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0 11 I N A,

IX A SERIES OF VIEWS, DISPLAYING

THE SCENERY, APvCJIITECTURE, AND SOCLVL HABITS,

THAT ANCIENT EMPIRE.

DRAWN, FROM ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC SKETCHES, BY

THOMAS ALLOM, ESQ.

WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES BY

THE REV. G. K WRIGHT, M.A.

VOL. III.

FISHER, SON, & CO.
NEWGATE STREET, LONDON ; RUE ST. HONORE, PARIS.

Annex

LIST OF PLATES.

VOL 111.

PACE

A Chinese Cemetery .,,...-... vios-.tte H>

The Woo-taiig Mountains ^

Hall of Audience, Palace of Yuen-niin-yucn '^

Landing-place and Entrance to the Temple of Hun;ui 1^

The Proof-sword Rock, Hoo-kew-shan '-

Estuary of the Ta-hea, or Ning-po River . . . - ''^

The Tai-wang-kow, or Yellow Pagoda Fort, Canton River J 7

Ladies of a Mandarin's Family at Cards 1^

Termination of the Greiit Wall of Cliina . . . 2

The Shih-mun, or Rock Gates

Dyeing and Winding Silk "'

Sowing Rice, at Soo-chow-foo -'

Transplanting Rice . . - •

Playing at Shuttlecock with the Feet

Entrance to the Iloang-ho, or Yellow River

Sacrifice of the Cliing-tswe-tsee, or Harvest-moon "^ ^

The Western Gate of Peking

The Grotto of Canioens, Macao

The Cataract of Shih-tan "^'^

Gardens of tlie Imperial Palace, Peking '^

Cap-vender's Shop, Canton • •

Close of the Attack on Chapoo

2014976

CONTEXTS.

PAGE

An Itinerant Barber . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Scene in the Suburbs of Ting-hae .......... 53

Opium-smoliers ......... ..... 54

Amoy, from the Outer Harbour .......... 56

A Marriage Procession ........ ... 58

Landing-place at the Yuk-shan ....... ... 60

Silk Farms at Hoo-chow 61

A Devotee consulting the Sticks of Fate ......... 64

Great Temple at Honan . . . ....... 6(i

The Emperor Taou-kwang reviewing his Guards ........ 67

I

1

CHINA.

THE WOO -TANG MOUNTAINS.

PROVINCE OF KIANG-SI.

The wild streams leap with headlong sweep,
In their eurbless course o'er the mountain steep :
All fresh and strong they foam along,
Waking the rocks with their cataract song."

The Recluse of the Rock.

I»f the schistose district of the Meilung mountains, that engross the southern part of
Kiang-si, the forms of the cliffs and the crags are more varied than art could ever have
made them, and than nature generally does. The goddess, however, in a sportive mood,
seems to have moulded the amazingly diversified surface of the Woo-tang rocks, in
which the Kan-kiang-ho has its source; for, the toppling position of the great mass that
overhangs the village of Woo-tang and the vale of Nan-kang-foo, is obedient rather
to the strength of adhesion than the laws of gravity. An Alpine grandeur pervades
the whole mountain chain to the north of the Meilung group ; and the Chinese are so
entirely devoted to pleasure, so much engrossed by superstition, such victims to actual
romance, that they associate every picturesque spot amidst these cloud-capp'd pinnacles
with a legend of pleasure or pain— a duty enjoined by custom— a pilgrimage dictated by
caprice or idleness.

Many of the princes of Woo have acquired celebrity by their chivalrous bearing, by
their disinterested patriotism, their great wisdom, or their solid learning. One, however,
is remembered with more feeling : his story has found more sympathy than the sorrows
or the sufferings of his kindred, from its interesting and romantic character. Too-fan
was a prince of undaunted courage, great personal graces, and cultivated mind. Whe-
ther he was disgusted with tlie insipidity of a courtier's life, or was inspired naturally
with a love of wandering, is uncertain; but one day, after he had reached the age of

III. B

6 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

twenty, he left his royal home to enjoy the pleasures of the chase, and did not return
at the accustomed time. Couriers were despatched in all directions, and public procla-
mations issued, offering immense rewards to any one who could reveal the mystery of his
sudden disappearance — but in vain. At length the emperor abandoned all hope of recover-
ing his favourite son, went through the prescribed forms of wailing for an heir deceased,
and appointed a successor to the lost but loved Too-fan. Time rolled its ceaseless
course, and Hoo-fan, lately elected successor to the throne, accompanied by a retinue of
courtiers, proceeded to hunt in the valleys and amidst the rocks of Woo-tang ; but the
sportsmen being separated by the chances of the chase, the royal heir missed his compa-
nions, and rode in search of them down a sequestered glen, until he was exhausted
by fatigue, and apprehensive of being overtaken by the darkness of night. In this
distressing situation, a young female, modestly attired, approached him, inquired the
occasion of his so little expected visit to that unfrequented spot, and invited him to
alight, and take shelter in her lowly dwelling. Astonished at her exquisite beauty, at
the kind yet unembarrassed manner in which she offered to extend the rites of hospitality
to a stranger, Hoo-fan for awhile was not able to reply : attributing his silence to fatigue,
she at once called for assistance, which was answered by the appearance of a young man
at the cottage door, who immediately advanced, and conducted the wanderer in.

Here the prince passed a night not of rest but distraction, although every effort that
hospitality and benevolence could dictate was employed to reconcile him, and safe
guidance to the precincts of his well-known hunting-ground, promised him on the
morrow. But the surpassing beauty of his benefactress had made an impression on his
heart, that reason could never efface; and his elevated rank induced him to believe, that
it was not in mortal power to prevent him from one day calling her his own. This,
however, was a fatal folly, and he lived just long enough to regret the error of such ungo-
vernable passion. Perceiving that the beautiful mountaineer was the wife of the cottager,
he proposed at once to purchase her, and increased his price to such an extravagant
amount, that his host at length concluded that folly, or madness, could alone have
prompted him to this singular request ; leading him, accordingly, to the limit of his
lonely vale, he bade him be happy, and farewell.

These last words found no echo in the heart of Hoo-fan, who was henceforth to
become the prey of a lawless and a hopeless passion ; and, proceeding rather as his
animal carried than himself conducted, at length returned to his companions, who were
overjoyed at again beholding their royal leader.

Changed in his very nature by the flame that withered up all his moral feelings,
Hoo-fan now began to plot the destruction of the peasant of Woo-tang, that he might
remove what he deemed the only impediment to the possession of his fair companion ; and
for this purpose, approaching his imperial father, he laid before him a grievance which
he said ought to be immediately redressed. He told him how a bold rebel, of whose
exact name he was uncertain, but whose secret home he knew, in defiance of imperial
pleasure, continually hunted in the royal domains ; and prayed permission to suppress
the offence by punishing the offender. His request being granted, Hoo-fan set out,

THE WOO-TANG MOUNTAIN'S.

with a chosen few of his profligate associates, and reacliing the once happy valley of
Woo-tang, acquainted the cottager, who had treated him so hospitably when liis life
was in his power, that information of his predatory habits having reached the imperial
throne, he had been deputed to inquire into the circumstances. Ingratitude, and a still
dec])er contempt for his fellow-men, for a moment overpowered the innocent victin^,
who had not passed imnoticed the attention with which Hoo-fan had regarded his
faithful wife; but, recovering himself quickly, he formed his resolution. "Great
prince," said he, " allow me to give instructions to my dearly-loved wife, for the arrange-
ments of our cottage during my absence, after which I shall obediently attend you."
The prince withdrew, leaving the afflicted wife to hear the last fond words which
the partner of her solitude was ever, as Hoo-fan purposed, to whisper in her ear; but a
watchful Providence had decreed far otherwise. " When I depart," said the husband
calmly, " with prince Hoo-fan, and his satellites, do you, my dear wife, ascend yon hill,
and hasten to the imperial palace by the shortest way ; tell the chief officer of the
court to bear this girdle, with the bright diamond that adorns it, to the emperor,
wherever he may be ; adding, that the owner is now on the way to an ignominious
death, by the imperial order, and that the imperial presence alone can save hmi.
Speed, and may Fo, the god of the faithful and the fond, befriend you."

Hoo-fan having told the emperor that such an offender did exist, must necessarily
have inflicted punishment upon him for the pretended crime, in somewhat of a public
manner, unless one of his infamous coadjutors should have boldness enough to supersede
this necessity by assassination. This, however, would have been an attemi)t of the
most perilous kind, the captive being a man of gigantic stature, extraordinary muscu-
larity, and possessing the fleetness and activity of those very animals of the chase,
which he was accused of pursuing and overtaking on foot. He was conducted, there-
fore, to the nearest tribunal, the summit of a lofty rock, which was itself enclosed
between two huge perpendicular masses; and on this plateau, in the eye of just heaven,
the iniquitous trial and punishment were to take place.

The party passed out of the retired valley, crossed the stream of the Kang-kiang-ho,
by two rustic bridges, that span the deep ravine through which it tumbles, and reaching
the plateau on the summit, went through the contemplated mockery of a trial, by which
the prisoner was condemned to be thrown from the beetling cliff into the abyss below.
The pause that followed this dreadful announcement was suddenly interrupted by the
appearance of a cavalcade, numerous, coming on at full speed, and with all the character
of a hostile troop. One horseman, better mounted than the rest, rode madly into the
ring formed for the tribunal, exclaiming, " Suspend the sentence, stop the execution, as
you value your lives — the emperor ! the emperor !" A few moments more, and the
emperor stood amidst the traitorous band who had abused his confidence. " Hoo-fan,"
said he, " you have forfeited my affections, disgraced the name of a prince of Woo, and
are no longer worthy of my protection. Go, take the place of the captive, whom your
vicious passions would have put to a painful and most horrid death ; and, to aggravate
your disappointment, I adopt him to be the heir to my throne and kingdom." Having

8 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

concluded this solemn decree, he threw aside the restraints of majesty, and rushing
towards the prisoner, fell upon his manly bosom, exclaiming, "My son, my lost son,
Too-fan !"

On the spot where this aifecting incident is said to have taken place, a temple of Fo
has been erected, in which an altar, or tang, is dedicated to the memory of Too-fan, and
from which Woo-tang takes its abiding name.

HALL OF AUDIENCE, PALACE OF YUEN-MIN-YUEN.

PEKING.

Fling ye the silken curtain wide,
With gold restrained, with purple dyed,
And let the colours wander o'er
The polished walls, the marble floor.
White are the walls, but o'er them wind
Rich patterns curiously designed.

The Kuan of Kathav.

Imperial luxury appears, in China, to be insatiable. There is not a minor political
division of this vast empire, unadorned by some palace, or villa, or hall of majesty ; and
the display of fancy exhibited in their arrangements is only inferior to the gorgeousness
with which the designs are executed. Yuen-min-Yuen is perhaps the most extensive
and sumptuous of all these abodes of magnificence and power; and it is also better
known to Europeans, from the reception, within its marble halls, of foreign embassies,
than the travelling-palace of Hoo-kew-shan, and other picturesque localities.

A noble park, improperly called the Gardens of Yuen-min-Yuen, is situated
about three leagues north-west of Peking, and occupies an area of eleven square miles.
Here are no less than thirti/ distinct imperial residences, each surrounded with all the
necessary buildings for lodging the numerous state officers, servants, and artificers,
that are required, not only on occasions of court and public days, but for the regular
conduct of the household. Each of these assemblages includes so great a number of
separate structures, that at a little distance the appearance is precisely that of a com-
fortable village, and of tolerable extent. The mode of building possessing few traits
of permanence, on a closer examination a character of meanness, and a poverty of
invention, are at once discovered ; and even here, in the most luxurious and spacious
of all the imperial homes, it is to the amazing number of fanciful huts, and decorated
sheds, rather than to their stateliness or durable pretensions, that any magnificence is
ascribed.

-^

V

K

iiAi.i. (ir ArniKNCE, rAi.Arr. or Yri;N-MiN-vri;N. w

Amongst these thirty groups of iKiiutcd palaces, the Hall of Audience is the most
conspicuous for its magnitude, ornamont, and proportions. Elevated on a j)latform of
granite, about four feet above the surrounding level, an oblong structure stands, one
hundred and twenty feet in length, forty-five in breadth, and in height twenty. A row
of large wooden columns surrounds the cella, and supports a heavy projecting roof;
while an inner tier, of less substantial pillars, marks the area of the chambers: the
intervals of the latter, being filled with brick-work to the height of lour feet, form
the enclosing screen or walls of the chief apartment. Above these the space is occupied
with lattice work, covered with oiled paper, and capable of being thrown open, when the
temperature of the hall demands it. On the ceiling are described squares, circles,
jiolygons, and other mathematical figures, in various combinations, and charged with
endless shades of gaudy colours. The floor is a more chaste piece of workmanship,
consisting of slabs of a beautiful grey marble, disposed chequer-wise, and with the
most accurate and perfect precision in the jointing. In a recess at the centre of one
end stands the imperial throne, composed entirely of cedar richly and delicately carved,
the canopy being supported by wooden pillars painted with red, green, and blue colours.
Two large brass kettle-drums, occasionally planted before the door, and there beaten on
the approach of the emperor, form part of the furniture of the hall, the rest consisting of
Chinese paintings, an English chiming-clock, made by Clarke of Leadenhall-street, and
a pair of circular fans formed of the wings of the argus-pheasant, and mounted on
polished ebony poles. These stand on each side of the throne, above which are inscribed,
in the Chinese letter and language, "True, great, refulgent, splendid," and beneath
these pompous words, the much more pithy one — " Happiness."

The columns in all cases— within the hall, beneath the imperial canopy, and
those that sustain the overhanging roof— are without capitals ; and the only substitute
for an architrave is the bressumer, or horizontal beam on which the projecting rafters of
the roof recline. Below this architrave and between the columns, wooden screens are
interposed, painted with the most glaring hues of the brightest colours, profusely
intermixed with gilding. Over the whole of this fancy-work a net of gilded wire
is stretched, to protect it against the invasion of swallows, and other enemies to the
eaves and the cornices of buildings.

The grounds around the many palaces are either broken by nature, or formed by art
into hill and dale, diversified with wood' and water — the latter enclosed by banks so
ingeniously thrown up, that they represent the fortuitous workmanship of the free hand
of creative power. Bold rocky promontories are seen projecting into a lake, and valleys
also retiring from them, some, deep-wooded bosoms— others, scenes of richest cultivation.
Wherever pleasure-temples, or grottoes, or pavilions for rest, are erected, the views from
each are evidently studied productions of some one eminent in the delightful art of land-
scape gardening. In the arrangement of trees, not only the magnitude to which the
species ultimately attains, but even the tints of the foliage, are maturely considered in
the composition of the picture.

III.

10 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

LANDlNG-PLvVCE AND ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE OF HONAN.

CANTON'.

" 'Tis mad idolatry,
That makes the service greater than the god."

Sh.\kspeare.

On the south banks of the Cho-keang, or Pearl river, and on the opposite side from
the city of Canton, is a rural district, much frequented by visiters and residents
for recreation and change of air, but by a still greater number of pilgrims, who come
hither to bow the knee at the shrine of Buddha. Emerging from the narrow filthy
streets, and escaping from their noxious atmosphere, the bridge of Honan, with its
quaint architecture, conducts to the little isle itself, a paradise in comparison with the
busy city to which it is united. Here the scenery is peculiarly pleasing, and the
luxuriant trees that adorn the banks, that dip into the stream, that spread their grateful
shelter over the fields, animate the picture by the amazing variety in their shades and
their colours.

Here also is the most famous of all Buddhist temples in China, the very cathedral of
that contemptible idolatry. Standing on the margin of the water, it is most frequently
approached by boats; and the multitude that is in perpetual motion at the landing-
place, is calculated to give a very low estimate of Chinese character. It consists of
the aged, infirm, and infantine, coming to ask pardon of a block of wood, for sins and
omissions in this world, and to beg liberation from the torments of swords, and axes,
and bowstrings in the world to come. Another and more unimportant portion of the
crowd is intent on over-charging, on pilfering, and abusing the confidence of these
dotards, whom they have, almost pardonably, concluded to be deserving of no better lot.
The reasoning, however, is obviously vicious, which would pretend to prove that folly
in one party, justifies dishonesty in another : but, what is in China the standard of virtue
or vice — the test of truth or falsehood — the boundary of good or evil?

A small comfortable-looking assemblage of doors, and screens, and gables, and
projecting eaves, and concave roofs, and grotesque animals, gives to the landing-place
the character of a country ale-house. Here, however, is the place of entrance to
a vista of majestic banyan trees, that appear to have resisted the assaults of the
elements for centuries of time, and by their venerable aspect, supply, in some degree,
the want of antiquity in the flimsy, temporary sheds, that lie hid beneath them. Giants
of wood guard the next doorway, with becoming vigilance, and terrific aspect ; and
whoever passes these formidable warders, will find another enclosure within, intersected
by flagged walks, that lead amidst the tree*, to colonnades, filled with gods and monsters

N;

^^

L.WDING-PLACE AXD KXTUANCE TO TIIK TF.MPLE Ol' IIONAN. 11

of every sect and profession. Beyond the second square are situated three grand liall^,
appropriated to idols of greater costhness, and still more hideous aspect. Within tiie
central are the three famous images, illu:?trative of the triune manifestations of Buddha —
the past, present, and future. Kwo-keu-fuli, whose reign is past, is on the right : We-lac-
fuli, whose reign is yet to come, on the left ; the centre being occupied by Heen-tsa-fuh,
wliose jjower is now supposed to regulate human destinies. The monsters, although
in a sitting posture, are each eleven feet in height. Before these " three precious
Buddha " stand tables, or altars, on which are placed joss-sticks, censers, perfumes,
flowers, ornaments, and sometimes rare fruits; and, on either side are arranged
eighteen images of the primitive disciples of Buddha, supposed to be resuscitated
emperors of the Mantchou-Tartar race. The side walls are decorated with silken cur-
tains, embroidered, in letters of gold and silver thread, with mottos and precepts from
the works of Confucius. A number of pillars, gilt and painted, sustain the roof, from
the cross-beams of which several hundred lanterns depend, whose muilied rays diifuse
a mysterious light around, not badly calculated to aid the solemn character which
the labours of the priests are incessant in endeavouring to impart.

The several cellae, or places of worship, within the sanctuary, are all of nearly
equal capacity, and adorned with an equal variety of objects of vertu; and, besides these
devotional apartments, a very extensive monastery belongs to the temple, where some
hundred priests are comfortably lodged. Considerable distinctions appear to exist
between the grades or classes of this monastic order, for, some of them are clothed
in costly habits, and exhibit unequivocal symptoms of having " fared sumptuously every
day ;" while others are squalid, emaciated, and poverty-stricken. There cannot be
a more obvious inconsistency in the government of any public body, than is presented
by the wretchedness that marks the appearance of a large number of this Buddhist
fraternity, and the luxury in which the sacred hogs indulge in the consecrated styes
beneath the very roof of the temple. These favoured animals are fed and tended
with the utmost care, and, when they have literally eaten themselves to death, are
laid, with much solemnity, in a mausoleum appropriated to their remains.

In Buddhist worship, the priests, who have a direct interest in its maintenance,
perform all the functions of their calling with the most becoming solemnity, and
the ceremony itself is exceedingly imposing; but the people do not apjiear to feel
the influence of example, and look on with indifference, while the most venerable
amongst the priesthood knocks his aged brow rejjeatedly against a sacred flagstone in
front of the altar. Indeed there cannot possibly be any wide-spread faith in
the creed of Buddhism, even in the empire of Cathay; for, in addition to their total
indifference to its ceremonies, Buddhists occasionally appropriate the very temples of
worship to profane purposes. On Lord Amherst"s return from the court ot Peking,
he visited Canton, and the authorities of that great city, although his lordship had
been unsuccessful in his mission, did not hesitate to provide accommodations for the
embassy in the great temple of Ilonan. The triune were removed from their pedestals,
and transported to a lodging on the other side of the river; while the chief cell.

13 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

or choir, or aisle of the temple, was converted into a banqueting hall for the
foreigners. This fact did not escape the vigilance of the savans in that distinguished
cortege, who have judiciously remarked, " that the conversion of a people so slenderly
attached to the predominant religion, would not be attended with difficulty, if truth
were on the tongues of those who undertook it."

THE PROOF-SWORD ROCK, IIOO-KEV-SllAN.

And. as the brand he poised and sway'd,
'* I never knew but one," he said,
" Whose stalwart arm might brook to wield
A sword like this in battle-field."

In the mythological or romantic ages of every country, personal strength commanded
a respect which is now confined to the few remaining nations that have evaded
civihzation. The victory is no longer to the strong ; intellect, civilization, science
have obtained a signal triumph over mere brute or animal force ; and the prowess
of Ajax, or of Cceur de Leon, the unfading theme of the troubador, will soon be
neglected by the writer of history. However, conspicuous excellence in some one
respect, whether it arise from a pure unmixed boon of nature, or from the meritorious
labours of the individual, cannot fail in attracting the attention of a chronicler worthy
of the subject.

