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Full text of "Primitive civilizations; or, Outlines of the history of ownership in archaic communities"

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PRIMITIVE CIVILIZATIONS 



OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OE OWNERSHIP IN 
ARCHAIC COMMUNITIES 



PRIMITIVE CIVILIZATIONS 



OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF OWNERSHIP 
IN ARCHAIC COMMUNITIES 



E. J. SIMCOX 

AUTHOR OF •' NATURAL LAW," FTC 



VOLUME II 




ILontimt 
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO 

NHW YORK: MACMILLAN \- CO 
1S94 



KK -A. 1 


' S 1 


: Pkim 


IN ■ A 


: an: Li 





--' 



CON T E N T S . 



BOOK IV. 
O WNERSHIP IN CHINA. 



I. 
II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 



XIII. 

XIV. 

XV 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 



The Land and its History .... 

The Ancient Monarchy .... 

Political Ethics and Political Economy 
The Rural Economy of the Chow 
Industry ax i) Trade in the Middle Antiquity of C 
Social and Domestic Relations ix Mediaeval Chi 
Feudalism and the Fall of Chow 
The Philosophers of the Hundred Schools . 
The Usurpation of T'sin and the Burning of the B 
Reign of the Hax Dynasty 206 B.a-229 a.d.) . 
From the Three Kingdoms to the Souy Dynasty 
620 a.d.) ........ 

The Tang Dynasty (620-907 a.d.) . 

Historical Sketch ...... 

Intercourse with Foreigners 

Literature. Orthodoxy, and Buddhism 

Agrarian Economy of the Tang .... 
Chinese Fixaxce from the Hax to the Tang Dyn 
Posterior Dynasties and the Sung 907-1280 a.d., 
Agrariax Ecoxomy and the Innoyator's Laws 
Taxation and Fixaxce under the Sunt; . 
Two Literary Statesmen of the Sung Dynasty 
Controversies, the Schools and the Examinatio 
Foreign Accounts of China uxder the Scng ax 

First Moxi ;ols 

The Mongols after Kuhla 

The Ming Dynas'iy 1568-1649 a.d.. 
Education. Art. and Social Cuaxoes under i id 
Forejox Accoux is 01 China uxder the Vino. 
The Van kid.: Dyna>ty. call; d Tsixo, d :; ; 

Contemporary Chixa 

Life in Chinese Villages .... 
The Waof.s and i )r< ,axi/.\ in in i i! I xdu-o ry 
Com -merc 1: and Trade ..... 

Chinese Moralists on Interest and Fronts . 

Chinese Merchants of the Present Day 



hin. 

N'A 



00 KS 



16 

SO 
42 

54 
65 
78 
85 
97 
108 

123 

13- 

158 

14- 
150 
1 55 
165 
'79 
192 
200 
200 



-9' 
3 : -• 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



II A : i 

XXIX. The Law of Marriage and Inheritance . 

XXX. Agrarian Laws axd Customs 

XXXI. Financial \xd Mercantile Offences 
XXXII. Miscellaneous Laws; Administration and Socia 

Institutions 

Conclusions 



344 
356 
16; 



37i 
334 



APPENDICES, 



A. Egyptian Chroxology axd Dyxasties 'I. 42 

is. Egyptian Irrigation I. 145 .... 

C. Welsh Mortgaoks I. 184, 323 .... 

I). Bap.yloxian Dyxastiks and Reigns I. 259, 

E. Metric Sysi ems of Babylonia and Ecyfi I. 337,; 

F. Pf.RU (I. 4, 557 : II. 13, 

G. Repori of thk Malabar Marriage Commission (I. 553 
H. Chinese Classics 'Gins. II. 11. 189 .... 

I. China and Babylonia and thk Yi Kixg 'I. 31 : II. 16 

K. Chinese Families and Irish "Fines" (II. 69. 120 

L. Chinese Dynasties 'II. 123 

M. Use or the Staff 'II. 77 

Index 



399 
410 

416 
4?4 
433 
452 
458 

475 
480 
492 
496 

497 
501 



BOOK IV 



OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 



VOL. II. — J'.C. 



Tin: head of the Ka family was richer than the Duke of Chow 

had been, and yet lvew collected his imposts for him, and in- 
creased his wealth. 

The Master said, "lie is no disciple of mine. My little 
hi! Iren beat th : drum and assail him." d v '..' '/a v A/i.u'ls's. 

Yao went to visit Hua. The border-warden of Una said, 

'' Ila ! a Sage. My best respects to you, sir. 1 wish you a long 
life." 

" Don': ! " replied Yao. 

■' I wish you plenty of money/' continued the border-warden. 

•' Don't ! " replied Yao. 

" And many sons." added he. 

" Don't ! " replied Yao. 

" !. mg life, plenty of money, and m my - ns, : crie 1 th : 
.. irden ; "these are what all men desire. How is it you 
:.'. me do iv > want them ':" 

'• Many sons." answered Yao, "are many anxieties. I'lenty 
ofm mey means plenty of trouble. Long life in\ 'Ives much 
that is no: pleasant to put up with. These three gifts do not 
;. Ivai e virtue : therefore I clc :lined then 

"At first I took yo'.i to: a Sage," ii 1 the warden, '"'but now 
i lind you are a mere man. Heaven, in sending man into the 

i rid. gives t i eacli 1: - pr per function. If you have many 
sons, and give to each his proper function, what cause have 

■* I have 1 ir.I f men i:?i; . the ways of our great land ; 

■ '. ■ i irbarians. b'.it 1 have not \ et heard of anv beir.e 



PRIMITIVE CIVILIZATIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE LAND AND ITS HISTORY. 

The natural history of Egypt may be said to begin and end with the 
inundation of the Nile, but it is impossible to give so compendious an 
account of the conditions which enable the soil of China to maintain one- 
third of the human race. The fortunes and history of China are mys- 
teriously linked with the geology of Central Asia; and the interdependence 
of the different members of the favourite Chinese triad — Heaven, Earth, 
and Man — is nowhere more vividly illustrated than in the experience of 
the Chinese people. Chinese history traces the fortunes of a race, with 
qualities determined by one set of conditions, in a country with qualities 
determined by another set. So far as the character of the Egyptian race 
is the product of the sun and the inundation, the history of the land and 
the people have a common cause. But there is no such natural connec- 
tion between the inexhaustible fertility of the loess districts in China and 
the character of the Chinese race, for the former is the result of causes 
which ceased to work long before the ancestors of the latter came into 
being. 

The two great tracts of ceaseless sun, which are barren both of civilized 
human life and vegetation, are the deserts of Central Asia and the Sahara, 
both these deserts occupy the site of a dried-up inland sea — dried up 
because, in the course of ages, the waste by evaporation from its wide 
surface was greater than the reinforcements brought by the streams de- 
bouching into it. The Nile flows from the mountains of Abyssinia and 
the equatorial highlands round Lake Victoria, 3 the Tigris and Euphrates 
from the highlands of Armenia and Kurdistan, all alike outside the rain- 
less regions. The streams which may once have fed the inland Atrican 
sea had no such sheltered sources, and have hardly left a trace behind. 
The sea of Central Asia existed perhaps to a more recent date, and there 
still survives, to show how it was fed, the Yarim or Varkand River. whic,i 
ilows into Lop-nor, after a course of 1,150 miles, longer than that ot the 
Rhine, and through a river-basin larger than that of the Danube. But 
1 In the latter re-ion the annual rainfall sometimes reaches ico inches 



4 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

with this exception, the streams that flow from the little lakes still 
scattered through the desert, lose themselves in the sand ; others, rising 
in the sand, flow only into lakes, which year by year waste and dwindle, 
like the larger sea of which they once formed part, while the surrounding 
mountains have long since ceased to nourish tributaries of sufficient 
volume to reach them. 

When, from whatever cause, the amount of evaporation over a given 
area comes to exceed the rainfall, the radiation from the heated, barren 
surface, of which more and more is left permanently dry. tends to disperse 
the summer rainclouds, and so extends and intensifies the drought. 
I'rejevalsky saw this process at work in the desert of Gobi, between Alashan 
and Xaga, where a dog, which had been his companion for years, died of 
the intense heat. Xo dew fell, and the rainclouds dispersed without send- 
ing more than a few drops to earth. '• We observed/' he says, •' this in- 
teresting phenomenon several times, particularly in Southern Alaskan, near 
the Kansu mountain-, where the rain, as it fell, met the lower heated 
atmosphere and passed off in steam before reaching the earth." x 

The drying-up of an inland sea extends the area over which moisture 
is al -orbed or dissipated, quite apart from the causes which have led to 
its own contraction. This in (Antral Asia may have been due partly I - 
the gradual elevation of the sea bottom, which leaves the plateau of Gobi 
three or four thousand feet above the sea level, as well as to the in- 
sufficiency of it- fresh-water feeders. After wringing their last drops of 
moisture from the < urrents of ir f] >wing towards the interior, and already 
desiccated bv long journeys overland, the great mountain ranges sur- 
rounding the ; ,-ntral basin send all the drainage of their high lakes or 
snow-ca: ; . 1 summits i utwards t - the distant ocean, instead of towards 
the Mediterranean sea of sand. They intercept, instead oi storing up. 
the rainfall which might replenish the central basin. 

The fa t is that < h ntral \ ;ia presents too large an 1 - lid a surface " • 
unit" :::...• watered. X rthern A :"r i < i is riverless except for the Nile, w 
does bu: kirt its eastern e lge ; the solid interior of Australia is barren : 
I . - : i : and North Am ri are perforated with seas and gulfs, though th.e 

■ ' . in the ( Ireat Salt Lake < iistrii t, oi i, 
iu;iv 1 form :. South Aineri< a at its wi 1 
h a river :is the Vang-tse-kiang t i almost traverse its 
ltd., w h :'.-.• its m ittntain s\ <tem allows the mid ile oi th.e < : ' :- 
■ .-. ' : ; iiv str :ns tl i\\ kv_i :. rt.ii a: 1 s mth v\ it'n - wei'la; pi::_ 
I u AS . X he \\ A ve a i >n t in ental block, extending < i\\ r r- i 
,s :; m :. :' . i ) rath, an 1 as much from L -a-t to west. 1 lie 
■ Venn -. ■:. the be:..:, tiie Am ::r. the 1 1 

fjiitinehtal importance; ban with the one ex- 
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THE LAND AND ITS HISTORY. 5 

ception of the Yarkand River, these streams, while fringing the central 
plateau with their sources, contribute none of their waters to replenish the 
.Mediterranean Sea. 

Thus year by year the sea has narrowed ; and as streams dry up and 
showers grow scantier, the process of deterioration accelerates itself. The 
dwellers in the few oases only hasten by their labours the encroach- 
ments of the sandy tide, for irrigation works increase the surface of the 
water exposed to evaporation, and the crops that are consumed each 
season make no return of moisture to the air equivalent to that which they 
absorb. The scanty streams, unfed by rain or snow, prove unequal to 
the constant drain, and with the exhaustion of the water supply the last 
remains of vegetation fall an easy prey to the encroaching sands. This 
lias been the history of Central Asia ever since the present races of man- 
kind have inhabited or crossed it. Five thousand years ago, doubtless, 
hikes and oases were more numerous, those still existing larger and more 
fertile, and parts of the present desert perhaps not without a steppe-like 
vegetation. The vales of Cashmere and Yulduz, the plains of Bokhara 
and Khokan had counterparts, no doubt, within the mountain circle, 
which, like the present Hi, Khami, Yarkand, and Khotan. were each the 
centre of a principality of respectable size and enviable fruitfulness. 

In comparatively recent geologic time it is supposed that changes of an 
opposite character to these took place in China proper, that an increased 
rainfall brought fertility to once barren steppes, filled the water-courses 
with continuous streams, and carved for the latter an outlet into the sea. 
But in baron von Richthofen's admirable work on China, it is shown that 
the effects of a period of rainlessness make themselves felt upon the soil, 
and through the soil upon the climate, long after the great geologic or 
climatic changes have been accomplished, which cause the district in 
question to be no longer either riverless or rainless. 

The work of water is not unmixedly beneficent, and we can judge how 
much of the natural richness of tiie soil is carried off by an average rain- 
fall, from the treasures of fertility hoarded up in regions of perennial 
drought. The natural fertilizers of an uninhabited and unfilled country 
consist of all the decomposed animal and vegetable matter deposited on 
its surface ; and when this is carried away by streams into the sea, it is 
obvious that the soil must be proportionately impoverished. On the 
other hand all these elements are retained on the surface, and tend to till 
up its hollows, when the streams charged with them gradually disappear by 
evaporation instead of finding an outlet to the ocean. 1 Hence the poten- 
tial fertility of all deserts and the ready transformation of any such tract 
into fertile land as soon as art or nature provides the means ot irrigation. 

In China a fertilizing dust is sometimes carried by the wind in quantities 
equal to that which darkens the air in the desert sand-storms, and this 
dust is found to produce exactly the same effect upon the soil as simil; r 

China: Er^\bnisse ci^enrr Rcis<ii nni daranJ^c^ninJcLr Sin.ucn. Nun 
lo'ci'.icnn von Kichtliofen, 1S77, vol. i. p. S\ 



6 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

deposits left by the overflow of rivers : and this is not the only respect in 
which aerial currents are found to produce effects analogous to those 
usually attributed to water only. An ancient Chinese ode contains the 
couplet '" (ireat winds have a path ; they come from the large empty 
valleys/' and the action of these winds is as irresistible as that of a moun- 
tain torrent in its bed. The Chinese poet evidently had in his mind ex- 
periences like that of an unsuccessful .Mormon colony in an exposed part 
of the Salt bake district. A recent writer. 1 after describing how the settle- 
ment is swept bv winds from a great canon, ados : "One year they sowed 
three hundred acres with wheat, and the wind simply blew the crops away. 
Tiie people live for part of the year in a ceaseless dust-storm, and what is 
not actually displaced is kept rubbed down to the ground by the perpetual 
passage of waves of sand." Similarly, according to Prejevalsky. in the 
Mongolian deserts. -i The winds of winter ami spring blow with such 
violence that you see even the humble shrubs of wormwood uprooted by 
them and roiled into bundles, and driven across the barren plain/'" - 
General Gordon, noting the same phenomenon in North Africa, was 
reminded that it must also have been familiar to the Psalmist of Pale-tine, 
who desired to see his enemies made 'dike a wheel, as the stubble before 
the wind." : ' 

Air. like water, scours the channels in winch it flows, and carries with it 
all the lighter particles of tire objects in its path, and like water also, it 
deposits in one place what it has swept away from another. A recent 
Mnglish traveller in China observed at Ichang. on the Pine River, that on 
a calm, mild, sunny morning in March, the sky was obscured by clouds of 
otherwise invisible dust,' and he adds that the dust-storms, which the 
north-west gales ot winter brine: iron; the Mongolian deserts, carry the ime 

tend to raise die level of trie lowlands more rapidly in proportion than is 
d ne bv the Nile il iod. f r in Mg}pt s- me < f the surface si il would be 
washed no and carried awav down stream, where.,- m China the wind 
would iv ; touch the si il of the vahevs at ah. exce' t to raise them bv de- 
i ' si tine; its burden i f >.md, w idle it would tend : > denude any h:h ; ps ;. ; 

T.;e ir.exhiui-tiblo feitiiitvof the loe.-- districts in Northern ( Tina has 
1 o en ata oimted for bv the suo; o.-uii n that the whole formation < ■ ■:,->> o: 



//' .'.;•;.' CI .•';.•-. lis 



THE LA XI) AND ITS HISTORY. 7 

yond the surface undulations of a sandy sea or snow-drifts. The loess of 
China is a calcareous loam, wholly unstratified, extremely porous, consist- 
ing of innumerable vertical tubes, so friable as to crumble between the 
fingers, and yet with enough cohesion to form vertical cliffs two hundred 
feet in height, in which dwellings can be carved as substantially as in the 
Old Red Sandstone. 

The porousness of this formation is explained on the hypothesis that an 
increased rainfall has dissolved the greater part of the saline incrustations 
which form upon the steppes during the period of rainlessness ; 1 its thick- 
ness and extent have been accounted for by the joint ingenuity of German 
and American geologists in the following manner. As long as the surface 
of the ground is covered by vegetation, the elements of the undersoil re- 
main in situ ; the disintegration of the rock beneath goes on to an extent 
which varies with its chemical composition, but may reach, as in the case 
of granite or gneiss, a depth sometimes of several hundred feet. If, how- 
ever, this surface vegetation is destroyed, as by a period of rainlessness, 
the layer of decomposed rock is at the mercy of either ice or wind, though 
the more familiar action of water is excluded. Now in Northern China 
there are no signs of a glacial period, and its felspathic rocks show no traces 
of decomposition such as are met with in Southern Asia, where they have 
been protected from erosion. Neither, during the period of loess forma- 
tion, was there any denudation of the rocks by water ; both denudation 
and deposits here being the work of aerial influences alone. Inequali- 
ties in the surface of the rock, and the existence of basins and chan- 
nels, where water can never have lain or flowed, are attributed to the 
unequal rate of disintegration, and the distinction already made between 
lands that retain their surface fertilizer-, and lands in which these are 
washed away by rain and rivers, repeats itself in the distinction be- 
tween regions where the bare rock is exposed by asolian influences, and 
those iit winch the same influences bring fresh deposits. As examples of 
such sub-aerial deposits, it is enough to mention the still sandy deserts, 
steppes, not yet tree from salt, savannahs, the loess in China, Bavaria, and 
Missouri, and at least three other soils of phenomenal fertility, the Russian 
black earth, the Indian cotton soil, and the terra roxa, or red coifee lands 
of Brazil, consisting of decomposed trap reaching to a depth of from twenty 
t< ) thirty feet. 

China is only singular in the vast extent of the exceptionally fertile soil, 
which stood ready to the hand of the first skilled agriculturists who might 
claim it. The area of China is estimated at [-33rd of the habitable globe ; 
its present population includes about one-third of the human rare, home ot 
its most fertile spots have unquestionably been under cultivation 1 r up- 
wards of 4, ceo years : and though the whole region now known as (_ 

1 China. I.e., p. 126. The whole of chap. ii.. Die /. -Land ha/ten in: ;.' '■'" i " 
China un.i ihr /'■ ziehiui^ u :n Central-A ien, ami chap iii., Biid'nnef un.i I :/■" i.aitn^ 
','r Set - . ■; :i Centra!- A ten, are full of interest, n it merely to e 'ol 'J,--!-- ( '■ ; ~ 
I'umpelly, (,'. '■,.' 7 /\ese,!re//es in China, M : i:a t::.i Ja_ . 1S62-5. S'niiheenta;: 
C a.'r, 'iiii :: ' to Kin :i7< le\ , vol. \v. ] art iv. 



8 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

proper has not been occupied by the Chinese for so long as that, most of 
the remarks that would apply to the large empire of to-day would be equally 
true of the first settlements of the spreading black-haired people. 

Nowhere else within the temperate zone do we find a continuous tract 
com] rising an equal area of equally fertile soil, a country where the variety 
of temperate, and the abundance of tropical, climates are combined in the 
natural produce, and where benignant nature has set the fashion of good 
government by making the struggle for existence so easy to her children. 
The soil of Egypt might be equally fertile, but the requisite culture was 
monotonous, and servile labour was skilled enough to sow before and reap 
after the inundation. To \ rofit by the varied productiveness of China, 
the inventiveness of private enterprise stimulated by the institution of pri- 
vate property was necessary : but some of the phenomena generally associ- 
ated with these phrases in the west are missing, for the end aimed at by the 
economic system is sul stantially the same as in Egypt, though the method 
is different. 

In Egypt, as we have seen, the base of the industrial order was formed 1 y 
a system of forced labour and subsistence wages. In the Middle Kingdom, 
free labour and sufficient food would be the corresponding formula. As 
in Egypt, for many ages food was normally so plentiful, by the ] ure bounty 
of nature, that dearth appeared only explicable as the result of bad govern- 
ment : and so. while reserving the right of the people to earn their own 
food in their own way. the duty of their rulers was conceived to consist, 
hi :fly, in making not only such arrangements as should secure the free 
labourers in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour, but also such as 
should make the labour itself as remunerative as possible. 

Political liberty for the masses did not exist, and they i; A :. - right to 
criticise the imperial measures, but all the more ruthless was the judgment 
passed on the results of su< h , dmii istn li n. Was f od abundant ? 'I he 
government was good, and the people orderly and contented. Was there 
famine in the land? The hlinper r and his officers had neglected tin 
duties of 'heir stati .n : the\ and not the people were to blame for the crimes 
v, 1 ii h folii i wed invar.,:' ly on die heels or miserv. At the present moment 
all we have to do with tins A- \ < f the : ile-r's duties is to i ■'::.' < at ti at : i 
could not have been formed, except in sua A an agriculturist's paradise as 
! Igy] '. M ■• ; i! una. or China : so th '. \ • ': if: inned in t! .. ietl age 
before the dawn ot hi>tory. it would have i. id to be renounced • r ;.. i lined 
in China, but lor ! e . _uh;r li . _ f eneitv of 1 : ion gr luAiiy in 

- ted in the em; ire. 

Sum in led almo I ex< ' i-.vAv by the sea and the desert, 1 a< ked 1 y 
• 1 ' is of i A Ah A<, tile climate oi (J ina is as regular as the 
r-ea-ons, ea< h i t wh;< .. takes its character from broad cosmic influences, 
wA : ■ :. t in this ca ■ m.i: ■::'. ly in ii;i I by auv local < ause. Th i 
is a regular season < : : .:. an 1 sun.-hine, i ght by winds from ti. : 

■:.] pm: riate quarter, to tA.t travellers < u ' 1 Ivance at v. hut time < t 

vear to stait for a v • .._e u or d vvn either of t lie imeat navigable streams. 



THE LAND AND ITS I //STORY. 9 

The succession of the seasons is almost the same throughout the country, 
though the dates of each particular phase may vary. 1 

Another peculiarity of structure, which has facilitated the establishment 
of a uniform and centralized government, is the relation of the rivers and 
mountains, more particularly in the south. Xot only has every river of 
importance numerous tributaries flowing into it more or less at right angles ; 
but even when no tributary stream divides the mountain ridges, these still 
run at right angles to the river valley, not as a barrier across it. Though 
the area of China is equal to that of all Europe, without Russia, and. 
though it is by no means wanting in mountainous districts, none of these 
make an internal barrier, separating one district from another as the Alps 
separate Italy and Switzerland, or as the Kwen bun and the Snowy Moun- 
tains separate the Chinese Empire and Tibet. The main streams of China 
ilow from west to east, and each of them is fed by more or less important 
tributaries flowing south and north ; hence the means of communication 
are much greater, even through difficult country, than when the main 
streams flow in opposite directions and every source is a water-parting 
separating at once and for ever the chief river systems of the continent. 

The valley of the Rhine and the valley of the Ticino are politically 
separate in a way that the valleys of the Yang-tse-kiang and the Yellow 
River never are, even when the distance between them is much greater 
than that from Basle to bavia. The main river systems are thus only 
divided by chains of secondary importance, and the same peculiarity 
makes it possible in many cases to establish artificial means of com- 
munication between them by canals, connecting the tributaries of different 
main streams. This characteristic is most marked in the southern and 
eastern provinces, which, as the last to be occupied, would hardly have 
become so thoroughly incorporated with the older parts of the empire, 
if the means of communication had not been so much better in their case, 
as to compensate for the greater distance from the capital. 

The prevailing absence of natural barriers between the course ot different 
streams has, however, another and less beneficial consequence. Xowhere 
else within historic times has a stream of the importance of the lloangdio 
changed its course so materially, when its proper outlet becomes too 
shallow and confined to allow the passage of its waters, The consequent 
inundations made the embanking of the natural watercourses a necessary 
precaution, and the habit of ''regulating the waters'' of the largest rivets 
no doubt prepared and encouraged the agriculturists to undertake on its 
actual scale the not less beneficial, voluntary work of canalization. 

1 M. l'iot concludes from a comparison < f the flora of the Classics with : : e crops 

cultivated in different parts of China at the present nay that there has been no eoii.-uicr- 
able change in the climate of the country within hiMorical times. " Recherche-; sitr ... 
temperature ancienne de la Chine," ''/,'iirn. As., Jme set"., vol. \. I1S40). p. 5^0. A 
translation of what is called, '"The little Calendar ol the Ilia,'* is ap] li . iv 1 . 

This is an almanack poem, — in the style of the Yuch l.in^ ( S,in,\i />',• :■ ' /•, / 1' ■ 
\\\ii. p. e.p.r, and the first ode of I'm (Shi-kin^, CA//. •, ('..'../ . iv. Ilk. w.i, -sup- 
posed to have been found in the tomb of Confucius about the Oth century A. ;>. 



io OWNERSHIP IX CH1XA. 

While the course of the rivers is such as to facilitate and promote in- 
land traffic, the conformation of the coast is the reverse of favourable to 
foreign commerce. Harbours are few and bad. the mouths of the rivers 
are silted up with sand : there is but one bay of any importance, and none 
of those gulfs and indentations which invite and almost compel the 
dwellers on the coast to carry on their traffic by help of short cars across 
the water. The inferiority of their neighbours on the north and south 
prevented any e piality of intercourse, either political or commercial ; while 
the industrial instincts of the people found ample satisfaction in the pro 
duction of native articles of use and luxury, which each province could 
exchange as far as needful with other parts of the empire. 

In no other civilized country in the world could it have been seriouslv 
proposed, as a defence against piracy, to lay waste a strip of ground a few 
miles wide all alone.' the coast : but the sacrifice involved by this curious 
measure was, after all. inconsiderable. The great lines of traffic are all 
inland, and. for commercial purposes, the coast of the provinces on the 
east of the Great Canal is to be found on its banks rather than by the red 
seashore. In fact, the inundations, which were the one danger to Chinese 
agriculture, served indirect'} - t > stimulate and promote Chinese commerce. 
The cuttings, which were necessary for drainage and useful for irrigation, 
served also to provide water-wavs for trade, and so to prevent tiie exclusive 
dependence on agriculture which has a cramping effect on natural de 
velopment. 

The political history of China Ins been much simplified by th - 
features in its physical ge graphv. The only natural barriers which are 
formidable enough to serve as the frontier of an important State are the 
Yellow River, the Yang-tse-kiang. and the mountain ranges on the ea<i 
and north of Sz'chuen. \vVi\c',) isolate that large and fertile province. 1! i: 
tiie empire was never divided for long together into four great State-. 
Northern, Southern. Centr . and [-".astern China. Tiie great dynastic- 
ruled over the whole territory annexed by settlers of the dominant race. 
Alter tiie fall of one • : tl :se dvn isf.es, the p fiitical disorgan zati m of 
. ' is I 11 was th ■ result man if < ■ 1 its ■';:" in the formation of a mini: r 
of minor kingdoms or ir.ul \\ principalities ; then the procos of integrate m 
commenci . :i sh, and the mi ail est States w ere absor I, until there re 
mamed only tliree or four riv is • i\ rful i :: u_ ; i to aim at restoring t 
unitv of the i • ire. 

l'he o!f . ...:-' rie f ( ': n:i n ,'er rc> guise more t; in one Im; ai 
dyna-ty .,' a time, though the In;; ::ial dynastv did not abvavs govern the 
le . , ■;. ' ; h :..'/ i.artei" of it ; but the flight ne -s ot the 

■'.:: 1 1 ■ . en one i rl ' and an ther w is ^een wh n anv > ; 

th.e rival S' ites bee., n to gn iw in power. Anv m iderateiy strong ( lover n- 
;.. nt : mi : i: t isv ' ov rst :p e- ;t.h t or all of th \se natural . m im; rks ; 
and as soon as one w - overstepped, there was seldom anv halt till the 
' :xt was ie ;ohed. f or a time t he 1 1 wa ; m;_iht serve as a divi.d >n between 
;. ::.. . a . - .'.. ; .' t: : v. - on v a stage in the : : ess '. v whi' h 



THE LAND AND ITS HISTORY. n 

the master of the Yellow River usually drove his rivals hack behind 
the Kiang, as Kubla drove the Sung emperors before abolishing their 
dynast}'. 

The obstacles in the way of a United China never took the form of a 

local patriotism entrenched behind natural frontiers. The difficulties to 
be overcome were moral rather than material, and the immense territory 
normally united under the Emperor of China depended for its political 
unity on the vigour and capacity of the administration. There was nothing 
in the physical structure of the country to suggest or perpetuate the poli- 
tical subdivisions which followed upon imperial inefficiency; and if the 
people were seldom willing to fight with much enthusiasm for a sovereign 
who was losing the empire, they were always ready to submit with a good 
will to one who was gaining it. 

China, in the third millennium B.C., was far from being an uninhabited 
country : an 1 to judge from the tribute exacted from some of the wild 
tribes which continued to inhabit it, the latter were not altogether ignorant 
of the arts of civilization ; but they were not confirmed agriculturists like 
their invaders. Tie occupation of China is interesting as the earliest in- 
stance of appropriation by use, and that upon a national scale. The 
agriculturists appropriated the arable land. The indigenous population 
was treated by the Chinese like squatters by a "free selector.'' The 
ifack-haired people picked out the eyes of the land. They spread along 
the course of every fertile river valley, settling, improving, draining swamps, 
cutting canals, building embankments, but always with a colonizing in- 
stinct, occupying first every spot that would repay cultivation without much 
labour, and so spreading a network over the whole country, the meshes of 
which could be drawn tighter at leisure. The colonization of the Yellow 
River and the great plain probably took place as gradually and as peace- 
abb.- as the later colonization of the Blue .River, or that of Ah ngolia at the 
present day. 

Ancient China was in the main the country lying between its two great 
rivers, the Hoang-ho and the Yang-tse-kiang. The earliest contemporary 
::.. : it ' reserved in the Shoo-King, or classic book of History. 1 is a 
description of the nine provinces, the nine livers, and the nine mount.::.-. 
or the hi: g lorn as it existed in the 23rd century B.C., the tribute exacted 
from each province and the engineering works supposed to have been 
included in the imperial survey. This document, called the Tribute of 
Yu.'-' has every internal mark of authenticity. With its native curtness 
undisguised by imaginative commentators or translators, it appears as a 
us though meagre itinerary and revenue survey. We learn from it 
approximately the extent of the primitive kingdom, and from its extent can 
form a c : je tural estimate of its prehistoric d irati •::. whi h Chinese tra- 



A; 
/'' 

.). 1 




;.. c 

■ h 

Th 
)Uii 1 



!>.. I.e. 



me aula >r 



12 OWNERSHIP IX CIIIXA. 

dition scarcely exaggerates. The nine rivers ' arc, besides tlie two already 
named, the Wei, down the course of which the original settlers must have 
spread after the Hoang-ho turned too far to the northward to he their 
guide : the Lo, which waters the present provinces of Honan and sepa- 
rates Loyang and Honan-fu, the ancient capitals of two different dynasties; 
the Hwai, which meets the Hoang-hc at its mouth after a long, straightish 
course from west to east. The Tsi, a river which is described as flowing 
from tiie Tad Yuen mountains into the Ho, and then out again to the 
sea, by a course not now traceable, and perhaps (hanged in the lapse of 
ages; the Han, which after flowing eastward, between two ranges of hills, 
wanders deviously southward and reaches the Yang-tse-kiang through a 
region of lakes and swamps. 

