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PRINCETON, N. J.
Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund.
Division
J
Section
CHILDREN OF CHINA
“ The good man is he who does not lose
his child-heart.” — Mencius, 371-288 b.c.
“ What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood,
That to the world are children ;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
Than reaches the trunks below.
Come to me, O ye children !
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.
• •!•••
Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said ;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.”
Longfellow.
TURNBULL, AND SPEARS
PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016
https://archive.org/details/childrenofchina00brow_0
THE EMI’EROR OF CHINA
CHILDREN OF CHINA
1
BY
COLIN CAMPBELL BROWN
AUTHOR OF
s
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
TO
ROBIN, MARGERY AND HUGH
INTRODUCTORY LETTER
My dear Boys and Girls,
There is a nook among the hills
in far-away China to which, if only I possessed
the famous flying carpet, I should very much like
to carry you. To know it properly one ought to
find it for oneself upon a day in spring. The road
to it runs at the foot of steep hills, on which the grey
earth peeps through a threadbare carpet of dry grasses.
Above these lower hills the mountain-sides are
green, shading into slate-colour and black ; and when the
sky clouds over, they look dark and angry. The road
rounds a comer and passes a wood : a few more steps
and the baby valley is in sight.
To leave the path and pick your way through some
trees is the work of a moment. You reach an open
space like a little lawn. Above the lawn is a bank, on
which, among shrubs and scattered trees, many
flowers are growing.
A faint scent of almonds breathes in the air. You
feast your eyes on great wild roses and azaleas, rose-
coloured, magenta, crimson — bushes of red fire burning
among ferns and green branches. Here, you notice
tufted flowers like feathers carved in ivory; there,
6
CHILDREN OF CHINA
white jasmine, clematis and plants whose shining
leaves are nearly covered by balls of snow. Over the
flowers and under the tree-tops great swallow-tailed
butterflies go whirling by. It is as if one of the old men
of the hills of whom Chinese stories tell, had opened a
doorway in the mountain-side and led you into a sweet
wild garden of fairyland.
The daily round of life in China is bare enough,
like a worn road winding among hills; but when one
comes to know the children of the country, it is like
finding a surprise garden where one had only looked for
rocks and boulders. The love of boys and girls, and
the tenderness and self-denial which they call forth
among older people, are the flowers that grow in this
enchanted spot.
The flying carpet was lost long ago, when this old
world forgot how to be young, but you boys and girls
sometimes weave one for yourselves and fly off as far
as Pekin or Peru. It is my hope in these pages to
join some of you in this pleasant task and carry you to
some of the far-off garden nooks of China.
The Chinese by Sir John F. Davies, Child Life in
Chinese Homes , by Mrs Bryson, and Chinese Slave Girls,
by Miss M. E. Talmage, are books which have helped me
to write about the children of China. I am sure they
will interest you by and by whenever you can find time
to read them. But the big Chinese city in which I live,
and the hundreds of villages round it, help me most of
INTRODUCTORY LETTER
7
all to tell you about China and its boys and girls, and I
greatly hope that one day some of you may come and
see them for yourselves.
I am,
Your sincere friend,
C. Campbell Brown.
Chinchew, 1909.
■
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introductory Letter .... 5
I The Invisible Top . . . . .11
II Chinese Babies ..... 14
III The Children’s Home . . . .18
IV School Days ...... 23
V Girls ....... 3°
VI Games and Riddles . . . -37
VII Stories and Rimes ..... 42
VIII Religion ...... 52
IX Festivals ...... 58
X Superstitions ..... 63
XI Reverence for Parents . . . -73
XII Faithfulness . . . . .76
XIII The Cry of the Children . . .80
XIV Ministering Children . . . .87
XV The Children’s King . . . -94
9
/
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Emperor of China .
. Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Chinese Babies ....
16
Child leading Buffalo .
. . 20
Kindergarten Pupils
28
Children at Food and at Play
%
40
Going to visit his Idol Mother
. . 60
Phcenix .....
. 84
Sunday School, Chinchew
88
10
CHILDREN OF CHINA
CHAPTER I
THE INVISIBLE TOP
The beginning of the world, as it is described to Chinese
boys and girls, is stranger than a fairy tale. First of all,
according to the story, there was something called
‘ khi * which could not be seen, nor touched, but was
everywhere. After a time this ‘ khi ’ began to turn
round like a great invisible top. As it whirled round,
the thicker part sank downwards and became the earth,
whilst the thinner part rose upwards, growing clearer
until it formed the sky, and so the heavens and the
earth span themselves into being. Presently, for
the story changes like a dream, there came a
giant named Pwanku. For thousands of years the
giant worked, splitting masses of rock with his
mallet and chisel, until the sun, moon and stars could be
seen through the openings which he had made. The
heavens rose higher, the earth spread wider, and
Pwanku himself grew six feet taller every day. When
he died, his head became mountains, his breath wind,
and his voice thunder; his veins changed into rivers,
his body into the earth, his bones into rocks and his
beard into the stars that stream across the night sky.
But though all this is only * a suppose story ’ of long
ago, the first part of it is wonderfully like what wise
men in our time have told us about the beginning of
things.
n
12
CHILDREN OF CHINA
Now we must talk of China as it is to-day. The
country in which Chinese children live is a land of hills
and plains, covered with cities, villages and temples.
You can imagine how big it is when you remember
that Szechuan, which is but one of its eighteen pro-
vinces, is larger than Great Britain and Ireland.
How China grew into a great empire is one of
the most wonderful stories of the world. Its people
are said to have come from the west, across the middle
of Asia, settling at length in what is now the province
of Shansi, just where the Yellow River bends sharply
eastwards. Small at first and surrounded by savages,
the baby kingdom soon began to grow. Like the tiny
tent of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, which
unfolded until an army could rest beneath the roof,
China spread until, a thousand years before the time of
Our Lord, its borders on the north and west were pretty
much what they are to-day, and it had crept south-
wards many miles beyond the Yellow River. The nation
went on growing, drawing other tribes and peoples
into itself, until, not long after King Alfred’s time, the
mother kingdom, without counting its subject countries,
was fifteen times as large as Great Britain.
What is now the Chinese Empire is said to have been
gained in peaceful ways rather than by fighting, and this
no doubt is partly true. The people knew more than
their neighbours did. Their fife was better and happier.
One after another the tribes wanted to join them, and
so the kingdom grew until one of the great changes of
the world was made. This will help you to understand
why the Chinese have always believed in peace rather
than force, and until lately have not cared for war.
The history of China at first, like that of other nations,
is rather misty. In spite of this, however, we can make
out that long ago the people had wise and good men to
THE INVISIBLE TOP
13
lead them, among whom were Yao and Shun, the model
rulers of the empire., and Yu the Great, who drained the
waters of a vast flood and cut down forests until the
land was fit to dwell in. Much has happened since then.
Greece and Rome have rissn, flourished, and decayed.
This nation, under many different families of rulers,
and in spite of some seventeen changes of capital, has
outlived them by centuries. Turks, Mongols and
Manchus have fought against it, and, as in the present
day, at times have conquered the country, only to be
conquered in turn by the wonderful Chinese people.
Of all the many changes in China’s story, perhaps
none has been more startling than that which hap-
pened in 1908, when the Emperor Kwangsu and the
Empress Dowager died, within two days of each other.
The whole country was thrown into mourning, almost
all the people going unshaved for a hundred days,
until long hair and bristling faces made the Chinese
world look sad indeed.
On the 2nd December of the same year, the Emperor
Hsuan Tung, bom in 1906, ascended the Dragon
Throne, and so the oldest of Empires came to have the
youngest of sovereigns for its ruler, and the world dis-
covered that the greatest child on earth was a little
Chinese boy. It is said that the baby emperor,
frightened by the sight of so many people in state dress,
began to cry when he was set upon the throne. He
was soon comforted, however, by some of the ladies-in-
waiting, and sat quietly until the grand ceremony was
finished.
The little man is the first ruler of China who, from
the beginning of his reign, has had prayer offered for
him by Christian people all over the empire, and we
may be sure that blessing will be given to him in
answer to these prayers. Boys and girls everywhere
14
CHILDREN OF CHINA
ought to ask God to help the boy sovereign of the last
great heathen empire of the world.
Here is a description which opens a window for us
into his nursery: “ Young as he is, the emperor shows
a great love of soldiers, and has little spears and swords
and horses among his playthings. The sight of toy
weapons will stop him from crying and make him laugh.
His Majesty is much pleased when a horse is shown to
him, and will not be satisfied until he has been lifted
on to its back and taken for a ride.”
CHAPTER II
CHINESE BABIES
A difference is made between boys and girls in China,
but it is not so great as the following lines might lead
you to think :
“When a son is born,
He sleeps on a bed,
He is clothed in robes,
He plays with gems,
His cry is princely loud,
This emperor is clad in purple,
He is the domestic prince and king.
When a daughter is born,
She sleeps on the ground,
She is clothed with a wrapper,
She plays with a tile,
She cannot be either evil or good,
She has only to think of preparing wine and food,
Without giving any cause of grief to her parents.” 1
In winter time little King Baby is rolled in clothes
until he looks like a ball, though his feet and part of his
1 Dolittle, Handbook of the Chinese Language.
CHINESE BABIES
15
legs are usually bare. When asleep he is laid in a bamboo
cradle, on rough rockers which loudly thump the floor.
A red cord is tied to his wrist, lest he should be naughty
when grown up, and people should say, “ They forgot
to bind your wrist when you were little.” Ancient
coins are hung round his neck by a string to drive
away evil spirits and to make him grow up an obedient
child. When he is a month old, friends and relatives
bring him presents, a feast is made and Master Tiny has
his head shaved in front of the ancestral tablets, which
stand on a narrow table at the back of the chief room
of the house. The barber who takes off the black
fluff from the little round head, receives a present of
money; baby, for his part, becoming the proud possessor
of a cap, with a row of gilded images in front, which is
presented to him by his grandmother, together with a
pair of shoes 1 having a pussy’s face worked upon each
toe in the hope that “ he may walk as safely through
life as a cat does on a wall.” Baby-boy also receives
what is called his ‘ milk-name/ which serves him
until he goes to school. Some of the names given to
babies sound strange: Dust-pan, Pock-marked Boy,
Winter Dog, One Hundred and Ten. Ugly names are
sometimes given, in the hope that the spirits may think
that babies so called are not worth troubling about and
thus may leave them to grow up unharmed. In the
same way an ear-ring is put in a little boy’s ear, and he
is called Little Sister to make the demons imagine
that he is only a girl, and so not worthy of their notice,
or his head is clean-shaved all over, and he is dressed
like a monk for the same purpose.
Girl babies, like their little brothers, are shaved at
the end of the first month, but with less ceremony.
1 When these shoes have the character for ‘ King’ on them, they are
called Tiger shoes.
16
CHILDREN OF CHINA
They are called Water Fairy, Slave Girl, Likes
to Cry, Golden Needle, or some such name.
Though some of the little ones suffer from neglect and
hardship, many of them are happy in their babyhood.
The people say, " Children are one’s very flesh, life,
heart,” and when the traveller sees a father or a mother
proudly carrying one of them about, or patiently
bearing with its naughtiness, he can well believe that
they mean what they say. Sometimes a mother pre-
tends to bite her baby, saying, “ Good to eat, good
to eat”; sometimes she presses her nose against its
tender cheek, as if smelling it, and kisses it again and
again. The little things have shining black eyes, with
long dark lashes which look so nice against the faint
olive tint of the delicate skin.
When Master Tiny is a year old, another feast is
made, and brightly-coloured shoes and hats are given
to him. After the feast is over the little fellow is put
on a table in the room where the ancestors of the
family are worshipped. Round him are placed various
things, such as a pen, a string of cash, a mandarin’s
button, etc. Then everyone waits to see which he will
stretch out a fat hand to seize, for it is supposed that the
thing which he chooses will show what he is going to be
or to do in the world, by and by. If baby grabs the
pen, he will be a scholar; if the money takes his fancy,
he will go into business ; but if his eager fingers grasp
the shining mandarin button, his father and mother
hopefully believe that he will be a great man some day.
The Chinese are wonderfully patient and kind in
treating their babies. Much of the gladness of their
lives and of their homes is bound up with the boys and
girls who play about their houses. They love their
children, in spite of things which sometimes seem to
prove that they do not. When the little ones learn,
CHINESE BABIES
CHINESE BABIES
17
at church or Christian school, to know the Saviour, they
bring a new gladness into the home. Not a few Chinese
children have been able to interest their fathers and
mothers and other friends in the Gospel, as you shall
hear later on, and so the words “ A little child shall lead
them,” have found a new meaning in far-away China.
Here is the picture of two little twin-boys, four years
old. Some time ago, one of them said to his sister:
“ God does not sleep at night.” His father, who had
heard the words, asked, “ Lien-a, how do you know
that God does not sleep at night? ”
“ The hymn says, * God night and day is waking*
He never sleeps/ ” answered the little fellow.
“ But can’t you think of something yourself which
shows that God is awake at night? ” asked his father.
“ I hear the wind at night,” said the child, after a
little pause, “ and see the moon and stars.” He meant
God must be awake to keep the wind blowing and the
moon and stars shining.
One day a friend gave each of the twins a bright
new five-cent piece. Their mother took care of the
coins, saying, “ I will keep them for you, until we can get
enough to use as buttons for your next new jackets,”
and the little fellows were ever so happy. Not long
after, people were gathering money to build a new
church, and the little boys’ father said to them:
“ Children, have you got anything which you can
give to help to build the new church? ” The little boys
thought and thought, then one of them said, “Yes,
we have our silver buttons.” So they gave their
treasured little shining pennies most gladly. But I
think that God was gladder still.
B
18
CHILDREN OF CHINA
CHAPTER III
THE CHILDREN’S HOME
Homes differ as much in China as in other lands.
Some are palaces, some poor huts, some are caves cut
into the face of cliffs, some are boats upon rivers,
where thousands of boys and girls learn to handle the
oar from their earliest childhood. Some are in dusty
villages by the roadside, others are set between stairs
of green rice fields upon mountain slopes, or built upon
flat plains among giant millet and other crops.
A large number of children are brought up in cities.
You cannot easily get at their homes because of the
streams of blue-clad people who throng the streets.
Come for a walk among the busy shops, so that you may
know something of the place where Chinese boys and
girls spend so much of their time. Sedan-chairs, carried
by strong men, push through the crowd, shaving butch-
ers’ stalls and narrowly missing the heads of running
children. Burden bearers, with bags of rice on their
backs, or loaded with vegetables, pigs in open baskets,
bales of cotton or tobacco, follow one another over
the slippery pavement.
Here comes a pedlar selling tapes, needles and bits
of silk. He is called a ‘ bell shaker,’ because he tinkles
a little bell to call attention to his wares. That poor
man, with shaggy hair and half-naked skin, is ‘ a
cotton-rags fairy,’ or beggar. He lives in a ‘ beggars’
camp ’ not far away.
Look in at this temple. The heavy scent, remind-
ing you of rose-leaves and stale tobacco, which comes
through the open doorway, is the smell of incense.
Beyond the court, inside the door, is a big room where
THE CHILDREN’S HOME
19
idols, once bright with gilding, now blackened with
smoke, sit each upon its throne. Those spots of light
inside the hall are made by candles burning on the altar
beneath the gloomy roof.
Boys and girls do not care to go inside, unless their
mothers bring them to bow before the idols. Some of
the images have ugly faces, blue, black and fiery red,
which children can scarcely look at without being
afraid. Some are gilt and have a strange smile upon
their lips. Here is a description of an idol in its
temple :
“ I dreamed I was an idol, and I sat
Still as a crystal, smiling as a cat,
Where silent priests through immemorial hours
Wove for my head mysterious scarlet flowers.
• •••••
There as I waited day by changeless day,
My people brought their gifts and knelt to pray,
And I
in unavailing pity sat
Still as a crystal, smiling as a cat.”