Physical ability seems to have been employed as a test of royal origin, of fitness to rule,
of military elevation, from the earliest period ; but, the criterion in individual cases was
diflFerent. When Ulysses returned to his sea-girt isle, his halls were filled with suitors
for the hand of his faithful queen. Remonstrance would naturally have been vain ;
his altered appearance, and the protracted period of his wanderings, forming so strong
a presumption against personal identity ; but when, seizing the bow, which none else
could bend, and vv^ith —

— one hand aloft display'd

The bending horns, and one the string essay'd,

he shot the arrow through the mystic rings, his claims to royal ancestry were no
longer disputed, even by those who offered violence to his resumption of the throne.

The respect in which muscular strength was held by our Norman lords, may be
estimated from their long adherence to the practice of single combat, an ordeal still
known as " the wager of battle." A remarkable instance of this kind occurred in the
reign of our King John. Some doubt existing as to the English title to a town in
Normandy, Philip of France proposed that it should be decided by wager of battle, and

\^

^

THE PROOr-SWORD KOCK, IIOO-KEW-SII A \. 13

his cliallenge was readily accepted. In all England there was none so famous for
courage, and swordmansliip, and gigantic strength, as John de Courcey ; hut through
the artifices of his rival, de Lacey, he had heen falsely accused and imprisoned in the
Tower of London. Called from his dungeon hy a mean and merciless monarch, he
answered, " My country, but not my king, shall have my services."

The field and the lists were now appointed, galleries were erected, and the princes
and nobility of both kingdoms seated as spectators, when the French champion sallied
forth, took one turn, and then rested himself in his tent. De Courcey next appeared, and
went through a similar ceremony. And now the trumpets sounded the grand charge, and
the champions issuing from their rests, advanced gallantly to the combat ; but, according
to the custom of the joust, they first reined in and viewed each other searchingly. The
stern aspect of De Courcey, his giant form, his steady seat, his perfect command of
horse and weapon, struck terror to the Frenchman's heart, who calmly essayed as if
to take another turn, and display his prowess; but, when the next trumpet sounded, and
De Courcey drew his trusty sword, the French champion broke the barrier, and fled the
field. The trumpets proclaimed the victory of the English king ; but Philip pro-
tested against such claim, unless De Courcey gave some indisputable evidence of his
surpassing strength. Accordingly, a stake being set up, and a shirt of mail and helmet
of steel placed thereon, the champion was directed to prove his sword upon this new adver-
sary. Casting a stern glance at both monarchs as they stood beside each other, he raised
his sinewy arm, and, with a single blow, cleft the helm, shirt, and stake, so far down
that none but himself was able to pull out the weapon. King .John, astonished at this
extraordinary proof of De Courcey's chivalrous qualifications, restored him to his title
and rank and possessions ; adding, that he was prepared also to grant him whatever
favour he might prefer. " Your generosity," replied the victor, " has placed me beyond
any desire of further riches : I shall only ask, therefore, that it may be permitted to
myself and my successors to remain covered in the presence of royalty." His request
was granted, and, to this day, his descendants, the Earls of Kinsale, enjoy exclusively
the privilege of wearing their hats in the presence of the sovereigns of Great Britain.

Another Irish giant and chieftain, but of more genuine Hibernian origin than De
Courcey, exhibited his military qualifications by a proof still more unequivocal — this was
Fingal, or Fin-mac-cumhal, general of the Irish militia. When this puissant soldier was
setting out upon an expedition against the enemies of his country, a mysterious-looking
person joined the cavalcade, and entered into familiar converse with the chief. They
very naturally discoursed of the profession of arms, and the man of mystery, in the
vehemence of argument, exclaimed, " Unless your sword can cleave that mountain, it
shall not subdue the multitude of your enemies." Fingal immediately smote the rugged
cliff, and cleft it to the very base.*

A tradition, preserved in the San-tsae-to-hwey, gives the following version of the
Proof-rock legend of Hoo-kew-shan.f "Heuen-tlh, prince of Shuh, one of the three

• Vide Wright's Guide to Wicklow — Glendiilougli.

t How-kevv-sbaii, a travelling palace of the emperor, is in the province of Keang-nan. Vide vol. i. p. 14, et seq.
III. D

14 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

rival kingdoms, was invited by Sun-kwan, the designing monarch of Eastern-woo, to visit
his territories, and espouse his sister; but the real object of this flattering invitation
was to obtain possession of the prince's person. Heuen-tih, an honourable and unsus-
pecting man, adopting the advice of Kung-ming, called also in history, Choo-ho-leang,
a sort of Chinese Machiavelli, cheerfully passed the frontiers, and proceeded to the palace
of the treacherous Sun-kwan ; where his manly appearance was highly pleasing to the
queen-dowager, although at first indignant that she had not been consulted in the
choice of a husband for her royal daughter. A grand banquet was prepared in honour
of the princely guest; but the wicked host caused the pavilion in which it was spread
to be closely surrounded by a body of armed men, intending to seize the prince, and
throw him into a dungeon. This iniquitous attempt, however, was completely frustrated
by the personal bravery of a single man, the gallant aide-de-camp of Heuen-tih, who,
perceiving that treachery was intended, suddenly entered the royal saloon with his sword
drawn, and, placing himself before his master, declared that they should not be made
prisoners alive. This resolute conduct arrested the project, and the queen-dowager
being made acquainted with the circumstance, did not hesitate to upbraid her son with
having dishonoured his royal race, violated the rights of hospitality, and blighted the fair
prospects of a sister's happiness.

He who had been guilty of such baseness felt little reluctance in employing false-
hood in his defence ; and, having given a specious explanation, protested that himself
and his minister, Cha-yn, were ready to complete their promise in the most entire
manner, by conferring the hand of the princess Sun-foo-jin upon their valued guest
This, however, was but the first movement of a second plot for the prince's destruction,
for they now calculated upon his becoming so much intoxicated by the pleasures of
a luxurious court, that opportunity would not long be wanted for effecting their base
objects.

It was immediately after his escape from the dagger of the assassin, that Heuen-tih,
having laid aside his robes of ceremonj', was walking in front of the palace, when he
observed a large rock lying beside the broad pathway. His extraordinary fortunes
occupied his thoughts at the moment, and, drawing his sword, and looking up
to heaven, he said, ' If I, Lew-pei, am destined to revisit my capital, King-choo, and
acquire entire possession of the empire, may I cleave this rock in two with a single
blow !' While he yet spoke, he smote the rock, from which a perfect blaze of light
flashed forth, and cut it in two. Sun-kwan, who stood behind him unperceived, and
closely watched his movements, now advanced, and inquired what cause of anger he
could possibly entertain towards the stone. ' My years,' replied he, ' are now three or
four lustre, yet I am unable to defend my country from the invader : this reflection has
filled my heart with pain and sorrow. The honourable alliance which I have just formed
with your illustrious family has again, however, awakened my ambition, and I resolved on
asking heaven to give me, as a sign or prognostic that I should one day defeat my enemy
Tsaou, power to split this rock at a single blow of my trusty sword ; and heaven has
granted my request.'

\

ESTUARY OF THE TA-IIEA, OR KING-rO ItlVEU. 15

The false-hearted Sun-kwan, beUeving the story to be a mere invention, resolved
to test its authenticity: declaring, that he too had asked heaven for a similar sign,
as to whether he should partake of the gloryof subduing the grand usurper, and of retaking
King-choo ; and that he also would prove his sword upon the rock of fate. He spoke,
and, letting fall his shining blade, the rock was completely rent from top to bottom.
Ten characters, graven in the stone, commemorate the extraordinary event, and an
elaborate native poem celebrates the praises of the princes, whose fate was so myste-
riously connected with the Proof-sword rock.

ESTUARY OF THE TA-HEA, OR NING-PO RIYER.

Bare the rugged heights ascending

Bring to mind the past,
When the weary voyage ending

Was the anchor cast-

L. E. L.

The scenery at the entrance of this noble tidal river is truly magnificent, from the
loftiness and forms of the hills, and from the broad expanse of its waters, which are almost
constantly in a state of agitation. These naturally picturesque features are still further
improved by the construction of irregular works of defence upon the most conspicuous
eminences. At a little distance, the embattled tower, bristling with artillery, resembles
the strong hold of some powerful chieftain, who is always in an attitude of defence against
assaults, of which his own aggressions have been the occasion. The currents that are
caused by the obstruction of the Chusan Islands, by the efflux of the Ta-hea's waters,
and the influx of a tide setting always strongly, produce and maintain a surface of con-
siderable agitation, and whose navigation by boats is uniformly attended with danger.
But these interruptions tend in no moderate degree to heighten the picturesque cha-
racter and solemn effect of the splendid panorama which the whole estuary presents.

It is now upwards of a century, since the British merchant first became acquainted
with the advantageous commercial position of Nin-po-foo, and felt the regret to which
disappointed industry becomes necessarily a prey, arising from the inactivity of his _
own government, and stupidity of the Chinese. In the year 1701, we had a factory
at Ting-hae, and were allowed to look along the highway of commerce that led to
Ning-po; but entrance into, or dii'ect trade with that noble cit)', was forbidden, under
pain of the bowstring, or the axe, or the squeezing apparatus. Many opportunities,
however, were then afforded of forming acquaintances, and even friendships, with
the most eminent of the Xing-po mandarins; for many, and those the wealthiest, sated
with business, sought rest and retirement from the cares of the world, on the beautiful

16 CHINA ILLXJSTKATED.

little island of Kin-tan, which rises somewhat precipitously in the embouchure of the
Ta-hea ; and immediately in front of which a British man-of-war is represented, in the
accompanying view, towed by a steam frigate through the rapids. There British
subjects were permitted to land, and the indulgence led to that intercourse, which was
ever afterwards remembered with pleasurable feelings.

One of the headlands that look down upon the entrance of the Ta-hea, is covered
with tea-shrubs to its summit, and the mulberry tree constitutes the chief ornament of
the scene on every side. These indigenous products have conferred the greater portion
of their wealth upon the inhabitants of this district, which is the very centre of their
profitable cultivation. Here, therefore, foreigners were first induced to seek for
the privilege of trading with the natives — silk and tea, China's boasted products, being
obtainable in a better condition, and at half the cost they bring at Canton. But folly,
bigotry, and cowardice repudiated the enterprise of Europeans, and an imperial edict
not only denied admission to Ning-po, but expelled our trade from Chusan Islands,
and limited it strictly to Canton. Against this iUiberality an appeal was made in
1736, by a party who chartered the " Normanton," and attempted to conciliate the
authorities of Ning-po ; but their resolution and perseverance only exasperated the
mandarins, who now destroyed the factories of Chusan, and prohibited their countrymen
from supplying foreign ships with provisions.

Even this rejection and discouragement failed to extinguish British commercial
enterprise, for, Mr. Flint ventured to renew negociations at Ning-po, although warned
of the perilous consequences of such an attempt by the Cantonese authorities. His
efforts proving abortive, he proceeded to Peking, where he was deceived by the hypocri-
tical mandarins, with assurances of the most friendly character ; and, on his return to
Canton, contrary to every obligation of truth, honour, or national dignity, he was seized,
transferred to Macao, where he was thrown into prison, and, after two years' incarcera-
tion, sent back to England.

Lord Macartney visited this Chinese archipelago, and met with a continuance of
that courtesy, which his prudence and address elsewhere obtained for him amongst these
very prejudiced people ; but, their apprehension of his discovering how accessible Nan-
kino- was to a British fleet, induced them to misrepresent the true character of the
Ta-hea estuary. That embassy, therefore, added nothing to our knowledge of this valuable
inlet, decidedly the most advantageously situated for commerce with foreigners, amongst
all the populous places of the empire.

An expedition undertaken in the ship Amherst, augmented our hydrographic
information of the Chinese coast, and searched the recesses of the Ning-po harbour ;*
but the achievements of the late war, in which China succumbed so humbly to British
power, have opened the harbour and the river, and the trade of this beautifully-seated
city, not to Britain only, but to the civilized world.

• Vide " City of Ning-po, from the river," vol. ii.. p. 67, et seq.

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THE TAI-WANCi-KOW. 17

THE TAI-WANG-KOW, OR YELLOW PAGODA PORT.

CANTON RIVER.

Haste, bring them forth ! and r;\7.e

From turret to fouii(Uitioiistone, the keep
Whence rose no song of praise

From weary captives wont to doubt and weep.

The CiiiiisTiAN Caitive.

In many places tlie banks of the Canton or Pearl river are eminently picturcs^tjup, and
the separation of its waters into numerous channels, while it perplexes the foreign
navigator, is a source of endless gratification and real advantage to those acquainted
with the different branches, and who dwell along their refreshing borders. Mile after
mile of the river littorale below Canton is clotlied with tlie densest and most brilliant
foliage, save where population equally compact has hewn out a site for a settlement.
There villages peep forth from the thick dark shelter of an ancient grove, which at
one time is in immediate contact witli the grotesque dwellings, at another removed only
by the area of an orchard, a garden, or a pleasure-ground. Tiie noblest forest-trees that
grow in China are intermixed with fruit-trees of rarity and richness ; amongst these are
the peach, almond, plum, and many whose blossoms impart to the landscape a colouring
that even Chinese dexterity often fails to imitate effectually. Orange, citron, and other
varieties of Oriental fruits, luxuriate along the gently waving banks of these sunny
waters, with a bloom and a beauty that art and cultivation in vain endeavour to attain.

An islet that seems to float in the chainiel, called by Europeans the Macao Passage,
serves as the foundation for the fortified pagoda of the Tai-wang-kow. A tower of
four stories is enclosed by a strongly built curtain of granite stone, pierced with loop-
holes, and finished with battlements. The primitive object of the Pagoda is not easily
explicable on rational principles; but, in connection with the Chinese system of military
discipline, and their art of war, admits of explanation. From the elevation of its turreted
stories, watchmen can discover the approaching enemy, and give the word of command to
the gunners within the ramparts. This plan, however, is subject to one inconvenience,
namely, discovery of the fort itself by the foe, and, therefore, exposure of the Pagoda
itself to the fire of an enemy's ship, which might throw down the whole building upon
the gunners at its foot. In this case, the gingalls, matchlocks, and men of all arms,
would in all probability be buried in the ruins. The area of the island, about an
English acre, is dedicated to military works, with the exception of the space occupied
by some lofty trees of the banyan species, whose shelter proves particularly grateful to
the soldier sinking under the weight of his armour, and wiio would otherwise often be
exhausted by the scorching rays of a tropical sun. The practice of embowering a fortress

HI. i.

18 CHINA ILLUSTRxVTED.

is not confined to Tai-wang-kow, it prevails universally in Chinese defensive posts, engi-
neers being of opinion, that the shade of a banyan tree will protect the soldier not only
from the burning rays of the sun, but also from the red artillery of an enemy. And
it was this principle of self-sufficiency or self-deception, so prevalent in this vast empire,
that induced the erection of a pagoda in the middle of a battery, which, to be useful,
should be concealed, — the author of the design imagining that its haughty height
would warn the enemy against too near an approach.

Upon the first appearance of a rupture with China, this picturesque defence was
occupied by a detachment of the royal marines, who kept entire possession of it until
the resumption of hostilities on the •2.3d of June, 1841. Although within reach of assist-
ance from Canton, from which it is only two miles distant, no resistance was offered to
our occupation ; yet our officers assert, that had they been attacked in turn, they could
have repulsed the best efforts of the enemy to dislodge them. As a toll-house or watch-
tower, the Tai-wang is valuable, and in other hands, by its means, the approach of an
enemy to Canton might be successfully impeded. When our troops surprised it, a com-
munication was formed with both banks of the river by rafts that completely obstructed
the passages. Each flotilla, or rather section of the pontoon, consisted of ten layers
of timber, ten feet square, strongly bound together with iron bolts, and anchored
securely at each corner. There was little ingenuity in the design, and when our troops
entered the fort, and occupied it, the control of the clumsy impediment passed into
their hands, to the prejudice of its authors.

But the destination of the Tai-wang will henceforth be changed : the clang of arms
will no more be heard within its towers, nor the flash of artillery be witnessed from its
ramparts ; taught the blessings of peace by the horrors of war, these civilized idolaters
now leave the highway of commerce, which the Almighty formed for the happiness of
his creatures, open to the merchants and mariners of all nations.

LADIES OF A MANDARIN'S FAMILY AT CARDS.

Cards were superfluous here, with all the tricks
That idleness has ever yet eomrived.
To fill the void of an unfurnished hrain.
To palliate dulness, and give time a shove.

COWPEK.

The position which females occupy in society may be very fairly taken as a test of
civilization, in each respective nation : wherever the moral and intellectual powers of
the gentler sex are held in estimation, that country will be found to enjoy such laws as
promote the happiness of the people ; wherever personal charms constitute the only

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19

ground of love or admiration, as in man)' Asiatic governments, there tyranny and slavery
prevail extensively. Neitiicr do tlie lavish gifts of nature secure a liappv home to their
possessor, or subdue tlio fierce spirit of her absolute lord; on the contrary, surpassing
beauty, in unchristian climes, rivets the chains of slavery more firmly, elevates the harem-
walls to a more hopeless height, excludes the society of friends or companions, and shuts
in the luckless victim from the world for ever. And while submission to the caprice of
a tyrant is tiie captive's wisest policy, her sole remaining lot, even this great sacrifice
does not mitigate tlie ferocity of his nature, or the rudeness of his habits, for often are
these helpless habitants of the Oriental harem immolated, to allay a groundless jealousy,
or make room for a more favoured rival : and oftener still are the most dreadful assassi-
nations perpetrated by tyrants, whose uncontrollable passions are inflamed by the bare
suspicion of infidelity. Hence it follows, that where the softer sex are retained in a
state of bondage, and denied participation in social duties and social intercourse, there
the habits of the people are necessarily rude — there civilization is inevitably checked in
its humanizing progress.

It has been remarked, that in England, science, arts, and civilization have advanced
more rapidly since the reign of Elizabeth, than in the period between her government
and the Conquest — a result attributed to the altered estimation of female character that
has ever since prevailed. Previous to that glorious epoch in our country's annals,
a custom existed in Wales of selling wives, or rather brides, to husbands ; in Scotland,
women were prohibited by its uncouth laws from appearing as evidences in a court
of justice; and, in our eighth Henry's reign, women and apprentices were prevented
from reading the New Testament in English. Since these rude restrictions have been
removed, and female intellect emancipated, see to what a rank amongst the nations of
the earth Great Britain has attained ! It was while a woman filled the throne that the
invincible armada was scattered and destroyed — while a woman reigned, that English
literature acquired that character conveyed in the epithet of Augustan — and, it was during
a woman's reign, that China, the oldest of nations, was vanquished by the arms of
Britain. It should not be forgotten, that a civilized, a christian, and a chaste commu-
nity, is more likely to be governed ably and honestly under the softer than the sterner
sex, for, in one case, the most distinguished statesmen, in the other, the most intriguing
females of the aristocracy, influence the patronage of the court.

A species of middle state, between rudeness and civilization, is the portion of a
Chinese lady of quality. Inhumanly deprived of tlie use of her linibs, whenever she
desires to go abroad she is subject to a species of concealment in a close sedan, similar
to the arrhuba of Mohammedan odaliques ; and so strictly is this incognito observed, that
less wealthy persons keep covered wheelbarrows for their captive wives — not to jirevent
the winds of heaven from visiting them too roughly, but to deprive them of the liomage
of earthly eyes. Notwithstanding all this jealous care, it is remarkable that females in
the humbler ranks are treated with little respect: one class are the flowers of the garden,
the other of the forest ; one are fed, and lodged, and cherished, with all the care and
cost and jealousy that belong to the conservatory — the other left to waste tlieir sweetness

20 CHI>fA ILLUSTRATED.

on the desert air, or else spurned soon after by the rude hand that plucked them. Often
do we see the poor man's wife labouring in the fields of rice, the farm of cotton, the
nurseries of silk, her infant being safely tied upon her back, while her husband is
engaged in the excitements of smoking or of gambling.

There is but one supreme mistress of a mandarin's palace, and to her authority all
others of her sex, within the limits of the pavilion, must acknowledge entire submission.
To the disgrace of this ancient empire, however, polygamy does exist here, although in
a form more mitigated than in the Turkish dominions. Amongst the graceful cabinets
counted along with the ladies' apartments, there is usually one arranged as a chapel of
worship, or a hall of ancestors. In general, a figure of Tien-sing, the Queen of Heaven,
is placed in a niche at the end, various decorations being introduced all around ; and
a splendid curtain of embroidered silk falling in front, secures retirement and perfect
seclusion for the votaries who may be disposed to enter and to worship. Having no
sabbath, either for the purposes of religion or of rest, the Chinese feel a secret conso-
lation in these domestic chapels, where they pour forth the real sentiments of their souls,
before that God whose existence their innate ideas prove, but of whose nature and pro-
perties they still are ignorant. With the inconsistency that seems to characterize all
Chinese customs, and distinguish them from those of other nations, it is in front of this
very capella, and in the very presence of their little golden protectress, that the ladies of
every family uniformly seat themselves, to indulge in the amusement of card-playing.
Denied so many other species of social enjoyment, none but the most rigid and fas-
tidious could object to tbeir indulgence in this ancient game — but who can be uncon-
scious of the glaring contradiction which the choice of a playing-room discloses ?