And besides these seven considerable and more or less identifiable 
rivers, two are named, obviously lying at the western extremity of the 
kingdom, one of which is described as losing itself in the desert sand;-, and 
the other as (lowing into the Southern sea. These last are scan ely c in- 
clusively identified,. In a map, copied by Dr. Legge from a Chinese 
source, the black-water appears as the name of the western bead o: the 
Hoang-ho, and the To-shin, or Weak-water, as a tributary of tiie Kiang, 
1. 1 t answering to tiie position of any actual stream. Of course the 
'* southern sea'"" merely stands for tiie unknown goal to be reached by a 
stream flowing southward out ot sight, and it may safely be assumed that 
both these stre; ms « :re of much le.-s importance than those reached after- 
wards, as almost any river w mid make an impression on the m nds ot 
ti '. hers just i merging bum tiie bed of tiie rainless and streamless Han- 
nah or dry Sea. 

The gi'at iito is references to unknown waters in the south, can only have 
been ] : m : d by the ] rim; five ( ihinese expression '" within tiie four - as, 
win ... ter writers are avowedly unable to expl in, and which lias less 
meaning ;.; Cmua than in aim >st anv c: nmtry on tiie globe. M >-t pro - 
a; iy the Ch se immi_rants i r itight it with then) as an inh -rit m ; ::' mi 
generations that lived between the Caspian Sea and the Asaita: Me>:;tcr- 
ran •.;.•. • i '. : -; n ( ha .:'..;. i the - . Ar i « itb ; rhaps ;...■.. '.. rgcr 

1 lie iiln :.. . .' is m n; A in • . • '. ; : Yn have 1 en . ; ;. le 
to gi "..m; in I'S \\ ho . . ve looked tor them t;; ■ :i the map ot ('.,.: a, an they 
cannot he i ; nt;:i : \\ ;:,i ;.;;v ;; s i : ;;tiit i'.i;i,e\ ban >n von 

I Ah A ho An. i iv. '. r. i A n doled t' i identifv in >>t of them ,vit i 

pi . -.1 ;. : '..'.-. . ;; : . . i\ . ; ■ . t • .; ._..;... - : v. ; . •• A e ot tin- or;g;nal i Ion- 
ists occui; \ m_ the rn, r val levs a Ircadv described.. I Aery one who has 

I :v.~s t..e imn_m ti n o: ti. ml ;tem'.s. are b\ no noons nece.-.-mrily the 



: o . 



THE LAND AND ITS HISTORY. 13 

highest in the neighbourhood ; it was such hills that the Chinese named, 
and Yu enumerates, and some of them still bear names identifiable with 
those used by him — a confirmation, if one were needed, of the view which 
conceives the immigrants as making their way through China along its 
river banks. 

The provinces are grouped in three classes, three in each, but in a 
different order for fiscal and descriptive purposes. The highest revenue is 
not necessarily drawn from the provinces containing fields of the richest 
quality ; and as the purpose of the latter classification is not explained, we 
are left to guess that perhaps it referred to the quality of the land available 
for village allotments, the quantity of which was regulated by its richness, 1 
so as to secure about the same average amount of produce to the culti- 
vators in different districts. The theory of the Government was to exact 
an increasing proportion of its dues in the form of personal services from 
the cultivators nearest the capital, while those at a distance contributed 
produce only; and as the same system was followed in ancient Peru- and 
modern Manipur, it may easily have been acted upon in ancient China. 

According to this description of the nine provinces, the whole extent 
of territory claimed for ancient China is more than double the size of 
modern France ; and it is not strange that sceptics should have tried to 
impugn the authority of such an almost incredibly ancient and circum- 
stantial survey, on the ground that the Chinese Empire can hardly have 
been as highly organized as it implies at the time in question. But be- 
sides all the external and internal evidence for its authenticity, there are 
phrases here and there which bear involuntary testimony to the existence 
of the state of things which alone could make the composition of such a 
document possible. 

Such a mapping out of provinces with tribute assessed, so as in each 
case to bring the maximum of wealth to the imperial treasury, while in- 
flicting as little burden as possible on the distant taxpayers, presupposes a 
powerful and well-informed Government familiar with the whole of its wide 
dominions. Yu or his scribe has thus not merely navigated the streams of 
the Middle State, the Lo, the Wei, and the great Yellow River; he has 
stood where the modern city of YVoo-chang looks down upon the conflu- 
ence of the Han and the Kiang, and, with the monumental brevity of the 
archaic tongue, in six characters he represents these two rivers joining 
their waters and rushing together to the sea fJ as if they were hasten- 
ing to court/' A commentator of the Ming Dynasty, who had visited 
the same spot, writes with more prosaic amplitude,''' "The vast flood dash- 
ing on brought to my mind the idea of a man hurrying with all his speed 
on some special mission without a thought of anything else."' but tor us 
the use of the imacre has a real historic value, as it brings before us a state 



! YVh -r. land is measured by the quantity of see 1 used to sow it, its 

:ertaii • 1 as its size. 

- A] )' endix 1-'. 

:; Leet"e's Chinese Ciassies, iii. i>. nu 



1 r 



OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 



of societv in which it appears natural to illustrate the irresistible rush ot a 
rapid current by a reference to what, therefore, must have been the familiar 
sight of a king's messenger in headlong course, or the steady stream of a 
long procession forming the train of a provincial noble, summoned to do 
homage to his liege lord in the capital of the empire. 

It is not necessary for our purpose to analyse the tribute required from 
the different provinces. Varnish, silk of all kinds, woven ornamental 
fabrics in baskets, salt, cloth of dolichos fibre, hemp, lead, pine timber, 
bamboos, and various choice woods, pearl oysters and fish, jade, gold, iron, 
silver, copper, flints, grindstones and sounding-stones, fur skins and feathers, 
ivory, rushes, cinnabar, and minor curiosities are among the articles 
enumerated. Tea. cotton, and porcelain are still unknown. Of the six 
grains which figure in modern maxims — rice, millet, pulse, wheat, panic, 
and rye — the earliest enumerations do not mention rice. L'pon the whole, 
though there is less abundance and display of the precious metals, the 
peace resources of China include as great a variety of articles as the war 
spoils of a Thothmes or a Rameses. 

Of the eighteen provinces into which modern China is divided, eight lie 
to the south of the Yang-tse-kiang, and do not belong to the ancient king- 
dom at all. The ancient Vang included most of the districts recently 
divided into the two provinces of Xgan-hwuy and Kiang-su, and the re- 
maining eight provinces north of the Kiang include the whole region 
settled, with increasing completeness, by the black-haired people down to 
the dynasty of Chow, or the period of " Middle Antiquity," reaching from 
n:: ij.c. to 2;5 n.c. The whole of the great plain which extends from 
Peking to the Poyang lake, and for a nearly equal distance, at its widest, 
from west to east, is comprised in these provinces. Pe-che-li, the northern- 
most, in which Peking is situated:, is still the most barren ; Shantung, on 
the eastern coast, contains : art of the great plain, and is < ne of the most 
fertile of the northern provinces: the birthplace of Confucius is in the 
western end, and during the feudal period this district belonged to the 
state of Poo. These two provinces now supply the largest contingents of 
i ists : ) South Mam huri i, whi< h the} ar ■ ] rai : : < ill v ; nnexing as their 
ancestors <::<i the lands of the eastern barbarians, of whom mention is made 
in re th n. on y C ntucms. 

The ancient < unterpart of kansu, at the opposite extremity of the 
n rthern em; :re. is . v ; -ed by l< ■ .thoieii ] to have ext< nde i 1 ,-vond 
the Vu-m >n ' ..--' - '. whii h m w n arks its western iin it. d he modern 



province of Hon an. i :.<e 
imper: 1 i anil !. » d n 

or ( otton. Si. n-i. travemi 
in n, th ■ 1 ttter : .vim h h ; 

■: i : ( ' :.': 1 V.-ia and .' 



to 



.'•■ 



e t o e x i 



>}ang for its 
; t little corn 



:eii v. 

.■ n i i ; s 



Yellow River, is a laud of coal and 

;ed tr m a vei v u mote ] : ; 1. J ts 

i" ( i lumen e. and viitually r:< introl the 

" ( ... a. dim 1 rain ; o\\ er," a< o 'I'd- 



THE LAND AND ITS HISTORY. 15 

ing to Richthofen, is their chief article of export, and they supply clerks 
and merchants to the rest of China. 

The southern part of both Hoope and Shensi belong rather to Southern 
than Northern China ; the former consists of alluvial plains subject to 
inundations, with mountains on the east and west. It is now the focus of 
the inland traffic, and the carrying trade from Honan and Tchekiang is 
in the hands of the inhabitants. Cotton and tea are the only staple 
articles of production, so the population is not exclusively agricultural. 
The north of Shensi is, however, still a perfect granary, as it has been for 
thousands of years. Sx'chuen, which in the earliest times communicated 
with Northern China through Si-ngan-fu, is now usually approached by 
water on the Yang-tse-kiang. Geographically it has more in common with 
Yunnan, the "Far West " of modern China, than with the northern pro- 
vinces, which also abut upon it and contain the most ancient settlement of 
the Chinese race : and until the complete annexation of Southern China 
made it more readily accessible, its isolation formed a standing exception 
to the general compactness and free intercommunication of the rest of the 
empire. 

In regard to China, it is hardly safe to take any kind of knowledge — 
geographical any more than historical ---for granted; and as one can 
hardly understand the economic position of the empire without a glance at 
its history, to follow its history it is necessary to outline at least thus 
roughly the relation between the existing provinces and the most ancient 
subdivisions on record. In the interval it will always be sufficient for our 
purpose to know approximately whereabouts the theatre of events is situated 
m relation to the permanent natural landmarks and centres of civilized 
population which have never ceased to be of importance ; to trace par- 
ticular boundaries or identify individual towns through the changes of 
name imposed by different dynasties is neither possible nor necessary, and 
the less necessary because of the substantial similarity of the large areas 
sometimes made the subject of ephemeral political subdivision. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 

Politically there lias been more change, more development, and less 
stationary conservatism in the 4000 years of Chinese civilization than in 
the 3000 or more of Egyptian independence. Bat socially, industrially, 
and intellectually, China may bear the palm of unchangeableness in virtue 
of the longer, still continued national life, which seems to have undergone 
no material revolution in its character since the earliest records that have 
reached us. 

These records differ curiously from those which give such trustworthy 
though incomplete guidance as to the life of ancient Egypt and Babylonia. 
The earlv books of the Shoo-King have not the same monumental authen- 
ticity as the inscriptions of Senoferu and Gudea. But they are the work 
of men who have formed the habit of recording statements and occurrences 
1 f ] htical imp stance, with a disinterestedness not to be found in merelv 
triumphal monuments. When the great encyclopaedist of the 14th cent.. 
Ma-twan-lin, tells us that the <; pencil of the recording officer lias been 

usv bum the time of Hwang li." l he is only repeating earlier and vera- 
cious writers, whose records reach into the remote past without coming to a 
time when the pencil was not at work. The commentators explain that if 
the em] er >r e ive a 1 harge t ) any officer or prince, it was the duty - f ai 

fti ial ( died the " Recorder of the Interior ;: to write it upon tablets ai , 
to do so in du] te ; and no public duty was esteemed more sacred 
than to keep a veracious rec : . 

Tile first few books of the Shoo-King. or book of I [istorv. the oldest 1 f 
the intelligible Chinese scriptures.- do not profess to be contemporarv 
record-. bach (me i.e..::.- with the phrase, '" Mxamining into antii[iht\ 
we tin 1 : " but !r :.i the . eth century i:.c to the burning : the b 

■ _• 1 2 . . . ;r auth rif.es are toler y varied and continuous : while ' ' 

ntier _ 1 1 : . . " s - : whicn we o, mm o: the preceding 1 coo years are en >u_h 

to b; cv th .'. the tw ■ \ : 1 1 Is have at . 'ast as much in common with ea ii 

ther ; the ( "aiua of Kambb had with th it < if Km' 1! 1. The i:i 1st : , : : 

d >i in : in th Sk 10 King belongs to the 7 1 ; 1 century n.c,, and from th ' 

■ eriod onward th re i no d rtii ot material m nam. on th : hist rv and 

ial 1 nditi n of the i>v p'.e of China, though it is to : regretted that so 



7 
Yi- 



S.i 



iV hi. CO.. 



■-.-:.■/■: 

Li. A- ■ 



THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 17 

(cw of the original Chinese authorities have been made accessible to 
European students by translation. 

The legendary history of China may be said to begin with the Emperor 
Yao, who died, according to Chinese chronology, 1 in the year 2257 i:.c, 
after a reign of roo years, the most mythical figure in the records. The 
first book in the Shoo is called the Canon of Yao, and we find in it already 
fully developed some of the most characteristic elements of subsequent 
Chinese thought and morals. The mythical emperors anterior to Yao are 
first mentioned in comparatively late writings : the first of them is supposed 
to have taught his subjects to make huts of brandies, which is probably an 
etymological afterthought : the second taught the use of fire ; the third. 
Fouhi, invented marriage and the hundred families, divination and music ; 
the fourth introduced agriculture and trade ; the reign of the fifth. 
Hwang-ti, was memorable for the invention of bricks, the cultivation of 
silkworms, the development of writing (the origin of which is mixed up 
with the mystic trigrams of Fouhi), and the establishment of the Imperial 
Record ( )itice and the historiographers, to whose industry we are certainly 
indebted for the surviving State papers which constitute the Shoo-King. 
All these inventions are attributed in turn to every local legendary chief, 
and with equally little reason, since the founders of Chinese civilization 
were not Chinese princes at all. if, as now appears probable, the black- 
haired people brought with them all the arts of a simple civilization ready 
made from the west. 

What one may regard as the authentic element in the tradition of the 
period shows us this people face to face with the natural difficulties which 
beset new colonists, almost lost in a vast continent, among strange tribes 
who are best content to leave their native' wildernesses unreclaimed ; and 
liable to have the fruits of their industry swept away by river floods. 

To the present day the names of Yao and Shun are in proverbial use to 
represent the golden ages of the empire. According to the Classic, a 
common man of the name of Shun was chosen by Yao as his minister. 
son-in-kvv and successor, after a review of all the talents of the country. 
Shun was evidently the hero of a Cinderella-like legend, though in the 
course of tune Chinese rationalism has caused most of the incidents of the 
primitive folktale to be obliterated.- His reign is memorable in Chinese 
legendary history for the floods which led to the salutary mission of the 
great Vu. who is supposed to have removed mountains, and excavate-: 
river beds, besides setting the fashion of such more practicable drainin. 
and embanking as has been practised continuously to the present day, in 
works of which the Grand Canal is the most remarkable instance. Vu 
was appointed to succeed Shun, as Shun had succeeded Yao, and notwitk 
one; the exaggerated accounts of his labours as an hydraulic Hercules, 
we first find ourselves touching the solid ground of history in the Domes- 
day book of ancient China ascribed to him under the name of The Tribute 
of Yu. His virtues were only regarded as inferior to his predecessors' 
1 V.post, App. K. - £./>'.. iii. p. ,5'5. 

VoL. 11. — I'.C. C 



iS 



OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 



in the fart that he did not seek through the kingdom for the worthiest 
successor, hut appointed his own son and founded the dynasty of Ilia 
(:::; i 766 i:.c. I. 

His grandson was idle, dissipated, and provoked the hostility of the 
subject prim es : and a contemporary poem appeals against him to "' the 
Lessons of our great ancestor," that the people should be cherished and 
not despised, " for the people are the root of the country, and when the root 
is firm the country is tranquil. But when the palace is a wild of lust, and 
the c iimtry is a wild for h mting, when spirits and music and costly build- 
ings are indulged in to excess,''' ] — the existence of any one of these things 
has never failed to be the prelude to ruin. A return to better government 
averted tiie judgment for a time, but the eighteenth king of the dynasty 
proved to be intolerably cruel and dissolute: his own domains suffered, 
and lie endeavoured to extend ins oppression to the better ruled dominions 
< ; the feudal nobles. Meanwhile Thang, called the Successful, \ rince of 
Shaug. ha 1 gathered his own people together, and by threats and promises 
-—with many protestations that heaven had called him, the '"'one man," to 
destroy the house of Ilia and reign more justly himself in its place — he 
prevailed upon the forces of the empire to follow him to a victorious cam- 
paign. Notwithstanding the purity of his motives, sanctioned too by 
:ss. he was uneasy as to what posterity would trunk of him, and had 
an apologetic "Announcement" composed and published for his justifica- 
tion by the prime minister. 2 

Exactly the same protestations, the same denunciations of crime, cruelty, 
and oppression are repeated when in 11 22 i:.c. the dynasty ot Snang is 
d? throned, and that of Chow foun led by King Wu. the son of Wen. The 
o t ils as to the transgressions of the last king of Shang (or Yin) ;J are 
des ribed at greater length; but there is just the same tone of moral 
indignation : the precedent of King Thang is expressly [U ted, and it is 
treated aim st as a constituti nai principle that when the king 01 * aina 
misbehaves, it is the dutv of the most virtuous and powerful oi the pro- 



run : S t ) ( 1 e ] 

h 11 > 
f am lent ( ' 



It ;. 



u< 1 eeu mm. ' 

tiie only p >int on which I t u al ; .... 

is advanced and revolutionary. But he: re 

;;:._ tins subje t, the ' des wiii. ., c aim ex.: irate the e, riy atice.-: :s • •: 

.:: es of ( lit >w may be ra ferre 1 to. to nil in the out '.in < of the first 

nts under tormer dvnasties. A verv famous ode beams v. ;tu th 

it : "!..■• m >t birt.i : ' e ' .■ :.le \\ s li m ! . e, ng \ a . :. - t..e 

r. 1>\ :.. : . . f I i .'. : - ii . .'. iiu is nearly t lie only : : .- . . me :n 

i issues, i isl des S.aui, w.a^e n.iine is ass mated with 1 :.e ot tae 

i-v,i le t les of n vth 1 m h : ilkl am His ieeen i is am .. tub : :... a 



TJIE ANCIENT MONARCHY 



19 



that of the mythical emperor Shinnung, and contains more points of re- 
semblance with the Chaldoean story of Sargon, though the resemblance 
only proves both to belong to the region of 'pure myth. Modern Chinese 
commentators take for granted that the lady Keang was married, though 
childless ; but the genuine legend contains no reference to any husband, 
and the story is probably one of the few surviving indications that the 
primitive Chinese theory of descent approximated to that of the Egyptians. 

There are just hints enough in one stanza to enable us to recognise 
the type of folktale of which How-tseih must have been the hero : " placed 
in a narrow lane," the sheep and oxen protected him; " placed in a wide 
! >rest," the wood-cutters came to his rescue ; " placed on the cold ice," 
a bird sheltered and supported him. After escaping all these dangers the 
infant hero differentiates himself as a Chinaman by proceeding forthwith 
■' to plant large beans,'" instead of strangling snakes or slaying dragons. 
" His rice, hemp, wheat, and gourds prosper marvellously.'' Clearing away 
the thick grass, lie sowed the yellow grains and taught the people to cul- 
tivate the four kinds of millet — the black millet, the double kernelled, the 
tall red and the white, to distinguish between the early and the late, to sow 
first pulse and then wheat, '" and thus he was appointed lord of Ta'e " and 
minister of agriculture to the emperor Shun. 3 Another ode celebrates the 
same hero as the first who gave wheat and barley to be food for the multi- 
tudes, and diffused the rules of social duty through the wide realm. - 

hour or five hundred years after the supposed date of How-tseih, a 
settlement of the people in Pin is described as conducted by a somewhat 
more historical Duke Lew, of whom an ode narrates: "He divided and 
subdivided the country into fields. He stored up the produce in the fields 
and barns." Apparently finding his territory overcrowded, '•he surveyed 
t le plain, lie ascended to the hilltops ; in sympathy with the people he 
made a proclamation ; in his devotion to the people he continued his ex- 
plorations to the 100 springs and the ridge on the south, a height affording 
space for multitudes ; " here the officers gathered round him upon mats 
and stools, and the scale of the whole proceedings may be estimated from 
the festivities at the close of the council. The generous Duke "had sunt 
to the herds and taken a pig from the pen ; he poured out his spirits into 
calabashes, and so he gave them to eat and to drink.'' After determining 
the points of the compass, " he surveyed the light and the shade," i.e. the 
fields with a south exposure, suitable for the staple grain supply, and those 
in the shadow of the hill, suitable for trees or the hardiest crops: "lie 
viewed the streams and springs, he measured the marshes and plains : 

e fixed the revenue on the system of common cultivation oj the ji a .■ 
lie measured also the fields west of the hills, and the settlement ot I'm 
became truly great." 4 

Notwithstanding all this, another ode introduces us to a third her », the 
ancient duke, Tan Foo, who removes his people from Pin to the plains ot 

1 Lcggc, Chin C/assi.s, vol. ii. p. 46S. - I: . p. 5S0. 

■' Post, pp. 42-y. i Le-ge, iv. 4S3. 



20 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

("how, 1325 n.c, and provides them with huts and caves, for as yet they 
had no houses. In concert with his wife, the lady Keang, lie chose the 
site for a settlement ; '• he divided the ground into large tracts and smaller 
portions; he dug the ditches, he defined the acres.'' The superintendent 
of works and the minister of instruction were charged with the building of 
the houses and the ancestral temples ; " with the line they made every- 
thing straight, they bound the frame-boards tight, crowds brought the 
earth in baskets, throwing it in and ramming it down with shovels, 1 
the trees were thinned and roads for travelling opened ;" in fact, 
ail the pioneers work ascribed to Vu 900 years before was supposed to be 
done again by all the ancestors of the new dynast}", without much regard 
to their remoteness from the existing period of civilization. 

Other odes mention with praise the road-making and forest-clearing 
achievements of later princes, and it may of course be said that these 
poems do not imply a fresh beginning of the arts and agriculture — only the 
foundation of a new settlement. Just as there are in America colonists 
who have spent a lifetime in "going west,'' so as to keep always just ahead 
of the rising tide of population, so in China for many centuries it seems to 
have keen a favourite undertaking with the most enterprising chiefs of 
the growing settlements to migrate into roomier quarters. This constant 
opening up of new territory might easily lead the Chinese emigrants to 
underestimate the remoteness of their own first experiences of this kind, 
lor the civilized descendants of the aboriginal tribes, with whom they came 
successively in contact, would retain a true recollection of the beginnings 
of agriculture in their own region; and these recollections would blend 
partly with the traditional features of the legend of Yu. and partly with 
particular traditions of family migrations, with the result of reducing all the 
semi-historical leaders of different ages to a single type. 

That the Chinese themselves did not learn agriculture in China is 
beyond a doubt. Just as the family life of the Vedic Aryans is coeval 
with th ir existence as a pastoral people, so that of the Chinese docs not 
go back to a time when die black-haired people were not agricultural. 
The Chinese cultivated and irrigated the ground before they framed the 
character that stands for "son," which is compounded of the sign fa- 
strength and the ideograph ■ ■ consisting of four squares, which repre- 

! Ms . Whiuin.-on. the wife of a ( 'limesc missionarv. describe-; "" rather ;i novel \v;iy ' 

her travels ; and th- Hindi the liicth' nl i any-thin;; I i' 
■ ' 1 1 ■ 1 \ 1 • 1 . " i n ; i - 1 ■ 1 - ! : • : , a c mi n lent an 1 1 1 i ' ■ I 

iiiii.ir a: < . h o| ':. - loin cornel «>! the proposed dv\ ell in-' •" two lone; 1 lanks were 
I in I '■''.... Into this tr«.up;h three men and a i iy were bu>il\ 

'ly v. . Alter v niily. tl 

'■}■■'■' ie-. C(>' il ' ' '.'. II the : .1 inks, nil | tail)] I llio U \ I .- '! _ " : '. . 

: ' ' i' lillin < u , , ;i ■ ■!■ ! i -, ;i ni a he r stamping, and so on till the mud ^ 

I. 'I ted till 1 

■' • ■ ' - . . 7 1 . ! v\p I 'or tl 

■-. .. v ol build in;; u e mint • I •'„ to I l.ibvh mia, where one of the bi-lineuial tablets 

ribiii;; lion i 1 i I w (he " Lor i M.-rodach " rabed 'a bank (lit. 

" tilled . : 'i ' ' . . 'J')\ui. :::i n ,.•:'. .\ in! : C ' n , " of l 

(\ .on :> in, i s i2 . vol. ii. p, 192. 



THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 21 

sents the '•channeled fields.'' From the earliest times, the birth of a male 
child was thought of as bringing the addition of a strong worker to the 
agricultural community, as the revolution of the seasons was thought of in 
reference to the return of harvest. 1 Of course it may be said that the 
evidence of language carries us further back than that of any written 
characters. But we know from another source that Chinese writing is 
certainly at least as old as the historical constitution of the family, and 
probably older, because it takes us back to the time when genealogies 
were traced through the mother habitually, and not merely in the ex- 
ceptional case of a heaven-born hero ; /isi/ig, the character for " surname,"' 
is compounded of two signs for "'woman'' and "birth,'' and the eight 
most ancient surnames are said to be written with that symbol. - 

Another trace of customs akin to those of Sumer and Akkad may be 
seen in the tradition which assigns to the reign of Shun the division of 
the land into twelve districts, subject to the " Twelve Pastors,'' under the 
presidency of an officer called " The Four Mountains" (? a reminiscence 
of the " hour Regions "). Such a division could not have been invented 
at a later time when only nine provinces were known, and it therefore 
testifies to the antiquity of the record. At the same time the internal 
administration of the country was divided into departments under re- 
sponsible ministers : and the habitable world within the '•four seas'' was 
theoretically divided between the Imperial domain, the domains of the 
nobles surrounding this, a larger area of border lands called the " peace- 
securing domain," where Chinese influence was making its way pacifi- 
cally, while the still larger " domain of restraint " and "the wild domain " 
consisted of the more or less entirely barbarous regions into which 
criminals were banished. \i we knew nothing else about the character 
and history of ancient China, it is at least a fact of some importance 
that these terms were in use at the time when its first records were 
compiled. 

The home of the rulers of the black-haired people appears in the 
"Tribute of Yu " as the '"Middle Kingdom;" it is then the seat of a 
highly developed national civilization and an imperial government which 
recognises only tributary allies or feudal dependants, and barbarous 
tribes whose submission is expected to follow spontaneously as they 
learn gradually to value the blessings of peace and civilized protection.'' 

L'nder the Chow kings the name of the Empire and the political 
significance of the name remain unaltered. The influence of Chinese 
rule radiated from a centre, and the settlements where wealth, industry, 
and population abounded most and had struck their roots deepest were 
in the midst of the future fields of conquest of the race. But as the 
people spread, the States on the outer circle, so to speak, ot Chinese 



1 The earliest written character for ci a year " represented a grai 
R. Is.. Douglas, p. 231.) 

- Ii>., p. 224. 3 S./;., iii. p. 47. 



22 ownership in any A. 

influence, were able to expand at the expense of their barbarous neigh- 
bours, while the older and smaller States first formed were enclosed by 
the growing territories of the border princes and distanced by them in 
importance. When the Vin-Shang Dynasty was superseded, Chow was 
almost a border State : but its neighbours on the east, south, and north., 
Tsin. Tsoo, and T'sin. which supplied the next dynasty, had larger terri- 
tories available for future conquest and settlement. 

The period during which the Chow Dynasty occupied the throne is 
called t: Middle Antiquity : " and Confucius, who lived towards the close of 
it. insists on the continuity of Chinese tradition through preceding ages. 
According to him, "The Yin Dynasty followed the regulations of the Hia : 
wherein it took from or added to them may be known. The Chow 
Dynasty has followed the regulations of the Yin ; wherein it took from or 
added to them may be known. Some other may follow the Chow: but 
though it should be at the distance of a hundred ages, its affairs may be 
known." l And the survival in the China of to-day of features and institu- 
tions older than Confucius justifies us in crediting his assurances that th 
moral and political ideas to which he gave fresh currency were, in fact, an 
inheritance from times already ancient. 

J n o >:..: aring the regalatf ms of Chow with th se < a the earlier dvn isties, 
C nfucius gives the preference to Chow, which, profiting bv the ex; erience 
of the past, had excelled it in the i- complete and elegant " character of its 
< rdinances. These ordinances are embodied in the voluminous work 
kn >wn i.- the Chow hi, or ,; Rites of Chow," ■ the auth >rship of which is 
; scril ed to die 1 )t:he id Chow, the virtuous and disinterested brother o: 
King \Yu. The Duke of Chow, like Confucius, did not claim to be an 
innovator, and the latter is probably right in his belief that tiie Rite- • : 
Chow differed from those of Yin and Ilia mainly in the "completeness 
and elegance " with which they were written out. 

Each section of this blackstone of ancient China begins with a formula 
asserting the royal supremacy: the king determines the cardinal p in'-, 
the : ositi >n of th : c; j it: h the 1- mndaries of the provinces, ; n 1 it i- 1. 

who a: points th.e i ■' :rs and separates their functii ns. Then full iws 

a list of the off:c< is of every decree attached to tiie department, and ti 
a detailed aci aiut of ti." minister's ftincti >ns, or of the regulati >r.s w inch ;: 
i hi 1 t: ineS- ' i i ;:f a : These, lists of d i artmental v.::: ti ■:. tries ; a , 

i n.' lovces. v. hii h j i • •:" : a i. - - ti n. rem in i ns of similar lists ot w<u,t- 

meiu officers and overseers byname which the Mgyptian scribes are so 
often < died on to furnish, as if to satisfy their superiors that each d ; rt 
n.ei.t has it- due romplem :a of ofticials. One of the books ol th 
Shoo, dating fi m tin; early vi irs of the dynasty, and < lied "'11. 
( Rficers of Chow," uivei analaii_el account of the six departments o; 



i .■■■■. : . :..: m. i-: '. i:. :, Le T. '..• u ;.. 

, IS, I. 



THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 



2 3 



State, and at least all the points upon which the two documents are 
agreed may be accepted as historical. 1 

The subdivisions of the official hierarchy are substantially similar to 
those still in force, and it would be the very wantonness of scepticism to 
reject the positive evidence given as to their antiquity merely on the 
ground that it would be easier for such institutions to endure for a period 
of two thousand years than for three. Indeed, as an elaborate bureaucracy 
existed in Egypt and Mesopotamia, it is actually easier to suppose the 
Chinese administration to have been organized in the same manner from 
the first, than that such similarity of method should have been achieved 
independently at distant times. 

The astronomical knowledge of the Chinese was almost certainly derived 
from their kinsmen in Mesopotamia, but during the ancient monarchy 
great importance was attached to the correctness of astronomical observa- 
tions. The emperor had fixed the length of the year at 366 days, and 
certain clans or families, to whom these calculations were assigned, were 
instructed to observe and publish the precise dates of midsummer and 
winter, and of the spring and autumn equinoxes. The verification of 
Chinese chronology is based upon the position of the constellations referred 
to in these instructions,- and as the Chinese at the time of Confucius, 
when the sacred canon assumed its present form, were not acquainted with 
the precession of the equinoxes, it is obvious that no forger could have 
calculated backwards so as to give a correct description of the heavens 
nearly 2000 years before bis own time. 