Let us turn down this narrow lane. Now we have
left the shops and the busy street. Look at the rows
of smallish houses, each with a bit of plain wall and a
bamboo screen hanging in front of the door. You hear
the sound of children’s voices within as you pass. How
happy that little boy is, running along in bright red
trousers, flying his kite. His home is near by; when
he is older he will go to school, or learn a trade in one
of the shops not far away.
Here the streets are narrower. What strange
names they have! Stone Bird Lane, Grinding Row,
Old Woo’s Lane, Bean Curd Lane, Family Ma’s
Market.
Look at this big house. Turn in by the opening
at the right of the front door. Now we are inside the
first court, an open space with rooms all round. The
20
CHILDREN OF CHINA
room in front of us is the largest in the house. A
wooden cabinet stands on the narrow table against the
back wall : it is full of slips of wood, each about a foot
high. These slips of wood are called * ancestral tablets/
because the Chinese think that the souls of their ancestors
live in them. Each one has writing upon it, telling the
name of the person whose soul is said to be inside.
To right and left of the chief room are two smaller
ones, used as bedrooms. Behind these again is another
court, with rooms ranged round it like the front one,
and behind it perhaps another. Some houses have
* five descents * ; for Chinese stories, which are called
* descents/ are put one behind the other, instead of
being piled upwards as are ours.
You may see a girl seated at a loom, driving the
shuttle to and fro. How slowly the cloth grows.
Every time the shuttle flies across, the web gains a
line. Thread by thread it lengthens, just as a
child’s life lengthens day by day; that is why the
Chinese proverb says, “ Days and months are like a
shuttle, light and dark fly like an arrow.” The older
boys of the household are at school or at work. That
woman who is washing rice in an earthen pot, has a
baby slung by a checked cotton cloth upon her back.
The child rolls its bullet head and sucks a fat thumb,
whilst one dumpy foot sticks out below its mother’s
arm. The lady in a blue tunic, with bright flowers in
her hair, is the mistress of the house ; see how she sways
on her tiny bound feet, as she moves across the tiled
floor.
If the head of the house is a scholar he wears long
robes of cotton or silk, blue and grey, one above the
other, or in the hot weather white ‘ grass cloth,’ thin as
muslin. He has the top of his head shaved and wears
his back hair in a long plait or queue. On New Year’s
i
CHILD LEADING BUFFALO
THE CHILDREN’S HOME
21
day or at other special times, he puts on a pointed
hat, with a flossy red tassel, top-boots and a silk
jacket on which is embroidered a stork or some
other bird, to show his literary rank. An officer
in the army would have a bear or some other fierce
animal embroidered on his jacket instead of a bird.
In country homes a mill for taking the husk off
rice stands inside the door, where perhaps you might
expect to find a hatstand. Sometimes a sleek brown
cow moos softly on the other side of the porch. Jars,
full of salted vegetables, share the front court with the
usual pigs, chickens and dogs. Look at that mandarin
duck, bobbing her head and throwing forward her
bill, as if trying to bring up a bone which had stuck in
her throat just as she was in the act of curtsying to
you. She bows and curtsies all day, until even the
fat baby, lying on a kerb-stone at the edge of the
court, grows tired of watching her antics.
Children run in and out of the house. One plays
with a big, green grasshopper, which struggles hope-
lessly at the end of a string. Somewhere outside, a
little boy or girl is sure to be leading a buffalo by a
rope, on the edge of the rice fields. Farther away
some boys and girls are gathering leaves, or cutting fern
on the hillside.
About noon the household gathers for dinner.
The men go to the kitchen and return with bowls of
rice and sweet potatoes or vermicelli. In the middle
of the table they have salted vegetables, bean-curd
cake cut into small pieces, dried shrimps, and on feast
days, pork hash in soy, all in different dishes. Each
man has two pieces of bamboo, rather thicker than
wooden knitting-needles, which he holds between the
thumb and first three fingers of his right hand. With
these chopsticks, as they are called, he picks up a bit of
n
CHILDREN OF CHINA
meat or vegetable and begins to eat it, but before it is
swallowed he puts his bowl to his lips, and holding it
there, pushes some rice or potatoes into his mouth.
One mouthful follows another, and in no time the bowl
is empty. Now you know how to answer the Chinese
riddle: “Two pieces of bamboo drive ducks through
a narrow door.” The * narrow door ' of course is a
mouth, the ' ducks ’ are bits of pork and fish, the
pieces of bamboo are chopsticks.
Sometimes the country people do not eat at a table,
but sit in the shadow of the porch, or on the edge of the
stone coping which surrounds the front court. The
story is told of a poor boy, who used to eat his meals in
this way. The stone on which he sat had a crack in it.
When the boy began to study, he used to bring his book
and a basin of food, so that he might read as he sat on
the broken slab eating his dinner. By and by he
became a great scholar and viceroy or ruler of the
province of Szechuan. When he returned to his native
place, full of riches and honour, he rebuilt the old home
and made it beautiful, but he kept the broken kerb-
stone unaltered, in front of the dining-room. It was
left with the crack in it to remind him of the time when
he was a barefoot boy and used to sit by the edge of
the court, eating rice or learning his lessons.
When the men have finished their meal, the women
and children have theirs. How the fat little boys and
girls love sweet potatoes! They take them, pink and
yellow skinned ones, in their chubby fingers and stuff
them down their throats, dogs and chickens waiting
eagerly meanwhile to pick up the skins and stringy bits
which drop upon the ground.
Though eating apart, girls and women mix more
freely with the men in these country homes than in those
of educated townspeople, where they must keep to their
SCHOOL DAYS
23
own rooms at the back of the house. Into the homes
of China, so different from each other in some things,
so alike in others, the message of the Saviour’s love
finds its way. Here one, there another — man, 'woman
or child, believes the Gospel and begins to serve God.
In spite of persecution and unkindness, the new convert
remains faithful. By and by another member of the
family is won: sometimes the whole household is
changed, and the home becomes a Christian home.
CHAPTER IV
SCHOOL DAYS
The Chinese people think so much of learning that they
say, “ Better to rear a pig than bring up a son who will
not read! ”
When the time comes for a boy to go to school, a
lucky day is chosen by a fortune-teller, and young
Hopeful, spotless in dress, and with head well shaved,
is taken to be introduced to his teacher. In the neat
bundle which he carries as he trots along by his
father’s side he has ‘ the four gems of the study ’
ready for use, that is to say, a pen which has a brush
for a nib, a cake of ink, a stone slab for rubbing down
the ink with water, and a set of books. As soon as
the new pupil has been taken into the school and intro-
duced in the proper way, the teacher asks the spirit
of Confucius to help the little scholar with his work.
Then the master sits down and the boy bows his head
to the ground, beseeching his master to teach him
letters. After this a * book-name,’ such as Flourish-
ing Virtue, Literary Rank, Opening Brightness, is
24
CHILDREN OF CHINA
chosen and given to the lad; for a Chinese boy gets
a new name when he goes to school. The room in
which the budding scholai will sit at a little black
table for many a day to come is often dark and dingy,
with tiny windows and a low tiled roof.
A book, called The Juvenile Instructor, tells how
children used to be trained, in the good old days of
China’s greatness. It says: “ When able to talk, lads
must be instructed to answer in a quick, bold tone,
and girls in a slow and gentle one. At the age of seven
they should be taught to count and name the points
of the compass, but at this age boys and girls should
not be allowed to sit on the same mat nor to eat at the
same table. At eight they must wait for their superiors
and prefer others to themselves. . . . Let children
always be taught to speak the simple truth, to stand
erect in their proper places, and to listen with respectful
attention.”
At an old-fashioned Chinese school the pupils have
no A B C; but they have to learn by heart * char-
acters,’ that is, the signs which stand for words in their
books. Boys who expect afterwards to go into business
are taught to do sums by a clerk or shopkeeper, who
is hired to teach them ; but the ordinary schoolboys
are taught no arithmetic, or geography, or dates.
Perhaps you think you would like to go to a Chinese
school ! But wait a bit until you hear what Chinese
boys have to learn.
Beginners stand in a row before the master’s table
and are taught to read the first line of the Three
Character Classic, until they know it pretty well.
Then they sit in their places and repeat it aloud. If
one of them forgets a word, he goes up to the table
again and asks his master how to read it, but he must
not go too often.
SCHOOL DAYS
25
What a din there is with some twenty boys all
reading at the pitch of their voices ! The teacher does
not scold them, for the busier his pupils are at their
work, the noisier they become. Whenever one of the
class knows his task, he hands in his book, and turning
his face away, so that his back is to his master, he
repeats his lesson aloud. This ‘ backing the book *
(as it is called), is to prevent a dishonest pupil from
using his sharp black eyes to peep over the top of the
page and help himself along.
After the Three Character Classic and The Hundred
Surnames , which gives a list of the family names used
in China, the schoolboy reads a book called The Thou-
sand Character Classic. This book, made up of exactly
a thousand characters, is said to have been written, by
order of an emperor of China, in a single night. The
scholar who wrote it worked so hard, that his hair,
which was black when he began his task, had turned
white when the book was finished next morning. The
Four Books and other Classics, as the standard
books of Chinese literature are called, are next begun
by the pupil.
Boys do a great deal of writing at a Chinese school :
when they are able to read and to repeat quotations
from their famous books, they must go on to the
higher art. First they are taught how to hold the
brush pen. Each boy is given a small book of red
characters. He dips his sharp-pointed brush in ink
and holding it straight up and down begins painting
the red letters over. After a time he goes on to tracing
letters on thin paper over a copy. A square of wood,
painted white, serves him as a slate. On this he writes
characters, which balance one another, as heaven and
earth, fire and water, light and darkness. By and
by he begins essay and letter-writing, which is very
26
CHILDREN OF CHINA
difficult in Chinese. Pupils used to spend many
years on this, but nowadays schoolboys in China
have to do more sums and less writing than their
fathers did.
Writing essays and verses used to be the chief
lessons at a Chinese school; for when scholars were
fairly good at these, they entered for the examinations.
It was a difficult thing for a boy to go into the great
examination hall among two or three thousand men,
and, after having been searched to make sure that
he had no books or cribs up his sleeves, to go and sit
at a bench and write his essay. Yet many gained
degrees when very young.
One of these was called Ta Pin. He had a wonder-
ful memory and when he had read the Five Classics
once over, he could remember them every word!
When eight years old, Ta Pin was in the house of an
elderly scholar, who was pleased by his good manners
and wise ways. Seeing that he behaved more like
a grown-up man than a boy, the old gentleman pointed
to a chair and said: “ With a cushion made of tiger’s
skin, to cover the student’s chair.” Then he waited to
see if Ta Pin could answer this bit of poetry as a grown-
up scholar would have done, by a second line of verse,
which would match what he had just said. “ With
a pencil made of rabbit’s hair, to write the graduate’s
tablet,” answered Ta Pin, every word of his line pairing
with the corresponding word in the old gentleman’s
verse, 4 pencil ’ with ‘ cushion,’ ‘ rabbit ’ with ‘ tiger,’
etc. The scholar struck the table with delight
and gave a present to the boy. When Ta Pin was
thirteen he became a Master of Arts, coming out
higher than all the other competitors but one. He
was afterwards second in the examination for the
degree of Doctor of Letters and won the highest degree
SCHOOL DAYS 27
of all next year. This clever boy lived over four hundred
years ago, when the Ming emperors ruled in China.
The story of how Mencius’ mother looked after
him whilst he was at school, is very interesting.
At first they lived together near a cemetery and
little Mencius amused himself with acting the
various scenes which he saw at the graves.
“ This,” said his mother, “ is not the place for my
boy.” So she went to live in the market street. But
the change brought no improvement. The little boy
played then at being a shopkeeper, offering things for
sale and bargaining with imaginary customers. His
devoted mother then took a house beside a public
school. Now the child was interested by the things
which the scholars were taught, and tried to imitate
them. The mother was pleased and said: “This is
the proper place for my son.” Near their new house
was a butcher’s shop. One day Mencius asked what
they were killing pigs for. “ To feed you,” answered
his mother. Then she thought to herself, “ Before
this child was born I wished him to be well brought
up, and now that his mind is opening I am deceiving
him; and this is to teach him untruthfulness.” So
she went and bought a piece of the pork, to make good
her words. After a time, Mencius went to school. One
day when he came home from school his mother looked
up from the loom at which she was sitting, and asked
him how far he had got with his books. He answered
carelessly that “ he was doing well enough.” On
which she took a knife and cut through the web she
was weaving. The idle little boy, who knew the
labour required to weave the cloth, now spoilt, was
greatly surprised and asked her what she meant. Then
she told him that cutting through the web and spoiling
her work was like his neglecting his tasks. This made
28
CHILDREN OF CHINA
the lad think and determine not to spoil the web of his
life by idle ways; so the lesson did not need to be
repeated.1 Thanks to the care of this wise and patient
mother, Mencius grew up to be a famous man.
An old-fashioned Chinese school opens about the
sixteenth of the first moon, or month, and continues
for the rest of the year. The teacher often goes home
to attend feasts, weddings, birthdays or funerals; or
when the rice is cut, so that he may get his share of the
harvest from the family fields. In the third month
he has to be away worshipping at the graves of his
ancestors; and in the fifth month, when the dragon
boats race each other, and on other festivals in the
seventh, tenth and eleventh months he will probably
go home for a day or two. Whenever the master is
away, the boys play and idle in the streets, unless
they have to help with the harvest or run messages for
their parents. So you see, although they do not
have regular Easter and summer holidays, they do
not fare badly.
But such schools as this will soon be left only in
country villages. In the larger cities pupils and
teachers alike are giving up the old slow-going ways. In
the Government schools the boys wear a uniform and
look like young soldiers. The classes are distinguished
by stripes, like those worn on their arms by privates,
corporals, sergeants and so forth. You can tell the
class a boy belongs to by looking at his arm. When
a visitor enters the school a bell tinkles and all the boys
stand up and touch their caps, as soldiers do when
saluting an officer. Inspectors visit the new schools
to see how masters and scholars are doing their work.
Kindergartens, where little boys and girls go to
learn their first lessons, though new to China, are much
1 James Legge, Mencius , p. io.
KINDERGARTEN PUPILS
i
SCHOOL DAYS
29
liked by the children and their parents, and before long
will become a great power for good in the land. The
little ones love to sing and march in time. Their tiny
fingers are clever at making hills and islands out of
sand, or counting coloured balls and marbles. Their
sharp eyes are quick to see picture lessons, which are
drawn for them upon the blackboard, and their ears
attentive to the teacher who explains them. Ears,
eyes, hands, feet, all help the little heads to learn, as
reading, writing, geography and arithmetic are changed
from lessons into delightful games, by the Kinder-
garten fairy.
When the closing day comes, crowds gather to see
the clever babies march and wave their coloured flags.
Fathers and mothers are ever so proud when they hear
their own little children sing action-songs, and repeat
their lessons without a mistake, and they gladly give
money to put up buildings and train teachers for the
‘ children’s garden,’ for that is what Kindergarten
means.
Chinese boys and girls are fond of study, and so
they will surely make their country famous once more.
The romance of China is not connected with making
love or fighting; it gathers round the boy who is faith-
ful at his tasks, who takes his degree early and rises to
be a great official. When the reward of years of hard
work comes, he goes back to the old home, bringing
comfort and honour to all his friends. This is the hope
which has helped on many a little scholar and made
his school life glad.
This Chinese love of learning has opened a door
by which the Gospel may enter the minds of the
people. Wherever missionaries have gone, they have
established schools, in which many children have
learnt to know God’s truth and love the Saviour.
30
CHILDREN OF CHINA
CHAPTER V
GIRLS
It is hard to begin life as one who is not wanted.
Many a Chinese girl cannot help knowing that she has
come into the world bringing disappointment to her
father and mother.