The variety of games known in China is endless ; and many of them require consider-
able dexterity. In shape, the cards are longer and narrower than those in use amongst
Europeans, and a pack includes a much larger number. When cards have lost their power
of pleasing, the time is beguiled by the introduction of tobacco. Females, from the tender
age of eight years, are initiated in this disgusting habit; and a little silken reticule is gene-
rally attached to every lady"s dress, to hold a pipe and a supply of tobacco. But these, and
even less graceful employments, are pardonable, when the monotonous nature of their life
of seclusion is remembered. Although less suspected, less enslaved, less degraded than
Turkish females, yet the formality to which Chinese ladies are doomed is eminently tedious.
Children, chief solace of a mother's retired and useful life, are in China placed under
laws that outrage the best feelings of human nature. Female infants may be destroyed
at the pleasure of the father — over children of the other sex, the law gives the parent
absolute power ; hence, at the age of ten years, the boy is removed finally from the
mother's surveillance, nor is he permitted after to visit the pavilion in which he was
born — the scene in which his helplessness first found that care which a mother only
knows how to bestow. Cut off, by a hateful code of regulations, from the opportunity
of fulfilling her legitimate trust, the Chinese wife and mother is necessitated to have
recourse to those means of filling up the great void in life which these privations have
created. Painting, embroidery, the care of an aviary, the recreations of the garden and

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TEIIMINATION Or THE CHEAT WAEE Ol' CHINA. 21

the pleasure grounds, occasional appeals to the little image that presides over the
domestic altar, fond attentions to her children while they are permitted to remain with
her, the game of chess when the number of fair captives is limited to two, but, when
increased beyond that amount, the more i)opular amusement of cards, are called to ttie
relief of those pangs which disappointments produce — those sorrows by wliich separation
from the world is so often accompanied.

TERMINATION OF THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA,

AND THE GULF OF PE-CHE-LI, DURING A TYPHOON.

Do but stand upon the foaming shore,

The chiding billows seem to pelt the clouds;

The wind-shak'd surge, with high, and monstrous main.

Seems to cast water on the burning bear.

And quench the guards of the ever-fixed pole :

I never did such molestation view

On the enchafed tiood.

SllAKSPEARE.

In a previous description of the Great Wall of China,* the particular view here
given is alluded to and described. There the only genuine drawings of this extra-
ordinary work of art, that have ever been brought to Europe, are distinctly spoken of,
and, from that description, the peculiarities of the present, tiie most interesting because
the least known and most authentic, may be gathered. Our readers are aware, fi'om
a comparison of the ponderous volumes themselves, which detail the circumstances of the
embassy, with the published notes of Lord Jocelyn, that Lord Macartney was misled
as to the exact terminus of the Wen-li-tchang-tching; and, the accompanying illustra-
tion, taken by a draughtsman attached to one of the exploring expeditions, that
visited the embouchure of the Pei-ho, previous to the conquest of China, not only
places the fact beyond doubt, but gives the real position of the sea-extremity of the
wall. From the deck of the war-steamer that navigated this savage sea, the Traitor's
Gate was distinctly seen, midway between the mountains and the shore ; and this
gratifying discovery is auxiliary to the settlement of a disputed point in Tartar
history.

The rude fierce aspect of the mountains, with their broken breasts and shattered
pinnacles, is in accurate keeping with the stern character of the stormy sea that seems
eternally struggling to approach their feet. Navigation here, by well-found barks,
would not be attended with more than the common dangers of the sea; but with such
clumsy, ill-constructed vessels as the trading junk, the lottery of a sailor's life is filled

• Vol. i., pp. "29, et scij.
III. F

22 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

with blanks. Exposed by their great height above the water, their sides invite the
hurricane to invade them ; and, aided by the incompetence of the mariners, the
elements obtain an easy victory. When a vessel leaves a port in the Gulf of Pe-che-li,
it is usually concluded that her loss or her return is about equally probable ; so that if
fortune favour her, a general rejoicing takes place amongst the owners of the cargo
and the relatives of the crew, for an event so prosperous. It has been concluded, upon
the most authentic information, that ten thousand mariners from the port of the Pei-ho
perish annually in this boisterous gulf.

Nor is this misfortune viewed with indifference by the natives ; they use increased
energies in giving strength to their sails of bamboo cloth ; they erect still stronger
bamboo masts ; they arch over their decks and their holds with more impenetrable
bamboo matting ; and they pay the utmost reverence to the sanctity of the magnetic
needle. Believing that a divine influence dwells within the compass, they erect
a small altar behind it, on the deck, and there a spiral taper, composed of wax, tallow,
and sandal-wood, is kept continually burning. The holy flame is doubly useful ; it
ministers to the pious intentions of the crew, and, by the successive disappearance of
its twelve equal divisions, marks just so many hours of fleeting time. But it is in vain
that the childish industry of this ancient people, and still more vain that their idle
superstitions, are employed to contend with or conquer the merciless whirlwinds that
agitate the waters of this northern gulf. " Were it possible to blow ten thousand
trumpets, and beat as many drums, on the forecastle of an Indiaman, in the height of
a ta-fung, neither the sound of the one nor the other would be heard by a person on
the quarter-deck of the same vessel "

Of all the winds that seem to conspire against human labour, and would almost
despoil nature herself of her fairest products, the typhoon is the most terrific in
northern latitudes. The Egyptians recognized a wind which they called typlion ; the
Greeks called a particular species of hurricane, rw^w)-, either from the giant of their
mythology, or from a participle of a verb which signifies " to swell with pride, or power, or
greatness ;" and the Chinese term, ttt-fung, is not unanalogous, for it means great luhid.
The prognostics of a typhoon are, the swelling of the waters, and their rolling, with
a majestic volume, in upon the shore. For several hours previous to its incidence, the
mercury falls slowly in the barometer, and continues to descend during its prevalence,
but, when the rage of the elements begins to abate, it ascends steadily, and more
rapidly than it fell. Instinct being often more provident than reason, the sea-birds are
observed to become unquiet, rising to the skies, and then wheeling and circling and
screaming with more than wonted wildness ; perhaps they perceive the influence of the
dusky cloud that generally appears in the horizon, as if driven forward by the advancing
tempest. The magnitude of the mischief done to shipping may be estimated by
a comparison with the destruction committed on land, and a recollection of the velocity
at which the angry elements travel under such circumstances. In northern latitudes,
or temperate climes, the storm moves at the rate of sixty feet in a second of time ; in
the torrid zones it proceeds often with five times that velocity. Corn, rice, vines, canes,

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Tin; suiii-MiN. 23

are scattered as chaff; houses are unroofed, forests torn up, whole towns inundated,
ships carried in upon the quays and streets, and there deserted hy the waters. Having
raged for about tliirty hours, the typhoon subsides, accompanied in its dying moments
by repeated peals of the loudest thunder, and innumerable flashes of vivid lightning.

These dreadfid visitations occur more frequently during the changes, than at the
fidl of the moon ; and prevail seldom lower than 10° of north latitude. They are felt as
far east as 130° of longitude, and are most violent during the south-west monsoon, espe-
cially in the month of July. Though dreadful at all times, and blowing from all points
of the compass, the terrors of the typhoon are heightened, and its destructive powers con-
siderably augmented, when it happens to blow in the same direction with the monsoon.

THE SHIH-MUN, OR ROCK GATES.

I'KOVINCE OF KIANG-NAN.

For ever glideth on that lovely river :

Laden v/ith early wreaths the creepers twine,
While like the arrows from a royal quiver,

Golden the glaring sunbeams o'er them shine.

L. E. L.

It is remarkable that jieople in a primitive state (and notwithstanding their superiority in
handicraft, the Chinese do not rise much higher in the scale of nations) possess the truest
and most admirable ideas of the picturesque. Presumption seems to be the charac-
teristic of modern taste; agreeable and comfortable associations, of that which prevailed
in the olden time. Our abbeys and convents are placed beside the running stream,
or on the banks of a navigable river, sheltered from the rude blasts of winter by sur-
rounding forests or impending hills. In all ancient countries, and where the highest
degrees of civilization are unknown, domestic architecture is not only suited to the
natural features of the landscape, but embosomed recesses, deep and densely-wooded
dingles, valleys fertile and well watered, the romantic banks of some rapid but available
river, a spot where business and beauty are combined, was uniformly selected as the
abode, either of the individual or the community. This grateful and fascinating taste
has withered into conteni]>t before the growth of civilization, wlu)se great glory is to
level mountains, drain lakes, reclaim the barren wastes, and triumph over nature by
erecting on those very sites which she had made the most repulsive, the very noblest
works of art.

An instinctive love of the picturescpie, a prerogative of the moiuitainecr in all ])arts
of the world, is peculiarly the Chinaman's inheritance; and, in the province of Kiang-nan,
enriched and adorned by a majestic river, they have indulged their taste for landscape

2i CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

scenery in a manner and degree calculated to raise our estimation of their intellectual
qualities. For some miles above and below the Shih-Mun, the river is enclosed between
banks abrupt, rocky, but interspersed with patches and plateaus of productive land. The
country behind is of a totally contrary character ; there a wide-spread morass exists,
difficult of drainage from the rocky ridges that form the river's bed, through which a
passage for the surplus waters of the fens can scarce be found. Abandoning this moor to
the wild tenants of the earth and skies, the population have flocked to the water's edge,
and possessed themselves of the projecting ledges at the mountain's foot, the retiring
bays at their sheltered base, or the vicinity of some dark pool, whose scaly treasures repay
the fisherman for his constant toil. As the junks descend the river the velocitj- of the
current increases, until its maximum is attained between the herculean pillars of the
Rock-gates. There the navigation requires much caution, and often the most vigilant,
confounded by the suddenness with which the two high pinnacles seem to close over
him, and embrace the azure vault of heaven, mistake their distance, and are carried
against the rocks. In the surrounding district, limestone prevails very generally, but
on the river's side it appears to recline on a species of breccia : it would not be untrue
to characterize the stone in the immediate vicinity of the Shih-Mun as marble, although
the natives do not place any value on it for decorative purposes, neither do they burn it
into lime.

On either side, and just below the rude rocky pillars that contract the passage, small
coves, of great depth and perfect shelter, afford safe wharfage for merchant-vessels ;
and there the trading junk is generally seen moored to the natural quay, the steadfast
cliif ; the contracted channel giving a violent and powerful efficacy to the volume of
waters, which have consequently worked an immense depth here for their transit. In
tliis deep basin, multitudes of fish collect, and render their capture, by trained fishing-
birds, an achievement botli easy and profitable. The privilege of fishing between the
Ilock-gates is rented at a very high price from the local government.

These lofty peaks, that pierce the clouds, derive the epithet " Shih-Mun" from the
termination of a magnificent scene, so inclined to the direct view of the Rock-gates as to
be incapable of introduction in the illustration. Its beauties, its solemnities, its horrors,
have been described in bold and highly coloured language by native poets and tourists;
nor has national prejudice, in this instance, outstepped the limits of veracity. Entering
a deep, dark, close ravine, the opposite sides of which attain at least a thousand feet in
height, with an intervening space of comparative insignificance, the traveller proceeds
along his gloomy way, unable to distinguish, save by the occasional sparkling and
floating foam, the torrent that tumbles and roars in the abyss below him. Having
reached the length of a li, or more, he enters " the valley of mist," where he becomes
enveloped in a thick vapour, filling the entire gulf which the torrent has hollowed out
from the mountain's bosom by the labour of four thousand years ; and, if he be not
deterred by the humidity of the strange atmosphere, but persevere to the end, in a
grand amphitheatre of rocks he will behold the origin of the dewy drapery that hangs
over and around him— a splendid cataract, some hundred feet in height, falling over the

I

DYEING AND WINDINCi SII.K.

very edge of the clliT; the spot lie stmuls on, and tlie circular hollow all aroinui him,
being dimly lighted by the rays that pierce through the green waters, at the spot where
they turn over the ledge of the summit. With this beautiful hue of green, the poetical
historians of the wonders of the Shih-Mun are familiarly acquainted. They boast of
having witnessed its lustre in the valley of mist, and compare its verdure to the T-an,
the plant from which the rich colour employed in dyeing is extracted. They sjieak of
the blue mountains, the green cataract, and the hillock of Heen-Yucn, an ancient
king of Kiang-Nan, and they celebrate the amusements and exploits of his rural life.
But his majesty must have been formed of unearthly mould, or else " the greatest
among.^t mountain streams" had not descended so far into the bowels of the earti., nor
yet filled " the ravine of the black stork," with mists impenetrable and for many miles,
in the age when that old Lear of Chinese history is said to have held his court only
four li from the Shih-Mun.

DYEING AND WINDING SILK.

Hour after hour the growing line extends,
Nor time nor cireumstanee eontrols its ends ;
Soft cords of silk tlie whirling spoles reveal.
If smiling fortune turn the giddy wheel.

Having destroyed the chrysalides, and wound off the produce in its primitive state,*
from the cocoons destined for filature, the mere husbandry of silk gathering is concluded.
And so short is the period, in France only six weeks, consumed in this species of cul-
ture, that no harvest yields a return of greater celerity and certainty. In a country
where trade is conducted, not by companies, or associations, or partnerships, but by
individual exertion, the culture and produce of silk are peculiarly suitable, as affording
a means of employing small capital with every prospect of early revenue. Females
devote much of their time and their talents to this occupation ; they are either engaged
in feeding and rearing the worms, winding off the cocoons, or in general tendenco of the
magnaniere. Sometimes the patriarch of the family purchases cocoons, by which the
risk of rearing is avo ded, and fills up his daughter's leisure time with the process of
filature. There are, of course, some nurseries or factories, where silk is prepared
expressly for exportation, but in general the manufacture is for home-consumption. The
Chinese dislike foreigners, from practice and national institutes, therefore less attention
is paid to objects of external commerce here than in other countries ; besides, all kinds
of trade are held in very low estimation in China, as they were of old in Athens and in
Rome.

* Vol. i., p. 56. Vol. ii. p. 8, et seq.
III. G

26 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

Time, intercourse, letters, religion, are gradually working such a revolution in the
social condition of this old empire, that the imperia'ists are beginning to understand
the meaning of the term brother, and henceforth the productions which Providence has
confined to the soil of China, will probably be exchanged, systematically and gene-
rously, for those of other lands, by which the distribution of happiness over the face of
the globe must necessarily become less partial than before.

Around a pool, of a foot or two in depth, sheds or open corridors are arranged,
appropriated to different parts of the process of cleaning and preparing the floretta for
market. Beneath one series are the females employed in the less laborious duty of
reehng the raw silk that has been brought from the magnaniere, or purchased for
filature from the feeders. From the reelers' verandas, the material is consigned to
those of the washers, and dyers, and bleachers, successively.

Little celebrated for integrity, the total forgetfulness of that high quality by the
Chinese is flagrantly conspicuous in their preparation of silk for the loom. Imperfec-
tions in the texture of this delicate fabric are sometimes of early date, originating in
the impurity of tlie water used in the cocoon kettle, or in neglect of the winders to the
attenuation of the threads during filature. In addition to these causes of inferiority,
another is induced by the dishonest dye. Having washed out the gum, formed the
threads into hanks, expressed the moisture, and suspended the silk on bamboo bleaching-
poles, the operative's work appears to be correctly performed. But raw silk is an insatiable
absorbent, so that if the dyer be deficient in honesty, he can, by a very slight deviation
from its path, retain moisture in the hanks, capable of increasing the weight of the
article by ten per cent. In other countries, purchasers are permitted to test the raw
material by enclosing a sample in a wire-cloth cage, and exposing it to a stove heated
to 78° of Farenheit, by which the increase of weight, that is, the amount of the
fraud, is detected ; but the Chinaman will not permit a barbarian to doubt his honour
in any respect.

Europeans, or rather English, distinguish raw silks into three classes, which they
denominate organzine, tram, and floss. The first, being very tightly twisted, is used
in the finest and best descriptions of silk-cloths ; tram, which is much less twisted,
serves for the weft, but is of an inferior quality to organzine ; floss, which is not twisted
at all, consists of the short, broken, and rejected parts ; this is collected, car-ded, and
spun like cotton. These three species, formed from the fleuret by twisting or throwing,
are now called hand silk ; they must all be submitted to the process of boiling, in order
to discharge the gum from them, otherwise they would be harsh to the touch, and unfit
to receive the dye. The original native colour of the yarn varies but little in different
countries. In Anglo-India we find silk yellow, freuch-white, and fawn colour; in China
it is generally yellow, and in Sicily and Persia the same colour prevails ; while the only
naturally white produce we yet know of, comes from Palestine. The silk-growers of
Kazem-bazar whiten their yarns with a ley made from the ashes of " the arbor-fici-
Adami : but the S])ecies being rare, the larger portion of their exports retains its native
bright and beautiful yellow.

\

\^

^.

SOWINO RICE, AT SOO-CUOW-TOO.

SOWING RICE, AT SO 0- C 11 0 W - F 0 0.

PROVINCE OF KIANG-SI.

Then, wake, that you may live.

Here, take the best prescription I can give ;

Your bloodless veins, your appetite shall fail.

Unless you raise them by a powerful meal, —

Come, take this rice. Horace.

It is to the productiveness of the oryza saliva, a simple grass, on which nature has
conferred the pecuhar property of growing in marshy or inundated grounds, that the
vast regions of the East owe the density of their population, and their early submission
to social obligations. Immense districts in China and Hindoo would, un<jiiestionably,
have still lain desolate and untenanted, were it not for the ability to alter and to cultivate
the surface of the globe, which a knowledge of the rice-plant convey.*. To what simple
causes, therefore, does deliberate analysis sometimes lead, in our efforts to trace the
most remarkable effects to their proper sources; for, the destiny of nations, from
the earliest periods^ seems to have been materially influenced by the discovery and
cultivation of this " staff of life." Previous to its introduction into Egypt and Greece, it
had been long known in more eastern lands, for Pliny, Dioscorides, and Theophrastus
all speak of its importation from India: but, in their age, it was little cultivated on the
shores of the Mediterranean. Within the last three centuries, however, its popularity has
become universal, restricted only by the limits of climate, for it now occupies the same
place in intertropical countries as wheat in the warmer parts of Europe, and oats and
rye in those that are more northern. In the United States of North America, Carolina
especially, the cultivation of rice forms a principal occupation of the rural population, and
chief export of the maritime ; there, the date of its introduction, 1697, is tenaciously
remembered, the benefits of its naturalization being of such importance to the national
wealth and happiness.

From the facility with which it can be cultivated, yielding two crops annually, and
the watery soil to which it is partial, the presumption is, that rice was specially provided
by the all-wise Creator, as the chief food of most sultry kingdoms. Besides the Chinese
and Hindoos, the Malays and neighbouring islanders have paid the utmost attention to
this species of cultivation; and Japanese, Cingalese, and Batavians experience the
benefits of a crop, which is not only semi-annual, but yields six times as much as an
equal space of wheat lands. A fondness for this wholesome food pervades the German
slates, where, in the southern latitudes, from long culture, it has acquired a remarkable

* It is called in Arabic, uruz ; Hinduostan, cfaawl : Latin, oi yza ; Italian, riso ; French, riz.

28 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

degree of hardiness, and adaptation to the particular temperature — a circumstance adduced
as an argument in favour of cultivating exotics ; but seeds imported directly from
India will not ripen at all in Germany, and even Italian or Spanish seeds are much less
early and hardy than those ripened on the spot. One experiment was made in England
to raise this Indian beverage, and a healthy crop of rice was successfully reaped on the
banks of the smooth-flowing Thames.

In Oriental countries, rice is extolled as superior to all other species of food, and in
China it is an article of the first necessity. So completely is its presence deemed
requisite at all meals, that the term fan, boiled rice, enters into every compound that
implies the ceremony of eating ; tche-fan, to eat rice, signifies a meal generally ; tsao-
fan, morning rice, means breakfast; and by ouan-fini, evening rice, supper is implied.
It is undoubtedly a light and wholesome diet, although it is supposed to include less
of the nutritive principle than wheat.* From the small proportion of gluten which it
contains, it is not capable of being made into proper bread, but is highly valued for
puddings, and many culinary preparations. Its excellent qualities, rapidity of pro-
duction, and consequent cheapness, confer upon it claims to attention as a general article
of sustenance for the poorer classes of society ; and, it is ascertained, that a quarter of
a pound of rice, slowly boiled, will yield upwards of a pound of solid and nutritive food.
Besides its offices in the support of life, there are others which rice discharges,
useful, profitable, and agreeable. Its flower being reduced into a pulp with hot water,
is moulded into figures, and images, and plates, which the Chinese harden, and orna-
ment with scroll-work, resembling mother-of-pearl toys. In our cotton factories, it is
used in making weavers' dressings for warps ; and at Goa, on the Malabar coast, as
well as in the island of Batavia, the ardent spirit called rack, or arrack, is obtained
from a decoction of rice, fermented and distilled, and mixed with the juice of the cocoa-
nut tree. Civilization is not, in this instance, solely chargeable with the guilt of fur-
nishing intoxicating liquors to the Indians, for, before the Portuguese, or the Dutch, or
the British, had any settlements in the far east, the demoralizing beverage of seaou-tchoo,
a distillation from rice, was sold in every little public-house in China.