Dr. Legge suggests that new dynasties introduced a new beginning of 
the year when the errors in the calendar had accumulated so as to alter 
the correspondence between the solar and the political year: and the pro- 
minence given in the Shoo King to the regulation of the seasons was not 

1 S. /?., iii. p. 226. The prime minister or general regulator lias authority over all the 
other officers, though lie is more particularly concerned with the imperial houseli 
revenues and records. I lis department is called the .Mini-try of Heaven in the bonk of 
Rites, and is now represented by the board of Civil Office, The Shoo describes the second 
department as that of the Minister of Instruction. The Chow Li includes that function in the 
same department, but also describes the " Minister of Earth " as ! )irector of the Mull;'.;: ies, 
and his function as those of a Minister of Agriculture. There is no difficulty in identify- 
ing the third department, "the Ministry of Spring" of the Chow Li, with the modern 
Hoard of Rites and the Minister of Religion in the "Officers of Chow.'"' The fourth 
department is that of the Ministry of War or the executive power, whose chief is called 
the " Officer of Summer " in the Book of Rites. The Minister of Autumn answers to 
the Minister of Crime, whose office survive- in tiie present Hoard of Punishments. The 
present board of Works corresp mils to the sixth ministry described in the Shoo, an I I 
the account of the Ministry of Winter, or official works 111 the Hook ot Rites; but the 
-.- ' : m descriptive of the latter department is missing, and the fact that in the " ( HI :s 
of Chow" the Minister of Works is described as undertaking great part of the functions 
which in the H >ok of Rites are assigned to the Director of the Muititu les (whom we 
have called Minister of Agriculture a, ay explain how it came to be 1 -a wing to its s 111- 
ing redundance. According to the Shoo- Ring, the Minister of Works " presides ovi 

ire, settles the four classes of the people an i regulates the s - 11s tor 
obtaining the advantages of the ground,"' and act- as "overseer of the a:. 1 
allotting lands \^v cultivation an i townships. The mo lern 1! mi 1, which takes the place 
ot the Mini-try of Instruction, is the IJ iard ol Revenue. 

2 Legge, Chinese Classics, vol. i. pp. 20-2S. 



24 OWNERSHIP IX C II IX A. 

dictated by pure enthusiasm for astronomical science. Such regulation 
was regarded as an outward and visible sign of sovereignty like the pos- 
session of a Board of Historiographers. And we may charitably assume 
that the political importance of a due regulation of the calendar and the 
timely prediction of eclipses was the cause of a sanguinary clause, quoted 
from the •"Statutes of Government" during the reign of the fourth king 
after Yu, and therefore very possibly as ancient as the Canon of Yao : 
'•When they (the astronomical clans or families) anticipate the time, let 
them be put to death without mercy; when behind the time, let them be 
put to death without mercy.'' 1 

While the Recorder of the Interior was required to take notes of the 
speeches or edicts of the ruling emperor, the Recorder of the Exterior was 
supposed to keep the books ot the chronicles of the past, and to record 
the histories of the states in all the parts of the empire. The importance 
of the department as a sign and instrument of imperial supremacy may 
be guessed from the significance attached to the control of the Calendar. 
Mcncius complained that in his day the feudal princes destroyed ancient 
records to favour their own usurpations: and in China it seems always to 
have been peculiariv impossible for any prince to make history who was 
not also in a position to write or have it written. One of the earliest signs 
of the rebellious pretensions entertained by the State of T'»in, which 
superseded Chow, was the establishment of a bureau of historians to keep 
the State records. 

The historical documents of the Shoo-King belonging to the Chow 
I )vnasty date mainly from the reigns of W'u himself and his immediate 
successor. The death of the latter and the accession of his son are com- 
memorated in two pieces, and two more are assigned to the reign of the 
next prince, with whom begins the degeneracy of the royal house. Tins 
I i ings us to the middle of the i oth century, n.( . ; alter that there is only one 
• : ce i elonging to the 8th century, and one of the ;th century by a Marquis 
of T'sin. ancestor of the founder of the fourth dynasty. The Duke of 
Chow, whom Confucius regarded as his patron saint and good genius, is 
erebite 1 with tile < omj ositton oi many oi the d x umeiits oi the Sh >o, as 
well as oi nuinv poems in the book oi Odes and of the Kites ot Chow: 
but be is the last of the ancient Chinese magnates who aims thus at the 
direct instruction ot the people. 

'I iii ; e doi mien ts aitsw r to the inscrij tions of Egyptian and Ass\rian 
kings, and witii their cessation the power of the pen passes into the hands 
. : the iiti rary i kir-s, to \vhi< u the ( liicial histol'iogra] bets themseives 
belong. The native writers expressly state that the practice ot making 
verses to satiri/e and condemn the Government was introduced in the 
reign of King I . i o.vi <',c<j i:.c~. ) ; and a \ cry < onsidi rable ; n t cut ion < f tiie 
( lassii odes, the st . ly ot which was enthusiastically recommended bv 
i Inc.; ■■. .. re < ; tins ( ii..rueter. 

The r.\ i ide.is of historical vcraeitv and the saereduess of letters are 



THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 25 

closely associated in China, and for nearly thirty centuries successive rulers 
of the Middle Kingdom have been exposed to the tacit censorship exer- 
cised by the remorseless faithfulness of the " pencil of the recorders." 
One of the stock examples of public virtue in China is that displayed by 
the historiographers of Tse in the year 547 B.C. A general in that State 
had married the widow of a prince of the ruling house, and was jealous of 
the attentions paid her by the reigning marquis, whom he accordingly 
assassinated. The State historian duly recorded the fact in his chronicles, 
and was put to death by the general. Upon this the pen passed into the 
hands of a brother of the deceased, who forthwith recorded the second 
murder, and was in like manner put to death. His successor, undismayed, 
continued the damning record, and the general abandoned the contest. 
Meanwhile the rumour of the occurrence had spread to other States, and 
the " Historiographer of the South,''' hearing that the " Grand Historio- 
grapher'''" and his brother had died in this way, took his tablets and set 
out for Tse, and only returned home after ascertaining that the record had 
been duly made. 1 While thus resolute to record all the truth, it was 
equally a point of honour to set down nothing but the truth, and "the 
historiographer would leave a blank in his text" 2 rather than risk mis- 
informing posterity by guess work. 

The Chun Tsew, or " Spring and Autumn," is a brief historical work, 
composed by Confucius, in the form of a very meagre chronicle. Lut the 
importance attached to it may be explained if it were the first example of 
a general history of China, published independently by a private person, 
as distinct from the official records kept in each State for the benefit of 
posterity, and probably quite inaccessible to private citizens. Chinese 
commentators feel bound to seek for hidden meanings in its bare records, 
because Confucius himself spoke of being known and remembered through 
the '"righteous decisions'''' of this work. J But this is needless ii merely to 
record the misdeeds of a ruler was virtually equivalent to censuring them. 

The chronicling of affairs of State by unofficial persons may have been 
regarded at first as an audacity, like the first publication of a newspaper 
in countries where the general public is not expected to desire any know- 
ledge of State affairs. If so, however, the power and pretensions ot the 
literary class must have grown apace, since the commentators soon begin 
to puzzle themselves over the phrase of Confucius, and seek for indications 
of praise and blame in trifling variations of expression, such as speaking 
of a bad prince by his personal name instead of by the complimentary 
periphrasis required by custom in the case of the dead. 1 On the whole it 

1 C'linc.-e C7i?.".7;\r, vol. v. ] t. ii. The Ch'un Ts'ew, with the T>o (Jhuen, p. 514. 

- .-Illilh'ctS, XV. 25. 

: ' Mcncius (iv. pt. ii. xxi. >; 51 represent.-; the sage ;b saying himsclt of this work : " Its 
righteous decisions I ventured to make." 

4 C.C.. v. pt. i, p. 5, 11. 4. The Li-ki contains many rules ahout the names t<> he used 
or "avoided ; " cf. S./>.. xxvii. pp. 05 (where historical and literary can; n.-aior.s are ex- 
empted from the duty of avoiding names 1, 101, 107, no, in, 190; and .wviii. 1^,27, 
etc. Tso's Commentary ( C. C. . v. pt. ii. p. 50 1 gives curious details respecting name super- 
stitions. In r.amine: a child, "the name nuist not he taken from the name oi t..e Mate, or 



26 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

seems probable that for a private person to write history in the 5th centurv n.c. 
was an innovation of the same kind and degree as that effected in the [oth 
century, when private persons presumed to give currency to their political 
sentiments in classic verse. And Mencius himself directs attention to the 
change in a way significant of its import: "The traces of imperial rule 
were extinguished, and the odes ceased to be made; when the odes ceased 
to be made, the Ch'un Ts'ew was produced.'"' 1 

The historian's chum was not exactly for freedom of the pencil; it was 
taken for granted that kings would object to uncomplimentary records if 
they knew of them ; what was demanded was that the chronicles of the 
Record Office should be regarded as ' ; privileged " and their privacy 
respected. Dynasties in China are not expected to live for ever, and the 
official history of each royal house is usually compiled and published by its 
successor. For a reigning prince to inquire curiously into the records 
made respecting his own life and character has been recognised for at least 
the lust thousand years as a grave indiscretion. 

An emperor of the Tang Dynasty (643 a.d.) claimed to know what the 
histori ^rapher said of him, on the plea that he must know his faults 
before he 1 ouid correct them, lie was answered: "It is true your majesty 
has ' ommitted a number of errors, and it has been the painful duty of our 
employment to take notice 1 f them — a dutv which further obliges me to 
inform posterity of the conversation which your majesty has this day very 
improperly held with us."'' :j Similarly, when, towards the end of the 1st 
century n.c, a learned descendant of Confucius was accused of disrespect 
towards a deceased king of the reigning dynasty, he appealed to the im- 
partiality of the hi.-loric records. It was written, lie pointed out, that the 
great king, notwithstanding his other merits, laid shown too much iavour 
towards the Taoist superstition. It' he himself were punished for repeating 
the judgments oi history, that too must be recorded, and his sovereign 
would have to hear the blame in future age-. 

There is so little innovation in China that it is fair to assume this 
-tandard oi historical virtue also to be derived from antiquity, and there 

thus a sort of retrospective witness in favour of the authenticity ot 
documents wi.i h < :; :. w he neither control! d nor confirmed by dire t 
positive evid :.< ■■. Chinese self-esteem and Chinese want of hnaainati n 
together guarantee us against the danger of being seriously misled by 
tine, as approximately trie native tradition-, which in any other 
< untrv would, need to he submitted to minute and su-u>ici >us < ri tic ism. 






: 1 ' .' ) ;i\\ ; 



e ;:m 









THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 27 

The stone drums of the Chow Dynasty 1 should probably be counted as 
authentic monuments of the 9th century B.C., and the Annals of the Bam- 
boo Books may rank with the Babylonian chronicles in authority for the 
whole of the Chow Dynasty, while for earlier days they are based on 
materials which the scientific historian will find far from useless. 

The so-called drums are ten in number ; they are large watenvorn 
boulders, roughly chiselled into shape, and have been preserved since 
[307 a.d., by the principal gate of the Temple of Confucius, at Peking. 
Three of them have inscriptions still substantially legible, in the manner of 
the shorter odes, describing royal hunting and fishing expeditions. They 
were found half buried in a waste piece of ground in Shensi, early in the 
Tang Dynasty, and are described in works published in the reign of 
Tai-Tsong (627-649 a.d.). Early in the 9th century a.d., a "Geographical 
Description of Provinces and Cities " mentions a number of scholars as 
'•unanimous in regarding the inscriptions as ancient and of great value. 
Long years have elapsed since the time when they were engraved, and 
there are now some lost and undecipherable characters, yet the remains 
are well worthy of attention." 2 

The majority of Chinese authorities attribute the inscriptions to the 
reign of Seuen (S26-7S0 B.C.). The locality where they were found was a 
portion of the ancestral territory of the founder of the Chow Dynasty, and 
an earlier emperor than the one to whom they are ascribed was said to 
have engaged in a great hunt there. Han-yu wrote a poem describing how, 
in S06 a.d., he recommended their removal to the national university, and 
lamenting their neglect and decay. A few years later, however, they were 
removed to the Confucian temple of Feng-hsiang-fu, where they remained 
throughout the Tang 1 >ynasty. They were dispersed and lost sight of 
under the Five dynasties, but under the Sung a prefect of the city re- 
covered nine of them, and the tenth was found, 1052 a.d., in the possession 
of a private person. 

The Sung carried the drums with them on their retreat, in 1108 a.d., 
to Pien-ching, and a decree was passed that the characters of the in- 
scriptions should be filled in with gold, to illustrate their value, and to 
prevent their injury by repeated rubbings to obtain facsimiles.- 1 The 
Xuche Tatars carried off the drums when (1126 a.d.) they conquered 
the Sung capital, and the gold was dug out of the inscriptions, which 
remained in neglect till the Mongols placed them in their present position. 
Past century the Emperor wrote some verses on them in the fifty-fifth 
year of the Ivien-lung period, which are engraved, together with those of 
Han-yu, on a tablet in the temple. 

1 Dr. P.ushell {Journal of the X. China Branch of the Royal As. Sec. X.S.. viii., 
1S74) complains, with some reason, of the neglect of these antiquities in khirope, w : 
>o much interest was shown in the— about contemporary — Moabite stone. llis.n 
contains facsimiles of the inscriptions, with translations anil a full history of 1 

since their discovery, and the Chinese literature on the subject. 

: //'., P- 135- 

3 Dr. Bushell describes the method, of taking such impressions use 1 by Chinese 
scii >lars, the result of which " is a singularly perfect and durable reproduction.'' 



2S OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

The characters arc more archaic than in the Shuo wen, 1 the ancient 
dictionary of the Han Dynast}-, some of them retaining a semi-hieroglyphic 
character, e.g. that for park, an enclosure of four squares, each containing 
the suggestion of a tree. One scholar of the Sung Dynasty questions their 
authenticity, doubting whether the monuments could have been preserved 
1,914 years, the interval between King Seuen and himself; but the general 
opinion of the Chinese, supported by Dr. Bushell and M. Chavannes, is 
in favour of their authenticity. 

The Bamboo Looks were discovered nearly four centuries earlier than 
tile drums. In the 5th year of the first emperor of the Tsin Dynasty (279 
A.i).), it is recorded that "some lawless parties in the department of Kei'u 
dug open the grave of Kmg Seang, of Wei (wiio died 295 i;.c), and 
found a number of bamboo tablets, written over in the small seal charac- 
ter, with more than too. coo words, which were deposited in the Imperial 
library." '- 

The earlier records, from the mythical emperors onwards, have mainly 
to do with prodigies : but the entries respecting the Shang Dynasty — 
beginning in die 16 in century 11. c. — have an historical sound, and con- 
tain just such information as one would suppose ancient hist' ri igr; phers 
to preserve The founder 01 the dynasty, Thang the Successful, is said, in 
the 21st year of Ids reign, to have cast metal money. In other reigns it 
is said where the king dwelt, what cities he walled, what sacrifices lie 
ordered, what expeditions he conducted, whom he appointed minister. 
and so forth. A "great hunting' is mentioned in the 22nd year of Te- 
sin, otherwise the wicked C'nou, with whom the dynasty ends, 1040 n.c. 

There is an entry for every year ot King Wu, alter lie obtained the 
empire, and in the toll )\\ ing reigns at intervals 01 three or four years, less 
or more, as events demand. 907 J: -o'. we are told a prince "made a 
palace in a beautiful style. Tile king sent and reproved him.'' in the 
reign of King Seuen, to whom the drums are attributed, entries are frc- 
ijuciit yearly from the accession to the nth year, then in the 12th, 15th. 
1 'it!., 1 -;.,. 2 1 -t. 22nd, 24th. 25th, 27b). 2.3 th, and 29th year : this r 
" ; r tlie fit's t time he ucl - ted the setting an example ol tnisbann 
the i, coo-acre field." 'K.eii we have entries for the 30th, 32110, 331-0. 
t;m. ; ■' . nd .; :th years. :n the last ol wham " he numbered the peu] le 
m Tai-utetip n n die 41s:, 43rd, and 44*01 : in tiie gnth he died. 

Kim; \ ■ '■ (7 i. 1 '. ) begun to incr due taxes ;:. ins 

in his third '" i came enamoured ot 1*. >u .: :. King I'm ( 7 ,J 9 : ■'■ • ' 1U '""> 
third vear cmtcrred honours on i 0. s Minister ol Instruction ; out alter tms 
the entile ' ii and 1 nber, with the decime ot the roya; pi r,\ i r, 

and ti trai.s; ot 1 ut incL rani 2 to otner Mates. < ' .r | w sent 

king, in v. hose 20,1 vear the chronicle 1 aoses. is \ m (313 ■ •'-■ '• 
it is in the oho, ot Ileeii 307 i:.o, ), who l>oastedtto Meiicuis ol navmg 
; ,r wn 1 : . u hi : re erves in ti.e Mafsh of bung-ki ' lor tile beiiclit ol tne 

; .'..-.:; :. - '.''.. hi., :-' -Ki . I'. :ien . . ; . 

■■ ' ". - .-.-.- . ; Mei.cn; . :. .... I. 



THE ANCIENT MONARCHY. 29 

people, that the chronicler begins to speak of what "we" and "our 
king'' did in the different years. 

The modern Chinese speak of " the three dynasties" as if the records 
of all alike belonged in the same sense to their ancient history. But for 
portions of the Chow Dynasty, as has been seen, contemporary documents 
and coins are forthcoming in sufficient numbers to exclude all suspicion 
of legendary inventions. With regard to the preceding dynasties scepti- 
cism is possible, and it is not a matter of vital importance for our present 
purpose whether Chinese records may be trusted for the fact that parties 
of traders reached China from the west in the reign of Shun and in that 
of Tang, and more than once subsequently during the Shang Dynasty, 
the name of which M. Terrien de la Couperie translates "Traders." l 

The famous sexagenary cycle, in use from remote times for reckoning 
days. — a sort of double month, like the double hour of babylonia — was 
not applied to years till Ssema-tsien, who found materials for a uniform 
system of chronology going back to 841 B.C. The generally accepted 
Chinese scheme which places Hwang-ti in 2699 was only invented in the 
i ith century a.d., and cannot be reconciled with the chronology of the bam- 
boo books. M. Terrien de la Couperie proposes an alternative to both, 
making Hwang-ti, approximately, 2362 B.C. ; Yao, 2076 ; Shun, 2004 ; 
and Yu, 1954. A solar eclipse falling in 1904 will then occur in the third 
reign after Yu. He supposes the Chinese to have brought with them 
from the west the knowledge of gold, silver (afterwards called " the 
obstinate metal," from the difficulty of obtaining it in North China), 
copper, and antimony or tin ; and to have learnt the use of bronze from 
the west, in the r 8th century B.C. The change of capital by Pan-kang is 
dated in this scheme 1389 B.C. 

1 Catalogue of Chinese Coins, p. vii. ff. 



CHAPTER III. 

POLITICAL ETHICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 

There is the same resemblance between the oldest passages in the Shoo- 
King and the sayings of Confucius, that there is between the books of 
Ptah-hotep and Kaqimna and the collections of demotic proverbs made 
thousands of years later. And in their earliest form the Chinese maxims 
probably still date from the youth of the Old World, when the Middle 
Empire of Egypt was in its glory and Assyria still a dependance ruled by 
patesis. 

At this time the qualities regarded by the black-haired people as proper 
to a virtuous ruler were ••reverence,''' intelligence, unfeigned courtesy, the 
appreciation of merit in his subjects, and the power of conciliating the 
upper classes of the nation, while enforcing peace and order among the 
lower. If calamities befel the State, the ruler thought the fault must lie 
in himself, and sought for a virtuous colleague to help him in rectifying 
what was wrong. 

The great Yu is reported to have warned his patron and predecessor, 
the aged Shun : " If within the four seas there be distress or poverty. 
your heaven-conferred revenues will come to a perpetual end;" 1 where- 
as, "If the sovereign can realize the difficulty of his sovereignship and 
the minister the difficulty of his ministry, the government will be well 
ordered, and the black-haired people will sedulously seek to be virtuous. - 
And the £i Crcat Plan," a document of the ("now Dynasty, which is sup- 
posed to embody some of the wisdom of Yu, preserved in the archives 
of t'ne intcrvt ; ii li dyn isty. contains the first version of a truth frequently 
rediscovered and repeated by Chinese statesmen, that crime and disorder 
are the direi t < onse [uences of popular distress, and progress in virtue of 
material competence."' A virtuous king does not slight the occupations 
of the people : he thinks of their hardships in the heat and rain of summer 
and the great ( old oi winter, and he labours to promote their ease. Me 
remeinl ers the < .inanities of their life as he remembers the perils of his 
own high oluce. The sovereign depends upon the obedience and ability 
< f his sum 'cts l '•.' the execution of his wishes, as the people depend upon 
i :or the direction of their labours. '1 he duty and virtue oi 
(..lib als is to reverence the multitudes, to foster the life of the people,' 

'■' . ./.., ..:. ; . i.;j. - .. .. i . ; . 



POLITICAL ETLIICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 31 

not to enrich or aggrandize themselves. Those who have ability and 
administrative power are doubly bound to virtuous conduct. The fall of 
dynasties is caused by disregarding the awfulness of the people, as their 
prosperity is caused by exercise of the " essential virtue" of royalty,— 
benevolence or love of the people. The king must not neglect the con- 
dition of t'ne most abject ; the friendless and childless, and still more the 
:i wifeless men'' and widows, are the objects of his compassion. 

The doctrine vox poftidi, vox del was frankly proclaimed from the throne. 
Thang announces after his victory over the house of Hia that " Great 
heaven has conferred on the inferior people a moral sense, compliance 
with winch would show their nature to be invariably right. To make 
them tranquilly pursue the course which it would indicate is the task for 
t'ne sovereign."' 1 The second king of the Chow Dynasty declares, even 
more emphatically, that " The people are born good, and are only cor- 
rupted by external circumstances." '-' The prosperity of the country comes 
from the people, while its misfortunes come from the ignorance or guilt of 
its rulers. And he exhorts. one of his nobles to go about amongst the 
people seeking their judgment on doubtful points, in accordance with the 
saying of the ancients, quoted in a poem of the 9th century B.C. : "Con- 
sult the gatherers of grass and firewood," ;5 a class no doubt equivalent 
to the charcoal-burners or broom-makers of the west. 

It is t'ne duty of both kings and ministers to "practise good husbandry," 
tearing up evil by the roots and cultivating rich crops of merit ; but the 
theory of ministerial responsibility is also fully developed. The prime 
minister of Thang the Successful, whose name signifies the " protector 
and steelyard," is credited with having said : " If I cannot make my 
sovereign like Yao or Shun, I shall feel ashamed in my heart as if I were 
beaten in the market place : " while if any of the people failed to get what 
they wanted, he said, -i It is my fault." 1 Confucius was of the same way 
of thinking, and refused to accept from his disciples, when in office, the 
excuse that what was done wrong was done by their master's orders 
against their own desire. For, he continues, rather disrespectfully towards 
the masters in question, " When a tiger or wild bull escapes from its cage, 
whose is the fault ? " 5 as if the function of a good minister was like that of 
tiie keeper in a menagerie, to chain the evil propensities of t'ne dangerous 
animal in his charge. 

When claiming obedience, the king speaks of himself a h " the one man, ' 
but on other occasions he indulges in the self-depreciatory tone which is 
still de ri^ncm- among well-bred Chinamen ; he is the servant of heaven, 
and the 'Tittle child." and the duty of •'reverence" is no less incumbent 
on him than on his ministers. When Goethe treats reverence as toe base 
of education, lie includes parents and rulers with Heaven, among the 
powers above fur whom reverence is easy; while toe less nts ol reverence 

1 . •". ."■'.. ;::.'■. '. > -/'..:. 234. 

" C'liiwsi- Chi ■' . v )'.. iv. ■''' -A7;:;. ] :. ;:. ; >. 5 I. 
4 S.B., iii. [1. 11S. '' Analects, xvi. 1, f 7- 



32 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

for the earth below and the equal playfellow are reserved to more advanced 
scholars. 1 But in China it seems rather that Heaven and the People are 
the two spheres which overarch the rulers of men. dispensing praise 
and censure and looked up to by them with reverence and awe. 

It mav be doubted whether, from that day to this, rulers with the con- 
stitutionally unbounded rights of afaier familias have ever been so frankly 
i nfronted with the parental view of the obligations of royalty. Besides 
endorsing, as editor of the sacred books, the sentiments professed by the 
ancients on this subject, Confucius intersperses his views on personal pro- 
priety and character with maxims of the same tendency. In reply to a 
disciple, lie defines the essentials of government to be "sufficiencv of food, 
sufficiency of military equipment, and the confidence of the people in their 
ruler :" if one of these must be done without, let it be the military e [ui| 
ment : it two must be sacrificed, part with the food, ■•from of old death 
has 1 een the lot ol ; ■.."'-' but the foundation of the State is in the 

ids faith. 

The head of a noble family consulted him about the best way of reduc- 
ing the number of thieves in the State. Confucius said, "Ifvou, sir, were 
not covetous, although you should pay them for it. thev would not steal.'' ;; 
A- he admired the populousness of the State of Wei. a disciple asked, since 
the pc [)le w -re thus numerous, what else should be done f >r them. " Mu- 
nich them.'' was the reply. "And when they have been enriched, what more 
shall be done ? :; The master said. "Teach them,"' 1 adding on another 
i i -i in, " There 1 ii _ instruction, there will be no distinction of classes,'' 

a doctrine which the subsequent history of China confirms and illustrates 
in a manner very hon ^arable to the sage. 

Tlie first excellent parts of government are for the ruler to "be 1 en : 
ficent without great expenditure,"' and to lay tasks on the people without 
causing dh n ten t : or. as it is further explained, w i 1 le " : : - r - 

j;eui: i in Vq/Vc' the things /rem :chi:h //I •i.iturai'y derive be/ie/it;"-' and 
\vl .; he employs them upon labours beneficial to themselves. The idea is 
: ■ ted m re sunt !v by Meiici is, \vh > c i.i.u is th i the way to . :t th - 
en : -. ■ '. ' i ■ . its of the people, and the way to get their hearts " is 

-.;..' .'." to eohe< t lor litem what thev iike. and not ! i lav on them wii it tin ,' 






: - 



account < ' ti. : tru : f :\v\- e\ • f government to that of ( 'onfm ius. A_..in. 
riders m it -t 1 he < ro d tii ir virtue, w ith 'it v. ..i h they \\ i . . the ] ■ ' • i 
, th-: ] ' 1 ■ . . th.ein terri: rv. h.avi: the tcrrii \ .'es tliem 
we 1th and me ; us of expenditure. " \';rtue is t'ne r • u, wealth is the result. 
//" . ■ : / . ■ >j e ■ : ;' r ': ' ' . ' . 

:,'/-,/ ■■ . 71 / '.' ■ •'/•'■'/' v ■ • ' b ." ■ In an titer pla .','•' There 



POLITICAL ETHICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 33 

is a great course for the production of wealth. Let the producers be many 
and the consumers few. Let there be activity in the production, and 
economy in the expenditure. Then the wealth will be always sufficient ; "* 
the consumers referred to are the salaried officers of the Government, who 
alone are not expected to contribute to the production of wealth. The 
one fatal sentence, on the other hand, is for a prince to say, " I have no 
pleasure in being a prince, only in that no one offers any opposition to 
what I say." ~ 

Mencius is still more uncompromising. An officer of Sung said to him 
that he was not yet able to abolish the duties charged at the markets and 
frontiers and to reduce the land tax to a lawful tithe. " With your leave 
I will lighten, however, both the tax and the duties until next year, and 
will then make an end of them. What do you think of such a course?" 
Mencius said, "Here is a man who every day appropriates some of his 
neighbours' strayed fowls." Some one says to him, " Such is not the way 
of a good man;" and he replies, "With your leave, I will diminish my 
appropriation, and will take only one fowl a month, until next year, when 
1 will make an end of the practice. If you know that the thing is un- 
righteous, why wait till next year?" 3 

An oppressive ruler will not only lose his life and his kingdom, but will 
earn an eternity of shame. " He will be styled ' the Dark,' or ' the Cruel ; ' 
and though he may have filial sons and affectionate grandsons, they will 
not be able in a hundred generations to change the designation," 4 which 
is a curious sort of anathema, but certainly better adapted to act upon the 
mind of a Chinese egoist than the scriptural warning that the sins of the 
father will be visited on the children to the third or fourth generation; 
for it is the egoist himself who has something to lose if the virtues of his 
children are never to be visited on his head, even though they should be 
virtuous through 100 generations to come. 

When kings themselves asked the sturdy moralist for ins advice, it was 
administered in the form of Socratic interrogation. " Is there any dif- 
ference between killing a man with a stick and with a sword?" King 
H way of Seang opines that there is no difference. ''Is there any differ- 
ence between killing a man with a sword and with bad government? 
•• There is no difference," was the reply. Mencius said: "In your kitchen 
there is fat meat : in your stables there are fat horses. Your people have 
the look of hunger, and on the wilds there are those who have died ot 
tamine. Your dogs and swine eat the food of men. and you do not know 
to make any restrictive arrangements. 5 There are people dying from 
1 -mine on the roads, and you do not know to issue the stores ot your 
granaries for them. When people die, you say, "It is not owing to me ; 
it is owing to the year.'' In what does this differ from stabbing a man and 
killing him, and then saying, ' It was not I, it was the weapon'? - '"' 

1 /■''., ? 19. - A>i-iL':ts, xiii. 15, § 4. 

)!'. /'.-" .' Men 7,7.', Book iii. pt. ii. ch. viii. * 7. .. iv. ;. ::. £ J-. 

" As enjoined in the />'.■.: of J\i!cs, see/ :.'. p. 55. 
ll't >'/: . i. i. iii. $j 5, iv. jj 2- 4. 
VOL. II. — P.O. I 1 



34 OWNERSHIP IN CIIIXA. 

King Seuen of Tsi hired no better. He was asked : " Suppose that one 
oi your majesty's ministers were to intrust his wife and children to the care 
of Ins friend, while he himself went into Ts'oo to travel, and that on his 
return he should find that the friend had caused Ins wife and children to 
sutler from cold and hunger; how ought he to deal with him?' - ' The 
king said, '• He should cast him off." Mencius proceeded, ''Suppose that 
the chief criminal judge < ould not regulate the officers, how would you deal 
with him?" The king said. "Dismiss him." ''If." finally asked the 
terrible sage, " il within the four borders of your kingdom there is not 
good government, what is to be clone- 1 " We have no difficulty in believ- 
ing the truth of the record that "the king looked to the right and left, and 
spoke of other matters." ' 

On another occasion the same prince was equally discomfited when his 
inquiry as to the proper duties of the chief ministers, bearing the same 
name as the sovereign, and therefore regarded as iiis relatives, was met by 
liie information, that the difference between them and other ministers was. 
that in the ever.: of the king governing ill and refusing to amend, it was 
the duty of his relatives to depose rum, while other ministers were only 
bound to abandon his service. In the same spirit Mencius maintains : " The 
' eople are the most important element ; the spirits of the land and grain 
are the next ; the sovereign is the lightest. Therefore to gain the pea- 
santry is the way to become emperor. . . . When a prince endangers 
the altars of the spirits of the land and grain, he is changed, and another 
aj ] ;:ited in his place." - 

The verdict of popular favour is to be trusted as well in regard to the 
-be- tion of officers as of princes and emperor.-. "When all those about 
V' ti say, 'This is a man of talents and worth.' you may not for that be- 
lieve it. When your great officers all say, 'This is a man of talents and 
,'irtue,' neither may you for that believe it. When ail the people say, 
This is a man of talents and virtue,'' their examine into the case, an i 
when you had that the man is such employ him." And the same caution 
:- re' on.meiid.ed in regard to the verdicts, " This man won't do,' or " Tins 
.- :rves death." ;; " The pe pie killed him." is a proverbial saying t ■ 
ies< ribe the fall of obnoxious minister-. It will be remembered that in 
1 ~ypt the stewards administering royal or other estates were held re- 
-\ un.d ie ' their rule was ] :-j\\<1 by its results to have provoked 
niscontent ; and China is perhaps the only Oriental country in which the 

:ne principle prevails to the present day. so that a mandarin win 

. .•rnnient .. - been - i" i ; mtlv op] u'essive to pn woke a not is // J a ; 
0;>_;rai ed : and. by the ( '.< be. an i lii er v ho drives the people to rebellion 
y opp! - ion is put ti j death. ' while ovations and testimonials by po] u 
nption reward the labours of the really upright and honest officials, 
"■'.- i are to be met with nallv, even in the degenerate Empire ot to- 

< 1: '.'. 

