kind ! His three brothers had perished 
 under his eyes : the first pierced with an 
 arrow at the siege of a fortress ; the two 
 
 for they had thrown themselves into the sea 
 in order to appease a tempest which threat- 
 ened the junk of the conqueror. 
 
 The sun had always shown itself favorable 
 to his enterprises. To its divine protection 
 it was due that he had not been lost in the 
 dangerous defiles of Yamato. A raven, sent 
 to him by the divinity at a critical moment' 
 had guided him into safety. Thus he had 
 added to his ancestral arms the image of the 
 glittering goddess, such as she appeared to 
 him each day when she arose above the 
 horizon, and had it painted upon his banner, 
 his cuirass, and his war fan. 
 
 Feast of Thanksgiving. 
 
 In the fourth year of his reign, when he 
 had attained possession of uncontested power, 
 he instituted a solemn feast of thanksgiving 
 in honor of Ten-sjoo-dai-zin. The national 
 Kamis had also their share in his homage. 
 He ordained sacrifices in honor of the eight 
 immortal spirits, protectors of countries and 
 families, in order to celebrate the inaugura- 
 tion of his royal residence, and to surround 
 his throne with the prestige of that religion 
 which was so dear to the peoples whom he 
 had conquered. 
 
 These things happened in the country of 
 Yamato, which occupies the centre of the 
 great peninsula in the southeast of Niphon, 
 whose coasts border the Inland Sea and the 
 ocean. There Zinmou constructed a vast 
 fortress on a great hill. He called this castle 
 his " Miako," or the chief palace of his States, 
 and there he installed his Court, or Dairi. 
 These two names have ever since been re- 
 tained by the sovereigns of the Japanese 
 Empire to distinguish it from their other 
 residences. 
 
 The sovereigns themselves bear the honor- 
 giving title of "Mikados," or "august" and 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF JAPAN. 
 
 293 
 
 "venerable," without prejudice to the glorious 
 suirnames under which they figure in the 
 annals of the nation after death. The na- 
 tive historians frequently employ the word 
 " Miako " instead of the proper name of the 
 city in which the Emperor resides, and that 
 of "Dairi " in place of the title of Mikado. 
 
 They say, for example, such and such a 
 thing has been done "by order of the Dairi," 
 instead of "by order of the Mikado." This 
 custom is, however, common to the language 
 of all Courts. 
 
 The Emperor's Successor. 
 
 As Zinmou had been raised to the throne 
 by the free choice of his father, it was enacted 
 that for the future the reigning Mikado should 
 designate one among his sons to succeed him, 
 or, if he had no sons, one among the other 
 princes of the blood, according to his own 
 choice, and without regard to the order of 
 primogeniture. If the throne became vacant 
 during the minority of the elect prince, the 
 widow of the Mikado was to assume the 
 regency of the Empire, and to exercise sov- 
 ereign rights during the interregnum. 
 
 Zinmou terminated his glorious career in 
 the sixty-seventh year of his age, 585 years 
 before the birth of Christ. He has been 
 placed among the number of the Kamis. 
 His chapel, known in Japan by the name of 
 Simoyasiro, is situated upon Mount Kamo, 
 near Kioto, and he is still worshipped there 
 as the founder and the first chief of the Em- 
 pire. The hereditary right to the crown has 
 subsisted in his family for more than two 
 thousand five hundred years, and is still 
 maintained. 
 
 The ancient race of the Mikados was 
 strong and long-lived. Zinmou lived one 
 hufidred and twenty years ; the fifth Mikado 
 lived one hundred and fourteen years; the 
 sixth, one hundred and thirty-seven years; 
 
 the seventh, one hundred and twenty-eight 
 years; the eighth, one hundred and six 
 years; the ninth, one hundred and eleven 
 years; the eleventh and twelfth, each one 
 hundred and forty years ; the sixteenth, one 
 hundred and eleven years ; and the seven- 
 teenth, who died in the 388th year of our 
 era, attained the age of three hundred and 
 eight years, or three hundred and thirty 
 years according to the version of some his- 
 torians. 
 
 Seimou, the thirteenth Mikado, was ten 
 feet high. The wives of the Mikados, who 
 governed the Empire in the capacity of 
 Regent, were equal in point of character to 
 their venerable husbands. One of them, 
 Zingou, A. D. 201, equipped a fleet, and, 
 embarking at the head of a select army, 
 crossed the Sea of Japan and conquered the 
 Corea, from whence she returned just in 
 time to give birth to a future Mikado. 
 
 Internal Improvements, 
 
 The progress of civilization kept pace 
 with the aggrandizement of the Empire. 
 From Corea came the camel, the ass, and 
 the horse ; the latter animal is the only one 
 which has been naturalized in Japan. 
 
 The establishment of tanks and canals for 
 the irrigation of the rice-fields dates back to 
 thirty-six years B. C. The tea-shrub was in- 
 troduced from China. Tatsima Nori brought 
 the orange from " the country of eternity." 
 The cylture of the mulberry and the fabri- 
 cation of silk date from the fifth century of 
 our era. Two centuries later the Japanese 
 learned to distinguish " the earth which re- 
 places oil and wood for burning," and to 
 extract silver from the mines of Tsousima. 
 
 Several important inventions date from 
 the third century : for example, the institu- 
 tion of a horse post; making beer from rice, 
 known under the name of saki; and the art 
 
294 
 
 of sewing clothes, which was taught to the 
 Japanese housewives by needlewomen who 
 came from the kingdom of Petsi, in Corea. 
 The Mikado, enchanted with the first attempt, 
 and wishing to go to the fountain-head, sent 
 an embassy to the chief of the Celestial Em- 
 pire to ask him for needlewomen. 
 
 In the fourth century the Dairi built, in 
 various parts of Japan, rice stores, intended 
 to prevent the recurrence of the famines 
 which had more than once ravaged the 
 population. In 543, the Court of Petsi 
 sent a precious instrument to the Mikado — 
 it was "the wheel which indicates the south." 
 The introduction of hydraulic clocks took 
 place in 660, and ten years later that of 
 wheels worked by water-power. At the end 
 of the eighth century a system of writing, 
 proper to Japan, was invented, but from the 
 third century the use of Chinese signs had 
 been introduced at Court. 
 
 Barbarous Customs. 
 
 The obscurity in which ancient national 
 literature is enveloped does not permit us to 
 estimate its influence on civilization. It is 
 all the more interesting to trace the bene- 
 ficent action which the fine arts exercised 
 upon the people. Human victims were im- 
 molated at the funerals of the Mikado or of 
 his wife, the Kisaki, and these victims were 
 usually servants of the Court. 
 
 In the year 3 B. C, Nomino Soukoune, a 
 native sculptor, being informed of the death 
 of the Kisaki, had the generous courage to 
 present himself before his sovereign with 
 clay images, which he proposed to him 
 should be thrown into the tomb of his royal 
 wife in place of the servants destined to the 
 sacrifice. The Mikado accepted the offer of 
 the humble modeller, and testified his satis- 
 faction by changing his family name to that 
 of Fasi, or " artist." 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The laws remained as they still are, more 
 barbarous and cruel than the customs. For 
 example, the punishment of crucifixion was 
 inflicted on noble women guilty of adultery. 
 
 A whole series of measures admirably 
 adapted for the rapid development of the 
 genius of the nation, and for imbuing it with 
 a true sense of its strength and individuality, 
 is due to the political administration. In the 
 year 86 B. C, the sovereign had census 
 tables of the population made, and ship- 
 building yards established. In the second 
 century of our era he divided his States into 
 eight administrative circles, and these circles 
 into sixty-eight provinces. 
 
 Names of Families and Titles. 
 
 In the fifth century he sent an official into 
 each province, charged with the collection 
 and registration of the popular customs and 
 traditions of every district. Thus the proper 
 names of each family, and the titles and sur- 
 names of the provincial dynasties, were fixed. 
 An Imperial road was made between the 
 principal cities, five in number, and the 
 Mikado transported his Court successively 
 into each. The most important, in the 
 seventh century, was the city of Osako, on 
 the eastern coast of the Inland Sea. 
 
 In order to confer political union, and 
 also unity of language, letters and general 
 civilization, upon the country, a capital was 
 indispensable, and this great want was sup- 
 plied in the eighth century by the founda- 
 tion of Kioto, which became the favorite city 
 of the Mikado, and was his permanent resi- 
 dence until the twelfth century. 
 
 The city of Hiogo, whose secure and 
 spacious harbor has been for years the centre 
 of the maritime commerce of the Japanese 
 Empire, is built on the coast of the basin of 
 Idsoumi, opposite to the northeastern point 
 of the island of Awadsi. At Hiogo the 
 
EMPRESS OF JAPAN. 
 
 295 
 
296 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 junks from Simonasaki discharge their 
 cargoes from China, the Liou-Kiou Islands, 
 from Nagasaki, and from the western coast 
 of Niphon, and even of Corea and Yeso, for 
 the supply of the interior and the east of 
 Japan. From these, thousands of other 
 junks transport the agricultural produce and 
 objects of art and industry of the southern 
 provinces of Niphon to the islands of the 
 Inland Sea. 
 
 The Venice of Japan. 
 
 The great and ancient city of Osaka is 
 only eight hours' journey from Hiogo. It 
 is the Venice of Japan. The palaces of the 
 nobility occupy the quays which stretch 
 along the principal arm of the river. All 
 the rest of the town is composed of houses 
 and shops belonging to the trading classes. 
 Only a few old temples, more or less dilapi- 
 dated, are to be seen. One of them, at the 
 far end of the eastern suburb, has been 
 placed by the Government of the Tycoon 
 at the disposal of the foreign Embassies. A 
 citadel, a mile in circumference, overlooks 
 the northeastern portion of the city, and 
 commands the Imperial high road to Kioto. 
 
 From the year 744 to the year 1185 of 
 our era the city of Osaka was the residence 
 of the Mikados. They were well pleased 
 to dwell amid its energetic, laborious and en- 
 terprising population, to whom the empire 
 chiefly owed the development of its com- 
 merce and prosperity. But this was no 
 longer the heroic epoch, when the Mikado, 
 like the Doge of the Venetian Republic, em- 
 barked upon his war-junk, and fulfilled in 
 person the functions of High Admiral. He 
 was no longer to be seen inspecting his 
 troops, borne upon a litter upon the 
 shoulders of four brave heralds, or com- 
 manding the manoeuvres from the summit of 
 a hill, sitting upon a stool, and holding in 
 
 his right hand his iron fan. Such had been 
 the representation of him in former times. 
 
 At Osaka, the Mikado, who had reached 
 the height of riches, power, and security, 
 built a palace in the midst of a spacious park, 
 which shut him out from the tumult of the 
 city. His courtiers persuaded him that it 
 was requisite for the dignity of the descend- 
 ant of the sun that he should be invisible to 
 the great body of his subjects, and should 
 leave to princes and favorites the cares of 
 government and the command of the army 
 and the fleet. 
 
 The Sovereign Secluded. 
 
 The life of the Dairi was subject to cere- 
 monial laws which regulated its smallest 
 details and its least movements, and the 
 sovereign dwelt within a circle inviolable by 
 all ejtcept his courtiers. Imperial pomp 
 henceforth rarely became visible to the 
 people ; who, deceived in their dearest hopes, 
 weary of the arbitrary rule of favorites, ven- 
 tured at length to raise their voices, and their 
 murmurs reached the ears of their sovereign. 
 He did not convoke an assembly of notables, 
 but he instituted certain bureaus, where the 
 complaints of the people were registered. 
 
 The courtiers, convinced that the dynasty 
 of the descendants of the sun was in danger, 
 carried away themselves and their Emperor 
 to Kioto, a small town in the interior, on the 
 north of Osaka. They succeeded in making 
 this the permanent residence of the Mikados, 
 and the capital, or miako, of the Empire. 
 
 In abandoning the populous city, the great 
 centre of commerce, of industry, and of in- 
 tellectual activity, independent of the Dairi, 
 they obtained the double advantage of 
 cutting off all communications between the 
 people and the sovereign and of moulding 
 the new capital to their tastes, and for the 
 convenience of their passions. 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF JAPAN. 
 
 207 
 
 Kioto is situated in a fertile plain, open to 
 the south, and bounded to the northeast by 
 a chain of green hills, behind which there is 
 a great lake, called indifferently the lake of 
 Oitz, or Oumi, the name of the two principal 
 cities on its shores. It is said to offer some of 
 the most beautiful views in Japan. The waters 
 of a dozen rive.-s flow into it, and give rise 
 to the Yodo-gawa, which runs to the south 
 of" Kioto, and into the Inland Sea below 
 Osaka. 
 
 Canals in the Streets. 
 Two affluents of the Yodo-gawa rise on 
 the north of the capital, and flow beneath its 
 walls, one to the east and the other to, the 
 west. Thus Kioto is completely surrounded 
 by a network of running water, which is 
 utilized in irrigating the rice-fields, in the for- 
 mation of canals in the streets of the city, 
 and also in the tanks in the Imperial parks. 
 \ In the neighborhood of Kioto, rice, sar- 
 rasin, wheat, tea, the mulberry-tree, the 
 cotton-plant, and an immense variety of fruit- 
 trees and vegetables are cultivated. Groves 
 of bamboos and laurels, chestnuts, pines, and 
 cypress crown the hills. Springs are abund- 
 ant. Thousands of birds — the falcon, the 
 pheasant, the peewit, ducks, geese, and 
 hawks of all kinds — abound in the country. 
 Kioto is famed for the salubrity of its climate. 
 It is one of those portions of the Empire 
 least exposed to hurricanes and earthquakes. 
 The successors of Zinmou could not have 
 found a more propitious retreat in which to 
 enjoy the fruits of the labors of their ances- 
 tors ; to raise themselves to the rank of 
 divinities upon the pedestal of the ancient 
 traditions of their race, and to lose sight of 
 the realities of human life. All these things 
 they did so completely as to allow one of the 
 greatest sceptres in the world to escape from 
 their enervated hands. 
 
 The descendant of the Kamis of Japan 
 naturally became the chief of the national 
 religion, which had no clergy. The Mikados 
 created a hierarchy of functionaries, endowed 
 with the sacerdotal character, and charged to 
 preside over all the details of public worship. 
 All the high dignitaries were chosen from the 
 immediate and collateral members of the 
 Imperial family. 
 
 The same order of proceeding was ob- 
 served generally in all that concerned the 
 service of the palace and the important 
 functionaries of the Dairi. The chiefs of the 
 civil and military administrations were 
 gradually more and more alienated from the 
 Court properly so called, and the latter took 
 an exclusively clerical stamp. 
 
 Rivalry in Building Temples. 
 
 So the capital of the Empire ended by 
 presenting a strange spectacle. Nothing was 
 to be seen there which had reference to the 
 army, the navy, or the government of the 
 country. All these were abandoned to the 
 care of the functionaries employed in the 
 various services, and scattered about in the 
 provinces. 
 
 On the other hand, all the sects which 
 recognized the supremacy of the Mikado 
 assembled their own dignitaries within his 
 city of residence, and all vied with each other 
 in building temples for their respective 
 religions. Thus, when Buddhism, imported 
 by monks from China, had made sure of the 
 protection of the Mikado by paying him 
 homage under the title of spiritual chief of 
 the Empire, it speedily surpassed all that 
 had been done in the capital to the honor 
 and glpry of the Kami worship. 
 
 The Japanese Buddhists endowed Kioto 
 with the largest bell in the world, and with a 
 temple no less unique of its kind. It is called 
 the Temple of the Thirty-three Thousand 
 
298 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Three Hundred and Thirty-three, which is 
 exactly the number of the idols which it 
 
 ones, placed upon their heads and knees and 
 upon the palms of their hands. 
 
 VIEW OF KIOTO, JAPAN. 
 
 contains. In order to make such a prodigy 
 intelligible, it must be explained that the 
 great statues support a multitude of small 
 
 The temples or chapels of Kioto which 
 belong to the ancient national religion still 
 pneserve to a certain extent the simplicity 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF JAPAN. 
 
 29& 
 
 which distinguishes them in the provinces. 
 Some are consecrated to the seven celestial 
 dynasties of the native mythology, others to 
 the spirits of the earth, and others to the 
 divinity of the Sun, Ten-sjoo-da'i-zin, or to 
 her descendants, the first Mikados. 
 
 The Kami worship towards the end of the 
 seventeenth century had two thousand one 
 hundred and twenty-seven mias in Kioto and 
 its suburbs; but the Buddhist religion, in its 
 different sects or ramifications, had no less 
 than three thousand eight hundred and 
 ninety-three temples, pagodas or chapels. 
 There are no other monuments worthy of 
 notice in this singular capital. 
 
 Palaces of the Mikados. 
 
 The palaces of the Dairi are numbered 
 among the sacred edifices, both by reason 
 of the style of their architecture and their 
 purpose. They are enclosed within a circuit 
 of walls occupying the northeastern portion 
 of the city. Long lines of trees, of great 
 height, which show above the distant roofs, 
 give a vague idea of the extent and tran- 
 quillity of the parks, in whose recesses the 
 Imperial dwellings hide themselves from 
 profane eyes and the noise of the city. 
 
 As it frequently happens that the Mikado 
 abdicates in favor of the hereditary prince, 
 in order to end his days in absolute seclu- 
 sion, a special palace is reserved for him, 
 under such circumstances, in a solitary en- 
 closure on the southeastern side of the Dairi. 
 
 In the centre of the city there is a strong 
 fort, whose ramparts are surmounted at inter- 
 vals by square towers two or three stories 
 high, intended to serve as a refuge for the 
 Mikado in troublous times. The headquar- 
 ters of the garrison of the Tycoon was 
 established there in later days. 
 
 The high dignitaries and functionaries, 
 and the persons employed in the various 
 
 residences of the Emperor and of his 
 numerous family, may be counted by thou- 
 sands. The number can never be exactly 
 known, because the Court has the privilege 
 of escaping the annual census. 
 
 At all times the Japanese Government has 
 occupied itself carefully with national statis- 
 tics. In the holy city of the Empire, every 
 individual is oiificially classed in the sect to 
 which he declares himself to belong. In 
 1693 Kaempfer reports that the permanent 
 population of Kioto, exclusive of the Court,, 
 comprised 52,169 ecclesiastics, and 477,55/ 
 lay persons; both one and the other were 
 divided into twenty recognized sects, the 
 most numerous of which included 159,113 
 adherents, and the least numerous, which 
 was a sort of Buddhist confraternity, 289 
 members only. 
 
 A Continuous Carnival. 
 
 It must not be imagined that this enorm- 
 ous development of sacerdotal life in the 
 capital of Japan renders the city gloomy, 
 or makes the public morals austere. Ex- 
 actly the contrary is the case; the stories 
 and pictures which exist in Kioto, and record 
 what it was in the days of its prosperity,, 
 produce the impression of a never-ending 
 carnival. 
 
 Let us suppose that we are reaching the 
 holy city at sundown. Our ears will be 
 assailed by a concert of instruments. On 
 all the hills, which are covered with sacred 
 groves, temples and convents, the bonzes 
 and the monks are celebrating the evening 
 office to the sound of drums and tambou- 
 rines, copper gongs and brass bells. The 
 faubourgs are illuminated with bright col- 
 ored paper lanterns of all dimensions: the 
 largest of cylindrical form, are suspended 
 from the columns of the temples; the 
 smaller, like globes, hang from the doors 
 
300 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 of the inns and the galleries of the houses. 
 The sacred edifices and profane establish- 
 ments, which participate in this illumination, 
 are so considerable in number, and so close 
 together, that the whole quarter seems to be 
 the scene of a Venetian fete. In the heart 
 of the city a compact crowd of both sexes 
 throngs the streets, which extend from the 
 
 GREAT BELL OF KIOTO. 
 
 north to the south, in the vicinity of the 
 Dairi. The priests are there in great num- 
 bers. Those of the Kami worship wear a 
 little hat of black lacquered cardboard, sur- 
 mounted with a sort of crest of the same 
 color, and a small white cross. 
 
 This curious head-dress has an appendage 
 of very stiff ribbon which is tied behind the 
 head and hangs down the back of the neck. 
 
 It is the ancient national head-dress, which 
 does not belong exclusively to the priests, 
 but may be worn, with certain modifications 
 prescribed by the sumptuary laws, by the 
 nineteen officially titled classes of the popu- 
 lation of Kioto. A wide simar, big trousers 
 and great sword, which is probably only an 
 ornamental weapon, completes the costume 
 of the priests of the Kami temples. 
 
 All the members of the Buddhist clergy, 
 regular as ;vell as secular, have the head 
 shaven and completely bare, with the ex- 
 ception of certain orders who wear wide- 
 brimmed hats. The habit is generally grey, 
 but there are some black, brown, yellow and 
 red, occasionally diversified by a scarf and 
 breastplate or a surplice. 
 
 A Curious Rock. 
 
 Kioto boasts of certain hermits, saints 
 who have made choice of the capital to 
 retire from the world. The grateful citizens 
 transform the cells of these monks into little 
 storehouses of abundance. The most mys- 
 terious of them is cut out of the front of a 
 rock, and inhabited no one knows by whom 
 or how ; but baskets of provisions are lifted 
 up by an ingenious pulley over a great tank, 
 which separates the rock from the public 
 road. 
 
 The annual /^to instituted in honor of the 
 principal Kamis of Japan have no other 
 sacred rites than the ceremonies of purifica- 
 tion, and were introduced about the end oi 
 the eighth century. On the day before the 
 great solemnity the priests go in procession 
 with lights to the temple, where the arms 
 and other objects which belongs to the 
 divine hero are kept in a precious reliquaiy 
 called "Mikosi." 
 
 According to clerical fiction, the Mikosi 
 represents the terrestrial dwelling of the 
 Kami — a kind of throne still preserved to 
 
302 
 
 him in his earthly country — and each year 
 it undergoes a radical purification. The 
 reliquary is emptied and brought to the 
 river: while a certain number of priests 
 carefully wash it, others light great fires in 
 order to keep away all evil genii ; and the 
 Kagoura, or sacred choir, play softly in 
 order to appease the spirit of the Kami, who 
 is momentarily deprived of his earthly 
 dwelling; nevertheless, they make no delay 
 in restoring it to him, which is done by 
 solemnly reinstating the relics in the reli- 
 quary. 
 
 As, however, the temple itself equally re- 
 quires purification, the Mikosi does not re- 
 enter it until this operation has been per- 
 formed ; and during the entire /l/^, which is 
 prolonged during several days, it is sheltered 
 in a receptacle specially constructed for the 
 purpose, and duly protected against evil 
 spirits. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 festivals have another and worthier side, and 
 one educational in its character. 
 
 The historical cortege, a great procession 
 of masked and costumed priests, represents 
 various scenes taken from the lives of their 
 heroes. These theatrical representations in 
 the open air were accompanied by music, 
 songs and pantomimic dances. Thus the 
 fine arts and poetry are made interpreters of 
 national traditions, and the people flock to 
 receive the patriotic instruction with avidity. 
 
 Showers of Hot Water. 
 
 Should those dread things endeavor to 
 pass through the ropes of rice-straw which 
 bound the sacred enclosure, they would ex- 
 pose themselves to showers of boiling holy 
 -water, with which from time to time the 
 dwelling of the Kami is sprinkled ; and 
 woe to the evil spirits who should flutter in 
 the air within reach of the Kami's guard of 
 honor, for the priests who compose it are 
 skilful horsemen and accomplished archers. 
 The people applaud their evolutions, and fol- 
 low with admiring eyes the arrows that they 
 shoot into the clouds, and which fall within 
 the enclosure of the holy place. 
 
 Such are the ceremonies which lend a de- 
 votional character to the festival. The in- 
 fluence which Kami worship has had upon 
 the development of the dramatic taste of the 
 nation has not been produced, I need hardly 
 say, by these puerile juggleries. The annual 
 
 Annual Festivals. 
 
 Sometimes an exhibition of trophies of 
 arms, or groups of figures in clay, reproduc- 
 ing the features and wearing the traditional 
 costume of the principal Kamis, was added 
 to the entertainment. They were placed on 
 cars or on platforms of pyramidal form, rep- 
 resenting the building, the bridge, the junk, 
 or sacred place illustrated by the heroes 
 whose memory was celebrated. Originally 
 these annual festivals, which were called 
 Matsouris, were limited to a small number 
 of the most ancient cities in the Empire. 
 Eight provinces only had the honor of pos- 
 sessing Kamis. 
 
 But, from the tenth century, every province, 
 every district, every place of any importance 
 wished to have its hero or its celestial patron. 
 Finally, the number of Kamis reached three 
 thousand one hundred and thiily-two, among 
 whom a great difference was made in favor 
 of the most ancient. Four hundred and 
 ninety-two were distinguished under the title 
 of "great Kamis," and the others received 
 the name of " inferior Kamis." 
 
 Thenceforth, Matsouris were held in all 
 important places in Japan, and from one end 
 to the other of the Empire a taste for heroic 
 recitals and artistic enjoyments, allied to the 
 love of country and manly qualities, was dif- 
 fused. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 A COMPLETE and graphic description 
 of Japan and the Japanese is fur- 
 nished by M. Aime Humbert, Min- 
 ister Plenipotentiary to Japan from 
 the Swiss RepubHc. M. Humbert had pecu- 
 liar advantages for studying the land of the 
 Mikado and its people, and he records his 
 facts and observations in a • manner that at 
 once interests and captivates the reader. 
 Speaking of the country and its surround- 
 ings, he says : 
 
 The Inland Sea of Japan is bounded by 
 the southern coasts of Niphon, and the 
 northern coasts of Kiousiou, and Sikoff. It 
 is, however, more like a canal than A real 
 mediterranean sea, being a communication 
 established, at the height of the thirty-fourth 
 degree of north latitude, between the Chinese 
 Sea, or, more strictly, of the strait of Corea, 
 on the western coast of Japan, and the great 
 ocean which washes the southern and eastern 
 shores of the same archipelago. The whole 
 of the Japanese Mediterranean is sometimes 
 known as the Sea of Souwo. 
 
 Each of the provinces by which it is sur- 
 rounded contains one or several "lordships," 
 belonging to the feudal princes, who enjoy 
 considerable independence, and generally 
 ■derive large revenues from their estates. 
 
 The Japanese Mediterranean, like the 
 European sea so called, is divided into sev- 
 eral basins. They are five in number, and 
 are named from the most important of the 
 provinces which overlook them, so that the 
 Inland Sea bears five different names through- 
 out its longitudinal course from west to east. 
 
 In the midst of the natural wealth which 
 surrounds them, the large, industrious, and 
 intelligent population of the country parts of 
 Japan have for their entire possessions only 
 a humble shed, a few working implements, 
 some pieces of cotton cloth, a few mats, 
 a cloak of straw, a little store of tea, oil, rice, 
 and salt ; for furniture, nothing but two or 
 three cooking utensils ; in a word, only the 
 strict necessaries of existence. All the 
 remaining product of their labor belongs to 
 the owners of the soil, the feudal lords. 
 
 Temples Everywhere. 
 
 The absence of a middle class gives a 
 miserable aspect to the Japanese villages. 
 Liberal civilization would have covered the 
 borders of the Inland Sea with pretty ham- 
 lets and elegant villas. The uniformity of 
 the rustic dwellings is broken by temples, 
 but they are to be distinguished at a distance 
 only by the vast dimensions of their roofs, 
 and by the imposing effect of the ancient 
 trees which are almost always to be found in 
 their vicinity. Buddhist pagodas, which are 
 lofty towers with pointed roofs, adorned with 
 galleries on each floor, are much less com- 
 mon in Japan than in China. 
 
 On entering the basin of Hiago, we came 
 in sight of a town of some importance, on the 
 coast of Sikoff; it is called Imabari. A vast 
 sandy beach, which is rarely to be found in 
 Japan, stretched back to a kind of suburb, in 
 which we could discern a busy concourse of 
 people, apparently carrying on market busi- 
 ness. Above the strand were fertile plains, 
 
 303 
 
304 
 
 whose undulating lines were lost in the mist 
 at the foot of a chain of mountains bathed in 
 sunshine. The principal peaks of this chain 
 are from 3,000 to 4,800 feet in height. 
 
 Fortifications, or rather mounds of earth, 
 behind which shone several banners, pro- 
 tected the batteries posted in front of the 
 port. Some soldiers, standing in a group 
 on the shore, followed our corvette with 
 their eyes. There was nothing remarkable 
 in the aspect of the town, except the sacred 
 palaces, adorned by gigantic trees. 
 
 A Famous Prince. 
 
 Some time afterwards we passed, within 
 rifle-range, a large Japanese steamer, which 
 our pilot, whom we consulted, and who 
 judged from the colors of the flag, informed 
 us was the property of the Prince of Tosa. 
 His estates are situated in the southern por- 
 tion of the island of Sikoff", and they bring 
 him in a very large annual revenue. Most 
 probably he was returning from a conference 
 of the feudal party held in the city of Kioto, 
 at the court of the Hereditary Emperor of 
 Japan, and had embarked at Hiogo, in order 
 to regain his own province by the Boungo 
 canal. What were his sentiments on be- 
 holding a strange corvette cleaving the waters 
 of the Inland Sea ? Does he flatter himself 
 that he can repel the civilization of the West 
 by the arms which it places at his disposal ? 
 Does he know whither steam will lead him ? 
 
 A little before sunset we saw, on the coast 
 of Sikoff, a feudal castle, remarkable for its 
 picturesque site upon the summit and the 
 sides of a wooded hill, at whose feet a rustic 
 hamlet seemed to shelter itself under the pro- 
 tection of the ancient lordly towers. It is 
 the Castle of Marougama, the residence of 
 Prince Kiogoko Sanoke, whose revenues are 
 valued at ^200,000. 
 
 The castles of the Da'imios are generally at 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 a distance from the town and villages. They 
 are composed, in most instances, of a vast 
 quadrangular enclosure, within thick and 
 lofty walls, surrounded by a moat, and 
 flanked at the corners, or surmounted at 
 intervals throughout their extent by small 
 square towers with slightly sloping roofs. 
 In the interior are the park, the gardens, 
 and the actual residence of the Daimio, com- 
 prising a main dwelling and numerous de- 
 pendencies. Sometimes a solitary tower, of 
 a shape similar to 'the other buildings, rises 
 in the middle of the feudal domain, and rears 
 itself three or four stories higher than the 
 external wall. 
 
 Imposing Edifices. 
 
 As in the case of the Chinese pagodas, 
 each story is surrounded by a roof, which, 
 however, but seldom supports a gallery. 
 All the masonry is rough, and joined by 
 cement; the woodwork is painted red and 
 black, and picked out with copper orna- 
 ments, which are sometimes polished, but 
 sometimes laden with verdigris. The tiles 
 of the roof are slate • color. In general, 
 richness of detail is less aimed at than the 
 general effect resulting from the grandeur 
 and harmony of the proportions of the 
 buildings. In this respect, some of the 
 seignorial residences of Japan deserve to 
 figure among the remarkable architectural 
 monuments of the peoples of Eastern Asia. 
 
 We anchored in a bay of the island of 
 Souyousima, at the southern point of the 
 province of Bitsiou, and at the entrance of 
 the basin of Arima. We were surrounded 
 by mountains, at whose feet twinkled many 
 lights shining in from houses. The stillness 
 was unbroken, save by the distant barking of 
 dogs. Next morning, very early, we were 
 ploughing the peaceful waters of the Ari- 
 manado. This basin is completely closed 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 305 
 
 on the east by a single island, which divides 
 it from the Idsouminada by a length of 
 thirty miles. It is in the form of a triangle, 
 whose apex, turned towards the north, faces 
 the province of Arima, on the island of 
 Niphon. 
 
 This is the beautiful island of Awadsi, 
 which was the dwelling-place of the gods, 
 and the cradle of the national mythology of 
 the Japanese. The low lands at its southern 
 extremity are covered with a luxuriant vege- 
 tation, and the soil rises gently into culti- 
 vated or wooded hills until they touch the 
 boundaries of a chain of mountains from 300 
 to 700 yards in height. 
 
 Awadsi belongs to the Prince of Awa, 
 whose annual revenue amounts to ^8qo,ooo. 
 It is separated from the island of Sikoff on 
 the west, by the passage of Naruto, and the 
 island of Niphon on the east, by the Strait 
 of Linschoten. 
 
 Dangerous Channel. 
 
 The greater number of the steamers which 
 cross the Japanese Mediterranean from west 
 to east, pass from the basin of Arima into 
 that of Idsoumi, where they generally touch 
 at the important commercial town of Hiogo ; 
 and from thence they enter the great ocean 
 by the Strait of Linschoten. That passage 
 of Naruto which leads directly from the 
 basin of Arima into the great ocean is 
 shorter than the former ; it is, however, 
 much less frequented, because it is consid- 
 ered a dangerous channel for high-decked 
 vessels. 
 
 We saw the coasts drawing nearer and 
 nearer to us, as we descended, towards the 
 south-west corner of this triangular piece of 
 land. At the same time a promontory of 
 the island of Sikoff rose above the horizon 
 on our right, and seemed to stretch continu- 
 ously onward in the direction of Awadsi. 
 20 
 
 Very soon we found ourselves m a passage 
 from whence we could distinctly see the 
 beautiful vegetation of the coast of Sikoff 
 and the coast of Awadsi. 
 
 At length we saw the gates of the Strait : 
 on the left, rocks surmounted by pines, 
 forming the front of the island of Awadsi ; 
 on the right, a solitary rock, or islet, also 
 bearing a few pines, forming the fiont of the 
 island of Sikoff. Between them th^ sea, 
 like a bar of breakers, though the weather 
 was calm : afar, the undulating ocean, with- 
 out a speck of foam ; the tossing of the 
 waves in the passage being solely the result 
 of the violence of the current. 
 
 Myriads of Birds. 
 
 All around us, on the waves and at the 
 foot of the rocks, were thousands of sea- 
 birds, screaming, fluttering and diving for 
 the prey which the sea, stirred to its depths 
 by the current, was perpetually tossing up 
 to them. Several fishing-boats were out, 
 not on the canal — that would have been 
 impossible — but behind the rocks, in the 
 creeks of the little solitary islet and of Sikoff. 
 
 Below Awadsi, the united waters of the 
 two straits of Naruto arid Linschoten form 
 the canal of Kino, which washes the shores 
 of the province of Awa, on Sikoff, and of the 
 province of Kisou, on Niphon. We sailed 
 for some time yet in sight of the latter; then 
 the land disappeared from our eyes, and we 
 soon perceived, by the wide-rolling motion 
 of the waves, that we were on: the outer sea, 
 in the immense domain of the great ocean. 
 
 I occupied myself, during the whole eve- 
 ning, in recalling the recollections of my 
 journey; and I could find nothing out of 
 Switzerland to compare with the effect of 
 the beautiful Japanese scenery. Since then, 
 several Japanese, travelling in Switzerland, 
 have told me that no other country awakened 
 
306 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 so vividly the remembrance of their own. 
 Still more frequently I transported myself 
 in fancy to one or other of the archipelagoes 
 of the Souwonada, earnestly desiring the 
 advent of that hour when the breath of 
 liberty will give them, in the Far East, the 
 importance which formerly belonged, in 
 Europe, to the Archipelago of the Mediter- 
 ranean. 
 
 They cannot be blended into a general 
 impression. Nothing is less uniform than 
 the scenery of the shores of the Inland Sea. 
 It is a series of pictures which vary infinitely, 
 according to the greater or less proximity of 
 the coasts, or to the aspect of the islands on 
 the horizon. There are grand marine scenes, 
 where the lines of the sea blend with sandy 
 beaches sleeping under the golden rays of 
 the sun; while in the distance, the misty 
 mountains form a dim background. 
 
 Japanese Scenery. 
 
 There are little landscapes, very clear, 
 trim and modest: a village at the back of 
 a peaceful bay, surrounded by green fields, 
 over which towers a forest of pines ; j ust as 
 one may see by a lake in the Jura on a fine 
 morning in June. 
 
 Sometimes, when the basins contracted, 
 and the islands in front seemed to shut us 
 in, I remembered the Rhine above Boppart. 
 The Japanese scenery is, however, more 
 calm and bright than the romantic land- 
 scapes to which I allude. The abrupt 
 slopes, the great masses of shade, the shift- 
 ing lines, are replaced by horizontal levels; 
 by a beach, a port and terraces ; in the dis- 
 tance are rounded islands, sloping hills, 
 conical mountains. These pictures have 
 ■their charms: the imagination, no less than 
 the eye, rests in the contemplation of them; 
 but it would seek in vain that melancholy 
 attraction which, according to the notions of 
 
 European taste, seems inseparable from the 
 enjoyment. 
 
 Laying aside the question of the pictu- 
 resque, which is not the essential element 
 of our relations with the Far East, I hope 
 that, sooner or later, a chain of Western 
 colonies will be formed at Japan, peacefully 
 developing the natural and commercial re- 
 sources of that admirable country, along a 
 line marked by Yokohama, Hiogo, Simono- 
 saki and Nagasaki. It might have a regular 
 service of steamers. 
 
 Fine Summer Resorts. 
 
 The trading steamers of America, as well 
 as those of China, might maintain the rela- 
 tions of the two worlds with the King of the 
 Archipelagoes of the Great Ocean. Euro- 
 peans, weary of the tropical climate or the 
 burthen of business in China, might seek 
 pure and strengthening air, and pass some 
 weeks of repose on the shores of the Japa- 
 nese Mediterranean. How many families 
 settled in China, how many wives and chil- 
 dren of Europeans, would be delighted to 
 profit, during the trying summer months, by 
 this refuge, as beautiful and salubrious as 
 Italy, and yet near their actual home ! 
 
 But while imagination, forestalling the 
 march of time and the triumphs of civiliza- 
 tion, evokes the charms of a European 
 society from the bosom of the isles of the 
 Souwonada, I must acknowledge that I 
 privately congratulated myself on having 
 seen the Japanese Mediterranean in its 
 primitive condition, while one may still 
 "discover" something, and has to ask the 
 pilots the names of the islands, the moun- 
 tains and the villages, and to cast anchor for 
 the night in some creek called "fair port" 
 by the natives. 
 
 Having doubled the southern point of the 
 great island of Niphon, that is, the promon- 
 
308 
 
 tory of Idsoumo, situated at the southern 
 extremity of the principality of Kisou, we 
 sailed, during a whole day with the current 
 which the Japanese call Kouro-Siwo, which 
 runs from southwest to northeast, at the rate 
 of from thirty-five, to forty miles a day. 
 
 A Pleasant Sail. 
 
 The weather was fine, and the sea a shin- 
 ing emerald-green. I passed many hours 
 on the poop, in stillness and vague contem- 
 plation. For the first time I enjoyed the 
 pleasure of sailing. The silence which 
 reigned on board added to the majestic effect 
 of the ship, laden up to the summit of her 
 masts with her triple wings of white. It was 
 as though the fires had been extinguished, 
 and the noise of the engines hushed, that 
 we might present ourselves more respectfully 
 at the gates of the residence of the Tycoons. 
 But when night fell, the fires were lighted 
 again, in case of accident; for the land-winds 
 frequently cause much trouble to the ships 
 in the Gulf of Yeddo. At daybreak, we 
 came within sight of six small mountainous 
 islands, which looked like signals set up at 
 the entrance of this vast arm of the sea. 
 
 The sun rose, and presented, amid the salt 
 mists of the horizon, that image of a scarlet 
 globe which forms the national arms of Japan. 
 His earliest rays lighted up Cape -Idsou, on 
 the mainland of Niphon, whilst in the east 
 we beheld the smoke of the two craters of 
 the island of Ohosima. At the head of a 
 bay in the promontory of Idsou is situated 
 the town of Simoda, the first, but the least 
 important of the commercial places to which 
 we come when sailing up the Gulf of Yeddo. 
 The Americans obtained an authorization to 
 found an establishment there in 1854. Some 
 time afterwards the harbor of Simoda was 
 destroyed by an earthquake, and no mention 
 was made of that place in the treaties of 1858. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 A number of fishing-boats are to be seen 
 on the coast, and several three-masted vessels 
 are going to the mainland of Niphon and the 
 surrounding islands. The scene is full of 
 life, and sparkling with brilliant and harmo- 
 nious color ; the wide sky is a splendid 
 azure ; the pale green sea has no longer the 
 sombre hues of the great deeps, but shines 
 with the limpid brightness which character- 
 izes it upon the rocky coasts of Japan. The 
 isles are decked in the brilliant foliage of the 
 spring ; the harsh brown of the rocks is 
 streaked with shades of ochre ; and the white 
 sails of the native barques, the snow-crests 
 of Myakesima, and the smoke from the 
 craters of Ohosima, complete the beautiful 
 marine scene. 
 
 The " Matchless Mountain." 
 
 Having reached the " Bay of the Missis- 
 sippi," we made out, for the first time, the 
 summit of Fousi-yama, the " Matchless 
 Mountain," an extinct volcano 12,450 feet 
 above the level of the sea. It is fifty nautical 
 miles from the coast, on the west of the bay,, 
 and except for the chain of the Akoni hills 
 at its base, completely isolated. 
 
 The effect of this immense solitary pyramid, 
 covered with eternal snow, surpasses descrip- 
 tion. It lends inexpressible solemnity to the 
 scenery of the Bay of Yeddo., already more 
 sombre than that of the gulf, by reason of the 
 closer proximity of the shores, the somewhat 
 sandy hue of the sea-water, and the immense 
 quantity of cedars, pines, and other dark- 
 foliaged trees which crown the crests of all 
 the hills along the coast. 
 
 At length we double Point Treaty, a 
 picturesque promontory where the conven- 
 tion between Commodore Perry and the 
 Commissioners of the Tycoon was signed; 
 and all of a sudden, behind this promontory, 
 we see the quays and the city of Yokohama 
 
^ ■ ,— 1 
 
 . i 
 
 ..»..^ 
 
 
 y 
 
 ■■L 
 
 
 ii 
 
 GREAT BRONZE STATUE OF BUDDHA KAMAKURA, JAPAN,. 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 309 
 
 stretching along a marshy beach, bounded 
 on the south and west by a ring of wooded 
 hills. A score of ships of war, and merchant 
 vessels, English, Dutch, French, and Ameri- 
 can, are lying out in the roads, almost oppo- 
 site the " foreign quarter," which may easily 
 be recognized by its white houses and con- 
 sular flags. Native junks are lying at anchor 
 at some distance from the jetties of the port 
 and the store houses of the Custom House. 
 We pass by these slowly, and steam at half 
 speed in front of the Japanese city, in which 
 all the houses, except a certain number of 
 shops, are built of wood, and seem to have 
 ■only one story above the ground floor. 
 
 Named From a Sea-Goddess. 
 
 When we had come opposite to the Benten 
 quarter, situated at the extremity of the beach 
 of Yokohama, and at the mouth of a wide 
 river, our corvette anchored. 
 
 That portion of the Japanese city of Yoko- 
 hama which is called Benten derives its name 
 from a sea-goddess, who is worshipped in an 
 island situated to the northwest of our resi- 
 dence. Before the arrival of the Europeans, 
 this sacred place was surrounded only by a 
 small town, in which dwelt fishermen and 
 agriculturists, separated by a swamp from 
 the not less modest little town of Yokohama. 
 Now, quays, streets, modern buildings, have 
 invaded the entire space which extends from 
 the promontory of the " Treaty " to the 
 river, from which we are divided only by 
 a range of Japanese barracks and a guard- 
 house. 
 
 Among the streets which extend to the 
 sea-beach from Benten, there is one shaded 
 by a plantation of firs; and on passing 
 through the municipal barrier which the 
 police keep open during the day and shut at 
 night, the stranger finds himself in front 
 of a long avenue of fir trees, headed by a 
 
 sacred gate called a Tori. It is composed of 
 two pillars slightly inclined towards each 
 other ; so that they would meet at last at an 
 acute angle, if at a certain elevation their 
 pyramidal development were not checked; 
 and joined by two horizontal transverse 
 beams, of which the uppermost is the thicker, 
 and is curved upwards at both ends. 
 
 The tori invariably announces the vicinity 
 of a temple, a chapel, or a sacred place of 
 some sort. A grotto, a waterfall, a gigantic 
 tree, a fantastic rock, all things which we 
 prosaically call natural curiosities, a Japanese 
 regards with pious veneration or with super- 
 stitious fear, according to whether he be more 
 or less governed by the Buddhist demon- 
 ology ; and the bonzes of the country, priestly 
 attendants of the temples, never fail to give 
 tangible form to this popular tendency, by 
 erecting a tori close to each remarkable 
 place. 
 
 Avenue of Trees. 
 
 The pine trees in the Benten avenue are 
 lofty, slender and for the most part bent by 
 the continuous action of the sea-breezes. 
 At regular distances long poles are nailed 
 upon them crosswise, on Which, on festival 
 days, the bonzes hang inscriptions, wreaths , 
 and swinging banners. 
 
 The avenue ends in a second tori, which, 
 with due regard to perspective, is not so 
 lofty as the first. On approaching it, one is 
 surprised to find that the avenue makes a 
 sudden bend and prolongs itself on the right. 
 Here all is mystery; a waste ground, cov- 
 ered with rank grasses, bushes and slender 
 pines with aerial foliage; on the left, the 
 calm transparent water of a little gulf formed 
 by an arm of the river; in front is a wooden 
 bridge, built in a style of severe elegance, 
 wide and excessively curved; behind this 
 bridge is a third tori, thrown out against 
 
310 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 the thick foliage of a -grove of fine trees. 
 The whole forms a strange picture, with 
 something in it that excites a secret appre- 
 hension. 
 
 This bridge, whose pillars are decorated^ 
 with ornaments in copper, finally admits us 
 to the sacred place. The third tori, bearing 
 on its summit an inscription in gold letters on 
 
 kneel who come to worship before the altar 
 of the goddess. 
 
 Should the temple be empty, one of the 
 bonzes in attendance may be summoned by 
 shaking a long strip of woolen stuff that 
 hangs beside the entrance, with a bunch of 
 pebbles attached to it. The bonze comcj. 
 out of his retreat immediately, and proceeds. 
 
 ■^- /v J^Ji ' ^- 
 
 VIEW OF YOKOHAMA. 
 
 a black ground, is entirely built of fine 
 granite of remarkable whiteness ; and the 
 tombs, which are tastefully disposed on the 
 left side of the avenue, are constructed of 
 the same material. The temple, almost en- 
 tirely hidden by the branches of the cedars 
 and pines which surround it, faces us ; but 
 the mysterious gloom hardly permits us to 
 discern the flight of steps on which the people 
 
 according to the requirements of the visitor, 
 to give him advice, to distribute tapers or 
 amulets, to undertake to recite prayers, in 
 fact to perform any of the ceremonies of" 
 worship ; — of course for the consideration of 
 a fee. 
 
 As a Japanese, before he presents himself 
 at the sanctuary, must wash and dry his. 
 hands and face, in a small chapel, at some 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 311 
 
 distance from the temple, on the right, is a 
 basin containing the holy water intended for 
 ablutions, and napkins of silk crape sus- 
 pended on a roller, like the hand-towels in a 
 sacristy. One of two chapels close by con- 
 tains the big drum which serves the purpose 
 of a bell for the temple, the other the volun- 
 tary offerings of the faithful. The bonzes 
 who serve the temple of Benton do not 
 appear to live in opulence. Their attire is 
 generally dirty and neglected ; and the ex- 
 pression of their faces is stupid, sullen, and 
 malevolent towards strangers, who are glad 
 to keep at a respectful distance from these 
 holy persons. 
 
 A Singular Orchestra. 
 
 I had only one opportunity of seeing them 
 officiate ; it was on the occasion of a proces- 
 sion on their local festival day. On ordinary 
 days, it appears, that they merely give 
 audiences ; and I have rarely seen men resort 
 to their ministrations. Their habitual clients 
 are peasant women, fishermen, and casual 
 pilgrims. But I have frequently heard, at 
 sunset, the beating of the tambourines, 
 which, except at great solemnities, form the 
 whole orchestra of the temple of Benten. 
 
 The bonzes perform interminable music 
 on this monstrous instrument, always in the 
 same rhythm ; four equal loud notes, followed 
 by four equal deep notes, and so on, for 
 hours together, probably the length of time 
 required for driving away the evil influences. 
 Nothing can exceed the melancholy impres- 
 sion produced by this deep-sounding noise, 
 when, in the silence of the night, it blends 
 with the sighing of the great cedar-trees 
 and the booming of the sea. It oppresses 
 one like a nightmare. But indeed it may 
 be said that the religion which finds expres- 
 sion in such customs weighs on the mind of 
 the people like a dream, full of uneasiness 
 
 and vague terror and destitute of every ele- 
 ment of good cheer and hope. 
 
 Far from being natural religion, paganism 
 is the enemy of human nature, the religion 
 of denaturalized man ; and thence it is that, 
 seen in action, it fills one with an indescrib- 
 
 JAPANESE BONZE. 
 
 able pain, an instinctive repulsion which 
 seems to me to come from that especial 
 characteristic, rather than to be the effect of 
 our Christian education. 
 
 The obligatory accompaniments of the 
 Japanese temples are tea-houses or restau- 
 rants, at which tea is principally supplied, 
 
312 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 but where saki, a fermented and highly in- 
 toxicating drink, may be had. The eatables 
 are fruits, fish, rice or wheaten cakes ; and 
 everyone smokes. The pipes are metal ; the 
 tobacco is very finely cut, and free from all 
 narcotic admixture : opium-smoking is un- 
 known in Japan. These establishments, 
 where women are the attendants, and where 
 external propriety is strictly observed, are, 
 for the most part, immoral. This is espe- 
 cially the case in respect to those which are 
 situated in the vicinity of the toris at' Ben- 
 ten, a circumstance which probably dates 
 from a period at which the little island dedi- 
 cated to the patroness of the sea still at- 
 tracted a considerable number of pilgrims. 
 
 Residences of Officials. 
 
 At present the altar of the goddess is 
 singularly neglected; but there is a great 
 military station in the neighborhood, with 
 which the rule of the Tycoon — that of the: 
 sword — has endowed the city of Yokohama. 
 It occupies the entire space between the; 
 island of Benten and our dwelling. 
 
 The quarter of the "Yakounines is com- 
 posed of the residences of government 
 officers employed in the .Customs, of the 
 harbor police and that of other public places, 
 of the Military Instruction, of the guard of 
 the Japanese city, and the superintendents of 
 the "free quarter." 
 
 The Yakounines have no outward and 
 visible sign of their functions except a large 
 pointed hat of lacquered pasteboard, and two 
 swords passed through the girdle on the left 
 side: one of these is large and two-handled; 
 the other, a kind of blade intended for single 
 combpt, is small. These are the only war- 
 like po'nts in the equipment of these func- 
 tionaries. They number several hundreds, 
 they are almost all married, each has his 
 separate lodging, and all seem to be placed 
 
 on a footing of equality in this respect. It 
 is not uninteresting to study the means 
 which the Government of the Tycoon has 
 adopted for organizing this army of func- 
 tionaries into a kind of camp, while retain- 
 ing their domestic surroundings. This has 
 been effected to a certain extent by the ap- 
 plication of the cellular system to family 
 life. 
 
 Let the reader picture to himself a collec- 
 tion of wooden buildings, forming a long 
 square, a lofty wooden wall towards the 
 street ; low doors at regular intervals, each 
 giving access to a court, which contains a 
 small garden, a -water cistern, a kitchen and 
 other offices. Across the yard, on the 
 ground floor, lies a spacious cell, which may 
 be subdivided into two or three rooms by 
 means of sliding partitions ; the court and 
 the cell comprise the lodging of a Yakou- 
 nine family. 
 
 Deserted Streets. 
 
 Each of the long blocks of which the 
 streets in this quarter are composed encloses 
 at least a dozen of these dwellings, six 
 ranged side by side, and then six back to 
 back with the others. The cells are all 
 roofed with green tiles, and no roof is more 
 lofty than another. The Yakounine quarter 
 is a triumph of straight lines and uniformity. 
 The streets are generally empty, because the 
 men pass the greater part of the day at the 
 Custom House or the guard-houses ; and 
 during the absence of its head, every family 
 keeps itself within its narrow enclosure. 
 Even the door, which is so low that one 
 must stoop to pass through, is generally 
 shut during this time of seclusion. 
 
 This custom is, however, in one way, 
 analogous to the precaution with which Turk- 
 ish jealousy surrounds women. It arises 
 from the position which Japanese habits as- 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 ;i3 
 
 sign to the fathers of families. In each, his 
 wife beholds her lord and master. In his 
 presence she attends to her domestic duties 
 with perfect ease and simplicity, caring noth- 
 ing for the presence of a stranger. In his 
 absence she observes an extreme reserve, 
 which we might be tempted to attribute to 
 modesty, but which is more truthfully ex- 
 plained by the dependence and intimidation 
 imposed on her by marriage. 
 
 Custom of Giving Presents. 
 
 By degrees neighborly relations were 
 established between our residences and the 
 Yakounine quarter. In Japan, as elsewhere, 
 small presents encourage friendship. We 
 sent some white sugar and some Java coffee 
 to certain families where we learned there 
 were sick persons, or women in childbed, 
 and these small offering were gratefully re- 
 ceived. 
 
 One day, when I was alone in the house, 
 between four and five o'clock in the after- 
 noon, the Mowban came to announce the 
 arrival of a feminine deputation from the 
 Yakounine quarter, and to ask me whether 
 he should send them away. These, ladies 
 had been authorized by their husbands to 
 make their acknowledgments in person, but 
 they had profited by the opportunity to ex- 
 press their wish to examine our European 
 furniture. I told the porter that I would 
 gladly undertake to do the honors of the 
 house to them. 
 
 Presently I heard the clicking of a number 
 of wooden shoes on the gravel walk in the 
 garden, and, looking towards the foot of the 
 verandah staircase in front of the saloon, I 
 saw a group of smiling faces, among which 
 I distinguished four married women, two 
 young girls, and several children of all ages. 
 The former were remarkable for the plainness 
 of their dress ; no ornament in the hair, jio 
 
 light stuffs or bright colors in their garments, 
 no paint on their faces, but their teeth 
 painted as black as ebony, as is becoming to 
 all married women, according to Japanese 
 ideas. 
 
 The young girls, on the contrary, show 
 off the natural whiteness of their teeth by a 
 layer of carmine on their lips, put rouge on 
 their cheeks, braid their thick hair with strips 
 of scarlet crape, and wear wide girdles of 
 many colors. The children's dress is simply 
 a plain garment and a striped sash ; they 
 never wear any head-dress, and their heads 
 are shaven, except a few locks, some hang- 
 ing loose, others tied together and arranged 
 as a chignon. 
 
 Removed Their Shoes. 
 
 After the customary salutations, the ora- 
 tors of the deputation — for three or four 
 always spoke simultaneously — said many 
 pretty things to me in Japanese, to which I 
 replied in French, while I made signs to the 
 company to enter the drawing-room. It was 
 quite clear that they had understood me ; I 
 could not mistake the expression of thanks; 
 and yet, instead of ascending the staircase, 
 they seemtd to be asking me for an explan;*- 
 tion of some sort. At length my fair friends 
 perceived my embarrassment, and, by add- 
 ing gestures to language, asked me, " Ought 
 we to take oiif our shoes in the garden, or 
 will it suffice if we take them off in the 
 veranda?" 
 
 I pronounced in favor of the latter alter- 
 native, and my guests immediately ascended 
 the stairs, removed their shoes and placed 
 them in a line upon the floor, and then glee- 
 fully trod the carpets of the drawing-room — 
 the children with bare feet, the grown-up 
 persons in socks made of cotton-cloth, 
 divided into two unequal compartments, one 
 for the great toe, and the other for the rest 
 
314 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 of the foot. This is another peculiarity of 
 Japanese dress. 
 
 Their first impression was innocent admira- 
 tion, to which general laughter succeeded 
 when they all found themselves reflected at 
 full length , and on all sides, in the long 
 mirrors which came down to the floor. 
 While the younger menibers of the party 
 indulged themselves in unwearied contem- 
 plation of a scene at once so novel and so 
 
 JAPANESE AT TEA. 
 
 attractive, the matrons asked me the mean- 
 ing of the pictures which adorned the room. 
 I explained that they represented the Tycoon 
 of Holland and his wife, and also several 
 great Daimois, or princes of the reigning 
 family. 
 
 They bowed respectfully, but one of them, 
 whose curiosity was not satisfied, said, timidly, 
 that she supposed they had also taken the 
 portrait of his Dutch Majesty's groom. I 
 
 took care not to undeceive her, because she 
 would not have understood that it could be 
 correct to represent a prince standing beside 
 his saddle-horse and holding it by the bridle. 
 Others, having attentively examined the vel- 
 vet sofas and arm-chairs, told me how a dis- 
 pute had arisen between them respecting the 
 use of those articles of furniture. 
 
 They agreed as to the easy chairs ; it was, 
 no doubt, intended that they should be sat 
 upon — but the sofas? 
 Surely one ought to 
 squat on thfem with 
 crossed legs, especi- 
 ally when eating at 
 the table in front of 
 them. They sincere- 
 ly pitied the gentle- 
 men and ladies of the 
 West, condemned to 
 make such inconve- 
 nient use of these ar_ 
 tides, and actually to 
 sit with their legs 
 hanging down. My 
 room, being open 
 and on the same 
 level, was speedily- 
 invaded, and almost 
 everjrthing in it was 
 a subject of aston- 
 ishment to my visi- 
 tors, who were none 
 the less daughters of Eve because they were 
 born in Japan. They were particularly de- 
 lighted with a set of uniform buttons bearing 
 the Swiss federal cross, according to the 
 military rule of my country. I had to give 
 them, some of these buttons, though I could 
 not imagine to what use they could possibly 
 apply them, since all Japanese garments, for 
 the use of both sexes are simply fastened by- 
 silken strings. 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 315 
 
 The gift of a few articles of Parisian per- 
 fumery was highly appreciated, but I praised 
 Eau de Cologne quite unsuccessfully. Cam- 
 bric handkerchiefs are unknown in Japan. I 
 showed them some specimens, very prettily 
 embroidered by the gentlewomen of Appen- 
 zell; but they explained to me that, though 
 the gentility of Tokio might perhaps use 
 them as cuffs for their wide and flowing 
 night-robes, not the lowest woman of the 
 people would hold in her hand or carry in 
 her pocket a piece of stuff in which she had 
 blown her nose. There is, therefore, no 
 chance at present that the little squares 
 of paper, made from vegetable substances, 
 which they cany in a fold of the dress, in 
 the breast, or in a pocket in the sleeve, and 
 which are thrown away as each is success- 
 ively used, will be supplanted by our bar- 
 barous method. Eau de Cologne, however, 
 might be- used with advantage to counteract 
 the briny flavor of the well-water which is 
 drunk at Benten. 
 
 Mode of \Vriting. 
 
 Another point on which my visitors seemed 
 to regard the superiority of Japanese civiliza- 
 tion as incontestable, is their method of writ- 
 ing. The Japanese uses a brush, a stick of 
 Chinese ink, and a roll of paper made from 
 mulberry leaves. He carries those things 
 about with him everywhere : the roll of 
 paper is placed in his breast; the brush and 
 the inkstand hang in a case from his girdle, 
 together with his pipe and his tobacco-bag. 
 
 In order to regain my advantage, I ex- 
 hibited a case containing an assortment of 
 sewing cotton, needles, and pins, and begged 
 the lady Yakounines to use them. They 
 unanimously acknowledged the imperfection 
 of the working materials of their country, 
 where the sewing-machine is unknown. 
 Needlework does not occupy in Japan any 
 
 place like that which it takes in our middle- 
 class households ; it is never produced dur- 
 ing the long gossiping visits which the 
 Japanese women interchange. As in Eu- 
 rope men have recourse to the cigar, so in 
 Japan they season their conversation with 
 pipes. 
 
 The visit ended by my giving the children 
 some prints representing Swiss landscapes 
 and costumes, and showing their elders a 
 photographic album containing likenesses of 
 all the members of my family, which they 
 examined with more than interest, with 
 really touching emotion. It is within the 
 domain of the natural affections that the 
 unity, the identity of the human race in every 
 clime and among every people, makes itself 
 most sensibly felt. 
 
 "The Whole World Akin." 
 
 What signifies diversity of idiom in the 
 presence of that universal language which 
 translates itself by the expression of the eye, 
 by a tear upon the eyelid, by sweet and 
 touching intonations of the voice, like Men- 
 delssohn's " Songs without Words ? " The 
 traveller is, in the sight of all primitive 
 peoples, a being who deserves the deepest 
 pity, for he is separated from all that consti- 
 tutes the charm of life — the family, the 
 paternal roof, the country of his ancestors. 
 
 Religious admiration would be mingled 
 with the compassion he inspires if he had 
 left his country to accomplish a pious pil- 
 grimage in a distant land, but that a man 
 should cross the seas merely in the interest 
 of terrestrial objects is a thing incomprehen- 
 sible to the Japanese. They might admit 
 the notion of my being a political exile, the 
 victim of the severity of my Government; 
 but when they learn that I am neither 
 a pilgrim nor proscribed, astonishment min- 
 gled with a kind of fright is added to their 
 
316 
 
 artless sympathy and they appear to consider 
 me an object of pity. 
 
 All good people who compose the popu- 
 lation of the beach accost me in the friendliest 
 manner. The children bring me beautiful 
 glistening shells, and the women do their 
 best to make me understand the culinary 
 properties of the hideous little marine mon- 
 sters which they pile up in their baskets. 
 This spontaneous kindhness and cordiality 
 is a characteristic common to all the lower 
 classes of Japanese society. More than 
 once, when I have been going on foot 
 about the suburbs of Nagasaki or Yoko- 
 hama, the country people have invited me 
 to step inside their little enclosures. 
 
 Japanese Hospitality. 
 
 Then they would show me their flowers, 
 and cut the best among them to make up a 
 bouquet for me. It was always in vain that 
 I offered them money ; they never accepted 
 it, and were not satisfied until I had crossed 
 their threshold and partaken of tea and rice- 
 cakes with them. 
 
 Spring is the most tempting season for 
 exploring the coasts of the Bay of Yeddo. 
 From the heights on its borders the inland 
 scene, stretching away to the foot of Fousi- 
 yama, presents an uninterrupted succession 
 of wooded hills and cultivated valleys, diver- 
 sified by rivers or gulfs, which at a distance 
 look Uke lakes. The villages on their banks 
 are half hidden in rich foliage, and large 
 farms, approached by shady roads, may be 
 traced out at various points of the land- 
 scape. 
 
 The precocity of the vegetation in the rice- 
 grounds and on the cultivated hills, the quan- 
 tity of evergreen trees on every side, deprives 
 the springtide of Japan of that fresh and bud- 
 ding aspect which is one of its chief beauties 
 elsewhere. And yet, where can be found a 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 more luxuriant spring vegetation, more rich 
 in beautiful details ? All along the hedges, 
 in the orchards, and about the villages, tufbs 
 of flowers and foliage of dazzling hue stand 
 out against the dark tints of a background 
 of pines, firs, cedars, cypress, laurels, green 
 oak, and bamboos. 
 
 Here we find the great white flowers of 
 the wild mulberry; there, camelias growing 
 in the open country, as tall as our apple 
 trees ; everywhere, cherry trees, plum trees, 
 peach trees, generally laden with double 
 flowers, some quite white, others bright 
 red, and sometimes white and red on the 
 same branches ; for many of the Japanese 
 do not care at all for the fruit of these trees, 
 but cultivate and graft them merely for the 
 sake of the double flowers, and to vary or 
 combine the species. 
 
 The Tufted Bamboo. 
 
 The bamboo, much employed in the ca- 
 pacity of a support to these trees, frequently 
 lends his elegant foliage to the branches of 
 young fruit trees which have no other adorn- 
 ment than their bunches of flowers. But I 
 love the bamboo most when it grows in soH- 
 tary groups, like a tuft of gigantic reeds. 
 There is nothing more picturesque in the 
 whole landscape than these tall green pol- 
 ished stems, with their golden streaks and 
 their tufted tops, and all around the chiefs 
 the young slender offshoots with their 
 feathered heads, and a multitude of long 
 leaves streaming in the wind like thousands 
 of fluttering pennons. 
 
 The bamboo groves are favorite subjects 
 of study with the Japanese painters, whether 
 they limit themselves to reproduce the grace- 
 ful lines and harmonious effects, or enliven 
 the picture by adding some of the Uve ^ 
 creatures which seek their verdant shelter 
 — ^the little birds, the butterflies, and, in 
 
<^ 
 < 
 
 1-3 
 
 > 
 I— I 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 fl( 
 p 
 o 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 317 
 
 lonely places, the weasel, the ferret, the 
 black squirrel, and the red-faced brown 
 monkey. 
 
 All the waysides are bordered with violets, 
 but they are scentless. The country pro- 
 duces a very small number of odoriferous 
 plants, and it is remarkable that the lark, 
 the nightingale, and other singing birds are 
 very rare. Perhaps the lack of perfume 
 and of song, in the midst of all the wealth of 
 a luxuriant vegetation, helps to diminish the 
 effect upon the imagination which it seems 
 to me Japanese scenery ought to produce. 
 It is certain that in contemplating it one (Joes 
 not experience that sense of- dreamy exalta- 
 tion and tenderness which is produced by the 
 sight of a European landscape in the spring- 
 time, when nature is waking up. 
 
 Without going into the question of the 
 extent to which our sensibility is fed by the 
 remembrance of childhood, and the tradi- 
 tional ideas which find no application in the 
 world of the Far East, I think the cooling of 
 our enthusiasm may be accounted for by the 
 fact that, in Japan, nature is over-cultivated. 
 
 Excess of Cultivation. 
 
 With the exception of the forests and 
 other plantations of trees, which the govern- 
 ment maintains with praiseworthy care, the 
 entire soil is invaded by cultivation to an ex- 
 tent which almost defies description. Early 
 in April the fields outside the woods are 
 covered with buckwheat in full flower. In 
 four or five weeks' time, on the lower 
 ground, they will be reaping the barley and 
 wheat sown in November. In Japan they 
 sow corn as we plant potatoes, that is in re- 
 gular, perfectly straight rows, and between 
 each of these there is an interval of free 
 space in which is already sprouting a pecu- 
 liar species of beans, which will spring up 
 when the field shall have been reaped. That 
 
 green surface which might be taken for 
 sprouting corn is a field of millet, which was 
 sown in March and will be ripe in Septem- 
 ber. Millet is eaten by the natives in as 
 large quantities as wheat ; they grind it into 
 flour, and make cakes or porridge of it. 
 
 On an adjacent plain there is a laborer till- 
 ing the ground by means of a sniall plough 
 drawn by one horse. In the fertile soil he 
 will sow the seed of the cotton-tree, and in 
 September or October each seed will have 
 produced a plant two or three feet high, 
 laden with twenty capsules arrived at matur- 
 ity. Several white birds of the stork or 
 heron family seem to be working in concert 
 with the agriculturist ; they follow him about 
 gravely, and, by plunging their long beaks 
 into the half-opened furrow, they destroy the 
 larva which the plough has just turned up. 
 
 How Rice is Cultivated. 
 
 In the depth of the valley are rice-grounds, 
 which were laid under water about a month 
 3'go> tiy the opening of the sluice-gates of 
 the irrigation canals. While in this state, 
 the soil is broken up by the plough, and 
 trodden by the feet of the buffaloes and the 
 laborers ; the latter treading up to their 
 calves in the clay, and breaking the stubborn 
 clumps with pickaxes. When the earth has 
 been mashed into a kind of liquid paste, 
 men and women go step by step along the 
 dykes of the enclosure, and throw in hand- 
 fuls of seed upon the square spaces destined 
 to form the nursery ground. 
 
 Then these are turned over with a kind of 
 rake, in order to distribute and bury the seed. 
 Now the water has subsided, the nursery 
 ground puts forth its thick, close crop, and 
 the cultivators tear it up, roots and stems 
 together, to transplant them carefully in the 
 large squares of soft earth which have not 
 yet been utilized, in tufts arranged in a 
 
318 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 chequered pattern at regular intervals. There 
 the rice will grow and ripen, to be cut in the 
 month of October. 
 
 Until then it has to dread the pretty little 
 red and white breasted birds which fall like 
 hail on the grain-laden stems, shake the ripe 
 fruit to the ground, and set to their work of 
 pillage with shrill notes of joy, dancing on 
 their little feet after a fashion full of charm 
 for the impartial observer, but which inspires 
 
 prevention, provided that it is kept in incess- 
 ant motion. This is the task of a boy, who, 
 when there is not sufficient wind to shake the 
 net, pulls the cord attached to it, like a bell- 
 rope, and thus keeps it going. The child 
 sits in a lofty seat, perched on four bamboos, 
 under a little roof formed of reeds. 
 
 Several kinds of rice are grown in Japan. 
 That of the plains is the most highly 
 esteemed : that of the hills does not require 
 
 CASTLE AT MATSUYAMA, JAPAN. 
 
 the proprietor with far different feelings. The 
 persecuted rice-growers resort to all kinds of 
 scarcecrows, which they set up at the most 
 seriously menaced points, but without much 
 apparent effect upon the morals of the thriv- 
 ing birds. 
 
 In one place, a complete network of cords 
 of plaited straw, garnished with swinging 
 appendages of the same material, is fixed on 
 poles, and extended above the rice-field, 
 forming a perfectly efficacious method of 
 
 to be so long submerged as the former, but 
 I have seen it subjected, in the spring, to 
 processes of irrigation which have cost much 
 labor ; in the formation of reservoirs on the 
 upper level of the hill, and the establishment 
 of numerous canals, discharging themselves 
 upon all the terraces prepared for rice culture. 
 Each terrace thus converted into a rice- 
 ground will bear, next autumn, wheat or 
 millet. The Japanese may perhaps clear 
 some mountain-land now and then, but they 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 
 
 319 
 
 •will never leave land capable of being tilled, 
 fallow. 
 
 The tea-plant is not cultivated in our dis- 
 trict. It is occasionally met with under 
 certain favorable circumstances, but the real 
 tea-districts are several days' journey north 
 and west of the bay. We are much nearer 
 to the silk-growing districts, and there would 
 be nothing to prevent the development of 
 this industry in our immediate vicinity, if 
 there were sufficient space for the cultivation 
 of the mulberry-tree. 
 
 It strikes me, in short, that the population 
 by whom I am surrounded, and the inhabi- 
 tants of the southern coasts of Niphon 
 generally, leave to the natives of the interior 
 the production of the most valuable articles 
 of commerce, such as silk, tea, and even 
 cotton, which is not very abundant on our 
 coasts; while they devote themselves some 
 to fishing and water-carriage, and others to 
 agriculture in its strict sense — the production 
 of cereals and leguminous and oleaginous 
 plants ; also to horticulture, and the growth 
 of flax, straw, reeds, and bamboos. 
 
 The " Mountain People." 
 
 Among the peasant population, of the fer- 
 tile valleys which border the Bay of Yeddo, 
 one frequently meets men of a more vigorous 
 race, whose aspect, though kindly, seems to 
 denote a certain independence of character or 
 of manner of life. These are the "mountain 
 people," or the inhabitants of the chain of the 
 Akoni, at the foot of Fousi-yama. 
 
 The business which brings them down to 
 the plains is very various in its nature : for 
 some, it is dealing in wood for ships and 
 building ; for others, it is dealing in firewood. 
 Some are carrying baggage on pack-horses 
 from the provinces in the interior to such or 
 such a port on the bay ; others are employed 
 in hauling the canal-boats, and among them 
 
 recruits are made for a select tribe of nunters, 
 as well as for a portion of the Tycoon's 
 troops of the line ; that is, the infantry com- 
 panies, among whom European arms of 
 precision have been introduced. 
 
 Unfortunately, the country inhabited by 
 these passing guests is almost entirely inac- 
 cessible to strangers. If certain native state- 
 ments are to be believed, bridges, aqueducts, 
 and dams of most marvellous construction 
 exist there, which baffle the imagination 
 when one thinks of the imperfection of the 
 instruments with which they have been made. 
 The resources which the Japanese possess in 
 raw material are not accorded to our climates. 
 The bamboo, for instance, furnishes a natural 
 conduit for hydraulic purposes, whose excel- 
 lence yields to no product of modern in- 
 dustry. 
 
 Variety of Bridges. 
 
 It is employed in the formation of sus- 
 pension-bridges in the place of wire. In 
 the mountains of Kiousiou there is a bridge, 
 flung from one rock to another across a 
 deep abyss, by means of a hanging staircase 
 formed of huge pieces of bamboo laid in 
 line, and fitted over one another longitudi- 
 nally. The Japanese traverse great rivers on 
 bridges made of casks, and managed by 
 straw ropes. They cross terrific ravines by 
 bridges of rope, and even by means of a 
 single rope, along which slips a kind of 
 aerial ferry-boat. 
 
 In a country like theirs, where the Gov- 
 ernment maintains only one public highway 
 — the great military road called the Toikado 
 — the inhabitants, reduced to their own re- 
 sources, strive to establish the communica- 
 tions which they require at the least possible 
 cost. Hence the infinite variety of their 
 contrivances for transport by land and by 
 water. A curious specimen of the latter is 
 
820 
 
 the means devised to enable the women who 
 are engaged in rice cultivation to cross the 
 submerged lands. Four tubs, fastened to- 
 gether between the angles of two crossed 
 planks," are packed with as many persons and 
 as large a quantity of provisions as this 
 sigular equipage can accommodate, and two 
 of the passengers propel it with poles. The 
 same talent for utilizing the simplest means 
 of action, the most primitive instruments, the 
 most elementary processes, is equally to be 
 traced in the arts and handicrafts in Japan. 
 But there is a very important part of their 
 social life which either escapes us or which 
 it is very difficult for us to study. 
 
 We can only see the people at work in the 
 fields and in some of the village sheds. The 
 docks, the workshops and the factories in 
 the industrial cities, the artistic conceptions, 
 and the most original productions of their 
 autonomic civilization, are carefully hidden 
 from us by the police restrictions of a jealous 
 government. Nevertheless, little by little 
 the light is coming, and a day will soon 
 dawn when, in this respect also, Japan shall 
 be opened to the investigations of science. 
 
 The country around Yokohama is thor- 
 oughly cultivated and covered with dwel- 
 lings. The isolated houses are built near 
 the roads, and even those which line the 
 highway are usually entirely open, and free 
 to Hght and air. In order to enjoy the fresh 
 breezes, the inhabitants shove to the right 
 and left the movable screens which enclose 
 their dwellings, and thus completely expose 
 their domestic arrangements to the view cf 
 those who pass. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. ' 
 
 It is therefore not difficult to observe their 
 manner of living, as well as the distinctive 
 characteristics of the different classes of so- 
 ciety. The conventional separation of the 
 latter does not seem to depend on any im- 
 portant difference of blood or of habits. The 
 families of the Yakounin live in the same 
 manner, and with the same domestic cus- 
 toms, as those of the peasants and me- 
 chanics; and, with the exception of a 
 greater luxury in dress and meals, the 
 households of the higher government of- 
 ficials are very similar. 
 
 A Japanese lady's dress will often repre- 
 sent a value of ;^200, without counting the 
 ornaments for her hair. A woman of the 
 smaller shop-keeping class may have on 
 her, when she goes out hoUday-making,. 
 some ;^40 or ;g50 worth. A gentleman will 
 rarely spend on his clothes as much as he 
 lets his wife spend on hers. Perhaps he 
 may not have on more than ^6o worth. 
 Thence, through a gradual decline in price, 
 we come to the cooHe's poor trappings, 
 which may represent as little as ;^5, or even 
 ^2, 'as he stands. 
 
 Children's dress is more or less a repeti- 
 tion in miniature of that of their elders. 
 Long swaddling: clothes are not in use. 
 Young children have, however, a bib. They 
 wear a little cap on their heads, and at their 
 side hangs a charm-bag, made out of a bit 
 of some bright-colored damask, containing 
 a charm supposed to protect them from 
 being run over, washed away, etc. A metal 
 ticket is generally fastened about them as a 
 precaution against getting lost. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 DOMESTIC LIFE IN JAPAN. 
 
 THE country may be reached from 
 Benten without passing through 
 the Japanese city. Beyond the 
 precincts of the holy place, a wide 
 pathway supported on piles forms a road 
 alongside the river. From this road, which 
 leads to a suburb occupied by poor artisans, 
 and terminated by a military guard-house 
 and a Customs' station, we look down upon 
 the low streets and the marsh of Yokohama. 
 A handsome wooden bridge, built on piles 
 sufficiently high to permit the passage of 
 sailing-boats, crosses the river, and joins the 
 footpath on the left bank. 
 
 By following this footpath to the northeast, 
 we reach the high road of Kanagawa ; and 
 by taking the southeast direction, we come 
 to the country roads leading to the Bay of 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 The country is covered on every side with 
 ■cultivated land, and the habitations are ex- 
 ceedingly numerous. The isolated houses 
 near the road, and those which border on 
 the village streets, are generally open, and 
 may, so to speak, be seen through. The 
 inhabitants, in order to establish currents of 
 air, slide the screens which form their walls 
 into the grooves on the right and left, so 
 that the interiors of their houses are freely 
 exhibited to the sight of the passers-by. 
 
 Under such conditions it is not difficult to 
 form a correct idea of household life, and to 
 observe the distinctive characters of a 
 national type, as well as the domestic 
 manners of the native population. The con- 
 ventional separation between classes in Japa- 
 21 
 
 nese society does not rest upon essential dii 
 ference of race, or of modes of life. 
 
 From the height of the hill on which the 
 residence of the Governors of Kanagawa is 
 situated I have more than once had occasion 
 to examine and observe, on one side, some 
 buildings set apart for the dwellings of the 
 Yakounines, and on the other groups of 
 houses or cottages belonging to artisans and 
 cultivators. In the courtyards, formed by 
 divisions made of planks which separate the 
 miUtary caste from the others, I remarked 
 exactly the same habits, the same modes of 
 life, which I saw publicly in action in the 
 courtyards of the plebeians. 
 
 Appearance of the Japanese. 
 
 My later observation of the houses of the 
 high Government functionaries only confirms 
 me in the belief that we may reduce the 
 chief types and the domestic manners of the 
 whole population of the centre of the Em- 
 pire — that is to say, of the three great islands 
 of Kiousiou, Sikoff, and Niphon — to certain 
 general features. 
 
 The Japanese are of middling height, very 
 inferior to the men of the Germanic race, 
 but not without some resemblance to the in- 
 habitants of the southwest of the Iberian 
 peninsula. 
 
 There is more difference in height between 
 the men and the women of Japan than in 
 those of Europe and America. According 
 to the observations of Dr. Mohnike, formerly 
 physician to the Dutch Factory of Decima, 
 the average height of the men is five feet one 
 
 321 
 
322 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 inch, and that of the women from four feet 
 one inch to four feet three inches. 
 
 The Japanese, without being precisely dis- 
 proportioned, have generally large heads, 
 rather sunk in the shoulders, wide chests, 
 long bodies, narrow hips, short and thin legs, 
 small feet, and slight and remarkably beauti- 
 ful hands. Their retreating foreheads and 
 large and prominent cheek-bones make their 
 faces represent the geometrical figure of the 
 trapeze rather than that of the oval. 
 
 The cavities of the eyes being very shallow, 
 and the cartilage of the nose rather flattened, 
 the eyes in almost every case are more on 
 the surface than those of the European, and 
 sometimes very narrow. But, nevertheless, 
 the general effect is not that of the Chinese 
 or Mongol type. The head of the Japanese 
 is large, the face is long, and on the average 
 more regular. Finally, the nose is more 
 prominent, better formed, and sometimes 
 even aquiline. According to Dr. Mohnike, 
 the Japanese head is that of the Turanian 
 race. 
 
 Complexion and Hair. 
 
 All the Japanese population, without ex- 
 ception, have fine, thick, straight and lustrous 
 black hair. The women's hair is shorter 
 than in the European and Malay countries. 
 The Japanese have thick beards, but they 
 shave at least every second day. The color 
 of their skin varies according to the differ- 
 ent classes of society, from the copper tints 
 of the interior of Java to the sunburnt white 
 of the natives of Southern Europe. The 
 predominant shade is olive-brown, but it 
 never resembles the yellow tint of the Chinese. 
 
 Unlike those of Europeans, the face and 
 hands of the Japanese are generally less 
 colored than the body; little children and 
 young persons of both sexes have rosy com- 
 plexions, red cheeks, and the same indica- 
 
 tions of robust health which we like to see in 
 persons of our own race. 
 
 The women have fairer complexions than 
 the men : we saw several persons of rank, 
 and even in the middle classes, who were 
 perfectly white ; the ladies of the aristocracy 
 regard excessive paleness as a mark of dis- 
 tinction. Nevertheless, both one and the 
 other are separated from the European type 
 by those two indelible marks of race — nar- 
 row eyes, and the ungraceful depression of 
 the chest which is always evident even in 
 persons in the flower of their youth, and 
 endowed with the greatest natural charms. 
 
 A Singular Custom. 
 
 Both men and women have black eyes, 
 white and perfect teeth, separated by regular 
 interstices, and slightly projecting. It is the 
 custom for married women to blacken their 
 teeth. In this we trace a tradition of Java, 
 where the women file their teeth down to the 
 gums ; or of the Malay country in general, 
 where everyone has black teeth, produced by 
 the use of the betel. 
 
 The mobility of expression and the great 
 variety of physiognomy, which we remark 
 amongst the Japanese, seem to me to be the 
 result of an intellectual development more 
 spontaneous, more original, and in short 
 more free, than is to be met with amongst 
 any other people in Asia. 
 
 The national garment of the Japanese is 
 the "kirimon." It is a kind of open dress- 
 ing-gown, made a little longer and more 
 ample for women than for men. It is crossed 
 at the waist by means of a sash, which for 
 men is made of a straight and narrow piece 
 of silk — for women, of a large piece of stuff 
 elegantly tied at the back. 
 
 The Japanese wear no linen, but they bathe 
 every day. The women wear a chemise of 
 red silk crape. In summer, the peasants, the 
 
|iiii"IHilli|«||i*i( I 111* ' i' 
 
 H 11 1 
 
 JAPANESE FAMILY. 
 
 323 
 
324 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 fishermen, the artisans and the coolies do 
 their work in a state of almost complete 
 nudity, and the women merely wear a single 
 petticoat. During the rains they wear 
 large cloaks of straw or oil-paper, and hats 
 of bamboo bark, made like those of Java, in 
 the form of shields. 
 
 In winter the working-men wear a jacket 
 and trousers of blue cotton under the kiri- 
 mon, and the women one or several wadded 
 mantles, but generally there is no difference 
 between their costumes, excepting in the 
 nature of the materials. Persons of the 
 middle class and of the nobility never go 
 out without jacket and trousers. The nobles 
 alone have a right to wear silk, and only 
 dress richly to go to Court, or to make 
 visits of ceremony. The officers of the 
 Government, and the Yakounines on duty 
 wear wide trailing trousers ; and replace the 
 kirimon by an overcoat with large sleeves, 
 which however only comes down to thfe hips, 
 and is rather elegantly cut. Every one 
 wears the same coverings for the feet, which 
 consist of sandals of plaited straw, or wooden 
 ' slippers fastened by a cord in which the great 
 toe is caught. 
 
 Covering for the Feet. 
 
 When the roads are muddy, the people 
 wear a simple wooden sole, resting upon two 
 smaller pieces placed crosswise. During the 
 greater portion of the year the working 
 people merely use straw sandals. Each, on 
 returning to his own house, or on presenting 
 himself at that of a stranger, removes his 
 socks or his sandals and leaves them at the 
 door. 
 
 The floors of the Japanese houses are con- 
 stantly covered with mats. As they are all 
 of the same size, which is so invariable that 
 the mat is used as a standard measure — it is 
 never difficult to arrange them in an apart- 
 
 ment. They are uniformly six feet three 
 inches long, three feet two inches wide, and 
 four inches thick. 
 
 They are made of rice-straw, very care- 
 fully plaited ; by combining them with the 
 grooves made in the floor and with the slid- 
 ing screens which form the walls of the 
 rooms, the Japanese divides his habitation 
 into small or large rooms ; but the dimen- 
 sions are always regular, and he modifies 
 this distribution exactly as it pleases him, 
 without trouble, and never departing from 
 the exactly symmetrical lines. 
 
 Serves Many Uses. 
 
 The mat dispenses with all other furniture : 
 it is the mattress on which the Japanese 
 passes the night, wrapped up in an ample 
 dressing-gown, and under a large wadded 
 counterpane, with his head resting on a little 
 bolster made of strips of bamboo ; on it he 
 sets out the utensils of lacquer and porcelain 
 used at his meals ; on it the bare feet of his 
 children tread ; it is the divan where, crouch- 
 ing on his heels, surrounded by his friends 
 and his guests, all crouching like him, he 
 indulges in interminable talk, drinking a de- 
 coction of tea unmingled with any other 
 ingredient, and smoking tobacco out of 
 microscopic pipes. 
 
 In all the inns of Japan we find what is 
 called the " bali-bali," a moveable floor like 
 a great table, covered with mats and raised 
 only a foot above the ground. On this the 
 traveller sits or crouches, eats, drinks, takes 
 a siesta, and chats with his neighbors. The 
 Japanese house is nothing more than the 
 "bali-bali " brought to perfection, a temporary 
 refuge in which to take shelter when the 
 labors of the street and the country are ter- 
 minated; but it is not the centre of exist- 
 ence, if we may be permitted to use that 
 expression at all in speaking of a people 
 
% 
 
 I— I 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE IN JAPAN. 
 
 325 
 
 who live from day to day, forgetful of yes- 
 terday, not caring for to-morrow. 
 
 One day when I had been listening to the 
 recitation of half a dozen of the young boys 
 in our neighborhood, who were squatting in 
 front of their schoolmaster, I asked what 
 was the name of the exercise that they were 
 repeating in chorus. I was told that they 
 were practising to recite the " Irova," a sort 
 of alphabet in which not the vowels and con- 
 sonants, but the fundamental signs of the 
 Japanese language, are collected and grouped 
 in four lines. 
 
 The Japanese Alphabet. 
 
 The number of those sounds is fixed at 
 forty-eight, and instead of classifying them 
 in grammatical elements according to the 
 organs of speech, they have been made into 
 a little piece of poetry, whose first word, 
 " Irova," gives its name to the alphabet. As 
 nearly as I can reproduce the sense of the 
 rhyme, this is it : — 
 
 " Color and odor alike pass away. 
 In our world nothing is permanent. 
 The present day has disappeared in the profound 
 abyss of nothingness. 
 I It was but the pale image of a dream ; it causes us 
 not the least regret." 
 
 This national alphabet told me more of 
 the character of the Japanese people than I 
 might have found in volumes. For centu- 
 ries the generations who were departing re- 
 peated to the generation who were coming, 
 " There is nothing permanent in this world ; 
 the present passes like a dream, and its 
 flight causes not the slightest trouble." 
 That this popular philosophy of nothing- 
 ness does not give full satisfaction to the 
 needs of the soul, is quite evident when we 
 consider how largely the manifestations of 
 religious sentiment have developed of late; 
 nevertheless, it is probable that it acts inces- 
 
 santly as a latent force, and its influence is 
 felt in all the details of life. 
 
 The children profit most by the way of 
 life to which this gives rise. In the first 
 place, it is granted by everyone that the 
 child ought to have its own way. Fathers 
 and mothers derive their pleasure from the 
 observance of this natural law. Every means 
 of enjoyment for children, every subject of 
 their amusement, becomes a source of per- 
 sonal satisfaction to the parents; they give 
 themselves up to it with all their hearts, and 
 it suits the children admirably. Travellers 
 who have said that Japanese children never 
 cry, have stated with very little exaggeration 
 of expression a perfectly real phenomenon. 
 It is explained by circumstances to which I 
 have alluded, as well as by certain external 
 conditions. 
 
 Mother and Babe. 
 
 The Japanese is husband to only one wife, 
 who passes almost without transition from 
 her doll to her child, and preserves for a 
 long time her natural infantile character. On 
 the other hand, the national custom does not 
 permit her to bring up her baby too care- 
 fully. She is obliged to expose it to the 
 atmospheric influences, carrying it into the 
 air every day, even at noon, with its head 
 shaven, and perfectly naked. In order to 
 carry the child about as long as possible 
 without much fatigue, the woman places it 
 upon her back, fastening it like a package 
 between her chemise and the collar of her 
 kirimon. 
 
 Thus the wives of the peasants may con- 
 stantly be seen working in the fields with a 
 little head wagging between their shoulders. 
 In the house the children may be left to 
 themselves without any uneasiness ; they can 
 roll about among the mats, crawling on all- 
 fours and trymg to stand upright, because 
 
^26 • JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE, 
 
 there is no furniture against which they can 
 hurt themselves, nor any object which they 
 can knock down or break. 
 
 Their companions are the domestic ani- 
 mals—little pug-dogs with short legs and 
 tremendously fat bodies, and a particular 
 species of cat with white fur marked with 
 yellow and black stripes, which are exceed- 
 ingly bad mousers, very idle and very affec- 
 
 there are cages made of bamboo bark, con- 
 structed on the models of the most elegant 
 habitations, and containing large butterflies 
 shut up there on a bed of flowers, or grass- 
 hoppers, in whose strident and monotonous 
 cry the natives take great delight. 
 
 Such are the surroundings amid which 
 the Japanese child grows up without any 
 restraint in the paternal house, which is 
 
 A JAPANESE RESIDENCE. 
 
 tionate. Like the cats of Java and the Isle 
 of Man, these animals have no tails. 
 
 Every family in easy circumstances pos- 
 sesses an aquarium, containing fish— red, 
 silver, gold, transparent— some round as a 
 ball, others ornamented with a long wide 
 tail or fin, which performs the ofi^ce of a 
 rudder, and which floats about like a piece 
 of extremely fine gauze. In all the houses 
 
 merely a sort of shady playground where 
 pleasure is the chief pursuit. 
 
 His parents are prodigal of toys, and 
 games, and entertainments, as much for their 
 own enjoyment as in the interest of his edu- 
 cation. His lessons, properly speaking, con- 
 sist in singing in chorus, at the top of his 
 voice the "Irova," and drawing with his 
 brush and Chinese ink the first letters of the 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE IN JAPAN. 
 
 327 
 
 alphabet, then words, then phrases. There 
 is no compulsion and no precipitation about 
 these lessons, because they are certain things 
 of undeniable utility that can only be ac- 
 quired by long practice. No one ever thinks 
 of depriving his child of the benefits of in- 
 struction. There are no scholastic rules, no 
 measures of coercion for recalcitrant parents, 
 and nevertheless the whole adult population 
 can read, write and calculate. There is 
 something estimable in the pedagogic regime 
 of Japan. 
 
 This has been greatly improved during 
 the latter half of our century and is to be 
 attributed to the contact of the Japanese 
 with western civilization. The people are 
 awake to new ideas and methods of educa- 
 tion. Teachers from America and Europe 
 have found positions in Japanese schools 
 and the authorities have not been slow to 
 adopt some features of the school systems 
 of more enlightened countries. - 
 
 Beautifiil Fancy Work. 
 
 Japanese houses are furnished with evi- 
 dences of taste and frequently with rare 
 specimens of fancy work. Notwithstanding 
 its bonzes, its astrologers and its academical 
 poets, the ancient Japanese civilization was 
 not without its popular period, which has 
 left an indelible impression upon taste at 
 Kioto. All works which come out of the 
 workshops of the old capital are distinct 
 from everything that one sees elsewhere. 
 
 But the admiration which they inspire is 
 mingled with a feeling of regret, for by a 
 singular contradiction they attain an aston- 
 ishing perfection in the imitation of animal 
 and vegetable nature, whilst on approaching 
 the sphere of human life they present only 
 lypes without reality, and figures cut on 
 conventional patterns. Evidently the noble 
 faculties revealed in the conceptions and in 
 
 the handiwork of the national artists were 
 arrested in their development by official 
 rules, and hindered for want of a method 
 superior to that suggested to them by the 
 fashions of the Court. 
 
 Thus, art as well as literature became a 
 conventional and hollow routine in its sub- 
 servience to the Mikados. We may even 
 add, that at the decline of the Mikados it 
 remained exactly the same as it had been in 
 the height of their power ; and it is a remark- 
 able fact that it has not since degenerated or 
 become corrupt. 
 
 Verdure and Flowers. 
 
 The working population of the ancient 
 Imperial cities has not changed for centuries. 
 Amid institutions which have fallen into de- 
 crepitude it does not exhibit the slightest 
 trace of the decadence and debility which 
 are common to eyery class of Chinese 
 society. China awakes in the mind at every 
 moment the image of a worm-eaten, dusty 
 edifice, inhabited by aged invalids. But in 
 Japan there are really neither ruins nor dust, 
 the fresh vegetation of its always green 
 islands is matched by that appearance of un- 
 alterable youth which transmits itself gener- 
 ation after generation among the inhabitants 
 of this happy country, who ornament even 
 their last dwellings with the emblems of 
 eternal spring. . 
 
 Their cemeteries abound with verdure and 
 flowers in all seasons. Their tombs, simple 
 commemorative tablets, perserve the recol- 
 lection of all dead without any symbol of 
 destruction. Every family has its separate 
 enclosure and every dead person a stone in 
 the common resting-place ; the tradition of 
 those who are no more is carried on from 
 hill to hill among the gardens of the sacred 
 groves, even to the extremities of the sub' 
 urbs of their cities. 
 
328 
 
 At Nagasaki this picture seems perfect. 
 The city stretches out at the foot of a chain 
 of mountains, of little height, which have 
 been cut out into terraces, forming an am- 
 phitheatre of funeral ground in the eastern 
 quarter of the city. 
 
 Here, one is in the presence of two cities : 
 in the plain, the city of the living lies in the 
 sun, with its long and wide streets bordered 
 with fragile wooden houses and inhabited by 
 an ephemeral crowd ; on the mountain is the 
 necropolis, with its walls and monuments of 
 granite, its trees hundreds of years old, its 
 solemn calm. 
 
 Festival for the Dead. 
 
 The inhabitants of Nagasaki, when they 
 raise their eyes in the direction of the moun- 
 tain, must think involuntarily of the innum- 
 erable generations which have passed away 
 before them from the face of the earth. That 
 multitude of stones raised upon the terrace, 
 standing up clear against the blue haze of 
 the distance, keeps alive among them the 
 idea that the spirits of their ancestors come 
 back from their tombs, and that, mute, but 
 attentive, they contemplate the life of the 
 city. 
 
 One day of the year, towards the end of 
 the month of August, the entire population 
 invite these spirits to a solemn festival, which 
 is prolonged during three consecutive nights. 
 On the first evening the tombs of all persons 
 who have died during the past year are 
 lighted by lanterns, painted in different colors. 
 
 On the second and third nights, all the 
 tombs without exception, the old as well as 
 the new, participate in a similar illumination, 
 and all the families of Nagasaki come out 
 and install themselves in the cemeteries, 
 where they give themselves up to drinking 
 abundantly in honor of their ancestors. 
 
 But on the third night, about three o'clock 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 in the morning, long processions of lights 
 come down from the heights and group 
 themselves together on the borders of the 
 bay, while the mountain gradually resumes 
 its darkness and its silence. The souls of 
 the dead men have embarked and disappeared 
 before the dawn. Thousands of small straw 
 boats have been fitted up for them, each 
 provided with fruit and small pieces of money. 
 These fragile barks are laden with all the 
 painted paper lamps which had served for 
 the illuminations of the cemeteries, their httle 
 sails of mat are spread, and the morning 
 breeze disperses them over the water, where 
 they are soon consumed. Thus the entire 
 flotilla is burnt, and for a long time the 
 traces of fire may be seen dancing over the 
 waves. But the dead go quickly. Finally, 
 the last ship disappears, the last light is ex- 
 tinguished, the last soul has again bidden 
 adieu to the earth. At the rising of the sun 
 there is no trace of the dead or of the merry- 
 makers. 
 
 The Ancient Religion. 
 
 In ancient times the Japanese had no 
 other religion than that of the Kamis : the 
 honors of a special sepulture were awarded 
 only to persons of a certain importance, who 
 were allowed a resting-place distinct from 
 the cemeteries reserved for the common 
 people. 
 
 The ceremonies of the burial of the dead 
 had, in ancient times, a very solemn char- 
 acter, but suggestive to the beholder rather 
 of the triumph of a hero. Beside the dead 
 man, in the tomb, was laid his coat of mail, 
 his arms, all his most precious possessions ; 
 even his principal servants followed him to 
 the sepulchre, and his favorite horse was 
 immolated to his manes. These barbarous 
 customs were abolished in the first century 
 of our era. Lay figures replaced human 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE IN JAPAN. 
 
 529- 
 
 victims, and only the picture of a horse was 
 sacrificed. A few strokes of a brush, boldly 
 dashed upon a plank of wood, represented 
 the image of the four-footed companion of 
 the dead, and this plank was enclosed in the 
 tomb. 
 
 Pictures of Horses. 
 
 The native painters display such skill in 
 the execution of these designs, that these 
 Yemas, or sketches of horses, have become 
 artistic curiosities ; and numbers of them 
 exist in various chapels in the towns and 
 country places, and are regarded as votive 
 pictures. Amateurs search eagerly for 
 Yemas upon the screens in the old houses 
 and in the palaces of Tokio. A few of them 
 may be found among the presents sent by the 
 Tycoon to foreign Governments. 
 
 This kind of drawing was not regarded 
 with favor by the Court of the Mikado, 
 where miniature painting was much in fashion. 
 The works of the miniature painters of Kioto 
 remind us of the mediaeval missals : they are 
 painted on vellum, with the same profusion 
 of color on a golden background ; the manu- 
 script is ornamented by plates in the text, 
 and rolled upon an ivory cylinder, or upon a 
 stick of precious wood, with metal ornaments 
 inserted in the ends. 
 
 Collections of poetry, almanacs, litanies, 
 prayers, and romances are generally bound 
 up into volumes. Ladies use microscopic 
 prayer-books ; and they and the poets of 
 Kioto employ no other almanacs than the 
 calendar of flowers, in which the months and 
 their subdivisions are represented by sym- 
 bolical bouquets. There is also a calendar 
 of the blind, and collections of prayers exist 
 in characters of unknown origin. 
 
 The dress of the women of quality not 
 only indicates their rank and condition, but 
 is always in harmony, as to its color and the 
 
 subjects embroidered upon the garments, 
 with the time and the seasons, the flowers, 
 and the productions of the different months 
 of the year. The months themselves are 
 never called by their names, but by their 
 attributes. The month Amiable draws the 
 bonds of friendship closer by visits and pre- 
 sents on the new year ; the month of " the 
 awakening of nature " is the third month of 
 the year ; the month of Missives, which is 
 the seventh, has one day assigned to the 
 exchange of letters of congratulation; and 
 the twelfth is that of " the business of the 
 masters," because it obliges them to leave 
 the house in order to attend to the regulation, 
 of their affairs. 
 
 Free Use of Symbols. 
 
 The architectural works of the Japanese, 
 the products of their industry — -"^everything 
 that comes out of the hands of their copora- 
 tions of arts and trades — indicate symbolical 
 research mingled with great purity of taste 
 in the imitation of nature. In all the temples 
 and palaces we find ornaments in sculptured 
 wood, which represent a bank of clouds,, 
 above which rises the front of the edifice. 
 The grand entrance of the Dairi is decorated 
 with a golden sun surrounded by the signs 
 of the Zodiac ; the portals of the temples 
 devoted ' to Buddhism are surmounted by 
 two elephants' heads, which indicate that this 
 religion came from India; the carpenters' 
 tools all bear symbolical devices. 
 
 The favorite designs of their mosaics and 
 their carvings in wood are borrowed from the 
 lines described by the foaming waves of the 
 sea and the basalt rocks cut by the waters ; 
 bats and cranes are represented with ex- 
 tended wings; the iris, the water-lily, and 
 the lotus are always in full flower; the 
 bamboo, the cedar, the palm-tree, and the 
 pear-tree, are either isolated or combined 
 
■330 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 with the most graceful climbing plants. All 
 .natnre is brought under tribute. 
 
 We observed numerous ornaments whose 
 signification we could not discover. Within 
 the precincts of the Da'iri there is a bronze 
 vase which coarsely represents a bird of some 
 
 THE COURT OF THE MIKADO. 
 
 unknown kind, of the height of a man. 
 This is one of the most ancient monuments 
 of native art. It is called the Tori-Kame ; 
 its origin and use are unknown. Other vases 
 ■of great antiquity, mounted on pedestals, and 
 which serve as perfume-burners, are carved 
 
 with designs representing the head and scales 
 of the crocodile, an animal unknown in 
 Japan. 
 
 The tortoise and the heron, which figure 
 frequently in the composition of perfume- 
 vases and sacred candelabra, are emblems of 
 immortality, or at least of 
 longevity. The Foo, a 
 mythological bird common 
 to both China and Japan, 
 is found upon the lintels of 
 the door of the Dairi, as 
 an emblem of eternal happi- 
 ness. These same mytho- 
 logical images, and others 
 which it would take too 
 long to enumerate, are re- 
 produced in the designs of 
 the rich stuffs worked in 
 silk, gold, and silver, which 
 form the glory and the 
 pride of the weavers of 
 Kioto ; and also in the 
 carvings and engravings on 
 plates of gold, silver, red 
 copper, and steel, with 
 which the native jewelers 
 decorate the handles and 
 the scabbards of swords, 
 portable inkstands, pipes, 
 tobacco-boxes, and other 
 ornaments ; in short, in all 
 the innumerable utensils, 
 pieces of plate, and lacquer 
 and porcelain furniture, 
 which constitute the wealth 
 of Japanese households. 
 It was pointed out to me one day, amongst 
 a collection of curiosities from the work- 
 shops of Kioto, that none of the objects had 
 a perfectly quadrangular form. I verified 
 this in examining a great number of cabinets, 
 screens, covers, paper boxes, and other var- 
 
DOMESTIC LIFE IN 
 
 nished objects, amongst which, in fact, I did 
 not discover a single acute angle : all were 
 softened and rounded, Supposiia:^ that this 
 peculiarity is only one of the caprices of 
 taste, and therefore not to be disputed, there 
 is another fact which may perhaps have a 
 symbolical significance : it is, that all Japa- 
 nese mirrors, without exception, present the 
 figure of a disk. Such uniformity seems to 
 ■confirm the opinion of Siebold, that the mir- 
 ror of the temples of the Kamis is an 
 •emblem of the sun's disk. It would be 
 more embarrassing to divine the reasons of 
 certain fashions among those of, Kioto, if 
 indeed fashions ever have a reason. 
 
 Fashions at Court. 
 
 The Court ladies pull out their eyebrows 
 .and replace them by two thick black patches 
 painted half way up the forehead. Is this 
 -done because these beauties with prominent 
 cheek-bones are aware that the oval of their 
 faces is not quite so perfect as it might be ; 
 or do they endeavor to lengthen it by this 
 little feminine trick, which tends to place the 
 ■eyelids, which Nature has put too low, in a 
 more suitable position ? 
 
 The amplitude of their rich brocade gar- 
 ments leads us to think that at Kioto femi- 
 nine luxury is measured by the quantity of 
 silk that a Court lady can trail after her. 
 But what can be the meaning of those two 
 long tails which are seen on the right and 
 left below the undulating drapery of the 
 -mantle? When the lady is walking, they 
 ■obey each cadenced movement of her two 
 little invisible feet; and, looked at from a 
 distance, she seems to be wearing, not a robe, 
 but a pair of long trailing trousers, which 
 oblige her to advance on her knees. Such 
 is in fact the effect which this costume is in- 
 tended to produce. The ladies of the Court 
 who are admitted to the presence of the 
 
 JAPAN. 331 
 
 Mikado are bound to appear as if they were 
 approaching his' Sacred Majesty on their 
 knees. 
 
 No noise is ever heard in the interior of 
 the palace except the rustling of silk on the 
 rich carpets with which the mats are covered. 
 Bamboo blinds intercept the light of day. 
 Screens covered with marvellous paintings, 
 damask draperies, velvet hangings, orna- 
 mented with knots of plaited silk in which 
 artificial birds are framed, form the panels of 
 the reception rooms. No article of furni- 
 ture of any kind interferes with the elegant 
 simplicity : in the corners there is, here, an 
 aquarium of porcelain, with shrubs and 
 natural flowers ; there, a cabinet encrusted 
 with mother-of-pearl, or an elegant table 
 laden with numerous poetical anthologies of 
 the old Empire, printed upon leaves of gold. 
 
 Maids of Honor. 
 
 The scent of the precious wood, the fine 
 mats, and rich stuffs, mixes with the pure air 
 which comes in on all sides from the open 
 partitions. The young girls on duty in the 
 palace bring tea from Oudsji and sweetmeats 
 from the refectory of the Empress. This 
 personage, called the Kisaki, who proudly 
 rules over twelve other legitimate wives of 
 the Mikado and a crowd of his concubines, 
 squats in proud isolation on the top step of 
 the vast dais which rises above the whole. 
 The ladies of honor and the women in wait- 
 ing squat or kneel behind her at a respectful 
 distance, composing groups which have the 
 effect of beds of flowers, because each 
 group, according to its hierarchical position, 
 has its especial costume and its color. 
 
 The folds of the garments of .the Empress 
 are arranged with such art that they sur- 
 round her like a dazzling cloud of gauzy 
 crape and brocade ; and three vertical rays 
 of gold surmount her diadem like the insignia 
 
332 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 of a queen of flowers. Her appearance thus 
 becomes striking, not to say attractive. 
 
 The guests are ranged in concentric demi- 
 circles in front of their sovereign. At a 
 gesture from her hand the ladies-in-waiting 
 on duty approach, and, prostrating themselves 
 before her, receive her orders for the com- 
 mencement of the anecdotical conversations 
 or literary jousts, which form the diversions 
 of her Court. 
 
 The Court of the Kisaki is the academy of 
 the floral games of Japan. On the third of 
 the third month, all the wits of the Dairi 
 collect together in the gardens of the citadel, 
 saki circulates, and challenges are exchanged 
 between the gentlemen and the noble ladies, 
 as to who shall find and paint, upon the 
 classic fan of white cedar ornamented with 
 ivy leaves, the most poetic stanzas in cele- 
 bration of the revival of spring. 
 
 Instruments of Music. 
 
 The Court of the Empress, however, 
 admitted other amusements than these liter- 
 ary diversions. She had her chapel music, 
 composed of stringed instruments, such as 
 the violin with three strings; tl^p Japanese 
 mandolin, called the samsin ; a sort of 
 violincello, played without a bow, which is 
 called a biwa ; and the gotto, a ten-stringed 
 instrument, measuring, when laid flat, two 
 yards long— the first was made in the year 
 300. Notwithstanding the difference in 
 dimensions, the gotto reminds us of the 
 Tyrolese or Swiss zither. 
 
 Theatrical representations were added to 
 music. A corps of young comedians played 
 little operas or executed character dances, 
 some grave and methodical, in which a long 
 tailed mantle was worn; others lively and 
 playful, full of fancy, and varied with dis- 
 guises, the dancers coming out occasionally 
 with the wings of birds or butterflies. In 
 
 addition to this, the ladies of the Dairi 
 had their private boxes, not only at the 
 imperial theatre, but at the circus of the 
 wrestlers and boxers attached to the Court 
 of the Mikado in virtue of privileges dating- 
 from the year 24 B. C. 
 
 They were also permitted to witness cock- 
 fighting in the verandahs of their country- 
 houses, in strict privacy. A certain class of 
 the officers of the Empress's service were 
 especially detailed to arrange these barbar- 
 ous and ridiculous representations. They 
 wore helmets and padded trousers, in which 
 they looked like balls. 
 
 Old Customs Still Practical. 
 
 The manners and customs of the Court of 
 Kioto are still kept up in our time, with this- 
 exception, that they no longer exhibit the 
 least vestige of artistic or literary life. They 
 are mechanically preserved in so far as the 
 resources of the treasury permit; and are 
 the last traces of the civilization of the old 
 Empire. They are concentrated upon one 
 single point in Japan, where they remain, 
 motionless as the old tombs themselves. 
 
 Meanwhile, modern life has invaded the 
 cities and the country all around the antique 
 Miako. The Tycoon developed civil and' 
 military institutions in his modern monarchy,, 
 and already the smoke of the steamers before 
 the ports of the Inland Sea announce the 
 approach of the Christian civilization of the 
 West. I 
 
 These circumstances lent a tragic interest, 
 to the actual situation of the ancient heredi- 
 tary and theocratic Emperor of Japan, that 
 invisible Mikado of whom one was not 
 permitted to speak even while describing his 
 Court. But he also has come out of the 
 mysterious darkness which surrounds him„ 
 The force of events has brought him to light 
 upon the scene of contemporaneous history- 
 
o 
 
 < 
 
 CO 
 
 <1 
 
 1-3 
 
GROUP OF JAPANESE GIRLS 
 
CHAPTTER XX. 
 THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 THE environs of Kamakoura are those 
 of a great city ; but the great city 
 itself exists no longer. Rich vege- 
 tation covers the inequalities of the 
 soil which has evidently accumulated over 
 ruins, overthrown walls, and canals now 
 £lled up. Antique avenues of trees stretch 
 beyond waste groves overgrown with bram- 
 bles. These avenues formerly led to palaces, 
 of which there is now no trace. In Japan, 
 even palaces, being for the most part built of 
 wood, leave no ruins after their fall. 
 
 At Kamakoura the Shoguns had estab- 
 hshed their residence. Shogun was a title 
 originally conferred by the Mikado, in other 
 words the Emperor, on the military governor 
 of the Eastern provinces. The Shoguns are 
 known to foreigners by the Chinese name of 
 Tycoons. The title was abolished in 1867. 
 Under the name of Shoguns we recall the 
 generals-in-chief, temporal Ueutenants of the 
 theocratic Emperor. They governed Japan, 
 under the supremacy of the Mikado, from 
 the end of the twelfth century to the com- 
 mencement of the seventeenth, from Mina- 
 moto Yoritomo, who was the founder of 
 their power, to lyeyas, surnamed Gonghen- 
 sama, the thirty-second Shogun who made 
 Yeddo (now Tokio) the political capital of 
 Japan, and created a new dynasty, whose 
 last representatives adopted the title of 
 Tycoon A.D. 1854. 
 
 Yoritomo, born of a princely family, was 
 indebted to his education by an ambitious 
 mother for the qualities which made him the 
 ruler and real chief of the Empire. He was 
 
 brought lip at the Court of Kioto, and early 
 appreciated the condition of weakness into 
 which the power of the Dairi had fallen. 
 The Mikado, shut up in his seraglio, occupied 
 himself with nothing but palace intrigues. 
 The courtiers were given up to idleness, or 
 plunged in dissipation. The old families, 
 who were brought into communication with 
 the Emperor either by kinship, alliance, or 
 official rank, thought only of serving the 
 interests of themselves and their children at 
 court. They endeavored to procure high 
 dignities for their eldest sons, and put the 
 younger into holy orders. 
 
 Chosen From Eighty Ladies. 
 
 As for the girls, rather than send them 
 into convents, they applied for their admis- 
 sion into the ranks of the Empress's fifty 
 ladies of honor, who were all obliged to take 
 vows of chastity. The ambition of the 
 matrons of high degree was perfectly satis- 
 fied by the puerile ceremonies which accom- 
 panied the birth of the heir-presumptive, 
 and the nomination of its nurse, who was 
 chosen among the eighty ladies of the old 
 feudal nobility best qualified to fulfil this 
 eminent function. 
 
 While things were going on thus at Kioto, 
 the Daimios, that is, the old territorial gov- 
 ernors, who lived in retirement in their pro- 
 vinces, became by degrees less and less 
 faithful in the maintenance of the obligations 
 wljich they had contracted with the crown. \ 
 Some arrogated to themselves absolute 
 power in the government of their Imperial 
 
 333 
 
334 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 fiefs ; others aggrandized their domains at 
 the expense of their neighbors. Family- 
 wars, acts of vengeance and reprisal, stained 
 the rustic fortresses of the principal dynasties 
 of Japan with blood for many years : Anarchy 
 was gaining ground by degrees. Yoritomo, 
 whose family had suffered much from these 
 troubles, obtained a superior command from 
 
 the nation and its ruler. This matter was 
 taken into serious account. 
 
 Yoritomo created a standing army, per- 
 fected the art of encampment, utilized them 
 to discipline his soldiers, and neglected noth- 
 ing to make them discard the habits of 
 domestic life. It is to him, for example, 
 that Japan owes the official organization of 
 
 YORITOMO INVESTED WITH THE TITLE OF SHOGUN. 
 
 the Mikado after vicissitudes, and was in- 
 vested with extensive power that he might 
 establish order in the Empire. At this epoch 
 the Mikado, as well as the armor-bearing 
 nobles, had no other troops than the terri- 
 torial militia. At the close of an expedi- 
 tion the men returned to their homes. 
 
 But the exigencies of the times were such 
 that a military force was the only safety of 
 
 the most shameful of occupations, which has 
 been, ever since his time, a social institution 
 regulated by the government. 
 
 Yoritomo succeeded in his designs. He 
 subjugated the Daimios, who had attempted 
 to render themselves independent, and forced 
 them to take an oath of fidelity and homage 
 to him in his quality of lieutenant of the 
 Mikado. Some of them refusing to recog- 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 335- 
 
 nize him under this title, he exterminated 
 them, with their entire families, and confis- 
 cated the whole of their property. More 
 than once, when exasperated by the unex- 
 pected resistance, he inflicted the most cruel 
 tortures on his enemies. 
 
 On the other hand, he incessantly carried 
 on intrigues, by means of agents, in the 
 Dairi. He had commenced his career under 
 the seventy-sixth Mikado — he finished it 
 under the eighty-third. Each Emperor who 
 opposed him had been obliged to abdicate : 
 one of them took the tonsure and retired 
 into a cloister. 
 
 A Divided Empire. 
 
 It was only under the eighty-second 
 Mikado that Yoritomo was ofificially invested 
 with the title of Shogun. He had exercised 
 his functions during twenty years. His son 
 succeeded him. There were thenceforth two 
 distinct Courts in the Empire of Japan ; that 
 of the Mikado at Kioto, and that of the 
 Shogun at Kamakoura. 
 
 In the beginning, the new power was not 
 hereditary. It happened sometimes that the 
 sons of the Mikados were invested with it. 
 Far from taking umbrage at what was tak- 
 ing place at Kamakoura, the sacerdotal and 
 literary Court of Kioto found a subject of 
 jest in it ; now amusing themselves with the 
 airs of the wife of the Shogun, the bad 
 taste which the Secondary Courts showed in 
 dress, the trivial performances of the actor ; 
 the awkwardness of the dancers ; and again 
 laughing at the gaudiness of the military 
 uniforms, which Yoritomo had brought into 
 fashion, or at the vulgarity of speech and 
 manners of those new-blown grandees who 
 gave themselves airs as restorers of the 
 pontifical throne and saviours of the Empire. 
 