Inebriety was not the only deplorable consequence supposed to attend exclusive
oryzous diet; in some provinces, the prevalence of ophthalmia was foolishly attributed
to its copious use. That this charge is groundless seems highly probable, from the
fact, that the millions who dwell in the great Hindoo continent, and live solely upon
rice, are not subject to any such disease. Besides, in Egypt, where the ophthalmia was
much more prevalent in ancient times, than it was ever said to have been in China,
this grain was neither known nor cultivated until the reign of the Caliphs, when it was
brought thither from the East. If this disease predominate in China, which is ques-
tioned, it is probably owing to the crowded state of their low dwellings, always filled
with smoke from the sandal-wood tapers that mark the hours of fleeting time, to the
constant and general use of tobacco, to the miasma exhaling from the offal uniformly

• Carolina rice contains— of starch, 85,07 ; of gluten, 3 60 ; of gum, 0.71 ; of uncrystallizable sugar, 0,29 ;
of colourless fat, 0.13 ; of vegetable fibre, 4.8 ; of salts with lime bases, 0.4 ; and of water, 5.0.

SOWING RICE, AT SOO-CIIOW-FOO. 29

collected near each entrance, and, lastly, from tlie very frequent practice of bathing the
face with warm water.

The beiieiits and the blessings of sucli a staff of life as this readily-raised crop, suffer
no slight detraction, from its precarious character ; for, any failure, however slight, is
attended with the most deplorable consequences. Where population is so amazingly
crowded, subdivision of land practised to so inconsiderate an extent, and riches rarely
ever laid by for the day of inability or misfortune, a check to the annual produce must
necessarily prove fatal to numbers of the poorest classes. Too frequently, tlierefore,
famine visits and wastes tlie land, for the rice-crop is subject to many casualties.
A drought, in its early stages, withers the young shoots in the ground ; and, an inunda-
tion, in a more advanced state, proves equally destructive ; add to which, that birds
and locusts continue to wage everlasting war upon fields of rice, in preference to any
other of the cultivated labours of man, and these enemies are particularly numerous in
China. Wheat and millet being raised in the northern provinces, the chances of being
visited by famine are consequently reduced in proportion to the increased variety of
grains, and Europeans have urged upon the attention of tlie Chinese agriculturist, with
all the candour and humanity that belong to this quarter of the globe, the advantage of
introducing the potato, as an auxiliary to rice and wheat, in averting those periodic
visitations of scarcity. To obviate the fatal effects of such calamitous failures in the rice-
crop, the emperor causes a large supply to be constantly laid up in the public granaries,
for distribution at moderate prices when the day of dearth arrives. This system is of
ancient usage, and belongs naturally to all patriarchal, imperial, or feudal governments,
in which the lord is bound to look parentally to the wants of his retainers ; but the Chinese
family has grown too large for its beneficial operation, and the minor mandarins, by their
extortions and inhumanity, are known to intercept the rays of imperial favour, and
suffer the poorest classes to wither away in the chilling shade of famine and destitution.

Although there are very many qualities of rice, there appears to be but one species.
Climate and cultivation produce such obvious changes in its value, that different quali-
ties resemble different kinds. Mountain-grain, cultivated in Cochin-China, and amongst
the Himalayan chain, is by some called dry-rice, but even this quality is not raised
without the aid of heavy periodic rains, so that every quality is properly an aquatic crop.
The vast length of time it has been known in China, and the absolute necessity for
its cultivation, have enabled these simple but laborious agriculturists to understand its
constitution, and taught them the best mode of improving it. Chinese irrigation is pro-
verbially ingenious, and Chinese husbandry peculiarly interesting.

The singular construction of the rice-plough, the natural history and docility of the
water-ox, and the mechanism of the water-wheel, or the float-boards that traverse in a
trough, and sweep the influx with them, have been alluded to in ibrmer descriptions of
Chinese food and husbandry, and are again noticed in those that follow.*

* Vide vol. i. p. i6, and " TransplaiUmg Jike." p. 30, seq.

III.

30 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

TRANSPLANTING RICE.

So when a peasant to his garden brings
Soft rills of water from the bubbling springs.
Swift as the rolling pebbles down the hills,
Louder and louder purl the falling rills ;
Before him scattering they prevent his pains,
And shine in mazy wanderings o'er the plains.

Homer.

RiCE-grounds consist of neatly enclosed spaces, the clay banks surrounding them seldom
exceeding two feet in height. The primary operation of tillage-ploughing is performed
with a very primitive implement, that consists of a beam, handle, and coulter, but no
mould-board, as laying over " the sidelong glebe " is beyond the rural knowledge of a
Chinaman. The buffalo, or water-ox, is then called in, to draw the three-barred harrow
with wooden teeth over the surface, after which the earth is deemed sufBciently pulverized
to receive the seed. Having been steeped in a liquid preparation to accelerate germina-
tion, and avert the attacks of insects, the seed is sown, very thickly, and, almost
immediately after, a thin sheet of water is induced over the enclosure. After the
interval of a few days only, the shoots overtop the water, and this precocity is the signal
for transplanting, which consists in plucking up the plants by the roots, cutting off the
tops of the blades, and setting each root separately. The last process is aided either
by turning furrows with the plough, or opening holes with the dibble. With such
rapidity is transplanting performed by the experienced, that with ordinary exertion five-
and-twenty plants may be carefully set in a minute. The harrow having pulverized
in the first instance, and subsequently diffused the seeds more equally, the hoe is fre-
quently employed to clear between the plants.

Each rice-field being partitioned into many minor enclosures, it is not attended with
inconvenience to conduct a rivulet into any particular plantation, through an opening
in the clay ridge that surrounds it. Sometimes a natural brook contributes a sufficient
supply, but more frequently the labour of the peasant provides it. Chain-pumps, with
their lines of buckets, are in common use ; a series of flat boards, exactly fitted to the
channel through which it is to be forced, confines the water between each pair, forming
extemporary buckets. These are worked by a foot-mill of proportionate dimensions ;*
but labour still more intense is dedicated to this necessary operation, irrigating rice-
grounds. In one of the most operose plans, two men stand opposite to each other on
projecting banks of a stream, holding ropes securely attached to a bucket, which is
filled by relaxing, and raised by tightening the cords, then by a skilful jerk they empty
the contents into a reservoir, or throw it in the direction of the conduit cut for the irriga-
• Vide illustration, " .Sowing Rice at Soo-chow-foo," p. 27, preceding.

TRANSPLANTING lUCE. 31

tion of some one field. Another contrivance for the same purpose consists of a long pole,
unequally divided in its length, and made to turn on a pivot across an upright post.
A hucket attached to the shorter arm of this lever is easily lowered into the water,
and, when filled, by the application of a small power at the extremity of the longer
arm, it is soon raised, and discharged into the j-eservoir. How exactly is the Chinese
process of irrigation described in the book of Numbers — " lie shall pour the water out
of his buckets, and his seed will be in many waters." The bamboo water-wheel, with
hollow fellies, or with buckets, and employed when the quantity of water required, and
the height to which it is to be raised, are both considerable, is of ancient existence
amongst the Chinese; from them the Egyptians, Syrians, and Persians adopted this
useful invention, and European machinists have ignorantly ascribed the honour of the
discovery to the very nation that became last acquainted with its value, obstinately
designating it the Persian wheel.

Irrigation having performed its anticipated work, the rice begins to grow with
rapidity ; the culm ranges from one to six feet ; it is annual, erect, simple, round, and
jointed : the leaves are large, firm, and pointed, arising from very long, cylindrical, and
finely striated sheaths ; the flowers* are disposed in a large and beautiful pannicle,
resembling that of the oat. The seeds are white and oblong, diifering in size and form
in the numerous varieties. As the crop approaches to maturity, the sluices are closed,
the waters withheld, and soon the yellow tinge of the ripening grain invites the reaper's
toil. With a sickle similar to our common serrated reaping-hook, the crop is soon
prostrated, on a surface, now rendered perfectly dry by evaporation and absorption ;
after which the bundles are removed, in frames suspended at the extremities of
a bamboo pole, the national mode of portage, to the threshing apparatus, of whatever
kind it may be. The edge of a plank, the margin of a large tub, with a screen drawn
up behind them, are the most popular threshing machines employed in the empire; but
flails, after which our own are formed, are used on the larger farms, or where there is
a considerable quantity to be disengaged from its husks. It is remarkable how much
the scholar excels the master in the management of this primitive implement of hus-
bandry : in Ciiina, the labourer winds the swingel round, as we do a whip ; in the British
Isles, it is made to revolve rapidly round the head, by which means it acquires an
accelerated velocity, and therefore an increased momentum.

Rice, in its natural state, either growing or unthreshed, is called paddy in all
Eastern countries, and the process of cleaning it, or disengaging it perfectly from its
husks, appears to have occasioned considerable difficulty to the Chinese, and not to
have been quite free from obstructions amongst the more civilized cultivators of this
important grain. Amongst both Egyptians and Chinese the machine usually employed
for the purpose is a species of stamping or crushing mill, worked in the former country
by oxen, in the latter by water-power. It consists of an horizontal axis, with projecting
cogs, of wood or iron, fixed at certain intervals. At right angles to the axis are fixed so
many horizontal levers as there are circular rows of cogs, acting on pivots fastened in

* The calyx is a bivalvular uniflorous glume ; the corolla bivalvular, nearly equal, and adhering to the seed.

32 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

a low wall, parallel to the axis, and at the distance of about two feet from it. At the
further extremity of each lever, and perpendicular to it, is fixed a hollow pestle, directly
over a large stone or iron mortar, sunk in the ground ; the other extremity, extending
beyond the wall, being depressed by the cogs of the axis in its revolution, elevates the
pestle, which falls again by its own gravity into the mortar. This process is only applied
when the quantity to bj cleaned is considerable ; on small farms, and amongst the poor,
a machine, consisting of a single lever, and pestle and mortar, worked by a foot-board,
serves the purpose sufficiently well. In the year 1826, a patent was secured by Mr.
Melvil Wilson, for a rice-cleaning machine ; his plan will be at once understood by
merely placing the axis of the Chinese mill in a position inclined to the horizon, and
giving all other parts in detail the advantage of European excellence in mechanical
contrivances.

In May or June the first crop is generally cut, and before the harvesting is wholly
completed, preparations are begun for a new or second sowing, by pulling up the stubble,
collecting it into small heaps, the ashes of which, after burning, are scattered over the
surface. The second crop attaining maturity in October or November, is submitted
to the operations of reaping, and carrying, and threshing, applied to its predecessor.
But the second stubble, instead of being burned, is turned under by the plough, left
to decompose in the earth, and become manure for the spring-crop of the following
year. Although no Chinese rice finds its way to England, the produce of Anglo-India
is imported by our merchants in large quantities. For many years, cleaned rice from
Carolina excluded most other varieties ; but, as American labour was expended on its
cleaning, and as it is the interest of England to import raw materials, and fashion them
for the markets of the world by the labour of her numerous mechanics, so we now
prefer to import Bengalese rice in the husks, and prepare it for immediate use by
machinery of home-manufacture.

PLAYING AT SHUTTLECOCK WITH THE FEET.

With dice, with cards, with hazards far unfit,
With shuttlecocks mis-seeming manly wit.

HiiBBARD's Tale.

Near to the afflux of the Tchang-ho with the Cha-ho, river of flood-gates, or imperial
canal, is a splendid octagonal pagoda : it consists of nine stories, adorned with project-
ing eves, and it tapers with a remarkably gradual and graceful convergence. From
its basement to the edge of the waters, the grounds slope gently, and this pleasant area
being reserved for the recreation of the citizens of Lin-tsing-choo, generally presents
a scene of mirth, although not always of morality. Here jugglers display their unri-

V^ Syjr,. f^W' ■■ .'C*-' t

^

■l

PLAYING AT SHUT'ri.ECOCK Willi THE KEET. 33

vailed dexterity in the arts of deception ; tumblers, vaulters, aiul nierry-andrews,
exhibit feats in whit-h tlio strcngtli and ductility of the human body are conspicuously
shown, and old pulcinello, the long-admired of civilized Europeans, asserts his claims
to a pre-eminence. All this would be well and unobjectionable if the kingdom of mirth
were not extended further, nor its powers of pleasing distorted by dishonest and vicious
votaries of chance. Building, with a certainty but too secure, upon the evil jjropen-
sities of our nature, quail and cricket fighters, mora players, and gamblers of every
description known in this wide empire, here congregate, to exercise their demoralizing
callings, and accelerate the ruin of thousands who become the easy dupes of their
villany.

Around the groups engaged with absorbing earnestness in games of chance, the
more cautious, but not less interested, are seated, relieving their anxiety upon the
pending bet, by the pleasures of the chibouque. There are, however, other, and these
rather numerous assemblages, more innocently occupied with either feats of activity or
childish sports, which, though probably little suited to their nudtiplied years, are exer-
cises of virtue in comparison with the grave occupations in which their fellows are engaged
on the greensward all around them. Kite-flying constitutes a favourite amusement,
and few nations have ever succeeded, possibly none have ever aspired, to elevate these
simple structures to such an height as the Chinese. Their delicate, light, yet durable
paper, their pliant and fissile bamboo, invite experimentalists in this kind of aeros-
tation, from the peculiar applicability of the material to the manufacture. In this
sport there is much emulation, and not boys only, but adults, put forth their best
energies in flying kites to the greatest height, and in endeavouring to bring down their
antagonist's by dividing the strings.

Puerile taste is not confined, however, to this innocent amusement ; the sport of
shuttlecock, certainly a healthy recreation, is pursued with a degree of enthusiasm
which it is seldom known to excite in the western world. There it is strictly limited
to the youth of both sexes, and in some resigned to the gentler exclusively ; but, in
China, the most muscular men amongst the labouring classes seem to feel inexpressible
delight in the sensation it produces. No battle-doors are employed, nor are the hands
generally of any service in the game, save to balance the player's body during its rapid
movements : the shuttlecock is struck with the soles of the feet, sometimes unprotected
by any covering ; at others, however, wooden shoes are permitted, and the noise which
these cumbrous accompaniments contribute, is considered an accession to the mirth.
Five, frequently six persons, form themselves into a circle, for the ])urpose of playing
at this active game ; and whether shoes be permitted, or hands occasionally allowed, to
aid the feet in preventing the shuttlecock from coming to the ground, the least successful
players fall out of the ring in turn, until the number is gradually reduced to one ; this
one is, of course, declared to be the winner of the stakes, or the pool, or the object
played for, whatever it may happen to have been.

III.

34 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

ENTRANCE TO THE HOANG-HO, OR YELLOW RIVER.

" But ere the mingling bounds have far been passed.
Turbid Hoang-ho rolls his power along
In sullen billows, murmuring and vast,
So noted ancient roundelays among."

The Chinese carry the process of irrigation, and the benefits of water-carriage, to a
greater extent than any other nation, and they seem to have received encouragement
in both objects from the natural facilities that present themselves in every part of the
empire. A level surface permits the easy execution of the one, — vast mountain-chains,
either within the imperial confines, or in the adjoining countries, supply endless resources
in effecting the other. Two great rivers have long been known to Europeans as the
feeders of Chinese canals, and as the principal sources whence fertihty is diifused over
the surface of that ancient empire — the Yang-tse-kiang, sometimes incorrectly called
the Blue river ; and the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river. The first of these noble streams
has frequently been spoken of in the preceding pages ; the embouchure of the second
constitutes the chief subject of the accompanying illustration.

Issuing from two spacious lakes, Tcharing and Oring, at Sing-suh-hae, in the lofty
mountains of Thibet, and in the region of Kokonor, the waters of Hoang-ho descend
from their fountain, at first, through a length of two hundred and fifty miles, with the
most uncontrollable impetuosity ; then turning from an eastern to a north-western
direction, they find a more level course for about an equal distance, after which they
enter the Chinese province of Shan-tse, and the stream, remaining parallel in its course
for some hiuidred miles with the Great Wall, at length intersects that celebrated work
in the twenty-ninth degree of latitude, and takes a northern direction for upwards oi
four hundred additional miles. Hence " vires acquirit enndd" briefly describes its cha-
racter, many rivers and lakes contributing the overflow of their waters to swell those
of the great recipient; and again directing its power eastward, it recrosses the Great Wall,
traverses the northern provinces for hundreds of miles further, and enters Honan in the
same parallel of latitude in which it has its source. In Kiang-nan it is augmented by
a vast contribution from Lake Hong-tse, after which the majestic volume moves more
slowly towards that part of the eastern ocean to which it imparts both its turbid cha-
racter and expressive name.

It is its intersection with the imperial canal — the junction of Lake Hong-tse, the
afilux of the Salt river— that is considered to be the mouth of the Hoang-ho; and here
it is that commerce has formed a rendezvous for shipping, and here also superstition
has erected an altar to her worship. Descending with rapidity through a constant slope,
of two thousand five hundred miles, the stream of the Hoang-ho acquires a momentum that
renders the crossing from shore to shore always a perilous undertaking. At the efilux of

'4

^

I

ENTRANCE TO THE IIOAXG-IK). 35

Lake Hong-tse, and at the precise spot where the canal locks into the river, the velocity
of the current is seklom less than four miles an hour, although that locality is not more
than twenty miles distant from the sea. It has been calculated from obvious data — the
breadth, mean depth, and velocity — that this famous river discharges into the Yellow sea
in every hour of fleeting time, '2,563,000,000 gallons of water, which is more than one
thousand times as much as the Ganges yields. Nor is this immense volume its sole
distinguishing feature, it has a second still more extraordinary, — the quantity of mud
which it constantly holds in suspension, and which it carries with it into the sea in
such proportion as to disfigure its brightness, and give it amongst geographers a charac-
teristic name. From an experiment cautiously performed, two gallons of water taken
from the middle of the river deposited a quantity of yellowish mud, which, when com-
pact and formed into a brick, was equal to three solid inches. Hence it follows, that
the quantity of water which is supposed to escape hourly into the Yellow sea, conveys
simultaneously two millions solid feet of earth.*

This turbid property excites no attention, is directed to no particular or special
purpose, is attended with no unusual respect, from these worshippers of natural effects ;
but, the dangerous velocity of the stream of the Hoang-ho has, from immemorial time,
obtained the most reverential acknowledgments. Before the barge shall launch upon
its surface, victims for sacrifice are provided, and brought on board. These consist gene-
rally of fowls,! or pigs, or both, according to the means of the navigators. The blood,
with the feathers and hair, is then daubed on different parts of the junk, after which
cups of wine, oil, tea, rice, flour, and salt, are ranged in order on the forecastle. Tlie
last of these articles of existence has long enjoyed the respect of nations. The Hebrew
law directed, " Every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt : neither
shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat
offering." Ovid speaks of the "jow?7 lucida mica salts" amongst the oblations of the
primitive Italians; and Horace, of the '^siilietite mica" amongst the peace offerings to
the offended penates. But, in Oriental countries, especially under tropical climes, where
salt is not only scarce, but the chief antiseptic for meat, it is not singular that it should
be so much valued, and employed consequently in offerings, either of supplication for
mercy, or atonement for crime. Amongst the ancient Romans, salt was estimated at
such a value, that he who had obtained a pension from the state, was said to have
received his salariiim, the price of his salt, whence the English word salary ; and the
phrase of having "eaten the salt of such an one" is still familiar amongst the Hindoos,
who claim it as a bond of friendship, or at least a ground of obligation. J

* When a Chinaman wishes to deny the possibility of an event, he sometimes expresses his inirediility by
the well-known ])roverb, •' llmt it wilt come to pass so soon as the Yellow river becomes clear."

t So, also, the Levitical law prescribes, that " the priest shall bring it (the fowl) nnto the altar, and wriiij;
off its head, and burn it on the altar ; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar, and
he shall pluek away his crop with the feathers, and cast it beside the altar."

\ When the Duke of Wellington, (Sir Arthur Wellesley,) was stationed at Hastings, immediately after his
return from India, a friend expressed his surjiriiu that the general, who had led so many thousands to victory.

36 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

The slaughtered animals, the vessels of offerings, and dishes of cooked provisions,
being duly spread out on the deck, the captain takes his place before them, and remains
in a standing position, until the junk reaches the most rapid part of the current, an
attendant all the while beating on a gong with untiring industry. This critical part of
the voyage being happily accomplished, the captain proceeds, with the utmost gravity,
to pour the contents of the cups severally over the bow of his vessel into the stream,
sending the oflal after the libation, but retaining for his own use the dishes made from
the most delicate parts of each victim. The removal of the dishes to the cabin is attended
with a still more violent beating of the gong, a rapid discharge of squibs, crackers, and
other species of fireworks, during which the crew are busily engaged in performing
three genuflexions, and as many prostrations. In this way the Yellow river is passed
by the junks that navigate the imperial canal; and, although an English sailor would
feel little apprehension in making this voyage of not more than a mile, where reason-
able diligence can scarcely fail in accomplishing the object, very many fatal accidents
occur to the Chinese. Against their recurrence, however, no means have yet been
devised, or introduced, by the followers of Fo, beyond these customary attempts to pro-
pitiate the evil spirit by offerings, which are believed to have been accepted whenever
the navigator reaches the destined bank in safety.