• .'.''.>-:, i. ii. vi. -'/'., vii. ii. xlv. ' /'., i. ii. vi. ?'? :. '■ 

' Ta 'J'Jtt :..u /.:, \:\ '. •; >'.x (,. r ■■_■ bUuiUon. {PtH.dLr of C'liu.i, cox.) 



POLITICAL ETHICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 35 

The bold utterances of our^two philosophers have no doubt contributed 
to preserve a Chinese counterpart to European " freedom of the press'' in 
the right to criticise and even to lampoon unpopular officials ; and, as an 
officer is liable to be thought the worse of at Peking for inspiring such 
compositions, public opinion exercises a real check upon abuses which 
exceed the customary standard. 

The political economy of China squared with its ethics. The payment 
of taxes in kind was the rule, but even then the exaction of a fixed rent 
was objected to in the interests of the cultivators. An ancient worthy, 
quoted by Mencius, declares : " For regulating the lands there is no better 
system than that of mutual aid, and none that is not better than that of 
taxing. By the tax system the regular amount was fixed by taking the 
average of several years. In good years, when the grain lies about in abund- 
ance, much might be taken without its being oppressive, and the actual 
burden would be small, lint in bad years the produce not being sufficient 
to repay the manuring of the fields, this system still requires the taking of 
the full amount : ; ' the result of which is that the peasants are compelled 
to borrow, and i: old people and children are found lying in the ditches 
and water channels/' * 

The Look of Rites contains some striking provisions expressly designed 
to prevent the State charges from becoming an oppressive burden on the 
cultivators. The amount of rice consumed per head of the population was 
estimated at about 1 i lbs. per diem in an average year. With a bountiful 
harvest it might rise to 2 lbs., and in a bad year it might fall to 1 lb. ; but 
it was the duty of the officers in charge of the public granaries to watch 
the harvests and the state of the public stores, and when the lower limit of 
consumption was reached, to import grain from adjoining provinces, to re- 
move the people to more productive regions, and to warn the sovereign to 
reduce the expenses of the State. In times of famine the king had no 
great feasts, and all other optional items of expenditure were curtailed, to 
the admiration of Wang-tchi-tchang, a commentator of the Ming Dynasty, 
who praises the kings of Chow for adjusting their expenditure to their 
revenue, instead of, like his own contemporaries, regulating the taxation of 
the people by the expenditure of the prince. a 

In the first chapter of the third book of the Li Ki this theory of public 
expenditure is expressly formulated ; the year's receipts are to be calculated 
as soon as possible after harvest, and the expenditure regulated accord- 
ingly. The general rate of expenditure ought, it was held, to be deter- 
mined upon the average revenue for thirty years — a period long enough to 
allow good and bad years to balance each other. A thriving State was one 
:n which a surplus had been accumulated sufficient to provide for a scries 
of six bad years ; a State that had not a surplus sufficient for three years 
was doomed to prompt extinction. Apparently a third of the produce in 
normal years was assumed to be available for accumulation, so that the 
nine years' store represents the savings of twenty-seven years ; and it seems 
1 Works, iii. i. iii. § 7. '-' Cf. T<.~luou-li, i. 392-4. 



3 6 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

that the sages who chose thirty years as the period for which an average 
should be struck, only expected three really bad years to occur in the 
time. At least they regarded the three bad years as certain to befall, six 
as sufficiently probable to need guarding against, and nine as the utmost 
limit of possible calamity. Those who had nine years' stock in hand were 
virtually secure against want. 1 

According to one text, a tithe of the revenue was set apart for sacrifices, 
and the rites of mourning for parents were allowed to absorb this tithe 
during the three years devoted to them. This is nearly the only recogni- 
tion of a tithe for religious or quasi-religious purposes in China, and pro- 
bably represents a very ancient fragment of tradition. The king received 
a tithe of the national produce, and he may have been anciently ex- 
pected to spend a tithe of the revenue so obtained upon the rites of public 
worship ; but an earlier passage in the same book describes the Son of 
Heaven as retaining nine-tenths of the produce of his domains for his own 
use, and employing the other tenth to defray the charges of the public 
offices. 

Lavishness, like that of the Egyptian kings in the service of the gods, is 
entirely contrary to Chinese ideas of propriety and justice; and there was 
no spiritual hierarchy to be endowed apart from the boards of Government. 
The appropriateness of all offerings to spiritual beings was held to lie in 
their abundance. Each class of the community is supposed to sacrifice a 
specimen of that in which their wealth consists, and kings, princes, and 
Lireat officers were warned rather against sacrificing too much than too 
little. " Without sufficient cause a prince did not kill an ox, nor a great 
officer a sheep;"'- and. as private festivities were restricted to the scale 
of expenditure thought proper for sacrifices, the latter conformed to the 
national standard of frugality. 

The primitive religion of the Chinese probably stood nearer to that of 
Kgypt and babylonia, both in the kind and quantity of its observances, than 
modern Chinese writers would lead us to suppose. Besides all the traces 
of nature-worship met with in the Classics and Tso's commentary, there is 
a personage mentioned in Ssema-tsicirs Treatise on the Fong and Chan 
Sacrifices/ 1 who reminds us of the Kgyptian Cher-neb, in his character ol 
reading or praying priest. There were "official prayers," one of whom 
was called " .'• tvicur > r/r/,'' whose business it was to perform a sacrifice 
for the benefit of the prince, which, from the nature of the case, could not 
be done publicly, as its object was to cause an evil with which the 
sovereign was threatened, to be diverted from him to some other obj :ct. 

Akkadian hymns are familiar with the idea of a scapegoat, animate or 
inanimate, but this ;ort of < njuration offended Chinese morality ; and an 
author who df d : :; i.e. narrates ; how a Duke King of Sung, refused to 
have it performed for his benefit when a star appeared ominously in a 

: - Ti • fy M. K. (uavrumj.- in t!u / it. ■/,:/ , ■ ;i. ■ /"< .:/i; On n'a! Sccn/r, vol. 

i:i. i ibt/j , 2s'u. i. ; /., .. . i ■. 



POLITICAL ETHICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 37 

wrong constellation. The astronomer informs him : " A calamity threatens 
your highness, but it can be diverted upon one of your counsellors.'' "The 
counsellors,'"' said the duke, " are those who direct the State ; to divert the 
evil upon them would not be well.'' " One can divert it towards the 
people." " If the people die," said the duke, "over whom shall I reign? 
I had better die alone." " One can divert the evil upon the crops." " If 
the year is bad, the people will suffer scarcity and die of hunger. If, being 
a prince, I slay my people to save my own life, who would acknowledge 
me as prince? My destiny is irrevocable!" The institution was put an 
end to by the Han emperor Wen, in 166 B.C.: "The secret supplicator 
diverts the course of calamities upon my subjects. I cannot permit it. 
Henceforward he is suppressed." l 

One expensive religious rite after another 2 was eliminated at the sugges- 
tion of rationalistic sovereigns or sages, until finally nothing was left but 
the imperial act of homage to heaven and earth and agriculture in the 
ceremonial ploughing. 

The surplus produce from the common fields was regarded as a sort of 
national grain bank, and the officers in charge of the stores were allowed 
to make advances to the cultivators at seed-time, to be repaid in harvest. 
To the very poor the loans might be made gratuitously, :; and in any case 
the repayment had the effect of renewing the stores with fresh grain for old, 
while the profit upon some of the advances served to increase the common 
fund which could be drawn upon in times of dearth. 

The amount of forced labour exacted from the people was intended to 
vary under the same circumstances. In good times three days' labour may 
be exacted from the cultivators ; but if the harvest is middling, this is re- 
duced to two days, and if it is bad, to one. If there is a public calamity, 
such as an epidemic, all taxation, whether in produce or labour, is 
excused. Light taxation, Mencius observes, is indispensable if the objects 

1 L.c, p. 39. Cf. Tchcou-li, i. p. 157, on the Niu-tcho or women charged with 
intercessory prayers. 

- The character of the archaic religion can be judged from a passage in the same book 
of Ssema-tsien (p. 51 of M. Chavannes' version). "Formerly the son of Heaven offered 
a sacrifice in the spring to ward off calamities. To Hwang ti he sacrificed an owl and a 
tiger ; to the "hidden sheep," a sheep : to the activity of the horse, a dark-coloured 
stallion ; to T'ai i, the prince of Mount Tso ami the greatness of earth, an ox : to the 
sages of the Mount Ou i they offered dried fish, and an ox to the ambassador of the Yin and 
the Vang." Ssema-tsien quotes an earlier author for the statement that "the spirits 
frequent " a given spot because it is a "high place," and the above passage, in winch 
"the activity of the horse " is mentioned along with the local worship of mountains (eke- 
where associated with that of rivers) may be taken in conjunction witii that quoted be- 
fore (vol. i. p. 14S) to show that the worship of animals was not unknown in ancient 
China. One of the undoubtedly ancient elements in Chinese religion — tile practice of 
divining by the tortoise-shell — may not have been peculiar to them. Choo-hi says of it, 
" The way of divination by the tortoise was by the application of tire to scorch, the 
tortoise-shell till the indications appeared on it : " and if such a method of divination was 
in use by the Lydians, the occupation of Cree-us, on the day when his ambassadors were 
to consult the oracles, has a motive, and the happy shot of the Delphic oracle an 
explanation. 

:i According to a pas-age in the Li Ki (.9./?., xxvii. p. 261). corn is distributed from 
the king's vaults to the friendless and destitute in the last month of spring— the time 
when the pinch of want is most felt by a purely agricultural community. 



3 8 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

of a sage's government are to be attained, for this is only done when 
grain and pulse are made to be as abundant as water and fire, which, 
necessary as they are, are yet so plentiful that the poorest can afford to 
give them away if a stranger asks for them at nightfall. In his time, three 
taxes were levied one of hempen cloth and silk, one of grain, and one of 
personal service. To exact all three at the same time of year was regarded 
as an intolerable oppression, as the first ought to be paid in summer, the 
second after the autumn harvest, and the third during the winter leisure. 1 

In the 15th year of Duke Seuen (608-590 i;.c.) an additional tithe was 
for the first time levied on the village lands,'- either by simply doubling 
the proportion of agricultural produce formerly claimed by the State, or 
more probably by tithing the valuable produce of the homestead, with its 
mulberry and fruit trees, on account of which the personal tax of silk or 
cloth was already hieing paid. The tax was never regarded as lawful, and 
when Duke Gac (494 .167 n.c.) complained of his financial difficulties to a 
disciple of Confucius, he was advised to try the effect of tithing the people. 
'" With two-tenths," said the Duke, "I find them not enough; how could I 
do with that system of a tenth ? " :; To which his mentor replies that if 
the people have plenty, their prince will not be allowed to want, while it is 
an accepted principle that anything beyond a tenth is oppressively heavy. 

On the other hand. Mencius received with great scorn the suggestion of 
a would-be reformer, anxious to go beyond the benevolence of the ancients 
and reduce the taxes to a twentieth.' Such a course might be possible 
among the pastoral barbarians of the north, who grow millet only, who 
have no fortified cities, no public buildings, no ancestral temples, no sacri- 
fices, no system of official administration, and no feudal princes requiring 
to be entertained with ceremonies and gifts. But for the Middle Kingdom 
to banish all these relationships and recognise no degrees of superiority in 
mankind was out of the question. Civilization and a tenth seemed pre- 
ferable to the state of nature and a twentieth. 

The following passage from the I.i Ki summarizes the most important 
and familiar of the fiscal usages of middle antiquity. Anciently the 
public fields were cultivated by the united labours of the farmers around 
them, from the produce of whose private fields nothing was levied. 
Travellers were examined at the different passes, but no duties were levied 
from then-. A rent was charged for the stances in the market places, but 
wares were not taxed. The people went without hindrance, at the proper 
seasons, into the forests and plains at the foot of the mountains. Xone of 
the produce was levied from the fields assigned to the younger sons of a 
family, nor from the holy fields. Only three days' labour were required (by 
the State) from the people- in the course of a year. Fields and residences 
in the hamlets ('when once assigned) could not be sold. Ground set apart 
for graves could not be used lor any other purpose."' 

1 //'; W-, vii. 1. xx . ; ami ii. \xvii. - Ch'un '/',•:', pp. ^27 >. 

" . I :: :. I . \ 1 1, i \. ;:' ;. 4 // 'orks, vi. ii. x. 

'" .X'./;., vul. xxvii. [i. n~. Ac j l'lin;; 1 ) ('ho i-hi, if he Ls nut too late to be trusted 



POLITICAL ETHICS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY. 39 

With regard to other than agricultural produce, the Chow Li explains at 
length that the Inspectors of ponds received in kind the skin, horns, pearls, 
shells, etc., gathered by the inhabitants and forming their tax : when the 
requirements of the treasury are met, the surplus is divided amongst the 
people, and the same officer apportions the parts of the marshy ground 
which are not under water the whole year, and from which consequently a 
crop may be gathered during the summer, as is still done by the Chinese 
on the borders of large shallow lakes like the Tung-ting or l'oyang waters, 
which contract during the dry season. There is also an officer of the 
chase, who is in charge of the imperial covers, and who, after the Emperor 
has hunted in any district, has power to regulate the admission of the 
people to kill game for themselves in the reserve. The same permission 
was given in the case of the marshes and rivers, and it was an unpardon- 
able offence in the "Superintendent of waters," who collected the revenues 
from rivers, springs, ponds, and meres, to encroach in any way upon the 
rights of the myriads, so as to awaken a feeling of dissatisfaction among 
them against the Son of Heaven. 1 

After a royal hunt the game was scrambled for by the people, and it was 
considered bad manners for " the great kitchen " to put in a claim for all 
the spoil. According to the Li Ivi, three great hunts were held, in spring, 
summer, and winter, not in autumn, when it would have interfered with the 
harvest — the three objects of the hunt being to provide flesh for sacrifices, 
for hospitality, and for the ruler's own use. There were regulations about 
the size of the fishing nets to be used,- the mesh of which was not to be 
less than four incb.es, and it was also forbidden to take fish less than a foot 
long. As in the case of the woods and forests, the regulations in force 
were mainly directed against the danger of exterminating valuable species; 
and even a royal prince, hunting in spring, is forbidden to surround a 
whole marsh for the purposes of a battue. This provision is included 
among the "rules of propriety'' in the first section of the Li Ki. ;! "To 
hunt without observing the rules was deemed cruelty towards the creatures 
of heaven.'"' It was also against the rule to take eggs, to throw down, nests, 
and to kill young or pregnant animals ; even the firing oi the fields was 
su] posed to be put off until the insects frequenting them had retired into 
the holes and burrows where they were thought to spend the winter. Con- 
sideration for the brute creation was naturally associated with regard tor 
the interests of human beings, and so the emperor left some game tor the 
princes, the princes left some for the great officers, and when these had had 
their sport, the common people were allowed to hunt for themselves. 

An important commentary of the Sung Dynasty asserts that the w. 

for the fact, the ground rent of the market stalls was a genuine rent, levied when the 
number of trailers applying for space was greater than could be accommodated: l>u'. it 
was not considered right to lew both the ground rent and an octroi duty. \L: ui.: 
Works of Maidus, by James Legge, D.D., p. 172.11.) 

1 liiot, Lo Tclicott'-li, i. p. SS. S.B., xxvii. p. 220. 

- C.C., vol. ii. p. 0. n. 

3 S.B., xxvii. p. 106; il). The Roya! Regulations, p. 220. 



4 o OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

and waters were free to all till the Chow Dynasty, and that their produce 
was then taxed to prevent too many of the people abandoning agriculture 
in favour of what might seem easier and more remunerative modes of life. 
The legislator wished to reduce ''sport'"' to an orderly branch of industry, 
and it was always counted as an abuse and an indecorum if the Court 
amusements threatened to interfere with the humble trade of hunters and 
fowlers. By the time of Mencius, however, game preserving had already 
reached such a point that the slayer of a deer within the royal park was 
punished in the same way as one who had killed a man. Hence the 
magnitude of the royal park was a subject of popular discontent, 1 though 
it was only half the size of that ungrudgingly enjoyed by King Wen, who 
allowed the grass-cutters and fuel gatherers and the catchers of hares and 
pheasants to pursue their avocations freely within his enclosure. 

Mencius helps to complete our view of the old market regulations In- 
describing the various abuses which had come into play in his time, and 
the reforms which still did not seem hopelessly out of reach. After inform- 
ing a king of Tse who is ambitious of empire that it is '-like climbing a tree 
to look for fish " to expect to secure the empire for a small State by war- 
like preparations, he sums up the functions of the Imperial Government 
substantially as the}' are set forth in the Rites of Chow. A benevolent 
government, he tells the king,- "will cause all the officers in the empire to 
wish to stand in your majesty's court, and the farmers ail to wish to plough 
in your majesty's fields, and the merchants, both travelling and stationary, 
all to wish to store their goods in your majesty's market places, and 
travelling strangers ail to wish to make their tours on your majesty's roads, 
and all throughout the empire who feel aggrieved by their rulers to wish 
to come and complain to your majesty;" for the people turn to a benevolent 
rule as water flows down hill and wild beasts fly to the wilderness ; 
they can no more be kept back from giving their allegiance than the rain 
read}' to fall from bursting clouds. 

One of the signs that foretold the ruin of Tse was that after the duke 
had tampered with the grain measures, or in other words, debased tin: 
local currency, a powerful family began to hid for popularity by taking the 
opposite course, lending according to their own (large) measures and 
accepting payment m the public measure which was deficient ; and while 
the State was absorbing two-thirds of the people's wealth, leaving them 
only one-third for food an I clothes, tins family caused its wood, fish, salt, 
and frogs to be sold at the same rate in the market as at the water or the 
hills, i.e. at cost price: "Though such air one wished not to win them to 
himself, how could he help doing so?'' asked the loyal minister of the 
doomed State.' 1 

Tiie service of the markets was considered to be in a sense a part of the 
public service. A dealer who succeeded in effecting a "corner" in cattle 

1 M: atiu-, //-,-/•/■ , i. ii. ii. 

'■■' ! . i . \ i : . ■:' I S. 

'•' C. C '. , v. [>:. ii. p. 5S9. The date of the record is 557 is. c. 



POLITICAL ETHICS AXD POLITICAL ECONOMY. 41 

in the State of Loo was treated as a criminal by Confucius, and was said to 
have secured immunity in his malpractices only by bribing the officers who 

should have denounced his guilt. Yet he is not accused of any action 
which would be considered dishonest or even discreditable in the mercan- 
tile world of the West, lie had gradually bought up all the cattle of the 
neighbourhood, and all the available pasture land; whoever wanted to sell, 
he was in a position to buy, and by making advances to smaller dealers, 
when in difficulties, he had gradually also got them into his power ; and 
all the shepherds and herdsmen of the district were in his employment. 
Meat was not generally in everyday use : but on certain festive occasions, 
even poor families were required by custom to provide it for their guests, 
so that the high price the monopolist was able to charge amounted to a 
considerable tax on the whole community. Confucius required him, as a 
condition of pardon, to give up the profitable industry and make restitu- 
tion to the community he had plundered, of all his wealth beyond what 
was necessary for a decent maintenance. The cattle dealer consented, 
and the point of economic morality was settled once for all in Chinese 
opinion. 1 

A low rate of taxation never ceased to lie regarded as an essential part 
of good government ; the minister who increased the royal revenue by 
increased exactions from tire people was denounced ; and to combine low 
taxes with a sufficient revenue, it was necessary for the taxpayers to be 
numerous. Hence, with brief exceptions, the influence of the Government 
was steadily employed to perpetuate the conditions favourable not to the 
accumulation, but to the substantially equal distribution of wealth. 

1 Pauthier, La Chine, i. p. 156. Mcnciits, ii. ii. xi. § 7. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE RURAL ECONOMY OF THE CHOW. 

Liivi: the city of ancient Egypt and Babylonia, the ancient Chinese village 
consisted of clustered groups of houses. The traditions embodied in the 
Chow Li as to the si/e and grouping of the clusters are not quite clear or 
consistent, but the discrepancies may only reflect the different usages of 
the three first dynasties. 

The institution of the tsin^ with its nine plots is regarded as the special 
creation of the men of Chow. The nine squares cover the area of a square 
Li. which contained 900 mow, or nine squares of 100 mow each, of which 
the central square (X.) formed the public field. r n which was culti- 
vated in common for the benefit of the State. x . Throughout the 
first three dynasties it was held that taxation ■ could not law- 
fully exceed a tithe of the produce, and accordingly the area of the public 
field was reduced by deducting from it the ground required for the sepa- 
rate houses and gardens of the eight families, so that the public land was 
real;}- S3 m >w and the private S20, or rather more, instead of less, than 
ten times as much. 

The imperial editors say that the character Li is used in three senses : 
it means — 1. a group of 25 houses, i.e. the hamlet; 2. a length of i.Sco 
feet, of which the square forms a tsing ; and 3. a habitation.'-' From this 
it seems that the term tsing was sometimes used to describe the smallest, 
and sometimes the smallest but one, of the groups described in other pas- 
sages of the Chow hi. :; The rural unit 1 onsists for administrative purposes 
of a group of five families, which is called a ' ; neighbourhood.'' Ilach 
family was supposed to in< hide three generations, and to consist normally 
of grandfather and gran li . ither, husband and wife, and three or lour 



/'..'..".,/.. [S '. ■ . 5 10! ill 



P3 



f". Mil 



lit-] 


■ 1 




v. li, 


111 




! -. 


1 cxe- 


i ••:.' 


re ' 




i:uki- 


1 > 1 n : 


'liii 


J- t 




alren 


Iv 




iv : . . 



C'.i, 



THE RURAL ECONOMY OF THE CHOW. 43 

children, making seven or eight persons in all, the husband being the 
grandfather's eldest son. 

The dwellings of the neighbourhood are enclosed by a single wall, and 
the residents are bound to mutual aid and support ; but an average group 
of forty persons of all ages is manifestly too small to constitute a village, 
and probably rather represents the family community. The present 
Chinese average is five persons to a family, counting parents and children 
only : but if the family or household here includes three generations, the 
family group would certainly include the families of younger sons, and thus 
the numbers of the "neighbourhood'' would easily be made up. The elder 
of the group was responsible for its internal government, and ranked as a 
graduate of the lowest class. 

The counterpart of this community is the "' hamlet" of five neighbour- 
hoods, including twenty-five families of perha: s about 200 souls. It appears 
incidentally from one of the amatory poems of the Shi-King that this larger 
group is the one within which public opinion ami ' ; the talk of people" 
makes itself felt as a social force. A prudent young lady, while avowing 
her love for a certain Mr. Chung, begs him not to leap into her hamlet, 
breaking the willow trees which grow by its encompassing ditches, for she 
fears her parents and their words ; she begs him not to leap over the 
wall which encloses the dwellings of the neighbourhood, and break the 
mulberry trees which it cultivates in common, for she fears the talk of her 
'• brothers " — a word often used interchangeably for relatives of the same 
surname, or with a common ancestor, in fact the clan or cousinhood : — 
lastly, she begs him not to leap into her garden and break the sandalwood 
trees, which are the private property of the family, for she dreads the talk 
of the village. That is to say, the opinion of the household, the family 
group, and the village are respectively invoked to condemn the lover's in- 
trusion within the three sets of boundaries, in the inverse order of privacy. 1 
In the Anahcts we have an appeal to the same tribunals, for " he whom 
the circle of his relatives pronounces to be filial and whom his fellow-vil- 
lagers and neighbours pronounce to be fraternal " : - is judged to be only 
one degree inferior to a worthy officer. 

The village system in one form or another is practically of world-wide 
extension, but in connection with the hypothesis winch brings the Chinese 
from the highlands west of Central Asia, it is interesting to note die re- 
semblance between these clusters of associated households in China and 
Wood's description of the communities he found living in the valleys of 
Badakshan. It is customary, he tells us. 'Tor relations to live in the 
same hamlet, often to the number of six or seven families'' (by which no 
doubt he understands the natural household of parents and. children). 

1 CC, vol. iv. pt. 1. Shi-King, p. 125. 

- xiii. 20. The "circle of relatives" is still a reality in China: aivl when '" n run eh 
families" were one of the strongholds of the feudal system, no doubt the po.itical im- 
portance of rent!. te decrees of relationship caused the records of them t 1 lu kept. I!at 
it is also possil le that the local organizations started from the natural ramiticati ns ot the 
family. Of. Appendix L. 



44 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

"An outer wall surrounds this little knot of friends, within which each 
family lias its separate dwelling-house, stable and cattle shed : and a num- 
ber of such hamlets forms a kishlak or village.' - ' : The kishlak thus answers 
exactly to the group of neighbourhoods forming the Chinese hamlet. Two 
independent authorities, midway in time between Wood and the Chinese 
Book of Odes, note a similar trait in the adjacent kingdoms of Yarkand 
and Khotan, where Fa-hian (400 a.d.) and Hiouen-thsang (630 a.d.) speak 
in almost identical terms of tiie people '" building their houses in clus- 
ters." '- 

The functions of the village headman who presides over the twenty-five 
families of a hamlet, are to keep an account of the numbers of the commu- 
nity, to apportion the taxes both in produce and labour, and to preside over 
the work of seed-time and harvest, for the hamlet is the unit in the system 
of common cultivation or ;1 mutual ail."' always referred to as an essential 
feature of the Chow regime." Four of these communities form a Hundred, 
or, as M. Biot calls it. a commune, which is presided over by a graduate 
of the first rank. He revises the decisions of the local headmen, and is 
responsible for the military levies which are proportioned to the agricul- 
tural divisions. Five hundreds form a shire, or a department, and two 
further multiplications by five bring us to the largest administrative dis- 
trict-, the c lUilty and the province. 

The solidarity of the hundred extends to the sharing of funeral expenses, 
the childless and destitute being interred by their fellow-villagers. The 
expenses of religious ceremonies are borne jointly by the county: living 
merit is rewarded bv honours extending over the whole province, and the 
list of persons of special capacity handed in triennially by the governor of 
the province is preserved in duplicate by the Recorder of the Interior. 

This system is evidentlv theoretical, and the empire can never have been 
mapped out into equal areas counted either by fives or nines. But Men- 
cius mentions a tradition that '"'the 50 mow allotment of 1 lia. the 70 of 
Yin, and the 100 of Chow were actually of the same dimensions." l And in 
another section of the Chow Li : ' the divisions after the tsing proceed by 
lours, giving Ltrouj s of 36, 144. and 576 families, which answer roughly to 
the 25. ico, and :co families contemplated bv the grouping in hundre is 
an ; - tires. S 1 :'. it it is p issible that the real tisage varied less than the 
ripti ns of it. Mencius certainly had no access to the official book of 
the Kites of Chow, and so can have known only what tradition and sur- 
vivii j - : torn still preserved of them. But he is perhaps all the more 
'■ . ... le as ; n ... ith >rity on that ace iimt, and his comment on a proverbial 
phrase in honour of the kiiv^s Wen and Wu shows that traditi m had got a 
firm gras; < f the numl er f;\ e. 

1 _.; j .,. .. -y !■'.":> S. : ■ : ' ■ . . ■ . < \v :. 

.,:. : ;i> \.i>. . Ti . :': .. lii :(":.:: • : > ucl 1 

* I.i iii.l l'\r'. '.:.';.• ::i . Ily James L^e, 1 ).I )., 1S75, \\ 2 I 



\v 


: . 2;. ; 


■- :.. 1S72, 


'■:■ ' 


74- 




■■: Oil 


.'.; to /i:Jia 


•;- 


j A, 1). 


iS< ). 


p. s. 









THE RURAL ECONOMY OE THE CHOW, 45 

The saying went, " The Chief of the West knows well how to nourish 
the old." According to Mencius, in the good old times which inspired the 
proverb "around the homestead, with its five mow, the space beneath the 
walls was planted with mulberry trees with which the women nourished 
silk-worms, and thus the old were able to have silk to wear. Each family 
had five brood hens and two brood sows, and thus the old were able to 
have flesh to eat. The husbandmen cultivated their farms of roo mow, 
and thus their families of eight mouths were secure from want. 
It has never been," concludes the philosopher, "that the ruler of a State 
where such results were seen, the old wearing silk and eating flesh, and 
the black-haired people suffering neither from hunger nor cold, did not 
attain to the imperial dignity.'"' 1 

Another ode, very short and obscure, and therefore all the more likely 
to be old, speaks of the mulberry planters standing about among their ten 
acres, to discuss the bad times and talk of abandoning their homes ; 2 and 
in another place Mencius speaks of the people within the nine squares as 
rendering each other all the mutual good offices which are set forth in the 
Chow Li as incumbent on the members of the hundred. Though there was 
no one strictly universal usage, there was a perfectly well known and 
familiar type of usage, any decently close approximation to which was ac- 
cepted as lawful and satisfactory, just as the expression " a hamlet of ten 
families " was used proverbially ;; for the smallest centre of social life. 

One point is significant in connection with what we know of communal 
cultivation elsewhere. The mow as a measure of land represents a rect- 
angular strip of 240 pon in length by one in breadth, i.e. just such a fur- 
row-long as was used to divide the ploughlands of western Europe. The 
allowance of land to each village group was supplemented by pasture and 
the various rights of common allowed upon the hills and wastes, and this 
allowance of both pasture and arable land was doubled or trebled if the 
arable land was of inferior quality. Enclosures were forbidden on the hill 
pastures, but the allowance was never less than the arable, i.e. at the rate 
of from 100 to 300 mow to each household. Perhaps the simplest view is 
to suppose that, as long at least as land was plentiful, the hamlet occupied 
about as much land as it wanted, and divided its settlement into nine 
squares, taking the actual size of the squares for granted, as in the case 
of other conventional measures, and calling the enclosure always by tiie 
same name as long as it occupied the same place in the district administra- 
tion. Whatever its acreage and numerical strength, the enclosed hamlet 
tilled in common, by the system of mutual aid, fields enough to provide 
food and clothing in simple abundance for old and young. 

Chinese criticism is so far to be trusted that we may probably accept a 
song, supposed to have been sung by the peasants in the age of Yao, as 
one of the earliest remains of popular poetry. They sing as they work : — 

1 Mencius, iv. i. 13 ; vii. i. 22. - C.C., iv. ii. p. 1 Co. 

a Legge, i. p. 47. De Mailla, iii. p. 30. 



46 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

" We rise at sunrise, 
We re-t at sunset, 
1 >::; wells and drink, 
'1'iil ' i',ir fields and eat — 
What is the strength oi 'die Hmperor to us?" ' 

For 4, ceo years the strength of the empire has been in the agricultural 
peasantry, who as!; nothing from the emperor but to be let wisely alone. 