 An unforeseen circumstance arose which 
 gave sudden importance to the Court of 
 
 Kamakoura, and concentrated upon it the- 
 attention and sympathy of the nation. 
 
 In the twelfth month of the year 1268, a 
 Mongol embassy landed at Japan. It came 
 in the name of Koubla'i-Khan who, worthy 
 descendent of the Tartar conquerors, was 
 destined twelve years later to take possession 
 of China ; he fixed his residence at Pekin 
 and founded the Yuen dynasty, under which 
 the great canal was constructed. This is the- 
 same sovereign who kept at his Court the 
 Venetian Marco Polo, the first traveller who- 
 furnished Europe with exact notions respect- 
 ing China and Japan. His narratives, it is 
 said, exercised so decided an influence upon 
 Christopher Columbus, that the discovery of 
 America is in a sense due to them. 
 
 Important Message. 
 
 Koublai-Khan wrote to the Emperor of 
 Niphon : "I am the head of a state formerly 
 without importance. Now the cities and 
 countries which recognize my power are 
 numberless. I am endeavoring to establish 
 good relations with the princes my neigh- 
 bors. I have put an end to the hostilities of 
 which the land of Kaoli was the scene. 
 The chief of that little kingdom has pre- 
 sented himself at my Court to declare his- 
 gratitude. I have treated him as a father 
 treats his child. I will not act otherwise 
 towards the princes of Niphon. No embassy 
 has, as yet, come from your Court to confer 
 with me. I fear that in your country the 
 true state of things is unknown. I therefore 
 send you this letter by delegates, who will 
 inform you of my intentions. The wise man 
 has said that the world should consist only 
 of one family. But if amicable relations be 
 not kept up, how shall that principle be 
 realized ? For my part, I have decided 
 upon pursuing its execution, even should I 
 be obliged to resort to arms. Now, it is the 
 
,336 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 
 
 duty of the sovereign of Niphon to consider 
 -what it will suit him to do." 
 
 The Mikado announced his intention of 
 replying favorably to the overtures of 
 Koubla'i-Khan. The Shogun, on the con- 
 trary, declared himself hostile to an alliance 
 
 vainly proposed that a meeting of the dele- 
 gates of the two Empires should take place 
 on the island of Isousima, in the Straits of 
 Corea. In 1271 a new missive on his part 
 remained unanswered. In 1273 he sent two 
 ambassadors to Kamakoura, and the Shogun 
 
 JAPANESE IDOL AND TEMPLE. 
 
 with the hordes of the Mongols. He con- 
 voked an assembly of the Daimios at Kama- 
 koura, submitted his objections to them, and 
 •enrolled them on his side. The embassy 
 was dismissed with evasive words. 
 
 In the following year the Mongol chief 
 
 had them sent back. These efforts failed to 
 accomplish the desired result. 
 
 A short time afterwards he was informed 
 that two generals of Koublai-Khan were 
 about to attack Japan at the head of an ex- 
 pedition of three hundred large war-junks. 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 337 
 
 three hundred swift sailing-ships, and three 
 hundred transport-barks. The Mikado 
 ordered public prayers and processions to 
 the principle temples of the Kamis. The 
 Shogun organized the national defence. At 
 every point on the coasts of Isousima and 
 Kiousiou where the Mongols attempted to 
 effect a descent, they were repulsed and 
 beaten. 
 
 Their Khan endeavored vainly to renew 
 the negotiations. Two ambassadors whom 
 he sent to the Shogun in 1275, were immedi- 
 ately turned out. The third, having pre- 
 sented himself in 1279, was beheaded. 
 
 An Immense Fleet. 
 
 Then, if we are to believe the annals of 
 Japan, that country was menaced by the 
 most formidable expedition which had ever 
 sailed upofi the seas of the far East. The 
 Mongol fleet numbered four thousand sail, 
 and carried an army of two hundred and 
 forty thousand men. It was descending 
 upon Firado towards the entrance of the 
 inland sea when it was dispersed by a 
 typhoon and dashed upon the coast. All 
 who did not perish in the waves fell under 
 the swords of the Japanese, who spared only 
 three prisoners, whom they sent back to the 
 •other side of the strait to carry the news. 
 
 After the occurrence of these events, it was 
 no longer possible to regard the Shoguns as 
 simple functionaries of the Crown, or even as 
 the official protectors of the Mikado. The 
 entire nation owed its safety to them. From 
 that moment the Court of Kioto had a rival 
 in that of Kamakoura, which must speedily 
 eclipse it and supplant it in the management 
 of the affairs of the Empire. 
 
 At the present time we find at Kamakoura 
 the Pantheon of the glories of Japan. It is 
 composed of a majestic collection of sacred 
 buildings which have always been spared by 
 
 22 
 
 the fury of civil war. They are placed under 
 the invocation of Hatchiman, one of the great 
 national Kamis. Hatchiman belongs to the 
 heroic period of the Empire of the Mikados. 
 His mother was the Empress Zingou, who 
 effected the conquest of the three kingdoms 
 of Corea, arid to whom Divine honors are 
 rendered. 
 
 Each year, on the ninth day of the ninth 
 month, a solemn procession to the tomb 
 which is consecrated to her at Fousimi, in 
 the country of Yamasiro, commemorates her 
 glorious deeds. Zingou herself surnamed 
 her son Fatsman, "the eight banners," in 
 consequence of a sign which appeared in the 
 heavens at the birth of a child. Thanks to 
 the education which she gave him, she made 
 him the bravest of her soldiers and the most 
 skilful of her generals. When she had 
 attained the age of one hundred years she 
 transmitted the sceptre aiid crown of the 
 Mikados to her son, in the year 270 of our 
 era. He was then seventy-one years old. 
 
 Long and Brilliant Reign. 
 
 Under the name of Woozin he reigned 
 gloriously for forty-three years, and was 
 raised, after his death, to the rank of a 
 protecting genius of the Empire. He is 
 especially revered as the patron of soldiers. 
 In the annual fetes dedicated to him, Japan 
 celebrates the memory of the heroes who 
 have died for their country. The popular 
 processions which take place on this occasion 
 revive the ancient pomps of Kami worship. 
 Even the horses formerly destined for sacri- 
 fice are among the cortege ; but instead of 
 being immolated, they are turned loose on 
 the race-course. 
 
 Most of the great cities of Japan possess a 
 Temple of Hatchiman. That of Kamakoura 
 is distinguished above all the others by the 
 trophies which it contains. Two vast build- 
 
338 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 ings are required for the display of this 
 national wealth. There, it is said, are pre- 
 served the spoils of the Corean and the 
 Mongol invasions, also objects taken from 
 the Portuguese Colonies and the Christian 
 communities of Japan at the epoch when the 
 Portugese were expelled, and the Japanese 
 Christians were exterminated by order of the 
 Shoguns. 
 
 No European has ever yet been permitted 
 to view the trophies of Kamakoura. While 
 all European states like to display the treas- 
 ures which they have respectively seized or 
 won in their frontier and dynastic wars, 
 Japan hides all monuments of its military 
 glory from foreigners. They are kept in 
 reserve, like a family treasure, in venerable 
 sanctuaries, to which no profane feet ever 
 find access. 
 
 A Grand Avenue. 
 
 The Temples of Hatchiman are approached 
 by long lines of the those great cedar-trees 
 which form the avenues to all places of wor- 
 ship in Japan. As we advance along the 
 avenue on the Kanasawa side, chapels multi- 
 ply themselves along the road, and to the 
 left, upon the sacred hills, we also come in 
 sight of the oratories and commemorative 
 stones which mark the stations of the pro- 
 cessions ; on the right the horizon is closed 
 by the mountain, with its grottos, its streams, 
 and its pine groves. After we have crossed 
 the river by a fine wooden bridge, we find 
 ourselves suddenly at the entrance of another 
 alley, which leads from the sea-side, and 
 occupies a large street. This is the principal 
 avenue, intersected by three gigantic toris, 
 and it opens on the grand square in front of 
 the chief staircase of the main buildings of 
 the Temple. 
 
 The precinct of the sacred place extends 
 into the street, and is surrounded on three 
 
 sides by a low wall of solid masonry, sur- 
 mounted by a barrier of wood painted red 
 and black. Two steps lead to the first level. 
 There is nothing to be seen there but the 
 houses of the bonzes, arranged like the side- 
 scenes of a theatre, amid trees planted along 
 the barrier-wall, with two great oval ponds 
 occupying the centre of the square. They 
 are connected with each other by a large 
 canal crossed by two parallel bridges, each 
 equally remarkable in its way. 
 
 Attractive Spectacle. 
 
 That on the right is of white granite, and 
 it describes an almost perfect semicircle, so 
 that when one sees it for the first time one 
 supposes that it is intended for some sort of 
 geometrical exercise ; but I suppose that it is 
 in reality a bridge of honor, reserved for the 
 gods and the good genii who come to visit 
 the Temple. 
 
 The bridge on the left is quite flat, con- 
 structed of wood covered with red lacquer, 
 with balusters and other ornaments in old 
 polished copper. The pond crossed by the 
 stone bridge is covered with magnificent 
 white lotus flowers, — the pond crossed by 
 the wooden bridge with red lotus flowers. 
 Among the leaves of the flowers we saw 
 numbers of fish, some red and others like 
 mother of pearl, with glittering fins, swim- 
 ming about in water of crystal clearness. 
 TJie black tortoise glides among the great 
 water-plants and clings to their stems. 
 
 After having thoroughly enjoyed this most 
 attractive spectacle, we go on towards the 
 second enclosure. It is raised a few steps 
 higher than the first, and, as it is protected 
 by an additional sanctity, it is only to be 
 approached through the gate of the divine 
 guardians of the sanctuary. This building, 
 which stands opposite the bridges, contains 
 two monstrous idols, placed side by side in 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 339 
 
 the centre of the edifice. They are sculp- 
 tured in wood, and are covered from head 
 to foot with a thick coating of vermilion. 
 Their grinning faces and their enormous 
 busts are spotted all over with innumerable 
 pieces of chewed paper, which the native 
 visitors throw at them when passing, with- 
 out any more formalty than would be used 
 by a number of schoolboys out for a holi- 
 day. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is considered a very serious 
 act on the part of pilgrims. It is the means 
 by which they make the prayer written on 
 the sheet of chewed paper reach its address, 
 and when they wish to recommiend anything 
 to the gods very strongly, indeed, they bring 
 as an offering a pair of straw slippers plaited 
 with regard to the size of the feet of the 
 Colossus, and hang them on the iron rail- 
 ings within which the statues are enclosed. 
 Articles of this kind, suspended by thou- 
 sands to the bars, remain there until they 
 fall away in time, and it may be supposed 
 that this curious ornamentation is anything 
 but beautiful. 
 
 He Shook His Head. 
 Here a lay brother of the bonzes ap- 
 proached us, and his interested views were 
 easily enough detected by his bearing. We 
 hastened to assure him that we required 
 nothing from his good offices, except access 
 to an enclosed building. With a shake of 
 his head, so as to make us understand that 
 we were asking for an impossibility, he simply 
 set himself to follow us about with the me- 
 chanical precision of a subaltern. He was 
 quite superfluous, but we did not allow his 
 presence to interfere with our admiration. A 
 high terrace, reached by a long stone stair- 
 case, surmounted the second enclosure. It 
 is sustained by a Cyclopean wall, and in its 
 turn supports the principal Temple as well 
 
 as the habitations of the bonzes which are 
 placed adjoining. 
 
 The grey roofs of all these different build- 
 ings stand out against the sombre forest of 
 cedars and pines. On our left are the build- 
 ings of the Treasury ; one of them has a 
 pyramidal roof surmounted by a turret of 
 bronze most elegantly worked. At the foot 
 of the great terrace is the Chapel of the 
 Ablutions. On our right stands a tall 
 pagoda, constructed on the principle of the 
 Chinese pagodas, but in a more sober and 
 severe style. 
 
 Unique Building. 
 
 The first stage, of a quadrangular form, is 
 supported by pillars ; the second stage con- 
 sists of a vast circular gallery, which, though 
 extremely massive, seems to rest simply upon 
 a pivot. A painted roof, terminated by a 
 tall spire of cast bronze, embellished with 
 pendants of the same metal, completes the 
 effect of this strange but exquisitely propor- 
 tioned building. 
 
 All the doors of the buildings which I have 
 enumerated are in good taste. The fine pro- 
 portions, the rich brown coloring of the 
 wood, which is almost the only material em- 
 ployed in their construction, is enhanced by 
 a few touches of red and dragon green, and 
 the effect of the whole is perfect; — add to 
 the picture a frame of ancient trees and the 
 extreme brilliancy of the sky, for the atmos- 
 phere of Japan is the most transparent in 
 the world. 
 
 We went beyond the pagoda to visit a 
 bell-tower, where we were shown a large 
 bell beautifully engraved, and an Oratory on 
 each side containing three golden images, a 
 large one in the cfentre, and two small ones 
 at either side. Each was surrounded by a 
 nimbus. This beautiful Temple of Hatchi- 
 man is consecrated to a Kami; but it is 
 
340 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 quite evident that the religious customs of 
 India have supplanted the ancient worship ; 
 we had several proofs of this fact. 
 
 When we were about to turn back we 
 were solicited by the lay brother to go with 
 him a little further. We complied, and he 
 stopped us under a tree laden with offerings 
 at the foot of which stands a block of stone, 
 surrounded by a barrier. This stone, which 
 is probably indebted to the chisels of the 
 bonzes for its peculiar form, is venerated by 
 the multitude, and largely endowed with 
 voluntary offerings. Like the peoples of the 
 extreme East the Japanese are very super- 
 stitious ; a fact of which we had abundant 
 evidence on this and other occasions. 
 
 Image of the God of Wealth. 
 
 The Temple towards which we directed 
 our steps on leaving the avenue of the 
 Temple of Hatchiman, immediately diverted 
 our thoughts from the grandeur of this 
 picture. It is admirably situated on the 
 summit of a promontory, whence we over- 
 look the whole Bay of Kamakoura ; but it 
 is always sad to come, in the midst of beau- 
 tiful nature, upon a so-called holy place 
 which inspires nothing but disgust. The 
 principal sanctuary, at first sight, did not 
 strike us as remarkable. Insignificant 
 golden idols stand upon the high altar ; and 
 in a side chapel there is an image of the God 
 of Wealth, armed with a miner's hammer. 
 
 But when the bonzes who received us 
 conducted us behind the high altar, and 
 thence into a sort of cage as dark as a 
 prison and as high as a tower, they lighted 
 two lanterns, and stuck them at the end of a 
 long pole. Then, by this glimmering light, 
 which entirely failed to di'sperse the shades 
 of the roof, we perceived that we were stand- 
 ing in front of an enormous idol of gilt wood, 
 about twelve yards high, holding in its right 
 
 hand a sceptre, in its left a lotus, and wearing 
 a tiara composed of three rows of heads, 
 representing the inferior divinities. 
 
 This gigantic idol belongs to the religion 
 of the auxiliary gods of the Buddhist my- 
 thology : the Amidas and the Quannons, 
 intercessors who collect the prayers of men 
 and transmit them to heaven. By means of 
 similar religious conceptions, the bonzes 
 strike a superstitious terror into the imagina- 
 tions of their followers, and succeed in keep- 
 ing them in a state of perpetual fear and 
 folly. 
 
 We then went to see the Daiboudhs, 
 which is the 'wonder of Kamakoura. This 
 building is dedicated to the Daiboudhs, that 
 is to say, to the great Buddha, and may be 
 regarded as the most finished work of Japa- 
 nese genius, from the double points of view 
 of art and religious sentiment. The Temple 
 of Hatchiman had already given us a re- 
 markable example of the use which native 
 art makes of nature in producing that im- 
 pression of religious majesty which in our 
 northern climates is effected by Gothic archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 Temple of Buddha. 
 The Temple of Daiboudhs differs con- 
 siderably from the first which we had seen. 
 Instead of the great dimensions, instead of 
 the illimitable space which seemed to stretch 
 from portal to portal down to the sea, a soli- 
 tary and mysterious retreat prepares the 
 mind for some supernatural revelation. The 
 road leads far away from every habitation ; 
 in the direction of the mountain it winds 
 about between hedges of tall shrubs. 
 Finally, we see nothing before us but the 
 high road, going up and up in the midst of 
 foliage and flowers ; then it turns in a totally 
 different direction, and all of a sudden, at 
 the end of the alley, we perceive a gigantic 
 
►-3 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 w 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 341 
 
 brazen Divinity, squatting with joined hands, 
 and the head slightly bent forward, in an 
 attitude of contemplative ecstasy. 
 
 The involuntary amazement produced by 
 the aspect of this great image soon gives 
 place to admiration. There is an irresistible 
 charm in the attitude- of the Daiboudhs, as 
 well as in the harmony of its proportions. 
 The noble simplicity of its garments and the 
 calm purity of its features are in perfect 
 accord with the sentiment of serenity in- 
 spired by its presence. A grove, consisting 
 of some beautiful groups of trees, forms the 
 enclosure of the sacred place, whose silence 
 and solitude are never disturbed. The small 
 cell of the attendant priest can hardly be 
 discerned amongst the foliage. 
 
 Beautiful Altar. 
 
 The altar, on which a little incense is 
 burning at the feet of the Divinity, is com- 
 posed of a small brass table ornamented by 
 two lotus vases of the same metal, and 
 beautifully wrought. The steps of the altar 
 are' composed of large slabs forming regular 
 lines. The blue of the sky, the deep shadow 
 of the statue, the sombre color of the brass, 
 the brilliancy of the flowers, the varied ver- 
 dure of the hedges and the groves, fill this 
 solemn retreat with the nchest effect of light 
 and color. The idol of the Daiboudhs, with 
 the platform which supports it, is twenty 
 yards high; it is far from equal in elevation 
 to the statue of St. Charles Borromeo, which 
 may be seen from Arona on the borders of 
 Lake Maggiore, but which affects the spec- 
 tator no more than a trigometrical signal- 
 post. 
 
 The interiors of these two colossal statues 
 have been utilized: The European tourists 
 seat themselves in the nose of the holy car- 
 dinal. The Japanese descend by a secret 
 staircase into the foundations of their Dai- 
 
 boudhs, and there they find a peaceful 
 oratory, whose altar is lighted by a ray oi 
 sunshine admitted through an opening in the 
 folds of the mantle at the back of the idol's 
 neck. It would be idle to discuss to what 
 extent the Buddha of Kamakoura resembles 
 the Buddha of history, but it is important to 
 remark that he is conformable to the Buddha 
 of tradition. 
 
 The Buddhists have made one authentic 
 and sacramental image of the founder of their 
 religion, covered with characters carefully 
 numbered, with thirty-two principal signs 
 and eighty secondary marks, so that it may 
 be transmitted to future ages in all its in- 
 tegrity. The Japanese idol conforms in all 
 essential respects to this established type oi 
 the great Hindoo reformer. It scrupulously 
 reproduces the meditative attitudes; thus 'it 
 was that the sage joined his hands, the 
 fingers straightened, and thumb resting 
 against thumb ; thus he squatted, the legs 
 bent and gathered up one over the other, 
 the right foot lying upon the left knee. 
 
 Features of the Idol. 
 
 The broad smooth brow is also to be 
 recognized, and the hair forming a multitude 
 of short curls. Even the singular protuber- 
 ance of the skull, which slightly disfigures 
 the top of the head, exists in the statue, and 
 also a tuft of white hairs between the eye- 
 brows, indicated by a little rounded excre- 
 scence in the metal. 
 
 All these marks, however, do not consti- 
 tute the physiognomy, the expression of the 
 personage. In this respect the Daiboudhs 
 of Kamakoura has nothing in common with 
 the fantastic dolls which are worshipped in 
 China under the name of Buddhas, and the 
 fact appears worthy of notice, because Bud- 
 dhism was introduced into Japan from China. 
 
 The first effect of Buddhist preaching in 
 
342 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Japan must have been to arouse curiosity 
 among the islanders, who are as inquisitive 
 and restless as the Hindoos are taciturn and 
 
 which are only making their first voyage of 
 discovery in the regions of metaphysics ! As 
 they did not feel any impatience to plunge 
 
 BAPTISM OF BUDDHA. 
 
 contemplative, and wish to have a reason for 
 for every thing. 
 
 What a vast field of exploration for minds 
 
 into Nirwana, they were chiefly interested in 
 finding out what was to come to pass be- 
 tween the death and the final extinction. 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 343 
 
 With the assistance of the bonzes, a certain 
 number of accepted ideas about the soul, 
 death, and the Hfe to come, were put in cir- 
 culation in the towns and in the villages, 
 without prejudice, it must be understood, to 
 all that had been taught by ancestral wisdom 
 concerning the ancient gods and the vener- 
 able national Kamis. 
 
 The soul of man, it was said, was like a 
 floating vapor, indissoloble, having the form 
 of a tiny worm, and a thin thread of blood 
 which runs from the top of the head to the 
 extremity of the tail. If it were closely 
 observed it might be seen to escape from the 
 house of death, at the moment when the 
 dying person heaves his last sigh. At all 
 times, the cracking of the panel may be 
 heard as the soul passes through it. 
 
 The Wonderful Mirror. 
 
 Whither does it go? No one knows; but 
 it cannot fail to be received by the minister- 
 ing servants of the great j udge of hell. They 
 bring it before his tribunal, and the judge 
 •causes it to kneel before a mirror, in which 
 it beholds all the evil of which it has been 
 guilty. This is a phenomenon which is, 
 occasionally produced upon the earth : a 
 ■comedian in Yeddo, who had committed a 
 murder, could not look into his mirror with- 
 out his gaze being met by the livid face of 
 his victim. 
 
 Souls, laden with crime, wander in one or 
 other of the eighteen concentric circles of 
 hell, according to the gravity of their of- 
 fences. Souls in process of purification 
 sojourn in a purgatory whose hd they may 
 lift up when they can do so without fear of 
 falling, and resume the progressive course of 
 their pilgrimage. 
 
 In the case of a woman who, being de- 
 serted, drowned herself with her child, she 
 is popularly believed to present herself before 
 
 all wayfarers by the side of the marsh, hold- 
 ing up the infant, in protest against her be- 
 trayers as the real author of her crime. 
 Finally, there are souls who return to the 
 places which they inhabited, or to the rest- 
 nig-place of their mortal remains. 
 
 Ghosts and Demons. 
 
 Ghost stories, terrible tales, books illus- 
 trated by pictures representing hell or 
 apparitions of demons, have multiplied in 
 Japan with such profusion, that the popular 
 imagination is completely possessed by them. 
 The patron of literature of this kind, accord- 
 ing to the national mythology, is Tengou, 
 the god of dreams, a burlesque winged 
 genius, whose head-dress is an extinguisher 
 with a golden handle. He leads the noc- 
 turnal revelry of all the objects, sacred or 
 profane, which can fill the imagination of 
 man. The refuge of death itself is not closed 
 against him. The candelabra bend their 
 heads, pierced with luminous holes, with a 
 measured motion. The stone tortoises which 
 bear the epitaphs move in a grim, orderly 
 march, and grinning skeletons, clad in their 
 shrouds, join the fantastic measure, waving 
 about them the holy-water brush which drives 
 away evil spirits. 
 
 In spite of some difference in style, and of 
 its exceptional dimensions, the noble Japan- 
 ese statue is the fellow of those of which 
 great numbers are to be seen in the islands 
 of Java and Ceylon ; those sacred refuges 
 which were opened to Buddhism when it was 
 expelled from India. There the type of the 
 hero of Contemplation is preserved most 
 religiously, and appears under its most 
 exquisite form, in marvellous images of 
 basalt, granite, and clay, generally above the 
 human stature. 
 
 This type, for the most part conventional, 
 although perfectly authentic in the eyes of 
 
344 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 faith, is, especially for the Cingalese priests, 
 who are devoted to the art of statuary, the 
 unique subject of the indefatigable labor by 
 which they strive to realize ideal perfection. 
 They have in fact produced work of such 
 purity as has hardly been surpassed by the 
 Madonnas of Raphael. 
 
 Japan has inherited somewhat of the lofty 
 tradition of the Buddhist Isles. Apostles 
 from those distant shores have probably 
 visited it. On the other hand, it has suf- 
 fered to an extreme degree, and under the 
 influence of its nearest neighbors, all the 
 fatal consequences of the doctrine of the 
 master himself, and especially the monstrous 
 vagaries of his disciples. It would be an 
 unprofitable task to undertake to trace the 
 pure and abstract doctrine of the founder of 
 the " Good Tao " in Japanese Buddhism. 
 The Proteus of Greek fable, he adds, is not 
 less intangible than the Good Tao in its 
 metamorphoses among the various peoples 
 of Asia and the Far East. 
 
 Good Sense Recommended. 
 
 Every sort of modification and addition is 
 justified beforehand by the following adage, 
 which seems to have been the watchword of 
 the missionaries of Buddhism : " Everything 
 that agrees with good sense and circum- 
 stances agrees with truth, and ought to 
 serve as a rule." The Temples of Kama- 
 koura furnish many examples in support 
 of this observation. 
 
 The civil wars which brought about the 
 ruin of Kamakoura had few points of interest 
 in themselves. From the fourteenth to the 
 sixteenth century, the Empire of Japan pre- 
 sented a spectacle of increasing anarchy, 
 which threatened the work of political cen- 
 tralization which had been inaugurated by 
 Yoritomo. 
 
 A domestic quarrel arose within the Dairi 
 
 itself, which forced the legitimate sovereign 
 to yield Kioto to his competitor; and, during 
 nearly sixty years, six Mikados successively 
 occupied the pontificial throne, by usurpa- 
 tion, while the real descendents of the Sun 
 had to submit to holding their Court at 
 Yosimo, a small borough situated on the 
 south of the capital, in the province of 
 Yomato. At length a family arrangement 
 put an end to this public scandal ; and the 
 hundred and first Mikado, He of the South, 
 resumed possession of his holy city, and 
 solemnly revived the fiction of his theocratic 
 sovereignty. 
 
 Scenes of Blood. 
 
 On the other hand, the power of the Sho- 
 guns. was the object of strenuous rivalries, 
 which carried fire and sword through Kioto 
 and Kamakoura by turns, and did not shrink 
 even from fratricide. The feudal nobles took 
 advantage of the general confusion to make 
 one more attempt to break through their 
 vassalage to the crown or its lieutenants. 
 
 When, in the year 1582, the Shogun 
 Nobounanga was surprised and massacred, 
 with his entire family, in his own palace, the 
 Empire seemed to be on the brink of disso- 
 lution. It was saved by an adventurer, the 
 son of a peasant, who had begun life as a 
 groom in the service of the Shogun. His 
 grave and taciturn demeanor, matured by 
 the vicissitudes of a vagabond youth, attracted 
 the attention of his new master. He was 
 frequently observed squatting in the attitude 
 of persons of his class, near the stalls in 
 which the horses in his charge stood, his 
 arms stretched out on his knees, and his 
 mind plunged in deep reverie. 
 
 Nobounanga offered him a military career. 
 The ex-groom, become General Faxiba, dis- 
 tinguished himself by brilliant deeds, for 
 which he was raised to the rank of Daimio. 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 345 
 
 On the death of his benefactor, he undertook 
 to avenge him, and he commanded, under 
 the name of Fide-Yosi, the troops which 
 were sent into the provinces of the great 
 vassals who Ijad revolted. Two years suf- 
 ficed for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 His return to Kioto was a genuine triumph. 
 The Mikado solemnly invested him with the 
 chief title of the Dairi — ^that of Quamboukou, 
 and proclaimed him his lieutenant-general. 
 
 Then Fide-Yosi carried his sword into 
 another scene of strife. Every one of the 
 thousand divinities of the Buddhist myth- 
 ology had taken his place in Japan. There 
 they had temples, statues, monastic frater- 
 nities. Bonzes, monks, nuns, abounded 
 throughout the Empire, and principally in 
 the centre and south of Niphon. Each con- 
 vent vied with its neighbors for the public 
 favor. 
 
 Furious Conflicts. 
 
 By degrees the competition became so 
 vehement, that jealousy, hatred, and envy 
 embittered the mutual relations of certain 
 powerful and ambitious orders. From in- 
 vective they proceeded to violence. The 
 Imperial police interfered in the earlier con- 
 flicts of the tonsured foes, but they were soon 
 powerless to oppose the torrent. Bancjs of 
 furious men in soutanes and habits, armed 
 with sticks, pikes and flails, came down in 
 the night upon the territory of the fraternity 
 with whom they were at variance; ravaged 
 everything that came in their way ; ill- 
 treated, killed or dispersed the victims of 
 their surprise, and did not retire until they 
 had set fire to the four quarters of the bonze- 
 house. 
 
 But the aggressors, sooner or later, in their 
 turn assailed unawares, underwent similar 
 treatment. Six times, in the course of the 
 twelfi;h century, the monks of the convent on 
 
 the Yeisan burned the bonze-house of Djen- 
 sjoi ; twice the monks of Djensjosi burned 
 the convent of Yeisan to ashes. 
 
 Similar scenes were enacted in various 
 parts of Niphon. In order to protect their 
 convents from a sudden attack, rich priors 
 converted themselves into fortresses. Their 
 audacity increased with the incapacity of the 
 Government. Inimical fraternities had armed 
 encounters under the very walls of the tem- 
 ples which they possessed in the capitals. 
 
 Damage by Fire. 
 
 A portion of the Dairi was sacked, in 
 1283, after one of these encounters. A 
 temple in Kioto having been fired in 1 5 36,. 
 the flames spread to an adjacent quarter, and 
 immense damage was done. The efforts of 
 the Shogun Nebounanga to reduce the in- 
 surgent fraternity to submission were ren- 
 dered fruitless by the entrenchments from 
 behind which they opposed him. 
 
 Fide-Yosi resolved to make an end, once 
 for all, of the quarrels of the monks. He 
 surprised, captured and occupied the most 
 militant bonze-houses, demolished their de- 
 fences, transported all the monks who had 
 broken the public peace to distant islands, 
 and placed the whole of the Japanese clergy, 
 without distinction, under the superinten- 
 dence of an active, severe and inexorable 
 police. He enacted that thenceforth the 
 bonzes should enjoy only the usufruct of 
 their lands, the property in them being trans- 
 ferred to the Government, with full and free 
 power of disposal of them. 
 
 Then he ordered all the dignitaries among 
 the clergy, both regular and secular, to limit 
 themselves strictly, together with their sub- 
 ordinates, to their religious functions. From 
 this law the Japanese priesthood has never 
 since departed. They officiate at the altar 
 in the interior of their bonze-houses, under 
 
346 
 
 the eyes of the people, in a sanctuary which 
 is separated by a partition from the crowd ; 
 -but they never address the people otherwise 
 than by preaching, and only on the holydays 
 ■especially set apart for the purpose. 
 
 They were forbidden to organize proces- 
 .sions except at certain periods of the year, 
 .and with the co-operation of the Govern- 
 ment officials charged with the ordering of 
 public ceremonies. 
 
 Their pastoral duties were restricted to 
 the narrowest limits, and have never been 
 ■enlarged. The bonzes are charged with the 
 accomplishment of the sacramental cere- 
 imonies with which all sects in Japan sur- 
 round the last moments of the dying. They 
 •conduct the funerals, and provide, according 
 to the wishes of the relations of the de- 
 <;eased, for the burial or the burning of the 
 corpse, and for the consecration and preser- 
 vation of his tomb. 
 
 Barbarous Punishment. 
 
 But, in proportion as they reign over the 
 ■domain of death, they are vigilantly watched 
 and restrained in all their relations with so- 
 ciety and the business of life. Most of the 
 secular priests are married, and hold familiar 
 intercourse with a small circle of friends and 
 neighbors ; but they are all the more sternly 
 dealt with if they give any offence in conse- 
 ■quence. 
 
 I saw, in the chief market-place at Yoko- 
 hama, an aged bonze, who had been exposed 
 there for three consecutive days, on his 
 knees, on an old mat, under the burning 
 sun. The poor wretch endeavored occa- 
 sionally to wipe the sweat from his bald 
 head with a little crape handkerchief. A 
 placard, stuck in the ground in front of him, 
 apprized the public that this man had prac- 
 tised medicine clandestinely, and had crimin- 
 ally assaulted one of his female patients, and 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 therefore the justice of the Tycoon had con- 
 demned him to transportation for life after 
 public exposure. 
 
 In 1856, a short time after Fide-Yosi had 
 put an end to the monastic troubles of the 
 Empire, strange news caused public attention 
 to fix itself upon the island of Kiousiou. At 
 this time the trade of Japan with the Asiastic 
 continent and archipelagoes was not in any 
 way shackled. The Prince of Boungo, who, 
 forty years previously, had received the 
 Portuguese adventurers flung upon the 
 coasts of his province by a tempest, had 
 hastened to furnish them with the means of 
 returning to Goa, and had begged them to 
 send him every year a ship laden with mer- 
 chandise suitable for the native markets. 
 
 First Jesuit Mission. 
 
 Thus relations between Portugal and 
 Japan were founded and developed. On one 
 of its first voyages, the Portuguese ship, at 
 the moment of setting sail for Goa, secretly 
 gavv, asylum to a Japanese gentleman named 
 Hansiro, who had committed a homicide. 
 The illustrious Jesuit, Francis Xavier, who 
 had recently disembarked at Goa, undertook 
 the religious instruction of the Japanese fugi- 
 tive, and administered baptism to him. In 
 1 549, the first Jesuit mission was established 
 in the island of Kiousiou, under the direc- 
 tion of Saint Francis Xavier himself, and 
 with the assistance of Hansiro. 
 
 The missionaries were at first astonished 
 and terrified at finding in Japan so many 
 institutions, ceremonies, and objects of wor- 
 ship closely resembling those which they 
 had come thither to introduce. Taking no 
 heed of the immense antiquity of Buddhism, 
 they declared that the religion could be 
 nothing less than a diabolical counterfeit 
 of the true Church. Nevertheless, they 
 were not slow to perceive that they might 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 347 
 
 turn that circumstance to the advantage of 
 their propaganda. Nothing in the doctrine 
 of Buddhism was opposed to the admission 
 of Jesus among the number of the Buddhas 
 who, in the course of ages, have appeared 
 upon earth. 
 
 Nor was there any insurmountable diffi- 
 culty in giving the Virgin pre-eminence over 
 ■ the queens of heaven in the ancient Pan- 
 theon. In a word, the ruling creed at least 
 furnished certain useful points of contact, 
 and all sorts of pretexts and good opportu- 
 nities for introducing the matter. This first 
 mission had a prodigious success, and there 
 is ample room for believing that, thanks to 
 the apostolic zeal and persuasive power of 
 Saint Francis Xavier, numerous and sincere 
 conversions to Christianity took place in all 
 classes of Japanese society. 
 
 Power of the Triple Crown. 
 
 Several high dignitaries of Buddhism were 
 filled with uneasiness about tKe future of 
 their religion, and carried their complaints 
 and remonstrances to the foot of the throne. 
 " How many sects," asked the Mikado, "do 
 you estimate as existing in my dominions ? " 
 
 "Thirty-five," was the prompt reply. 
 
 " Very well, then, that will make the thirty- 
 sixth,'' replied the jovial Emperor. 
 
 The Shogun Fide-Yosi regarded the ques- 
 tion from another point of view. Struck by 
 the fact that the foreign missionaries applied 
 themselves not only to spread their doctrines 
 among the people, but to gain the favor of 
 the great vassals of the Empire, and that the 
 anarchical tendencies of the latter were mys- 
 teriously fostered by their relations with these 
 priests, he discovered that they were com- 
 missioned by a sovereign pontiff who wore a 
 triple crown, and who could, at his free will 
 and pleasure, dispossess the greatest princes, 
 distribute the kingdoms of Europe among 
 
 his favorites, and even dispose of newly-dis- 
 covered continents. 
 
 He reflected that the emissaries of this 
 redoubtable ruler of the West had already 
 formed a party in the coast of the Mikado, 
 and had founded a house in his capital; that 
 the former Shogun Nobounanga had openly 
 protected and befriended them; and that 
 there was reason to believe that he, the 
 Shogun in place and power, was actually 
 surrounded in his own palace by dark in- 
 trigues in the household of his young son 
 and heir presumptive. 
 
 Severe Measures. 
 
 Fide-Yosi communicated his observations 
 and his fears to an experienced servant whom 
 he had already charged with several delicate 
 missions. The dark and subtle genius of 
 this confidant, who became so famous in the 
 history of Japan under the name of lyeyas, 
 applied itself diligently to sounding the depth 
 of the danger. An embassy of Japanese 
 Christians, directed by Father Valignani, the 
 superior of the Order of Jesuits, had set out 
 for Rome. lyeyas suppUed his master with 
 proofs that the princes of Boungo, Omoura, 
 and Arima^had written, on this occasion, to 
 the Spiritual Emperor of the Christians (Pope 
 Gregory XIII) letters in which they declared 
 that they threw themselves at his feet and 
 worshipped him as their supreme Lord, in 
 his quality of sole representative of God on 
 earth. The Shogun dissembled his wrath, 
 but only in order to render his vengeance 
 more signal. He employed nearly a year 
 in organizing, in concert with his favorite, the 
 blow he meditated. 
 
 At length, in June, 1587, his troops were 
 at their posts, in their suspected provinces of 
 Kiousiou and the southern coast of Niphon, 
 in sufficient force to suppress any attempt at 
 resistance. On one especial day, from one 
 
348 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 end of the Empire to the other, an edict was 
 published, by order of the Shogun, by which, 
 in the name and as the lieutenant of the 
 Mikado, he commanded the suppression of 
 Christianity within six months ; ordered that 
 the foreign missionaries should be banished 
 in perpetuity, on pain of death; that their 
 schools should be inimediately closed, their 
 churches demolished, crosses pulled down 
 wherever they were found; and that the 
 native converts should abjure the new doc- 
 trine in the presence of the Government 
 officials. 
 
 At the same time, in order to make the 
 agreement between the two potentates evi- 
 dent, the Mikado paid a solemn visit to his 
 lieutenant, while the latter, to reward the 
 services of his faithful lyeyas, raised him to 
 the rank of his prime minister, and made him 
 governor of eight provinces. 
 
 Loyal to Their Faith. 
 
 All the measures provided by the edict of 
 the Shogun were punctually accomplished, 
 with the exception of one, which was pre- 
 cisely that which the ex-groom expected to 
 have given him the least trouble. To his 
 profound amazement, the native Christians of 
 both sexes, of all classes, and of every age 
 absolutely refused to abjure. Those who 
 possessed land he dispossessed, and enriched 
 his officers with their spoils. Others were 
 imprisoned or exiled. These rigorous ex- 
 amples produced no effect whatever. 
 
 The recalcitrants were threatened with 
 capital punishment. They bowed their 
 heads to the sword of the executioner with 
 resignation hitherto unknown ; and in many 
 instances the sympathies of the crowd were 
 excited by the testimony which they ren- 
 dered to their Faith. Then the most 
 ingenious modes of torture were resorted 
 to, and the native Christians were put to 
 
 cieath by fire and crucifixion. In a great 
 number of cases the latter mode was selected. 
 The Japanese martyrs rivalled the first con- 
 fessors of the Church in the constancy of 
 their faith. For three consecutive years the 
 fury of the Shogun's officers vainly ex- 
 pended itself in the utmost refinements of 
 barbarity and brutality, in ferocious, hideous, 
 unspeakable inventions, practiced upon more 
 than 20,500 victims, men and women, young 
 men and maidens, old men and little children. 
 
 Great Battle in Corea. 
 
 Suddenly, the persecution was relaxed. 
 Fide-Yosi called the feudal nobles to arms, 
 and threw 160,000 fighting men on the 
 coasts of Corea, with which countrj' Japan 
 was at perfect peace (1592). His general 
 summoned the Coreans to join them in 
 attacking the dynasty of the Mings. The 
 Chinese army marched to meet the invaders, 
 but it suffered so decisive a defeat, that the 
 Emperor of China hastened to offer the 
 Shogun peace, with the title of King of 
 Niphon and First Vassal of the Celestial 
 Empire. 
 
 Fide-Yosi proudly replied : " I am already 
 King of Niphon ; I am so of myself, and I 
 should know how, if I chose to do so, to 
 make the Emperor of China my vassal." 
 
 In 1597 he followed up his threat by 
 sending a second army of 130,000 men. 
 But death surprised him, towards the close 
 of the following year, before the issue of 
 the new campaign ; and the two Empires, 
 equally weary of an unjustifiable war, has- 
 tened to be reconciled, and recalled their 
 armies. During his later years, Fide-Yosi 
 was honored by his Court with the surname 
 of the Great (Ta'ikosama) which history has 
 preserved. 
 
 The two Chinese expeditions which ended 
 the career of Taikosama, and which one 
 
JAPANESE DANCERS 
 
% 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 O 
 
 w 
 
 c5 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 349 
 
 might be tempted to regard as foolish adven- 
 tures, seem to have been, as well as his edict 
 •of persecution, acts maturely premeditated 
 with the view to attaining the double end of 
 liis ambitious dreams, the crushing of the 
 feudal nobility and the foundation upon its 
 ruins of a monarchical dynasty. Already 
 the vassals of the Empire were exhausted in 
 sterile internal strife : it was necessary to 
 ruin them by distant and costly wars. 
 
 Under the pretext of protecting the wives 
 and children of the Daimios who were called 
 to military service, Taikosama obliged the 
 families and the principal servants of the 
 princes to come and live in houses which he 
 had prepared for them within the enclosure 
 •of his fortresses. When the nobles them- 
 selves returned from China, they could only 
 regain possession of their lands on condition 
 of residing on them henceforth alone, without 
 their families, but with the power of tempo- 
 rarily rejoining the latter at the Court of the 
 Shogun, where they were still to remain as 
 Jiostages. 
 
 Po^ve^ful Princes Overthrown. 
 
 Kaempfer describes this as a unique and 
 marvellous example of a great number of 
 powerful princes subjugated by a simple 
 .soldier of low extraction. But this was not 
 ■enough to keep the provinces under the 
 •domination of the new central power. 
 
 Hitherto the cities of residence had been 
 Tinited to one another by a military road. 
 Taikosama profited by the absence of the 
 nobles to make a road through their lands, 
 ■extending to the extremities of the Empire, 
 which was to be independent of all other 
 •ward, police, or jurisdiction than that of the 
 Shogun. It was called the Tokaido. Posts 
 were established at twenty minutes' dis- 
 tance one from the other — spaces still 
 covered without rest by the Imperial run- 
 
 ners who form the postal service at the 
 present time. 
 
 In each station runners were ready to 
 relieve their comrades; saddle-horses and 
 pack-horses harnessed; custom-house offi- 
 cers, police, and a picket of soldiers, who 
 have charge of a rock furnished with guns 
 and lances for arming the reinforcements. 
 Finally, a perfect network of day and night 
 signals covered the heights, in order to 
 spread alarm to the headquarters of the 
 Government forces at the first indication of 
 danger. 
 
 An Oath Signed With Blood. 
 
 It was the midst of these works, which by 
 their results were to acquire all the import- 
 ance of a permanent occupation of the feudal 
 provinces, that Taikosama was surprised by 
 death in the sixty-third year of his age and 
 the twelfth of his reign. His last wishes 
 were that measures might be taken for the 
 consolidation of his dynasty. Although his 
 son Fide-Yosi was yet a minor, he married 
 him to the daughter of his first minister 
 lyeyas, to whom he confided the regency of 
 the Empire. 
 
 lyeyas bound himself by a solemn oath, 
 signed with his blood, to relinquish his 
 powers as soon as the presumptive heir 
 should be old enough to ascend the throne. 
 He closed the eyes of Taikosama, gave him 
 a magnificent funeral, and governed Japan 
 for five years under the title of Regent, 
 applying himself systematically to keep the 
 young Shogun out of the management of 
 affairs. But the latter had certain counsel- 
 lors, who saw through the designs of lyeyas, 
 and successfully raised all sorts of obstacles 
 to the realization of his ambitious plans, 
 lyeyas summoned them to give up to him 
 the fortress of Osaka, where they had estab- 
 lished the residence of his son-in-law. On 
 
350 
 
 their refusal, he invested the place. After 
 several months of heroic resistance, the gar- 
 rison was obliged to capitulate. Fide-Yosi 
 set fire with his own hands to his palace, and 
 flung himself with all his servants, into the 
 flames. 
 
 lyeyas, proclaimed Shogun, justified his ' 
 perjury and the tragic end of Fide-Yosi, by 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 noble families of the Empire. At that epoch, 
 at the commencement of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, Yeddo was not equal in importance to 
 the pontifical Miako, nor to Osaka, the centre 
 of commerce, nor even to Nagasaki. 
 
 But, like the last city, it has the advan- 
 tage of a strategical position, easily defended 
 on the land side, and regarded as impregna- 
 
 A JAPANESE LADY 
 
 accusing that prince of having secretly con- 
 spired with the Christians. The army took 
 the oath of .fidelity to him. The Mikado 
 sanctioned his usurpation. The people 
 prostrated themselves before him with the 
 docility of slaves. 
 
 To the usurper lyeyas is due the merit of 
 having made Yeddo the political capital of 
 Japan, and the obligatory residence of the 
 
 IN HER PALANQUIN. 
 
 ble on that of the sea. Kaempfer, who on. 
 two occasions went with an embassy of the 
 Dutch India Company to Kioto and tO' 
 Yeddo, reckons that in the line of the 
 Tokaido, or close to it, there are thirty-three 
 great cities with fortresses and fifty-seven, 
 small towns unfortified, without mentioning 
 an infinite number of villages and hamlets. 
 It takes no less than from twenty-five to. 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 351 
 
 thirty days to go from Nagasaki to Yeddo, 
 by the Tokaido, using the means of trans- 
 port customary among the natives, who 
 know no other than the horse or the palan- 
 quin. 
 
 There are two sorts of palanquin, the 
 norimon and the cango. The former, which 
 requires four bearers for long journeys, is a 
 large, heavy box, in which one may sit with 
 tolerable comfort. The sides are in lacquered 
 wood, and contain two sliding doors. Al- 
 though the norimon is, par excellence, the 
 vehicle of the nobility, it admits of no orna- 
 ments, and is used by the ladies of the 
 middle class. The cango is a light litter of 
 bamboo, open on both sides ; it requires 
 only two bearers, who alv/ays walk with a 
 rapid and regular step. They rest for one 
 minute out of twenty. When they go back, 
 each carries in his turn the cango, suspended 
 at the end of a pole, over his shoulder. 
 
 The Great Highway. 
 
 The pack-horses intended for the trans- 
 port of merchandise and of travellers go 
 slowly behind their drivers, the head bent, 
 ~ and attached by a strap which passes under 
 the body to the cord which goes round the 
 animal. The Japanese, instead of shoeing 
 their horses, wrap their hoofs in a little mat, 
 which only lasts one day. According as 
 these mats wear out, they are thrown aside, 
 and immediately replaced, and large pro- 
 visions of them always make part of the 
 baggage. Foot passengers do the same 
 with their sandals of plaited straw ; so that 
 all the roads of Japan are covered with these 
 relics. 
 
 The Tokaido is crossed in several places 
 by arms of the sea and by rapid rivers. 
 Large boats do duty as coaches, and cross 
 the strait which separates the island of 
 Kiousiou from Simonoseki, in two hours. 
 
 Most of the travellers, and even pilgrims, 
 profit by the great merchant-junks of the 
 inland sea to make the journey from Simo- 
 noseki to Hiogo. It is only half a day's 
 journey from Hiogo to Osaka, and one day 
 from Osaka to Kioto. Between this city and 
 Yeddo lie the most picturesque portions of 
 the road. 
 
 Crossing the Rivers. 
 
 Travellers cross the rivers in flat boats, or 
 on the shoulders of porters. These porters 
 form a corporation, which indemnifies the 
 traveller in case of personal accident or loss- 
 of baggage. With the exception of a girdle 
 tattooing suffices for their clothing, according 
 to custom among the Coolies of Japan. The 
 subjects of this process are heroic, such as 
 the Strife of Yamato with the Dragon, the 
 Tribunal of Hell, and the image of that in- 
 comparable soldier who, when his head was 
 falling under the sword, tore off his enemies' 
 armor with his teeth. 
 
 The fare is always extremely moderate, 
 and varies according to whether eight men 
 are employed to carry the norimon, or four 
 men with a litter, two men with a stretcher, 
 or a simple porter. In the latter case, which 
 is the most frequent, the traveller seats him- 
 self astride the bearer's neck, and the latter 
 takes him by both legs, and, telling him to- 
 sit steadily, steps into the water warily and 
 firmly. Sometimes a sudden rise of the 
 river intercepts the passage, and then the 
 travellers install themselves in the tea-houses 
 on the shore, from whence they watch the 
 water until the porters come to tell them 
 that the ford is practicable. 
 
 Three days' journey from Yeddo, the 
 Tokaido passes by the foot of Fousi-yama, 
 from which it is only separated by the lake 
 of Akoni. Thousands of pilgrims go 
 annuallyin procession to the summit of the 
 
352 
 
 marvellous mountain, where they are re- 
 •eeived by the monks of a convent built at 
 the very edge of the crater, which opened 
 for the first time 286 years before the birth 
 of Christ and vomited its lava in 1707. 
 
 The hills of Akoni, covered with forests 
 in which large game abound, give access to 
 no other road than that of the Tokaido. All 
 the roads of the provinces to the west and 
 south of Yeddo are connected with this great 
 artery, while this one ends in a narrow defile, 
 provided with heavy barriers and fortified 
 guard-houses. Here all travellers have to 
 exhibit their passports, and submit their 
 effects to the inspection of the Government 
 ■ofificers. Yeddo is now named Tokio. 
 
 Neither the rank of the Grand Daimios, 
 nor their imposing suites, can exempt them 
 from these formalities, whose special object 
 is the prevention of the clandestine convey- 
 , ance of arms into the provinces, no less than 
 .attempts at evasion on the part of the noble 
 ladies whose birth and the laws of Taikosama 
 ■condemn them to reside at Tokio. 
 
 A Formidable Wall. 
 
 Not content with these precautions, which 
 do not extend to the northern provinces, 
 lyeyas and his successors thought it neces- 
 .sary to protect the approaches to their capi- 
 tal on that side by a long wall, at whose 
 gates an inspection is made by the custom- 
 liouse and police officers. 
 
 Beyond the hills of Akoni, the Tokaido 
 •overlooks the gulf of Odawara, towards the 
 bay of Yeddo, which it joins at the village 
 ■of Kanagawa, opposite Yokohama. All 
 these localities have been the scenes of assas- 
 sinations, committed upon inoffensive for- 
 eigners of different nations by men belonging 
 to the class of the Samoura'is, or Japanese 
 nobles having the privilege of carrying two 
 .swords. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird, 
 English officers, were murdered not far from 
 the statue of the Daiboudhs of Kamakoura. 
 The corpse of Lieutenant Camus, a French 
 officer, was found horribly mutilated at the 
 entrance of the village of Odongaia. An 
 English merchant, Mr. Lenox Richardson, 
 was killed upon the threshold of the tea- 
 house of Maneia, near Kanagawa. Two 
 Russian officers, and, shortly after, two Cap- 
 tains of the Dutch merchant marine, M. Vos 
 and M. Decker, were cut to pieces in the 
 High Street of the Japanese city of Yoko- 
 hama. A Japanese interpreter to the English 
 minister, and the Dutch interpreter of the 
 American Legation, Mr. Keusken, perished 
 in the streets of Tokio. 
 
 Narrow Escape. 
 
 The whole of the British Legation had a 
 narrow escape from falling victims to a night 
 attack, which was repelled with great blood- 
 shed. Two English soldiers were killed at 
 their posts in a second attack on the same 
 legation. It is difficult to forget these things 
 when one is residing in the country where 
 they have happened, and above all when one 
 has installed one's self at Tokio. 
 
 The Government of the Tycoon is always 
 disposed to dwell upon the danger presented 
 by a sojourn in the capital. That does not 
 prevent their adding that the Tycoon is pro- 
 foundly humilated that such a state of things 
 should exist in his country. On the other 
 hand, where he finds himself at a loss for 
 expedients to escape the reception of an em- 
 bassy, or when he has used eloquence in per- 
 suading them to retire, he is particularly 
 anxious to prove to his foreign guests that 
 the fears he has thought it his duty to 
 express are well founded. 
 
 Thus, when one goes to Tokio by land, 
 one is obliged to accept the escort of a troop 
 
THE RESIDENCE OF THE SHOGUNS. 
 
 353 
 
 of mounted Yakounines. Ours joined us at 
 the limit assigned to the residents of Yoko- 
 hama for their exercise towards the north of 
 the bay. We crossed the arm of the sea 
 which separates Benten from Kanagawa in 
 our sampan. 
 
 Our horses were awaiting us in the latter 
 village, and we enjoyed our last hour of 
 hberty by following the Tokaido, with its two 
 interminable files of travellers on foot and on 
 horseback, in norimons and in cangos ; those 
 who were going to the capital kept the road 
 to the right ; those who were coming back 
 keeping the left. 
 
 Ts^jical Tea- House. 
 
 We halted at the Maneia tea-house, which 
 was crowded with picturesque groups of 
 guests. All along the front were stoves, 
 smoking kettles, tables laden with provisions, 
 active waitresses coming and going on the 
 right and left, distributing lacquered trays 
 with cups of tea, bowls of saki, fried fish, 
 -cakes, and fruits of the season. Before the 
 threshold, seated on benches, were artisans 
 and coolies fanning themselves, while their 
 wives lit their pipes at the common brasero. 
 
 Suddenly a movement of horror mani- 
 fested itself among the guests and the wait- 
 resses; a detachment of police officers, 
 escorting a criminal, came to take refresh^ 
 ment. With great haste, boiling tea and 
 saki are offered to the two-sworded men, 
 while the coolies, who carried the prisoner 
 in a bamboo basket, without any opening, 
 deposit their burden on the ground, and rub 
 themselves dry with a long piece of crape. 
 As for the unhappy criminal, who could be 
 seen doubled up in his bamboo prison, a 
 man with haggard eyes, dishevelled hair, and 
 bushy beard, he was going to be tortured in 
 the prisons of Tokio, as a punishment for 
 the evil deeds set forth upon a placard which 
 
 23 
 
 hung from his ignominious basket. He was 
 object of pity and curiosity. 
 
 The beautiful little town of Kawasaki 
 boasts of several temples, among which 
 that of the Daisi-Gnawara-Heghensi seems 
 to me to be one of t)\e purest monuments 
 of Buddhist architecture in Japan. I had 
 heard different versions of the worship to 
 which it is consecrated; among others, the 
 miraculous legend reputed of the Saint who 
 was the special object of the veneration of 
 the faithful in that place. To so high a 
 degree did he possess the virtue of contem- 
 plation, that he did not perceive that a coal 
 fire placed near him in a brazier was con- 
 suming his hands, while he was absorbed in 
 meditation. 
 
 Shaded Footpaths. 
 
 Although the Tokaido is in general as 
 fine a road as any of our great European 
 highways, and has the advantage over them 
 of being bordered over its whole extent by 
 footpaths shaded with fine plantations of 
 trees, it is, in the environs of the capital, 
 strange to say, that it is worse kept. One 
 day of rain turns the streets of the numerous 
 villages beyond Kanagawa into gullies. On 
 this point, as upon many others, the Japanese 
 display, at the same time, a remarkable intel- 
 ligence in all their works of civilization, and, 
 when they come to the apphcation of them, 
 a carelessness in detail no less extraordinary. 
 
 At length we reach the populous suburbs 
 of Tokio. A short halt on the threshold of 
 one of the numerous tea-houses of the vil- 
 lage of Omori introduces us to a merry com- 
 pany of citizens, accompanied by their wives 
 and children. Other groups, who were mak- 
 ing no less noise, were besieging a great toy 
 shop; an infinite variety of playthings for 
 children, fancy straw hats, animals of plaited 
 straw, painted and varnished, were placed in 
 
354 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 the front. I readily recognized the bear of 
 Yeso, the monkey of Niphon, the domestic 
 buffalo, the tortoise a hundred years old, 
 dragging like a long tail great tufts of sea- 
 weed growing from his shell. 
 
 But time pressed, and, the sight of the 
 , ofting covered with white sails exciting our 
 impatience, we made our way to the sea- 
 board. The road rests on strong stone 
 foundations, but the waves which formerly 
 came up to it are now lost among the reeds 
 and sea-plants. On our left is stretched a 
 pine-wood, and some cypress groves, over 
 which we noticed great flocks of crows were 
 hovering; our guides informed us that this 
 is the place of capital executions, Dzousou- 
 kamori — or at least that of the southern 
 quarter of the great city, for there is a 
 second in the northern quarter. 
 
 Ghastly Symbols of Death, 
 
 The aspect of the place is exceedingly 
 gloomy. If one is sufficiently fortunate as 
 to escape the sight of mutilated heads or 
 bodies abandoned to the dogs and the birds, 
 one cannot behold, without horror, the great 
 extent of earth covering the last remains of 
 criminals, a granite pillar, bearing I know 
 not what funeral inscription, a platform ap- 
 propriated to the use of the officers who 
 have to preside at executions, and a gigantic 
 statue of Buddha, a gloomy symbol of im- 
 placable expiation and death without conso- 
 lation. 
 
 Immediately after passing the place where 
 the justice of the Taikoun exhibits his exem- 
 plary vengeance to the people, we enter the 
 most ill-famed faubourg of Tokio, Sinagawa, 
 which commences at two miles south of the 
 city, and joins it at the gates of the Takanawa 
 quarter. 
 
 The Government has taken measures to 
 provide foreigners coming to Tokio, or re- 
 siding in that city, with a strong escort pass- 
 ing through Sinagawa, which they are only 
 allowed to do by dayhght. The regular 
 population of this neighborhood is inoffen- 
 sive, being composed for the most part of 
 boatmen, fishermen, and laborers; but they 
 inhabit the cabins which throng the beach, 
 while the two sides of the Tokaido are lined 
 almost uninterruptedly with tea-houses of the 
 worst kind, which harbor the same scum of 
 society as in the great cities in Europe and 
 America, and in addition a very dangerous 
 class of men proper to the capital of Japan. 
 
 Two Swords to One Man. 
 
 These are the lonines; officers without 
 employment, belonging to the caste of the 
 Samourais, and consequently preserving the 
 right of wearing two swords. Some of them 
 are men of good family, who have been 
 turned out of their homes in consequence 
 of the debauchery of their lives. Others 
 have lost, through misconduct, their place 
 in the service of the Taikoun, or in the mili- 
 tary house of some Daimio. Others have 
 been dismissed by a chief whom evil times 
 has forced to restrict his expenses by the re- 
 duction of his personal following, and are 
 now thrown upon their own resources. 
 
 The lonine, deprived of the pay on which 
 he lived, and knowing no other profession 
 than that of arms, has generally no other 
 resource, while waiting for a new engage- 
 ment, than to take refuge in these dens of 
 vice, where he repays the hospitality which 
 he receives by the vilest kind of industry. 
 The customers whom he attracts add new 
 elements of wickedness to those with which 
 the faubourg abounds. 
 
CHAPTBR XXI. 
 
 THE GREAT CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 ABOVE all other great cities in the 
 world, Tokio, formerly called Yed- 
 do, seems to be favored by nature 
 in situation, climate, vegetable 
 wealth and abundemce of running water. It 
 is placed at the mouth of two rivers, of 
 which one bathes the Hondjo, a suburban 
 district, on the east, and the other, passing 
 from north to south through the most popu- 
 lous quarters of the town, separates the 
 Hondjo from the city, and from the two 
 Asaksas, also suburban districts. 
 
 Two wide streams among seven or eight 
 of less importance flow through the districts 
 which surround the citadel ; they are the 
 Tanorike and the Yeddo Gawa. 
 
 Basins, tanks, moats and a whole network 
 of irrigating canals connect these natural 
 water-courses, and carry commercial circul- 
 ation, popular animation, and the movement 
 and life of the immense capital, into the 
 heart of the city, as well as to the centre 
 and extremities of the Hondjo. 
 
 Among the number of canals on the sea 
 side of the citadel, that of Niphon-bassi 
 holds the first rank ; the canal of Kio-bassi 
 holds the second ; they are both in the heart 
 of the commercial city. The most pic- 
 turesque view of Tokio is to be had from its 
 Niphon-bassi, the most strongly fortified of 
 the bridges. 
 
 On turning towards the north, we have on 
 the horizon the white pyramid of Fousi- 
 yama ; on the right, the city overlookecf by 
 terraces, the parks and the square towers of 
 the residence of the Tycoon. In the same 
 
 direction, and, as far as its junction with the 
 moats of the citadel, the canal of Niphon- , 
 bassi is bordered on both banks by innum- 
 erable warehouses containing silk, cotton, 
 rice and saki. 
 
 On our left, beyond the fish-market, lie 
 canals and streets which go down to the 
 Ogawa. Hundreds of long boats, laden 
 with wood, coal, bamboo canes, mats, cov- 
 ered baskets, boxes, barrels and enormous 
 fish are crossing and recrossing through all 
 the channels of navigation, while the streets 
 seem to be exclusively given up to the 
 people. Occasionally, a string of horses or 
 black buffaloes heavily laden may be distin- 
 guished among the crowd of foot passen- 
 gers, and sometimes we see heavy wagons 
 carrying four or five layers of skilfully 
 packed bales. These two- wheeled vehicles 
 are drawn by coolies. No other kind of 
 carriage is to be seen. 
 
 Strange Noise and Confusion. 
 
 The sound of wooden shoes upon the 
 pavements and upon the sonorous bridges, 
 the bells on the harness of the beasts of 
 burden, the gongs of the beggars, the ca- 
 denced cries of the coolies, and the confused 
 noises which come up from the canal, form 
 a strange harmony, unlike the sounds of 
 any other cities. All great cities have a 
 voice of their own. In London and New 
 York it is like the surge of the rising tide ; 
 at Tokio, it is like the murmur of a stream. 
 
 As wave follows wave, so do generations 
 succeed each other. That which I have 
 
 355 
 
356 
 
 under my eyes is passing away and disap- 
 pearing, carrying with it all that its ancestors 
 bequeathed to it; objects of worship, ancient 
 costumes, old arms, laws which dated from 
 centuries; all these will soon be only a 
 tradition to the new Japanese society which 
 is forming itself in the school of the west. 
 
 The Ogawa is the principal artery of 
 Tokio. The Junk Harbor at the mouth of 
 the great river occupies the entire space be- 
 tween the small island of Iskawa and the 
 large triangular island which makes part of 
 the district of Niphon-bassi. Above the 
 canal of this name the bridge of Yetoi ex- 
 tends from the region^ of the northeast of 
 the triangle to the western bank of the dis- 
 trict of Foukagawa. 
 
 Motley Crowds. 
 
 On both sides the population is essentially 
 plebeian. With the exception of some Yas- 
 kis of the second and third class, the houses 
 of fishermen, mariners, and small shopkeepers 
 form these quarters. The bridge, the squares, 
 and the neighboring streets are constantly 
 crowded with people of the lower classes, 
 who have apparently no other object than 
 recreation. The children play on the bridge 
 and in the streets without any fear of being 
 molested by the passers-by. 
 
 No less than fpur gigantic bridges span 
 the banks of the Ogawa, with intervals 
 between them of about twenty minutes' 
 walk ; and the squares upon which they 
 debouch, on the Hondjo side as well as on 
 that of Tokio, are almost all equally spacious. 
 
 Ascending the river on the north of Tokio 
 we come in the first place to the great bridge 
 O-bassi, so named because it is the largest 
 of the four ; the third and fourth bridges, 
 Riogokou and Adsouma, are very nearly 
 as spacious ; above the Adsouma-bassi the 
 river takes the name of Sumida-gawa. These 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 limpid waters form the extreme hmit of the 
 quarters north of the citadel. A single 
 bridge, with sixteen arches, called the Bridge 
 of Oskio-kaido, or Northern Road, places the 
 whole of this portion of the city in pommu- 
 nication with the fields, the villages, and the 
 rustic tea-houses of the northern suburb, 
 which abounds in fertile fields and charming 
 views, and is the favorite scene of parties of 
 pleasure. 
 
 A Magnificent Suburb. 
 
 If the inhabitant of Tokio is proud of his 
 good city, he is additionally proud of the 
 magnificent suburb called Inako, for he is 
 susceptible alike to the charms of nature 
 and the pleasures of society, and loves the 
 cool retreats on the banks of the Oskio- 
 Kaido as well as the crowded quays of the 
 city. There are three things to which the 
 Japanese refuses his sympathy. First, that 
 perfidious element the sea, which he aban- 
 dons to the fishermen, the boatmen, and the 
 garrison of the six detached forts ; secondly, 
 the cold solitude of the bonze-houses ; and 
 thirdly, the formidable enclosure of the cita- 
 del and the Daimio-Kodzi. 
 
 He keeps as far away from all these as his 
 business will permit, and such pleasure as he 
 takes in the city itself he seeks for at a 
 respectful distance from the seat of the 
 Government. The Riogokou, or Liogokou- 
 bassi, may be regarded as the centre of the 
 nocturnal merry-makings of the citizens. 
 This bridge, which is completely outside the 
 commercial quarter of the city, places the 
 Hondjo in communication with theAsaksas: 
 or two districts on the left bank, which con- 
 tain the principal places of amusement in 
 Tokio. The river is not deep enough to 
 float merchant junks at this height, but its 
 surface is covered with hundreds of light 
 boats, which can move about freely in all 
 
THE GREAT CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 357 
 
 directions thus giving the waterway a very 
 Hvely appearance. 
 
 During the fine nights in summer, rafts, 
 laden with pyrotechnic devices, go up the 
 stream and fling bouquets of stars towards 
 the sky. Gondolas, ornamented with bril- 
 liantly-colored lanterns, cross and recross 
 from one bank to the other, while large 
 barques, all decorated with lamps and ban- 
 ners, are slowly propelled, or lie still upon 
 the water, while their joyous crews are play- 
 ing the guitar or singing. A crowd of 
 bystanders lines the bridges and the quays, 
 delighting in the animated and picturesque 
 spectacle which the river affords. 
 
 Tokio, at these times, presents an almost 
 identical picture of a Venetian fete, without 
 omitting the Syrens, who are not wanting on 
 the waters of the Ogawa any more than on 
 the Lagoons. But, on the other hand, we 
 must be careful not to compare the great 
 family boats of the Riogokou-bassi to the 
 flower-laden barques of China. 
 
 The Charm of Music. 
 
 The former generally belong to respectable 
 tea-houses, and are let out by the, hour, the 
 proprietors of the tea-houses furnishing their 
 customers with refreshments and guitar- 
 players. They are only annexes of these 
 tea-houses, and occasionally of the little 
 bamboo establishments which are built on 
 the quays, and used by professional singers 
 and musicians. The neighborhood of the 
 bridges, far from injuring the effect of the 
 productions of these humble artists, lends 
 them an additional charm. 
 
 The intervals of silence are broken by the 
 distant noise of comers and goers on the 
 wooden bridge. No roll of carriages, none 
 of the discordant clamor of our European 
 cities breaks the charm of our impressions. 
 
 In Venice only, among European cities, 
 
 can this same movement of the people, this 
 same concert of .steps, voices, sounds of 
 music be heard, without anything to trouble 
 its peaceful cadence and its charming har- 
 mony. The Ogawa reminds us of the Grand 
 Canal, and the neighborhood of the bridges 
 of Tokio is, like the public squares of Venice, 
 the rendezvous of the citizen population. 
 The multitudes who meet each other there 
 every evening cause no inconvenience what- 
 ever; for though Tokio is a city of great 
 dimensions, the Japanese people sponta- 
 neously keep on the move. 
 
 Japanese Musical Instruments. 
 
 Musical entertainments in Tokio are only 
 appreciable by the natives ; for the Japanese 
 melodies have something in them strange 
 and incomprehensible to the ear of the 
 European and American. The musical sys- ^ 
 tem upon which they rest is hardly known. 
 Japanese music is very rich in semitones, 
 and even in quarter-tones. M. F. J. Fetis 
 observes that the melodies collected by 
 Siebold seem to destroy the theory of 
 analogy between Japanese and Chinese 
 music; so that there exists in the musical 
 art, as in the native idiom of that country, 
 the double mystery of a separate system, 
 which has nothing in common with the 
 Western world, or with that of the far East. 
 
 Japanese musical instruments are also re- 
 markable for their originality. Stringed in- 
 struments are made of light and sonorous 
 wood, and the strings are fine cords of silk 
 thinly coated with lacquer. The samsin and 
 the guitar are, above all others, the popular 
 instruments ; they are indispensable articles 
 in the trousseau of a young bride. 
 
 The kokiou, a violincello played with a 
 bow, is frequently used, and also the biwa, a 
 violincello played with the plectrum of the 
 samsin. 
 
358 
 
 The Japanese clarionet is made of bamboo; 
 like a flute, and they have also a sort of flageo- 
 lette with eight holes. 
 
 The Japanese use the trumpet and the 
 marine conch exclusively in their religious 
 festivals. 
 
 They have two kinds of percussion instru- 
 ments. One is made of copper or composite 
 metal, and includes a great variety of gongs 
 of various shapes, among them shields, bells, 
 fish and tortoise, and the sound they produce 
 varies between the grave and sonorous and 
 the squeaky and shrill. Besides these they 
 have an instrument formed of two rings fast- 
 ened on a handle, and struck by a light metal 
 rod. 
 
 Rattles and Drums. 
 
 The other instruments of percussion are 
 wooden rattles, stone drums like bowls, which 
 stand on low frames ; a musical drum made 
 of leather; finally, the tom-tom, or portable 
 tambourine, and the kettle drum. 
 
 The tambourines, which invariably accom- 
 pany the character dances, are sometimes 
 played two at a time, one being held under 
 the arm and the other in the left hand. 
 
 The Sibaia, or national theatre of the 
 Japanese, occasionally employs the whole of 
 the musical resources of the city, in pieces 
 which bear a distant resemblance to our 
 great operas. 
 
 According to a Japanese saying, in order 
 to be happy one must visit Tokio. The 
 southern portion of the city, in which the 
 foreign legations are established, includes 
 eight districts, all essentially plebian. They 
 contain a considerable agricultural popula- 
 tion, devoted to the culture of kitchen-gar- 
 dens, rice-grounds, and all the arable lands 
 not yet invaded by dwellings. These dis- 
 tricts are composed of a multitude of mean 
 houses tenanted by fishermen, laborers, small 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 artisans, retail shop-keepers, inferior oflScers, 
 and low-class eating-house keepers. A few 
 lordly mansions break the uniformity of these 
 wooden buildings by their long whitewashed 
 walls. Bonze-houses and temples are scat- 
 tered about everywhere, except in the two 
 quarters built on the bay : Takanawa alone 
 contains thirty. 
 
 The low streets and quays of Takanawa 
 are filled from morning to night with a great 
 concourse of people. The staple population 
 of this quarter seems to live on taxes levied 
 on all comers. Here tobacco is chopped 
 and sold; there rice is packed and made 
 into cakes; along, the whole line dried fish, 
 watermelons, and an infinite variety of fruits 
 and other cheap eatables are displayed upon 
 tables in the open air, or in innumerable res- 
 taurants. 
 
 Everywhere there are coolies, porters, and 
 boatmen offering their services. In the small 
 side streets are stalls for the pack-horses and 
 stabling for the buffaloes, who draw in the 
 products of the surrounding country upon 
 the rustic carts which are the only wheeled 
 vehicles in Tokio. 
 
 Dancers and Jugglers. 
 
 At the doors of the tea-houses of Tak- 
 anawa, the singers, dancers and wandering 
 jugglers, who come to try their luck in the 
 capital, make their first appearance. Among 
 the former there exists a privileged class 
 subject to police discipline. They may be 
 recognized by their large flat hats pulled 
 down on their foreheads ; they always go 
 about two by two, or four by four — two 
 dancers accompanying the two musicians 
 who play the samsin and sing romantic 
 songs. 
 
 The favorite tumblers of the Japanese 
 streets are little boys, who, before they begin 
 their tricks, hide their heads under a hood. 
 

 Sis 
 
 
 JAPANESE CUSTOM OF FREEING THE CAPTIVES. 
 
 359 
 
360 
 
 surmounted by a tuft of cock's feathers, and 
 wear a little scarlet mask which represents a 
 dog's muzzle. To the monotpnous sound 
 of their master's tambourine these poor 
 children play their antics, representing the 
 spectacle of a grotesque and really fantastic 
 struggle between two animals with the heads 
 of monsters and human limbs. 
 
 The constant sound of gongs, and of the 
 bells of the mendicant monks mingle with 
 the deafening noises 'of thfe streets almost as 
 frequently as at Kioto. At Tokio I per- 
 ceived for the first time that the monks were 
 not shaven, and I inquired to what order 
 they belonged. Our interpreter told me 
 that they were laymen merely, people . of 
 Tokio who were making a trade, or mer- 
 chandise of devotion. 
 
 Grotesque Apparel. 
 
 Although they were all dressed in white, 
 the sign of mourning and repentance, those 
 who carried a long stick with a bell, some 
 books in a basket, and a large white hat dec- 
 orated at one side with a drawing of Fousi- 
 yama, had just returned from accomplishing 
 a pilgrimage to the holy mountain at the 
 expense of public charity ; and the others, 
 with a gong at the waist, a great black hat 
 striped with yellow, and a heavy sack upon 
 their backs, were probably ruined shop- 
 keepers, who had nothing better to do than 
 to hawk about idols on commission for a 
 bonze-house. 
 
 By following the great street which, be- 
 ginning at the Toka'ido, the great highway of 
 Japan, cuts obliquely the chain of hills on 
 which the legations are built, and crossing 
 the southern part of Takanawa in a straight 
 line from north to south, we pass succes- 
 sively through three distinct zones of the 
 social life of Tokio. 
 
 First, the southern zone, which I have just 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 described, with its multitudes living in the 
 open air and conducting all their business in 
 the public street. Between the hills we find 
 a sedentary population, devoted to various 
 kinds of manual labor. Even their dwelhngs 
 and their workshops may be distinguished 
 from afar by their significant signs : here a 
 board cut in the form of sandals or of a 
 kirimon ; next an enormous umbrella of wax- 
 paper hanging above the shop ; further on a 
 quantity of straw hats of all dimensions sus- 
 pended from the top of the roof and reach- 
 ing the shop-door. 
 
 Repairing Coats of Mail. 
 
 We look for a moment at the armorers 
 and the burnishers engaged in repairing coats 
 of mail, war fans, and sabres for the 
 Samoura'is ; an old artisan perfectly naked 
 squats upon a mat, blowing the bellows of 
 the forge with the great toe of the left foot, 
 and hammering with his right hand an iron 
 bar which he holds in his left. His son, also 
 squatting in a corner, is putting the bars into 
 the fire with a pair of pincers, and passing 
 them to his father when reddened. The chief 
 of our escort bade us continue our march. 
 
 By degrees the road began to be deserted. 
 We were entering into the vast solitude of an 
 agglomeration of seignorial residences. -On 
 our right extended the magnificent shade of 
 the park belonging to Prince Satsouma ; on 
 our left the boundary-wall of the palace of 
 the Prince of Arima. When we had turned 
 the northeast corner we found ourselves 
 before the principal front of the building ; it 
 stretches out parallel to a plantation of trees 
 forming the bank of a limpid river which 
 divides the Takanawa quarter from that of 
 Atakosta. 
 
 One of our party having made prepara- 
 tions to photograph this beautiful scene, two 
 officers belonging to the Prince's household 
 
THE GREAT CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 361 
 
 came to him and begged him to discontinue 
 his operations. Our friend requested them 
 to go and take the orders of their master 
 upon the subject ; they went, but returned in 
 a very few minutes, saying that the Prince 
 absolutely forbade that any view should be 
 taken of his palace. Beato obeyed respect- 
 fully, and ordered the koskeis to take away 
 the machine; and the officers retired per- 
 fectly satisfied, without the slightest suspicion 
 that during their temporary absence the 
 operator had taken two negatives. 
 
 The yakounines of our escort, who had 
 been witnesses of this scene, unanimously 
 applauded the success of our friend's trick, 
 but when he told them that it was his inten- 
 tion to take a photograph of the cemetery 
 of the Tycoons, they in their turn opposed 
 him, with a persistency that nothing could 
 shake. We were even obliged to renounce 
 the hope of entering the cemetery. 
 
 Cypress Groves. 
 
 We could perceive very distinctly the 
 lofty red pagoda and the sombre groves of 
 cypress, but we could only obtain leave to 
 pass along the eastern side of the grove of 
 Siba — the name given to the holy place, and 
 which occurs again in the complete designa- 
 tion of our own district Siba-Takanawa. 
 
 We pass the river on an arched bridge, 
 and, leaving on our left a few houses of the 
 Akabane suburb which a recent fire had 
 spared, we crossed a square, bounded on one 
 side by • a matohan or archery garden, and 
 on the other by walls, behind which rise the 
 plantations and roofs of Soiosti — a group of 
 temples belonging to the great bonze-house, 
 which has the honor of receiving the Ty- 
 coons into their last resting-places, there to 
 abide under the combined protection of the 
 two religions of the Empire. 
 
 Buddhism, it is true, is supreme in this 
 
 place, where it possesses seventy sacred 
 buildings, but among this number the ancient 
 gods, Hatchiman, Benten, and Inari, has- 
 each his own chapel ; and a temple dedicated 
 to the worship of the Kamis adorns the 
 eastern avenue of Siba on the side of Tokaido 
 and the bay. In the same - direction is the 
 landing-place of the Tycoon, ori the island 
 of Amagoten at the mouth of the river 
 Tamoriike, which supplies the moats of the 
 citadel. 
 
 The Shaded River. 
 
 Amagoten forms a regular parallelogram,, 
 and is united by two bridges, which are 
 closed to the public. I rowed almost all 
 round it in our consular sampan. The walls,. 
 the staircases, and the pavilions of the land- 
 ing-place, and the groves of trees which 
 surround it, are admirable in their grandeur, 
 their simplicity, and their elegance. The 
 river is bordered on both sides with great 
 trees, which droop over its deep, pure waters. 
 
 We left the enclosure of Siba, after we had 
 reached its northeast limit. On that side is 
 the palace of the High Priest, and beneath 
 it we were shown the avenue and the door 
 exclusively reserved for the use of the 
 Tycoon ; he passes through it but once a 
 year, when he goes to make his obligatory 
 devotions at the tombs of his ancestors. 
 Every courtier, following his example, pays 
 a ceremonious visit on one day of the year 
 to his family burial-ground. 
 
 We pursued our route towards the north. 
 The district of Atakosta, which extends on 
 our right as far as Amagoten, is occupied by 
 the residences of the Daimios, or territorial 
 governors, and the great functionaries of the 
 Empire. On our left, fourteen little contigu- 
 ous temples present themselves. A wide 
 stream separates them from the public way ; 
 each has its special bridge, door, and wall 
 
362 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 surrounded by the chapels and habitations of 
 the bonzes. At the back of the court is the 
 Chapel of the Ablutions, the sacred grove, 
 and the roof of the sanctuary. 
 
 The sixth bonze-house is the exception. 
 On crossing the threshold we saw a great 
 flagged court, with a majestic tori or gateway 
 of granite, and when we passed in at the 
 .sacred door we found ourselves in the pres- 
 
 ej?9Ay/,T.-. 
 
 JAPANESE LADY. 
 
 ence of two candelabra placed at the foot of 
 an esplanade reached by a flight of steps. 
 Then comes a second court, bordered with 
 fine trees, whose interlacing branches form 
 aracades like that of a Gothic cathedral. 
 Through their foliage we distinguished a 
 wide stone staircase, the summit lost amid 
 verdure. 
 
 We ascended the staircase, which consists 
 of one hundred steps very regularly laid, to 
 the top of the hill. On the right is another, 
 road, which crosses the wooded slopes, and 
 is composed of a series of staircases, with 
 flat terraces provided with resting-places. 
 
 A dilapidated oratory with two insigni- 
 ficant idols — one standing upon a lotus, the 
 other seated upon a tortoise — with long 
 covered galleries surrounding the tea- 
 houses, occupies the summit of Ata- 
 gosa-yama. The young waitresses of 
 ^~ the house hasten to serve us with 
 
 refreshments, and we take a few 
 minutes' rest before we approach the 
 pavilions at the two extremities of the 
 terrace. 
 
 At length the moment has come 
 when we shall get a complete view 
 of the great city. We begin at the 
 southern pavilion, and we are at first 
 dazzled by the extent and brilliancy 
 of the picture. The sun is going down 
 to the horizon in a cloudless sky; the 
 transparency of the atmosphere per- 
 mits us to distinguish the forts on the 
 luminous surface of the bay, but over 
 the whole space which extends from 
 the offing to the foot of the hill there 
 is nothing to arrest one's gaze. It is 
 an ocean of long streets, white walls 
 and grey roofs. The monotony of this 
 picture is unbroken except by a few 
 groups of trees with dark foliage, or 
 a spire rising above the undulating 
 lines of the innumerable houses. 
 
 In a neighboring quarter we observe a 
 large hole cut through the streets, as if a 
 bomb-shell had passed ; it is the scene of a 
 recent fire. At a little distance a sombre 
 group of hills, consecrated to the sepulture 
 of the Tycoons, rises like a solitary island 
 above a tumultuous sea. 
 
THE GREAT CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 363 
 
 The panorama seen from the northern pa- 
 vilion is, if possible, more uniform. It in- 
 <:ludes the quarters inhabited by the nobility, 
 and its limit on the horizon is the ramparts 
 of its citadel. 
 
 The Daimio-yaski, or seignorial residences 
 to which we improperly gave the name of 
 palace, do not differ except by their dimen- 
 sions. The most opulerft and the simplest 
 present the same type of architecture, the 
 same character of simplicity. They are 
 composed of a first enclosure of buildings 
 reserved for the Prince's servants and men- 
 at-arms. These buildings have only one 
 story above the ground floor, and form a 
 long square, always surrounded by a ditch ; 
 a single roof covers them, a single wall pro- 
 tects them, and most frequently they have no 
 other issue on the public way than this one 
 •door. The windows are numerous, low, and 
 wide, regularly placed on two parallel lines, 
 -and furnished with wooden shutters. 
 
 Residence of the Prince. 
 
 In the interior a more or less considerable 
 number of houses divided into regular com- 
 partments, like the barracks of the yakou- 
 nines at Benten, are placed diagonally all 
 round, or on two sides at least, of the centre 
 "building. These are the quarters of the 
 Prince's troops. A wide space separates 
 -them from a second railed enclosure, which 
 •contains the Residence properly so called. 
 
 The dependencies of the palace face the 
 military quarter. The principal building is 
 surrounded by a verandah opening upon an 
 interior court, and upon the garden with its 
 tanks and its delicious shades. Such is the 
 inviolable and silent asylum in which the 
 proud Da'imio shuts himself up in the bosom 
 of his family, during the six months of each 
 year which the custom of the Empire obliges 
 him to pass in the capital. 
 
 We could form an idea of the dwellings 
 of the Japanese nobility only from what 
 might be discerned in a bird's-eye view of 
 this quarter. No European has ever crossed 
 the threshold of a Japanese Yaski. The 
 Tycoon's ministers, following the example of 
 the nobility, have never permitted the foreign 
 ambassadors to visit their dwellings ; their 
 personal relations are restricted to ceremonial 
 audiences, which take place in certain build- 
 ings which belong to tl^e administration, and 
 correspond to the ministerial residences in 
 our country. Among this number are the 
 two Marine Schools on the shore of the bay, 
 and the Gokandjo-bounio, the seat of the 
 Finance Department, at the northwest ex- 
 tremity of Atakosta. 
 
 Palaces of the Nobles. 
 
 Edifices of this kind have in general the 
 same external appearance as the palaces of 
 the Daimios. 
 
 The panorama seen from Atagosa-yama 
 shows us only a fourth part of the great 
 capital. On the north our view was bounded 
 by the walls of the residences of the Tycoon. 
 We resolved to devote another day to the 
 quarter which, with the citadel, forms the 
 central portion of Tokio. 
 
 The road we were about to follow resem- 
 bled a mysterious labyrinth of stone, formed 
 of the ramparts, the towers, and the palaces,' 
 behind which the power of the Tycoon has 
 entrenched itself for two centuries and a half. 
 
 It is an imposing spectacle, but it creates 
 a painful impression. The political order of 
 things instituted in Japan by the usurper 
 lyeyas vaguely recalls the regime of the 
 Venetian Republic under the rule of the 
 Council of Ten. It has, if not all its gran- 
 deur, at least all its terrors — the sombre 
 majesty of the chief of the State, the impene- 
 trable mystery of his government, the latent 
 
364 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 and continuous action of a system of espion- 
 age officially organized through all the 
 branches of the administration, and bringing 
 in its suite proscriptions, assassinatiofts, and 
 secret executions. We must not push the 
 comparison further. 
 
 We vainly seek at Tokio, in the vast 
 extent of the citadel, any monument which 
 
 archy, every functionary is assisted by a 
 controller ; the genius of the employes is 
 exercised in doing nothing and saying noth- 
 ing which can furnish matter for compromis- 
 ing reports. 
 
 As to their private life, it is hidden, like 
 that of the Japanese nobles in general, behind 
 the walls of their domestic fortresses. While 
 
 THE HERO YASHITZONE. 
 
 deserves mention beside the marvellous 
 edifices of the Piazza of St. Mark ; artistic 
 taste is completely wanting in the Court of 
 the Tycoon. It has been relinquished to the 
 people, with poetry, religion, social life, all 
 those superfluous things which do but clog 
 the wheels of the governmental machine. 
 From end to end of the administrative hier- 
 
 the streets of the town, composed of houses 
 standing wide open on the pubhc way, are 
 constantly enlivened by a crowd of comers 
 and goers of all ages and of both sexes,; in 
 the aristocratic quarters neither women nor 
 children are to be seen, except indeed by 
 stealth behind the window bars in the ser- 
 vants' quarters. 
 
THE GREAT CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 365 
 
 There are two societies in Tokio — one, 
 armed and privileged, lives in a state of mag- 
 nificent imprisonment, in the vast citadel ; 
 the other, disarmed, and subject to the 
 dominion of the first, seems to enjoy the 
 advantages of liberty ; but, in reality, an iron 
 yoke weighs upon the middle classes of the 
 people of Tokio. Iniquitous laws punish a 
 whole farnily, a whole quarter, for the crime 
 of one of its members. The properties, and 
 even the lives, of the citizens, are secured by 
 no legal guarantee. The extortions and the 
 violence of the two-sworded men remain too 
 frequently unpunished. The citizen finds 
 compensation in the charms of the beautiful 
 city. 
 
 Pastime of Shooting Peasants. 
 
 If the sway of the Tycoons is severe, he 
 remembers that the Mikados were not alwkys 
 amiable, and that one of them delighted in 
 exhibiting his skill as an archer by shooting 
 down peasants who were forced to climb 
 trees within easy reach of his arrows. The 
 peoples of countries accustomed to despotism 
 are puzzled to decide where their patience 
 ought to stop. 
 
 A Japanese Emperor, born under the con- 
 stellation of the Dog, commanded that dogs 
 were to be respected as sacred animals, that 
 they should never be killed, and that at their 
 death they should receive the honors of 
 sepulture. One of his subjects whose dog 
 had died thought it right to inter the animal 
 upon one of the funeral hills. As he was 
 going along, fatigued with the weight of the 
 four-footed corpse, he ventured to remark to 
 a friend who was accompanying him, that 
 the Emperor's decree appeared to him 
 ridiculous. "Take care how you murmur," 
 replied his comrade, " and recollect that our 
 Emperor might just as well have been born 
 under the sign of the Horse." 
 
 The Sakourada quarter, which forms the 
 first great line of defence of the citadel on the 
 southern side, is surrounded by water at all 
 parts, except the west, where it communi- 
 cates with the Bantsio quarter by the arsenal 
 belonging to the Tycoon. Ten bridges are 
 thrown over the great ditches. The southern 
 bridges have fortified gates, behind which the 
 road makes a bend, which exposes it to the 
 fire from the ramparts, and from the guns 
 mounted in the interior. 
 
 Soldiers From the Mountains. 
 
 A strong detachment of the Tycoon's 
 troops occupies the guard-house adjoining 
 the gate through which we pass. The com- 
 mon soldiers are men from the mountains of 
 Akoni, who are discharged after two or three 
 years' service. Their uniform is made of 
 blue cotton, and consists of tight trousers, 
 and a loose shirt, but crossed by white bands 
 on the shoulders. They wear cotton socks, 
 and leather soles fastened by sandals ; also a 
 belt, from which hangs a large sabre with a 
 lacquer scabbard. A pointed hat of lac- 
 quered cardboard completes their costume, 
 but they only wear it when mounting guard, 
 or on parade. 
 
 The guns of the Japanese army are all 
 percussion, with varied calibre and construc- 
 tion. I saw four different kinds in the racks 
 of the barracks at Benten, into which a 
 yakounine took me. He first showed me a 
 Dutch model, then an arm of inferior quality, 
 made at Tokio ; then an American gun, and 
 finally the Minie, whose use was being 
 taught by a young officer to a picket of 
 soldiers in the courtyard. I remarked that 
 this officer used the Dutch language. I asked 
 him to come home with me, that I might 
 show him my fowling-piece and a Swiss car- 
 bine. Half a dozen of his comrades also 
 accepted my invitation. 
 
366 
 
 I have more than once been present at as- 
 saults of arms by the Yakounines. The 
 champions salute each other before attack- 
 ing. The one whb is on guard frequently 
 kneels on the ground, to parry his adver- 
 sary's blows more successfully. Each pass 
 is accompanied by theatrical poses and ex- 
 pressive gestures ; each blow provokes pas- 
 sionate exclamations on the part of both. 
 Then the judges intervene and deliver their 
 verdict. In the intervals the combatants 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 ing before the half-open court. My yakou- 
 nines immediately shut the door, assuring 
 me that the customs of the country did not 
 permit beholders. 
 
 The Japanese nobles display much luxury,^ 
 and take great pride in their arrtis, especially 
 in their swords, which are of unrivalled 
 temper, and are generally adorned on the 
 handle and scabbard with ornaments in 
 carved and wrought metal of extraordinary 
 richness. But the principal value of these 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 A JAPANESE COUCH. 
 
 drink tea, after which they recommence with 
 great spirit. 
 
 There is even a School of Fence for the 
 use of the Japanese ladies. Their arm is a 
 lance, with a bent blade, which may be com- 
 pared to a Polish reaping-hook. They carry 
 it with the point towards the ground, and 
 manoeuvre regularly in a series of attitudes, 
 poses and harmonious movements, which 
 would look remarkably well in a ballet. I 
 was not allowed to enjoy this pretty spectacle 
 long. I only caught a glimpse of it in pass- 
 
 arms consists in their antiquity and their 
 celebrity. Every sabre in the old families of 
 the Da'imios has its tradition and its history, 
 whose eclat is measured by the blood which 
 it has shed. 
 
 A new sword must not remain intact in 
 the hands of the man who has bought it ; 
 while waiting for an opportunity of dyeing 
 it in the human blood, the Samourai who 
 has become its happy possessor tries it on 
 live animals, or, what is still better, upon 
 the corpses of executed criminals. The exe- 
 
THE GREAT CITY OF TOKIO. 
 
 367 
 
 cutioner gives them up to him upon being 
 authorized so to do by the proper function- 
 ary, and he fastens thepi to a cross in his 
 courtyard, where he practises in cutting and 
 hacking until he has acquired sufficient 
 strength and address to cut two corpses, tied 
 together, through the middle. 
 
 When the son of a Samourai is too little 
 to carry arms at his belt, he is seen walk- 
 ing, with an attendant, or even an elder 
 sister, following him respectfully, and hold- 
 ing in her right hand, by the middle of the 
 scabbard, a sword suitable to the height of 
 the diminutive personage. In another year 
 or two fencing will become the principal oc- 
 cupation of, his life. 
 
 A Bloody Conflict. 
 
 The Tycoon selected a number of his 
 young Yakounines, and sent them to Naga- 
 saki, to learn the use of fire-arms, under the 
 tuition of the Dutch officers. They were 
 not very well received when they returned to' 
 the capital, and were quartered in the bar- 
 racks for the purpose of instructing the new 
 Japanese infantry. Their former comrades 
 shouted " Treason ! " and threw themselves 
 on them with arms in their hands. There 
 were victims on both sides. 
 
 Nevertheless, the decline of the sword is 
 inevitable. Notwithstanding the traditional 
 prestige with which the privileged caste still 
 endeavor to surround it, notwithstanding the 
 contempt in which it affects to hold the 
 military innovations of the Government, 
 that democratic arm the musket has been 
 introduced into Japan, and with it an incal- 
 culable social revolution has become a fact 
 which the representatives of the feudal 
 regime resent bitterly but vainly. 
 
 The conduct of their chiefs \izs precipi- 
 tated the catastrophe. Conspiracies in the 
 palace and political assassinations multiply 
 
 themselves at Yeddo with frightful rapidity. 
 It is averred that several ministers of state 
 have successively died violent deaths since 
 the opening up of Japan. 
 
 On the 24th of March, i860, at eleven 
 o'clock in the morning, the Regent, carried 
 in his norimbn or royal chair, and coming 
 out of the citadel by the Sakourada bridge, 
 with an escort of four or five hundred men, 
 was assailed by a band of seventeen lonines 
 in the spacious public road, parallel with the 
 ditch in the direction of his own palace. On 
 both sides the fighting" was severe. 
 
 Story of a Regent's Head. 
 
 Twenty soldiers of the escort fell at their 
 post ; five conspirators perished with arms 
 in their hands, two performed the " happy 
 despatch," (cutting open their stomachs), 
 four were made prisoners ; the others escaped 
 — among the chief of the expedition, who 
 carried away the Regent's head under his 
 cloak. Public rumor adds that the head 
 was exposed in the chief place of the pro- 
 vince, in which the Prince of Mito, the in- 
 stigator of the conspiracy, resided, and then 
 at Kioto, and finally that the Regent's people 
 found it one day in the garden of the palace, 
 into which it had been thrown over the wall 
 in the night. 
 
 The portions of Tokio inhabited by the 
 aristocracy are almost entirely devoid of 
 buildings consecrated to public worship. 
 There is not one in the whole of the Daimio's 
 quarter. Bantsio and Sourouga have each 
 three temples, but they are of little import- 
 ance. There are half a dozen in Sakourada, 
 amongst which is a celebrated bonze-house 
 under the invocation of Sanno, " the King of 
 the Mountain." Its title is one of the sur- 
 names of Zinmou ; nevertheless, the bonze- 
 house belongs to the Buddhist religion, and 
 contains an altar consecrated to Quannon. 
 
368 
 
 The buildings and the groves of the sacred 
 place occupy a group of hills, which rise 
 above the southern enclosure of Sourouga, 
 with its vast basins of limpid water sur- 
 rounded by trees and flowers, and its 
 myriads of birds. 
 
 The political system of the Tycoons did 
 not disdain clerical support for their budding 
 dynasty. But as lyeyas and his successors 
 had nothing to hope from the good will of 
 the Mikados, they conciliated the favor of 
 the most influential sects of Buddhism by 
 •endowing bonze-houses and temples which 
 surpass the most sumptuous sacred edifices 
 of Kioto. The munificence of the Tycoons 
 with regard to Buddhism has, however, 
 added nothing to the reverence professed at 
 Tokio for the ministers of that religion. It 
 appears to me that, in all the diverse classes 
 of society in the capital, the position of the 
 bonzes is analogous to that of the Popes of 
 the Greek Church when the latter come into 
 contact with the nobles, the traders, or the 
 Moujiks. The priests of the Kami worship 
 are in a still less enviable condition, because 
 their existence is hardly noticed. It is true 
 that the representatives of the Mikado at the 
 Court of the Tycoon, and some provincial 
 noblemen, honor them by their patronage, 
 ibut the generality of the feudal nobility in 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 residence at Tokio stand entirely aloof from 
 what is being done around them, in matters 
 of religion as well as in everything else. They 
 would prefer to pay a chaplain in the house 
 rather than contribute to the support of any 
 public worship whatever. The only thing 
 they will do for the ancient national religion 
 is to authorize the Kami priests to send their 
 collectors once a year to the aristocratic 
 quarters. 
 
 The presents made on this occasion are 
 voluntary.. The persons charged with this 
 office are the principal koskeis of the Kami 
 temples, each of whom is followed by his 
 own special koskei. The leader is dressed 
 after the fashion of the ancient priests of the 
 Court of the Mikado, with a lacquered cap, 
 a great sword, and padded trousers, and he 
 holds in his right hand a classic fan of cedar- 
 wood. His attendant, who is disguised as a 
 koskei from Kioto, carries a small tambou- 
 rine, and a ba!g, destined to receive the gifts. 
 
 Dances, comic songs, and burlesque pan- 
 tomines form the oratorical artifices of the 
 collectors. Thus the sacred collection is 
 taken from palace to palace in the midst of 
 the laughter and applause of the noble feudal 
 families, whose political existence rests en- 
 tirely upon the very religion which they help 
 to bring into contempt. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 SHOPS AND INDUSTRIES OF TOKIO. 
 
 THE long eastern portion of Tokio, 
 which covers the left bank of the 
 river Ogawa, comprises three quar- 
 ters. That of Sumidagawa, on the 
 north, belongs to the suburbs, and presents 
 an entirely rustic character. It is covered 
 with rice-fields, kitchen gardens, vast horti- 
 cultural establishments, and tea-houses, spread 
 along the river or scattered in the rear of great 
 orchards of pear, plum, peach, and cherry- 
 trees. The other two quarters, between the 
 former and the bay, contain a dense ~ popula- 
 tion, composed, for the most part of fishers, 
 seamen, mechanics, and tradesmen. 
 
 Thus the Hondjo proper corresponds to 
 the industrial quarters of our large cities-. 
 We find there manufacturers of tiles and 
 coarse pottery, of cooking utensils of iron, 
 paper-mills, establishments for cleaning and 
 preparing cotton, domestic spinneries of 
 •cotton and silk, dyeing establishments and 
 others for weaving mats, baskets, or cloth 
 stuffs. 
 
 Japanese industry does not yet make much 
 use of machinery. Nevertheless, in the iron- 
 foundries one frequently sees bellows driven 
 by water, which is carried to the wheel in 
 tamboo pipes. Both charcoal and stone-coal 
 are used for the furnaces. Women have 
 their share in all the industrial professions, 
 which are usually carried on at home. 
 
 There are no large manufactories in Japan : 
 the members of the laboring class stay at 
 home and carry on their occupations, which 
 they interrupt in order to eat when they are 
 hungry, and to rest whenever they please. 
 2i 
 
 In a company of six workmen of both sexes, 
 there are almost always to be seen two 
 smoking pipes and enlivening the toil of their 
 comrades by merry speeches. 
 
 Thus is developed, and transmitted from 
 generation to generation that social instinct, 
 that fund of good humor and spirit of repartee 
 which characterize the lower classes of the 
 capital. 
 
 The quarters of the Hondjo are constructed 
 on a plan of the most perfect regularity. 
 They are bounded on the south by the bay, 
 on the west by the Ogawa River, on the east 
 by a smaller river, and on the north by a 
 canal which separates them from the suburb 
 of Sumidagawa. Two canals traverse them 
 from north to south, and three from east to 
 west. The squares, thus formed, inclose a 
 world totally different from that upon the 
 opposite bank of the river. 
 
 Places of Public Resort. 
 
 The Hondjo has no commercial life; it 
 has neither the imposing masses of residences 
 of the Castle, nor the animation of the places 
 reserved for the pleasure of the populace in 
 the northern quarters ; nevertheless, we find 
 there, existing under special conditions, com- 
 merce and industry, temples, palaces, and 
 places of public resort. Some of the most 
 important merchants of Japan reside in the 
 Hondjo, but they have their places of busi- 
 ness in the vicinity of the great bridges. 
 
 The comparative tranquillity of this region 
 beyond the river and the facility with which 
 concessions of large tracts of ground are 
 
 369 
 
370 
 
 there obtained, seems to have favored the 
 establishment of numerous monasteries, some 
 of which possess large temples. There are 
 forty of these sacred edifices, two of which 
 are devoted to the ancient national worship, 
 another, more than two hundred feet in 
 length, to the Buddhist faith, and another 
 dedicated to the Five Hundred Genii. 
 
 One of the monasteries is celebrated for 
 engaging, twice a year, all the chief wrestlers 
 of Tokio, who give a series of public perform- 
 ances — a pious speculation, which never fails 
 to attract to the great lawn in front of the 
 monastery an enormous crowd, made up of 
 all classes of society. Thus, each temple or 
 monastery has its own form of advertisement, 
 and is distinguished by some singularity — 
 such as the avenue of statues of pigs, each 
 nobly installed on a pedestal of granite, 
 which we find on approaching one of the 
 temples. Public opinion appears to accept 
 without difficulty whatever device may be 
 pleasing to the bonzes, without regard to its 
 character. 
 
 Picturesque Scene. 
 
 A certain number of families of the old 
 nobility have made of the Hondjo a sort of 
 retreat, where they live in a profound retire- 
 ment, far from the noises of the city and 
 protected from contact with the world of the 
 court, and the officers of the government. 
 There, the walls of the Castle no longer 
 offend the eyes of the fierce Daimio. From 
 the summits of the bridges arched over the 
 canals, the grand alleys of trees seen over the 
 innumerable roofs of the merchant city, 
 resemble the peaceful shades of some distant 
 park. 
 
 There are many workshops of sculpture 
 in the Hondjo. I have never seen the art- 
 ists working in marble, although there are 
 quarries of it in the mountains of the interior. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The pedestals of idols are made of granite, 
 the candelabra of the sacred places, tombs, 
 statuettes, Buddhist saints and holy foxes of 
 a very sandstone. 
 
 The wood-carvers make domestic altars of 
 rich network, elegant caskets, elephants' 
 heads and monstrous chimeras for the roofs 
 of temples, woodwork and mosaics repre- 
 senting cranes, geese, bats, mythologic 
 animals, the moon half veiled by a cloud, 
 branches of cedars, pines, bamboos and 
 palms. The idols, frequently of gigantic 
 size, which are made in the workshops of 
 Tokio, are generally surrounded by an 
 aureole gilded and painted in lively colors : 
 the -guardians of heaven, for example, in 
 vermilion, and others in indigo. 
 
 Brilliant Flowers. 
 
 Several interesting branches of industry 
 are connected with that of the ebony- 
 carvers. The frame-work of movable presses 
 or screens is required to be ornamented with 
 large drawings in India ink, executed by a 
 few strokes of the pencil, or groups of trees 
 and flowers of brilliant colors, or paintings 
 of birds selected for the brilliance of their 
 plumage. All this is done by hand in the 
 workshops. 
 
 The embroidresses furnish for the fire- 
 screens and curtains exquisite works, where 
 the silk, under the patient labor of the 
 needle, reproduces, according to the choice 
 of subjects, the lustrous te.xture of leaves, 
 the velvet down of birds, the tufted fur of 
 animals, or the shining scales of fishes. Then 
 the braiders of silk floss add to the luxury 
 of the woodwork a decoration of garlands 
 and knots of various colors, surmounted by 
 groups of flowers and birds. 
 
 The odi, a girdle which is worn by all 
 adult Japanese women, married or single, 
 with the exception of the ladies of princely 
 
SHOPS AlSiB INDUSTRIES OF TOKIO. 
 
 371 
 
 families, is the article of feminine costume 
 which presents the most variety, according 
 to the taste or fancy of individuals. Some- 
 times it is very simple, sometimes remark- 
 able for the richness of the stuff or the splen- 
 dor of the embroideries. It is generally 
 broad enough to serve at the sarne time as 
 girdle and corset. 
 
 It is wound around the body like a band- 
 age, and fastened at the back by interlacing 
 the ends so as to produce a large, flat fur- 
 
 paper. On the other hand, I have always 
 found both the wholesale and retail shops 
 accessible even to the rear chamber, where 
 one should never lefuse to penetrate; for 
 the Japanese merchant takes no trouble to 
 display his stock. He prefers to keep his 
 best goods in reserve, as if to give his pur- 
 chasers the satisfaction of discovering them. 
 In order to form a tolerable idea of the 
 richness, the variety and the artistic merit of 
 Japanese industry, we must not only traverse 
 
 JAPANESE SHOP. 
 
 below, falling on the hips, or floating with a 
 graceful negligence. A widow, who has 
 determined not to marry again, knots the 
 oiri in front, and the same arrangement is 
 adopted for female corpses. 
 
 It is not an easy thing to penetrate into 
 the Japanese workshops, especially 'under 
 the surveillance of a squad of Yakounines. 
 In spite of the promises of the latter, I was 
 not able to see either the process of coloring 
 or the manufacture of rich silk stuffs or of 
 
 the commercial streets frequented by the 
 natives, but also imitate the latter in return- 
 ing day by day to the same merchant, until 
 we have explored every corner of his shop. 
 This is the more necessary, since there is no 
 general bazaar, each magazine or shop hav- 
 ing its specialty. 
 
 Certain forms of industry are as yet but 
 little developed, among others saddlery, 
 which will be discouraged as long as a relig- 
 ious prejudice exists against tanners and 
 
372 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 
 
 curriers. Nevertheless, I noticed in Tokio 
 a great variety of articles of leather, such as 
 
 trunks and travelling satchels, portfolios, 
 money bags, tobacco-pouches and hunting: 
 gloves, all of native manufacture. 
 
 Whatever may be the variety of industrial 
 products displayed in the shops of the com- 
 mercial city there is one feature which char- 
 acterizes all of ihem, one common stamp 
 which denotes their place among the works 
 of the far East, and I venture to call it, with- 
 out fear of contradiction, good taste. 
 
 The artisan of Tokio is a veritable artist. 
 If we except the conventional style to which 
 he still feels himself compelled to submit, in 
 his representations of the human figure, if 
 we overlook the insufficiency of his knowl- 
 edge of the rules of perspective, we shall 
 have only praise left for him in all other re- 
 spects. 
 
 Subjects for Art. 
 
 His works are distinguished from those of 
 Miako by the simplicity of his forms, the 
 severity of the lines, the sobriety of the de- 
 corations and the exquisite feeling for nature 
 which he exhibits in all subjects of ornamen- 
 tation drawn from the vegetable or animal 
 kingdom. These are his favorite subjects ; 
 flowers and birds have the power of inspir- 
 ing him with compositions which are charm- 
 ing in their truth, grace and harmony. In 
 regard to perfection of execution, the works 
 produced in both capitals are equally ad- 
 mirable. 
 
 Let us pause before a magazine of objects 
 of art and industry, among the curious of 
 both sexes and of all ages, who never cease 
 to gather together under the covered gallery 
 where the stores are displayed. They con- 
 template with a naive admiration the great 
 aquaria of blue or white porcelain, where 
 red fish float in the limpid water over beds 
 
 of shells. These are objects of endless 
 amusement and curiosity. 
 
 In the centre, three or four selected plants 
 combine in a picturesque group the beauty 
 of their colors and the graceful outlines of 
 their leaves and flowers. Nothing of these 
 combination is ever left to chance: every 
 day the gardener's hand directs the work of 
 nature, keeps it within limits and governs 
 the growth. 
 
 What is still more remarkable, the Japa- 
 nese fancy never runs into those aberrations 
 which in China and elsewhere, outrage 
 Nature by cutting trees into geometrical 
 figures, or training shrubs into the shapes of 
 animals. The taste of the Japanese in their 
 popular arts, remaining independent of the 
 conventional influences of their two courts, 
 has all the freshness of a naturally expand- 
 ing civilization. Therefore, it is still char- 
 acterized by a certain puerility : witness the 
 truly childish passion of all classes of 
 society for enormous flowers and dwarf 
 trees. 
 
 A Miniature Landscape. 
 
 I have seen aquaria, not much larger 
 than ordinary, where they succeeded in 
 uniting the features of a complete landscape 
 — a lake, islands, rocks, a cabin on the 
 shore, and hills with real woods on their 
 summits, of living bamboos and cedars in 
 miniature. They even sometimes add lilipu- 
 tian figures, coming and going, by means of 
 a spring which is wound up. 
 
 This sort of childishijess is found in a 
 multitude of the details of Japanese life. 
 Sometimes a porcelain junk is set before a 
 dinner party : it is taken to pieces and 
 proves to be a unique and complete tea-set. 
 Often, part of the repast is served in cups so 
 minute, and porcelain so fine, Hght, and trans- 
 parent, that one hardly dares to touch it. 
 
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 373 
 
374 
 
 There are cups, called egg-shells, so delicate 
 that they must be protected by a fine en- 
 velope of bamboo netting; 
 
 The saloons are adorned with bird and 
 butterfly cages, crowned with vases of flow- 
 ers, whence depend climbing plants which 
 cause the birds to appear as if nestling in 
 verdure. Under the paper lanterns sus- 
 pended from the ceilings of the verandas, 
 there are often bells of colored glass, the 
 long, slender clapper cf metal supported by 
 a silk thread, or slip of colored or gilded 
 paper. At the least movement of the breeze 
 these bands of paper move, the nietallic 
 tongues swing and touch the glass bells, and 
 their vibrations make a vague melody, like 
 the sound of an ^olian harp. 
 
 Necklaces of Stone. 
 
 I saw at Tokio some attempts at painting 
 on glass, and some works in enamel, which 
 exhibited good intentions rather than skill. 
 I might mention, however, among the native 
 curiosities which are truly original, those 
 little balls of stone, pierced, cut in facets and 
 covered with enameled arabesques, which 
 strangers buy for necklaces. The art of 
 gilding is still but partially developed. 
 
 The narratives of the old Dutch embas- 
 sies seem to have greatly exaggerated the 
 richness of decoration of the palaces and 
 furniture of the Mikado and the Tycoon. 
 The luxury of the Japanese has an artistic 
 rather than a sumptuous character. The 
 pride of the old princes of the empire is in 
 the antiquity of their arms or furniture. 
 Nothing has more value in their eyes than 
 an assorted service of old porcelain, natur- 
 ally cracked, or vases of ancient bronze, 
 heavy, black and polished as marble. 
 
 Tokio is the city where metals are worked 
 to the greatest extent. The bronze estab- 
 lishments of the city are among the most in- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 teresting curiosities of native art. Some pre- 
 sent the appearance of great bazaars, dis- 
 playing all articles of saddlery and harness, 
 as well as complete suits of armor, and 
 cooking utensils of iron, copper, or tin, 
 beside the bronze objects. 
 
 Altars for Perfumes. 
 
 The latter contain many things belonging 
 to Buddhist worship, such as richly-chased 
 bells, drums, gongs, vases for the altar, 
 crowns of lotus flowers, or vessels to hold 
 bouquets of natural flowers. There are also 
 altars for perfumes, resting on tripods, statues 
 and statuettes of saints, and such sacred 
 animals as the crane, stork,' tortoise, and the 
 fantastic Corean dog. 
 
 Next to the master-pieces of bronze and 
 of porcelain, the triumph of Japanese indus- 
 try is in the fabrication of furniture and 
 utensils of lacquered wood. Such is the 
 talent with which the native artisans utilize 
 the incomparable Japan varnish, the produce 
 of the shrub which bears that name ; such is 
 their skill in combining its effects with the 
 results of their decorative art, that articles 
 of furniture constructed of a materia which 
 is almost valueless, finally rival in beauty, 
 and almost in durability, those which we 
 make of marble and precious metals. 
 
 The ebony workers of Tokio imitate works 
 in old lacquer so closely that only an expe- 
 rienced eye can detect the difTerence. In the 
 interior decoration of cabinets, boxes or cas- 
 kets of modern taste, they generally used 
 lacquer of a brown color, sprinkled with 
 flakes of gold. On the outside the lacquer 
 is uniform, either red, brown or black, with 
 ornamental drawing in two or three tints. 
 
 The principal large objects made of lac- 
 quered wood are the norimons (palanquins) 
 and travelling trunks of nobles, wardrobes, 
 toilet tables and the pedestals of mirrors for 
 
SHOPS AND INDUSTRIES OF TOKIO. 
 
 375 
 
 ladies; receptacles for the books and scrolls 
 of a library; and finally, different articles 
 employed in public or private worship, such 
 as pulpits, offering-tables, censer-stands, tri- 
 pods for gongs and pedestals for various 
 purposes. 
 
 Among the toilet articles there are several 
 boxes, which vary in form and ornament 
 according to their use, as for brushes, tooth- 
 powder, rouge, rice-powder and other cos- 
 metics; for combs, hair-pins, and, alas! for 
 false braids of hair. 
 
 The other accessories of the feminine 
 boudoir are, a large oval watering-pot, 
 •covered with black lacquer, sown with 
 golden flowers; then' a long box for pipes 
 and tobacco, and finally a casket for letters, 
 prudently bound by two silk cords, knotted 
 in a way of which the owner alone knows 
 the secret. There are other boxes of an 
 oblong form, which are usually taken in 
 Europe for gloves; but the Japanese only 
 ■employ them in order to send letters of con- 
 gratulation, or thanks, in a more polite way. 
 
 The Common Drink. 
 
 The \liquor saki, the serving of which is 
 the most ceremonious part of a Japanese 
 "banquet, is solemnly brought to the guests 
 in large lacquered pots, or long metal cans, 
 on a bamboo tray. It is then heated in ves- 
 sels of porcelain. The cups, large or small, 
 are of fine red lacquer, ornamented with fancy 
 designs. There are collections of these 
 charming cups, each one of which represents 
 a celebrated landscape of Japan, or one of 
 the principal cities on the Tokaido connect- 
 ing the two capitals. Some hosts, of a more 
 sumptuous taste, invite the guests to drink 
 from nautilus shells, mounted in silver fila- 
 gree. 
 
 At the uppel- end of the street of Niphon- 
 bassi we come upon a barber's shop, in which 
 
 two or three citizens, in the simplest apparel, 
 are making their morning toilet. Seated 
 upon a stool, they gravely hold in the left 
 hand a lacquered tray, destined to receive 
 the soapsuds. The barbers, free from all 
 clothing which could trammel the freedom 
 of their movements, lean sometimes to the 
 right and sometimes to the left of their cus- 
 tomers' heads, over which they pass both 
 the hand and the razor, hke antique sculp- 
 tors modelling cariatides. I need hardly add 
 that the illusion ceases when, holding be- 
 tween their teeth a long silken cord, they 
 roll it round and tie it at each end, leaving 
 the pudding-like ball which forms the Jap- 
 anese headdress. 
 
 ^Vooden Soles and Sandals. 
 
 At a little distance we find a shoemaker's 
 shop. It is adorned with innumerable 
 wooden soles and numberless wooden san- 
 dals, which hang from the roof by long 
 ropes of the same material. The shoe- 
 maker, squatting on his shelf, reminds me 
 of the native idol to whom the beggais make 
 presents of sandals. Many persons of both 
 sexes stop before the shop-front, examining 
 or trying on the merchandise, exchanging 
 some amicable phrase with the shoemaker/ 
 and, without disturbing him from his quietude, 
 lay the price at his feet. 
 