SACRIFICE OF THE CHING-TSWE-TSEE, OR HARVEST-MOON.

" The harvest-treasures all
Now gathered in, beyond the reach of storms,
Secure the swain ; the circling fence shut up ;
And insolent winter's utmost rage defied."

Thomson.

Every pretext that can be advanced to palliate idolatry, is in the possession of a China-
man. He propitiates evil spirits by land and sea — he deifies innumerable natural
objects, and constructs divinities for his adoration by the assistance of art. Sacrifices and
oblations continue to be oflered, as if the one great atonement had neither occurred, nor
been promulgated ; and the earliest practices of ignorance are observed with a tenacitv
worthy of the world some two thousand years ago.

Such sacrifices are divided into three classes — great (ta,) medium (choong,) and lesser
(seaou.) Amongst the second kind are those made upon the gathering in of harvest,

could so soon become reconciled to the command of a brigade. " I am mimmukwallak," replied Sir Arthur,
" as we say in the East ; that is, I have eat the king's salt, and therefore I conceive it to be my duty to serve,
with unhesitating zeal and cheerfulness, when and wherever the king and his government may think proper to
employ me." — Wright's Life and Campaigns of Wellington, vol. i. p. 97.

\' K^^^'^-.

SATRinCE or THE IIAUVKST-MOOX. Ol

which are accompanied by the genial quality of gratitude — a gratitude, however, which
the display of an all-powerful Providence, in the production of an abundant harvest,
can scarcely fail to obtain from man in every state of liis existence, from liis entire con-
viction of the vanity of all human efforts, unaided by the benevolence of his Creator.

When the day of the full harvest-moon arrives, Chinamen, wherever they may be,
or however engasied, with a sort of Mussulman scrupulosity, make their oblations
to the gods of grain and of land. In every city, usually where the highways meet,
this offering to the Chinese Ceres is made. Generally a rude stone is set up for
a harvest-god, before which incense is burned ; and logs of wood, hewn into imperfect
resemblances of the " human form divine," are placed around, to represent rustic deities,
local genii, tutelar gods of agriculture, horticulture, and rural occupations ; these
unsightly eflBgies being, in some instances, most audaciously imposed upon spectators as
appropriate representations of the sun, moon, clouds, winds, rain, and thunder.

Even those who happen to be at sea, or navigating the great rivers of the empire, when
the day of the full harvest-moon arrives, are under an obligation to sacrifice to the gods
or goddesses of plenty, whom they especially adore. For this purpose the favourite
images are brought upon deck, and suspended over three cups of tea and two bundles
of sandal-wood, the captain and his crew kneeling before them, and performing the ko-
tow repeatedly. The ceremony having proceeded so far, the captain arises, takes up
a lighted torch, and, walking three times around the bow of his vessel, exorcises all evil
spirits in the name of his guardian idol. The contents of the cups are now given as
a libation to the marine deities, the wooden gods are laid on a funeral pile made of
paper, and totally consumed, after which the pageant is closed with a discharge of fire-
works and a violent thumping of gongs.

Amongst the Greeks there were Thesmophoria ; amongst the Romans, Cerealia ;
sacrifices, or rather festivals, in honour of the deities that presided over agriculture.
The Chinese observe mysteries having a general resemblance to those of the ancient
kingdoms of Europe, and in motive and principle precisely identical. When the harvest
is completely ended, or rather when the harvest-moon is at the full, forgetting

" That, with to-morrow's sun, their annual toil,
Begins again the never-ceasing round" —

the Chinaman holds his agricultural festival, unimpeded in his religious duties by the
claims of those that are temporal; the labours of the barn, performed by the swingel— the
operation of winnowing, in which a bamboo sieve and spacious cotton sheet are the only
implements — and the preparation of the fields for another crop of rice, all "go bravely
on," while the family, in the attitude of prayer and thankfulness, are engaged before the
altar of their rural gods. In the vicinity of the farm-buildings, but always in an open posi-
tion, a portico is constructed, in a style of peculiar neatness, for the reception of the miagc
selected by the patriarch of the family. A table in front of the niche in which the rude
figure is set up, serves as an altar on which flowers, and pastiles, and tapers, are ranged,
with cups of rice or tea. Here, before this most contom|)tihlo mockery of intelligence
and power, the mother of the family presents herself, holding in her apron such produce

III. K

38 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

and grain as she deems most suitable for a first-fruits oflPering. Behind and beside her,
on a mat spread out before the rustic temple, her husband and children attend, and
second her intreaties that the oifering may be accepted, by prostrations, genuflexions,
and silent prayers. This surely is a scene of gratitude and affection : it implies the
presence of the finest feelings, it is exemplary in its observance, and the actors betray
the influence of no motive that is susceptible of an anti-moral tendency. Is it not there-
fore encouraging to those whose Christian duties demand the diligent exercise of their
abilities in expelling the long night of idolatry from China, by directing the rays of
Christianity to shine upon the land, to perceive, that there, too, are hearts that can be
moved by a sense of obligation — souls capable of appreciating the benefits conferred
upon them by an unknown God — minds prepared by custom, habit, practice of long
continuance, to receive a just account of the relation that exists between the Creator
and the creature, and to acknowledge the eternal obligation under which the merits of
a Redeemer have placed the whole human race, from the beginning of the world till
time shall be no more.

The accompanying view, which represents a rice-farm a few li from Yang-tcheou,
is remarkably characteristic, conveying a most full and perfect representation of the
national habits and local scenery. A town of the third class, with its pagoda tower-
ing over it, fills the remote distance ; the rice-grounds, in preparation for a second crop,
occupy the middle; while the harvest sacrifice, and reduction of the crop just saved to
a marketable state, take up the whole foreground of this epitome of utilitarianism.

In this little scene, that cannot be viewed without an afl'ecting interest — without
increasing, or rather creating, a respect for the character of the rural population of this
vast empire, the appropriations of the national tree, the bamboo, are more than ordi-
narily conspicuous. The shed, and gates, and fence of the threshing-stall are of split
stems; the sieve used by the winnower, the large mat on which the family are kneeling
before the altar, the hat worn by the patriarch, the table under the portico, and the
entire of the temple itself, are composed of the stems, or the canes, or the fibres of
this invaluable vegetable production.

|v

~si

I M\S

Till'. WKSTEllN GATE Ol' PEKING. 30

THE WESTERN GATE OF PEKING.

'• They bring tlie varied stores from cast and west,
Rich cloth of gold, and floating gossamer ;
From southern climes the loose embroidered vest,
And from the colder north, its downy fur."

The City ok Damascus.

Peking, or the Northern Court,* the capital of the Chinese empire. Is situated in a fer-
tile plain, about fifty miles from the Great Wall, in the province of Pe-tcheli, and on the
Yu-ho, a tributary to the Pei-ho about fifteen miles eastward of the city. Its form is
that of a rectangle or right-angled parallelogram, having an area of about fourteen square
miles, exclusive of extensive suburbs, divided into two totally distinct and separate
sections. Of these, the northern, King-tchhing, which is a perfect square, was founded
by the Mantchoos, is inhabited by Tartars exclusively, and includes the imperial palace :
while the southern, Lan-tcliliiug, or fFai-Zo-tch/iing, in the form of a parallelogram, is
occupied solely by Chinese. Each city is enclosed by its respective walls, the enceinte
of one series covering nine square miles; of. the other, the imperial, or Tartar, occu-
pying five. The mural defences, like those of other cities of the first class, consist of
walls about thirty feet in height and twenty in thickness, constructed in the manner
common, in the early ages of architecture, to all countries. Two retaining walls, the
bases of stone, the upper parts' of brick, having a considerable slope on the exterior,
but perpendicular within, were first raised, and the interval afterwards filled up with
earth. The summit between the parapets is levelled, floored with tiles, and access to it
afforded by inclined planes enclosed within the thickness of the walls. This is the
plan according to which the great national rampart is erected ; this is also the mode in
which our feudal castles of old were built, except that rubble-stone, instead of earth,
was thrown between the retaining walls, and mortar poured in amongst them to form
a lasting concrete. The south wall is pierced by three gates of entrance, the others, by
two each ; whence the origin of the second appellation, " the City of Nine Gates ;''
a name for w hich history supplies parallels in Ileptapolis and Hecatompolis, ; and the
central entrance on the south side opens into the imperial or Tartar city. A moat, filled
with water, encircled the whole city at an early period, but the increase of the suburbs
rendering this defence simply a separation between the inhabitants, the authorities
permitted its waters to evaporate. The walls, on which twelve horsemen may ride
abreast, are finished with parapets, deeply crenated, but without regular embrasures,
which do not indeed appear to have been required, since the Tartar's rights rest on
his bow.

• So called to distinguish it from Nanking, the Southern Court; it is also designated " the City of the
Nine Gates,"

40 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

For more complete security and defence, the walls are doubled at each principal
gate, or, more correctly speaking, in front of each entrance is an esplanade enclosed by
a semicircular curtain, and used as a " place of arms." The entrance to the esplanade
is not immediately in front of the inner gate, but lateral, a plan adopted in European
fortresses ; and the battlements above are unprotected by any implements of war.
Above and behind these great bastions rise pavilion-roofed watch-towers, of nine stories
each, and pierced with port-holes ; these, however, are not available in cases of sudden
emergency, for the forms which they present are unreal, the cannon shown in each
aperture being only painted, sham, or quaker guns, such as frequently ornament the sides
of vessels in our merchant-service. Besides these vain port-holes of the many-storied
towers, their walls are pierced by numerous loop-holes for the discharge of arrows, and
a similar policy is adopted on the mural ramparts, where the embrasures are unoccupied
by cannon, but oj)enings for archery are formed in the merlons. At equal intervals,
some sixty yards, the distance at which a Tartar's bow proves fatal, stand flanking-
towers, projecting from the curtain-wall about forty feet. These are similar in design,
and equal in height, to the great structures that command the gates.

Notwithstanding the vast area enclosed by its walls, Peking does not probably con-
tain a population equal to that of London : it certainly does not exceed two millions.
A large portion of the enceinte is devoted to the accommodation of the imperial house-
hold; public buildings, of mean elevation but spacious ground-plan, cover a large addi-
tional space, while numerous public vegetable-gardens, and large sheets of water, still
farther detract from the site on which the city is said to stand. Two principal streets,
a hundred feet in width, and four miles in length, connect the northern and southern
gates, and two of corresponding breadth extend from east to west. With the exception
of these noble avenues, the streets of Peking, like those of all other Chinese cities, and
like those also of the old cities of the European continent, are dark, dismal, narrow
passages, where light and health are equally forbidden to enter. If any accession to the
lonely character of these alleys were required, the style of national domestic architec-
ture would very amply afford it. With apparent inhospitality, the gentry, who
dwell generally in the cross or private streets, turn the backs of their palaces to the
highway; along blank wall, with a gate of entrance, never left open for a moment,
forming the continuous line of building on either side. Sufficient commotion, and bustle,
and business, however, eternally present themselves in the four grand avenues of the
metropolis. At their intersection stand a number of Pai-loo, or triumphal records,
raised to remind the public of some great legislator, or hero, or benefactor, whose
memory is deserving of lasting respect.

Each of the high streets is lined on either side with shops and warehouses, places of
entertainment, specimens of the particular merchandise sold in each establishment being
exhibited in front of the houses. Above the low projecting eaves, are seen banners waving
from a staff, or boards secured to a tall pillar, inscribed, in letters of gold on grounds of
green or vermilion, with the name of the ware, and the established reputation of the

• .\s in Beaumaris Castle, North Wales.

THE WESTERN OATE OF PEKING. 41

vender. To enhance this record, and attract attention, eacli motto is generally discovered
through the flajipings and tlaiintiiigs of streamers, and tlags, and ribbons of the most
gaudy colouring, and most profuse employment. The variety of articles offered for sale
is naturally infinite, and the singular character of Chinese manufactures gives to
European visitors the idea of a fimcy-fair, rather than that of an established commercial
emporium: the gables, sides, door-posts, and roofs of the houses, are adorned witii
devices in azure and gold, and the most gay and gairish-looking articles are presented for
sale. Amidst the bijouterie that glitters in their stalls, are ready-made coffins ; these
melancholy mementos of human vanity, are of disproportioned magnitude, and disgust-
ingly adorned with painting and with gold.

But the trade of the Four-ways is not monopolized by the owners of the handsome
bazaars that enclose them ; itinerant traders, and their moveable workshops, dividing the
profits with the wealthier citizens. The continuous hum which rings in the 7c/i/i(iiii/iigau-
kiai, or " street of perpetual repose," so named, most probably by antiphrasis, because
there never is repose there, evidences the energies of its industrious occupants, for " so
work the honey-bees;" and the recollection of the scene can never be obliterated from
the traveller's memory. The whole central causeway is a dense moving mass, comjjosed
of operatives in every department of active life — tinkei's, cobblers, blacksmiths, barbers,
occupy their locomotive shops- — booths and tents are erected on the kerb of the footway
for the sale of tea, fruit, rice, and vegetables, so that little space remains for passengers,
when the accommodation which the specimen-goods before each shop, and the temporary
stalls require, is subducted. In the midway are seen, " in most dense array," public offi-
cers, with their retinues bearing umbrellas, lanterns, flags, and numerous insignia of rank
and station ; coffins, attended by mourners clad in white : brides, conveyed in palanquins
of glittering decorations — the cries of sorrow that escape from one procession being
occasionally drowned by the shouts of exultation and peals of music that ascend from
the other. Mixed with these are troops of dromedaries laden with coals from the
TVestern Mon/ituins, wheelbarrows and hand-carts, and, an immense concourse literally
struggling for liberty to go in pursuit of either their way or their wants. The confused
noise arising from the cries of various venders, and wrangling of purchasers, is occa-
sionally exceeded by a strange twang not unlike the jarring tones of a cracked jew's-
harp ; this successful attraction of notice is merely the barber's signal for custom, which
he makes with his tweezers.

There is yet another class of claimants on public jiatronage plying their respective,
although not respectable, callings, with as much zeal, and even more success, than the
honest merchant in his warehouse. In this fraternity are included conjurers, jugglers,
peddlers, fortune-tellers, quack-doctors, mountebanks, actors, and musicians. The whole
tumultuous assemblage not unfrequently receives an onward impulse, which must inevi-
tably occasion inconvenience, if not injury, to many of its members : — whenever a man-
darin or great officer of state has occasion to pass along this very public thoroughfare,
a company of Tartar cavalry is despatched to clear the way before bim ; and these remorse-
less satellites, armed with heavy whips, perform their duty with a fidelity ot the most

III. L

42 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

reprehensible description. The situation of those whose nerves are sensitive, whose
strength is unequal to continuous pressure, must be painfully alarming ; and so much
is an occurrence of this sort dreaded, that Chinese females never venture into the
busy throng of the four high streets, nor indeed Tartar women, unless mounted on
horseback. As the causeway is not paved, the dust in summer is intolerable, and the
mud in winter oppressive ; to these annoyances is to be added one affording grave accu-
sation against the civic authorities — -the want of drainage, or sewers of any kind.
Exclusive of the more serious consideration of health, the nuisance that is experienced
by every passenger is disgraceful to Chinese national character ; nor can the constant
employment of perfumes, scented woods, pastiles, odoriferous tapers, and aromatics of
many sorts, as correctives, be accepted in palliation of such defective institutions.

And it is along this crowded, noisy, dusty way, that the citizen of Peking conducts
the traveller whom he desires to admire the civilization of his capital; and it was amidst
this moving mob of mountebanks that the authorities thought proper to lead our
most memorable embassy at the court of Peking, to the great western gate, through
which also lies the principal route to the imperial palace of Yuen-min-yuen .

THE GROTTO OF CAMOENS, MACAO.

" He was in sooth a genuine bard ;
His was no faint, fictitious flame.
Like his, my love, be thy reward,
But not thy hapless fate the same."

Byuox — iStanzas, with the Poeiiis of Cuinoens.

Amongst the many interesting memorials in the vicinity of Macao, is the cave or grotto
of Camiiens, the most celebrated poet of the Portuguese. It is a rudely-constructed
temple, standing on the brink of a precipice, and commanding a most glorious pros-
pect over the peninsula, and the sea that embraces it, and the mountains that rise
rapidly on the opposite side of the roadstead. Visitors are led to the pleasure-
grounds of a private seat, "the Casa," with no inconsiderable degree of vanity,
and thence to the little pavilion on the rock, where a bust of the poet is preserved.
Should they, by any accident of education or defect of memory, be unacquainted at the
moment with the chief labours of the poet, they are exultingly informed that " here
Camoens wrote the greater portion of his Lusiad."*

Louis de Camiiens is an illustration of those great men whose merit was first appa-
rent in after-times, while their own age abandoned them to want; one of those whose
* Lord Clarendon wrote much of his History in an alcove in the grounds of York House at Twickenham.

i

i

^s

^f

^

^*

THE GROTTO OF CAMOENS, MACAO. 43

tomb was honoured witli the hiurel-w reath tliat should have adorned his temples. Tiie son
of a ship-captain, and born at Lisbon about the year 15'24, he was placed at the college oF
Coimbra; from which he returned, after ])assiug the recpiired time, to his native city.
Here he fell passionately in love with a lady of the palace, Catherine d'Attayde, and
was banished to Santarem, as the result of a dispute in which his luckless attachment
had involved him. Strong passions are frequently found united with eminent talents;
and the ardent lover of Lisbon, was now the delightful poet of Santarem. It was here
that he poured forth his spirit of poetry, that he bewailed the pangs of broken hopes, in
numbers which are compared to the lyrics of Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso; and,
inspired with the most noble sense of patriotism, that he attuned his harp to lays more
mournful — the wrongs of his country. Despair preying on a mind so sensitive, he now
became a soldier, and serving in the expedition which the Portuguese sent against Morocco,
he composed poetry in the midst of battles. Danger kindled genius — genius animated
courage. An arrow having deprived him of his right eye at the siege of Ceuta, he
hoped that his wounds would receive a recompense which was denied to his talents;
but in this expectation also he was deceived, owing solely to the machinations of envy.
Filled with indignation at this studied neglect, he embarked for Lidia in the year 1553,
and landed at Goa, near to the spot whei-e his father perished by shipwreck only three
years after. At first he was incited to deeds of glory by the example of his countrymen in
India, and exercised his powerful imagination in celebrating their praise in a lengthened
epic poem. The vivacity of the poet and the patriot's mind, however, is not without
difficulty restrained by that moderation which a state of dependence exacts; and Camoens,
disgusted with many acts of cruelty and perfidy in the government of India, wrote a satire
upon the authors, which caused his banishment to the settlement of Macao. His
appointment of judge at this place was but an honourable name for exile; and here he
had, during several years, no other society than that of nature, which poured around
him in abundance all the charms of the East.

Leisure was found at length for the imbodiment of his great conceptions, and, selecting
Vasco de Gama's Indian expedition as the subject, Camoens devoted the palmy years of
his life to the composition of the " Lusiad." The most celebrated passages in this immortal
performance, are the episodes of Inez de Castro, and the appearance of Adamastre,
who, by means of his power over the storms, endeavours to stop Gama when he is about
to double the Cape of Good Hope. The poet is hardly responsible for the mi.xture of
Christianity with mythological fable of which he has been guilty, for such was the pre-
vailing taste of the times. To this taste also is to be attributed that imitation of the
works of classical antiquity, which is employed in conjunction with the splendour of
poetic description, so bright, so completely original, as to cause regret that fashion
should have moulded the features of his genius in any respect. The versification of
the Lusiad is so charming and harmonious, that not only the minds of the cultivated, but
of the common people, in Portugal, arc enraptured by its magic, and learn by heart, and sing
favourite stanzas from it. Genuine patriotism ])crvades every line of this great poem, and
the national glory of the Portuguese is emblazoned in every form, in all the colours which

44 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

invention was capable of lending. It is for these reasons that the poetry of Camoens
must ever be read with enthusiasm by his own countrymen, and remembered with
all the tenacity of which memory is capable.

And now, when youth had shed its bloom, and even the vigour of manhood was
beginning to decay, for the first time envy suspended its malignant operation, and the
poet and patriot, of whom Portugal was yet to boast, was recalled from

" His root-built cave, by far-extended rocks
Around embosomed, where they soothed his soul."