Pictures mure or less circumstantial and poetical of the life of the rural 
communes are to be met with in the book of Odes. One of the many 
poems attributed to the J Juke of Chow is a sort of poetical almanack, con- 
sisting apparently of several sets of weather verses welded into one ; but 
parts of it at least must be older than the duke, as the seasons followed 
are those of Ilia, the first historical dynasty. It is called an ode of 1'in, 
and, as there is nothing in the text to cause the name to be invented, it is 
probably traditional, and therefore shows at least that the descriptions of 
the poem were originally supposed to refer to the settlements in I'm rather 
than Chow, i.e. to life in China before 13^5 n.c. 

The ode begins with the seventh month, in which "the fire-star passes 
the horizon ; ,; it answers to our August, and owes its place to the fact that 
in the days of Yao this occurred at midsummer. There are eight stanzas, 
each of which runs through the various occupations, productions, and 
characteristics of the various months in turn. The first month is cold, 
they go after badgers, and take foxes and wild cats to make furs for the 
young princes. In the second they hunt and drill, the people take the 
boars of one Near, those of three years arc for the prince: they hew out 
tlie ice with harmonious blows ; in the third month they convey it to the 
:■ e-houses,'~ and they take their ploughs in hand. In the fourth month 
die\ take their way to the fields ; the small grass is in seed : the sacrifice 
of a lamb is offered before the ice-houses are opened for use. In the fifth 
month the cicada gives out its note, and the locust moves its legs : in 
the sixth the spinner sounds its wings, they eat the sparrow plums and 
grapes : in tile seventh month the shrike is heard, the cricket is in the 
field, the\ cook the kwei and pulse, and eat the melons. In the eighth 
month are the sedges and reed;-; the women begin to spin the silk, the 
d u .. the yellow, and the brilliant red, lor the lower garments oi the young 
j rim es : t ie\ 1 a] . the} kno< k down the dates, they cut the bottle-gourds : 
the cri( kets gather under the eaves. In the ninth month it is cold with 
frost, dot! i and garments oi hair are given out for winter use, and space 
is cleared in the vegetable _ 11 . ., : v the sta< ks < : woo 1 and grain : they 

'-' I : ■• ■ ' ■ " ■ "1 !<:<■ : ' ■■) ' [■',■_. ' ■■ i;i tL ■ teal] i r le, wheat-growing plains >•' 

'■■.' . :. ;tui II fir c cplai 'don. 'i he cll-tom limy have been borrowed 

111 tlit ii"- 1 ".' ' . .' 1 ! .\ :.'. whip- • lie .-u miner heat i- only rendered bearable by the 

fire r. -e oi -i!' v. ;:i ; : ■• in r. n iling di inks. I'll rue- peak oft! ; abul in nee of ire as on 

< <: 1 .•■ l' ■ ■ ' i m i' 1 - of 1 ioi. Lara, adding 1 hat i: i - 1 i" - d in winter, and ;old at a price 

' ;.•• r- .. i, ' i ;d '., r •,■,-;, ■ is 1': rink ii ed v. ter. In 1 ii the ] e->ion 

iifuii ii.'n-l.i.ii-r v.inas \ ■ '■ ■ ■ . ('/'/;, (,i ./.• I , train ;, x. 22.) < n !oni-ts 

tore tli u iir. ■ r ice, in \ I : th 1 II -, to initiL r ate the >unmier heats. 



THE RURAL ECONOMY OF THE CHOW. 47 

gather the hempseed. In the tenth month the leaves fall, the crickets 
enter under the bed, windows and crevices are closed, they reap the rice, 
and make spirits of it for the aged ; they convey the sheaves to the clearing 
ready swept in the homestead, with the millet, early and late, the hemp, 
pulse, and wheat, and every other grain. 

The harvest home ends with simple feasts and sacrifices, and songs with 
the innocent burden, " Oh, my husbandmen, the harvest is all collected, 
let us go to the town, and be at work on our houses ;" l for in the two 
winter mouths, which might pass for holiday, when no out-door avocations 
are described, the diligent people are still busy, gathering grass by day. and 
twisting ropes of it at night, to mend their roofs before the season of sowing 
comes round again. An ode of the 9th century might pass for a subdued 
Chinese Christmas carol. " The cricket is in the hall, and our carts stand 
unemployed ; the year is passing away. If we do not enjoy ourselves now, 
the days and months will have gone/' - 

The " silkworm month " is so styled because the date of the different 
processes is more liable to vary with the season than the ordinary farming 
operations. In the spring days, when warmth begins and the oriole utters 
its song, the young women take their baskets and go along the narrow 
paths between the mulberry trees, gathering the tender leaves of the young 
trees, and stripping the branches, while the young men lop off with axes 
and hatchets those that are out of reach. 

Other passages in the odes and the Chow Li confirm and complete 
this picture of orderly rural life. The sweeping and levelling a place :; 
within the private homestead for the grain stacks was not merely an epoch 
in the work of the farm, it marked the period when the military forces 
might be assembled, and the chariots of war passed in review and 
manoeuvred, because the fields were clear of crops. 4 After this, in winter, 
traps and pitfalls were dug for wild animals, and sometimes set with spring- 
bows; rabbit nets were set in the woods where nine paths meet; but ad 
holes and ditches were required to be filled up before the summer, to 
guard against accidents among the cultivators. At the end of the autumn 
the reeds and withered branches and weeds were cut and burnt for charcoal, 
which was used as a disinfectant and insecticide, as well as for fuel. 

It was lawful to burn the woods and herbage in the vicinity of an 
imperial cover, or when it was desired to clear the ground for cultivation, 
'out this was only permitted early in the year, no doubt for fear of loss from 
prairie fires. At a prescribed time of year, in spring and autumn, a special 
officer performed the rite of "taking the tire out of doors ' ; and bringing it 
in again, which probably announced the time when the cultivators should 
leave their houses for the fields, and when they should return home for the 

1 C.C., iv. .S/'ii-A'iii--, p. 232. 

" The Jesuit Father who accompanied Kang-hi on his hunting tour in Mongolia, illus- 
trated the completeness of the preparations made along the route by saying the road was 
made as smooth and clean as the swept clearing for the grain crops. 

4 Tchcou-li, ii. p.. 175. 



4§ 



OWNERSHIP IX CIIIXA. 



winter. 1 A penalty was inflicted on the townspeople who "lose fire'" — or 
'. jt it go out by inadvertence, when the villagers are gone afield : a regulation 
which takes us back, if not to the very origins of civilization, at least to 
traditions derived from them.'-' It is specified that in summer, after "putting 
out the fire," clothes must be dried in the air, and the precautions to be 
taken in the army against conflagrations are also laid down. The art of 
obtaining fire by friction was still practised when Confucius wrote, and 
different woods were to be used for this purpose in different seasons. 

The work upon the public and the private fields seems to have been done 
in the same way by joint labour, at least at seed-time and harvest, though 
the crops of each square were probably garnered separately, as nothing is 
said about the principle on which they were divided. One of the sacrificial 
odes of the Chow Dynasty gives a graphic description of the work of the 
associated farmers : it is said to be the one used at the solemn ceremony in 
the spring, when the Emperor worships Heaven and Earth, and turns a 
furrow with his plough. Tire laconic verses begin with the clearing of the 
ground from grass and bushes : two and two the labourers clear away the 
roots (a phrase which shows that the Chinese were still continually reclaiming 
untiiled jungle for the plough). The whole family is there to the third 
generauon, loving husbands and modest wives. Eor the six summer 
months they live in huts on the southdying acre.-, and the village is 
deserted by the working population, as the families of Swiss cultivators 
migrat 1 > dily with their < attle to the Ah s for the summer months. The 
old folks and women bring out their food : masters and servants feast 
together, and the noise of their eating resounds cheerily. J The surplus of 
the old stores of grain is brought out to feed the husbandmen. Having 
selected the seed, and looked after the implements, the various grain is 
sown, the blade rises in even lines; gourds are trained along the bounding 
divbi ns : troops of weeders go amongst the furrows: the insects that 
: tt: > h each part of the plant are carefully removed, not without appropriate 
inn. re . :— 



- ultivators' labour will be wasted unless the fertilizing showers 
aven : they fj : nxi iy a! tl e ski -. 1 at even in their i 
* to the i t ' ot the common vi ea.1 : - 



■■ : 



r ' ' 



A. <■'! . i - . . ;;<.. 

I '. '-I. '1 ■ '. . ■ 



:. : n:: i ■ . : ■. 



THE RURAL ECONOMY OF THE CHOW. 49 

" The clouds form in dense masses, 
And the rain conies down slowly. 
May ii rain first on our public fields, and then on our private." ' 

Then comes harvest time, with its multitudes of reapers, and fresh stacks 
of grain to be piled up in granaries, for sacrifices and ceremonies, and the 
comfort of the aged, while the " hundred houses " of the village '-' open to 
receive their share of grain. One of the most interesting of the Odes closes 
with an impressive recognition of the long endurance of these good gifts : 
'" It is not here only that there is this — it is not now only that there is such 
a time: — from of old it has been thus ! " :; And so it is still, to the 
admiration of every Western traveller, 3,000 years or so after the composi- 
tion of this pious and large-minded hymn of thanksgiving. 

Meanwhile the surveyor of the fields looks on well pleased, and his officers 
have nothing to do but to see that all are provided with the implements 
of husbandry, and that the new fields and fallows receive their proper 
treatment as well as the old arable land. Besides the regular cultivation of 
the fields there are enclosures for the breeding and cultivation offish for 
food, and the wild fowl of the marshes are regarded as the source of a 
regular food supply, so that if the scenery of the Chinese odes could be 
translated into a series of wall pictures we should have an almost exact 
counterpart to the surviving representations of the rural economy of Egypt. 
Only in one respect is there a marked difference. 

As an instrument of government, the bamboo plays quite as large a 
part in ancient and modern China as the courbash or stick in Egypt ; but 
unlike the Egyptian, the Chinaman does not work under the stick. In 
both countries food is abundant, and the means of subsistence as a rule 
easily obtained, and in both it was regarded as a part of the duty of Govern- 
ment to provide stores of grain for the relief of the people in years of 
scarcity. But in China forced labour was the exception, not the rule. 
The soldier was a reluctant conscript, not a mercenary or a volunteer, but 
the hardships of a military campaign were felt all the more because the 
experience was infrequent; and the occasional employment of forced labour 
for a specific purpose, such as the walling of a town, the repairing an em- 
bankment, or even embellishing an officer's residence, partook more ot 
the nature of taxation than servitude. In China 4,000 years ago. as now, 
the common people employed themselves, and as a natural consequence 
formed a standard of comfort fully equal to that reached under the rule of 
the most liberal and benignant masters. At the same time, a customary 
standard of economic independence was also set up, in the strength ol 
which the threatened encroachments of feudalism were successfully defied. 

In one section of the Ei Ki the salaries of different officials and the 
rulers of the feudal States are calculated in terms of an agriculturist's 

' This is one of the famous bits of Chinese verse, a stock quotation to illustrate the 
virtues of antiquity. 

2 I.e. the commune of four hamlets of twenty-five houses. 

3 C.C., iv. pt. ii. p. 603. 

VOL. II. P.C. '• 



-o OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

wages. The cultivator's portion of ioo mow is here stated to suffice, ac- 
cording to tiic quality of the land, for the support of so many individuals, 
ranging from live to nine. The salary of the lowest officer is equal to that 
of a husbandman on the mo^r fruitful soii, and represents the food of nine 
persons : a great officer has wherewithal to feed seventy-two individuals : 
a minister can feed 28S, and the ruler ten times the latter number, i.e. 
2.88c. 1 As official salaries were to a great extent paid in kind, this 
arrangement was probably not an imaginary one. Translated into cash, 
it would mean that if the peasant earned the e juivalent of 61. a day, 
the great officer would receive about ^650 a year, a minister about 
jQ 2,600, while the ruler of the State received about ^2 6, coo. The very 
fact that all salaries were calculated at the rate of so many days' rations 
would tend to check any inclination to underestimate the amount of that 
unit. 

The Chinese cultivator had no master with the right or power of forcing 
him to labour against his will, but the law did something to encourage 
industry by taxing indolence. The cultivator was legally entitled to do 
as he pleased with his own lot, but fiscal pressure was exercised to 
ensure its not being neglected. If the ground of the homestead is left 
'• bald." that is, not sown with hemp or planted with mulberry trees, the 
owner has to pay a money tax equal to the tithe on the same extent of 
arable land ; if the arable land is not cultivated, grain equivalent to the 
taxes of three families '-' is exacted from the delin juent ; and persons ot 
no occii] ation pay a poll tax equivalent to the sum paid by a householder. 

In the Liter historv of China, so many deliberate attempts were made to 
check the growth of large estates and a landless class that it is quite pos- 
sible these stringent provisions may have been directed, not only against 
idleness among the pea-ants, but also against tiie ownership of bind by 
any person not actively engaged in its cultivation. In any case it tend- 
to show ti at ownership and occupation went normally together, and that 
the occupier who did not cultivate Ins holding was accountable to the 
State for the omission. As in Egypt, houses in the capital were not taxed, 
as tli erial editors say, because there was no vacant ground to be 

sown or planted. The only districts taxed to the amount of five-twentieths 
of the prodm e were the woods and marshes, which do not owe their value 
to human labour, and were consequently regardied as a legitimate source 
of revenue for the State, like tiie n itural ; isture 1 f Egyptian wastes. 

Tiie ( onclusiott oi the section on taxes in the Ch >w Li is understood by 
M. Uiot and tiie Chinese commentators as assigning further penalties of 
a sumptuary sort 1 > tiie neglect of the labours of agriculture, but it is more 
m accordar.ee with the spirit of Chinese ethics to see in the passage a 
solemn statement ol facts, a record of the eternal necessities, by which 
certain causes entail with automatic justice appropriate effects, against 
which it is ti.e part of a wise Government to give its sul jects timely warn- 

1 .0 I ., i;i. -. . 2: 3. 2 ];i'jl'< 7 ; 'ucii-H, i. 279. n. 4. 



THE RURAL ECONOMY OF THE CHOW. 5 r 

ing. " In general," it is said, " those amongst the people who do not rear 
cattle cannot offer animals in sacrifice ; those who do not cultivate their 
plots of land cannot sacrifice grain ; those who do not plant their orchards 
cannot have a complete coffin with external case ; those who do not rear 
silkworms cannot wear robes of silk, and those who do not spin cannot 
wear a complete suit of mourning with an under-garment.'' ] 

The force of these particular deterrents may seem unequal, but the poli- 
tical wisdom of the Chinese legislator shows itself in observing and drawing 
attention to those natural sanctions, which enforce the precepts accepted 
by the national conscience, rather than by direct legislative interference. 
Mencius' enumeration of the consequences of good administration is con- 
ceived in the same spirit. " If the seasons of husbandry be not interfered 
with, the grain will be more than can be eaten. If close nets are not 
allowed to enter the pools and ponds, the fishes and turtles will be more 
than can be consumed. If the axes and bills enter the hills and forests 
(only) at the proper time, the wood will be more than can be used. When 
the grain and fish and turtles are more than can be eaten, and there is 
more wood than can be used, this enables the people to nourish their 
living and bury their dead without any feelings against any one/'" ~ which 
is the first step in the way of royal government. 

It would be easy to multiply examples of this keenly rationalistic appre- 
ciation of natural sequences. 'When Duke He of Loo, in the yth century 
B.C., wished, in consequence of a long drought, to burn (or expose in the 
sun) a suspected witch and an emaciated person, the sagacious minister of 
the moment advised him that this was not the proper course : " Put your 
walls, the inner and the outer, in good repair, lessen your food; be sparing 
in all your expenditure. Be in earnest to be economical, and encourage 
people to help one another. What have the witch and the emaciated 
person got to do with the matter ? " :; 

On the other hand, to cut down trees upon a hill as part of a sacrifice 
for rain is punished as the greatest of crimes, which is Chinese for a 
blunder. 1 Notwithstanding the clearances effected by successive heroes, 
the hills of China were not yet stripped of their natural forests, and these 
were administered by a special officer. Certain kinds of trees were re- 
served : but even in the plantations of the State, the public were admitted 
to cut for themselves under prescribed regulations for a limited number of 
days during the year. In cases of public necessity (as to procure coffins 5 
or make an embankment) trees might be felled at irregular times, but 
otherwise the common people were restricted to one lopping season for 
each kind of wood. A passage in Mencius shows incidentally how tiie 
fatal process of denudation went on, when no longer controlled by a strong 

1 Teheou-li, i. p. 2S2. 2 Works, i. i. iii. f; 3. 

" Legge, Chinese Classics, ii. 6. l lb., v. 66 j. 

" In the Welsh laws of llowel there is a somewhat similar prevision: "There are 
three trees which are free to be cut in the king's forest : timber for the roof of a church ; 
for spear shafts for the king's use, and wood for a bier.' : 



52 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

and watchful Government. He illustrates the possibility of men losing the 
virtues which are natural to them, by the loss of natural beauty undergone 
by the mountains on the east of Tse (near the present Tsing-chow). Being 
on the borders of a large State, the trees were hewn down with axes and 
bills, and when new buds and sprouts sprang up from the roots, cattle and 
goats came and browsed upon them, so that the once finely wooded moun- 
tains appeared bare and stript — as man becomes vicious when evil circum- 
stances trample down all his good impulses and inclinations. 1 

Some measure of the length of time during which China has had a civil- 
ized history is given by the fact that the more enlightened provisions of 
tiie Chow Li were made the subject of quite modern sounding comments 
in what Europe calls the Middle Ages. Towards the time when England 
was suffering from the afforesting of whole counties under the Norman 
conqueror, one of the Sung commentators on the Chow code combined 
his admiration for the liberality of the ancient monarchs — who divided the 
produce of the woods, mountains, and watercourses with their subjects — 
with remarks on the necessity of regulating the human greed for profit, 
which ends by exterminating the sources of wealth, unless the State inter- 
venes for the protection of natural species by imposing a close time. Ex- 
clusive devotion to agriculture has led in China to the neglect of wood- 
craft, but the destruction of forests which goes on in countries colonized 
by Englishmen has not that excuse ; it is simply that our political philo- 
sophy allows to the private proprietor license which the political philosophy 
of ancient China denied to princes. 

'The regulations still in force respecting the pasturing of the imperial 
herds- differ little from those set forth in the Chow Li. Under the head- 
ing which describes the functions of the " valuer of horses,"' it is said : " In 
general when an officer of state receives a horse from the hands of his 
chiefs, he writes down the age and colour and price of the horse. If the 
animal dies within ten days, it must be paid for in full. If it dies after ten 
days, the ear is given as a proof; the payment is made with the body. 
beyond that term there is no reclaiming. 1 ' ;i From this it appears that the 
"hoarding-out" of the royal cattle, which reappears in the Irish laws as 
the "giving and taking of stock," was an ancient Chinese institution, not 
invented or introduced by the present Mantchu dynast)-. 

As in ancient Egypt, the charge was not converted into a burden or 
treated as a source of revenue, and the keeper of the herds was not bound 
to make good losses for which lie was not responsible. It was also the 
duty of the royal herdsmen to provide the six species of animals used for 
sacrifices the ox, the horse, sheep, pig, dog, and pheasant. All animals for 
sacrifice were required to be of a uniform colour, and without spot or blemish; 
but the commentators observe that the difficulty of observing this rule had 
caused it to be relaxed. It is possible that Sumerian scholars may find in 



//' .'' , vi. i. viii. s ; 2. 2 Post, 

:l 71 hcou-li, ii. p. iH<). 



THE RURAL ECONOMY GF THE CHOW. 53 

the provisions on this subject some trace of kinship with the sacrificial 
usages of ancient Babylonia. At present this and other equally inviting 
lines of inquiry have not been followed up, on account of the difficulty of 
finding a scholar interested at once in the subject matter of both classes 
of texts, and master enough of both archaic languages not to be misled by 
accidental or superficial resemblance. 



CHAPTER A". 

IXDUSTRY AXD TRADE IX THE MIDDLE ANTIQUITY OF CIIIXA. 

In the first book of the Chow Li, which describes the administration 
of the Imperial court and the branches of government, nine classes or 
occupations of the people are recognised by the legislator. The first class 
of course is that of the cultivators — the men of the hills, the plains, and 
the marshes, who produce the nine kinds of grain. Then follow (2) 
The gardeners. (3) Wood and watermen. ('4) The herdsmen of the cul- 
tivated marsh.es, who look to the breeding of the beasts and herds native 
to them. (5) The artisans of a hundred trades, by whom the eight sorts 
of raw material are manufactured, i.e. the workers in stone, wood, metal, 
bade, ivory, pearls, skins, and feathers. (6) Shopkeepers and wandering 
dealers or pedlars. (~) Lawful wives, by whose labour silk and flax are 
wrought into cloths. (S) Servants of both sexes, including the inferior 
wives who are employed in domestic services. (9) Individuals without 
fixed profession, who change their occupation from time to time, in whom 
a commentator at the beginning of our era recognised the counterpart of 
the wage-earning class of his own time. 1 

In the section of the Shoo King called the Officers of Chow, four 
classes are mentioned : the scholars or officers, the cultivators, the 
mechanics, and the merchants or trader-, : a classification chiefly remark- 

le for its omission of a noble or military caste. This is the classifica- 
tion referred to in the Thsi-yu, when it is said : "The sons of officers ought 
always to be officers : the sons of artisans ought always to be artisans ; the 
- ins of merchants ought always to be merchants, and the sons of agricul- 
turists ought always to be agriculturists."- The Tso Chuen tells of a 
pris ner from Tsoo, in the sixth century, who, when questioned by the 
marquis of Tsin ah ait his family, replied. •• We are mush ians : '' and when 
asked if he < ouid play : " Music." said he, '"was the pr ifession of my father : 
1 I learn any other?" According to tradition, a certain quarter was 
-signed am iently in Chinese towns and cities for mechanics, and all of 
one art were required to have their shops together. The son followed the 
father's profcs.don, and it was sm j osed that, seeing nothing else around 
. '-.. he wi uld think of n idling else, and so become the more proficient. ' 



; /; ' - 1 
LY. 7 



'■' • i ' ' ' '.'■ - ■:'■: -:i ' • ".:. --.to ir. :. in the same way, tlinl the 
- i/t i i m^-ehaYu no <J ;'...- v. 1 lu i c.ich their own ilistric:, au i 



INDUSTRY AND TRADE. 55 

A certain number of the offices described in the Chow Li are also charac- 
terized as hereditary ; especially such as might reasonably be supposed to 
require hereditary skill, like the snarers of birds, and the tamers of wild 
beasts, or inherited knowledge of minute forms and ceremonies, such as 
those appropriate to the reception of foreign guests. \\\ another passage 
mention is made of " hereditary professions,"' which are explained to be 
those referring to magic, medicine, 1 and divination. 

With these exceptions, the oldest and the ruling idea with the Chinese 
is that office should not be hereditary, but that ordinary employment 
should be so. Mencius quotes as one of the maxims accepted by a con- 
federacy under one of the Chiefs of the Presiding States : " Let not offices 
be hereditary, nor let officers be pluralists." 2 The prima facie right of the 
eldest son of the king's lawful wife to inherit the throne was asserted less in 
the interest of the heir than of the Government, which would be distracted by 
the intrigues of rival pretenders, and endangered if the king were induced 
weakly to listen to the favourite of the moment, pleading for her own 
children. Functions or obligations might be hereditary, but inherited privi- 
leges were equally dangerous to the giver and the recipient. There was 
no feeling about the right of children to inherit, or the duty of parents 
to bequeath, wealth. A story is told of a retired statesman in the ist 
century B.C., who was reproached with spending his acquired wealth so 
lavishly that none was likely to be left for his sons ; and he defended his 
conduct on the ground that it would be injurious to the latter to inherit 
the means of living in luxury without industry:'' 

As in Egypt the position of the scribe was open to the ambition of 
every class, so in China the lower offices of State were open to all, and 
promotion by merit was, in theory at least, an essential part of the con- 
stitution. 

So far as the common people were concerned, each adult was registered 
as following some lawful pursuit — as a matter of course that of his father, 
unless otherwise stated ; if he ceased to follow that calling without being- 
enrolled in any other, the presumption would be that he was an idler, 
seeking to evade the payment of his lawful tax, and so obnoxious to the 
police, but changes of occupation in the case of individuals would be 
discouraged by the mere fact of their having to be reported, while the 
Government would consider any large displacement of industry as matter 
for regulation, so as to prevent any disturbance of the existing social 
order such as would be caused, e.g. by the desertion of agriculturists taking 
to sport or traders abandoning commerce for domestic industries. The 
migration of households or individuals was recognised as a normal incident. 
The persons quitting a " neighbourhood" received a pass or permit from 

were strictly hereditary, even the rich being compelled to follow their father's calling ! > 
the exclusion of any other. 

1 According to the rules of propriety, ''The physic of a doctor, in whose family 
medicine has not been practised lor three generations, should not 1 e taken.'' 

- U-'t <"..v, vi . ii. vii. s j. 

:: Cj lies' Gems of Chinese Literature, p. 97. 



st> 



OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 



the elder whose jurisdiction they were leaving; and unless distance forba le, 
they were introduced by him in person to their new chiefs. 1 

The provisions regarding internal commerce and markets - are as fail 
and elaborate as those respecting agriculture. The duties of the provost 
of the market are singularly extensive. They include, of course, the 
regulation of weights and measures, the maintenance of order — by the 
help of a rod. made of the standard measure, — and the punishment of 
theft, fraud, or adulteration, if the proportion of the inferior article ex- 
ceeded 20 per cent. ; :; the levying of the octroi duties on the goods brought 
in and taken out for sale: and when, in case of plague or famine, the duties 
were remitted, he had still to keep an account of the goods that passed 
the harrier, but besides all this, the officers of the market were required 
to regulate and equalize the quantity and prices of the goods offered for 
sale, as the superintendents of agriculture were required to regulate the 
cultivation of the ground and equalize the burdens of the cultivators ; and 
the legislator evidently regards one task as no more arduous than the 
other. 

According to Ma-twan-lin, the system of State purchases was not primi- 
tive, and the official "•purchase of grain at a fair price," as it was called, 
was only introduced in the 7th century B.C. This was followed by "the 
sale of grain at a fixed price," and the establishment of granaries to 
supply the sale. It was argued that if the State began to sell grain at a 
moderate price in times of scarcity, private dealers would be driven to 
lower their prices, by the fear of not disposing of their stocks, and the 
idea is economically speaking in advance of the mere attempt to fix the 
price of corn by edict. Hut. like most well-meant experiments in the way 
of State trading, this ended by opening the door to fresh abuses. The 
State was tempted by the near view of the profits of commerce to make 
its benevolent granaries a source of revenue ; and when once the sale ot 
ci rn had been carried on for the sake of profit, arbitrary measures be- 
came necessary to secure a sufficient supply for sale, and the demand on 
individuals to furnish a given quantity of grain, irrespective of the market 
price, became in time a serious tax. 

but the (lovernment was not content with trying to lower prices when 
abnormally high, it also aimed at preventing the depreciation ot prices 
in time- of exceptional abundance; ami with remarkable financial enter- 
prise, it undertook to buy from the traders when goods were plentiful as 
well as to sell to the public when commodities were scarce. It was the 
business of the off er in 1 harge to attract dealers by preventing a fall ot 
prices below remunerative rate-, and to attract customers by a constant 
■ ly of provisions at uniform prices. If any commodity became, for a 
season, a drug 111 the market, the profit was reserved to the State, wh;< ii 
alone could alford to buv up go >ds on s; eculation at an ad wince upon the 
current market ra! : and the profit secured by its ultimate sale was thus 



• j ' 



IXDUSTRY AND TRADE. 57 

secured to the community instead of being scrambled for by commercial 
speculation. In the same way, if curiosities or valuables of any kind hung 
long on hand, they were purchased on account of the treasury and re- 
served until there was a demand for them. 

In the code of laws now in force it is specified that if the Government 
requires any material for State use, the commissioners and the prefects and 
district magistrates shall consult and apportion the contribution, and 
decide whether it shall be levied in kind or purchased in the market, 
"having regard to whether it is a time of great plenty or the reverse.''' 1 
With the same object, money is to be coined in a time of scarcity, to en- 
able the people to buy necessaries; and, though this expedient may seem 
more well meant than scientific, it might be resorted to occasionally with- 
out perceptible damage, if the State continued its purchases at the old rate 
on a large enough scale to prevent a nominal fall of price. An early 
commentator admires the wisdom of this device on the ground that gold 
and copper, which are always valuable, are not subject to the uncertainties 
of the seasons. 

Ma-twan-lin says of the duties of the Chow treasurer that his operations 
are analogous to those of the officers of later dynasties who are charged to 
regulate the price of commodities by the purchases and sales which they 
effect in the name of the State. And Yang-chi - describes him as benefit- 
ing the merchants by buying their unsold stock without trying to profit by 
its low price, and benefiting buyers by allowing them the advantage of 
purchases made in the favourable season ; but it is evident that this sort of 
commercial administration could only be practised, on a comparatively 
small scale, when the services of the ablest and most disinterested states- 
men were not pre-engaged with matters of larger imperial concern. 

'Traditions current in the 7th century d.c. claim for Yu and Tang the 
casting of metallic money for the relief of the people ; but metal was 
bartered by weight before any approach was made to a currency. The 
annals of the first Man (206 B.C.-25 A.D.) give an account of the mone- 
tary arrangements of the nth century B.C., which, though not very intelli- 
gible, is probably founded on authentic materials. According to this, gold 
was moulded in cubes weighing 1 kin, and bronze money was round or 
"tongue-like," and its weight estimated in tchus. M. Terrien de la Cou- 
perie estimates the tchu at 4/06 grains, and the kin or gold unit at 1,950 
grains, i.e. one-fourth of the hwan, the royal standard of 7,.Sco grains (about 
505 gram.), which is identifiable with the light Babylonian talent. :; M. 

1 China J\tzir:r, vol. viii. p. 359, (1. Jamieson. Translations from the Lu-li, or 
Gen, rat Cod, of I.a-vs. 

- Post, pp. 202-5. 

" Catalogue oj Chinese Coins from the. "]th century R.c. to A.n. 621, by Terrien de la 
Couperie. Nearly all tire following particulars are derived from this valuable work. 
The mere coincidence of size between any two weights, large or small, gives, however, 
by itself, little presumption in favour of a common origin, because most systems have one 
large and one small weight— or coin — serving nearly similar purposes among their various 
adherents. To be convincing, the resemblance must extend to the various sub-divisions, 
and the relations of coins, weights, and measures, to each other. 



58 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

Biot, the only other writer who has dealt with the subject, estimated the 
kin at one-third of the hwan. 

Ma-twan-liirs authorities speak of barter as followed by the use of shells, 
to which, under the Ilia and Shang dynasties, three metals, yellow, white, 
and red, were added. Ssema-tsicn understands by these gold, silver, and 
copper, though one of his commentators supposes the red metal to be iron. 
In 554 n.c. a large copper money was issued, as appears from the text of a 
remonstrance addressed to the king describing the practice of his prede- 
cessors, who issued two sizes of coins, called the Mother and the Son, of 
different sizes, according to the needs of the people. Subsequently a 
prince of d'soo attempted to give the value of the large coins to the small 
onc^,, with the result that merchants deserted his markets. 1 

A very interesting book of the Shoo King,- which is the foundation stone 
of the Chinese penal code, is assigned by Dr. Legge to the ioth century 
B.C. Li this the system of pecuniary commutation of penalties is applied 
to various offences, the fines ranging from 600 to 6,000 "ounces" in Dr. 
Legge's translation ; "rings"' according to Mr. Terrien de la Couperie, — 
copper in each case being of course understood. The oldest existing money 
is certainly in the form of rings, without any inscription, and no other is 
known to have been used till the introduction, early in the 7th century, of 
metal knives as a currency. Large bronze knives of regular weight, with a 
rude inscription, were also circulated by traders in S. Shantung, serving, 
like the earliest pi-tchan or spade-money, both for use and exchange. 
" Hoes and riches,'"' " hoes and cloth," are general terms for wealth. 