“ What is your little one’s name? ” said a foreigner
to a woman, who was walking along with a small child
near Amoy.
“It is a girl,” was the reply, as much as to say,
“ You need not trouble to waste time asking about
her.”
“ I know, venerable dame,” said the foreigner,
“ but what is her name? ”
“Not Wanted,” was the strange answer.
“You should love your little girl as much as a boy.
Why do you speak so unkindly of her? ” said the
foreigner, thinking that the mother meant she did not
want her child. The woman laughed, but said nothing.
“Now tell me her name,” persisted the foreigner,
anxious to show interest in the despised girl.
“ Not Wanted,” repeated the woman again.
“ Not . . .” began the stranger once more, meaning
to tell the ignorant woman not to speak so unkindly of
her little girl.
“Not Wanted is her name,” said the woman
quickly, before the foreigner could finish the sentence.
It would be sad indeed to know one was not
wanted, but it would be harder still to be reminded of
it every time one was called by one’s own name.
How would an English girl like to be so treated?
GIRLS
31
" Not Wanted, come and have your hair brushed.”
“ Not Wanted, where are you? ” “Not Wanted,
come and play with your little brother,” and so forth.
When a baby girl’s fortune, as told by the fortune-
tellers, is not a lucky one, she may perhaps be handed
over to Buddhist nuns, who wall give her rice,
potatoes and vegetables, but no fish or meat or eggs.
The little one, if she lives to grow up, will serve in the
nunnery and help with the worship offered to the idols.
When old enough to become a nun she will have her head
shaved, till it looks as round as a bullet, and wear tight
black trousers, a short blue coat and a close-fitting cap
of black cloth; and she will learn to do the fine em-
broideries, most of which are the work of Buddhist
nuns.
Sometimes, when the fortune-teller says a little girl
will bring bad luck to her own family, she is given to
another household, where she will be brought up to be
the wife of one of the sons, when he is old enough to
marry. This often happens, but it is not a good plan
and leads to unhappiness, as you will hear later on.
The everyday dress of Chinese girls is simple enough.
When they first begin to walk they are odd little
bundles of clothes, topped by a little jacket and a
cloth cap, which covers their head and ears and neck,
leaving the face open. When they grow older they
wear jackets of cotton, — blue stamped with white
flowers is a favourite pattern, — loose coloured trousers
and tiny embroidered shoes. They wear ear-rings,
silver bangles on their ankles, and sometimes a ring
on one finger. When they are engaged to be married,
they wear a bangle on one arm. Their hair, which has
been worn in a plait behind, is, when they are old
enough to be married, put up in a neat coil at the back
of the head, and pretty pins and flowers are stuck into
32
CHILDREN OF CHINA
it. It is a great day in a girl's life when her hair is
done up in this way.
The first great trial which a Chinese girl has to
meet is when she has her feet bound. Her toes are
pulled towards the heel, by winding a strip of cotton
cloth round them and drawing it tight. Tiny girls
of six or seven sometimes have to bear the pain of
having their poor little feet pinched together in this
way, though eight or nine is the more common age to
begin. It must be extremely painful to have the bones
twisted and the flesh crushed, until it decays and dries ;
but when the pain is over, and a girl has ‘ golden lilies/
only two or three inches long, she is very proud of
them, and people praise the child's mother for all the
trouble she has taken to make her daughter look so
beautiful ! So strong is the desire to be admired, that
often girls beg to have their feet bound, in spite of all
the pain they will have to bear.
Foot-binding, being foreign to Manchu customs, is
not allowed in the Palace. Some years ago, the
Empress Dowager herself issued an edict to the people
saying: “ Not to bind is better." Children brought
up in God-fearing homes seldom or never have to
suffer the torture of being thus lamed for life. And
now, in many parts of China, fathers and mothers,
who do not wish their little girls to be crippled,
have joined themselves into what is called ‘ The
Natural Foot Society.’ Let us hope that before long
there will be no more foot-binding in China.
Girls brought up in wealthy homes are seldom seen
out of doors, but poorer children, at a very early age,
have to do something to help to earn their living.
They gather firing; they nurse the baby; they cook
and sew ; they learn to scrape the soot from the bottom
of the family rice pot with a hoe ; and, in some places,
GIRLS
33
they very early begin to carry loads, slung from a pole
on their shoulders. Some sit beside their mothers and
help to make paper money to be offered to idols. Some
paste rags on a board, one on the top of the other, to
be afterwards made into soles for shoes ; or they weave
coloured tape, or twist fibre into rough string. In
some parts of China they make embroidery, working
beautiful birds and flowers with their clever fingers.
All Chinese girls learn to embroider and make up their
own shoes and the embroidered bands which they
wear round their distorted ankles. Sometimes they
feed silk-worms with mulberry leaves, and afterwards
wind the threads off the cocoons which the worms have
spun. When a little older some girls may be seen
making silver ornaments for women’s hair-pins, but
this is work usually done by men and boys; some-
times poor girls, while they are quite young, sell
cakes and sweets in the streets, to help their parents ;
often they spin cotton and weave it into cloth, to make
clothes for all the family.
With the exception of a very few daughters of
scholars, who were taught to read and write by
their fathers, girls used never to be troubled with
learning. In spite of this, there are books giving the
names of wise and learned women, some of whom,
especially in the time of the T’ang Dynasty, wrote
famous poems. This shows that ages ago women in
China were educated, but as a rule in later days they
were left untaught, to learn by slow degrees the
‘ three dependencies of woman/ ** who,” as the
Chinese say, “ depends upon her father when she is
young, on her husband when she is older, and upon
her son when she is very old.” The story is told of a
girl, who used to sing as she toiled at her daily tasks :
“ Oh, the tea-cup, the tea-cup, the beautiful, beauti-
c
34
CHILDREN OF CHINA
ful tea-cup ” — that was all the song she knew ! When
Christianity conies, it brings new hope and new songs,
and teaches girls and boys alike to know of God and
Heaven and a life away beyond the narrow courts of
the houses in which the earthly lives of so many Chinese
girls are shut up.
As we have seen already, a change has come over
China. At the beginning of 1909 there were said to
be thirty-seven girls’ schools in Canton alone, one of
which had over three hundred pupils, and every year
adds to the number of such schools, all over the land.
Christian girls teach in these schools. Not long ago
a girl refused to become teacher in a Government
school because she would not be allowed to read the
Bible with the scholars there. Twice she said she
would not go, although offered more money each time.
At last the authorities said: “We must have you in our
school ; you may do what you like ; you may teach the
Bible — only you must come.” Some Christian girls,
after leaving school, study in the women’s hospitals
and become nurses and doctors. At first they help the
missionary lady doctors, and afterwards, in some cases,
they earn their living by going out to care for sick women
and children. Thus Christianity has opened up a new
way by which women may support themselves in
China.
When they are tiny little children girls are often
engaged to be married and go to live in their future
husbands’ homes. They are married, too, when very
young. Sometimes a little girl is told only a short
time before that she is to be sent away in a great red
chair and become somebody’s wife in another home.
Poor little thing, she is often very frightened and
unwilling to go.
The story of Pink Jade will help you to understand
GIRLS
35
about girls’ marriages in China. The first hint she
had of what was going to happen was when an old
woman, called the ‘ go-between/ came to her father’s
house with a silver bracelet and some hair ornaments
for her, as a present from her future husband’s family.
A paper stamped with a dragon had already been sent
to her parents, giving a description of the young man
she was to marry, and a paper stamped with a phoenix,
giving a description of herself, had been sent in ex-
change.
Pink Jade’s father gave her many nice clothes and
dresses, five pairs of embroidered shoes, three pairs of
red wooden heels, seven pairs of silver finger-rings,
bracelets and hair ornaments. These gifts were packed
in four red boxes and a dressing-case. Then there was
some bedding in a red box, five washing tubs, a ward-
robe, a table and two red lanterns. On her wedding-
day Pink Jade was dressed in black trousers and
petticoat trimmed with embroidery, an embroidered
green satin jacket, a beautiful head-band, the gift of
her mother-in-law, and many hair ornaments. Before
she left her home a thick veil of red and gold, about a
foot square, was fastened to her head-band by a few
stitches.
A little before noon the great red chair, in which
she had been carried by several men, drew near to the
bridegroom’s house. The burden-bearers now went
on in front with the red boxes and other things, the
little bride following behind in her chair, attended by
the ‘ go-between,’ and four men carrying lanterns.
It was a shy little maiden that entered the new
home ; then came the ceremony of bride and bridegroom
together worshipping heaven and earth, after which
they bowed down before the bridegroom’s parents and
their ancestral tablets. 'Some hours later, the husband
36
CHILDREN OF CHINA
cut the stitches of the veil, and for the first time
saw the face of his bride. She did not see him, how-
ever, for she dared not lift her eyes. Crowds of women
from among the guests and neighbours came to look
at her, saying very freely if they thought the bride
pretty or ugly, which it is considered quite polite to
do at weddings. Later in the evening she was shown
to the men friends of the family, who repeated good
wishes in verse, the poor little bride having to stand
all the time while this and the other ceremonies were
gone through.
On the second day Pink Jade had to cook a meal
and wash some clothes, to show she understood her
new duties. Her mother and sisters-in-law were
pleased with the little bride, so she was happy in her
new home. But before very long her husband went
abroad, coming back to China only now and then.
When but a little girl of ten years old, Pink Jade
had gone with her grandmother to live in a city where
there was a Christian church. She was curious to see
what happened inside the church, so she went to service
there several times ; but the singing, reading and pray-
ing all seemed strange to her, for she did not understand
what they meant. Her husband had also been in
church when young, but he did not like the ‘ new
religion/ and would have nothing to do with worship-
ping God.
But it happened that after she was married, Pink
Jade took ill and went to the Mission Hospital at
Swatow, where she heard about Our Lord Jesus Christ,
and how He came to save sinners from their sins. She
became so much interested that she persuaded her
husband to attend the services in the Hospital chapel,
and before long he himself believed in Jesus Christ,
and was received into the church by baptism. Pink
GAMES AND RIDDLES 37
Jade learned to read and in time gave her heart, too,
to God’s service.1
Here is a simple rime which girls learn to repeat,
so that they may know what to do, when afterwards
they go as brides to their new homes.
“Bamboos thick, thick arise,
Child in wifely love be wise,
Late take rest, soon, soon rise,
Wake, comb your hair,
Adorn your face, lips, eyes ;
Chairs, tables, dust in hall,
Wash kitchen dishes all,
In chamber sewing fall.
Praise brothers, great and small,
Father, mother, worthy call,
Praise your home, both roof and wall,
Praise your lucky husband tall.”
In China, as in other lands, the Gospel of Our Lord
Jesus Christ brings new love and new happiness to
girls and women alike. It frees them from being
despised and ill-treated, and gives them their true place
in the home, for it teaches men that “ there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; for ye
are all one in Christ Jesus.”
CHAPTER VI
GAMES AND RIDDLES
Chinese children are kept so busy at work or study
that a stranger might at first be tempted to think
their lives were all work and no play. In time, how-
ever, one discovers that they have many kinds of
amusements.
A favourite game is played with a ball of tightly
1 Mrs Lyall, in The Children's Messenger.
38
CHILDREN OF CHINA
wound cotton thread, which is bounced upon the pave-
ment, the player trying to whirl round as often as
possible, before giving another pat to make it jump
again. Boys are fond of ‘ kicking the shuttlecock.’
They are wonderfully clever with their feet, and send
the shuttlecock flying from one to another, turning,
dodging, leaning this way and that, so as to kick freely.
The shuttlecock is kept on the wing for a long time in
this way without once falling to the ground. They
play tipcat too, but their game is more difficult than
ours. ‘ Knuckle-bones ' and a guessing game,
played with the fingers, like the Italian Mora, are also
favourite amusements.
Another game is * tiger trap/ To play it, a
number of boys and girls take hands and stand in two
lines, facing each other. One waits at the end of the
double row of children and bleats, as a kid does in a
trap set for Mr Stripes. Then the tiger darts in
between the lines to catch the kid. The moment he
does so, the children at the ends close up. Unless the
tiger bounces out very quickly he is caught and the
kid runs away.
There are several kinds of blind man’s buff. One is
called ‘ Catching fishes in the dark.’ Each child
chooses the name of a fish, calling himself dragon-
shrimp, squid, red chicken, or some other kind of fish.
The boy who is to be ‘ he ’ is blinded. Then the
fishes run past, trying to touch the blind man as they
go. If one gets caught ‘ he ’ must name it rightly.
If ‘ he ’ names the wrong fish, away runs the boy.
Another kind is ‘ Call the chickens home.’ In this
game the blind man says ‘ Tsoo, tsoo, come seek your
mother,’ then the other children, who are the chickens,
run up and try to touch him without being caught. If
one is caught he becomes blind man.
GAMES AND RIDDLES
39
When playing ‘ Eating fishes’ heads and tails/
several children take hold of each other’s jackets to
form the fish. The first one is the head, which is
supposed to be too fierce to be captured; the last one
is the tail which may be seized and eaten. One of the
players stands by himself. Suddenly he begins to
chase the fish, trying to catch its tail. Every time
he makes a rush the head of the fish faces round, and
the players, forming the tail, swing to one side to avoid
being caught, as in our ‘ Fox and chickens.’
Kite flying is an amusement of which boys as well
as grown men are very fond. Little toddlers begin
with tiny kites, cleverly made out of folded paper, but
the older boys are more ambitious. Some of their
kites are made to look like birds and have a bow,
strung with a thin flat strip of bamboo, tied behind the
wings. When the bird rises in the wind it hovers like
a living thing, and the strip of bamboo buzzes with a
loud humming noise. Others are shaped like butter-
flies, centipedes, and other creatures. One of the most
beautiful kites is shaped like a fish, so as to curve and
sway in the air, much as a fish does in water.
There are several games played with cash, one in
which the coins are thrown into a hole scooped by the
roadside; another in which they are struck against a
wall, so as to rebound and fall beside a certain mark
on the ground, but these, as a rule, are a kind of
gambling.
Here are names of some other games which may
interest you: ‘Threading the needle’; ‘Waiting for
the seeker,’ a game like ‘ I spy ’ ; ‘ Hopping race ’ ;
‘ Let the prince cross over ’ ; ‘ Circling the field to
catch the rat ’ ; ‘ The mud turtle ’ and ‘ The water
demon seeking for a den,’ which is played by five
children, but otherwise is like ‘ Puss in the corner.’
40 CHILDREN OF CHINA
‘ Sawing wood ’ is just ‘ Cat’s cradle ’ under another
name.
The children often play at ' worshipping the idols.’
For a few cash they buy a painted clay idol, about two
inches high, which they carry on a small bamboo stool,
by means of two sticks. One child goes in front, one
behind, with the ends of the sticks upon their shoulders.
Others beat a tiny brass gong and carry a burning stick
of incense. Then they offer a shrimp, a small fish
and some other things as a sacrifice.
In the warm wTeather you may be sure that the boys
and girls take a large share in the fun wrhen their
fathers and brothers send up fire-balloons. These rise
in the night sky until they look like yellow moons
floating over the city. Sometimes a balloon catches
fire, flames for a minute, and then only a falling spark
shows wdiere its ashes go tumbling to the ground.
The Chinese have many riddles which grown people
as well as children play at guessing.
Here are some for you to try your wits upon.
“ It wras bom in a mountain forest. It died in an
earthen chamber. Its soul dispersed to the four
winds. And its bones are laid out for sale.”
“ In a very small house there live five little girls.”
" On his head he has a helmet. His body is covered
with armour. Kill him and you will find no blood,
open him and you will find his flesh.”
" On the outside is a stone wall. In the inside
there is a small golden lady.”
“ It takes aw^ay the courage of a demon. Its sound
is like that of thunder. It frightens men so that they
drop their chopsticks. When one turns one’s head
round to look at it, lo! it is all turned into smoke.”