 Next to the shoemaker's came the shop of 
 a dealer in edible seaweed, which forms one 
 of the principal articles of export trade be- 
 tween Japan and China. This seaweed is 
 called tang, and is found in great floating 
 masses in all the bays of the insular Empire, 
 When the sea is calm, its rich golden purple 
 and olive tints are distinctly seen through 
 the still surface of the blue water. By means 
 of a boatman's hook the fishermen draw it 
 through the sea like an immense net, load 
 their boats with it, and clean it carefully, col- 
 
376 
 
 lecting the little shells which cling to it in 
 immense numbers. 
 
 When the cargo has been landed, it is 
 dried in the sun, and then formed into bun- 
 dles tied with bands of straw, or in small 
 parcels wrapped up in paper ; the former are 
 for exportation, and are sold by weight to 
 the junks ; the others are sold by the packet 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 class of radiates are sold in a dry state. They 
 are eaten fried, and most frequently cut into 
 pieces mingled with rice. One sort of fish, 
 very thin, long, and narrow, is simply dried 
 in the sun, and eaten without any further 
 cooking. Oysters are abundant, but coarse. 
 The Japanese have no method of opening 
 them except by breaking the upper valve 
 
 A JAPANESE NOBLE PASSING THROUGH THE STREETS OF TOKIO. 
 
 for a few szenis, and are to be bought either 
 in the market or the eating-houses. 
 
 At Tokio there is an immense consump- 
 tion of-shell-fish : the dealer fills his tubs, into 
 which he shakes and turns them about with 
 long bamboo sticks, after which he sets forth, 
 crying his wares. Sea-leeches, and all sorts 
 of little molluscs, the trepang, and the whole 
 
 with a stone, yet such is their dexterity that 
 this rude method answers the purpose. 
 
 Although the Japanese profess, from an 
 aesthetic point of view, a profound disgust 
 for shell-fish, they do not seem to disdain 
 them when they are fried and laid out on 
 herbs and colored paper. Delicacies of this 
 sort have a great sale in the public markets. 
 
SHOPS AND INDUSTRIES OF TOKIO. 
 
 377 
 
 The shops of the grain-dealers at Tokio 
 are very interesting, from the immense quan- 
 tity and the infinite variety of the products, 
 the diversity of their forms and colors, and 
 the art with which they are ranged upon the 
 shelves. But surprise and admiration suc- 
 ceed to curiosity when we perceive that on 
 each of the parcels already done up in paper, 
 on each of the bags ready to be delivered, is 
 a colored drawing of the plants themselves, 
 together with the name of the grain. 
 
 This drawing is often a little masterpiece, 
 which might figure in an album of the flora 
 of Japan. Presently we see the painter and 
 the workshop. The painter is a young girl, 
 who- lies at full length on mats covered with 
 flowers and sheets of paper, and works in- 
 cessantly in this singular attitude. . 
 
 The Fish-Market. 
 
 As we approach the central bridge of the 
 commercial city the crowd increases, and on 
 both sides of the street shops give place to 
 popular restaurants, and confectioners, where 
 cakes, rice, and millet are sold, and where 
 hot tea and saki may be purchased. 
 
 We are close to the great fish-market. 
 The canal is covered .with fishing-boats, 
 either discharging their cargo of both sea 
 and river fish — great fish of the ocean cur- 
 rents which come down from the Pole, and 
 those of the equatorial stream, tortoises and 
 mussels from the gulfs of Niphon, hideous 
 jelly-fish and fantastic crustaceae. In this 
 place have been reckoned seventy different 
 kinds of fish, crabs, and mollusca, and 
 twenty-six sorts of mussels and other shell- 
 fish. 
 
 Fish-sheds, roughly put up near the land- 
 ing-place, are besieged by buyers. In the 
 middle of the tumultuous crowd we' see 
 strong arms lifting full baskets and emptying 
 thern into the lacquered cases of the coolies. 
 
 From time to time the crowd has to open, 
 to give passage to two coolies laden with a 
 dolphin, a shark, or' a porpoise, suspended 
 by ropes on a bamboo pole, which they carry 
 on their shoulders. The Japanese boil the 
 flesh of all these animals, and salt the whole 
 blubber. 
 
 One of the strangest pictures in the en- 
 virons of Niphon-bassi is a group of shark 
 
 IHCEN-SNYOEH 
 
 HIGHLY FIGURED JAPANESE VASE. 
 
 and whale sellers, wholesale and retail. The 
 stature, the dress, and the gestures of these 
 personages, their fantastic equipment, the 
 dimensions of the huge knives which they 
 plunge into the sides of the sea monsters, 
 suggest the .prodigious exercise of human 
 strength and employment of the resources of 
 nature, which can alone suffice for the supply 
 of the great city. 
 
 Wooden tubs and jars, filled with water 
 
■378 
 
 and ranged in pyramids, are placed at inter- 
 vals on the thresholds of the warehouses, 
 and on the edge of the public pathways. 
 These precautionary measures are taken in 
 all the populous streets of Tokio, and gener- 
 ally in all Japanese cities. Reservoirs of 
 water occupy the upper galleries and roofs 
 of the houses. Long and strong ladders 
 are planted against the great wooden build- 
 ings, such as temples and pagodas. 
 
 Precautions Against Fire. 
 
 Stores, known in the commercial language 
 of the Far East under the name of godowns, 
 are said to be fireproof. 
 
 They are multiplied as much as possible in 
 the wooden quarters, so as to present numer- 
 ous obstacles to the spread of iire. These 
 square, high buildings are constructed of 
 stone, and covered outside with a thick layer 
 of whitewash. Their doors and shutters are 
 of iron, and from the four walls great hooks 
 stick out, from which wet mats and mat- 
 tresses may be hung when there is imminent 
 danger. 
 
 The godowns, the ladders, and the tubs 
 do not contribute to the embellishment of the 
 capital. In this, as in other details of Japa- 
 nese life, the beautiful is sacrificed to the 
 useful, and visitors must just make the best 
 of the charming accidental views which 
 occur in this city. Its religious buildings 
 would render it exceedingly beautiful, were 
 -not its chief sites occupied by the endless 
 lines of warehouses. 
 
 Pursuing our route from street to street, 
 we look into the interior of the houses, with 
 hardly any interruption from the sliding 
 panels, and see the picturesque groups of 
 men, women, and children squatting round 
 their humble dinners. The straw table-cloth 
 is laid on the mats which cover the floor ; in 
 the centre is a large wooden bowl containing 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 rice, which forms the principal food of every 
 class of Japanese society. 
 
 Each guest attacks the common dish, and 
 takes out enough to pile up a great China 
 cup, from which he eats without the aid of 
 the little stick which serves him for a fork, 
 except just for the last few mouthfuls, to 
 which he adds a scrap of fish, crab, or fowl, 
 taken from the numerous plates which sur- 
 round the centre bowl. 
 
 These viands are seasoned with sea-salt, 
 pepper, and soy — a very strong sauce made 
 from black beans by a process of fermenta- 
 tion ; eggs, soft and hard, fresh or preserved; 
 boiled vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, 
 and sweet potatoes, sUces of young twigs of 
 bamboo, or a salad of lotus bulbs, complete 
 the bill of fare of a Japanese citizen's dinner. 
 
 Domestic Utensils. 
 
 The meal is invariably accompanied by 
 tea and saki, and these two beverages are 
 ordinarily drank hot, without any other 
 liquid, and without sugar. The teapots 
 which contain them stand upon a brasier 
 shaped like a casket ; it is a little larger than 
 another corresponding article of furniture 
 called a tobacco-bon, on which coal, a pipe- 
 rack, and a supply of tobacco are placed. 
 
 I have never examined the pretty utensils 
 used at a Japanese table — ^the bowls, cups, 
 saucers, boxes, lacquered trays, vases of 
 porcelain, jugs and teapots in glazed earthen- 
 ware — nor have I ever contemplated the 
 people while eating, seen the grace of their 
 movements, and watched the dexterity of 
 their delicate little hands, without fancying 
 I was looking on at a number of grown-up 
 children playing at housekeeping, and eating 
 rather for their amusement than because they 
 were hungry. 
 
 Maladies resulting from excess or from 
 unwholesome diet, are generally unknown. 
 
SHOPS AND INDUSTRIES OF TOKIO. 
 
 379 
 
 but the immoderate use of their national 
 beverage sometimes produces grave results. 
 I have seen more than one case of delirium 
 tremens. 
 
 The ravages caused by dysentery and 
 cholera in certain parts of Japan, especially 
 at Tokio, will cause no surprise to the 
 European resident, who has seen how greedily 
 children and the lower classes of the people 
 devour watermelons, limes, Siam oranges, 
 and all sorts of fruits at the beginning of the 
 autumn, before they are fully ripe. 
 
 Unwholesome Water. 
 
 Japanese houses are rarely supplied with 
 really wholesome water, because, even at 
 Tokio, where springs are abundant, they use 
 only cisterns, though it woyld be easy to 
 establish fountains in every quarter in the 
 town. The inconvenience and danger of this 
 state of things are, however, reduced, by the 
 fact that the Japanese are in the habit of 
 using hot drinks in all seasons. 
 
 Their popular hygiene demands hot baths, 
 •which they take every day. This extreme 
 cleanliness, the salubrity of their climate, and 
 the excellent qualities of their diet, aid in 
 making the Japanese one of the healthiest 
 and one of the most robust of peoples. 
 There are, however, very few of them who 
 do not suffer from diseases of the skin, and 
 from chronic and incurable maladies, which 
 are not to be traced to their natural condi- 
 tions. This great misfortune dates from the 
 epoch at which the government of the Sho- 
 guns authorized the foundation and officially 
 protected the development of a disgraceful 
 institution, whose fatal consequences sap the 
 entire edifice of society. 
 
 There are a great number of physicians 
 in Japan, principally at. Tokio. The mem- 
 bers of the medical body who are neither 
 functionaries nor officers have generally been 
 
 educated at the University of Kioto or that 
 of Tokio ; but some of them, who belong to 
 families where the medical profession has 
 been followed from father to son, have 
 received an education under the paternal 
 roof. 
 
 As no examinations are required for the 
 practice of medicine, each man enters the 
 profession when he pleases, and practices 
 according to his own fancy ; some healing 
 by the routine of the native empirics, others 
 treating their patients according to the rules 
 of Chinese science, a third claiming to be 
 adepts in Dutch medicine; but in reality 
 they have actually neither method nor 
 system. University studies in Japan are 
 exceedingly superficial. It cannot be other- 
 wise in a country where no one possesses 
 the preparatory knowledge, which is taken 
 for granted on entering upon a University 
 course. 
 
 Passion to have Doctors. 
 
 This state of things can only be reformed 
 by frequent contact with Europeans, and 
 already is fast disappearing. The people, 
 however, do not care about it. All they 
 want is to have a number of doctors at their 
 disposal ; to be treated and physicked rather 
 upon these conjoint methods than upon the 
 best, supposing it to exist ; in fact, to find in 
 their physicians pleasant servants, who will 
 not contradict the notions of their patients, 
 and who scrupulously justify the confidence 
 with which their profession is honored. 
 This obliges them to adopt a certain 
 demeanor which impresses the public, and 
 sets them apart from the rest of society. 
 
 Japanese medical practitioners may be 
 easily recognized by their dress, by their 
 methodical demeanor, and some other pecu- 
 liarities, which vary according to the fancy 
 of these grave personages. I have seen one 
 
380 
 
 whose head was shaved Hke that of a bonze, 
 or of an Imperial doctor, though he certainly- 
 belonged to a physician of the third class. 
 I have seen others wearing their hair long 
 and plaited, the ends coiled upon their neck, 
 and others with a profuse beard. 
 
 Their middle class extraction not permit- 
 ting them to wear two swords, they wear 
 one, passed through the folds of their girdle ; 
 but it is always a very small one, and gener- 
 ally carefully wrapped up in crape or velvet. 
 Certain members of the faculty take care 
 never to show themselves in public un- 
 attended by a koskei carrying their instru- 
 ment case and medicines. 
 
 Not Paid in Money. 
 
 Many doctors command public esteem 
 and enjoy uncontested respect. I have heard 
 it said, that when they are sent for to aristo- 
 cratic houses they are paid by those senti- 
 ments rather than in money. It is well 
 known that the greater number — even those 
 who possess an extensive connection — can 
 hardly live ; for the citizens' families gener- 
 ally find at the end of the year, when they 
 have met their indispensable expenses — 
 housekeeping, annual fetes, the theatre, the 
 baths, the bonzes, and the parties of pleasure 
 — that they have very little left to give to the 
 doctor. 
 
 The latter, on his side, accepts the situa- 
 tion with philosophy, and it must be added 
 to his" credit, that he is generally a truly 
 disinterested , person. Many possess real 
 scientific zeal, and a taste for the observation 
 of nature which might produce remarkable 
 results if these qualities rested upon a solid 
 basis or sufficient preparatory instruction. 
 There is no doubt that the medical fraternity 
 is one of the most energetic agents of pro- 
 gress and civilization in Japan. 
 
 This fraternity is one of a Corporation of 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 arts and professions which enjoys an official 
 constitution and certain privileges. It was 
 placed by the Mikado under the invocation 
 of a holy patron called Yakousi, and is evi- 
 dently of great antiquity. We learn from 
 the Imperial annals of Kioto that the first 
 Japanese pharmacy was founded in 730, that 
 in the year 808 medical science was enriched 
 by a collection of recipes published in one 
 hundred volumes by Doctor Firo-Sada, and 
 that the year 825 endowed the Empire with 
 its first hospital. 
 
 Fbr a long time Japan was tributary to 
 China in all that concerns medical science, 
 as well as in the other branches of human 
 knowledge. The Celestial Empire supplied 
 it with works on anatomy and botanical 
 treatises, books, and recipes, as well as pro- 
 fessors, medical practitioners, and ready- 
 made medicines for curing an infinity of ail- 
 ments. In the second half of the eleventh 
 century, the Chinese merchant Wangman 
 made a fortune by selling medicines and 
 parrots in Japan. 
 
 Mysterious Signs. 
 
 At that time the resources of art were 
 added to the secrets of magic. In the pres- 
 ent day the successors of the early practi- 
 tioners in this line carry about kirimons 
 covered with cabalistic signs through the 
 towns and villages. These kirimons, placed 
 at an opportune moment upon the body of 
 a patient, have the power of recalling a dead . 
 man to life. The monks, on their side, know 
 prayers of a sacramental kind which stop' 
 bleeding, heal wounds, exorcise insects, cure 
 burns and counteract the evil eye, in the case 
 of men and animals. So it is supposed. 
 
 Two great events, of which one occurred 
 at the beginning and the other at the end of 
 the seventeenth century, prevented the scien- 
 tific labors of the medical fraternity from, 
 
SHOPS AND INDUSTRIES OF TOKIO. 
 
 381 
 
 being shrouded by degrees in the great 
 darkness of Buddhist superstition. The 
 first was the arrival of the Dutch, who re- 
 ceived their letters of franchise and inaugu- 
 rated their factory at Firado under the 
 direction of the superintendent, Van Specx, 
 in the year 1609; and the second was the 
 foundation of the University of Tokio, which 
 took place in 1690. 
 
 Thunberg recounts that, towards the mid- 
 dle of the following century, he, being at 
 Tokio as attache to the biennial embassy 
 from the Dutch superintendent of Decima, 
 ■obtained permission from the Shogun to 
 receive a visit from five physicians and two 
 .astronomers attached to the Court; he had 
 long conversations with them, and convinced 
 himself from the observations of the former 
 that they had derived their knowledge of 
 natural history, physics, medicine and sur- 
 gery, not only from the traditional Chinese 
 sources, but from Dutch works. 
 
 At a later date, the physicians of the fac- 
 
 tory, having been authorized to take pupils, 
 strove, with great zeal and devotion, to im- 
 part to them the medical science of the 
 West. 
 
 If the judgment of civilized peoples were 
 not distorted by the manner in which they 
 are taught history — if they had learned that 
 science has its honors as well as war — they 
 would look with admiration upon the peace- 
 ful conquests which have been made in the 
 Empire of Japan, to the advantage of the 
 whole world, by the physicians of the fac- 
 tory at Decima since the time of Ksempfer 
 to the present day. 
 
 Hondjo, properly so called, answers in 
 some respects to the industrial quarters of 
 our great cities. It contains manufactories 
 of tiles and of coarse pottery, kitchen utensils 
 in iron, paper factories, and workshops for 
 the cleaning and preparation of cotton, for 
 the weaving of cotton and silk fabrics, dyeing 
 vats, weavers' shops, basket makers and mat 
 plaiters. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 C' HINESE civilization possesses 
 nothing which resembles the 
 beneficient institution of a day 
 of rest recurring regularly after 
 a certain series of working days. There 
 are monthly festivals, by which the working 
 classes commonly profit very little, and an 
 entire week, the first of the year, during 
 which all labor is suspended, and the popu- 
 lation give themselves u'p to the amusements 
 within their reach, each person choosing 
 them according to his social position and the 
 resources at his disposal. This is true, in 
 the, main, of Japan. 
 
 The citizens of Tokio, the artisans, the 
 manufacturers, the Japanese tradesmen in 
 general, lived until the arrival of the Eu- 
 ropeans, under the most exceptional economic 
 conditions in the world. They worked only 
 for the internal supply of a country highly 
 favored by nature, sufficiently large and 
 sufficiently cultivated to supply all its own 
 needs; for centuries they had enjoyed the 
 pleasures of an easy and simple life. This 
 is no longer the case. I witnessed the last 
 days of the age of innocence, in which, with 
 the exception of some great merchants whom 
 fortune had obstinately pursued with its 
 favors, no one worked except to live, and no 
 one lived except to enjoy existence. 
 
 Work itself had a place in the category of 
 the purest and deepest enjoyments. The 
 artisan had a passion for his work, and, far 
 from counting the hours, the days, the weeks, 
 which he gave to it, it was with reluctance 
 that he drew himself away from it till he had 
 382 
 
 at length brought it — not to a certain salable 
 value, which was less the object of his card — 
 but to that state of perfection which satisfied 
 him. If he were tired, he left his workshop 
 and rested himself for as long or as short a 
 time as he pleased, either in his house, or in 
 company with his friends at some place of 
 amusement. 
 
 There was not a Japanese dwelling of the 
 middle classes without its little garden, a 
 sacred asylum for solitude, for the siesta, for 
 amusing reading, for line fishing, or for long 
 libations of tea and saki. 
 
 Surroundings of Tokio. 
 
 The hills on the south, west, and north of 
 the citadel, are rich in pretty valleys and 
 grottos, springs and ponds, all utilized in the 
 most ingenious manner by the small pro- 
 prietors. If nature has not isolated the 
 family residence by means of hedges or 
 natural palisades of bamboo covered with 
 climbing plants, industry supplies the defi- 
 ciency. When the garden is approached 
 from the street, a rustic bridge is thrown 
 across the canal before the door, and hidden 
 with tufts of trees and thick-leaved shrubs.. 
 
 On crossing the threshold, the visitor 
 might believe himself to be in a virgin forest 
 far from all human habitations. Blocks of 
 stone, negligently arranged as steps, help 
 him to mount the hill, and suddenly, when 
 he has reached the summit, a deUghtful 
 spectacle lies at his feet. Below the flower- 
 covered rocks is a gracefully formed pond,, 
 its banks adorned with lotus, iris, and water- 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 383 
 
 lilies ; a little wooden bridge crosses it. The 
 path descends through groves of tufted bam- 
 boos, azaleas, dwarf palms, and camellias; 
 then through beautiful gVoups of tiny pines 
 which hide the ivy-covered rocks, and along 
 hillsides enamelled with flowers, amid which 
 the lily lifts its white crown above the dwarf 
 shrubs, which are cut into fantastic forms. 
 
 This scene, when beheld from the bottom 
 of the valley, offers an equally harmonious 
 combination of form and color. There is 
 nothing to excite particular attention, but 
 the whole landscape and all its details wrap 
 the mind in calm, and leave it no other im- 
 pression than the vague pleasure of perfect 
 rest. 
 
 Although the Japanese delight on occa- 
 sion to plunge themselves into a condition 
 which closely approaches the physical insen- 
 sibility and ideal annihilation recommended 
 by Buddhism, they do not systematically 
 indulge in it. The spirit of order presides 
 over their daily conduct, and regulates their 
 hygienic practices. 
 
 Custom of Bathing. 
 
 Among the latter the bath holds the first 
 place. In addition to their morning ablu- 
 tions, the Japanese, of every age and of both 
 sexes, take a hot bath every day. They re- 
 main from five to thirty minutes in the water, 
 sometimes plunged up to the shoulders, some- 
 times only up to the waist, according as they 
 lie down or squat; and during all the time 
 they take the greatest care to avoid wetting 
 the head. It not unfrequently happens that 
 congestion of the brain, and even apoplexy, 
 is the result of this unreasonable habit. 
 
 A custom which has become a daily need, 
 and is practised by all classes of an enormous 
 population, could not be in any sense private. 
 A tacit agreement has therefore been estab- 
 lished in Japan which places the bath, from 
 
 the point of view of public morals, in the 
 category of indifferent actions, neither more 
 nor less than sleeping, walking out, and 
 drinking. As the superior classes of society 
 have dormitories and dining-rooms, so each 
 house belonging to the nobility or the upper 
 ranks of the citizens has one or two bath- 
 rooms reserved for domestic use; and there 
 is no small citizen's dwelling without some 
 little room where a bath, with its heating 
 apparatus, may be found. 
 
 Rush for the Bath-IIouses. , 
 
 When the bath is ready, the entire family- 
 profit by it in succession; first the father, 
 then the mother, then the children and all the 
 household servants included. Nevertheless,. 
 the common bath is rarely used, because the 
 expense of the fuel which it would involve 
 would be much greater than the expense of 
 a family subscription to the public baths.. 
 Accordingly, the majority of the population 
 regularly use the latter. They are to be 
 found in every street of a certain import- 
 ance, and everywhere they are so crowded,, 
 especially during the two last hours of the 
 day, that it has become absolutely necessary 
 to allow the bathers to bathe in community. 
 
 There are generally two reservoirs, sepa- 
 rated by a low iron or wooden bridge, and 
 sufficiently spacious to receive from twelve 
 to twenty bathers at a time. The women 
 and children collect on one side, and the 
 men on the other ; but without prejudice to 
 the leading principle that every new-comer 
 shall install himself where he finds a place, 
 no matter who may be the previous occu- 
 pant. The proprietor squats upon a plat- 
 form, from which he can observe the persons 
 who come in, and who pay in passing. Some- 
 times the proprietor smokes, and sometimes 
 he reads romances to amuse himself. 
 
 The national law which regulates the 
 
384 
 
 public baths extends beyond the threshold 
 of these establishments, — that is to say, if 
 the bathers of either sex wish to take the air 
 on the pavement outside, they are respect- 
 ively regarded as partaking of the benefit of 
 the accepted fiction ; and more than that, it 
 shelters them to their own dwelling, when it 
 is their pleasure to proceed thither with the 
 fine lobster-color which they have brought 
 out of the hot water intact. 
 
 Crude Forms of Art. 
 
 However strange this custom may appear 
 to us, no Japanese, before the arrival of the 
 Europeans, supposed that it could have a 
 reprehensible side. On the contrary, it was 
 in perfect harmony with the rules of domestic 
 life, and irreproachable from the moral point 
 of view. 
 
 Many singularities find explanation in the 
 fact that the Japanese have decidedly no 
 pretension to plastic beauty. Nothing is 
 more characteristic in this respect than the 
 manner in which the native painters draw 
 the heroes and heroines of their stories of 
 love and war. In a little while, however, 
 Japan will be under the influence of the 
 Japanese who have visited Europe and 
 America, and especially those who have 
 made a prolonged sojourn in these coun- 
 tries. If the comparison which they insti- 
 tute between the two civilizations does not 
 induce them to recommend the adoption of 
 ours in its lesser details, we may be quite 
 sure that they will reform all such national 
 customs as have provoked the ridicule of 
 ' foreigners. 
 
 Several of the great public baths of Tokio 
 have added modern therapeutic inventions, 
 such as douches of hot and cold water, to 
 the ordinary resources of these establish- 
 ments. 
 
 The physicians of the opulent classes of 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 society are always certain to win the good 
 graces of their patients by recommending 
 them to try a cure in one of the mountain 
 districts famous for the efificacy of their 
 waters. There are some particularly cele- 
 brated in the island of Kiousiou, at the foot 
 of the volcanoes of Aso and Wounsentake. 
 The thermal springs whicb are found there 
 are, generally speaking, sulphurous and very 
 hot. They are used in rheumatic affections 
 and skin diseases. 
 
 It has not yet occurred to the mind of the 
 Japanese to enhance the charms of the bath- 
 ing season by the attraction of pastimes. 
 Games of chance are disdained by everyone 
 in good society. Cards are left to servants 
 and coolies, and these are not permitted to 
 play for money. 
 
 The Medicine Case. 
 
 The small tradesman does not trouble 
 himself to go to the thermal baths ; when 
 doctors do not seem to be doing him any 
 good, he prefers to undertake a pilgrimage. 
 He is not, however, without his own notions 
 about medicine. According to him the. 
 latent cause of all the disturbance of the 
 human machine resides in the more or less 
 ill-regulated action of the internal vapors; 
 apparently those of which Sganarelle speaks, 
 "the vapors formed of the exhalations of the 
 influences which arise from the region of the 
 malady." The daily baths, no doubt, con- 
 tribute to disengage and to dissolve them. 
 
 If, however, some unexpected indisposi- 
 tion arises during the hours of work or of 
 recreation, it is good to have a little medi- 
 cine case at hand, and, therefore, he wears it 
 hanging from his girdle, on the same bunch 
 of strings with his pipe and his tobacco bag. 
 But if the noxious gas resists the powders 
 and the pills in his little box, he must have 
 recourse to cautery. This does not abso- 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 385 
 
 lutely demand the intervention of the sur- 
 geon. Every well-arranged household has 
 its supply of the little cones of raugwort with 
 which moxas are applied, and every good 
 housewife ought to know what are the por- 
 tions of the body to burn according to the 
 symptoms of the malady : as, for example, 
 the shoulders in indigestion, stomach com- 
 plaints, and loss of appetite ; the vertebrae 
 in attacks of pleurisy, the muscles of the 
 thumb in a case of tootliache, and so on. 
 
 Puncturing With Needles, 
 Such is the reputation of the moxa among 
 the Japanese people, that it is frequently 
 used as a preventive, and even at fixed times 
 once or twice a year. A sovereign remedy 
 against cholic consists in making six or nine 
 ■deep incisions, by means of fine needles of 
 gold or silver, in the abdominal region. 
 
 As in certain countries in Europe, there 
 ■exists a class of quacks who add teethdraw- 
 ing to the barber's profession, and who put 
 ■on leeches and blisters, so Japan possesses a 
 whole host of subaltern surgeons specially 
 devoted to the practice of cautery and other 
 empirical remedies. They are called Ten- 
 sasi, or "men who punish," in reference to 
 their preliminary operations. Whatever 
 talent they may display in their various 
 functions, they are never permitted to add 
 shampooing — a kind of treatment much re- 
 sorted to in Japan in cases of nervous irrita- 
 tion or rheumatic affections. 
 
 The reason for this exclusion was told me 
 by a shopkeeper, at whose house I witnessed 
 a spectacle which at first sight I could not 
 understand. A woman, lying on her .left 
 side at full length upon the mats in the back 
 shop, was patiently bearing the weight of a 
 Ibig fellow, who was kneading her shoulders 
 with' both hands. "Is that your wife?" 
 said I to the shopkeeper. He made an 
 25 
 
 affirmative sign, and then placing his thumb 
 and middle finger of his left hand upon his 
 two eyelids, showed me that the operator 
 was blind, and went on to inform me that the 
 laws of society among the Japanese limited 
 the office of shampooers to men deprived of 
 sight. 
 
 I remembered to have met blind men in 
 the street carefully feeling for the footway, a 
 rough staff in their right hand, and in the 
 left a reed cut into a whistle, from which 
 they extracted a plaintive and prolonged 
 sound at intervals. Thus they announce to 
 the citizens that they are passing by, in case 
 any one wants to be shampooed. The sham- 
 pooers have the head shaven, and wear one 
 garment, of gray or blue stuff. 
 
 Blind From Weeping. 
 
 I was told that they form a large fraternity, 
 which is divided into two orders. The most 
 ancient, that of Bou-Setzous, has a religious 
 character and belongs to the Court. It was 
 instituted and endowed by the son of a 
 Mikado, who became blind by dint of weep- 
 ing for the death of his Empress. 
 
 The rival order of more recent origin, but; 
 not less chivalrous, is that of the Fekis. 
 
 In the great battle which the Taigoija 
 Yoritomo won, having put an end to the, 
 civil wars which rent the Empire, Feki, the 
 chief of the rebel party, was slain. His 
 brave general, named Kakekigo, soon fell 
 into the power of the conqueror, who treated 
 his prisoner with great consideration. When 
 he imagined he had gained him over by his 
 attentions, he called him into his presence 
 and proposed to him to ally himself to the 
 Imperial cause. 
 
 "I have been the faithful servant of a 
 good master," replied the general, "and I 
 have lost him; no other in the world shall 
 succeed him in my esteem. As for you, 
 
386 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 
 
 the author of his death, I could never look 
 on you without longing to strike your head 
 off at my feet, but you confound me by 
 your magnanimity, therefore, accept the only 
 sacrifice by which I can render homage to it." 
 So saying, the unfortunate man tore out his 
 two eyes and offered them to his new master. 
 
 cians, but the greater number practice sham- 
 pooing. All the money which they collect 
 from city to city is deposited in a central 
 treasury, from which the associates receive 
 a fixed sum, sufficient for their subsistence 
 to the end of their lives. 
 
 The governor of the order resides at 
 
 ANCIENT JAPANESE WARRIORS. 
 
 Yoritomo set him at liberty, and gave him 
 an estate in the province of Fiougo. The 
 general founded the order for the blind 
 under the authorization of the Mikado, and 
 the Fekis soon exceeded the Bou-Setzous 
 in numbers and in wealth. All the mem- 
 bers of this society must exercise a profes- 
 sion. There are some who become musi- 
 
 Kioto. It is said that he exercises the right 
 of life cmd death over the members, subject 
 only to the Imperial supremacy. 
 
 It is not difficult for a foreigner sojourning 
 in Japan to mingle with the people, and even 
 to penetrate into the intimacy of the middle 
 classes; but I doubt whether he would ever 
 succeed in gaining admission to family festi- 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 387 
 
 vals in any rank whatever of native society. 
 
 In all the countries of the far East, the 
 marriage of a daughter is always celebrated 
 with more or less prolonged rejoicings in the 
 house of the husband. But, while the China- 
 man is proud to invite foreign guests to the 
 wedding of his son, in order that he may 
 make a pompous parade before them, the 
 Japanese, on the contrary, surrounds the 
 ceremonies which belong to this solemn act 
 with the discreetest reserve. He regards it 
 as much too serious an affair tg be interfered 
 with by the presence of any but the nearest 
 relatives and the confidential friends of the 
 two principals. 
 
 Most Japanese marriages are the result of 
 family arrangement made long beforehand, 
 under the inspiration of the practical good 
 sense which is one of the national character- 
 istics 
 
 Qualifications for Marriage. 
 
 The bride brings no dowry, but she is 
 given a trousseau which many a lady of 
 higher rank might be proud of. She is 
 required to have an unsullied reputation, a 
 gentle and yielding disposition, the amount 
 of education fitted for her sex, and the ac- 
 quirements of a good' housekeeper. 
 
 Considerations of pecuniary interest hold 
 only a Secondary place, and they generally 
 lead rather to business combinations than to 
 mere money bargains. Thus, when a good 
 citizen who has no son, gives his only, or 
 his eldest daughter in marriage, her husband 
 receives the title of his father-in-law's adopted 
 son, takes the name of his father-in-law, and 
 succeeds him in the exercise of his industry, 
 or the transaction of his commercial affairs. 
 
 Japanese weddings are preceded by a be- 
 trothal ceremony, at which the principal 
 members of both families are present; and 
 it not unfrequently happens that it is on 
 
 this occasion the young people discover for 
 the first time the projects which their respec- 
 tive parents have formed for them. From 
 that day forth they are given opportunities 
 of meeting, and of appreciating the wisdom 
 of the choice which has been made on their 
 behalf Visits, invitations, presents, prepara- 
 tions for their installation in their new home 
 succeed each other so rapidly and so pleas- 
 antly, that the young people are rarely other- 
 wise than delighted with their prospects. 
 
 Flowers and Offerings. 
 
 The marriage generally takes place when 
 the bride-elect has attained her sixteenth, 
 and the bridegroom-elect his twentieth year. 
 Early in the morning the young girl's trous- 
 seau is brought to the bridegroom's dwelling, 
 and laid out very tastefully in the apartments 
 in which the wedding feast is to be held-. In 
 the chief room a domestic altar is erected, 
 adorned with flowers and laden with offer- 
 ings; and in front of this altar, images of 
 the gods and patron saints of the two fami- 
 lies are hung. 
 
 The aquariums are supplied with various 
 plants, grouped picturesquely, and with sym- 
 bolical significance. On the lacquer-work 
 tables are placed dwarf cedars and small 
 figures representing the first couple, accom- 
 panied by their venerable attributes, the 
 hundred-years-old crane and tortoise. To 
 complete the picture by a lesson in morals 
 and patriotism, some packets of edible sea- 
 weed, of mussels and dried fish, are placed 
 among the wedding presents, to remind the 
 young couple of the primitive food, and the 
 simple customs of the ancient inhabitants of 
 Japan. 
 
 About noon a splendid procession enters 
 the rooms thus prepared; the young bride, 
 veiled and arrayed in white, advances, led by 
 two female friends, and followed by a crowd 
 
388 
 
 of relatives, friends, and neighbors, in robes 
 of ceremony composed of splendid scarlet 
 brocade, gauze, and embroideries. 
 
 The two friends do the honors, distribute 
 the guests, see to the arrangements for the 
 repast, and flit about from one group to 
 another. They are called the male and 
 female butterfly. The must personify, in 
 the cut and decoration of their crape and 
 gauze robes, the charming couple who, in 
 popular story, set an example of conjugal 
 felicity. May you, too, they seem to say to 
 the betrothed pair, taste the flowers of life, 
 hover in aerial flight over the earth, during 
 your terrestrial career, always joyous, always 
 united, until your happy existence exhales in 
 common in a final embrace. 
 
 A Beautiful Vase. 
 
 With the exception of certain Buddhist 
 sects, whose rites include a nuptial benedic- 
 tion, the priest has no place in the celebra- 
 tion of marriage in Japan. The decisive 
 ceremony by which the Japanese replace 
 our sacramental ordinance possesses an af- 
 fecting symbolism. Amongst the objects 
 displayed in the midst of the circle of the 
 guests is a metal vase, in the form of a 
 pitcher with two mouths. This vase is 
 beautifully ornamented. 
 
 At an appointed signal one of the bride's 
 ladies fills it with saki ; the other takes it by 
 the handle, raises it to the height of the 
 mouths of the kneeling bride and bride- 
 groom, and makes them drink alternately, 
 each from the pitcher mouth placed opposite 
 to their lips, until the vase is emptied. It is 
 thus that, husband and wife, they must drink 
 from the cup of conjugal life; he on his side, 
 she on hers, but they must both taste the 
 same ambrosia, or the same gall; they must 
 share equally the pains and sorrows as well 
 as the joys of this new existence. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 If the poetical charm of the symbolism, 
 of the natural affections sufficed to render 
 people moral, the Japanese should be the 
 best husbands in the world. Unhappily, the 
 same man who has the right to kill his wife 
 on the simplest suspicion — ^if, for example, 
 he should see her in conversation with a 
 stranger — no relation of the family — has no 
 scruple about introducing a first concubine, 
 and soon a second, then a third, and it may 
 be even a fourth, under the conjugal roof. 
 
 Feels no Jealousy. 
 
 It is said that, in order to spare the dig- 
 nity of the legitimate wife, and in deference 
 to her rank as a mother and the mistress of 
 the house, the husband deigns to consult 
 her upon the choice of each of the pearls of 
 beauty he thinks fit to add to the treasures 
 of his domestic feUcity. It is said that the 
 proudest dame,, the most tenacious of her 
 rights and of her prerogatives, feels no jeal- 
 ousy, and sees with no displeasure an aug- 
 mentation of her household which permits 
 her to rule over a numerous suite of women, 
 hei' humble servants, and little pages, slaves 
 to the caprices of her own children. 
 
 But this picture is not true to life'. There 
 is, no doubt, a class in Japanese society in 
 which the marriage tie is much relaxed ; that 
 of the Daimios, formerly condemned by the 
 inhuman policy of the Shoguns to leave their 
 wives and children as hostages at Tokio, 
 during the prolonged absences rendered im- 
 perative by their feudal position and its ad- 
 ministrative duties. But the licentious habits 
 of the nobility never propagate themselves 
 among the middle classes with impunity. 
 
 When the mother of the family forces her- 
 self to suffer humiliation in silence, thence- 
 forward peace and domestic happiness are at 
 an end. When the relaxation of. the ties of 
 esteem and mutual confidence leads to a 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 389 
 
 breach of the community of interests, dis- 
 order creeps into, household affairs, the hus- 
 b£md neglects the exercise of his profession, 
 and endeavors to blind himself to his true 
 moral condition by an ever increasing con- 
 sumption of saki. Finally, poverty, sick- 
 ness, and frequently even some violent catas- 
 trophe, bring about the dissolution or the 
 ruin of the household, which had been 
 founded under such fair auspices. 
 
 The middle classes, and the masses in 
 general, are saved by their narrow means 
 from the scourge I have just indicated. The 
 great majority of households, those of shop- 
 keepers, artisans, workmen, and cultivators, 
 require the common toil of both father and 
 mother for their maintenance; the constant 
 combination of their efforts, not to secure 
 ease, but merely to supply the commonest 
 necessaries of life. 
 
 Struggle for a Livelihood. 
 
 The introduction of one single vice into 
 such a state of things would bring about its 
 immediate ruin. Many a young couple have 
 to struggle bravely for years, in order to 
 defray the expenses of their marriage. Others 
 have had sufficient courage and good sense 
 to resist the temptation of the national cus- 
 tom. The proceedings in the latter instances 
 testify to the national talent for acting. An 
 honest couple have a marriageable daughter, 
 and the latter is acquainted with a fine young 
 fellow, who would be a capital match, if only 
 he possessed the necessary means of making 
 his lady-love and her parents the indispensa- 
 ble wedding presents, and of keeping open 
 ^ouse for a week. 
 
 One fine evening,' the father and mother, 
 returning from the bath, find the house 
 empty — the daughter is gone. They make 
 inquiries in the neighborhood ; no one has 
 seen her ; but the neighbors hasten to offer 
 
 their services in seeking her, together with 
 her distracted parents. They accept the 
 offer, and head a solemn procession, which 
 gpes from street to street, to the lover's 
 door. In vain does he, hidden behind his 
 panels, turn a deaf ear.; he is at length 
 obliged to yield to the importunities of the 
 besieging crowd ; he opens the door, and the 
 young girl, drowned in tears, throws herself 
 at the feet of her parents, who threaten to 
 curse her. 
 
 A Social Comedy. 
 
 Then comes the intervention of charitable 
 friends, deeply moved by this spectacle ; the 
 softening of the mother, the proud and in- 
 exorable attitude of the father, the combined 
 eloquence of the multitude, employed to 
 soften his heart ; the lover's endless protes- 
 tations of his resolution to become the best 
 of sons-in-law. At length the father yields, 
 his resistance is overcome ; he raises his 
 kneeling daughter, pardons her lover and 
 calls him his son-in-law. 
 
 Then, almost as if by enchantment, cups 
 of saki circulate through the assembly ; 
 everybody sits down upon the mats ; the 
 two culprits are placed in the centre of the 
 circle, large bowls of saki are handed to 
 them ; and when they are emptied, the mar- 
 riage is recognized, and declared to be 
 validly contracted in the presence of a suf- 
 ficient number of witnesses, and it is regis- 
 tered next day by the proper officer, with- 
 out any difficulty. 
 
 The fashion of wedding-trips is unknown 
 in Japan. Far from leaving the young people 
 to enjoy their happiness in peace, their 
 friends resort to every sort of pretext for 
 overwhelming them with invitations and 
 visits, which are always accompanied by 
 prolonged bouts of eating and drinking. 
 
 For two years at least the young mother 
 
390 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 will nurse her child, and according to the 
 rules of politeness which regulate the visits of 
 Japanese ladies, she must extend her lacteal 
 gifts to the children of her friends. Another 
 demonstration of courtesy is made by the 
 young girls of the neighborhood. They 
 dispute for the privilege of carrying the 
 new-born infant out for its air and exercise, 
 not only as an act of neighborly kindness, 
 
 mm/mmmK 
 
 JAPANESE BRIDE AND ATTENDANTS. 
 
 but in order that they may, quite seriously, 
 serve an apprenticeship to the main duties of 
 their future vocation. 
 
 On the thirtieth day after his birth, the 
 new citizen of Niphon receives his first name. 
 He will take a second on attaining his major- 
 ity, a third at his marriage, a fourth when he 
 shall be appointed to any public function, a 
 fifth when he shall ascend in rank or in dig- 
 nity, and so on until the last, the name which 
 
 shall be given him after his death, and in- 
 scribed upon his tomb ; that by which his 
 memory shall be held sacred from generation 
 to generation. 
 
 The ceremony, which corresponds to bap- 
 tism among us, is a simple presentation of 
 the newly-born child in the temple of his 
 parents' gods. Except in certain sects, it is 
 not accompanied by sprinkling with water, 
 or any of the formalities of purification. 
 The father hands a memorandum contain- 
 ing three names, to the officiating bonze, 
 who copies them on three separate sheets 
 of paper, which he mixes together and 
 shakes up at random, pronouncing a sacra- 
 mental invocation in a loud voice. Then 
 he throws them into the air, and the first 
 which, in falling, touches the floor of the 
 holy place, indicates the name most agreea- 
 ble to the presiding divinity. 
 
 The bonze immediately inscribes it upon 
 a sheet of blessed paper, and gives it as a 
 tahsman to the child's father. Then, the 
 religious act being complete, it remains 
 only to celebrate the event by visits and 
 banquets proportionate to the social con- 
 dition of the infant hero of the festival, 
 who receives a number of presents on this 
 occasion, among which two fans figure, in 
 the case of a male, and a pot of pomade 
 in that of a female child. The fans are 
 precursors of swords, and the pomade is 
 the presage of feminine charms. In both 
 cases, a packet of flax thread is added, 
 signifying good wishes for a long life. 
 
 The baptism of a child is always an occa- 
 sion for generosity on the part of the parent 
 towards the priest of their religion. It is 
 understood that the priests shall not fail to 
 inscribe the child's name on the list of their 
 pupils, and shall follow all the phases of his 
 life with solicitude. The registers in the 
 bonze-houses are said to be most accurately 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 391 
 
 kept ; they must always be at the disposal of 
 the police authorities. 
 
 At three years old, the boy begins to 
 wear a sword belt, and at seven, if he be a 
 Samourai (military class), the two swords, 
 which form the insignia of his rank. These 
 weapons are, of course, provisional, and 
 adapted to his size. At fifteen, he exchanges 
 them for the proven swords confided to him, 
 as a glorious trust, by his family, during his 
 lifetime. 
 
 .Responsible Age of Fifteen. 
 
 In the middle class, the chivalrous cere- 
 monies have no place, but the three before- 
 mentioned dates, and chiefly the last, are 
 kept with rejoicings which yield in import- 
 ance only to marriage festivities. On the 
 day which completes the boy's fifteenth year, 
 he attains his majority, adopts the head-dress 
 of grown men, and takes a part in the busi- 
 ness of the paternal house. The day before 
 he is addressed as a child ; all of a sudden 
 everything around him is changed ; the cere- 
 monious forms of national civiHty increase his 
 importance in his own eyes, and he hastens, 
 on his side, to respond to the congratulations 
 which he receives, so as to prove that while 
 he is proud of his new position, he is also 
 awake to its responsibility. 
 
 This noble testimony does not, indeed, 
 limit itself to vain declarations, and among 
 the most interesting traits of Japanese society 
 are the zeal, perseverance, and seriousness 
 \vith which young people of fifteen forsake 
 the pleasures of childhood, and enter the 
 severe school of practical life, each preparing 
 himself to make his way honorably in the 
 world. 
 
 Apprenticeship to any manual profession 
 is equivalent to ten years' service. During 
 this time the master feeds, clothes, and lodges 
 the apprentice, but he never gives him any 
 
 salary, until quite near the end of the term, 
 when the apprentice having become a work- 
 man, receives sufficient pocket-money to buy ' 
 tobacco. Professional instruction, neverthe- 
 less, does not suffer from this state of things. 
 
 The master is interested in teaching his 
 apprentice as thoroughly as possible, be- 
 cause it is he who presents the workman, in 
 his turn aspiring to the rank of master, to 
 the "tribe" or trade. This rank cannot be 
 attained under the age of twenty-five years. 
 As soon as the workman has reached that 
 time of life, his master gives him his liberty, 
 and presents him with the tools necessary 
 for the setting up of a modest workshop. 
 Then comes marriage to consecrate the new 
 establishment. 
 
 It frequently happens that the workman 
 marries before he is set up in a workshop of 
 his own ; but this takes place only when his 
 parents' circumstances admit of his bringing 
 his wife to live under their roof until he can 
 make a home for her. 
 
 Funeral Expenses. 
 In all Japanese families death gives rise to 
 a series of domestic solemnities, more or 
 less sumptuous, according to the rank of the 
 deceased, but in every case in a proportion 
 very expensive to his nearest relatives. They 
 have to bear the cost of the rehgious cefe- 
 monies which are in the province of the 
 bonzes : they have to pay for the last sacra- 
 ments ; the watching and the praying, which 
 is kept up without intermission in the house 
 of the deceased until the funeral, the service 
 which precedes the departure of the funeral 
 procession, the funeral mass celebrated in 
 the temple, and all the requisites for the 
 burial or the burning of the corpse ; such as 
 the coffin, draperies, torches, flowers, com- 
 bustibles, urn, tomb, collections and offerings 
 given to the bonzes. 
 
392 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Then comes the turn of the coolies who 
 have washed the body, of those who have 
 carried the coffin, and the convent servants 
 whose duties lie within the enclosure of the 
 cemetery. But this is not all; a pious cus- 
 tom ordains that all persons of a certain 
 station shall install a servant at the house 
 door charged with the distribution of alms, 
 in small coins, to all the poor, indiscrimi- 
 nately, who come to seek them. And also, 
 on the return of the funeral procession, all 
 the party are expected to take leave of the 
 head of the afflicted family, who testifies his 
 gratitude by giving them a handsome repast. 
 
 Horror of Dead Bodies. 
 
 It is not, however, in these harrassing ex- 
 penses only that we must seek for the source 
 of the hardly disguised impatience with 
 which the Japanese discharge the last offices 
 towards their neighbors. The truth is, that 
 though they are hardened to the sight of 
 blood, and to scenes of homicide, they cannot 
 overcome, even in the case of members of 
 their own family, the instinctive repugnance, 
 the profound horror which the presence or 
 even the vicinity of a corpse causes them, 
 when the death has been a natural one. 
 There are, however, noble exceptions. 
 
 Among the Japanese women, we find wives 
 and mothers, who, overcoming every super- 
 stitious fear, know how to prove that love is 
 stronger than death ; while the men of the 
 household consider themselves acquitted of 
 their task when they have sent for the bonzes 
 to recite prayers, and for a barber and his 
 coolie assistants, who lay out the corpse, and 
 retire to smoke and drink at the greatest 
 possible distance from the chamber of death, 
 the mother of the family remains to the last 
 beside the corpse of the husband or the son. 
 During the first hours of mourning; it is she 
 who receives the condolences of the friends 
 
 and neighbors. Humbly prostrated on the 
 reversed mat, at the foot of a screen, also 
 reversed, which hides the corpse from view, 
 she mingles her sobs -with the sighs and 
 consoling words of her visitors. 
 
 But as soon as the undertakers (as we 
 should call them) arrives, she rises and 
 assists in all the preparations they have to 
 make. The head of the deceased must be 
 completely shaven, and his body carefully 
 washed, which is done by plentiful douches 
 of tepid water, showered into the bath-room 
 in which he is placed sitting on a turned up 
 tub. When the coolies have dried the corpse, 
 they lift it up respectfully, in order to place 
 it in the coffin. The operation is not always 
 an easy one. The rich Japanese like to rest 
 in the earth, doubled up into enormous jars, 
 which are masterpieces of native pottery. It 
 requires a certain amount of energy and 
 very strong wrists to squeeze a corpse that 
 is at all broad-shouldered into the narrow 
 neck of one of these jars. 
 
 Cheap Caskets. 
 
 The lower middle class and common 
 people use, for coffins, simply barrels made 
 of fir planks, with bands of bamboo bark. 
 Whether the corpse is going to be buried or 
 burned, it is squeezed into the same narrow 
 compass. The head is bent, the legs are 
 doubled up under the body, and the arms 
 are crossed on the breast. It is not acci- 
 dentally that the Japanese bury their dead in 
 the attitude in which a child rests in the 
 mother's womb. The practice enforces the 
 dogma of a future life under an eloquent 
 symbolism of which the concluding action 
 of the final parting is a most significant 
 feature. 
 
 At the moment when the coolies are about 
 to place the cover on the jar, or the lid on 
 the barrel, the mourning woman who has 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 393 
 
 previously assisted in all the melancholy 
 preliminaries, bends for the last time over 
 the corpse, and places between its hands a 
 viaticum, no doubt the strangest, but also the 
 most remarkable in all the mythologies of 
 antiquity. It is a little sheet of paper, 
 folded in four, containing a small shred of 
 the umbilical cord which united the dead 
 person with his mother at the moment of his 
 birth. 
 
 When maternal love, or that of his suc- 
 cessor has confided this strange emblem of a 
 future birth to the mysteries of the tomb, 
 and made, under this curious form, its 
 humble protest against the seeming triumph 
 of death, the coffin is closed ; and the most 
 important of the national funeral ceremonies, 
 the " domestic solemnity'' is accomplished. 
 
 Superstitious Pomps. 
 
 The rest consists merely of superstitious 
 practices, vain pomp, and pure formalities, 
 in which exorcism alternates with the glori- 
 fication of family pride. It does not suffice 
 that the Mikosi should protect the coffin, at 
 its exit from the house of death, it passes 
 under an arch of blessed bamboo, which 
 prevents evil influences from following it. 
 The bonzes, carrying their rosaries, open the 
 procession. The nearest relatives are dressed 
 in white, or they wear common straw hats, 
 which they do not remove until after the 
 completion of the ceremonies of purification. 
 
 An inscription, carried before the Mikosi, 
 proclaims the name which the deceased is to 
 receive in his epitaph. The horses of a 
 military chief figure in his funeral procession, 
 caparisoned in white, and led by grooms in 
 mourning. His swords, his armorial bear- 
 ings, his banner, various precious things 
 which recall the rank that he held in the 
 world, are exhibited among the groups of 
 his relations and followers. 
 
 The funeral procession of the poor man 
 consists of a small number of friends and 
 neighbors, who hurry, at sunset, to the 
 sombre valley where the rite of cremation 
 takes place under the auspices of some bonze 
 of low station, sent from a neighboring con- 
 vent. 
 
 Japanese Cremation. 
 
 The Yedas, who are the outcasts of 
 Japanese society, and deprived of the aids 
 of rehgion, disdain every kind of ceremony. 
 They simply lay the corpses of their brethren 
 in abjectness on rude stretchers, and carry 
 them away to a desert place. There, they 
 pile up a heap of dead wood on which they 
 stretch the bodies, covered with straw mats ; 
 and kindle with their own hands the fire 
 that is to restore these miserable remains of 
 humanity to the elements. 
 
 There is a class still lower than that of 
 the Yedas, properly so called, that is to say, 
 the artisans who practise unclean arts, such 
 as skinners, tanners, leather dressers; and 
 one lower still, public executioners, pur- 
 veyors of vice, lepers, cripples, registered 
 beggars ; then comes a final category of in- 
 dividuals held in the extreme degree of legal 
 infamy, it is the class of " Christans," the 
 tolerated descendants of such of the native 
 Christian families as were not entirely de- 
 stroyed in the great persecution of the sev- 
 enteenth century. 
 
 Their condition is worse tharl that of the 
 mere Yedas, who live among themselves in 
 freedom, outside the city boundaries ; so 
 utterly ignored by the law, that the space of 
 ground occupied by their camp of thatched 
 huts does not count in the measurement 
 plans. The Christans, on the contrary, are 
 assigned a miserable crowded quarter in the 
 city, like the ghetto of the Jews in the Mid- 
 dle Ages, which is virtually a prison. The 
 
■394 
 
 police keep watch over them until they have 
 drawn their last breath, and it is their busi- 
 ness to remove their corpses, and dispose of 
 them somehow — no one knows where or 
 how ; but so that the name of the Crucified 
 One shall not be pronounced over their 
 ashes. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 especially the practice of cremation intro- 
 duced, in the year 700, by the priest Joseo, 
 have enabled, the bonzes to make an im- 
 mense trade out of the lots of ground of 
 which they dispose. A small enclosure is 
 sufficient for a whole family through a great 
 number of generations. The commemora- 
 
 INTERIOR OF A JAPANESE THEATRE 
 
 Respect for the dead and tomb-worship, 
 which is one of the seemingly-estimable 
 features of the Buddhist religion, does not 
 exist, properly speaking, except among the 
 privileged classes, and in proportion to the 
 profit which the bonzes extract from it. The 
 method of burial, the form of the coffin, and 
 
 tive table, which stands over the spot in 
 which the cinerary urn has been buried, oc- 
 cupies no greater space than the urn itself. 
 
 The badly-kept condition . of the burial- 
 places of the common people contrasts 
 strongly with the orderliness of the fine ter- 
 races and great funereal monuments in their 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 395 
 
 ■neighborhood. Both are entrusted to the 
 ■care of the same bonze-house ; but it is the 
 same with tombs as with indulgences, the 
 tonzes have made each a question of tariff. 
 
 There is at Tokio a National Drahiatic 
 Institution. The performers are, properly- 
 speaking, jugglers, equilibrists, and acrobats. 
 Another corporation, infinitely more interest- 
 ing, is that of the conjuring jugglers, the 
 most skilful among whom perform princi- 
 pally at the fair of Yamasta, and in all the 
 dependencies of the Grand Temple of Quan- 
 non at Asaksa. They also make provincial 
 tours, although we have not heard of their 
 Jiaving quitted Japan. 
 
 But we may leave them aside, and even 
 ■their superiors, and pass on to the bonze- 
 houses which combine within their vast space 
 all the seductions and all the juggleries, 
 every industry and every artifice, by which it 
 is possible to contribute to human supersti- 
 tions and human passions. 
 
 Vast Pleasure Grounds. 
 
 The great river which divides Tokio into 
 two distinct cities, encloses in one vast circuit 
 the districts to the north of the citadel. 
 These are specially consecrated to the pleas- 
 ures of the inhabitants of the capital. In 
 those pleasures centres the industry of the 
 ■district, and it excludes no class of society. 
 It accommodates itself, on the contrary, to 
 all tastes, responds to all caprices, and satis- 
 fies all exigencies. 
 
 Hundreds of temples rival the tea-houses ; 
 the circuses compete with the theatres ; the 
 fairs with the groves, the lakes, and the 
 canals — those refuges of tranquil joy; while 
 towards the north the great square harbors, 
 with the full sanction of the Government, 
 countless dens of vice and debauchery. 
 
 On the right and left of the high road, and 
 all along the avenues, on the bank of the 
 
 Ogawa, and in the side streets which diverge 
 from the high road, there are temples, tea- 
 houses, public gardens, eating-houses, ora- 
 tories, shops, and resting-places, booths in 
 which consecrated rosaries and profane 
 curiosities are exhibited — in a word, every- 
 thing that the most ingenious speculation 
 can offer to the travellers, the pilgrims, the 
 frequenters of theatres, and the idlers of all 
 ages, who are coming and going by thou- 
 sands, by night as well as by day, through 
 these distant quarters of the capital. 
 
 Questionable Establishments. 
 
 There are, however, almost within the 
 same district, and generally throughout the' 
 meridional zone of the triangle formed by the 
 Ogawa, establishments which only prosper at 
 a certain distance from the great arteries of 
 circulation, because their speciality consists 
 in keeping themselves apart from the floating 
 population, while permitting fheir frequenters 
 to mingle for a few minutes, when they please, 
 with the movements of the crowd. Among 
 them are the aristocratic tea-houses. They 
 can hardly be distinguished externally from 
 those of the middle classes. Their entire 
 superiority consists in the arrangement of 
 the halls and of the furniture, of the garden, 
 and above all in the ceremony of the enter- 
 tainments. 
 
 When the haughty Samourai enters one 
 of these establishments, the mistress of the 
 house, and the young waitresses who accom- 
 pany her, prostrate themselves at his feet. 
 The youngest of the girls rises, and begs the 
 favor of carrying the sword of the noble 
 person, who presents it to her. She hastens 
 to unfold a silken handkerchief, with which 
 she covers her right hand, in order to take 
 hold of the sabre by the end of the scabbard, 
 and she holds it in front of her breast until 
 the Samourai has gone into the vestiary, 
 
396 
 
 when sh9 places it upon a lacquered rack, 
 ready to be returned to its owner. 
 
 The gentleman then proceeds, with the 
 aid of his female suite, to make the most 
 luxurious and minute nocturnal toilet. The 
 one lock of hair which constitutes his head- 
 dress is twisted by means of a knot of crape 
 into a sort of nightcap. On his neck and 
 shoulders is laid a thick silken handkerchief, 
 which serves him for a shawl. His cloak is 
 replaced by a sumptuous dressing-gown, 
 fastened by silken cords most gracefully 
 disposed ; a pair of white socks, which serve 
 as slippers, completes his costume, and after 
 having washed his hands and face in per- 
 fumed water, he majestically takes his way 
 to the salon, where a collation is prepared. 
 
 Variety of Industries. 
 
 The streets in the vicinity of the harbor 
 are the centre of innumerable industries, 
 whose raw materials are furnished by the 
 ocean. There we saw vast drying-houses 
 for the fish, the molluscs, and the seaweed 
 destined for exportation, and also the great 
 stages on which the preparations of the 
 aboura-kami, or oil-paper stuff used by the 
 Japanese instead of our waterproof materials, 
 are stretched. 
 
 The native artisans excel in the fabrication 
 and imitation of the edible birds' nests of 
 Java. They produce these forgeries by 
 means of a glutinous exudation of certain 
 marine herbs, and they are then exported to 
 China, with every trick in their packing and 
 labelling which can possibly deceive the ex- 
 perts of the Celestial Empire ; and I am by 
 no means sure that Europe has not also 
 been extensively taken in. 
 
 Fish sausages are extensively made in this 
 quarter. They are of various kinds, each 
 having a special color. A great white- 
 washed oven is set up in the centre of a 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 spacious kitchen ; it contains bowls of iron, , 
 and a jar in which a certain class of fish is 
 cooking. Others are chopped up very 
 small ; and, as soon as they are sufficiently 
 dried and reduced to a powder in mortars of 
 hard wood, they are sorted, seasoned and 
 rolled into paste, pressed and tied up in their 
 envelopes, of which each receives its dip of 
 color. 
 
 They are then packed in bales. Half a 
 dozen persons generally work together on 
 all these operations, which are performed to- 
 a monotonous song. The knives and the 
 pestles are used in time to the rhyme. But 
 when any noise comes from the street tl^e 
 men throw them down and go out and swell 
 the gaping crowd. 
 
 Perhaps nothing more serious is going on 
 than the dance of the Lion of Corea. How 
 often everyone there has seen it ! And,, 
 nevertheless, the discordant appeal of the 
 fife and the tambourine which announce its. 
 approach is never resisted. 
 
 Wandering Actors. 
 
 Four actors come out of a neighboring 
 street; three form the orchestra, and the 
 fourth gives the representation. He is 
 wrapped in a very large striped cloak sur- 
 mounted by an enormous head. The monster- 
 can make himself longer or shorter at will, 
 and suddenly raise himself up two yards- 
 above the people who are with him. 
 
 The children utter cries of mingled ad- 
 miration and fear. Some, bolder than the 
 rest, venture to lift up the skirts of his 
 cloak, and even to pinch the legs of the my- 
 sterious tumbler. He sometimes frightens 
 them by turning his head towards them, 
 opening his mouth and shaking the thick 
 mane of scraps of white paper which sur- 
 rounds his scarlet face; then he will begin _ 
 to dance to the sound of the instruments ot 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 397 
 
 his companions. He carries his tambourine 
 himself, but as soon as he leaves off dancing 
 he sets it down, and, suddenly stooping, 
 transforms himself into a quadruped, exe- 
 cutes some grotesque gambols, and finishes 
 by stripping off his accoutrements. 
 
 Then the monster vanishes, but the juggler 
 remains. He seizes a drumstick and balances 
 it on the thumb of the left hand ; he puts a 
 second stick on the end of the first, and a 
 third crosswise above the other two ; finally, 
 he threw them into the air, catch them in his 
 hands, and spins them about more and more 
 rapidly and uninterruptedly, adding qne, 
 two or three balls, which come from no one 
 knows where. 
 
 End of the Performance. 
 
 The admiration of the spectators is at its 
 height. One of the musicians passes round 
 a plate — that is to say, a fan. The repre- 
 sentation is finished, and the juggler lights 
 his pipe from that of some benevolent neigh- 
 bor. It is not uncommon to see him neg- 
 ligently putting on his costume again, and 
 sitting calmly smoking, with his head cov- 
 ered down to his nose with the enormous 
 and grotesque mask of the monster. The 
 latter is the most picturesque part of the 
 spectacle. 
 
 By degrees, as we penetrate into the 
 streets and populous places of the suburbs, 
 we discover a whole world of small trades 
 and small pleasures. 
 
 Here and there we see the humble dwell- 
 ings of various classes of wandering work- 
 men who start for the city before the sun 
 rises, and who will only return late at night. 
 These are cobblers, who go about mending 
 wooden sandals ; tinkers, coopers, traffickers 
 in broken porcelain, vendors of old clothes 
 and remnants of stuff for girdles and 
 women's kirimons ; all these people are 
 
 trained to the exercise of great patience, and 
 also to the calculation of fractions of frac- 
 tions. It is a very curious sight to watch 
 them counting on their frames of beads 
 strung on wires. 
 
 But we must not forget the rag-picker of 
 Tokio who unconsciously contributed for 
 many years to the maintenance of the paper 
 factories in England. In the morning and 
 the evening he goes ferreting about in the 
 pubUc places, and in the populous streets of 
 Hondjo and the merchant city, laden, not 
 with a hod, but with a sort of paper basket 
 which he carries in his left hand ; in his 
 right hand is a pair of long canes, by means 
 of which he picks up everything that appears 
 worth the trouble, and throws it into the 
 basket. 
 
 A Doll Show. 
 
 The professional tramps pay no attention 
 to the curiosities they meet in their path. 
 Nevertheless, at Tokio I have seen them ex- 
 change some amicable phrases, accompanied 
 by two or three puffs of tobacco, with their 
 natural friends the tumblers, with whom the 
 good city abounds. These performers go 
 about with what the English would call a 
 Punch and Judy show, but it is really a doll 
 with joints, arrayed in the costume of the 
 sect of jumping priests. They exhibit, on a 
 table, a model of the temple of Amida, a 
 white mouse runs up the steps, rings a bell 
 at the door, and performs its devotions at the 
 altar. 
 
 A third exhibitor goes about with birds 
 trained to fire a bow, to pick rice, to draw 
 water out of a well ; and to pull a little car 
 laden with balls of cotton. A street juggler 
 balances himself upon two high planks, and 
 turns somersaults, or spins over his head 
 three or four porcelain jugs or cups; he 
 breaks an egg, and pulls twenty yards of 
 
398 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 string out of it. He crumples a bit of paper 
 in his hand, and immediately a cloud of arti- 
 ficial flies fills the air. 
 
 The greater number of these schemers 
 speculate less on the receipts of their repre- 
 sentation than on the sale of certain small 
 wares which the city shopkeepers let them 
 
 LION DANCE STREET PASTIME IN 
 
 sell on commission. Marionettes and mice 
 exhibitors bring crowds of children round 
 the box which they use as a stage, and these 
 children know well that the box is full of 
 sweetmeats. The mender of fans has a store 
 of new ones. Other street actors bring 
 specimens of the industry of the suburbs 
 
 into the aristocratic quarters, and get a small 
 commission on all orders which they succeed 
 in obtaining. 
 
 They also sell packets of the hard wood 
 or bamboo canes which they use for forks ; 
 also toothpicks of scented and savory wood,, 
 tooth-brushes made of whitewood, with one 
 of the ends beaten out 
 into a little fringe. The 
 Japanese have a peculiar 
 tooth-powder; one of 
 its ingredients is ivory 
 dust. It is sold in 
 small boxes, with vari- 
 ously colored and deco- 
 rated lids, which vary 
 according to the quality 
 of the merchandise. The 
 powder with which mar- 
 ried women dye their 
 teeth black is sold in 
 metal caskets. ' 
 
 Pretty Designs. 
 
 Workmen of the most 
 humble appearance, cabi- 
 net makers, joiners, tur- 
 ners, and wood carvers, 
 fabricate a multitude of 
 pretty things, in elm- 
 wood bark, bamboo, 
 bone, ivory, deer-horn, 
 yellow amber, sea-shells,, 
 tortoise-shell, and cocoa- 
 nut. 
 
 The Chinese workmen- 
 who carve ivory excel in the execution of 
 masterpieces of patience, such as little empty 
 balls, three or four in number, which turn one 
 within the other. The Japanese artists do not . 
 build their fame on conquering difficulties ; a 
 more noble ambition animates them; they 
 aim above all at the perfection of the imitation 
 
 TOKIO. 
 
POPULAR JAPANESE CUSTOMS. 
 
 399' 
 
 of nature, and when they yield to the caprice of 
 their imagination, it takes ordinarily a humor- 
 ous direction, full of genuine mirth, and not 
 the taste for burlesque and eccentricity which 
 characterizes the Chinese workman. 
 
 The most exquisite things among the 
 small figures in ivory to be found in Tokio 
 are incontestably those representing animals, 
 and more particularly the tiger, the buffalo, 
 the bear, the monkey, and the mouse. 
 These little art objects, which for us are only 
 curious, are an integral part of the outfit of 
 the native smokers of both sexes. In order 
 to carry their pipe in its case and their 
 tobacco-box, they fasten them to the end of 
 a silken cord, whose either extremity is 
 ornamented with one or two of these dainty 
 little trifles, which keep down the cord and 
 prevent it slipping when it has been passed 
 through the girdle. They do the same with 
 their medicine-box. 
 
 '. All Sorts of Trades. 
 
 The weavers' trade is not only applied to 
 silk and cotton, but to canvas, which the 
 Japanese painters use very largely ; and to 
 flax cloth, which cannot be of an inferior 
 quality in a country like Japan, where the 
 ttiost precious of European and American 
 textiles grows to two yards in height. 
 
 The workshops of the hosiers, mat- 
 borderers, binders, and box-makers present 
 a picturesque assemblage of workpeople of 
 all ages and of both sexes. The coopers 
 work in spacious enclosures behind bamboo 
 paUngs. 
 
 The shops of the box-makers contain an 
 immense collection of coffers and caskets in 
 wood of every kind, among which the cam- 
 phor-wood of Kiousiou, which never loses 
 its aromatic perfume, is particularly remark- 
 able. An assortment of these boxes means 
 half a dozen, which can be placed one 
 
 within the other so as to be packed in a 
 single parcel. 
 
 There is also an immense quantity of very 
 strong boxes in lacquered paper ; an infinite 
 variety of household utensils, and small 
 articles of furniture, some lacquered, such as 
 rice bowls, others in white wood or in 
 bamboo. 
 
 The extreme scarcity of mechanical appli- 
 ances at the disposal of the Japanese 
 artisans strikes the American and European 
 visitor forcibly. 
 
 Curious Workshops. 
 
 Near the shops or warehouses of which I 
 am speaking were four or five booths, which 
 were assigned to as many different trades.. 
 I am convinced that all the tools of the five 
 workshops put together were not worth, 
 twenty-five dollars. 
 
 In the first booth a man was making doUs- 
 of papier-mache, which are especial favorites 
 in Japanese houses. They consist of the 
 head and the face only, wrapped in a scarlet 
 mantle ; and it is said that in this form they 
 perpetuate from generation to generation the- 
 memory of a high priest of Buddha who had. 
 used up his legs completely in the practice 
 of his devotions. These dolls can be turned, 
 inside out, and are of all dimensions. 
 
 Further on were two workmen, each using 
 a little hammer and chisel in carving metal 
 pipes, and a third was preparing wooden, 
 stems ; here a lounger was holding wood 
 before the flames of a fire of shavings, in 
 order to give it the necessary bend, while his 
 companion was putting together with a little 
 cement and string the tufts of silk, horsehair 
 or paper, which are hoisted at the ends of 
 long pikes in order to indicate the rank or 
 functions of a civil or military chief. 
 
 In a neighboring workshop an old man 
 was adjusting the hoops and hooks of a 
 
400 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 number of paper lanterns with a pair of 
 pincers. 
 
 At the* entrance of a side street we see half 
 a dozen workmen making wooden sandals. 
 Here the work is divided; everyone has his 
 speciality. One cuts a piece of wood into 
 equal lengths with a saw, and then splits 
 them into soles or cross planks. A third 
 rounds the edges of the heavy sandals, and a 
 fourth makes holes in them, through which 
 the straw cords are passed. Other workmen 
 are employed in finishing sandals of a more 
 luxurious kind, and packing them by dozens 
 of pairs into the bales which are to be carried 
 to the retail warehouse. 
 
 I had yet to see the most peculiar of the 
 shops in this quarter, that of the clockmaker. 
 
 He was making small dials and clocks, rival- 
 ling the " Cuckoos " of the Black Forest, 
 but with this difference, that they are on the 
 system of moveable hours, which increase or 
 decrease according to the seasons. 
 
 The artist, squatting before a little anvil 
 fixed in the ground, is busy with the mecha- 
 nism of his chronometer, with the exception 
 of the gong which strikes the hours. His 
 tools, scattered round him on mats, consist 
 of a hammer, two or three files, a couple of 
 pincers, and some giinlets. 
 
 With the exterior of the small dials, which 
 are portable instruments of the form and size 
 of a big chestnut, he has nothing to do ; the 
 cases are made by the copper-workers, and 
 constitute a separate industry. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 5HINT0ISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 SHINTO, which means literally "the 
 way of the gods," is the name 
 given to the mythology and vague 
 ancestor and nature-worship which 
 preceded the introduction of Buddhism into 
 Japan, and which survives to the present day 
 in a somewhat modified form. We would 
 here draw attention to the fact that Shinto, 
 so often spoken of as a religion, is hardly 
 entitled to that name. It has no set of dog- 
 mas, no sacred book, no moral code. 
 
 The absence of a moral code is accounted 
 for, in the writings of the modern native 
 commentators, by the innate perfection of 
 Japanese humanity, which obviates the neces- 
 sity for such outward props. It is only out- 
 casts, like the Chinese and Western nations, 
 whose natural depravity renders the occa- 
 sional appearance of sages and reformers 
 necessary ; and even with this assistance, all 
 foreign nations continue to wallow in a mire 
 of ignorance, guilt and disobedience towards 
 the heaven-descended monarch of the uni- 
 verse — ^the Mikado of Japan. 
 
 It is necessary, however, to distinguish 
 three periods in the existence of Shinto. 
 During the first of these — roughly speaking, 
 down to A. D. 550 — the Japanese had no 
 notion of religion as a separate institution. 
 To pay homage to the gods, that is, to the 
 departed ancestors of the Imperial Family, 
 and to the spirits of other great men, was a 
 usage springing from the same mental soil 
 as that which produced passive obedience to, 
 and worship of, the living Mikado. 
 
 Besides this, there were prayers to the 
 26 
 
 wind-gods, to the god of fire, to the god of 
 pestilence, to the goddess of food, and to 
 deities presiding over the saucepan, the 
 cauldron, the grate and the kitchen. There 
 were also purifications for wrong-doing, as 
 there were for bodily defilement, such as, for 
 instance, contact with a corpse. 
 
 The purifying element was water. But 
 there was not even a shadowy idea of any 
 code of morals, or any systematization of 
 the simple notions of the people concerning 
 things unseen. There was neither heaven 
 nor hell — only a kind of neutral-tinted 
 Hades. Some of the gods were good, some 
 were bad ; nor was the line between men 
 and gods at all clearly drawn. There was, 
 however, a rude sort of priesthood, each 
 priest being charged with the service of 
 some particular local god, but not with 
 preaching to the people. 
 
 A Virgin at the Shrine. 
 
 One of the virgin daughters of the Mikado 
 always dwelt at the ancient shrine of Ise, 
 keeping watch over the mirror, the sword 
 and the jewel, which he had inherited from 
 his ancestress, Ama-terasu, Goddess of the 
 Sun. Shinto may be said, in this its first 
 period, to have been a set of ceremonies as 
 much political as religious. 
 
 By the introduction of Buddhism in the 
 middle of the sixth century after Christ, the 
 second period of the existence of Shinto was 
 inaugurated, and further grdwth in the direc- 
 tion of a religion was stopped. The meta- 
 physics of Buddhism were far too profound, 
 
 401 
 
402 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 its ritual far too gorgeous, its moral code far 
 too exalted, for the puny fabric of Shinto to 
 makeany effective resistance. All that there 
 was of religious feeling in the nation went 
 over to the enemy. 
 
 The Buddhist priesthood diplomatically 
 received the native Shinto gods into their 
 pantheon as avatars of ancient Buddhas, for 
 which reason many of the Shinto ceremonies 
 connected with the court were kept up, al- 
 though Buddhist ceremonies took the first 
 place even in the thoughts of the converted 
 descendants of the sun. The Shinto rituals, 
 previously handed down by word of mouth, 
 were then first put into written shape. 
 
 Priests Practicing Sorcery. 
 
 The term Shinto itself was also introduced 
 in order to distinguish the old native way of 
 thinking from the new doctrine imported 
 from India ; for down to that time no one 
 had hit on the notion of including tlje vari- 
 ous fragmentary legends and local usages 
 under one general designation. But view- 
 ing the matter broadly, we may say that 
 the second period of Shinto, which lasted 
 from about A. D. 550 to 1700, was one of 
 darkness and decrepitude. The various petty 
 sects into which it then divided itself, owed 
 what little vitality they possessed to frag- 
 ments of cabalistic lore filched from the baser 
 sort of Buddhism and from Taoism. Their 
 priests practised the arts of divination and 
 sorcery. 
 
 Only at court and at a few great shrines, 
 such as those of Ise and Izumo, was a 
 knowledge of Shinto in its native simplicity 
 kept up ; and even there it is doubtful 
 whether changes did not creep in with the 
 lapse of ages. Most of the Shinto temples 
 throughout the country were served by 
 Buddhist priests, who introduced the archi- 
 tectural ornaments and the ceremonial of 
 
 their own religion. They meant to establish 
 the faith in which they had been schooled. 
 
 Thus was formed a mixed religion founded 
 on a compromise between the old creed and 
 the new — and hence the tolerant ideas on 
 theological subjects of most Japanese of the 
 middle and lower classes, who will worship 
 indifferently at the shrines of either faith. 
 
 The third period in the history of Shinto 
 began about the year 1700, and continues 
 down to the present day. It has been 
 termed "the period of the revival of pure 
 Shinto." During the seventeenth and eigh^ 
 teenth centuries, under the peaceful govern- 
 ment of the Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns, 
 the literati of Japan turned their eyes back- 
 ward on their country's past. Old manu- 
 scripts were disinterred, old histories and old 
 poems were put into print, the old language 
 was investigated and imitated. 
 
 A Gain for Shinto. 
 
 Soon the movement became religious and 
 political — above all, patriotic, not to say 
 chauvinistic. The Shogunate was frowned 
 on, because it had supplanted the autocracy 
 of the heaven-descended Mikados. Budd- 
 hism and Confucianism were sneered at be- 
 cause of their foreign origin. Shinto gained 
 by all this. The great scholars Mabuchi 
 (1697-1769), Motoori (1730-1801), and 
 Hirata (1776- 1843) devoted themselves to a 
 religious propaganda — if that can be called a 
 religion which sets out from the principle 
 that the only two things needful are to follow 
 one's natural impulses and to obey the 
 Mikado. 
 
 This order of ideas triumphed for a mo- 
 ment in the revolution of 1868. Buddhism 
 was disestablished and disendowed, and 
 Shinto was installed as the only state religion 
 — the Council for Spiritual Affairs being 
 given equal rank with the Council of State, 
 
a 
 
 E-i 
 H 
 
 O 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 <! 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 m 
 
 s 
 
 403 
 
404 
 
 which latter controlled affairs temporal. At 
 the same time thousands of temples, formerly 
 Buddhist, were, as the phrase went, 
 "purified," that is, stripped of their Buddhist 
 ornaments, and handed over to Shinto 
 keeping. 
 
 But as Shinto had no, root in itself — being 
 a thing too etapty and barren to influence 
 the hearts of men — Buddhism soon rallied. 
 The Council for Spiritual Affairs was reduced 
 to the rank of a department, the department 
 to a bureau, the bureau to a sub-bureau. 
 The whole thing is now a mere shadow, 
 though Shinto is still in so far the official cult 
 that certain temples are maintained out of 
 public moneys, and that the attendance of 
 certain officials is required from time to time 
 at ceremonies of a half-reHgious half-courtly 
 nature. Hard pressed to retain a little popu- 
 larity, the priests have taken to selling cheap 
 prints of religious subjects after the fashion 
 of their Buddhist rivals, and to issuing short 
 treatieses on morals taken bodily (but without 
 acknowledgment) from Confucius. 
 
 Countless Gems Destroyed. 
 
 The lovers of Japanese art bear the Shinto 
 revivalists ill-will for the ridiculous "purifi- 
 cation " which has destroyed countless gems 
 of Buddhist architecture and ornament — 
 not for the sake of a grand moral ideal, as 
 with the Puritans of Europe, but for an ideal 
 immeasurably inferior to Buddhism itself 
 On the other hand, the literary style of their 
 writings outshines anything produced by the 
 Buddhists ; and their energy in rescuing the 
 old Japanese classic authors from neglect is 
 worthy of all praise. 
 
 The Shinto temple preserves in a slightly 
 elaborated form the type of the primeval 
 Japanese hut, differing in this from the Budd- 
 hist temple (Tera) which is of Chinese and 
 more remotely of Indian origin. The out- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE; 
 
 ward and visible sign of Shinto is a wand 
 from which depend strips of white paper cut 
 into little angular bunches {gohei), intended 
 to represent the offerings of cloth which 
 were anciently tied to branches of the 
 Cleyera tree at festival time. Another differ- 
 ence is that the Shinto temple is thatched, 
 whereas the Buddhist temple is tiled. Fur- 
 thermore the Shinto temple is plain and 
 empty, while the Buddhist is highly decorated 
 and filled with religious properties. 
 
 The Worship of Buddha. 
 
 Buddhism in Japan dates from the year 
 552 of our era. At that epoch, Kin-Mei, 
 the thirteenth Mikado, received from King 
 Petsi at Corea, a statue of Sakyamouni, to- 
 gether with books, banners, a canopy for the 
 altar, and other objects used in the worship 
 of Buddha. With these presents came a 
 letter to the following effect: 
 
 " Behold the best of all doctrines ; coming 
 from distant India, it reveals to us what was 
 a mystery to Confucius himself, and trans- 
 ports us into a final condition whose felicity 
 cannot be surpassed. The King of Petsi 
 communicated it to the Empire of the 
 Mikado so that it may be spread about, 
 and that thus may be accomplished that 
 which is written in the books' of Buddha, 
 ' My doctrine shall extend itself towards the 
 East' " The Mikado immediately consulted 
 his ministers upon the reception which was 
 due to the statue of the great Kami of India. 
 All the nations of the West replied, " Iname 
 venerate the Buddha, why should Niphon 
 turn its back upon him ! " 
 
 But, objected Wasoki, " If we render hom- 
 age to the stranger Kami, is it not to be 
 feared that we shall irritate the national 
 Kamis?" Thereon the Mikado pronounced 
 authoritatively this conciliatory sentence : " It 
 is just and equitable to accord a man that 
 
SHINTOISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 405 
 
 which his heart desires ; let Iname revere the 
 image." Iname accordingly carried away 
 the image, and constructed a chapel for it. 
 Nevertheless, an epidemic having broken 
 out, it was attributed to the new worship, 
 the chapel was burnt and the statue thrown 
 into the river. The family of Iname re- 
 mained none the less secretly attached to 
 the strange doctrine. 
 
 In the reign of Bidas, successor to Kin- 
 Mei, the minister Sogano, son of Iname, 
 presented to the Mikado a bonze who had 
 come from Siura in Corea. The holy man, 
 warned of the difficulties which must attend 
 the introduction of Buddhism into a country 
 where the national religion united the people 
 and the sovereign so closely, conceived a 
 means of procuring the favor of the Mikado. 
 As soon as he saw the Mikado's grandson 
 at the Court — a little boy, six years old, in 
 whose birth there had been something ex- 
 traordinary — he prostrated himself at the 
 feet of the miraculous child and worshipped 
 him, announcing that he recognized in him 
 the incarnation of a disciple of Buddha, the 
 new patron of the Empire, the future propa- 
 gator of religious life. 
 
 Holy and Virtuous Prince. 
 The Mikado allowed himself to be per- 
 suaded to dedicate this child to the priest- 
 hood, and confided his education to the 
 Corean bonze. The rest is easily divined. 
 This boy became the initiator and the first 
 High Priest of Buddhism in the Empire of 
 Japan, where he is now revered under the 
 name of Sjo-Tak-Daise, the holy, hereditary, 
 and virtuous Prince. Far from denying the 
 foreign origin of their new worshi|), the Jap- 
 anese considered it their duty to recall it by 
 various symbols, such as* the elephants' heads 
 which I have already described among the 
 architectural ornaments on Buddhist monu- 
 
 ments, and, in memory of India, by palm 
 plants of a small species acclimatized in 
 Japan, which are seen in the neighborhood 
 of the Temples. 
 
 It was more easy for them to testify their 
 respect for the birthplace of Buddha by cer- 
 tain outward signs, than to preserve the 
 essence of his religion — that is to say, the 
 exact tradition of his life, his personality, and 
 his teaching. 
 
 A Miraculous Child. 
 
 According to the Japanese legend, Buddha 
 came into the world in a miraculous manner. 
 Immediately on his birth he stood upright in 
 the middle of the chamber, made seven steps 
 in the direction of each of the four cardinal 
 points, and, pointing with his right hand 
 towards heaven and his left hand towards 
 the ground, he said, "Above me on high, and 
 below and around me, there is nothing which 
 can compare with me, and no other being 
 more worthy of veneration." 
 
 In this way is the infant Buddha repre- 
 sented, and when his birthday is celebrated 
 on the eighth day of the fourth month, the 
 people go to his temple and bathe the statue 
 in a decoction of aromatic herbs, which the 
 bonzes have prepared, and placed at the feet 
 of the image in a sort of holy-water font. 
 The statue then receives the adoration of the 
 faithful, and the more devout sprinkle them- 
 selves with this decoction and drink it. From 
 the ninth to the fifteenth day of the second 
 month the remembrance of the meditations 
 of Sakyamouni in the solitude of the forests 
 is celebrated. 
 
 This is a week of retreat and of preaching, 
 during which the bonzes teach the people 
 that the awakening of supreme conscious- 
 ness in the soul of Buddha was in correla- 
 tion with the apparition of a brilliant star ; 
 that the sage, having attained to the full pos- 
 
406 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 session of light, proclaimed during thirty- 
 seven days the first book of his Law ; 
 during twelve years the second; during 
 thirty years the third; during eight years 
 the fourth, and during one day and one night 
 the last, which treats of the Nirwana, or 
 final annihilation. They add, that during 
 forty-nine years of his ministry he turned the 
 wheel of the law three hundred and sixty 
 
 this occasion the celebrated picture of 
 Nehanzao, painted by Tooden^ou is dis- 
 played in the Temple of Toofoukzi at Kioto. 
 In the centre of this great painting 
 Buddha is represented, extended under saras 
 trees, plunged in the repose of eternal noth- 
 ingness. The solemn calm of his face re- 
 veals that the emancipation of his intelli- 
 gence is consummated; that the sage has 
 
 JAPANESE FESTIVAL STREET PROCESSION. 
 
 times, an image which signifies the complete 
 exposition of his doctrines. 
 
 The seventh and last day of the festival is 
 consecrated to the commemoration of the 
 death of Buddha. In each of the places of 
 worship dedicated to him a. cenotaph is 
 erected, and the faithful go from Temple to 
 Temple, vieing with each other in their zeal 
 for the ornamentation of the holy tomb. On 
 
 irrevocably entered into the Nirwana. His 
 disciples stand around him, contemplating 
 him with mingled expressions of regret 
 and admiration. The poor and oppressed, 
 the pariahs, weep for the charitable friend 
 who has fed them by his alms, who has 
 begged for them; for the consoler, whose 
 compassionate words open a prospect of de- 
 liverance to their souls. 
 
SHINTOISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 407 
 
 The entire creation is moved at beholding 
 him, who constantly respected life under 
 every form which it wears in nature, reduced 
 to the condition of a corpse. The genii of 
 the earth, the waters, and the air approach 
 him with respect, followed by the tenants of 
 their several domains ; fish, birds, insects, 
 reptiles, quadrupeds of all sorts, even to the 
 white elephant, the supreme degree of the 
 Brahminical metempsychosis. 
 
 A Strange Doctrine. 
 
 This composition, extravagant as it is, pro- 
 duces nevertheless a powerful effect. It 
 awakens I know not what mysterious sym- 
 pathy, and it expresses an idea which is no 
 stranger to Christianity ; that is to say, an 
 idea of a certain solidarity established be- 
 tween man and all the beings of the terres- 
 trial creation. As for the principal subject 
 of the picture, I beheve that no decision has 
 ever "been arrived at as to the meaning to be 
 attributed to it. Does it represent the Nir- 
 wana, the supreme end of all Buddhist aspi- 
 rations, as the absorption of the soul of the 
 • just into the divine essence of the Universal 
 Spirit, or does it actually make it the 
 synonym of annihilation ? The doctrine of 
 Buddha is very obscure on this point. 
 
 Nevertheless, the best authority pro- 
 nounces in favor of the latter alternative, as 
 follows : 
 
 " The Buddhist takes an incontestable fact 
 as the point of departure of his doctrine ; it 
 is the existence of human suffering in some 
 form in all social conditions. Seeking out 
 the causes of this pain, he attributes it to 
 passions, to desire, to faults, to ignorance, 
 •even to existence itself. This being so, pain 
 can have no other term than the cessation of 
 existence. But in order that this end should 
 be real, it must be Nothingness, or the Nir- 
 wana. There is no other means by which 
 
 man can escape from the circle of perpetual 
 re-births, by which he can definitely withdraw 
 himself from the law of transmigration. 
 
 "This compound of body and of soul, 
 which is called man, can be really delivered 
 only by annihilation, because so long as 
 there shall remain the least atom of his soul, 
 the soul may again be born under one of 
 those innumerable appearances assumed by 
 existence, and its pretended liberation would 
 be only an illusion like the others. The 
 only asylum and the only reality is nothing- 
 ness, because from that one does not return." 
 
 If the opinion which I have just quoted 
 really express the thoughts of the Hindoo 
 reformer, we must acknowledge that the 
 Buddhist Nirwana surpasses in tragical 
 horror every imagination of the ancients 
 concerning the mystery of human destiny. 
 This conception is the last word of despair 
 and the highest exaltation of the Will. In 
 proposing to aboUsh pain by the suppression 
 of existence, Buddha plainly takes up the 
 ground of atheism, because that end cannot 
 be' attained by. anything short of the abstrac- 
 tion of the idea of the Supreme Being. 
 
 The Angel of Death. 
 
 At the same time that Buddha welcomes 
 death as the angel of deliverance, he^ casts at 
 him a sovereign defiance, and places himself 
 for ever out of the reach of his power by 
 destroying, in their last germ, the elements 
 of a new birth. Finally, he finds in this 
 negative victory, in his final annihilation, the 
 means by which he renders himself superior 
 to the gods. This is because the' gods 
 remain subject to the law of transmigration. 
 
 It is difficult to realize that more than orie- 
 third of the entire human race has no other 
 creed than that of Buddhism, that worship 
 without God, that religion of Nothingness 
 invented by despair. We would endeavor to 
 
408 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 persuade ourselves that the multitudes under 
 this rule do not understand the doctrine 
 which they profess, or that they refuse to 
 admit its ' consequences. The' idolatrous 
 practices which have grown out of the teach- 
 ing of the book of the Good Law, would 
 seem, indeed, to testify that that book could 
 neither satisfy nor smother the religious 
 sentiments innate in man, and ever living 
 among all peoples. 
 
 Life Considered Only a Dream. 
 
 On the other hand, we must not under- 
 rate the influence of the philosophy of final 
 annihilation in a great number of traits of 
 Japanese manners. Children are taught in 
 the schools that life has no more consistency 
 than a dream, and that no trace of it remains. 
 When the Japanese has reached a mature 
 age he will sacrifice his life, or that of his 
 neighbor, with the most disdainful indiffer- 
 ence, to the satisfaction of his pride, or to 
 some trifling resentment. Murders and sui- 
 cides are so frequent in Japan that there are 
 few gentlemen who do not possess, and make 
 it a point of honor to exhibit, at least one 
 sword belonging to the family that has been 
 steeped in blood. 
 
 Buddhism is, nevertheless, superior in 
 many respects to the religion which it has 
 displaced. Its relative superiority is shown 
 in the justness of its point of departure, which 
 is the acknowledgment of a need of deliver- 
 ance, based upon the double fact of the 
 existence of evil in man, as well as the 
 universal condition of misery and suffering 
 in the world. 
 
 The promise of the worship of the Kamis 
 has reference to the present life. The rules 
 of the purification were to preserve the faith- 
 ful from five great evils — the fire of heaven, 
 sickness, poverty, exile, and premature death. 
 The pomps of its religious festivals had for 
 
 AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 their sole aim the glorification of the heroes 
 of the Empire. But though patriotism may 
 be idealized to the extent of becoming the 
 national worship, it is no less true that this 
 natural sentiment, precious and praiseworthy 
 in itself, cannot suffice to fill up the mind and 
 satisfy all its needs. 
 
 The human soul is greater than the world. 
 It requires a religion which detaches it from 
 the earth. Buddhism, in a certain sense, re- 
 sponds to aspirations'of this kind previously 
 misunderstood. 
 
 This circumstance in itself explains the 
 success with which it is propagated in Japan 
 and elsewhere, by the arms of persuasion 
 alone; still, nevertheless, we may believe 
 that it is not in this abstract and philosophi- 
 cal form that it has become so popular, and 
 nothing proves that more forcibly than its 
 actual condition. 
 
 Curious Old Legend. 
 
 Japan, like India, has produced ascetics, 
 mortified by abstinence and plunged in ab- 
 straction, but their number is very small, and 
 the most illustrious among them was a Hin- 
 doo by origin. He is Buddhi-Dharma, the 
 founder of the Sen-sjou sect. He came to 
 Japan in A. D. 613. The legend represents 
 him as traversing the straits of Corea, stand- 
 ing upon one of the large leaves of the tree 
 called "aschi," or upon a simple reed. He 
 had prepared himself for his mission by a re- 
 treat of nine consecutive years in the Corean 
 temple of Schao-lin, which he passed in squat- 
 ting upon a mat with his face invariably turned 
 to the side of the waU. 
 
 Buddha had recommended to his disciples 
 the exercise of the Dhyana — ^that is to say, 
 Contemplation. The bonzes, desiring to 
 systematize this exercise, made of the 
 Dhyana a sort of mystic ladder of two 
 stages, each divided into four steps. In 
 
SHINTOISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 409^ 
 
 order to climb the first ladder, the ascetic 
 must be detached from every other desire 
 than ,that of the Nirwana. In this state of 
 soul he still judges and reasons; but he is 
 sheltered from the seductions of evil, and the 
 feeling that this first step opens to him the 
 perspective of the Nirwana, places him in an 
 ecstatic disposition which soon permits him 
 to attain to the second degree. 
 
 At the second step the purity of the ascetic 
 remains the same; but in addition to this 
 purity he has laid aside judgment and reason- 
 ing, so that his intelligence, which no longer 
 thinks of things, but fixes itself wholly upon 
 the Nirwana, experiences only the pleasure 
 of interior satisfaction, without judging it or 
 even undestanding it. 
 
 A Progressive State. 
 At the third degree, the pleasure of interior 
 satisfaction has disappeared; the sage has 
 fallen into indifference with respect even to 
 the happiness which he just now experienced 
 through his intelligence. All the pleasure 
 which remains to him is a vague sentiment 
 ^ of physical well-being diffused through his 
 body. He has, however, not lost his memory 
 of the conditions through which he has passed, 
 and still retains a confused consciousness of 
 himself, notwithstanding the almost absolute 
 detachment which he has reached. 
 
 Finally, at the fourth degree, the ascetic 
 no longer posseses this sentiment of physical 
 well-being, all obscure as it is ; he has lost all 
 memory. More than this, he has even lost 
 the feeling of indifference, and, henceforth 
 free from all pleasure and all grief, whatever 
 may be their object, whether within or with- 
 out, he has reached impassibility — he is as 
 near to the Nirwana as he can be during this 
 life. 
 
 Then it is that the ascetic is permitted to 
 approach the second stage of the Dhyana, 
 
 the four superposed regions of the world 
 without forms. He first enters into the 
 region of the infinite in space. From this 
 he climbs a new step, into the region of 
 the infinite of intelligence. Having attained 
 to this height, he enters upon a third region,, 
 that in which nothing exists. But, as in this 
 vacuum and in this darkness an idea might 
 remain, to represent to the ascetic the nothing- 
 ness into which he is plunging, he requires a 
 last and supreme effort to enter the fourth 
 region of the world without forms, where 
 there are no longer ideas, or even an idea of 
 the absence of ideas. 
 
 Hiding Works and Showing Sins. 
 
 Such are the mystic exercises of Buddhist 
 contemplation, of which the Buddhi-Dharma 
 was the promoter in Japan. The other 
 apostles, his successors, walk in the foot- 
 steps of Buddha in the same manner — that 
 is to say, by substituting, each after his 
 fashion, exterior practices for the spontaneity 
 of piety and the activity of intelligence. The 
 master said to his disciples, "Go, all men or 
 piety, hide your good works and show your 
 sins." 
 
 So the bonzes instituted processions of 
 penitents. Gentleness was one of the prin- 
 cipal traits of Sakyamouni's character. His 
 compassion extended itself to all created' 
 beings. When his doctrine spread amongst 
 the Japanese, the latter had already made it 
 a law that the flesh of no domestic animal 
 should be eaten. This custom had, among 
 other economical effects, the advantage or 
 preventing a rise in the price of the buffalo, 
 which in the rice country is absolutely indis- 
 pensable to the poorest cultivators. 
 
 Certain other Buddhist sects went so far 
 as to proscribe every other nourishment than 
 the vegetable. Sakyamouni recommended 
 abstinence, not only from lying and evil- 
 
410 
 
 ■speaking, but also from every idle word. 
 Silence took its place among other monastic 
 yows. In the same way abnegation, purity 
 of morals, patience, and perseverance, were 
 •erected into ordinances, regulating, in the 
 most minute detail, the costume, food, and 
 •employment of the hours of the day and the 
 night. 
 
 Because Buddha had shown himself inde- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. . 
 
 the doctrine of the Hindoo reformer, the 
 latter virtue, in the opinion of the bonzes, 
 dispensed with all other virtues. " With the 
 exception of one sect," writes a Japanese 
 author, "our bonzes tend to maintain the 
 people, and above all, the peasants, in pro- 
 found ignorance. They say that blind faith 
 is sufficient to lead to perfection." 
 
 The High priest Foudaisi, who came from 
 
 STATUES FROM THE TEMPLE OF THE FIVE HUNDRED GENII. 
 
 •fatigable in soliciting the commiseration of 
 the rich on behalf of all who were unfortu- 
 nate, fraternities of mendicant monks were 
 organized. Because he had declared him- 
 self equally well-disposed towards men who 
 were despised by society as towards those 
 who were respected, and that he would ex- 
 pound his law to the ignorant as well as the 
 wise, ignorance was made a cardinal virtue. 
 While knowledge was allied with this faith in 
 
 China with his two sons Fousjoo and Fouken, 
 invented a mechanical process for the purpose 
 of relieving the bonzes from turning the wheel 
 of the law. Then he constructed the Rinzoo 
 a sort of moveable chorister's desk turning 
 upon a pivot, and spread out upon it the 
 rolls of the sacred books. His adepts 
 received from him, according to the degree 
 of their devotion, authority to make a quarter 
 of a turn, a half turn, or three-quarters of a 
 
SHINTOISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 411 
 
 turn of the Rinzoo ; they very rarely ob- 
 tained the favor of an entire turn, because 
 that was an act as meritorious as if all the 
 books of the law had been recited from end 
 to end. 
 
 The bonzes Sinran, Nitziten, and thirty 
 others, became famous as the founders of 
 sects, in which each was distinguished by 
 some peculiarity more or less worthy to rival 
 the ingenious invention of Foudaisi. Thus 
 the monopoly of the great family rosary is 
 conferred upon a certain confraternity. We 
 must bear in mind that the Buddhist rosary 
 has no virtue unless it be correctly told. 
 
 Correcting Errors. 
 
 Now there ife no guarantee that, in a 
 numerous family, some errors may not occur 
 in the use of the rosary ; hence it is some- 
 times reproached with uselessness. Instead 
 of recriminating in the case, true wisdom 
 consists in sending for a bonze of the great 
 rosary to come to the house to put things in 
 good order. He comes there with his bead 
 chaplet, which is something like a good- 
 sized boa, and places it in the hands of the 
 entire family, who are ranged in a circle, 
 while he stands before the altar of the domes- 
 tic idol, and directs the- operations by means 
 of a bell and a little hammer. 
 
 At a given signal the father, the mother, 
 and the children, shout out their daily prayers 
 at the top of their voices. The small beads, 
 the large beads, and the blows of the hammer 
 succeed each other with cadenced regularity. 
 The exercise of the rosary becomes animated, 
 the cries become passionate, hands and arms 
 obey with the precision of a machine, till the 
 body is worn out with fatigue. Finally, the 
 termination of the ceremony leaves the whole 
 family out of brekth, exhausted, but radiant 
 -with happiness, because their intercessory 
 gods are now satisfied. 
 
 Buddhism is a flexible, insinuating and 
 conciliatory religion, accommodating itself 
 to the genius and the habits of a widely 
 diverse people. Ever since its commence- 
 ment in Japan, the bonzes have succeeded in 
 getting hold of the little chapels ot the 
 Kamis, and placing them within the precincts 
 of their sanctuaries. They have added to 
 their ceremonies several symbols borrowed 
 from the ancient national worship ; and, in 
 order to mix up the two religions more effec- 
 tually, they have introduced into their 
 temples the Kamis, to whom they give the 
 title and attributes of the Hindoo divinities, 
 and Hindoo divinities transformed into the 
 Japanese Kamis. There was nothing inad- 
 missible in such exchanges, which naturally 
 explain themselves by the dogma of trans- 
 migration. Thanks to the combination of 
 the two worships, to which they have given 
 the name of Riobo-Shinto, Buddhism has 
 become the ruling religion of Japan. 
 
 Colossal Temples. 
 
 When we look at it superficially, it seems 
 to do nothing more than add its sanction to 
 the veneration of new objects of worship in 
 addition to those already received by the 
 masses. At first it was the great Indian 
 Buddha to whom these colossal statues, of 
 which the Daiboudhs or temples of Kama- 
 koura offer the finest type, were erected. 
 The Japanese idea of a supreme Divinity was 
 afterwards personified in the fantastic image 
 of Amida, represented under nine different 
 forms symbolical of its incarnations and es- 
 sential perfections, one of which is expressed 
 by the emblem of a dog's head. 
 
 Buddhism has an image, the Queen of 
 Heaven ; the guardians of heaven, of whom 
 some are also the guardians of the temples, 
 the Kings of Earth and the Kings of Hell, 
 beneficent genii, avenging genii; it has 
 
412 
 
 JAPAN AND 
 
 placed beside the ancient Japanese Divinity 
 of the Sun, the gods of the moon, the 
 planets, the signs of the Zodiac, the genii of 
 the Rain, Wind and Thunder. 
 
 Finally, it has assigned'celestial patrons to 
 all classes and all social professions. Among 
 this multitude of images, grave and fan- 
 tastic, it is not always easy to discern those 
 which properly belong to Buddhism. Sev- 
 eral were, no doubt, popular in Japan before 
 its importation. Perhaps we ought to place 
 in this category the god of the thunder, 
 Raiden, and the gods of the winds, Futen. — 
 Raiden, the god of thunder and lightning, is 
 infinitely less majestic than the Olympian 
 Jove. It is a grotesque demon, which beats 
 half-a-dozen cymbals, ranged in a circle 
 round its head. 
 
 Adorned With Pictures and Statues. 
 
 In the m6st zealous days of Buddhism, 
 the seventh and eighth centuries, the bonzes 
 themselves lent a hand in the building of 
 the temples and adorning them with pictures 
 and statues. But, though the native arts, 
 especially sculpture and architecture, maybe 
 indebted to them for some portion of their 
 progress, little good can be said of the bonzes 
 or their literary productions. Let us try to 
 imagine what the monastic lucubrations 
 must be ! They consist of thousands of 
 volumes upon the Good Law, upon the 
 twenty-eight subdivisions of contemplation, 
 upon the glories of Buddha, and the miracu- 
 lous lives of the innumerable ascetics, saints 
 and martyrs of his religion. The true merit 
 of such a literature is that it is absolutely il- 
 legible outside that separate world composed 
 by the inhabitants of the bonze-houses and 
 the regular frequenters of those establish- 
 ments. 
 
 Over one hundred bonze-houses, each 
 composed of a more or less considerable 
 
 THE JAPANESE. 
 
 number of buildings, such as monasteries, 
 temples, pagodas, chapels, tea-houses and 
 shops, form the central division of the quar- 
 ter of Asaksa-Imato. The greatest and 
 most famous is that of Quannon, a Budd- 
 hist divinity, to whom is attributed the 
 magical power of intercession between 
 heaven and earth. The celebrity of this 
 bonze-house completely eclipses all the 
 other holy places of the' neighborhood, 
 so that in the language of the people the 
 word Asaksa-Tera is never used to desig- 
 nate any other temple than that of Quannon 
 in the quarter of Asaksa. 
 
 Guardians of Heaven. 
 
 At the southern extremity of the square, 
 in which there is a permanent market of 
 shrubs and flowers, stands a heavy portal 
 adorned with colossal lanterns. Two of 
 the guardians of heaven, wooden giants 
 painted in vermilion, are posted on the 
 right hand and on the left of the principal 
 entrance, defending the passage, and levy- 
 ing upon each pilgrim the traditional tribute 
 of a pair of enormous straw sandals. Under 
 their eyes, on the eve of each new year, a 
 gratuitous distribution of paper amulets is . 
 made to the populace. 
 
 The bonzes for the most part visit their 
 clients on this day, and for a small considera- 
 tion bring to their houses bits of the brush 
 with which they distribute holy water. 
 These scraps are fastened to the lintels of the 
 door, and are believed to preserve their house 
 from evil spirits. The coolies, and laborers 
 of all kinds, flock to Asaksa to have their 
 share in the same privilege, because there 
 they can obtain it without expense, though 
 not without trouble. Two bonzes, perched 
 at the risk of their lives upon a platform 
 composed of planks suspended by hooks 
 half way up the high columns of the door- 
 
SHINTOISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 413 
 
 way, are distributing an abundant provision 
 of blessed papers. They take handfuls of 
 them at intervals, and throw them into the 
 air. 
 
 The koskeis standing on either side, pro- 
 vided with large palm-leaf fans, make the 
 amulets fly about and fall upon the people 
 like snow-flakes. Let him catch them who 
 can. Soon the entire space presents a spec- 
 tacle of ordinary confusion ; people pushing, 
 elbowing, pursuing each other — some stretch- 
 ing out their arms in order to catch the mor- 
 sels of paper in their flight, others bending, 
 and even rolling themselves on the ground, 
 in. order to pick them up. Nevertheless, as 
 the most fortunate and the most skilful retire 
 when they have obtained their share, success 
 tecomes for their rivals a mere matter of 
 patience, and no one is compelled to return 
 empty-handed. 
 
 Sacred Objects on Sale. 
 
 Beyond this great gateway is a long, wide, 
 paved street, which is called Kindjousan- 
 Asaksa-Tera. It is intersected by cross-lanes, 
 -and occupied from one end to the other by 
 booths for the sale of sacred objects, such as 
 rosaries, wax candles, statues, perfumed 
 vases, and domestic altars. Above and be- 
 yond the middle-class houses are oratories, 
 small temples, and various curiosities, which 
 warmly interest the pilgrims from the town 
 and the country. Here is a mia, or chapel, 
 consecrated to the Kami worship. There, 
 surrounded by a bamboo railing, stands the 
 venerable trunk of a cedar of unknown age. 
 
 Further on, in an oratory hung with ex- 
 votos, is a miraculous image; beyond that 
 comes a small aristocratic temple approached 
 by an avenue of banners planted in the 
 -ground, each bearing,the arms and the family 
 names of some one of tjie illustrious person- 
 ages who have honored this place by their 
 
 visits. At the eastern extremity of the 
 street, a hill surmounted by a temple rises 
 above a little lake covered with water-lilies. 
 The tea-houses stretch out their longwooden 
 galleries amid the leaves and flowers of the 
 splendid aquatic plants. On the other side 
 of the public road, a small bonze-house is 
 half hidden by a cedar grove. 
 
 At length we reach the second gateway, 
 which stands in the great square, almost sur- 
 rounded by shops and by the booths of 
 strolling actors. On the right, two huge 
 sitting statues of brass, the heads crowned 
 by the Buddhist nimbus, overlook the crowd's 
 from the height of the granite terrace. Two 
 enormous guardians of heaven defend the 
 second doorway, as their colleagues defend 
 the first. From the galleries which surround 
 the upper story of this building we can see 
 the whole square, the high road, and, on the 
 north, the first enclosure of the principal 
 temple, which has numerous dependencies. 
 
 Thirty-six Arms and a Hundred Hands. 
 
 Under the name of Asaksa-Tera is in 
 reality comprehended an agglomeration of 
 from forty to fifty sacred buildings, including 
 the sanctuary of Quannon-sama, the chief 
 divinity and patron of the place, whose 
 power of intercession is signified by an enor- 
 mous statue, with thirty-six arms and one 
 hundred hands, placed at the entrance of the 
 temple. Under its protection are grouped 
 the chapels of Sannoo, the ruler of men ; 
 Daikok, the god of riches ; Benten, the god- 
 dess of harmony ; Hatchiman, the patron of 
 warriors : in a word, the entire national my- 
 thology, not excepting the worship of the 
 fox. 
 
 This diabolical animal is worshiped, as 
 well as his companion Inari, the patron of 
 cereals, on the summit of a wooded hill, 
 within the Enclosure of the bonze-house. 
 
414 
 
 His little chapel, thickly hung with offerings, 
 is reached by an avenue in whiclf we pass 
 innumerable toris painted vermiHon. From 
 the one to the other the distance is only that 
 of a fox's jump, and they are hardly as tall as 
 a man. The road is steep, winding, and 
 impeded by the roots of the pines of the 
 sacred grove. It is impossible to climb it, 
 
 -vT- 
 
 FIGURE FROM AN ANCIENT CALENDAR. 
 
 except with great care and by bending the 
 head. 
 
 In that humble attitude we reach the 
 esplanade of the holy place. There we must 
 pass between two granite images represent- 
 ing the malicious divinity in a sitting posture, 
 his tail turned up, his muzzle In the air, but 
 his oblique eye watching every person who 
 approaches the sanctuary. The faithful bow 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 respectfully, make their ablutions, cast their 
 pieces of money into the box, and kneel in 
 prayer on the steps of the chapel. 
 
 Among the numerous buildings placed in 
 the enclosure of Asaksa-Tera, a pagoda of 
 five stories symbolizes the supremacy of 
 Buddhism over other religions. The central 
 building is an enormous quadrangular edifice 
 — the body painted red, and the colossal 
 roof covered with gray tiles. The base- 
 ment only is in stone, and supports a 
 spacious gallery raised some yards above 
 the ground. In the interior of the temple, 
 the ceiling rests upon colonnades of red 
 pillars ; the walls of the nave are adorned 
 with pictures on a golden ground. Framed 
 images, statuettes, offerings, lacquered 
 boards, with inscriptions in gold letters, 
 are to be seen on all sides — on the col- 
 umns, and on the panels of the side chapels. 
 The choir of the temple, dark and 
 smoked from the vapor of the incense,, 
 does not present any remarkable pecu- 
 harity, except that on the high altar is the 
 idol Quannon, symbolizing the mother of 
 Buddha, behind a trellis of wirework, 
 wearing a nimbus and seated upon the 
 sacred lotus. This mysterious combina- 
 tion excites little notice from the crowds 
 of people who pass to and fro, and keep 
 up a perpetual tumult in the nave, which 
 is not spacious, and is separated from the 
 choir by a lofty barrier of carved wood. 
 In the choir the bonzes, laden with their 
 heavy sacredotal vestments, officiate to an 
 accompaniment of gongs and tambourines.. 
 Some of the faithful merely throw iron money 
 wrapped in a white paper at their feet from 
 behind the barrier; others buy the candles 
 which the sacristan offers them. Before and 
 after the hours of worship, a large covered 
 box which, in front of the railing, communi- 
 cates with the underground portion of the 
 
SHINTOISM AND BUDDHISM IN JAPAN. 
 
 415- 
 
 temple, receives the gifts of the visitors, which 
 are expected to be generous. 
 
 The solemn entry of the High Priest into 
 the choir makes an immediate diversion in 
 the monotony of the service. This majestic 
 personage wears a red cloak, with a pointed 
 hood and a green silk stole over his white 
 robe. He is followed by a young novige, 
 who might be taken at first sight for a young 
 girl, so effeminate are his face, complexion 
 and dress. 
 
 His head-dress is an elegent edifice of 
 plaited hair, he wears loose white trousers, a 
 white sagh tied in wide bows, a short vest of 
 green silk, with long hanging sleeves lined 
 with white satin ; he accompanies his master, 
 step by step, to offer him, at the first sign 
 he makes, a cup of tea contained in a port- 
 able vessel, the handle of which he holds in 
 both hands. 
 
 Buddhist Commandments. 
 
 On beholding the present ministers of the 
 religion of Buddha, we cannot refrain from 
 thinking rather sadly of the pious reformer 
 whose disciples they claim to be. 
 
 The Buddhist pentalogue is conceived in 
 these terms : 
 
 1 . Thou shalt not kill. 
 
 2. Thou shalt not steal. 
 
 3. Thou shalt not commit fornication. 
 
 4. Thou shalt not lie. 
 
 5. Thou shalt abstain from all intoxicat- 
 ing liquor. 
 
 What has become of the ascetic purity of 
 the " Good Law " in the hands of men who 
 are plunged, for the most part, in the lowest 
 degradation ? What ironical destiny pur- 
 sues the precepts of the great Sakya-Mouni 
 in the midst of this temple, where art glori- 
 fies the corruption of morals, where incense 
 burns before an idol who gives indulgences 
 for every crime, where the industry of the 
 
 monks is exercised in making money of the 
 vices, as well as of the sanguinary passions, 
 of the nobility, in imposing upon the credul- 
 ity of the people and fostering their pro- 
 fligacy ? 
 
 The bon/e-house of Asaksa is distin- 
 guished for the luxury and variety of the 
 costumes of its priest, and for its immense- 
 personal staff; also for the theatrical pomp 
 of its ceremonies. The most imposing is 
 the general procession of the Annual Dedi- 
 cation which follows the feasts of the purifi- 
 cation of the temple and its dependencies. 
 
 Variety of Costumes. 
 
 The superiors of the convent have the- 
 head shaved, and conform in all its details to 
 the rule of Buddhist sacerdotalism ; but 
 their-authority extends over several frater- 
 nities attached to the ancient national wor- 
 ship; and each of these wears the hair ac- 
 cording to the ordinances of the Da'iri to 
 which they belong. There is no less variety 
 in the costumes and liveries of the masters of 
 ceremonies, heralds-of-arms, cooks, grooms, 
 porters and valets attached to the different 
 sects of the bonze-houses. 
 
 The grooms of Quannon-sama have the^ 
 care of a couple of Albinos horses, called 
 "the horses of the goddess." These sacred 
 horses are fed with consecrated beans, and 
 enjoy the privilege of sleeping upright, sus- 
 tained by a sort of hammock made of strong 
 suspending bands. At morning, the priests 
 lead them forth before the statute of Quan- 
 non, and ask her if she does not wish to go- 
 out riding. 
 
 The heralds-at-arms have charge of a 
 whole arsenal of casques and steel armor, 
 and figure in the fetes and in the processions. 
 The bonzes often give spectacles in which 
 artists play their parts either as dancers or as 
 comedians. On these occasions there may 
 
416 
 
 be seen, on the fifteenth day of the sixth 
 month, a very curious piece — a sword-dance, 
 or great military pantomime exclusively exe- 
 cuted by the priests. 
 
 But the triumph of Asaksa-Tera is its 
 Kermesse at the end of the year. Although 
 there is a permanent fair which is frequented 
 by crowds every day, and is the habitual 
 resort or playground of its great bonze-house, 
 it is from the eighteenth to the last day of 
 the twelfth month that the sacred residence 
 of Quannon-sama displays all its prestige and 
 becomes the centre of circulation, not only 
 for several hundreds of thousands, but for 
 three or four millions of inhabitants of the 
 city and surrounding provinces. The entire 
 precinct is invaded by the multitude, whose 
 waves form regular currents which pass 
 backward and forward under the skilful and 
 silent direction of the police. 
 