II wan. prince of Tse, the first of the "presiding States,'' attempted to 
regulate the weight of the metallic currency, and had spade money cast 
from native mines ; he also issued knife-coins of practical shape and size, 
bearing the important inscription, " returnable-reviving currency ot Tse,' 
and on the reverse " 30 units" and " yuen " — a ring, doubtless an allusion 
to the old metal rings. Other early inscriptions are "exchangeable," 
'"return," '"work," "sprout," "star," "family," and " currency of Tsih-moh 
city." Two things are very remarkable. Coins of all kinds were issued 
during the feudal period l)y individual merchants, trading firms, guilds and 
private families, as well as by cities. And the legends oi all seem to show 
that, like the first issues of paper money many centuries later, the com was 
put forward rather as a bond- -something returnable, a promise to pay 
wilue to such an amount— than as a mere medium of exchange tor uni- 
versal currency. 

About the mid' He of the 7th century the old ring-money of Chow 
began to be inscribed and became a coinage, but this use for metal is still 
only third or fourth in importance. About the same time one feudal 
prince, in giving a present of metal to another, stipulated that it was not to 
be used for making weapons : and accordingly the recipient cast three 
bells with it — a more respectful way of using it than for tools. In the next 

1 / :/;;:. .-/ ., 31110 st'rie, iii. [>. 4,(- 

- Tl. Ma 'in ' Lit oil I'ltnL- kments, S.J1., iii. pp. 254-264. 



INDUSTRY AND TRADE. 



59 



century a prince of Tsin refused to accept a ransom paid in coin, and 
demanded silk. Small bean-shaped coins, called metallic cowries, were 
issued about 600 B.C., and a little later we have large knife coins issued by 
traders' monetary unions, and bearing the inscription : " Returnable-re- 
viving currency of all travelling traders of Tsi and Ivwang-tcliing " (Shensi). 
Another knife-coin issued by the same class is singular in having a well- 
executed figure, as well as characters, inscribed on it ; a lad bearing a flag 
appears as a sort of rebus for the word "to travel."' 

\\\ 523 a king of Chow issued coins of four times the customary weight; 
but they were not accepted by the people, so the old type of ilat rings was 
reverted to. Spade-money was in use for at least three hundred years from 
the 7th to the 4th century, and for half that time it was the common 
currency. The spades had hollow handles so as to be useable, and. being 
really intended more for tools than coins, were only roughly inscribed. 
The knife-money was confined to the Shantung peninsula and its neigh- 
bourhood. About the middle of the 5th century we hear of three Boards 
of Finance being established in Yueh by the help of the king of Tsoo, for 
tiie currency of gems, gold, and coins and silk ; coins, i.e. metal, and silk 
being bracketed together as utilities, apart from such merely precious 
tilings as gold and gems. 

In 423 a prince of Wei is said to have stimulated the use of metallic 
currency by State purchases, which shows that the mass of the people still 
did not feel the need of a currency for every-day affairs. Many coins bear 
the names of two towns — doubtless those that had a common market ; and 
the relative position of towns in the larger monetary unions indicates the 
fines of old trade routes. Ting-chow, in the State of Tsin, was the centre 
of four monetary unions. Coins were issued by such unions from 5S0 to 
380 11. c. ; but towards the close of the " Warring States " period, trade as 
well as everything else suffered. 

< )ther forms of coin were called weight-money, or '•'riding-money," from 
the resemblance of its shape to a saddle ; and pu-money, in use from the 
6th to t'ne 3rd century n.c, but confined to the triangle bounded on the 
west and south by the Yellow River. The name is translated "extended," 
and the coin has been taken to represent a cloth or garment : it consisted 
ot a piece of flat, inscribed metal, not unlike a spade with an indentation 
at the bottom, and was more of a mere coin than either spades, knives, or 
the rings, which were a survival from tiie time when metal for general use 
was cast in that shape for convenience in porterage or storing. Down to 
tiie 4th century unwrought metal continued to be used for purposes ot ex- 
change, but in the 5th small spade and pu-money, of no intrinsic use, were 
also circulated. The knife-money, as it approaches to a token, has less 
and less blade, in proportion to the round perforated handle by winch it 
could be strung ; but the modern cash is descended from the still older 
ring-money, not from a knife with completely atrophied blade. 

The frequent issues of money by towns seems to imply that municipal 
independence advanced during the feudal period in China exactly as was 



60 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

the case in Europe, while the number and energy of the trading guilds is 
shown by the same evidence. Their coins give reality to the passages in 
Mencius, where princes are promised, as a reward of good government, that 
<; tiie traders will all seek to buy and sell " in the markets of the virtuous 
ruler. The habit of self-government and respect for local liberties, which 
characterize the Chinese, must have established their deepest roots when 
the government of the States and the Empire was in the worst disorder. 
But the lines followed by the independent townships, which coined money, 
were probably substantially the same as those embodied in the ideal legis- 
lation of the Chow Li. 

Written deeds and agreements were in common use in the Chow Dynas- 
ty, especially a sort of indenture consisting of a tablet of bamboo, upon 
which the terms of the contract were written in duplicate, and which was 
then divided between the contracting parties. According to the Chow Li, 
these were used for all loans and lesser transactions regarding tilings which 
pass "from hand to hand ; " nothing could be sold without either an in- 
denture or a deed of warrant}-. 1 which was used for the greater sales, i.e. of 
slaves, horses, and cattle. These documents were submitted to an officer 
of the market and presumably registered ; and. in accordance with the 
curious Chinese tendency to regard all law as penal, any dispute as to a 
de'ot or contract was decided before a judge, who called for the two parts 
of the agreement, and punished whichever party had attempted to infringe 
it. Misconduct was punished either by the cangue, fine, or blows: the 
expression '"to be beaten in the marketplace''' is used in the Shoo King to 
represent the utmost depth of ignominy. 

The booths of the market were grouped as far as possible in accordance 
with the analogy of the rural divisions, every twenty booths having a head- 
man, who was responsible for the conduct of the sales and the payment of 
the Government dues. Three markets were held in the day : in trie morn- 
ing shopkeepers and costermongers make their purchases : tiie great market 
is in the afternoon, when the townspeople and those from a distance come 
in and buy for themselves : while in the evening the retail dealers sell oft 
the remains of the stock which they purchased wholesale in the morning. 
A commentator of the I Ian Dynasty observes that these regulations are 
only based on the convenience and actual practice of tiie mass ot pur- 
chasers and traders.- 

The section of the Chow Li which is missing is the one devoted to the 
ministry of ; ubii works, which w raid have been among tiie most interest- 
ing for us. Its place has been supplied to a certain extent by a treatise 
older than the I'.urning of the I! inks, but later than the rest of the Classic. 
< f whii h tiie subject is the " Examination of the work of tiie artisan-." : ' 
The tit! ■ suggests that it is a manual intended for the use of inspectors of 
the G ivernment fact : :• - an i w rkshops, and tiie limited number of trades 
and | r >cesses described ah > makes it seem probable that only those are 
di tit with which were carried on under the immediate direction ot the 

: 7' : «-.7. :. i . 51S. - /.',, i . 312. 3 /'.. ::. PP . 456-611. 



INDUSTRY AND TRADE. 61 

State, and as a branch of the public works department. The work is full 
of technical details of little general interest or intelligibility, but passages 
in it help the imagination to enter into the kind of workshop tradition 
which must have prevailed in Egypt, while intensifying our regret that we 
have no similar record of the rules by which " wise artists in their art' - ' 
built up statues and temples in the valley of the Nile. 

As a specimen of the more philosophical portions, the following speci- 
mens may suffice. Four different provinces are mentioned : in one, " He 
who has no mattock cannot do without. Every man there can make mat- 
tocks." In the next, armour is indispensable, and every one can make 
armour; in the next pike-handles are essential, and everyone can make 
pike-handles, even as, among the nomads of the North, where bows and 
chariots are indispensable, every man can make bows and chariots. " Sages 
invent. Men of skill continue what the first began. The artisans pre- 
serve (the arts) from generation to generation. All the operations executed 
by the hundred artisans are the work of the sages. They forge metal to 
make swords. They harden clay to make pots. They make carts to go 
on the roads. They make boats to go on the water. All these arts were 
created by sages. Four things must come together to produce good work : 
the season of heaven, the emanation of earth, good material, and a skilled 
workman. If the material is good, and the workman skilled, and the 
result of his work is not good, the fit season has not been chosen; the 
emanation of the earth has not been favourable.' - ' 1 In illustration of which 
view, the excellence of the knives, swords, and axes of certain districts is 
ascribed to the earthly emanation ; the bows and arrows of other parts 
owe their quality to the goodness of the material, the wood and horn to 
be found there, while plants depending on climate and water owe their 
excellence to the seasons of heaven. No doubt much of the traditional 
geomancy of the country started from speculations and experience of this 
degree of rationality. The skill of the artisan was rewarded by a celebrity 
akin to that of the artist in Europe. Kung Chiu, the Chinese Giotto, who 
could draw an exact circle with the unaided hand, is called an artisan. 3 

The Li Ki enumerates six kinds of public works — terraces and masonry, 
metal work, stone work, carpentering and furniture, leather work, or the 
preparation of skins, and basket work, or the working of twigs : ' — but the 
'■ Examination " goes into minuter details. The manufacture of chariots 
is the first industry described, and the art is said to be a special favourite 
with the Chow Dynasty, as that of the potter was with Shun, that of house- 
building with Hia, and that of making cups of metal with Yin. Elaborate 
numerical proportions are given for the different parts of the vehicle, and 
each piece is to be separately examined and tested before it is used. The 
wheels are tested by a compass, the straight parts by a square, the uprights 

1 Tiht-oit-li, ii. pp. 459, 460. 
- (dies' Chuairj Tzn, p. 115. 

3 .V. /.'., xxvii. p. 1 10. The "Six Treasuries" and the "Six Manufacture,''' of the 
" Son uf Heaven" are somewhat variously described. 



62 OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

by a plumb line, the horizontals by a water level, and the comparative size 
of corresponding parts by weighing the pieces and measuring their cubic 
content with grams of the large millet : the men who understand these 
processes are called royal workmen. 

A henever reasons are given for any precept, they are of the most naive 
description ; but it is characteristic of the Chinese mind, which has been 
content for 4. ceo years with wheels of an elaborately clumsy kind, that 
quite earl\' in the time, they thought it worthy of solemn record that large 
wheels go over the ground more easily than small ones, and that narrow 
tires sink into the mud less hopelessly than wide ones. In wheels, as in 
everything else, the test of good workmanship is for a thing to be service- 
able till it is worn out equally in ail its parts by use. and the rules about 
doing everything at a prescribed time of year allow ample leisure for 
" seasoning " the materials. 

The next chapter is devoted to the workers in metal : knives for writing 
on bamboo tablets, arrow-heads, javelins, swords, bells, and measures of 
capacity are made by different workmen. Then follow the makers of 
leather armour ami drum makers. The dyers and silk dressers are treated 
next, with ail who work in colours, then the jade cutters and polishers, the 
arrow-makers, potters and moulders of culinary utensils, — among which 
we recognise the prototype of a modern patent cooking pot, for preparing 
food b\' the use of steam alone. 1 The workers in precious wood make the 
cases for musical instruments. Wooden targets and the handles of pikes 
and javelins are made by the same class : and a lung and very elaborate 
chapter is given to the manufacture of bows, which were made of wood 
and bone, cunningly fitted together to form an arc of greater or less curva- 
ture according to the strength of the bow, and strung, not like the English 
long bow — by the simple bending of a straight sapling — but by a tour .; 
1 rcc. involving the reversal of the curve, or. so to speak, turning the un- 
strung, manufactured bow inside out. A list of the workers was ke] t 
. ci 1 r ling to their skill, and extra rations of wine and meat were given to 
the best. 

liuiiders or architects form a separate profession, and the occasion for 
the::" servf :s :- 1 onsidered to arise when a capital city is to be founded. 
All the streets are at right angles, and the general plan of the typical < ity 
■ :- the i nal _ r y of the nine squares: but instead of the central plot 
only being ( c< ;:: ied lor public purposes, that is assigned for the palace of 
the ; rii ( e, whi< .. has the public market on one side and tile place of atidi- 
eu< e an ! tiie ; .:.< estral tern] A on the other. The width of tiie streets is 
; lei ui'ed in carnage breadths, and the narrowest are required to give a 
g mg-way tor < irts in the middle, and a path for men on one side and one 
!or women 1 n the ; ther. The : roportton between the height and thick- 
ness of tiie ' ity wads is ] rescribed : that of ] rivate dwellings is left to cus- 
tom or <d i< j. but the angle > f ail roofs is determined by law, a greater 
slope being required in the case of thatched than of tiled roots, as the 

1 TJ.iOu-lu ii. ; • ; A 



IXDUSTRY A XI) TRADE. 63 

water runs off them less easily. The roofs of barns and warehouses and 
the copings of walls are allowed to be still Hatter. 

The construction of the canals and water-courses belongs to the same 
department of public works. A double spadeful makes a furrow a foot 
deep and wide ; it is with such channels that the cultivator waters his own 
field ; a little ditch of double this size separates each field or lot of 100 
mow, and the earth dug out from it is raised and forms a little foot-path 
between the plots; the watercourse which surrounds a tsing (the nine 
plots, with a central well, which form a hamlet) is four feet deep and wide, 
and is called a little canal, and has a footway along it. The hundred is 
surrounded by a channel of eight feet and a roadway. All five sorts of 
footway are planted at the edges with wood, which serves for a defence. 1 
In theory the departments are bounded by canals drawn direct from the 
large natural streams which have names of their own. and are, in fact, 
rivers controlled for irrigation purposes. The size of the rivers and the 
necessity of providing against inundations caused by their overflow was 
always a force working in favour of centralization. Mencius contrasts the 
administration of Yu, which convoyed the waters safely to the outer seas, 
with that of his contemporaries, who were content if they could only carry 
their floods off into the territory of the adjoining States : a waste of water 
hateful to the benevolent mind of the sage. 

The care of the highways was regarded as of ecpial importance with that 
of the water-courses and the markets. The system of post houses and 
hotels at stated distances, by which mediaeval travellers were so much im- 
pressed, dates from trie Chow Li; there was a post house at the distance of 
every ten and an inn at every thirty li, and a market-place with hostelry at 
every fifty li. There are five recognised sorts of roadway, from the foot- 
tracks along the hills, which are trodden by use and filled up by the wild 
grass if not frequented, and the paths along the water-courses of the home- 
stead, to the roads for local traffic and the great imperial highways, kept 
open, in theory for distant tribute bearers, feudal princes coming to pay their 
homage at court, and the imperial progresses. 2 One of the few signs ot 
national unity to which Confucius could point, was that the same written 
character was used, and that all over the empire "carriages have all wheels 
of the same size/' which modern travellers find to their cost is not the case 
now in all the provinces of China. :j 

The Chow Li, besides contemplating a uniform scale of proportion for 
wheeled vehicles and prohibiting " furious driving.'' also provides tor the 
regulation of traffic at crowded crossings, whether by land or water ; boats 

1 According to the Li Ki, " I fills and mounds, forests and thickets, rivers and marshes, 
ditches and canals, city walls and suburbs, houses, roads, and lanes took up one-third ol 
the whole country, the rest being cultivable fields." (S.B., xxvii. p. 245.) 

- TcJicou-li, ii. pp. 19S, 280, 564. The day's work of the labourers employed in 
digging canals is determined afresh for each job, after the nature of the - ii, an 1 : :.-.- 
quent difficulty of the task, has been ascertained. //'., p. 570. 

J All the ordinary roads are cut into deep ruts, in which alone the wheels ca 1 run, so 
that the axle-trees of vehicles have actually to be changed on entering a district where 
the ruts form, so to speak, a wide instead of a narrow gauge, or conver-cly. 



64 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

and carriages were only allowed to pass in a prescribed order, which police- 
men stationed at the critical spots were instructed to enforce. The same 
police were charged to arrest persons of doubtful reputation, or who are 
found in the streets at improper hours or under suspicious circumstances. 
No one save a criminal, or " one hastening to the funeral rites of a parent," 
was expected to commit the eccentricity of travelling by starlight. 1 

Uniformity of costume was already established, and, as now, the chief 
mandarin of the district gave the signal for all under his government to 
begin or leave off their summer hats. It was one of the duties of the 
Minister of Instruction to secure uniformity of costume, which the Han 
commentators supposed to have been desired as a check on the extrava- 
gance of the well-to-do. But the only law of a directly sumptuary charac- 
ter is one limiting the expenditure on weddings : presents of silk were an 
essential part of the rites of betrothal, but not more than ten pieces were 
allowed to be given as the marriage offering. 

1 S.B., x.wii. p. 339. 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS IN MEDLEVAL CHINA. 

With regard to the social and domestic usages of the people, the Odes 
show us things as they were between the rise of Chow and the time of 
Confucius; and the Li Li shows us things as it was thought they ought to 
be between the age of Confucius and the restoration of letters after the fall 
of Tsin. But as the Li Ki deals systematically with subjects only touched 
on incidentally in the Odes or the Rites of Chow, it does not follow from 
the silence of the latter that customs first mentioned in the Book of Rites 
were unknown to the men of Chow. All the Chinese Classics received 
their present form at latest during the rule of the Han, and accordingly, 
the least ancient passages in the least ancient books must at least be as old 
as that period. And the customs of Chinese society are so slow to change, 
and change so gradually, that the Li Ki, which contains many passages 
certainly due to the disciples of Confucius, may be treated as continuing 
the evidence of the Odes ami Tso's commentary. 

Technically speaking, " [Middle Antiquity''' in China means the period 
during which the Chow Dynasty nominally held the empire : but the 1.000 
years (from 800 B.C. to 200 a.d.) during which the latest classics were 
composed and the whole canon compiled, have so much in common, and 
are so far marked off by that fact from later ages, that they may be treated 
as forming, in a sense, a single period — the Chinese Middle Ages. 

The relations between husbands and wives as exemplified in the Odes 
are far from unpleasing, and it is significant of the moral tone of the 
community, that this classical collection of popular poetry does not con- 
tain the slightest hint of an approach to indecency, and only a tew very 
simple versions of the world-old village idyll of unfortunate or unauthorized 
courtships. Whether in the Chinese version of " Comin' through the 
Lye/' 1 and " Oil, had I wist before I kissed.'' in the maiden's rebuke to the 
adventurous Air. Chung, or in the rather pretty allusive poems hinting at 
moonlight, midsummer, or woodland assignations, the Chinese burns never 
approaches to the laxity of speech or morals usual with the popular 
muse elsewhere. The love of nature and the appreciation ot delicate 
effects of sky and foliage, to which the national arts bear witness. .-:. w 
themselves also in the short but significant and graceful retrains with 
which most of the stanzas begin, like the Italian storm!: i. 

1 Leg- ', ;v. ; :>. 07, 140. 141. 
VOL. 11. — I'.C. '■" v 



66 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

There are poems expressive of a lover's longings and a bridegroom's 
joy, of womanly devotion, from the wife who sighs in triplets 1 for her absent 
husband — a day without him is as long as three months, three seasons. 
three years — to the constant widow who mourns :— 

" Tlie dolichos grows, covering the thorn tree- ; 
The convolvulus spreads all over the waste." 

But the beloved is no longer here, she must dwell alone 

"Through the days of summer, 
Through the nights of winter, 
Till the lapse of a hundred vears : 
When I shall go home to his abode/' 2 

The ideal of conjugal duty and happiness is ' ; to grow old together,''' and 
the poets are 011 the side of the old wife when the husband neglects her 
for a new flame ; this is as wicked as to use the honourable yellow dress- 
stuff for trousers and linings, and the vulgar green for an upper robe! 
In small household affairs, the husband as well as the wife was repaired to 
conform to the dictates of social propriety, and a stinging epigram would 
be launched against the rich miser who allowed "the delicate fingers of 
the bride to be used in making clothes '' during the three months' holiday 
honeymoon of custom, or who had his old clothes mended up, instead of 
starting housekeeping with a proper trousseau, as if he were a poor fellow 
who could only afford canvas shoes in frost. 3 

A common type of poem expresses the sorrows of soldiers on a distant 
expedition, forced to leave their homes and families. Sometimes the 
anxious thoughts of the family about the absent one are expressed, but the 
commonest topics are bis anxiety as to how his parents will get food when 
he is not there to plant rice and maize for them, his concern at the thought 
of his mother's having to cook the dinner, and his overwhelming grief 
if they both die when he is not there to bury them, or to requite that 
parental kindness, which, according to a famous line, is " like great heaven, 
illimitable.'" ' 

They cry out in longing to return to their ordinary life: "We are not 
rhinoceroses, we are not tigers to be kept in these desolate wilds," 5 with 
every man ; rn trom bis wife and kept constantly on the march ! One 
ot the longer remonstrances is rather amusing, as the officer who thinks he 
-' ts ::i re tii . iiis share of foreign service complains of the unfairness of 
Ins su] er; >rs. •'making me serve as if I alone were worthy!" Another 
' »'■' ins tiie phr;] ; ■: read)" quoted, which speaks volume:- for the whole- 
1 of tamib. relations in China, even in the worst days of feudal 
' t'ohy. 1 ne crowning woe which saddens the sorrowful hearts of the 
w r; ' :. ;.. ,■ caun t keel faith with their wives : — 



I • - 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 67 

and this cannot be if married soldiers are marched off to die in the dis- 
tant south. 1 

A somewhat similar piece is ascribed to the Duke of Chow himself; but 
here — after describing the sufferings of the soldiers on a three years' ex- 
pedition to the rainy east, while their hearts were in the west, and deer 
grazed in their paddocks and caterpillars crawled over their mulberry 
trees, wild flowers choked their gardens and spiders' webs hung over their 
doors -the fortunate return of the troops is also commemorated, and all 
ends happily as the younger warriors receive the rewards of valour from 
voung ladies with bay and red horses, whose mothers have " tied their 
sashes." But admirable as are these new marriages, the poet concludes, 
" How can the reunion of the old be expressed ? " 2 

A variety of terms are used by Dr. Legge to describe the position of 
the one lawful wife, whose eldest son is entitled to perform the mourning 
rites for his father. This lady is spoken of as the " established,'' the 
"confirmed." the "commissioned," the "acknowledged" or the proper 
wife. A Chinaman can have only one such wife at a time, 3 whose hand 
was formally solicited from her parents with the customary present of 
pieces of silk. According to the Li Ki, "after three months she presents 
herself in the ancestral temple, and is styled "the new wife who has come." 
A day is chosen for her to sacrifice at the shrine of her father-indaw : 
" expressing the idea of her being the established wife." * There was an 
ancient custom by which a bride after a short interval returned on a visit 
to her parents, and it seems as if the marriage was not regarded as com- 
plete or final till after these months of probation. If the bride dies during 
this interval, "she should be taken back and buried among the kindred of 
her own family, showing that she had not become the established wife." ° 

These lawful wives took part in most solemn ceremonies ; the eldest 
son, however aged, was required to have such a wife to preside over the 
funeral rites, and the confirmed wives of great officers reproduced among 
themselves the ceremonies practised by their husbands. The ruler and 
his wife owed certain observances to the acknowledged wife of a great 
officer. The language of a ruler, when demanding the hand of a neigh- 
bouring prince's daughter, was, " I beg you, ruler, to give me your 

1 Of course only strictly moral and moderate sentiments are to lie expected in the 
King, but feudal romance had. its extravagances, and Chuang-tzu has preserved fi r us 
the memory <>| a Chinese Leander. " Wei Shane; made an assignation with a girl 
beneath a bridge. The girl did not come and the water ruse, but Wei Shanj, would no; 
leave ; he grasped a buttress an 1 died." (II. A. Giles' tr., p. 395.) 

3 ddie teudal ruler, according to Dr. I .egge, could only in all his Ire have one will-, 
une lady, that is. in be called by that name. Something answering 

betrothal of the West seems to have lasted down to the Three kingdoms. The marriage 
day was lived when the present- were sent, at the interval of a, year for the emperor, six 
months for the great vassals, and one month for the commonalty, lite royal custom being 
n > doubt the earliest. Another trace of archaic law is preserved in the San Kwo t hi, 
where a pretender says he will do something " when I have founded my ivn.a'v in- the 
marriage of my eldest son." (Sd/i A'rea Chi, ii. p. S7. Translated by T. I'avie. 

4 .V. />'.. xxvii. pp. 322. 316. •"' ( "f. a;i!i . vol. i. pp. e - ttid 403. 



63 OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

elegant daughter, to share this small State with my poor Self, to do service 
in the ancestral temple, and at the altars to (the spirits of the land and the 
grain." The status of such a wife was equal and honourable; and. as in 
the course of history, the participation of women in public receptions and 
ceremonies gradually ceased, we are justified in believing that the position 
of the lawful wife was most distinguished m the remotest times. 

A < unions circumstance which may be connected with a forgotten sense 
of the importance of female kinship is the existence of three distinct terms 
to describe affinity through women. There are two words, answering 
approximately to the Latin agnate and cognate: the former (nei k 
comprehends all kindred derived by descent in the male line hum the 
same stock as the individual. The latter has three subdivisions, trans- 
lated (bv Sir VY. II. Medhurst) as "mother's kind' "wife's kin.'' and 
"daughter's kin." including all varieties of relations by marriage. ] In 
hist ;ric times these relationships were regarded as unimportant, and calling 
only for the slighter degrees of c miplimentary mourning : but if this had 
always been so. it is difficult to see why such pains should have been 
taken t i name them, or why marriage with relatives on the mother's side 
h ive been as strictly prohibited as is still the case. 

(' mfucius was a great believer in the due subjection of women, and 
though he was incapable of falsifying the classic texts to favour ins own 
opinions, as editor and commentator he naturally gave precedence to the 
phrases and interpretations most in harmonv with his views ot propriety. 
In a book which bears the title Concerning Dykes, there is a passage which 
may refer to a conflict between the modern and the archaic custom. 
(' infu< ius is made to describe the proper forms of marriage. The bride- 
groom comes forward to meet his bride, and her parents bring her f invard 
and give her to him. " In tiiis way a dvke is raised in the interests oi the 
■ c [)le : and yet there are cases in which the bride will not go : (to the 
bridegroom ).~ To found the Egvptian, the Chinese, or any other tamiiy 
im Iving < immunity of pro] :rty and religious rites, it is necessary that 
: ther of the man le should " go " fr< r .n the old h une to t:.e 

new: and as the bald statements of Chinese tradition are never me mug 
less, it is very pass ole that the sage meant to condemn the usage uf 

- me 1 .'., lit - in wh: ' tiie bridegro >m was required to join th : : i y ot 

i ' ,v. 'I : ;s tiie 1"-- imorobabie. as such an inversion ot the 

_:.:.. - . _■• :■• s' -. ,c: tied, wh a: a rich citi/ ,-n w: to has no ■ 
liesir ' as d.iughtei n marriage t i poor scnolar 

d:>t:U' tion. ana t..e : : . \\ v. . . - ■ live \v;i . i - ". a 

a - ti 'o - ti m the d:\ id n o! their weal tin At tile pr< 
' ; v. t ' les'i " . son a: ..'.... ^ 1 cell adopted, so a- to ac- .till 

tl; e r: _::'.- : •:. firms exact,} pon the point '■'• i ether ii . 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 69 

worn for the son of a brother should be the same as for one's own son, the 
object being to bring him still nearer to oneself. An elder brother's wife 
and his younger brother do not wear mourning for each other, the object 
being to maintain the distance between them.'' : A man did not wear 
mourning for his step-father, unless they had lived together, the step-father 
having no son of his own. and contributing to the sacrifices which the son 
was bound to make to his real ancestors. And as a further illustration of 
the effect of this " companionship of the cupboard.''' in giving reality to 
the remotest ties, we learn that even " the husband of a maternal cousin 
and the wife of a maternal uncle,'' should wear the three months' mourning 
for each other, '"if they have eaten together from the same fireplace.'' In 
the same way the more distant relatives of a parent are mourned for by 
such of the younger generation as were personally acquainted with them, 
but not by any living at a distance to whom they were unknown. 

The existence of fostering as an institution in ancient China, rests mainly 
on a saying of Mencius : ' ; The ancients exchanged sons, and one taught 
the son of another.'' : - In the time of Confucius, it was considered a 
doubtful point whether mourning should be worn for a foster mother ; the 
sage thought not, ;i and endeavoured to represent the doing so as a modern 
innovation ; but as he implies that the institution was more general in anti- 
quity than then, we may respectfully venture to question his infallibility. 
The foster mother was one of the inferior wives or concubines. — in fact a 
step-mother, — and if the lawful wife died, she might for some purposes 
take her place, and the diversity of usage was probably owing to the fact 
that the character of the relation varied much in individual cases. The 
statement of the Li Ki, that a man did not wear mourning for the parents of 
his nurse, 4 would hardly have been called for unless the relation were so 
close as to make it in some cases appear natural that he should do so. 

Reference has already been made to the principles followed in the for- 
mation of new branch families. 3 Mourning was worn in theory for four 
generations of ascendants and descendants in the direct line, and for con- 
temporaries descended in the same fifth generation from the "honoured 
head'' of the family. If a family is kept up longer than this, each fresh 
generation superannuates the " honoured head'' recognised by the last; 
that is to say. his tablet is removed from its place, by the father, grand- 
father, etc., into the general collection of such monuments preserved in 
the ancestral temple. h\ the case of a clan or ruling house, claiming 
descent from some high ancestor of remoter antiquity, the high ancestor 
or great honoured head keeps his place unaltered "for a hundred 
generations:" but with ordinary private households or branch families, 
the person of the honoured head changed in each generation, so that the 
honours appropriate to the position were always given to an ancestor of 
the same degree of remoteness from the sacrificer, 



S.B., xxvii. p. 147. - iv. i. xviii. 3. ,; S.T., xxvii. p. 327. 

' / ., xxviii. p. 51. 5 Vul. i. p. 552. (':. Ap! :Vid;\ I\. 



7 o OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

The position of the paternal grandfather in China bore some resem- 
blance to that occupied by the maternal grandfather in Egypt. The grand- 
son is conceived, for some purposes, as actually nearer than the son, and 
it is he who acts as personator of the dead. A curious and burdensome 
privilege enjoyed by eldest sons, throws light upon the train of thought 
which gives its character to this relation. Only an eldest son is required or 
permitted to wear the three years' mourning for his own eldest son, and 
he may do so because this son represents the direct line of the father and 
grandfather. The share taken by the established wife in the important 
business of founding a family is evidenced by a similar rule, a man, who 
is the lineal head of a new branch family, being allowed to mourn the full 
period (of three years) for his wife, even though bis own mother may be 
living. 

The commentators are perplexed by this provision, which is inconsis- 
tent with the general rule, requiring a wife to mourn three years for her 
husband as for a parent, while he only observes one year's mourning for 
her. but it becomes intelligible and reasonable if viewed as a survival 
from a forgotten period, when the mother, as well as the son, was con- 
sidered an essential link in the genealogical chain. Complimentary 
mourning (for three months) might be worn for the head of a clan, not 
on the ground of relationship, which was not counted for this purpose 
through more than five generations, but on the ground of his representing 
the remote high ancestor, from whom all the different branch families 
claimed descent. 