“ There are two sisters of equal size; one sits inside,
the other outside.”
I
CHILDREN AT FOOD AND AT PLAY
GAMES AND RIDDLES 41
I
“ In the front are five openings; on the sides are
two windows; behind hangs an onion stalk/’
“ What is it that sits very low and eats more grass
than a buffalo? ”
Here are the answers: Charcoal, a shoe, a shrimp,
an egg, a cannon, a looking-glass, a Chinaman’s head,
a Chinese kitchen range (which is generally heated with
fern and grass).
Sometimes riddles are painted on lanterns and hung
in front of a shop for people to guess: whoever
succeeds in guessing right wins a small prize.
Chinese boys and girls have a sweet tooth. When-
ever they have cash to do so, they buy sugar-cane,
peanut candy and biscuits, some of which are flavoured
with sugared kui flowers, which give them a delicious
taste. When the man who sells candied peaches and
other fruit appears, boys and girls come hopping out
of the houses at the sound of his bell, and each one
hunts in his little pocket for cash, or begs a few from
his mother, to buy some favourite dainty.
The children are filled with glee whenever a feast
with plays is given at their home. They are not allowed
to sit at the feast, nor are they supposed to look on at
the plays, but they have a good share of what is going.
As the unfinished dishes are carried from the tables,
one after the other, the servants and children have a
feast of their own outside. Long before the plays
begin, the children watch the erection of the stage in the
court or in the street outside the house, and examine
the masks and dresses as they are taken out of their
boxes and hung up ready for use.
When the music strikes up they choose knowing
corners, from which to peep past the shoulders and
over the heads of the big people. They love to see the
actors dressed like famous heroes who lived long ago,
42
CHILDREN OF CHINA
although they cannot recognise the boys now beneath
their red and black masks, long beards and rich robes.
How the music clamours and the drums beat and the
rattles clatter. Warriors shout and stamp, fine ladies
wave their fans. When fighting begins upon the stage
it would be difficult indeed to catch the boys among
the crowd, to send them to bed !
CHAPTER VII
STORIES AND RIMES
One of the best ways to know boys and girls is to learn
something of the stories they like to hear and tell.
Here are one or two which will help you to understand
our friends the Chinese children much better than
pages of talk about their looks and ways.
First, there is the story of how the yellow cow and
the water buffalo exchanged their skins. You must
know that the yellow cow has a fold of skin which hangs
loose beneath her neck, and a loud bellow, whfie the
buffalo has a tight grey skin, that looks some sizes too
small for his great round body, and a tiny wheezing
voice, which sounds strangely coming from so large a
beast. Long ago the buffalo was yellow and his skin
fitted well enough, while the cow was grey. Now it
happened that one hot day the cow and the buffalo
went to bathe in the river, leaving their clothes upon
the bank, while they enjoyed themselves in the cool,
green water. Presently there was a roar, which told
them that the tiger was coming. Out of the water they
dashed, and the cow, being the nimbler of the two,
scrambled up the bank ahead of the buffalo. In her
STORIES AND RIMES
43
haste she picked up the first heap of clothes which she
came to and began putting them on, hopping into them
one leg at a time between the steps as she ran. The
buffalo was not far behind, but so frightened lest
the tiger should catch him, that he did not notice that
the cow had run off with his clothes. He picked up hers
and struggled into them somehow, then he ran for his
life. He never was very bright, but blown by running
and frightened though he was, he soon noticed that his
jacket was very tight and that it was the wrong colour.
There was the cow running in front of him, and he could
see that she had put on his nice yellow suit. He
wished her to stop and give him back his clothes, but
the tiger was somewhere in the woods not far behind
them. So they ran and they ran until at last they
were safe from pursuit.
As the cow slowed her pace the buffalo overtook
her. Before he had quite made up to her he tried to
shout out, “ Give me back my clothes," but he felt
so tight and puffed so hard that he could not speak.
He was very stiff about the ribs and a little angry, so
instead of attempting a long sentence he tried to say,
“ Oan," one word only, which means “ change." All
he could get out, however, was “ Eh-ah, eh-ah," in a
wheezy little voice.
The cow understood his meaning well enough, but
she felt so comfortable in her new yellow skin that she
only answered “ M-ah, m-ah," “ I won’t, I won’t."
And so the buffalo has been wheezing “ Change,
change," and the yellow cow has been mooing “ I
won’t, I won’t," ever since.
Here is another ‘ just-so ’ story, which tells how the
deer lost his tail. Long ago an old man and his wife lived
in a lonely cottage upon a hill not far from forests
and rocky places where wild beasts had their holes.
44
CHILDREN OF CHINA
One night, when the man and his wife had finished
their supper, they were talking together, as they often
did before going to bed. In the course of their talk
the old man happened to say: “ How happy we are
in our cottage upon this hill far from the city where
thieves and beggars bother and policemen frighten
people. We do not fear thieves nor policemen, nor
tigers nor demons, nor anything at all, unless it be the
Lio — yes, we need not fear anything but the Lio.”
There was a hush in the cottager’s voice when he
spoke the last words, and when he had spoken them,
both he and his wife were quiet for quite a long time.
Now it chanced that a tiger, which had crept down
from his cave under one of the blue peaks of the moun-
tain overhead, was prowling round the cottage whilst
they were talking together, hoping to pick up the
watch-dog or a fat pig, before setting out for a hunt in
the valleys far below. Hearing the sound of voices, he
stopped outside the door. The family dog, who was
far too wise to be out at night near the edge of the
forest, smelt him and crept into the corner of the room
furthest from the door, under the bedstead. He dared
not growl or whimper. There he lay, his brown hair
bristling over his shoulders, and he breathed so
quietly that the young mice in their hole by the wall
were sure that he was dead, although their little grey
mother knew better.
At the moment the tiger began to listen to the
talking inside the cottage the old man was saying:
“ We not do fear thieves nor policemen, nor tigers nor
demons, nor anything at all, unless it be the Lio.”
There was something in the way he spoke the last words
and in the way he stopped after saying them, which
showed that he really was afraid of the Lio. The
tiger, who had never heard of a Lio, wondered what it
STORIES AND RIMES
45
could be, so he lay down quietly outside the door to
listen, hoping to hear more about the terrible beast
which frightened people brave enough to fear neither
tigers nor thieves nor demons. All was dark and the
hill side was very still. Behind the cottage a thief,
who had come to rob the lonely couple, was crouching
close to the wall. He too heard the old man talking
about the Lio and wondered what the terrible creature
could be like. Presently he crept round the side of the
cottage. The tiger noticed a sound coming moving
through the darkness. It was the thief. Though he
slipped along as quietly as a pussy cat the tiger heard
him with his wonderful wild-beast’s ears. Dark as it
was when the thief crept round to the front wall, he
felt, rather than saw, that there was something lying
beside the door of the little house. “ Good luck! ” he
thought to himself. “ This is the old man’s cow.” It
was impossible to see, so he stole up gently to try to find
out what the creature might be. He put out his hand
to feel, and touched the tiger. In a moment he knew
that this was no cow. Its hair was harsh and its
muscles like iron bands. Could it be — surely it could
not be — the dreadful creature of which he had just
been hearing. Reckless as he was, the thief felt his
heart stand still. Next moment he jumped to one side,
climbed the wall of the cottage, and hid on the roof.
Meantime the tiger, making sure that the unseen
thing, which had come upon him in the darkness, was
nothing less than the Lio itself, got up and fled. He
ran and he ran, until he met a deer in the forest. The
deer drew respectfully to the side of the path, as in
duty bound when meeting his betters. “ Where does
his Excellency come from in such a hurry? ” he in-
quired in rather a timid voice.
“ Oh! from nowhere, from nowhere at all,”
46
CHILDREN OF CHINA
answered the tiger, a little bit confused by what had
just happened. Then he recovered himself and told
the deer how a terrible beast, called the Lio, had
touched him in the dark.
“ A Lio, your Excellency ! Why, I never even heard
of a Lio,” said the deer in great surprise. “ What is it
like? ”
“ A Lio is very clever,” said the tiger; “ it climbs
houses and comes on you in the dark. If you would
like to know more about it I will take you to where it
is. Come, let us go together.”
“ But the Lio will catch me, your Excellency, I am
but a weak creature,” said the deer, drawing back a
little, for he did not wish to be gobbled up. He never
had known the tiger so quiet and polite before, and he
could see by the gleam of the great green eyes, even
in the dark, that his companion was turning his head
every now and then, as if he thought the Lio might
come gliding through the forest to spring upon them
at any moment.
“ Don’t be afraid,” said the tiger, growing braver
at the thought of having a companion to go back with
him, “ I will take care of you.”
“ But, your Excellency, the Lio will come and you
will run away and leave me to be caught,” answered
the deer.
“ Oh, no, we can tie our tails together, and then it
will be all right,” said the tiger. For you must know
that at that time the deer’s tail was much longer than it
is now.
“ Tie our tails together and both get caught at
once,” gasped the deer, so surprised that he forgot to
be polite.
“Not at all,” said the tiger, with a little growl in
his voice. “ When the Lio comes I will ‘ put forth my
STORIES AND RIMES 47
strength ’ and pull you away with a whisk before it
can get hold of you.,,
‘'Ha! ha! ha!” laughed the deer, his spotted
sides shaking until the white marks danced again,
“ what a clever plan.”
So the deer and the tiger tied their tails together,
and set off to look for the Lio. They had to walk
carefully through the forest, because the bushes and
trees would get between them, and as they went along
they talked in whispers about the Lio, until the deer
felt creepy all over. At last they reached the edge of
the wood, where they could just make out the black
cottage looking very dark against the sky. A branch
cracked as they passed under the last tree.
The thief, who was still crouching on the roof of the
cottage, took fright at the sound, and making sure that
the terrible beast he had heard of was coming back,
jumped down from the tiles, narrowly missing the deer
as he reached the ground.
“ Help, help, your Excellency, the Lio! ” cried the
deer, terrified by something, he knew not what,
coming tumbling out of the night. The tiger ‘ put forth
his strength ’ and gave a great spring, when crack ! the
deer’s tail broke off close by the root. The thief ran,
the tiger sprang, the deer bounded away, in different
directions, each thinking that the terrible Lio was
close at his heels. But the Lio none of them ever saw.
What was strangest of all, the old man and his wife,
who never had seen a Lio in all their lives, went quietly
to bed that night without an idea of what was hap-
pening outside in the dark. And now you know why
the deer has only a white tuft sticking up, where his
beautiful long tail used to be.
The following story about a bird is a favourite one
with boys and girls in some parts of China.
48
CHILDREN OF CHINA
There is a little grey bird, called the Bean bird,
which pipes a sad note in the spring. Its cry is said
to be like the Chinese words for “ Little brother, little
brother, are you there? ” According to the story a
man, who had one son, married again and had another
little boy. The second son’s mother hated the elder
brother and wished very much to get rid of him so that
her own child might enjoy the family property. Again
and again she did her best to get the poor lad into
trouble with his father, and too often she succeeded.
One day in spring when the farmers were busy
putting their crops into the ground she found some
beans in a flat basket with which the elder brother
was going to sow his field. The boy was nowhere to
be seen, so she popped his beans into the empty rice
boiler, and putting some grass into the fireplace below,
heated them until those tiny parts which turn into buds
and sprout under the soil were killed. Then she put
the beans back into their basket and left them to cool.
The boy knew nothing of all this, but the younger son,
who dearly loved his elder brother, noticed what had
been done, and hoping to save him a scolding, quietly
put his own beans into the basket and took the roasted
ones to use himself. Then they went to the fields and
each one sowed his plot of ground. After a time their
mother sent the boys to see how the crops were doing.
“ If the beans have not sprouted in either of your
fields you need not come home again,” said she. “ We
do not wish to have useless, lazy children in this house.”
The elder brother’s little field was covered with
green plants, so he went gleefully home and told his
stepmother. The younger brother’s plot was brown
and bare, not a bean had come up through the soil.
He knew there would be trouble for his brother if he
went home, so he started off for the mountains, hoping
STORIES AND RIMES
49
that his elder brother would be left in peace if he were
gone. He wandered away and away, until at length
a tiger found him and ate him up.
The stepmother was vexed when her son did not
come home from the fields, and with many threats and
angry speeches sent the elder boy to go and look for
him. The lad, who was anxious to find his companion,
went everywhere calling, “ Little brother, little
brother, are you there? ” The workers on the upland
farms and the grass-cutters on the hills, heard his voice
floating faint and far, as he wandered farther and
farther away. Now it was here, now there, always
calling the same sad cry, “ Little brother, little brother,
are you there? ”
When he could find him nowhere he knelt down in
his despair and prayed Heaven to show him where his
brother was. As he prayed and wept he knocked his
head upon the ground. His head struck a stone, the
blood ran and he died. The blood which flowed from
his wound was changed into a little grey bird, and every
year, when the beans are sprouting in the fields, the
bird comes with its plaintive cry, now near, now far,
“ Little brother, little brother, are you there? ” WThen
the children hear its call they say, “ Rain is coming,”
and surely enough the drops begin to fall before long,
as if the skies remembered an ancient wrong and wept
for sorrow.
There are many stories of children famous in China
long ago. Here is one which shows how even a little
child may care for others, thinking and acting wisely
in time of danger.
Many hundreds of years ago, in the time of the
Sung Dynasty, a boy named Sze Ma Rung was playing
with some other boys and girls. When the fun was
at its height, one of the party fell into a great big jar of
D
50
CHILDREN OF CHINA
water. The children were so frightened that they all
ran away, except Sze Ma Kung, who at once went
to try what he could do to save his companion. The
edge of the jar was too high for him to reach over, so the
little fellow could not get at the sinking child, to pull
him out of the water. There was no time to fetch a
stool or call for help ; another moment and the prisoner
would be drowned. A good idea struck him. He
rushed off, and picking up as large a stone as he
could carry he dashed it against the side of the jar.
Crack went the pot and a great hole opened, through
which the water all ran away. Then the child crept
out like a half-drowned puppy, but not much the
worse for his drenching. When people heard of
what Sze Ma Kung had done, they knew that if he
lived to grow up he would be a useful man, wise and
thoughtful and quick to help others.
Stories are told of children diligent at their books,
who were famous in after life. One lad, who was too
poor to buy oil for his lamp, used to catch fire-
flies and read by the pale-green light they gave. He
put the fire-flies inside a tiny muslin bag, which he
laid upon the page of his book, the light which they gave
being just enough to let him follow his lesson, line by
line. Another used to read by the light reflected from
snow, as the day failed, or when the moon rose. A third
used to fasten his book to the horn of the cow he was
tending, so as to use the precious hours for study;
while a fourth tied his queue to a rafter of the low roof
above his head, so that when he became drowsy and
nodded over his lesson, he might be wakened by the
pain of having his hair pulled.
Another kind of story helps to fix the written ' char-
acters ’ in schoolboys’ memories. One of these tells
how a scholar, called Li An-i, went to visit a rich boor
STORIES AND RIMES
51
named Ti Shing. When he reached the house and asked
for the gentleman, a message was brought that he
was not at home. Li An-i knew that this was not
true, so he wrote the character for ' afternoon * on
the door of Mr Ti's house and went away. When
asked why he had done so, he said that the character
for afternoon meant ‘ the ox not putting out its
head.’ When you know that the character for after-
noon is the same as the one for ox, but without the
dot which makes the head of it, and that a stupid
person is called an ox in China, much as he would be
called an ass at home, you will understand Mr Li’s
joke. He meant that the man, who had not ‘ put
out his head ’ to see him, was a stupid ox.
There are plenty of nursery rimes in China,
one or two of which will show you that Chinese children
are very much like our own. Here is one about our
old friends the sparrows.
“A pair of sparrows with four bright eyes,
Four small feet that pop, pop so,
Four wings whirr, whirr, how they go !