 Such perfect order in the midst of such a 
 multitude is only possible in a city like 
 Tokio, where not only there are no vehicles, 
 but where one word from a magistrate suf- 
 fices to prohibit the use of horses and 
 palanquins for a fortnight throughout the 
 vast space. Thus there is no crush at any 
 point. Cords made of straw limit the space 
 reserved to each industry. At certain speci- 
 fied points there are resting places, and the 
 ■exits and entrances are skilfully arranged. 
 No fixed hour is named for closing ; the tide 
 of humanity rises all day, attains its height 
 at sunset, and ebbs rapidly from midnight 
 until dawn. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 , Buddhism has borrowed in more than one 
 instance from the national worship of the 
 Kamis. It places the mirror of Izanami on 
 its altars, and sometimes, on the threshold 
 of its bonze-houses right and left of the 
 doorway^ we find the mythological dog, 
 carved in granite and mounted on a pedestal 
 ornamented with Chinese characters. A 
 proof that the above-mentioned objects were 
 introduced late into Kami worship is fur- 
 nished by the remarkable circumstance that 
 that religion had originally no priesthood. 
 
 The mias were, in the beginning, no more 
 than commemorative chapels erected in 
 honor of the national heroes, like Tell's 
 Chapel on the shore of the Lake of the 
 Four Cantons. The lord of the favored 
 country which boasted such a monument 
 watched over its preservation ; but no priest 
 served at the altar of the Kami, no privi- 
 leged caste interposed itself between the 
 worshipper and the object of his pious 
 homage. Besides, the act of adoration ac- 
 complished before the mirror of Izanami did 
 not stop at the Kami of the commemorative 
 chapel, but went up to the gods of whom 
 the Kami was the instrument. Thus the 
 chapel was open to everybody, given up 
 freely to the use of the worshippers, and 
 the worship was devoid of all ceremonial. 
 This state of things is no longer main- 
 tained in its integrity. Very slowly do 
 any changes come in the old stereotyped 
 countries of the Orient, yet time brings 
 them. 
 
CHAFTKR XXV. 
 AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 EACH of the bonze-houses in the crty 
 of Tokio has its Matsouri, or an- 
 nual popular fete; but among 
 them there are several which cele- 
 brate this festival only once in two years. 
 The solemnities are generally interesting 
 only to the quarter, the street, or the small 
 group of faithful who contribute to the main- 
 tenance of the bonze-house. To this rule 
 there are, however, remarkable exceptions. 
 Certain matsouris are in favor with one entire 
 section of the city, such as Hondjo; and 
 others seem to enjoy an unlimited popularity 
 with the whole of Tokio. 
 
 These matsouris, as we may easily con- 
 ceive, are far from having preserved the 
 patriotic elevation and the noble simplicity 
 which distinguished them in the splendid 
 days of the national Kami worship. The 
 mythical sense of the solemnity is lost, its 
 moral signification , has fallen into obhvion. 
 The fairs and rejoicings which in earUer 
 times were only the accessories of the festival 
 have now become its principal object, or 
 rather its only interest. Thus in Europe we 
 see how the religious festivals of the Middle 
 Ages have disappeared, leaving behind their 
 kermesse, or popular fair, which was devel- 
 oped year after year under their protection. 
 So at Tokio certain feasts recall the names 
 of the ancient national divinities ; the goddess 
 of the sun ; the god of the moon ; the god 
 of water ; the patron of rice ; the god of the 
 sea ; the god of war, whose anniversary is 
 celebrated on the first day of the Hare, which 
 signifies the second month, corresponding to 
 27 
 
 our March. But the chief characteristic of 
 these solemnities is the theatrical pomp dis- 
 played in them, in the processions and the 
 choirs of music — the dances and the panto- 
 mimes of the priests on the one hand, and 
 the masquerades and scenic representations 
 in the open air on the other. 
 
 In addition to these attractions, there are 
 illuminations, public games, archery, horse- 
 racing, wrestling, public lotteries, and every- 
 where a market of fruit and fish according to 
 the season ; pastry, sweetmeats, flowers, arti- 
 cles in common use — such as fans, umbrellas, 
 paper lanterns, and children's toys. 
 
 Popular Festivals. 
 
 The subject of the matsouris in a city like 
 Tokio, where the temples are counted by 
 hundreds, is one which it is impossible to 
 treat in minute detail. We can only give a 
 few rapid sketches of those festivals which 
 excite general attention, and attract the entire 
 population of the city to their scenes. 
 
 On the fifth day of the fifth month (June 
 and July) the crowd repairs in the early 
 morning to the woods of the suburb of 
 Foutchiou, to gather herbs whose virtue is 
 held to be sovereign in cases of contagious 
 maladies. An improvised fair on the border 
 of the forest enables the pilgrims to provide 
 themselves with everything which they will 
 require during the day. In the evening the 
 priests in the neighborhood proceed to the 
 annual purification of the holy place. While 
 the temple is being cleaned, a solemn pro- 
 cession marches through the woods during 
 
 417 
 
418 
 
 the greater part of the night, carrying relics 
 belonging to the sanctuary. 
 
 Piles of resinous wood are prepared in the 
 court of the sacred enclosure, at the foot of 
 the tori in the avenue, and at the openings 
 of the forest paths at their diverging points, 
 and all along the road which the cortege is 
 to take. At a given signal, all these are 
 lighted at once, and the procession sets out. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 ately after the band, march the horses of the 
 Kami, led by the bridle by grooms attired in 
 an antique national costume. They are fol- 
 lowed by the High Priests and their acolytes 
 and servants, carrying the sacred arms, 
 trophies of the ancient heroes. Then pre- 
 ceded by the gohei, or antique holy-water 
 brush, come two personages, who wear 
 masks representing heads of Corean dogs. 
 
 
 I 
 
 <- _ 
 
 1 .' 
 
 
 JAPANESE 
 
 having been provided with abundant paper 
 lanterns of various colors, and accompanied 
 by the music of fifes, gongs, and the big 
 drums of the bonzerie. From every side a 
 crowd accumulates upon the route of the 
 procession, uttering cries, which are echoed 
 by thousands of startled birds disturbed 
 from their sleep by the strange light and 
 clamor. 
 
 At the head of the procession, immedi- 
 
 MUSICIANS. 
 
 They are followed by the entire body of 
 priests and their servants, the employes 
 charged with the care of mikosis, the furni- 
 ture and utensils of the temple and its de- 
 pendencies. When the cortege has passed 
 through all the exterior stations, it returns to 
 the sacred place, and the flames are extin- 
 guished ; the crowd disperses to the restau- 
 rants in the fair and on the road side, dark- 
 ness and silence take possession of the forest. 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 419 
 
 On the twenty-fourth day of the eighth 
 month (September or October), the fraternity 
 of the temple of the Temmango, in Hondjo, 
 which is purified on the twenty-fifth day of 
 the second month, exhibits the image of its 
 god, which is drawn through the principal 
 streets of Tokio on a buffalo cart. The chief 
 officers of the families who patronize this 
 bonze- house, and the priests who serve in 
 the temple, precede and follow the car, ac- 
 companied by coolies carrying coffers and 
 baskets, which contain the utensils and 
 sacred objects belonging to the temple. 
 
 The Toheisan celebrates its annual pro- 
 cession on the second day of-the tenth month 
 (December and January). The bonzes, on 
 their return, read aloud to the people certain 
 passages from the holy books ; they also 
 give them tea prepared and consecrated by 
 them, and permit them free entrance into the 
 gardens and the sacred wood attached to the 
 convent. The seventh day is consecrated to 
 pantomimes, with subjects taken from the 
 ancient history of Niphon. 
 
 An Imposing Procession. 
 
 In the great biennial procession of the 
 temple of Kanda-Miodjin, which is placed 
 under the invocation of Kan da the patron 
 of Tokio, there is a whole cavalcade of his- 
 torical personages, among whom Taikosama 
 is especially distinguished. In order to add 
 to the effect of this procession the bonzes in- 
 vite a certain number of courtesans, who are 
 carried in elegant palanquins. The car of 
 the saint of Miodjin is drawn by two buffa- 
 loes, and by an unlimited number of the 
 faithful, voluntarily harnessed to the sacred 
 vehicle by straw ropes. 
 
 A few feet behind it a hideous colossal 
 head of the demon over whom the saint tri- 
 umphed is carried on a platform. The peo- 
 ple contemplate with horror the gigantic 
 
 horns and erect crest of this monster ; they 
 point out to one another its bloody eyes, its 
 scarlet skin and horrible jaws. To add to 
 the effect of this spectacle, the bonzes blow 
 through their conch shells, producing a ter- 
 rible noise. A little further on an enormous 
 axe, with which the victorious hero cut off 
 the monster's head, is exhibited. 
 
 But all the united wonders of the proces- 
 sion of Miodjin fade before the splendor of 
 the festival given annually by the priests of 
 the temple of Sannoo, which is sacred to the 
 memory of Zinmou, the founder of the Em- 
 pire of the great Niphon, or Japan. This is 
 the most imposing of the matsouris of Tokio. 
 It takes place on the fifteenth day of the 
 six month. 
 
 The Celestial Herald. 
 
 Tengou, the faithful porter and messenger 
 of the gods, heads the procession, adorned 
 in his brilliant costume as the celestial herald. 
 He half unfolds a pair of iris colored wings. 
 His smiling air, his cunning eyes, his crimson 
 color, his nose of preposterous length, excite 
 merriment in the people, and secure the 
 warmest welcome for the cortege. When 
 the evil spirits find the image of Tengou at 
 the door of the temples of the national 
 religion, they hasten on. The procession 
 has therefore nothing to dread from them. 
 
 The municipal police is charged with the 
 maintenance of public order. More than a 
 million of spectators preserve perfect disci- 
 pline during the whole of this great day. In 
 all the streets and all the squares through 
 which the procession is to pass, platforms are 
 erected for the women, old men and children. 
 Places are reserved for those who choose to 
 pay for them ; free space is assigned to the 
 workmen, but everybody is bound to remain 
 quietly in his place during the entire festival. 
 Only the sellers of fruit, cakes, and saki, have 
 
420 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 permission to go beyond the boundary-rope 
 which separates the crowd from the road kept 
 for the procession. 
 
 The procession of Sannoo is a kind of 
 national encyclopaedia in action, in which we 
 find all sorts of historical lessons, mythologi- 
 cal symbols, traditions, and popular actions 
 mixed up together, just as we see Bacchus, 
 Silenus, Noah's Ark, Ceres, and Pomona, 
 introduced indiscriminately in the old fete of 
 the vine dressers at Vevy. When art attains 
 this democratic breadth, criticism must merely 
 bow and be silent. I pass on to the most 
 picturesque details "of the ceremony. 
 
 The White Elephant. 
 
 Here comes the patron of the sacred dance 
 of the Da'iri. The image, dressed in the old 
 theatrical garments of Kioto, is raised upon 
 a huge drum, supported by figurantes in cos- 
 tumes of festive form and crowns of flowers. 
 This is followed by the procession of the 
 white elephant. The animal is made of 
 cardboard, and its bearers are skilfully hid- 
 den in its capacious body; their feet are 
 hardly seen moving under the legs of the 
 colossus, which is preceeded by a band of 
 music, composed of flutes, trumpets, big 
 drums, cymbals, gongs, and tambourines. 
 
 The men of this group wear beards, a 
 painted hat with an aigrette, boots, a long 
 robe with a wide girdle, and some of them 
 carry Chinese banners covered with images 
 of dragons. A little further on a gigantic 
 lobster is carried by a priest of the Kami 
 worship, and surrounded by a troop of 
 negroes. Then come a hundred cultivators 
 who are harnessed to the chariot of the 
 buffalo ; this king of domestic animals is 
 placed upon the vehicle under the shade of 
 a flowering peach-tree, and is accompanied 
 by the demi-god who introduced him into 
 Japan. Six other chariots are laden with 
 
 picturesque trophies formed of the imple- 
 ments and products of rice culture. 
 
 A cortege of the priests of the Kami 
 religion generally forms a guard of honor to 
 a carriage made in the likeness of that of the 
 Mikado, a splendid chariot, surmounted by 
 the sacred gong and the cock of the Dairi. 
 Antique banners, some ornamented by 
 sketches of horses, precede a cavalcade of 
 superior officers costumed according to the 
 Court fashions of Kioto. Suddenly two 
 terrible monsters appear ; they have the face 
 of the tiger with the horns of a bull. Their 
 great tails are elevated high above the hel- 
 mets of the men-at-arms who surround them. 
 Perhaps they recall under a fantastic form 
 the memory of those tigers who gave so 
 much trouble to the soldiers of the heroic 
 mother of Hatchiman in the Corean fields. 
 
 Banners and ^Veapons. 
 
 To this group belongs the exhibition of 
 the antique arms of the arsenal of the 
 Sannoo ; lances and halberds, two-handed 
 swords, bows, arrows, war-fans and insignia 
 of command. By degrees the exhibition 
 loses its warlike character ; in their turn 
 appear priests and attendants carrying the 
 vases of the sanctuary, and all the furniture 
 of the temple and its dependencies under 
 banners covered with hieroglyphic signs. 
 Another troop of attendants carry paper 
 lanterns at the end of long poles. This very 
 effective group terminates the procession. 
 
 Then comes seven of the handsomest wo- 
 men in this reserved portion of the capital, 
 majestically attired in state costume; each is 
 accompanied by her waiting-woman and by ''■ 
 a koskei who carries a wide and lofty para- 
 sol, which shades her from the rays of the 
 sun. Her head-dress is two or three stories 
 high, and the edifice is supported by large 
 pins of red tortoise-shell. Her face shines 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 421 
 
 with cosmetics carefully applied, thus mak- 
 ing her a picturesque figure. 
 
 We may count the number of her robes — 
 thanks to five or six collars which hang over 
 her shoulders. A wide kirimon envelops 
 her and sweeps the ground ; its folds are 
 slightly raised by means of an enormous 
 girdle composed of an entire piece of silk or 
 velvet ; and some inches are added to her 
 already noble stature by the curious manner 
 in which she is shod with little planks of 
 wood. 
 
 The Lady of the War-Fan. 
 
 These seven figurantes are well known to 
 all the people. As they pass, their names 
 are mentioned on all sides, and, indeed, 
 these names are embroidered on their rich 
 costume. ~ The first is the lady of the War- 
 fan, which she displays upon her wide velvet 
 sash ; her robe is embroidered with four 
 cocks of various plumage, two of which are 
 white, worked upon the ample sleeves of her 
 kirimon : the silken feathers of their tails 
 wave gracefully in the air with each of her 
 movements. 
 
 The second is the lady of the Golden Fish. 
 She wears one on each side of her robe on 
 a background of waves and foam in silver 
 thread. The accessory embroideries rep- 
 resent little children playing with ribbons of 
 all sorts of colors, who sport on her kiri- 
 mon. Need I speak of the lady of the 
 Death's head ; the lady of the Candelabra, 
 the lady of the Slaves, the lady of the Chry- 
 santhemums ? No ! For where should I 
 stop if I were to describe in all its details 
 the public homage paid to the courtesans by 
 the priests and by the people of Tokio ? In 
 the presence of such customs we can only 
 admire the appropriateness with which the 
 great Sannoo admits to the rank of its idols 
 and solemnly exhibits in the streets of the 
 
 city, a monkey, with a red face, wearing a 
 sacerdotal mitre, and carrying a holy-water 
 brush. 
 
 The mocking image mounted on a drum, 
 with the rich drapery, is lifted high above 
 the crowd, an ironical caricature of the re- 
 ligious exhibition which the crowd just wit- 
 nessed. 
 
 The matsouris or kermesses of the tem- 
 ples of Japan do the government of that 
 country a service which will be strongly 
 appreciated in Europe, by absolving it from 
 the charge of amusing its subjects, who sup- 
 ply all funds needful for the purpose qut of 
 their own pockets. There are Japanese fes- 
 tivals which do not consist of representations 
 and amusements given by the bonzes to the 
 people, but of real public rejoicings, in which 
 the people themselves are the only actors and 
 the real heroes of the day. 
 
 Congratulations and Presents. 
 
 These are the Go-Sekis, or five great an- 
 nual Festivals. They had originally a re- 
 ligious stamp, which did not actually militate 
 against the gaiety of their exterior manifesta- 
 tions, because the moral of the Kami worship 
 is, that a joyous heart is integrally in a state 
 of purity. 
 
 The Seki of the first day of the first month 
 is naturally the chief festival of the new year. 
 It is that of visits, of congratulations and 
 presents, the latter consisting of at least two 
 or three fans, which the visitor brings, ac- 
 cording to custom, in a box of lacquer tied 
 with silken cords ; but, no matter what the 
 nature or the value of the principal gift, it is 
 always accompanied by a screw of paper 
 containing a dried morsel of the flesh of the 
 shell-fish named awabi, or of the siebi, an 
 exceedingly common fish ; and this manifes- 
 tation is a piece of homage paid to the fru- 
 gality of the antique national customs. 
 
422 
 
 The family receiving the visit gives a little 
 Gollation composed of saki, rice-bread, and 
 mandarin oranges. The lobster plays an 
 important part in the exchange of presents. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The second of the Go-Sekis, the Feast of 
 Dolls, takes place on the third day of the 
 third month. I witnessed it at Nagasaki on 
 the 20th of April, 1863. It is consecrated 
 
 JAPANESE ACROBATS. 
 
 Every house religiously preserves one until 
 the following year, unless it should be re- 
 quired as a remedy against certain maladies, in 
 which case it is ground to powder and eaten. 
 
 to feminine youth. The mother of the. family 
 adorns the guest chamber with branches of 
 the flowering peach, and there lays out an 
 exhibition of the dolls which her children 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 423 
 
 received at their birth. These are very pretty 
 and elegantly dressed, representing the Mi- 
 kado, the Kisaki, and other personages of 
 the Imperial Court. The offering is made 
 complete by a feast, which is prepared by 
 the young girls who are old enough to do 
 so, and towards evening the viands are eaten 
 by the company. 
 
 On the fifth day of the fifth month (June) 
 a festival of a less domestic character, called 
 that of the Banners, is celebrated in honor of 
 the boys. Tokio is on this day a charming 
 spectacle, especially when contemplated from 
 a gallery looking upon one of the wide streets 
 of the city, which is decked out from early 
 morning with tall bamboos surmounted with 
 plumes, or waving horse-tails, or balls of 
 gilded paper, and with long floating banners' 
 of painted paper, fish made of lacquer or of 
 plaited straw, and above all, with great ban- 
 ners stretched on reed-frames, and adorned 
 with armorial bearings, family names, patri- 
 otic sentences or heroic figures. 
 
 Boys in Gay Costumes. 
 
 The bonze workshops exhibit casques, sets 
 of complete armor, and gigantic halberds of 
 fantastic forms. Groups of boys in full dress 
 occupy the public roads, some wearing two 
 small swords, similar to those of the Yakou- 
 nines, at their girdle ; others with fine paper 
 ribbons on their shoulders carry an immense 
 wooden sabre ornamented with various colors, 
 and others bear small flags, which reproduce 
 the favorite subjects of the street banners. 
 The people of Tokio take special delight in 
 the picturesque figure of the brave Shyoki, 
 the hero without fear and without reproach 
 of the first Corean war. 
 
 The crowd delights in contemplating the 
 austere face, always immoveable in the midst 
 of danger. The wind blows about his beard 
 and his long hair ; over his head float the 
 
 two classic feathers of the old helmet of the 
 Dairi ; his calm, large, arid vigilant eyes, his 
 right hand armed with the sword, and the 
 firmness of his attitude make him a finished 
 type of bravery and prudence. 
 
 When the Mongols attempted to invade 
 the island of Kiousiou, the Shogun not 
 only opposed them with his best troops, but 
 displayed before them a great number of 
 banners bearing the image of Shyoki, and 
 this spectacle alone petrified them with 
 terror. 
 
 Merry Singing Girls. 
 
 The fourth great annual feast, that of the 
 seventh day of the seventh month, is known 
 under the name of the Feast of Lamps or 
 Lanterns. Little girls parade the illuminated 
 streets of the city of Tokio in great numbers, 
 singing with all their heart, and swinging 
 paper lanterns. In certain cities of the 
 south the population visit the hill cemeteries 
 and pass the night amid the tombs. 
 
 The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
 are the days on which every one goes to the 
 temples to pray for the dead and to burn 
 candles for them ; the fifteenth being the day 
 fixed for the regulation of accounts for the 
 first half of the year. The public rejoicings 
 which succeed the fulfilment of this trouble- 
 some duty are particularly varied and bril- 
 liant. Masquerades, accompanied by national 
 dances, take a high place among the popu- 
 lar pleasures. All the masks have their sig- 
 nification and traditional character. 
 
 There are the noble types ; first the placid 
 faces of the gentlemen and ladies of the 
 Dairi ; then the fierce physiognomies of the 
 heroes of Jhe civil wars. There are also 
 masks with moveable jaws, in imitation of 
 those worn by the Mikado's actors. Others 
 represent the grotesque and divine Tengou, 
 the good Okame, the j oiliest of the Japa- 
 
424 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 nese women mentioned in history, or the un- 
 happy Hiyotoko, the ideal of ugliness. These 
 masks reproduce all the varieties of the race 
 of demons — those with one eye, with two 
 eyes, with three and four eyes, with horns and 
 . without horns, with two or even three horns, 
 ^ ' from the sprites to the giants, and even to 
 the odious Hanggia, the feminine devil. 
 
 The Famous Man-Frog. 
 
 The final category includes masks made in 
 the likeness of Kistne the fox, and Sarou the 
 monkey, or the lion of Corea, or of Kappa, 
 the man-frog who haunts the shores of Nip- 
 hon. The dances are of every conceivable 
 description ; the rice-dance alone numbers 
 thirty figures, executed by men whose entire 
 clothing consists of a girdle of .rice-straw, a 
 round hat of the same material brought 
 down over their eyes, and a small cloak with 
 large sleeves imitating the wings of noc- 
 turnal moths. 
 
 The fifth of the Go-Sekis falls on the ninth 
 day of the ninth month. This is the Feast 
 of Chrysanthemums. In all family repasts 
 leaves of these beautiful flowers are scat- 
 tered on cups of tea or the bowls of saki. 
 Libations prepared in this fashion are sup- 
 posed to prolong life. The citizen, of Tokio 
 would believe that he had failed in his duty 
 as a husband and father if he drank only 
 moderately of this precious specific. 
 
 Among the festivals of the fourth month, 
 the eighth day is sacred to the baptism of 
 Buddha as he is represented at his birth, 
 standing, pointing one hand to heaven and 
 the other hand to the earth. Not only do 
 his devotees bathe with consecrated tea the 
 bronze image of the holy child in the places 
 which serve for fonts in the Buddhist temples, 
 but the attendants of the bonze-houses go 
 through the streets carrying his statuette 
 fixed in the centre of a tub, so that the same 
 
 ceremony may take place in private houses; 
 such solicitude brings them in a considerable 
 reward. 
 
 On the twenty-eighth day the people are 
 invited to plunge themselves in the contem- 
 plation of Fousi-mi, and to make libations 
 to the gods under bowers of the plant, 
 which is very common in the public gardens. 
 
 The festivals of the sixth month are in 
 honor of the cereal harvest — rice, millet, 
 wheat, and paddy. The priests bless little 
 squares of white paper fastened to sticks, 
 which the cultivators buy and plant at the 
 four corners of their fields, under the per- 
 suasion that these rustic amulets are indis- 
 pensable to the fruitfulness of the soil. 
 This season of the year is a time of rejoic- 
 ing for the citizens of Tokio, who assemble 
 in the shady groves on the shores of the 
 Sumida-gawa, or in the gardens ' of Odji, 
 under green arbors moistened with the foam 
 of the cascades, or crowd the boats on the 
 great river, until the last day of the month 
 convokes them to solemn expiation and gen- 
 eral purification. 
 
 The Water Divinity. 
 
 The god of the water, an ancient divinity 
 of the Kami worship, is feted from one end 
 to the other of the Empire during the whole 
 of the seventh month, which represents the 
 entire term of the rainy season. Bamboos, 
 from whose upper branches glass bells and 
 strips of blessed paper are suspended, are 
 planted beside the springs, the wells and the 
 irrigating channels ; and every morning and 
 evening banners are waved inscribed with this 
 sentence, " Respect and homage to the God 
 of the Water." In the houses of the coun- 
 try people offerings, consisting of rice, fish, 
 and small money, are made on the domestic 
 altar of the Kami. 
 
 The eighth month commences by a cere- 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 425 
 
 monious exchange of civilties between clients 
 and their patrons, employes and their chiefs , 
 subalterns and their superiors. The fifteenth 
 day is dedicated to the god of the moon. It 
 is said to be the moment of the year in 
 which the orb of night emits its utmost bril- 
 liancy. The rivers and canals are crowded 
 with gondolas, from which the citizens con- 
 template the full moon. The stillness of the 
 air and the warmth of the temperature dur- 
 ing the evenings of the months of September 
 and October are favorable to these nocturnal 
 parties of pleasure, also to those which take 
 place in the public gardens of the city and 
 its suburbs. 
 
 Gifts of Cakes and Fish. 
 
 The tenth month is placed under the 
 invocation of Yebis, who is at once the god 
 of fishing and one of the favorite patrons of 
 the shopkeepers, who make each other pres- 
 ents on this occasion, among which are 
 millet-cakes and a large red fish named Tai, 
 much admired for its beauty and the delicacy 
 of its flavor. 
 
 The ladies of Tokio are not less diligent 
 in the performance of the duties imposed 
 upon them by their social position. They 
 pay each other neighborly visits, and do not 
 neglect to bum candles before the image of 
 Yebis for the prosperity of their husbands' 
 commercial enterprises. Early in the morn- 
 ing they may be seen going in groups to cer- 
 tain bonze-houses, in whose sanctuaries 
 there are altars privileged to receive the 
 homage of the citizenesses. To perform this 
 ceremony the pilgrim is attired in a head- 
 dress, consisting of a cotton handkerchief 
 of dazzling whiteness, artistically wound 
 through the thick hair. 
 
 Towards the middle of the month every- 
 one is bound to notice and to communicate 
 to his friends the fact that the leaves of the 
 
 maple-palm are beginning to change color. 
 At the commencement of the eleventh 
 month the maple is in all the magnificence 
 of its autumn dress. Crowds assemble in 
 the gardens of the bonze-houses and the tea- 
 houses. With the winter solstice come gen- 
 eral congratulations. 
 
 This is the Festival of Matrons. No pres- 
 sure of business, no journey to the city, no 
 cause or pretext whatever, can on this occa- 
 sion excuse the absence of the husbands 
 from their homes. They come from all 
 parts of the country, and in the evening the 
 city is illuminated on all sides. The sounds 
 of guitars and joyous voices fill the air on 
 this universal festival. 
 
 The fifteenth day is called the passing of 
 the river, by reason of a religious domestic 
 solemnity ; it symbolizes the flight of time, 
 and the transition to the new year. 
 
 Joyful Ceremonies, 
 
 The twelfth month is devoted to the set- 
 tlement of affairs, the renewal of furniture, 
 and the re-arrangement of the household; 
 operations which involve such a succession 
 of ceremonies, formalities, festivals, and re- 
 joicings, that a whole volume might be 
 written upon the four or five weeks at the 
 end of January and the commencement of 
 February in the cities and villages. 
 
 Although the great dramatic system of 
 modern Japan, the Sibaia, is far from being 
 an aristocratic institution, it is one of the 
 most curious in the world. If it does not 
 attain to the distinguished literary merit of 
 the Chinese drama, or to the perfection of 
 acting, it far exceeds both in poetic value, 
 because it has more simplicity, more passion, 
 more individuality and a more purely human 
 character. In China, the public look on at 
 the piece and criticise the actors ; in Japan, 
 the public take part in the piece in concert 
 
426 
 
 JAPAN AND 
 
 with the actors, exchange sentiments with 
 them, and, in fact, are part of the spectacle. 
 In this respect, the Siba'ia reminds us of 
 the little day-theatres of Italy, but with 
 all the difference which exists between an 
 amusing and easy recreation and a great 
 popular subject, confused, often unintelligi- 
 ble, and whose gaiety is strange and fan- 
 tastic. Although the Siba'ia is implanted in 
 all the cities of Japan, it is at Tokio, and 
 especially in the city and the northern 
 departments, that it is most active and 
 important. The theatres are exceedingly 
 numerous, one group occupying three longi- 
 tudinal and four cross -streets. 
 
 Japanese Comedians. 
 
 The dramatic authors of Tokio write 
 principally for these theatres. From thence, 
 new pieces are distributed throughout the 
 Empire, and companies of comedians from 
 the capital take, like the wrestlers, their holi- 
 days in the provinces. The actors are all 
 male. Only female dancers appear upon 
 the boards, and then in the ballet of the 
 Grand Opera only. Comedians form a 
 separate class, who are regarded by the 
 higher orders with contempt. The Sibaia is, 
 properly speaking, the theatre of the middle 
 classes of the Japanese population. It at- 
 tracts great numbers of coolies and laborers, 
 when they can afford to go there, but all 
 classes above the traders abstain from dram- 
 atic representations, or, if they go, take care 
 to sit in latticed boxes. 
 
 Among the crowds which frequent the 
 theatrical district it is extremely rare to 
 meet two-sworded men, not but that the 
 Samourais are sometimes mixed up with the 
 people, but they take good care to disguise 
 themselves on this and other compromising 
 occasions. Just before sunset certain delegates 
 from the company of actors appear on plat- 
 
 THE JAPANESE. 
 
 forms raised on the right and left of the 
 doors of the theatres ; they are in ordinary 
 dress, and harangue the, multitude, explain- 
 ing the subject of the pieces about to be 
 performed, and the merit of the principal 
 actors who perform in them. 
 
 After this exordium come familiar jokes, 
 pleasant talking, the eloquence of mimicry, 
 and the high art of managing the fan. Pres- 
 ently the lanterns are lit. " Come in, gen- 
 tlemen ! come in, ladies ! " they cry ; " take 
 your places ! now's the time ! the piece is 
 about to begin." Nevertheless, nobody is 
 in a hurry, for the spectacle in the street 
 captivates general attention. The illumina- 
 tions afford great pleasure to the people. 
 The first row of red lanterns hangs all along 
 the whole length of the roof. A little lower 
 is a second range under the roof Between 
 the two hang balls of transparent paper, 
 each containing a painted candle. 
 
 Gaudy Transparencies. 
 
 Near the doors enormous oblong lanterns 
 light up the pictures and the inscriptions, 
 illustrating the principal subjects and scenes 
 of the pieces. Every theatre has its own 
 arms and its own colors painted upon ban- 
 ners and lanterns, al6ng three sides of a sort 
 belvedere or square tower which springs 
 from the roof. 
 
 The buildings which adjoin those of the 
 Siba'ia are occupied by restaurants, and are 
 as gaily decorated as the exterior of the 
 theatre, with designs and carvings which 
 have some relation to the name of each of 
 these establishments. One is the restaurant 
 of Fousi-Yama, and another of the Rising 
 Sun ; farther off we see those of the Tori, 
 the Tai Fish, the Merchant Junk, the Stork, 
 the Two Lovers, etc., etc. But it is time to 
 go into the theatre, and we ascend a wooden 
 staircase leading to the second gallery. A 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 427 
 
 functionary opens a spacious box, and a ser- 
 vant brings saki, tea, cakes, sweetmeats and 
 pipes and tobacco. 
 
 The interior of the theatre forms a long 
 square. There are two ranges of galleries, 
 the upper containing the best places in the 
 theatre. Numbers of ladies are to be seen 
 there in full dress — ladies, that is to say, 
 covered up to their eyes in crape dresses and 
 silk mantles. The whole of the remainder 
 of the house is occupied exclusively by men. 
 There is no orchestra. The floor of the 
 house, as seen from a distance, resembles a 
 draughtboard. It is divided into compart- 
 ments, containing from eight to twelve places 
 each, most of which are hired by the year 
 by the citizens, who take their children regu- 
 larly to the play. 
 
 Serving Refreshments. 
 
 There are no lobbies. Everyone walks to 
 his place on the planks which enclose the 
 compartments at the height of the specta- 
 tors' shoulders, who squat on their heels or 
 crouch on little stools. There is neither a 
 ladder nor a staircase by which to get down 
 into the midst of them. The men hold out 
 their arms to the women and children. The 
 settling of the audience in its place forms a 
 very picturesque part in the preliminaries of 
 the representation. Tobacco and refresh- 
 ments are served during the whole evening 
 by koskeis and servants, by the same means 
 of communication. 
 
 On two sides of the pit are two bridges of 
 planks, which also communicate with the 
 boards of the stage; the first is nearest to 
 one of the doors ; the second, which is four 
 planks wide, forms an angle with the ex- 
 tremity of the boxes. On this bridge certain 
 heroic or tragi-comic personages perform 
 their parts, and the ballet is danced. The 
 house is lit by paper lanterns tied to the gal- 
 
 leries ; there is no chandelier from the roof,, 
 which is perfectly flat, the cupola being un- 
 known in Japanese architecture. I have,, 
 however, seen large lanterns held up to the 
 roof of a theatre at Yokohama in order to 
 light up the performance of the acrobats, 
 especially that of the flying men, who cross 
 the theatre by means of cleverly contrived 
 mechanism. 
 
 The curtain which hangs before the stage 
 is ornamented by a gigantic inscription in 
 Chinese characters, and surmounted by a 
 target with an arrow in the centre. This 
 symbolical sign is supposed to be a prog- 
 nostic of the talent about to be displayed by 
 the actors, and which will hit the bull's-eye 
 in the hearts of their audience. The per- 
 formance generally lasts until one o'clock in 
 the morning. It consists of a comedy, a 
 tragedy, an opera with a ballet, and two or 
 three interludes of acrobats, wrestlers and 
 jugglers. 
 
 Ominous Lightning. 
 
 The principal parts are announced by a, 
 clicking noise, produced by a small piece of 
 wood against the floor of the stage. The 
 appearance of infernal personages is always 
 preceded by lightning. The actors worthy 
 of particular notice are escorted by one or 
 two ushers, who carry a long stick, at the 
 end of which is a little candlestick with 
 a lighted candle. The spectators have only 
 to follow the combined movement of the two 
 lights to know exactly what they ought to 
 admire ; sometimes it is the expression of 
 the actor's face, sometimes his attitude and 
 gesture, and sometimes the details of his 
 costume and head-dress. 
 
 The same custom prevails with regard to 
 the dancers. The ushers may be seen dur- 
 ing the ballet squatting upon the bridge 
 which I have described, and profiting by the 
 
428 
 
 immediate neighborhood of the spectators to 
 get them to snuff the candles with their 
 iingers, an office which they always perform 
 with pleasure ; it would indeed be impossible 
 to find anywhere a more good-humored 
 audience. 
 
 In homely comedies the spectators fre- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 artists relate acts of generosity, and record 
 the name and address of their benefactors. 
 
 We cannot yet form an appreciation of 
 Japanese drama from a literary point of 
 view. No piece has been translated into any 
 other language. Sir Rutherford Alcock 
 gives a detailed analysis of a performance 
 
 quently interrupt the actors, and answer which he witnessed at Osaka. In comparing 
 
 A WRESTLING CIRCUS. 
 
 them. Thus audience and actors contribute 
 alike to the success of the evening and the 
 satisfaction of all concerned. The zeal and 
 contentment of the public are manifested by 
 their gifts, in addition to the price paid for 
 admission. 
 
 Almost every theatre displays innumerable 
 scraps of paper fastened to the walls by which 
 
 my home observations with his and those of 
 M. Layrle, I have come to the conclusion 
 that dramatic art is still in its infancy in 
 modern Japan. The political circumstances 
 of the country render historical drama impos- 
 sible. The nearest approach to it in the 
 reportoire of the Sibaia is an incongruous 
 mixture of history, mythology and bur- 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 429 
 
 lesque in which disguised references are 
 made to passing events. 
 
 Opera, less advanced even than drama, is 
 very much inferior to that of the Celestial Em- 
 pire, and imitates it only on its most fanciful 
 side, the marvels of the Buddhist demon ology. 
 Comedy seems to me to promise well, be- 
 cause it observes the conditions of the natu- 
 ral and the real. It admits, no doubt, like 
 opera, of scenes of incredible coarseness. 
 Nevertheless, nothing appears more immoral 
 to the Japanese than our drama. This ap- 
 parent contradiction is easily explained. 
 Japanese realism admits on the stage, as 
 in romance, types and situations of which all 
 licentious literature gives only a feeble idea. 
 
 Subjects That Are Excluded. 
 
 On the other hand, it absolutely excludes 
 every intrigue by which the character of a 
 married woman is compromised. Neither 
 Phaedra, nor Hamlet's mother, the husbands 
 depicted by Moliere, nor Werther, nor Char- 
 lotte, nor the infamous Madame Bovary, 
 could have offered the slightest attraction 
 for the imagination of the Japanese. The 
 green-rooms and the side-scenes of the thea- 
 tres of the far East are no less interesting to 
 the foreign observer than the theatre, prop- 
 erly so called, and the audience which 
 crowds it. 
 
 In these places none but men are to be 
 seen, excepting from time to time some ser- 
 vants, or the artists' wives who bring refresh- 
 ments to their husbands, or come to give the 
 last touch to their toilet before they go on 
 the stage in the costume of either sex. In 
 the midst of the general disorder we find 
 some very characteristic groups. Here are 
 musicians occupied in refreshing themselves, 
 and indifferent to everything else until the 
 signal to return to their posts shall reach 
 them; there two actors are rehearsing to- 
 
 gether the attitude and gesture which in a 
 few minutes are to delight the spectators; 
 and another, sitting on his heels before a 
 looking-glass placed on the floor, is painting 
 his face and adjusting his feminine head- 
 dress. 
 
 A young devil beside him has thrown 
 back his mask, with its horns and its mane, 
 over his shoulders, and is fanning himself, 
 while the chief of the wrestlers is tranquilly 
 smoking his pipe in the midst of the acrobats. 
 Among the crowds, carpenters are coming 
 and going, carrying the screens and parti- 
 tions destined for the change of scene ; the 
 machinist is working a trap through which a 
 whirlwind of flame is about to escape; and 
 the piece is going on outside to the accom- 
 paniment of drum beating, amid the conver- 
 sation of the public in the house and that of 
 the disengaged actors. 
 
 All Sorts of Games. 
 
 In the restaurant there is apparent inex- 
 tricable confusion. Everyone crouches on 
 his mat, except the servants. All sorts of 
 games are in progress, and saki is circulating 
 freely. Sometimes a group of dancers install 
 themselves round the domestic altar under 
 the image of the god of contentment, and 
 seldom fail by their guitars and their voices 
 to arouse the enthusiasm of some young 
 dandy, who will forsake his party, advance 
 towards the performers, and execute under 
 their fair eyes a very elegant dance to the 
 accompaniment of the solemn motion of his 
 fan. 
 
 The restaurant suppUes all the deficiencies 
 of the theatre in point of refreshment, and is 
 frequently crowded during the greater part 
 of the piece. Everybody knows all about 
 it, and does not mind sacrificing a few scenes 
 to the pleasures of the table. The so-called 
 spectators will eat and drink at the restaurant 
 
430 
 
 until the gong gives the signal for the great 
 interlude of the jugglers. Then the restau- 
 rant changes its aspect completely; every- 
 one hastens to his place in the theatre. 
 
 The Japanese are fond of physical con- 
 tests, such as wrestling. The wrestling 
 takes place in a sort of huge circus con- 
 structed of bamboo framework, covered with 
 matting, to keep out the gaze of the people 
 -who will not pay to go in. There is no 
 roof, but the whole amphitheatre is covered 
 with a kind of network of rice straw matting. 
 Many Japanese entertainments, whether 
 -theatrical or otherwise, begin in the early 
 morning and go on till eight or nine o'clock 
 in the evening. 
 
 A ^A^restling Match. 
 
 In giving a description of a wrestling 
 ■match, a traveller says : The whole amphi- 
 theatre is surrounded with these boxes, in 
 tiers. They are only scaffolding, and cannot 
 lae reached except by ladders placed against 
 the front of them. A few had a Red Indian's 
 blanket thrown over the front, probably 
 because the owner had brought it in his 
 riksha and was afraid of its being stolen. 
 
 The price for one of these boxes is three 
 dollars, and the Japanese generally squeeze 
 .about twenty people into them, though they 
 would only hold four or five Europeans. 
 Underneath the boxes ran a sort of gangway, 
 and the rest of the floor was taken up with 
 .a seething mass of humanity, sitting on their 
 hams. 
 
 We arrived about two o'clock, when every- 
 thing was in full swing, and passed through 
 a soft of temple-yard, containing a few 
 priests' tombs and orange and tea stalls. 
 There seemed no outward or visible way 
 into wrestling, though elevated on a platform 
 sat some old men of the large, fat brand they 
 use in Japanese wrestling, reminding one of 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 the troupe who stand on the little gallery out- 
 side boxing booths at country fairs in the 
 old country — ^two or three boxers, the man 
 with the hoarse voice, and the fat woman. 
 While we were staring despondently at them 
 we were overtaken by a man, who considers 
 that he can speak English on the strength of 
 knowing " more ten sen." 
 
 We asked him to take a private box for 
 us. He said, " No box ; pay ten sen." So 
 we paid for three, generously deciding to 
 frank him to the entertainment for his lin- 
 guistic exploits. The tickets we received 
 were of wood, ten inches long, by an inch an 
 a half wide, and half an inch thick ; and then 
 we dived through a door under the stage, 
 about three feet high, and found ourselves 
 confronted by plenty of unpleasant sights, 
 but, to all appearances, absolutely no room. 
 The boxes were not only all taken but 
 crammed. 
 
 A Repulsive Crowd. 
 
 As for the pit, it was a herring shoal of 
 coolies, into which one could not even see. 
 Our guide was desperate ; he flew to one 
 pew opener after another to ask about a box, 
 or even standing room, and finally beckoned 
 us forward. 
 
 A passage was drilled through the shoal, 
 and we were shot through it into the middle, 
 and yelled at by the people behind us until 
 we squatted on our hams (for which my 
 figure is unsuitable). Horrible, dirty, smell- 
 ing people were all around us ; and the 
 Japanese are reputed to be deplorably care- 
 less about the minor infectious diseases, 
 measles, mumps, and other childish maladies 
 which it is ridiculous for adults to have. 
 
 However, we could see the show, and a 
 very poor show it seemed to be — two nearly 
 naked Japs, crouching like cats to watch 
 each other ; making a cat-like spring at each 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 431 
 
 ' other ; meeting in mid-air, too alert to be 
 caught by each other ; coming down again ; 
 drinking a dram of water and putting it out 
 again on a piece of paper, with which they 
 proceeded to wash the sweat away from their 
 armpits ; walking round a little, and then 
 doing the cat business again. 
 
 Several times we were on the point of go- 
 ing out, but our nerves were screwed up to 
 the sticking-point by the arrival of two 
 Americans — the Professor of Literature and 
 Rhetoric at the nkw University here, and his 
 wife. They were anxious to see the wrest- 
 ling, and offered to share the expense of a 
 box if one was procurable. One wasn't, and 
 we moved on till we found ourselves oppo- 
 site a part of the pit which seemed less 
 crushed than the rest. 
 
 One of the Giants. 
 
 Within the enclosure stood a huge wrestler 
 probably one of the defeated competitors in 
 the earlier rounds. He was a good-humored- 
 looking sort of a giant, and melted beneath 
 the smile of woman. English grace in very 
 smart European garments smiled upon him, 
 and the giant cleared a space and snubbed 
 the doorkeeper. We entered, and craned 
 our necks. Presently an attendant brought 
 a bench, and invited us to stand on it ; but 
 as soon as we were comfortly settled, and 
 seeing things nicely, and therefore presuma- 
 bly loath to leave, he demanded an extra fee 
 for the use of the bench. 
 
 Japanese wrestling is conducted in a 12- 
 foot ring, sanded, and on an elevated stage 
 under a canopy, reminding one strikingly 
 of the fountain canopies in the courts of 
 temples, supported by four plain posts and 
 with an overhanging roof but no walls. The 
 posts are decked with parti-colored cloths, 
 and immediately below the roof hang blue 
 tabs and a white silk festoon, ornamented 
 
 with a gold sun and stars and decidedly 
 Japa,nese in appearance. 
 
 The umpire on this occasion wore a hand- 
 some gray silk costume, with the great 
 shoulder flaps which represented full dress 
 in feudal time, projecting about a foot over 
 each shoulder, and ornamented on collar, 
 breast, and cuffs with his crest. He carried 
 a peculiar lacquered fan, shaped like a blunt- 
 edged double hatchet, and ornamented with 
 a scarlet silk tassel suspended by a cord a 
 yard long. 
 
 The Contestants Appear. 
 
 Holding this horizontally he gave out 
 something in a loud voice, and two wrest- 
 lers ascended the platform — stark naked, ex- 
 cept for the double silk cross straps round 
 their waist and between their legs, and with 
 their hair combed in a peculiar fashion, very 
 like the snood once worn by little girls in 
 England, on the top of their heads. The 
 ring had just been swept, and its heroes fig- 
 ured about in the sand with their bare feet, 
 after slapping their thighs and cocking up 
 first one and then the other of their mighty 
 legs — this being, perhaps, a recognized form 
 of salutation to the audience, perhaps a 
 muscle stretcher. Then they carefully wiped 
 themselves, and commenced the crouching 
 down like cats, watching each other for the 
 spring. 
 
 Let us pause to look at them. These 
 wrestlers are gigantic, tall fellows, some of 
 them six feet high and more; vast of 
 shoulder and arm and thigh and calf; and 
 mountains of muscle, and some of them 
 also mountains of fat. Whether shaved or 
 natural, they have no hair on their bodies 
 except under the armpits ; and far from hav- 
 ing faces of the brutal type usual among 
 prize fighters, they have most of them good 
 humored, and some of them quite dignified. 
 
432 
 
 faces. They are not very like the ordinary 
 Japs, but I could not discover that they 
 came from any particular locality. 
 
 The modus operandi is this : the opponents 
 crouch down like wild beasts till they see 
 an opportunity to spring, and both of course 
 spring at the same time, one to attack and 
 the other to meet the attack. It is a case of 
 feint and parry. If the attack is parried 
 they go to the side of the stage, take a sip 
 of water to wash out their mouths and keep 
 them fresh for a prolonged struggle when 
 the grip is actually made. 
 
 Hurled From the Ring. 
 
 One wrestle was terminated by the cham- 
 pion wrestler, an enormously fat and heavy 
 man, being hurled clean off the ring by a 
 slimmer but wirier antagonist. At the edge 
 of the stage he was caught by an attendant, 
 placed there for the purpose, who must now 
 have an adequate conception of a thunder- 
 bolt. 
 
 Another was terminated by a wrestler 
 being stopped by the attendant in front of 
 one of the pillars from being hurled back- 
 wards into it. This counted a fall, and cer- 
 tainly would have been a very dangerous 
 one, that probably would have crushed the 
 skull. A third was terminated by one of 
 the wrestlers, a man who weighed a good 
 part of three hundred pounds, being caught 
 round the waist and thrown a foot or two up 
 in the air. 
 
 Sometimes the men gripped at arms' 
 length, and the bout would then be a very 
 long one. In one instance, there were two 
 men thus gripped, one with his head under 
 the other's breast bone. It was hard for his 
 opponent to keep his feet ; but, on the other 
 hand, the strain on the neck muscles was 
 terrific, and so was the strain on his wind, 
 with his chin crushed into his chest. He 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 had the better position if he could only last ; 
 and he did last, and win, though both fell, 
 and his only advantage consisted in his fall- 
 ing less on his back than his adversary. In 
 another instance, both fell on their backs, 
 but one on the top of the other. 
 
 The audience were enormously excited, 
 and when a favorite won, his admirers' hats 
 were showered upon him like bouquets at 
 the opera. These were carefully picked up, 
 and kept till the owners should come to re- 
 deem them ; for a man flings his hat to 
 show that he intends to make a present. 
 
 They watched every little point, and 
 waxed almost as enthusiastic over a success- 
 ful party and an artful feint as over a falL 
 The place was crammed from floor to ceil- 
 ing, and mostly with a not very respectable- 
 looking crowd ; but there was no brutality- 
 or rowdiness or roughness; and strangers, 
 far from being unsafe, were treated with, 
 special kindness. 
 
 A Perpetual Chow, Chow. 
 
 One of the wrestlers presented the Pro- 
 fessor with his programme, and he was 
 immensely pleased with my kodak camera, 
 which he called " shashin," and showed it to 
 all his comrades who came near, whenever 
 he was not drinking saki or eating some 
 strange compound. 
 
 What people the Japs are, to eat at enter- 
 tainments ! It was one perpetual chow, chow ; 
 a never-ending stream of hucksters, with 
 steaming tea-pots, tea-cups, oranges, sweet- 
 meats, villainous smeUing mercato-vecchio- 
 like pastry, hot saki and what not. The 
 vendors climbed round the top tier of boxes 
 along the coping, on which many of the 
 occupants deposited their boots. For the 
 Japanese cannot get over the trick of takjng 
 off his boots when he enters a place, and if 
 he is wearing sandals, or clogs, of course he 
 
AMUSEMENTS OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 433 
 
 has to take them off to climb the ladder, 
 which is the only way into the boxes. 
 
 At last the ladies thought they had seen 
 enough of the human form divine, and we 
 determined to go, but no guide was forth- 
 coming. That worthy had darted into the 
 crowd, like • a ferret after a rabbit, in his 
 excitement to see the fun ; and though the 
 tall wrestler called for him, still there was no 
 guide. We waited half an hour for him (for 
 which of course he charged us), and then 
 started without him. But when we got out- 
 side his mate was true to him, and entreated 
 us not to go till he had been to look for him ; 
 and just at that moment the guide came up, 
 breathless. I forgave him for being such a 
 sportsman. 
 
 We left about half-past three, but evidently 
 28 
 
 the fun was not nearly over, for dashing 
 down the hill in front, holding up the horses' 
 heads in the way usual in Japan, came a 
 Japanese swell with three girls in his car- 
 riage ; and we met several other carriages 
 evidently bound the same way, besides palan- 
 quins innumerable. And what rows and 
 rows of them there were already standing. 
 Outside the gate, also evidently going away, 
 we met three coolies, in typical coolie dresses, 
 reeling along as jovially as three real "chap- 
 pies " in London could have done. It was 
 a good-humored crowd, and the police seemed 
 to have nothing to do but to occupy the two 
 very best boxes in the amphitheatre, specially 
 hung with handsome black and white draper- 
 ies in their honor, enjoying the entertainment 
 to the utmost. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 THE high-class schools which com- 
 pose the University of Tokio are, 
 perhaps, the only neutral ground 
 on which the sons of the Japanese 
 nobility meet daily and live in common with 
 the young people of the middle classes. The 
 separation of ranks exists between them, 
 nevertheless, in all its severity : their studies 
 also differ in essential points. The young 
 gentlemen receive only a certain classical 
 culture based upon the books of the Chi- 
 nese philosophers, while to the middle-class 
 populace the career of liberal professions is 
 open, such as the teaching of languages, and 
 the practice of medicine ; they are also pre- 
 pared to become interpreters and engineers 
 in the service of the government. 
 
 The University of Tokio is not only 
 placed under the invocation of Confucius, 
 but it patronizes the doctrines of the Chin- 
 ese philosopher, and spreads them over all 
 the educated classes of Japanese society. 
 This is done in the form of an aggressive 
 propaganda openly hostile to the established 
 worships. The University tolerates existing 
 institutions, but it destroys the creeds which 
 form their soul. I have heard it said by an 
 interpreter at Tokio, "The pupils in our 
 University no longer believe in anything ; " 
 and I knew a functionary of the citadel who 
 stated at a diplomatic dinner that all the 
 people of cultivation in his country were 
 quite on a level with those of Western 
 nations, from the point of view of religion. 
 
 The clergy, whose temporal position is 
 not threatened, preserve a modest and pru- 
 434 
 
 dent attitude towards the literary class. The 
 bonzes are not inclined to attack the popu- 
 larity with which the memory of Confucius 
 is regarded in Japan, where he is universally 
 venerated under the name of Koo-ci, a cor- 
 ruption of the Chinese name Khoung-Tseu: 
 Nevertheless, he was never known there 
 until the year 255 of our era. At that epoch 
 Ozin, the sixteenth Mikado, enraged at see- 
 ing the paternal intentions of his Govern- 
 ment paralyzed by the ignorance of his sub- 
 jects, begged the King of Petsi in Corea to 
 teach him what he should do to instruct the 
 people. 
 
 A Hero and Benefactor. 
 
 The King sent him the learned Wang- Jin, 
 who made known to the Court the books of 
 the great teacher to whom China was in- 
 debted for more than six centuries for its 
 wisdom and its prosperity. The services 
 rendered by the learned Corean to the Em- 
 pire of the Mikados had been so highly ap- 
 preciated, that Wang- Jin, foreigner though 
 he was, was admitted among the number of 
 the national Kamis, together with the foun- 
 ders of the monarchy and the heroes or 
 benefactors of Japan. 
 
 When we endeavor to account for the in- 
 fluence which the writings of Confucius have 
 exercised upon Japanese society, we must 
 acknowledge at the same time that they 
 have contributed more than anything else to 
 endow it, not indeed with civilization, but 
 with the civiUsm in which it takes such pride. 
 It is very difficult to reduce the general prin- 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 435 
 
 ciples from which he deducts his moral sen- 
 tences to a scientiiic form. 
 
 Men, according to Confucius, are by 
 nature the friends of each other ; it is only- 
 habit and education which separates them. 
 
 To perfect oneself is the basis of all moral 
 development. 
 
 The means of obtaining this development 
 consists in pursuing the enlightening princi- 
 ple of reason which we receive from Heaven. 
 
 This reason teaches us perseverance of 
 conduct in a right line equally divided from 
 extremes. 
 
 The perfecting of oneself is, however, 
 only the first part of virtue ; the second and 
 most important part consists of the perfect- 
 ing of others. 
 
 The Golden Rule. 
 
 The supreme doctrine of humanity is that 
 we should act towards others as we wish 
 that they should act towards ourselves. 
 
 All social conditions are not equally proper 
 to the development of good natural disposi- 
 tions. 
 
 He who has the power or faculty of pur- 
 suing his moral development, and he who at- 
 tains to it, is distinguished from the crowd, 
 and to him Heaven gives a mandate to gov- 
 ern and to instruct the peoples. 
 
 Nevertheless, although the sovereign holds 
 his power from Heaven, the sole guarantee 
 whereby he preserves that power resides in 
 the support which he derives from the affec- 
 tion of his people. Finally, men who are 
 supremely perfect have the faculty, not only 
 of governing peoples, but of contributing to 
 the development of beings, and of identifying 
 themselves by their works with heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 This is, so far as I can discern, the sub- 
 stance of the doctrine of Khoung-Tseu ; and 
 no doubt it leaves little to desire, if we re- 
 
 gard man merely as a reasonable being ; but 
 if the human organization includes love, the 
 life of the heart with its infinite aspirations 
 and its mysterious intuitions of eternal 
 things, the sage of the Celestial Empire de- 
 ceived himself, his doctrine is insufficient ; it 
 has only the appearance of life, it encloses 
 men and states in a circle within which 
 humanity degenerates. Great thoughts come 
 from the heart and enthusiasm makes a great 
 people. 
 
 A Stagnant Nation. 
 
 China, disciplined by Confucius, has be- 
 come the type of stagnant nations. The 
 Japanese people have escaped from the fate 
 of their neighbors, but the government of 
 Japan, formed in the school of Chinese phi- 
 losophy, has been unable until lately to as- 
 similate Christian civilization and has merely 
 let its power slip into the hands of the old 
 national Theocracy. 
 
 It is a fact worthy of remark, that Khoung- 
 Tseu has never been the apostle of any of 
 the aristocrotic classes of society. His real 
 moral grandeur consists in having isolated 
 himself, while in the midst of paganism, in 
 the domain of reason, as it were in a fortress, 
 and of never having pretended to elevate 
 himself into the founder of a new religion. 
 He expressly forbids innovations in anything 
 whatsoever. 
 
 All his instructions are limited to recom- 
 mending the study and the example of the 
 old customs. The worship which is paid to 
 him in China and Tokio in the temple of the 
 University does not constitute, properly 
 speaking, an act of adoration, but merely 
 one of pious commemoration. It is unhap- 
 pily true that this homage degenerates into 
 a superstitious respect for the words of the 
 master, strengthened by the difficulties pre- 
 sented by the dry study of his works. 
 
436 
 
 In China, and in all countries subject to 
 the preponderance of the classical Chinese 
 literature, the attachment of the scholars to 
 the texts of their favorite author, is strong 
 in proportion to the trouble which it gives 
 them to fix them in their memory. The 
 study of a Chinese book is a most arduous 
 task, even for a Japanese; because the national 
 idiom of the latter has neither analogy nor 
 any point of contact with the language of the 
 Celestial Empire. 
 
 Style of Writing. 
 
 The primitive writing of the Japanese 
 exists no longer, except as an archaeological 
 curiosity ; it has given place to Chinese writ- 
 ing, which on its side has undergone the 
 most extraordinary transformation under the 
 reed of the Japanese. 
 
 Kioto was formerly the literary centre of 
 Japan. At .present the ancient pontifical 
 city possesses a speciality in albums contain- 
 ing miniatures; almanacs of the Dairi; re- 
 ligious books ; romances and poems in- 
 scribed upon vellum-paper spangled with 
 gold stars. But the presses of Tokio are 
 far more important in the number, variety, 
 popularity and immense sale of their publi- 
 cations. The greater part of the literary 
 novelties of the capital are produced by the 
 Professors of the University or the principal 
 pupils of the Interpreter's College. 
 
 They are almost all didactic, of a practical 
 tendency, with an utilitarian aim. There 
 are among them certain works which we 
 may entitle the Scientific Year, the Review 
 of Inventions and Discoveries, Statistics of 
 Europe and of North America, the Manual 
 of Modern History, the Precis of Contem- 
 porary Geography, the Annals of Physical 
 and Natural Sciences, of Medicine, of Navi- 
 gation, of Mechanics and of Military and 
 Naval Engineering. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The ancient Encyclopsedias, which consist 
 of more than two hundred volumes, are re- 
 placed by a sort of Dictionary of Conversa^ 
 tion published annually in a single volume 
 adorned with a quantity of wood engrav- 
 ings. The ethnographical portion of this 
 work is the most interesting. All that which 
 relates to the clerical and political institu- 
 tions of the Empire reduces itself to a dry 
 nomenclature. The chapters devoted to the 
 description of foreign nations are extremely 
 tame and uncritical. One of the most cate- 
 gorical deals with the Spaniards and Portu- 
 guese, of whom it says, in so many words, 
 that they have an extremely bad religion. 
 
 Japanese Books. 
 
 The doctrine of Confucius excludes every 
 kind of polemics, because, if men are beings 
 naturally good, if several of them have dur- 
 ing distant centuries attained perfection, 
 then there is really nothing more to dispute 
 about ; perfectibility becomes nonsense, and 
 progress consists in retrogression, as far as 
 those Emperors of the ancient ages, who, 
 according to Chinese philosophy, furnished 
 humanity with its supreme and definitive 
 type. We must, however, acknowledge that 
 the time has not yet come for us to judge 
 of Japanese literature. Those learned Eu- 
 ropeans who are by degrees making it 
 known to us have only translated in the 
 first place useful books. 
 
 Such are the important works on the art 
 of sericulture, and the manufacture of por- 
 celain in China and Japan, which have been 
 published since 1848. As for the purely 
 literary productions of Japanese writers, we 
 have very few of them, and the selections 
 made by the translators have not been judi- 
 cious. No doubt deeper research will give 
 us more valuable results, but they will only 
 be really profitable when we shall have pene- 
 
o 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 437 
 
438 
 
 trated into the private life of the middle 
 classes, and shall have succeeded in getting 
 hold of the repertory of their plays, their 
 legends, their stories, and their festival songs. 
 The lower classes are passionately fond of 
 listening to story-tellers and singers. Every 
 day, at the cessation of labor and of traffic, 
 groups of persons of both sexes may be seen 
 about the workshops, or, at an angle of the 
 cross roads, ranged in a semicircle around 
 the professional reciter. 
 
 Musicians and Public Singers. 
 
 National romances and legends are aban- 
 doned, by the common consent, to the 
 women who live by the trade of singers and 
 musicians. They form a very numerous 
 class of the Japanese proletariat, but some of 
 them are much less nomadic than the others, 
 and of an evidently superior class. The 
 most distinguished among the public singers 
 go about accompanied by three or four mu- 
 sicians, and do not themselves play on any in- 
 strument. 
 
 The artistic productions of these feminine 
 associations are at once dramatic and musi- 
 cal, and the effect is very charming when 
 they play in the open air, on a fine summer 
 evening, within a frame-work lightly con- 
 structed of bamboo, ornamented with climb- 
 ing plants and with garlands of colored-paper 
 lanterns. This is one of the popular specta- 
 cles which delights strangers. 
 
 One evening when we had been present at 
 a concert by these musicians, I said to our 
 yakounines on our way home, that I re- 
 gretted very much that I could not under- 
 stand the words of their national romances. 
 They assured me, laughing and shrugging 
 their shoulders, that I lost nothing by my 
 ignorance. One of them, however, had the 
 politeness to add, that books containing the 
 legends recited by the professional singers 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 were to be bought of the booksellers in the 
 city. 
 
 I afterwards asked a carrier in Yokohama 
 to purchase for me all the best productions 
 of the kind ; and I am sure he executed my 
 commission very faithfully, for he brought 
 me a complete library of moral tales, histori 
 cal ancedotes, and heroic or marvellous 
 legends. As the greater number of this col- 
 lection was illustrated, I had no difficulty in 
 recognizing the most popular of their sub- 
 jects, and, dipping by chance into the war- 
 like series, I found poetical and artistic illus- 
 trations of exploits which would put Ari- 
 osto's heroes to shame. 
 
 Asahina-Sabro charges a troop of enemies 
 and passes through them, lifting up with his 
 right hand a soldier wearing a casque and 
 cuirass, and spinning him round in the air, 
 while with the left hand he kills two equally 
 redoubtable warriors with one blow of his 
 
 mace. 
 
 A Gigantic Monster. 
 
 Nitan-Nosiro, the dauntless hunter, astride 
 on the back of a gigantic wild boar — which 
 has flung down and trodden under its hoofs 
 all the companions of the hero — holds the 
 furious monster between his knees and 
 plunges his cutlass into its shoulder. 
 
 Sousige, one of the horsemen of the 
 Mikado, finds his comrades squatting round 
 a draught-board ; he spurs his horse, and 
 with one bound it stands in the centre of the 
 board motionless, on its hind feet, while its 
 master, who has not lost his stirrups for a 
 moment, sits as firmly in this difficult posi- 
 tion as the equestrian statue of Peter the 
 Great on its granite pedestal on the banks 
 of the Neva. 
 
 The bow of Ulysses, King of Ithaca, haf 
 for a long time enjoyed unrivalled reputation, 
 but I fear it is about to be eclipsed by the 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 439 
 
 bow of Tametomo ; with which that warrior 
 conquered the Island of Fatsisio. He desired 
 to avoid bloodshed, and to convince the 
 islanders that all resistance on their part was 
 useless : he therefore summoned the two 
 strongest men of the race of Ainos, and, 
 seated calmly upon a mass of rock, he pre- 
 sented his bow to them, holding it by the 
 wood, and ordered them to try and bend it. 
 
 A Skilful Bowman. 
 
 Each seized it by both hands, and, setting 
 their heels against the wood of the bow, they 
 leaned back with all their weight and pulled 
 the string with all their strength. Every 
 effort was in vain ; the bow yielded only 
 when Tametomo took it delicately between 
 the finger and thumb of his right hand and 
 shot an arrow, which was immediately lost 
 in the clouds. 
 
 Such is the nature of the heroic literature 
 of Japan. It would be much more difficult 
 to give an idea of their marvellous or fantas- 
 tic legends. The merit of these productions, 
 which are generally short poems, appears to 
 consist essentially in the choice of expres- 
 sions, in the structure of the verses ; in fact, 
 in the elegance of the style without any 
 reference to the subject, because most fre- 
 quently we find, on translating them, that 
 they have only a childish meaning, with no 
 moral signification or any value in point of 
 intelligence. 
 
 What, for instance, can be the point of the 
 following anecdote? " The soul of a thiev- 
 ing weasel having hidden itself in a bonze's 
 kettle, the bonze saw it come out one day 
 when he set the kettle on an unusually hot 
 fire." This is all; and this absurdity is the 
 subject of an exceedingly popular picture. 
 There are, however, among these legends a 
 few which, notwithstanding that good sense 
 and good taste protest against them, to a 
 
 certain extent captivate the imagination, 
 excite curiosity, and provoke reflection. 
 
 Several times I have asked myself what 
 can possibly be the origin and the traditional 
 cause of the almost religious importance 
 attached by all the middle-class families to a 
 picture which represents an old man armed 
 with a bamboo rake, of the sort which is 
 used for raking the ears of rice or small 
 shell-fish ; and an old woman holding a 
 broom, with which she seems to be about to 
 sweep up dead leaves. They stand together 
 side by side, or they sit at the foot of an 
 ancient cedar, whose cavernous trunk seems 
 to be their abode. 
 
 The Tortoise and Crane. 
 
 An interpreter told me that the people of 
 his province regard these two personages as 
 the Adam and Eve of their country. We 
 often find the tortoise and the crane, two 
 animals endowed with eternal peace and 
 a very long life, frequently associated with 
 them, and the good old man and old woman 
 are exhibited at all wedding feasts, either in 
 the form of a picture or as a table ornament. 
 No doubt they symbolize to the young mar- 
 ried couple domestic happiness, lasting to 
 the extreme Umit of old age, as the reward 
 of a simple life and a faithful affection. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a tree called 
 the Enoki, dedicated to unhappy households. 
 It is said to have sprung up on the tomb of 
 the first Japanese woman who was divorced. 
 If a married couple no longer suit one 
 another, they have only to go secretly, each 
 without the knowledge of the other, to the 
 foot of the Enoki, and there form the inten- 
 tion of separating. In a short time the 
 separation is accomplished without any diffi- 
 culty, and the grateful husband suspends 
 a votive tablet on the trjink of the tree 
 representing a man and a woman crouching 
 
440 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 upon the ground, and turning their backs on 
 one another. 
 
 Tree-worship, which has existed among 
 all ancient races, is limited by the Japanese 
 to very old trees. When the lord of Yamato 
 y/ished to furnish his house completely from 
 the trunk of the finest cedar in his park, the 
 axes of the woodman bounded from the 
 
 STATUE FROM A JAPANESE TEMPLE. 
 
 bark, and large drops of blood flowed from 
 every stroke. This, says the legend, is be- 
 cause ancient trees have a soul, like men 
 and gods, granted to them on account of 
 their great age. They are also capable of 
 sympathy with the misfortunes of fugitives 
 who place themselves under their protection. 
 More than one unfortunate warrior on the 
 
 point of falling into the han'ds of implacable 
 enemies has found a retreat in their branches 
 or in some old trunk. 
 
 Japanese legend has its Genevieve de Bra- 
 bant. A noble lady driven forth into the 
 woods gave birth to a son, whom she nursed 
 at her breast while she labored for their 
 common support. When her innocence had 
 been recognized she was brought back with 
 great pomp to the Court of the Mikado, and 
 her kirimon of leaves was exposed in a tem- 
 ple for public veneration. 
 
 To the end of his life her son retained the 
 weather-beaten complexion and the crisp 
 hair, which he owed to his early mode of 
 life. He was accustomed to combat with 
 wild beasts, to tame bears and to resist the 
 attacks of brigands ; he possessed prodigious 
 strength and skill, and he has become one of 
 the principal iheroes of the Empire under the 
 the name of Rou'iko. 
 
 Pine and Bamboo Groves. 
 
 The forests, and the pine and bamboo 
 groves shelter great numbers of wild beasts, 
 among which the monkey, the polecat, the 
 badger, and especially the fox, furnish inex- 
 haustible subjects for fantastic stories and 
 drawings. Animals who attain to a great 
 age end, like trees, in becoming endowed 
 with a human soul and supernatural virtues. 
 The polecat, when it is old, calls the wind 
 and the clouds from the mountain-tops. The 
 hail and rain obey him. He allows himself 
 to be carried away upon the wings of the 
 hurricane. 
 
 The traveller caught in the open country 
 may courageously brave the tempest, but he 
 cannot protect his face from being cut as if 
 by a knife. This is the effect of the claws 
 of the polecat, who passes him in the storm. 
 Old frogs upon the borders of the tanks 
 bring down a damp fog into the eyes of the 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 441 
 
 belated passenger, who believes that he sees 
 the roofs of his hamlet upon the horizon, 
 but this is only an illusion vyhich lures him 
 still farther into the vast swamp. 
 
 The Yama-tori, or silver pheasant, makes 
 a mirror of his plumage. He is an invul- 
 nerable being. He does not fly from the 
 sight of the sportsman ; but woe to the latter 
 if he attempt to harm him, or to pursue him 
 into the defiles of the mountains, for he will 
 never return. 
 
 Old Wolves have the gift of metamor- 
 phosis. One especially large wolf suddenly 
 disappeared from the country, in which he 
 had long been the terror of travellers, but 
 when they thought they might henceforth 
 go their ways in safety they met, at nightfall, 
 just at the corner of the wood, a beautiful 
 girl, who carried a lantern, painted like a 
 bouquet of roses, in her hand. 
 
 A Beautiful Demon. 
 
 She is well known through all the coun- 
 try-side under the name of " the Beauty 
 with the Rose-lantern." .Alas! every travel- 
 ler who has followed her has fallen into the 
 jaws of the wolf. There was another girl, 
 who, as seen from afar, had all the graces of 
 her sex, but a man who saw her face to face 
 beheld a demon. 
 
 Tade-yama is a very high mountain, with 
 a deep crater in its summit. On looking 
 into the gulf, the horrified traveller beholds 
 a basin filled with human blood, and this 
 blood boils, heated by the volcano ; such a 
 place, says the bonze, can only be one of the 
 departments of h^U. 
 
 All maladies which break out for the first 
 lime among the people have a diabolical 
 origin. The demon of small-pox came to 
 Japan by sea. He was dressed in a red 
 tunic, and he bore a letter addressed, no one 
 knows by whom, to the Divine patron of the 
 
 Empire. In the sanctuary of some of the 
 old bonze houses, barbed arrow-heads of 
 flint and jasper, lance-heads in the form of 
 spits, knives and axes of basalt and of jade, 
 are exhibited. 
 
 These instruments, according to the 
 bonzes, are for the most part relics which 
 have come down from the time of the ancient 
 dynasties of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. 
 In the southern part of Niphon there exists 
 a kind of axe formed of' thunderbolts ; and 
 stone arrows, which bear witness to the strife 
 reigning among the spirits of the tempest, 
 still fall in showers when the unchained ele- 
 ments menace the habitations of men. 
 
 Strange Story of a Priest. 
 
 Great respect is due to printed books, re- 
 spect in fact equal to that claimed for ances- 
 tral monuments. The bonze Ra'igo, having 
 in a moment of anger destroyed the library 
 of his convent, was after his death changed 
 into a rat, and condemned to gnaw scraps of 
 paper and old fragments of parchment as his 
 only food. The evil spirits of the air haunt 
 during the night all places were crimes, 
 either detected or secret, have been com- 
 mitted. 
 
 The souls of misers return to the earth, 
 while their treasures, however skilfully they 
 may have been concealed, are carried away, 
 no one knows how or where. A woman who 
 had great revenues refused to marry; her 
 motive was pure avarice. When she was 
 dead her sisters inherited her property. One 
 of them, who loved to adorn herself with 
 a dress which had belonged to the dead 
 woman, and who hung it up every night on 
 a nail at the back of her bedroom door, saw 
 a long lank arm protruding from the dress 
 and shaking it violently. 
 
 The souls of women who have been unhappy 
 wander about the scene of their misfortunes. 
 
442 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The souls of women who have committed 
 suicide by drowning float in the air as if they 
 were about to fall head formost. Women 
 who have died in childbed appear to the pas- 
 sers-by carrying the infant in their arms, and 
 crying, in a supplicating voice, — " Have 
 mercy, and receive my child, that it may not 
 remain in the tomb." 
 
 Driving Away Evil Spirits. 
 
 A woman having died in consequence of 
 the ill-treatment of her husband, the latter 
 sent for a bonze immediately after her inter- 
 ment, and directed him . to place a blessed 
 paper, which has the property of dispelling 
 evil spirits, upon the lintels of his doorway. 
 When the soul of the dead woman came 
 back from the cemetery, it could not pass the 
 sacred barrier, and thenceforth she cries 
 incessantly to all persons who approach the 
 house : " All you who pass by take away 
 that paper." 
 
 The historical anecdotes present a totally 
 different character from the heroic and mar- 
 vellous legends. They bear the modern 
 impress of the critical studies of the Univer- 
 sity of Tokio, and are marked by the cold 
 reasoning which distinguishes the philoso- 
 phical school of Confucius. 
 
 The American Missionary, Verbeck, has 
 made us acquainted with one of the most 
 remarkable specimens : " The Collection of 
 Virtuous Actions accomplished in Japan and 
 China," the work of a Japanese, a native of 
 Tokio, and a pupil in the University. A 
 short quotation will enable our readers to 
 appreciate the book, and the school to which 
 it belongs. 
 
 "All men," says the author, " invoke some 
 deity to preserve them and their families 
 from ill-fortune. Some address their prayers 
 to the moon ; others watch all night, in 
 order that they may salute the rising sun by 
 
 their homage; others invoke the gods of 
 Heaven and Earth, and also Buddha. But 
 to adore the sun, the moon, the gods, or 
 Buddha, without doing that which is good, 
 is to ask that rice-stems should come out of 
 the earth before the grain has been planted. 
 Learn then, that in that case, the moon, the 
 sun, the gods, and Buddha may perhaps 
 have a great deal of compassion for you, but 
 they will never cause the rice to grow until 
 you have sown the seed." 
 
 Confucius has said : " He who offends 
 heaven has nobody whom he can invoke 
 with profit;" and a Japanese sage has 
 written : " If thou turn not away thine heart 
 from truth and goodness, the gods will take 
 care of thee without thine invocation. To be 
 virtuous is to adore." 
 
 Foretelling a Great Calamity. 
 
 Under the reign of one of the ancient 
 Mikados, an unknown star appeared in the 
 sky. A celebrated astronomer having ob- 
 served it, declared that it was the presage of 
 a great calamity abQut to fall upon the family 
 of one of the generals-in-chief of the Empire. 
 At this epoch Nakahira was the generjil-in- 
 chief of the left, and Sanegori was general-in- 
 chief of the right. On learning the prediction 
 of the astrologer, Sanegori and his family 
 fled to the temples of Buddha and of Sinto, 
 in the neighborhood, and there worshipped 
 without cessation, while the family of Naka- 
 hira took no precaution of the kind. 
 
 A priest, remarking this, went to Nakahira 
 and expressed his, surprise. "Sanegori," 
 said he, " visits all the holy places, and offers 
 up prayers in order that he may escape from 
 the misfortune presaged by the unknown 
 star; why do not you do the same?" 
 Nakahira, who had attentively listened to the 
 priest, replied : " You have seen what is 
 going on, and you will know how to under- 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 443 
 
 stand my justification. When I am told that 
 the unknown star presages a misfortune to 
 one of the generals-in-chief, it stands to 
 reason that the predicted calamity must fall 
 upon either Sanegori or upon me. 
 
 " Now when I come to reflect, I know that 
 I am of very advanced age, and that I have 
 no military talent ; Sanegori, on the contrary, 
 is in the prime of life, and perfectly suited for 
 the post he holds. Consequently, if I were 
 to pray and were to be heard, so as to turn 
 away from myself the calamity which 
 threatens us both equally, it could only take 
 place to the greater peril of Sanegori, and to 
 the detriment of the Empire. I abstain 
 therefore from prayer, in order to aid as far 
 as I can in saving the precious life of this 
 man." 
 
 A Child of Seven Years. 
 On hearing these words the* priest could 
 not restrain his emotion, and he exclaimed : 
 " Certainly so noble a thought is the best act 
 of worship you could make, and most un- 
 doubtedly, if there be gods, and if there be a 
 Buddha, it is neither upon you nor your 
 family that the calamity will fall." 
 
 Whither goes that poorly-dressed woman, 
 holding by the hand a young girl seven years 
 of age, decked out in her best clothes? After 
 having laid her offering before the altar of 
 Quannon, she slowly traverses the road 
 'across the rice-fields, which turns to the 
 east, and goes to Sin-Yosiwara. After an 
 hour's walking, she reaches the external 
 wall of the City of Vice, accessible only on 
 one side — ^that of the north. She has met 
 no woman upon her way. The elegant nori- 
 mons of the ladies, whose coolies are carry- 
 ing them in that direction, are closely shut. 
 Individuals of every rank meet in the city, 
 but without saluting each other, without ex- 
 changing the smallest politeness. 
 
 Those who belong to the class of Samou- 
 rais hide themselves in a complete disguise. 
 The houses on both sides of the public way 
 appear to be dependencies of the privileged 
 quarter. The most miserable are tenanted 
 by an immense population of coolies and 
 norimon-bearers, bric-a-brac sellers, and mat- 
 plaiters. The larger houses contain bathing 
 establishments, provision sheds, stores of bad 
 books, restaurants, lottery offices, and taverns, 
 in which the apparent toleration of the police 
 adroitly conceals the control which is in 
 reality exercised over the dangerous classes 
 of the capital. 
 
 Before the Chief. 
 
 A bridge crosses the canal through the 
 rice-fields. Nothing which takes place in 
 this neighborhood escapes the notice of a 
 double post of Yakounines installed before 
 the gates in two guard-rooms opposite one 
 another. The gatekeeper on duty conducts 
 the poor traveller with her child into the 
 presence of his chief. After a few minutes, 
 the mother and daughter come out of the 
 guard-room, accompanied by a police agent, 
 who leads them to one of the chief buildings 
 in the street. 
 
 This is the residence of the functionary 
 known as the chief of the great Gankiro. 
 The mother returns alone, carrying in the 
 sleeve of her kirimon a sum of money, 
 amounting to about the value of twenty 
 dollars. The bargain she has made is duly 
 signed and sealed. She has sold her child, 
 body and soul, for a term of seventeen years. 
 
 The countries of the far east which suffer 
 from an excess of population are those in 
 which the inhuman, fundamentally anti- 
 social, unnatural character of Buddhist 
 paganism is revealed in all its horrors. Its 
 every form of pagan worship finds an ac- 
 complice in the measures which the govern- 
 
444 
 
 merits of China and 
 preserve their cities 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 Japan have taken to 
 from the invasion of 
 Christian civilization. The opposition put 
 in the way of native intercourse with for- 
 eigners, the absolute prohibition imposed 
 upon their desire to leave their native 
 country, have been the true causes of the 
 overcrowding of maritime cities. 
 
 Prevalent Vices. 
 
 In order to remedy this evil, Buddhism, 
 which is its real origin, palliates and absolves 
 everything which has been resorted to by 
 perversity, in order to stop the progress of 
 population. Thus Buddhism tolerates, in 
 China, polygamy and infanticide ; in Japan, 
 concubinage ; in both countries, prostitution 
 organized under every form, brought within 
 the reach of all classes of society, and fed 
 without scruple by all the resources of specu- 
 lation, not excepting traffic in children under 
 age, or, indeed, in children of every age, be- 
 cause majority is only an illusory right when 
 brought into conflict with the will of parents. 
 
 In the greater number of cases these poor 
 creatures are the victims of the ill-conduct of 
 the father, who has fallen into dissolute 
 habits, and who, in order that he may be 
 perfectly without restraint, has turned his 
 wife and children out of their home. Jap- 
 anese wives have no security against a rup- 
 ture of the conjugal bond, which may be 
 broken by the husband with no greater for- 
 mality than the procuring of a letter of 
 divorce. The forsaken wife will never have 
 an opportunity of contracting a second mar- 
 riage. Society condemns her. 
 
 If she has no relations who will receive 
 her, she is left to utter solitude, and her 
 only prospect is poverty. Under such con- 
 ditions, to give up a child under age to the 
 Gankiro is to save her from destitution, and 
 to defer, at least for a time, her own penury. 
 
 AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 If the girl be grown up, the bargain is still 
 more advantageous, because the mother will 
 derive from it an annual income during four 
 or five years. 
 
 Within the quadrangular enclosure of Sin- 
 Yosiwara nine distinct quarters exist, each in 
 the form of a parallelogram stretching from 
 east to west. On the left of the great gate 
 there are five ; on the right there are four. 
 The former are separated from the latter by 
 a long and spacious avenue of trees, which 
 forms a beautiful promenade. At one end is 
 a watch-tower; and where three angles of 
 the city meet is a chapel, built out from the 
 wall of the enclosure. A wide cross avenue 
 in the centre of the quarter on the right also 
 looks like a public promenade ; but it is re- 
 served for the inhabitants and visitors of the 
 first-class houses by which it is surrounded. 
 There, either by day or by night, according 
 to the seasons, the feminine notabilities of the 
 Gankiro are to be found walking up and 
 down, all dressed in the invariable kirimon, 
 loaded with embroidery, and in a marvellous 
 head attire of tortoise-shell combs and pins. 
 Each of these women are accompanied by 
 two or three pupils attached to her personal 
 service. These young followers wear the 
 colors of their mistress, and an elegant head- 
 dress of artificial flowers. 
 
 Seeking Amusement. 
 The Gankiro properly so called is the 
 casino of the fashionables of Sin-Yosiwara ; 
 payment is made to the doorkeeper on enter- 
 ing, and the visitor is introduced to the con- 
 versation room. Admirable order is pre- 
 served. Pipes and refreshments, such as 
 are ordinarily given at all Japanese enter- 
 tainments, are to be had in profusion to sea- 
 son the witty conversation of the ladies, one 
 of whom undertakes to guide the visitor 
 through the gardens and the various rooms. 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 445 
 
 Every amusement has its tariff. In one 
 of these rooms a vocal and instrumental 
 concert will be going on ; in another, char- 
 acter dances, both executed by women, pro- 
 fessional artists residing at Tokio and who 
 have nothing in common with the inhabitants 
 of Sin-Yosiwara. These performances, even 
 from our point of view, would be by no 
 
 means unworthy of the best company. 
 
 • 
 
 Patterns of Fans. 
 
 A banqueting hall in the Gankiro is very 
 curiously decorated ; the walls are hung 
 with beautiful sketches, either in " genre " or 
 in landscape, some in Chinese ink, others 
 colors, but all painted on pieces of card- 
 board cut after the pattern of the different 
 sorts of fans used in the far East. But the 
 greatest curiosity of the Gankiro is its chil- 
 dren's theatre. All the actors are young 
 girls from seven to thirteen years of age, 
 whose education consists of reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, singing, music, dancing, acting 
 and declamation. Operettas, httle fairy pieces 
 and costume ballets are executed by these 
 children with infinite grace and dexterity. 
 
 It is doubtful whether these pieces are not 
 superior in literary value to the vaudevilles, 
 the comedies and the dramatic proverbs 
 which are played in schools in Europe and 
 America; but the little theatre is certainly 
 superior to such things among ourselves in 
 talent, vivacity and charming childish poetry. 
 The spectacle is very pretty and very inter- 
 esting, and yet, at the same time, what can 
 be more sad than to see the young girls of 
 the Gankiro so carefully educated? The 
 sight only supplies an additional protest 
 against these horrible institutions. 
 
 Of a lower grade in the social hell of Sin- 
 Yosiwara are the regions frequented by the 
 small traders and the hattamotos. Suicide 
 through love is frequently committed. The 
 
 lover kills himself because he is not rich 
 enough to purchase his sweetheart, and she 
 kills herself because she has sworn to be 
 faithful to him. 
 
 I have seen on the stage at Yokohama a 
 play representing the tragical end of a 
 woman, whose tender declarations had been 
 interpreted by a young Samourai in another 
 sense than that known in Yosiwara. De- 
 ceived in his love, outraged in his honor, the 
 furious lover strikes off the head of the faith- 
 less woman with one blow of his sword. The 
 Japanese theatre represents this scene, with 
 full detail. The bloody sword flashes, and 
 the victim falls under the eyes of the specta- 
 tors ; the orchestra breaks out into an ex- 
 pression of horror by the combined effect of 
 all its instruments. 
 
 A Ghastly Head. 
 
 Suddenly silence ensues, and the hero of 
 the piece turns toward the public to give a 
 pathetic explanation of his reasons. At the 
 same moment the machinist moves a trap in 
 the front of the stage', and the bloody head 
 appears within two paces of the murderer, as 
 if it had rolled to his feet. 
 
 Nothing gives such an idea of the im- 
 mense circumference of Tokio than follow- 
 ing the outer zone of the quarters situated 
 on the south, the west, and north of the 
 citadel, for it extends from the faubourg of 
 Sinagawa, opposite the six forts of the bay, 
 and the country traversed by the northern 
 road beyond Senjou-Obassi ; and embraces 
 on the north of Hondja those fertile fields 
 which are watered on one side by the 
 Sumidagawa, and on the other by the small 
 river which forms the eastern boundary 
 of the three districts on the right bank. 
 
 But a description of the quarters com- 
 prised in this suburb would be tiresome, be- 
 cause they have all a uniform agglomerate 
 
446 
 
 character, and the curiosities which they con- 
 tain are all of the same kind : sometimes 
 rustic temples built upon the funeral hills, 
 sometimes granite statues or commemorative 
 tables raised upon the tomb of some cele- 
 brated personage, and destined to perpetuate 
 the remembrance of a remarkable event in 
 the history of the ancient Shoguns. Here 
 are tea-houses, great orchards, horticultural 
 establishments ; there, are sacred trees, rest- 
 ing places set up at the best points of view, 
 and sometimes an isolated hill. 
 
 A Continuous Garden. 
 
 Inaka, in a word, seen from a birdseye 
 view, looks like a park, or a continuous 
 garden dotted with rural habitations ; or it 
 resembles a garland of verdure and flowers, 
 cast round the faubourgs of the south and 
 the districts of the west, and uniting them to 
 the artisan's quarters, in the heart of the 
 city and to the villages which extend to the 
 rice-fields. 
 
 ■ When the orchards are in flower, the citi- 
 zen, the painter, and the student, are seized 
 with rural fancies; they fly from the labors 
 and the pleasures of the capital, and hide 
 themselves for a day, or for many days, if it 
 be possible, among the rustic roofs of the 
 tea-houses. These charming retreats, rich 
 with the beauties of nature, are innumerable. 
 Most of them can hardly be distinguished 
 from the country houses in their neighbor- 
 hood. Their vast roofs come down to the 
 ground floor. 
 
 Domestic birds flutter, or plume them- 
 selves in the sun, on the moss with which the 
 roof is covered, and which rises to the sum- 
 mit, where we see long lines of iris in full 
 flower. When there is no gallery, arbors of 
 vines, or other climbing plants, shelter the 
 guests grouped negligently upon the thresh- 
 old. A limpid spring murmurs and flows 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 along the path, which descends towards the 
 plain across the gardens and vineyards, the 
 poppy and bean-fields, or the great expanse 
 of cereal and textile plants. 
 
 In February, in June, and in October, 
 three times a year, certain societies accom- 
 plish a rural pilgrimage into the villages at 
 three or four miles distant from Tokio, 
 merely to behold with their own eyes the 
 vicissitudes of the seasons and the transfor- 
 mations of nature. 
 
 In winter, if the snow should fall, it is con- 
 sidered a duty as well as a pleasure that 
 whole families should go and contemplate 
 the strange aspect of the statues in the en- 
 closure, the high pagoda of Asaksa; but, 
 above all, no one must fail to retire to cer- 
 tain tea-houses in the faubourgs, to admire 
 the spectacle of the bay and the country 
 under the novel decoration. In summer, it 
 is agreed that the concert of grasshoppers 
 must be listened to, and a good family man 
 would never fail to take his children, plenti- 
 fully supplied with little wicker cages, in 
 order to bring back some of these sweet 
 songsters. 
 
 Charming Orchards. 
 Poets of the spring, choristers of the sum- 
 mer, painters and artists who seek for new in- 
 spirations, delight to abandon themselves from 
 morning to evening to charming study and rev- 
 erie among the orchards of cherry, plum, pear, 
 and peach trees, among the groves of bam- 
 boo, citrons, oranges, pines, and cypress, 
 which surround the temples, the gardens of 
 the tea-houses, and a multitude of classic 
 retreats of the Muses of Japan. When night 
 has come they meet in excellent inns, and 
 combine with the pleasures of the table the 
 enjoyment of society, where conversation 
 alternates with songs and music, and draw- 
 ings are exhibited in exchange for pages of 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 447 
 
 poetry which have been written during the 
 day. 
 
 The pencil often intervenes in the capri- 
 cious conversation, and the subject of a tale 
 or a discussion is illustrated or travestied by 
 the imagination of the painter amid the ap- 
 plause of the company. 
 
 Blind Shampooers. 
 
 Japanese caricatures generally bear the 
 impress of good nature. They are, for the 
 most part, taken from middle-class life. A 
 grave physician is studying the state of his 
 patient's tongue, or examining with a vain 
 expenditure of spectacles the ailing eyes — 
 he is lifting up the corner of the eyelid with 
 great care ; quacks are engaged in the opera- 
 tion of shampooing or in the application of 
 moxas ; a band of blind shampooers on their 
 travels have gone astray at a ford, and are 
 disputing in the midst of the water as to the 
 direction which they should take on reach- 
 ing the opposite bank. 
 
 Then we have types of the begging friars ; 
 of fishing misadventures ; scenes of feminine 
 jealousy and household quarrels pushed to 
 violent measures. There are also very com- 
 plete series of caricatures, such as the small 
 troubles of life in the great world; the 
 household of the fat man, and the household 
 of the thin man, and the different grimaces 
 which can be formed by the human face. 
 And the artists do not spare themselves ; 
 for rapid painting, which is held in such 
 esteem in Japan, is symbolized under the 
 figure of an artist who is working with six 
 brushes at once, two in each hand and one 
 between each great toe. 
 
 The method which rendered Grandville so 
 popular in his illustration of the fables of 
 La Fontaine is not unknown to Japanese 
 caricaturists. But their pencil is less spar- 
 ing; they only exceptionally reach to the 
 
 dramatic energy of the human passions. 
 Most frequently they limit themselves to 
 giving animals a costume, or an attitude 
 which invests them with a certain symbolic 
 character. Such, for example, is the per- 
 sonification of the twelve signs of the Zodiac 
 — the mouse, the bear, the tiger, the hare, 
 the dragon, the serpent, the horse, the ram, 
 the monkey, the cock, the dog, and the wild 
 boar — each adorned with vestments and at- 
 tributes relating to their astronomical func- 
 tions, or to the parts which they play in 
 astrology. 
 
 A sketch; no less harmless, but more 
 amusing, represents a rice-warehouse in 
 which rats, the most dreaded enemies of 
 that precious cereal, form the warehouse- 
 men. Nothing is missing in this pretty 
 scene, from the cashier making his calcula- 
 tions with his bead frame, to' the salesman 
 turning over his books in order to demon- 
 strate to a purchaser that he cannot abate a 
 farthing in price. The shopmen are carry- 
 ing the bales, of which the purchaser is taking 
 an invoice, on their shoulders. 
 
 Adepts at Comic Art. 
 
 The money is in little straw bags, which 
 the coolies carry at the ends of their bam- 
 boos. Everything is conducted with the 
 order and regularity becoming to a great 
 house. The smallest details are drawn with 
 the care which would be bestowed upon a 
 serious composition. It is in this kind of 
 comic art, childish or heroic by turns, 
 that the Japanese display most ease and 
 originality. 
 
 I frequently noticed a dash of satire of a 
 political kind in the numerous and varied 
 sketches whose subject is furnished by the 
 " trains " of the Daimios. For instance, 
 I have seen many in which the personages 
 of the cortege, beginning with the prince 
 
448 
 
 himself, are represented as foxes or mon- 
 keys. 
 
 The satirical intention is not less manifest 
 in those pictures in which we see the supe- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 which a hare has prostrated himself, tremb- 
 lin'g, at the feet of a wild boar. The hare is 
 a little hattamoto out of employment, and 
 the wild boar is a high-class functionary in 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF QUANNON. 
 
 rior of a bonze-house with a wolf's head, 
 and a group of nuns under the image of 
 weasels. The most expressive picture I have 
 seen of this kind represents an audience in 
 
 Court dress. The one is seeking the influ 
 ence and favor of his more fortunate superior. 
 The taste for the fcintastic goes along with 
 that for caricature. In Japan, political insti- 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 449 
 
 tutions, religion, and nature, all concur to 
 excite the imagination and to set it wander- 
 ing to the region of chimeras. On the sea- 
 shore, the basaltic rocks take forms now 
 grotesque and now frightful. The ocean 
 itself is a world of mysteries. Sometimes, 
 when it is very dark, a light may be seen 
 under the water which resembles a dragon. 
 Sailors have seen shells darting along among 
 the waves. Under the waters of the Strait 
 of Simonoseki is a grotto, or rather a temple, 
 encrusted with pearls and mother-of-pearl. 
 It is called the Riogoun. It is situated in 
 the place where the young Mikado Antok 
 was submerged with his suite, as he fled from 
 the field of battle where his partisans were 
 defeated by Yoritomo (i 185). 
 
 Court of Marine Monsters. 
 
 In this temple he reigns and holds his 
 Court. His men-at-arms carry long rods 
 surmounted by sharks' fins; these are his 
 banners. All the sea-gods, wearing diadems 
 representing the heads of seals, little fishes, 
 medusas, crabs, and dragon's jaws, come to 
 pay him homage. This Court of marine 
 monsters and drowned men-at-arms has in- 
 spired the strangest artistic compositions ; 
 equalled only by the revolting scenes in 
 which we see the bloody and slaughtered 
 victims aiding demons in the punishment of 
 their murderers in the infernal regions. 
 
 The Japanese delight in the imitation of 
 hideous realities. The wax-work museum 
 at Asaksa-tera possesses figures of executed 
 criminals, and corpses in a state of decom- 
 position. They can also ally the burlesque 
 to the horrible, but they do so only in sub- 
 jects which are not tragical. For instance, 
 they will change the vessels used in religious 
 ceremonies, gongs, holy-water brushes, can- 
 delabra, perfume vases, altars, images, statu- 
 ettes, into so many animated monsters, 
 
 29 
 
 jumping or crawling in an infernal dance, 
 led by evil spirits. 
 
 The fantastic has its part in the fascina- 
 tions of the tea-houses in the suburbs of 
 Tokio. Some are erected in places propi- 
 tious to the contemplation of Fousi-yama, 
 and the sight of that extraordinary moun- 
 tain, as it appears at sunrise or at sunset 
 under the clear sky, or when swept by 
 storms, is such as to satisfy the most exact- 
 ing imagination. 
 
 The charm of the landscape and mysteri- 
 ous cataracts forming cascades, is enhanced 
 in other places by mineral springs and basins 
 of thermal water, like certain watering-places 
 in the Swiss mountains. People do not go 
 there for the purpose of cure, properly so- 
 called, but they go to pass a few days with 
 their families in elegant cedar chalets shaded 
 with magnificent trees, on the banks of the 
 water-course, which may be compared to 
 the finest Alpine rivers; 
 
 Buying Harvest Rakes. 
 
 Other places of pleasure are specially de- 
 voted to one or other of the popular super- 
 stitions. The people go from the temples to 
 the tea-houses with the satisfaction which 
 accompanies the accomplishment of a pious 
 task. During the first days of the eleventh 
 month the hotel-keepers and the bonzes of 
 Yousima-Tendjin receive thousands of pil- 
 grims of both sexes, small traders, and agri- 
 culturists, in the faubourgs or the country 
 immediately around the city ; they come to 
 buy rakes at an isolated temple in a marsh 
 on the north of the capital. 
 
 These rakes are of good augury for har- 
 vest, and are simply pious playthings, which 
 are held as talismans in the dwellings of the 
 faithful. They suit all purses and the most 
 varied tastes ; some, of colossal size, are de- 
 corated with a picture, representing the junk 
 
450 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 of happine'ss ; others, of smaller dimensions, 
 are ornamented with the sign of the god of 
 riches ; the simplest have only pictures on 
 paper or on papier-mache, such as the head 
 of the god of rice, the mask of Okame, and 
 all sorts of mythological emblems. 
 
 As fortune does not confer its favors 
 among men in proportion to their stature, it 
 frequently happens that, on their return from 
 Yousima, the poorest pilgrims carry away 
 the thinnest loads, while their companions, 
 rich but feeble, stagger under the weight of 
 the enormous instruments which their social 
 position has obliged them to purchase. 
 
 Comical Costumes. 
 
 The comic effect of the procession is in- 
 creased by the peculiarities of the costumes 
 of thp season. The men wear tight trousers 
 of blue cotton and a wide mantle with large 
 sleeves ; they are mostly bareheaded, but 
 their noses are protected by crape handker- 
 chiefs tied at the back of the neck ; others 
 cover the head with an ample hood, which 
 hides the whole face with the exception of 
 the eyes. The women generally adopt this 
 ugly hood, and, stuff their arms into the 
 thick sleeves of their winter kirimon, so that 
 they look as if they had none. 
 
 Amulets to be placed at the edges of the 
 fields, in the form of squares of paper fixed 
 on a wooden peg, are sold at the temple of 
 Yousima ; and the bareheaded pilgrims stick 
 them behind the one plait of hair which 
 forms their head-dress, like hair-pins, so that 
 they look as if they had come from an agri- 
 cultural exhibition with the number under 
 which they were exhibited stuck on their 
 head. 
 
 On the right bank of the river, and on 
 the shores of its principal affluents, the 
 builders and master-carpenters of Tokio 
 have their timber-yards, where the trunks of 
 
 trees brought from the forests of the interior 
 are cut into beams, laths and planks. These 
 forests are inexhaustibly rich in woods fit 
 for building purposes, such as the oak, which 
 attains an immense height in Japan ; the 
 pine, of which some forty species exist ; the 
 cedar of a native species ; the fir-tree, also 
 remarkable for its variety ; and the brown 
 woods, and black employed in cabinet mak- 
 ing or in small ornaments. 
 
 Delightful Retreats. 
 
 The Gardens of Odji-Inari, which stand 
 high in the estimate of the city population, 
 are situate at the opening of a mountain 
 gorge on the northern side of Tokio. A 
 small river forming several cascades winds 
 gracefully through the valley. On the bank 
 above its limpid waters, rises the long gal- 
 leries and pavilions of the tea-house, which 
 enjoys the coolness of the water and the 
 shade of the great trees. The guest cham- 
 bers, the verandas, the partitions, and the 
 mats, are kept in a state of dazzling cleanli- 
 ness. The whole estabhshment is distin- 
 guished by elegance and simplicity. His- 
 torical remembrances attach to many places 
 in the neighborhood. A hunting-lodge of 
 the Shoguns formerly occupied the summit 
 of one of the hills, which commands an ex- 
 tensive view of the plains watered by the 
 Sumidagawa. In a narrow valley, at some 
 distance, is pointed out a temple consecrated 
 to lyeyas, who was its founder, also a mira- 
 culous spring which falls from an elevated 
 wall of rocks. 
 
 This spring is placed under the invocation 
 of a stone idol, to which the frequenters of 
 the gardens address their prayers. When 
 heated by the fumes of saki, they place 
 themselves under the falling water and enjoy 
 the natural bath. In the little hamlets of 
 the plain a quantity of shops or booths offer 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 451 
 
 all sorts of curiosities and trinkets to the 
 choice of the visitors and their children. A 
 lively trade is done by these traders, for no 
 family ever returns from a party in the coun- 
 try without bringing home some remem- 
 brance of the village markets. 
 
 The real secret of the celebrity of the 
 gardens of Odji is that they were placed in 
 very ancient times urider the patronage of 
 Inari, the tutelary god of the rice-fields, and 
 conjointly under the protection of the sacred 
 animal which is his " attribute," that is to 
 say, Kitsne, the fox, who deigns to honor 
 the country with his particular favor. He is 
 worshipped on the hill which bears the 
 name of Odji-Inari. On the seventeeth day 
 of the first month an innumerable crowd of 
 citizens and country people flock to his 
 temple. They hang up ex-votos, and de- 
 posit their new year's tribute in the money- 
 box. Then the crowd disperses, wandering 
 in groups through the groves, and contem- 
 plate from afar a great tree in the marsh, 
 around which an annual sabbat of the foxes 
 has been held on the previous night. 
 
 The Festival of Foxes. 
 
 Persons who pretend to have seen the 
 assembly of the foxes preceded by a Will-o'- 
 the-wisp and followed by the Spirits of the 
 rice-fields, are eagerly interrogated, and bear 
 their testimony gravely to the character of 
 the festival, the number of the foxes, and 
 the greater or less gaiety manifested on the 
 occasion. These particulars having been 
 ascertained, inferences are drawn from them 
 respecting the year which is commencing, 
 and the abundance and the quality of the 
 harvest are prognosticated. 
 
 Then the visitors seat themselves around 
 the "brasero " in the guest chambers of the 
 tea-house, and talk in a low voice of the 
 mysterious influence of Kitsne' in the affairs 
 
 of this world. What is chance? what is 
 hazard ? good or bad fortune ? — words 
 devoid of sense. And, nevertheless, there 
 is something behind these words, because 
 every time that one uses them one is forced 
 to it by circumstances. The fox has come 
 that way. "I," says one of the guests, 
 " have had the misfortune to lose a child ; 
 the doctor could not even tell me the seat of 
 his malady." While the mother was griev- 
 ing, the lamps, which were placed beside the 
 corpse, threw the shadow of the poor woman 
 upon the opposite wall ; everyone in the 
 chamber of mourning perceived at once 
 that the shadow had taken the form of a 
 fox. 
 
 Running Away With the Arrov^. 
 
 "And travellers," continues a neighbor, 
 " when they see their road prolonging itself 
 indefinitely, although they have calculated 
 the distance, is it not because they, have 
 omitted to count with the tail of the fox ? 
 How many times have they not wandered 
 about the rice-fields, misguided by the Will- 
 o'-the-wisp, which Kitsne can make to flicker 
 where he chooses. And the hunters, how 
 many tricks has he not played upon them ? 
 If a good sportsman was to dare to attempt 
 to revenge himself, he would only have the 
 mortification of seeing the fox bounding and 
 jumping before him, and carrying away in his 
 mouth the arrow which had been let fly at 
 him." 
 
 The annals of Japan state that Kitnse 
 is capable of metamorphosis. When the 
 Mikado, who reigned in 1 1 50, found him- 
 self under the painful necessity of dismiss- 
 ing his favorite in order to save the finances 
 of the Empire from complete ruin, the fair 
 one escaped from her apartments in the 
 form of a white fox adorned with six fan- 
 shaped tails. On the other hand, cases no 
 
452 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 less extraordinary are quoted of the abduc- 
 tion of young girls, some of whom haye 
 never returned, while others on their return 
 have closed their parents' mouth by the word 
 Kitsne ! Kitsne ! 
 
 When it pleases the latter to disguise him- 
 self as an old bonze, he is most dangerous. 
 There is always one means of defeating him. 
 Kitsne, whatever may be his disguise, never 
 resists the suggestions of his nose. Let any- 
 one place a rat newly roasted in the path of 
 the false priest, and he will not fail to forget 
 his personation, and fall upon the prey, for- 
 getful of everything else. 
 
 Turned Into Madmen. 
 
 The yamabos or bonzes of the mountains 
 generally succeed in keeping Kitsne at a dis- 
 tance, because they know how to practice 
 upon his weakrless ; but they also must be 
 particularly on their guard to avoid a sur- 
 prise. If the fox succeeds in discovering 
 their barrel of saki, woe to them who shall 
 taste it afterwards! It is thus that some 
 very respectable yamabos have become ob- 
 jects of popular derision. A few cups suf- 
 fice to turn their heads ; they throw off their 
 clothing, utter cries, gesticulate like madmen, 
 and execute the most eccentric dances ; also 
 danced by two foxes in the same step, and 
 who mark the time, one by blowing a sacred 
 conch, the other by flourishing about the 
 holy-water brush of the poor bewitched 
 bonzes. 
 
 It is also said that the peasants, whenever 
 they have slept in the rice-fields, are liable to 
 be caught in the nooses of Kitsne, who de- 
 prives them, according to his fancy, of the 
 use of their limbs or of freedom of move- 
 ment. The Japanese people have also their 
 romance of the fox. They amuse themselves 
 with their hero, though they are afraid of 
 him. 
 
 Kitsne becomes in turn a sacred, amusing, 
 perfidious, and diabolical personage. In the 
 morning they pay him homage, in the even- 
 ing they turn him into ridicule. But if he 
 lends himself to jesting, it is only to take 
 a more signal revenge. Let anyone try, for 
 example, in family festivals or in social ban- 
 quets, to amuse himself at the expense of 
 Kitsne, and to try his patience; when he 
 shall have joined the party in earnest, he 
 will then soon turn all their heads the wrong 
 way, and the night will not pass without his 
 strewing the ground with those who have 
 given him provocation. 
 
 The game of the fox begins, very inno- 
 cently in appearance, with a kind of song 
 and clapping of hands. Three attitudes are 
 taken alternately. The first consists in rais- 
 ing the hands, and holding them half shut 
 behind the ears ; the second, in doubling the 
 fist and stretching out the fore-arm; the 
 third, of opening both hands and spreading 
 them on the knees. This is called the game 
 of the fox, the gun, and the yakounine. 
 
 Penalty of Losing. 
 
 The fox loses against the gun, because the 
 gun kills ; the gun loses against the yakou- 
 nine, because the yakounine can defend him- 
 self; finally, the yakounine loses against the 
 fox, because Kitsne is the most cunning 
 animal in creation. The losing party is com- 
 pelled to drink a cup of saki. 
 
 It is easy to conceive that under the influ- 
 ence of such a penalty the game becomes 
 more and more animated. Some of the 
 players find it too sedentary ; one of them 
 rises, and, amid the acclamations of the com- 
 pany, procures a long rope, makes a running 
 knot, holds it by one end, and throws the 
 other to a companion, who stretches the rope 
 as tight as he can without spoiling the run- 
 ning knot. Behind the latter is placed a 
 
PECULIARITIES OF THE JAPANESE. 
 
 453 
 
 little stand, on which liefs what is called the 
 rat — it is a cap or cup, or any other object — 
 which the fox must take away quickly, with- 
 out letting himself be caught in the noose. 
 
 If the guardians of the rat pull the cord 
 between their hands too quickly or too slowly, 
 they pay the penalty. If the fox be caught, 
 were it only by the end of the finger, he has 
 to defray the expense of any amount of drinks 
 so long as it pleases the guests of both sexes 
 who enjoy the spectacle of his captivity. In 
 such cases, the ordinary resources of the 
 orchestra fail to express the delight of the 
 company. The guests knock their glasses 
 or porcelain cups together like bells ; the 
 singers imitate the cries of all sorts of ani- 
 mals ; the more active hop round the unfor- 
 tunate fox, and mock him with every kind of 
 grimace. Kitsne of the mountains, from his 
 hiding place, contemplates all the details of 
 this Bacchic scene, and thrills with pleasure 
 when it attains its height. 
 
 Country Picnics. 
 
 Better than this foolish amusement are the 
 quiet picnics which take place in the 
 suburbs during the fine season. Two or 
 three famiUes arrange to pass an evening to- 
 gether in the country, either on the shady 
 hills which overlook the bay, or in the great 
 orchards on the north side, whence a full 
 view of Fousi-yama may be had. They are 
 preceded by koskeis, who, on reaching the 
 place agreed upon, trace out a reserved space 
 by means of long pieces of stuff stretched 
 on poles. Within this they lay down mats. 
 Stoves are prepared, with kettles for making 
 tea, and pans for frying fish. The company 
 arrive and install themselves, the ladies un- 
 packing the provisions, and the festival be- 
 gins. It lasts until sunset ; games, singing, 
 and music, animate the scene. 
 
 Sometimes professional singers are sum- 
 
 moned to the festival, and occassionally even 
 a couple of wandering dancers, whose spe- 
 cialty consists of pantomime, posturing, and 
 character figures. One of their prettiest per- 
 formances is called the fan-dance; it is a 
 kind of pantomime, generally executed by a 
 young girl in the costume of a page. There 
 are also some national dances kept up in the 
 society of the town, and these naturally 
 have a place among the diversions of the 
 country parties. 
 
 Monotonous Dancing. 
 
 Generally, ladies dance alone ; they form 
 a quadrille, and the dance consists princi- 
 pally of gestures, without any change of po- 
 sition, except in passing from one attitude to 
 another. They stretch out their hands and 
 arms ; sometimes the right, and sometimes 
 the left, not without grace or elegance, but 
 the movement is exceedingly monotonous. 
 A man never dances, except when, inspired 
 by the fumes of saki, he imitates some 
 choreographic feat which he has witnessed 
 upon the stage. 
 
 But, as I have already said, it is not only 
 pleasure which attracts the citizen to the 
 groves of Inaka ; he loves the place for its 
 own sake; he knows it under all aspects 
 and in all seasons ; he knows its curiosities 
 and peculiarties, its local kermesses, its 
 annual markets, at which he purchases a 
 part of his household provisions. He goes 
 to the public auctions of rice, vegetables, 
 fruits, and coal, which take place at fixed 
 periods in certain rural ' districts ; he also 
 goes to see the antique cedar on which he 
 has painted the initials of his name and the 
 date of his first visit; and he knows one 
 still more ancient which contains a natural 
 reservoir of water celebrated for its efficacy 
 against certain diseases. This tree was 
 pknted by a Kami. 
 
454 
 
 For a few pennies he is permitted to fish 
 in the tanks of the bonze-house, and to 
 carry home the results of his sport. There 
 is not a convent, or temple, or chapel in the 
 neighborhood which is not distinguished by- 
 some more or less interesting peculiarity. 
 Here a group of palm-trees, there bananas 
 and bamboos, or evergreen oaks, or maples, 
 or gigantic azaleas ; and the monastic orders 
 to which the convents belong devote them- 
 selves to the education of tortoises and man- 
 darin ducks, or to making sweetmeats. 
 
 Many of the hills have a special reputa- 
 tion ; this one because it affords the best 
 open-air view of the princely spectacle of 
 hawking ; that one because it overlooks a 
 famous battle-field. Several are covered 
 with tombs, ranged in terraces like little 
 gardens. The monuments present an infi- 
 nite variety of style of ornamentation ac- 
 cording to the social condition and sect of 
 the deceased ; most frequently a tablet bear- 
 ing an epitaph rests on the shell of a large 
 stone tortoise, the symbol of Eternity. 
 
 A great number of tombs are formed of a 
 socket surmounted by a statue of Buddha, 
 or some auxiliary divinity of Buddhism, 
 such as Quannon or Amida, standing on a 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 lotus flower. These images are cut in the 
 granite, or the basalt, in extremely fine 
 workmanship. The most ancient are moss- 
 grown, or smothered in branches of ivy and 
 other climbing plants. Gigantic pines, cy- 
 press-trees, and laurels, lend a charm by their 
 picturesque grouping to the burial places. 
 
 One of the most interesting cemeteries in 
 the neighborhood of Tokio is that of the 
 Schorin ; it is specially reserved for men il- 
 lustrious in letters or sciences. 
 
 At the entrance of the villages, and some- 
 times in the open country, we find stones 
 erected to commemorate some historical 
 event ; and frequently little chapels built in 
 honor of some hero who fought in the wars 
 which founded the dynasty of lyeyas. Budd- 
 hism has affixed its stamp to every place 
 worthy of exciting the attention of travellers. 
 There is no grotto without its idol and its 
 story; there is no lake which does not con- 
 tain a little islet with its temple dedicated to 
 Benten. 
 
 It is fortunate for the Japanese that their 
 popular superstitions have developed in them 
 a love of country life, and a proper regard 
 for the vegetable wealth in which their coun- 
 try abounds. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 THE Japanese have the capital habit 
 of squaring all accounts by New 
 Year's Day (except with foreigners). 
 " He who fails to do so, save with the 
 consent of his creditor, is a dishonored man. 
 Consequently, those who have been unsuc- 
 cessful in business during the year, sell 
 almost every article in their possession for 
 anything it will fetch. 
 
 A million and a quarter Japanese — most 
 of them poor — live in Tokio, and to give a 
 last chance to the unfortunate debtor in a 
 land where Interest is perceptible enough to 
 be reckoned by the day, there is a great fair 
 held every New Year's Eve, extending about 
 a couple of miles along the Ginza, — the main 
 street, — with a flower market in the cross 
 street leading from our hotel and the princi- 
 pal gate of the castle to Tsukiji, the only 
 quarter of Tokio in which foreigners are 
 given the right to have a house. 
 
 Pretty nearly every poor Japanese is more 
 or less a shopkeeper, because the front of his 
 house is thrown open to the street during 
 the day in fine weather, and he is willing 
 to sell anything he possesses, if the price 
 pays. 
 
 Imagine every one of these who has not 
 saved enough money to settle his debts, next 
 day bringing as much of his worldly goods 
 as he can carry, in funny square boxes, 
 slung over his shoulders at each end of a 
 bamboo, to be displayed on the pavement, 
 or rudely improvised stalls, at the fair. We 
 had been told that New Year's Eve and 
 New Year's Day were the days of all the 
 
 year in Japan, and that Tokio was the place 
 to see them at their best. As soon as it 
 was dusk we sallied out into the Ginza to 
 see the great fair. 
 
 Two miles of stalls — two rows on each 
 side of the street — brilliantly hghted with 
 flaring and fantastic lanterns, but them- 
 selves the most ramshackle erections of dirty 
 boards and flimsy cloths ! At intervals fes- 
 toons of crimson lanterns hanging slack from 
 the street to the flagstaff of a two or three- 
 story tea-house (as they call the native inns), 
 and strings of lanterns over the saki kegs 
 sewn up in matting covered with scarlet and 
 green iish, dragons, and other emblenis, 
 which are piled up like a wall in front of its 
 bottom story. 
 
 Variety of Stalls. 
 
 From every tea-house came the tinkle of 
 samisens, or the mouse-like voices of the 
 geishas, the singing girls. 
 
 The stalls, as a rag and metal exhibition, 
 eclipsed anything I ever saw in the Campo 
 de Fiore at Rome. There were mat stalls, 
 cushion stalls, stalls where they sold the 
 kimonos (wrappers) and the obis (sashes) 
 worn by the natives, or their queer socks 
 with divided toes — white for wearing with 
 sandals, blue, studded underneath, for wear- 
 ing unshod. There were stalls for straw and 
 rope sandals and the high wooden clogs used 
 in foul weather. 
 
 There were stalls where they sold the 
 grass rope and fringe (nawa) used for hang- 
 ing along the house front for the first week 
 
 455 
 
456 
 
 in the year, to keep evil spirits from passing 
 under ; and the big grass tassels with the 
 scarlet lobster and the gift bag; or the 
 takara bune, the little plaited grass ship of 
 wealth, with the seven gods of riches seated 
 in it, one of which devices hangs over every 
 portal during the same period. 
 