Sailing for Europe, the destiny of Camuens followed him, and at the mouth of the
river Mechon, in Cochin-China, he suffered shipwreck, saving himself from his brave
father's fate, by swimming to the shore. The only treasure which he reserved from the
wreck was the MS. of his poem ; this he held above his head with one hand, buffeting
the billows with the other, as Julius Caesar did, when he swam with his inestimable
Commentaries from Alexandria to his galley that was lying in the harbour. Reaching
Goa after this narrow escape from a watery grave, new griefs awaited him: and here
he encountered renewed persecutions, being imprisoned for debt, and only released on the
responsibility of his friends, who felt for the agonies he had endured by an exile so length-
ened and unmerited. At the moment when he experienced the refreshment of liberty, he
was encouraged by the patronage of royalty ; the youthful monarch, Sebastian, manifesting
an admiration of his poems, and taking an interest in the poet. An expedition against
the Moors in Africa being about to sail, the king, who conducted it in person, desired the
Lusiad to be dedicated to himself ; and, feeling more sensibly than others had done, the
genius and adventurous spirit of the writer, carried him along with him to the field of
glory. Sebastian indeed attained his object, falling gloriously in the battle before the city
of Alcaqar, in 1578; but Camoens, in losing his prince, lost every thing: for, with his
death, the royal farnilj-, and the real independence of Portugal, were extinct. Returning
to his native country, friendless, impoverished, envied, he saw that every source of supply-
was dried up, every avenue of succour closed, every ray of hope extinguished — and for
ever. A prey to poverty and suffering, a slave alone remained faithful to him in his
misfortunes; and this humble friend actually supported his master by alms which he
begged in the public streets. In this situation he yet wrote lyric poems, some of
which contain the most moving complaints of the neglect of literary worth, and the
ingratitude of mankind to public benefactors. Unwilling to survive his royal patron,
and his Indian slave being no longer able to provide for him the necessaries of existence,
or relieve his infirmities, he obtained admission into the chief hospital of Lisbon ; and
there, this great ornament of his country — this honour of Portuguese and of European
literature — miserably expired in the sixty-second year of his age: just one year after the
last Sebastian had passed away from the world. Fifteen years afterwards, a splendid
monument was erected to his memory ; and his works have since been translated into
every European language.

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THE UATAUACT OF SHUI-TAV. 45

THE CATARACT OF SIIIII-TAN.

PROVINCE OF KIANG-NAM.

He glorietli in his miglit alone,

A strong existence hurrying on
In conscious joy of power and speed,
And with tlie great sun doth he play
At rainbows with his living spray. Rhaiadu Du.

The western parts of Kiaug-nan, bordering upon the inland province of Hou-quang,
are mountainous, arid, and sterile. Fruitful in rivers, their waters are with difficulty
approached, not only from the ruggedness of their rocky beds, but the great depths also
to which these have been worn by the eternal action of the falling volume. Granite is
the predominating rock in the most elevated places, but a species of slate-stone, hard,
and of an irregular fracture, forms the channels of the mountain-torrents, assuming, in
every instance, forms the most bold and picturesque. At an elevation of some 1,500
feet above the level of the sea, the Tay-ho, a chief tributary of the lower Yang-tse-keang,
receiving the drainage of many hundreds of square miles, in a country whose climate is
particularly humid, its w hole accumulation falls over the brow of Shih-tan into a spacious
basin of slate-rock, presenting, in the rainy season, an object of beauty, majesty, and
interest. Superstition, the companion and the badge of ignorance, has appropriated
these sublime localities to the occupation of sorcerers, witches, magicians, evil demons,
or, at all events, to beinps supposed to be possessed of supernatural powers, which
they exhibit by the use of spells, cabalistic terms, charms, characters, images, amulets,
ligatm-cs, philters, and incantations.

At the foot of the mountain-pass, which is much frequented by travellers between
the two adjacent provinces, a toll-house is erected, where each borderer is required to
drop his contribution to the spirit of the hills and the torrents, the principal produce
of which is believed to be the performance of certain propitiatory rites, by the resident
bonzes, for his safe passage, especially by the seven cataracts of Shih-tan. As the
ascent is aided by stairs cut in the compact schistus, a firm step is all that is required to
accomplish the journey; but, where real dangers are absent, credulity supplies those that
are imaginary. In the cooler seasons, numbers of borderers cross these hiils, and brave
the terrors of these haunted glens ; while they carry, suspended from their shoulders,
various articles of produce and barter, from their respective homes. More wealthy
persons are conveyed in a litter, or a comfortable sedan-chair, to the highest pinnacles
and up the steepest ascents, whether for the purposes of business, or from superstitious
motives.

III. M

46 CHIXA ILLITSTRATED.

In this picturesque locality, and amidst the shattered crags that hang over the seven
cataracts, grows the Tong-choo, and also a species of Rhus, from the seeds of which an
oil is expressed, used in the composition of a valuable varnish. Here also the tea-plant
grows wild ; and pines, both dwarf and lofty, adorn the cliffs on every side. The
transfer of rice, the preparation of oil, or of varnish, the felling of pine-timber, constitute
so many sources of occupation to the mountaineers : but they have another origin of
trade, little less profitable, in the existence of a charmed grotto immediately above the
greatest of the cascades. Ta-Vang, a Chinese saint of royal birth, commiserating the
lot of lunatics, devoted himself to the service of Fo, on condition that that most absurdly-
conceived power would promise to spare men's intellects in future. Retiring to the
seven falls, sometimes called the seven cups of Shih-tan, he there passed his declining
years in solitude and supplication. His grotto or couch, in the dark grey rock, is now
visited by pilgrims, and numbers of lunatics, brought hither by their relatives, are laid
on Ta- Yang's bed, which they believe to be instrumental in restoring the phrenzied to
their senses. The deliberate reader may doubt, perhaps, whether the afflicted patient
or his credulous attendant be the more insane ; but, whichever way he decides, let
him not ascribe to the ignorant Chinaman alone all such absurd practices. In a
closet at the church of Poictiers, in France, the bed of St, Hilary is preserved, and
here lunatics are constantly laid to sleep, in the expectation that its miraculous efficacy
will restore them to perfect sanity.

GARDENS OF THE IMPErvIAL PALACE, PEKING.

FatigueJ with form's oppressive laws,

M hen Taou- Kwang avoids the great ;
When cloy'd with merited applause.

He seeks the rural calm retreat :
Does he not praise each mossy cell,
And feel the truth these numbers fell ?

Klkal Elegance.

There are two distinct cities within the walls of Peking, one occupied by Chinese, the
other by Tartars exclusively. In the latter of these are the chief public offices, several
sacred institutes, colleges, halls, and, lastly, in the very centre of this labyrinth, the
imperial palace and gardens. Three spacious gates pierce the imperial wall, opening
communication with the external or Chinese city, which is also fenced and fortified; and
an inner enclosure, called " the prohibited wall," surrounds an area of about two square
miles, devoted entirely to the imperial household, and only entered by his majesty's
retinue or his visitors. The mural defences of the palace are built of bright red
varnished bricks, covered with shining yellow tiles, whence they are also styled " The
Yellow Wall," and are upwards of twenty feet in height.

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GARDENS OK THE IMPmi AL PALACE. 47

Tlio inner surface of tlie enclosure is varied by the construction of artilicinl moun-
tains, the exc<avation of lakes with little islands floating on their tranquil bosoms, and
runninj^ rivulets, interrupted occasionally by picturesque cataracts; summer-houses and
pavilions adorn the margin of the waters, and impart an interest to the numerous islands ;
and the grouping of fanciful edifices, with chisters of trees, and masses cf rock-work,
necessarily produce a most agreeable illusion with respect to both distance and mag-
nitude. One great reservoir, or lake, supplies the minor basins within the gardens,
and its surface is constantly animated by the arrival and departure of pleasure-junks
and barges belonging to the attendants and retainers of the palace.

Pleasure appears to reign supremely in these fairy lands, and, were judgment to be
given by the eye alone, that siren would be successful. But inquiry will soon correct
the hasty conclusion, by discovering the melancholy admixture of sorrow that is infused
into all human histories. The double walls, that prohibit surprise, are not unnecessarj',
nor has the imperial throne been always "a bed of roses." There is a perilous uncer-
tainty attendant upon making rice the national food ; and so frequently is this conse-
quence experienced, that the emperor's palace would not be safe from the violence of
the hungry, in those days of famine that periodically visit his dominions. The markets of
Peking are frequently plundered in the most daring manner, and all the courage of the
emperor's tiger-hearted myrmidons is requisite to protect the Tartarian city from assault.
Nor are these the only dangers to which the imperial person is exposed. Though the
succession to the throne depends on the arbitrary nomination of the reigning prince,
this arrangement does not always prevent usurpations. An instance of this occurred in
the succession of Yoong-ching to his father Kang-he. The son nominated by the
dying emperor was his fourth, but that prince being in Tartary at the period of the
emperor's somewhat sudden demise, Yoong-ching, who was a privileged wang, entered
the palace, and seized the billet of his brother's nomination, l^efore the ninnber four,
which he there found, he boldly set down the sign of ten, and in that way made it appear
that he, the fourteenth son, was the prince actually nominated. Seizing the sceptre,
he ordered his brother to be arrested and imprisoned, in a buihiing which is yet stand-
ing, about four miles north of Peking, and there he detained him till death closed
his melancholy story.

In the year 1813, and on the 18th of October, a formidable body of conspirators
attacked the palace, during the emperor's absence at the thermal springs of Je-ho, but
being gallantly resisted by the present emperor, second son of the reigning monarch,
the revolt was crushed without further injury ; and it is to this act of bravery, most proba-
bly, Taou-kwang's nomination to the throne of his royal parent is to be attributed. On
the summit of the loftiest eminence in the accompanying illustration, stands a monument
of singular structure, but of still more singular history ; it was the last scene of the exist-
ence of that race of emj)erors who had beautified the whole of these enchanting grounds,
and raised so many gorgeous buildings amidst their scenery. A man whom fortune
seemed to favour, as if destined to become the head of a new dynasty in China, availed
himself of the weakness and the luxury of the court; and of that indolence which, more

48 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

than even luxury, had brought the former dynasties to ruin ; with an army of Chinese,
first collected under the hope of bringing about better times, and kept together after-
wards by the tempting bait of plunder, he marched to the gates of Peking. The ill-fated
monarch, too slightly supported, and possessed of too little energy to repel, but with
sentiments too elevated to endure submission to an enemy who had been his subject,
yet determined to save his oifspring from the danger of dishonour, stabbed his only
daughter, and then terminated his own life with a fatal noose. Here were two iniquitous
murders committed, by a man, who had not the bravery to die in battle, nor the moral
courage to survive adversity.

CAP-VENDER'S SHOP, CAKTON.

Your bonnet to it's right use, —
'Tis for the head.

Hami.et.

A cap-vender's establishment is not unfreqnently a scene of gossiping, — a fashionable
lounge, a rendezvous of those whose badge is idleness. Open in front, it is decorated
with lanterns, and emblems of trade, and inscriptions, the latter setting forth the integrity
of the long line of occupants, the quality of goods exclusively issued from that store,
the reasonable charges uniformly made, and the total impossibility of trusting to the
honour of humanity under certain circumstances. All these sentiments are expressed in
characters of gold, on tablets suspended at the side of the open casement. A little rail-
ing, partly for protection, but chiefly for ornament and architectural finish, runs along
the external edge of the counter, and within it are stands supporting specimen or pat-
tern caps, a practice adopted with ingenuity and taste by the hat and bonnet venders in
London and in Paris- Entrance to the shop is often interrupted by a begging bonzee,
in a humiliating posture, endeavouring to attract attention by the gentle humming of
a familiar hymn, accompanied with the more annoying tap of a small plectrum upon a
piece of hollowed wood, in shape resembling a pear.

As the illustration represents a well-known and respectable store in Canton, the
style of decoration, attendance, and fitting-up, may be taken as a sample of its class.
The goods manufactured and sold here are intended for the wealthy part of the com-
munity only, of whom the cap appears to be a special prerogative. Neither Greeks nor
Romans wore any covering on the head in the heroic ages of their histories ; hence all
ancient statues appear either bareheaded, or sometimes with a victor's wreath: it was at
later periods that caps of various kinds, and military helmets, were introduced. It seems
tolerably certain, that the Chinese, not many centuries back, went with the head unpro-
tected against either sun or rain, employing, occasionally, the skirt of the robes as a sub-
stitute. Indeed, their antique c/ievelure aiSovded them most ample protection against the

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CLOSE OP THE ATTACK OX CIIAPOO. 49

inclemency of the season, and to an economic people ])ossessed an additional recom-
mendation. The preservation of this most useful gift of nature became the subject of a
sanguinary civil war, in which Tartar tactics triumphed, and Tartar tyrannv used its
triumph so ignobly, that the concpiered were com[)cllod to siiavc flic licad in future,
reserving only one lengthened lock, depending from tlie crown, — the badge of tiieir
subjection.

Should the season prove intensely sultrj', the tapering (jueue alone adorns the
aristocrat's head; in less warm weather a skull-cap of padded silk is worn; and in still
colder, a cap made of the thinnest rattan, slightly woven, having the edge turned u[) all
round. These different descriptions are adapted to summer and winter, to home and
out-of-door use. The summer cap most generally worn is a hollow upright cone of
bamboo filaments, the apex of which is terminated by a red, blue, white, or gilded ball,
or by an opaque button, according to the rank of the wearer. A large lock of red hair,
taken from the abdomen of the water-ox, flows from the insertion of the button into the
apex; and sometimes a beautiful agate, a lapis lazuli, or gem called yi'i, sparkles in the
frontal border. In winter, the cone is exchanged for a covering of more solid manufac-
ture and more appropriate shape. It is the cap with the turncd-up edge. The rattan
is more firmly woven in this than in the summer caps, but the ornaments, the button
of distinction, and the tuft of hair, are the same as before. At this season, too, especially
in the northern provinces, the skull-cap is adopted much within doors, and the bamboo
pileum without. Almost all the social habits of this ancient people are regulated by
imperial decrees, issued arbitrarily at various epochs, and amongst them are rules for the
proper, rational, and becoming decoration of the person. These laws enjoin the exchange
of the summer for the winter head-dress, and vice versa ; and a broad hint is given
to society by the example of the chief mandarin, or magistrate, of every district, as well as
by an announcement in the imperial gazette, that the period has arrived when this part
of the national costume 7m(st undergo the legal change.

CLOSE OF THE ATTACK ON CIIAPOO.

'* H:irk the fierce music on the wiml, the atabal. the gong,
The stern avenger is at hand, — he lias not tarried long."

Chapoo, on tlie Gulf of Hang-chow, owes all its commercial importance to the exclu-
sive trade which it enjoys with Japan, monopolized by six imperial junks. The harbour
is situated at the northern boundary of Chekeang province, and, as the sea is rajjidly
receding all along that coast, not only is approach dangerous to mariners, but the trade,
most probably, will soon be transferred to Shang-hai, one of the free-ports of the
empire. With the exception of the picturesque hills that rise immediately over tlie
city and suburbs of Chapoo, the surface, for many miles in everv direction, is low, flat,
III. \

50 CHIXA ILLUSTllATED.

and intersected by canals, some of which extend to the great city of Hangchow.
Although the rise of tide at Shang-hai, only three days' sail, is not more than eight feet,
yet at Chapoo it exceeds four-and-twenty, so that, at high-water, the harbour may be
entered by vessels of large burden.

The city is spacious, walled, with suburbs equal in extent to the encebite itself. The
immediate vicinity is highly cultivated, thickly peopled, adorned with mandarins' villas,
pagodas, temples, pailoos, and halls of ancestors. The scenery amidst the adjacent hills
has long received the unlimited admiration of travellers, and not unfrequently the
emperor himself condescends to visit this garden of his wide dominions, this pride of
China, and pass some months at a time in the enjoyment of its beauties. Residence
here, however, is not either safe or desirable at all seasons, ophthalmia prevailing to a
great extent, whenever there occurs a continuance of dry and sultry weather.

It was on the 17th of May, in the year 1842, that a British fleet, under the command
of Vice-Admiral Sir William Parker, arrived before the city of Chapoo; and, on the
following morning. Sir Hugh Gough succeeded in landing a force of 13,00 men on a
sandy beach, two miles east of the city, without the least opposition from the Chinese.
With childish precaution, the enemy had assembled their entire force, 8,000 men, within
the city, relying mainly on the strength of their fortifications, leaving the range of
heights, a natural battery, and one that commanded their streets and the bay where the
British lay, wholly unoccupied. While the British forces were ascending and forming
on the hills, the ships of war opened upon the fortifications on shore, which were
immediately silenced, and a brigade of 700 seamen landing, under cover of a heavy
fire from the ships, drove the Chinese from their guns towards the city. Sir Hugh
Gough was now in possession of the heights, from which the whole Chinese army was
descried, defiling regularly through the streets, in full retreat. Their movements
appeared to receive occasional acceleration from the fall of shells and grape amongst
them, according as the howitzers and field-pieces came nearer and nearer; at length,
Colonel Schoedde's escalading party getting completely over the wall, the rapid volleys
of his musketry completed the confusion and route.

Three hundred Mantchou Tartars, feeling the degradation their arms sustained
by the desertion of so large a force, took possession of a strong building in the middle
of the city, resolved to hold it against every opposition. This little devoted band
had wholly escaped the notice of the pursuing army, nor was their resolute conduct
understood until they became the aggressors, by discharging a smart volley upon the rear
of the Irish brigade. Some twenty of this corps turned to revenge the injury, but
they were soon obliged to retire, several of their number being instantly shot down.
A second party, however, soon succeeded, and boldly advancing to the entrance, received
the murderous fire of the Tartars, by which Colonel Tomlinson and several of his men
fell mortally wounded. British gallantry seemed to rise in proportion as danger increased,
and the death of their brave companions, the undaunted courage of the enemy, only
nerved the arms and steeled the swords of Colonel Mountain and his brave party.
Assaulting this " Hougoumont" of the day with all their national heroism, they were yet

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AN ITINERANT BARBER. 0 1

unable to propitiate tlie fortune of war, and after tlic Colonel and his two lieutenants ,
had been severely wounded, the position was again abandoned. What manly daring
could effect had now been accomplished by these brave Tartar soldiers, as well as by
their equally gallant enemies; but military skill, scientific adjuments, and superior
discipline, being at length called in, their fate w^as sealed. Colonel Knowles now
came up witli the shells and rockets, and in a few minutes the little fortress was in
flames, its luckless defenders were all either shot or bayoneted, with the exception
of about twenty, who were spared to grace the triumph of British military prowess.

A sort of wild despair took possession of the whole population of Chapoo, upon
the sudden discovery of our infinite superiority in the art of war. The men, including
0,500 regular troops and 1,700 Tartars, abandoned the city; the women, ignorant
of the English character, and equally horror-struck at the flight of their cowardly
husbands, having destroyed their children, committed self-immolation, and numbers
were found suspended from the ceilings of their once happy homes. Had our
operations been a little more rapid, it is possible that many of those miserable
events might have been prevented, for if the citizens but stayed to witness the gene-
rosity with which our brave army exercised their power, indignation would thenceforth
have pointed at the real authors of these miseries — the calumniators of British national
character. Amongst the spoils of Chapoo were ninety pieces of ordnance, jingalls,
matchlocks, bows, and gunpowder. The loss on the part of the Chinese was estimated
at 1,500 men, on ours it is known not to have exceeded nine men killed, and fifty
wounded.

AN ITINERANT CAREER.

" r the long queue and tonsure bald we trace
The Tartar triumph— the Chinese disgrace."

Conquest or CAriiAV.

The ancient Chinese wore the hair long, a practice the aborigines of most countries are
observed to follow, and only discontinued it upon compulsion. While they were per-
mitted by their Tartar concpierors to retain their religion and laws, they were obliged, as
a badge of servitude, to shave the head, with the exception of a single tuft upon the
crown, that renders baldness visible. Time has softened the sentiments of sorrow
that accompanied this humiliating mandate, and the adoption of the custom by all classes
in the empire has at length obliterated the painful recollection of its origin. And now,
the universality of the habit has created a necessity for a very numerous corps of
barbers, who are all itinerant, and placed under very strict surveillance, a severe penalty
being attached to practising the art without a regular license from the magistrates.

52 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

Not only the head but the whole of the face is to be passed under the razor, so that
no Chhiaman can perform this indispensable ceremony for himself, — hence an additional
necessity for an enlarged number of professional operators. In Canton, alone, upwards
of 7,000 barbers are constantly perambulating the public streets, indicating their locus
and their leisure by twanging a pair of long iron tweezers. Across the barber's shoulders
lies along bamboo lath, from one extremity of which is suspended a small chest of drawers,
containing razors, brushes, and shampooing instruments, made of white copper. This
piece of furniture serves as a seat for customers, and its counterpoise, which is hung
fi-om the other end of the shoulder-lath, consists of a water-vessel, basin, and charcoal-
furnace, enclosed in a case. No beards being allowed to grow, no moustache permitted
to remain before the age of forty, nor a single hair suffered to wander over any part of
the face, the attendance of a barber is lastingly requisite, and considerable dexterity
indispensable ; and the adroitness which they display in shaving the head, eradicating
straggling hairs, and giving a clean and spruce ensemble, is almost an object of curiosity.
A Chinese razor is clumsy in appearance, but convenient in operation, and whenever
the edge fails, it is restored by friction on an iron plate.