Pecking rice and grain likewise.”
Another reminds us a little of the pig that would
not get over the stile.
“A bit of copper fell out of the sky,
And hit an old man as he passed by.
When the man began to jog,
He struck against a dog.
When the dog began to yell,
It struck against a mill.
When the mill began to fall,
It struck against a hall.
When the hall began to build,
It struck against a stool.
When the stool began to sit,
It struck against a sheet.
When the sheet began to tuck,
It struck against a duck.
52
CHILDREN OF CHINA
When the duck began to wade,
It struck against a blade.
When the blade began to cut,
It struck against a hat.
When the hat began to wear,
Catch the thief and slit his ear.’5
The following verse, which is often shouted by
boisterous little scholars, pokes fun at a greedy
schoolmaster, who has lost the respect of his pupils.
The first and third lines are from the Three Character
Classic , the first book a child learns; the others are hits
at the master.
“ ‘ Primal man’s condition,’
Teacher sly steals chicken.
‘ Good at root was his heart,’
Teacher’s nicking gizzard.
The boys won’t touch a book,
Roll teacher in the brook.”
The boys and girls of China are learning the stories
of Joseph, Samuel and Jonathan, of John the Baptist
and of Peter. They read the Pilgrim s Progress,
Jessica’s First Prayer, Christie’s Old Organ and many
another favourite, which has been put into the Chinese
language for them by the missionaries. Best of all
they learn the story of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
through it come to know the Blessed Saviour Himself.
CHAPTER VIII
RELIGION
It is rather strange that the Chinese have three re-
ligions, instead of being contented with one like most
people. Confucianism is the chief of these. It takes
RELIGION
53
its name from Confucius, a wise man bom in 551 b.c.,
who taught men to be just, to be kind to one another,
and to agree together; but he said little or nothing
about how to know God and worship Him. The most
famous saying of Confucius is: “ What you do not wish
done to yourself, do not do to others/’ These beauti-
ful words are nearer to the teaching of Our Lord Jesus
than any others to be found outside the Bible, and ought
to be treasured by everyone. Following in the steps
of the earlier teachers of China, Confucius taught
children to reverence their parents, and in this way
he printed the spirit of the Fifth Commandment upon
the entire nation. We must remember, however, that
Confucius did not begin what is called Confucianism,
he only handed on truths which the early Chinese had
learnt. Indeed some things, such as the knowledge of
God, and of a future life, he taught less clearly than
those who had gone before him.
A story is told which shows that, wise as Con-
fucius was, he did not know everything. One day,
when out for a walk he found two boys quarrelling.
" What are you two quarrelling about? ” asked the
great man.
One of the boys answered, “ The sun. I say that
when the sun has just risen it is nearest to us.”
“ I say that it is nearest to us at noon,” insisted the
other.
“ When the sun rises it looks as big as a chariot
wheel. When it is high it is quite small, no larger
than a saucer. It is plain that when things are far
away they look small, and when they are close to us
they look big,” said the first youth.
“ When the sun rises,” objected the second boy,
it is chill and cold. When the sun is overhead it is
as hot as boiling water. Plainly it is cold when it is
54 CHILDREN OF CHINA
far away and hot when it is near, so it is nearer to us
at noon than it is in the morning.’ ’
When Confucius had heard each of them in turn,
he did not know what to say, so he went on with his
walk and left them. Then the two boys laughed, and
one of them exclaimed: “ Who are the people that say
that the Sage of the kingdom of Lo is a wise man? ”
While Confucius lived, few of his fellow-countrymen
would listen to him. The princes, whom he tried to
teach to govern wisely, made him sorrowdul by refusing
to follow his advice. On the last day of his life he
was very sad and dragged himself about, slowly saying
over and over again to himself:
“The great mountain must crumble,
The strong beam must break,
And the wise man wither away like a plant.”
But his labours were not lost. His wise words
were put into a book by his followers, more than a
hundred years after his death. Mencius, the greatest
of his disciples, carried on his work. His fame spread
all over China and far beyond it. Now there are 1500
temples in wdiich he is worshipped by millions of people,
and so great is the honour given to him that his fol-
lowers say:
“ Confucius ! Confucius !
Great indeed art thou, O Confucius.
Before thee
None like unto thee ;
After thee
None equal to thee.
Confucius ! Confucius !
Great indeed art thou, O Confucius.”
Confucius told the Chinese people that the most
precious teaching handed down to them from long ago
wTas that which taught them to honour their parents
and those older than themselves. But both before and
after the time of this great man, the Chinese went too
RELIGION
55
far, not only reverencing, but also worshipping the
dead. Perhaps we can imagine how this mistake
crept in. They were afraid that they might forget
their loved ones. Since it was not the custom with
them long ago to put names upon gravestones, they
wrote them in books and on slips of wood. These
slips of wood, or ancestral tablets, were kept most
carefully, as we have already seen, in the chief room
of the house and in temples. The Chinese believed
that each person had three souls, one which went into
the unseen world at death, one which stayed in the
grave, and one which lived in the slip of wood. They
also thought that the souls in tablets or in graves
depended on dutiful sons to offer food and sacrifices to
them. Girls might not make these offerings, because,
when married, they belonged to their husbands’
families. When parents had no baby boys, they were
much troubled, not having anyone to grow up and
worship their spirits, for they fear more than anything
else to become f hungry demons ’ after death, with no
one to care for their needs. Now you know why
Chinese people are anxious to have sons rather than
daughters.
Fear mixes with the worship of the dead at every
turn. When people are sick or lose money or have
some other trouble, they think that the spirits in the
tablets are angry, and are bringing evil upon their
home. They offer food, and burn paper clothes,
houses, money, servants and horses to please them,
thinking that when burnt, those things pass into
the spirit-land, where their relatives enjoy them, and
being pleased, give up troubling those on earth.
A man named Wang had sickness in his family
and his business was not good. A priest told him
that his father’s spirit, which lived in a red and green
56
CHILDREN OF CHINA
tablet, was angry with him, and he must offer paper
money, incense and other things to pacify it. He
offered these things, and fruit, chickens, cakes and
pork besides; but all to no purpose, things went just as
badly as ever. At last, after spending all his money
in this way, he lost faith in the priest and in the tablet.
“ My father was not unkind to me when he was alive,”
said he, “ why should his spirit plague me so
wickedly when he is dead? ” About this time he first
heard the Gospel, and in despair of finding comfort
elsewhere, began to go to church. He heard that he
had a Father in Heaven, and found peace and gladness
in His service. This worship of the spirits of the dead
is the real religion of China ; all the rest of their beliefs
are things added on. The fear of those who have gone
into the unseen world hangs like a weight upon the
people, who are said to spend millions of money every
year in trying to please the spirits of their relatives.
Sad as this is, we ought to remember that there is
something beautiful and right hidden beneath all
that is wrong in this worship, and that is the desire
of the Chinese people to reverence and obey those who
have gone before them. When they have learned to
serve God, what is wrong will pass away, and perhaps
they will teach us all to understand the real meaning
of the Fifth Commandment better than we have yet
done.
In spite of the good in it, Confucianism has been
a failure, because it has not taught men and women and
children to know the one true God, who alone can help
them to follow the teaching of Confucius and be just
and kind and obedient.
Taoism, as it is called, is the second religion of China.
Its founder is called Lao-tsze or ‘ old boy/ It is said
that he was old and vise and had white hair when he
RELIGION
57
was born. After serving his country for a time, he
gave up his post and travelled towards the west.
At the frontier pass of Han Kuh, the officer in
charge of the gate stopped the traveller, and knowing
that he was a wise man, persuaded him to write down
some of his teaching in a book. Taoism takes its
name from Tao, the truth, or the way, the first
syllable in the name of the Tao-teh-king, the famous
volume which Lao-tsze wrote ; but what is now called
Taoism does not follow the teaching of this book.
* The Heavenly Master/ or pope of the Taoists,
lives in the Dragon-tiger mountain in Kiangsi. He
has rows of jars, in which the people think he keeps
evil spirits shut up, like the Djinn whom the fisherman
of the Arabian Nights found sealed in a copper vessel.
There are Taoist priests in every city of China, who
sometimes may be seen in red and yellow robes with a
curious topknot of yellow wood tied into their hair,
going through strange rites, or cracking a whip with a
long lash to frighten away demons. The Taoist god
most feared by the people is the Kitchen God, who
they think goes up to heaven once a year, and
tells what each member of the family has been doing
during the twelve months.
Buddhism, which is an Indian religion, entered China
in 217 b.c., and was welcomed by the emperor of that
time. It was afterwards persecuted, but later spread
over the country. Now, practically all the people are
Buddhists, as well as Confucianists and Taoists. The
teaching of Confucius, as we have already seen, leaves
men and women without a Saviour or strength to do
the good they know. That is why, when Buddhism
came into the land, the Chinese welcomed it, hoping
that it might aid them. But though Buddhism tells
men to be true, pure, humble, courageous, it does not
58
CHILDREN OF CHINA
lead them, any more than did Confucianism, to a
personal God, who might help them to do what they
were told was right. It leaves them to their own efforts
and points to no one able to save from sin. It tells
people that if they conquer their bodies and give up
doing wrong things, not taking life or eating animal
food, they will after death be born again in a new and
higher life. If, when born again, they do still better,
they will be born still higher, until at last they enter
Nirvana, the Buddhist heaven, “ as the dewdrops
slip into the shining sea.”
If, on the other hand, people do wrong things, the
Buddhists say they will be born again as lower animals,
dogs, rats or creeping snakes.
There are many idols connected with these re-
ligions, and everywhere you may see people going to
the temples to burn incense and paper money, and to
offer gifts of food. They do not go regularly, as people
go to church in Christian lands, but on idols’ birth-
days or when they themselves are in trouble.
Year by year more of the people turn from their
own religions to the peace and happiness of serving
God. In Our Lord Jesus Christ they find forgiveness
of sins, and for the first time strength to follow all that
is good in the teaching of their own ancient Sages.
CHAPTER IX
FESTIVALS
Chinese life, which for many children is dull and full
of work, has its red-letter days. No description of
the little folk of the Middle Kingdom would be complete
FESTIVALS 59
without an account of some of the festivals, which add
so much to the happiness of the year.
How the boys and girls look forward to New Year’s
day! The houses are swept and tidied the night
before. Inscriptions on bright red paper are pasted
on the door-posts and lintels of each home. What
a banging of guns and crackers there is, in the early
morning, after the ancestors have been worshipped.
The pavement is littered with red and white paper,
wherever fireworks have been let off. A little
later, the streets are full of people going to call on their
friends, and say " I congratulate you, I congratulate
you,” for this is the way in which the Chinese wish
each other a Happy New Year.
The children are dressed in new clothes, their queues
and little plaits of hair being tied with fresh red cord.
They have new shoes and new hats and a handful of
cash to rattle in their pockets. The babies are as gay
as humming-birds, in bright coloured jackets and
trousers, pussy-faced shoes, silver bangles, and wonder-
ful embroidered crowns and collars.
The shops are closed, everyone is either resting or
holiday-making. The streets are lined with gambling-
boards. One hears the clatter of bamboo lot-sticks
and the rattle of dice everywhere as one passes
along. Boys and girls make for the cake man’s tray.
They buy candy and fruit and toys; they jump and
dance and play, and enjoy life hugely. The holidays
continue for two weeks. There are plays and feasts
in the evenings, and plenty of crackers are fired. The
children wish that the fun might go on for ever. On
the fifteenth of the month the holidays are closed by
the festival of lanterns.
For several days before this feast the streets have
been gay with beautiful lanterns of many shapes and
60
CHILDREN OF CHINA
sizes. Some are made of glass, with flowers and birds
of paper pasted over them, or painted in bright colours.
Some are made of crinkled paper, round like melons, or
jar-shaped; others resemble fishes, lions, castles,
rabbits, lotus flowers, white and red, tigers, dragons.
They are all colours — red, green, white, blue, pink,
yellow, purple. The kind which the little boys like
best are ‘ throwing-ball lanterns/ which are made
by pasting bits of different coloured paper on a frame
of thin bamboo. Inside there is a tiny clay dish, filled
with fat, into which a wick is stuck. When the evening
is dark enough, out come the boys. They light their
lanterns. Some have big tiger and fish lanterns,
which move on wooden wheels, the fire shining through
their eyes and bodies. Some prance along in a row,
each with a bit of a long dragon on his shoulder. The
first boy carries the head, and the last one has the tail.
The dragon bobs and twists as they thread the crowded
street. Some whirl their * ball lanterns ’ round and
round, by means of a string tied to the top. The
wicks keep alight because the lump of fat does not run
out of the socket as oil would do. The bright colours
gleam as the light shines out, and the lanterns whirl
flashing through the dark.
Then there is the spring festival, when troops of
people go out of the east gate of the city to see the
mandarins worship at an altar to the Earth God, which
has the figure of a buffalo standing beside it. People
throw things at the buffalo ; whoever hits it is sure that
he will have a prosperous year.
Then comes the Tsing-Ming, or feast of tombs,
when schools have holiday. Steamed cake, brown and
white, and vegetables rolled in pancakes are eaten in
every house. People put the family graves in order.
Sacrifices are made, paper money is strewed upon the
MMHXOW 10(11 s' I H I. IS I A 0.1, ONIOO
FESTIVALS
61
earth and crackers are fired. Tiny boys are taken to
the graves, that they may learn how to tend them, and
present the offerings by and by when older. Boys,
lads and young men line the banks of the river, or some
other open space near the town or village, and
throw stones at one another. The stones fly fast,
dashing up spray where they strike the water. Now
one side has the better in the fight, now the other.
The game becomes serious indeed when someone is
struck and the blood flows. Many people go to look
on, believing that if the battle goes on until blood has
been drawn, the village will be free of sickness during
the year.
In some cities a children’s festival is held about the
beginning of summer, when the little ones are carried
to the temple of one of the goddesses and devoted to
her. Those taken for the first time go through a little
ceremony. Some money is paid to the nuns in charge
of the temple, and the infants become the adopted
children of the idol. After being adopted, the children
go every year to the temple until the age of sixteen is
reached, when they again pay a sum of money and give
up attending. The little ones and their friends enjoy
these festivals. From early until late, streams of
people pour in by the city gates and flood the streets.
The children are most gay, dressed in silk and satin.
Some wear the robe, hat, belt and boots of an official ;
some wear delicate robes of green, blue, pink, crimson,
apple-green ; some have head-dresses embroidered
with flowers and spangled with tiny mirrors; some
wear antique crowns adorned with pheasants’ feathers ;
some are dressed as old men riding on water buffaloes to
represent Lao-tsze on his journey to the west; others
again are in uniform and kepi, after the fashion of the
new army.
62
CHILDREN OF CHINA
Many of the children are mounted on horses, over
which coloured cloths are thrown. The collar-bells chime
and jingle as the animals are led along. The crush at
the temple gates is great. The little people dismount,
and with others who have been brought pick-a-back,
are carried into the presence of the idols. Their parents
buy red candles and offer long sticks of incense, and
go through the temple making the children bow
towards the altar. The horses are mounted once more
and carry their gay riders home, where paper money
is burnt and plays are acted. In spite of the fact that
many children are stolen and lost, or become ill from
heat and exposure at these festivals, the foolish
people believe that the goddess takes special care of
her adopted. children.
The fifth day of the fifth moon is the dragon
boat festival, when schoolboys present some cash to
their teacher, and teachers give a fan with an inscrip-
tion on it to each of their pupils. The children go with
their friends to look at the dragon boats racing. They
love to see the paddles splash in the water, to listen to
the drums beating and the shouts of the rowers.
The mid-autumn festival comes in the eighth
month, when scholars once more give money to their
teachers, receiving moon cakes in return. In some
districts the children build circular towers of broken
tiles, and light fires inside them. Some of these
towers are six feet across and several feet high,
although the bits of tiles are laid one on the top of the
other without cement.