 Next to this might be a booth where they 
 sold nothing but lantern boxes made of 
 white card, painted in black with the owner's 
 crest or device. These were really very pic- 
 turesque, and I had several times longed to 
 hang one up over a draught screen in our 
 rooms, but had been deterred by the horrible 
 suspicion that they were used for conveying 
 the ashes of cremated corpses. 
 
 All Sorts of Wares. 
 
 An artist friend — Henry Savage Landor — 
 who had been several months in Japan and 
 went a-fairing with us, set my mind at rest 
 on this point, and I there and then purchased 
 one, and carried it with me all the evening, 
 filling it gradually with such odds and ends 
 as inros (Japanese porte-medicines) ; net- 
 sukes (ornamental buttons for stringing 
 through one's sash); miniature temple orna- 
 ments — censers, candlesticks, flower vessels ; 
 the little pocket mirror and comb cases car- 
 ried by musumes in their graceful hanging 
 sleeves; the fantastic hair combs and hair 
 pins, very old some of them, more or less 
 battered, but of exquisite workmanship and 
 materials ; the queerest little china boxes, 
 some of them only an inch across, holding 
 the red or black pigment used for the seals 
 which every Japanese carries to impress 
 where we give a signature ; the seals them- 
 selves, generally of brass ; exquisite little 
 bronze and silver charms ; fine old brass or 
 bronze ends for paper lanterns ; little ivory 
 boxes, hardly bigger or thicker than a gen- 
 tleman's visiting card, used for the vermilion 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 with which they brighten their lips, and other 
 contrivances both curious and artistic. 
 
 The old metal and general curiosity stalls 
 were largely in the majority; for, besides 
 metal proper, they dealt in inros, netsukes, 
 second-hand pipe cases, hibachis (charcoal 
 hand stoves), swords and small pieces of 
 lacquer. " Ikura ? " (how much ?) I would 
 ask, picking up some charming little bit of 
 pottery or metal work — each with its little 
 flaw, crack or dent, of course. " Rokuji 
 sen " (sixty cents — half a crown) would, 
 perhaps, be the answer. I would say, laugh- 
 ing, " O Roku sen " (six cents). 
 
 Next time I passed they would call out, 
 "Shijiu" (forty), and the next, " Nijiu " 
 (twenty), and finally, as they saw my arms 
 getting fuller and fuller of purchases, and 
 feared that my purse would be running out, 
 the proprietor and his wife, and any mem- 
 bers of their family they had about, would 
 commence kow-towing and smiling, hissing 
 and calling out, " Yoroshi, yoroshi. Roku 
 sen " (Good — all right ! Six cents), and I 
 would find myself saddled with something I 
 never thought of buying, but, of course, felt 
 bound to buy when my offer in fun was ac- - 
 cepted in earnest. 
 
 Quaint Beauty and Ingenuity. 
 
 Now, when it is too late I wish I had 
 bought a hundred dollars' worth of these 
 fourpenny-halfpenny treasures to ship 
 home. I had taken a hundred dollars out 
 with me in case I saw any fine piece being 
 sacrificed, as I was told they sometimes 
 were, at these fairs, by an embarrassed trader 
 who had put off selling till too late ; and 1 
 could easily have spent the money, and 
 spent it well. For every one of these little 
 articles — many of them in domestic use by 
 quite humble people — had some quaint 
 beauty of shape or decoration or ingenuity. 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 457 
 
 and I have never seen one of them in Eng- 
 land or America. 
 
 A pickpocket did his best to reheve me of 
 my hundred dollars at one fell swoop, but 
 his ignorance of European pockets saved 
 me; the pocket he attempted to pick was 
 one of the side pockets of my covert coat, 
 in which I never carry anything except a 
 pocket-handkerchief. While his hand was 
 in my pocket I caught him. I rather ex- 
 pected the populace, who were all of the 
 humbler classes, to sympathize with him 
 -against a foreigner. 
 
 Thieves and Pickpockets. 
 
 But much as a Japanese hates foreigners, 
 it is nothing to his dread and loathing of a 
 thief The flimsy houses, constantly thrown 
 wide open, are so at the mercy of thieves 
 that a thief, or pickpocket, is regarded much 
 in the same way as a horse thief is in the Far 
 West. I thought they would have lynched 
 him. I don't exactly know how he escaped. 
 
 But like some, more enlightened nations, 
 they are more lenient to thieving when it is 
 •done with the brains instead of the fingers. 
 
 It was a pleasing diversion to turn from 
 pickpockets to watch a strolling samisen 
 player or a masker. One could hardly be- 
 lieve that one's surroundings were not a 
 ■dream. Was it possible that one saw with 
 •eyes awake that queer old Japanese gentle- 
 man in a wide sleeved, deep collared kimono 
 of chocolate-colored leather, stamped in 
 white with his device, two feet at least 
 across; and all these queer coolies, in hose 
 and doublets and hoods ? 
 
 And what of the crimson lanterns sway- 
 ing in the wind, and the tinkle and tum tum 
 of Oriental music falling from the lattice of a 
 tea-house. We plunged into a tea-house 
 from which came shouts of laughter that 
 must mean something irresistibly queer to us. 
 
 Out at the back, one of the posture dancers 
 who go about in little troupes at New Year's 
 tide had a mask, and was going through a 
 series of antics which were supposed to 
 travesty a Chinaman. Nothing could have 
 been more unlike, and the Tokio populace 
 are familiar with Chinamen, for there are 
 plenty of them in the Tsukiji quarter. 
 
 But they were just as much amused. The 
 troupe received about sixpence for their per- 
 formance, and were immediately succeeded 
 by a troupe of boys with jolly, laughing 
 faces, one of whom carried a banner the 
 shape of a couple of canister lids, the 
 smaller on the top, while the other two 
 danced to the music of a flute — the flute and 
 the drum constitute most of the music to 
 street entertainments in Japan. 
 
 Tea in Tiny Cups. 
 
 Then we went back into the inn to listen 
 to a samisen player — squatting down on the 
 edge of the raised floor so that the mats 
 should not be soiled by our boots. The 
 natives always kick off their shoes or sandals 
 on entering a house. We had hardly sat 
 down before sweet little musumes (girls) 
 brought us the pale straw-colored tea in tiny 
 little cups, with metal saucers and without 
 handles, and trays of queer little cakes. 
 
 But it was growing late, and we had still 
 the flower fair to see before we returned to 
 the hotel to spend the witching hour, at 
 which the old year passess into the new, in 
 thinking of home folks across the seas. The 
 flower market was even more picturesque 
 than the fair, with its rows and rows of 
 blossoming plum trees, with blossoms single 
 and double — white, pink, deep red, or even 
 variegated. These were dwarfed to the size 
 of geraniums, with every branch twisted into 
 queer curves, and each in a blue or white 
 porcelain pot. 
 
458 
 
 Without the plum tree in the blue pot no 
 Japanese house, even the very poorest, is 
 complete at the New Year. The educated 
 fir-trees (matsu-ji) were even more dwarfed 
 and highly trained, and one could buy either 
 of these, or a beautiful fan palm, in an artis- 
 tic pot, for fifty cents ; and for a crown or 
 two one of the tiny artificial gardens, a 
 couple of feet square, with its trained tree's, 
 and its lake and its toy pagoda, and bridges 
 and stone lanterns (ishidoro). 
 
 Display of Flowers. 
 
 The flower fair, like the other, was a glare 
 of light ; and there was the same bargaining 
 to be done, with the owner calculating on his 
 so-rorba, or counting board, every time there 
 was a rise or fall of a halfpenny in the offer. 
 
 Suddenly I looked at my watch. It was 
 just on twelve. A clock began to strike. 
 I paused and shut my eyes on the fantastic 
 Orient, while a prayer rose to the crisp, 
 starlit sky, and thought flew quicker than 
 telegrams to the old home. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 As every one who has the smallest knowl- 
 edge of things Japanese will remember, the 
 Japanese have a minute and almost solemn 
 etiquette for every operation in their exist- 
 ence. It is to an article in "The Transac- 
 tions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," 
 written by Mrs. Chaplain Ayrton, that I owe 
 the precise composition of the decorations 
 given below. She says the most striking 
 feature of New Year's Day in Japan is the 
 decoration placed, more or less complete^ 
 before each portal. 
 
 Every object in this has its symbolic 
 meaning. If the spectator faces the green 
 arch which this decoration forms, he will 
 have on his right hand the me-matsu witk 
 its reddish stem, and on his left the blade 
 trunk of the o-matsu. Though pines are 
 genderless, fancy has ascribed to the black- 
 trunked tree a masculine gender, and to the 
 lighter a feminine. Further, these hardy 
 trees symbolize a stalwart age that has with- 
 stood the storms and troubles of existence. 
 
 I fancy' I can picture you upon this Christmas 
 
 night, 
 Just sitting as you used to do, the laughter at its 
 
 height. 
 And then a, sudden silent pause intruding on your 
 
 glee, 
 And kind eyes glistening because you chanced to 
 
 think of me. 
 
 And now good- night ; and I shall dream that I am 
 
 ■with you all, 
 Watching the ruddy embers gleam athwart the 
 
 panelled hall. 
 Nor care I if I dream or not, though severed by 
 
 the foam — 
 My heart is always in the spot which was my 
 
 childhood's home. 
 
 We did not get back from the fair till the 
 small hours, but we were up betimes to see 
 Tokio in its great transformation scene — 
 decorated for the New Year. 
 
 Symbol of Ripe Age. 
 
 ■Immediately behind rises on each side the 
 graceful stem of the take-no-iki (bamboo); 
 of which the most convenient kind is 
 selected. Its erect growth and succession 
 of knots, marking the increase during suc- 
 ceeding seasons, make it a symbol of hale 
 life and fulness of years. 
 
 There is a distance, usually of six feet, 
 between the bamboos spanned by the grass- 
 rope (nawa), which though convenience- 
 obliges it to be high enough to pass under,, 
 should, to accord with its symbolical mean- 
 ing, debar all evil and unclean things from 
 crossing the threshold. 
 
 In the centre of the arch thus formed of 
 pines and bamboos and the grass rope is a 
 group of several objects, most conspicuous 
 among which is the scarlet yebi or lobster 
 
< 
 
 Q 
 in 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 459 
 
460 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 (a crayfish, really), whose crooked body sym- 
 bolizes the back of the aged bent with years. 
 This is embowered in yusuri branches. 
 
 In the yusuri when the young leaves have 
 budded the old are still unshed. So, many 
 parents continue to flourish while children 
 and grandchildren spring forth. 
 
 In the centre also are the graceful fronds 
 of the shida, or urajiro. This fern symbo- 
 lizes conjugal life, because the fronds spring 
 in pairs from the stem. In Japan, fronds 
 growing thus uniformly do not suggest 
 equality of the sexes. Between the paired 
 leaves nestle like offspring the little leaflets. 
 
 Here and there are gohei, the quaint 
 scraps of paper offered to the Shinto gods ; 
 according to some, a conventionalized repre- 
 sentation of the human form, the offerer de- 
 voting himself in effigy to the deities. Ac- 
 cording to others these offerings of cut 
 paper represent offerings of valuable cloth — 
 this is the more usual explanation. 
 
 The Family Tree. 
 
 Almost as conspicuous as the yebi is the 
 orange-colored dai dai. There is a pun im- 
 plied here, like the play upon words in Eng- 
 lish heraldry, for the second meaning of dai 
 dai is generation — ^may the family tree flour- 
 ish. The juice of the dai dai is prized as a 
 specific against vomiting, as Europeans take 
 lemons for a preventative against seasickness. 
 
 There is a pun, too, in the piece of char- 
 coal beside the dai dai, for sumi (charcoal) 
 has the second meaning of " homestead." 
 
 The honta wara, or zimbaso, a species of 
 seaweed, is a memoral of good fortune. For 
 about 200 A. D., when the Empress Jingo- 
 Kobo reigned, she concealed her husband's 
 death lest the people should be discouraged 
 in the campaign against Corea. Her troops 
 encamped on the seashore were in danger of 
 defeat from want of fodder for their horses. 
 
 She ordered the honta wara to be gathered 
 from the shore for the horses, and refreshed 
 by this meal they were victorious in battle. 
 At the end' of the war she bore a son named 
 Hachiman, who from the circumstances of 
 his birth became the Japanese Mars. 
 
 Another seaweed decoration is the kobu. 
 Here also is a pun on the verb yoro-kobi — 
 to rejoice or gladden. The last decoration 
 is the fukutso tsumi ; a square of white 
 paper, held in by a red and white string 
 which marks a present. This is to be con- 
 sidered a lucky bag, for its contents are 
 suitable to the season. 
 
 The Ship of Riches. 
 
 These decorations are cut down in Tokio 
 on January 7th, in some places on January 
 3rd. There is another decoration sometimes 
 used — a miniature ship of twisted straw, 
 laden with representations of bales of grain, 
 bits of green, aud little ornaments of every 
 kind. The idea of the ship is an offering of 
 first fruits. 
 
 To bring the sleeper lucky dreams it is 
 the custom, on the night of January 2nd, to 
 cover the pillow with a rude picture of the 
 takara bune, or ship of riches, having the 
 seven gods of wealth seated in it. This 
 representation of the ship of wealth is a 
 very favorite subject in Japanese art. There 
 is a splendid specimen in the museum of 
 arms at Tokio. 
 
 Now that I have given an idea of their 
 composition and symbolism, I can go on to 
 describe the New Year's decorations, and 
 New Year's festivities, as we saw them with 
 our own eyes. 
 
 To start with the lobster group, to use 
 Mrs. Ayrton's expression, we found that 
 she had made a most important omission in 
 describing the composition — the great tassel, 
 or knot of grass, which is the most noticeable 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 461 
 
 feature. This knot with tassel ends is a 
 constantly recurring feature in Japanese 
 ornamentation from the mortuary shrine of a 
 Shogun downwards. 
 
 Mrs. Ayrton is careful to use the expres- 
 sion, " more or less complete," of the decor- 
 ations. She was Avise. I had to walk a 
 couple of miles along the Gmza, the main 
 street of Tokio, to find a decent specimen 
 of a lobster group to photograph. And 
 when I found it, it needed no small general- 
 ship to kodak it successfully. First of all 
 I had to obtain the permission of its proud 
 owner. I could not speak a word of Japa- 
 nese, he could not speak a word of English. 
 I went into his shop and bowed as if I were 
 a nigger waiter expecting a handsome tip. 
 He squatted down on his hams, and bowed 
 until his forehead touched the beautiful white 
 mats on which he knelt. 
 
 Photographing the Lobsters. 
 
 Then I entreated him, with a gesture, to 
 rise, and led him to the front of his shop, 
 pointing at his lobster group, and- patting 
 my faithful kodak. He didn't understand a 
 bit till a jinrikisha boy (the sharpest-witted 
 men in the coolie class) said hasheen (pro- 
 nounced shasheen), which means photograph. 
 The proprietor was forthwith wreathed in 
 smiles at the honor about to be paid to his 
 "honorable" lobster group. 
 
 Then a new difficulty arose. Most Japa- 
 nese shops are only five or six feet high ; 
 this was ten or eleven, and I, who am only 
 five feet and a half, had to get my camera 
 on a level with the object, and within two or 
 three feet of it, to make the photograph suf- 
 ficiently large. An idea struck me. I threw 
 down my note-book and stick regardless of 
 the fact that the strangeness of my behavior 
 — from the Japanese standpoint, of course — 
 had already attracted a crowd of a few hun- 
 
 dred people who wondered what fate was to 
 befall the group of lobsters. 
 
 I had seen a stool, intended not for a 
 human being — the Japanese don't know- 
 how to sit — but for a red lacquer lantern 
 with paper sides, or slides, which stood on 
 it. I put down the lantern, carefully carried 
 off my stool intriumph, mounted it just under 
 the lobster group, lifted my kodak as high 
 as I could over my head with both hands^ 
 and snapped a shot. 
 
 Eager for Something New. 
 
 The crowd were breathless with excite- 
 ment, and had to be dispersed by a policeman,, 
 four feet and a half high, before we could get. 
 away. So like the Athenian of Biblical 
 report is the Japanese in his thirst for some- 
 new thing. 
 
 Eyen the English residents in Japan sol- 
 emnly hang the lobster group in the ever- 
 green arch over their garden gate at this 
 season of the year, partly perhaps to flatter 
 Japanese sensibilities, a little perhaps for its 
 supposed good luck, mainly as a , kind of 
 Christmas decoration. They put it, up for 
 Christmas Day, and not for New Year's 
 Day, and so do_ some Japanese in Yoko- 
 hama. In a few years' tirrie they will proba- 
 bly shift the whole festival to Christmas Day ; 
 the Christmas-keeping people there, the Eng- 
 lish and Germans, being paramount in the 
 treaty ports. It is not very much to shift 
 the festival from the Western New Year's 
 Day to Christmas Day,' when it has already 
 been shifted from the Japanese New Year's 
 Day to the Western. 
 
 "What shall I do ? " I asked of Abe San, 
 the accomplished Japanese who manages the 
 Tokio Hotel, " to see as much as possible of 
 the New Year's decorations, games and holi- 
 day makers?" "You had better drive to 
 Asakusa. It is far. You will have to drivei 
 
462 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 right across the city to get to it, and' will see 
 many people in their houses decorated, and 
 in street playing. And at Asakusa very 
 much people and wrestling at the temple — 
 the temple of Kwannon." Jumping into 
 rikshas, that is two-wheeled carriages, away 
 to Asakusa we went. 
 
 For a wonder it was not one of those ideal 
 days in which Japanese winters deal. But 
 in spite of the grey London weather, what a 
 fairyland diorama we enjoyed as we dashed 
 through the Titanic gateway, over the broad 
 moat, into the maze of narrow streets of 
 wooden and paper houses, hardly higher 
 than a tall American. The grass rope, 
 nawa, was carried from end to end of each 
 block, to keep out the evil spirits ; and every 
 doorway had its New Year decorations in 
 honor of the gods or the national custom, 
 and its crossed flags in honor of the Mikado, 
 a homage that is paid on all public holidays. 
 
 Evergreen Everywhere. 
 
 Every doorway had at least a patch of 
 evergreen and these crossed banners, the 
 red sun on the white ground — silk crepe even 
 for the poorest houses — mounted on lac- 
 
 « 
 
 quered bamboo staves, with gilt balls to 
 replace the spear head or the' eagle of West- 
 ern ensigns. 
 
 Every now and then there would be a 
 house which enjoyed the dignity of a second 
 story, with the typical decorations. Most 
 of the houses had nothing but the flags and 
 a poor little lobster group. We only came 
 across one showing the cut bamboo and red 
 and black firs. It was a very typical little 
 Japanese shop, with its shoji or inner shutters 
 (as in many shops, made of glass, not paper), 
 left up because it was a holiday. On busi- 
 ness days, except in very bad weather, the 
 shop is left open to the street. 
 
 We were in imminent danger of commit- 
 
 ting manslaughter the whole way, for the 
 streets were simply packed with battledore 
 players, mostly children, in the most brilliant 
 costumes, who kept up the shuttlecock at 
 distances and for periods that appear impos- 
 sible to foreigners. 
 
 Fortunately our rikshas were drawn by 
 human horses, or there would inevitably 
 have been shying; as one shuttlecock 
 whizzed past one at a low trajectory, like 
 a volley at lawn tennis, and another ended 
 a slow and lofty parabola within an inch of 
 one's nose, where a bat would be ready to 
 despatch it on its return flight. 
 
 Soaring Paper Falcon. 
 
 The children blocked the streets with 
 their favorite pastime, while their parents 
 perched on the roofs wherever they were 
 high enough to woo the wind for kite flying; 
 a pastime of very uneven attractions. In 
 the distance it is fascinating ; one sees the 
 paper falcon at a dizzy height soarinj^ 
 amongst the eagles. Close to, whenever the 
 kite is not winding its string round your 
 neck, it will be found entangled in the legs 
 of your riksha boy. 
 
 Just as we passed the castles ramparts 
 we came to a yashiki, one of the great black 
 wooden kraals with its four sides formed b)- 
 the strongly barricaded outer walls of the 
 barracks of the clansmen, and an open 
 space in the centre surrounding the town 
 mansion of the Daimio, or clan chief. 
 Neither clan nor clan chief lives in them 
 now; but the great Daimio under the Toku- 
 gawa dynasty spent half the year in Tokio, 
 garrisoned by a whole army of feudal re- 
 tainers. These j'ashikis have mostly fallen 
 from their high estate, and become barracks 
 for Imperial troops or tenement houses for 
 the poor. ' 
 
 When we were passing one of the latter, 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 463 
 
 outside the great Tori-shaped gateway of 
 massive black timber, two sweet little mites 
 were playing another of the great New 
 Year's games, which to the unallegorising 
 Anglo-Saxon is simply bouncing ball ; but 
 it means no end to the Japanese. These 
 balls are made, not of India-rubber, but of 
 paper and wadding symmetrically wound 
 round about with thread or silk of various 
 colors. The children sing all the time they 
 keep up the bouncing. 
 
 Kite Flying and Battledore. 
 
 The boys seem to go in more for kite fly- 
 ing, the girls for battledore or ball. The 
 kites are made of Japanese paper, thin and 
 strong, on very light bamboo frames. In 
 this season of prevalent winds they fly very 
 easily, and a light humming noise is pro- 
 duced by a piece of whalebone attached to 
 the kite, and set in rapid vibration by the 
 ■wind. 
 
 The girls introduce more of the solemn 
 ceremony, which- the Japanese dehght to im- 
 part into the "trivial round, the common 
 task," in their games than the boys do. 
 
 In the middle of all this kite flying and 
 ball playing and battledoring, we would come 
 across a couple of Japanese of the hum- 
 blest stations, say two small shopkeepers, 
 whose whole stock in trade did not amount 
 to ten dollars apiece, friends meeting for the 
 first time in the New Year. They would be 
 repeating the orthodox New Year greeting, 
 probably: "Shin nen nogo shiogo, wo 
 moshi agamas," and bowing to each other 
 for about five minutes, accurately observing 
 the etiquette of bowing to an equal, a 
 superior, or an inferior as the case may be. 
 
 There are degrees even in penury, and I 
 have seen a child of two years go through a 
 lesson of the whole category of genuflexions 
 in a humble curio shop where the profits 
 
 could not have exceeded twenty-five cents a 
 day. With each bob of the head of these 
 ceremonious friends, there would be the cor- 
 responding elevation of the Mother Gamp 
 European umbrella, which every Japanese 
 who has a dollar in the world hugs, 
 "whene'er he takes his walks abroad." 
 
 New Year's Day is the universal visiting 
 day. The Mikado receives the great officers 
 of state, and his subjects receive and call 
 upon their whole acquaintance. How they 
 manage it puzzled me, but I suppose that the 
 Japs mark upon their name-paper (visiting 
 cards are actually made of paper unless the 
 owner affects Europeanism; and they are 
 used as universally as the ginghams) the 
 hour at which they will be at honie on New 
 Year's Day, as our hostesses mark their day 
 at home, unless it happens to be Sunday. 
 
 A Salmon for a Present. 
 
 With the visit they generally combine the 
 presentation of the seibo, which ought to 
 have been brought the day before, and was, 
 until etiquette became trodden down at the 
 heel by the imitation of European slipshod- 
 diness. Among the poorer classes the usual 
 seibo seems to be a Hakodate salmon, 
 squashed flat in the process of salting and 
 packing, or a blue cotton towel such as the 
 riksha boys twist round their heads. So 
 prevalent are these particular forms of the 
 seibo, that the stationers keep a line of gaily 
 printed wrappers, something like our news- 
 paper wrappers, for the specific purpose. 
 
 The most fascinating part about the seibo 
 to me was the red and white twine, stiffened 
 with rice paste, and tied with marvellous 
 neatness into the inevitable tassel knot, with 
 its little kite of red, white, or gold paper. I 
 was very much amused with one great offi- 
 cial on his way to call on the Mikado. His 
 horse was shying, and he was only accus- 
 
464 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 tomed to human horses who never show any 
 unpleasant antics. 
 
 As we drew nearer and nearer to Asakusa, 
 the plot thickened, the streets becoming 
 
 eigners). Sometimes the duet would be a. 
 respectable old Jap and his wife, more often 
 a geisha (singing girl) with her chaperon or 
 cavalier, the latter apt to be flushed with saki^ 
 
 JAPANESE BARBERS. 
 
 crowded with Japanese riding in double riks- 
 has (the more extravagant habit of having 
 only one rider to each poor two-legged beast 
 of burden being almost abandoned to for- 
 
 The crowds of geishas made the street 
 very picturesque with their delicate rainbow- 
 hued silks ; elaborately dressed, flower 
 studded hair, whitened faces and vermilioned 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 465 
 
 lips. And so did the Inns, with their fes- 
 toons of crimson lanterns swinging in the 
 breeze, and their piles of great saki kegs, 
 each sewn up in matting garish with a scar- 
 let or green fish or dragon. 
 
 Anon there would be a mighty shouting, 
 or a joyous singing, as, drawn by the patient 
 ox, or a score or two of impatient coolies, 
 rolled past the triumphal car taking home 
 the rice — the Japanese harvest homing. 
 There was a great variety in the processions. 
 All had their array of coolies in brand new 
 head kerchiefs and dresses of dark blue 
 cotton, stamped mostly on the broad of their 
 backs with their master's crest in red or 
 white, or both. 
 
 An Immense Car. 
 
 When the services of an ox were required, 
 the car was generally an elaborate affair, re- 
 minding one of the allegorical displays of 
 the German brewers at an American Cen- 
 tennial. I took a picture of one that was 
 higher than the highest houses it passed, 
 culminating in a huge sun a dozen feet in 
 diameter, made of crimson velvet, with a 
 heavy gold fringe festooned across it, and 
 gilt rays at least another dozen feet long 
 springing from it. Round its base was a 
 tangle of draperies and fans and foliage, 
 blended with the unerring felicity of taste 
 possessed by even the humblest Japanese ; 
 and on a kind of balcony in front, and on 
 the piled-up rice bales behind, were a swarm 
 of masqueraders, a bevy of girls, and a kind 
 of king, most of them with some musical 
 instrument. 
 
 More in the spirit of old Japan perhaps is 
 the hand-car. I photographed a little one 
 drawn by half a dozen coolies, and with no 
 ornament on its rice bales but tall swaying 
 bamboos, the tallest with a long white ban- 
 ner streaming in the wind and a crimson 
 
 30 
 
 lantern firmly fixed on its head, the others 
 with lanterns gracefully suspended, nodding 
 like bluebells, and a plentiful supply of 
 colored cloths, saki jars and bamboo 
 branches. There was much music and 
 much saki at work in all of them. 
 
 Haunts of Pleasure. 
 
 By this time we had crossed the fine iron 
 bridge built by the Japanese themselves 
 across the Sumida Gawa, the broad river- 
 parent of innumerable canals and moats, 
 which make Tokio, the Venice of the East, 
 and were in the suburb of Asakusa ; more 
 abandoned to the haunts of pleasure than 
 any spot in the city. 
 
 Soon we crossed a broad street and found 
 ourselves among thousands of rikshas at the 
 end of a lane, densely packed with the fun- 
 niest little Japanese women in their most 
 brilliant dresses, and bordered on each side 
 by rows of white wooden booths, and a per- 
 fect avenue of gigantic cut bamboos with 
 the foliage lefl: on themj These were inter- 
 spersed with endless banners, crossed over 
 the gateways and drooped from the house 
 fronts like pennons. At the entrance of the 
 fair we were obliged to leave our rikshas. 
 
 We followed three sweet little girls, perfect 
 pictures, with their soft grey kimonos and 
 bare flower-brightened heads, up the narrow 
 lane between the booths, which were filled 
 with the ordinary gimcracks of a Japanese 
 fair — toys, such as kites, battledores, shuttle- 
 cocks, dragon heads for the kagura dance, 
 firemen's hooks and standards, flags, and 
 dolls; female fripperies, such as lacquer 
 combs, gay hair pins, ladies' satchels and 
 pipe cases, mirrors, trumpery lacquer articles, 
 cakes, and candies. The wares exposed 
 were awful rubbish ; and we were glad to 
 elbow our way through to the great temple, 
 which is the heart of all this holiday making, 
 
466 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 casting a glimpse to our right at the five- 
 story scarlet pagoda. 
 
 The open space outside was full of the 
 Japanese Christmas trees, or perhaps I ought 
 to say New Year's trees — a handful of long 
 tapering branches fastened together at their 
 bottoms, and so tapering that the paper toys 
 and sweetmeats hung on them made them 
 bend and quiver like a fishing rod with 
 a black bass attached. 
 
 A Showy Temple. 
 
 Space forbids my describing here in detail 
 the vast scarlet temple and gateway. The 
 latter was as high as the temple itself, with 
 lanterns hanging in its arch as large as the 
 ordinary Japanese house, and the inevitable 
 "Two Kings" (Ni-0) in their wire rabbit 
 boxes, stuck all over with pellets of chewed 
 paper. As we passed from the great sam- 
 mon to the temple, we noticed an elaborate 
 washing-place, and a huge hoarding, with 
 the little white wood notice boards, to remind 
 the gods of the prayers or benefactions of 
 the faithful. 
 
 On entering the temple it was not long 
 before we recognized the fact that there were 
 sacred chickens. There were also images in 
 profusion, and not a few stalls where priests 
 sold cheap prints and pictures of the special 
 incarnation of Buddha worshipped here 
 (Kwannon Sama, the Goddess of Mercy, is 
 tutelaiy of the temple). 
 
 I contributed to the support of the institu- 
 tion by spending two sen and a half — about 
 two cents — and then turned my attention to 
 the faithful, who were endeavoring . to insure 
 attention from a different quarter by clapping 
 their hands to show that they were going to 
 begin to pray ; and, as a preliminary, throw- 
 ing a few rin (decimal fractions of a cent) 
 into the huge grated bath which is there to 
 swallow offerings. We were not the only 
 
 mere sight-seers, there were plenty of Japan- 
 ese to keep us company ; for the country 
 has a duality of religions, and a plurality of 
 inhabitants who don't " take any stock " in 
 either. 
 
 Taro, my riksha-boy, who could speak 
 quite a good deal of English, and was pretty 
 well posted in the legends and superstitions, 
 as well as the sights of Tokio, had left his 
 riksha and his hat (a solar topee, though the 
 thermometer was well down in the " forties "), 
 and the Red Indian's blanket which every 
 riksha-boy carries to cover the knees of his 
 patrons, with his mates, and skipped in after 
 us to play his favorite role of interpreter, 
 and enjoy the holiday himself at the same 
 time. On the strength of his erudition he 
 always treats himself better than his mates. 
 The explanations he made to us were so ab- 
 surd that he evidently knew nothing about 
 it. This is a Buddhist temple : he must be a 
 Shintoist. He is not high enough class to 
 be a skeptic. 
 
 The Corean Tiger. 
 
 From the temple he led the way to the 
 Zoological Gardens mixed up with it, in the 
 centre of which stands the famous cock- 
 tower. But the main feature is a Corean 
 tiger. The Zoological Gardens consist to a 
 great extent of tortured fir trees in porcelain 
 pots. Zoological is not a wide enough 
 scientific term to describe this precious col- 
 lection. There are, however, two bears from 
 the big northern island of the Japanese group, 
 Yesso, and a number of the storks (alive) 
 which play such an important part in the 
 decoration of the trash exported from Japan, 
 but which, so far, we had never seen in 
 Japan. 
 
 I could not help thinking what a pretty 
 ornament they would make to the botanical 
 gardens at Melbourne, where they are very 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 467 
 
 fond of acclimatizing water fowl, and where 
 these birds would thrive. 'Possums might 
 be sent in return. Their fur would be valu- 
 able here, and the Japanese would eat them 
 — sharks and swordfish are quite a staple 
 article of diet. 
 
 Would we go up to the cock-tower? Taro 
 asks. " Must we take our shoes off? " Then 
 we wouldn't, though the view is fine. We 
 preferred to keep on our boots, and hastened 
 past an artist, emulating in the dust of Tokio 
 the men who pastel the pavements in 
 London, to the montebank dentist. 
 
 Wonderful Pictures in Chalk. 
 
 Talking of the men who make those fear- 
 ful and wonderful pictures with a few bold 
 strokes of a stumpy chalk, and a few 
 seconds' rubbing with the fingers, one recalls 
 inevitably that one who used to take up his 
 position outside Sir John Millais's huge 
 house in South Kensington, and underneath 
 his pictures write : " My rich brother lives 
 in there, while I have not enough to eat." 
 He referred, I believe, to brotherhood in art. 
 
 Here in Asakusa there was also a woman 
 who dashed off her pastels with equal skill 
 on paper, choosing her subjects principally 
 from the mythological characters connected 
 with this temple. She retailed her works at 
 rather less than three cents each. I bought 
 five of them — a couple of disreputable look- 
 ing demi-gods, and three landscapes. These 
 last included a Japanese eagle sitting on a 
 snowy tree, another flying round a snowy 
 mountain peak, and a picture of a gigantic 
 red peony in a little straw case buried in the 
 snow. The lady artist's genius had evidently 
 had a wintry experience, not to say reception. 
 
 " But are there not any jugglers? " I asked 
 disappointedly of Taro. " Jogler ? Oh yes," 
 he replied ; and led the way to a row of booths, 
 surrounded by open-mouthed Japanese. 
 
 The first had five rin — a depreciated far- 
 thing — printed outside in large figures. But 
 when I came to pay I was told that the 
 board only referred to children, which was a 
 he, and I knew it; but I paid three-farthings 
 all the same for myself and my wife and the 
 riksha man, who followed in uninvited and 
 then said I must pay because he had no 
 money. The juggling consisted only of a 
 small electric machine ; and the simple 
 switching of the current on and off elicited 
 continuous applause. 
 
 However, we moved on past some wax 
 works exhibiting Daimio (feudal barons) in 
 their pre-revolution costumes, and Aino 
 (aborigines of the northern islands) in their 
 native dress, to a booth which had on its 
 signboard a tremendous fire-breathing sea- 
 serpent, usurping a whole gulf, while a 
 crowd of terrified Japanese stood on a cliff 
 firing engines of war at it. This wormed 
 another three-farthings apiece out of me, 
 and we went in to see only a cub seal about 
 a foot long, which went through a lot of 
 tame-monkey tricks. This kind of thing, 
 varied with an occasional theatre, went on 
 to the end of the chapter. 
 
 Mimic Mountains. 
 At the end of the chapter came the pride 
 of Asakusa, the miniature Fujiyama, no 
 feet high, constructed of lath and pasteboard 
 and plaster — a tower in the shape of the 
 conventionahzed mountains of Japanese pic- 
 tures, commanding a view of the whole fair, 
 and much of the great city behind. We 
 walked up its shaky planks,^ and didn't find 
 it very much fun, though on a normal winter 
 day we should have seen the real Fuji, the 
 Parthenon of mountains, soaring fifty miles 
 away. All we did see from the top was the 
 queerest conglomeration of grown-up chil- 
 dren, who sent up the tinkle and tum-tum of 
 
468 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Oriental music, and the shuffle of myriad 
 clogs. 
 
 We were very much more amused by the 
 fate of the man who attempted to pick my 
 pocket, and was detected (wonderful to re- 
 late) by a detective. He was a very ingeni- 
 ously got-up crook, in the costume of a 
 Japanese student — native breeches, a sad 
 
 THE PATRON OF HORSEMANSHIP. 
 
 colored kimono, octogenarian European 
 shoes, and a gray " boxer " hat. He also 
 wore spectacles. 
 
 The first intimation I had of his designs 
 was to see what looked like an elderly arti- 
 san, out for a holiday, rush at him, and begin 
 boxing his ears so violently that his spec- 
 tacles were knocked off, and his face was 
 
 whipped scarlet. Then he dragged him up 
 to me and put his own hand half into my 
 pocket to intimate what had happened. I 
 made signs, after feeling my pocket, that I 
 had lost nothing. But that did not seem to 
 signify ; all the way to the police station he 
 was shaking the poor thief by the collar, and 
 boxing his ears. The Japanese are a nation 
 • of children, and their own authorities treat 
 , them like naughty children. 
 
 I lost sight of him as I turned round to 
 listen to a Japanese street band ; one of the 
 little groups who go round soliciting contri- 
 butions for a great temple at Kioto — a man 
 with a drum, a woman with a gong and a 
 boy with a sort of flute. I brought my 
 kodak to bear upon them, but quick as 
 lightning the old man, who was terrified at 
 the evil eye of the lens, covered his face 
 with his drum sticks. So I photographed 
 him with his eyes darkened by suspicion. 
 
 Dealers in Curios. 
 
 And then we passed from a whole street 
 of performances to a whole street of shops 
 and stalls. Tea-houses and saki shops were 
 in abundance. They invade even the sacred 
 precincts of the Zoological Gardens, which 
 are as jealously guarded " as any thief in 
 Tokio. The cheap curio stalls principally 
 devoted to pipe-cases, predominated ; sur- 
 rounded by worsted dealers, sellers of 
 " serop," cotton-wool tortoises, Japanese 
 Christmas trees, and a conjurer, from whose 
 tent was interpreted by Japanese musical in- 
 struments an ancient melody. This brought 
 us to the famous rope bridge over the lotus 
 pond, quite a long bridge, constructed of 
 planks and rope, like the swinging bridges 
 of the Incas, made immortal in the pages of 
 Prescott. 
 
 We made a poor start for our return 
 journey. Directly we were outside the 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 469 
 
 gates we found our riksha boy, the historical 
 Taro, wringing his hands and yelling. His 
 mate, his riksha, his blanket, and his hat had 
 all disappeared. But at length the missing 
 properties were found at a neighboring tea 
 house, and the sun shone through the clouds 
 again. 
 
 It was slow travelling, going as fast as we 
 could, through the streets packed with sol- 
 diers, wearing " holiday " on their counten- 
 ances, children one mass of sores, the queer 
 little Jap omnibuses, looking like miniature 
 police vans, or the carts in which butchers 
 take meat from the shambles, and rikshas 
 carrying Japanese dudes in marvellously 
 swell clothes, and silk hats, very seedy. 
 
 A Mountebank. 
 
 At one point in the road we were blocked 
 by a crowd which had collected round a 
 mountebank whose whole stock in trade was 
 a battered silk hat. This and his gestures 
 seemed to cause uncontrollable amusement 
 to the Japs. He certainly was a merry- 
 looking Andrew. 
 
 We drove home along the Thames Em- 
 bankment of Tokio, that city of muddy 
 creeks and canals. It was almost deserted, 
 though we did meet an old man, that rara 
 avis in Japan, where the old are quiet and 
 stay at home. They seem to dread an 
 exposure of their feebleness. On we dashed, 
 past high stockades and gabled white houses, 
 with the black monograms standing out on 
 their gables even in this dusky light, and 
 past a little street temple into leagues of 
 streets which were a forest of bamboo leaves 
 and flags ; looking, oh ! so picturesque in 
 the gloaming. 
 
 Our noses were taken up with the disgust- 
 ing smell of the sesame oil with which the 
 evening meals were being cooked, and our 
 eyes with the Jantern lighting. One old 
 
 Japanese was climbing up a ladder to light a 
 lamp which could not have been more than 
 six feet from the ground, while a more intel- 
 lectual neighbor was lighting his, twenty feet 
 from the ground, with the aid of an ingenious 
 pulley arrangement. 
 
 What glimpses of fairyland we had that 
 evening ! First there came the newly lighted 
 streets, with their rush candles glimmering 
 through paper shoji (shutters) and fantastic 
 swinging lanterns ; the queer, heavily gabled 
 go-downs and yashiki looming through the 
 deepening 'dusk. Then came the grim 
 castle, with its Titanic walls and broad 
 moats thrown into relief by the rising moon. 
 How quaint the gnarled fir trees that grew 
 on the top of the walls looked 1 We had 
 paused a minute just outside, to meet our 
 host, at a house with an evergreen arch of 
 the European pattern picked out with camel- 
 lia blossoms, and festooned with mandarin 
 oranges. 
 
 Houses in Decay. 
 
 And now we wheeled suddenly across one 
 of these moats, and found ourselves once 
 more among the long low yashiki, like so 
 many huge kraals built in mediaeval wood 
 and plaster, enterable only by the heavy 
 timber gates, shaped like the tori of the 
 Shinto temples. Now, alas ! they are stripped 
 of their glory. The king-making Daimio of 
 the Warwick pattern, with his army of feudal 
 retainers, is a thing of the past, converted 
 into a noble with an English or French title, 
 or a nobody stripped of everything, accord- 
 ing to the side he took in the Revolution. 
 Some of the yashiki have sunk so low as to 
 be turned into tenement houses for the poor. 
 
 By this time the dusk had deepened into 
 dark, and the riksha boys had lighted the 
 little paper lanterns they grip against one of 
 the shafts. The whole broad drill ground 
 
470 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 was a kaleidoscope of dancing lights, thrown 
 on little wheels that looked like spiders' 
 webs as they spun round in the glare. And 
 as we neared Shiba, the rikshas made a regu- 
 lar procession of fairy lights, winding through 
 the avenues of tall cryptomerias that stood 
 out like needles in the crisp winter moofl- 
 light. 
 
 At last we drew up at the Ko-yo-kwan, 
 and disbooted before walking up the glossy 
 maple stairs on to the spotless white mats of 
 the banqueting floor. Here we had a Maple 
 
 decoration; while beautiful women played 
 the biwa, and koto, and samisen, and sang 
 the story the others were setting forth in 
 dumb show. At last the banquet, with its 
 endless dishes and endless relays of tea and 
 saki, came to an end ; and then the games 
 with which the Japanese beguile an evening 
 at the club were played for our benefit, that 
 we might miss nothing. 
 
 For bad weather, or for people too old for 
 active sport, there are games such as the jiu 
 roku musashi — a board divided into squares 
 
 BRIDGE MAKING EXTRAORDINARY IN JAPAN. 
 
 Club banquet, with its endless unheard-of 
 dishes, from live fish downwards — offered to 
 us, sitting like Turks on piles of cushions, by 
 the sweetest little musumes, or waitresses, 
 squatting on their hams, to the light of sorry 
 candles on tall candlesticks, set, like our- 
 selves, on the floor. So I must not more 
 than mention the music and dancing which 
 our host had ordered to enliven the banquet. 
 The finest female dancers in Japan danced 
 before us in exquisitely rich and beautiful 
 robes, with the maple for the theme of their 
 
 and diagonals, on which move sixteen pieces 
 for one player, and one large piece for the 
 other. The point of the game is for the six- 
 teen pieces to hedge in the large piece so 
 that it cannot move, or for the large to take 
 all the sixteen. A capture can only be made 
 when the large piece finds a piece immedi- 
 ately on each side of it and a blank point 
 beyond. 
 
 Sugo roku is entirely a game of chance, a 
 sheet of pictures. Educational pictures are 
 the present fashion, but the oldest form is the 
 
THE NEW-YEAR FESTIVAL IN JAPAN. 
 
 471 
 
 journey between Kioto and Tokio. Players 
 write names on slips of paper or some other 
 suitable substance, throw a die in turn, and 
 place on the pictures the number correspond- 
 ing to the throw. In the next round, if the 
 number you throw is written on the picture, 
 you find directions as to which picture you 
 should move forward or back to. But you 
 may throw a blank and have to stay in your 
 place. Winning consists in reaching a cer- 
 tain picture. Other games are: — Making 
 verses (something like our own paper 
 games); simple lotteries for various ob- 
 jects ; card playitig, etc. 
 
 Illustrated Books. 
 
 We had an equivalent for these games by 
 being presented, each of us, with one of the 
 choice books published by Hakubunsha (of 
 which our host was the President) for the 
 European market. All were exquisitely 
 bound in dehcate sandal-wood-colored silk. 
 One had a book of flowers, another of birds, 
 drawn and colored with the fidelity which 
 only fails the Japanese when they depict 
 beasts and foreigners, and I myself received 
 a charming book, similarly illustrated, on 
 children's sports. 
 
 And then we booted, and were bowed out 
 by our pretty waitresses, who, as on the 
 previous occasion, handed each of us as we 
 stepped into our rikshas a little pile of 
 wooden boxes in which every scrap we had 
 left of the dishes placed before us was 
 scrupulously packed. When the Japanese 
 orders a banquet, he carries away all he can- 
 not eat on the spot to gormandize at his 
 leisure. 
 
 Our host insisted on seeing us safe home 
 to the hotel. The hour was late, but the 
 procession of fairy lights passing us was not 
 perceptibly smaller, and from every tea 
 house came the tinkling twang of the toki- 
 
 wona, the strolling female samisen player 
 who was plying her trade. 
 
 The motchi are a little New Year pile of 
 two or more, usually three, round rice flour 
 cakes, piled one on the top of the other and 
 placed in a most conspicuous position on a 
 lacquer stand. It is partly for ornament, in 
 
 ANCIENT JAPANESE ARCHER. 
 
 which capacity it serves till January i ith, 
 when it is eaten. 
 
 At the close of the old year there are 
 plenty in the shops. It is also made by 
 little parties of three men who go about 
 the streets for hire, carrying a bottomless 
 tub, with matting to replace the bottom, 
 slung on a pole between two of the men. 
 
472 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The third has the heavy wallet for the pro- 
 longed striking of the paste with heavy 
 thuds. To prevent rebound, the sticky 
 mass is placed on the soft matting in the 
 bottom of the tub. This man also carries 
 the board used as the pastry board for mak- 
 ing up the well-beaten cake. 
 
 Climbing a Ladder. 
 
 We called upon our late host in the 
 morning, and had to clamber up the usual 
 companion ladder without a hand rail, which 
 takes the place of a staircase in the native 
 houses. It was quite a large house, and we 
 were shown into a delightfully sunny room 
 without anything in it but the snowy mats 
 on the floor; a few vases of flowers in the re- 
 cesses of the guest chamber ; a very plain 
 screen, some floor cushions and a charcoal 
 stove to each. But near the window, in the 
 sunniest spot, were three stately snow white 
 motchi on a scarlet lacquer stand, with a vase 
 of flowers in front of them, as if they were part 
 of the ancestor worship which, combined with 
 loyalty to the Mikado, forms the Shinto 
 creed. These cakes do, I believe, have a 
 solemn family significance. 
 
 We were offered pipes, such as our host 
 kept filling and puffing through in two or 
 three whiffs, and refilling, the pipless Japan- 
 ese mandarin oranges, confectionery, candies, 
 and the inevitable tea, which was handed in 
 steaming relays about every five minutes. 
 A very brief inspection of the motchi sufificed. 
 But Japanese ceremoniousness did not allow 
 our leaving the house till we were afraid we 
 should miss either the fire parade or lunch.' 
 We had no difficulty in finding our firemen, 
 the Ginza being their favorite rendezvous, 
 and the great mattoi or paper standard con- 
 spicuous a mile off". 
 
 The men rally at an appointed place to 
 carry off" their new standard, ladders, lan- 
 terns, etc. This procession pauses at inter- 
 vals, when the men steady the ladder (in a 
 perpendicular position) with their long fire 
 hooks, while an agile member of the band 
 mounts it and performs gymnastics at the 
 top. His performance concluded, he dis- 
 mounts, and the march is continued, the men 
 yelling at the highest pitch of their voices. 
 
 Agile Firemen. 
 
 As the said gymnastics consist mainly of 
 standing on one's head at the top of the 
 ladder, and stretching out stiff" at right 
 angles with it, we were forced, after seeing 
 it, to the conclusion that either all Japanese 
 firemen were Japanese acrobats such as we 
 had seen performing at Barnum's, or that all 
 the acrobats were firemen. It must be added 
 that even when they go to a fire they take 
 this black and white paper mattoi and their 
 paper lanterns with them. But they gener- 
 ally stand at a safe distance. 
 
 As we were returning to our hotel, in one 
 of the narrow streets between the Ginza and 
 the moat, we came upon a little troupe per- 
 forming the ancient kagura dance. They 
 are often called in to amuse the spectators 
 by the quaint animal-like movements of the 
 draped figure, who wears a huge grotesque 
 scarlet (or green — a sort of cross between a 
 lion's head and a dragon' s)mask on his head. 
 At times he makes this monster appear to 
 lengthen and retreat his neck, by an unseen 
 change in the position of the mask from the 
 head to the gradually extended and draped 
 hand of the actor, the beat of a drum and 
 the whistle of a bamboo flute forming the 
 accompaniment to the dumb show acting 
 and forming a part of the performance. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 JAPANESE WOMEN. 
 
 THE Japanese woman begins at about 
 four years of age, when she assumes 
 the maternal function of carrying 
 the next baby but one, swaddled on 
 her back. She does not, however, cease to 
 be a child, for she plays at ball-bouncing, 
 battledore, skipping rope, and other noisy, 
 shaky games, with the baby sleeping peace- 
 fully through it all, nodding its head like a 
 pendulum. She begins dressing for society 
 about the same time, in the most fantastic 
 ■colors, and the richest fabrics that her parents 
 •can afford, with everything that a grown-up 
 person would have, in miniature. 
 
 I have seen a little girl, destined for the 
 profession of geisha, or singing girl, who 
 might have been anything from seven to ten, 
 with quantities of hair worked up with poma- 
 tum into an elaborate coiffure that looked 
 like a great ebony butterfly, stuck with 
 ■flowers, and coral and tortoise-shell hairpins, 
 •and high gilt combs. Her face was powdered, 
 her lips carmined, her eyebrows shaved in the 
 most approved mode. And she was dressed 
 in flowered silk, with an obe of stiff and 
 precious brocade. She was decked like this 
 to be sold for a term of years. This dressing 
 up was her mother's final attention. 
 
 The lower-class Japanese women always in- 
 terested me most. They wear more Oriental- 
 looking clothes. The higher-class women, 
 who adhere to the native custom, dress in 
 neutral colors — usually parson's-wife grays, 
 but sometimes in exquisite fawns and doves. 
 But this rather heightens the effect of their 
 ■delicate complexions, delicate figures, slender 
 
 necks, and thin, refined-looking faces, lending 
 to these an additional charm. 
 
 The great ladies are generally foolish 
 enough to dress Hke Europeans — Germans 
 for preference. It is painful to think of the 
 effect of an ill-made and totally unfitting 
 gown, of a pattern obsolete in Dutchland, on 
 a little pear-shaped Japanese. But the Em- 
 press and one or two others look well in 
 European dress. The Japanese have the 
 charm of looking very young until they look 
 very old. In connection with a woman's 
 wearing of European dress, it must be re- 
 membered that, if she does, she is accorded 
 by her husband the respect paid to Western 
 women ; whereas in native costume she is 
 little better than a kindly-treated slave. 
 
 A Singular Head-Dress. 
 
 But the women of the people ! What j oily 
 little things they are, whether in their work- 
 ing dress of blue coolie cotton, with a pale 
 blue towel folded round the head like a sun 
 bonnet; or in holiday bravery, tripping 
 through a fair Shiba ; or jogging compla- 
 cently in a jinrikisha, with a male relative, 
 to Asakusa. There the musumes (unmarried 
 girls) are very resplendent in scarlet and fine 
 hairpins. Japanese women never wear hats 
 three sizes too large for them. 
 
 The two prettiest little musumes I ever 
 saw were at the Toshogu festival at Shiba, 
 the June day on which the adherents of the 
 fallen Shoguns and the disestablished Budd- 
 hist creed meet at Shiba, Ueno, and Nikko, 
 to celebrate the festival which no longer 
 
 473 
 
474 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 appears in the calendars. They were peep- 
 ing out of the covered gallery between the 
 temple and the monastery, where the faithful 
 were throwing offerings of a tenth part of a 
 cent, screwed up in curl papers, at the pict- 
 ures of their favorite saint. I was with an 
 artist friend. 
 
 ' Our charmers were young — ten and four- 
 teen ; but the Japanese grow up quickly as 
 they grow old slowly, and in the presence of 
 the white-robed young priest, who alleged 
 that he was their uncle (though I could have 
 sworn that the girls were no relation to each 
 other), they were not more timid than fawns 
 accustomed to eat bread out of their keeper's 
 hands. We of course bought them tea and 
 cakes and candies, and the little gewgaws 
 they sell round a Japanese temple at fair 
 time. 
 
 Beautiful Olive Complexions. 
 
 I never saw anything prettier than these 
 little creatures, with their delicate beauty, and 
 clear, damasked, olive complexions, in their 
 fantastic, bright-colored. Oriental dresses, 
 playing about with the lightness and grace 
 of foxes, and munching candies and laugh- 
 ing — a musical treble from a veritable rosebud 
 of a mouth lined with pearly teeth. 
 
 Add that it was a fine June day, at sunset, 
 in a semi-tropical country, and that we were 
 in the most beautiful spot in Tokio, sur- 
 rounded by exquisite trees and temples, and 
 you have the picture. 
 
 The Japanese lower class abounds in 
 women pleasing to the European eye. They 
 are often no darker than Italians, and they 
 have the coloring Giorgione loved — rich 
 blood damasking a clear, sun-brown cheek. 
 They have the true rosebud mouth, small 
 and full, with beautifully white teeth, whose 
 smallness is in keeping with the general 
 petite effect. Sometimes, in married women, 
 
 the teeth are barbarously blackened to please- 
 a jealous husband. Their eyes are not so- 
 slit and beady as those of the upper class, 
 ^nd their magnificent brown-black hair is. 
 conspicuous. 
 
 The dressing of it is a work of art. They 
 will sit the best part of a day in front of their 
 fryingpan-shaped, quick -silvered bronze mir- 
 rors, while the peripatetic hairdresser poma- 
 tums their hair to the consistency of potters' 
 clay, and then molds it into fearful and won- 
 derful shapes — a sort of cross between a. 
 butterfly and a hearse plume. 
 
 This, on gala days, is stuck all over witlt 
 combs — gilt, scarlet, lacquer, ivory or pearl* 
 — and hairpins of flowers, tortoise-shell,, 
 coral, Venetian glass, ivory or mother-of- 
 pearl. And then its fortunate possessor is; 
 set up for a week ; for a Japanese pillow is. 
 a little block, about the size of the blocks 
 you put your feet on for the brigade boy- 
 to black your boots outside the railway 
 stations, with a little hollow or cushion for- 
 the neck, and generally a drawer in the base- 
 for the hairpins. 
 
 Clogs and Sandals of Straw. 
 
 Even the lower classes have exquisite- 
 hands and feet. The Japanese do nothing 
 roughly ; they move as gingerly as a cat in^ 
 a china shop. On their lean, glossy, well 
 kept feet they wear, in dry weather, sandals- 
 of fine straw ; in wet weather, high kiri-wood 
 clogs. These clogs, combined with the petti- 
 coat that pinions their knees together, give 
 the women a most ridiculous shuffling gait, 
 something like a weak-minded girl's on roller 
 skates for the first time. And this is never 
 so conspicuous as in a railway station, for 
 the Japanese always runs when entering or 
 leaving a train. 
 
 There is another variety: the mission- 
 educated, and presumably Christian girl.. 
 
475 
 
476 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Her badge is a pigtail. The Christianized 
 Japs never do their hair in the national way. 
 The Misses Asso, Sir Edwin Arnold's pupils, 
 wore pigtails — pronounced specimens — and 
 they added to this profanation the wearing 
 of hideous pseudo-European boots, silk 
 glovfes and German sunshades. They were 
 very ugly though they had fresh cheeks, 
 and as they seldom spoke more than a 
 couple of sentences an hour, they must 
 have had almost enough English for their 
 requirements before his tuition began. 
 
 Nearly Always Charming. 
 
 I saw Japanese women under many 
 aspects — the women of the people, who 
 interested me — and I must say that they 
 were never without charm except when 
 they were dirty. The Japanese woman 
 is such an impersonation of cleanliness 
 that she seems divorced from herself when 
 you see her, all dust-begrimed, dragging a 
 truck up the hill at Kojimachi ; or covered 
 with liquid malarious-looking black slush 
 as she transplants the young rice plants 
 root by root; or smothered in coal smut, 
 as, in company with hundreds of her fel- 
 lows, she passes baskets of coal sufficient 
 to coal a three-thousand ton steamer in a 
 day at Nagasaki. Then she seems a mere 
 beast. 
 
 How different from the little, blue-filleted, 
 scarlet-kirtled maids, carrying their provis- 
 ions in the tasselled kyoto picnic baskets, 
 and their wardrobes and worldly possessions 
 in cardboard boxes about the size of a bis- 
 cuit tin, tied up in oiled paper, going to pick 
 the tea (it was May) in the famous gardens 
 of Uji. Those chubby, stumpy, apple-cheeked 
 little houris, would teach you Japanese or 
 take you to your bath as glibly as they 
 brought in the best country dinner you ever 
 saw in Japan. 
 
 But the Japanese grisette never shows to 
 such advantage as at a fair or a tea-house. 
 She loves little merrymakings, and gets her- 
 self, up with such fascinating quaintness, in 
 her very gayest kimono and obe and hairpins, 
 under a circular parasol with all the colors 
 of the rainbow and her favorite poem — 
 Japanese poems have but thirty-one sylla- 
 bles — upon it. She buys toys and candies 
 with fractions of halfpence; sips watery- 
 looking tea from ridiculous little cups whose 
 saucers never match them ; gives you a pretty 
 little simper; runs away as fast as her clogs 
 will let her shuffle; allows herself to be 
 caught; promptly enters into conversation; 
 will go with you to a tea-house, and acqui- 
 esce in everything the foreigner proposes as 
 a huge joke. 
 
 Thinks it a Strange Custom. 
 
 She thinks kissing the queerest custom 
 ever invented, and learns to do it charm- 
 ingly in a lesson or two — the Japanese them- 
 selves never kiss. And she seems to have 
 absolutely no dread of the apparition of a 
 wrathful papa. But she loves best of all to 
 be taken to a tea-house at night. Some of 
 Pierre Loti's most inimitable passages tell us 
 how Madame Chrysantheme loved it. 
 
 And elsewhere he says : "After business 
 the women dress themselves, ornament their 
 hair with their most extravagant pins, and 
 set out, holding at the end of flexible sticks 
 great painted lanterns. The streets are filled 
 to overflowing with their little persons, 
 ladies or musumes, walking slowly in sandals 
 and exchanging charming courtesies. 
 
 "With an immense murmur of fluttering 
 fans, of rustling silks, and of laughing chatter 
 at dusk, by the light of the moon or beneath 
 the starry night, they ascend to the pagoda, 
 where gigantic gods with horrible masks 
 await them, half hidden behind bars of gold 
 
JAPANESE WOMEN. 
 
 477 
 
 in the incredible magnificence of their sanct- 
 uaries. They throw pieces of money to the 
 priests, they pray prostrated, and clapping 
 their hands with sharp blows, click clack as 
 though their fingers were of wood. But most 
 of the time they are chattering, thinking of 
 something else, attempting to escape by 
 laughter from the fear of the supernatural." 
 
 Guitar Players. 
 
 One naturally connects Japanese women 
 with playing the samisen (guitar), an accom- 
 plishment more common than piano playing 
 with us. Any time after dark you hear the 
 strolling eta (parish class) samisen player, 
 tinkling as she goes along, on the chance of 
 being called into a tea-house to earn a few 
 sen. The Japanese are very fond of their 
 music, and those who can afford it go to a 
 tea-house and hire the regular geisha girls, 
 who sing to the accompaniment of the 
 samisen, and are not famous for prudish 
 behavior. Many of them are very pretty, 
 and they may be readily detected in the 
 street by their gaudy dresses, whitened faces, 
 and elaborate coiffures. One generally sees 
 them riding in double rikshas, two together, 
 or one and a chaperon. 
 
 The young European also thinks nothing 
 so "chappie" as to take a friend to a famous 
 tea-house, order some beautiful geishas, and 
 stand them all a Japanese banquet, at which 
 he smokes, and drinks foreign liquors. 
 
 The women smoke too — the funny little 
 kiseru, or Japanese pipe, made of brass and 
 containing half a hickory nutshell of tobacco. 
 The Japanese women smoke perpetually. 
 The pretty little musume opposite you in the 
 railway carriage will pull out of her long 
 hanging sleeve, or from her sash, her pipe 
 case and tobacco case, the moment she has 
 kicked off her sandals and tucked her feet 
 under her on the seat. 
 
 The shopwoman while she is serving you 
 will be tapping her pipe against the charcoal 
 box to knock the ashes out. The coolie 
 woman, when she rests for her tiffin from 
 the hard labor which ought to be done by 
 men, loads, whiffs through in a twinkling, 
 and loads again the poor man's friend. 
 
 The tap tap of the kiseru against the box 
 and the shuffle of the clogs on the paving 
 flags, are as omnipresent in Japan as the 
 rattle of the 'bus in our city streets. 
 
 The lower class women in the cities are apt 
 to be worn out drudges or flighty little but- 
 terflies. But even a short way out they gain 
 in dignity of deportment, and labor without 
 losing their attractions. I was having a long 
 drive out of Yokohama one day, and about a 
 couple of miles before we got home, Sada, my 
 riksha boy — a very superior fellow, though, 
 I suspect, long-winded as a socialist, and 
 certainly a trifle short-winded as a runner — 
 stopped outside a Japanese farm house, with 
 a neatly railed garden and a cornfield in 
 front of it, from which the harvest was being 
 "carried" on men's backs. 
 
 A Model of Neatness. 
 
 "That my father's house," he said; and 
 pointing to a little cabin by the garden gate, 
 "That my house." I dismounted, and, 
 going up to it, flattered his vanity immensely 
 by taking off my boots. The whole thing 
 would have gone into a van, and the bulk 
 of it was taken up with his riksha house. 
 But it was as neat as a new pin, and in the 
 midst of the one dwelling room sat his wife, 
 with some dainty sewing on one side, and a 
 large charcoal firebox on the other. 
 
 She was squatting on her heels when I 
 entered, cooking rice and tea over a handful 
 of embers ; but she rose to greet me — such 
 an exquisite creature — erect, graceful, digni- 
 fied, with a clear, sun-browned skin and 
 
478 
 
 dazzling teeth, her pretty hands and feet 
 only browned, not spoiled by labor. 
 
 She showed me, with the ease and cliic of 
 a grisctic, her simple cooking utensils, her 
 household gods, her two Jappy little chests 
 of drawers, and her sewing, and then she 
 invited me into the garden, and picked me 
 her best roses, and brought to me her beau- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 When I reached Yokohama I got the 
 ladies of our party to put up a great bundle 
 of European garments for her, which, with 
 her beautiful sewing, I have no doubt she 
 transformed into marvels that smote her 
 rustic sisters' souls with awe. 
 
 Many Europeans marry Japanese women 
 for the time being, Japanese marriage laws 
 
 A JAPANESE WEDDING. 
 
 tiful children. Before I knew she was gone 
 she was back with a little tray of tea, and, 
 when I refused it, led me through the house 
 of her father-in-law (an old Jap who looked 
 as if he had been dug out, and a mummy of 
 the first dynasty) to the well, with its mossy 
 stone arch, its little red shrine, and its scar- 
 let wild camellia tree. 
 
 being somewhat elastic in the matters of 
 divorce; but British subjects must remem- 
 ber, if they do, that there is safety only in 
 numbers. A Japanomaniac of my acquaint- 
 ance, among his other tortuous ambitions, 
 desired to marry a Japanese according to 
 the Japanese rite, and to have his marriage 
 recognized by English law. 
 
JAPANESE WOMEN. 
 
 479 
 
 After taking the case through all the 
 •courts up to the House of Lords, British 
 Justice sardonically decided that if the mar- 
 riage were duly celebrated according to 
 Japanese custom, and the happy husband 
 only indulged in one wife at a time, he was 
 duly married. This probably carries with 
 it a recognition of the divorce laws, in which 
 Japan discounts Chicago; for not so long 
 ago a filial Japanese divorced a wife he 
 fondly loved because she didn't get on well 
 with his parents. 
 
 A Valuable Book. 
 The best book ever published in Japan is 
 Chamberlain's "Things Japanese." It would 
 be worth buying if it contained nothing but 
 The Daigaku Onna (Greater Learning for 
 Women). Every day I am more and more 
 struck with the fact that Americans do not 
 take the same view of Things Japanese as 
 Mr. Chamberlain. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain, an American, whose 
 •acquaintance with things Japanese is so 
 marvellous that he i • Professor of Japanese 
 Literature in their o .vn University of Tokio, 
 ■says that "the treatment of their women 
 might cause a pang to any generous Euro- 
 pean heart." American men are said to be 
 the best husbands in the world, and the least 
 appreciated ; and yet in the face of this, one 
 hears every now and then of an American 
 lady marrying a Japanese. One may safely 
 say that the Japanese view of the wife's 
 function differs from the American. 
 
 "A woman's lot is summed up in what are 
 called ' the three obediences ' — obedience, 
 while yet unmarried, to a father ; obedience, 
 when married, to a husband and that hus- 
 band's parents; obedience, when widowed, 
 to a son. At present the greatest duchess 
 ■or marchioness in the land is her husband's 
 drudge. She fetches and carries for him, 
 
 bows down humbly in the hall when my lord 
 sallies forth on his walks abroad, waits upon 
 him at meals, may be divorced at his good 
 pleasure. Two grotesquely different influ- 
 ences are now at work to undermine this 
 state of slavery — one, European theories 
 concerning the relation of the sexes; the 
 other, European clothes. 
 
 The same fellow who struts into a room 
 before his wife when she is dressed in Japan- 
 ese fashion, lets her go in first when she is 
 dressed like Europeans. Probably such 
 acts of courtesy do not extend to the home, 
 where there is no one by to see, for most 
 Japanese men make no secret of their disdain 
 for the female sex. Still it is a first step 
 that even on some occasions consideration 
 for women should at least be simulated." 
 
 Whole Duty of 'Woinan. 
 
 Such is the opinion deliberately expressed 
 in his "Things Japanese," published in Japan 
 by one vsfho has lived among the Japanese 
 for many years, and knows more of their 
 language and literature than any foreigner 
 living. 
 
 And it must be owned that what he says 
 finds authority, or illustration, in The Greater 
 Learning for Women, by the celebrated 
 Japanese moralist, Kaibara, of which he gives 
 a translation, and which he suggests might 
 more appropriately be called "The Whole 
 Duty of Woman." 
 
 This remarkable document has a preamble 
 that might justly fill the American woman 
 and girl child with horror. 
 
 "Seeing that it is a gjrl's destiny, on 
 reaching womanhood, to go to a new home 
 and live in subtnission to her father-in-law 
 and mother-in-law (the American girl would 
 rather board in one room with a bed that 
 folded up into an out of date piano), it is 
 even more incumbent on her than it is on a 
 
480 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 boy to receive with all reverence her parents' 
 instructions. 
 
 "Should her parents, through excess of 
 tenderness, allow her to grow up self-willed, 
 she will infallibly show herself capricious in 
 her husband's house, and thus alienate his 
 affections ; while if her father-in-law be a man 
 of correct principles, the girl wilh find the 
 yoke of these principles intolerable. She 
 will hate and decry her father-in-law, and 
 the end of these domestic dissensions will be 
 her dismissal from her husband's house, and 
 the covering of herself with ignominy. 
 
 Virtue a Jewel. 
 
 "More precious in woman is a virtuous 
 heart than a face of beauty. The vicious 
 woman's heart is ever excited. She glares 
 wildly around her, she vents her anger on 
 others, her words are harsh and her accents 
 vulgar, when she speaks it is to set herself 
 above others, to upbraid others, to envy 
 others, to be puffed up with individual pride, 
 to jeer at others, to outdo others — all things 
 at variance with the ' way ' in which a woman 
 should walk. 
 
 "The only qualities that befit a woman 
 are gentle obedience, chastity, mercy and 
 quietness." 
 
 The man who wrote this last paragraph 
 was a Japanese Solomon. It reads like a 
 lost chapter in the Book of Proverbs. In 
 what follows, the foreigner from his own 
 experience would imagine that some change 
 must have taken place in Japanese notions 
 of morality since The Greater Learning for 
 Women was written. 
 
 "From her earliest youth a girl should 
 observe the line of demarcation separating 
 women from men, and never even for an 
 instant should she be allowed to see or hear 
 the least impropriety." The last might be 
 pretty easy. The Japanese, to give them 
 
 credit, have no oaths or coarse' words in 
 their language. They have to fall back on 
 Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 "The customs of antiquity did not allow 
 men and women to sit in the same apart- 
 ment, to keep their wearing apparel in the 
 same place, to bathe in the same place, or 
 to transmit to each other anything ' directly 
 from hand to hand. 
 
 "A woman going abroad at night must 
 in all cases carry a lighted lamp, and (not 
 to speak of strangers) she must observe a 
 certain distance in her relations with her 
 husband and with her brethren. In our 
 days the women of the lower classes, igjnor- 
 ing all rules of this nature, behave them- 
 selves disorderly, they contaminate their 
 reputation, bring reproach upon the heads 
 of their parents and brethren, and spend 
 their whole lives in an unprofitable manner." 
 What a low lot foreigners must meet ! 
 
 A Risky Lottery. 
 
 Marriage must seem a hazardous experi- 
 ment to the Japanese lady. If her husband 
 turns out to be an adventurer she mustn't 
 utter a word of complaint, but put it down 
 to the credit of Heaven; and if she is 
 divorced "shame shall cover her till her 
 latest hour" — a little hard considering the 
 very elastic character of the Seven Reasons 
 for Divorce, which include such natural little 
 outbreaks on the female part as (i) disobedi- 
 ence to her father-in-law and mother-in-law, 
 (2) jealousy, and (3) disturbing the harmony 
 of kinsmen, and bringing trouble on her 
 household by talking over much and prat- 
 tling disrespectfully, and so on. 
 
 One would fancy that marriage must be 
 rather a frightening prospect for a woman in 
 Japan. She has to nurse every child till it 
 is about three years old, and after marriage 
 " her chief duty is to honor her father-in-law 
 
JAPANESE WOMEN. 
 
 481 
 
 and mother-in-law — to honor them beyond 
 her own father and mother." 
 
 The Greater Learning for Women observes, 
 sententiously : "While thou honorest thine 
 own parents think not lightly of thy father- 
 in-law! Never should a woman fail night 
 and morning to pay her respects to her 
 father-in-law and mother-in-law. Never 
 should she be remiss in performing any tasks 
 they may require of her. With all rever- 
 ence must she carry out, and never rebel 
 against, her father-in-law's commands. On 
 every point must she inquire of her father- 
 in-law and mother-in-law, and abandon her- 
 self to their direction. Even if thy father- 
 in-law and mother-in-law be pleased to hate 
 and vilify thee, be not angry with them, and 
 murmur not ! If thou carry piety towards 
 them to its utmost limits, and minister to 
 them in all sincerity, it cannot be but that 
 they will end by becoming friendly to thee. 
 
 Supreme Duty of Obedience. 
 
 "The great, lifelong duty of a woman is 
 obedience. In her dealings with her hus- 
 band, both the expression of her counte- 
 nance and the style of her address should 
 be courteous, humble and conciliatory, never 
 peevish and intractable, never rude and arro- 
 gant — that should be a woman's first and 
 chiefest care. 
 
 "When the husband issues his instruc- 
 tions the wife must never disobey them. In 
 doubtful cases she should inquire of her Hus- 
 band and obediently follow his commands. 
 If ever her husband should inquire of her 
 she should answer to the point — to answer 
 in a careless fashion would be a mark of 
 rudeness. Should her husband at any time 
 be roused to anger she must obey him with 
 fear and trembling, and not set herself up 
 against him in anger and disputatiousness. 
 A woman should look upon her husband 
 31 
 
 as if he were Heaven itself, and never weary 
 of thinking how she may yield to her hus- 
 band and thus escape celestial castigation. 
 
 "As brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law are 
 the brothers and sisters of a woman's hus- 
 band, they deserve all her reverence. ,Again, 
 she should cherish and be intimate with the 
 wife of her husband's elder brother. Yea, 
 with special warmth should she reverence 
 her husband's elder brother." 
 
 JAPANESE VASES. 
 
 This is the law of primogeniture with a 
 vengeance, and what follows leaves the 
 Divine right in the distance. Lay it to 
 heart, daughters of the Mayflower, how 
 Priscilla should comport herself when she 
 become Mrs. John Alden: ' 
 
 " Let her never even dream of jealousy. 
 If her husband be dissolute, she must ex- 
 postulate with him, but neither nurse or vent 
 her anger. If her jealousy be extreme it 
 will render her countenance frightful and her 
 
482 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 accents repulsive, and can only result in 
 completely alienating her husband from her, 
 and making her intolerable in his eyes. 
 
 "Should her husband act ill and unrea- 
 sonably, she milst compose her countenance 
 and soften her voice to remonstrate with 
 him ; and if he be angry, and listen not to the 
 remonstrance, she must wait over a season, 
 and then expostulate with him again when 
 his heart is softened. Never set thyself up 
 against thy husband with harsh features and 
 a boisterous voice. 
 
 Slander and Lying Condemned. 
 
 "A woman should be circumspect and 
 sparing in her use of words, and never, even 
 for a passing moment, should she slander 
 others or be guilty of untruthfulness. Should 
 she ever hear calumny, she should keep it to 
 herself and repeat it to none; for it is the 
 retailing of calumny that disturbs the har- 
 mony of kinsmen and ruins the peace of 
 families. 
 
 "A woman must ever be on the alert, and 
 keep a strict watch over her own conduct. 
 In the morning she must rise early, and at 
 night go late to rest. Instead of sleeping in 
 the middle of the day, she must be intent on 
 the duties of her household, and must not 
 weary of weaving, sewing, and spinning. 
 
 "Of tea and wine she must not drink over 
 much, nor must she feed her eyes and ears 
 with theatrical performances, ditties, and 
 ballads. To temples (whether Shinto or 
 Buddhist) and other like places, where there 
 is a great concourse of people, she should go 
 but sparingly till she has reached the age of 
 forty. She must not let herself be led astray 
 by mediums and divineresses, and enter into 
 an irreverent familiarity with the gods, neither 
 should she be constantly occupied in praying. 
 If only she satisfactorily perforin her duties 
 as a human being, she may let prayer alone 
 
 without ceasing to enjoy the divir;e protec- 
 tion. 
 
 "In her capacity of wife she must keep 
 her husband's household in proper order. 
 If the wife be evil and profligate the house is 
 ruined. In everything she must avoid ex- 
 travagance, and both with regard to food and 
 raiment must act according to her station in 
 life, and never give way to luxury and pride. 
 
 "While young she must avoid the inti- 
 macy and familiarity of her husband's kins- 
 men, comrades and retainers, ever strictly 
 adhering to the rule of separation between 
 the sexes, and on no account whatever 
 should she enter into a correspondence with 
 a young man. Her personal adornments 
 and the color and pattern of her garments 
 should be unobtrusive. It suffices for her to 
 be neat and cleanly in her person and in her 
 wearing apparel. It is wrong in her by an 
 excess of care to obtrude herself on other 
 people's notice. Only that which is suitable 
 should be practiced." 
 
 Must Venerate Her Mother-in-Law. 
 
 The Japanese wife "must not selfishly 
 think first of her own parents, and only 
 secondly of her husband's relations. 
 
 "As a woman rears up posterity, not to 
 her own parents, but to her father-in-law 
 and mother-in-law, she must value the latter ■ 
 more than the former, and tend them with 
 filial piety. Her visits also to the paternal 
 house should be rare after marriage. Again, 
 she must not be filled with pride at the 
 recollection of the splendor of the paternal 
 house, and must not make it the subject of 
 her conversations." 
 
 The Greater Learning for Women is as full 
 of wisdom as an egg is full of meat. The 
 rules and regulations for her relations given 
 above are not a whit more pithy than what 
 a Westerner would call "the sizing up of the 
 
JAPANESE WOMEN. 
 
 483 
 
 servant question," which may be very beau- 
 tiful in theory, yet difficult in practice. 
 
 " However many servants she may have 
 in her employ it is a woman's duty not to 
 shirk the trouble of attending everything 
 herself She must sew her father-in-law's 
 and mother-in-law's garments, and make 
 ready their food. Ever attentive to the 
 wants of her husband, she must fold his 
 clothes and dust his rug, rear his children, 
 wash what is dirty, be constantly in the 
 midst of her household, and never go abroad 
 but of necessity. 
 
 " Her treatment of her handmaidens will 
 require circumspection. These low and ag- 
 gravating girls have had no proper education ; 
 they are stupid, obstinate, and vulgar in their 
 speech. When anything in the conduct of 
 their mistress' husband or parents-in-law 
 crosses their wishes, they fill her ears with 
 their invectives, thinking thereby to do her 
 service. 
 
 Beware of Gossip. 
 
 " But any woman who should listen to this 
 gossip must beware of the heartburnings it 
 is sure to breed. Easy it is by reproaches 
 and disobedience to lose the love of those 
 who, like a woman's marriage connections, 
 were all originally strangers ; and it were 
 surely folly, by believing the prattle of a 
 servant girl, to diminish the affection of a 
 precious father-in-law and mother-in-law. 
 
 "If a servant girl be altogether too loqua- 
 cious and bad she should be speedily dis- 
 missed, for it is by the gossip of such persons 
 that occasion is given for troubling the har- 
 mony of kinsmen and the disordering of a 
 household. 
 
 "Again, in her dealings with these low 
 people, a woman will find many things to 
 disapprove of. But if she be forever reprov- 
 ing and scolding, and spend her time in 
 
 bustle and anger, her household will be in a 
 continual state of disturbance. When there 
 IS a real wrongdoing, she should occasionally 
 notice it and point out the path of amend- 
 ment, while lesser faults should be quietly 
 endured without anger. While in her heart 
 she compassionates her subordinate's weak- 
 nesses, she must outwardly admonish them 
 with all strictness to walk in the paths of 
 propriety, and never allow them to fall into 
 idleness. 
 
 " If any is to be succored, let her not be 
 grudging of her money; but she must not 
 foolishly shower down her gifts on such as 
 merely please her individual caprice, but are 
 unprofitable servants." 
 
 The Five Worst Maladies. 
 
 The Greater Learning for Women must 
 have been written by a Japanese Lord 
 Chesterfield. It is a very gospel of expedi- 
 ency, founded on very much his lordship's 
 caustic view of human nature. What fol- 
 lows is the climax of Woman according to 
 Man. 
 
 "The five worst maladies that afflict the 
 female mind are : — Indocility, discontent, 
 slander, jealousy, and silliness. Without 
 any doubt these five maladies infest seven or 
 eight out of every ten women, and it is from 
 these that arises the inferiority of women to 
 men. A woman should cure them by self- 
 inspection and self-reproach. The worst of 
 them all, and the parent of the other four, is 
 silliness. 
 
 "Woman's nature is passive. This pas- 
 siveness, being of the nature of the night, is 
 dark. Hence, as viewed from the standard 
 of man's nature, the foolishness of woman 
 fails to understand the duties that lie before 
 her very eyes, perceives not the actions that 
 will bring down blame upon her own head, 
 and comprehends not even the things that 
 
484 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 will bring down calamities on the heads of 
 her husband and children. Neither when 
 she blames and accuses and curses innocent 
 persons, nor when in her jealousy of others 
 she thinks to set up herself alone, does she 
 see that she is her own enemy, estranging 
 others and incurring their hatred. La- 
 mentable errors ! 
 
 "Again, in the education of her children 
 her blind affection induces an erroneous 
 system. Such is the stupidity of her char- 
 acter that it is incumbent on her, in every 
 particular, to distrust herself and obey her 
 husband." 
 
 The peroration is too long to quote entire, 
 but it is a gem worthy of the occasion. It 
 begins with remarking: "We are told that 
 it was the custom of the ancients, on the 
 birth of a female child, to let it lie on the 
 floor for the space of three days. Even in 
 
 this may be seen the likening of the man to 
 heaven and the woman to earth." 
 
 " Parents, teach the foregoing maxims to 
 your daughters from their tenderest years. 
 Copy them out from time to time that they 
 may read and never forget them. Better 
 than the garments and divers vessels, which 
 the fathers of the present day so lavishly 
 bestow upon their daughters when giving 
 them away in marriage, were it to teach 
 them thoroughly these precepts, which 
 would guard them as a precious jewel 
 throughout their lives. 
 
 " How true is that ancient saying, 'A man 
 knoweth how to spend a million pieces 
 marrying his daughter, but knoweth not how 
 to spend a hundred thousand bringing up his 
 child.' Such as have daughters must lay 
 this well to heart." These are specimen ad- 
 monitions, supposed to contain much wisdom. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 STRIKING FEATURES OF JAPANESE LIFE. 
 
 SIR EDWIN ARNOLD, the dis- 
 tinguished journalist, author and 
 traveller, has furnished a glowing 
 description of Japan and the Japan- 
 ese. The following fascinating account is 
 written with the grace and brilliancy peculiar 
 to all his productions : 
 
 Arriving at night in a strange country, 
 one always wonders what the daytime will 
 disclose. It dawned on a scene of singular 
 charm and beauty. Far and near, over the 
 placid surface of "Mississippi Bay," as the 
 inlet is called upon which Yokohama stands, 
 rode at anchor a whole fleet of merchant 
 ships of large tonnage, steam and sailing, 
 seven or eight powerful men-of-war of various 
 nationalities interspersed among them, her 
 Majesty's vessels Severn and Wanderer being 
 of the number. 
 
 Amidst, and around, and beyond these, 
 scores of native fishing craft, with square 
 sails of many hues, traversed the bay, while 
 hundreds of " sampans " — light rowing boats, 
 constructed of broad planks of pine — 
 skimmed the quiet sea, propelled after the 
 manner of Venetian gondolas, by two long 
 stern oars, which are worked under water 
 with a sculling movement by the lively little 
 brown-skinned watermen. The white hulls 
 of the men-of-war, the black mail steamers; 
 the brown and yellow native craft with 
 variously tinted sails, the fluttering ensigns 
 of many nations — amid which the Japanese 
 flag of red and white was everywhere con- 
 spicuous — filled the fair marine picture with 
 bright points of color, and beyond the thickly- 
 
 peopled water lay the picturesque town,' 
 planted on what was once a marsh, between 
 two " bluffs," or ranges of hills, running 
 inland. 
 
 Here was Japan at last, the country which 
 surprises and fascinates everybody who visits 
 it — the"Kingdome of Japonia," as the old 
 authors styled it — and of which good Master 
 Will Adams, its discoverer for English 
 people, wrote — "This iland of lapon is a 
 great land, and lyeth to the northwards, in 
 the lattitude of eight and fortie degrees, and 
 it lyeth east by north, and west by south or 
 west south west, two hundred and twentie 
 English leagues. The people of this iland 
 of lapon are good of nature, curteus aboue 
 measure, and valiant in warre; their iustice 
 is seuerely executed without any partialitie 
 vpon trangressors of the law. They are 
 gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a 
 land better gouerned in the world by ciuil 
 policie. The people be verie superstitious in 
 their religion, and are of diuers opinions." 
 
 Passing Quarantine. 
 
 We could hardly have patience enough 
 for breakfast on board the Belgic, so much 
 did the shore and the prospect of setting foot 
 in the spacious city before our eyes excite 
 the imagination. But the Japanese authori- 
 ties are particular and punctilious. It was 
 necessary to get a clean bill of health, and to 
 fulfil all formalities, after which a steam- 
 launch conveyed us, " bag and baggage,' ' to 
 the steps of the Custom House, which we 
 passed with little or no trouble, and found 
 
 485 
 
486 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 ourselves — with gait unsteadied by the cease- 
 less movements of the Pacific waves — safe, 
 sound, and well pleased on the soil of the 
 "Land of Gentle Manners." 
 
 Everybody has read and heard so much 
 of Japan, by this time, and seen so many 
 photographs of its people and places, that it 
 cannot seem quite so novel, so astonishing 
 to the modern traveller, as it was to Will 
 Adams and his weather-beaten crew, when 
 they came to "Nangasaque" and saw those 
 scenes which the old seaman describes so 
 well — "Then wee steered north north-west, 
 and soone after came foure great fisher-boats 
 aboord, about fiue tunnes apeece in burthen, 
 they sailed with one saile, which stood like a 
 skiffe saile, and skuld with foure oares on a 
 side, their oares resting vpon a pinne fastned 
 on the toppe of the boats side, the head of 
 which pinne wos so let into the middle part 
 of the oare that the oare did hang in his iust 
 poize, so that the labour of the rower is much 
 lesse, then otherwise it must be; yet doe 
 they make farre greater speed then our 
 people with rowing, and performe their 
 worke standing as ours doe sitting, so that 
 they take the lesse roome." 
 
 The King's Musicians. 
 
 And again — " The king came aboord and 
 brought foure chiefe women with him. They 
 were attired in gownes of silke, clapt the one 
 skirt ouer the other, and so girt to them, 
 barelegged, only a paire of halfe buskins 
 bound with silke reband about their instep; 
 their haire very blacke, and very long, tyed 
 vp in a knot vpon the crowne in a comely 
 manner: their heads no where shauen as 
 the mens were. They were well faced, 
 handed and footed^; cleare skind and white, 
 but wanting colour, which they amend by 
 arte. 
 
 "Of stature low, but very fat; curteous in 
 
 behauiour, not ignorant of the respect to be 
 given unto persons according to their fashion. 
 The kings women seemed to be somewhat 
 bashful, but he willed them to bee frolicke. 
 They sung diuers songs, and played vpon 
 certain instruments (whereof one did much 
 resemble our lute) being bellyed hke it, but 
 longer in the necke, and fretted like ours, 
 but had only foure gut strings. Their fin- 
 gring with the left hand like ours, very nim- 
 bly, but the right hand striketh with an 
 iuory bone, as we vse to play vpon a cit- 
 terne with a quill. They delighted much 
 with their musicke, keeping time with their 
 hands." 
 
 A Country That Never Changes. 
 
 People talk of Japan as already half-Euro- 
 peanized, but within a couple of hours after 
 our landing I had seen the quaint letters of 
 the "Ancient Mariner" of Gillingham illus- 
 trated in twenty particulars, and found that, 
 like all the rest of Asia, Japan has caprices 
 of fashion, but never really changes. 
 
 Even here, where the Old and New 
 Worlds throng Yokohama Gulf with ship- 
 ing, and you may hear nearly every known 
 tongue spoken upon the Bund, a walk of 
 half an hour takes you away to scenes and 
 customs which are as old as the beginning 
 of the Christian Era, and older still. Under 
 the thickest lacquer of new ways, the antique 
 manners and primitive Asiatic beliefs survive 
 of this curious and delightful people, in 
 whose veins Mongol and Malay blood has 
 mingled to form an utterly special and 
 unique race. 
 
 How is it possible to convey a tithe of 
 those first impressions of strangeness and 
 vivid interest with which the streets of even 
 cosmopolitan Yokohama fill the observant 
 newcomer? Look at these roadways, mois- 
 tened , with a recent shower! Nowhere else 
 
STRIKING FEATURES OF JAPANESE LIFE. 
 
 487 
 
 in the world would you see the mud marked 
 with such curious tracks — innumerable trans- 
 verse lines, parallel and sharply impressed, 
 as if a goffering roll had passed everywhere 
 along. These are the footprints of the gcta, 
 the wooden clogs which all Yokohama wears 
 on wet days ; and that noise, like the voices 
 of very loud crickets, is produced by the pit- 
 a-pat of thousands of geta, on the spots 
 where the causeways are paved with stone 
 or pebbles. 
 
 The Tiny Japanese Lady. 
 
 Plunge into the cheery, chattering, polite 
 and friendly crowd going and coming along 
 the Benten Dori, and it is as if you were liv- 
 ing on a large painted and lacquered tea-tray, 
 the figures of which, the little gilded houses, 
 the dwarf trees, and the odd landscape, sud- 
 denly jumped up from the dead plane into 
 the living perpendicular, and started into 
 busy being. Here, too, are all the pleasant 
 little people you have known so long upon 
 fans and screens. Take the first that comes 
 along — this tiny Japanese lady, whom you 
 left, as you thought, on the lid of the glove- 
 box at home. 
 
 Tripping along upon her waraji, she wears 
 that kimono of puce-colored silk with the 
 white storks, which you so well remembered, 
 the obi oi zxrCo^x and blue satin, tied round 
 her little body and swelling into enormous 
 puffed bows behind — 
 
 "She's a little bit thick in the waist, the waist ; 
 But then she was never once laced, once laced ! " 
 
 Her snow-white socks, which only just cover 
 the little foot, are divided into a private room 
 for the great toe, and a parlor for the little 
 toes, which gives her the air of being a little 
 pigeon with white feet; and she waddles 
 prettily, somewhat like a pigeon. 
 
 The kimono is folded demurely across her 
 
 little bosom, and her long sleeves hang down 
 from the small brown wrists and arms to her 
 knees. In these receptacles she keeps sheets 
 of soft tough paper, with which she blows 
 her small nose and wipes the dust from her 
 dainty skirts, besides innumerable other arti- 
 cles of constant use, such as her cards, her 
 chop-sticks, perhaps her special porcelain 
 cup for tea. She has the little clear-cut 
 almond eyes which the artist so faithfully 
 depicted, the funny little nose — "adpressus" 
 — flattened into the little rosy, laughing face, 
 which presents a lovely mouth with the 
 whitest shining teeth, full curving lips, and 
 dimpled chin, and amber-colored neck and 
 throat losing themselves softly in the tender 
 folds of the kimono. 
 
 Jet Black Hair. 
 
 Her hands are small and fine, the little 
 nails veritable rose-leaves; and in her glossy 
 hair she wears a red camellia with ever so 
 many little fantastic pins stuck up and down 
 the smooth waves of it. But there is where 
 the artist of the fan and glove-box failed. 
 His palette had not any black pigments 
 black enough to represent the night-dark 
 depths of the tresses of the Japanese girl. 
 
 Those puffed and perfumed bandeaux of 
 oiled coiffure, so carefully dressed and ar- 
 ranged so that no single hair strays from the 
 rigid splendor of toilette-room, would make 
 a jetty spot on the heart of midnight. So 
 black that the very highest lights of it are 
 blue-black beyond inky blackness, black so 
 that ebony would be grey beside it, the glit- 
 tering tenebrosity of it makes her little visage 
 and her little nape and throat emerge like 
 dyed ivory from the contrast. 
 
 Then the Kuruma-ya, the jmrikisha men! 
 Much as you have heard and read about 
 them, you will almost die with laughter when 
 you call one from the stand where the little 
 
488 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 machines are ranged like fairy hansom cabs, 
 and start for your first ride. 
 
 With a hat on his shaggy head like a 
 white washing-basin, with a red or blue 
 blanket over his shoulders, his little legs 
 tightly encased in black cloth drawers, his 
 \ feet thrust into straw sandals, his name and 
 number gaily painted on his back, "San-ju- 
 ban," or whatever else his ticket proclaims 
 him, starts off at a run with the ridiculous 
 perambulator into which you have entered, 
 and whisks you here, there, and everywhere 
 for fifteen cents, his little hoofs twinkling 
 between the slender shafts, bedecked with 
 bands of tin-foil. 
 
 On all sides, as you walk about Yoko- 
 hama, the cry will be heard from the 
 Kuruma stands of "Ska, Ska/" answering 
 to the London "Keb, sir!" and should you 
 have picked up a little of the language the 
 polite phrases of the two-legged steed will 
 be a good sample of " honorific Japanese.'' 
 " If the honorkble lord does not give himself 
 the trouble of much illustrious delay, the fare 
 will only be 20 sen. Condescend to make 
 gracious use of this worthless servant!" 
 Then the children. 
 
 Playful Children. 
 
 Japan is evidently a Paradise for babies 
 and boys and girls. The babies are one and 
 all slung upon the back in a deep fold of the 
 kimono. There they sleep, eat, drink, and 
 wobble their little shaven pates to and fro, 
 with jolly little beaming visages, and fat 
 brown hands and arnis. The children are 
 friends of everybody, and play ball and fly 
 kites in the most crowded thoroughfares, 
 never rebuked, never ill-treated, with grave 
 happy ways, and long flowing robes, which 
 give a .certain quaint dignity to even the 
 youngest. 
 
 Coolies go about carrying huge burthens 
 
 on balanced bamboo baskets; fishermen 
 hawk odd-looking piscine specimens in white 
 tubs ; the blind amma, or shampooer, wan- 
 ders up and down tooting a plaintive note 
 upon a double pipe of reed, to notify that he 
 is ready to knead and pummel anybody 
 troubled with rheumatism ; the iska, or phy- 
 sician, passes with his drug-case hitched into 
 his waistband by an ivory netske ; the miller, 
 standing naked behind the string-screen of 
 his shop, grinds rice between two stones, 
 his brown limbs powdered with the fine 
 flour; the bath-man lifts the blue cloth cur- 
 tain of his establishment, and begs you to 
 " make honorable entrance." 
 
 Baths of Hot Water. 
 
 If you do you will see all sorts and con- 
 ditions of men — and women, too — amicably 
 tubbing together, and will be yourself invited 
 to disrobe and sit in a tub, which will scald 
 you, if not heedful, for the Japanese take 
 their baths at nearly the temperature which 
 boils an e.gg. And the little shops, and the 
 little goods, and the little, funny, impossible 
 articles bought and sold; and the little, 
 placid, pleasant folk laughing and trotting 
 about the ways ; and the little trees growing 
 in every nook, and the little absurd cakes 
 and little morsels of food, and little cups and 
 little bowls which they use. I know I abuse 
 this adjective "little," but all in Japan is 
 ckisai, choito, except the shrimps — which are 
 colossal — and the sea, and the mountains. 
 
 But the word "mountains" reminds me 
 of Fuji-San, and one ought to speak first of 
 this prodigious and renowned eminence, 
 which is clearly visible from many spots in 
 Yokohama. So, for the present, I leave the 
 ever-wonderful population of the Japanese 
 towns and pay tribute of distant respect to 
 sublime "Fuji." The highest mountain in 
 Japan, it stands between the provinces of 
 
STRIKING FEATURES OF JAPANESE LIFE. 
 
 489 
 
 Suruga and Kai. Its height is variously 
 stated at 12,234 Englisli feet, 12,365 feet, 
 and 13,287 feet. 
 
 According to the ancient Japanese legend, 
 Fuji arose in a single night, while the Biwa 
 Lake, near Kioto, was formed simultaneously. 
 Eruptions are mentioned as having taken 
 place in the years 799, 864, 936, 1082, 1649, 
 and 1707. The last began December 16, 
 1707, and continued till January 22, 1708. 
 On this occasion the hump called Ho-yei-zan, 
 on the upper slope of the south side of the 
 mountain, was formed. 
 
 Mount Fuji stands by itself, rising with 
 one majestic sweep from a plain which is 
 almost surrounded by ranges of mountains. 
 The southern side curves down to the sea, 
 its graceful line being only broken on the 
 south-east by the rugged peaks of Ashidaka- 
 yama. The ascent can be made from five 
 different points, viz., Murayama, Suyama, 
 Subashiri, Yoshida, and Shito-ana. The 
 slope of the mountain is richly cultivated 
 with rice, tea, tobacco, millet, and various 
 vegetables, and higher up the paper plant 
 abounds. 
 
 A Fine Mountain Peak. 
 
 Although in the present day it is not 
 necessary to obtain permission before making 
 the ascent, still a certain amount of etiquette 
 attaches itself to the formal ceremony of 
 opening the mountain on the first day of the 
 eighth moon. Our earliest glimpse of this 
 famous volcano, the finest peak of its kind in 
 the world, was obtained from the " loi steps." 
 At the top of these steps, beyond the Creek 
 of Yokohama, is a Tea House, known to all, 
 called "Fujiya" or the "Abode of the Wis- 
 teria." We had repaired- thither to drink 
 the little cups of pale yellow beverage for 
 which the Japanese have so refined a passion, 
 and to nibble the little yellow and red cakes. 
 
 and smoke the little brass pipes, while chat- 
 ting with O Take San, the agreeable Lady 
 of the Establishment. 
 
 We had finished a repast, calculated to 
 stay the appetite, perhaps, of a butterfly, or 
 a Japanese; had heard the music of the 
 "samisen," and some less abstruse melodies, 
 among them a song composed to a Yoko- 
 hama belle by an American officer, of which 
 here are two verses — 
 
 " I strive to make love, but in vain, in vain, 
 My language, I know, is not plain, not plain. 
 
 Whenever I try, 
 
 She says, ' Go men nasai 
 Watakshi iwakarimasen-masen. ' 
 
 " She plays on the soft ' samisen, ' ' samisen,' 
 She sings me a song now and then — and then. 
 And when I go away 
 She sweetly will say, 
 ' Sayonara ! ' ' Do please come again — again.' " 
 
 Silvered With Snow. 
 
 Our " afternoon tea " was concluded, the 
 shoji (a screen of frame and paper) was drawn 
 back, we resumed our shoes, and with many 
 a "O yasumi nasai!" and "Sayonara!" pro- 
 ceeded to descend the " loi steps." It was 
 nearly sunset, and lo! half-way down in the 
 rosy west, suddenly we spied the glorious 
 hill raising its sharply pointed cone, all 
 brilliant with snow, above the belt of light 
 grey and rosy clouds which lay along the 
 horizon. Although sixty or seventy miles 
 distant, the giant peak stood forth plain as a 
 silhouette of silver upon the golden back- 
 ground of the western heavens. 
 
 It was good to behold Fuji-San — the 
 " Lady of Mountains" — so soon after arrival, 
 and no wonder could be felt, even from that 
 dim and remote vision, that the Japanese 
 revere their beautiful and isolated volcano. 
 Innumerable are the legends attaching to it. 
 On the summit dwells a deity — the guardian 
 God of the Crater — who is styled " O-ana- 
 
490 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 Mochi no Mikoto," the "Protector of the 
 Great Hole." 
 
 The sand brought down during the day- 
 time by the feet of many pilgrims reascends 
 of itself during the night. On the fifteenth 
 day of the sixth moon the snow all disappears 
 from the summit for twelve hours, to make 
 the visit of the goddess "Fuji-Sen-Gen" 
 perfectly convenient; and reappears the fol- 
 lowing day quite punctually. 
 
 A Theme for Poets. 
 
 The smoke of Fuji, her snows, her green 
 girdle of canes and vines, her feet sandalled 
 with flowers, her bosom from which issue 
 streams fertilizing the plains, her perfect con- 
 tour, her majestic beauty, fill Japanese poetry 
 with passionate themes of eulogy and adora- 
 tion. One native bard exclaims — 
 
 ' ' What words can tell, what accents sing 
 Thine awful grandeur ? 'Tis thy breast 
 Whence Puzugawa's wavelets spring, 
 Where Narusana's waters rest." 
 
 Divine, truly, in majesty and grace rose 
 the tall peak, about the precise height of 
 which in feet and metres it seems almost 
 impious to dispute, when the living lovely 
 vision of this mountain once comes in sight. 
 For days and weeks together the clouds 
 often shroud that splendid cone, and you can 
 only know where Fuji-San stands by the 
 masses of cumuli and cumulo-strati gathered 
 about her from the Pacific. Ocean at her foot. 
 
 All the more happy did we feel to catch a 
 glance of the Goddess on the third day of our 
 sojourn in Japan. The omen was good, and 
 we mounted our jinrikishas and trundled 
 home through the twinkhng paper lanterns 
 and busy little streets, with the resolve to see 
 Fuji presently close at hand, even though 
 the season should forbid the ascent of its 
 sublime slopes. 
 
 We are on English soil again, for a time, 
 
 being the happy guests of the, British Minis- 
 ter and Mrs. Eraser, at her Britannic Ma- 
 jesty's Legation in Tokio, the capital city 
 of Japan, formerly known as Yeddo. The 
 run by railway from Yokohama is short but 
 interesting. The carriages are of the Eng- 
 lish pattern ; the names of the stations are i 
 painted up in English as well as in Japanese, 
 and the eighteen miles of flat country are 
 traversed in about three-quarters of an hour. 
 In quitting Yokohama you pass under a large 
 Shinto Temple, and skirt the fishing town of 
 Kana!gawa ("The Metal River"), where for- 
 eigners were first settled. 
 
 Tobacco and Rice Fields. 
 
 Then you come to Tsurumi (" Place to 
 See Storks"), surrounded by extensive rice- 
 fields, in which the people were reaping the 
 ripe stalks and hanging them in circular- 
 shaped sheaves upon the stems of the trees, 
 so that every hedge-row presented a most 
 curious appearance with these lines of 
 swathed trunks. Tobacco grew green and 
 plentiful everywhere, with patches of onions 
 and of those gigantic radishes which the 
 Japanese so much affect. Kawasaki (" River- 
 Bend") is next passed, where numberless 
 cargo-boats thatched with mats, and gliding 
 sampans, driven by big-handled oars, testify 
 to a lively water traffic. 
 
 The boat women work and row with their 
 babies tied upon their backs, the little black 
 round heads and doll-like eyes wagging and 
 winking behind the totally unconcerned 
 mother. Omori ("The Great Forest") suc- 
 ceeds, but its trees have mainly disappeared, 
 though Kamada, close by, is famous for its 
 plum-blossoms in April. 
 
 The love of the people for flowers is one 
 of their many charming traits. We are too 
 late or too early, for the red and white 
 lotuses, the tree-peonys and the golden 
 
STRIKING FEATURES OF JAPANESE LIFE. 
 
 491 
 
 lilies, which, with the jasmines and roses, 
 embellish the spring and autumn lakes and 
 fields; but it is the cream of the season for 
 the chief blossom of Japan, her Imperial 
 symbol — the chrysanthemum; and truly 
 splendid are the displays seen of this many- 
 hued and multiform flower. 
 
 Exhibitions of the National Flower. 
 
 Half the women wear a purple or amber 
 pompone in their hair or bosom, and one of 
 our objects in coming at once to Tokio is to 
 be present at the annual exhibition of chry- 
 santhemums, held in the Emperor's gardens. 
 Passing Ikegami ("The Upper Lake"), we 
 next see a famous temple, dedicated to the 
 ancient Buddhist saint, Nichiren, and another 
 sacred to Daikoku, the God of Wealth and 
 Good Fortune, whose highly comic picture 
 — sitting upon bags of rice which rats are 
 busily gnawing — figures on all the one and 
 five yen bank-notes current in Japan. 
 
 The jocund spirit of the people manifests 
 itself even in these grave matters of finance. 
 They will not and cannot take either life 
 or religion seriously. Another ornamental 
 shrine hereabouts, rich with lacquer and 
 carvings, is raised in honor of Mioken, the 
 Pole-Star. And thus our train comes to 
 Shinagawa ("River of Merchandise"), at 
 the head of the Gulf — a place mainly popu- 
 lated by fishermen, who catch and sell 
 extraordinary quantities of odd-looking fish, 
 and of those gigantic blue shrimps already 
 observed. 
 
 The line now curves round, through sub- 
 urbs of the metropolis, styled respectively, 
 Mita ("The Three Fields") and Shimbashi 
 ("The New Bridge"); and then we are in 
 the station of Tokio, a really vast city, nine 
 miles long and eight miles wide, containing 
 over a million of inhabitants, the seat of 
 Government, as well as of the Shiro, or 
 
 Castle, wherein resides his Imperial Majesty 
 the Mikado. This Shiro, with its huge ram- 
 parts of Cyclopean masonry and wide moats 
 full of wild fowl, banked by lofty slopes of 
 grass and rows of ancient trees, is one of 
 the perpetually striking features of Tokio. 
 
 While driving or riding in a jinrikisha you 
 are always entering or leaving its massive 
 gateways, guarded by neat Uttle soldiers, 
 and capped with Chinese-looking gate- 
 houses. The broad moats swarm with fish, 
 as well as with teal, widgeon and duck, but 
 nobody is permitted to angle or shoot there. 
 
 Picturesque Scenes. 
 
 Tokio gives the impression of being mainly 
 a bigger Yokohama, without the beautiful 
 sea view, albeit it possesses its own maritime 
 quarter, and is washed there by the head 
 of the Gulf, into which runs the River 
 Sumida. Yet the interminable thorough- 
 fares present a far fuller, stream of life, and 
 even more surprising novelties than the sea- 
 port. Nothing but an instantaneous photo- 
 graph, carefully colored, could impart even 
 an idea of the picturesque population of the 
 Nakadori or of Ginza Street. 
 
 The trundling jinrikishas; the little shock- 
 headed Japanese in dark blue coats and tight 
 trousers; the tiny womenkind with hair 
 banded and brushed into fantastic, - glossy, 
 immovable coiffures; the mothers with the 
 slit-eyed babies lashed upon their backs — 
 so like to dolls that you almost look for the 
 wire wherewith to make them wink and 
 squeak ; the smart little soldiers in brick-red 
 breeches; the immaculately g'loved police- 
 men; the postmen in soup-plate hats run- 
 ning along with letter-bags; the endless 
 clatter of the innumerable wooden pattens; 
 the shuffling of the countless waraji; the 
 slow, shaggy oxen dragging the bamboo 
 wagons ; the pretty, grave, delightful, happy 
 
492 
 
 children, racing along the public way, with 
 flowing sleeves, like those of a Master of 
 Arts, and flowers in their hair, or flying 
 kites of astonishing devices, or clambering 
 about the stone gods and demons of some 
 Buddhist temple, or broadly and blandly 
 staring at the foreigner with languid almond 
 eyes and little painted mouths wide open are 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 keepers; the cakeman with his tinkling bell; 
 the blind amma or shampooer; the small 
 black and white houses, ranged in endless 
 rows as if out of a wooden toy-box, with 
 paper fronts and sliding shoji; the tootling 
 of the tramcar horns; the spick and span 
 musumes tripping, with shining tresses and 
 pigeon-feet, to dance or to dinner; the start- 
 
 JAPANESE BUDDHIST PRIESTS. 
 
 conspicuous and form a part of this novel 
 and attractive spectacle. 
 
 The fishermen, with specimens of piscine 
 natural history which make mermaids com- 
 monplace, and sea-serpents appetizing; the 
 gigantic radishes; the absurd English in- 
 scriptions on the sign-boards ; the funny 
 small shops, with their hanging screens of 
 blue cloth and reeds; the squatting shop- 
 
 ling things in toyshops, and restaurants, and 
 "butcheries" where badgers, wild boars and 
 silver pheasants are hanging up at the poul- 
 terers', beside ducks, and snipe and hares; 
 the great kites and noisy crows sweeping 
 round and round above the traffic of the 
 bazaar, and at the four-cross way, where a 
 long vista opens westward, Fuji's grand and 
 perfect peak sixty miles off, towering above 
 
STRIKING FEATURES OF JAPANESE LIFE. 
 
 493 
 
 the rosy clouds of sunset, lifting itself to our 
 Jar-off gaze in such majesty of form and 
 color as no other mountain in the world 
 possesses — a sight that puts on the other 
 sights, as it were, the Creator's own mark 
 when He made this wonderful, delightful, 
 unique and mysterious Japan. 
 
 Dark blue, dark grey, puce, purple, and 
 black embroidered with white, are the lead- 
 ing colors of the autumn dresses of the 
 Japanese out of doors, so that the general 
 aspect of the moving crowd is not so varie- 
 gated as the throng of an Indian town pre- 
 sents. 
 
 A Merry Crowd. 
 
 But a happier looking population can no- 
 where be studied ; they go chattering and 
 laughing along, the porters singing between 
 their balanced burdens, the air all full, far or 
 near, of pretty salutations — "O hayo! O 
 hayo gozaimas ! " or"Sayonara! sayonara!" 
 and at evening, " O yasumi nasai ! " (" Con- 
 descend to take honorable repose! ") 
 
 The deep reverences these little people 
 make to each other in the street are charm- 
 ing for grace and apparent goodwill — the 
 commonest coolie bends with the air of a 
 finished teacher of deportment when he meets 
 a friend or accepts an engagement. Indoors 
 the obeisances are more lowly still. The 
 little foreheads touch the earth or the spot- 
 lessly clean mats, and the little hands, almost 
 always exquisitely formed — are spread out, 
 while the kneeling musume prostrates her- 
 self and musically utters the irrashai ! 
 
 The children in the streets are for ever 
 breaking into a dancing run for pure glee of 
 existence, clattering along in merry groups 
 upon their wooden clogs. Or else they 
 gather at street corners and play softly bois- 
 terous games with each other, singing songs 
 and beating hands to the tune. I secured the 
 
 words of one of these, where the little brown- 
 eyed, black-pated, Japanese babies stood in 
 a ring, and swung their hands first outwards 
 and then inwards, simultaneously. 
 
 It seems they were thus alternately imita- 
 ting the opening and the closing of flowers, 
 expanding the circle at the word " hiraita " 
 (" opened "), and contracting it at " tzubonda" 
 ("closed"). This joyous little street song, 
 in the vernacular, was — 
 
 " Hiraitu ; hiraita ! 
 Nanno hana hiraita ? 
 Renge no hana hiraita, 
 Hiraita to omottara, mata tsubonda. 
 
 "Tsubonda; tsubonda 
 Nanno hana tsubonda ? 
 Renge no hana tsubonda 
 Tsubonda to omottara, matta hiraita." 
 
 Which is, being interpreted — 
 
 ' ' Opened ; opened ! 
 Which is the flower has opetied ? 
 The lotus-flower has opened. 
 You thought so, but now it is shut. 
 
 "Shut! Close shut! 
 Which is the flower that's shut ? 
 'Tis the lotus blossom that's folded. 
 You thought so, but now it expands ! " 
 
 There is another graceful nursery rhyme 
 that the dark -eyed Japanese babies sing in 
 the streets, which goes — 
 
 "Ch6ch6! Ch6ch6! 
 Na no ha ni tomare 
 Na no ha ni akitara 
 Yoshi no ha ni tomare." 
 
 And this, again, in English as simple, is — 
 
 " Butterfly, butterfly ! 
 
 Light on the rape and feed ; 
 If you are tired of honey there, 
 
 Fly to the flower of the reed." 
 
 But the place of places in Tokio to see the 
 Japanese small folk is Asakusa, a quarter 
 
494 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 where a kind of permanent fair is established 
 round the eminently popular temple of Kin 
 Riu Zan. In this large and striking edifice 
 is preserved a small image of the Goddess 
 
 A JAPANESE PAGODA. 
 
 Kwannon Sama, made of pure gold, which 
 was hauled up in a net from the Sumida 
 River, and is too sacred ever to be publicly- 
 exhibited. 
 
 The shrine is naturally a favorite one with 
 fishermen, but all classes frequent it, and 
 curious it is to stand within the sanctuary 
 and watch the naivete of the worshippers. 
 They go first to a little 
 hut, and pay an ' infini- 
 tesimal coin for leave to 
 wash their hands and 
 mouths with water from 
 a wooden ladle, for it 
 would not be right to go 
 unpurified to pray. 
 
 Then they pick out the 
 particular incarnation in 
 the great fane which suits 
 their need, for one image 
 is good at curing stomach- 
 aches, another at bringing 
 fish into the net, a third 
 in making fair weather at 
 sea, and a fourth figure in 
 wood which will accord a 
 becoming complexion if 
 you stroke its face, has 
 that countenance now 
 completely rubbed flat and 
 featureless by the innu- 
 merable palms of women 
 and girls coming thither to 
 benefit by the goddess. 
 
 With hands and lips 
 washed, the votary pulls 
 a bell-rope which is to 
 awaken the attention of 
 the deity. Then he throws 
 a coin or two into a 
 grated receptacle, joins his 
 fingers together, breathes 
 the supplication or whis- 
 pers the wish, and afterwards claps his 
 hands to let the divinity know that the 
 affair is terminated, and that others can 
 take their turn. 
 
STRIKING FEATURES OF JAPANESE LIFE. 
 
 495 
 
 There is a pagoda near the temple, which 
 is approached by a stone-paved walk. On 
 both sides of this stand bright little shops 
 for the sale of toys, ornaments, etc. The 
 huge red building at the entrance contains 
 two gods of colossal size, in large niches, 
 protected by iron screens. They are the 
 tutelary guardians of the gate, and are 
 called "Ni-0" ("Two Kings"). One 
 stands ready to welcome those who repent 
 of their sins and determine to lead new 
 lives; the other is the special god of chil- 
 dren. The tame pigeons flying about are 
 held sacred; and to give pious people an 
 opportunity to feed them, women sell peas 
 or rice in little earthenware pots. 
 
 A Cluster of Pleasure Resorts. 
 
 The Japanese do not visit Asakusa for 
 pious motives only, but for pleasure also. 
 Hence, within the temple grounds are thea- 
 tres, archery galleries, tea ^booths, and a 
 variety exhibition of birds, beasts and 
 dwarfed trees. A white lath and plaster 
 model of Fuji-San rises, near, about iio 
 feet in height and looo feet in circumfer- 
 ence. Large numbers ascend to the top 
 daily, some days as many as 6000. All 
 the paved way leading to the vast painted 
 temple is full of toyshops, and all the small 
 people of Tokio seem to repair thither on 
 foot, or rocking about upon the maternal 
 back. 
 
 The clattering of the wooden clogs, the 
 blast of tin trumpets, the flutter of flags and 
 toy balloons, the laughter, the chatter, the 
 gossip of brown matrons comparing their 
 brown babies and their home experiences, 
 the good temper and pleasant recreation of 
 Asakusa in the afternoon, are things to re- 
 member. 
 
 Here, too, as in other quarters at the 
 present season, there are chrysanthemum 
 
 shows, and the natives will spend all spring 
 and summer in training the vines and grow- 
 ing the flowers for the exhibition, to which 
 the visitor is charged about one cent. Each 
 show contains two or three booths, fitted up 
 with figures to illustrate some historical or 
 traditional theme, and the chrysanthemum 
 blossoms have been attached so as to con- 
 stitute natural robes and scenic accessories. 
 Sometimes a whole fable will be thus illus- 
 trated by means of several distinct floral 
 tableaux. 
 
 Curious Little Trees. 
 
 The skill displayed by these Japanese 
 florists is abundantly entertaining; but the 
 most striking objects are always those 
 dwarfed and twisted trees which they know 
 how to produce, so that, like the Chinese, 
 they can carry about a fir or thuja, or plum 
 tree, sixty or eighty years old, in a small 
 flower-pot. This is obtained with infinite 
 patience by pinching off the rootlets week 
 by week, and nipping and training the ends 
 of the branchlets till the tree is stunted into 
 the exact likeness of a giant of the forest, ' 
 while it will not measure, perhaps, more 
 than twenty-four inches high. 
 
 Then they dot these pigmy timber trees 
 all about a tiny artificial hill, and plant all 
 over it miniature rocks and crags, and dig 
 out fairy-like lakes,- and lead hither and 
 thither absurdly pretentious little rivers, 
 which, for their bridges, cataracts and 
 rapids, might be the Nile, the Missouri, 
 or the Orinoco; and near at hand they 
 rear a delicious little tea-house, and sit 
 there sipping ridiculously small doses of 
 sake, from thimble-like cups, nibbling such 
 tiny biscuits as might satisfy the appetite of 
 a butterfly, and smoking microscopic pipes 
 of brass and bamboo, which hold about three 
 whiffs. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 STl^EET SCENES IN YOKOHAMA. 
 