A curious proof of the tenacity of Chinese usage is afforded by a pas- 
sage m the Chow Li, forbidding a custom which is still in use. The officer 
of marriages, according to this clause, 1 forbids the removal of the bodies 
ot those who have died unmarried to fresh tombs, where, bv a sort of post- 
humous marriage, they are united to girls who have died before rea< hing 
the marriageable age. It is not quite clear whether betrothed pairs whose 
marriage bad not been culpably adjourned might be united after death, 
but the intention seems to have been to promote marriages by closing a too 
easy way of wiping oca the disgrace attached to celibacy. One ot the od.es 
ot ('mow. which has rather perplexed the commentators, becomes intelli- 
gible it we suppose this officer of marriages to have taken his functions 
seriously and have interfered to prevent love matches that offended in 
any way against the rules of propriety. " Do not 1 think of y< u," is the 
burden ot tiie quatrains the maiden addresses to her loser, ''but 1 am 
afiaidol this olmvr and dare not rush to you." And she consoles herself 
with tlii h »pe oi th ■ very arrangement proscribed in tiie Rites : - 



. n.l - rod- 

n i> ir.g thai the n il her \\ - add iii 
d. husiiuiiU il thev had other cua: 



ll ... : 






;] w i In 






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ll 


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i v, i : 

v\i:h hei- 


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li ' a - 



SOCIAL AXD DOMESTIC RELATIONS, 71 

A youth was considered marriageable at twenty, and a girl at fifteen ; 
thirty and twenty respectively marked the lawful limit for celibacy ; single 
men and women above those ages were liable to be exhorted by the 
officer of marriages, for it was a part of good government to have no un- 
married persons in the country. 

An account of the nine provinces and their produce in the Chow Li 
mentions the proportion of men to women in each province, 1 which varies 
extraordinarily, from five to one to one to three. The average of the 
nine is possible enough, as it is at the rate of twenty-five men to twenty- 
four women ; but it is difficult to believe that the statistics give an accurate 
account of such variations as might be noted, for instance, in the United 
States between Massachusetts and Nevada, though there is no other con- 
ceivable explanation of the discrepancy if historical. 

Children were registered at three months old, the time when they re- 
ceived from the father their first or childish name. A record was made of 
the child's birth on such a day, month, and year, and the secretaries of the 
hamlets made two copies of it, one of which was kept in the village office, 
and the other passed to the officer of the district. It is thus evident that 
in well ordered departments the materials for a census of some kind must 
have existed from very early times. Indeed, the very reasons given against 
the proposal, when a prince in the 9th century B.C. was anxious to number 
the people of a certain district, betray some experience of the results of 
statistical inquiries. The wise minister of the period observed- that it was 
the business of the local officials to know the number of families and of 
persons in their departments ; the officers in charge of public works must 
know how much labour they can command, and the military officers know 
how many soldiers can be raised, and that is all the knowledge required for 
practical purposes. But, though the district in question was one of the 
most populous in the country, the total number of the inhabitants was sure 
to fall short of the emperor's expectations, while the report of his dis- 
appointment would be sure to reach the neighbouring princes, and encou- 
rage them to presume on his supposed weakness. 

A rural calendar of the Mia Dynasty, supposed to have been found in the 
grave of Confucius in the 3rd century A.D., adds to our former list of times 
and seasons, the information that at such a day of the second month (i.e. 
towards the end of March), " they execute the dance wan, they enter the 
school.'' boys were sent to school at eight years old, to learn the elements 
of writing and arithmetic. The lives of both Confucius and Mencius con- 
tain anecdotes of their school days, and the mother of the latter fixed her 
residence opposite a school, in order that her son, who was apt to imitate 
what he saw around him, should have nothing but examples of studiousness 
and decorum in siuht. 



' Hook xxxiii. ^ S-49. 

- Do M.iilh. Histoire generate de la Chine, ou Annates dc cet Empire :r,:.:ui: 
Tone'- AY- n Kang-mou, 1777, ii. \>. 42. 



72 OWNERSHIP IX CHIXA. 

According to the l.i Ki, 1 there was anciently a school for every twenty- 
five families, a college for 500 or tiie department, an academy fur 2.500 
or the county, and a university for the whole kingdom. The ordinary 
curriculum extended over seven or nine years : examinations took • 
every other year, and selected candidates from the ordinary colleges were 
transferred to the Imperial college. The competitors were exempt from 
forced la! our in their own villages, and the students of the imperial college 
were excused from all manual work. Not less authentic and more graphic 
accounts of the common schools are given by two writers of the first cen- 
tury A.T).- : '• When the plough has been brought under cover, the harvests 
gathered, and the operations of the year ended, the unmarried youths go 
to school, at fifteen to the lower school, at eighteen to the higher : at the 
winter solstice they leave school for fortv-five davs (as is the usage even 
until now), and prepare for the labours of cultivation.' 1 So far Ma-yong, 
while Pan-kow ( 5 S - 76 A.D.), in his historv of the first Han Dynasty, adds 
that in winter, to save lights and firing, the villagers assembled in the 
common hall, the women with their work, while the young men not yet 
taxpayers repaired to the school-house. The lads who entered, the 
elementary s< hool at eight begin at fifteen to learn music and the Rites. 
Tiie teachers in these schools were not appointed by the State, but the 
district officers were expected to keep an eye on their efficiency. 

It would be an anachronism to assume from these particulars that 
during the Chow Dynasty or earlier a system of graduated schools pro- 
vided a complete ladder of learning from the village to the court. The 
(hand Director of Public Works is required bv the Chow Pi to teach the 
people " the six virtue-, the six praiseworthy actions, and the six branches 
of knowledge:" i.e. music, dancinu. archerv, charioteering, writing, and 
arithmetic. Put so wide a curriculum warns us to understand the word 
"to teach " as referring to the educational effects of good government, 
rather than to any special supervision of the sch 1 T. where virtue can 
hardly 1 taught in cl >s. 

Tiie fact seems to be that under the three first dynasties the idea of 
■ u! lii instru< : Si ■■ : m< u 1. over and above independent 1 

is. was mixed up with that of other public establishments, such as 
IT . 1 a< idemy ol mu.de, the Court of the I leir Apparent, with whom 
the sons ot h:_h oliii ers and nobles were educated, and the '■college, ' as 
ii would be called bv analogy with medueval endowments, where State 
oendoners were maintained at the pubh'c cost. ''It was the universal 
nil - in ai - lent China ti at tli : \ >tm_ di c;l ght and the old main- 

tained in the same building."' A • rime of Tse, wi '. . 1 ■ 1 one f the 



..' . 



. 



' 



. : 4. 
in. \ 



:. < 4. 



. 



.. . 1^24 1204 



127,; 1214 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 73 

federal leagues formed by die feudal States, was credited with a desire to 
revive the educational as well as the other good customs of the kings of 
Chow, His allies pledged themselves to " Honour the aged, protect the 
orphans, name the deserving to office, nourish capable men. and bring 
forward virtuous ones" — a.ll of which undertakings would anciently have- 
been included under the head of ' ; teaching " the six virtues. 

Ma-twan-hn saw plainly that the system of examinations was only a 
modern and not very successful expedient for the detection of capacity 
and virtue, and he supposes that in the good old times men were first 
recommended for employment on account of their character and reputa- 
tion, arid were then examined to see if they possessed the special know- 
ledge required for the discharge of their duties: whereas subsequently 
scholars applied themselves to one kind of study with a view to the 
examinations, and, as soon as the examination was over, all that they had 
learnt was put aside and neglected, while they began a fresh education in 
the practical work belonging to their offices, so that science and govern- 
ment were divorced. 

Tiie enumeration of the duties incumbent on filial children in families 
of official rank l is our best guide as to the indoor, domestic life ot the 
Chinese during the period of Middle Antiquity, The housework, as we 
should say, is expected to be performed by the children or inferior wives. 
These, " at the first crowing of the cock, should wash their hands and 
mouths, gather up their pillows and fine mats, sprinkle and sweep out the 
apartments, hall, and courtyard, and spread the mats, each one doing his 
proper work." The sons and sons' wives dress and wash with care, and 
hang at their girdle or sash ' ; their articles tor use.''" Both sexes carry the 
'•duster and handkerchief, the knife and whetstone, the small spike and 
the metal speculum to get lire from the sun, and the borer to get tire from 
wood." to which are added the implements of writing and archery for 
men, and for women a needle-case, silk, and thread. When fully dressed 
the children go to impure after the health of their parents (or parents-in- 
law), bring them water to wash, and then the best of food. They " should 
not move the clothes, coverlets, line mats or undermats, pillows, and stools 
of their parents." They should reverently regard their staff and shoes, but 
not presume to approach them, nor should they meddle with their food 
or utensils, unless it were to eat what was left from their parents' meals. 
"Sweet, soft, and unctuous things" left by the grandparents should be 
given to the little children, who are also allowed to go to bed, to get ti] . 
and to take their meals when they please. 

It shows the force of ideas in China that the young married people. '.0 
whose interests the older generations are sometimes sacrificed 111 other 
communities of the same type, are here subordinated to the old and young. 
It was considered proper that children should be petted and. in : . .. ■. 1, as 
they still are in modern China. At eight they begin to learn manners,- 

1 S.I',., xxvii. ; .. 44S ff. 

- ' ; When the cliiM was able to take its own food, it was taught tu use il .- : _ ha;.:: 



74 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

and the art of yielding to others ; and after that, advancing years only 
bring fresh duties till the son becomes himself a husband and father. 
Klder children, however, are only subject to a constitutional rule. We 
have heard much about the duties of the sovereign, but they are all summed 
up in tiie phrase, he should be the father and mother of his people. The 
father and mother therefore, in private life, 'nave to consider the interests 
and inclinations of their children, as the ruler should those of the multi- 
tudes, before his parents a son should not speak of himself as old, and. 
though he might speak of the duty owing to parents, lie might not speak 
of the gentle kindness due from them ; x but the latter duty was not the 
less recognised, and it would evidently be a proper topic of conversation 
in a company of parents. If children do not like the food or clothes pro- 
vided for them, they are required to taste or put them on without demur ; 
but the parents are expected to divine from the nuances of still respectful 
deportment that they are not altogether pleased, and the children await 
their further commands with a reasonable expectation that their tastes will 
be considered. 

On the whole we should judge modest comfort, with an absence of 
display, to have characterized the family life of ancient as of modern 
( ihina. The extent to which the family waited on itself reminds us of 
what we are told of the Xabatreans. 2 Life was more decorous than among 
the Egyptians, more formal than in Babylonia, and more elaborate than 
in any other community not dependent on slave labour. One note of 
material civilization, a free use of the bath, is conspicuous. It was the 
duty of filial children to prepare tepid water, and invite their parents to 
take a bath every fifth day; and the bathing tub of Tliang the Successful 
was del crated with die inscription, " If you can one day renovate yourself, 
do so from day to day : yea. dailv renovate vourself." :; 

d'iie constant efforts after self-rectification of the Chinese sage stand 

midway between the self-discipline required from the Christian saint and 

the purely secular JUUun^ or culture of which the greatest German poet 

was an apostle. The "superior man :; in China "cultivates his person ; " 

he " internaliy examines his heart/' he keeps watch over himself when 

. . ■.'• an .. i <r iu's ow ;. - . ': -: - tion simplv, strengthens himself in gravity 

; .:. i reverein e. be ruse " indifference and want of restraint lead to a daily 

rati :..' The ceremonies of politeness are the outward and visible 

signs of _ i twill and i moderateness. '"'Courtesy is near to propriety :" 

... ,'ery tar wn i :_ whii h is ke] t within the rules ot g > d 

ny i i>es the formal r lies of ; ropriety only em; ;i isi/e the re [uire- 

: . . ' ■ of :. ittiral ] ilitei -s and _;oo i feeling. Take the following para- 






SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 75 

'• He who is condoling with one who has mourning rites on hand, and 
is not able to assist him with a gift, should put no question about his 
expenditure. He who is inquiring after another who is ill, and is not able 
to send (anything to him), should not ask what he would like. He who 
sees (a traveller), and is not able to lodge him, should not ask where he is 
stopping. He who would confer something on another should not say, 
'Come and take it ; ' he who would give something (to a smaller man) 
should not ask him what he would like.'' l 

The first clauses require no comment, though they show that the exer- 
cise of hospitality and the interchange of friendly gifts were common ; but 
the last sentence shows that in giving and receiving presents the self- 
respect of both parties was to be protected with the utmost refinement. A 
poor man will not ask for what he wants, lie must be entreated to accept 
it. Xo one will take a gift ; it must be offered or presented to a private- 
person just as much as to a ruler. 

During a famine a gentleman had food prepared on the road to wait the 
approach of hungry people. A particularly famished-looking wretch came 
up, and he held out food and drink, saving. " Pour man ! come and eat." 
" The man, opening his eyes with a stare and looking at him, said, ' It 
was because J would not eat " boor man come here food " that I am 
come to this state.' Khien Ao immediately apologised for his words, 
but the man after all would not take the food, and died." It is not clear 
at once to the coarse AVestern mind where the wrong-doing of the story 
lies, but the opinion of one of Confucius' chief disciples is recorded. The 
gentleman in lbs judgment had certainly behaved amiss, but his error did 
not deserve the severe punishment inflicted. " When he expressed his 
pity as he did, tiie man might have gone away ; when he apologised, the 
man might have taken the food.'" "- Must we not. however, admit that 
European falls short of Chinese civilization, while they do and we do not 
feel it to be unseemly for a gentleman to bid a pauper •• Come and eat," 
without further demonstrations of courtesy and respect? 

The common people were not expected to observe all the minuter rules 
of ceremony. Such rules as that " In a house of mourning one should not 
laugh : " ' ; When eating (with others) one should not sigh ;" " When there 
is a body shrouded and coffined in ids village one should not sing in the 
lanes ; " and that in i; Walking with a funeral procession one should not pick 
his way/' — these might be observed by everybody; but it is only the 
superior man who is required to sacrifice his convenience to decorum : lie. 
■• though poor, will not sell Ids vessels of sacrifice ; though suffering from 
. he will not wear his sacrificial robes; though he wants wood to build 
a house, lie will not cut down the trees on his grave mounds." '■'' 

The superior man must act consistently, at whatever cost ; thus Confucius 
happened one day to lie carried away by sympathy, so as to wail more 

1 .S'. />'., xxvii. p. S9. 

- .S'./>'., xxvii. p, 195. Cf. \!vx: : .:-. vi. i. x. ; 6. 

3 S. />.. xx\ ii. p. 104. 



7<) ownership in china. 

bitterly than was demanded by the strict rules of propriety at the mourning 
rites of an old host. < )n leaving the house he bade bis companions unhar- 
ness two of tiie horses from his carriage and present them as lbs gift. It 
was objected that such a gift was excessive, considering the sliyhtness of 
the relationship. The master said, " I found (the mourner) so dissolved 
in grief that my tear- flowed. I should hate it if those tears were not 
followed. Do it, my chiid." ] Friendly regard and helpful action ought 
to go together : it is equally improper to offer help without expressing 
friendly feeling and to manifest friendly feeling without offering help, an 1 
having done the one hue superior man will not fail to do the other in due 
proportion. 

The same refinement of feeling is to be noted in a varietv of other rules. 
It is not proper for a man to take office while in mourning for his parents ; 
but if his services are needed by the State, he may give them gratuitously. 2 
During the same period he might speak of public affairs concerning his 
superiors, but not of those in winch he himself had an interest.'' ( )n the 
other hand, a prince may call at the house of a minister to inquire for the 
sick or to condole with mourner.-, but he must not visit there for amuse- 
ment. It is not proper for men to praise their seniors or superiors ; but at 
all times it was a point of good manners to give somebody else the credit 
of whatever merit one was supposed to possess. A private citizen gave 
the glory to his parents, a minister to his prince, and the ruler to high 
heaven : l " it was thus that thev showed submissive deference.'' 

Minor instructions on points of etiquette are equally rational. "' : When 
sitting by a person of rank, if he began to yawn and stretch himself, to turn 
round his tablets, to play with the head of his sword, to move his shoes 
d)oui or to ask about the time of day. one might ask leave to retire." - 

1 S./!.. \w: : . p. 137. - /■''., ii. 342: wviii. 46). ■' /\. yy. rot, 233. 

1 A fun- hi- .-'/'.' •'--. •.'■•!()■ nf tin: S ty, Sti Tunjr 1'. >' ( 1 036-1 101 A. n. 1, 

:- 1 ' trine in the verses ee!e . .rating hi- irhour, which wa- '' 1 e a rctcr rain, 

1 ' ■ l el 1 .' ■ ■ ' y. " t hi - ' ■: • I; v-' i ...... in 1 . ■ .'.'.' 



s 



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nine 



ini it wear them a- 



lira 

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- II -aveii-av-. ; N,,: h wa< (h,.!." 

v . ' \.. ; i' • Nature." 

' ■ N. ' :: ■ : r '■ -\ ,n<] 'he hell of II 

"/, . i>. iS !•. Mr. 1 el ■-" < '■. V.v ■ li 



he- 1 1 



I lie; her \< \\\ 

l lie ! hi] 11 



A 



: 



SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 77 

Several other passages recall fragments of the Egyptian rules of propriety 
— one should not speak positively if one has the slightest doubt ; but if one 
has no doubt, one should not seem to be expressing one's own opinion 
only. In the presence of a superior one should not answer a question 
without looking round to see if any one else is going to speak. It is not 
stated anywhere that unpalatable advice or criticism ought not to be 
delivered point-blank, but should be wrapped up in the most delicately 
suggestive of allegories. But this sort of diplomacy came too much by 
nature to the Chinese official for it to need enjoining. One such example 
of ministerial politeness may be quoted, which serves also to illustrate 
the deeply rooted Chinese conviction that the art of government begins 
at home. Duke Wen of Chin was going to a confederacy of feudal princes 
to plan an attack on the State of Wei. On the journey his minister 
laughed. The Duke asked what amused him, and he replied, that he was 
laughing at the thought of a neighbour of his, who was escorting his wife 
on a visit to her parents, when he espied a pretty girl picking mulberry 
leaves. He stopped to talk to her, and then, turning his head, he saw 
somebody else paying attention to his own wife. The Duke took the hint 
and turned back, just in time to hear that an enemy had attacked his 
northern frontier. 1 

As in Egypt, all classes anciently carried staffs,- but about 500 n.c. the 
right to do so was restricted to men of rank, because a wheelwright was 
seen using his as a tool. " There was nowhere such a thing as being born. 
noble." :; By ancient custom a piece of jade or a number of shells were 
placed in the mouth of the deceased, while the tuft of hair worn by boys 
and the observance of the feasts of lanterns and of the moon are other 
traits common to both countries. 

1 F. II. Balfour. Leaves from my Chinese Note Book, p. 132. 
- See Appendix M. 3 S.J!., xxvii. p. 430. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FEUDALISM AND THE FALL OF CHOW. 

The Odes confirm the witness of the other classics upon a point as to 
which otherwise we might have felt some scepticism. That the extension 
of the royal authority, described in the Rites, was not always a fiction 
appears from the regrets expressed, especially in the smaller States, after the 
setting in of its decay. In one of the odes it is said, "The way to Chow 
should be level and easy." It used, according to the malcontents, " to be 
straight as an arrow, trodden by officers coming willingly to court.'' 1 Op- 
pressed citizens of Kwei or Tsa'ou regret the good old times " when the 
States had their sovereign" to defend the weak and receive their appeals ; 
and for centuries after there had ceased to be any real hope of a deliverer 
from the West, they would gaze with sad longings upon the road to Chow, 
and "sigh as they wake in the night to think of its capital city." 

The orthodox way of maintaining the unity of the empire, notwith- 
standing its unwieldy growth, was for the subordinate princes to present 
themselves regularly at court, and for the kings to make periodical pro- 
gresses throughout the States and receive appeals against evil-doers, to 
remove usurpers and oppressors, and encourage each court to reproduce 
in miniature the harmonising influence of the One Man. While this was 
the case all went well : but. on the other hand, " when government is not 
correct, the rider's seat is insecure. When the ruler's seat is insecure, the 
great ministers revolt, and smaller ones begin pilfering. Punishments are 
made severe and manners deteriorate." 

In th.e olh cent, this process of deterioration had begun, but the tradi- 
tions of Wen and Wu were still strong enough to enable virtuous ministers 
Id dep'i-e a bad king without being either suspected or guilty of disloyalty 
to th.e dvnastv. King I,i was dethroned or compelled to fly S41 i:.c., : - and 
till in-; death, in 827, the Covernment was carried on by a sort of protec- 
torate of virtuous ministers, who reconciled their duty to both king and 
people by holding the Covernment in trust for the king's son, till his 
father's death. Iiefore the king was deposed by a popular rising, he had 
not only been admonished in various odes, but also warned against sup- 
ii ising thai tent could be repressed by silencing us expression, "i: 

1 1 1 ; i v be said," observed the minister who held the reins during the subse- 
nient interregnum, "that an emperor knows how to govern when poets 
! I." ;-. r.r..iv. ,,,, .5.57, S5.5. 



>re 



I'.'m' cnroiii 



FEUDALISM AND THE FALL OF CHOW. 79 

are free to make verses, and the populace to act plays, historians to tell 
the truth, ministers to give advice, the poor to grumble in paying their 
taxes, the students to learn their lessons aloud, the workmen to praise their 
skill and seek for work, the people to speak of all it hears, and the old men 
to find fault with everything. Then things go on without much difficulty : 
the tongues of the people are like the rivers and mountains from whence 
the riches and necessaries of life are drawn." ' Is there any other text of 
the same antiquity as essentially modern in tone ? 

Later political odes take the form of laments or denunciations : — 

" Alas for the men of this time ! 
Why arc they such cobras and efts?" 

The wheels of the chariot of State drive heavily, but no one looks after 
the coachman nor helps the wheels out of a rut. In a word, 

" The majestic honoured capital of Chow 

Is being destroyed by S/.e of 1'aou," 

the favourite concubine of the king. Another poem belonging to the 
reign of King Yew (780-770) denounces " women and eunuchs " as the 

twin sources of court disorder. "A wise man builds up the wall, but a 
wise woman overthrows it ; she is at best an owl, a stepping-stone to dis- 
order. Men had their lands and fields in times past, but these are now 
seized by the unworthy favourites. For a woman to leave her silkworms 
and weaving to meddle with public affairs is as unseemly as for a states- 
man to seek for the 300 per cent, profit of trade.'' The same author in 
the next ode speaks of the people as abandoning their homes on account 
of famine : " In the settled regions and on the borders all is desolation,"' 
and the kingdom, instead of increasing its boundaries as heretofore, is 
diminishing daily. 2 

Among the provincial poems, two of the odes of Wei apostrophize the 
swarms of corrupt or oppressive officials in terms that would admit of 
tolerably world-wide application. The woodman's axe rings upon the 
trees, he hews the wood for wheels and spokes, by the banks of the 
rippling stream : but as for these ministers — you sow not nor reap : — 

" I Tow do you get the produce of these 300 farms ? 
You sow not nor reap — 
How do you get your three million of sheaves? 
How do you gel the paddy for your 300 round binns? 

You do not follow the chase — 
I tow do we see the badgers, the three-year-olds and. the quails 
Hanging up in your court yards ? " :) 

Another poem has the significant refrain, ' ; barge rats, large rats, do not 
eat our millet, our wheat ! " ^ 

The abuses complained of in the middle State spread to the feudatories, 
though from time to time ambitious princes sought popularity by displaying 
an ostentatious regard for the welfare of the multitudes. Such lovalty as 

1 De Mailla, ii. p. 25. '- CO., iv. ii. p. 564. 

3 lb., pt. i. pp. 170-1. '' iv. p. 504. 



So OWXERSIIIP IX CHINA. 

was shown in these latter days towards the ruling dynasty was inspired bv 
the mutual jealousy of the States ambitious to succeed it, and was as fitful 
and exacting as tile loyally of the great Scotch nobles towards the Stuart 
kings. And just as in Scotland, when the monarchy was weakest, the 
nobles multi; lied leagues and bonds or covenant-;, to secure whatever end 
was at t'ae moment desired by the strongest subjects, so in China the 
intercourse between the States contemplated by the constitutional law of 
re tended to be superseded by leagues and alliances for special 
purp< >ses. 

Such covenants were often of tiie same order as the agreement of 1772 
f r the partition of Poland, and thus the gradual absorption of the minor 
States went on till only three or tour of the most powerful retained enough 
independence to resist the conquering armies of '["sin. 1 The consequences 
t i tiie mass of the population can he inferred from the fact that Men 
gives tiie second rank among unpardonable offenders to '" those who unite 
t'ae princes in leagues/' midway between those who are guilty of skill in 
war. and those who enclose grass commons and make tiie cultivators pay 
taxes fa- them as for arable land, for several centuries the consolidation 
of new States and the breaking up of old one- went on together. The 
princes who had no allied houses of feudal nobles were regarded as weak. 
brot'aerless and unfriended.'- but where such houses were numerous or 
p overfill, they ended by overshadowing their chief, as the States had over- 
shadowed Chow, and the most masterful of the feudatories became inde- 
pendent, and. in their turn, leaders of a new confederacy/' 

Tiie ': order States had the advantage of being able to strengthen them- 
selves by incorporating friendly tribes, instead of merely redistributing old 
fiefs among new adherents. The large, and at one time formidable State 
of Tsoo included many more than half-barbarous tribe-.' who are probably 
_■ held responsible for the human sacrifices sometime- offered in that 
State. And the Chinese commentators themselves give tiie same explana- 
tion of the startling fact that as lately as 620 i:.c, 17c persons were buried 
in ' . grave of a duke of T'sin, three of them being officers of disting lisht '; 
merit, in whose meim »ry an ode of ] rotest and lamentation was com; osed." 1 
A geiiei"; ' the had example was followed in the State of Sung, and 






FEUDALISM AND THE FALL OF CHOW. Si 

for a century or two there seemed to be some clanger of such sacrifices; 
becoming usual; but reason and humanity prevailed, assisted, perhaps, by 
t'ne fact that the closeness of the fraternal relation in China made it an 
open question whether the deceased should be accompanied to his tomb 
by wives or brothers ; while any relation who desired to honour the de- 
ceased in such a way, was liable to be invited to lead the way in person. 

The forms in which the ambition of the encroaching States displayed it- 
self are characteristically Chinese. One symptom was to express curiosity 
about the nine vases of Yu, the possession o( which was associated with 
that of the imperial sceptre ; another was to offer a sacrifice to heaven 
and earth, or to the progenitors of the royal house, as to the sacrificers 
own ancestors. In the Tso Chuen, on the other hand, the loyalty cr 
virtuous ministers frequently shows itself by their refusal to accept exces- 
sive honours offered on their arrival in other States. If odes proper to 
the reception of the princes by the emperor are sung in their honour, they 
take no notice, though they bow and respond politely when pieces of less 
lofty import succeed. They " do not presume to seem as if they heard r " 
what it is contrary to propriety for them to acknowledge. 

As in Scotland, the tradition of the royal supremacy retained just so 
much vitality that the rebels were always anxious to obtain its nominal 
support. One of the odes refers to the request of a usurper to be lawfully 
invested with the fief which he intends to retain whether or no ; and in the 
case already referred to, when the Imperial sacrifice to heaven and earth is 
presumptuously offered by a prince of T'sin, his excuse is that a part of 
the ancient patrimony of the imperial house has just been conceded to 
him. including the spot where the rite used to be performed. After this, 
the Prince of Loo applied for permission to offer a similar sacrifice, and, 
by way of compromise, an imperial officer was sent from the court of Chow 
to do it for him, whom he detained, in order to be able to repeat the 
ceremony at discretion. In 720 B.C., and again in 618, an envoy was sent 
from Chow to Loo asking for contributions to the king's burial, winch is 
e [uivalent to a demand for tribute. 

It is curious to note how, in this state of general anarchy, a few rough 
principles of feudal law struggled to the front, winch are the more interest- 
ing to us because of their dim resemblance to the expedients spontaneous!}' 
adopted in mediaeval Europe. They were not inspired either by the 
ancient classics or their modern admirers, but were the natural outcome of 
the new state of things which required and developed an etiquette ot its 
own. Tims, if an army passed through neutral territory, usage required 
that the prince (presumably an inferior) should man the walls of his capital 
and send an embassy to ask wherein he had offended, otherwise he was 
liable to be treated as an enemy. Chinese etiquette and knightly gener 
osity were sometimes curiously mixed, as in the story ot the small State o: 
Veil, which had been attacked by Tatars and effectively helped by Tse ; 
U] n which the Prince of Yen accompanies his departing ally beyond his 
own frontier, a compliment properly due to the emperor alone. Tse there- 



OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 



upon makes the prince a present of the lands lie has committed the 
incorrectness of crossing, so as to put them both "in order." 

It is unchivalreus to intlict a second wound, to take prisoner a man with 
grey hairs, to fall upon the enemy in a defile, or to sound drums to attack 
an unformed host. The Tso Chtien is full of stories of Chinese chivalry 
; ;ul very Chinese magnanimity. Famous warriors are slain because they 
- annot resist the appeal of an enemy to let him shoot first, and a rather 
i retty bit of courteous bravado is described, in which two heroes, who are 
being hotly pursued, shoot, not at their enemies, but at a passing deer, stop 
c 'Urteously to offer the game to their pursuers, and then set off again, re- 
j eating the process till the chase is abandoned. The mediaeval counter- 
parts of these heroes would, however, hardly understand the view of good 
manners, which requires self-depreciation to be carried so far that trie 
w; rrior must always preten i politely to be the greatest coward present, like 
tiie general praised by Confucius for saving, after he had brought up the 
rear of a retreating force. '• It is not that I dare to be last ; my horse would 
not advance." ! 

The men of letter-, of whom Confucius is the best known, and Mencius 
tiie ablest representative, could scarcely he expected to exercise much in- 
fluence during tii.se ages of turbulence. The mental activity of tiie class 
was nourished from three sources : the doctrines of the ancient worthies, 
whose ideal of a paternal democracy was preserved in the Shoo and the 
earliest odes ; the satirical protests of virtuous ministers out ot work, em- 
bodied in the later odes : and lastly, tiie mental restlessness of their own 
time, when political instability and social disorders had stimulated a new. 
if somewhat niggling, intellectual activity, corres] onding in circumstance 
to that - f tiie mediaeval S ihoolmen, and approximating in its character to 
that of the Creek Sophists. 

It was tiie ambition of Confucius. Mencius. and the minor contempo- 
:s :.:. 1 dis< i| les of i th. to be employed as at once guide, phia sopher, 
. nd ; rime minister bv the ' ri , es oi their several States. but they were 
.1 ..re that the attitude ot an aspirant : r court favour is not in itseit a 
i unified one : a i < ioui n ius, bv parabi as and historic exam pi ■-. preaches 
that ti. : : iiii . T - . iul«i ; k • oliice if it is offet'edi him. i at sh I not 

seek .' for liiu - -if, " I am :. : > >n med that I iiave no place. I am <■ >n- 
ccna ii .. nv 1 m v :lt mvs< ii :■ r one. 1 am no: < a era- i tint 1 am not 
. : .'. .1 ■ to 1 \ rthv to lie km i',vn, : '' J If the pnu 'S and t.,e em; leror 
' ■ ' lie rules oi propr: ty. t.ie superi >r a. :. nu_,,t 
a w ken bad e \ eminent ; revaiied, the ] root oi 

■ i ids i a inokkes and kecj tin in ins own 

i Id di -gra< e. 

ii: rati that the va< :a m; ntle of W u ami Tan 
■ u uiri er w i. > was m itiu r a :. I le i y ' irth nor a 
-. saew that it w aid 1 e • asv ; -r anv decently 



t 1 


- 


)': 


: n 




in 


.'.a 
u 
i, 




i" 


mi ' 

r to 
vir: 



; .. ... . : 1 1. 