In the eleventh month there is the winter festival,
when ancestors are worshipped and feasts and plays
are again enjoyed. There are many other holidays
and feasts, as, for instance, on the birthdays of the
idols, but those above mentioned are the chief festi-
SUPERSTITIONS 63
vals to which the boys and girls look forward during
the year.
Though Christian children do not join in idolatrous
festivals, they have ‘ ball lanterns ’ to swing, and
cakes to eat, and a good share of fun. When they
learn to know and love the Saviour, they find true and
lasting joy, better far than that which heathen boys
and girls know.
Sunday is the Christian holiday, when the little
ones wear bright clothes and join the happy throng
which gathers at church. They love to sing the hymns
and take part in the Bible services by answering
questions and saying the golden text, chosen for each
Sunday.
CHAPTER X
SUPERSTITIONS
The superstitions of China are countless, and of course
differ in different parts of the Empire, but you will
like to hear of some that touch the lives of the boys and
girls.
When boys and girls are bom, their fortunes are
told. The baby’s father gets the child’s ‘ eight
characters ’ written down on a piece of paper. Two
of the ‘ characters ’ tell the year, two the month, two
the day and two the hour when the little one came
into this world ; these he takes to the man who * looks
at people's lives,’ who he believes can tell from
them whether the child will be fortunate or unhappy
in this world. This fortune-teller, who is very often
blind, has a great deal to do with baby’s fate. If,
64
CHILDREN OF CHINA
for instance, he says that fire enters into its disposition,
and someone else in the family has a fortune connected
with wood, then the child will surely bring bad fortune
to that person, for fire burns wood. The people believe
what the blind man says, and so poor little baby is
given away, or even in some cases put to death, to
prevent its bringing trouble upon the family. When
baby grows older it is supposed to be in danger from
wicked spirits. Little gilt idols are put in its cap, to
frighten away these demons, a favourite figure being
that of a roly-poly bald idol, called ‘ Fat Strength.’
When a little older, a tiny round tray, foot-measure and
pair of scissors are sewn on the front band of its cap, for
the same purpose. Coins, charms of copper and silver,
and little square bags of incense powder, with the names
of idols written on them, are also hung round children’s
necks to keep away the evil spirits.
If a little one takes ill the father sometimes begs
one cash from a hundred different people among his
neighbours and friends. With these coins he has a
chain made to go round the child’s neck and a padlock
to fasten it tightly. In this way he hopes, poor man,
to fasten baby’s soul firmly to its body, and so
prevent it from dying. If, in spite of this, baby gets
worse, its father thinks some idol is enticing its soul
away from its little body. After finding out which idol
is probably the thief, he takes one of the child’s little
garments and puts it into an empty basket, which has
a length of dry straw rope tied round it. Then he
goes to the temple, and, after offering things which he
thinks will please the idol, and make it willing to let
baby’s spirit go again, he spreads out the little jacket,
believing that the tiny soul will recognise its own
garment and get into it. Then he puts the garment
carefully into his basket and lights the straw rope that
SUPERSTITIONS 65
it may bum slowly, and lead the little wandering spirit
safely home.1
In some places the father goes about with the tiny
jacket hung on the end of a stick, calling baby’s name
aloud, hoping to find the little wandering spirit in this
way.
Boys and girls early come to know the stone lions,
which stand opposite points where straight lanes or
streets enter other streets, or in front of temples and
yamens. These curious images have broad noses and
tufted manes and tails. Some crouch close against a
block in a wall, with round eyes and long teeth, looking
as if they were going to walk out of the stone. Many
have their heads on one side, with a double string
hanging down from their mouths. Some have a baby
lion in front of them or a carved ball under one paw.
A few have a ball inside their stone jaws and some are
crouching as if to spring. The children are told
that these stone lions stand in front of houses to
prevent evil spirits or ghosts from coming along the
lane to hurt people inside. They say that in the
middle of the night the lions come down from their
stone pedestals and play about the streets with their
balls, rolling over and over one another! One lion,
which was supposed to change himself into a man and
roam about the streets, has been caged with bars and
is kept safely shut up in a little temple of his own in
Chinchew.
Then children are also told that coffins, which have
been shone upon by the moon, turn into ghosts and
walk about the streets, trying to catch people. They
think there are demons who call and howl whenever
anyone is going to die. They say, too, that the spirits
1 The Chinese say that man’s day is the spirit’s night, that is why a
burning lope, or candles, or a lantern, are used at such times, and when
worshipping in temples during the day.
E
66
CHILDREN OF CHINA
of drowned people turn into duck demons, which swim
near the edge of ponds. If anyone is foolish enough to
try to catch them, they drag him under the water and
drown him. The drowned man then becomes the duck
demon, and the first man can escape. Then children
are told of serpent demons and foxes that turn into
people, and bring hurt to those who take them into
their houses. A famous story is that of a man who
met a beautiful lady and married her. One day he
came home rather sooner than his wife expected him,
and could not find her anywhere. At last he peeped
through a hole in an old shed, and there he saw a
hideous demon, painting its skin, which was stretched
on a board. Looking at the skin the man saw that it
was his wife’s, and so knewr he had married a fox-
demon and not a woman. “ If you could stretch your
hand three feet above your head you would touch the
spirits,” is a common saying.
Fork-like prongs stick out from the roofs of the
houses to drive away demons. Streets and roads
often, for no reason, turn a sharp comer, and the
furrows ploughed in the fields are awry, so that the
spirits may lose their w^ay and not come along them to
hurt people. They think there are spirits of the door
and spirits under the eaves, spirits of the rafters and
spirits of the bed.
Sometimes you will see a head with a shining sw'ord
in its mouth above a door ; sometimes a swrord, made of
round brass cash, tied together by a red cord, hangs in
a bedroom. If a wicked spirit comes to hurt anyone
inside the room the spirit of the sw^ord is supposed to
flash out and drive it away.
In the hills and wraters, in graves and in houses, in
great stones and in old trees, in the moon and in the
stars, there are, the Chinese say, spirits and spiritual
SUPERSTITIONS
67
influences. There is the earth spirit in the ground and
there are dragons which may be made very angry if the
soil is dug too deeply. If an earth dragon is angry and
moves his tail, half a city may fall down. There are
dragons too of air and water. When an eclipse took
place, the people used always to go out with drums and
pans and brass gongs to frighten away the Celestial
Dog, which they thought was eating up the sun or
moon. In 1909, however, when the Prince Regent was
asked to give orders for the usual ceremonies to drive
away an eclipse, he refused, saying that now these
foolish ways must cease.
Numbers of superstitious practices are connected
with the idols. The spirits inside them are supposed
to eat the spirit of the food offered upon the altar.
Inside some of the images there is a mirror, in which
the idol is supposed to see all that passes before it.
On certain days idols are carried through cities and
villages and round the fields to let them see how their
worshippers are faring. On great festivals men may be
seen bare to the waist, with their hair floating down
their backs, and thin, flat swords in their hands. The
spirit of the idol is thought to enter these men. They
foam at the mouth, they whirl round and rush about,
they cut themselves, striking wildly over their shoulders
with their swords. Though they do not wound them-
selves badly, yet thin streaks of red show where the
skin is cut. Guns are fired and piles of paper money
send up clouds of smoke. The ‘ mediums/ as these
men may be called, put their swords between their
teeth and leap on to the carrying poles of the idols'
sedan-chair, and thus standing behind the image,
they are carried through the streets.
Chinese boys and girls are also taught to believe
that the spirits of the idols go into women, who turn
68
CHILDREN OF CHINA
very white and ill-looking, and then begin to speak
in a strange, thin, muttering voice. The people think
that when the idol spirit is in these women, they can
bring dead people back to speak to their friends and
children, just as the witch of Endor brought back
Samuel to speak to Saul.
In southern China, a man named It-sai-peh, who
was a Christian, died before his wife had learned to
believe in God. His widow was very sad when he
died, and wished to bum money, clothes, houses,
servants, horses and other things, all made of paper,
so that the spirit of all these things should be of use to
her husband in the unseen world. Before going to the
expense, however, she went to ask one of these women,
who was said to be a spirit medium, whether she ought
to make the offerings or not.
“ Shall I make offerings for It-sai-peh’s soul? ”
asked the widow.
“ It-sai-peh is in heaven/' said the woman, “ he
does not need your offerings.”
It was a strange answer for the witch to make,
but it did good, for It-sai-peh’s widow was much com-
forted; she did not wraste her money on useless offer-
ings, but she went to church to hear the doctrine
which had saved her husband, and in time herself
believed in Christ.
In addition to consulting these idol mediums,
people often go to the temples to cast lots themselves,
and to divine. They first offer incense and paper money,
then they tell the idol what they want to do, and ask
it whether they may do so or not. After this they
take two curved bamboo roots, round on one side and
flat on the other. They wave these before the image,
and then throw them down upon the floor. If the
tw'o round sides or the two flat sides turn upwards,
SUPERSTITIONS
69
that means No, but if one round side and one flat side
are uppermost, that means Yes. They throw three
times ; and twice yes, or twice no, settles the matter.
Sometimes they go to certain temples or shrines to
sleep, in the hopes that the idols will tell them in a
dream the winning number in a lottery, or something
else they want very much to know. When they have
had the dream they go to someone wise in explaining
dreams, to find out its meaning.
The idols are supposed to do strange things at times.
Once when the officials were putting out a great fire at
Pekin, they said they saw a boy with a red face, in the
midst of the flames, helping their men; everywhere
the boy went the fire died down, till soon it ceased
altogether. Search was made for the useful boy, but
he could not be found. Afterwards it was said that in
a distant province there was a boy idol, deified when
he was eleven years old, represented with a red face,
and sitting on a throne. This idol was now honoured
with a title and special offerings, because it was
believed that he had gone all the way to Pekin to help
to put out the fire.
The people think that sometimes idols get down
from their seats and go about in the way just described.
Here is a story which will make this superstition plain.
In the West Street of a certain Chinese city a man
kept a cake shop. The shopkeeper began to notice
that very early every morning two chubby children
used to bring some cash to buy cakes. What further
surprised him was that every night he found some
sheets of yellow paper money (such as is offered to
idols) at the bottom of the till. Nobody put the paper
money into the box, but every night, as surely as he
counted over his gains, there was the yellow paper
lying at the bottom. Sometimes he wondered whether
70
CHILDREN OF CHINA
this paper money had to do with the boys who came
to buy cakes in the morning. But let him watch ever
so closely, he never saw them put anything into his till.
They brought him good luck, however, for more people
came to buy his cakes every day, and he made plenty
of pennies. But the cake man could not give up
wondering about the paper money, and, at last, he
made up his mind that the children certainly had to do
with the mystery. Nobody knew where the pair
of chubby-cheeked boys came from, or where they went
to, and they were not quite like ordinary boys, there
was something distinguished in their look and ways.
One day the shopkeeper could restrain his curiosity
no longer, so he waited until the boys left the shop,
and then he followed them along the pavement, care-
fully keeping at a distance and noticing where they
went. After walking along the West Street for a
little distance, they turned up a narrow lane; their
pursuer quickened his pace and followed them along
the lane, and out into another street, and yet another,
until they disappeared round the corner of a small
temple. A minute later the inquisitive man followed
them. Inside the temple were two images of chubby-
faced child idols. The secret was out! The boys
were no ordinary children, but idol spirits which
had taken to frisking about the city. The secret was
out, but the boys came no more to the cake shop.
There was no more paper money lying at the bottom
of the till at night, and, for some reason, fewer people
went to buy cakes, so that the prying shopkeeper’s
business fell off from that day. That, at least, is the
legend.
It would not be easy to tell one hundredth part of
the superstitions of a country which has followed
heathen ways for so long as China has done. It
SUPERSTITIONS
71
may be said that no one can be born, reared,
taught, married; no one can study, farm land, keep
a shop, work or govern; no one can be doctored or
nursed, die or be buried, without numberless super-
stitious customs, which entangle the lives of the Chinese
people as the meshes of a spider’s web entangle a fly.
Who is that blind man who strikes a cow’s horn with
a bit of wood as he walks along? Kok, kok, kok, goes
the horn. It is the fortune-teller, upon whose words
the fate of so many people depends. There — a woman
has stopped him. The sound of the horn is stilled.
He leans his head to one side, listening, while his poor,
empty eyes stare vacantly. Now he is speaking.
You cannot hear his words, for he has lowered his voice.
Probably he is telling the old lady her fortune, or advis-
ing her about a new daughter-in-law, or some business
matter. On we go. There, at a comer of that temple
under the shadow of the red brick wall, sits a learned-
looking man with wide-rimmed spectacles. He has a
table in front of him, on which there are two small
cages. Wait a moment and you will see something of
interest. Up come some people from the country.
You can tell that they are villagers by their new
clothes and the circles of silver pins which the girls
have stuck in their hair, beside their general look of
being on holiday. One of them wishes to have her
fortune told. See! the old gentleman has put some
slips of folded paper, about the size of playing-cards,
upon the table. There are different fortunes written
on them. If you looked closely enough at the edge of
the folded papers you would see that one of them has
a little double fold. But this is a secret of which these
country folk know nothing. Now which of the
fortunes will be chosen? Wait and you will see. Old
Spectacles opens the door of one of the cages and out
72
CHILDREN OF CHINA
hops the most friendly speckled brown bird. He
stands in front of the folded papers and looks at them,
one after the other, in the wisest way; he turns his
head, down dives his clean, black bill. See, he has
picked up one of the papers. His master takes the
paper and gives birdie a grain of rice before putting
him back in his cage. Now he reads off the fortune
from the paper and explains its meaning. The country
folk are much impressed, especially by the wise bird,
and pay their money willingly before they go away.
They are so superstitious that they really believe the
bird chose their fortune for them, but birdie only
picked out the paper with a fold in the edge, because
he hoped to find a grain of corn in the crease. If you
followed its master home, you would see him constantly
teaching his little brown pet to choose the paper with
a fold, by putting a grain of rice just inside the crease.
So when customers come to have their fortunes told,
the bird looks over the papers until it finds the one
folded at the edge by the fortune-teller, and then
picks it up and gives it to be read by him.
This account of a few of their superstitions will serve
to show you in what constant trouble and dread the
Chinese children live, for fear of the demons and spirits
all round them, because they do not know and trust in
God. When living among them one cannot but feel
that they are like the people long ago, “ who, through
fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bond-
age.” Yet we may learn something from them too.
The constant sense of the unseen world among the
Chinese and their dread of offending the invisible
spirits, should make us ask ourselves if we remember
the unseen God as often, and are as careful not to
offend against our loving, watchful Heavenly Father,
as they are not to offend the spirits.
REVERENCE FOR PARENTS
73
CHAPTER XI
REVERENCE EOR PARENTS
“Things difficult to come by are a good son, long life,
and a great beard.” — Chinese Proverb.
The Chinese say that filial piety is the chief of virtues,
and many show by their actions that they believe
the saying. They care for their fathers and mothers,
obey their wishes, and are careful in the use of their
property. “ A good son will not use the portion
divided for him; a good daughter will not wear her
marriage clothes/’ say the Chinese.
The following story shows how sorry they are when
they think that they have offended against their
parents in any way. In 1908 a traveller met a young
man on his way to a famous temple on the top of a
mountain in Hunan. The lad had lost his mother and
he was very sad because he thought that her death
must have been caused by some wrong thing which he
had done, either in this life or in some previous exist-
ence. He felt sure that if he had not been guilty of some
very wicked action, Heaven never would have taken
away his mother whilst he was still so young. In
order to make up for what he thought to be his crime,
he vowed to walk sixty miles to the temple, bowing
down to the ground every seven steps which he took.
He must have knelt over 250 times in a mile, or more
than 15,000 times in all.