But, shaving is a less scientific part of a barber's vocation than shampooing, a custom
practised in many eastern countries ; and the instruments provided for this extraordinary
mode of quickening the circulation of the blood, are not only numerous but delicately
formed. The candidate being seated on a large chair, the operator beats rapidly with
both hands upon all parts of his body. The arms and legs are next stretched, and with
sudden jerks that give the idea of dislocation. Sometimes the patient is pulled by one
arm, his head being pushed in the opposite direction, the finger joints cracked, and the
quick beating repeated, the operator at intervals philipping with his fingers. Instruments
are now employed ; the application of a brush, resembling the globular flower of the
acacia, succeeds to that of the ear-spoon, a thin slip of horn, and lastly come the tweezers
and the syringe. Nor does the extreme delicacy of the eye save it from the invasion of
these professors of luxury. Several small instruments are applied to this tender organ,
without injury, probably with advantage. The eye-pencil consists of a pellet of coral
attached to a slip of horn ; this is thrust under the eyelids, and turned about with
rapidity, producing, of course, a copious flood of tears. Shampooing, the ceremony of
which lasts half an hour, and for which a penny is the usual compensation, is closed by
paring the nails of both toes and fingers. The Tartar proclamation prohibiting the
wearing of long hair, is never extended to the house of mourning; and wlien a family
is visited by the king of terrors, their feelings are so far respected, that they may violate
this despotic edict, and allow their locks to grow.

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SCEXE IN THE SUBURBS 01' TI.NC-HAE. fjS

SCENE IN THE SUBURBS OF TING-ll.U:.

" Here may be seen, in tiloodless pomp array'd,
The pasteboard triumph and tlie eavalciidu ;
By sports like these are all their cares beguil'd
The sports of children satisfy the child."

Goldsmith.

No regular day of rest and thanksgiving being appointed by Chinese lawgivers, the
people are more liable to transgress the limits of propriety in seizing on occasions
for mirth and festivity. And it is from this cause especially, that they are found to
convert very many of life's usual occurrences, into pretexts for merry-meetings ; but
no rejoicing can be complete, unaccompanied by a systematic procession, in which each
person is assigned an active part ; jokes, in China, having no point unless they are prac-
tical. Ting-hae, a populous, ancient, and commercial city, abounds in characters ever
ready to participate in some feat of activity, some public display, or some pseudo-religious
ceremony ; and the scenery of the locality, abounding in hill and dale, wood and
water, wild and cultivated districts, traces of early occupation, monuments of illustrious
persons, and lofty temples to the idols of the land, gives to each festal pomp a character
eminently dramatic. At tiie great pailoo, in the suburbs of Ting-hae, where a flat
bridge spans a creek margined with sedge, and rushes, and flags, the landscape is
peculiarly pleasing, and the spot is chosen as a theatre of mirth by parties from the
city. An endless variety of festivals and processions gives occasion for numerous
visits to these romantic passes, and the joyous dispositions of the Chinese render such
pageants in the highest degree extravagant. Like the populace of ancient Athens,
Rome, and Egypt, they connect the pretexts of their chiefest processions with
notions of religion, or philosophy; but, when these are tolerably exhausted, innumer-
able others, of a confessedly profane description, are employed. Considering that all
delights consist in material intercourse, the Chinaman concludes that his gods require
off'erings of food, displays of mirth, sounds of music, and everything that ministers to
the pleasure of the senses ; and under this belief it is that he suspends images across
the street, decorates his house-front with lanterns, makes offerings of incense and
fruits, and strikes his head with painful violence against the temple-floor.

Performers in a festivity are generally assembled in a booth or temporary erection ;
where viands of various kind, fruit, pastry, and other delicacies, are spread in profusion,
while prayers are offered, bells sounded, and flutes blown, with a determination tliat
measures the zeal of the performer. The gods frequently manifesting indift'erence
to the banquet, the votaries proceed to divide the dainties, some demolishing their
portions, while others cast theirs amongst the noisy and mirth-loving crowd. Sanctity
would appear to form no share in the ceremony : merriment, pleasantry, fun, in its

III. o

54 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

fullest sense, being the end and aim of every one's exertions. A bonfire of paper, or
of other easily-ignited matter, lighted without the building, is the signal for clearing the
temple, and for forming into a procession in which each has some particular duty allotted
to him. An advance-company furnished with gongs precede every show of this description,
and make the very welkin ring with redoubled blows of their muffled/^/ec^r«. Next come the
bannermen, bearing flags adorned with religious, military, or appropriate devices, followed
by a multitude of flute-players and drummers : the principal part of the sport consisting
in noise. Some treasure, some ark, some palpable object, must necessarily be carried
in procession, to which, as to the chief character in a royal cortege, particular respect is
paid, and each in turn is ambitious of succeeding to its support and carriage. Whatever
be the character or object of such demonstrations, their arrangements undeviatingly re-
semble each other. Burnt-oflerings — presents to be submitted in a hall of ancestors
— a bride going to her new home — a corpse proceeding to its last one, — are each in turn
the burdens of procession-men; and the feelings experienced upon those occasions are so
much alike, that spectators are unable to conjecture their precise objects from the demean-
our of the attendants.

An English gentleman rose one morning in Macao, at an early hour, to bid farewell
to an old friend who had resided in China for many years. On his way he encountered
a procession, preceded by a band of music. It occurred to him that it was a wedding,
and that by pushing aside the curtain of the sedan, he might get a sight of the bride.
But as soon as he raised the silk, he discovered that it was his old friend, whom the
Chinese were thus lionouring at his departure from their land for ever.

0 P I U M - S M 0 K E R S.

Ah ! then, methought, my iinseal'd eyes
With wonderment and sweet surprise,
First op'd upon a scene so fair,
That ecstasy alone could share.

J. S. H.

The rapidity with which the crime of opium-smoking has spread over the empire, may
be collected from the statement, that in 1821 only four thousand chests were in use,
while upwards of twenty thousand were required, to satisfy the appetite for this narcotic
drug, in the year 1832. Its deleterious and debasing effects were early known to the
imperial government, and every means that benevolence could suggest, duly exer-
cised to prevent its importation. Upwards of forty years ago, the governor of Canton
threatened, supplicated, the rejection of this dangerous import; and finding moral
sentiments inefi'ectual, artfully pointed at the monetary consideration : " Thus it is," says
his proclamation " that foreigners, by means of a vile and poisonous substance,
derive from this empire the most solid profits and advantages; but that our

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oriuM-sMOKEns. oa

countrymen should bliuiily pursue this destructive and ensnaring vice, even till death
is the consequence, without being undeceived, is indeed a fact odious and de|)loral)le
in the highest degree." Yet this very governor was himself a notorious opium-smoker.

Increase of duty, threats of punishment, and obviously ruinous elfects upon the
human frame, were still unable to resist the passion, the mania for opium, that in a few
years absorbed the whole people of China : and to such an extent had the contraband
and illegitimate trade in this noxious drug proceeded, that when war was recently declared
against England by the Celestial Empire, the imports of opium exceeded the exports
of tea bv three millions of dollars' value annually, whic:h balance of trade in our favour
was paid in silver.

The public censor, whose power had proved so disproportionate to the magnitude
of the offence, now declared that the buyer and seller of opium should be punished with
one hundred blows, and bo pilloried for two months ; and whoever should refuse to declare
the name of the vendor was judged an accomplice, and sentenced to a hundred blows, and
three years' exile. The severity of these regulations defeated their object ; for, henceforth,
few could be found so heartless as to expose his neighbour to the cangue, the bastinado,
and banishment, for the sale of a few pounds of opium. This result is much to be deplored ;
for now the spendthrift, gambler, drunkard, and votary of vice in all her deformed
aspects, drop into the opium-smokers, and make that detestable drug chiefly chargeable
with all the crime and guilt of the Chinese. Opium may, in particular instances, inflict
only one additional spot on a reputation deeply stained; but in how many has not the
fascination lured victims to the sin, who might otherwise have escaped the ruin !

It will probably be a melancholy satisfaction to Christian England to be assured, by
competent and credible authorities, that the accompanying illustration does not exaggerate
the deplorable spectacle exhibited by the interior of a smoking-house, into which the
initiated alone are admitted. Lord Jocelyn, who accompanied a late mission to China,
gives the following painful description of a smoking-house at Sincapore.

" One of the objects at this place that I had the curiosity to visit, was the o])ium-
smoker in his heaven ; and certainly it is a most fearful sight, although, perhaps, not so
degrading to the eye as the drunkard from sj)irits, lowered to the level of the brute and
wallowing in his filth. The idiot-smile and death-like stupor of the opium debauchee
has something far more awful to the gaze than the bestiality of the latter. Pity, if
possible, takes the place of other feelings, as we watch the faded cheek and haggartl
look of the being abandoned to the power of the drug : whilst disgust is uppermost at
the sight of the human creature levelled to the beast by intoxication.

" One of the streets in the centre of the town is wholly devoted to shops for the
sale of this j)oison : and here in the evening may be seen, after the labours ot the day
are over, crowds of Chinese, who seek these places to satisfy their depraved appetites.

" The rooms where they sit and smoke are surrounded by wooden couches, with
places for the head to rest ujion, and generally a side-room is devoted to gambling.
The pipe is a reed of about an inch in diameter, and the aperture in the bowl for the
admission of the opium is not larger than a pin's head The drug is prepared with

66 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

some kind of incense, and a very small portion is sufficient to charge it, one or two whiffs
being the utmost that can be inhaled from a single pipe ; and the smoke is taken into
the lungs, as from the hookah in India. On a beginner, one or two pipes will have an
effect, but an old stager will continue smoking for hours. At the head of each couch is
placed a small lamp, as fire must be applied to the drug during the process of inhaling ;
and from the difficulty of filling and properly lighting the pipe, there is generally a person
who waits upon the smoker to perform the office. A few days of this fearful luxury,
when taken to excess, will impart a pallid and haggard look to the features ;
and a few months, or even weeks, will change the strong and healthy man into
little better than an idiot-skeleton. The pain they suffer when deprived of the drug,
after long habit, no language can explain ; and it is only to a certain degree under
its influence, that their faculties are alive. In the hours devoted to their ruin, these
infatuated people may be seen at nine o'clock in the evening in all the different stages.
Some entering half-distracted, tofeed the craving appetite they had been obliged to subdue
during the day; others laughing and talking under the effects of a pipe; while the
couches around are filled with their different occupants, who lie languid, with an idiot-
smile upon their countenances, too completely under the influence of the drug, to regard
passing events, and fast merging to the wished-for consummation. The last scene in
this tragic play is generally a room in the rear of the building, a species of morgue or
dead-house, where lie sheltered those who have passed into the .state of bliss the opium-
smoker madly seeks — an emblem of the long sleep to which he is blindly hurrying.''*

It may be asked, can no remedies be discovered for a vice so deplorable, a disease so
corroding to the heart of the nation ? Yes, let the Chinese abolish despotism, enlarge the
liberty of the people — remove prohibitory duties, cultivate foreign commerce — establish
philanthropic institutions — and receive, the Gospel ; then will the distinction between
virtue and vice, truth and falsehood, honour and shame, be understood, and the duties
of the public censor become less onerous and more valuable.

AMOY, FROM THE OUTER HARBOUR.

" Again their own shore rises on the view.
No more polluted with a hostile hue :
No sullen ship lies bristling o'er the foam,
A floating dungeon — all is hope and home."t

Byron.

When Du Halde dwelt amongst the Chinese, Amoy was much valued as a commercial
position, and, had the empire enjoyed free institutions, the trade of Eastern China
would unquestionably have centered in this picturesque locality. " Amoy is a famous
port, hemmed in on one side by the islands, which are high, and shelter it from every

♦ Six Months with the Chinese Expedition, by Lord Jocelyn, &e. t Vide Vol. II., p. 69.

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AMOV, rilO.M THE INNER iiARnouu. 57

wind ; it is also so spaoious, tliat it can contain many thousands of vessels ; and the sea
there is so deep, that the largest ships may come np close to the shore, and ride there
in perfect safety. You see there, at all times, a great number of Chinese junks, and
about twenty years ago, you might see there many European vessels ; now they come
hither hut seldom, and all the trade is removed to Canton. The emperor keeps six or
seven ttiousand men there in garrison, under the command of a Chinese general. In
entcrinn- the haven, you double a cape, or rock, which thus divides itself into two, almost
as the Mingaret does in tlie port of Brest. l"he rock is visible, and rises several feet
above the water. Three leagues thence, stands a little island, having a hole through
which you see from one side to the other, and called, on this account, " the ]5ored
Island." Between this port and Formosa, the islands of Pong-hou form a small
archijjplago, which are occupied by a Chinese garrison, and the mandarin who resides
there has a constant eye upon vessels that trade between China and Formosa." When
Mr. GutzlafF visited this "famous port," so many years after, he found its natural
features unaltered, and the prejudices of the people, or rather of the government,
equally unchanged. The city, however, had outgrown the Jesuit's accurate descrip-
tion, having a circuit of sixteen miles, and containing upwards of "200,000 inhabitants.
Numerous temples arose amidst the houses, and pagodas towered over the narrow ways.
Wealth has accumulated here in the hands of a few, leaving poverty still to be the lot
of many, and the opening of the port to foreign trade will necessarily unfold new-
avenues of prosperity to the inhabitants of the city and suburbs. Already, a fleet of
200 junks is actively engaged in the Formosa and Japan trade, and the province of
Fokien derives its chief revenues from the duties collected in the port of Amoy.

It was to this sheltered, secure, and favourite harbour, that the British merchants
directed their principal expeditions for the revival of trade with China; here the
Delight ship anchored in 1685, the Hardwicke in 1744, the Lord Amherst in 1832; but
all their efforts were frustrated by the jealousy and inhospitality of the Tartar rulers.
Besides one large island, Ko-long-soo, that interrupts the winds and waves, and leaves a
passage on either side into the retiring bay, several rocky islets grace the approach from
sea towards the river ; of these, Chea-soo, Sio-ta, and Toa-ta, are fortified. The granite
heights that command the channel and the suburbs, are also dignified with military
structures on their lofty pinnacles, but, so elevated above sea-level, and so insignificant
in capacity and strength, that they are wholly useless as protective positions. These
heights are much admired, even by those to whom they are long familiar; and, in the
deep ravines that separate them, are seen magnificent temples to Fo, sumptuous private
villas, and lofty and many-storied pagodas. When the British took possession of Amoy,
and silenced all its batteries, the scenery of these hills excited the curiosity of our
brave soldiers and sailors, and, in their wanderings among the crags, they discovered a
number of stone jars, coated with a tenacious lute. On opening these vessels, they were
found to contain perfect human skeletons, dislocated, each bone carefully packed, ami
numbered or marked with red paint. The discoverers have not guaranteed any solution of
this singular problem, — nor does any probable one present itself, even after reflection.

III. V

58 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

A MARRIAGE PROCESSION

AT THE BLUE-CLOUD CREEK.

" So softly shines the beauteous bride
By love and conscious virtue led.
O'er her new mansion to preside,
And placid joys around her head.'

That peculiar reserve of the sexes towards each other, common to most Eastern countries,
prevails with as much strictness in China in the present century as in the earliest period
of recorded history. When the ages of seventeen and fourteen have been respectively
reached by the intended parties to a marriage-contract, the father of the suitor originates
the matrimonial project, and makes overtures for an union on grounds purely commercial.
This infelicitous custom arises from the still more illiberal act of prohibiting all associa-
tion between the lovers before marriage — a custom which strongly marks the inferiority
of Pat^an to Christian communities. If the practice be strictly observed, it is a cruel
and slavish one ; if connived at, it mixes up falsehood in a rite that should be one of the
purest amongst men. In the higher, that is, richer classes, duplicity, artifice, and conni-
vance are permitted, and "a match-maker," called usually"a go-between," is indispensable
to the formation of every union. Once upon a time, "the man of the moon" was seen in
a temple of worship, consulting the marriage-book of fate, by an enamoured suitor, and
leaning over a green bag containing the red silken strings for binding the feet of
man and wife. Addicted to fatalism like all his countrymen, the lover concluded that
the stars should be consulted, and " a go-between" employed for the purpose of so doing,
in his contemplated marriage. And this ceremony is religiously observed, and match-
makers are so engaged professionally. To them belongs the duty of carrying those fond
and secret communications, which young hearts burn to interchange ; and it is their
peculiar province to have the omens consulted— the flight of birds observed — the sticks
of fate thrown— and the stars appealed to. It is to this latter mode of ascertaining the
sincere foundation of a mutual affection, that Chaucer alludes, when he makes one of
his most interesting heroines say —

" I followed aye my inclination
By virtue of my constellation."

When the stars are propitious, the astrologer is remunerated, and the match-maker is not
neglected, especially when she appears at the residence of the young lady, to announce
the agreeable tidings, and demand a written promise of marriage from her parents.
Upon the signing of the contract, rich gifts are presented by the bridegroom, consisting
of gold, silver, silk, sheep, wine and fruits, according to the wealth of the parties.
From this moment the lovers may be considered as united ; the youth now puts on
a scarlet scarf, a joyous emblem, after which his father places formally on his head, first
a bonnet of cloth, next a cap of leather, and lastly a mandarin's or nobleman's chaplet.

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A MARHIAGF. PUOCESSION . 59

The lady also changes her costume: she braids her hair as matrons do, f'asteiiiiin; it
with a pin presented by her lover— her companions now shave her face, and ])erforni
other friendly offices for her; after which they sit and weej) with her, until the day slie
bids farewell to her parentid home.

On the day appointed by the astrologer, a procession, consisting of a variety of
objects, and a vast midtitude of performers, hired for the occasion, attends at the
residence of the bride, to conduct her home with every demonstration of joy and con-
gratulation : articles of household furniture, chairs of various forms, but all with straight
backs, cushions, garments, lanterns, pavilions, and other valuables, are borne by the
procession-men. These articles are supposed to be presents from the bridegroom to his
bride, but being now a customary display, the whole may be hired from tradesmen
whose chief business is to furnish forth all such pageants. Tall frames, resembling the
laundress's horse, are borne aloft, from which depend sumptuous female dresses : these
are followed by carved chests for containing them, then tables, stands for ornaments, jams
and preserves, spirits and wine, fowl in cages, and hogs in penfoids. Geese, from their
travelling in flocks together, at a particular season, guided by instinct, have long been
considered in China as an emblem of fidelity and conjugal attachment. These animals,
therefore, but generally of wood or tin, form a very principal symbol in a marriage pro-
cession. Noise being requisite to all entertainments, vociferation is not only tolerated,
but invited; and while the bannermen, carrying flags inscribed with mottos, and decorated
with the image of the four-footed dragon, exercise their lungs in swelling the joyous
chorus, a number of performers on wind instruments and drums, completes the
" concordant discord." The sedan-chair of the bride is always a piece of elaborate
workmanship, covered with scarlet and gold, and calculated to impress the spectator
with the idea that beauty and virtue in the softer sex are indeed much valued in the
Chinese empire. Behind the bridal chair, or canopy, servants clad in scarlet liveries
attend, followed by a number of sedans, in which the elderly ladies connected with the
bridal family are conveyed.

The procession having halted before the gates of the bridegroom, a purifying fire,
whose flame points to heaven, is kindled in the entrance of the vestibule, and over it
the bride is carried by the matrons who attended her from her home. After the per-
formance of this ceremony, she is conducted into an inner chamber, called the " hall of
songs," where she partakes of a repast with her husband, for the first and last time of
their lives, and then assists him in worshipping the matrimonial goose : on the table is
placed "the wine of the decorated candle," from which the bridegroom having made
four bows, drinks three times ; and the bride, covering her face with one hand, with the
other raising the goblet to her lips as if pledging her husband, completes the "excellent
ceremony," the marriage covenant, by tasting the " cup of alliance." The day after the
ceremony, the husband and wife attend some place of worship, and visit their parents
and relations ; the second day, they receive their young friends and former associates ;
and on the third, the bride goes in state to her former home, where an entertainment is
provided for a number of bidden guests.

60 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

LANDING-PLACE AT THE Y UK- SHAN.

Upon those mystic waves of thine

Time finds a symbol, and faith sets a sign.

Thus does Time's tlood roll silently away —

Losing the sunshine of its earlier day. Thf. Watkb of Life.

Few scenes in the whole winding water-way of the Kan-kiang present a more
picturesque assemblage of objects than the vicinity of the great bridge of Yuk-shan.
Here the granite ridges descend from their majestic elevation to human accessibility,
and to human purposes also, leaving rocky ledges everywhere along the river-cliffs, where
habitations are erected; and there earth may be deposited, or disintegration take place,
sufficient to sustain vegetable life. On one bank a toll or custom-house is established,
in front of which waves the imperial flag, one of the most decided badges of despotism
in existence. The officer of customs is seated before the door, sheltered from the rays
of a burning sun by a bamboo umbrella of considerable diameter, beneath the weight of
which his slave is sinking ; while the duty of examining each cargo, detecting violators
of excise-law, and repairing of pit-pans for the service of his men, is proceeding with
alacrity on all sides. Tea, silk, cotton, are conveyed hither in country barges, and
with the stream, from the fertile district north of the Melung mountains ; but there is
a superstitious reverence attached to the bridge of the "Nine Arches," which leads the
Chinaman to fear a change of fortune, should he not change his junk when he arrives
within view of this ancient monument.