 JAPAN is, after all, Japanese. What- 
 ever its woods in spring and the 
 lacquer of its temples may be, Jap- 
 anese streets are neutral-tinted. One 
 does not get the glorious reds and greens 
 of the old tiled roofs and broad plantain 
 leaves of Colombo, nor even the bright blues 
 of China. One of the first things .which 
 struck me was the resemblance between life 
 in Japan and life in Italy. The Japanese are 
 the Italians, as the Chinese are the Germans 
 of the East, and the masses present the same 
 curious contrast of penurious economy with 
 shiftlessness. 
 
 They, too, are a laughing, light-hearted 
 people, feeling life of so little worth or pros- 
 pect that death has no terrors. They, too, 
 to the very lowest, are Nature's gentlemen 
 in their manners, but treacherous, revenge- 
 ful and shifty in their bargains. They, too, 
 are born artists, and have all the indolence 
 of the artistic temperament so strongly that, 
 without feudal influences, they produce noth- 
 ing great as they did in the old days. The 
 poor rather remind one of the Italian poor 
 in appearance — clothes apart. 
 
 And though their languages have no con- 
 nection whatever, philologically, the same 
 liquid note belongs to the genius of both. 
 Such words as Tokio, Kioto, Yokohama, 
 Nara, Hakodate, would sound as natural 
 under the blue winter sky of windy Tuscany 
 as under the clear December skies of blus- 
 terous Japan. 
 
 The Japanese, to the very lowest, have 
 charming manners — a polish like their in- 
 496 
 
 comparable lacquer, and said by old foreign 
 residents to be no deeper, though as difficult 
 to chip through. Those who have had 
 business dealings with both nations infinitely 
 prefer the Chinese to the Japanese. The 
 Chinese nibble, but they never repudiate. 
 It is hard to pin a Japanese down in a bar- 
 gain. He will never commit himself, and 
 woe be to you if you go on trust, so say the 
 oldest residents. 
 
 Postmen in Bicycle Costumes. 
 
 There are odd sights at every corner in 
 Japan. His Majesty's mail is carried by- 
 postmen in blue serge bicycle club cos- 
 tumes, with knee breeches and white cotton 
 gloves, but frequently no shoes or stockings. 
 To make up for this, they invariably wear 
 solar topees on their heads. But the queer- 
 est crew I have seen for many a day are 
 parading about in green togas and limpet- 
 shaped hats that look like extinguishers. I 
 ask my jinrikisha man, who prides himself 
 upon V his English, who they are. He ans- 
 wers in his terse way, for he deals in only 
 one part of speech — nouns — "church peo- 
 ple," and I have to be contented. 
 
 The mention of church people and temples 
 reminds me that it is Sunday. The Jap even 
 keeps Sunday in a way. There are more 
 people idle than on other days, and the upper 
 class Japanese make a holiday of it. So do 
 many of the Chinese, who go up to Tokio 
 by rail (second class, not third), gorgeously 
 attired in apple-green and sky-blue brocades 
 and white silk stockings, smoking cigars of 
 
STREET SCENES IN YOKOHAMA. 
 
 497 
 
 the largest siz6. The Japs observe Sunday 
 as they wear a European hat, because it 
 stamps them as a superior class. 
 
 It isn't due to the missionaries, for whom 
 they have the most undisguised contempt. 
 The well-bred Japanese shudder to think of 
 missionaries, while the poorer class do not 
 keep the Christian Sunday at all, but go on 
 trading as usual, though they may possibly 
 feel grateful for a day on which Christian 
 shops are shut, and Christian buyers driven 
 to the counter of the unbeliever. 
 
 Curious Cabinets. 
 
 Even odder than the postman is the key 
 smith, with a beautiful brass-bound cabinet 
 containing his tools, fringed with a regular 
 pawn-shop of old keys. His cabinet has 
 delightful little drawers. Every specimen of 
 the Japanese cabinet-maker's work has these 
 drawers in all sorts of out-of-the-way places, 
 which fly open and close in the most unex- 
 pected manner. These tool cabinets, especi- 
 ally those which are made by workers for 
 their own use, are veritable works of art, and 
 seldom obtainable by foreigners. 
 
 The Benten Don, though a fair street to 
 shop in, is not a very interesting one for 
 native life. It is desperately anxious to be 
 European in its style, though owned exclu- 
 sively by Japanese. So it has a Pigeon- 
 English signboard over every door, and asks 
 Christians an exorbitant rate of profit. But, 
 to-day, an ancient native, quite a Japanese 
 Seneca, with shaven head and wrinkled 
 cheek, and a neglige Roman senatorial dress, 
 has strayed in, and is jesting gravely with a 
 friend. We say to the jinrikisha man : 
 "You go better street; more Japanee." 
 
 He rattles us off at a hand gallop (and 
 
 there is a good deal of rattle in a galloping 
 
 riksha) to the street where most of the native 
 
 theatres are. This street is fuller of native 
 
 32 
 
 life than any other, for here they do their 
 lounging. All along the street, carrying 
 funny little Jap babies in hoods upon their 
 backs, are big sisters or young mothers — one 
 can never be very sure which, in Japan — for 
 the Japanese mature like rabbits, and don't 
 look grown up until they are grandparents. 
 
 One hardly ever sees a gray-headed man 
 in Japan. It is such a queer, contradictory, 
 upside down sort of country, that very likely 
 producing a moustache is a mark of middle 
 age, and a full beard a sign that one is 
 approaching the term of man. 
 
 Jealous Husbands. 
 
 I notice a woman washing the steps of 
 her dwelling, and that dwelling only the 
 humblest type of Japanese shop, with its tiny 
 open front, and its almost total absence of 
 stock, veiled by paper slides and banners of 
 dark blue ship's canvas, ornamented in white 
 with cabalistic designs which may be letters 
 of the alphabet. If she were to turn round 
 I should probably be confronted with a row 
 of jet black teeth; for the Japanese husband, 
 who is jealous, considers it his only safeguard 
 to render his wife repulsive to other men by 
 making her mouth a Gehenna. 
 
 Close by they are building a house-(which 
 will presumably be "somebody's" house) of 
 black mud, on a very airy frame-work. The 
 beaver makes a better job of it; but, on the 
 one hand, he does not expect his handiwork 
 to be upset by an earthquake any day, and, 
 on the other, he does expect it to keep out 
 the elements. Besides, it must be necessary 
 to build things cheaply in Japan. 
 
 I can't fornj the wildest guess as to what 
 the poor Japanese lives on. There are forty 
 millions, and one can gauge the rate of 
 wages by the fact that one can go half a 
 mile in a riksha for three cents, and buy 
 a cabinet three feet high with half a dozen 
 
498 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 drawers and two sets of folding doors, for 
 fifty cents. Yet every one is dressed well, 
 and every one seems able to afford to pass 
 a whole day at the theatre when he chooses, 
 and to spend four cents on doing it, too. 
 
 ORNAMENTED JAPANESE BRONZE VASE 
 
 And all the business done is in the pettiest 
 sums, and not too often at that. 
 
 I give it up as to how they make their 
 living, but the old resident growls out: 
 "Make their living, and a jolly good living, 
 too, the scoundrels! You've no idea how 
 
 well off they are." Which I am free to 
 admit. 
 
 For vegetables, the poorer classes hover 
 between the sea-weed stall and the radish- 
 hawker. Other forms of green grocery are 
 included in the busi- 
 ness, but quite under a 
 bushel compared to this 
 mammoth radish — ^the 
 daiku. The Japanese 
 are very fond of it, but 
 the Europeans of course 
 pronounce it rank, as 
 they would anything 
 that was at once large 
 and cheap, and relish- 
 ed by the natives. 
 
 The loads these poor 
 people will carry on 
 their shoulders are as- 
 tonishing. I bought a 
 palm tree when I got 
 back to the hotel, four 
 or five feet high, in a 
 pot of earth a foot and 
 a half square, which 
 the hotel porters could 
 hardly carry upstairs. 
 The flower seller was 
 carrying two of these, 
 and a camellia, and 
 half a dozen other large 
 flowers to boot. For 
 one of these enormous 
 shrubs, in quite a hand- 
 some fancy wooden pot, 
 I only gave him sixty 
 cents ; but twelve for the cameUia. And I 
 suspect that the hotel guide made him pay a 
 pretty good brokerage out of this. 
 
 The odd Jap lanterns are a" great industry 
 in the streets. The boys who paint them 
 are hardly bigger than our babies ; but then, 
 
STREET SCENES IN YOKOHAMA. 
 
 499 
 
 infants are very precocious in Japan. Every 
 five minutes you meet some queer little slip 
 of mortality, with its little arms tucked, in 
 characteristic Japanese fashion, each up its 
 own sleeve, and with its thoughts devoted 
 to the nation (or perhaps marriage). 
 
 How unwilling we are to turn our human 
 horses' heads towards home. We feel as if 
 we could stay out all night in this new earth 
 (which has a very hazy idea, if any, of any 
 heaven, new or otherwise). It looks even 
 more like a willow pattern plate than it did 
 from the deck of the ship. 
 
 Borrowing Almost Everything. 
 
 The Japanese seem to have borrowed 
 everything. We know that they borrowed 
 one kind of pottery from Corea and another 
 from China; that they borrow every con- 
 ceivable article from the civilization of the 
 West ; that they borrowed their very alpha- 
 bet from China. It seems as if they had 
 borrowed their scenery, too, from China. 
 The very fish-hawkers carry out the national 
 idea, by borrowing a couple of yen (dollars) 
 one morning to buy a load of fish, which 
 they have to pay back the next with the 
 inconsiderable interest of twenty-five sen 
 (cents) — about 5000 per cent, per annum. 
 
 However, the coolies at any rate are very 
 Japanese, with their crested tunics. Noth- 
 ing could be more Japanese than one I met, 
 with his queer thatched stall balanced on his 
 shoulder, and the innate brightness of this 
 people, high and low, shining in his expres- 
 sion. His mate was carrying a couple of 
 piles of boxes and baskets slung from his 
 shoulder staff, as milkmen used to carry 
 their pails in New York. 
 
 We hurry home past the Cricket Ground, 
 which the English, as irrepressible as their 
 own sparrows, have engrafted on the Land 
 of the Rising Sun; past the headquarters of 
 
 the Ken or District, and the General Post 
 Office (every public building with a gilt 
 Rising Sun proclaiming its Imperial connec- 
 tion); past the huge Consulate, over which 
 waves the flag on which the sun never sets ; 
 past the Custom House Wharf, and along 
 the bund to the Hotel. 
 
 Dinner over, the younger and more frivo- 
 lous members of our party went off to kill 
 time in a way so regardless of its being the 
 Sabbath, as to remind me of a fellow-pas- 
 senger I had when I went round the Cape of 
 Good Hope to Australia. He was a Hebrew 
 and Saturday was his Sunday. I met him 
 one Sunday afternoon going down the com- 
 panion stairs. "Where are you off to," I 
 inquired, for the afternoon was lovely. "I 
 am j ust going to 'ave a game of poker with 
 two or three Christians." I didn't feel like 
 "seeing" him after this. 
 
 An American Vessel. 
 
 When they went off with malice prepense, 
 as the law hath it, I came up into our sitting- 
 room overlooking the bay, to muse and ask 
 myself if it were really possible that I was in 
 the land of marvels, the most artistic in its 
 heaven-sent way since Greece lost the art. 
 
 It was nearly nine o'clock when I came 
 up, and from the beautiful Omaha, the 
 United States corvette, which reminds me of 
 an old-fashioned frigate with her graceful 
 fiddle-bow, and of a faded belle with her 
 retention of graces out of date in the present 
 severe tailor-made fashion in ships, came the 
 musical American bugle call. As I am 
 writing, I hear the tinkle of "two bells," and 
 the discharging of the nine o'clock gun. 
 Looking out from the window I see, crisp 
 and black in the moonlight, the lofty spars 
 of the beautiful ship. How lovely is the pure, 
 clear Japanese night following the shining 
 Japanese day. I can see every ship in the 
 
500 
 
 harbor, and so still is the water that the 
 reflection of the steamer lights seems to 
 bridge the whole space from the ships to the 
 shore. 
 
 Yokohama was a good place to land; for 
 nearly every one who goes to Japan from 
 America does land here — chiefly, perhaps, 
 from its vicinity to Tokio, the capital of the 
 country. Besides, it is the principal foreign 
 colony, and one can get excellent accommo- 
 dation to recruit after the voyage, and a good 
 many wrinkles about travelling in the interior. 
 It was a great relief, after the close quarters 
 on board the old chartered boats which run 
 from Vancouver to Yokohama, to find one's 
 self in the Club Hotel, with its fine hall and 
 great, airy rooms, which had once been the 
 quarters of the Yokohama Club. 
 
 Very novel and strange it was to sit down 
 to a regular French lunch of many courses, 
 served by a crowd of spindle-legged Japanese, 
 in their picturesque dark blue tunics and 
 hose, who (most of them) could not speak a 
 word of English, and took their orders by 
 the numbers on the menu. 
 
 In the Harbor. 
 
 "Boy, bring me some No. i." Very 
 funny we thought the shuffling noise they 
 made as they ran about the floor, dragging 
 their straw sandals by their big toes. 
 
 Landing in Japan is most entertaining. 
 The moment a ship drops anchor she is sur- 
 rounded by a flotilla of the queer little native 
 boats, propelled with one oar by half-naked 
 Japs, who swarm up on the ship's deck, 
 sucking in their breath and bowing to the 
 ground as soon as they are on board. No- 
 body patronizes them but the Asiatic pas- 
 sengers. Saloon passengers go off in the 
 hotel launches, which in a few minutes, 
 threading their way through the swarming 
 native craft, land you close by the Custom 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 House and prepare for your reception at the 
 hands of officials. 
 
 Your luggage is carried up by a swarm of 
 coolies. How quaint they looked the first 
 time one saw them, in their tight hose and 
 tunics, made of the universal dark blue 
 cotton, ornamented in the back with some 
 brilliant device in white or red. The coolie 
 who carried up our hand parcels looked like 
 a walking advertisement of the Waterbury 
 watch. Most of them were barefooted, all 
 of them were bare-headed, perspiring and 
 smiling. Japanese smile from the day they 
 begin riding on their sisters' backs to the 
 day on which, to use a fine Buddhist phrase, 
 they "condescend to die." 
 
 Houses of Foreigners. 
 
 There is a division between the native and 
 European cities. The spacious mansion of 
 the EngKsh Consul, a typical Eastern house, 
 is on one side of the road, and on the other 
 is the Kencho, where the business of the ken,, 
 or prefecture, is transacted. Just beyond 
 this is the Post Office, a large brick building 
 in the American style, ornamented with the 
 golden emblem of Japanese nationality. 
 (The Japanese themselves can't, for the life 
 of them, tell you whether it was originally 
 the rising sun or a chrysanthemum.) This 
 road is planted on both sides with flowering 
 trees, blossoming the day we landed, in the 
 middle of winter. 
 
 Immediately after this, to our delight, we 
 made our escape from the Lie-European 
 town, as the Chinaman would call it, and 
 struck the ordinary Japanese town in the 
 Benten Dori (Venus Street). The houses 
 here were, many of them, thoroughly Jap- 
 anese — little one-story affairs, built of wood,, 
 with their fronts removed all day, replaced, 
 if it was sunny enough, with dark blue or 
 chocolate-colored curtains, like the door of 
 
STREET SCENES IN YOKOHAMA. 
 
 501 
 
 a tent, ornamented with the owner's name 
 or device in huge white characters. 
 
 Most of them in this street were shops for 
 the benefit of foreigners — photograph shops, 
 porcelain shops, basket shops, silk mer- 
 chants', haberdashers', or curio shops of the 
 third order. The second order are in the 
 Honcho Dori — the next street — which em- 
 blematizes its superiority by having the shop 
 fronts glazed instead of open. 
 
 White Straw Mats. 
 Even some of the Benten Dori shops were 
 un- Japanese enough to have counters. The 
 true Japanese shop has a floor, raised about 
 a foot above the street, covered with fine 
 white straw mats an inch thick. On this 
 the proprietor squats, the customer never 
 stepping upon it without removing his shoes. 
 The stock is partly spread out on the floor, 
 partly on shelves, and partly hung from the 
 ceiling. At the rear is a wooden ladder, 
 like a ship's companion, leading to the attic, 
 if there is one, and there is generally a pas- 
 sage on one side. 
 
 In the first shop a litde boy was finishing 
 off) with a hammer and agate burnisher, the 
 gilt on one of the great "satsuma" jars 
 which they make in Yokohama. We bought 
 some note paper, ornamented with storks, 
 temples, torii and Fujiyama, which we fondly 
 believed to be what the Japanese used, until, 
 a little lower down, we came to a genuine 
 Japanese stationer, where we saw the hun- 
 dred-feet rolls of porous wrapping paper, 
 upon which the natives indite their billets 
 doux, and saw them making the great white- 
 covered account books, with knotted rope 
 backs, so familiar to us now that we have 
 been in Japan a whole week. 
 
 The "church people," whom we saw last 
 week in the bright green cloaks and limpet- 
 shaped hats, turn out . to be mendicants 
 
 licensed by some temple in Kioto." After 
 leaving the Benten Dori we crossed the 
 canal near the police station, and were 
 happy at last, for we found ourselves in the 
 "theatre-street" — a genuine bit of Japan. 
 At the very entrance was a theatre where 
 you could sit all day for about eight cents, 
 and smoke your pipe and eat your dinner. 
 It was ornamented outside with huge sign- 
 boards, covered with the most blood-curd- 
 ling pictures of dragons, as big as ships, 
 breathing the traditional fire; of women 
 being cut up like beefsteaks; of blood- 
 splashing murders, and hair-breadth es- 
 capes, painted in all the colors of the rain- 
 bow, the hue of blood showing up nobly. 
 
 A Medley of Sounds. 
 
 Most Japanese plays are really exceed- 
 ingly clever in simulating wounds ; the mur- 
 derer makes a savage cut, and blood spurts 
 from his victim. A "tum-tumming" noise 
 is kept up all the time the performance goes 
 on, possibly to draw the attention of folks 
 outside to the fact that the performance is 
 going on. 
 
 Outside the theatre was a row of little- 
 girls, seemingly about four years old, carry- 
 ing the next baby but one in the haori on 
 their backs, and discussing affairs with the 
 gravity of matrons, or skipping about to get 
 out of the way of the passers-by. Whether 
 they were standing still, or he was having 
 his head shaken off", seemed a matter of pure 
 indifference to the baby. 
 
 Close by stood the pipe-mender, with a 
 rack full of second-hand pipes, ranging down 
 to a penny in price; but most of his custo- 
 mers preferred to economize, and have their 
 own dilapidated pipes mended. Then we 
 drove on and passed an Ameya, or maker 
 of dough toys, which he blows out in glass- 
 blower's fashion in the shape of gourds, 
 
502 
 
 cupids, cocks, etc. 
 street stoves, where, by paying a penny, 
 children can have a Httle dough and sauce, 
 and spend the whole afternoon in cooking. 
 We go nearly every day to this queer 
 street, with its theatres and bath houses, and 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE, 
 and one of the little street, picking up queer little articles of daily 
 
 domestic use among the humbler Japanese, 
 as artistic as a Greek temple in their obser- 
 vance of the science of shape and ornament, 
 and each with its little bit of allegory or 
 famous legend hinted at. There were brass 
 
 AMERICANS MEETING THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN. 
 
 bazaars where they sell semi-European trash, 
 and the inevitable pipe cases and hairpins. 
 It has one most fascinating by-street leading 
 off it, where the cabinet-makers and fourth- 
 class curio sellers congregate. 
 
 I have spent hours and hours in this 
 
 bowls and plaques ; pipe case clasps ; wooden 
 and bone netsukes; metal inkpots for the 
 belt, hardly differing from the Turkish; 
 bronze mirrors, and miniature temple orna- 
 ments ; inros of rare lacquer, chipped out of 
 all value, but interesting as specimens; the 
 
STREET SCENES IN YOKOHAMA. 
 
 503 
 
 comb and mirror pouches used by singing 
 girls, and what not. 
 
 It was in this street that I bought at a 
 cabinet maker's a couple of old temple ban- 
 ners, twenty feet long, made of heavy cotton 
 something like ship's canvass, painted one 
 with the famous battle on the bridge between 
 Yoshitsune and Ben-Kei, and the other with 
 the great old General Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 
 the Warwick of Japan. They are splendid 
 pictures, full of life and color, though, of 
 course, with the absurd Japanese disregard 
 for perspective. I have seen forty dollars 
 asked for one not to be compared with them 
 in a shop in New York. 
 
 The Famous "Bluff." 
 And every day when we get to the end of 
 Theatre Street, the riksha boys, who, beiqg 
 paid by the hour (twelve cents), naturally 
 want to spin things out as much as possible, 
 suggest that we shall return by way of the 
 bluff. "You see where English gentleman 
 live, very rich." 
 
 Yokohama consists of at least five different 
 quarters. The well-to-do foreigners all live 
 up on " The Bluff," as the queer, flat-topped 
 hill, of the orthodox Japanese pattern, at the 
 entrance of the harbor, is called. Their 
 places of business and the hotels are in the 
 Settlement, separated from the Bluff by a 
 creek, and mostly near the sea-front or Bund. 
 At the back of this is " Chinatown " — Yoko- 
 hama has a population of two or three 
 thousand Chinese — and separated from the 
 Settlement and Chinatown by the road to the 
 cricket ground is the native town, faced in 
 the front, mostly, by buildings in the Euro- 
 pean style. Beyond this, again, is the 
 Kanagawa Bluff, where the wealthy Japanese 
 live, almost overhanging the railway station. 
 The houses of the wealthy foreigners on 
 the Bluff are some of them delightful. The 
 
 unevenness of the ground gives a wonderful 
 opportunity for landscape gardening, and 
 with a bamboo brake, a few palms, a lotus 
 pond, and one or two of the great stone 
 votive lanterns they call ishi doro, one can 
 be as oriental as Aladdin. 
 
 The houses themselves are great, roomy 
 bungalows, full of the artistic things which 
 can be picked up so easily in this land of 
 recently decayed feudalism, and which will 
 make the owner's fortune, or remind him for 
 ever of the quaint Eastern land in which he 
 was a pilgrim and a sojourner after he has 
 returned home, as the American or English- 
 man in the East always means to do. The 
 houses are full of picturesque, smiling, oblig- 
 ing servants, and really their owners have as 
 much quiet luxury as any reasonable man 
 could desire. 
 
 Beautiful Scenery. 
 
 Away beyond the Bluff are the cemetery 
 and the race-course, which seem to have a 
 sort of affinity in the Anglo-East, and, be- 
 yond them again, a scene of enchanting 
 beauty, the Gulf of Tokio stretching away 
 down to Yokosuka, with a long procession 
 of crumpled headlands and islands; and 
 right at one's feet a delicious little bay, with 
 the sweet little village of Negishi nestling 
 under the cliffs in its embrace. 
 
 Negishi, with its microscopic farms and 
 tiny village houses with steep thatched robfe 
 of marvellously picturesque shape, and its 
 dear little graveyard scooped out of the cliff, 
 with rows of pitiful stone Buddhas at the 
 heads of the sleeping dead, is an idyl. 
 
 From the Bluff down to the Settlement 
 the slope is so steep that riksha boys won't 
 draw you down it unless they have a second 
 man to act as brake, and won't draw you up 
 it unless they have an assistant behind to act 
 as propeller. It is bordered by rather nice 
 
504 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 little curio shops, which have very pretty- 
 little things at quite moderate prices. They 
 have to tempt residents, who know the value 
 of things. Visitors don't trouble the Bluff 
 much, except when they are asked out to 
 dinner by the people to whom they brought 
 letters of introduction, and this is of course 
 
 ANCIENT WARRIOR AND WEAPONS. 
 
 at night. Then the people who entertain 
 are prepared to receive their friends. 
 
 Tiffin, as they call lunch in the East, is at 
 twelve, and so we had been able to drive all 
 round the native, town, the Bluff and the 
 Settlement, and back in time to see some 
 performances by daylight of the street 
 
 tumblers and acrobats and monkey-train- 
 ers, who had collected round the Club 
 Hotel on observing that a new ship had 
 come in. The . conjurer's principal tricks 
 consist in lying on his back with his feet 
 in the air, supporting tiers of human beings, 
 or spinning an impossible number of large 
 wooden tubs at the same time, or eating 
 flaming charcoal. In Japan his sleight- 
 of-hand is not, as a rule, remarkable. 
 I soon got tired of the conjurer, and 
 persuaded the monkey-trainer to begin. 
 The " monkey-business " was very funny 
 in this particular troupe. There were 
 two men, and a very pretty and pictur- 
 esque young woman — a regular gipsy, 
 as black as a Malay — ^who did every- 
 thing with an up-tossed head and a 
 haughty look in her eyes, as if she 
 "couldn't be bothered." 
 
 A Useful Attendant. 
 
 Her duties were multifarious. She 
 had to twang the samisen, beat the drum, 
 and keep the monkeys' wardrobes sorted, 
 so that the performers could dress up the 
 animals without delay. If the Japanese 
 only knew how exactly the monkeys 
 counterfeit them in the eyes of strangers, 
 they would execute every monkey in 
 Japan. Now it would be an imitation of 
 a swaggering, two-sworded Samurai; 
 now an old hunch-backed mendicant 
 woman, hobbling along with a stick; now 
 the haughty master scolding a servant 
 kowtowing and grovelling his forehead 
 in the dust — always too lifelike. , We live 
 luxuriously at the Club Hotel. We have 
 a fine sitting-room with five windows less 
 than a stone's throw from the sea, a private 
 entrance to the street, and bed-rooms en suite, 
 for almost half what it would cost us to live 
 in the same style at quite a second-class 
 
STREET SCENES IN YOKOHAMA. 
 
 505 
 
 London or New York hotel, and our first 
 dinner will give you an idea of how we 
 are fed. 
 
 Our bill of fare that night included oyster 
 and turtle soup, and fish better cooked than 
 one ever gets it in an American hotel, and 
 various kinds of meat, and poultry, and 
 game, and entrees, and three or four kinds 
 of pudding with fruit, and nuts, and ices to 
 wind up with. 
 
 This is the "roughing it" which we had 
 pictured to ourselves, and we often have a 
 quiet laugh over it. After dessert I spend 
 a delightful hour in the snug library of the 
 Yokohama United Club, one of the cosiest 
 clubs I know, and then I come back to our 
 sitting-room to join the others, ensconced in 
 easy chairs, with the feeling of content one 
 has when one has had a thoroughly good 
 dinner as a climax to a tiring day on shore, 
 after the enforced idleness of that tiring fort- 
 night on a stormy sea. 
 
 Quiet Enjojnnent. 
 
 We sit with the dreamy happiness of lotus 
 eaters, listening to all sorts of unfamiliar 
 sounds; the shrill ho-he-to whistle on the 
 double bamboo, followed by the clop-clop 
 of a blind man's staff proclaiming the wan- 
 dering momu (massage operator — a task 
 performed almost exclusively by the blind 
 in Japan) ; the clattering of the riksha boys, 
 whose vehicles we can count by the glim- 
 mering lanterns of brightly painted paper; 
 and at nine o'clock the bugling on the war- 
 ships which summons to bed. The day we 
 arrived, for once in my life, I obeyed the 
 summons. I generally like to see the day 
 duly finished before I turn in. 
 
 The kind of curio-shopping I enjoy most 
 is rambling about among the street curio 
 sellers, who from sundown to nearly mid- 
 night throng the Ginza in Tokio, or the 
 
 Basha Michi in Yokohama. They crouch 
 at the very bottom of the ladder among 
 curio sellers. There are many rungs be- 
 tween them and a place like the Fine Art 
 Gallery. There are whole streets of curio, 
 silk, fan and porcelain shops in the Honcho 
 Dori — a continuation of the main street of 
 the settlement — and the Benten Dori, which 
 runs parallel with, and next to it. But the 
 properly constituted curio hunter, who has 
 less money than time on his hands, ferrets 
 for curios a*s bookworms ferret for second- 
 hand books. Even the Benten Dori, which 
 is distinctly humbler than the Honcho Dori, 
 is tame and extravagant. For even here 
 there is some pretence of style and arrange- 
 ment. 
 
 Proud of his Boots. 
 
 Personally I mistrust a curio shop which 
 contains no second-hand European boots ; 
 for it shows that the proprietor understands 
 Europeans, and aims at business with Eu- 
 ropeans only, at a corresponding increase of 
 prices, and contempt for the little domestic 
 curios, which show more than anything else 
 how thoroughly art enters into the life of the 
 Japanese. The lower class dandy in Japan 
 values nothing so much as European boots, 
 or boots which he considers to be a successful 
 imitation of the European. Consequently, 
 genuine Japanese bric-a-brac shops, with a 
 native as well as a European clientele, are 
 pretty sure to contain some of those down- 
 trodden knick-knacks. 
 
 Even the most modest of them have 
 never quite the charm of a street stall to 
 me. There is something so primitive, so 
 simple, so humble, so childlike, so cheerful 
 about the street curio seller. His whole 
 stock-in-trade he can carry in two funny 
 little piles of flat square boxes, which he 
 hitches to the ends of his shoulder bamboo. 
 
CHAPTKR XXXI. 
 THE NEW JAPAN. 
 
 A GRAPHIC account of what may 
 be properly called the new Japan 
 is furnished by the brilliant pen 
 of one of the members of the 
 Japanese Legation at Washington. This 
 account is authorized and endorsed by the 
 Japanese Minister to our Government, as 
 will be seen from the following note: 
 
 " The interest which the American public 
 has taken in Japan is a source of profound 
 satisfaction to my countrymen and to the 
 government which I have the honor to rep- 
 resent in the United States. It is with 
 pleasure, therefore, that in response to 
 inquiries, Mr. Stevens of our Legation staff, 
 has sketched the characteristics, resources 
 and aspirations of Japan. 
 
 "Shinichiro Kurino." 
 
 Mr. Stevens's account is as follows : 
 I must confess to some temerity in pre- 
 senting a sketch of Japan, wherein some- 
 thing of erudition may be expected. But 
 one thing, I trust, I may be able to impress 
 upon the minds of American readers, and 
 that is that the problems which Japan pre- 
 sents are worthy of the study of the most 
 learned, and that the events which have 
 formed her national life during the past 
 three decades will one day rank among the 
 marvels of history. 
 
 The Empire of Japan consists of a group, 
 or, to speak more precisely, of several groups 
 of islands lying off the east coast of the Con- 
 tinent of Asia. These islands, irregular in 
 shape, and even more irregularly distributed, 
 506 
 
 consist of a main group of four islands, and 
 of several smaller groups scattered in differ- 
 ent directions, with here and there solitary 
 islands and islets posted like sentries about 
 the Island Empire of the Orient. 
 
 The main group consists of four islands. 
 The northernmost is Hokkaido, once known 
 as Yezo. Then comes the principal island, 
 which, curiously enough, is really without a 
 name, although it is sometimes called Hon- 
 shin, and sometimes Niphon. This latter, 
 with the prefix Dai, is the name of the 
 whole Empire — "Great Japan" — ^but not 
 distinctively of the central island. The 
 explanation is that the Japanese looked 
 upon that island as the mainland, which 
 necessarily needed no other separate desig- 
 nation than the name of the whole country. 
 The southernmost island is Xiushiu, or 
 "The Nine Provinces;" the one to the east 
 and north of that, Sikoku, or "The Four 
 Provinces." 
 
 Beautiful Sea and Islands. 
 
 Between Kiushiu and Sikoku, on the one 
 side, and the mainland on the other, almost 
 completely landlocked, lies that beautiful 
 body of water known as the Inland Sea, 
 itself studded with islands and islets. The 
 islands scattered here and there in irregular 
 array form naturally the most unique and 
 attractive feature. How many there are of 
 these islands no one seems to know exactly 
 — the Japanese themselves say some thou- 
 sands. 
 
 Many of them are inhabited and in a state 
 
THE NEW JAPAN. 
 
 507 
 
 of high cultivation, while others, ranging in 
 size from mere rocks to mountainous and 
 precipitous cliffs, have upon them no human 
 habitations. In many cases fantastically 
 shaped and curiously marked, with those 
 that are inhabited, where picturesque villages 
 cluster upon the shores, and the terraced hill- 
 sides are tinted with the varied hues and 
 colors of the growing crops, they combine 
 to -form a scene of novel and impressive 
 beauty. The sea itself, although occasion- 
 ally disturbed by storms, possesses at most 
 times all the charms of a quiet lake. It is 
 as if the land had snatched away a part of 
 the stormy ocean, roaring in surly discon- 
 tent upon its outer coasts, and decking it 
 with these gems, torn from its own bosom, 
 had wrapped it in a soft embrace and lulled 
 it into a gentle sleep. 
 
 Land Well Cultivated. 
 
 Owing to the mountainous nature of the 
 country there are but few large plains in 
 , Japan. . But wherever irrigation is possible, 
 and rice and other crops can _ be grown, 
 every foot of soil is cultivated. In central 
 and northern Japan you may see many thou- 
 sands of acres of land under cultivation, but 
 on the fertile plains and uplands near the 
 seacoast the same land has been in use for 
 centuries, and still yields abundant crops 
 under a system of diligent and skilful hus- 
 bandry that apparently is capable of little, if 
 any, improvement. The land is subdivided 
 in the great majority of cases into very small 
 holdings, and it seems wonderful, especially 
 to Americans, whose ideas of land are very 
 naturally comprehensive, to discover that a 
 Japanese farmer can live and' prosper upon 
 a "farm " little larger than a good sized house 
 lawn. 
 
 Japan has a population of 41,089,940. The 
 distribution of this population is very uneven. 
 
 The main island has more than 3 1 ,000,000 
 inhabitants, the Hokkaido less than 400,000. 
 The same differences exist to almost as great 
 a degree between the provinces of the main 
 island itself. Those in the north and in the 
 mountainous central region are very sparsely 
 inhabited, while in the south, and wherever 
 a plain or a valley affords an opportunity for 
 the irrigation, every available foot of ground 
 is utilized. Japan is not a densely populated 
 country in the sense that it is overcrowded, 
 or that its resources are severely taxed to 
 supply the needs of its inhabitants. 
 
 Not Fond of Mutton. 
 
 There are thousands of acres of fertile land 
 lying fallow which will one day be cultivated, 
 no doubt. The utilization of such lands 
 depends to some extent upon the adoption 
 of new methods of agriculture and the 
 growth of new products, and somewhat 
 upon the greater spread among Japanese 
 of fondness for a meat diet. The govern- 
 ment once made experiments in sheep farm- 
 ing, with a view to utilizing the great tracts 
 of pasture land now lying waste. The ex- 
 periment was in one sense a failure, not 
 because the sheep did not thrive sufficiently 
 well, but simply because the Japanese peo- 
 ple did not care to eat mutton. 
 
 This condition of affairs is, however, 
 changing. The raising of cattle and the 
 cultivation of crops hitherto neglected are 
 furnishing profitable use for waste lands, so 
 that in time we may expect to find the popu- 
 lation of Japan somewhat more evenly dis- 
 tributed than it is at present. 
 
 Cities, towns and villages are numerous 
 in Japan, as is natural where the population 
 crowds together in a favored district. For the 
 purposes of this paper, however, it is suffi- 
 cient to refer to only three of the larger 
 cities — Tokio, Osaka and Kioto. 
 
608 
 
 These three cities are Fu — that is to say, 
 they have local governments of their own, 
 while the rest of the Empire is divided into 
 Ken, or prefectures, the form and mode of 
 government being in both cases substantially 
 identical. 
 
 Osaka is the ancient commercial metropolis 
 of Japan, and serves as the centre of distribu- 
 tion for one of the richest and most populous 
 regions of the Empire. It is a quaint, old- 
 fashioned city, wealthy and conservative, and 
 :Solid and substantial type, and yet not with- 
 out many signs of the growth and spread of 
 modern ideas. Its citizens are like itself — 
 isolid and substantial, and not too eager to 
 .adopt the new simply for the sake of its 
 novelty, but very persistent and persevering 
 in carrying out any project that may meet 
 •with their approval. 
 
 Ancient Seat of Learning. 
 
 They are the merchant princes of Japan, 
 .and in all the changes incident to the pro- 
 gress of the Empire within the past three 
 decades they have retained for their city 
 much of its ancient importance. The re- 
 moval of the capital from Kioto to Tokio 
 .has deprived it of the political pre-eminence 
 which it once enjoyed, but if business and 
 politics have been divorced, the former has 
 not suffered much by the process. 
 
 Kioto, only an hour's ride from Osaka, 
 -presents an entirely different aspect. If 
 .Osaka is the home of commerce and of 
 industry, Kioto — at least in the days of old 
 JapAn — was the chosen abode of the muses, 
 of learning and of the arts. During the 
 time when a temporal ruler, nominally de- 
 pendent, but in reality master, held sway at 
 Yeddo, now Tokio; when the Shogunate 
 had succeeded in usurping most of the real 
 power, leaving only its shadow to the true 
 sovereign, Kioto was the home of a vene- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 rated but impoverished Court, the members 
 of which, debarred from the excitements of 
 political life, turned their attention, whether 
 from choice or necessity, to the cultivation 
 of gentler pursuits. Here literature and let- 
 ters flourished, and here many of the manual 
 arts, which have made Japan famous, reached 
 their highest stage of development. 
 
 Tokio is an attractive city, but cannot 
 compare with Kioto in natural beauty, nor 
 with Osaka in commercial importance. It 
 was selected as his capital by lyeyas, the 
 great founder of the family of Tokugawa 
 Shoguns, about three hundred years ago. 
 For centuries it was a military capital, an 
 immense armed camp, within which, for at 
 least six months during the year, each terri- 
 torial noble was obliged to take up his resi- 
 dence, accompanied by a goodly number of 
 retainers. The presence of these large bodies 
 of armed men gave the city a peculiar char- 
 acter, some memory of which lingers about it 
 still. 
 
 A Flourishing Capital. 
 
 At the time of the Restoration, when the 
 Tokugawa dynasty passed away, the city fell 
 into decadence, and for a time wore a forlorn 
 and deserted appearance. Its population 
 decreased nearly fifty fold, and it seemed 
 destined to pass into forgetfulness with the 
 fortunes of its rulers. But when the Em- 
 peror chose it as his capital its ancient im- 
 portance was revived, although in a very 
 different form, and since then it has steadily 
 gained both in population and in wealth. 
 
 Among the material products of Japan 
 the agricultural naturally take the lead. The 
 country is rich in minerals, and manufac- 
 tures have increased in importance wonder- 
 fully within the past few years, but agricul- 
 ture still retains its ancient pre-eminence. 
 
 Rice is the most important product. In 
 
THE NEW JAPAN. 
 
 509 
 
 older times it was a unit of value, the in- 
 comes of nobles and others being calculated 
 by the "koku" of rice, the koku being 133 
 pounds. As rice farmers the Japanese have 
 nothing to learn from their Western brethren. 
 Their implements may seem primitive and 
 their mode of cultivation awkward, but the 
 results they achieve are of the best. 
 
 They use the same land year after year, 
 without intermission, and their children's 
 children continue to use it after them. It 
 never lies fallow, but in many cases, perhaps 
 in the majority, is used for another crop as 
 soon as the rice has been harvested, and 
 always yields abundantly. Experience has 
 taught the Japanese the secret of maintain- 
 ing this uninterrupted cultivation, and, as to 
 their methods of planting and harvesting, I 
 give it, not as my own but as the opinion of 
 experts who have carefully examined into 
 the subject, that labor-saving machinery 
 could not be introduced with profit for the 
 improvement of either process. 
 
 An Important Industry. 
 
 The silk industry of Japan has received a 
 wonderful impetus within the past few years, 
 and the export of raw silk has grown mar- 
 vellously. Each year the acreage devoted 
 to the mulberry tree has been enlarged, and 
 the number of those who occupy the whole 
 or a part of their time in raising silk worms 
 has been increased. This is an industry for 
 which his patient and methodical habits 
 especially fit the Japanese agriculturist. It 
 is also an occupation in which the women 
 and children of his family can engage with 
 profit and without exhausting toil. 
 
 It has always been an important industry, 
 but of late years it has spread to districts 
 where it was not before known, wherever, in 
 fact, the mulberry tree can be grown, until 
 to-day there is hardly a hamlet or a solitary 
 
 farm house in Central Japan where it is not 
 carried on to a constantly increasing extent. 
 In porcelain clay the Japanese have a pro- 
 duct which they have for centuries put to 
 artistic uses with which the world is familiar. 
 If signs of decadence have at any time ap- 
 peared in the excellence of these products 
 effective steps have been taken to prevent it& 
 spread. 
 
 Masterpieces of Bronze. 
 
 The same may be said of the lacquers and 
 bronzes for which Japan is so renowned. In 
 the old days a fine piece of bronze or of 
 lacquer was a work of loving and thoughtful 
 care, in which no element of personal gain 
 entered — other than the hope of fame. The 
 workmen — if they can be called workmen 
 who were in the truest sense artists — were in 
 most cases under the patronage of some rich 
 man or noble, for whom they wrought slowly 
 and carefully those masterpieces which have 
 gained such fame for them and for their 
 country. Such work as that is hardly to be 
 expected in the hurry and bustle of a com- 
 mercial age, but the art is not lost, and the 
 artists of Japan still produce masterpieces in 
 lacquer and bronze. 
 
 But no account of Japan would be even 
 partially adequate which did not contain some 
 mention of the uses to which these resources 
 have been put during Japan's transition from, 
 the old to the new order of things. The 
 manner in which a nation manages its ma- 
 terial resources may be taken as a fair index 
 of the stage of development to which it has 
 attained, and of its capacity for progress in 
 other directions. 
 
 The restoration of 1868 found Japan in* 
 a disordered and impoverished condition. 
 Japan had been closed to the world for cen- 
 turies, but no people can be shut out com- 
 pletely from knowledge of the rest of mankind 
 
510 
 
 or from contact with the ideas of a progressive 
 age. Strangely enough, the death blow to 
 the ancient system was that event of which 
 Americans are so justly proud, the conclu- 
 sion of the Perry treaty. 
 
 It was this dawn of daylight from the 
 outer world which showed intelligent Japan- 
 ese how thoroughly out of touch their 
 couutry and, above all, their form of govern- 
 ment was with the spirit of the age. It was 
 then that the little band of reformers, who 
 were chiefly instrumental in bringing about 
 the great change, began their work. 
 
 One of the first acts of the Emperor was 
 to issue an edict abolishing the laws against 
 foreign religions and their propagation among 
 the Japanese. 
 
 New System of Government. 
 
 The da'imios, or feudal chiefs, surrendered 
 their fiefs to the crown, and accepted in lieu 
 the bonds of the government, at amounts, it 
 should be added, much less than the value 
 of their original holdings. This, it must not 
 be forgotten, was an entirely voluntary act 
 of self abnegation. 
 
 The samurai, or military class, whose 
 privileges, rigorously secured and jealously 
 guarded, made them the real masters of 
 Japan, especially in times of domestic dis- 
 order, like their chiefs, the daimios, accepted 
 capitalized pensions, instead of the regular 
 support to which their fealty and their service 
 had entitled them. 
 
 The reorganization of the whole fabric of 
 the public administration was naturally the 
 first care of the Imperial Government. The 
 departments were all established upon a new 
 and an effective basis. Foreign advisers 
 were employed to sssist in the work, and no 
 effort or expense was spared to create a 
 system which would be at once modern, 
 practical and economical. 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 The government recognized the import- 
 ance of education to themselves and to the 
 masses. A complete system of educational 
 institutions was established in every part of 
 the Empire, beginning with primary schools 
 in every hamlet, through middle, normal and 
 other more advanced institutions up to the 
 University in Tokio. Hospitals were en- 
 dowed, and special attention was paid to 
 education in medicine and surgery. 
 
 Schools for Women. 
 
 Nor was any distinction made between the 
 sexes, but schools were established for the 
 education of women as well as of men. 
 This system has been steadily followed 
 throughout, with only those changes which 
 experience has shown to be advisable and 
 beneficial. In all public works the govern- 
 ment has taken an active and an earnest 
 interest. The establishment of railway and 
 steamship lines, of telegraph and post roads, 
 and, in short, of all those facilities which 
 increase the comfort and convenience of the 
 nation have been their constant care. The 
 telegraph and postal systems are equal to 
 those of most countries, while as to railways, 
 an increase from eighteen miles, in 1873, to 
 almost two thousand miles, in 1894, may 
 fairly be regarded as a good result even in 
 this country of phenomenal railway develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten that a great 
 deal of the progress which Japan has made 
 in every direction has been due as much to 
 private enterprise as to government direction. 
 The railway and steamship lines, for ex- 
 ample, are exclusively under the control of 
 private corporations. The government has, 
 of necessity, taken the initiative in many 
 things, but oftentimes it has been merely to 
 set an example which has been readily and 
 aptly followed. 
 
THE NEW JAPAN. 
 
 511 
 
 There is another phase of Japanese de- 
 velopment which is well worthy of notice. 
 I refer now to the newspaper press. The 
 Japanese, like the ancient Athenians, and — 
 may I add? — like modern Americans, are a 
 people who delight in hearing new things. 
 It need hardly be added that the press came 
 to them, as it comes so often to us, to supply 
 " a long felt want." Its development has 
 been little short of marvellous, and now it 
 flourishes like the green bay tree, from the 
 scholarly periodical, the didactic weekly, the 
 political daily, down to the "penny dreadful," 
 for whose columns nothing short of mprder 
 and sudden death are fit matter. 
 
 Influence of the Press. 
 
 Many able, intelligent and patriotic men 
 are enlisted in the ranks of the press in Japan, 
 and they already exercise a potent influence 
 upon public opinion and the conduct of 
 public afifairs. The government has deemed 
 it necessary to establish regulations for the 
 control of the press — a system more alien to 
 American than to European ideas — ^but one 
 which experience has shown is necessary to 
 the public welfare. The heaviest penalty of 
 all, the total suspension and confiscation of 
 the paper, has never been inflicted. 
 
 In attempting to describe the changes 
 through which Japan has passed and the 
 effect which they have had upon the develop- 
 ment of the country's resources and the 
 increase of national wealth, it has not been 
 possible to omit some mention of the poUtical 
 transformation which has been so notable a 
 feature of her recent history. The one 
 stands to the other in the relation of cause 
 to effect, and what the future may have in 
 store for Japan depends not a little upon the 
 harmonious development of the govern- 
 mental system which was adopted when the 
 Empire emerged from its seclusion. 
 
 The present executive system was adopted 
 in 1885. It consists of a Cabinet and a 
 Privy Council. The former, presided over 
 by the Prime Minister, is composed of the 
 Ministers in charge of the executive depart- 
 ments, who are directly responsible to the 
 Emperor for the management of their offices. 
 The functions of the Privy Council are purely 
 advisory. 
 
 The different Prefectures into which the 
 Empire is divided are under the charge of 
 Governors appointed by the Emperor upon 
 the recommendation of the Minister of Home 
 Affairs. In each Prefecture there is, as I 
 have already stated, a local Assembly which 
 co-operates with the Governor in the manage- 
 ment of local affairs. 
 
 The Governing Houses. 
 
 The Imperial Diet is composed of two 
 Houses, a House of Peers and a House of 
 Representatives. The former body consists 
 of members who hold office as a hereditary 
 right, of a certain number who are elected 
 by the different orders of nobility which are 
 not entitled to seats in the House, and of a 
 certain number appointed by the Emperor. 
 
 The members of the House of Represen- 
 tatives are elected directly by the people. 
 A property qualification governs the exercise 
 of the electoral franchise. 
 
 This, in brief, is the executive and legisla- 
 tive system now in force in Japan. When 
 everything is taken into account it may be 
 said to have worked smoothly and efficiently. 
 Since the adoption of the constitution and 
 the establishment of the Diet there has at 
 times been a great deal of political excite- 
 ment, but throughout every storm of this 
 kind there has been no attack upon the 
 privileges of the people, no thought of an 
 assault upon the fundamental law. The 
 constitution has been scrupulously observed, 
 
512 
 
 and each struggle between the executive and 
 the legislative branches of the government 
 has been carried on within the lines defined 
 by that instrument. 
 
 Such contests are inevitable where men 
 strive for political supremacy. In Japan 
 they afford a useful vent for political pas- 
 sions, and when, in time, party principles 
 are more clearly enunciated and party lines 
 more sharply drawn, there is no reason to 
 believe that parliamentary government in 
 Japan will not achieve all that was hoped 
 for it. The fact that in Japan, even from 
 ancient times, a system of local self-govern- 
 ment in town and village, and rural district, 
 was conceded by the gpvernment and jeal- 
 ously retained by the people, affords perhaps 
 the brightest augury for the success of self- 
 government in Japan. 
 
 Competitive Examinations. 
 
 The systematization and codification of 
 the laws of Japan was one of the first cares 
 of the government after the restoration. In 
 the year 1884 a system of competitive exami- 
 nation for appointment to judgeships was 
 introduced and has ever since been in suc- 
 cessful operation. 
 
 The constitution itself provides that juris- 
 diction shall be exercised by the courts of 
 law according to law ; that the organization 
 of the courts shall be determined by law; 
 that the judges shall be appointed from 
 among thosewho possess the proper quali- 
 fications according to law, and that no judge 
 shall be deprived of his office except for 
 misconduct and by due process of law. A 
 statute passed for carrying these constitu- 
 tional guarantees into effect, and providing 
 for comprehensive and complete reorganiza- 
 
 JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. 
 
 tion of the courts of justice, has been in 
 operation for several years. 
 
 If we judge the future of Japan by the 
 past — by what she has accomplished for the 
 intellectual, the moral and the material im- 
 provement of her people — our forecast must 
 be most sanguine. Admitting that accom- I 
 plishment is justly a measure of reward, she 
 cannot now be far from the goal of her 
 ambition — recognition as a member of the 
 family of nations fully entitled to the enjoy- 
 ment of all those rights and privileges which 
 independent commonwealths regard as in- 
 alienable prerogatives of national sover- 
 eignity. 
 
 America in the East. 
 
 Her continued prosperity and successful 
 progress depend upon the attainment of this 
 end, for she has reached the point where the 
 harmonious development of her national life 
 demands another and an even greater change 
 than any that has gone before. The only 
 obstacle which stands in the way is senti- 
 mental rather than practical. Some believe 
 because no Asiatic nation has ever, at least 
 in modern times, cared for those things and 
 striven for those things for which Japan cares 
 and which she seeks to make her own, that 
 therefore no Asiatic nation is fitted to enjoy 
 them. Such reasoning is as faulty as its 
 premises are incorrect. 
 
 When, in the not distant future, Japan 
 attains the goal of her ambition, it must 
 always be a gratifying reflection to every 
 American that it was his country which firsi 
 brought her into touch with the world, and 
 which first displayed a cordial, a helpful and 
 a practical sympathy with the aspirations 
 and efforts of the Land of the Rising Sun. 
 
BOOK III. 
 Lorea apd br)C War JDeb\sreer) Lr)ir)a 
 
 a.T)d japar). 
 
 CHAPTKR XXXII. 
 LIFE AND TRAVEL IN COREA. 
 
 AN interesting account of Corea is 
 furnished by the Hon. George N. 
 Curzon, whose travels and obser- 
 vations in this country have given 
 him high distinction. His graphic descrip- 
 tions are eagerly read, and afford an accurate 
 idea of a nation which has, through recent 
 events, been brought into the thought and 
 notice of America and Europe. 
 
 The name of Corea has been for ages 
 wrapped in mystery. It is an old country 
 contemporaneous, as alleged, with Thebes 
 and Babylon, but owning no ruins. It 
 boasts a separate, if not an independent, 
 national existence for centuries, yet is de- 
 void of all external signs of strength. It' 
 contains beautiful natural scenery, still virgin 
 to the traveller's foot. 
 
 Corea claims to have given to Japan her 
 letters, her science, her religion, and her art, 
 yet is bereft of almost all vestiges of these 
 herself. Her people are endowed with physi- 
 cal vigor, but are sluggish in mind and 
 morals. Such a spectacle is one which has 
 no counterpart even in Asia, the continent 
 of contrasts. A bridge between Japan and 
 33 
 
 China, Corea is, nevertheless, profoundly un- 
 like either. It has lacked the virile training 
 of the Feudal System in Japan, and the in- 
 centives to industry supplied by the crowded 
 existence of China." Its indifference to re- 
 ligion has left it without the splendid temples 
 that adorn the former country, without the 
 stubborn self-sufficiency of character devel- 
 oped by Confucianism in the latter. 
 
 Corea Suddenly Aroused. 
 
 Japan swept it clear of all that was beau- 
 tiful or ancient in the famous invasion of 
 Hideyoshi three centuries ago — an affliction 
 from which it has never recovered. China's 
 policy has been to keep it in a state of tutel- 
 age ever since. Placed* in an unfortunate 
 geographical position midway between the 
 two nations, Corea has been, like Issachar, 
 couching between two burdens. Suddenly, 
 at the end of the nineteenth century, it wakes 
 up from its long sleep to find the alarum of 
 the nations sounding at its gates ; the pleni- 
 potentiaries of great Powers appear in its 
 ports to solicit or to demand reciprocal 
 treaties; it enters the comity of civilized 
 
 513 
 
514 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 peoples; and, still half stupefied by its long 
 repose, relaxes but slowly beneath the doubt- 
 ful rays of Western civilization. 
 
 The first glimpse of the Corean coast, 
 which is mountainous, but little wooded, and 
 relatively bare, gives no idea of the timbered 
 heights and smiling valleys which may be 
 encountered in the interior; but the first 
 sight of its white-robed people, whose figures, 
 if stationary, might be mistaken at a distance 
 for white mileposts or tombstones, if moving, 
 for a colony of swans, acquaints us with a 
 national type and dress that are quite unique. 
 
 Peculiarities of Dress. 
 
 A dirty people who insist upon dressing in 
 white is a first peculiarity ; a people inhabit- 
 ing a northern, and in winter a very rigorous 
 latitude who yet insist upon wearing cotton 
 (even though it be wadded in winter) all the 
 year round, is a second ; a people who always 
 wear hats, and have a headpiece accommo- 
 dated to every situation and almost every 
 incident in life, is a third. But all these 
 combine to make the wearers picturesque ; 
 while as to Corean standards of comfort we 
 have nothing to do but to wonder. 
 
 As to their physique, the men are stalwart, 
 well-built, and bear themselves with a manly 
 air, though of docile and sometimes timid 
 expression. The hair is worn long, but is 
 twisted into a topknot, protected by the 
 crown of the afore-mentioned hat. The 
 women, of whom, those belonging to the 
 tupper classes are not visible, but the poorer 
 among whom may be seen by hundreds 
 .engaged in manual labor in the houses, 
 ■streets, and fields, cannot be described as 
 Ibeautiful. They have a peculiar arrange- 
 •inent of dress by which a short white bodice 
 covers the shoulders, but leaves the breasts 
 entirely exposed ; while voluminous petti- 
 coats, very full at the hips, depend from a 
 
 waist just below the armpits, and all but 
 conceal coarse white or brown pantaloons 
 below. Their hair is black, and is wound in 
 a big coil round the temples, supplying a 
 welcome contrast to the greasy though 
 fascinating coiffure of the females of Japan. 
 
 Indeed, if the men of the two nations are 
 unlike — the tall, robust, good-looking, idle 
 Corean, and the diminutive, ugly, nimble, 
 indomitable Japanese — still more so are the 
 women — the hard-visaged, strong-limbed, 
 masterful housewife of Corea, and the 
 shuffling, knock-kneed, laughing, bewitching 
 Japanese damsel. The Corean boy, indeed, 
 might more easily be taken to represent the 
 gentler sex, since, until he is engaged to be 
 married, he wears his hair parted in the 
 middle and hanging in a long plait down his 
 back. 
 
 Fatal Epidemics. 
 
 Of this people, the males among whom 
 exceed the females, there are believed to be 
 about 1 1 ,000,000 in Corea, an area very 
 similar in extent to Great Britain. Marrying 
 at an early age, prone to large families, and 
 undiminished for many years by war or 
 famine, the Corean population oGght to be 
 on the increase were it not that the infant 
 mortality is enormous, and that the death- 
 rate from epidemics, against which no 
 precautions are taken, and which sweep 
 over the country every third or fourth year, 
 is certainly high. On the other hand, 
 the large tracts of uncultivated and almost 
 uninhabited country that still await the 
 ploughshare and the peasant will accomo- 
 date a much larger population. 
 
 The Coreans belong unmistakably to the 
 Mongolian stock, occupying a sort of inter- 
 mediate stage between the Mongolian Tar- 
 tar and the Japanese. It is impossible to 
 confound them either with the latter or with 
 
LIFE AND TRAVEL IN COREA. 
 
 515 
 
 the Chinese ; and a Corean would, to any- 
 one who has travelled in the country, be a 
 known man in any city in the world. It 
 has been supposed by some writers, who 
 have observed a different variety with blue 
 eyes and fair hair in Corea itself, that there is 
 also a Caucasian element in the stock ; but 
 I am not aware that this hypothesis has 
 found any scientific confirmation. 
 
 Their language is of the Turanian family, 
 with the addition of many Chinese words. 
 
 If one does not either speak or under- 
 stand Corean oneself, it is always possible to 
 communicate with a Corean by using the 
 Chinese symbols, which he equally employs. 
 On the other hand, among the upper and let- 
 tered classes, Chinese itself is the invariable 
 vehicle both of speech and correspondence, 
 just as it is also the official language em- 
 ployed in government publications, proclam- 
 ations, examinations and decrees. 
 
 Poverty Everywhere. 
 
 Of the people so constituted there appears 
 to be but one opinion as to the national char- 
 acter and physique. While an invigorating 
 climate has made them naturally long-lived 
 and strong, their habits of life and morals 
 have rendered them subject to many forms 
 of ailment and disease ; while their want of 
 contact with the world and their servitude 
 to a form of government which has never 
 either encouraged or admitted of individual 
 enterprise, but which has reduced all except 
 the privileged class to a dead level of un- 
 complaining poverty, have left them inert, 
 listless and apathetic. 
 
 As individuals they possess many attrac- 
 tive characteristics — the upper classes being 
 polite, cultivated, friendly to foreigners and 
 priding themselves on correct deportment; 
 while the lower orders are good-tempered, 
 though very excitable, cheerful and talkative. 
 
 Beyond a certain point, however, both 
 classes relapse into a similar indifference, 
 which takes the form of an indolent protest 
 against action of any kind. The politician 
 in Soul remains civil, but is wholly deaf to 
 persuasion. The coolie works one day and 
 dawdles away his wages upon the two next. 
 The mapu, or ostler, takes his own time 
 about his own and his pack-pony's meal, 
 and no reasoning or compulsion in the world 
 would disturb him from his complacent lan- 
 guor. 
 
 Corea's Vast Resources. 
 
 These idiosyncrasies may only be interest- 
 ing to the unconcerned student of national 
 character, but they are of capital importance 
 in their bearing upon national life. When, 
 further, they are crystallized into hardness 
 and are inflamed by the habits of an upper 
 and official class — which subsists by extor- 
 tion and prohibits, outside its own limits, 
 either the exercise of surplus activity or the 
 accumulation of wealth — they explain how it 
 is that the Corean people remain poor amid 
 stores of unprobed wealth, lethargic where 
 there should otherwise be a hundred incen- 
 tives to diligence, nerveless in the face either 
 of competition or of peril. 
 
 I have seen a Corean coolie carrying a 
 weight that would make the stoutest ox 
 stagger, and yet I have seen three Coreans 
 lazily employed in turning up the soil with a 
 single shovel, by an arrangement of ropes 
 that wasted the labor of three men without 
 augmenting the strength of one. 
 
 So it is in every department of the national 
 existence. An immense reserve of masculine 
 force is diverted from the field of labor and 
 is lost to the nation by being absorbed into 
 ^^yamens, or offices of the local magistrates 
 and prefects, where their function, instead of 
 invigorating the blood of the country, is to 
 
616 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 suck that of their fellow-countrymen. The 
 population of Corea may, indeed, be roughly 
 divided into two classes — the upper or official, 
 entitled yangban, whose position or gen- 
 tility is a bar to work, and who, therefore, 
 must subsist on others ; and the great re- 
 siduum, whose business it is to be subsisted 
 upon, and to filch from the produce of their 
 labor the slender necessities of existence for 
 themselves. Poverty in the sense of desti- 
 tution their is not ; but poverty in the sense 
 of having no surplus beyond the bare means 
 of livelihood and of the paralysis of all en- 
 terprise is almost universal. 
 
 An Official Burned Alive. 
 
 Any less indolent people might be ex- 
 pected to rebel ; and occasional magisterial 
 encroachments beyond the limits of practice 
 or endurance result in short-lived spasms of 
 mutiny, in the course of which an offending 
 official is seized and, perhaps (as happened 
 once in 1891), is burned alive. But ordi- 
 narily this implies too great an exertion ; the 
 people are unarmed and very helpless, and 
 the' system is mutely acquiesced in, unless 
 pushed to intolerable extremes. 
 
 Travel in the heart of a country brings the 
 stranger into contact with a type of 
 humanity more primitive, but also more 
 representative of the national character, than 
 that encountered in the capital or in large 
 cities, whilst it also discloses features of 
 natural scenery of which the residents in 
 towns or the frequenters of high routes alone 
 may remain permanently ignorant. Both 
 these advantages were derivable from the 
 circuitous journey which I took from Gensan 
 to the capital. The familiar route between 
 these places, with the exception of one 
 splendid mountain-crossing, traverses a land- 
 scape never without interest, though lacking in 
 the higher elements of grandeur or romance. 
 
 A divergence, however, of a few days from 
 the track brought me into a region which 
 less than half a dozen foreigners have yet 
 visited, and which contains some of the most 
 renowned scenery in Corea, as well as the 
 picturesque and venerable reUcs of the dis- 
 established Buddhist religion, which for 
 1000 years before the foundation of the 
 present dynasty, in about 1400 A. D., was 
 the official and popular cult of the country. 
 
 Gilded Images and Idols. 
 
 This region is known as the Keum Kang 
 San, or Diamond Mountains; and there — 
 amid mountain valleys and recesses whose 
 superb forest mantle rivals in amplitude, 
 while it excels in autumnal tints of maple 
 and chestnut the garniture of California can- 
 yons, where rushing, crystal-clear torrents 
 dance through every glen, and far skywards 
 bare splintered crags lift their horns above 
 the foliage — are scattered a number of mon- 
 asteries, whose buildings are in some cases 
 many centuries old, and whose dwindling 
 congregation of inmates perform in these 
 secluded retreats, secure from any intrusion 
 save that of the itinerant pilgrim, the stereo- 
 typed devotions before gilded images of 
 Buddha and his disciples, in which they 
 themselves, in common with the mass of 
 their countrymen, have long ceased to be- 
 lieve. 
 
 By lovers of the picturesque nothing more 
 enchanting than these monastic retreats can 
 anywhere be found; nor will the discovery 
 that, while every prospect pleases, man alone 
 is vile — even though his depravity assume, 
 as is credibly alleged of the Corean bonzes, 
 the most profligate expression, or, as it did 
 in my own experience, the more modest form 
 of larceny of one's personal effects — deter the 
 traveller from keen appreciation of surround- 
 ings so romantic. 
 
LIFE AND TRAVEL IN COREA. 
 
 517 
 
 Surprise may be felt that in a country 
 where the cloister is so generally and not 
 unjustly despised, it should yet succeed, in 
 spite of popular scepticism and official neglect, 
 in attracting to itself a sufficient number of 
 recruits. The answer lies in the incurable 
 laziness of the people. 
 
 The Corean form of Buddhism is closely 
 akin to the Chinese, and is widely divorced 
 -from that which found favor in the more 
 artistic atmosphere of Japan. Its hideously 
 bedaubed temples, which only become toler- 
 able with age, and its multiform, grotesque, 
 and barbarous images have little in common 
 with the beauty of Ikegami or the glories of 
 Nikko, or even with the less aesthetic attrac- 
 tions of Asakusa. Essentially Chinese, too, 
 is the manner in which the original faith has 
 been overlaid with superstitions, and has had 
 grafted on to it an entire pantheon of semi- 
 deified heroes. 
 
 Singular Superstitions. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is a welcome relief to 
 alight upon the shrines even of a dishonored 
 and moribund faith in a country where no 
 popular cult appears to exist save that of 
 spirits, dictated in most cases by nervous 
 apprehension of the forces of nature, and 
 where, as the old Dutch navigator put it, "as 
 for Religion, the Coresians have scarcely any." 
 
 To these superstitions is the Corean peas- 
 ant peculiarly prone. Outside his villages 
 are seen wooden distance-posts carved into 
 the hideous and grinning likeness of a human 
 head, in order to propitiate the evil spirits. 
 Of similar application are the bronze figures 
 of monsters that appear upon the roofs of 
 palaces and city gates, the rags and ropes 
 that are tied to the boughs of trees (supposed, 
 in Corean demonology, to be the particular 
 abode of spirits), and the stones that are 
 heaped together on the summits of hill-roads. 
 
 in passing which our native camp-followers 
 would invariably bow and expectorate. 
 
 Female sorceresses and soothsayers, to 
 cast horoscopes, and to determine the propi- 
 tious moment for any important action, are 
 also in great request. In Soul I heard a 
 story of a sick man who was supposed to be 
 possessed by a devil, but was successfully 
 cured by an English mission doctor, who 
 affected to drive out the evil spirit, which was 
 forthwith pursued down the street by a large 
 crowd and "run to ground" in the mission 
 compound. 
 
 Worship of Ancestors. 
 
 Among the upper classes the only vital 
 form of religion is ancestor worship, devel- 
 oped by familiarity with Confucianism and 
 by long connection with the Chinese. A 
 man has no higher ambition than to leave 
 male descendants who may worship his 
 ghost and offer sacrifice at his grave. An 
 outcome of the same ethical system is the 
 sense of filial piety, which would have ren- 
 dered .(Eneas a typical Chinaman, of unques- 
 tioning obedience to the sovereign, and of 
 duty to the aged and to friends. 
 
 No Buddhist monks are allowed inside the 
 cities — a prohibition which is said to have 
 originated in the Japanese invasion 300 years 
 ago, when the invaders crept into some of the 
 towns in monastic disguise — although the 
 King, in the neighborhood of the capital, 
 has one or more secure mountain retreats, 
 whither, in time of danger, he flees to the 
 protection of a monkish garrison. 
 
 Travelling in Corea is best undertaken in 
 the autumn months of the year. The 
 climate is then perfect — a warm sun by day 
 and refreshing coolness at night. In the 
 winter deep snow falls and the cold is exces- 
 sive. The summer heats are equally un- 
 pleasant. There are no made roads in the 
 
518 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 country, and the tracks are mere bridle-paths, 
 of greater or less width, according to the 
 extent to which they are trodden. 
 
 In a country that is as plentifully sprinkled 
 with mountains as a ploughed field is with 
 ridges, these are frequently steep and stony 
 in the extreme, and in the out-of-the-way 
 parts which I visited the track was not 
 unfrequently the precipitous and boulder- 
 strewn bed of a mountain torrent, amid and 
 over the jagged rocks of which none but a 
 Corean pony could pick his way. 
 
 Tough and Wiry. 
 
 A wonderful little animal indeed is the 
 latter. With the exception of the ox, which 
 is the beast of heavy burden, and the 
 donkey, which is much affected by the im- 
 pecunious gentry, no other pack or riding 
 animal is known. Rarely more than eleven 
 hands high, combative and vicious, always 
 kicking or fighting when he can, he will yet, 
 with a burden of 150 lbs. or 200 lbs. upon 
 his back, cover a distance of some thirty 
 miles a day ; and provided he has his slush 
 of beans and chopped straw, boiled in water, 
 three times a day, before starting, at noon, 
 and in the evening, he emerges very little the 
 worse at the end of a lengthy journey. 
 
 Each pony is attended by its own mapu, 
 or driver, and the humors of these indi- 
 viduals, who sing and smoke and crack jokes 
 and quarrel all day long, are among the 
 alleviations of travel. If the destination be 
 not reached before nightfall the bearers of 
 official passports have the right to torch- 
 bearers from each village. Long before 
 reaching the latter, tremendous shouts of 
 ' Usa, usa ! ' (torch), are raised by the mapus 
 or yamen-x\xr\.ne.xs ; and if upon arrival the 
 Government linkmen are not forthcoming 
 with their torches — made of a lopped pine- 
 ^'ig or a truss of straw — they are roused 
 
 from their slumbers or hiding with cuffs and 
 viole,nt imprecations. In a few moments 
 half a dozen torches are ignited, and, amid 
 waving banners of flame, the cavalcade dis- 
 appears into the night. 
 
 Sport is a further and agreeable conco- 
 mitant of journeying, although, as in every 
 country in the world, not much game can be 
 seen except by divergence from the hurried 
 track of travel. Pheasants abound in the 
 undergrowth on the mountains. In the 
 winter months every variety of wild-fowl^ 
 from wild geese and swans to wild duck,, 
 teal, water hen, plover, and snipe, swarm 
 along the coast and rivers or in the soaking; 
 rice-plots. 
 
 Shouts of Delight. 
 
 The natives either snare them or shoot 
 them sitting ; and the spectacle of a rocket- 
 ing mallard brought down from a great 
 height in the air is greeted by them with 
 frantic shouts of admiration and delight. 
 Turkey bustards, cranes, herons, pink and 
 white ibis are also encountered, and there is a 
 large eagle, whose tail-feathers are muck 
 prized by the Chinese for fans. 
 
 But the richness of the Corean covert lies 
 rather in fur and skin than in feather. Hares, 
 foxes, badgers, wild cat, wild boar, sables,, 
 ermin, and otter in the far north, and different 
 kinds of deer (which are hunted for the 
 medicinal properties supposed in China ta 
 belong to the horns of the young buck) are 
 to be found in the scrub on the mountains. 
 Leopards are quite common, and in the 
 winter months sometimes venture even inside 
 the walls of Soul. 
 
 But the tiger is the king of Corean quar- 
 ries. He is of great size; and I saw, while 
 in Corea, some splendid skins. His haunt is 
 the wooded mountain-slopes near the east 
 coast, and the entire belt of country north- 
 
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 o 
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 o 
 
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 o 
 
 f- 
 
 o 
 
 (J 
 
 519 
 
520 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 wards as far as the forests on the Yalu, 
 where man-eaters are not uncommon. In 
 winter-time tigers have more than once come 
 down into the settlement at Gensan and 
 carried off a victim ; I even heard there of a 
 European who, going out to dine, met a tiger 
 ' walking down the middle of the road ; and 
 when I was at Chang An Sa (the Hall of 
 Eternal Peace), the principal of the Keum 
 Kang San monasteries, one was said to 
 patrol the quadrangle every night, and we 
 came across their spoor and droppings. 
 
 Royal Tiger-Hunters. 
 
 The King maintains a body of royal tiger- 
 hunters, who capture them by means of pits 
 and traps, the commonest of these being a 
 sort of big wooden cage constructed of 
 timbers and stones, rather like a gigantic 
 mouse-trap. A pig is tied up inside, and the 
 entrance of the tiger releases the door and 
 confines the beast, who is then despatched 
 with spears. The natives, however, regard 
 the animal with an overpowering apprehen- 
 sion, and there is an old Chinese saying that 
 "the Coreans hunt the tiger during one-half 
 of the year, while the tiger hunts the Coreans 
 during the other half." They will not travel 
 singly at night, but go abroad in companyy 
 brandishing torches and striking gongSi 
 
 They are also most reluctant to act as 
 beaters; whence, perhaps, it arises that, 
 common as the tiger is in Corea, I have 
 rarely heard of a European who has bagged 
 one to his own rifle. I am sometimes asked 
 by sportsmen as to the charms or chances of 
 a Corean expedition. As regards wild-fowl 
 shooting, the great nuisance is th^t there is 
 no means of disposing of the slain, and after 
 a time mere slaughter palls ; while, as 
 regards big game, the difficulties and the 
 hardships of travel, accommodation, food, 
 and following, will probably send back the 
 
 sportsman with a much worse appetite than 
 when he started. 
 
 Thus wayfaring through the country one 
 sees much of peasant life and agriculture. 
 The villages are collections of mud-huts, 
 thatched with straw (over which, as a rule, 
 runs a climbing gourd), warmed by flues 
 running beneath the floors, and surrounded 
 for protection or seclusion by a wattled fence 
 of branches or reeds. 
 
 On the clay floor outside are usually seen 
 drying a matful of red chillies, or of millet 
 and rice grains fresh threshed by the flail; 
 long strings of tobacco leaves, suspended in 
 festoons, have been picked from the garden 
 plot hard by, from which also a few castor- 
 oil plants are rarely absent. A small sty of 
 black and abominable little pigs usually 
 fronts the road, on which the children are 
 disporting themselves in a state of compara- 
 tive nudity. 
 
 Wide Wastes of Country. 
 
 Inside, the sour-visaged females are per- 
 forming the work of the household, or are 
 grinding, threshing, or winnowing the grain 
 on the open threshold. The men are away 
 in the rice-fields or among the crops of 
 inillet, beans, and buckwheat, which are the 
 staple cereal produce of Jthe country. Cul- 
 tivation is assiduous, but not close. Hun- 
 dreds of acres of cultivable, but uncleared 
 soil, alternate with the tilled patches, and 
 coarse grasses wave where the yellow grain 
 should be ripening for the garner. 
 
 I saw no carts or wagons on my journeys, 
 although they are used in the north, near 
 Ham-heung, and in a few other places. The 
 ox, which is the familiar beast* of burden, 
 sometimes drags after him a rude wooden 
 sled. More commonly a sort of rack is 
 fitted on to his back, and is packed with 
 firewood for fuel. Men do not, as in Japan 
 
LIFE AND TRAVEL IN COREA. 
 
 521 
 
 and China, carry burdens on bamboo poles, 
 but in wooded racks, called chi-kai, upon 
 their backs. 
 
 They rest themselves by sitting down, in 
 which position the rack, having a wooden 
 peg or leg, stands upright upon the ground. 
 The long, thin pipe of the country, between 
 two and three feet in .length, when not be- 
 tween the lips of its owner, is stuck in his 
 collar at the back of his neck, and protrudes 
 sideways into the air. When a pony is shod 
 it is thrown down upon its back, and its legs 
 tied together at the fetlock by a rope. ' 
 
 Tablets of Stone. 
 
 Outside towns of any size may commonly 
 be seen a number of stones, or tablets (some- 
 times of iron or copper), bearing inscriptions 
 in Chinese characters. These are erected 
 either in connection with some historical 
 event, or more frequently in honor of a local 
 governor, who has earned the gratitude of 
 the people, not for justice or clemency, 
 which are not expected, but for wielding 
 with no more than ordinary severity his pre- 
 rogative of spoil ; or of a successful local 
 candidate at the literary examinations, or of 
 some public benefactor, or of a virtuous wife 
 who has found in suicide the sole consola- 
 tion for the loss of her spouse. 
 
 Chinese influence is visible everywhere, 
 notably in the disposition of the dead. The 
 Royal Tombs are at a distance of ten miles 
 from the east gate of Soul ; but they are on 
 a modest scale compared with the mauso- 
 leums of Peking and Hue. Mandarins' 
 graves are frequently marked by a stone 
 table or altar for offerings, and a stele or 
 pillar, bearing fhe epitaph of the deceased. 
 
 Sometimes, after the Chinese fashion, stone 
 effigies of warriors or animals are added, or 
 a saddled stone horse, in case the spirit of 
 the defunct should care to take a ride, or a 
 
 small column in case it should have been 
 metamorphosed into a bird and should re- 
 quire a perch. The commonest form of 
 grave, however, is a large, circular, grassy 
 mound, usually placed upon the side of a 
 hill or summit of a little knoll, and sur- 
 rounded with Scotch firs. The site is 
 selected after consultation with a soothsayer, 
 is visited every year on fixed days, and is 
 ever afterwards kept inviolate from the spade 
 or plough. The environs of Soul are 
 sprinkled with thousands of such graves. 
 
 Officialism, which is the curse of the coun- 
 try, is not without its effect even upon the 
 fortunes of travel. Such an incubus is the 
 travelling mandarin, who quarters himself 
 where he pleases and exacts rations for which 
 he never pays, that the villagers flee from an 
 official passport as from the pest. Though 
 I paid for everything, chickens and eggs 
 were constantly refused me, on the plea that 
 none were forthcoming, but really, I suf)- 
 pose, from fear that, on the strength of the 
 kuan-chow, I should appropriate without 
 payment whatever was produced. 
 
 A Motley Crowd. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it is necessary to 
 carry almost everything with one, in the form 
 of tinned provisions. In the out-of-the-way 
 ports few wayfarers are encountered; but 
 near the capital the road will be crowded 
 with officials, tucked up in small and com- 
 fortless sedans, with candidates going up to 
 or returning from the examinations, with pil- 
 grims, traders, professional players or 
 mountebanks, beggars, picnicers, and impe- 
 cunious vagabonds of every quality and 
 style. 
 
 These are the picturesque sides and spec- 
 tacles of Corean travel. There are some 
 who would find in the Corean inn, which is 
 the unavoidable resting-place at night, a 
 
522 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 more than compensating pain. There are no 
 good inns in the country, because there is no 
 class to patronize them. The officials and 
 yangbans, as I have shown, quarter them- 
 selves on the magistracies. The peasant 
 accepts the rude hospitahty of his kind, and 
 the village inn is only the compulsory resort 
 of the residuum. 
 
 Surrounding a small and filthy courtyard, 
 to which access is gained by a gateway from 
 the street, is on one side a long shed with 
 a wooden trough, from which the ponies 
 suck their sodden food; on another side is 
 the earthenware vat, and the furnace by 
 which it is cooked; opening off in a single, 
 small, low-roofed room, usually eight feet 
 square, unadorned by any furniture save one 
 or two dilapidated straw mats and some 
 wooden block? to serve as pillows. 
 
 There the traveller must eat, undress, 
 dress, wash, and sleep as well as he can. 
 He is fortunate if the surrounding filth is 
 not the parent of even more vexatious ene- 
 mies to slumber. Nevertheless, I have wooed 
 and won a royal sleep in the Corean inn ; 
 wherefore let me not unduly abuse it. 
 
 The government of Corea is a hereditary 
 and absolute monarchy, and carried on 
 through three ministers, besides whom are 
 ministers of six departments. Caste is very 
 powerful, and no office of even only local 
 importance is held by other than a noble. 
 
 The earliest records of Corea carry us 
 back to 1 122 B. C, when Ki-tze with 5000 
 
 Chinese colonists brought to Corea Chinese 
 arts and politics. Down to modern times 
 Corea has remained pecfectly secluded. Al- 
 most the first knowledge of Corea obtained 
 by Europe was through the shipwreck of 
 some Dutchmen on the coast in 1653. The 
 missionary De Cespedes had, however, en- 
 tered Corea at the end of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, and from 1777 other missionaries fol- 
 lowed. In 1835 M. Maubant gained a footing 
 in Corea, but in 1866, after thousands of 
 converts had been put to death, the only 
 three Catholic missionaries left had to flee 
 for their lives. To avenge the death of the 
 Catholics the French sent an expedition, 
 which was, however, repulsed, while a 
 stranded American schooner was burned 
 with her crew in sight of Phyong-yang. 
 
 In 1 87 1 the United States was baffled in 
 the attempt to obtain redress. Japan was 
 the first to effect a footing in Corea in 1876, 
 when a treaty was concluded between the 
 two countries. Corea followed this up with 
 treaties with China and the United States in 
 1882; with Germany and Great Britian, 
 1883; with Italy and Russia, 1884; and 
 with France in 1886. The three ports 
 opened to foreign trade are Chemulpo, 
 Fusan, and Gensan. The new policy led to 
 discontent ; and there was an insurrection in 
 1884. A rumor that Russia was about to 
 establish a protectorate over Corea in 1888 
 was officially denied, although it is known 
 she has long had her eye on that country. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 OUTBREAK OF THE WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN. 
 
 ON the twenty-second of July, 1894, 
 the startling news came from 
 Shanghai that war between China 
 and Japan was considered inevit- 
 able. It was known that there was a feud 
 of long standing between the two countries 
 concerning Corea. 
 
 Corea is a peninsula extending down from 
 the mainland and is in close proximity to 
 Japan. In area it is nearly twice as large as 
 the State of Pennsylvania. The average 
 width of Corea is 135 miles and the whole 
 length is about 600 miles. There are eight 
 provinces, each with a Governor. The 
 King's revenues, which are considerable, 
 are obtained chiefly by the letting of lands 
 and from a tithe of all the produce. The 
 King owns nearly all the land property. 
 
 The people are great sufferers through 
 this system of land grabbing and tax farm- 
 ing. Grinding poverty holds them in a 
 relentless grasp. 
 
 The capital proper is Seoul, a walled town 
 of 250,000 inhabitants, about twenty-five 
 miles inland and joined to its seaport by a 
 badly made road. Seoul is in the heart of 
 Corea and it is the one aim and object of 
 every Corean to live there, for in the city 
 every pleasure and vice is more easy of 
 attainment and the chances of getting favor- 
 ite posts by judicious flattering and canvass- 
 ing of superiors are multiplied. 
 
 The King is a puppet in the hands of his 
 Court, and the country only preserves its 
 independence through the jealousy of the 
 Chinese, Japanese and Russians, all of whom 
 
 covet the land. Corea is claimed by Japan- 
 ese and Chinese, and it is difficult to say 
 which race the inhabitants hate most. They 
 are, however, more afraid of the Chinese,, 
 who always assume superior airs as belong- 
 ing to the dominant power. 
 
 A telegraph has penetrated Corea and a 
 wire runs from Wan-San, a seaport town on 
 the east side, to the capital and Chemulpo 
 on the west coast. 
 
 It is the fate of weak Eastern kingdoms to 
 be the prey of their powerful neighbors. 
 Corea has not only to endure the rivalries of 
 China and Japan, but is threatened with the 
 dangerous assistance of Russia. 
 
 Civil War in Corea. 
 
 The Russians have long wanted an open 
 Asiatic port to replace Vladivostock, which 
 is icebound in winter time. Port Lazareff, 
 or Gen-San, as the natives call it, about the 
 middle of the east coast of Corea, would 
 exactly suit them, but a Russian harbor 
 there could hardly be accepted by Great 
 Britain, considering that she gave up Port 
 Hamilton on the condition of no Russian 
 port being established in the Japanese Sea. 
 
 In 1 89 1 civil war broke out in Corea, 
 Ground down by official tyranny and extor- 
 tion, the people rose in despair. A " national 
 party," — the " Tong Hak " — took the lead 
 and succeeded in securing a whole province. 
 Then Japan appeared upon the scene, send- 
 ing troops to suppress the insurrection on 
 the plea of protecting her subjects. The 
 Mikado's Government next proposed to 
 
 523 
 
524 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 China jointly to recognize the weak Corean 
 administration after a more modern fashion, 
 but China as suzerain of Corea, would brook 
 no interference. Then, therefore, the ques- 
 tion resolved itself into a trial of military 
 force between the rival empires. 
 
 Li Houi, King of Corea, is the twenty- 
 eighth sovereign of the dynasty of Han. 
 He ascended the throne in 1864, when he 
 was thirteen years old. 
 
 He has a variety of titles such as " Son of 
 Heaven " and " King of Ten Thousand 
 Isles," yet this hereditary claim and all his 
 grandeur did not save him the humiliation of 
 being obliged to ask China's permission to 
 assume rulership or pay heavy annual dues. 
 The Chinese Emperor regards him as a vas- 
 sal, but the King of Corea is so holy a 
 personage in his own country that it is a 
 sacrilege to even mention his name. He 
 literally has no name to speak of until he 
 dies. Then his successor allows him one. 
 
 An Act of High Treason. 
 
 To touch him with an iron weapon is high 
 treason. One of his predecessors, Tieng- 
 tseng-tsi-oung, died from an abscess in the 
 neck in 1800 rather than have it lanced. 
 His present Majesty, presumably, shaves 
 himself On the other hand, any subject 
 touched by the King's hand has to always 
 wear a brass plate to commemorate the fact. 
 
 The King is now the Mikado's prisoner in 
 his own capital, Seoul, July 23, 1894, though 
 his subjects may not have known it, for this 
 ruler of the Hermit Kingdom is a veritable 
 hermit to the outside world, as invisible to 
 his people as the Chinese Emperor. 
 
 His Queen, who belongs to the noble 
 Min family, is nearly a year older than he. 
 Their son, Li Tchok, the hereditary or 
 crown prince, was born February 4, 1873. 
 
 Li Houi has a few ideas of modern ways, 
 
 such as introducing the electric light into his 
 palace. His time is largely occupied in re- 
 ligious ceremonies. 
 
 The Coreans are tall, well-formed men, 
 very like the Chinese of the better class. 
 Indeed, Corea in many ways is a kind of 
 duplicate of China. 
 
 A Corean's great weakness is hats. His 
 imagination runs wild on hats, and he wears 
 a vast variety of them. The ordinary rain 
 hat, made of oiled paper, looks like a folded 
 fan. The common hat is so made of bam- 
 boo and hair cloth as to let in the rain in 
 winter and the sun in summer. The upper 
 classes always wear overcoats ; the poor 
 only wear them by way of evening dress. 
 
 Love for Children. 
 
 The principal moral virtue of the Corean 
 is that he loves his children so dearly that 
 he neither slays nor exposes them. In re- 
 turn, if a son meets his father in the street, 
 he makes obeisance, and, if his father is im- 
 prisoned, it is a sacred duty to hang the 
 whole time about the prison door. 
 
 There is no division of labor to speak of; 
 each peasant makes ever3rthing he wants. 
 Paper is the one manufacture. The national 
 shoe is made of straw, with an aperture for 
 the great toe to peep out of. 
 
 The Corean money, called " cash," is 
 made of the basest and cheapest composi- 
 tion. It takes three thousand "cash" to 
 equal seventy-five cents of our money. It 
 is all a Corean pony can do to carry ^15 in 
 "cash." In the country districts coins of 
 greater value than " cash " are of no use ; 
 one cannot get change for them. 
 
 The causes of the trouble respecting Corea 
 may be summed up as follows : 
 
 First of all comes a permanent ill-feeling 
 between Chinese and Japanese, who have a 
 rooted dislike for one another. 
 
OUTBREAK OF THE WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN. 
 
 525 
 
 Second, their mutual jealousy as the two 
 great Far Eastern Powers. 
 
 Third, there were Japan's vastly prepon- 
 derant interests — population, shipping, trade 
 — in Corea, against China's ancient suzerainty 
 and her modern political control of Corean 
 affairs. 
 
 Fourth, the rebellion in Corea, threatening 
 all foreigners, including Japanese, stands for 
 something, but not so much as has been 
 made out, for Corean rebellions are not very 
 serious affairs. 
 
 ' Fifth, Japan was exasperated by the de- 
 coying of the pro- Japanese Corean rebel, 
 Kim-Ok-Kiun, from his refuge in Tokio, and 
 his brutal murder in Shanghai, winked at by 
 the Chinese Government. 
 
 Russia Seeking a Port. 
 
 Sixth, Japan was afraid, not without rea- 
 son, that China was about to settle her dif- 
 ficulties with Russia by allowing the latter 
 to occupy a port on the east coast of Corea. 
 Finally, both countries believed themselves 
 to possess powerful forces of the European 
 kind, and were not sorry to have an oppor- 
 tunity of showing what they could do with 
 them. This was much truer of Japan than 
 of China. 
 
 A high opinion was entertained of the 
 Japanese army. Up to the time of the 
 Franco-German war the instructors of this 
 army were Frenchmen. The result of the 
 war was sufficient, in Japanese opinion, to 
 make a change desirable, and the French in- 
 structors were changed for English, Ger- 
 man and Italian. Few of these remain, as 
 the Japanese now think they know enough 
 about the art of war to prosecute it without 
 foreign assistance. 
 
 The Japanese army is equipped according 
 to the most modern ideas, and is of consider- 
 able size, while the number of troops that 
 
 China can put into the field is known to none 
 outside of the " Flowery Kingdom," and to 
 few within the realm. Their equipment, too, 
 is a good deal of a mystery. The Japanese 
 are not only well drilled and well armed, 
 but they are brave and competent. 
 
 Regarding the suzerainty of China over 
 Japan it amounts to very little. The " Son 
 of Heaven," as the Emperor of China is 
 styled at home, considers himself the suze- 
 rain of the world. He was suzerain of 
 Lower and Upper Burmah, and lost them 
 both. Thibet is the only country the " Son 
 of Heaven " would fight desperately for. 
 
 The Crown Prince, 
 
 Of the King and Crown Prince of Corea 
 few entertain a flattering opinion. The 
 Crown Prince is described as little better 
 than a " self-opinionated idiot." The King 
 is a slight improvement upon this. Corea 
 alone is never in a position to make a fight. 
 The country is impoverished, and under its 
 present ruler is of no use to the Coreans or 
 to anybody else. There are only a few hun- 
 dred Corean soldiers at the capital, and they 
 are of the opera bouffe order. 
 • The assassination of Kim-Ok-Kiun, if not 
 the prime cause of the trouble between Japan 
 and China, has had much to do with precipi- 
 tating long-standing national enmities into 
 active preparations for war. On March 27, 
 1894, three men arrived at Shanghai from 
 Japan. They took up quarters in a Japanese 
 hotel in the foreign settlement. 
 
 One of the three was Kim-Ok-Kiun, an 
 instigator if not the instigator, of the Corean 
 massacre of December, 1894. For nine 
 years Kim had been a refugee in Japan. 
 Unsuccessful demands for his surrender had 
 several times been made by the King of 
 Corea to the Japanese authorities. As the 
 Emperor of China is the acknowledged 
 
526 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 suzerain of Corea, much surprise was felt 
 that Kim should have dared to set foot on 
 Chinese soil. 
 
 An English journalist set out to probe the 
 mystery, but before he found his way to the 
 Japanese hotel the Corean was lying dead 
 with three revolver bullets in his body. On 
 the body of the murdered man was found a 
 card, bearing the name, " Kim-Ok-Kiun," 
 printed in Roman characters. 
 
 The murderer proved to be one Hong 
 Sjyong-Ou, a Corean of good position, re- 
 cently a somewhat prominent figure in Par- 
 isian society. He had, he said, assassinated 
 Kim by order, of the King of Corea. He 
 -was acquitted and set free. On Hong's re- 
 turn to Corea after the murder he was re- 
 ceived with honors, while his victim's body 
 was subjected to mutilation and public ex- 
 posure. 
 
 Accused of Intrigue. 
 
 It is alleged in justification of his assassi- 
 nation by order of the King of Corea, that 
 he had been intriguing not only with Japan, 
 but with Russia, for the overthrow of the 
 Chinese suzerainty. 
 
 At Yokohama, July 22, it was reported 
 that the war feeling was running high and 
 the whole nation was much impressed with 
 the refusal of the Government to keep out of 
 the Corean treaty ports at the request of 
 China. Corea was also reported to have 
 executed the proposed reforms, but it was 
 said that the acceptance by Corea of the re- 
 forms proposed by Japan was conditional 
 upon the withdrawal of the Japanese troops 
 from Corea. ' 
 
 The Japanese Government was surprised 
 at this firm stand, which was supposed to 
 prove that Chinese influence was paramount 
 in Corea. In the direct negotiations between 
 Tokio and Pekin, China ignored the Japanese 
 
 counter-proposals, and was not willing to 
 yield her prerogatives. 
 
 Advices from Shanghai, July 23, stated 
 that while war had not yet been actually de- 
 clared, the outlook was not all encouraging. 
 It was reported that Japanese gunboats, 
 with a large force of troops are now bom- 
 barding Corean ports. There was consider- 
 able excitement in the city, and it was an- 
 nounced that the Government was already 
 organizing regiments to reinforce the regular 
 army of the Empire. The greatest loyalty 
 to the Government was felt at the emergency. 
 
 Twelve thousand troops immediately left 
 Taku with a fleet of gunboats, it was sup- 
 posed for Seoul, with orders to fight the 
 Japanese if they opposed China's occupation 
 of any point in Corea. If war should be 
 declared the government at Pekin would 
 make a levy of 20,000 men from each Chi- 
 nese province and send a fleet to attack 
 Japanese ports. 
 
 Distrust of Japan. 
 
 It was generally believed that Japan did 
 not desire a pacific settlement of the Corean 
 dispute. As evidence of this, attention was 
 called to the fact that as soon as one diffi- 
 culty was overcome, Japan immediately 
 raised another. The latest attitude of the 
 King of Corea in the crisis was supposed to 
 be due to China's decided measures to up- 
 hold her claim to sovereignity over the 
 Corean peninsula. 
 
 The Chinese Government officially an- 
 nounced that it was preparing to block 
 the Yang-Tse-Kiang River and the bar near 
 Woosung at any moment in case of need. 
 
 In this connection it will be of interest to 
 the reader to have a detailed statement con- 
 cerning the strength of the Japanese army. 
 
 Immediately after the civil war. the Em- 
 peror of Japan, who had decided to " Eu- 
 
527 
 
528 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 ropeanize" his country and his court, saw 
 first the immediate necessity of organizing 
 the army. Young men were sent to study 
 in the military schools of France and Eng- 
 land, while French and English instructors 
 were engaged to come to Japan. It was in 
 1868 when the French Empire seemed to be 
 leading Europe, and had covered itself with 
 glory in Algeria, Italy and the Crimea. 
 
 Grotesque Helmets. 
 
 The Japanese did not hesitate in copying 
 the French army as much and as well as 
 they could. French instructors were called 
 to Japan, and the old huge, grotesque iron 
 mask helmets — which were supposed to 
 frighten the enemy — chain and lacquer 
 armor, were replaced by modern uniforms 
 copied from the French. 
 
 The Japanese of all times have always 
 been great warriors, fearless, full of courage 
 and energy, nearly the whole of the male 
 population being accustomed to the use of 
 arms. They are able to stand any amount 
 of fatigue. After the war of 1870, the in- 
 fluence of France in the Japanese army 
 yielded before that of Germany. 
 
 Prussian officers were called to Japan, and 
 the French "kepi" was replaced by the Ger- 
 man flat and round military cap. But of 
 late the French have come to the front 
 again, and many of the best Japanese officers 
 are graduated from St. Cyr, the Polytech- 
 nique and Saumur. 
 
 The army uniforms and equipments of the 
 modern Japanese officer are exactly like 
 those of the French. I have seen in Tokio 
 many a young officer who, had he been 
 walking or riding in the Champs Elysees, 
 would have been undoubtedly taken for an 
 officer of the French artillery. The Em- 
 peror's uniform is that of a commander of 
 artillery in France, the red band on the trou- 
 
 sers being replaced by a gold one, and a 
 similar uniform is worn by the male mem- 
 bers of the Imperial family. As for the 
 soldiers, they still wear the German cap, the 
 rest of the uniform, however, being made 
 like that of the French. 
 
 Since 1874 conscription is law in Japan, 
 and every male inhabitant in the country is 
 subject to military service from seventeen to 
 forty years of age. The Japanese land 
 forces are divided into : 
 
 First — Standing army — three years' ser- 
 vice. 
 
 Second — Standing army reserve — four 
 years' service. 
 
 Third — Reserves — five years' service. 
 
 Fourth — Territorial army — eleven years' 
 liability to serve. 
 
 Size of the Army. 
 
 The standing army reserves are required 
 to serve sixty days each year, but the terri- 
 torial army is called out only in case of 
 war or grave emergency. A sweeping sys- 
 tem of exemptions exists, but, as it is, the 
 standing army comprises about 50,000 
 soldiers. In a few days the number can 
 easily be raised to 210,000, comprising only 
 men who have served for the most part, 
 three years. 
 
 The proportions of the different arms are : 
 
 Infantry 102,382 
 
 Cavalry 1,459 
 
 Artillery 7,881 
 
 Engineers 3,522 
 
 Transports 55iOo6 
 
 Gendarmes ii436 
 
 Military schools 2,910 
 
 Central staff 2,014 
 
 Imperial Guard 5, 59' 
 
 There are 450 staff" officers, 3,360 com- 
 missioned officers and 10,391 non-commis- 
 sioned officers. 
 
 The infantry is armed with an eight-mil- 
 
OUTBREAK OF THE WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN. 
 
 529 
 
 limetre-repeating rifle, designed from Eu- 
 ropean models by a Japanese colonel, and is 
 considered superior to those of Germany 
 and France. It much resembles the Lebel 
 system. The magazine, when fully loaded, 
 contains eight cartridges; it has a ninth 
 one in the breech and a tenth in the cham- 
 ber, and it can be used as a non-repeater. 
 The powder used is smokeless and produces 
 very little noise. The bullet is of hardened 
 lead, covered with copper. 
 
 Quick-Firing Guns. 
 
 The artillery is magnificently equipped 
 with field quick firing guns, and they are 
 drilled with a coolness, smartness and rapid- 
 ity that would hardly be excelled. It is, 
 however, to be feared that the Japanese 
 artillery will not see much active service in 
 Corea, the country being exceedingly moun- 
 tainous and having no roads over which the 
 guns might be transported. 
 
 The Japanese cavalry, on the other hand, 
 whose number is altogether out of propor- 
 tion with the remainder of the army, is ex- 
 tremely defective. There are but few horses 
 in Japan, and they are not worth much. In 
 spite of the greatest efforts, the Government 
 has been unable to find a race of horses that 
 could be acclimated. Nearly all the cavalry 
 officers are graduated from Saumur, and 
 can be relied upon as knowing their business 
 thoroughly. 
 
 The Japanese navy has been copied from 
 that of England, though of late nearly all 
 the cruisers and torpedo boats not built in 
 Japan have been ordered in France. The 
 dockyard at Yokosuka and the arsenal at 
 Koishikawa are thoroughly equipped, and 
 first-rate torpedo boats and the most elabo- 
 rate ordnance are turned out there. The 
 cruisers and gunboats are among the finest 
 vessels of their class afloat, and they are 
 34 
 
 manned and officered entirely by Japanese 
 who make competent commanders. 
 
 Some years ago Japan gave up building 
 or buying large ironclads, of which she has 
 only five. On the other hand, they have 
 thirty-two cruisers and forty-two torpedo 
 boats. The Itsukusima and Matsusima, of 
 French build, are of 4277 tons. The Chi- 
 yoda steams over nineteen knots, the Naniwa 
 (English built, of 3650 tons) has about the 
 same speed, while the Yoshino has made 
 over twenty-three knots, and is considered 
 the fastest vessel of her class in the world, 
 the United States cruisers excepted. Most 
 of these Japanese cruisers are not sufficiently 
 protected, many not at all, and could not 
 possibly engage the heavy armored Chinese 
 ironclads at close range. 
 
 Modem Inventions. 
 
 All branches of the two services are ad- 
 mirably organized, as well as in any Euro- 
 pean country. The coasts are defended by 
 modern forts, well armed with quick firing 
 guns, and are provided with electric search 
 lights, strategical railroad lines, tdephones, 
 telegraphs, etc. 
 
 A well informed correspondent wrote to 
 the London Times in the highest terms of the 
 equipment and admirable military temper of 
 the Japanese army. " The Chinese," he says, 
 have sent an army to the Corea. But it 
 would be as reasonable to match brave men 
 armed with pitchforks against brave men 
 armed with rifles as to pit, man for man, the 
 Chinese in their present condition against the 
 Japanese. 
 
 " The Japanese are armed with the Murat 
 magazine rifle, and there is no better rifle in 
 Europe. It is manufactured at the arsenal 
 at Tokio ; 1 200 men are employed, and 1 20 
 rifles turned out a day in times of peace. It 
 carries ten rounds in the magazine on the 
 
530 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 Remington principle; the bullet is lead, 
 coated with copper, that metal being plenti- 
 ful in Japan; the Geneva Convention has 
 no jurisdiction here, so the copper bullet is 
 not tabooed. 
 . " The Japanese cavalry are well equipped, 
 'though, to our ideas, badly mounted, but 
 they are thoroughly aware of their short- 
 comings, and are taking steps to remedy 
 them by degrees. The horse they are 
 mounted on is, after all, the horse of the 
 country, and no animal could be better 
 adapted for service in Japan or in Corea. 
 The same applies to the artillery horses, 
 which are simply 14-hand ponies, but strong 
 and hardy to a marvellous degree. Their 
 field guns are 7-pounders, made at Osaca on 
 a patent of their own, I forget its name, but 
 its action is simple and rapid and resembles 
 Krupp's; they have also 12-pounder Krupps, 
 and heavy Armstrong guns for the defence 
 of forts. 
 
 The German Drill. 
 
 "Their drill is that of the German army 
 twenty years ago. They are precise and 
 steady, and the officers know their work and 
 how to teach it. In the cavalry swords were 
 carried on the saddle until the Emperor one 
 day remarked it, and said that only gentle- 
 men wore swords and the cavalryman was 
 not a gentleman, so swords are not now worn 
 on the body. 
 
 " One great feature in all the barracks is 
 the gymnasium. The men are thoroughly 
 trained in this department, and some of the 
 feats I saw performed by cavalry recruits of 
 the guard at their general inspection would 
 have done credit to any circus. 
 
 "Their wonderful neatness, completeness 
 and regularity is what struck me most. 
 Everything was tidy, everything was ready, 
 everything was there. Their only trouble 
 
 was the wearing of European boots. Men 
 who had all their lives been accustomed to 
 straw sandals having to thrust their feet into 
 hard leather boxes, so to speak, very soon 
 went lame. But this is the only thing I 
 noticed that required alterations after a very 
 careful inspection of the three arms, both 
 guards and line. 
 
 Fine Soldiers. 
 
 "The troops they remind me most of are 
 Indian Goorkhas, and of all native and 
 colonial troops that I have seen — and I have 
 seen most of them — I would, next to 
 Goorkhas, prefer a regiment of Japanese. 
 They are brave, temperate, patient and ener- 
 getic, and though the Chinese might be made, 
 under European officers, as fine soldiers as 
 they are, at this moment they are about two 
 hundred years behind them ; and although 
 the victory is not always to the strong, as 
 was found out in the Boer campaign, from 
 every data that a soldier can judge by, the 
 Japanese should beat the Chinese in Corea 
 with the greatest ease." 
 
 To proceed with the narrative of events, 
 it was reported from Yokohama, Japan, on 
 August 1st, that although war had not been 
 declared, several naval engagements had 
 been fought. The most important of these 
 was on July 25th, in the neighborhood of 
 Japan, and was claimed by the Japanese as 
 a " signal victory." This is not the view of 
 the English press of Japan, from which the 
 following account is taken : 
 
 Three Japanese men-of-war, the Akitsu- 
 shima, Takachiho and Naniwa, met at sea 
 the Chinese cruiser Tsi Yuen, with a small 
 despatch boat, the Kootsu, and the transport 
 Kow Shing, and after an engagement lasting 
 an hour and twenty minutes captured the 
 despatch boat and sank the transport, while 
 the cruisers escaped. 
 
OUTBREAK OF THE WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN. 531 
 
 To fully appreciate the action the relative 
 strength of the combatants must be consid- 
 ered. On the Japanese side were the Akitu- 
 sushima, of 3150 tons, and with a speed of 
 nineteen knots ; the Takaschiho, of 3700 
 tons, and with* a speed of eighteen and a half 
 knots, and the Naniwa, fully as large, power- 
 ful and swift as either of her companions. 
 The armament of these three included one 
 42-ton gun, four 28-ton guns, twenty rapid 
 iiring and thirty-two machine guns. On the 
 other side was the Tsi Yuen, of 2355 tons, 
 2800 horse-power, a speed of but fifteen 
 knots, and carrying two 8 ^^^ -inch guns, one 
 5-inch and nine machine guns. The despatch 
 t)oat was entirely unarmed, and being a 
 wooden ship not steaming more than eight 
 Tcnots, her power of resisting capture was as 
 small as her capacity to evade it. 
 
 Immediately Opened Fire. 
 
 The Japanese war ships were proceeding 
 toward Jinsen (Chemulpo), when the Chinese 
 trio were met. The Chinese war ships, on 
 seeing the Japanese flagship, immediately 
 opened their ports, instead of observing the 
 xisual courtesies, and began fighting, appar- 
 ently to cover the retreat of the transport 
 steamer, which left, promptly pursued by the 
 Naniwa. At this juncture the transport was 
 flying a white flag, as well as the English 
 colors. 
 
 What happened to her was not seen by the 
 combatants, but was reported by the Naniwa. 
 Her officers' account is that the flag of sur- 
 render was no sooner displayed than the 
 Chinese on board prepared to attack the 
 boarding parties from the Naniwa, and, in 
 fact, did fire on them as they came alongside. 
 The boats then returned to the cruiser and 
 the transport was sunk with one well directed 
 shot. 
 
 In the meantime, the Takachiho and 
 
 Akitusushima engaged the Tsi Yuen and 
 Kootsu. The former, after fighting stub- 
 bornly for over an hour, displayed flags of 
 surrender, and the Japanese men-of-war were 
 approaching her, when she suddenly dis- 
 charged torpedoes, which, however, the 
 Japanese were able to dispose of. The 
 engagement was then renewed more hotly 
 than ever, until, finally, the Tsi Yuen turned 
 and made off at full speed toward Jinsen, 
 being pursued for one hundred miles by the 
 Japanese, but was not overtaken. 
 
 An Easy Capture. 
 
 The Kootsu got aground in shallow water 
 while seeking sheltered anchorage, and thus 
 fell an easy captive to the Japanese. The 
 •Chinese fought their guns much more 
 rapidly than their opponents, and had they 
 not been so greatly outnumbered would 
 undoubtedly have achieved victory. As it 
 was, it is a strong testimony to the skill of 
 the Tsi Yuen'ss commander that he fought 
 two of Japan's best ships for a full hour and 
 then escaped. 
 
 From another account we learn that 
 although the fighting, though of short dura- 
 ation, was very severe. One of the Japa- 
 nese warships got within a comparatively 
 short distance of the transport Kow Shing 
 and discharged a torpedo at her. The mis- 
 sile was well directed and struck the trans- 
 port fairly. A terrific explosion followed 
 and the Kow Shing began at once to fill. 
 
 Prior to the discharge of the torpedo the 
 crew of the transport, which was armed, and 
 the military force on board of her, made a 
 hard fight against the attacking force. Many 
 of those on board of her were shot dead on 
 her deck. 
 
 When the vessel began to sink there was 
 great excitement on board. In the dire con- 
 fusion that prevailed no attempt was made to 
 
632 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 lower the small boats. But even had such 
 an attempt been made the boats could only 
 have carried a small percentage of those on 
 board. 
 
 Every foreigner on board the transport, 
 which had been chartered by the Chinese 
 Government from an English company, was 
 either killed in the fighting or went down 
 with the vessel when she foundered. 
 
 The loss of life was very great. Of 
 nearly 2000 Chinese troops on board of her 
 only forty were saved. They were picked 
 up by the French gunboat Lion that was 
 cruising in the vicinity. 
 
 Only a short time elapsed between the ex- 
 plosion of the torpedo and the foundering of 
 the transport. The vessel went down sud- 
 denly near Shopoint Island, at which place 
 her commander made an attempt to beach 
 her. 
 
 The Tsao Kian, which was captured by 
 the Japanese, was an old man-of-war that 
 had been impressed into use as a transport. 
 Many men were killed on board of her 
 before she fell into the hands of the Japanese. 
 
 The Kow Shing was the fastest vessel in 
 Eastern waters, and the Japanese were glad 
 of the chance of depriving China of her 
 services. The presence on board of General 
 Von Hanneken would also give an incentive 
 to an attack upon the ship, as that officer 
 
 was supposed to be on his way to take com- 
 mand of the Chinese army in Corea. 
 
 Another spirited battle between the Chinese 
 and Japanese fleets was fought July 30th. 
 After a fierce fight the Chinese ironclad 
 man-of-war Chen Yuen, the largest and 
 most recently built ship in the Chinese navy, 
 was sunk, and two Chinese cruisers were 
 captured by the Japanese. 
 
 The two Chinese cruisers were the Chih 
 Yuen and Ching Yuen. It was reported 
 that another cruiser, the Foo Tshing, was 
 also destroyed. The Chinese fleet carried 
 about one thousand men, most of whom 
 were drowned. Among the killed were two 
 German officers attached to the Chen Yuen. 
 
 The Chen Yuen was a battle ship of 7400 
 tons displacement, carrying 14^ inches 
 compound armor at the water line. Her 
 battery included four 12-inch guns protected 
 by an armored breastwork, and two smaller 
 Krupps, eleven Hotchkiss cannon, two 8^- 
 inch and 6-inch Krupps in her main battery 
 and a secondary battery of Hotchkiss re- 
 volving cannon. She also had tubes for 
 Whitehead torpedoes. 
 
 The Chen Yuen was a sister ship of the 
 Ting Yuen and was the most powerful war- 
 ship in the Chinese navy with the exception 
 of the Ting Yuen. Its loss was a serious 
 blow to the Chinese navy. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 THE BATTLE OF PINQ=YANQ. 
 
 DURING the month of August re- 
 ports were frequently received 
 of the advance of the Japanese 
 army into the Kingdom of 
 Corea. War had been formerly declared 
 by Japan, vast preparations had been made 
 for carrying it on, troops had been landed 
 upon the Corean coast, and it was evident 
 that the Japanese had resolved to assume 
 the aggressive and strike a powerful blow 
 before China could prepare herself for the 
 onset. 
 
 It is doubtless true that Japan had been 
 anticipating the contest for at least ten years. 
 She believed the time would come when she 
 would have to maintain her claims in Corea 
 by the force of arms. There is nothing to 
 show that China expected an immediate war 
 with her eastern neighbor. Her army, such 
 as it was, could not compare with that of 
 Japan in discipline, in modem equipments 
 and especially in patriotic feeling and en- 
 thusiasm, the loyal spirit that can turn one 
 man, as it were, into a thousand. 
 
 It may therefore be said that in all coun- 
 tries this side of the Orient there was a quite 
 universal expectation that in the early stages 
 of the conflict Japan would be victorious. 
 Nearly all the reports of skirmishes and 
 minor battles showed such to be the case. 
 From point to point the various divisions 
 of the Japanese army advanced, meeting but 
 little opposition. At Ping- Yang, however, 
 a place strongly fortified, the Chinese troops 
 were massed and here an important battle 
 was fought on the 15 th and i6th of Sep- 
 
 tember, the result of which was a victory for 
 the Japanese army. 
 
 Some account of this town will be of 
 interest to the reader. 
 
 Ping- Yang, or, as it is more correctly 
 spelt, Ping-An, is the capital of the Corean 
 province called Ping-An Do, is situate upon 
 the Da-Tong (Ta-Tong), or Ping-An River, 
 about fifty miles from its mouth. Its loca- 
 tion makes it a natural stronghold. The 
 river is, next to the Yalu River, on the 
 north, which separates Corea from China, 
 the most important waterway of the country, 
 and a number of considerable towns and 
 villages are situated within its basin. It has 
 been described as the Rubicon of Corean 
 history, and at several periods anciently was 
 the boundary river between China and Corea, 
 or of the rival kingdoms into which, in olden 
 times, the Corea of to-day was divided. 
 
 A Historic Town. 
 
 For a period of ten centuries, dating from 
 about the commencement of the Christian 
 era. Ping- Yang was a royal seat. In the 
 remote past it has many times been besieged 
 by both Japanese and Chinese armies, and 
 many decisive battles have been fought in 
 its vicinity. 
 
 The murder of the crew of the General 
 Sherman, an American schooner, in 1866, 
 took place on the Da-Tong River, not far 
 from Ping- Yang. This occasioned the de- 
 spatch, in 1 87 1 , of the United States naval 
 expedition, under Admiral Rodgers, which 
 ended ignominiously. The Gamsa, or Gov- 
 
 633 
 
534 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 ernor, of Ping-An Do resides at Ping-Yang. 
 The province was shown by the last census 
 to contain 293,400 houses, and to have 
 174,538 men capable of bearing arms. 
 
 The people of this province are more 
 aggressive and turbulent in character than 
 those of the southern provinces. They are 
 said to be not very loyal to the reigning 
 dynasty, and the government is constantly 
 apprehensive of revolutionary outbreaks 
 among them. While this is especially true 
 of the Ping- Yang province it equally applies 
 to the people of the adjoining province on 
 the south, Whang-Hai Do. 
 
 Ping- Yang is reported to be very rich in 
 the precious metals and in minerals, but the 
 mining of gold and silver is prohibited by the 
 general government. 
 
 The Yalu River. 
 
 Another very important city of this prov- 
 ince is Ai-Chin, or Ai-Chow (also written 
 Yi-Chow, Wi-Chow, and A-San). It is the 
 nearest Corean town to the Chinese frontier, 
 and the gateway of the kingdom. It is 
 situated on a hill overlooking the noble 
 Yalu, or Ap Nok River, which is easily 
 navigable for junks as far up as Chan-Son, a 
 noted trading place, sixty miles from the 
 mouth of the river. Yalu means "dragon's 
 windings," and refers to the sinuous course 
 of the river; Ap Nok describes its deep 
 green color. 
 
 What was until a few years ago a " No 
 Man's Land " stretched along the further 
 bank of the Yalu, in Chinese territory. It 
 was known as the Neutral Territory, and, 
 though highly fertile, was laid waste by the 
 Corean Government two or three centuries 
 ago, and its cities razed to the ground to 
 prevent its further occupation by Chinese 
 outlaws and bandits, with which it was long 
 infested. It is now Chinese territory. Fifty 
 
 miles beyond the Corean frontier is Pien- 
 Mun, "the Border Gate," where a great in- 
 ternational fair was wont to be held three or 
 four times a year. 
 
 The first despatch announcing the battle of 
 Ping- Yang was dated at Shanghai, Septem- 
 ber 1 7th, and was as follows : 
 
 The Japanese attacked and carried Ping- 
 Yang (Ping-An) on Saturday and Sunday 
 after a stubborn resistance. The Japanese 
 lost eight hundred killed and wounded. 
 Twenty thousand Chinese surrendered. 
 
 The Battle Begins. 
 
 On Thursday, September 1 3th, a Japanese 
 column from Pong-San made a reconnois- 
 sance in force, drawing the fire of the Chinese 
 forts and thus ascertained their position. The 
 column then fell back in good order with 
 little loss. By Friday night all the Japanese 
 were in position for a combined attack upon 
 the enemy. The Gensan column threatened 
 the left flank of the Chinese, the Pong-San 
 column menaced the Chinese centre, while 
 the Hwang Hai column operated against the 
 right, which had been reinforced the day be- 
 fore by a detachment of marines from the 
 fleet at the mouth of the Ta-tong River. 
 The Chinese had utilized the old defences at 
 Ping- Yang and thrown up new works, mak- 
 ing the position an exceptionally strong one. 
 
 The battle was opened on Saturday at 
 daybreak by a Japanese cannonade of the 
 Chinese works, which was continued with- 
 out cessation until afternoon, the Chinese 
 responding. The work with the heavy guns 
 showed good practice. 
 