To ill-use one’s father or mother is a fault for which
there is no forgiveness in China. Some years ago, in
one of the cities of the south, a boy who was unkind
to his mother and spent his time in gambling, instead
74 CHILDREN OF CHINA
of working for her support, was punished by being
buried alive.
The following story shows how much power fathers
and mothers have over their children, even when they
are grown to be men and women. Once there was
a Hunan man, named Chiu, who fought bravely
against the f long-haired rebels/ and rose to high
office in the Canton province. His mother, a big
woman with unbound feet and a face marked by
small-pox, was a person of strong character who had
trained her children to be dutiful and always to obey.
Not long after Mr Chiu had gone to Canton, he sent
for his mother to come and stay with him in the big
house where he now lived. When word was brought
that the servants, wThom he had sent with his own silk-
lined chair for the old lady, wrere drawing near to the
city, Mr Chiu left his retinue and joined them, follow-
ing his mother’s chair on foot as it entered the gate-
way and passed through the city.
The people, as they usually do wiien there is any-
thing to be seen, lined the streets, filling every door-
way with their eager faces, for men, women and
children had turned out to see the great man welcome
his aged mother.
Old Mrs Chiu sat in the sedan, her big feet sticking
out from under the silk front covering of the chair.
As he walked along beside the bearers, her son noticed
how awkvTard they looked in that position, and gently
pushed them inside with his hand.
On went the silken chair with its bearers and escort,
the people gazing with interest on all the marks of
honour paid by a good son to his mother. Presently
the old lady again stuck out her feet, so that they
“ showed like a pair of boats ” on the footboard of the
chair beneath the gaze of the wThole city. Mr Chiu,
REVERENCE FOR PARENTS
75
great man as he was, did not dare to push them back
again, much as he disliked to have everyone laughing
at his mother’s big feet.
When the chair reached the Yamen, or official
house, Mr Chiu went to help his mother to get out.
" What place is this? ” asked the old lady, as if she
did not know her son. “ What place is this? ”
“ This is the Yamen, where you are to live, mother,”
answered Mr Chiu.
“ I can have no such happiness,” said she. “ Go
and see whether there is an inn near by, where people
cook their own food, that I may go and lodge there.”
Mr Chiu, seeing that something had gone wrong,
knelt down, careless of his silk clothes and all the crowd
of onlookers, and said:
“ O mother, I do not know what may have dis-
pleased you, but if I have offended you in any way,
I ask you to forgive my fault,” but his mother would
not answer him a word.
Mr Chiu, finding that he could make nothing of the
old lady, sent for his wife, hoping that she might per-
suade her to leave the chair and go into the Yamen.
By this time the court was full of people who had
gathered to see what was going on. Her Excellency,
young Mrs Chiu, came out in her long robes and satin
shoes, and kneeling down upon the stone pavement,
besought Mrs Chiu, saying:
“ What is wrong with you, mother? We do not
know why you are so angry with us. Please tell your
daughter what is the matter, and why you will not
come into the house.”
“ There can be no such happiness for me,” said the
old lady shortly, and then she said no more. Young
Mrs Chiu’s tears fell freely and she began again to be-
seech her mother-in-law to forgive whatever might have
76
CHILDREN OF CHINA
offended her, and not to shame her son in the eyes of
his friends and neighbours.
On this the angry dame left her chair and walked
into the midst of the guests and the crowd of onlookers.
Then she stamped one of her large feet upon the stones
and turning to her son said:
“ Your father did not find fault with my feet, who
are you to be ashamed of them? My heart is right,
therefore Heaven has given me good fortune; looks
do not matter.” His Excellency bore her anger with
grace and patience, and when she had said all she
wished to say, at last was able to persuade her to enter
the Yamen.
It would be a mistake to think that old Mrs Chiu
would not go into her son's house only because she
was angry. The Chinese despise the man who is
ashamed of his parents or poor relations. The old
woman’s big feet showed that she had been of the
working class. She acted as she did, not from ob-
stinacy or temper, but because she wished that neither
she herself nor her distinguished son should be ashamed
of their humble beginnings.
The honour paid by children to their parents, such
as this story tells of, has kept the better heart of China
alive amid much evil, and has made her people more
ready to join in the worship of our Father which is in
Heaven.
CHAPTER XII
FAITHFULNESS
Faithfulness is another of those things we admire,
that are taught to Chinese boys and girls too. Many
FAITHFULNESS 77
are the stories told to make the children honour
faithful men and wish to be like them.
One of these tells of Luh Sin Fu, in the time of the
Sung Dynasty. This faithful servant of his country,
after refusing to be bought over by the Mongols who
were then at war with China, was defeated in a sea-
fight near Canton. His ships were scattered, and seeing
that the hopes of the Sung rulers were lost, he took
the baby heir of the throne and jumping overboard
perished with him in the waves.
Chinese children are often reminded to be faithful
by the books which they read at school: " Hold
faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.” “ Daily
I examine myself in regard to three things, whether
in doing business for others I may have been un-
faithful, whether I may have been insincere with my
friends, whether I may not have laid to heart the
teachings of my master; ” and such lessons are made
clear to their minds by the example of men and
women praised for faithfulness in every district of the
land.
A legend is told in Chinchew city of a family which
became famous in the time of the Ming Emperors,
through the faithfulness of one of its ancestors. This
man, a Mr So, kept a wine-shop in East Street, not far
from the magistrate’s Yamen. He was an honest
citizen, who went about his business in a quiet, steady
way. Among his customers was a middle-aged man,
who used to go once a day to the shop to have his
earthenware bottle filled with wine.
One day this regular customer brought a bundle,
which he asked Mr So to keep for him, until he should
call for it. Mr So willingly took the bundle, promising
to take good care of it. From that moment the man
came no more to Mr So’s shop. Days passed into
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
months, months became years, and the familiar cus-
tomer with his brown bottle was forgotten.
The incident of the bundle had passed out of
memory when one day an old man entered the wine-
shop and cast his eyes round the place.
“ Are you Mr So? ” he asked the owner.
“ That is my unworthy name, venerable grand-
uncle/’ said Mr So. “ What may I do for you? ”
“ Please give me the bundle which I left with you
some time ago,” said the stranger.
“ The bundle! I do not remember your giving me
a bundle. When did you leave it here? ”
Mr So started when the stranger mentioned a date
years before, and turned to question his men, none of
whom could remember the old man or his bundle.
The stranger pressed Mr So to have the shop care-
fully searched, saying that the package which he had
left for safe keeping had some slips of gold inside it,
and it would be a terrible loss to him if they could not
find it.
“ We know nothing about the bundle, or what was
in it, venerable grand-uncle, but if you left it here, you
shall certainly have it back again,” said Mr So.
After diligent search the bundle was found upon a
shelf in the strong room at the back of the shop.
The old man’s eyes glittered as he undid the
fastenings of the bundle, now black with dust and cob-
webs. Carefully he turned over the things inside it,
laying them one by one upon the counter. There was
a clatter and fall of metal. " The gold is here safe
enough,” said the stranger, taking up the dull yellow
slips with his thin fingers. “ One, two, three,” he
numbered slowly, “ four, five, six,” counting until the
full tale was reached. The old man put back the gold,
and did up his bundle in silence. Then he lifted his head.
FAITHFULNESS
79
“ You are an honest man, Mr So/’ said he. “ You
have indeed been faithful in the trust which I com-
mitted to you so long ago.”
“ What have I done ? ” answered Mr So. “ The
bundle has lain just as you left it,” and with that he
bowed low.
The old man waited. Then he spoke again.
“ I have some skill in finding such spots as will
bring good fortune to the children of those who are
buried in them,” said he. “ You have kept my gold
faithfully. I wish to make you some return for your
kindness, and happily it is in my power to do so.
Listen! there is a place outside the East Gate of the
city, so fortunate that if you were to buy it and use it
for your grave, your descendants afterwards would
surely prosper in the world.”
Mr So, who was no less superstitious than his
neighbours, bought the ground, and when he died was
buried in the lucky spot. The family prospered and in
course of time one of his descendants became an official,
so high in favour with the Emperor Ban-lek, that he
gave him his sister to be his wife, and a * five-storied
pavilion ' for her to live in. Mr So’s heirs continued
to prosper, and some of them still live in the old home
within the city. But we know that the family rose
in the world, not because of the grave, which the old
man thought so lucky, but through the blessing which
follows upon doing what is right and honest.
Much as the Chinese praise faithfulness, the old
men shake their heads and tell their children that
people bom in the time of the Emperor Hien-fung
were more honest than those born during these last
forty years, and those born earlier still, in the days
of Tau-kwang, were still more faithful. It is the
usual story, “ the old days were better than the new,”
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
but the very sense of failure makes the people, young
and old, more ready to welcome that Saviour, who
alone can help men to be faithful and upright and true
and good.
CHAPTER XIII
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN
From what you have read, you will think, perhaps,
that Chinese children have a merry life, but it is not
always so. Little girls, who were unwelcome to their
families, used to be laid in the tiger’s track or among
woods to die. Some were choked immediately they
were bom, or drowned in a bucket. In many cities
of the Empire kind-hearted people have provided
places, where such little outcast waifs are nursed and
tended; for the practice of doing away with children
was always against the law of the land, although the
popular proverb said: “ Destroy a girl and you hasten
the birth of a boy.” Last year a Christian, after his
conscience had been awakened, confessed that years
before, while still a heathen, he had strangled a baby
daughter, and put the little body into the mud of one
of his rice fields.
Of late years, in many parts of China, the practice
of putting girl babies to death has almost entirely
ceased, partly, no doubt, because girls are scarce, and
their value has risen accordingly; in some places as
much as six hundred dollars being given by ordinary
people for a wife.
Then there are many things which bring trouble
upon children and their homes. When rain does not
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN 81
fall for several weeks, there is little food for boys and
girls to eat. So long as rivers and wells hold out, the
farmers, by working hard, can water their fields.
When the streams dry up, they dig holes in the sand
of the river-beds and carry the water, which collects
in them, to keep the crops alive. All the family in turns
tread the water-wheel, which raises water out of such
holes or channels, tramp, tramp, they toil unceasingly
until their skins are burnt dark brown and the bones
show through. If rain still does not come, their labour
is lost, the crops dry up and the poor little children as
well as their fathers and mothers have no food to eat,
so that many of them die of hunger.
Sometimes there is too much rain : the rivers over-
flow, the grain is spoilt in the fields, pigs, goats and
cows are swept away. The water rises. People climb
on to the roofs of their houses, carrying clothes and the
few things they hope to save from the flood. They
crouch on the tiles, with their babies and little children,
under the pitiless rain. Kind people, whose houses,
being on higher ground, have not been deluged, go out
in boats carrying food to them, for often they have had
nothing to eat for several days. The flood rises still
higher, in places it breaks the banks of great rivers,
houses, temples, city walls and whole villages are swept
away by the swift brown water, and thousands of
men, women and children perish. Often, too, fires
break out in crowded villages and towns. The flames
spout from the windows, and showers of sparks fly
into the sky when roofs fall in. If a wind happens to
be blowing, a whole street of shops and houses is burnt
down in no time. The people flee with their children
and whatever they can save from their homes. The
poor little babies and boys and girls fare badly indeed,
when such trouble turns them out of doors. In parts
F
82
CHILDREN OF CHINA
of China, plague comes every year and carries off hun-
dreds of people, leaving many little children with no
one to care for them. In the south of the Empire, too,
the people are constantly having clan-fights between
families or villages ; often fathers or brothers are killed,
and then there are lawsuits, which ruin many a family.
All these causes bring distress and suffering upon
Chinese boys and girls, such as are seldom met with in
Western homes. But most of the trouble which falls
upon children in China to-day comes from poverty.
Grinding poverty leads to hunger and starvation.
Often children must work as soon as they can toddle.
When they are two or three they must look after the
baby brother or sister, while the mother is away work-
ing in the fields. The baby is strapped on the toddler’s
back, and he or she must stagger about with it for
hours, however weary the little limbs may be. Or the
tiny boy or girl must go out with a small bamboo rake
and fill a basket with leaves and grass to burn. In the
country, quite small children must carry loads, and in
the city baby workers toil at trades, till the anxieties
of life have made them look old and wrinkled before
they are ten years of age. One boy of ten used to
work from morning till night in Chinchew city making
clay furnaces. He was stunted, and his face was grey
and pinched, but he helped his widowed mother to get
a living. When people are very poor, two neighbours
will exchange baby girls very soon after they are bom,
or a mother will sell her little baby girl for two or three
dollars to another woman. The baby is then brought
up by this foster-mother to be a little servant until old
enough to marry her son, and so she gets a servant,
and then a wife for her son very cheap. But this
custom leads to much misery and unhappiness for these
* baby daughters-in-law/ as they are called. They
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN 83
are usually treated as the family drudges and never
know any childhood or parents’ care; they have to
work hard, and too often live a loveless, sad life.
The saddest thing of all, is when small girls are sold
to be slaves. In places where food is dear and money
is scarce, fathers and mothers are driven to part with
their children. In certain districts, towards the end
of the year, when debts have to be paid, they may be
seen carrying their little boys and girls slung in baskets
to sell. A nurse in the home of a foreign lady used to
tell how she had had to let eight children go in this
way. Her husband was poor and when there was no
food to give them, she had to sell one of the children
rather than see them all starve together at home. One
of the boys had been bought by a rich family in the
village, so she could see him sometimes, but of course
he was not her own little boy any more. When her
husband died, the poor woman had to let the remaining
children go, one by one, for she had no food to give
them. The last little boy she gave to some strolling
players for thirty dollars, to be a little actor. When
asked how she could sell a child to such a terrible life
as these little actor-boys lead, the mother said, “ Oh,
after ten years he will be too big to act, and then I
shall get him back again, and he has promised to be a
good boy.” The child had his yearly holiday on New
Year’s Day, and his half-starved mother would save
up enough cash to buy a chicken to fatten for the occa-
sion. When her boy came home she killed the chicken,
and she and he had a feast on their one happy day
together.
Sometimes slave children are well and kindly treated,
but in China, as in other lands, slavery too surely
leads to cruelty and suffering. The notices of slave
girls lost, stolen or strayed, posted up on the gates
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
of Chinese cities, shows that many of these little girls
are unhappy in their masters’ houses, and easily per-
suaded to run away. Sad cases are brought to the
hospitals, too, of slave children so wasted by neglect
and starvation that the poor things are little more than
skeletons. An old woman named Ch'uan Kua used to
tell how her little girl, whom she had sold into a
Viceroy’s family, was unkindly treated. One day the
poor child did something to offend her mistress, and
the. angry lady stabbed her to death, with one of her
long hairpins.
Another cause of unhappiness to the little ones
is the practice of opium smoking. When the father, or
mother, or other wage-earner of the home, smokes
opium, there is little for the children to eat. In time,
some of the wretched slaves to opium sell house and
land, furniture and clothes, wife and children, in order to
get money for the terrible self-indulgence.
The following story gives some idea of what a little
girl, named Phoenix, had to suffer from a father who
was an opium-eater. The story is doubly interesting
because it is told by herself.
“ It would be very difficult to relate fully what I
have passed through from my childhood until the
present. I will only tell some of the principal
events.
“ When I was three years old my mother died.
My grandfather cared for me until I was six, and then
he also left this world. I had no one to care for me,
and my father brought me to Amoy and sold me to
Mrs No-te, who lived near the Bamboo-tree-foot church.
From that time I had opportunities of hearing the
Gospel, but could not go to school, as I was kept busy
with house-work. When I was fifteen the Lord received
me into His church, and I was baptised.”
I'IMKNIX
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN 85
Phoenix does not mention that the woman who
bought her broke the agreement made with the child’s
father, that she should in time become the wife
of her son. The father, a wretched opium sot, made
this an excuse for claiming the return of the girl, in
order to sell her over again for more money.