Famous as is the structure that bestrides the flood at Yuk-shan, the roadway is but
a few paces in width ; the architect having only intended it for those who knew " to ride
on a bay trotting-horse over four-iiich'd bridges." No idea of terminal or lateral pres-
sure ever entered the calm conception of the engineer; he calculated on the strength of
the materials, perpendicularity of the piers, adhesive quality of the cement, and obedience
of the emperor's subjects, who would not dare to drive a team of cattle, if they possessed
any such useful concentration of animal power, along its narrow causeway.

Fauy-tchoui, a celebrated hero of the days of old, constructed this bridge for the
safe passage of his army; but, being a sorcerer and a soldier, he declared it to be
unlucky to pass under it, in the same barge that arrived at its arches either from
the lake, or from the fountain. Possibly the hero might have distrusted the stability
of his structure, and been desirous of keeping off heavily-laden junks. However,
some years after, a resolute character in the district, Ouan-tche, who conducted
an extensive carrying- trade, determined to make experiment of the fact, but,
before he entered the arches, repaired to a neighbouring temple, or hall of ancestors.
Here he commenced calling on the shades of departed greatness, and bowing most
reverently to the idols and pictures ; his trackers at length becoming uneasy at his
protracted absence, entered the hall in search of their master, where they beheld him

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SILK FARM AT II()0-CltO«'. 61

enacting ko-tows with the utmost diligence, as if lie had only then begun. After some
dela}', they ventured to approach, and signify that he had been perhaps longer
engaged in worship than was beneficial, or jjrobably intentional ; but in vain — for the
spell had bound him, and from that day to that day twelvemonth, Ouan-tche never
ceased making ko-tows in the hall of ancestors at the bridge of Yuk-shan. Satisfied of
his sin, on being released from enchantment, he acknowledged his fault, and immediately
setting to work, built the long line of store-houses on the south bank of the river, which
from that ])eriod has served as an entrepot for all goods m transitu.

SILK FARMS AT IIOO-CIIOW.

Behold tliat land so bripht and fair :
Whate'er the eye delighteth in is there :
Whate'er the teaming earth, the genial heav'n,
Can give to man, to them is largely given.

The planting, rearing, and care of the mulberry-tree, the culture of the silk-worm,
reeling off the product of the chrysalides, dyeing and winding it, in subsequent stages,
besides other operations connected with the manufacture of the great staple of Chin;i,
have been both illustrated and described in the preceding volumes.* The accompanying
view represents the buildings of a wealthy silk-farmer, situate on a tributary to the
imperial canal, in the immediate vicinity of Hoo-chow-foo. This agreeable town is
the capital of a department, in the fertile province of Che-keang, and the locaUty is
termed by Chinese geographers, " The Silk-Worm District." From the productive,
character of the soil, salubrious climate, and ample natural irrigation, the vicinity
of Hoo-chow has been long amongst the most favoured places iu Che-keang; and,
the surpassing beauty of the scenery on the shores of Lake Tai, has drawn hither many
wealthy residents. Historians make the first foundations of Hoo-chow co-eval with
the Chun-tsew, or spring and autumn of the Chinese historical sera ; and they write
also, that it was then named Koo-ching, and, under the epoch of the three kingdoms,
Woo-hing. The antiquity of this flourishing city, however, is indisputable, as indeed
the density of its population, high state of cultivation all around, and unbounded riches
of the inhabitants, already sufficiently testify.

Seated at the bridge that spans the afflux of the rivulet with the canal, is the well-
known farm of Lou, a family settled here for ages, and the events of whose past
years have furnished materials for dramas and novels that are highly popular.
The buildings are rather comfortable than costly, affording accommodation to the
venerable head of the house, with his sons and daughters-in-law, and grand-children.
In some instances, (unhappily rare ones,) favourite daughters are permitted to
bring their husbands to the paternal roof, reversing thereby the national custom of

• Vide Vol. I., p. 56. Vol. II., p. 8, et seq. Vol. III., p. 25.

III. Q

62 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

marriage. The raw silk, in hanks, is brought from the reeling sheds, to stores adjoining
the homestead, and, when a sufficient accumulation is made, placed in broad flat-bot-
tomed boats with bamboo canopies, and transported to the canal ; once on that high-
way of commerce, its destiny, although in one respect fixed, is in another uncertain, for,
it may be bought by a salesman as a simple -speculation, it may be transferred to a
home-manufacturer, or forwarded to the markets of Hang-tchou and Chusan. Lou is
indifferent as to the object for which it is purchased, or the direction it may take ; his
life, a mere exhibition of selfishness, being devoted to the acquisition of wealth, for the
sole purpose of surrounding his rural palace with all the luxuries that it can purchase.

It is from this district the silk is obtained for the robes and garments of the inipe-
perial family : the richest mandarins often bespeak the crops of a season from the same
locality ; and, foreign merchants profess themselves able to distinguish the silk of Hoo-
chow-foo from that produced in other parts of China.

A CHINESE CEMETERY.

The sunlight gilds the walls
Of kingly sepulchres enwrought with brass,
And the long shadow of the cypress falls

Athwart the common grass. Marv Howitt.

It was the custom of the East, and in its earliest ages, to detach every profane object, or
relic, or even sentiment, with the utmost scrupulosity, from the sacred shrines of their
gods. This practice will be found to have prevailed invariably amongst the ancients —
those that observed the law, and those that neither observed nor knew it. Mount Nebo
witnessed the last moments of Moses' mission upon earth. Where was Aaron laid at
rest ? Abraham was entombed in the cave of Machpelah ; even the holy sepulchre of our
Lord was appointed in a garden : nor do idolaters of all classes appear to have been
less attentive to this regulation. Whatever may have been the root, origin, or source
of the practice, in all Eastern countries cemeteries are detached from places of
worship. The Chinese extend the regulation still further, for they strictly prohibit
interment within the walls, or suburbs, of any town or city; properly concluding, that
the resting-places of the dead should be at a suitable distance from the dwellings of
the living. And this example is now beginning to be followed : Parisians have their
celebrated Pere la Chaise ; Londoners, their joint-stock cemeteries ; and in some in-
stances, ancient tombs have been removed from the choir-wall, to which they seemed to
have a prescriptive right, and consigned to spots less holy. — Custom, long use of privi-
lege, tacit admission of an indulgence for a lapse of years, produced in the minds of
European Christian communities so strong a prejudice in favour of interment, not only
in churchyards, but within the sacred temple-walls, that all attempts to induce its aban-
donment have proved abortive, until recent years. The Grand Duke of Tuscany was
the first European who endeavoured to establish a public cemetery, at a convenient

A CUINESE CEMETERY. (iU

distance from liis city of Florence ; but the attempt to remove the coflins from tlie vaiihs
of the different churches, produced an insurrt'itimi amongst his subjects.

Chinese pagodas, Mohammedan minarets, and Irish pillar-towers, are independent
structures, removed some little distance from the temple, or mosque, or basilic,
because their immediate uses were not sacred. In later ages, the tower was placed
on the basilic, and became the pedestal of the tapering spire. Cities of the dead,
therefore, are in China separated from those of the living, but furnished with buiklings
and structures, and designs if possible more various and fantastic. A barren district,
especially if the site be open and agreeable, is chosen for the demesne of the dead ;
and here the graves of the poor are seen in countless assemblages, resembling the bar-
rows so frequently observed in Asia !Minor, as well as in many parts of Europe. The
rich, however, assert their prerogative of distinction even in the grave, by the eccentricity
and pomp of their vast mausoleums. Buildings of stone, or brick, often two or more
stories in height, distinguish the mandarin's last earthly tenement. The designs are
circular, polygonal, or some other regular mathematical figure, and frequently a mural
defence of considerable strength effectually prevents intrusion. The crescent is a
favourite shape for an enclosure, and midway between its horns is placed a })iHar, or
obelisk, or urn, or other sepulchral erection. Paths deeply worn between the many
monuments attest the strength of filial piety, the grief of a widowed heart, the immi-
tigable character of maternal sorrow ; and along these evidences of a broken sjjirit may
hourly be seen the mourning train, passing to perform the last sad rites of sepulture,
or to pour forth unavailing sorrow over a spot that just witnessed a similar scene.
When the soil permits, trees of a drooping kind are generally planted amongst the
tombs. The weeping-willow, and lignum-vitae with its pensile branches, are the usual
accompaniments of these sad localities, besides the cypress, always beautifully sombre.

It is customary in China to have coffins prepared for the occupancy of particular
tenants, from their youth upwards. The Emperor provides his coffin on the day he
ascends the throne. Contributions are given to the friends of the poor, to provide
handsome coffins; and the humblest classes desire nothing more than that their remains
shall be laid in "the. eternal mansion," in a coffin of cedar, or other odoriferous wood.
This point being happily accomplished, the soothsayers are still to be consulted as to
the most lovely and suitable spot " in the ten-thousand-years' felicitous ground ;" and
it is from the delay which this functionary makes, while pretending to learn the will of
the gods, that the unseemly exhibition occurs, of coffins lying exposed upon the ])athway,
upon the greensward, or beneath the shelter of a tree. It sometimes hapjjcns that
the priests are unable to ascertain by the Sticks of Fate, or otherwise, where precisely
the remains should be interred : should the delay be so protracted, that decay actually
takes place, then the patient relatives, placing the body on a pile, submit it to com-
bustion ; after which they carefully collect the ashes, and deposit them in a funeral urn.

64 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

A DEVOTEE CONSULTING THE STICKS OF FATE.

What fates impose, that men must needs abide ;

It boots not to resist both wind and tide.

Shakspeare.

With less diversity of appliances, less delusive pretexts, than the Greeks and Romans,
the Chinese practise upon the credulity of their countrymen, and, by artifices the most
contemptible, feed their fondness for fatalism. In every species of situation, public or
private, where the three ways meet in any city, town, village, on the summits of the
highest mountains, in the recesses of the deepest vales, in the most unfrequented soli-
tudes, in the lonely shelter of almost impenetrable forests, in situations as opposite as
the passions of one human heart to those of another, temples of fortune or fate are
erected, the doors of which stand open for ever, inviting the children of chance to
enter, and seek their destiny. Here an altar is raised to this most capricious and
purblind goddess, on which vases are arranged, containing flattened pieces of wood
resemblin'T the leaves of a Chinese MS. book, or the spatula of a chemist. On these,
which are called the Sticks of Fate, certain words are inscribed, having a mysterious
connection with each other, and with the contents of a sibylline library, kept in the
temple for reference and consultation.

In those deep solitudes, where the paucity of visiters would render the subsistence
of a priest upon their bounty precarious, the temple is untenanted ; the Sticks stand in
their urn, protected by superstition only ; and the book of fate, like the ladles to our
wayside fountains, is enchained to the pillars of the altar. In great thoroughfares there
Is always an attendant bonze, a large supply of books of reference, and hideous figures,
allegorical of the darkness that interrupts our view into futurity. Occasions of applying
to the Sticks of Fate, are sometimes of moment ; such as undertaking a journey,
building a house, purchasing a new wife, or burying a deceased relation. The devotee,
having paid the bonze in advance, takes up the vase, and continues to shake it with
becoming timidity until a pair of Sticks falls out. The priest then examines the inscriptions,
and, comparing them with the pages, or paragraphs, or number, in the prophetic volume,
declares whether the applicant is likely to succeed in his undertaking. Indefatigable in all
the imposts of worldly industry, the Chinaman is reluctant to obey even that very deity
whose aid he solicits ; and, should a first or a second throw fail to afford that entire
satisfaction which he anticipated, he perseveres until conquered fortune yields the victory.
The purity of his gratitude is now displayed by the clear flame of a pile which he
immediately kindles, throwing into it pieces of paper, covered with tinfoil ; and it is in
these ceremonies that the greatest portion of the tinfoil imported into China from Europe
is consumed.

The German mode of ascertaining the will of fate was almost identical with that
now practised by the Chinese, and their custom of divining by lots is conducted with a

A nEVOTEE CONSULTING THE STICKS OF lATE. 65

degree of superstition not exceeded by any other nation. Tlie branch of a fruit-tree is
cut into small pieces, which, being all distinctly marked, are thrown at random on a
white garment. If a question of public interest be depending, the priest of the temple
performs the ceremony ; if it be nothing offered to the gods, he holds up three times
each segment of the twig, and as he marks nine in succession, interprets the decrees of
fate.* The peasantry of England sometimes consult lots also, but never with a serious
confidence in their guidance. "I remember seeing a company of gleaners, who, being
at a loss whither to bend their steps, took a walking-stick, and set it as near the per-
pendicular as their skill would allow them, and pursued the direction in which the oracle
fell."-|- The Jews were upbraided for a practice not very unlike this — "My people
ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto tliem."J

Oracles were consulted by the Greeks and Romans, and soothsayers, augurs, and
attendant priests were attached to Apollo's temples, in several remarkable places of
antiquity. To oracular consultation succeeded a belief in the sincerity of the magic art,
and many of the most powerful monarchs upon earth disgraced the regal purple, and
dishonoured the name of sovereign, by indulging in a practice at once so wicked and
unwise. Nero, Heliogabalus, Maxentius, and Julian the Apostate, were all patrons of
witchcraft, and believers in the art of divination. Nor does this morbid taste appear
to have subsided amongst the rulers of the people who flourished in the middle ages of
European history, for we there read of King Eric, who by means of his magic cap could
raise and allay tempests, remove himself or others from ])lace to place insensibly, and
cause misfortune to his enemies or rivals. In Lapland there once lived a witch,
Agaberta, who could transform herself publicly into various shapes, and foretell the
fortunes of all who approached her. Simon Magus, Apollonius Tyaneas, Pasetes,
Jamblicus, were all famous in the history of witchcraft, and are said to have had power
to build castles in the air, represent armies in marching order or in battle-array, com-
mand wealth, feed thousands, protect themselves from persecution, reveal secrets, tell
what events were going forward in distant countries, and make the dead suddenly
reappear on earth. The means by which they gave a character of reality to their
performances were secret, consisting of spells, philters, amulets, charms, images, stamped
coins, reference to constellations, knots, barbarous sentences, metoposcopy, and cliiro-
nianey. By such a variety of instruments, they were enabled to construct the most
complicated engines for delusion, imposition, and crime. And so decej)tive, so attractive,
have some of these proved amongst the timid and superstitious, that the very existence
of the race of gipsies is attributable to the practice of a single one amongst them —
palmistry.

* Tacitus de Moribus Gerniaiujnim. t Tradescant Lay. i Hosca iv. 12.

III.

66 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

GREAT TEMPLE AT HONAN.

" But 0, bow vile an idol proves this god !" . . . Twelfth Night.

This is the most famous temple of Buddhism in southern China, and, as its follies and
idolatries have been witnessed by many Europeans, the authenticity of the illustration,
notwithstanding its extravagant character, will encounter less disbelief. In a vast edifice
of wood, and paint, and paper, decorated with countless figures, emblematical of some
good or evil passion of the heart ; hung with pictures, miserably executed, yet sufficiently
intelligible, representing the trial, and condemnation, and punishments of sinners in the
lower world, while no effort is made to express the pleasures of Paradise, — adorned also
with gaudy ribbons, splendid china jars, and various inexplicable ornaments — the three
great idols of Honan are enthroned. A dais is placed beneath a minor temple or portico,
supported by wooden pillars, painted red, and richly gilded ; allegorical images of the
past, present, and future, upwards of ten feet in height, are seated within it, and shining in
golden majesty ; they strike simply by magnitude, for there is nothing commanding, inter-
esting, or terrifying in their aspect. Heen-tsae-foh, (the present,) occupies the centre;
Kwo-kue-foh, (the past,) is on his right; and We-lae-foh, (the future,) on his left- These
constitute the Triad, or three precious Buddhas, an ancient object of adoration amongst
the Chinese. Before each colossus stands an altar loaded with offerings, and furnished
with cups, jars, vases, and vessels for holding joss-sticks, and incense, and flowers, and
perfume. Tinfoil is employed in profusion; pastiles are continually emitting fragrance ;
and the flame of an ever-burning lamp represents the inextinguishable nature of
Buddhas' rule over mankind. A tablet above the idols' throne is inscribed with Chinese
characters that may be interpreted, " The great, powerful, and precious palace."

The most remarkable features, both of Honan temple, and the creed to which it is
devoted, having been amply detailed in the preceding pages,* it will be sufficient to
add in this place those reflections only which present themselves with peculiar obvious-
ness. Similarity between the ceremonies, of the early Christian church of Europe,
and the Buddhists temple of China, is so remarkable, that none can be so hardy as to
deny it; and the parallels that maybe instituted between the precepts of Christianity and
those of Buddhism, afford encouragement to missionary enterprise. In the moral works
of Confucius (Isaiah), there is a passage, plainly declaring, that an individual was to
arise in the West, uniting in his person the offices of king, priest, and prophet, (Christ,) ;
that he should be attended by a female, whom the Chinese call "the mother of heaven,"
(the Virgin Mary) ; that at the age of twelve years he should withdraw from public
life, but return again afterwards, and preach the metempsychosis, (the Resurrection
from the dead) ; that having founded his religion he was to be transformed, (the
Ascension,) into the god Fo, one person but three forms, (the Trinity) ; and this is
the Triad, now represented by the three golden Buddhas. It would not be difficult
to pursue the analogy further.

• Vol. I., p. 20, 37, 66, 68. Vol. H., p. 48, 52.

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THE EMPEROR TAOU-KWAXG. 07

THE EMPEROR TAOU - KWANG REVIEWL\G HIS GUARDS,

PALACE OF PEKING.

The groves of polish'd spears, the targets bound
With circling gold, the shining helms around
Against the sun with full reflection play,
Kival bis light, and shed a second day.

The Henkiade.

Political feeling, unavoidable discontent amongst a certain portion of the governed,
and a growing desire for extended freedom, combine in exposing the imperial throne to
daily danger. A Tartar corps, like the Swiss guard of Paris in times gone by, forms
the chiefest protection against treachery or surprise ; and these military men are treated
with a marked distinction by their royal master. Although their fidelity has never been
impeached, and the rays of imperial favour shine brightly on them, the least abuse of
power on their part' would endanger their existence. Of this fact, the fate of the
Janissaries at Constantinople, and of the Mamelukes at Cairo, presents an appalling
argument, derived from the analogy of despotic governments.

In the court of the Three Halls, in the palace at Peking, an annual review of the
Tartar guards is held, by the emperor in person, as the new year opens. Along the
embattled terrace in front of the extended colonnades, the great officers of the palace are
ranged ; while Taou-kwang, seated on the throne, and surrounded by his ministers, looks
complacently down upon the brave defenders of the yellow standard.

These Tartar lifeguards might possibly display the most courageous bearing, if called
to defend their monarch's crown ; but, their mode of life, and imperfect discipline, do
not atford much favourable promise. Although it is a practice of the Ping-poo, a military
tribunal, to institute comparisons between their great officers, and the most ferocious
kinds of animals ; recommending that they should be " tigers in their fierce deportment ;'
although they deck their troops with skins of the lion and the tiger, and paint their
shields with the most hideous devices ; yet is their uniform but a mere meretricious
costume, and their discipline a most entire mockery of the military art

The full uniform of a Tartar officer on a field-day, or occasion of review, is compli-
cated and costly, but not compact. A polished helmet, resembling an inverted cone, and
ending in a crest about eight inches above the head, is adorned with gold and with coloured
hair ; a robe of blue or purple silk, and studded with gilt buttons, envelopes the person, and
descends to the boots, which are of black satin ; while the handles of their swords and horns
of their bows, and stocks of their match-locks glitter with precious gems. The dress of the
privates is less gorgeous, but equally fantastic; their robes are of stuff striped in imitation
of tiger-skin, their cap or helmet lofty, and shaped as a tiger's head; and, on their round

66 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

sliields of bamboo cane are raised devices, either a dragon's figure, or a tiger's head. No
duty, however, seems to be imposed on the imperial guard, beyond the watchful care of
their august master; they are permitted to pursue commercial avocations, relieving
each other in their duty at the palace ; but they reside always within the Tartar city,
which is distinct, and separated by a lofty wall from the Chinese section of Peking. The
ceremony of a review within the Imperial palace is necessarily imposing; the costume, if
not suited to European taste, is still rich and brilliant; the banners are always numerous
and of the most gaudy colours, while palanquins, lanterns, dragons, and other devices,
carried by the standard-bearers, confer a character of sumptuousness, in which the Chinese
falsely imagine that true nobility consists. None but the imperial band is allowed
to perform: it includes kettle-drums and gongs of large diameter, wind instruments
shaped like dragons, serpents, and fish, besides an unlimited number of clarionets and
lutes.

END OF VOL. III.

FISHER, SON, & CO.. CA,\TON.PBrSS. LONDON.

University ol Calitornia
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