 At about two o'clock a body of infantry 
 was thrown forward by the Japanese, and 
 maintained a rifle fire upon the enemy until 
 dusk. Throughout the day only the Pong- 
 San column was engaged. The Chinese 
 defence had suffered greatly, but the losses 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 535 
 
 on either side were small, both the Chinese 
 and Japanese having taken advantage of all 
 the shelter available. 
 
 The Japanese troops, however, had gained 
 some advanced positions. The firing con- 
 tinued at intervals during the night, and in 
 the meantime two Japanese flanking columns 
 had formed a cordon around the Chinese. 
 
 At three o'clock on Sunday morning an 
 attack was made by the Japanese columns 
 simultaneously and with admirable precision. 
 The Chinese lines, which were so strong in 
 front, were found to be weak in the rear, and 
 here the attack was a perfect success. The 
 Chinese were completely taken by surprise, 
 and were thrown into a panic. Hundreds 
 were cut down, and those who escaped 
 death, finding themselves surrounded at 
 every point, broke and fled. Some of 
 Viceroy Li Hung Chang's European drilled 
 troops stood their ground to the eastward, 
 and were cut down to a man. 
 
 Capture of Immense Stores. 
 
 The Pong-San column, swarming over the 
 defences in front, completed the rout. Half 
 an hour after the attack was opened the posi- 
 tions at Ping- Yang (Ping-An) were in pos- 
 session of the Japanese. 
 
 It was estimated that 20,000 Chinese 
 soldiers were engaged in the battle. The 
 Japanese captured immense stores of provi- 
 sions and munitions of war and hundreds of 
 colors. The Chinese loss was estimated at 
 16,000 killed, wounded and taken prisoners. 
 Among those captured by the Japanese were 
 several of the Chinese commanding officers, 
 including General Tso-Fung, commander-in- 
 chief of the Manchurian army, who was sev- 
 erely wounded. The number of the Chinese 
 who were killed was estimated at 2,300. 
 
 The Japanese loss was only 30 killed and 
 270 wounded, including 1 1 officers. Most 
 
 of the casualties among the Japanese oc- 
 curred during the first day's fighting, and 
 very few were the result of the night attack. 
 Within ten hours after the conclusion of 
 the battle the military engineers had com- 
 pleted a field telegraph line from Seoul, the 
 capital of Corea, to Ping-Yang (Ping-An). 
 A large number of prisoners were brought 
 into the Japanese camp from houses in 
 which they had hidden themselves during 
 the final assault. Several thousand Chinese 
 fled toward a valley to the northward and, 
 upon finding their retreat in this direction 
 cut off", surrendered in a body. Ping- Yang 
 (Ping-An) was searched in the belief that a 
 number of important Chinese officers were 
 hiding in the city under the protection of 
 friendly Coreans. 
 
 Congratulations from the Emperor. 
 
 The walls of Ping- Yang (Ping-An) were 
 badly shattered by the cannonade which was 
 poured upon them by the guns of the Japan- 
 ese, but the city itself was only slightly 
 damaged. The Japanese Emperor tele- 
 graphed from Hiroshima, where the head- 
 quarters of the army are located, congratu- 
 lating Marshal Count Yamagata upon the 
 success of the arms. 
 
 Marshal Yamagata issued a general order 
 commending the valor of his troops, which 
 they demonstrated on the battlefield. The 
 order concluded with an expression of pride 
 on the part of Marshal Yamagata at being 
 in command of so brave an army. 
 
 A flying column of the Japanese army 
 pushed northward with the object of taking 
 possession of the mountain passes. The 
 Japanese force pursued the fugitives, who 
 threw away their arms and readily yielded 
 themselves prisoners. 
 
 A proclamation was issued promising full 
 protection to the Coreans if they would re- 
 
536 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 frain from acts of hostility toward the Japan- 
 ese. On the other hand, they were informed 
 that if they gave shelter to or engaged in 
 traffic with the Chinese, they would be sum- 
 marily dealt with by process of martial law. 
 It was reported that four Chinese generals, 
 Tso Paokwoi, Wei Jinkwoi, Ma Yukowong 
 and Sei Kinhn, together with 14,500 other 
 officers and men, were taken prisoners by 
 the Japanese at Ping- Yang. The Japanese 
 outnumbered the Chinese three to one. 
 
 Excited by the News. 
 
 The Chinese were fearfully exicted over 
 the news of the defeat and great slaughter of 
 the Chinese army at Ping- Yang (Ping- An). 
 The Shanghai Mercury printed a special 
 edition containing despatches from the front, 
 and in its editorial comments on the result 
 of the battle expressed full appreciation of 
 the crushing defeat and great slaughter of 
 the picked troops composing the Chinese 
 army engaged. The paper dilated upon the 
 consequences of the disaster to the Chinese 
 arms and expressed well-grounded fear of a 
 speedy Japanese invasion. 
 
 Advices received at the Japanese Legation 
 in London officially confirmed the report of 
 the absolute and crushing defeat of the 
 Chinese in the engagement at Ping- Yang. 
 
 Artillery salutes were fired at Tokio in 
 celebration of the victory of the Japanese 
 army. 
 
 Public opinion concerning the Japanese 
 victory was freely expressed through our 
 leading journals. One called the battle 
 "The Chinese Sedan," and affirmed that the 
 Japanese managed their campaign with a 
 grasp of military science and soldierly abil- 
 ity deserving of the utmost credit. 
 
 Another journal said: "It is difficult to 
 see how China can recover from the blow 
 which reveals the essential weakness of her 
 
 military equipment and administration. The 
 Powers will probably be content to accept 
 the faits accomplis if the Japanese are wise 
 enough to show moderation and a just sense 
 of their position. The moment is favorable 
 for the neutral powers to renew their over- 
 tures for peace. China might easily grant 
 the virtual independence of Corea, which 
 Japan is probably willing to accept." 
 
 Another journal commented as follows : 
 " The Japanese have every reason to pride 
 themselves upon the excellence of their mili- 
 tary arrangements, but it is not safe to 
 assume that the victory of the Japanese will 
 incline the Chinese to sue for peace. Defeat 
 in the past has only nerved the Chinese to 
 more strenuous efforts. It is much more 
 probable that the Ping- Yang fight will have 
 the effect to embitter and prolong the struggle 
 thari that it will result in China's involuntary 
 self-effacement in Corea." 
 
 Brave and Brilliant \Vork. 
 
 Says another journal : " The Japanese army 
 has done its work bravely and brilliantly, 
 but their navy will now have a tough task. 
 If they can defeat the Chinese Pei-Yang 
 squadron, the Japanese forces will certainly 
 land in China and reduce Port Arthur and 
 Wei- Wei from the land side, and possibly 
 attempt to advance upon Pekin. When this 
 happens the end will not be far off. The 
 Mongolian colossus has feet of clay, which 
 are crumbling. If the Powers, especially 
 England, were to intervene promptly with 
 friendly counsels, the conflict might be 
 ended." 
 
 The Chinese army of the north, consist- 
 ing of Manchus and Chi Li-men, at Ping- 
 Yang (Ping-An), numbered, according to 
 report, 50,000 men. The Chinese troops at 
 Heijo and its vicinity numbered nearly 
 15,000, while there were with them 200 or 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 537 
 
 300 Coreans. There were also 2,000 more 
 marching from Kasesan upon Heijo, and 
 over 1,000 defeated troops from Seikwan 
 and Gazan were also making for Heijo. 
 
 These figures were from Chinese official 
 sources, and there is no doubt that she 
 had, at least, 20,000 troops concentrated at 
 Ping-Yang, including some of the best 
 trained and bravest soldiers. 
 
 On August 18 there were 10,000 Japanese 
 troops at Chemulpo, and about the same 
 time 6,000 more were reported as having 
 landed at the Taitung River. 
 
 An Advance Northward. 
 
 It might be assumed that the armies of 
 Japan and China now in Corea numbered 
 each 35,000 to 40,000 men. The Japanese 
 landed their troops at Gensan, on the 
 east coast, at Chemulpo, and at the mouth 
 of the Ta-tong. 
 
 The main body of the army went from 
 Chemulpo to the Corean capital, Seoul, and 
 then advanced northward to meet the Chinese 
 forces, which crossed the northeastern boun- 
 dary of Corea in the latter part of July. 
 Japan prevented the Chinese from sending 
 reinforcements by sea direct to Corea by the 
 admirable use she made of her fleet, one por- 
 tion of which kept the Chinese warships oc- 
 cupied in the Gulf of Pechili, while another 
 protected the transports carrying troops to 
 Chemulpo, the Yalu River and other points. 
 
 In arms, drill and morale the Japanese 
 troops in Corea were undoubtedly superior 
 to the Chinese, the latter being for the most 
 part the levies from Manchuria, though there 
 was a goodly proportion of soldiers from Li 
 Hung Chang's province who had been drilled 
 in the European fashion by European 
 officers. 
 
 It was believed that the first result of the 
 crushing defeat inflicted on the Chinese at 
 
 Ping- Yang (Ping-An) would be the complete 
 occupation of Corea by Japan. Whatever 
 might be the reorganization of the govern- 
 ment and the reforms elaborated by the 
 Corean Council, they would be in reality 
 dictated by Japan and to her ultimate ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 Says a well-informed writer upon the 
 problem of Corea : " Just outside the walls 
 of Seoul is an archway of wood and stone 
 about thirty feet high. This is called by the 
 Coreans the Arch of Subjugation, but offi- 
 cially it is known as the Arch of Amity. It 
 was under this arch, erected to commemo- 
 rate her acceptance of the suzerainty of 
 China, that Corea annually paid her tribute 
 to China. It is now more than probable 
 that she will not pay this tribute, and that 
 the Arch of Subjugation will shortly be de- 
 molished or left as a memento. 
 
 May Throw' Off the Yoke. 
 
 " It appears to be now estabhshed that 
 the King has definitely resolved, under the 
 influence of his Japanese advisers, to assert 
 the independence of his kingdom and throw 
 off the suzerainty claimed over it by China. 
 This suzerainty has been for centuries more 
 nominal than real. For unnumbered years 
 Corea has derived from that country all that 
 makes up her civilization. Her mental at- 
 titude has been and is Chinese. Her cus- 
 toms, the written, characters in which her 
 language is expressed, her culture, her art, 
 her religion, have all come from her great 
 neighbor. Her literature and education are 
 formed on Chinese models. 
 
 " China's influence has, in fact, moulded 
 her national life, and the control has been 
 exercised in a peculiarly Celestial way — dis- 
 claiming all responsibility for Corea's acts 
 when she has embroiled herself with West- 
 ern Powers, and then rushing wildly to her 
 
538 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 capital with troops and ships whenever Japan 
 has made any forward move in the political 
 game. 
 
 " Corea has been the buffer between China 
 and Japan for a thousand years, and has 
 paid tribute at intervals to either country or 
 to both at the same time as far back as the 
 third century, though for two centuries past 
 the claims of Japan have been somewhat re- 
 laxed, thus giving China freer sway. 
 
 "Thus, when in 1876, the former suc- 
 ceeded, after some trouble, in negotiating 
 with Corea an independent treaty, whereby 
 she secured substantial trade advantages, 
 rights of residence and property and the 
 opening of three ports to her commerce, it 
 took China several years to wake up to the 
 fact that a new danger threatened her hold 
 on the Hermit Kingdom, and putting forth 
 freshly her claim of vassalage, she advised 
 Corea to listen to the overtures of the 
 United States, then knodking at her doors. 
 
 Treaties with Foreign Powers. 
 
 " On this advice a treaty was made with 
 us in 1882, followed in the same year by 
 conventions with Great Britain, France and 
 Germany. The ancient tribute was more 
 tenaciously exacted and a brilliant young 
 Chinese army officer — then twenty-two years 
 of age and a captain of infantry — was sent 
 to Seoul as resident. This was Yuen, and 
 he was commissioned to protect Chinese 
 interests." 
 
 A second account of the decisive battle 
 already described is as follows : Full details 
 are now to hand respecting the great Japan- 
 ese victory at Ping- Yang. The city of Ping- 
 Yang, situated on the banks of the Tai 
 Dong River, has been long regarded by 
 China as the most invulnerable of all her 
 strongholds. Ordinarily the city and sur- 
 rounding forts are garrisoned with 20,000 
 
 Chinese troops, but shortly before Japan's 
 attack upon the place these had been re-en- 
 forced by the refugee soldiers from Seikwan, 
 where Japan's first victory in Corea had 
 been achieved. Roughly estimated the 
 Chinese forces in and around Ping- Yang 
 must have numbered not less than 25,000 
 men. 
 
 Japan's attack upon this formidable 
 stronghold had been carefully planned, and 
 armies had been sent out by four different 
 roads with orders to be in readiness for a 
 combined attack on the city by dawn of 
 September 15th. 
 
 The Troops Advance. 
 
 The western army started from Matsu- 
 Bashi on September 1 3th, a town some fifty 
 miles from Ping- Yang, and continued a 
 forced march, till on the evening of Septem- 
 ber 14th it camped before the Chinese earth- 
 works of the stronghold. 
 
 The northern army had left Tai-Cheng on 
 the 1 3th and after camping for the night at 
 a small town advanced on Ping- Yang from 
 the north and occupied a position not far 
 distant from that of the western army. The 
 central army, in two divisions, had adopted 
 similar tactics from the south, and both di- 
 visions advanced on a line with each other. 
 
 Finally the eastern, or so-called " mixed " 
 army — it being composed of several divi- 
 sions — boldly marched on the Chinese en- 
 trenchments from the east, as though chal- 
 lenging them from this quarter. It was 
 these columns that were expected to draw 
 the attention of the enemy from the advance 
 of the Japanese troops from the north, west 
 and south, or, in fact, from five different 
 points for the central army had been divided 
 into right and left wings. 
 
 Concerning the strength of Chinese posi- 
 tions it need only be said that Ping- Yang, 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 539 
 
 besides being a natural stronghold, was man- 
 ned by China's finest troops. In the main 
 fort or castle, close to the city gates, there 
 were three Krupp field pieces and several 
 Gatling guns, while all the soldiers carried 
 Spencer or Mosler rifles, and there was no 
 lack of ammunition. There were one or 
 more field pieces and several Gatling guns 
 in each of the Chinese earthworks and 
 masked forts. 
 
 Altogether the Chinese troops were en- 
 trenched at twenty-five different points, and 
 apart from the main castle there were five 
 other large and well-armed forts — two to the 
 south and one to the north of the city and 
 main stronghold and two on the opposite 
 side of the river. The masked fort built in 
 front of the castle was undoubtedly the best 
 piece of military engineering ever accom- 
 plished by the Chinese. 
 
 Formidable Defences. 
 
 The Northern and Eastern Japanese 
 armies found themselves confronted by seven 
 forts and earthworks, all well armed and 
 manned, while behind each fort large num- 
 bers of Chinese troops could been seen to 
 be encamped. To the south of these were 
 other camps, toward which Major Okuzama 
 marched his troops. All these camps were 
 fired during the day of the battle, and the 
 flames added to the horrors of the conflict. 
 
 There were two earthworks on the banks 
 of the Tai Dong, opposite to the city, and 
 two forts on the hillside among the pine 
 trees. It was at these points that the Chin- 
 ese forces, confidently expecting an attack 
 from the east, had gathered in greatest 
 strength, and it was Major-General Oshima 
 who had been detailed to attack the enemy 
 here. 
 
 The Chinese evidently had every confi- 
 dence in the security of their position, and 
 
 huge flags, upon which were inscribed the 
 names of the various commanding generals, 
 were flaunted proudly in every direction. 
 
 The " mixed " or Eastern army, under 
 command of Major-General Oshima, had 
 been re-enforced by another detachment 
 from the south, and was the first to begin 
 the battle. All attention was at once cen- 
 tred upon this point, as had been expected, 
 and the northern, western and central 
 forces at once advanced on the Chinese forts- 
 from the rear. Major Okugama separated 
 from the mixed column and advanced on 
 the forts to the south. 
 
 Hand-to-Hand Conflict. 
 
 The Chinese troops, in the meanwhile, 
 were entirely ignorant of any advance o€ 
 the Japanese forces from either the rear or 
 flanks until the; actual engagement had 
 begun, -and the Japanese armies were within, 
 one hundred yards of their various strong- 
 holds. 
 
 Now the Japanese charged upon the hill- 
 side forts, but the Chinese used their Krupps 
 and Gatling guns with great effectiveness, 
 and Major Tatemi quickly divided his de- 
 tachment which had undertaken the charges- 
 into two swings. As they neared the fort, 
 the Chinese fire ceased, but when the Japan- 
 ese troops had reached the walls the Chinese 
 stormed out upon them with a desperation 
 born of despair, and a terrible hand-to-hand 
 encounter ensued, the Japanese killing over 
 fifty Chinese with their bayonets at one spot 
 alone, while the rest of the garrison fled. 
 The Japanese then took possession of the 
 fort. 
 
 This was their first step toward victory, 
 and occurred at seven o'clock in the morn- 
 ing. In the meantime a cold, drizzling rain, 
 which later in the day changed to a steady 
 downpour, increased the discomforts of the 
 
540 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 attacking army but did not damp the ardor 
 of its enthusiasm. 
 
 By this time the second wing of the 
 northern army had placed their field pieces 
 on the crest of the newly-gained hill and 
 opened fire upon the Chinese in the earth- 
 works and forts below, throwing them into a 
 panic and causing them to retreat toward 
 the castle and city in confusion. At eight 
 A. M. the Japanese found themselves in pos- 
 session of a second fort. 
 
 The western column, in the meantime, had 
 been engaged in several skirmishes with 
 -the enemy and had captured several Chinese 
 ■officers. They began to advance on the 
 Chinese earthworks and forts to the east at 
 five A. M. The troops of this division were 
 •divided into two wings, and by nine A. M. 
 the Japanese were in possession of all the 
 forts outside of Ping- Yang, with the excep- 
 tion of the castle and the masked forts on 
 the hill beyond the city and castle. The 
 opposition of the Chinese at these points, 
 however, was most desperate. 
 
 The Chinese Cavalry. 
 
 Several attempts were made to storm the 
 •gate of the castle, but it was now two P. M., 
 •and the attacking forces of the eastern and 
 northern divisions were well nigh exhausted 
 by the continued fighting, and so the ad- 
 vance was stopped for a time. 
 
 Shortly after midnight on the morning of 
 the 15 th the central division advanced on 
 the Chinese earthworks from the south, and 
 were charged upon by a detachment of 
 Chinese cavalry, who came out of the city 
 gates, and hid themselves in a wheat field, 
 the rain and darkness aiding their almost 
 noiseless advance. But the Japanese, with 
 fixed bayonets, were also in the wheat field, 
 and after a sharp encounter the entire com- 
 pany of cavalry were killed, with the excep- 
 
 tion of eight that were taken prisoners and 
 sent to the rear. 
 
 The Japanese officers of this division for 
 the first time learned approximately what 
 the other divisions had been doing, and how 
 so many of the Chinese position were in 
 jeopardy. Later in the day the central di- 
 vision captured several small bands of fleeing 
 Chinese, and from them learned of their 
 armies' victory. This division then fired the 
 dismantled forts and deserted houses outside 
 of the city, and continued the advance, meet- 
 ing soldiers fleeing in all directions. 
 
 Desperate Fighting. 
 
 The mixed division in the meanwhile had 
 formed into three wings — a right, left and 
 central. They had hastily thrown up earth- 
 works, but abandoned these to advance on 
 the Chinese positions. The fighting was des- 
 perate ; those killed and wounded among the 
 enemy seemed innumerable, while every of- 
 ficer of the second and fourth detachments of 
 the Japanese forces of this division were 
 killed. 
 
 The earthworks of the Chinese were 
 strongly manned and armed with rapid 
 firing guns, which they used with terrible 
 affectiveness. The fighting continued uninter- 
 ruptedly for some time, when the ammuni- 
 tion of the Japanese gave out, and the divi- 
 sion was on the verge of a retreat. 
 
 A more extended account of the battle of 
 Ping-Yang was furnished by the correspon- 
 dent of one of our leading journals, who 
 was with the army in Corea : 
 
 " The first battle of magnitude or import- 
 ance in the Corean campaign was fought 
 September ijthand i6th, and ended with 
 a sweeping victory for the Japanese side. 
 
 "I have just returned to headquarters, at 
 the south of Phyongyang (the Japanese 
 name for Ping-Yang), after a hasty circuit of 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 541 
 
 those parts of the captured city to which 
 civilians are admitted, and a short excursion 
 along the line of retreat by which the great 
 body of the Chinese fugitives escaped. 
 Therefore, I am prepared to present an out- 
 line sketch of the operations which have left 
 us masters of the chief stronghold on the 
 peninsula. 
 
 " My opportunities of observation have 
 been greater than those most of my com- 
 rades enjoyed, as from the beginning of the 
 month I have been allowed the same free- 
 dom of action as an officer on staff duty. 
 During the past two weeks I have travelled 
 over most of the territory occupied by Lieu- 
 tenant-General Nodsu's forces. 
 
 Rapid Progress Impossible. 
 
 " It has been plainer to me than to others 
 that the impatience with which the army 
 movements were regarded in Japan was not 
 at all justified. The circumstances in which 
 we were placed made it impossible to pro- 
 ceed with rapidity unless we were prepared 
 at the same time to sacrifice all considerations 
 of prudence. 
 
 " The condition of the country is inde- 
 scribable. What Coreans call roads are un- 
 worthy of the name. There is little to 
 choose between the open fields in the valleys 
 and the wretched courses of slime and di- 
 luted clay which connect the towns in the 
 northern provinces. Often the routes re- 
 sembled rather a series of half-choked canals 
 than proper lines of communication. 
 
 "To transport artillery and ammunition 
 over districts flooded at intervals to a depth 
 of from one to two feet is a task that tries 
 the endurance of officers and men alike. It 
 is a constant surprise that their cheerfulness 
 and energy continue unabated day after day. 
 
 " To overcome difficulties by hard fighting, 
 to push their way through the opposing 
 
 bodies of the enemy, is a service in which 
 my countrymen delight, as they proved six 
 weeks ago at Songhwan. But the slow and 
 wearing labor of dragging supplies and en- 
 gines of destruction through almost impassa- 
 ble regions strains them in their weakest 
 point. 
 
 "There have been many days when with 
 their utmost strength they were unable to> 
 advance more than four or five miles. I 
 doubt if the average progress of the main 
 division has exceeded an average of six miles- 
 since the march from Seoul began in the 
 early part of August. 
 
 " As was to be expected, plans of our gen- 
 erals were held in dark secrecy at the begin- 
 ning of the campaign. It was not until our 
 near approach to Phyongyang (Ping- Yang) 
 that the scheme of operations in which we 
 were engaged became clear to the troops in. 
 general. The privilege of moving in various- 
 directions enabled me to grasp the situation 
 at a comparatively early date, and to form 
 conjectures which it was my fortune to see 
 realized in due course. 
 
 Strong Positions Chosen. 
 
 " It is now apparent that the sharp and ef- 
 fective engagements at Songhwan and Asan 
 were not included in the original project of 
 our leaders, but were mere incidents of the 
 contest caused by the selection of the Naipo 
 districts by the Chinese as a landing place 
 for their troops. 
 
 " From the outset it was recognized that 
 the scene of the principal conflict would be 
 the Valley of the Taitong (or Daido) River, 
 in which many good defensive positions 
 could be chosen by our foe and from which,, 
 in case of a success to their arms, they could 
 descend by more than one avenue and 
 menace our ports around Seoul from several 
 points. 
 
£42 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 "The Japanese design was to seize the 
 large towns along the Taitong and make the 
 ■northern part of the peninsula untenable, 
 -while preparing for more extensive feats 
 ■which are still to be essayed. 
 
 "As a preliminary measure, the intrenched 
 Chinese at and near Asan had to be dis- 
 lodged, and this enterprise was brilliantly 
 carried through by Major-General Oshima, 
 with a small force, which, after performing 
 its allotted task, hastened to rejoin the body 
 led northward by Major-General Tatsumi. 
 
 Active Night and Day. 
 
 " I was with a regiment which fought at 
 Songhwan and did not get back to the main 
 column until it had arrived at Kaisong, 
 some distance north of Seoul. There I 
 changed my limited range of duties for a 
 •more exacting duty I was called upon to per- 
 form, and for nearly a month lived in con- 
 stant activity day and night, accustoming 
 myself to look upon the details of food and 
 sleep as mere trifles, scarcely to be con- 
 sidered beside the imperative requirements of 
 my new service. 
 
 "The united army, which directed its 
 course northward, consisted of from fifteen 
 -to eighteen thousand men. General Oshima 
 conducted the left, General Tatsumi the right, 
 and the chief command was assumed by 
 l^ieutenant-General Nodsu, whose quarters 
 were in the centre and for a considerable 
 time at the rear. 
 
 "The left moved upon the town of 
 Hwangju under orders to cross the Taitong 
 River, near that place. The right proceeded 
 towards Songhwan, where another crossing 
 -would be made, and the centre bore directly 
 along the main road (or mud ditch so desig- 
 nated) to Changhwa. 
 
 " To any one knowing these three lines 
 of march it was plain that the object' aimed 
 
 at was the ancient fortified city of Phyong- 
 Yang (Ping- Yang), once a capital of Corea, 
 and a place of much greater natural strength 
 than Seoul, the modern seat of government. 
 Probably our destination was made public in 
 Japan long before the army heard of it) but 
 by the end of August there was little doubt 
 on the subject, even among the lowest ranks. 
 "When the soldiers had satisfied them- 
 selves as to the precise object of attack the 
 feeling of exhaustion and weariness which 
 few had been able to resist vanished as sud- 
 denly as if the painful toil of the past three 
 weeks were nothing but a dream. The spirit 
 of Tamato Damouhi was rekindled in all its 
 vigor, and the order of assault was awaited 
 with feverish eagerness on all sides. 
 
 Ea^er for Battle. 
 
 " Perfect discipline is the controlling rule 
 in the Japanese service, but it was evident to 
 every beholder that from the moment the 
 Taitong came in view of the foremost skir- 
 mishers each hour of restraint was a vexa- 
 tion and a grief to the whole mass of troops. 
 Yet it was at just this time that they were 
 called upon to curb their impetuosity and to 
 lie idly on their arms, awaiting the develop- 
 ment of events in other quarters. 
 
 " The machinery set at work to crush the 
 Chinese in their chosen stronghold was not 
 confined to the force commanded by General 
 Nodsu. Experience had shown at Asan and 
 elsewhere that the faculty, of flight is one in 
 which our enemies exhibit greater capacity 
 than in any other, and it was assumed that 
 if threatened by a determined onset in their 
 front, they would sooner or later seek to es- 
 cape, and would scatter themselves over the 
 country in small and disconnected groups, 
 pursuit of which would be futile. 
 
 " Precisely as before, they would probably 
 be a terror to the peasantry, and would, peir- 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 543 
 
 haps, indulge in the same excesses as those 
 of General Yeh's disbanded soldiery, who 
 not only pillaged far and wide, but put to 
 death all who presumed to resist their de- 
 mands. Among other atrocities they w6re 
 accused of having murdered a much-re- 
 spected French priest in the neighborhood 
 of Asan. 
 
 " To prevent a repetition of these dis- 
 orders, and also to provide against the re- 
 gathering of the dispersed remnants at the 
 Yalu River or any other place of retreat, the 
 War Department organized a co-operative 
 force, to be transported from Japan _ to Gen- 
 san, a port on the east coast of Corea, and 
 to move thence across the peninsula upon 
 the rear of Ping- Yang, thus enclosing the 
 Chinese between two columns. Every effort 
 was made to hide the details of this strategic 
 combination. Beyond the bare fact that it 
 was in progress, nothing was known about it 
 to the mass of the combatants. But we 
 were aware that Gensan is considerably to 
 the north of Ping- Yang, and about one hun- 
 dred and ten miles away. 
 
 Difficult Passes. 
 
 "A few years ago I was detailed to make 
 an examination of the territory around that 
 port, and for some distance into the interior, 
 I then learned that the road*vays were, if 
 possible, worse than those in the neighbor- 
 hood of Seoul, though the hilly character of 
 the country renders them less liable to inun- 
 dation. The passes over broken ranges be- 
 tween the eastern coast and the Taitong 
 Valley are narrow, in many places blocked 
 by heaps of fallen stones, and can hardly 
 be less difficult to surmount than the bogs 
 and morasses of the western provinces are 
 to wallow through. 
 
 " From what I was permitted to learn, the 
 troops landed at Gensan numbered four or 
 
 five thousand, and were commanded by 
 Major-General Oseko. They, did not begin 
 to penetrate southwestward until about Sep- 
 tember 1st, when the bulk of General Nodsu's 
 Southern army was almost on the edge of 
 the broad valley on the other side of which 
 lies Ping-Yang. 
 
 "The reason why the attack from the 
 south was delayed is now obvious. But to 
 the troops enforced inactivity was most gall- 
 ing. The men who had come fresh from 
 victory at Soughwan were burning to renew 
 their triumphs, and those who had not yet 
 shared in conflict were longing to rival the 
 exploits of their more favored comrades. 
 All were under peculiar influences, which 
 greatly inflamed their desire to meet the ad- 
 versary. 
 
 Daring Exploits. 
 
 " The whole region was full of brave asso- 
 ciations, dear to the heart of every Japanese 
 who cherished the memory of his country's 
 glories in the past. It was in the valley of 
 the Taitong that the warriors of Hidrioshi, 
 the great Taiko, performed their most daring 
 exploits during the invasion of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 "Within the walls of Ping-Yang they 
 made their heroic stand against the Tartar 
 hordes, maintaining a desperate defence in 
 the face of overwhelming numbers, subsist- 
 ing towards the end upon the horses and 
 other animals of their camp, and defying 
 starvation itself, until the order from Kioto 
 came directing them to give over the strug- 
 gle, the fiery spirit that had sent them forth 
 being conquered at last by death. 
 
 "However reckless the ambition of 
 Hidrioshi may have been, the valor of his 
 soldiers was incontestable, and the plains 
 that encircled the ancient capital of Corea 
 still bear testimony to many a deed of 
 
544 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 chivalry which the decendants of the me- 
 diaeval heroes would rejoice to emulate. 
 
 " How anxiously and ardently the signal 
 to resume the march was looked for, no one 
 could bear witness to more surely than I, 
 for in the first two weeks of this month I 
 several times traversed the camp that lay 
 crouching, I might say, along the southern 
 border of the Taitong and through the 
 valley below, and heard on all sides impa- 
 tient murmurs of restlessness and agitation, 
 which would have risen to complaining cries 
 but for the loyal faith of the soldiers in the 
 resolution and sagacity of their leaders. 
 
 "During the first ten days of September 
 several changes were made in the disposition 
 of the troops, and various small commands 
 were transferred to increase the effectiveness 
 of the onset to come. But the general plan 
 underwent no alteration. 
 
 Supplies Cut Off. 
 
 "General Nodsu advanced to the front 
 and assumed the direct management of af- 
 fairs. Reconnoitring parties made frequent 
 examinations of the belt of land between our 
 van and Ping-Yang, which was found com- 
 pletely devastated by the ravages of the Chi- 
 nese. The supplies which should have been 
 provided the Chinese from Chefoo had been 
 cut off for some time by the Japanese ships 
 and the Coreans were compelled to give up 
 everything that could contribute to the sus- 
 tenance of the hungry multitude. 
 
 " Prisoners were occasionally brought in 
 by scouts, and strange tales were recited for 
 our amusement concerning the blood-thirsty 
 characteristics attributed to our soldiers by 
 both the Chinese and the Coreans. Most of 
 the captives were at first speechless with 
 terror and could make no reply when ques- 
 tioned by our commanders. They could 
 hardly be prevailed upon to eat or drink, 
 
 and at each word addressed to them they 
 would fall prostrate, trembling and moaning 
 as if expecting instant death. By gentle 
 treatment they were generally reassured, 
 though some seemed never to recover from 
 their paralyzing fright. 
 
 " None could give much information as to 
 the number or organization of their army. 
 It appeared that General Tsopaokwei, an 
 officer of higher grade than any in our corps 
 and ordinarily at the head of the Moukden 
 garrison, was in chief command and under 
 him we were told were ' many tens of 
 mighty generals,' each leading countless 
 myriads of invincible braves. 
 
 Living on Promises. 
 
 " Their stories with regard to their per- 
 sonal associations were more easily credited. 
 They and their companions had suffered from 
 want of sufficient food ever since they entered 
 the peninsula and had been in the habit of 
 foraging for themselves at every opportunity. 
 Raw vegetables, dug from the fields, were 
 welcome additions to their regular diet. For 
 weeks previous to starting on this campaign 
 they had received no pay, though brilliant 
 promises of rich spoils had been held out to 
 them. 
 
 " Their intelligence, except in one or two 
 instances, certainly was not of a high order. 
 Some could not tell the names of the officers 
 under whom they immediately served. But 
 they might have been mere camp followers 
 and not fighting men. Stolid as theymostly 
 were, they could not conceal their satisfac- 
 tion at the indulgence they received, and, 
 from their own account, their daily fare with 
 us must have been absolute luxury compared 
 with their habitual lot. 
 
 " Their gratitude, however, took no higher 
 form than the expression of a moody regret 
 for the awful fate in store for us. That we 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 545 
 
 were all destined to annihilation as soon as 
 we should come in contact with their irre- 
 sistable warriors was a conviction which 
 nothing could shake. 
 
 "The second week of September brought 
 some relief to the stagnation which oppressed 
 us. After all, the idle term was not so long 
 as it seemed to our over-wrought senses, 
 and all discontent vanished as soon as the 
 troops were called upon to march again. 
 
 "The central body passed Chung Hwa on 
 the loth of the month. The left reached 
 Taitong on the iith and was ready for 
 crossing at Totsudo Island on the 12th. 
 On the same day the right passed Choldo 
 and also prepared to pass over to the north 
 bank. 
 
 Cheering News. 
 
 "On the 13th a singular thing happened. 
 In the morning the news came that the head 
 of a detachment from General Oseko's Gen- 
 san column had made its way to Songchon, 
 only thirty miles from Chyong-Yang, and 
 that the entire eastern force naturally would 
 presently be in a position to participate in the 
 joint attack. 
 
 " This intelligence, of course, was delivered 
 privately at headquarters, and was communi- 
 cated to only the subordinate generals and a 
 few of their staffs. There was no possible 
 way in which it could become public prop- 
 erty. Yet on that very afternoon it was 
 noticed that an extraordinary stimulus spread 
 over the whole of the army, approaching 
 from the south, and that even the most dis- 
 tant regiments appeared animated by some 
 exhilarating impulse. 
 
 " I was a witness to several exhibitions of 
 this feeling in front of General Tatsumi's 
 wing. Sub-officers gathered in knots to 
 inquire of one another if any event of un- 
 usual promise had occurred, and private 
 
 35 
 
 soldiers not on duty ran about from tent to 
 tent in search of information which no one 
 could give, and of the existence of which no 
 one outside of the highest circle had any 
 positive knowledge. 
 
 " I have since heard that the same phe- 
 nomenon, if it may be called so, was every- 
 where perceptible. All along the banks of 
 the Taitong, from Kangdon to Hwangju, 
 an inexplicable excitement prevailed, which 
 lasted until the time came for striking the 
 great, decisive blow. 
 
 " On the 14th the report was circulated 
 that a squadron of warships had been sighted 
 at the mouth of the river, directing its course 
 towards our outposts. No anxiety was felt 
 on this score, ^for enough was now known to 
 make it understood that the Japanese Navy 
 would not be behindhand in lending support 
 to our movement, while the death-like silence 
 of the Chinese fleet since the engagement 
 near Asan warranted the belief that inter- 
 ference from that arm of the enemy's service 
 was the last thing to ,be feared. 
 
 Investing the City. 
 
 " The clouds of smoke arising below 
 Hwangju were hailed as a' token that busy 
 work was at hand, and, sure enough before 
 nightfall the welcome order was sent forth. 
 
 " Early on the following day the troops 
 were in motion from every side, converging 
 towards the city, which the Chinese had 
 selected as their main station of defence in 
 Corea. From Sangchon the Gensan party 
 rapidly descended, uniting with the advance , 
 force of our left near Kangdon, and then 
 stretching across the river north of Ping- 
 Yang, to close the avenues of escape in that 
 direction. 
 
 " The central body, coming from the 
 south, marched for the Taitong bridge and 
 the gate through which the high road from 
 
546 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 Seoul to the old capital passes. The left 
 wing skirted the northern bank opposite 
 Hwangju, until it reached Kangso, when 
 it was divided, one part proceeding straight 
 to the object of attack and the other ascend- 
 ing towards Shunnen, and blocking the line 
 of retreat to Wiju, on the frontier. 
 
 The Chinese in the Toils. 
 
 " Before evening the Chinese were believed 
 to be almost completely enveloped. Of what 
 occurred while the investment was going on 
 at the north I have heard no coherent details, 
 but it was a surprise to those who conducted 
 the onset from the south that the defence was 
 not more obstinate and effective. 
 
 "Of the advantages possessed by the Chi- 
 nese there could be no question. The city 
 stands on a steep slope, and is surrounded by 
 a wall which, though out of repair in many 
 places, could eas; y have been made formida- 
 ble in the long ime since the army estab- 
 lished itself then . Except at one gate, there 
 was no bridge fi'. to aid the passage of troops 
 over the Taiton|', and it certainly seems that 
 a resolute resista'ice on the north bank might 
 have made the c ossing a much more serious 
 undertaking than it proved. Between the 
 wall and the river the ground was most un- 
 comfortable to the assailants, being largely 
 cut up into swamp r rice lots. 
 
 "Better fighting on the Chinese side was 
 expected, even by thvise who had tested their 
 incapacity at Songhwan, for here the chances 
 were much more in their favor, and their 
 behavior in some of the skirmishes along the 
 route had indicated a determination to do at 
 least a little towards retrieving their shattered 
 reputation. But from the time when they 
 were driven within their rough fortifications 
 they appeared to lose all spirit, and allowed 
 themselves to be chased from post to post 
 with scarcely an effort to maintain order. 
 
 " The first troops sent forward by General 
 Oshima were, according to present accounts, 
 more vigorously met than any others, but 
 this may have been due to the circumstance 
 that there was a scarcity of ammunition in 
 one brigade, necessitating a brief suspension 
 of the advance on the afternoon of the 15th. 
 There is nothing to show that General 
 Oshima's wing was obliged to use extraor- 
 dinary exertions in reaching its goal after 
 his order. The regiments which pushed 
 northward from Kangso are said to have 
 been the most strongly confronted. 
 
 Confused Accovints. 
 
 " It is difficult, however, to collect reports 
 that can be thoroughly trusted, so soon after 
 the battle. Rumors are altogether too abun- 
 dant to be safely relied upon when matters 
 of minute detail come into question. I heard 
 an officer of high position say, on the da}' 
 after the affair was concluded, when the 
 greater part of the army was resting and 
 trying to remember what had happened, that 
 it would be at least a fortnight before the 
 Government at Tokio could receive a really 
 full and accurate account of the event, and 
 you may imagine the obstacles that stand in 
 the way of a single observer who tries to 
 present even a glimpse of the mighty scene 
 in which, perhaps, thirty thousand comba- 
 tants struggled for life and death through 
 a good part of two fierce and furious days. 
 
 " Little more than forty-eight hours has 
 passed since the last shot was fired, and the 
 last flag lowered. It seems as if the echoes 
 of the vast tumult and confusion were still 
 ringing through the air, forbidding the mind 
 to dwell upon anything but the colossal 
 features of the conflict, or to gather together 
 the multitude of incidents which must be 
 brought into orderly array before the true 
 character and import of this great achieve- 
 
THE BATTLE OF PING-YANG. 
 
 547 
 
 ment of history can be rightly estimated. 
 What we now know beyond all doubt is that 
 the strategic combination for the overthrow 
 of the first Chinese army in the field has 
 wholly and brilliantly succeeded. 
 
 "The campaign was carefully laid out in 
 Tokio, and was executed with admirable 
 dexterity by four of the best generals in the 
 Japanese service, not one of whom, it may 
 be mentioned, is of the highest rank. The 
 single full general in Corea did not arrive in 
 time to take any part in the proceedings, 
 and even the lieutenant-general in command 
 was not despatched from Japan until opera- 
 tions were in active progress. 
 
 Organizing Victory. 
 
 " But when he came he threw himself 
 heart and soul into the work and set an ex- 
 ample of energy and fervor which roused to 
 emulation all who were brought into con- 
 tact with him. To him and to the three 
 major-generals belong the credit of having 
 carried the enterprise through triumphantly. 
 To the organizer of victory, who may be an 
 approved tactician, or an unknown adviser 
 of the War Department, the honor of the 
 conception is due, and will, let us hope, be 
 righteously awarded. 
 
 "A great blow has been struck, and with 
 such force as to forever destroy the prestige 
 of China in Corea. An army computed at 
 not less than 12,000, and it may be 20,000 
 — and which may prove to be still larger, 
 for the looseness and negligence of the 
 Chinese system is such that the exact num- 
 ber actually under arms is not known to 
 themselves — has been defeated, and is now 
 held captive, with the exception of the fugi- 
 tives and the slain. 
 
 " Four generals of renown from -the mili- 
 tary standpoint of their country have sur- 
 rendered — not with suiificient dignity, it is 
 
 said, to entitle them to respect in their down- 
 fall. 
 
 "All the material results of the victory 
 that could be expected have been secured. 
 The entire store of weapons and ammuni- 
 tion is in our hands. A quantity of treasure, 
 roughly calculated to be worth from ^70,000 
 to ;^ 1 00,000, was siezed in the houses occu- 
 pied by the commanding generals, together 
 with dozens of bags filled with copper and 
 iron "cash" of the country. 
 
 "Not a single condition of success appears 
 to be lacking. And I can say with pride 
 that the discipline, which it is so often diffi- 
 cult to preserve after great conquests has 
 not been relaxed in the slightest degree. The 
 districts I have visited in the last two days 
 have been as free from violent disturbance as 
 any part of my own capital in a time of pro- 
 foundest peace. Soldiers roam about sing- 
 ing lively songs and occasionally shouting 
 'Teikoku banzai,' but perfect good humor is 
 the rule, and not an angry voice is heard. 
 
 Spared the Horrors of ^^^ar. 
 
 " The earliest order sent out on the i6th 
 was for the firm enforcement of order and 
 the protection of the inhabitants of Ping- - 
 Yang. The few citizens who are willing to 
 communicate freely, which they can do in 
 symbolic writing, though utterly ignorant of 
 our language, are earnest in assurances of 
 thankfulness at having been spared the hor- 
 rors they had been led to anticipate in case 
 of falling under Japanese control. But they 
 are far from confident as to what the future 
 may bring forth. That the security which 
 now prevails can last is more than they dare 
 hope for. 
 
 "Unless the Chinese who endeavored to 
 escape by the Gate of the Seven Stars, at 
 the northeastern corner of the city, fought 
 harder than those who made a show of 
 
548 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 standing to their posts it is not probable 
 that the number of deaths will prove very- 
 great. But there is still a good deal to 
 be learned about what took place in that 
 locality and along the line of pursuit which 
 followed. 
 
 "As I walked out yesterday on the west- 
 ern avenues leading from the city I saw 
 heaps of weapons hedging the wayside as 
 far as my sight could reach. Rifles, mostly 
 of an old pattern, spears of the middle ages 
 and swords of every conceivable manufacture 
 were lying just as they had been thrown 
 away, undisturbed as yet by the populace, 
 who probably have not awakened to the fact 
 that the late owners of the property have 
 gone with no intent to return. Clothing 
 enough to satisfy the winter necessities of 
 
 the poor was also waiting to be picked up by 
 the first comers. 
 
 "Until the cavalry detachments sent to 
 overtake the runaways return to give an ac- 
 count of their adventures the lists of losses 
 cannot; be made up. At presenfit looks as 
 if great results had been obtained without 
 anything like the amount of bloodshed that 
 usually accompanies a decisive battle. If, 
 however, I attempted to verify this opinion, 
 I should either be compelled to rely upon 
 insufficient data or run the risk of overstep- 
 ping the time allowed me. 
 
 " I close in the hope that when all the 
 particulars are known it will be found that 
 the rejoicings over our victory need not be 
 too darkly shaded by lamentations over the 
 sacrifice of human life." 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 THE Yalu River is the boundary be- 
 tween China and Corea. Off the 
 mouth of the Yalu a decisive naval 
 engagement occurred, September 
 17th, between the Chinese and Japanese 
 navies. At noon on September 17th nine 
 Japanese war ships, convoying two armed 
 transports, sighted twelve Chinese war ships 
 and six gun-boats. The fighting began by 
 an attack upon three of the Chinese war 
 ships, which were sunk. As the fighting 
 progressed another Chinese war ship was set 
 on fire and destroyed, but the remaining 
 eight, only one of which was uninjured to- 
 gether with the six gun boats, succeeded in 
 getting away. The Japanese war ships 
 Matsushima and Hi-Yei were slightly dam- 
 aged and one of the armed transports was 
 seriously crippled, but none of the Japanese 
 ships were lost. The Japanese loss was 
 twenty men known to have been killed and 
 forty-six wounded. 
 
 When the Japanese sighted the Chinese 
 fleet the latter ships were steaming towards 
 the Yalu River, in which direction they pro- 
 ceeded, appearing indisposed to fight. The 
 Japanese chased them for an hour, when the 
 Chiyoda, getting within range, drew the fire 
 of the Chinese flagship. A running fight of 
 two hours' duration preceded the main en- 
 gagement in the bay, during which the trans- 
 ports entered the Yalu River in safety. 
 
 The work of transferring the troops and 
 stores from the Chinese transports to the 
 shore was proceeding rapidly when the Japa- 
 nese fleet was sighted. Admiral Ting of the 
 
 Chinese fleet signaled to his ships to weigh 
 anchor and form in line of battle. In obedi- 
 ence to this order the fleet was formed in a 
 single line, with the exception of the cruisers 
 Kwang-Kai and Kwang-Ting and four tor- 
 pedo boats, which were formed in a second 
 line at the mouth of the river. 
 
 The Japanese fleet advanced at full speed 
 while the Chinese columns were forming in 
 line, until they came within range, when the 
 war ships formed in line of battle, nine of 
 them in the first column and three gunboats 
 and five torpedo boats in the second column. 
 The firing at the outset of the engagement 
 was of an indifferent order, but the Japanese 
 were creeping gradually closer to the Chinese 
 ships and their gunners were improving their 
 aim by practice. 
 
 A Bursting Shell. 
 
 The Chinese barbette ship Ting-Yuen wa$ 
 the first to suffer any severe injury, a Japa- 
 nese shell bursting in her battery. A cease- 
 less cannonade was kept up on both sides 
 for an hour and a half, when the Japanese 
 ship Saikio was rendered helpless, and, ac- 
 cording to the assertion of a Chinese officer, 
 sank soon afterward. Two of the big guns 
 of the battle ship Chen-Yuen were disabled, 
 but she continued to use her smaller guns. 
 The vessels of both fleets worked very easily 
 under steam, and the Japanese were con- 
 stantly manceuvering, but the Chinese held 
 their original position. 
 
 Suddenly two Japanese cruisers, believed 
 to have been the Akitsushima and the Yo- 
 
 549 
 
550 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 shino, endeavored to break the Chinese line. 
 They were followed by three torpedo boats. 
 As the Japanese ships advanced at full speed, 
 the Chinese ships Chin-Yuen and Choa- 
 Yung backed full speed astern to avoid dis- 
 aster. The Japanese torpedo boats fired, 
 but their projectiles were stopped by nets. 
 The guns of the other Chinese ships were 
 quickly trained on the two Japanese cruisers, 
 and they retired after a short time, almost 
 helpless. The Chinese declared they were 
 sunk. 
 
 A Ship on Fire. 
 
 The Ching-Yuen was several times pierced 
 by shells. The Chao-Yung ran ashore while 
 retreating, and became a target for the Japa- 
 nese guns until she was set on fire. The 
 King-Yuen was in a terrible plight. A shell 
 burst through her decks and she slowly 
 foundered, while flames burst from all parts 
 of her. The Tsi-Yuen withdrew from the 
 first into the second column. 
 
 The Chinese torpedo boats vainly at- 
 tempted to put the Japanese on the defen- 
 sive, but the Japanese remained the aggres- 
 sors throughout, although two or three^t- 
 tempts to break the Chinese line were re- 
 pulsed. The cruiser Yang- Wei went ashore 
 stern foremost and met a fate similar to that 
 of the Chao-Yung. 
 
 After the first three hours of the engage- 
 ment the firing was intermittent. The cap- 
 tain of the cruiser Chin-Yuen fought bravely 
 when his ship was little better than a wal- 
 lowing wreck, until the cruiser was sunk by 
 a torpedo and her crew engulfed. The scene 
 at this point is described as appalling. Many 
 guns on both sides were disabled, the bat- 
 tered ships rolled heavily, and their steam 
 pumps were kept constantly at work to keep 
 them afloat. During the last hour of the 
 battle some of the Chinese ships ran out of 
 
 ammunition, and some of the Japanese ships 
 threatened to founder. At dusk the Japa- 
 nese ships moved slowly southward in 
 double line. Another account of the battle 
 is as follows : 
 
 Long before the rejoicings over the capture 
 of Ping- Yang had begun to subside, Japan 
 was excited by fresh enthusiasm by the news 
 of another victory of even greater significance 
 in the Northeastern inlet of the Yalu River. 
 The 1 6th of September Admiral Ito, com- 
 manding the squadron, stationed at the 
 mouth of the Taing, or Daido River was 
 notified that a large Chinese fleet had arrived 
 at the Yalu River, which divides Corea and 
 China, in charge of transports, conveying 
 reinforcements to the army on the frontier. 
 He set sail the following morning with all the 
 men-of-war that could be immediately sum- 
 moned, viz : The Matsushima, flagship ; 
 Hashidate, Itsukushima, Yoshino, Taka- 
 chiho, Akitsushima, Naniwa, Chyoda, Fuso, 
 Akagi and Hi-Yei. Accompanying these 
 eleven was the Saiko, a merchant steamer, 
 taken into the national service since the war 
 began, of no strength and not intended for 
 heavy work in action. 
 
 Commenced Firing. 
 
 She would not have joined the expedition, 
 but for the desire of Admiral Viscount Kaba- 
 yama, the naval chief of the ^taff", who being 
 on a visit of inspection at the North, could 
 not resist the temptation to witness the ex- 
 pected engagement. Between 12 and i 
 o'clock, fourteen Chinese ships and six tor- 
 pedo boats were discovered a little south of 
 a harbor, called Taikosan, in Japanese pro- 
 nunciation, the East of Kaiyoto Island. 
 
 Contrary to expectation they advanced 
 unhesitatingly and commenced firing when 
 4000 yards distant from the Japanese, who 
 reserved their first discharge until another 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 551 
 
 1000 yards had been covered. The serious 
 fighting began between the vessels at the 
 Chinese right and the Japanese left, the flag- 
 ships of both sides leading the onslaught. 
 By I o'clock the contest was general. Both 
 lines maintained their positions steadily for 
 an hour when the Chinese showed signs of 
 wavering. 
 
 Ships and Crews go Down. 
 
 Three of their ships, either by accident or 
 design, had for sometime been made special 
 objects, and although they contended vigor- 
 ously to the last, they were sunk, one after 
 another, the crew climbing into the rigging 
 and signalled wildly for help to their com- 
 panions and assailants. These were the 
 Lai-Yuen, Chih-Yuen and Chao-Puen. As 
 soon as they were disposed of, the foremost 
 Japanese ships directed their assault against 
 the immense German-built vessels at the 
 head of the Chinese column, for a long tirne 
 without effect on the heavy steel plates which 
 protected them. 
 
 At last, however, a lucky shell struck the 
 Ting-Yuen a little above the water — and 
 seemed to the Japanese observers to pierce 
 the armor through and through. Their 
 belief that this feat had been accomplished 
 was increased when a thick body of smoke 
 was seen rising from the flagship, and 
 although no diminution of activity aboard 
 was perceptible, they were convinced that 
 she had been set on fire and remained burn- 
 ing up to the hour of her hasty departure. 
 
 Whatever the condition was, she succeeded 
 in inflicting heavy punishment upon her 
 chief adversary. The Matsushima was 
 struck by two twelve-inch shells. The first 
 upset and battered out of shape one of her 
 guns, while the second exploded an ammu- 
 nition box, dealing havoc among the crew 
 and starting a fire, which was subsequently, 
 
 with great difficulty, put out. Li conse- 
 quence of the mishap, the Matsushima with- 
 drew from the scene and moved toward 
 Tai-Tong, Admiral Ito transferring his flag 
 to the Hashidate. 
 
 Meanwhile three other Japanese vessels 
 had undergone extremely rough treatment. 
 The Saiko, which Viscount Kabayama per- 
 sisted in keeping in the thickest part of the 
 fight, notwithstanding her obvious unsuita- 
 bility for such duty, lost control of her 
 rudder and found herself in much closer 
 proximity than was desirable to the Ting- 
 Yuen and Chen-Yuen. As she could not 
 avoid them, she made directly for them, it is 
 supposed, in the belief that she was about to 
 ram them. 
 
 A Shower of Missiles. 
 
 The Japanese are of the opinion that it 
 was under this illusion that the two huge 
 ships separated, allowing the Saiko a passage 
 about forty fathoms wide through which to 
 escape. Torpedoes were discharged at her 
 as she went, by, but without avail. The 
 Hiyei having been unable by reason of her 
 slowness to keep pace with the rest of the 
 fleet, became a conspicuous object to the 
 Chinese, and was so deluged with missiles 
 that she was set on fire before the afternoon 
 was half over. 
 
 Her small crew was greatly reduced, and 
 as the surgeon was among the wounded, the 
 sufferers could not be properly cared for. 
 When she had lost twenty killed and three 
 wounded, she fell out of line and returned 
 to Tai-Tong, but meeting a transport on the 
 way, she obtained assistance in quenching 
 the flames, and handed over the wounded, 
 and returned with all the speed she could 
 make, not waiting for a doctor, to take up 
 her work where she had left off. In this 
 hope she was disappointed, for the enemy 
 
552 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 had flown and the battle was over. Still she 
 was exposed to the enemy's fire. 
 
 It is reported that when she steamed 
 away in flames she was thrice in great danger 
 from torpedoes, but skillfully escaped by 
 employing a device described in a recent 
 magazine account of an imaginary fight in 
 South America. To most readers of that' 
 sketch, the expediency of stopping a projec- 
 tile by turning upon it a converging fire of 
 shot and shell seemed purely fiction, yet 
 this is precisely what the Hi-Yei is said to 
 have done in, at least, one instance. 
 
 The Akagi, a small gunboat, was badly 
 overmatched from the outsef, accident hav- 
 ing brought her under the fire of not less 
 than six of the enemy's boats. Her com- 
 mander was struck down and killed while 
 she was thus hotly engaged, yet she would 
 still have kept up a determined resistance, 
 but for the loss of a mast, which rendered 
 her unmanagable. She also found it neces- 
 sary to return to the Tai-Tong. 
 
 The Flagship Retreats. 
 
 About the time that Admiral Ito left the 
 Matsushima the disorder in the Chinese fleet 
 plainly indicated that the contest could not 
 be prolonged on either side. Three ships 
 had been sunk, and a fourth, the Yang-Wei, 
 had been half destroyed and abandoned. 
 Beside the Ting-Yuen was on fire, and the 
 entire force was thoroughly demoralized. A 
 little later, after five o'clock, the flagship 
 took the lead in retreat toward the home 
 stations. 
 
 Four fast steaming Japanese cruisers were 
 detailed to follow, and, if possible, to cut off 
 their escape. But the torpedoes had to be 
 reckoned with, and the possibility of being 
 struck with one of them in the night made 
 it imperative that the Japanese should exer- 
 cise caution. Morning found them at the 
 
 mouth of the Gulf of PechiH, with no ship 
 of the enemy in sight. They steamed back 
 to Kayioto Island, keeping a keen overlook 
 on the way, but the Chinese had evidently 
 reached a place of refuge. 
 
 The greater part of the Japanese squad- 
 ron and reconvened near Takaisan Harbor, 
 on the chance of getting another fight, 
 bringing this time torpedo boats to co- 
 operate. The need of them was so greatly 
 felt on the previous day that it is safe to say 
 no large number of Japanese ships will ever 
 again sail without these essential adjuncts. 
 
 Loss of Life. 
 
 One of them was now put to a practical, 
 if somewhat inglorious use, in breaking up 
 the Yang- Wei, deserted and unfit for further 
 service. Examinations show that none of 
 the Japanese vessels received damages that 
 could not be repaired with slight cost and 
 labor. All but the four referred to were so 
 free from injury that they could have gone 
 into action the following day. The loss of 
 life was the largest on the Matsushima. Her 
 complement was 335. Four officers and 
 thirty-nine men were killed and seventy 
 officers and men wounded. The total loss 
 was ten officers and sixty-nine men killed 
 and one hundred and sixty officers and men 
 wounded. 
 
 Further particulars of the great battle 
 were learned from the following despatch 
 from Tien-Tsin, dated September 2 1 st : 
 Wounded officers pf the Chinese fleet con- 
 firm the original report of the engagement 
 on the 17th inst. They say that the 
 Chinese fleet arrived at Yalu River on the 
 afternoon of the i6th and remained ten 
 miles outside of the mouth of the river while 
 the transports were unloading. At eleven 
 o'clock on the morning of the 17th they- 
 sighted the smoke of the Japanese fleet, 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 553 
 
 which was approaching in two columns. 
 The Chinese vessels steamed out to meet 
 them in two columns, converging on the 
 flagship. The Japanese fleet consisted of 
 twelve ships, while the Chinese had ten 
 ships. 
 
 The Chinese Admiral opened fire at a dis- 
 tance of si.x: thousand yards, but the firing 
 on both sides fell short until the opposing 
 vessels came within five thousand yards. 
 The Chinese endeavored to come to close 
 quarters, but were prevented from accom- 
 plishing their purpose by the superior speed 
 of the Japanese ships, which, keeping for the 
 most part two miles off, manoeuvred ad- 
 mirably and made splendid practice with, the 
 long range quick firing guns. 
 
 Went Down ■with all Hands. 
 
 The Chinese cruiser Chih-Yuen, Captain 
 Tang Chi Chang, early in the day closed 
 with one of the enemy's ships at full speed, 
 intending to ram her. 
 
 Four Japanese vessels then closed round 
 the Chih-Yuen, and she was ripped up by 
 shots under the water line, and went down 
 with all hands, including the engineer. 
 Meanwhile the battle raged furiously round 
 the flagship Ting-Yuen and her consort, the 
 Chen-Yuen. A gunnery officer on the 
 Ting-Yuen, was killed. The Japanese ships 
 were difficult to identify, but it is known that 
 the cruiser Yoshino received some damaging 
 shots at close quarters, which enveloped her 
 in smoke and made her invisible. 
 
 Some of the Chinese gunners devoted 
 their attention especially to the Japanese 
 cruiser Naniwa, and succeeded in setting her 
 on fire, but none of the Chinese officers saw 
 her sink. 
 
 An account received three days later says : 
 
 If naval supremacy of the future is to be 
 decided by battleships, the crucial test of 
 
 modern conditions for fighting at sea has 
 still to be made. Of the twenty-seven ves- 
 sels engaged in the fight at the mouth of the 
 Yalu River only two had any pretensions to 
 be called battleships. These were the 
 Chinese vessels Ting-Yuen and Chen-Yuen. 
 All the rest were of the protected or un- 
 protected cruiser class. 
 
 All through the war the Japanese have 
 shown that their intelligence department is 
 excellently worked. There can be no doubt 
 that they received accurate information 
 about the destination of four thousand 
 troops and large quantities of rice and mili- 
 tary stores which left Taku about September 
 1 4th in the Chinese steamers Hsinyu-Tsonan, 
 Chintung, Lee-Yuen and Haeting. These 
 vessels picked up their convoy and made for 
 Tatung Kou under the escort of six cruisers 
 and four torpedo boats. 
 
 Approach of the Fleet. 
 
 When off TaHenwan Bay they were joined 
 by larger vessels of the Chinese fleet, and 
 made their destination on Sunday, Septem- 
 ber 1 6th. The debarkation began under 
 cover of torpedo vessels and two of the 
 lesser draught ships, and was successfully 
 accomplished, while the other nine vessels of 
 the fleet remained in twenty-five fathoms, 
 from ten to twelve miles south by east, from 
 Tatung Kou. 
 
 The Japanese, with that provision which 
 precludes the element of luck, had carefully 
 surveyed the coast two or three years ago. 
 The harbor master of Port Arthur had re- 
 peatedly urged the Chinese to follow their 
 example, but without success. Steam was 
 kept up, when at noon on Monday, Septem- 
 ber 17, a cloud of that obtrusive black 
 smoke which the Japanese coal gives off 
 showed the approach of their fleet from the 
 south. 
 
564 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 The Admiral at once weighed anchor, 
 drew up his squadron, in formation like an 
 obtuse angle, with two armored ships at the 
 apex, and advanced to give battle. The 
 Japanese came on in line and carried out a 
 series of evolutions with beautiful precision. 
 The tactics of both sides are too highly 
 technical for the layman, but in common 
 speech they may be resolved thus : 
 
 Moving in a Circle. 
 
 The Japanese, having speed, kept circling 
 around the Chinese, enlai^ging their radius 
 as they came within range of the big guns 
 of the armored Ting-Yuen and the Chen- 
 Yuen, and coming closer in as they came 
 opposite the unarmored ships and guns of 
 less calibre. 
 
 The Chinese kept their wedge formation, 
 but as all the halyards were shot away on 
 the admiral's ship early in the action, they 
 had simply to watch leaders and exact dis- 
 cretion. 
 
 The first evolution of the Japanese de- 
 tached three Chinese ships. One was the 
 fine Elswick cruiser Chih-Yuen (2300 tons, 
 18 knots, three 8-inch 12-ton guns, two 6- 
 inch 4-ton and 17 rapid firers). Captain 
 Tang handled his ship with great coolness. 
 His vessel was badly hulled very early in 
 the fight, and took a strong list to starboard. 
 Seeing she was sinking he went full speed 
 ahead at a Japanese ship which was sticking 
 to him like a limpet, and making free prac- 
 tice with the intention of ramming her, but 
 he foundered with all hands, 250, just before 
 the ship got home. One account of it is 
 that he did sink the Jap, but the weight of 
 evidence is that he only disabled her by his 
 return fire. 
 
 The King-Yuen, 2850 tons, 16-12 knots, 
 two 8-inch ten ton guns, two 6-inch four 
 tons and seven machine guns, took fire soon 
 
 after this, but her captain, while subduing the 
 flames, still fought his ship. Seeing a dis- 
 abled Japanese near him, most, probably the 
 same vessel that the Chih-Yuen had tried to 
 ram, he came up, intending to capture or 
 sink her, but was incautious enough to cross 
 the line of her torpedo tube at a short dis- 
 tance. 
 
 The Japanese thereupon shot her only 
 bolt, and sure enough blew the King-Yuen 
 up. Out of a complement of two hundred 
 and seventy odd, some seven only are known 
 to have escaped. One occount says that 
 this fine vessel perished from fire, but subse- 
 quent information from Port Arthur gives 
 the foregoing as the more accurate version of 
 her end. With regard to the disable'd Japa- 
 nese vessel not one informant will deliberately 
 say " I myself saw her founder," but without 
 exception they all maintain that she sank 
 soon after the destruction of the King-Yuen. 
 
 A Cowardly Captain. 
 
 The notorious Fong, the reinstated cap- 
 tain of the Tsi-Yuen, again distinguished 
 himself by his devotion to the white feather. 
 All the foreign survivors are very silent on 
 this subject, but there is no doubt whatever 
 that this poor creature signalled early in the 
 day that his ship was badly struck and that 
 he then promptly took her out of action. In 
 doing so he ran precipitately into the shal- 
 lows where the Elswick built cruiser, the 
 Yang- Wei (1350 tons, sixteen knots, two 
 ten-inch five ton guns, four four tons and ten 
 machine guns) was in difficulties, struggling 
 hard to get off. 
 
 Fong's navigation and pilotage were about 
 'equal to his courage. Finding his surround- 
 ings suddenly changed, he altered his helm 
 and fairly rammed his unhappy colleague, 
 escaping himself, however, with a damaged 
 bow. The Yang-Wei's crew of 250 were 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 555- 
 
 nearly all lost, and that vessel herself went 
 down in about four and a half fathoms on a 
 straight keel, with her tops and lighter guns 
 out of the water and her turret or barbette 
 .just awash. She was seen in that position 
 four days after by the returning transports. 
 
 The Tsi-Yuen ran at full speed for Port 
 Arthur. There the foreign engineer came 
 ashore and flatly refused to serve further 
 with such a captain. News has since ar- 
 rived in Tien-Tsin that he will be under no 
 necessity of doing so, as Fong's head was 
 promptly sheared off by an imperative order 
 from Tien-Tsin. This poltroon had been 
 recently court martialed for his conduct on 
 the day of the Kow-Shing disaster and then, 
 to the great indignation of the fleet, rein- 
 stated to his command. 
 
 An Eye to the Main Chance. 
 
 His villanous example was followed by the 
 commander of the wooden corvette, the 
 Kuang-Chia, iioo tons, three twelve-inch 
 rapid firing guns, eight machine guns. It is 
 a moot point whether his ship was injured in 
 action or not. He shows the woodwork of 
 the latrines as a proof. At any rate, he 
 bolted, and kept so keen an eye to the main 
 chance after that, that at 1 1 P. M. he ran 
 his vessel on a reef, some twenty miles east 
 of Talienwan Bay, and for all that is known 
 she is there still, although there is a rumor 
 that the Japanese afterward put a torpedo 
 into her. 
 
 The desertion of these two ships would 
 have reduced the Chinese to seven had they 
 not been reinforced by vessels from in shore, 
 and later on by torpedo vessels, four in 
 number. One of the two ships, the Yang- 
 Wei, was, as stated, rammed by the Tsi- 
 Yuen, the other, the Choayung, a sister ship, 
 soon took fire, and also got into shoal water, 
 where sne burned completely out. More 
 
 than one hundred men were taken off by a 
 torpedo vessel, but some of her crew were 
 killed. The vessel remained visible, a useless 
 shell, just above the wash of sea at low 
 water. This completes the list of Chinese 
 casualties and losses. 
 
 The torpedo boats found some difficulties 
 in joining the fray. The loss of halyards 
 and in some cases of colors made it difficult 
 to distinguish friend from foe, but the young 
 officers in charge did well and acted fully up 
 to their instructions to keep well under the 
 lee of the big ships during fire and then to 
 dart out under the bank of smoke. Unfortu- 
 nately for them, these little vessels had been 
 scouting for three weeks and had been over- 
 worked. The result was lamentable. When 
 they opened out their possible twenty knots- 
 sank to something between fourteen and fif- 
 teen. The smoke rose rapidly, and long 
 before the Schwarzkopf range was reached 
 they were seen and fired at. Oddly enough 
 they were not hit once by anything worthy 
 of notice. 
 
 Torpedoes of Little Account. 
 
 But, on the other hand, they effected noth- 
 ing. The dreaded torpedo only scored once 
 in the action, and that was in the case of the- 
 King-Yuen, an issue entirely due to over- 
 confidence and rashness. In the meantime, 
 the two armored vessels, the Ting-Yuen and 
 the Chen-Yuen, were the recipients of the 
 continued and persistent firing of the Japanese. 
 
 The Chen-Yuen, under the command of 
 Commodore Lin, assisted by two foreigners 
 made grand practice and kept admirable dis- 
 cipline. Her frequent fires were extinguished 
 promptly, and the ship was admirably han- 
 dled tliroughout the action. The foreign 
 officers on board are both severely wounded, 
 one in the arm, while the other, through an 
 inadvertence, in the too prompt fire of one of 
 
556 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 the heavy guns, got his scalp and face badly 
 burned and was subsequently wounded in 
 the arm. 
 
 So persistent was the fire of this vessel 
 that the magazine was all but depleted, and 
 she arrived at Port Arthur with only twenty 
 rounds of heavy shell left. She fired one 
 hundred and forty-eight six-inch shells, and 
 quite exhausted her smaller ammunition. 
 Her fire was as effective as it was sustained, 
 owing to the skill and coolness of the foreign 
 experts. This ship's superstructure was 
 almost completely destroyed, and a shell 
 struck the spindle of the hydrauHc gear of 
 the port gun, putting it out of action. 
 
 Little Damage. 
 
 With this exception it is amazing to find 
 how little damage the heavy fire did to the 
 guns and machinery. Only three guns were 
 dismounted in the whole Chinese fleet, and 
 in no case were the engines, boilers or 
 hydrauHc machinery (the Chen-Yuen's ex- 
 cepted) injured. No casualties were reported 
 from the engine rooms, where the behavior 
 was excellent. 
 
 The Lai-Yuen, a sister ship to the King- 
 Yuen in build and armament, had her super- 
 structure damaged by fire and shell more 
 than any other ship in the fleet, and was an 
 appaUing sight in Port Arthur. Foreigners 
 who saw her deemed it a marvel that she 
 could ever have been brought into port, so 
 completely wrecked was all her deck gear. 
 She was essentially sound in hull, armament 
 and engines, however. 
 
 The Ting-Yuen (flag ship, 7,430 tons, 
 fourteen and one-half knots, four thirty-seven 
 ton Krupp guns, two four ton Krupps, eight 
 machine guns) was the scene of some striking 
 episoded. A heavy shell, supposed but not 
 known to be on the ricochet, struck the 
 fighting top, killing instantly seven men in 
 
 it and knocking the entire gear into the sea. 
 Another shot in its vagaries bent but did not 
 break the steam pipe. A third killed poor 
 Nicholls, an ex-petty officer of the British 
 navy, who, seeing another foreigner bleeding 
 from a wound in the groin, volunteered to 
 take his place for a few minutes while he 
 went below. 
 
 The Admiral and the third engineer, who 
 had volunteered from the customs service, 
 were violently thrown off the bridge by con- 
 cussion and rendered senseless for some time. 
 It is supposed that heavy guns were simul- 
 taneously fired from the barbette. On 
 recovering the Admiral was found to have 
 sustained injury to his foot, while an attend- 
 ant, in bearing help to his master, was 
 literally blown into the air and sea in infini- 
 tesimal pieces by a shell — an accident which 
 profoundly affected the brave old fighter. 
 
 The Engagement Renewed. 
 
 About three o'clock the Japanese hauled 
 off for consultation, but came on again and 
 renewed the battle. About five they took 
 their final leave, the Ting-Yuen and Chen- 
 Yuen following them up. This was probably 
 a bit of strategy on the part of the Japs, for 
 after running ten or twelve miles five of them 
 turned round and fired. This was apparently 
 the last kick, for to the unmitigated delight 
 of the Chinese officers they finally hauled off 
 and departed to the southward. 
 
 The Admiral then sent on a verbal mess- 
 age for the transports to come along. But 
 they had gone far up stream when they knew 
 what was going on, and did not dare to move 
 without more special orders. It was sup- 
 posed that they had fallen victims to the 
 Japs, who returned the next day. But on 
 Saturday they alt arrived safely at Taku. 
 They had left Tatung Kou on Friday, four 
 days after the battle. They saw the shell of 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 557 
 
 the Chao-Yung and the tops of the Yong- 
 Wei in the water on the scene of action. 
 They called in at Port Arthur, where they 
 saw six Chinese vessels, and crossed the 
 Gulf of Pechili in perfect safety. 
 
 The following account ts valuable as com- 
 ing from an experienced naval officer, who 
 was present. The account is mainly a re- 
 petition of previous reports, but adds that 
 the concussion of the first discharge of the 
 guns of the Ting-Yuen threw everybody off 
 the bridge of the ship. The Japanese ships 
 approached in column of divisions, the line 
 ahead of the divisions being disposed abeam. 
 
 At Close Quarters. 
 
 Cohiing closer, they tried to form a line 
 abreast. The Chinese ships started in a sec- 
 tional line abreast, at a rate of speed of seven 
 knots an hour. As they came nearer the 
 Japanese appeared to form in quarter line, 
 to which the Chinese replied by turning two 
 points to the starboard, thus keeping their 
 bows toward the enemy. 
 
 Approaching within forty-four hundred 
 yards the whole Japanese fleet seemed to 
 turn eight points to port, thereby forming a 
 single line ahead, and steaming across the 
 Chinese line turned its starboard wing. 
 
 The Chinese were unable to keep pace 
 with the enemy, and endeavored to follow 
 their movements by keeping bow on them as 
 the Japanese ships circled around, maintain- 
 ing the while a heavy bombardment. The 
 Japanese fleet that kept in the thick of the 
 fight consisted of six ships of the " Yuen " 
 class. , 
 
 The Japanese ships, having completed one 
 circle, hauled off to a distance of eight thou- 
 sand yards, and went through an evolution 
 with the object of separating into two divi- 
 sions, the first consisting of seven of their 
 best-known and the swiftest cruisers, and the 
 
 second of five inferior ships, which stood off 
 some distance. The battle thus arranged itself 
 into two groups, four Chinese cruisers becom- 
 ing engaged with the second division, while 
 twoironclads.the Chen-Yuen and Ting-Yuen, 
 attacked the first division. The fighting of 
 the second division was irregular and diffi- 
 cult to follow. 
 
 It ended in the Japanese disappearing in 
 the direction of Hai-Yung-Tao. 
 
 The first Japanese division carried on the 
 fight with the ironclads by circling round at 
 a distance of forty-five hundred yards. The 
 Chen-Yuen and Ting-Yuen, keeping to- 
 gether, followed the enemy's movements in 
 a smaller circle, the whole evolution taking 
 a spiral form. Occasionally the distance be- 
 tween the opposing ships was reduced to 
 two thousand yards, and once to twelve 
 hundred yards. 
 
 Keeping at a Distance. 
 
 The Japanese aimed at keeping a long 
 distance away, so as to avail themselves of 
 their superior speed, and make the most of 
 their quick-firing guns, which vastly excelled 
 those of the Chinese. The object of the 
 Chinese was to come to close quarters, so as 
 to use their slow-firing guns of large calibre 
 with full effect. 
 
 The firing continued between the Chinese 
 ironclads and the Japanese first division until 
 nearly five o'clock in the afternoon. The 
 quick-firing guns gave the latter an immense 
 advantage, scattering showers of splinters, 
 occasionally setting the Chinese ships on fire 
 and riddling everything that was not pro- 
 tected by armor. During the action one 
 of the smaller Japanese ships was seen with 
 her propellers out of the water and her bow 
 nearly under. Another was seen to be on 
 fire, enveloped in flames and apparently 
 sinking. 
 
•558 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 The Yoshino and Matsusima were burn- 
 ing fiercely. The former, after receiving two 
 shots each from the Ting-Yuen and Chen- 
 Yuen, was enveloped in a cloud of white 
 smoke, which lay heavily on the water and 
 completely covered the ships. The Chinese 
 vessels waited for the cloud to clear, and got 
 their port guns ready, but before the Yoshino 
 became visible their fire was diverted by a 
 Japanese vessel of the Matsusima type, 
 which came on at a distance of two thousand 
 two hundred yards on the port quarter. 
 The guns that were laid for the Yoshino 
 were fired at the newcomer, with the result 
 that she began to burn. Whether these 
 three Japanese ships received mortal injuries 
 is uncertain. 
 
 In the latter part of the battle the Chinese 
 iionclads ran short of common shells and 
 continued the action with steel shot. This 
 was ineffective, as the Japanese vessels have 
 no armor. The two ironclads fired 197 
 rounds with 12-inch guns, and 268 rounds 
 with 6-inch guns. About four o'clock the 
 Ting-Yuen was badly on fire forward, the 
 smoke impeding the working of the fore- 
 turret. Before five o'clock the Japanese had 
 ceased firing, and the distance between the 
 fleets was rapidly increasing. 
 
 Effective Armor. 
 
 In regard to the conclusions to be drawn 
 from the battle it may be said that the 
 Chinese battleships proved formidable. The 
 Chinese ironclads stood the battering of the 
 heavy quick-firing guns admirably. Their 
 upper structures were severely damaged, but 
 not a shot penetrated a vital part. The bar- 
 bette protection of the 12-mch guns was 
 most effective, very few men being wounded 
 within the barbettes. Two barbette turrets 
 'were as intact after the action as before. 
 
 This fact, however, coupled with the fact 
 
 that the 6-inch guns at both ends of the 
 ships, which are only slightly protected, 
 were also undamaged, seems to indicate that 
 the destructive effect was due to the enor- 
 mous number of projectiles from the quick- 
 firing guns, rather than to the skilled direc- 
 tion of the shots. The manoeuvering of the 
 Japanese first division excited great admira- 
 tion. Taking advantage of their speed and 
 the long range of their guns, they always 
 kept at the distance that suited them, main- 
 taining perfect order throughout the fight, 
 attempting nothing sensational and never 
 coming within destructive range of the 
 heaviest guns. 
 
 The Mast Cut Away. 
 
 Captain Sakamoto, of the Akagi, was 
 aloft watching for torpedoes and signalling 
 to the other vessels of the fleet their loca- 
 tion, when the mast was cut away by a shot 
 from the enemy and he was killed. The 
 Yoshino 's forward barbette was slightly 
 damaged. All the ships of the Japanese 
 squadron carried new guns, and these did ex- 
 cellent service. They used no torpedoes, all 
 the damage sustained by the Chinese vessels 
 being inflicted by shot. In view of this fact, 
 the sinking of double bottomed vessels like 
 the Lai-Yuen is considered remarkable, and 
 it is the generally expressed opinion among 
 nautical authorities that the work of the 
 Japanese was the most successful thing since 
 the time of Nelson. 
 
 Toward the close of the fight great confu- 
 sion was observed on board the Tincf-Yuen, 
 King-Yueii and Ping-Yuen. These ships 
 appeared to be on fire. 
 
 At sundown the Chinese fleet were in full 
 retreat. They were pursued by the Japanese 
 ships, which laid their course parallel to that 
 taken by the enemy. The night being very 
 dark, the pursuers kept at some distance 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 559 
 
 from the Chinese, fearing that should they 
 follow the enemy too closely they might be 
 damaged by the latter's torpedo boats. Owing 
 to this fact and the extreme darkness the 
 Chinese succeeded in getting away and 
 reaching a safe shelter. 
 
 At daylight the Japanese vessels endeav- 
 ored to find the enemy, but were unable to 
 do so. They then returned to the scene of 
 the previous day's action, where they found 
 the Yang-Wei ashore and deserted, and 
 destroyed her with a fish torpedo. None of 
 the Japanese vessels were lost in the engage- 
 ment and only three of them were seriously 
 injured. All of them, with the exception of 
 the Matsusima, remained on the station. 
 
 All the official reports of the battle were 
 very laconic and greatly wanting in scientific 
 and useful details, but from the foregoing 
 statements the reader will be able to obtain a 
 true account of the battle. 
 
 Literal Gifts. 
 
 The ex-Daimio of Mito, one of the great 
 Tokugawa family of the Shogunatow, com- 
 memorated the victory of Ping- Yang by a 
 donation of ;^8ooo to the war fund. His 
 younger brother gave at the same time 
 $2300. Large contributions to the same 
 object continued to be received from various 
 sources, the theatre managers being especi- 
 ally conspicuous for their liberality, but the 
 native journals complained that the promi- 
 nent merchants and bankers, and especially 
 the contractors, who were receiving enor- 
 mous sums from the public treasury, offered 
 no similar donations. 
 
 By command of the Empress, the pecuni- 
 ary circumstances of the families of soldiers 
 and sailors who died in the war, were ascer- 
 tained for her Majesty's immediate consider- 
 ation. Subscriptions to the war aggregated 
 on September 25, ;^ 5 5,000,000, ;^ 10,000 be- 
 
 ing applied for at the rate above par. The 
 call was for only ^25,000,000. 
 
 Warnings of punishment in store for Li 
 Hung Chang in consequence of the repeated 
 defeats suffered by the Chinese Army and 
 Navy were sent from Pekin, but the text of 
 the decree proclaimed on the 17th of Sep- 
 tember, after the battle of Ping- Yang, was 
 as follows: 
 
 Li Hung Chang Degraded. 
 "The Emojen (Japanese pigmies), having 
 broken faith with Corea and forcibly occu- 
 pied that country, the throne sympathized 
 with its tributary kingdom in her distress 
 and so raised an army to attack the common 
 enemy. Upon Li Hung Chang, Imperial 
 High Commander of Peyang, having chief 
 control of the forces there, rested the entire 
 burden of being prepared for emergencies, 
 but, instead, he has been unable to act with 
 speed and promptness in his military prepara- 
 tions, so that much time has elapsed without 
 any important results. He has indeed failed 
 in the trust reposed in him by us. We, 
 therefore, command that his decoration of 
 the Three- Eyed Peacock Feather be plucked 
 off from his hat and that he be stripped of 
 the yellow riding jacket as a slight punish- 
 ment. It is necessary then that the said Im- 
 perial High Commander exert himself to the 
 utmost and decide upon what should be 
 done ; that he direct and hasten the various 
 armies from the various provinces to the 
 front in order that all may put forth their 
 best strength to chase and root out the 
 enemy; In this way Li Hung Chang may 
 hope to redeem former errors." 
 
 The position of foreigners in the interior ' 
 of China, especially at the north, was regarded 
 as extremely, critical. Even residents of 
 Shanghai felt it necessary to remind com- 
 manders of European fleets of dangers that 
 
560 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 would threaten them in case the government 
 suffered further reverses, and the few ahens 
 who remained in Pekin had far more serious 
 cause for apprehension. 
 
 The authority of Li Hung Chang, which 
 would ordinarily be exercised on behalf of 
 strangers was now so weakened that his 
 promises of protection could no longer be 
 trusted. No immediate movement from the 
 capital could be safely attempted, as the 
 roads were thronged with disorderly bodies 
 of troops and a peasant population, famished 
 and desperate. The presence of marines to 
 guard legations and restrain the lawlessness 
 of mobs, which seemed waiting only for a 
 pretext to rise upon Europeans and Ameri- 
 cans, was imperatively demanded. 
 
 A New Commander. 
 
 The call of Prince Kung to power was 
 interpreted as another sign of Li Hung 
 Chang's decline. This half-forgotten states- 
 man, seventy years of age, controlled the 
 diplomacy of the Empire some thirty years 
 before, until he was set aside by one of the 
 palace conspiracies which in those days 
 frequently threw the government into confu- 
 sion. His appointment was quickly followed 
 by the nomination of General Sung to the 
 chief command of the Northern armies. 
 
 This was understood as equivalent to a 
 definite denial to Li's position to be entrusted 
 with the direct management of the military 
 and naval forces. The statement previously 
 published that the Chinese fleet purposely 
 carried no boats was corroborated. The 
 crews of all the lost vessels perished, with 
 scarcely an exception. The number of 
 drowned was roughly estimated at nearly 
 seven hundred. Every deck ofificer engaged 
 was injured. On the ships which returned to 
 Port Arthur about one hundred were killed 
 and two hundred and fifty were wounded. 
 
 The engagement was severe throughout, and 
 the casualties were unavoidable. 
 
 An extraordinary Imperial edict was issued 
 calling for a true report of the battle of Ping- 
 Yang. The Emperor announced that the 
 defeat was owing to dissensions amongst the 
 defenders and rivalry of generals in charge of 
 the several brigades, and stated that the 
 guilty parties would be severely punished. 
 
 A proclamation was issued warning British' 
 troops against accepting any engagements 
 that might be offered. The Merchants' 
 Steam Navigation Company continued the 
 transfer of its ships from Chinese to German 
 control. 
 
 One of the Imperial decrees announced 
 that the sovereign had consented to the 
 Empress Dowager's request to omit or post- 
 pone the celebration of that lady's sixtieth 
 birthday and devote the immense sums of 
 money collected for the ceremonies to the 
 prosecution of the war. Reports of mutinies 
 among Chinese troops in Manchuria gained 
 strength and caused great agitation in Pekin 
 and Tien Tsin. 
 
 Prompt Contributions. 
 
 " Ever since the war began," wrote a 
 Japanese correspondent, " the enthusiasm of 
 the Japanese has known no bounds. Con- 
 tributions for the comfort of the soldiers in 
 Corea flow in from all sides. Every imagin- 
 able article was piled up in the Army Depart- 
 ment as gifts to those fighting for the country. 
 Contributions from ten cents up to tens of 
 thousands of dollars were daily reported. 
 Mr. Fukuzawa, the famous educationalist and 
 journalist, contributed ;g 10,000 to the relief 
 fund. 
 
 "Ladies, high and low, were sending 
 money, as well as lint bandages for the 
 wounded. Towns and villages were busying 
 themselves in organizing militia companies to 
 
JAPAN'S GREAT NAVAL VICTORY. 
 
 561 
 
 offer their services to the Mikado. The 
 Mikado, however, addressed the people, ex- 
 horting them that it was their duty to stay 
 at home, to follow their own vocations, as 
 there is a regular army sufficient for the 
 occasion, although he rejoiced in their patri- 
 otism. This must have been a great disap- 
 pointment to the brave arid warlike Samurai 
 class. 
 
 " To prepare for a prolonged war Japan 
 issued this large five per cent, government 
 loan of ^25,000,000. The Minister of the 
 Treasury consulted with financiers and bank- 
 ers as to the advisability of the measure. 
 The Minister was of the opinion that the 
 bonds ought to bear six per cent, interest, 
 but the bankers' enthusiasm was such that 
 they assured him that the greater part of the 
 loan would be taken by themselves at five per 
 cent, and they felt sure that there would be 
 no difficulty in raising the entire amount. 
 The feeling of the whole country is at such a 
 pitch that they cannot rest until they realize 
 the long cherished hope of humiliating 
 China." 
 
 Japan's Field Marshal. 
 
 The Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese 
 army in Corea, Field Marshal Count A. 
 Yamagata, who brought the Ping -Yang 
 campaign to a brilliant close, may well be 
 said to be a born soldier. He was called 
 the Von Moltke of Japan, and his brilliant 
 strategy at Ping- Yang would indicate that 
 he deserved the title. In stature, he is tall 
 and slender. 
 
 The reader will be interested in the follow- 
 ing sketch : " Socially he is very quiet and 
 silent, and here his resemblance to the great 
 
 36 
 
 German general is brought out in bold relief. 
 His influence and popularity are immense, 
 especially in the army. He comes of very 
 humble origin, his father being one of the 
 Ashigaru caste, the lowest of all the Samurai 
 classes, who, in feudal times, could not under 
 ordinary circumstances be promoted to a 
 higher rank. 
 
 " When still in his teens he was the head 
 of the Chosin cavalry forces, and led them 
 against the army of 20,000 men sent in 1864 
 by the Shogun, then the reigning power, for 
 the chastisement of the feudal lord of the 
 Chosin province. With the insignificant 
 force of scarcely 2000 men he checked the 
 advance of the enemy and completely de- 
 feated them before they could invade the 
 Chosin territory. His strategy and tactics 
 on that occasion were masterpieces in skill 
 and precision. There has scarcely been any 
 fighting since the war of restoration in which 
 he was not actively engaged. 
 
 Japan's Greatest Marshal. 
 
 " It is the general opinion of Japanese that 
 Marshal Yamagata is the ablest general that 
 Japan now has. There are four field mar- 
 shals in the Japanese army, and Count Yama- 
 gata is the only one who is not of princely 
 birth. The other three are Prince Arisugawa 
 and other high personages of royal blood. 
 
 " Marshal Yamagata has in his staff in 
 Corea, Lieutenant General Nodsu, as vice 
 commander, who has had as brilliant a mili- 
 tary career as the Marshal himself. They 
 have been together in previous battles, and 
 kno'W each other well. It is not likely that 
 there will be any disagreement between them 
 as to military operations." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 AFTER the great naval battle which 
 resulted so disastrously to the Chi- 
 nese navy, the Japanese army made 
 preparations for a bold advance, 
 having in view especially the towns and for- 
 tified places occupied by the enemy. A 
 number of minor battles were fought, which 
 although not decisive, or fraught with great 
 results, yet served to show the superiority of 
 the Japanese arms. 
 
 A strong patriotic feeling in support of the 
 war manifested itself in Japan, and the popu- 
 lace were elated over recent victories and 
 were enthusiastic in their support of the 
 government. On all sides there was rejoic- 
 ing and congratulations. By this time the 
 conviction not only pervaded Japan, but 
 other nations likewise, that the military 
 power of China was only a mere shell and 
 would easily be crushed in the conflict. As 
 a result it began to be rumored that China 
 was ready to propose terms of peace, and 
 although this was denied by officials of high 
 position the statement was again and again 
 renewed and found a ready relief 
 
 The fact also became known that England 
 was extremely nervous on account of the 
 events in the Orient which threatened her 
 commercial relations with China. There 
 was talk of interference by the European 
 powers and it was only after mature delibera- 
 tion that the decision was reached to allow 
 the war to proceed and take its own course. 
 The powers most frequently named were 
 England and Russia, and it became an inter- 
 esting question as to what part each would 
 562 
 
 play in the sanguinary conflict. Reports 
 flew from continent to continent with light- 
 ning rapidity, rumors and contradictions of 
 rumors filled the air, and public interest with 
 the dawn of each day inquired what new 
 move had been made upon the chess-board 
 of the Orient where nations were playing the 
 great drama of Empire. 
 
 Meanwhile let us turn our attention to the 
 military movements and incidents of the 
 campaign following the battle of the Yalu. 
 
 Death of China's Commander. 
 
 After the battle of Ping- Yang, while the 
 Japanese soldiers were engaged in burying 
 those who had fallen in the fight, they found, 
 surrounded by a heap of dead bodies, the 
 remains of an officer very richly clad. On 
 the body was found a letter from the Chinese 
 government addressed to General Yeh, Com- 
 mander-in-Chief of the Chinese forces in 
 Corea. This letter, together with others, 
 from the wife of General Yeh, and various 
 documents, which were also found on the 
 body, fixed beyond doubt the identity of the 
 remains as those of General Yeh, who was 
 supposed to have succeeded in making his 
 escape after the complete rout of his forces 
 by the Japanese. The body was interred 
 with the honor due the rank of the deceased 
 officer. 
 
 At this juncture of affairs it was reported 
 that Japan was endeavoring to negotiate a 
 treaty with the United States. The treaty 
 was one which the Mikado's government 
 regarded as more important than any ever 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 563 
 
 made by it before with any country. It pro- 
 vided for the abolition of that feature of the 
 present treaty which is known as " extra-ter- 
 ritorial" jurisdiction, which is equivalent to 
 placing the affairs of foreigners in Japan 
 under the control of courts composed of 
 consuls representing the commercial powers. 
 Japan has made such progress in civiliza- 
 tion during the past two decades that her 
 national pride revolts at a continuation of 
 such authority, which is only demanded in 
 our treaty negotiations with semi-barbarous 
 nations. This was the real bone of conten- 
 tion in the proposed new treaty, and it was 
 one from which Japan emphatically declined 
 to recede. 
 
 Concerning Immigration. 
 
 Another important clause was that which 
 relates to immigration. This, however, it 
 was believed, could be satisfactorily adjusted, 
 inasmuch as the policy of the Tokio govern- 
 ment is to discourage emigration, and, more- 
 over, it is claimed, the Japanese are not a 
 migratory people, and there is no probability 
 that this country would ever be threatened 
 with a "Japanese invasion," as has been the 
 case with the subjects of China. 
 
 The proposed new treaty was drawn on 
 practically the lines of the treaty agreed to 
 by Great Britain. It specifically enumerated 
 the respective rates of duty which would be 
 levied on importations from the United 
 States, and it provided for the abolition of the 
 export duty on silks and teas, both of which 
 articles are principally exported to the United 
 States, and which yield to the Japanese gov- 
 ernment a revenue amounting to more than 
 ;? 1, 000,000 annually. As the consumer in 
 this case " pays the tax " the pecuniary sacri- 
 fice made by Japan will be a benefit to the 
 American people, and will furnish an addi- 
 tional proof on the part of the Japanese 
 
 government for an expansion of their trade 
 with the United States. The treaty also 
 contained other provisions of an economic 
 nature, which, it was believed, would tend 
 further to increase our trade relations with 
 that country. 
 
 Public interest was further awakened in 
 the affairs of the Orient by reliable news of 
 a proposition to partition China among the 
 European Powers. The following despatch 
 from St. Petersburg indicated what was 
 going on in diplomatic circles : 
 
 Partition of China Proposed. 
 
 " In a long and remarkable article on the 
 China-Japanese war the Novosti, a leading 
 journal, strongly advocates European inter- 
 vention, and advises Great Britian, France 
 and Russia to come to an understanding, 
 with a view to the partition of China by a 
 joint occupation. The conquest of China 
 by these three Powers, it is contended, 
 would be an easy undertaking and would 
 render vast service to civilization at large. 
 It would be of benefit to the Chinese people 
 themselves, in saving them from certain de- 
 cay and in freeing them from an arbitrary 
 round of routine in order to bring them into 
 the common sphere of civilization. 
 
 "The iV(7i/^j^? draws a glowing picture of 
 the enormous economic advantages which 
 would result from the transformation of 
 China into a vast market, which would be 
 the receptacle of the superabundant pro- 
 ducts, natural and industrial, of Europe. 
 
 " Commenting on the situation in Corea, 
 the Novoe Vremya says : — ' Russia is entitled 
 to more preponderating influence than Great 
 Britian in the settlement of the Corean ques- 
 tion, in view of the fact that the geographical 
 position of Corea places that country within 
 Russia's sphere of influence.' " 
 
 The obstacles in the way of carving China 
 
664 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 up for an all round distribution, such as the 
 Russian Novosti suggested, would be -very, 
 great. But these obstacles would not for 
 the most part be furnished by China herself. 
 It is true that she has a population of many 
 millions, and she possesses arsenals where 
 cannons, rifles and ammunition of the most 
 modern type are turned out in considerable 
 quantities. But there is no country in the 
 world where scientific warfare is less intelli- 
 gently studied or understood. "The Chi- 
 nese army," says a highly qualified English 
 observer, "under Chinese officers, even with 
 muskets in its hands and cartridges in its 
 pouches, is an undisciplined rabble of tramps, 
 about as well qualified to withstand a 
 European force as a body of Hyde Park pro- 
 cessionists would be to repel a charge of the 
 Life Guard." 
 
 Great, but Weak. 
 
 All history goes to show the facility with 
 which China, notwithstanding her over- 
 whelming numbers, may be worsted by a de- 
 termined invader. Two and a half centuries 
 ago she yielded to a few hundred thousand 
 Tartars, who founded the present dynasty. 
 Four centuries before that she had bowed 
 before the Mongols. In recent times many 
 territorial losses have borne testimony to her 
 weakness. Tonquin, Annam and Cochin 
 China have been taken by France; Siam no 
 longer owes her allegiance ; Burmah has be- 
 come a British possession; the Loo-Chow 
 Islands have passed under the dominion of 
 Japan; and now finally Corea has been 
 wrested from her uncertain grasp. 
 
 There is yet another reason why China 
 could not hope to resist a partition should 
 the Powers decide upon making it. The 
 Chinese are not one people — not a single 
 community, but a congeries of communities. 
 There is among them no national unity or 
 
 cohesion. The Thibetans and Mongolians, 
 the Turki and Mussulmans are not united in 
 a real band. The inhabitants of the north- 
 ern portions of the Empire cannot so much 
 as understand the speech of their southern 
 fellow subjects. The provinces are all inde- 
 pendent, with their own armies and . their 
 own government, strung loosely together by 
 the same submission to the reigning house. 
 This nexus removed, internal disruption 
 would inevitably result. 
 
 Anarchy would Result. 
 
 Were the capital occupied by an enemy 
 the Emperor expelled and the dynasty over- 
 turned, it is doubtful whether China would 
 persevere in any protracted resistance, or 
 initiate a policy of revenge. The various 
 elements of disorder scattered . through the 
 Empire would each find its local focus, and 
 a reign of lawless anarchy and universal dis- 
 location might be expected to ensue. It is 
 clear that this crumbling of the Empire 
 upon the removal of its Emperor would 
 enormously assist the division of its terri- 
 tories among a number of greedy and pow- 
 erful foreign states. 
 
 The effect of the war news upon the Japa- 
 nese was electric and was the occasion of 
 some striking scenes in the large cities. At 
 Yokohama a large number of flags taken 
 from the Chinese were exhibited in front of 
 the Shokonsha shrine, which is dedicated to 
 the spirits of the soldiers that have fallen in 
 battle since the days of the restoration. 
 Thousands of people daily, gathered round 
 the place, their countenances beaming with 
 delight at this tangible proof of the superi- 
 ority of the Japanese arms. The pride of 
 those in the crowd who had soldier relatives 
 was freely expressed, and such phrases as 
 "my brother" or "my cousin" did this or 
 that were frequently to be heard. The ex- 
 
565 
 
r)66 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR, 
 
 hibition of flags was of itself well worth 
 seeing, but the exhibition of family pride and 
 loyalty was more touching. 
 
 It is estimated that more than fifty thou- 
 sand soldiers were in Tokio, the majority 
 composed of the first-class reserves. The 
 barracks were full to overflowing, and the 
 houses of wealthy private citizens were ap- 
 propriated, as many as fifty men being bil- 
 leted on one house. 
 
 The calling out of the first-class reserves 
 resulted in sorrow to many households. 
 The metropolitan journals reported one case 
 of peculiar interest, which revealed the crime 
 of infanticide. The young wife of a time- 
 expired soldier died, leaving the widower 
 with an infant daughter. On being called 
 to go to Corea he made strenuous efforts to 
 get some one to take his baby, but, being 
 very poor, was unable to procure a home 
 for the little one. As there was apparently 
 nothing else to do he killed the child and 
 then joined his regiment. The crime was 
 not discovered until after his departure for 
 Corea. He left word with a friend that he 
 was resolved to die on the field of battle. 
 
 Fears for Missionaries. 
 
 As a result of the outbreak of the war the 
 gravest solicitude was felt for the missionaries 
 located in China. After a Cabinet Council 
 instructions were cabled to the British Min- 
 ister at Pekin, and to the British Consuls at 
 all the treaty ports to send to the mission 
 stations in the interior, imperative directions 
 for the withdrawal of all the missionaries to 
 the protected coast districts. The Consuls 
 were empowered by their instructions to call 
 for assistance upon Vice Admiral Free- 
 mantle, commanding the British fleet in 
 Chinese waters, who was authorized to send 
 gunboats to any possible distance up the 
 Chinese rivers, if such action was deemed 
 
 necessary, to cover the withdrawal of the 
 missionaries. 
 
 The instructions also directed that all 
 missionaries, without regard to nationality, 
 should be protected. The few and meagre 
 telegrams received by the Minister and Con- 
 suls from the nearest mission stations, indi- 
 cated that the missionaries there were 
 determined not to desert their posts, but 
 to continue their work in the face of all 
 risks. The largest Protestant inland mission 
 in China is engaged in the provinces of 
 Se-Chuen and Hu-Pei, in which provinces 
 anti-foreign riots have most often occurred. 
 
 Remained at their Posts. 
 
 The managers of this station, instead of 
 withdrawing the workers under their super- 
 vision, sent fresh drafts of missionaries to the 
 various sub-stations in their district, they 
 having received advices that there was no 
 more cause for fear of ill-treatment than 
 usually existed. The society which operates 
 this station, also, has four stations in the 
 province of Pe-Chi-Li, in which province 
 Pekin is situated, and these four stations 
 employ 614 missionaries, no one of whom, 
 so far as is known, was preparing to retreat. 
 The same may be said of the Catholic mis- 
 sionaries, whose numbers are largely in 
 excess of the Protestants. 
 
 In Nieu-Chang and Moukden, which are 
 near the centre of the district where the war 
 was being carried on, there were stationed 
 twenty-three Catholic and seventeen Protes- 
 tant missionaries. The mail advices received 
 from those points stated that the churches 
 and houses of native converts had been pil- 
 laged and burned, but that the foreign resi- 
 dents had meanwhile remained unharmed. 
 The position of affairs debarred the Admir- 
 alty from sending explicit orders as to how 
 to dispose of the vessels covering the ports. 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 567 
 
 but Vice Admiral Freemantle was advised 
 to station gunboats at the Che-Foo, Ichang 
 and Hankow, and also at the furthest inland 
 port, Chun-King. At Shanghai the Indo- 
 European police force was increased on 
 representations made by British shippers 
 there. 
 
 Taking Shelter in Pekin. 
 
 The London Missionary Society received 
 a cablegram from the missionaries under its 
 charge located in Tientsin and vicinity, 
 stating that they were well, but that their 
 families were leaving for Pekin, fearing the 
 result of the anti-foreign feeling which had 
 made itself manifest on the part of the 
 natives. 
 
 China, with her teeming millions, has 
 always been regarded as an important field 
 for missionary labor since the Nestorians in 
 the seventh century first carried the standard 
 of the Cross into that countiy. The Jesuit 
 missionaries that went to China about the 
 time when the present Manchu dynasty 
 came into power were well received by the 
 Chinese government. Many of them suc- 
 ceeded even in obtaining high official posts 
 through their scientific attainments. 
 
 Protestant missionaries made no attempt 
 to enter China till the beginning of the 
 present century. The opening of the five 
 ports in 1 842 gave an impetus to missionary 
 labor as well as to trade. The field was 
 gradually widened by the subsequent open- 
 ing of other ports. At first the missionaries 
 naturally confined their operations to these 
 places. Not content with this limited sphere 
 of action they soon established themselves in 
 otlier parts of the country. Now the differ- 
 ent missionary societies in this country and 
 in Europe have mission stations in every 
 province of the Empire. 
 
 The American Board has four principal 
 
 missions in China, called, respectively, the 
 South China, the Foo-chow, the North 
 China and the Shansi. The China Inland 
 Mission has appropriated to itself the interior 
 parts of China as its special field. These 
 examples are sufficient to show how ubiqui- 
 tous the missionaries in China are. In fact, 
 one may come across these self-sacrificing 
 men and women in any out-of-the-way 
 corner of the Empire. Their isolation in 
 this fashion in remote districts renders it 
 practically impossible to afford them ade- 
 quate protection. 
 
 Execution of Japanese Students. 
 
 On October i ith it was reported that two 
 Japanese students who were surrendered to 
 the Chinese authorities by the American 
 Consul at Shanghai had been barbarously 
 executed at Nankin by order of the Vice- 
 roy. They died bravely. The arrest of 
 these Japanese was the cause of a spirited 
 controversy, the question involved being 
 that of territorial jurisdiction. The two 
 Japanese were students in Shanghai, who, it 
 was alleged, at the outbreak of hostilities be- 
 tween China and Japan, gathered information 
 concerning China's weakness for the use of 
 their government. It was not known 
 whether they succeeded in sending any of 
 this information to Japan. The Chinese au- 
 thorities claimed that they detected them in 
 their alleged unlawful work and attempted to 
 place them under arrest. 
 
 The Japanese fled to the French Consu- 
 late in Shanghai, but remained there only a 
 short time, the French Consul General turn- 
 ing them over to the United States Consu- 
 late. Some days after their arrival at the 
 United States Consulate the Chinese authori- 
 ties demanded that they be turned over to 
 them, and not having jurisdiction over them, 
 our Consul General Jernegan had to accede 
 
568 
 
 CORE A AND THE WAR. 
 
 to their request. This action was considered 
 in the United States Senate December 5 th. 
 
 The next advices from the seat of war 
 stated that on October loth a detachment 
 of Japanese cavalry and infantry made an 
 attack upon and routed a force of 2,000 
 Chinese at Wi-Ju, and that the place re- 
 mained in the hands of the Japanese. The 
 Japanese force had been greatly delayed in 
 its advance by the badness of the roads. 
 The heavy guns could be brought forward 
 but slowly, and the troops were compelled 
 often to wait for supplies. Pioneer troops 
 had to be used repeatedly to make the roads 
 passable. The main Japanese column 
 reached Yung-Chen, a short distance to the 
 south of Wi-Ju, on October 4. There was 
 no sign of the enemy. Four days later the 
 scouts who had been sent out " towards 
 Wi-Ju reported that a small Chinese force 
 still occupied the city. 
 
 The Town Captured. 
 
 The strength of the enemy was estimated 
 at about 2,000. A strong body of infantry 
 and cavalry, supported by light artillery, 
 was thrown forward at once. The Chinese 
 offered little resistance. They retired before 
 the first attacking party, and eventually 
 broke and fled across the Yalu. The Chi- 
 nese loss was hardly more than a hundred 
 killed and wounded. The Japanese line of 
 communications was now complete through- 
 out Corea, 
 
 The Japanese Parliament, convoked to 
 consider war measures, was opened at 
 Hiroshima, October i8th, by the Emperor in 
 person. A bill was submitted providing for 
 increased expenditures for the army and 
 navy. The war expenses were estimated 
 at ;^ 1 50,000,000, of which amount ;^26,- 
 000,000 was to be taken from the Govern- 
 ment reserve fund. Another bill introduced 
 
 provided for raising a further internal loan 
 of ;^ 100,000,000, payable in instalments, 
 with interest not tb exceed six per cent. 
 
 A resolution was submitted by the radicals 
 under the terms of which the increase of 
 the navy proposed at the fourth session 
 should now be accepted and executed as 
 rapidly as possible. Under the resolution 
 work upon the ships' in course of construc- 
 tion would be pushed to completion, the ad- 
 ditional defences heretofore proposed be 
 rapidly constructed, and the necessary sup- 
 ply of arms and munitions of war be se- 
 cured with the least possible delay. 
 
 The Emperor's Speech. 
 
 The following was the speech of the Em- 
 peror to the extraordinary session of the 
 Imperial Diet at Hiroshima : 
 
 " Nobles and Gentlemen : 
 
 " We have convened an extraordinary 
 session of the Imperial Diet at this time, 
 and have specially commanded our Ministers 
 whose departments are concerned to lay 
 before you a number of measures of great 
 urgency. These are the bills relating to the 
 naval and military expenditure. 
 
 " We have again to repeat that China, in 
 disregard to her duty, declined to co-operate 
 with Japan for the preservation of peace in 
 the East. The present conflict is the re- 
 sult. But the sword once drawn, hostilities 
 must not be permitted to cease until the ob- 
 ject of the war is attained. 
 
 " It is our earnest desire that our loyal 
 subjects shall in perfect union and harmony 
 devote themselves to the promotion of the 
 interests of the Empire, and to the securing 
 of the complete and final triumph of our 
 arms, and thereby bring about a speedy re- 
 storation of peace to the Orient. It is for 
 you, nobles and gentlemen, to exert your' 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 569 
 
 selves to obtain the complete realization of 
 this object." 
 
 An address in reply to the speech from 
 the throne was presented by the Presidents 
 of the two Chambers of the Diet, thanking 
 the Mikado for advancing the standard of 
 Japan by personally assuming direction of 
 the war, the natural results of which direc- 
 tion by His Majesty have been the Japanese 
 victories on land and sea. The address of 
 the Presidents concluded as follows : 
 
 " Your Majesty rightly considers China 
 an enemy to civilization, and we comply 
 with the Imperial desire to destroy the bar- 
 barous obstinacy of that race." The patri- 
 otic tone of the speeches in the Japanese 
 Lower House strengthened the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In Favor of Peace. 
 
 The deep-seated repugnance of war on the 
 part of many of the American people found . 
 expression at Washington on October 19th. 
 The members of the American branch of the 
 International Peace Bureau issued an appeal 
 to the Emperors of Japan and China to arbi- 
 trate their difficulties. Some of the success- 
 ful arbitrations that have been achieved by 
 these International Peace Associations were 
 mentioned in the appeal, the more prominent 
 of which were the treaty of London, which 
 gave to Belgium her neutrality ; the treaty 
 of Washington, which resulted in the settle- 
 ment of the Alabama claims, and the Behring 
 Sea Arbitration, known as the treaty of Paris. 
 
 The appeal stated that further loss of life 
 and property could be avoided, without any 
 reflection upon either country, by submitting 
 their pending disputes to arbitration with the 
 same results and without loss of prestige, 
 as were secured by the contending nations 
 which were parties to the foregoing arbitra- 
 tions. It recommended as arbitrators the 
 
 Pope of Rome, the Emperor of Austria, 
 Queen Victoria, the King of Denmark, and 
 the Queen Regent of the Netherlands. 
 Pending the negotiation of such submission 
 to arbitration all hostilities to cease and the 
 usual international forms of truce to be 
 strictly observed by both the contending 
 parties. The appeal, in conclusion, pledged 
 that the International Peace Bureau would 
 do all in its power to have this armistice 
 strictly observed. 
 
 Across the Yalu River. 
 
 Meanwhile, military operations went for- 
 ward. Count Yamagata, commander-in- 
 chief of the Japanese forces in Corea, re- 
 ported to the government at Tokio that a 
 detachment of 1600 Japanese infantry 
 crossed the Yalu River on t6e morning of 
 October 24th, at Sukochin, above Wi-Ju. 
 Shortly after crossing the river the troops 
 met a body of Chinese, composed of 600 
 cavalry and 100 infantry, with two cannon. 
 
 The Japanese at once made an attack upon 
 the enemy and the latter fled, leaving behind 
 them the two guns and a large number of 
 muskets. The Chinese lost twenty killed or 
 wounded, but there was not a single fatality 
 among the Japanese. The latter also seized 
 a fort near the scene of the engagement. A 
 detachment of the Japanese forces advanced 
 upon Lishiyen and the main body crossed 
 the Yalu River. 
 
 The force of Japanese that crossed the 
 river and defeated the Chinese was composed 
 entirely of riflemen. Earthworks had been 
 thrown up at Sukochin by the Chinese, but 
 a slight deviation enabled the attacking forces 
 to cross the river without hindrance. The 
 Chinese position was garrisoned with a small 
 force of artillery and infantry, and these fled 
 after two or three rounds of shots had been 
 fired. 
 
570 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 Count Yamagata added: "We captured 
 the works with a rush. A regiment of 
 Manchurian cavalry came up as the enemy- 
 were driven from the earthworks and cov- 
 ered their retreat. The retiring force took 
 refuge within Chinese batteries further down 
 the river, throwing away their muskets in 
 their flight. 
 
 " Our advanced detachment now holds 
 the fortifications erected at Sukochin ferry 
 by the Chinese, and is prepared to guard the 
 passage across the river of the main body, 
 which will probably be made at dawn of the 
 25 th inst. Pontoons have already been 
 placed in position at Nodzu, and all the 
 men and materials are ready for a rapid 
 advance. There are still many Chinese 
 troops in the batteries opposite Wi-Ju, but 
 their number has not been increasing during 
 the past week. The opposing forces have 
 both been making reconnoissances since the 
 Chinese were driven out of Wi-Ju, but no " 
 fighting had taken place until the morning 
 of the 24th. 
 
 The Chinese Force. 
 
 "Scouts have made their way to a con- 
 siderable distance down the river, and have 
 also pushed into the interior, but none has 
 met any armed Chinese. A report is cur- 
 rent that the entire effective Chinese force is 
 intrenched close to the Yalu River on the 
 Moukden road. The main attack on the 
 Chinese will be made before Sunday." 
 
 A startling incident of the war was the 
 murder of a high Corean official. " Cor- 
 rupt and treacherous though China's official 
 circles may be, says the Jiji Shimpo, of 
 Tokio, of September 22, we never have 
 given credence to the report that the late 
 Chinese Minister to Corea, Yuen-Si-Kwei, 
 was killed by poison. But a recent despatch 
 fronl a trustworthy source says that this 
 
 dreadful tragedy of Chinese treachery was . 
 enacted in the very capital of China itself„ 
 in Pekin. At the outbreak of the war Li- 
 Hung-Chang was accused of having brought 
 on the premature rupture 6f peace between 
 China and Japan. 
 
 "Matters were getting too hot for the 
 Viceroy, and he sought means to extricate 
 himself from the charges made against him, 
 and to protect his own safety by transferring 
 the whole blame upon Minister Yuen. He 
 answered the impeachment of the Pekin 
 court with the arraignment of poor Yuen,^ 
 whom he charged with acting in the Coreaa 
 question without his order and without his. 
 knowledge, thus bringing about the present 
 conflict. 
 
 A Piece of Treachery. 
 
 "At this juncture Yuen returned to Chinai 
 from Corea. No sooner had he touched the 
 soil of Tien-Tsin than Li took possession of 
 him, and, apprehensive of Yuen's exposure 
 of his share in the Corean complications, in- 
 duced him to conceal his whereabouts. Li 
 kept him literally in a state of confinement, 
 while he was using his every effort in Pekin 
 to bring him into disgrace. Yuen's indigna- 
 tion was great when he finally learned of 
 this piece of treachery on the part of the old 
 Viceroy. Determined to protect himself 
 from danger by giving facts and evidence be- 
 fore the high officials of the Pekin courts 
 Yuen escaped to the capital. 
 
 "The dread of Li-Hung-Chang in conse- 
 quence of the disappearance of Yuen cari 
 well be imagined. He was quite at a loss- 
 at first what to do, but he determined to take 
 some extreme measure for his own safety. 
 Yuen arrived at the capital, where he was 
 happy at the prospect of being able to appeal 
 to the court, and of establishing his inno- 
 cence by exposing the whole affair before 
 
572 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 the high officials. On the night of his ar- 
 rival he was invited to dine with a friend 
 from whom he had been separated since he 
 went to Corea as Minister. He returned 
 home and retired, feeling unusually comforta- 
 ble for the first time after his arrival in his 
 native land. But next morning Yuen was 
 no more. He was dead." 
 
 Field Marshal Count Yamagata reported 
 to the Emperor that at daybreak on October 
 25 the Japanese army under his command 
 completed its crossing of the Yalu River, 
 and in the forenoon attacked and defeated 
 the Chinese near Fu-Shang, also capturing a 
 fortress on the right bank of the River Ai. 
 According to the statement of a Chinese 
 officer who was made prisoner the enemy 
 were eighteen battalions strong. The Chi- 
 nese lost two hundred killed and a large 
 number wounded, though it was not known 
 how many. The number of Japanese killed 
 or wounded was five officers and ninety men. 
 
 A Forward Movement. 
 
 Advices received from Nodzu stated that 
 the Japanese began to transport the main 
 body of their army across the Yalu on the 
 evening of October 24. The work of cross- 
 ing continued throughout the night, and at 
 day-break on October 25 all the guns, horses 
 and men had crossed without mishap and 
 formed an intrenched camp. In the mean- 
 time Colonel Sato, who had taken a flying 
 column on the morning of October 25 for 
 the purpose of reconnoitring, came upon the 
 enemy, who occupied a fortified position 
 near the village of Fu-Shang, on the right 
 bank of the Ai River. Colonel Sato at- 
 tacked the Chinese at ten o'clock in the 
 morning, the fight continuing until past noon. 
 The Chinese offered a stubborn resistance, 
 but were ultimately driven out of their forti- 
 fications and retired in disorder to Kiu-Lien- 
 
 Chen. The Japanese then destroyed the for- 
 tress and rejoined the main army. 
 