“ When I was sixteen years old my father de-
manded me back, and at that time my heart was very
sorrowful. I was afraid he would not let me go to
church. I took this trouble to the Lord, and Our Lord
truly heard the prayer of His child. He also gave me
the desire of my heart and let me go to the Girls’
Boarding-school, to study and know more about the
Bible. If it had not been for this, I would have been
like a person blind. It was arranged through the
earnestness and love of my pastor, who told my
father that I belonged to the church, and that he must
certainly put me to school. This he did and let me
be in school for about one year, and then he came for
me and I had to go with him, and I was very sad.
“ My father soon took me to Tung An, and all the
time I was there I could only manage to go to church
once. . . .
“ Someone told my father that I had been to church
and he was very angry, and told me to take salt and
salt down my heart, to make dead my heart. He
said he certainly would not let me go to church, and
told others that they must not let me go. He also
said that if I had any communication with the lady
missionary he would throw me down stairs and kill me.
But the Lord was always with me and delivered me
out of the mouth of the lion.
“ Afterwards my father brought me to Amoy to my
uncle’s house. Two-thirds of the family are vege-
tarians, and early and late they burn incense and
86 CHILDREN OF CHINA
candles to the idols. My heart was miserable in the
extreme.
“ My father tried to sell me to be the second wife
of a rich man, who was willing to give nearly three
hundred dollars for me. He said:
Your old friend, the Bible- woman and the
Christians will do nothing for you, you might as well
make up your mind to it. The Bible-woman says there
is no use trying to do anything more for you, that no
Christian will marry you now.’
“ I felt that he was telling me a lie, but I could not
know if the Bible-woman, who had always been so
good to me, had really said that or not, and I was very
unhappy. My father kept urging me to agree to
being sold to the rich heathen man, so that he might
have the money to use. He was very angry with me
because I was so strongly opposed. I said, * I have
made a covenant with the Lord, which I cannot break,
I am His.’
“ One day a sister of a Christian came to speak to
my uncle, and someone said to me, * That person is a
follower of the Gospel like you and lives at Bamboo-
tree-foot. ’ I said, ‘ Is that true? ’ After this I found
that she knew one of my classmates, who lives at
Bamboo-tree-foot, and through her I secretly sent a
letter to my classmate, asking her to tell the pastor’s
wife where I was. The letter was delayed several
days, and before it was delivered one day I saw
three Christians passing the house with Bibles in their
hands, on their way to church, and so I knew that it
was Sunday — I had lost count of Sundays — and I called
to them. My father was out, or I should not have
dared to speak to them. They were pleased to find
me. They told the Bible-woman, and through them
and my letter in a week’s time the pastor’s wife and
MINISTERING CHILDREN
87
the Bible-woman both came to see me. I found out
that what my father had said about the Bible-woman
was not true, and they both comforted my heart.
“ After this, I dreamed I had fallen into a ditch up
to my neck, and someone pulled me out ; that I went
to school again, and was writing on my slate, and I
thought : This means that God is going to open the way
for me. In six more days, beyond all my hopes, God’s
great goodness was manifested, and I truly jumped for
joy, when I was told that my father’s consent was
gained, and Miss had redeemed me for two
hundred dollars, and that I was to go back again to
school.
“ In two days the pastor came for me and brought
me to school. This truly manifests the love of God
for sinful me, and also the love of Miss in that she
gave money to save me. During the time of trial the
Lord always helped me, and now He has brought me
to this place, free from all fear. Love like this is truly
great.”
Phoenix has since become engaged to a young
theological student and will probably be married
within a year.
CHAPTER XIV
MINISTERING CHILDREN
In 1898 a boy named Ch‘en Yo, generally known as
Yo-ah, lived near the West gate of Chinchew city. His
father, who was called Poah, used to sit by the road-
side gambling with the passers-by. The boy went with
him, and sometimes when his father lost a game, would
have a turn at the board and win some money.
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
When Yo-ah was thirteen years old, his father first
heard about the worship of the true God, and began to
go to church, near the great western pagoda in the
city. Strangely enough, Yo-ah, who had gone will-
ingly enough to gamble, would not follow his father to
church. For six months Poah went to the * worship
hall ’ alone, then he told his son that he must join him.
Yo-ah did not wish people to know that he had any-
thing to do with the f Barbarian church/ so when
out of obedience to his father he went to service, he
used to creep through round-about lanes and side
streets, in the hope that none of his friends would meet
him on the way.
After a time Yo-ah went to school, though he was
most unwilling to do so, thinking that gambling was
better fun than poring over books. Seeing how idle
he was, his father said to him one day :
“ If you don’t mean to study you had better go
away, for I will not take care of you any longer.”
Seeing that his father meant what he said, Yo-ah
made up his mind to do better, and set about his work
with a will. Not only did his lessons improve; in a
short time his temper grew better, and he gave up using
naughty words and telling lies. The secret of this
wonderful change was that at school Yo-ah had learnt
to know the Saviour.
The neighbours, who did not understand about
worshipping God, noticed that Yo-ah had given up his
rude ways, and did not answer back as he had done
before he went to school. One of them, a widow who
had an only son named Wu-mei, was very much struck
by the change in him. Her son had been called
Wu-mei, that is, Black Little Sister, to deceive the
evil spirits into thinking that he was an ugly little girl,
not worth troubling about, in the hope that they would
If
SUNDAY SCHOOL, CHINCHKVV
MINISTERING CHILDREN
89
let him grow up to manhood in peace. His mother,
seeing how much Yo-ah had improved by study, sent
Black Little Sister to the same school.
The new scholar read diligently, and soon began to
drink in the story of the Gospel. Three or four months
after he entered school a bad illness, called plague,
broke out and many people died, both inside and
outside the city. Black Little Sister sickened one day
and had to be carried home in a chair, slung on two
long bamboo poles.
His teacher, who wanted all the children he taught
to know the Lord Jesus, was troubled about him, for
he saw that he was very ill, and he did not know
whether Black Little Sister had learnt to trust the
Saviour or not. Just as he was starting off to go to
the boy’s house, Yo-ah’s father came into the school-
room and said:
“ You need not go, teacher; Black Little Sister’s
mother has filled the house with idols, and he is
delirious. Even if his people allowed you to enter his
room, he would not understand what you said to him.”
The teacher was very sorry when he heard what
Poah said, for he saw that it would be useless to go
to see his little friend.
Very early next morning Yo-ah’s father came
again with news of Black Little Sister, and best of all,
he told the teacher that the dying boy believed in our
Lord Jesus as his own true Saviour.
“ Last night,” said he, “ when everyone could see
that Black Little Sister was very ill and must surely
die, his relations turned all the idols out of the house.
Then I went in to see him. When I entered his room,
I said, ‘ Black Little Sister, people say that you have
lost your senses. Is it true? ’ ”
“ * No, brother Poah,’ he answered, ' these heathen,
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
who do not understand what I am doing, think
that I am out of my senses, because they see me
constantly getting up and kneeling upon the bed to
pray/ ”
Seeing that the boy was able to talk quite sensibly,
Poah brought another Christian, a man called Ah Lin,
to come and see him.
“ Shall I read some verses from the Bible to you? ”
asked Ah Lin, sitting down by the bedside.
“ Yes, I should like you to read some very much,”
answered the dying boy.
Ah Lin opened his New Testament and began
reading from the third chapter of St John’s Gospel.
When he reached the fifteenth verse he stopped.
“ Black Little Sister,” he said, “ do you know the
next verse? ” It had been the golden text, repeated by
the children at the Bible service on the previous
Sunday.
“ God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him,
should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The
poor dried lips slowly repeated the precious words to
the end.
Then Poah and Ah Lin prayed. When they had
finished Black Little Sister put his hands together and
said: “ Thank you, God, so much for giving your
only born son, that I, a sinful one, believing on Him,
might have everlasting life.” Then the room was very
quiet, for the boy was tired and neither Poah nor Ah
Lin could speak a word.
Soon after this the fever died out of Black Little
Sister’s face and eyes. The fight was over. He had
left the narrow room and its useless idols, and gone to
the home of love and everlasting life.
Whilst Poah told the story to the good teacher, he
MINISTERING CHILDREN 91
cried for joy and sorrow, until the tears ran down his
cheeks.
In the fourth moon of the next year, the plague
came to the city once more. On the 15th, Yo-ah was
taken ill after morning school. When his minister
went to see him, he said :
“ Please do not say anything to my father about
my sickness, for I am the last of six brothers, and if
he were to hear that I was ill, he would be so sorry.”
But the minister of course felt he must send for
the father as quickly as possible.
When Poah reached the school he found Yo-ah
sitting in bed reading his Bible. He seemed bright
enough, and had just finished doing up accounts
for one of the Christians, who had been out selling
fish.
" What is wrong with you, Yo-ah? ” asked his
father.
" I have only got a small lump above my leg,
which pains me a little, father.”
The doctor came presently and gave the boy some
medicine, but the medicine did not seem to have much
effect.
That evening Yo-ah felt poorly. “ If the fever
does not go down to-night I will certainly be in Heaven
to-morrow, father,” said Yo-ah.
Next morning Yo-ah looked so much better that
Poah was very glad and exclaimed to one of his
friends, “ I took a straw rope for a serpent this time,”
meaning that he had been frightened by his boy’s
illness when there was no reason to be afraid.
During the day one of the schoolboys, a great
friend of Yo-ah’s, went to see him. The sick lad was
very glad to see him, and said: “ Ah! So-and-so, you
will go on to the middle school by-and-by. After-
92 CHILDREN OF CHINA
wards you must give yourself to God’s service and work
for Him/'
“ You, too, must work for God, Yo-ah,” answered
his friend.
" The Lord is not going to leave me long in this
world,” said Yo-ah.
After this he begged one of his uncles to believe
in Christ and find safety in Him. He also spoke to
several of his friends asking them to give up things
which they knew to be wrong in their lives. To one,
who was careless about money, he said, “ Brother Lin,
you ought to live more sparingly. How can you glorify
God when you are constantly in debt and people have
to dun you for money at the end of the year? ”
His father, seeing that though Yo-ah looked better,
he acted like one about to leave this world, said to
him:
“ If you die, I will go and hang myself.”
“ Daddy, if you do what Judas did, then after my
death, we two, father and son, will never see each other
any more. You must live for God and tell people His
truth with all your might when I am gone.”
After this he spoke much with his father, asking
him to be faithful to Christ. When noon came he
stopped talking, saying, “Now all is finished.”
His poor father was very sorry and tried to speak
to him, but all that Yo-ah would say after this was
“ Submit, gladly submit,” repeating the words over
and over again, meaning that his father ought to be
willing to let him go if God took him.
By seven o’clock that evening Yo-ah was restless,
throwing himself from one side of the bed to the other.
His father sat by, trying to soothe and quiet him, and
as he watched through the dragging minutes he cried to
God, for he wras not willing that his only son should die.
MINISTERING CHILDREN
93*
The bell rang for evening prayer in the church, next
door to the school. The poor man in his sore trouble
wished to go to the service, but dared not leave the
sick-room, fearing that Yo-ah might roll from the bed
and fall upon the ground.
A change passed over him and a new calm came
into his heart. He fell upon his knees in front of the
bed and prayed:
“ O, God! I submit to Thy will. I pray Thee to let
my child go home in peace.”
He rose from the ground. The restless tossing had
stopped. Yo-ah was lying still upon the bed. After
one long look the poor father went into the church.
The service was nearly over when he entered the build-
ing and the minister was just saying, ‘‘If anyone wishes
to lead us in prayer, let him do so.” Poah began :
“ 0 God, I thank Thee for having given me this son to
care for these fifteen years. Now Thou hast taken
him home to Thyself. I gladly submit to Thy will.
Only please help me to remember, and to do all that
he spoke of when he talked to me.”
At the close of the service the people knew that
Y o-ah had * crossed over ’ to the better land. Some
of them wished to try to comfort his father, but they
were all so grieved for him that no one could find a
word to say. Poah, whose face was very calm, began
to comfort them instead. He told them what Yo-ah
had said, and asked them to join with him in sub-
mitting to the will of God.
That year plague raged in the city and many
people died. One of the minister’s sons, a boy of
ten, sickened and died without a word. When Poah
heard of it he said: “ God has indeed been merciful
to me. If my boy had died like this without
comforting me, what should I have done? ” Yo-ah’s
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
father, who now seemed to live only for the
good of others, went everywhere to help with the
sick and dying. Next year he became an elder of the
church, which he served most faithfully. A year
later, the plague came again, and joyfully submitting
to God’s will he, too, went home to be with Jesus.
CHAPTER XV
THE CHILDREN’S KING
“The Cross is tall,
And I too small,
To reach His Hand
Or touch His Feet ;
But on the sand
His foot-prints I have found,
And it is sweet
To kiss the holy ground.”
Until fifty years ago China, like the palace of the
Sleeping Beauty, lay under a spell. Idolatry, love of
money and evil customs, like the thorns and briars of
the famous story, had overrun the land. The sacred
names of God and Heaven, vrere almost forgotten.
What wise men long ago had taught of peace
and justice, of kindness and self-denial, had faded
into dreams. The joy of learning, the reverence of
father and mother, and the love of little children, lay
under the enchantment of the Wicked One. Then the
Prince came, our princely Lord Jesus, and China
began to waken. At His touch the old-world knowledge
of God, of peace and justice, of kindness and self-
denial, stirred in the people’s hearts and prepared
them to welcome the Gospel. Then history, that wise
THE CHILDREN’S KING
95
old story-teller, began to repeat herself. The Kingdom
of God, when once founded in China, like the nation
itself in bygone ages, began to grow. Its conquests
were those of peace, and not of war. Surrounded by
enemies, it drew them into itself, spreading light and
love as it widened its borders.
Men and women came to put their trust in the Lord
Jesus, and the little ones learned that He is the
children’s King. The King sent forth His messengers
into every province, and, most wonderful of all,
wherever the messengers went, the King went too,
and whenever their message entered a human heart,
His own kiss woke it to love and joy.
Churches began to grow, humble enough to look at,
but more beautiful in God’s sight than palaces of gold
and precious stones. Schools were built all over the
land, and Christian homes arose in many a village and
town and great city.
You would love to see the children gather in God’s
house on the Lord’s Day in China. Shaved heads
and strange clothes would catch your eyes at first,
but you would soon be attracted by the earnest faces
and intent dark eyes of some of the little ones whose
attention had been caught by a story. After service
you would see them gather in the Sunday-school,
and perhaps when you heard them repeat their texts,
you would long to borrow their wonderful memories
for your own use. If you followed the little boys and
girls after service, you would find that the children’s
King had done much for them in their homes, but you
would need to live with them for a time, to discover
how great the change from the old heathen ways had
really been. You would see, if you lived with them
long enough, that the girls did not have their poor little
feet pinched and bound. The babies would not be
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CHILDREN OF CHINA
sent away or sold, unless there was great poverty, and
then they would only be allowed to go into another
Christian family, where they would be loved and cared
for. You would notice that the harsh words and sharp
blows which heathen children, and especially little
girls, have to bear, were fewer. There would be more
gentleness and loving family life, less quarrelling and
unkindness among the inmates.
When the family gathered for dinner, the little ones
would put their fat fingers over their eyes, whilst grace
was said. In the evenings, when the shadows fell,
no stick of incense would be burnt in the guest-room,
nor stuck in the paper lantern outside the door, but,
a little later, hymn-books would be brought and the
family would have prayers before going to bed.
When you went into their room and sat on the edge of
the children’s bed, and got the little ones to nestle
close up to you, they would whisper, if you asked
them in the right way, that they loved Jesus.
Chinese boys and girls learn to love Jesus, that is
the proof that Christ is the children’s King, that the
Prince Himself has kissed them and wakened them
out of sin. And, if you turn back to the story of
Yo-ah and Black Little Sister, you will see that when
He calls them home to Himself, they lovingly go to be
with Him.
FINIS
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