 Count Yamagata's report to the Emperor 
 added that the Chinese engaged in the fight 
 greatly exceeded the Japanese in number. 
 He further said that his plans for the coming 
 fight were completed. These contemplated 
 the movement of several columns in a con- 
 certed and concurrent attack upon the 
 Chinese from all sides. Already, he said, 
 a network was being drawn around the 
 Chinamen, and it was expected that the 
 attack would take place at daybreak on 
 October 27, though it possibly might be 
 made earlier. 
 
 Precipitate Flight. 
 
 Subsequently the Marshal reported that 
 on October 26th, at daylight, he had arranged 
 to attack the enemy at Kiu-Lien-Cheng, but 
 found that this place had been evacuated by 
 the Chinese, who, apparently frightened, had 
 fled at the approach of the Japanese. The 
 number of men in the Chinese force he was 
 not certain of, but it was reported that there 
 were 16,000. During the last three days, 
 the Field Marshal reported the Japanese 
 captured thirty guns, a large quantity of 
 ammunition, rice and fodder and 300 tents. 
 
 After the capture of Kiu-Lien-Cheng on 
 the 26th, the Japanese headquarters were 
 moved from Wi-ju to this point. Two 
 columns chased the Chinese in various 
 directions. The Chinese fled without fight- 
 ing, throwing away arms and drums in their 
 flight. The capture of Wi-Ju was a victory 
 of great value to the Japanese, it seems, as 
 it is a place of considerable strategic import- 
 ance. Whoever controls this city controls 
 the mountain passes and roads around it 
 that lead into Corea on the one hand and 
 into Manchuria on the other. The Yalu 
 river at this point is very wide and deep. Its 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 573 
 
 banks are moderately high and slope upward 
 with a gradual ascent till they meet the hill 
 on which the city stands. 
 
 Wi-Ju is described as being the hand- 
 somest and cleanest place in either Corea or 
 China. This means a great deal, because 
 most of the places in those two lands, and 
 especially in the Celestial Empire, are monu- 
 ments of filth and disease. It is a walled 
 city of the first class, and occupies a site 
 whose natural , advantage's cannot be sur- 
 passed. The hill on which Wi-Ju stands is 
 about a mile wide and more than a mile and 
 a half long. On its summit is the city, 
 which is surrounded by a long, high and 
 strong wall of cut granite, which ages of 
 exposure have bleached to a dead white. 
 At intervals are watch towers with windows, 
 from which the sentry can spy out in every 
 direction. It is high and pierced with open- 
 ings to allow the archers to shoot down 
 upon invading armies. 
 
 A Historic City. 
 
 Before the invention of artillery the place 
 was considered almost impregnable. The 
 walls of the city are so high that but little 
 can be seen of the city within. Here and 
 there are glimpses of red roofs and porcelain 
 copings, the top of Buddhist temples, and 
 the upper stories of official buildings. Trees 
 and towers are half concealed by tree tops 
 and running vines. To the northwest, west 
 and southwest the city looks upon a fertile 
 rolling plain divided into farms and fields, 
 water courses and woodlands. The city has 
 been besieged, sacked and conquered at least 
 twenty times. 
 
 Centuries ago it was the outpost of the 
 old kingdom of Liaotong, and long before 
 tliat — in the third century of the Christian 
 era — it was the capital of one of the so-called 
 Sushun kingdoms. It is the distributing 
 
 centre and the chief market of this part of 
 Corea and Northeastern China. Its ware- 
 houses contain large amounts of rice, grain 
 and other foods, and its wells and streams 
 supply an inexhaustible amount of good 
 water. 
 
 Complaints against Chinese Soldiers. 
 
 General Tatsumi started for Fens-Huang 
 on the 27th and arrived there on the 31st. 
 The garrison made no show of fight, but fled 
 toward the main body as soon as the Japan- 
 ese approached. The principal generals were 
 proceeding with their troops toward Mouk- 
 den. The inhabitants of Haichao and Taku- 
 shan complained bitterly of the violence of 
 the Chinese soldiers, from whom they suf- 
 fered constantly during the occupation. 
 They were very friendly toward the Japanese. 
 Three hundred Chinese bodies were found 
 after the capture of Kiu-Lien-Cheng, many 
 of them having died of wounds received in 
 previous battles. 
 
 By the capture of Feng-Huang-Cheng and 
 two more abandoned places, the Japanese 
 came into possession of 5 5 cannon, 20,000 
 rounds of ammunition, 1 500 muskets and 
 2,000,000 cartridges, besides an enormous 
 quantity of miscellaneous supplies. Marshal 
 Yamagata ordered that all labor and sup- 
 plies be paid for as soon as obtained by the 
 Japanese, consequently the inhabitants of the 
 country volunteered their services and gladly 
 provided the commissariat with any needed 
 provisions. Marshal Yamagata then estab- 
 lished an office of civil administration in 
 Antong, and placed in charge Colonel Ko- 
 mura, secretary of the Japanese Legation in 
 Corea. He issued a proclamation promising 
 protection to the people and ordering them 
 to pay taxes to Colonel Komura. 
 
 It was reported on November 5th that the 
 English government was attempting to put 
 
574 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 an iCnd to the war. This was a renewal of 
 the attempt made a month previously, which 
 was unsuccessful. The English press, acting 
 for the commercial interests of the nation, 
 advocated an alliance with other Powers, and 
 the adoption of such measures as would bring 
 hostilities to a close. It was rumored that 
 China had already submitted to the Powers 
 the terms upon which she was willing to 
 make peace. 
 
 Anti-'War Sentiment. 
 
 The public sentiment was expressed as 
 follows by one of the journals: "No Euro- 
 pean government can desire to see this 
 disastrous conflict prolonged. Even the 
 United States, despite the Monroe doctrine, 
 must be concerned by the regularity and 
 security of their trade with Japan. Sooner 
 or later — and better sooner than later — there 
 must be an international settlement. It will 
 be difficult to contend that interferences will 
 be premature now. 
 
 "There is reason to believe that China has 
 resolved to formally ask the Powers who 
 have immediate commercial interests at stake 
 to stop the war. The Chinese Minister is 
 said to have communicated the request to 
 the Foreign office in London. According 
 to a telegram from Pekin, China is disposed 
 to conclude peace upon the basis of the ac- 
 knowledgment of Corea's independence and 
 the payment of an indemnity to be fixed by 
 the Powers. The Powers who are willing 
 to support this arrangement are requested to 
 intervene. 
 
 " The conquerors will for the first time 
 display a lack of sagacity if they decline to 
 accept reasonable overtures for peace. They 
 are no longer despised by the Chinese, but, 
 more than ever, are hated, and could not 
 hope to govern a single province of China 
 proper, if it should be formally ceded to 
 
 them. Meanwhile the Powers have a com- 
 mon interest in averting the disintegration of 
 the Celestial Empire. Humanity peremp- 
 torily forbids the thought of allowing a gov- 
 ernment under which hundreds of millions 
 live, to be destroyed. Japan may lose the 
 whole fruits of her victoiy by clutching for 
 too much." 
 
 On November 7th it was reported that 
 Ta-Lien-Wan, on the north of Port Arthur, 
 on the northeastern shore of the Regent's 
 Sword, had been taken. The Emperor of 
 China was desirous of consulting personally 
 with all the foreign Ministers on the situa- 
 tion. A provisional local government over 
 the conquered territory had been established 
 by the Japanese, with its headquarters at 
 Antong. One year's taxes were remitted by 
 the Japanese authorities to the natives. 
 
 Battle Ships off Port Arthur. 
 
 The Chinese reported that the Jafpanesfe 
 were rapidly advancing in the rear of Port 
 Arthur, and that a strong Japanese fleet, in- 
 cluding thirty torpedo boats, was outside the 
 harbor. It was expected that Port Arthur 
 and the Chinese fleet would fall into the 
 hands of the enemy. 
 
 Japanese reports from Nin-Chwang stated 
 that deserters from the Chine.se army were 
 arriving there by fifties, and that a great 
 panic existed among the Chinese, hundreds 
 of whom were leaving by every steamer. 
 The Japanese flying squadron was reported 
 to be a hundred miles off Niu-Chwang, and 
 the Chinese there were reshipping their 
 goods, considering it unsafe to remain there 
 during the winter. 
 
 An incident of the campaign was the ar- 
 rest of several Americans by the Japanese 
 authorities. The two who were arrested on 
 the steamer Sydney, at Kobe, were named 
 Hope and Brown. The name of a China- 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 575 
 
 man who was taken into custody at the 
 same time was Cham Fam Moore. He was 
 believed to be the interpreter of the Chinese 
 Legation at Washington. The Japanese au- 
 thorities informed the captain of the Sydney 
 before attempting to make the arrests that if 
 he would surrender these passengers he 
 Tvould be allowed to proceed for his destina- 
 tion. The offer, however, the captain re- 
 fused to avail himself of, whereupon an 
 armed force boarded the Sydney, and, de- 
 spite the protests of the French Consul and 
 the steamer's captain, seized the three men 
 -and removed them from the vessel. 
 
 A despatch from Tokio stated that the 
 two Americans and the Chinaman arrested 
 by the Japanese authorities appeared to be 
 under contract with the Chinese government 
 to attempt to destroy the Japanese fleet. 
 
 Story of the Captives. 
 
 The arrest was explained to some extent 
 hy the following statement, made by a 
 Washington newspaper correspondent: "A 
 story is told of the China-Japan war which 
 is full of dramatic interest. About six weeks 
 ■ago the report was circulated in diplomatic 
 ■circles here that Mr. Moore, one of the 
 attaches of the Chinese Legation, had been 
 recalled to Pekin by the home government. 
 It was said that he had been ordered back in 
 •disgrace, and his friends were profuse in their 
 ■expressions of sympathy. It was noticeable, 
 however, that Mr. Moore bore his ill fortune 
 philosophically, but by many it was feared 
 that his return to his native country would 
 he followed by his speedy decapitation. It 
 now appears that the supposed recall was not 
 in any sense a recall, but that Mr. Moore was 
 returning to China in pursuance of a clever 
 scheme, which had for its purpose the de- 
 struction by dynamite and torpedoes of the 
 Japanese fleet now in Chinese waters. 
 
 " Mr. Moore is the Chinaman referred to 
 as having been arrested, and his associates 
 are Mr. John Wild, an inventor, of Provi- 
 dence, R. I., and a Mr. Cameron, a Scotch- 
 man, who was employed for a time as a 
 workman in a torpedo manufactory at Provi- 
 dence. Messrs. Wild and Cameron had,' it 
 appears, satisfied the Chinese government of 
 their ability successfully to destroy the Jap- 
 anese vessels, and Mr. Moore was instructed 
 by the Pekin government to conduct them to 
 Shanghai. They travelled to San Francisco 
 and thence to Yokohama under assumed 
 names, Mr. Wild being known as Howie and 
 Mr. Cameron as Courtney. 
 
 The Plot Discovered. 
 
 " The Japanese government, through 
 sources which they decline to reveal, learned 
 of the plot, and when the trio sailed from 
 Yokohama they were arrested en route at 
 Kobe, a Japanese seaport city. The particu- 
 lars of their arrest are contained in a dispatch 
 dated at Hiroshima, the headquarters of the 
 Japanese army and navy. The dispatch is 
 as follows : 
 
 " 'A Chinese official, with two foreigners, 
 an Englishman and an American, arrived at 
 Yokohama a few days since on the steamer 
 Gaelic. All were under assumed names. 
 The foreigners were suspected of entering 
 into an agreement through Chinese officials, 
 with the Chinese government, for the purpose 
 of engaging in the war against Japan. They 
 landed at Yokohama and took passage on 
 board the steamship Sydney, for China. The 
 captain of the Japanese war vessel Tsukuba, 
 under orders from headquarters, exercised 
 the right of visit and search on board the 
 Sydney when she was in the harbor of Kobe, 
 and found in their possession an agreement 
 with the Chinese government to destroy the 
 entire navy of Japan within eight weeks by 
 
576 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 the use of torpedoes. Other official docu- 
 ments on the same subject were also found. 
 In consequence, the three were arrested and 
 taken ashore, and the ship released from de- 
 tention.' It is understood that none of the 
 trio will be punished by the Japanese govern- 
 ment, but will probably be held as prisoners 
 
 THE KING OF CORE.\ AND HIS SON. 
 
 of war indefinitely." This would effectually 
 prevent any damage that otherwise might be 
 inflicted upon Japanese war-ships, which have 
 acted an important part in the war. 
 
 Wild's • scheme of destruction was offered 
 the United States government some two 
 years before. He claimed that at the ex- 
 pense of a few thousand dollars he could 
 
 annihilate any foreign fleet which he attacked. 
 His plan was to throw from a torpedo boat 
 shells filled with chemicals, which, on strik- 
 ing, would explode, creating an impenetrable 
 and suffocating smoke, and to follow this up 
 by attacking with torpedoes. The Navy 
 Department was not convinced of the merits 
 of Wild's plan, and he left. When the 
 Eastern war broke out Wild came to 
 Washington and offered his plan to the 
 Japanese Legation. It was not favor- 
 ably considered, and he went straight 
 to the Chinese Legation. There his 
 scheme fell on fallow ground. Under 
 pretence of leaving for a vacation, In- 
 terpreter Aloore went to New York, 
 and thence to Providence, R. I., where 
 he met Wild and his associate, Cameron, 
 and arranged the details for the destruc- 
 tion of the Japanese fleet. But the Jap- 
 anese Legation had lost sight of neither 
 Wild nor Moore. Their movements 
 were shadowed, and they were allowed 
 to proceed across the country and across 
 the Pacific to Japan, where they were 
 arrested at the latest possible moment. 
 
 Offered No Protest. - 
 
 Secretary Gresham was officially noti- 
 fied of the arrest by the Japanese Minis- 
 ter, receiving from that official a copy 
 of the despatch wired to the legation 
 by the Japanese authorities. It was 
 decided by the State Department offi- 
 cials that this government could offer 
 no protest against the arrest of the Ameri- 
 can. All it could do was to prevent any 
 unnecessary cruelty being practiced on him. 
 Intervention on this score, it was not believed, 
 would be requisite, in view of the lenient man- 
 ner in which the Japanese had hitherto treated 
 all prisoners and were disposed to treat them 
 in the future. 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 577 
 
 Immediately upon the receipt of the in- 
 formation of the arrest of the American, the 
 State Department authorities began looking 
 up precedents in this matter. An important 
 one was found in the Formosa expedition in 
 1874. Speaking on this point, a State De- 
 partment official said: — "No action can be 
 taken in the case of the American held by 
 Jie Japanese for conspiring against them. If 
 criminating evidence had not been found on 
 his person, as was stated in the despatch 
 transmitted to the department from the Japa- 
 nese Legation, the department might have 
 entered a protest, and some trouble might 
 have followed, as a result. One of the best 
 precedents found which bears upon this case 
 is the Formosa trouble, in which three 
 Americans participated. All we can do is to 
 see that the American is not maltreated. 
 The Japanese government has a perfect right 
 to hold him as a prisoner of war in view of 
 the fact that he was at the time of his arrest 
 in the service of China, hired to destroy 
 Japan's navy." 
 
 The King's Appeal. 
 
 A correspondent who obtained an inter- 
 view with the King of Corea gave his im- 
 pressions as follows: In the midst of the 
 perils that overwhelm his kingdom and 
 threaten his life, the King of Corea received 
 the correspondent and made a direct appeal 
 to the people of the United States for help. 
 He recognizes our government as the first to 
 treat with Corea as an independent power 
 and claims to have a special right to look for 
 some practical proofs of friendship from 
 America, at a time when war and private 
 conspiracy are infringing upon the autonomy 
 of the "hermit nation." The king no longer 
 speaks of Corea as a sealed kingdom. He 
 sees plainly that this country must surrender 
 
 to civilization at last. 
 37 
 
 It was a strange experience to return from 
 a bloody battlefield and see this gentle 
 monarch standing among sinister courtiers 
 like a frightened woman and to hear him say 
 that his one desire was to entrust his person 
 to a guard of American soldiers. When 
 the correspondent saw the King, the unhappy 
 monarch was surrounded by police officials. 
 On the right stood the crown prince, a half- 
 witted, open-mouthed youth, attired after the 
 fashion of his father, save that purple took 
 the place of crimson. Three slow bows and 
 a pause. The interpreter folded his hands 
 across the embroidered storks on his bosom, 
 bent his head reverently and advanced. 
 
 Seeking Protection. 
 
 " I am glad to receive a representative of 
 the American press," said the King. "I take 
 this opportunity of saying that it is the wish 
 of my people as well as of myself that Corea 
 should be absolutely free and independent. I 
 appeal now and shall continue to appeal to 
 the civilized nations of the world, to use 
 their influence in preserving the integrity of 
 this kingdom. I especially rely upon the 
 friend.ship of the United States in this mo- 
 ment of difficulty and danger. Your Gov- 
 ernment made the first treaty with Corea, 
 and has always promised to befriend us. I 
 now look to America for" a fulfillment of 
 these promises. My faith in the United 
 States is unshaken. I am waiting patiently." 
 
 The correspondent asked His Majesty 
 how the United States could help Corea, 
 assuring him that the American Govern- 
 ment had already shown its disposition to 
 resent any attempt to interfere with the au- 
 tonomy of the nation. The King looked 
 embarrassed and his voice .dropped almost 
 to a whisper. It was plain that he felt con- 
 strained in the presence of his courtiers. He 
 hesitated, looked about him nervously, then 
 
578 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 said : " If a few American soldiers were sent 
 to the palace to protect my person, it would 
 change the situation. 
 
 " I have already told the American Min- 
 ister, Mr. Sill, what I ask the United States 
 to do," continued the King. " I hope for a 
 favorable reply. The United States Govern- 
 ment has from the very beginning of our re- 
 lations repeated its assurances of a very 
 special interest in this kingdom. We gave 
 your country the first treaty, because we 
 were convinced that your Government had a 
 sincere and disinterested friendship for 
 Corea. I hope I shall receive some prac- 
 tical proofs of that friendship now. I ask 
 the President and people to help in protect- 
 ing the independence of the kingdom." 
 
 Ready to Open Corea. 
 
 Tai Won Kun, the supposed regent of 
 the country, added : " We are ready to 
 open Corea to the world. The country can 
 be no longer kept sealed to foreigners. But 
 this change is too sudden. It has thrown 
 everything into disorder. The people are in 
 a state of great excitement. Corea is a pe- 
 culiar country. For thousands of years our 
 people have clung to certain usages. The 
 customs of ages cannot be surrendered to 
 the world in a day. The change must be 
 gradual. Our first duty is to quiet the peo- 
 ple and restore order and the reign of law." 
 
 The Japanese issued proclamations to the 
 various Manchurian cities through which 
 they passed. In these they declared that 
 they were waging war against the Manchu 
 Government only, and promised safe protec- 
 tion to all people remaining quiet and fol- 
 lowing their ordinary occupations. The 
 Chinese troops were deserting in large num- 
 bers and passing themselves off as farmers. 
 The garrisons of Ta- Lien-Wan and Kinchow, 
 on the neck- of Regent's Sword Promontory, 
 
 both of which places were captured by the 
 Japanese, numbered respectively three thou- 
 sand and one thousand. They fled after 
 making a feeble defence. The Japanese 
 ' loss amounted to fourteen. 
 
 On November nth, a special steamer ar- 
 rived at Hwang Chu, with despatches as to 
 the course of the war in Corea. Kinchow, 
 on the Regent's Sword Promontory, was 
 taken by the Japanese on November 4th. 
 The garrison consisted of some 1,200 infan- 
 try and artillery. The batteries were very 
 badly served during the defence. The first 
 division of the Japanese army advanced to 
 the attack with spirit on the morning of the 
 4th. The resistance of the Chinese was 
 feeble. The fire from their guns was weak 
 and ill-directed, and the outlying fortworks 
 were cleared quickly. 
 
 Fled in Confusion. 
 
 A panic then took possession of the 
 troops in the interior works. They aban- 
 doned their guns, standards and stores, and 
 fled in disorder, the infantry even casting^ 
 aside their small arms in their haste. The 
 defence was so weak that only a few Japa- 
 nese were wounded, and but twenty or 
 thirty Chinese were killed and wounded. It 
 is believed that many of the garrison had 
 deserted on the 3d, when they became con- 
 vinced that the battle was at hand. 
 
 After the victory the first division joined 
 the second division in investing Ta-Lien-Wan. 
 In the evening of the next day (November 5) 
 fire was opened on the Chinese position. On 
 the 6th the works were carried with a rush. 
 The garrison of 3 ,000 men hardly waited to- 
 resist the attack. They fired a few shots 
 and then fled toward Port Arthur, strewing 
 the road with their firearms, swords, drums 
 and standards. In the confusion of their 
 flight the Chinese lost some fifty men, killed 
 
STIRRING INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 579 
 
 and wounded. The Japanese loss was two 
 killed and ten wounded. The Japanese fleet, 
 cleared for action, steamed into the bay at 
 Ta- Lien-Wan on the afternoon of the 6th, but 
 it was too late to assist the land force, which 
 was then celebrating its victory. 
 
 From Ta- Lien- Wan the first and second 
 divisions started for Port Arthur, which they 
 were confident of capturiug within a week. 
 Admiral Ito's despatch to the Mikado con- 
 cerning the fleet's part in the operations at 
 Ta-Lien-Wan confirmed the account sent by 
 the land commander. 
 
 General Oyama made the attack from the 
 . rear. Nineteen war ships and six torpedo 
 boats were prepared to assist him, but the 
 Chinese, who had expected the main assault 
 from the sea, did not wait. They hardly 
 resisted the Japanese. They abandoned 
 everything and retreated in disorder. 
 
 Sketch of General Oyama. 
 
 " Count Oyama, the commander of the 
 forces," says an authentic account of recent 
 date, "is a field marshal in the Japanese army, 
 and is a brilliant soldier. He took a promi- 
 nent part in the War of the Restoration, in 
 the sixties, and in the Satsuma Rebellion in 
 1877, in which he fought side by side with 
 Marshal Yamagata, the victor of Ping- Yang, 
 against the rebel Takamori Saigo. Some 
 years ago he was sent to Europe by his 
 government to study military science as 
 practiced in the West, and he witnessed the 
 . Franco-German war. 
 
 " Later on he served in the Tonquin cam- 
 paign, fighting with the Chinese against the 
 French. On returning from Europe he 
 passed through the United States, and stayed 
 for some days in New York. For several 
 years he held the post of Minister of War, 
 which he relinquished a few weeks ago in 
 order to command the present expedition. 
 
 Personally the Count is strong, muscular 
 build and tall, with an imposing figure. 
 His fellow countrymen have every confidence 
 in his military genius and experience." 
 
 Another startling incident of the war was 
 the suicide of the Empress of China, which 
 was reported on October 31st, and further 
 disclosed the critical state of affairs at Pekin. 
 A brief sketch of the Empress will be of 
 interest. 
 
 A Very Young Empress. 
 
 Yo-Ho-Na-La was a little Manchu maiden 
 of thirteen when she was married to the boy 
 Emperor against her will and against his. 
 He was but eighteen at the time, but he had 
 a will of his own, and he resented bitterly 
 this thrusting of a child-consort upon him 
 by the imperious Empress Dowager. Hav- 
 ing been forced into union with Yo-Ho-Ng.- 
 La, who was the daughter of General 
 Kuei-Hsiang, the Empress Dowager's 
 younger brother, the Brother of the Moon 
 never became reconciled to her, and the life 
 of the young couple was most unhappy. 
 There were many quarrels between them, 
 and then the end came. The girl Empress, 
 completely broken in spirit by the humiliation 
 to which she. found herself constantly sub- 
 jected, chose to face death rather than try to 
 bear the burden of her unhappiness any 
 longer. 
 
 It was in February, 1 889, that the wed- 
 ding was solemnized. On the 31st of 
 December, of the previous year, the State 
 Department had been informed by the 
 United States Minister at Pekin of the edict 
 of the Empress Dowager, published in the 
 Pekin Gazette of November 9th, reading as 
 follows : I 
 
 "The Emperor, having reverently suc- 
 ceeded to his exalted inheritance, and in- 
 creasing day by day in maturity, it is ^ 
 
580 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 becoming that he should select a virtuous 
 consort to assist in the administration of the 
 palace, to control the members of his house- 
 hold, and to encourage the Emperor himself 
 in upright conduct. 
 
 " Let, therefore, Yo-Ho-Na-La, daughter 
 of Deputy Lieutenant-General Kuei-Hsiang, 
 whom we have selected for her dignified and 
 virtuous character, become Empress." 
 
 By a further edict of the same date : " Let 
 Ja-Ta-La, aged fifteen years, daughter of 
 Chang Hsii, formerly Vice-President of the 
 Board, become secondary consort of the 
 first rank, and let Ta-Ta-La, aged thirteen, 
 also daughter of Chang Hsii, formerly Presi- 
 dent of the Board, become an Imperial 
 concubine of the second rank. Respect 
 this." 
 
 Many Chinese Beauties. 
 
 The selection of the bride was goverened 
 by the rules laid down in the Book of Rites, 
 and is a tedious and elaborate process. The 
 dynasty is Manchu and the Emperor must 
 marry one of his own race. For a year 
 before the marriage was celebrated hundreds 
 of fair competitors, all daughters of Manchu 
 mandarins of not less than the third rank, 
 competed for the honor of sharing the 
 Imperial throne. After several inspections, 
 in which the beauty, family influence, and 
 intellectual attainments of the young ladies 
 were taken into grave consideration, the list 
 of aspirants was reduced to thirty. 
 
 The Emperor himself was deeply smitten 
 with the charms of the daughter of a high 
 Manchu military officer, and he expressed 
 his intention to share his throne with her. 
 He also selected another fair damsel whose 
 beauty struck his youthful heart with admira- 
 tion, for his second wife. But the old lady 
 who had so long and so nobly wielded the 
 sceptre during his minority had no intention 
 
 of allowing the young Emperor to follow his 
 bent in this matter, and had already decided 
 on a match for him by which the throne 
 would be shared by one of her own family. 
 Accordingly, the lady selected was her 
 niece, who was anything but a beauty, from 
 a Chinese or Manchu point of view, and after 
 a great many " scenes " and violent alterca- 
 tions, the Empress Dowager proved her 
 authority by having the marriage with her 
 niece celebrated. 
 
 Family Quarrels. 
 
 The young Emperor was urged by his 
 tutor, the great Ung Tung-ho — the most 
 powerful man at the present moment in 
 China, and the one who really governs the 
 Emperor's acts — to marry the lady whom 
 the Empress Dowager flouted, and the old 
 lady, afterwards learning of Ung's part in 
 the business, gave him a warm piece of her 
 royal mind. She had already enlisted on 
 her side Prince Chung. After the marriage 
 there prevailed the most bitter acrimony be- 
 tween these august personages, and in the 
 struggle the youthful ruler, assisted by his 
 crafty tutor, for the moment gained the up- 
 per hand. But it was a dangerous game to 
 fight the Empress Dowager, who was a 
 determined and subtle antagonist to tackle, 
 and in the end young Kwangtsu might 
 have fallen a victim to the necessities of the 
 moment, as his predecessor Tung-Chi did, 
 had he not come to terms with the old wo- 
 man. 
 
 Nor would the Gorgon of the Dragon 
 Throne allow its youthful occupant to con- 
 sole himself by bringing the fair object of 
 his choice into his harem, but selected two 
 strong-minded damsels, also of the Imperial 
 clan, to form the nucleus of the seraglio, 
 which Chinese custom prescribes shall be 
 limited to seven, but which is unlimited. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR. 
 
 ACCORDING to accounts in the Chi- 
 nese press, a party of Japanese 
 sailors, some three or four hun- 
 dred in number, landed, at the end 
 of August, in Victoria Bay, some miles to 
 the northward of Port Arthur, and made a 
 reconnaissance with a view to discovering if 
 the landward defences were as strong as re- 
 ported. Apparently the reconnoitrers came 
 to the conclusion that there was no chance 
 of a coup at that time, for they left the 
 neighborhood in a hurry, as a torpedo boat 
 sent to look for them found their surveying 
 instruments on the beach. 
 
 The following is a description of the great 
 arsenal before its capture by the Japanese : 
 Port Arthur itself lies at the head of, or 
 perhaps it would be more correct to say 
 around, a large inlet. The entrance is by a 
 channel not more than 200 yards wide, and 
 although there is no large space for anchor- 
 ing vessels, there is a tidal basin in which as 
 many as a dozen ships can be- accommodated. 
 There are also a dry dock, machinery shops, 
 and coal stores, and for the repairs of a 
 small squadron like that of Admiral Ting 
 that is fairly adequate. 
 
 The fortifications consist of thirteen bat- 
 teries distributed on either side of the 
 channel, and covering about four miles of 
 seaboard. They are well placed, and fitted 
 with all modern implements and material of 
 artillerist's profession. The armament of 
 the forts consists of about fifty 6-inch and 
 9-inch Krupp guns, several rifled mortars or 
 howitzers, and a number of quick-firing 
 
 guns. The entrance to the port is also pro- 
 vided with an elaborate submarine mine field, 
 and there is a small flotilla of torpedo boats 
 attached to this port. 
 
 On its landward side to the east, hills of 
 from three hundred to six hundred feet are 
 crowned with small forts, entrenchments and 
 earthworks. To the west a shoal harbor 
 and more mine defenses, covered by quick 
 firing guns, afford all the needed protection. 
 
 Strong Japanese Force. 
 
 The garrison of Port Arthur was variously 
 stated at from four thousand to ten thousand 
 men, but whatever the number, there could 
 be no question that the reconnaissahce of 
 August put them on their guard, and from 
 fifteen thousand to twenty thousand men 
 would be wanted to capture it. There were, 
 however, at least twenty thousand Japanese' 
 on the promontory. They constituted the 
 second Japanese division, which left Hiro- 
 shima at the end of September, under the 
 command of Count Oyama. Their destina- 
 tion was then unknown, but after they 
 effected a landing on the Regent's Sword 
 Promontory, it was easy to understand why 
 their important mission was kept secret as 
 long as possible. 
 
 The mouth of the Gulf of Pechili, at the 
 head of which lie Taku, Tien-Tsin and the 
 short route to Pekin, narrows to about one 
 hundred and ten miles between Port Arthur 
 and Wei-Hai-Wei. These ports seem thus 
 marked by nature as the strategic outposts 
 of the northeastern coast line of China. The 
 
 581 
 
582 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 former, which is the chief naval arsenal of 
 northern China, lies at the head of a large 
 inlet. The port affords no room for the 
 anchorage of a considerable squadron; but 
 a fine tidal basin has been constructed capa- 
 ble of accommodating about fourteen large 
 vessels. It is, apparently, a comfortable 
 place in which to lay up a squadron, but 
 somewhat ill adapted to the needs of a force 
 which desires to be able to get quickly to 
 sea. It is here that the Chinese vessels 
 damaged in the great sea fight off the Yalu 
 River were docked for repairs, and were sat- 
 isfactorily prepared again for sea. 
 
 The coast defences are spread over more 
 than four miles of seaboard, and consist of 
 about twelve batteries equally distributed on 
 either side of the entrance of the port. 
 
 Redoubts and Fortifications. 
 
 In addition there is a torpedo boat sta- 
 tion, and an elaborate system of submarine 
 mines has been provided. Altogether the 
 coast defences of Port Arthur,' so far as 
 mere material is concerned, seem to rise 
 fully to modern standards of fortification. 
 On the land front the shoaUng of the harbor 
 gives protection on the western side. On 
 the east encircling hills rise to heights of 
 350 feet to 650 feet, and small fortified 
 camps, redoubts and miniature Chinese 
 walls affect to guard this important arsenal. 
 
 The rear of the place appears to be rela- 
 tively w'eak, although in accordance with all 
 the teaching of history, this would neces- 
 sarily be the way of approach selected by 
 an enemy. The garrison, however, has 
 been considerably reinforced from Taku, 
 and it is estimated that an expeditionary 
 force of at least 15,000 men would be 
 needed to achieve success. 
 
 The population of Port Arthur is about 
 6,000, exclusive of the garrison, which 
 
 numbers probably 7,000 more. There are 
 two large temples, two theatres and several 
 banks in the town. The prosperity of the 
 place — it was formerly a small village, con- 
 sisting of sixty or eighty mud houses and a 
 few inns — began with the determination of 
 the authorities in 188 1 to establish a naval 
 dock yard at the port. The work was at 
 first intrusted to native contractors, but they 
 proved altogether incompetent, and in 1887 
 the contract was taken up by a French com- 
 pany, who, in three years' time, brought it 
 to completion. 
 
 The Army ^A^elcomed. 
 
 In the early part of November the stam- 
 pede of the Chinese throughout Manchuria 
 continued. After the advance of General 
 Nodsu's force to Feng-Huang-Cheng and 
 the dispersal of the Chinese there, the Japa- 
 nese troops searched in vain for an organ- 
 ized body of the enemy. They marched 
 westward and southward unopposed. They 
 were everywhere welcomed with enthusiasm 
 by the entire population (excepting the of- 
 ficials) who found themselves relieved from 
 the oppression of the mandarins, under 
 whom they had suffered patiently so long. 
 
 Likewise in the province of Chi-Li, it was 
 ascertained that no stand would be made by 
 the Chinese against the Japanese until Pekin 
 was reached, which Colonel Hanneken, a 
 German commander, was fortifying with all 
 haste. At a meeting of the Emperor, 
 Prince Kung and the Grand Council, it was 
 determined that the court and the personnel 
 of the government should leave the capital 
 before it fell into the hands of the Japanese. 
 
 It was believed that an entente existed 
 between Viceroy Li-Hung-Chang and Japan. 
 It was even said that he had gone to Port 
 Arthur to watch the operations there, in- 
 stead of following the command of the Em- . 
 
THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR. 
 
 583 
 
 peror to proceed to Pekin. Many of his re- 
 latives vanished quietly, taking with them 
 their valuables and pergonal effects. The 
 humanity of the Japanese, which caused the 
 people of Manchuria to welcome them as 
 friends and deliverers, and the unexpected 
 display they made of splendid statecraft 
 created consternation in Pekin. 
 
 The Chinese army of the North were 
 reported to be in a terrible plight, suffering 
 from starvation and exposure to the ex- 
 tremely cold 'weather. They retreated^ to 
 the mountains, far removed from their base 
 of supplies, while the Japanese army was 
 encamped at Feng-Huang-Cheng. Fifteen 
 thousand Chinese, mostly raw recruits were 
 pursued by the Japanese. 
 
 Hundreds of Chinese arrived at Che-Foo 
 from Manchuria, whence they were fleeing,, 
 frightened at the approach of the Japanese. 
 The Chinese troops and such vessels of the 
 Chinese fleet as were not cooped up at Port 
 Arthur were ordered to attack the Japanese 
 wherever they met them. 
 
 The Troops Landed. 
 
 The second Japanese army, under Field 
 Marshal Count Oyama, landed on the morn- 
 ing of October 26th, on the Chinese coast, at 
 a place called Hon-En-Ku, fifteen miles north 
 of the islands known as the Elliot group, and 
 about eighty-five mjles north of Port Arthur. 
 With the exception of the Talien Bay, close 
 to Port Arthur, there was not a decent land- 
 ing place along the coast. It was impossible 
 to land at Talien Bay, the Chinese having 
 fortified the coast, and planted torpedoes. 
 This place was chosen, not that it was better 
 than any other, but because the road from 
 Wi-Ju to Port Arthur passes here nearer the 
 coast than anywhere else. 
 
 The landing, however, was most difficult, 
 the water being so shallow that the steamers 
 
 had to anchor four to five miles from the 
 shore. It was absolutely impossible to land 
 when the tide was low, as a mile and a half 
 of thick mud was left uncovered by the sea, 
 and one could well imagine the difficulties 
 of landing 2 5 ,000 men, soldiers and coolies, 
 horses, artillery, ammunition, wagons, pro- 
 visions, tents, ambulances, etc., under such 
 conditions. Four hundred barges and flat- 
 boats and one hundred steam launches were 
 hard at work, but in spite of all the efforts 
 and of an admirable organization, they pro- 
 gressed very slowly. 
 
 The Fleet Sails. 
 
 The transports and the fleet met at the 
 mouth of the Pei-Yang, or Tatong River, on 
 the 23d of October, at night. Twenty-five 
 men-of-war, thirty-eight transports and six- 
 teen torpedo boats were anchored together. 
 On the following morning the fleet sailed, 
 followed by twelve transports. The remain- 
 der, among which was the Nagota Maru, on 
 board of which were the Field Marshal and 
 staff, proceeded at night, no lights of any 
 kind, being shown on board, and the follow- 
 ing morning arrived opposite the .Chinese 
 coast. 
 
 General Yamaji had already landed with 
 part of the infantry. He had encountered 
 no resistance at all. There was not one 
 Chinese soldier in sight. There are here 
 four villages, each composed of half a dozen 
 large stone houses, well and strongly built, 
 but very dirty, yet much cleaner than those 
 in Corea. At the approach of the fleet the 
 people fled without losing a minute. 
 
 A Chinese prisoner was sent out in the 
 country to say that no harm would be done 
 to the people, and that they could return to 
 the villages in all safety. A few came back 
 and sold their provisions to the Japanese at 
 very high figures. 
 
584 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 These people were absolutely ignorant of 
 the fact that war was going on between China 
 and Japan. They fled without knowing 
 what "barbarian devils " were landing, but 
 supposing they were English or French. 
 The Japanese posted large bills everywhere 
 announcing that they were not fighting 
 
 Arthur. Their destination was unknown, 
 but two-thirds of the Japanese fleet immedi- 
 ately left to hunt them up. A few Chinese 
 attacked the advanced posts of General 
 Yamaji. They were either killed or made 
 prisoners. None escaped. 
 
 An officer of the British warship Por- 
 
 FISHERS OF Ft^SAN. 
 
 the people, but the armed forces of the 
 government, in a just cause, and that the 
 people had nothing to fear. 
 
 While the main body of the arm)' was 
 landing. General Yamaji, commanding the 
 advance, was rapidly pushing on in the 
 direction of Port Arthur. Six Chinese men- 
 of-war and six torpedo boats left Port 
 
 poise gi\-es the following account of the cap- 
 ture of Port Arthur by the Japanese: 
 
 The Porpoise was standing out to sea a 
 few miles on the afternoon of the 20th of 
 November, when we saw dark masses ci 
 men in solid columns, whom we afterward 
 recognized as Japanese infantry, deploying 
 before the outlying forts of Port Arthur 
 
THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR. 
 
 585 
 
 The artillery was ahead, engaging the Chi- 
 nese, whom the Japanese had steadily driven 
 inward. The Chinese line was falling back 
 and abandoning position after position, after 
 feeble resistance. This was several miles 
 east of the fortress proper. The Japanese 
 fleet was moving in line ahead, the three 
 flagships leading each division and co-operat- 
 ing with the land forces. The ships were 
 the following : 
 
 First Division. — The Matsushima, the 
 Itsukushima, the Chiyoda and the Hashi- 
 date. 
 
 Second Division. — The Fuso,"the Hiyel, 
 the Takao and the Yayeyama. 
 
 Third Division. — The Yoshino, the Nani- 
 wa, the Akitsushima and the Takachiho. 
 
 The small gunboats were shelling the Chi- 
 nese lines and were close in shore. The naval 
 and military forces were moving beautifully 
 together. 
 
 Terrific Fire of Artillery. 
 
 The next day the advance continued. 
 The Chinese outposts were all driven in, and 
 the outlying forts occupied. The Japanese 
 kept up a terrific fire with their field artillery, 
 machine guns and infantry, the big guns of 
 the forts answering occasionally, and there 
 was a hot fire for some time from the smaller 
 guns. The fleet was moving, continually, 
 but kept out of range of the forts. The 
 movements were now quite visible. 
 
 The Japanese army was in three divisions 
 and was moving as if on parade. The regu- 
 lar volleys were sharp and unbroken. The 
 mancEuvring of the cavalry was done in 
 dashing style, and they cut off the retreat- 
 ing bodies that were escaping from the forts. 
 The artillery was splendidly placed and was 
 doing deadly practice upon the forts. The 
 Chinese were replying in an unspirited and 
 desultory way, and evidently without any 
 
 one directing them. The two northerly and 
 easterly forts were occupied at noon. 
 
 The Chiyoda and another cruiser then 
 steamed around to Pigeon Bay, on the other 
 side of the peninsula, and began to drop 
 shells among the forts, which could not see 
 the two ships. But apparently this was 
 done more with the object of making a di- 
 version than of doing material injury to the 
 enemy. 
 
 Torpedo Boats Engaged. 
 
 On a signal from the General on shore. 
 Admiral Ito's cruisers all steamed past the 
 forts just outside of range, when ten torpedo 
 boats, covered by two cruisers specially de- 
 tailed for the duty, divided into two squad- 
 rons of four each, dashed inside the fire line 
 of the 50-ton guns and began plying their 
 machine and rapid fire guns with deadly 
 effect on the Chinese, who had been driven 
 in an easterly direction from the water side 
 forts by the Japanese army. 
 
 The other torpedo boats tore into the 
 mouth of the harbor and cut off the retreat 
 of two small Chinese steamers which were 
 stealing away along the shore. The first 
 steamer reached the extreme point of the 
 land to the east, landing some one in a skiff, 
 which afterward carried him aboard a steamer 
 lying some miles outside. The torpedo boats, 
 howevei', afterward drove the two small 
 steamers ashore, peppering them terribly 
 under the very noses of the small forts, 
 which fired 7-pound shells at the torpedo 
 boats without hitting them. One steamer 
 was sunk and the other was beached. 
 
 The forts, meantime, were blindly blazing 
 away at the Japanese fleet. The line aim of 
 the gunners was good, but the shots fell 
 short from lack of elevation. The Porpoise 
 found the fire so hot that she had to steam 
 outside at full speed. The torpedo boats 
 
586 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 were dashing about in all directions, wher- 
 ever they could get a shot at the Chinese, 
 but were obeying the signals of the convoy- 
 ing cruisers, which again followed the orders 
 conveyed by Field Marshal Oyama's field 
 telegraph. 
 
 The Chinese big guns fired fifteen rounds 
 at the Japanese fleet. The latter did not 
 reply, however, only drawing the fire off the 
 torpedo boats, which did all the work. The 
 British officer speaks enthusiastically of the 
 latter, which, he says, would be a credit to 
 any navy, for their dash, skill and precision, 
 which will make them a valuable adjunct in 
 future military operations. 
 
 Gradually the firing of the Chinese guns 
 on the land side was silenced, the gunners 
 deserting their posts before the hailstorm 
 from the machine guns, the rapid firing guns 
 and the infantry. All night the Japanese 
 gunboats and three of the larger vessels were 
 throwing shells among the flying Chinese 
 troops, who were escaping eastward, a mere 
 rabble. 
 
 A Brilliant Victory. 
 
 All the naval and military experts consider 
 the achievement of the Japanese as marvel- 
 lous. They astonished every one. They 
 are equal to any European army and navy. 
 The Japanese generals and officers spoke of 
 the matter with quiet dignity and without 
 boasting. The men were held in splendid 
 restraint throughout the engagement, and 
 there was no unnecessary bloodshed. It 
 was an honestly won victory, of which any 
 nation: might be proud. 
 
 The Porpoise left for Chefoo, returning 
 with the British fleet, which visited the 
 place. The British officers were perfectly 
 astonished at the order introduced by the 
 ' newcomers in two days after the capture of 
 the port. Some of the Japanese vessels had 
 
 gone into dock, and were being overhauled 
 and painted as calmly as if they had been 
 there for years. 
 
 Port Arthur was simply abandoned. The 
 Chinese behaved disgracefully. When the 
 final attack was made by the Japanese the 
 place had a garrison of 9,000 men, of 
 whom one-third were destroyed. The per- 
 son who escaped to the steamer was Kung, 
 the Taoti in charge of the whole fortress. 
 The British officers think that the taking of 
 Wei-Hai-Wei will be a simple .affair for the 
 Japanese after this victory. 
 
 Masters of \A^arfare. 
 
 Asked his opinion of the Japanese as al- 
 lies, the British officer replied : " They 
 would make very bad enemies. We could 
 smash them at sea probably, but we could 
 do nothing against Japan on land. We can 
 teach them nothing in military science. 
 They are masters of modern scientific war- 
 fare. The capture of Port Arthur was a 
 perfect revelation." 
 
 The British officer fully confirms the re- 
 ported atrocities committed by the Chinese 
 upon Japanese prisoners, who were found 
 with their heads and dismembered limbs 
 stuck on stakes along the roadsides. 
 
 In connection with the above description 
 of the capture of Port Arthur by an Eng- 
 lish naval officer, we publish the story cabled 
 by a special correspondent from Hiroshima, 
 Japan. The two accounts taken together 
 give a complete story of the brilliant work 
 done by the Japanese, ending with the cap- 
 ture of the port at five o'clock of the after- 
 noon of the 2 1 st of November : 
 
 Port Arthur was captured on the 21st. 
 On the 1 8th the cavalry advance guard met 
 2,000 Chinese eight miles from Port Arthur, 
 and fell back on the first brigade, leaving 
 several wounded behind. They returned 
 
THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR. 
 
 587 
 
 with one battalion of infantry and defeated 
 the Chinese. The wounded Japanese were 
 found with their heads, hands and feet cut 
 off, and their bodies awfully mutilated. On 
 the 19th all the army had passed before 
 these victims, and the men were much 
 moved at the sight. 
 
 At night the army was about four miles 
 from the enemy, who held nine sea forts and 
 eleven land forts. On the 20th, while the 
 Japanese were looking for field artillery posi- 
 tions, 6,ooo- Chinese made a sortie in three 
 columns — on the left, the right and the 
 centre. All the forts were firing at us, and 
 we were in great danger. A part of the 
 army and artillery behind the advance 
 guard and two battalions of General 
 Yamaji's division repulsed the Chinese after 
 five hours' fighting. 
 
 Fine Marksmanship. 
 
 On the 2 1st the Japanese fleet made a 
 demonstration at six in the morning, but did 
 no fighting. At half-past six A. M. the 
 Japanese artillery, which had taken position 
 during the night, opened fire on the three 
 forts on the right, and displayed magnifi- 
 cent marksmanship. The Chinese forts on 
 a hill five hundred feet high answered 
 strongly. 
 
 At eight o'clock the forts were taken by 
 assault by the infantry, who showed mag- 
 nificent courage. Lieutenant O'Brien, of 
 the United States Army, was present. At 
 nine o'clock our left brigade, commanded 
 by General Sasegawa, advanced upon the re- 
 maining eight forts. Fifty Chinese guns 
 poured shell and shot upon them, but noth- 
 ing stopped them. It was great fighting. 
 At one o'clock all the forts were taken by 
 assault and the army advanced upon the 
 city. The inhabitants, who had been armed 
 with express rifles and explosive cartridges. 
 
 resisted in the city, and the houses had to be 
 taken by storm. Many Chinese were killed. 
 The sea forts fell without fighting, and 
 all was finished at five o'clock. The Chinese 
 generals fled after the first fort was taken. 
 Had they surrendered many Chinese lives 
 would have been saved. Many Chinese 
 were killed during the battle, but the Japan- 
 ese, however, treated kindly those remaining 
 in the city. Some eighteen thousand men 
 were engaged on each side. There were 
 250 Japanese killed and wounded. The 
 Chinese killed numbered 1 500.' The dead 
 were buried or cremated. 
 
 Prowess of Japan. 
 
 When war between Japan and China was 
 declared a few believed the former would be 
 simply overwhelmed by the vast hordes which 
 the latter could put in the field, as it seemed 
 incredible that a nation of 40,000,000 could 
 overcome one of400,ooo,ooo. But the general 
 sentiment was otherwise. Japan for twenty- 
 five years has been making rapid strides in civ- 
 ilization; she has welcomed modern educa- 
 tion and manners, and has organized and 
 equipped her army and navy according to 
 the latest and most approved methods 
 of warfare. China on the other hand has 
 made little or no progress. A few bright 
 minds secured good naval vessels, erected 
 magnificent coast defences and armed some 
 thousands of soldiers with effective weapons, 
 but the results of their work were practically 
 nullified by the prejudices and hatred of the 
 masses against modern civilization, and by 
 the deep corruption existing among almost 
 all those in authority, great and small. 
 
 It was the existence of these conditions 
 which gave rise to the conviction of the 
 sagacious few that the advantage would be 
 with Japan ; but it is doubtful whether any- 
 one looked for the brilliant and rapid sue- 
 
588 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 cesses attending the arms of that country. 
 In every engagement the Chinese were out- 
 manceuvred in all branches of warfare. Their 
 armies were outgeneralied, their navy ren- 
 dered ineffectual, and Japan's successes 
 culminated in the brilliant capture of Port 
 Arthur, which, on account of its position 
 
 COREAN CHILDREN. 
 
 and admirable defences, was not inaptly 
 termed the "Gibraltar of the East." 
 
 Says a leading journal: "That the cap- 
 ture of this great stronghold virtually decides 
 the war there is little reason to doubt. 
 Without it China is practically helpless as 
 far as the present contest is concerned. 
 There appears to be absolutely nothing that 
 
 can prevent General Oyama marching his 
 victorious army to the walls of Pekin, while 
 Marshal Yamagata, with his command in 
 Manchuria, effectually prevents the Imperial 
 court taking refuge in that quarter. The 
 fall of Port Arthur is the Appomattox of the 
 struggle ; the Waterloo of the hopes of 
 China. Whatever fighting shall be 
 done from this time on will be in nc 
 wise likely to change the result, and 
 it would be wisdom on the part of 
 China to treat for peace as speedily 
 as possible, since every day's delay 
 simply means a heavier indemnity for 
 it to pay, and possibly harder terms 
 to comply with in other directions. 
 
 Successful Strategy. 
 
 " By the capture of Port Arthur, 
 Japan has accomplished a feat which 
 must take its place among the phe- 
 nomenal military and naval events of 
 history. It was one of the few 
 strongholds of China which was given 
 over to Europeans in order that the 
 tremendous natural strength of the 
 place might be reinforced by the best 
 and latest engineering skill. It was 
 mounted with powerful guns and 
 encompassed by an elaborate system 
 of mines on land and torpedoes at 
 sea. Nothing but the most brilliant 
 strategy and almost reckless bravery 
 accomplished its downfall. 
 
 " The war which Japan has suc- 
 cessfully waged against China may be re- 
 garded as one of the most important of the 
 century, on account of its far-reaching conse- 
 quences. It creates a new iirst-class powe; 
 among the nations of the earth, from one 
 which only a quarter of a century ago -wa;- 
 considered barbarous, and over which extra- 
 territorial jurisdiction was insisted on by 
 
THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR. 
 
 589 
 
 civilized countries, and from which only now 
 it is about to be emancipated by the United 
 States and Great Britain. It makes Japan, 
 in a measure, supreme in the Yellow Sea, 
 and a fighting power which will have to be 
 considered by England, Russia and other 
 nations interested in Eastern questions. It 
 opens up for it, besides, a great future as 
 a maritime, commercial and progressive na- 
 tion, with important interests to be looked 
 after over the whole world. 
 
 An Enterprising Nation. 
 
 " Japan's eagerness to adopt civilizing in- 
 fluences, and its conduct during the present 
 war, render it easy to regard with some 
 complacency its defeat of ignorant and bar- 
 barous China, and less difficult for the other 
 great nations to receive it with some degree 
 of cordiality as one of their class." 
 
 Some ghastly accounts of atrocities on the 
 part of both the Chinese and Japanese armies, 
 showed the barbarous spirit by which some 
 of the soldiers were actuated. For example, 
 the correspondent of the London Times tele- 
 graphed as follows from Hiroshima, Japan : 
 
 " I have just returned from the seat of 
 war, and had a conversation with Viscount 
 Mutsu Munemitzu, the Foreign Minister, in 
 regard to the misconduct of the Japanese at 
 Port Arthur. I informed him that I had 
 watched the Japanese army enter the town. 
 The Chinese resisted to the last. I saw 
 Chinese in plain clothes with firearms con- 
 cealed on their persons. I also found explo- 
 sive bullets. The Japanese reported that 
 civilians fired upon them from the houses, 
 and they therefore deemed it necessary to 
 exterminate them. 
 
 The Japanese were further excited by 
 finding the mutilated remains of Japanese 
 prisoners. Some of these prisoners had 
 been burned alive. I saw no resistance in 
 
 the town. Dui-ing the next four days the 
 Japanese pillaged the whole town and killed 
 almost every man. Very few women or 
 children were killed. I saw scores of Chi- 
 nese prisoners pinioned, stripped and shot, 
 hacked with knives and disemboweled. 
 Many bodies were partly burned. 
 
 The Foreign Minister expressed himself 
 as intensely surprised and grieved. Hitherto, 
 he added, the Japanese army had been ad- 
 mired for its humanity and discipline. He 
 was unwilling to believe it possible that they 
 had acted as reported or to express an opin- 
 ion on the subject until a detailed official re- 
 port arrived. Meanwhile he authorized me 
 to say that he was certain the Government 
 was determined to act on principles of hu- 
 manity and civilization." 
 
 Rumors of Mediation. 
 
 In the early part of November it was re- 
 ported that the United States Government 
 had been asked to interfere between China 
 and Japan, or at least to exercise its influence 
 in securing peace. 
 
 As a result of negotiations then pending 
 it was confidently believed that the United 
 States would very soon be asked to mediate 
 between Japan and China, with a view to 
 permanent peace on a basis satisfactory to 
 both countries. 
 
 It was stated positively that the United 
 States had declined to join with European 
 powers in any arbitrary intervention to force 
 a settlement. But while unwilling to act in 
 any arbitrary manner, either individually or 
 jointly with European nations, the representa- 
 tives of the parties to the war were given to 
 understand that the good offices of this 
 Government would be gladly exercised to 
 secure peace in case such was their ex- 
 pressed wish. Naturally Japan insisted that 
 China should take the initiative in any nego- 
 
590 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 tiations looking to a restoration of peace, but 
 that she was entirely willing to accede to 
 any reasonable proposition is not doubted. 
 
 At the outset Great Britain sought to have 
 the United States and the great powers of 
 Europe intervene. The facts as to these ne- 
 gotiations at Washington were now known. 
 Cable directions from the London foreign 
 offices first came to Mr. Goschen, the British 
 resident Minister in the absence of Sir Julian 
 Paunceforte. 
 
 Mr. Goschen saw Secretary Gresham in 
 person and presented Great Britain's propo- 
 sition that the United States co-operate with 
 other powers toward peace. A reply was 
 duly given that this country would not co- 
 operate on the ground, it was said, that the 
 policy of the United States was to avoid en- 
 tangling foreign alliances on questions in 
 which it had no immediate concern. After 
 that time no efforts on the part of Great 
 Britain to urge the negotiations were made. 
 
 Peace Proposals. 
 
 Under these circumstances the proposed 
 negotiations did not involve foreign inter- 
 vention, but a mutual arrangement between 
 China and Japan, to which foreign powers 
 would give their moral support. To what 
 extent the Chinese Minister at Washineton 
 directed the negotiations was not exactly 
 known, as the Legation officials were very 
 secretive. It was known, however, that the 
 Chinese Minister had long conferences with 
 Secretary Gresham. But the main proposi- 
 tion on the part of China came direct from 
 United States Minister Denby, at Pekin. 
 
 From the very beginning of hostilities the 
 Chinese were anxious to have the United 
 States arbitrate the differences between 
 themselves and the Japanese, which led to 
 the war, but, of course, there could be no 
 arbitration except upon the request of both 
 
 parties, and that was lacking. Thus the 
 matter stood. 
 
 But after the battle of Kiu-Lien-Cheng, 
 on October 25 th last, when the Chinese suf- 
 fered their severe defeat at the hands of the' 
 Japanese troops who had crossed the Yalu 
 River, and were obliged to retreat toward 
 Moukden, they became thoroughly alarmed 
 and convinced that something must be done 
 to terminate the war. They could not, 
 however, so humble their pride as to sue for 
 peace directly to Japan, but casting about 
 for some means of opening peace negotia- 
 tions, hit upon the treaty with the United 
 States of 1848. 
 
 An Old Treaty. 
 
 The very first article of this treaty pledges 
 the United States in case China is oppres- 
 sively or unjustly treated by another power, to 
 use its good offices to arrange the difficulty. 
 It is similar in scope to the first article in 
 our treaty with Corea, which led Secretary 
 Gresham at the beginning of the trouble to 
 write a note to the United States Minister at 
 Tokio, relative to the Japanese occupation 
 of Corea, which excited much comment. 
 
 Encouraged by the attitude of the United 
 States at that tinie the Chinese Government 
 appealed to United States Minister Denby, 
 at Pekin, to cause his Government to inter- 
 vene and Mr. Denby transmitted the appli- 
 cation to Washington, where it was laid 
 before the President, who had it under con- 
 sideration for a week or more. As our rep- 
 resentations in the case of the occupation of 
 Corea had little effect, there was no reason 
 to suppose that a different result would fol- 
 low an attempt to use our good offices in 
 favor of China. As already indicted, our 
 Government was indisposed to co-operate 
 directly with European nations in any effort 
 to coerce either party to the war and for 
 
THE FALL OF PORT ARTHUR. 
 
 591 
 
 this very reason we were in a better place 
 than any other power to act as an indepen- 
 dent intermediary in bringing about peace. 
 
 Both China and Japan were assured that 
 we were free from any suspicion of a desire 
 to secure" accessions of territory in Asia, 
 which hung over the great European powers, 
 and their confidence in our fairness and 
 impartiahty was strikingly manifested by the 
 selection of the United States by both nations 
 to care for their subjects in the other's terri- 
 tory. So the United States was placed in a 
 position where she would naturally be looked 
 to by both China and Japan to serve as an 
 arbitrator in case of a difficulty in arranging 
 terms for peace. 
 
 Concessions by China. 
 
 China no longer concealed her inability to 
 prosecute a war. She recognized that she 
 was caught unprepared, and that it was the 
 part of wisdom for her to make the most of 
 a bad situation by getting peace on the best 
 terms possible. She did this with the ex- 
 pectation and assurance that Japan would 
 come half way. Japan began the war for 
 the purpose, as she said, of securing Corea's 
 complete sovereignty. This China would 
 fully concede. It also seemed probable that 
 China would pay a fair indemnity. This, 
 however, would be in cash and not in 
 Chinese territory. 
 
 The capture of Port Arthur monopolized 
 discussion at Washington. In all circles 
 nothing but praise was heard at this victory 
 of the Japanese. It was not unexpected, but 
 it was a brilliant victory, and the hardy little 
 fighters received credit for the masterly way 
 in which they conducted their several cam- 
 paigns, and especially this last important 
 affair. The belief was strong that the Jap- 
 
 anese would devote themselves to the cap- 
 ture of Wei-Hai-Wei, and that this was to 
 be the destination of the third army, which, 
 it was reported, had just left Japanese shores. 
 
 Loss of Life. 
 
 Further reports received by the Navy 
 Department from the intelligence officers of 
 the Asiatic squadron in relation to the battle 
 of the Yalu River stated that the shells fired 
 during the fight contained nothing but gun- 
 dotton, and that the great damage wrought 
 was due to its action on the woodwork of 
 the ships. The reports stated that the wood- 
 work was set on fire by the explosions, and 
 splinters flew in every direction, killing and 
 maiming a large portion of the crews of the 
 vessels engaged. 
 
 This information confirmed the belief of 
 the ordnance officials that ordinary gun- 
 cotton is all that can be desired in the way 
 of an explosive for shells, and, while experi- 
 ments would be conducted with any new 
 chemical that might be brought in, the 
 probabilities were that the Ordnance Bureau 
 would return to gun-cotton as its chief explo- 
 sive. The energies of the ordnance officials 
 would be directed toward finding a detonator 
 for the gun-cotton, and not to find a new ex- 
 plosive. 
 
 That the Japanese government purposed 
 pushing their past and present advantages' 
 with a view to the capture of Pekin was not 
 doubted. The capture of Port Arthur made 
 easy the progress of the Japanese troops to 
 the Chinese capital. Competent military 
 authorities who were thoroughly familiar 
 with the physical conditions of China, said 
 that a Japanese army could march from the 
 coast of the Gulf of Pechili to Pekin in ten 
 days. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 A JAPANESE ACCOUNT OF THE WAR. 
 
 A CAREFUL review of the military 
 operations in the Orient is fur- 
 nished by a well-informed Jap- 
 anese, Julius Kampei Matumato, 
 a graduate of one of our colleges, who fol- 
 lowed closely the progress of events, and 
 whose concise summary is as follows : 
 
 Up to a very short time ago, Japan, by 
 the pen and tongue of facts and artists who 
 have visited the land of the Rising Sun, has 
 been thought to be merely a country of 
 poetry, fragrant flowers and picturesqueness. 
 The Western nations hardly imagined 
 Japan as a nation enlightened by a modern 
 educational system, and developed in naval 
 and military art to that pitch of excellence 
 which lifted her into the position of a first- 
 class power, and would enable her' to gain 
 an unbroken succession of victories against 
 the largest empire on the globe. 
 
 The war in the East is certainly interest- 
 ing from more than one point of view. View- 
 ing it from the humane standpoint, Japan is 
 the true standard-bearer of civilization and 
 progress in the far East. Her mission is to 
 enlighten the millions of souls in the Celes- 
 tial Empire darkened for generations. Politi- 
 cally, Japan has lifted herself into the rank of 
 the most powerful nations of the earth. Com- 
 mercially, she has demonstrated herself the 
 mistress of the Pacific and Asiatic seas. 
 
 From the outbreak of the w'ar, all the 
 civilized nations, except England, haye sym- 
 pathized with Japan, especially the people of 
 the United States. America has given a 
 strong moral support toward Japan. It is 
 592 
 
 not because this country is the warmest 
 friend of Japan, whose wonderful progress 
 in civilizatiori is largely due to America, but 
 because Japan is the propagandist of civiliza- 
 tion and humanity in the far East. 
 
 At the beginning of the hostilities a 
 majority of the people had an idea that the 
 overwhelming population and resources of 
 China would soon be able to crush Japan, 
 but they overlooked the fact that in our day 
 it is scienice, brains and courage, together 
 with perfected ammunitions of war that 
 grasp the palm of victory. Thousands of 
 sheep could do nothing against a ferocious 
 wolf So the numerical comparison has but 
 little weight. 
 
 The Military Spirit. 
 
 Some sagacious writer compared Japan to 
 a lively sword-fish and China to a jelly-fish, 
 being punctured at every point. Truly 
 Japan has proved it so. More than once 
 the world has seen that that artistic nation 
 could fight. The Greeks demonstrated this 
 long ago and France in later times has seen 
 a shining example. Japan was reckoned as 
 one of the most artistic nations in the world, 
 as the producer of fancy goods, as the lover 
 of fine arts and natural beauties. But the 
 world knew it not as a warlike country. 
 
 "In no country," as Mr. Rogers says, 
 "has the military instinct been more pro- 
 nounced in the best blood of the people. 
 Far back in the past, beyond that shadowy 
 line where legend and history blend, their 
 story has been one of almost continual war, 
 
A JAPANESE ACCOUNT OF THE wAR. 
 
 593 
 
 and the straightest path to distinction and 
 honor has, from the earliest times, led across 
 the battle-field. The statesmen of Japan 
 saw, as did Cavour, that the surest way to 
 win the respect of nations was by success in 
 war." 
 
 Corea was a worthy diplomatic problem 
 when on June last the Mikado ordered a 
 Corean expedition. A brigade composed of 
 infantry, artillery, cavalry, engineers and 
 commissariat, with a contingent of nurses, 
 clerks and artificers, in all about 5000 men, 
 left Hiroshima. China then had 3000 troops 
 -at Asan, forty miles south of Seoul. In the 
 meantime China hurried forward reinforce- 
 ments. July 25th the Naniwa, the Japanese 
 war-ship sank the chartered transport Kow 
 Shing, one of the fastest vessels engaged in 
 the Chinese seas, off the island of Phun-do, 
 in Corea. 
 
 Work of the Navy. 
 
 The first collision of the two navies re- 
 sulted in the complete victory of the Jap- 
 anese, in their capture of the Tshao-Kiong, 
 .a gunboat of 900 tons ; in the destruction of 
 another war-ship, the Kuan-Yi of i lOO tons, 
 and in the sinking of the Kow-Shing. The 
 Chi-Yen escaped, but was badly injured. 
 The Yoshino, Naniwa and Akitsu, which 
 ■effected this destructive work, proved the 
 superiority of the Japanese Navy. 
 
 The battle of Asan which followed four 
 days later was the first victory of the Jap- 
 anese on land. The fortresses of Asan were 
 situated on a hill at Seikan, an important 
 position. In front of the hill are rice pad- 
 dies and marshes crossed in the middle by a 
 little stream which runs into the Asan Bay, 
 and a narrow path leads up to the hill. It 
 was a position easy to defend and hard to 
 attack. Three thousand Chinese soldiers of 
 ii-Hung-Chang's famous Black Flag Army, 
 38 
 
 the flower of the Chinese Army, defended 
 this position. 
 
 At dawn the Japanese army began to 
 move. Lieutenant Matsuzaki led his troops 
 across the river under a deadly fire from 
 some 500 Chinese troops who were in am- 
 bush. As the fight took place in the dark 
 and the river was swollen by rain the diffi- 
 culty of crossing was great. In spite of all 
 obstacles Lieutenant Matsuzaki got his men 
 across with comparatively little loss, but 
 soon after he had reached the opposite bank 
 a bullet struck him in the chest and he fell 
 dead on the field. 
 
 Carried by Storm. 
 
 The second part of the battle began at 
 6 o'clock in the morning. The Japanese 
 stormed the entrenchments again and again 
 and eventually ^islodged the enemy from its 
 position. The Chinese broke and fled in all 
 directions, leaving behind a large quantity of 
 ammunition, which fell into the hands of the 
 victors. The Japanese pursued the fugitives 
 to Yashan, where they expected a stand to 
 be made, but to their surprise found that the 
 Chinese, evidently demoralized by their de- 
 feat, had abandoned the position together 
 with several hundred thousand cartridges, 
 four cannon, 700 bales of rice and a large 
 supply of clothing. Some important official 
 documents were also found. 
 
 Early in August an engagement between 
 China's strongest ironclad, the Chen- Yuen, 
 and the Japanese composite armored cruiser, 
 the Hi-Yei, took place. The Japanese war- 
 ship was handled admirably and showed 
 desperate courage. After this fight the 
 Japanese terrorized the Chinese navy and 
 enjoyed complete sway on the sea. The 
 Chinese fleet as soon as they saw the Japan- 
 ese squadron fled into well fortified ports. 
 Li-Hung-Chang and Admiral Ting recog- 
 
594 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 nized the fact that if the fleet was destroyed 
 there was not much to hinder the Japanese 
 from marchiny upon Pekin. 
 
 In fact, the Japanese became so bold that, 
 on August iith, they attacked Wei-Hai- 
 Wei, which is one of the strongest naval 
 ports in Northern China. The Japanese fleet, 
 consisting of twenty-one vessels, found the 
 Chinese warships hiding in port. They took 
 advantage of the darkness of night and crept 
 
 A COREAN PORTER. 
 
 into the harbor of Wei-Hai-Wei unknown to 
 tiiC Chinese in the forts and vessels. Six 
 torpedo boats were sent out with the pur- 
 pose of blowing up the Chinese warships 
 anchored within. When midway a British 
 man-of-war which was anchored there fired 
 .salutes for the Japanese vessels, it is alleged 
 to warn the slumbering Chinese. Such an 
 unfriendly act spoiled the plan to take the 
 Chinese navy by surprise, and the Japanese 
 retired. But for this warning important re- 
 sults might have transpired. 
 
 At the end of August the Japanese fleet 
 bombarded Port Arthur for the second time, 
 and took possession of some islands in 
 Society Bay without the slighest molestation 
 as a basis of action. 
 
 On land, as at sea, the Chinese were flying- 
 from Corea, so little confidence had they in 
 their own army. Both Seoul and Chemulpo, 
 and Kan-Hon were abandoned, and the 
 Chinese retired to the North. Meanwhile 
 Japan had strengthened her military position 
 in Corea. The Chinese force at Asan had 
 been completely annihilated. Japanese rein- 
 forcements were landed at Fusan and Gensan 
 converging upon Phynonyan, some distance 
 to the north of Seoul, in readiness to meet 
 the Chinese army which was then concen- 
 trating and fortifying the strong defences at 
 Ping-Yang to made a stubborn resistance. 
 
 A March Northward. 
 
 The battle of Ping- Yang had strategical 
 importance. The Japanese force in Seoul, 
 about 17,000, then commanded by Lieu- 
 tenant-General Nodzu, started on a north- 
 ward march, August 7th, toward Pongsan 
 through a country exceedingly rough and 
 unfitted for military movements. To rein- 
 force this army and to guard against an 
 attack on the right flank 8000 men, under 
 Major-General Sato, were sent by sea from 
 Japan to Gensan, a port on the east coast 
 of Corea. On September 15th these armies. 
 were able to make combined attack upon 
 the enemy at Ping- Yang. The Gensan 
 column threatened the left flank of the Chi- 
 nese, the Pongsan column menaced the 
 Chinese centers, while the Hwang-Hoi col- 
 umn, which had been reinforced the day 
 before by a detachment from the mouth of 
 the Taitong River, operated against the 
 right. The defences of Ping-Yang were 
 strong. Ping- Yang is situated on the north. 
 
A JAPANESE ACCOUNT OF THE WAR. 
 
 595 
 
 bank of the Taitong River, which is naviga- 
 ble up to the city. It lies on the only road 
 to the northward by which the Japanese 
 army could advance into Manchuria and 
 Pekin. 
 
 The walls of the city were strengthened 
 by earthworks by the defenders. There 
 were in it three Krupp field pieces and 
 several Gatling guns, while the garrisons 
 were equipped with Spencer or Mosler rifles 
 and had plenty of ammunition. In front of 
 the castle was a masked fort, which is 
 described as being the best piece of military 
 engineering ever accomplished by the Chi- 
 nese. The Chinese considered the fortress 
 to be absolutely impregnable. The popula- 
 tion of the city is about 40,000, and it and 
 its surrounding country were strongly in 
 sympathy with China. It was, therefore, 
 plain that the first Japanese movement must 
 be to destroy the force there intrenched. 
 
 Fighting Under Cover. 
 
 The battle was begun Saturday, August 
 1 6th, at daybreak, by a Japanese cannonade 
 of the Chinese works, which was continued 
 without cessation until afternoon, the Chinese 
 responding. Early in the afternoon a body 
 of infantry was sent forward by the Japanese 
 and maintained a rifle fire upon the enemy 
 until dusk. Throughout the day only the 
 Pong-San column was engaged. The Chi- 
 nese defence suffered greatly, but losses on 
 either side were small, both the Chinese and 
 Japanese having taken advantage of all the 
 shelter available. 
 
 ' The Japanese troops, however, gained 
 some advanced positions. All other forts 
 were captured by the Japanese on the first 
 of the two days of fighting. Although 
 repeated attempts were made to storm the 
 gate of the castle the desperate courage 
 displayed by the garrison rendered that futile. 
 
 In the meantime two Japanese flanking 
 columns, the one from Gen-San, the other 
 from Wang-Hai, had formed a cordon 
 around the Chinese. On the next day early 
 in the morning an attack was made by the 
 Japanese columns with admirable precision. 
 The Chinese Hnes, which were so strong in 
 front, were found to be weak in the rear, and 
 here the attack was a complete success. 
 The main body of the enemy was attacked 
 in front and rear. \ 
 
 Thrown Into a Panic. 
 
 The Chinese were completely taken by 
 surprise and were thrown into a panic. 
 Hundreds were cut down and those who 
 escaped death, finding themselves surroun- 
 ded at every point, broke and fled. Some 
 of Viceroy Li-Hung-Chang's European- 
 drilled troops stood their ground and were 
 cut down to a man. ' Half an hour after the 
 attack the Chinese army was flying toward 
 the Yalu River. 
 
 At last the white flag was raised on the 
 walls and the Chinese general promised to 
 surrender at sunrise next day. General 
 Nodzu, commander-in-chief of the army, 
 consented, on this understanding, to a cessa- 
 tion of hostilities. At evening the Chinese 
 army made a sortie, but were driven back 
 by the Japanese left flank, and at the same 
 time a squadron of the Manchu cavalry, 
 charged the Japanese right flank, but when 
 at 200 yards the magazine rifles suddenly 
 opened on them, they became utterly demor- 
 alized and scattered off the field without 
 killing a single foe. Inside the ramparts in 
 many places it came to a matter of cold 
 steel, and here the Japanese soldiers did 
 terrible work with the bayonet. 
 
 The weakest point of the Chinese army is 
 the lack of harmony. There is no supreme 
 commander in the Chinese army, for no one 
 
596 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 could willingly take such a responsible posi- 
 tion as commander-in-chief. The Chinese 
 generals, Yeh, Tso, Neih and Wei, were all 
 in equal command of corps and jealous of 
 each other. It is told that General Yeh 
 proposed to evacuate Ping-Yang and retire 
 before the stubborn defense should be taken. 
 Tso, a more conscientious commander, turned 
 on him in a rage : 
 
 " Retire, never ! Give me your brevet, and 
 then go if you like ! " 
 
 At this Yeh looked shame-faced. " Oh ! 
 I only said it to test your courage ; we all 
 really know that Tso is a brave man." 
 
 Fell on the Ramparts. 
 
 And Tso proved so. Early in the battle 
 he set an example of courage by mounting 
 a rampart very much exposed to fire. He 
 fell in battle. After his death no general 
 had courage enough to stand his ground, 
 and the forces fled. 
 
 The victorious Japanese then entered the 
 city, which was a heap of ruins. The streets 
 were littered with the dead bodies of Chinese, 
 Coreans, oxen and horses. The only living 
 things remaining were a few dogs and pigs. 
 The palace of the Governor was occupied 
 as the headquarters of the Japanese army. 
 Thus the Japanese brought the Ping- Yang 
 campoign to a brilliant close. 
 
 In this battle 192 Japanese were killed 
 and 487 wounded, and the Chinese loss is 
 estimated at about 2000 killed and wounded 
 and 700 prisoners. The Chinese soldiers 
 wore the blue uniforms. When Chinamen 
 heard that the terrible Jap was coming, they 
 immediately cut off their hair and took the 
 white clothing of the Coreans. The spoils 
 captured by the Japanese in the battle con- 
 sisted of thirty-four guns of modern artillery, 
 several thousands of rifles, ammunition, innu- 
 merable battle flags and much treasure. 
 
 China sent five transports conveying sol- 
 diers to re-enforce the Chinese army in Ping- 
 Yang. These transports left Tau September 
 14th. They were convoyed by the powerful 
 Chinese Navy. At this time the Japanese 
 squadron was searching for the Chinese fleetin 
 the Yellow Sea. On September 14th the Jap- 
 anese squadron steamed toward the mouth 
 of the Yalu River, expecting to sight part of 
 the Chinese fleet, but failed to find a single 
 Chinese war-ship. On September i6th, the 
 Japanese ships moved toward the island of 
 Kaiwo. The squadron consisted of twelve 
 men-of-war, namely, the Yoshino, Takachiho, 
 Akitsushima, Naniwa, Matsushima, Chiyoda, 
 Ikutsushima, Hashidate, Hiyei, Fuso, Akagi 
 and the transport Saikiyo Maru, the latter 
 under the command of Admiral Kabayama, 
 who was making a tour of inspection. 
 
 Ships in Sight. 
 
 Soon after passing Kaiyo Island, on the 
 morning of September 17th, the watchers 
 in the turrets signalled " smoke in the dis- 
 tance!" and soon after eleven formidable 
 ships of the enemy were seen on the horizon. 
 The eager cry of " the enemy, the enemy!" 
 went from mouth to mouth. It was now 
 1 1.30, and orders were given from the flag- 
 ship Matsushima for dinner to be served on 
 all the ships, for men cannot fight with 
 empty stomachs. 
 
 The enemy was now in plain view and 
 rapidly approaching. The Chinese fleet con- 
 sisted of the Yang- Wei, Chao-Yang, Ching- 
 Yuen, Lai-Yuen, Chen-Yuen, Ting-Yuen, 
 King-Yuen, Chin-Yuen, Kuang-Ti, Tsi- 
 Yuen, Kuang-Ting, Ping-Yuen and six tor- 
 pedo boats. They were almost the whole 
 strength of the Chinese Navy. They steamed 
 out of the mouth of the river in battle forma- 
 tion and at the distance of 4000 metres 
 opened fire. The Japanese, fearing that 
 
A JAPANESE ACCOUNT OF THE WAR. 
 
 597 
 
 their fire would do little execution at such a 
 distance, waited until within 3000 metres of 
 the Chinese ships, and then brought their 
 guns into play. 
 
 The Japanese ships, possessing higher 
 speed and maneuvring powers, circled about 
 the enemy, coming in closer when engaging 
 the smaller vessels, and increasing the radius 
 when they came within the range of the 
 heavy guns of the Chinese battle ships. 
 
 The Japanese mariners showed great skill 
 with the long range quick-firing guns. They 
 maintained their line of battle, but the Chi- 
 nese, after a short time, broke their formation. 
 
 ■ A Target for Shot. 
 
 The action was extremely hot at times. 
 The Lai-Yuen sank first, stern foremost, and 
 her bows rising, stood for a minute and a 
 half out of water. The Chih-Yuen was the 
 next vessel to go down. She made a des- 
 perate charge against the Japanese. She is 
 said to have been struck 200 times, mostly 
 by machine guns. The Yang- Wei was next 
 disabled. The steering gear of the Haikio- 
 Maru, the Japanese transport, on which boat 
 was Admiral Kabayanca, the head of the 
 Naval Command Bureau, was disabled by 
 the explosion of one of the enemy's shells, 
 and that vessel was obliged to drop out of 
 the line. 
 
 She was pursued by the Chinese, and was 
 forced to pass between the powerful Ting- 
 Yuen and Chen-Yuen, within a distance of 
 eighty metres. The commanders of these 
 vessels, thinking it was her intention to ram 
 them, steered off, leaving the packet room 
 to escape. The Chinese discharged two fish 
 torpedoes at her, but they were aimed too 
 low and passed beneath her, doing no 
 damage. 
 
 Shortly after the mishap to the Haikio- 
 Maru, the flagship Matsushima's forward 
 
 quick-firing gun was struck by a shell and 
 many casualities resulted. The ship was so 
 badly damaged as to necessitate her with- 
 drawing from the line of battle, and Admiral 
 Ito shifted his flag to the Haskidate. An- 
 other Chinese shell exploded in the Hiyei, 
 killing and wounding many persons, includ- 
 ing the surgeons, and setting the ship on 
 fire. She left the line of battle to extinguish 
 the flames and transfer the wounded, after 
 which she returned and again took part in 
 the fight. 
 
 Captain Sokamoto, of the Akagi, the 
 smallest gunboat, was aloft watching for 
 torpedoes and signalling to the other vessels 
 of the fleet their location, especially that of 
 the Chin- Yuen, when the mast was cutaway 
 by a shot from the enemy and he was killed, 
 upon which a sailor of the Akagi jumped 
 into the sea and rescued the dead body of 
 the Captain. 
 
 Trying to Escape. 
 
 While the Japanese were fighting like 
 lions the Chinese fled like sheep. The King- 
 Yuen went down. The Yang-Wai got 
 aground and was rammed and sunk by the 
 Tsi-Yuen, which her cowardly captain was 
 taking out of action. The Tshao-Yung 
 caught fire and was beached. The Kuang- 
 Ping went ashore north of Port Arthur, 
 where here commander was fleeing from the 
 scene of the action and was lost. The Chen- 
 Yuen caught fire and she turned and steamed 
 away. When she passed it was noticed by 
 the Japanese that not a single member of her 
 crew was in sight. 
 
 At sundown the Chinese fleet was in full 
 retreat. They were pursued by the Japanese 
 ships. Owing to the extreme darkness the 
 Chinese succeeded in getting away and 
 reaching a safe shelter. The Chen-Yuen 
 and the Ting-Yuen, the two largest ships in 
 
698 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 the Chinese navy, were both greatly injured. 
 When the Ting-Yuen arrived at Port.Arthur 
 she was three feet down by the head. The 
 Chen-Yuen had 120 shot holes in her sides. 
 
 All the Japanese ships fought splendidly 
 throughout. The maneuvring was excel- 
 lent. All signals were exchanged by flag 
 and were promptly answered throughout the 
 battle. None of the Japanese vessels were 
 lost in the engagement and only three were 
 injured. All of them, with the exception of 
 the Matsushima, remained on the station. 
 
 At daylight the Japanese vessels endeav- 
 ored to find the enemy, but were unable to 
 do so. They then returned to the scene of 
 the previous day's action, where they found 
 the Yang-Wei ashore and deserted, and 
 destroyed her with a fish torpedo and quan- 
 tities of wreckage. Thus ended Japan's 
 glorious victory on the Yalu. Since the 
 battle of the Yalu the Chinese warships 
 which survived have never came out of for- 
 tified harbors. 
 
 The Japanese army had crossed the Yalu 
 and entered Manchuria. It is now about 
 time (November 25th), that the Japanese 
 troops are in the sight of Moukden, the 
 sacred home of the reigning Chinese dynasty. 
 
 It is now reported that the Japanese have 
 captured Port Arthur, which is the great 
 naval stronghold of China and is known as 
 the Gibraltar of Asia. The second Japanese 
 army under Marshal Oyama is now moving 
 toward Pekin. 
 
 According to a despatch from Tokio the 
 third Japanese corps has sailed from Mjina, 
 Hiroshima. It is affirmed that the objective 
 point of the corps is the Yan-tsu-King River, 
 the heart of the Chinese Empire. Now we 
 see Japan attacking China in three different 
 directions. Soon China's humiliation will 
 be completed and the civilizing mission of 
 Japan will be done. When the banner of 
 the rising sun is placed on the walls of Pekin 
 it will signify the beginning of a better era for 
 benighted China and darkened Asia. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 THE CAPITAL OF CHINA. 
 
 THE crowning ambition of Japanese 
 patriotism after war was declared 
 against the Celestial Empire was to 
 emulate the prowess of the French 
 and English and march to Pekin. The 
 ancient and gigantic Chinese capita}, there- 
 fore, occupied the attention of the onlooking 
 Tvorld. 
 
 Its sights have often been depicted by 
 travelers who have had the good fortune to 
 visit it in its normal, workaday state in the 
 piping times of peace, but by none more 
 graphically, more picturesquely than M. 
 Pierre Loti, French naval officer, litterateur. 
 Academician, who is idolized by the feminine 
 readers of France for his poetical romances, 
 replete with the love, color and mystery of 
 the East. 
 
 Subjoined is a translation of M. Loti's 
 •experiences : 
 
 En route for Pekin ! CUc ! Clac ! "Ta, ta, 
 ta, ta ! " cries our pigtailed coachman, and 
 our two thin mules start off with a trot. 
 Our vehicle is mounted upon two enormous 
 wheels, and covered with a blue awning to 
 protect us from the dusty north wind. Our 
 mules are imbued with unshakable princi- 
 ples, which preclude them from going over 
 forty lis an hour (about three and one-half 
 miles). 
 
 The landscape which meets our eyes con- 
 sists of a cloud of dust, come expressly from 
 Mongolia to vex us. It envelopes every- 
 thing. Do not take the trouble to look 
 outside, for you will see nothing. Do not 
 speak, for in opening your mouth you will 
 599 
 
 swallow pounds of dust. Just keep quiet 
 for this is the best thing you can do. 
 
 However, our little trip will only last 
 three days, and we shall have for distraction 
 the view of our muleteer, a frightful little 
 Chinese jackanapes, dirty from head to foot, 
 and as round as a barrel under his seven or 
 eight goatskin mantles. Toward the even- 
 ing of the second day we perceive in the 
 horizon an old, gray crenellated wall, with 
 bastions situated at intervals of an arrow's 
 flight from each other. 
 
 The Mysterious Palace. 
 
 At full ^trot, with a loud jingling of bells, 
 our cortege enters Pekin and wends its way 
 through the small, tortuous streets, reeking 
 with filth, animal and vegetable detritus, 
 dogs dead and alive. Behind us is the huge 
 palace of the Son of Heaven ; one perceives 
 the top of its mysterious walls, within which 
 no European has ever been. It still slum- 
 bers in its inconceivable splendor, and at its 
 feet the Lotus Lake lies tarnished and dead 
 under the January ice. 
 
 One experiences a sort of indefinable 
 uneasiness at the thought of the immensity 
 of this city, awaking in the bright morning; 
 one feels oppressed, as it were, by this 
 cramped, confused, inextricable dedalus one 
 makes out around one, covering a greater 
 extent than any capital of Europe. 
 
 The dogs bark furiously at us and make 
 menacing charges at the legs of our animals, 
 whose movements are becoming restless and 
 irregular. These dogs issue from all the 
 
600 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 alleys, and the troop pursues us, showing 
 their sharp fangs, eager to bite. 
 
 The countenances of a few young Tartar 
 girls, who have just got up, already appear 
 at the doors of the little, low, gray-brick 
 houses. Their broad, full-moon-like faces, 
 befarded with white and vermillion, peep 
 curiously after us, like a lot of kittens' 
 heads ; they have little airs of timidity ; 
 blankness and astonishment at the sight of 
 this Western carnival passing by. Their 
 large casaques and bulging pantaloons stand 
 out in bright, raw colors against the gray 
 walls of the houses ; they poise themselves 
 awkwardly on feet that are too small, in the 
 pretty poses of little firescreen figures. 
 
 Old Yellow Town. 
 
 These images defile rapidly on each side 
 of us ; they disappear, and we again en- 
 counter an interminable series of deserted 
 streets. We are in the Yellow, or imperial 
 town,, and all these old, dead districts bear 
 an aristocratic character. Walls, walls with- 
 out end ; walls all crooked with age, all 
 carpeted with moss and ferns. Behind them 
 are immense parks, where a nature artificial 
 and whimsically Chinese has been fashioned 
 at great expense. 
 
 Occasionally entrances are opened, en- 
 trances with heavy oaken doors worn by 
 time, and enormous pilasters. They have 
 extravagant roofs, these entrances, yellow 
 roofs whose extreme angles are raised sky- 
 ward in capricious crooks, in grimacing 
 forms of dragons and monsters. All are 
 guarded by two marble beasts, half lions, 
 half chimeras, which, with one clawed paw 
 posed on a ball, regard the passer-by with a 
 mysterious air. 
 
 And over all this the neighboring desert 
 has placed its mark : a layer of gr^y dust, 
 effacing the ancient colors and gilt, the 
 
 strange medleys painted upon these Yamen 
 by the artists of long ago. 
 
 In the direction of Sitchemen, the West- 
 ern gate, which will , give us access to the 
 country, we now follow a great, straight 
 artery, entirely bordered by palaces. As we 
 advance, the lines of monumental and im- 
 posing constructions emerge from the whirl- 
 winds of dust, and the semi-obscurity of the 
 luminous mist ; a double row of hoar-frost, 
 covered trees stretches before us in endless 
 perspective ; and on either hand there are 
 always the same great walls, the same grand 
 entrances with their pent-houses bristling 
 with chimeras and monsters, the same 
 marble lions squatting on the ground^ and 
 grinding their teeth at the people who pass. 
 These Yamen are academies, ministries, law- 
 courts, temples, bonzeries, convents of 
 lamas. 
 
 A Lively Scene. 
 
 As the hour advances, the boulevard 
 becomes animated ; we meet wagons, bour- 
 geois on donkeys, cavaliers mounted on 
 little Mongolian steeds, with large heads, 
 and the ruse, knavish airs of learned horses. 
 
 Now the boulevard begins to fill with peo- 
 ple ; it is becoming a perfect tumult. Riders 
 come and go, preceded by Mafoos in livery. 
 They are all of a heap in their long gowns, 
 and look as though squatting on their high 
 saddles. They are attired in garments of 
 silk trimmed with precious furs, and black 
 velvet boots turned up at the tips, with 
 thick immaculately white soles, made of 
 layers of paper. Among them are phisiog- . 
 nomies that, while very Chinese, are stamped 
 with a kind of distinction peculiar to the 
 upper classes. 
 
 They eye us as we pass with a certain 
 expression of astonishment, with an imper- 
 ceptible shade of irony, though in their de- 
 
THE CAPITAL OF CHINA. 
 
 601 
 
 portment there is nothing but benevolence 
 and courtesy: but the Asiatic expression is 
 always there, even in the kind and dis- 
 tinguished physiognomies of the upper 
 classes. There is an impassable abyss be- 
 tween this antique Asia, which still lives in 
 spite of all, and us, who, born yesterday, 
 have changed eveiything. 
 
 A cloud of dust : children scampering 
 about and uttering cries as piercing as a 
 steam whistle; dirty looking men beating 
 gongs; people out of breath, carrying lan- 
 terns, in broad daylight, at the end of long 
 staves with red pendants; halberdies; lie- 
 tors dressed in black puffed-out doublets 
 and breeches, and lofty hats bedecked with 
 plumes, shaking, with frantic gesticulation, 
 whips, weighted cat-o '-nine-tails, chains, and 
 instruments of torture ; and then, advancing 
 in the same headlong manner, people carry- 
 ing green dragons, red screens, chimeras and 
 monsters stuck on the end of long poles. 
 
 The Famous Viceroy. 
 
 Finally the great personage thus escorted 
 appears on a splendidly caparisoned horse. 
 He is Li-Hung-Chang, the Viceroy of 
 Petchili, who is going in state to visit Kong, 
 the Prince-Regent. He is tall and thin. His 
 bony face, with goatee and long mustache, 
 has a sanctimonious expression. The pea- 
 cock feather of China's great men floats be- 
 hind the rose-colored ball which surmounts 
 his high official coiffure. 
 
 All this flies past very quickly ; the people 
 afoot run; the riders trot, a jogtrot which 
 makes all their bells jingle, shakes the long, 
 disheveled manes of the horses and makes 
 the men's pigtails dance. The gold badge 
 of the Order of the Pheasant bobs up and 
 down on the breast of the powerful seignior; 
 the cloaks of the mandarins flap in the 
 wind like wings. They have passed. The 
 
 suite comes along at full speed, like the 
 advance guard; secretaries and scribes on 
 horseback, all in official caps, with comical 
 importance, their rolls of papers' and docu- 
 ments slung over their shoulders. Then the 
 valets, a sinister-looking rabble, dressed in 
 queer rags, running with all their might. 
 And that is all. We can continue our jour- 
 ney. 
 
 We arrive at a triumphal arch with three 
 arcades, painte^ blood red, and surmoupited 
 by the inevitable roofing turned up with 
 monsters' heads : it is the gate of the Red 
 Town. Here everything changes; one 
 would imagine it to be the entrance to one 
 of those huge cities of by-gone ages. The 
 boulevard continues through this Red Town 
 and loses itself in the distance. 
 
 Beasts of Burden. 
 
 We advance slowly and painfully through 
 the maze of wagons and riders, while try- 
 ing not to lose sight of our Mafoo, who is 
 clearing the way for us. Now and then at 
 crossings formed by other large boulevards, 
 which cut ours at right angles, we are forced 
 to stop to allow interminable files of camels 
 to pass, enormous beasts with dusky muz- 
 zles and long rough hair, which amble along 
 on their comically jointed legs like machines 
 out of gear. 
 
 The fellows leading them are Mongols 
 from the Northern desert. Their large, flat 
 faces have something jovial and hardy 
 about them, which contrasts agreebly with 
 the perpetual Chinese grimace. They are 
 dressed in long blood-colored robes, with 
 waist belts bristling with poignards, and are 
 coiffed with a kind of curtained capelin of 
 fur, surmounted by a red cone, ornamented 
 with a tuft:. 
 
 We.trot along on a sort of high embank- 
 ment, reserved for horses and vehicles. 
 
602 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 while on each side, on a lower level, is a 
 road reserved for pedestrians. Around us 
 still are rich cavaliers, befurred and be- 
 gowned ; blue carts without number ; ladies 
 of quality in black sedan chairs, shaped like 
 street lamps, and bourgeois of placid mien, 
 mounted on hired donkeys and followed bj» 
 donkey boys, who flog the animals with 
 sticks and shout : " Ta, ta, ta ta !" 
 
 On the roads below are groups of people, 
 simple folk, standing open-mouthed before a 
 dancing bear, funambulists performing tricks, 
 mountebanks who go through hideous con- 
 tortions. And shops upon shops, always 
 gilded and splendid, wherein are sold Mon- 
 golian furs, gold and silver brocades, price- 
 less stuffs embroidered with fantastic things 
 in dreamy shades, enamels and beautiful 
 pottery, all the relics of an inconceivable 
 past, extravagant in richness and color. 
 
 A Strange Cavern. 
 
 Then there are fortune-tellers grouping 
 the people, acupuncturist doctors operating 
 upon dummies laid on trestles. There are 
 also banking-houses swarming with a whole 
 population of sheep-faced employes, fever- 
 ishly manoeuvring the strings of balls on the 
 calculating machines with the tips of their 
 long, sharp, Chinese claws. 
 
 At last, at last, we come to a large don- 
 jon, perched on a high gray wall, and a 
 black gulf. It is a Sitchemen, the direct 
 Western gate. Let us penetrate slowly and 
 prudently into this cavern, so as not to^ 
 break our horses' legs between the old, dis- 
 jointed flagstones, dating from the time of 
 Khali-bai-Khan, grandson of Gengiz-Khan 
 and founder of the Youen dynasty. 
 
 Let us traverse this hideous tunnel, then 
 an inner court, then a second tunnel cut 
 under a second donjon, whose four* white 
 walls rise above us, pierced with black 'em- 
 
 brasures, like the portholes of a ship. Let 
 us hasten through a cloud of human lice, 
 beggars sinister and terrible ; let us escape 
 their somewhat alarming attentions and issue 
 at length from this Dantesque cave. 
 
 More camels, more tumbledown houses of 
 an old sordid faubourg, and a great plain 
 opens before us. We are in the open country. 
 
 Concerning the Emperor. 
 
 From another account by one well in- 
 formed concerning court customs in China 
 we learn that the Chinese idea of the Em- 
 peror is that he is second only to Almighty 
 God, and is the connecting link between or- 
 dinary humanity and the Almighty. He is 
 held to be the legal monarch of the whole 
 earth, of which China is merely the " Middle 
 Kingdom," all other nations being therefore 
 his tributaries and subjects. The practical 
 outcome of this dual theory of the sacred- 
 ness and universality of the Emperor's sov- 
 ereign claim has been to exact from foreign- 
 ers admitted to audience certain conditions 
 which other States have with good reason 
 never been willing to concede. 
 
 These requirements had reference, first, to 
 the character of the obeisance made by the 
 foreigner admitted to the interview, and, 
 second, to the building in which the audience 
 took place. As regards tha former, the for- 
 eigner was formerly expected to perform the 
 kotow — in other words, to kneel thrice and 
 knock his forehead nine times on the ground. 
 As regards the site of audience, the humble- 
 ness of the stranger received by the Son of 
 Heaven was emphasized by receiving him 
 not in the Imperial palace, but in a building 
 of an inferior kind, involving the idea of po- 
 litical independence. 
 
 Upon these extravagant pretentions and 
 their negation by other States, the whole 
 audience question in China has turned. 
 
THE CAPITAL OF CHINA. 
 
 603 
 
 As already stated the first English ambas- 
 sador to have audience of a Chinese Em- 
 peror was Lord Macartney, in 1793. Lord 
 Macartney offered to kotow to the Emperor 
 if a Chinese nobleman did as much before 
 a picture of George III, which he had 
 brought for the purpose. The offer was re- 
 fused. Lord Macartney knelt on one knee 
 when presenting his credentials in the inter- 
 view that was eventually granted, but the 
 Chinese always declared afterward that he 
 had kotowed. They further illustrated their 
 Emperor's claims by exhibiting before His 
 Lordship, who was innocent of any knowl- 
 edge of Chinese, a flag with the inscription : 
 — "Ambassador bearing tribute from the 
 country of England." 
 
 Receiving the Envoys. 
 
 When the war between England and 
 China came to an end, in 1 860, article 3 of 
 the treaty concluded by the conquerors stip- 
 ulating that Britain's representative "shall 
 not be called upon to perform any ceremony 
 derogatory to him as representing the sover- 
 eign of an independent nation on a footing 
 of equality with China." For some years — 
 during the exile of Hsien-Feng , and the mi- 
 nority of Tung-Chih — it was not possible to 
 act upon the right of audience implied in this 
 clause of the treaty. 
 
 As soon, however, as Tung-Chih assumed 
 the reins of government, in 1873, the foreign 
 Ministers at Pekin collectively requested 
 permission to present their congratulations 
 to him in person. The request could not be 
 denied, but, just as the Chinese had in Lord 
 Macartney's case saved their armor proper 
 by means of a flag, so now they achieved the 
 same result by receiving the envoys in the 
 Tsu-Kuang-Ko, a building on the outskirts 
 of the palace enclosure, which, being inferior 
 to the palace proper, carried with it, to the 
 
 Chinese mind, the tributary idea, and was 
 therefore the less objectionable. 
 
 Tung-Chih died in 1875, and was suc- 
 ceeded by the present Emperor, then a 
 minor. The audience question accordingly 
 slumbered again for a time, but when the 
 new ruler assumed the control of the gov- 
 ernment it came to the front once more. 
 Kuangsu, however, did not wait for any 
 representations • to be made to him on the 
 subject, but on December 12, 1890, he is- 
 sued the following proclamation, the first in- 
 timation that the outside world received of 
 the progressive spirit actuating the present 
 Emperor: 
 
 "I have now been in charge of the gov- 
 ernment for two years. The Ministers of 
 foreign Powers ought to be received by me 
 at audience ; and I hereby decree that the 
 audience to be held be in accordance with 
 that of the twelfth year of Tung-Chih (i 873). 
 It is also hereby decreed that a day be fixed 
 every year for an audience in order to show 
 my desire to treat with honor all the Minis- ^ 
 ters of the foreign Powers resident in Pekin." 
 
 The Dragon Pillar. 
 This voluntary action on the Emperor's 
 part marked a distinct step in advance, but it 
 will be seen that he adhered to the prece- 
 dent set by Tung-Chih of holding the 
 reception in the Tzu-Kuang-Ko. A good 
 deal of dissatisfaction was expressed on this 
 point, but the audience, nevertheless, took 
 place on March 5, 1891. The Emperor sat 
 on a dais behind a table covered with yellow 
 silk. Each of the six Ministers received, 
 bowed at stated intervals, as he walked up 
 the hall, and then pausing at what was 
 called the Dragon Pillar, read his letter of 
 credence, which was translated by the inter- 
 preter and finally handed to the President of 
 the Tsungli Yamen, or Foreign Council, by 
 
604 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 whom it was placed on the yellow table. 
 The President then received on his knees the 
 Emperor's reply, which was written in 
 Manchu, and which, after descending from 
 the dais, he communicated in Chinese to the 
 Minister by means of an interpreter. 
 
 The members of the Diplomatic Corps, 
 however, were, not satisfied with the arrange- 
 ments, and a request was made to the 
 Tsungli Yamen in the Imperial Palace itself 
 A compromise was eventually arrived at by 
 which it was arranged that future audiences 
 should be granted in the Chang-Kuang-Tien, 
 an ancient building on the eastern side of 
 the marble bridge, which spans the lake in 
 the Palace grounds. 
 
 The Palace Closed. 
 
 This structure is not part of the Palace 
 proper, but the use involves no reflection 
 upon the status of persons received, and in 
 it the representatives of Austro-Hungary, 
 Great Britain and Germany have been ac- 
 corded an audience. France and Russia, 
 however, ^till maintain a determined attitude 
 on the question and refuse to permit their 
 Ambassadors to be received anywhere but 
 in the Palace itself. It is thus that the 
 matter stands at present. Audience is 
 granted by the Emperor without any ques- 
 tion of the " Wowtow," but the diplomats 
 have not yet been accorded the privilege of 
 approaching the throne in one of the great 
 audience halls in the body of the Palace. 
 
 The Palace grounds in Pekin occupy the 
 entire space within the third and innermost 
 walled enclosure of the city, called Tze- Kin- 
 Cheng, or the Purple'Forbidden City. This 
 enclosure is nearly a square in shape, with 
 its sides facing the four points of the com- 
 pass. Two walls running from north to 
 south divide the space into three portions ; 
 the one in the middle contains tl^e principal 
 
 edifices. The main entrance to this part of 
 the grounds is the " Wu Mun," or Meridian 
 Gate. 
 
 On passing through this gate one enters a 
 large court, with porticos and corridors on 
 the right side and on the left, and an arti- 
 ficial stream, spanned by five ornamental 
 bridges of sculptured marble, running from 
 east to west across the middle of it. The 
 gateway in front leads to another court, at 
 the head of which stands ^a magnificent 
 structure, called Tai-ho-tien, or the Palace 
 of Supreme Peace, which is the principal 
 hall of audience. It rests on a terrace 
 twenty-three and a half feet high, and rises 
 to the height of 130 feet. Five flights of 
 nine steps each lead from the pavement be- 
 low to the principal audience hall above. 
 
 On His Throne. 
 
 The landing that crowns the first flight of 
 steps is, in fact, a raised platform, paved 
 with purple tiles. There the high dignitaries 
 of the Empire assemble on all State occa- 
 sions and perform the required ceremonies 
 before the Emperor, who is seated on a 
 throne above. The remaining four flights of 
 steps are divided into five approaches, each 
 by balustrades of white marble. 
 
 In the centre of the audience hall is 
 placed a throne,*" upon which the Emperor 
 mounts New Year's Day, winter solstice, or 
 his birthday, to receive the congratulations 
 of the assembled officials. 
 
 Some time ago portions of the Palace 
 grounds were accessible to the foreigner, but 
 for several years a policy of the strictest ex- 
 clusion has prevailed. Everything is closed 
 and nothing can be seen from the outside 
 but the yellow roofs of the great halls and 
 the pavilions crowning the higher elevations. 
 To the innermost Palace no man is admitted. 
 It is here that the Emperor resides, with his 
 
THE CAPITAL OF CHINA. 
 
 605 
 
 harem surrounded by an army of from 
 eight to ten thousand eunuchs. 
 
 There seems little ground for surprise at 
 the Imperial attitude toward the envoys of 
 foreign States when the isolation of the Em- 
 peror from his own subjects is borne in 
 mind. When he visits any of the temples 
 or a neighboring palace no one is allowed to 
 be abroad in the streets. All stalls and 
 booths are removed, and the houses are bar- 
 ricaded with mats. It is only in the coun- 
 try, where such precautions are physically 
 impossible, that glimpses of the Emperor 
 may be had as he passes swiftly along in his 
 magnificent sedan. 
 
 The Royal Emblem. 
 
 So vast, indeed, has been the gulf of sepa- 
 ration between the sovereign and his people 
 that many articles have been exclusively 
 associated with the former, and therefore for- 
 bidden to the latter, as, for instance, the 
 color yellow, which is exclusively the Impe- 
 rial emblem. 
 
 The kotow, or form of worship, is ren- 
 dered not merely to the person of the sover- 
 eign in Pekin, but to every form in which he 
 delegates his authority to others. It is well 
 known that the Imperial edict is always 
 received with the nine prostrations and the 
 burning of incense. But it is not so gener- 
 ally understood that an official of even 
 superior rank has to perform the kotow on 
 meeting another official who has recently 
 quitted the Imperial presence. Similar obei- 
 sances are paid during the week containing 
 his birthday to the Emperor in the Imperial 
 temple to be found in every provincial capital. 
 
 The fact that the Emperor's proper name 
 is never mentioned, and that to pronounce it 
 is a criminal offence, shows how exclusive 
 the dynastic policy of the Chinese has always 
 been. On ascending the throne the ruler 
 
 takes what is called a"kwoh hao," and by 
 that name he becomes known to his people 
 and to history. 
 
 An extraordinary sensation was occasioned 
 some time ago when, during his annual pil- 
 grimage to the Eastern tombs of his ances- 
 tors the Emperor not only permitted himself 
 to be seen by the people, but actually stopped 
 and spoke to some abnormally audacious 
 persons who ventured forward to present a 
 petition. Naturally there are Mandarins who 
 look upon such departure from the estab- 
 lished order of things with horror. But the 
 young Emperor seemed to be bent according 
 to his lights on ruling in a more liberal 
 spirit than his predecessors, and his former 
 determination to take a direct personal share 
 in the conduct of the war was an indication 
 of his purpose to govern his huge Empire in 
 a fashion more comfortable to modern ideas. 
 
 Threatened Uprising. 
 
 De.spatches from the East in November 
 indicated the probability of an early move- 
 ment in China against the reigning dynasty. 
 The provinces were described as being in an 
 excited and troubled condition, while the 
 dissatisfaction among the official classes had 
 become acute. 
 
 For the first time since the Taeping rebel- 
 lion, "expulsion of the Manchus " was 
 openly talked of in the tea shops and other 
 resorts of the capital. In ordinary times the 
 average Chinaman would not dare to breathe 
 such things to his nearest friends, but now 
 the topic had become so hackneyed that 
 people everywhere discussed the prospects 
 of upsetting the existing order and driving 
 the Emperor and his court to their original 
 home at Moukden. 
 
 The account continues : " A prophecy, 
 moreover, with regard to the speedy down- 
 fall of the dynasty, was being secretly circu- 
 
606 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 lated throughout the country, and formed 
 part of a general scheme for preparing the 
 people for a change of rulers. The mis- 
 fortunes which have befallen China since the 
 war broke out, have helped forward the 
 plans of these conspirators by increasing the 
 general discontent, and the prospects of a 
 dynastic change are accordingly still more 
 obvious than they were in May. In these 
 circumstances it is of interest to recall in 
 brief the history of the house which at 
 present rules the teeming millions of the 
 Celestial Empire. 
 
 A Mixed Race. 
 
 "The present occupant of the Chinese 
 throne comes of a race different from those 
 over whom he rules, though allied to it. For 
 two centuries and a half the Manchu dynasty 
 of Tsing has swayed the rod of Empire in 
 China. This long period has not yet 
 brought about the amalgamation of the con- 
 querors and the conquered into one homo- 
 geneous people. To-day China presents 
 a spectacle somewhat similar to that which 
 England presented in the twelfth century, 
 when the inhabitants of the island had not 
 yet learned to regard themselves as English- 
 men, but as either Normans or Saxons. 
 
 "A dual administration of public affairs 
 is the outcome of this anomalous state of 
 things. Thus, all the departments of the 
 Chinese government have at least two heads, 
 one Manchu and one Chinese. The Manchus 
 naturally get the lion's share of the impor- 
 tant offices." 
 
 The reigning House traces its origin to the 
 Kin Tartars, who wrested the northern part 
 of China in the eleventh century from the 
 House of Sung, but had to flee in the begin- 
 ning of the next century from the victorious 
 advance of Genghis Khan, and take refuge 
 in the wilds of the Amur. The founder of 
 
 the Imperial family, Aisin Ghioro, is said to 
 have been the chief of a nomadic tribe at 
 Otole, a place situated in a wild region about 
 ninety miles southwest of Ninguta. But 
 little is known about his descendants for 
 several generations, until they migrated 
 southward and established themselves at 
 Hingking, about eighty miles to the east of 
 Moukden. There the ancestors of the pres- 
 ent Chinese rulers dwelt for four generations 
 and waxed strong and great. 
 
 It was toward the latter part of the six- 
 teenth century that they, under the leader- 
 ship of Tien-ming, started on their career of 
 conquest. . 
 
 This warrior became the head of the tribe 
 when he was only twenty-five years old. 
 He was a born leader, able, daring and fertile 
 in expedients. His land was hemmed in on 
 all sides by hostile tribes, but he succeeded 
 in the course of a few years in reducing them 
 all to subjection, and in extending his terri- 
 tory from the Amur on the north to the 
 Yellow Sea on the south, and from the 
 desert of Mongolia on the west to the Pacific 
 Ocean on the east. 
 
 Picked a Quarrel. 
 
 At that time a weak scion of the House of 
 Ming was on the throne of China. The Liao 
 River divided the territories of the Chinese 
 Emperor and the Manchu chieftain. The 
 ambitious Tien-ming found no difficulty in 
 picking a quarrel with his neighbor, and 
 accordingly made repeated incursions into 
 Chinese territory. Shinyang and Liaoyang 
 fell into his hands, after a stubborn defence. 
 Then he removed his capital from Hingking 
 to Shinyang, and changed its name to Mouk- 
 den. Distracted by internal dissensions the- 
 House of Ming was not in a position to offer 
 an effective resistance to the invasions of the 
 Manchus. Inch by inch the Chinese forces 
 
THE CAPITAL OF CHINA. 
 
 607 
 
 were driven back toward the Great Wall. 
 That barrier only served to check the advaijce 
 of the Manchus for a time. 
 
 At the eastern terminus of the Great Wall 
 is an important pass, called Shan-hai-kwan. 
 As long as the Chinese held that pass the 
 Manchus found it impossible to retain an inch 
 of territory within the Great Wall. But a 
 favorable opportunity presented itself to the 
 Manchus in an unexpected manner. Revolts 
 against the central government in different 
 parts of China at that time assumed such 
 proportions as to defy the authorities to put 
 them down. The insurgents made a bold 
 advance upon Pekin, and succeeded in cap- 
 turing the city. 
 
 Suicide in the Palace. 
 
 The last Ming Emperor committed suicide. 
 The Chinese general who commanded the 
 Imperial forces at Shan-hai-kwan refused to 
 submit to the rebel leader, and in an evil 
 hour invited the Manchus to enter China and 
 put down the insurrection. The invitation 
 was, of course, gladly accepted. The insur- 
 rection was speedily crushed, and then, hav- 
 ing made themselves masters of the country, 
 the Manchus refused to retire. Thus for a 
 second time China passed under a foreign 
 yoke. 
 
 The alien rulers of China increased the 
 extent of the Empire by adding their own 
 possessions to the eighteen provinces of 
 China. No sooner had the process of sub- 
 jugation been completed than the tide of 
 conquest began to turn. The conquered in 
 war soon proved their superiority in the arts 
 of peace. Instead of the Chinese becoming 
 Manchus, the Manchus gradually assimilated 
 with the Chinese. 
 
 A recent event of importance was the 
 agreement between China and our Govern- 
 ment by which intercourse between the two 
 
 nations was regulated. Ratifications of the 
 new immigration convention between the 
 United States and China were exchanged at 
 the State Department December 7th, 1894,, 
 by Secretary Gresham and Minister Yang 
 Yu. The convention will remain in force 
 ten years, and, unless six months before that / 
 time notice of its final termination shall be 
 given by either party, it continues for a simi- 
 lar period. 
 
 Article i stipulates that except under con- 
 ditions subsequently specified the immigra- 
 tion of Chinese laborers to the United States 
 shall be absolutely prohibited. 
 
 Article 2 excepts from the provisions of 
 the preceding article the return to the United 
 States of every registered Chinese laborer 
 who has a lawful wife, child or parent in the 
 United States, or property to the value of a 
 thousand dollars, or debts of like amount 
 pending settlement. 
 
 Chinese Laborers. 
 
 Article 3 accepts the right at present en- 
 joyed of Chinese subjects being officials, 
 teachers, students, merchants or travellers for 
 curiosity or pleasure, but not laborers, of 
 coming to or residing in the United States. 
 This class, however, is admitted only upon a 
 certificate approved by the diplomatic or con- 
 sular representative of this country at the 
 port whence such Chinese depart. The 
 privilege of transit of Chinese laborers 
 across the United States in journeying to or 
 from other countries is continued. 
 
 By Article 4 it is agreed that Chinese of 
 the laboring or any other class, either per- 
 manently or temporarily in the United States 
 shall have all the protection to their persons 
 and property that is given to citizens of the 
 most favored nations, except the right to be- 
 come naturalized citizens. Article 5 recog- 
 nizes the right of China to enact and enforce 
 
608 
 
 COREA AND THE WAR. 
 
 similar laws and regulations to our Chinese 
 registration act, providing for the registra- 
 tion of all American skilled and unskilled 
 laborers residing in China, and binds this 
 government to report to the government of 
 China the full name, agfe, occupation and 
 place of residence of all citizens of the 
 United States, including missionaries, within 
 and without the treaty ports of China. 
 
 The Coming Nation. 
 
 We may appropriately close this chapter 
 by an extract from a leading American jour- 
 nal respecting the rapid progress and increas- 
 ing influence of the Land of the Rising Sun : 
 
 The recent progress of Japan is the marvel 
 of the world. History records nothing like 
 the advance she has made within the last 
 quarter of a century. Coming up from 
 paganism and semi-barbarism, she now 
 boasts police and educational systems equal 
 to those of the United States. She has es- 
 tablished a national system of customs, post- 
 offices, telegraphs, telephones and railways. 
 She has a national mint and a decimal cur- 
 rency. Her recent victories arise from the 
 fact that she has her own arsenals and ship- 
 yards, with a well-disciplined, finely-officered 
 army and a steel-clad navy with all the 
 modern appliances of warfare. 
 
 A Sabbath of one day's rest in seven has 
 been ordained, and is kept as a general holi- 
 day. Every dweller of Japan is free«to wor- 
 ship God according to the dictates of his 
 own conscience. With the birth of religious 
 liberty began the era of Japanese progress. 
 No other so-called pagan land gives so warm 
 a welcome to missionaries of the Christian 
 
 faith. Its people have been quick to recog- 
 nize the fact that wherever the faith pre- 
 vails, there the elevating and refining arts of 
 life have their highest development. In 
 reckoning the agencies which have brought 
 about this peaceful yet radical revolution in 
 Japan the work of the Christian missions 
 must be given a very high place. 
 
 These Yankees of the Orient have been 
 eager to assimilate all Western culture and 
 to exchange for it the traditions, prejudices 
 and superstitions of an effete past. They 
 have sent many of their brightest young 
 men and women to study in European and 
 American halls of learning; they have sum- 
 moned to Japan as teachers in all arts, 
 sciences and professions representatives of 
 the best occidental talent and learning. This 
 hospitality to new ideas has brought about 
 the entire transformation of a whole people. 
 
 Modern Ideas. 
 
 It is to be regretted that Japan signalizes 
 her new birth of freedom, education ahd all 
 progressive arts by making war upon a 
 neighboring nation. But war is a wicked- 
 ness which even the most advanced Christian 
 nations have not yet outgrown. It seems to 
 be ordained that in this way Japan should 
 teach to her benighted neighbor the value of 
 modern ideas ; the utter worthlessness of a 
 civilization which draws its whole sustenance 
 from the past, and obstinately hugging old 
 traditions, shuts its eyes to the fact that the 
 world moves, and that the nation which does 
 not move with it must eventually be crushed 
 under the wheels of its car of progress and 
 hasten to its own downfall.