( ;. w v.;. Tan 



FEUDALISM AND THE FALL OF CHOW. 83 

governed State to seize the empire, but they did not see that first States 
and then the Empire were to be had for the winning by military adven- 
turers without their help ; and that therefore, any adventurer, who would 
restore enough of the good old usages to enlist the sympathy of die 
masses, would have a chance of conquering power for himself and his 
advisers without being orthodoxly *" employed" at all. 

Confucius, notwithstanding his pedantic enthusiasm for '''ceremonies/' 
was not wanting in practical ability, and tradition represents him as restor- 
ing the golden age of Yao and Shun in any town or government that was 
entrusted to his care. But he could not adapt his doctrine to the changed 
political conditions of the time, and his employers practically found them- 
selves without compensation for the sacrifices entailed by his scruples. 
The Prince of Tse, pleased with some of his remarks, wished to give him 
certain estates, and was dissuaded by his prime minister, upon grounds not 
in themselves unreasonable. These scholars, it was objected, are imprac- 
ticable, arrogant, lavish in expenditure upon useless ceremonies, full of 
frivolous ''rules of propriety," to which statesmen have no time to attend. 
" It would take generations to exhaust all that this Mr. Chung knows 
about the ceremonies of going up and going down." ' Moreover, as the 
customs he wished to restore had fallen into disuse, to enforce them 
would be an innovation tending to unsettle people's minds and cause dis- 
content. 

It speaks volumes for the faithfulness of the Chinese records that we can 
really gather from them an intelligible summary of the curious intellectual 
movement which gives its significance to this question about the employ- 
ment of sages, and the subsequent burning of the books. On the one 
hand the champions of antiquity represented the principles of law and 
order ; but the laws and the order belonged to a bygone state of things, 
and their restoration would imply the destruction of the present. But the 
state of things present in China from the 5th to the 3rd century n.c. was 
not wanting in vitality any more than those days of feudalism from which 
the kingdoms of Europe date their origin. \i the power of Chow had 
wasted, that of the various "presiding States" had increased, and in those 
States where the titular prince was as feeble in proportion as the emperor, 
the minor nobles were as ready to take the role of local ma ire de ftalais as 
the various kings to usurp imperial prerogatives. It was the age of soldiers 
and sophists and the event justified the forecasts of those statesmen who 
felt that the impending re-organization of the empire must be effected by 
force of arms, and that the orthodox school of literati were more likely to 
hinder than help during the process. Neither they nor the philosophers 
foresaw that the ultimate victory would rest with the latter, and that the 
princes who reunited the empire would end by re-conquering j.cgo years 
of more than imperial power for the pedantic Mr. Chung. 

Several centuries had to pass before the beginning of this "revenge, 'and 

1 C.C., vol. i. Prolegomena, p. 69. 



S4 OWXERSHIP IN CHINA. 

the Taoist writers of the interval hardly exaggerate the ill-success which up 
to this time attended on his teaching. One of them preserves an anecdote 
which we should be glad to think authentic. A disciple once asked Con- 
fucius why he was sad, notwithstanding his own doctrine that one who 
was contented with his lot, and prepared for the appointment of fate, had 
no occasion to feci sorrowful. To which the sage replied that he grieved, 
not for himself, but at beholding in his own State the neglect of all the 
obligations of loyalty and charity which he had sought to teach for the 
benefit of posterity. If, therefore, truth cannot prevail in one State for a 
single lifetime, how. he asked himself, can it prevail throughout the world 
for all the generations to come ? And at this thought he felt the sadness 
of despair. 

In a stock passage, repeated with variations in the works ascribed to 
Chuang-tze, his sufferings and persecutions are enumerated : he was twice 
expelled from Loo ; his tree (i.e. that under which he used to teach) was cut 
down in Sung. Wei renounced him : he was a failure in Shang and Chow, 
and he passed seven days without food, surrounded by Ids enemies, in Chen 
and Tsai. 1 The same author represents him as saying to Lao-tze, t; I ar- 
ranged the six Canons — of Poetry, History, Rites, Music, Changes, and 
Spring and Autumn. I spent much time over them, and I am well ac- 
quainted with their purport. I used them in admonishing seventy-two 
rulers, by discourses on the wisdom of ancient sovereigns, and illustrations 
from the lives of Chou and Shao. Yet not one ruler has in any way 
adopted my suggestions. Alas ! that mail should be so difficult to per- 
suade, and wisdom so difficult to illustrate. - ' 2 

These confessions of failure are put into his mouth by avowed critics : 
l.ut their criticisms rest, partly at least, upon the fact that Confucius aimed 
at regulating the States by his doctrines, and producing definite, practical 
results, and that he had tailed in his aim. The Taoists criticised his aim. 
tit their evidence is good for the fact, that throughout the latter years of 
the Chow Dynasty <! no ruler in any way adopted his suggestion-/' His 
teai lung became familiar to all the scholars of the empire, and exercised a 
timul ting effect alike upon opponents and disciples, but it was not till 
alter to tall of Chow that the bread line which now separates him from 
all tlie other writers of ( 'hina was drawn and recognised : while it was n )t 
t: the o mg I )y nasty that M end u ; ais ) was promoted to a pi ce apart as 
i . ■ mast r's sin < - w, and second to him alone. 

: '" ', .Vo.'S, J/7\.\7 ' <:>:! S.-:i.!.' Ktf-r-n.r. Tr. by I IerU:i A. ( lllcs 1SS0. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PHILOSOPHERS OF 7PIE HUNDRED SCHOOLS. 

•• There are 20. coo Ralph Waldo Emersons in China,"' said Mr. Burlin- 
game, the United States Consul, to Mr. Motley, the historian, who records 
with mild surprise, the '''great admiration of the pigtails'' expressed by all 
who have become intimately acquainted with them in their own land. 1 If 
we had to describe what is at once best and most characteristic in Chinese 
thought in terms of Western literature, we might say that the Chinese philo- 
sopher was a compound of Goethe, Emerson, and Madame de Genlis. He 
has something of the calm, cool, rational humanity of the author of Faust, 
and a great deal of the same faith, in the efficacy of social, literary, and 
dramatic discipline, as a moral force, displayed by the author of Wilhelm 
Mcistcr. For the rest, his affinities with Goethe are included in his affini- 
ties with Emerson, whose obligations to the great German are not so easily 
defined. Like Emerson, the Chinese sage has broad, vague sympathies 
and intuitions of a righteous kind, and a strong, though hazy, apprehension 
of the analogies and sequences in the world of nature and man. Like 
Goethe, he has the courage of his discernment, and asserts the moral and 
political importance of social minutiae ; but he dwells on them with an 
affectionate diffuseness which suggests the court or the schoolroom rather 
than the study. Confucius himself is credited with the observation that 
the failing which may arise in connection with the practice of rites and 
ceremonies is " fussiness," - while the corresponding virtue is a modest, 
courteous, and respectful gravity. But there is nothing in the standard 
classic texts to oblige the intelligent Chinese to exaggerate the importance 
of forms. Confucius is quoted for the sentiment : Exceeding reverence 
with deficient rites is better than an excess of rites with but little reverence : 3 
and enlightened conservatism can hardly go beyond a saying in one of the 
most esteemed books of the Li Ki : " Rules of ceremony are the embodied 
expression of what is right, if an observance stand the test of being judged 
by what is right, although it may not have been among the usages of the 
ancient kings, it may be adopted on the ground of its being right/' ! A 

1 Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley, 1SS9, vol. ii. p. 211. " It is strange what 
• 'lies they all bring back from the Celestials, — Richard Dana, l!urlingame, Sir 1'. Bruce. 
We have everything to learn from them in the way of courtesy. The}' are an honestcr 
le than Europeans. Bayard Taylor's stories about their vices do them great injus- 
tice. They are from hasty impressions got in seaport towns.'' 

- S. />'., xxvi'ii. p. 254. 3 //-., xxvii. p. 141. 4 lb., xxvii. p. 390. 



S6 OWNERSHIP IN CII1XA. 

sentence or two further on this is explained : " Humanity is the root of 
right, and the embodying of deferential consideration.'' 

Theeflect of such consideration in mitigating the defects to which differ- 
ent classes are chiefly prone is acutely recognised. Propriety is the appli- 
cation of humanity to all the circumstances of life. " When the rich and 
noble know to love propriety, they do not become proud or dissolute. 
A\ hen the poor and mean know to love propriety, their minds do not be- 
come cowardly." 1 The small man. when poor, may be tempted to steal, and 
when rick,, may proceed to deeds of disorder ; the rules of propriety serve 
as dykes to keep these opposite tendencies within bounds. 

Confucius was, perhaps, the most acute of Chinese psychologists ; but 
Ins popularity is a sign that his talent in this direction was appreciated. 

A\ estern moralists perplex themselves to find one formula for all right 
doing, though it is known that tiie motives and propensities of indi- 
viduals vary. Confucius recognises three virtues — wisdom, magnanimity, 
and fortitude ; but observes that "'Some are born with the knowledge of 
these (duties), some know them by study, and some as the result of painful 
experience. Some practise them with the ease of nature, some for the sake 
ot their advantage, and some by dint of strong effort ;" but if the know- 
ledge and exercise of virtue are attained at last, " it comes to one and the 
same thing " "-'■ to society as a whole, which enjoys the fruit of all objective 
good behaviour, 

Menctus occupies a place midway between Confucius and the various 
phases of heterodox mysticism. 

But there is nothing in the Analects to be compared to the fine, dis- 
interested and generous morality of a few passages in the later writer. 
Mencius protests again and again against being consulted by princes as to 
what will ' : profit'" their kingdoms. lie is willing to speak of benevolence 
and righteousness, but not of profit ; for if that inducement is once recog 
nised. -; ministers will serve their sovereigns for the profit of which they 
cherish the thought ; sons will serve their fathers, and younger brothers will 
serve their elder brothers, from the same consideration : and the issue will 
be that, abandoning benevolence and righteousness, s ivereign and minister. 
father and son, younger brother and elder, will carry on all their intercourse 
with this thought of ; rofit cherished in their hearts, lint never has there- 
been such a state without ruin being the result ot it. '- ! 

He held that feeling* of benevolence and the love of righ'e aisncss were 
:. '. .: ' to mankind, and that it was the business oi education and philo- 
'.v to disentangle and reinforce the proper nature ol the mind. The 
< ,e - for disinterested, morality can hardly be put more compendiously 
in the following passage, whii h is one of those that earn for the author th 
name of a Chinese Socrates : Mencius said, '• 1 like fish and I also like 
1 ear's j l1 v,-s. If 1 c a net have the two together, I will let the fish go and 

; S. /',.. x ...:.< ;. xxviii. ; . 2 s l. 



THE PHILOSOPHERS OE THE HUNDRED SCHOOLS. 87 

take the bear's paws. So I like life, and I also like righteousness. If I 
cannot keep the two together, I will let life go and choose righteousness. I 
like life indeed, but there is that which I like more than life, and therefore 
I will not seek to possess it by any improper ways. I dislike death indeed, 
but there is that which I dislike more than death, and therefore there are 
occasions when I will not avoid danger. If, among the things which man 
likes, there were nothing which he liked more than life, why should he not 
use every means by which he could preserve it ? If, among the things 
which man dislikes, there were nothing that he disliked more than death, 
why should he not do everything by which he could avoid danger? There 
are cases when by a certain course men might preserve life and they do not 
follow it ; when by certain things they might avoid danger and they will not 
do them. Therefore men have that which they like more than life, and 
that which they dislike more than death. They are not men of distin- 
guished talents and virtue only, who have this mental nature. All men 
have it ; what belongs to such men simply is that they do not lose it.'' 1 
And he goes on to contrast the proper pride of a starving beggar, who 
will not accept food that is offered to him with contumely, with the un- 
reasonableness of one not in urgent want who will accept large gifts stained 
with impropriety and wrong. 

The age of the Sophists in China may be said to extend from the 7th 
century, when Lao-tze, the founder of Taoism — or the Doctrine of the Way 
— was born, to the fall of Chow, or more accurately the rise of T ? sin in the 
middle of the 3rd century B.C. 

Confucius was born 551 B.C., 2 and is said to have once seen Lao-tze, while 
later writers are fond of inventing conversations between the two, in which 
the honours of debate are awarded as their own personal sympathies 
prompt. Mencius was born 371 B.C. 3 Mih Teih, the founder of one of 
the rival schools, flourished between the two, and Vang Choo, another 
leader, was nearly or quite contemporary with Mencius. Chuang-tze, the 
Chinese Hegel, flourished about half a century later, but must have reached 
manhood before Mencius' decease : Hui-tze, the most sophistical of all the 
philosophers of the period, was contemporary with him. During ail this 
period teachers and disciples occupied themselves with discussions con- 
cerning the practice of charity and duty to one's neighbour, the identifica- 
tion of like and unlike, the separation of hardness and whiteness, and 
about making the not-so so, and the impossible possible ; they examined 
into the distinction of like and unlike, the changes of motion and rest, the 
canons of giving and receiving, the emotions of love and hate, and the re- 
straints of joy and anger, 4 — -till the philosophers themselves grew weary 
and practical politicians became indifferent and exasperated. 

It may be doubted whether any substantial addition has been made since 
this period to the range of speculative thought in China ; the doctrines and 
in most cases the works of these writers are still familiar to the learned ; 

1 IVorls, vi. i. x. - ] )ied 47S li.c. 

;; Died 2SS li.c. 4 C/uta/i^-lzit, pp. 214. 41S. 



ss 



OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 



and even those which are not officially recognised as books to be '"taken 
up" at tile Government examinations, have a more than merely literary in- 
terest, because they show how comparatively slight are the wi lot differences 
which spontaneously divide the beliefs and opinions of the blackdiaired 
people. The teaching of Confucius himself may be summed up as incul- 
cating imperial democracy, filial piety, and the rules of propriety. The 
i m :epti m of the duty of riders and the duty of sons met with in his written 
sayings did not originate with him, and rites and ceremonies undoubtedly 
were observed long before his time: but it seems probable that he brought 
into prominence the idea to which China owes, perhaps, most of her merits 
and defects. — that, namely, of turning every moral precept into a rale of 
propriety : so that every point of conduct from least to greatest may be 
embraced under the same set of regulations, while every virtue for which 
occasion can be foreseen may be enforced as " proper/' and vice discounte- 
nanced as unfashionable. 

Confucius appeals to the reason and self-respect of individuals, while in- 
viting them to reform themselves, or to adhere spontaneously to the rules 
of propriety : the ruling classes of his day declined to accept the invitation, 
and to such a fiat rejection he ha 1 no answer readv. Active resistance or 
vehement denunciation are courses for winch no rules can be given, since 
ihe\' imply the want of mutual respect and consideration upon which the 
rales of propriety are based. The revolt of disinterested energy against 
oppression finds no prompting in his works: but Mencius, though not 
self a revolutionist, might have inspired revolutionaries, and perhaps 
did so in Persia centuries later. 1 Putentiallv there was more difference 
between Mencius and the master he acknowledged than between either of 
them and Mih or Chuang-tze, but Mencius did not point to any practical 
outlet for the feelings lie inav have stirred: and public opinion in Chin . 
as soon as it felt the need for an official philosophy, pronounce i itself tin- 
c piivocally in favour of the tamer and less militant teaching of Coniucius. 
1 fisinterested logic-chopping, about the hard and white (to which a 
1 .11 iso! her of the Chao State devoted a se] a rate treatise . the like an . 
unlike and the identity of opposite*, leads to no practical result, moral or 
material. The Chinese comment on Hui-tze and his congeners is : 

:11? . . . Alas for his talent-. lie is 
He investigates all crea- 
makes a noise t i b: iwn an e< ho. 
adow. Alasb'- All that 
i ortion of Western inetaphvsics -and it is surely not small -winch might 
be described in these term-, as the endeavours of a man to rice with his 
own shad >w, was thus iwjc ted in advance, after a brief trial, as of no 
t > the 'hi . ; KiiiL 1 m. h he chief object of the typical sophist is 
•■ to < hi tradict other and g i . : me by defeating ail < imers.' but this is 
"a dark and narrow way:'' C mm. ianists and Taoists agree in desiring a 



'• ( >f what use was he *, . tl 
extr v,._ mtiy energetic and vet lias no - icce 
. but does not i >n< hide in 

He is like a man running a race with ins own 



454- 



THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE HUNDRED SCHOOLS. 89 

doctrine which shall unite and harmonise instead of provoking controversy, 
and they agree also in desiring to embrace ethics and physics alike in 
their theory of the universe. 

Yang and Mill, the founders of two opposite schools, which Mencius 
regarded it as his mission to confute, had a narrower ambition, and their 
leading principles applied only to human conduct. Yang's doctrine, as 
stated by Mencius, is " Each one for himself,'"' l and the reports of his 
sayings (none of his writings exist) represent him as a despondent 
Hedonist and Egoist. According to him the pains of life outweigh its 
pleasures, and the imagined compensations of posthumous renown are a 
delusion. Death comes soon or late to all, and the infamous tyrant who 
is cut short in his sins may have got more enjoyment out of his life than 
the ruler who has spent his days in hardship, toiling for the service of his 
people. " The virtuous and the sage die; the ruffian and the fool also 
die. Alive they were Yao and Shun ; dead they are so much rotten bone. 
Alive the}- were Ke : eh and Chow ; dead they were so much rotten bone. 
'Who could know any difference between their rotten bones ? While alive, 
therefore, let us hasten to make the best of life ; what leisure have we to be 
thinking of anything after death ? " ~ 

It is sometimes argued at the present day, in the "West, that this 
doctrine, " bet us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die," must prevail both 
logically and in practice, wherever the human taste for pleasure is not 
controlled by revealed religion. Confucius himself, as Dr. Legge ob- 
serves, though not irreligious, is emphatically ////-religious, and the same 
remark applies to the mind of the people of whom Confucius is the chosen 
teacher; yet so far from the crude Epicureanism of Vang Choo having 
proved dangerously attractive, he alone has found no champions in pos- 
terity, and has added nothing to the common stock of Chinese ideas, 
except so far as the Taoists have borrowed from him some phrases in 
disparagement of laboured virtue. 

Tiie leading doctrine of Mill seems so entirely edifying that the general 
reader will doubtless share the surprise expressed by Dr. Legge and the 
Prince of Literature, Han-wen-kung, at the zeal with which he is denounced 
by Mencius, and the habit, which seems to have been common, of 
bracketing Vang and Mill together, as the authors of disturbing specula- 
tions. Mih's principle, according to Mencius, is : To love all equally, and 
lie objects to this as ignoring and denying the special regard due to a father 
or a sovereign. But from the summary of his views given by a disciple, 
it seems more as if it were the universality and reciprocity of such affection 
than its equality which is meant to be insisted on. Mih does not wish 
people to love their fathers less, but to love everybody else as well.-' 
In this lie seems to go somewhat beyond Confucius, who explains "'re- 
ciprocity," the one word upon which a rule of practice might be based, by 

1 Works, iii. ii. ix. >j q, vii. i. xxvi. S i. 

- Life and Works of Alciuius, by Dr. Legge U&75), P- 93- 

'■' Work:, iii. ii. ix. S 9. 



go OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

a negative version of the golden rule, not to do to others what we would 
not have them do to ourselves. But Confucius avowedly regarded the 
"loving of relatives''" as the chief field for the exercise of the human 
virtue of benevolence. When questioned concerning the principle of 
returning kindness for ill-treatment, he said, " With what then will you 
recompense kindness ? Recompense injury with justice, 1 and recompense 
kindness with kindness.'"' 

Mih is said to have rebuked Confucius for standing in awe of great men. 
and not blaming the officers of the State where he resided ; and the 
criticisms of the existing state of society, in which Mih indulges, to show 
tiie consequences arising from the want of universal love, might seem 
somewhat offensive to the strictest champions of authority, since it is 
from some points of view disrespectful to suppose that the duties of rulers 
and subjects to each other are identical. Mih holds, with the orthodox 
school, that it is the business of the sages to effect the good government 
of the empire ; they must therefore examine into the causes of disorder, 
and point out, with a view to their removal, whatever is injurious to the 
kingdom. Under this head he includes, " The mutual attack of State or. 
State: the mutual usurpations of family on family ; the mutual robberies 
of man on man ; the want of kindness on the part of the sovereign and 
of loyalty on the part of the minister; the want of tenderness and filial 
duty between father and son ; these, and such as these, are the things 
injurious to the empire." ~ 

All this would be remedied if mutual love and mutual benefits were 
universal, as they might become, Mih supposes, if the doctrine were 
accepted by the superior class, and rewards and punishments enlisted on 
its behalf. It is difficult, he admits, to get everybody to love everybody 
else, but they might be induced to try if their rulers insisted 011 it ; and 
having tried, they would need no further pressure to make them persevere., 
because they would at once feel the advantages of the change. At this 
point Mih lays himself open to condemnation as one of those who re- 
commend virtue for the sake of profit; and, in fact, his argument on 
behalf of mutual benefits and love is distinctly utilitarian; men are to 
love and benefit other people's parents, in order that other people may be 
induced to love and benefit their parents. 

When we consider the history of Confucianism, it cannot be said that 
Mih over-estimated the power of organized public opinion in producing 
uniformity of belief; but he seems to have been at variance with the 
( 'onfucianists, not merely in wishing to denounce ministers and rival 
princes more severelv than the}' thought respectful, but apparently also in 
contemplating an extension of the imperial prerogative, if the sovereign 
once adopted his own svstem. In an essay on ■•'The estimation to be 
attached to concord," he is accused of asserting : '■ What the sovereign 

,'" •.' .' , \:v., \xwi. ?'.;' 2. }. ( f. Plato, A' ■'■//':'/ . i. S 332 ft'. The obvious Greeb 
.',■:';;,:: ■ ■ i ■ I to IVifti'U aiul harm t< > enemies. 

- \h-nciu-, /.// ■•//:' //' ;■ , p. ion. 



THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE HUNDRED SCHOOLS. 91 

approves, all must approve ; what the sovereign condemns, all must con- 
demn ; " and that the rule of truth and right must be accepted from him 
as "Infallible head.'' 1 le lias already illustrated the possibility of induc- 
ing men to become universally affectionate by quoting the unreasonable 
things done and suffered by officers and courtiers to please their ruler ; 
and though we cannot suppose him to mean that universal hate would 
be right if approved by the prince, it is possible that his teaching really 
pointed towards political centralization and the establishment of a less 
conservative and less anarchically democratic doctrine than that of Con- 
fucius. The politics of Hobbes and the ethics of Adam Smith are not 
essentially incompatible. As a utilitarian, he advocated simplicity and 
economy in funeral rites, while the aim of his adversaries was to restore 
and amplify every ancient ceremony; and it is possible that his contempo- 
raries had better reasons than we can now discern for regarding his school 
with mistrust, such as would have been justifiable if its actual tendency 
was to pave the way for Li-sze and the burner of the books. 

The alternative is to believe that there was no really fundamental 
difference between the two schools, and that their hostility was owing to 
the jealousy felt by rival dialecticians for every one using a different 
vocabulary from his own. This opinion seems to have in its favour the 
high authority of Han-yu. who concludes his reconciliation of the two sets 
of opinion : ''The literati and Mih equally approve of Yao and Shun and 
equally condemn Keeh and Chow ; they equally teach the cultivation of 
the person and the rectifying of the heart, reaching on to the good govern- 
ment of the kingdom with all its states and families ; why should they be 
so hostile to each other? In my opinion, the discussions which we have 
are the work of their followers. . . . there is no such contrariety 
between the real doctrine of the two teachers." l 

It only remains for us to consider the doctrines of the philosophers who 
had the audacity not to approve of Yao and Shun, and the ingenuity to 
give profounder reasons for the paradox than those advanced by the 
cynicism of Yang. Confucianism and the Classics agree in conceiving it 
to be the business of the individual to rule his passions and regulate his 
conduct so that his life may be in harmony with the permanent influences 
of heaven and earth, and they agree in considering that the true wisdom 
of the ruler of men lies, not in imposing his own will upon them from 
without, but in enabling them to follow, widi the tranquillity of external 
nature, the satisfaction of their normal impulses and desires. The familiar 
names of Yao and Shun represent to Chinese imagination the realization 
of this ideal. 

At the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. this version of the teaching 
of antiquity had become again, thanks to the exertions of Confucius. 
thoroughly familiar to the generations whose lot was cast in the historic 
period known as the Warring States. The orthodox opinion was that 
the Middle Kingdom had degenerated, for the third time, as it had done 
1 I.v^'jA.s Mencitis, p. 12c. 



<j 2 OWNERSHIP IX CIIIXA. 

before, prior to the restoration of the virtues of antiquity under Thang 
the Successful and the never-to-be-forgotten Wen and Wu. 

There may have been some excuse for Confucius, who had, as it were, 
like Hilkiah, re-discovered the Book of the Law, and might hope to 
inspire a new restorer of the empire: but when centuries had gone by 
without this result doing anything but recede in probability, it was not 
unnatural for men to say, li the doctrine of Vao and Shun presided over 
tiie foundation of i ur State, Vao and Shun must have advised amiss or 
the Commonwealth would not have reached this hopeless plight. But, 
while Vang and Mill diverge from the ancient paths in directions which 
bring them nearer to the erratic individualism of Western Europe, Chuang- 
t/.c and the philosophic Taoism, of which he is tiie ablest exponent, differ 
only from classic orthodoxy in going yet a degree or two beyond the point 
at which this orthodoxy appears to us most characteristically and ex- 
clusively Chinese. 

Chuang-tze represents the orthodoxy of his time as regarding the t; dis- 
cussion of holiness and wisdom and the practice of charity and duty to 
one's neighbour, as the utmost ; tints attainable." 1 The adherents of 
Lao-tze, on the other hand, make it their aim '• not to interfere with the 
natural go idness of the heart of man." '• The people have certain natural 
instincts ; to weave and clothe themselves, t > till and feed themselves. 
These are common to ail humanity and all are agreed thereon. Such 
instincts are called " 1 le.iven-seiit.' And so in the days when natural 
instincts prevailed, men moved quietly and gazed steadily. At that time. 
there were no roads over mountains, nor boats, nor bridges over water. 
All things were produced, each for its own proper sphere. Birds and 
beasts multiplied : trees and shrubs grew up. The former might be led 
by the hand ; you could climb up and peep into the raven's nest. For 
then men dwelt with birds and beasts, and ail creation was (me. There 
'.'.'ere no distinctions of good and bad men. Being ail equally with nit 
knowledge, their virtue could not go astray. Being all equally without 
evil desires, they were in a state of natural integrity, tiie perfection of 
human existence. But when sages a] | eared, tri] ] ing ; ■:■ ] le over charity 
and lettering with duty to one's neighbour, doubt tound it- way into the 
w rid. And then with their gushing over music and fussing over cere- 
monies, the en. giro be' me 'la. del against itself."''- At best "charity 
:,::>'. duty to one's neighbour are as caravanserais : you may stop there one 
i.iAu. . it n t : i' iong, or you will incur reproach. Tiie perfect men of 
- '. 1 t k th .:" way thro ;gh i liarity, st i] uing a night with duty to their 
neighbour, i n their wav to ram: ie through transcendental space. " :i 

S .:.. til ii- i ii vang-ti, the Vellow Lmperor. is represented as the first 
!'. ist, and ; resi ;in c over the it usseau-iike state of nature in which men 
: 'iced bciore runnwe ._■: and; . iw i ;.. .. the gates oi evil. Llsewhcre 
he i- bracketed with \;io and Shun, as causing charity and duty to one's 



THE PHILOSOPHERS OF THE HUNDRED SCHOOLS. 93 

neighbour to interfere with the natural goodness of the heart of man. 
Thus these deluded princes " wore the hair off their legs in endeavouring 
to feed the people, and exhausted their energies in framing laws and 
statutes. Still they did not succeed/' 1 They made it customary "to 
honour the virtuous, advance the able, give precedence to the good and 
useful." But with what result? " If the virtuous are honoured, emulation 
will ensue. If knowledge be fostered, the result will be theft." 2 ' ; It was 
the appearance of sages which caused the appearance of great robbers." 3 
'•'There lias been such a thing as letting mankind alone; there has never 
been such a thing as governing mankind."' l and the abortive attempts that 
have been made towards doing it by way of rewards and punishments, 
have only deprived them of all leisure "for adapting themselves to the 
natural conditions of their existence." " Only bald men use wigs ; only 
sick people want doctors;" and if the State is in a healthy condition, it will 
only want to be let alone."' 

This thesis is insisted upon in a variety of forms, with copious illustra- 
tions ; the wisdom of statesmen is likened to the bootless ingenuity of 
those who secure their valuables in corded trunks, with locks and bolts as 
a precaution against thieves, but are at the mercy of the sturdy villain who 
carries off box and bolts together. But the argument is evidently exagger- 
ated in protest against such teaching as that of a later philosopher, 
Seun-king, who, unlike Mencius, insisted that the nature of man is evil, 
and ' ; self-denial and yielding to others are not to be found in it," 
and that it can only be converted to propriety and righteousness by the 
influence of teachers and laws. 

Notwithstanding the quaintness of the style, and the looseness of the 
reasoning, it is evident that the ideas which Chuang-tze represents are 
those of a rather aged society. It is always a sophisticated age that 
believes in the prehistoric bliss of a state of nature : the last word of philo- 
sophy is generally a doubt as to the possibility or the value of philosophic 
certainty: religions begin by inculcating moral duties, and end by de- 
nouncing the worthlessness of mere morality, and the spirit of antinomian 
quietism flourishes when the law and morality of a period have visibly 
broken down. In the acre of the Warring States, robbers of every degree 
abounded, princes, ministers and heads of clans robbed one another, and 
private adventurers who adopted the same career in some cases obtained a 
renown co-extensive with the empire. At the self-same time, philosophers 
and philosophic schools were multiplied, and sages sprang up everywhere, 
and the people crowded after them excitedly. If the sages did not produce 
the robbers, the robbers must have produced the sages, unless both alike 
were the fruit of a general disregard of Tao. 

Lao-tze teaches that perfection does not consist in charity and duty to 
one's neighbour, but in yielding to the natural conditions of tilings. 
•" Therefore the truly great man. although he does not injure others, does 

! Ckuan S -!zit, p. 123. - lb., p. zy '. ■• lb., p. 113. * /•'., P- "9- 

6 It\, p. i;j. ° lb., p. 77. He was in uiiice 271-20 1 n.c. 



94 



OWNERSHIP J.Y CHINA. 



not credit himself with charity and mercy/' 1 He dues not seek wealth, 
nor yet praise for disregarding it : perfect wisdom and virtue are spon- 
taneous, easy, and unmeritorious : their crowning fruit is inaction and 
indifference, the former so far as the man himself, and the latter so far as 

his relation to external objects is concerned. Vice is not represented as 
good, or virtue as evil j but laborious virtue is proved to be a mistake, 
because the virtue of sages and sovereigns lias not availed to keep the 
world at peace. It is not a virtue, according to Chinese philosophers, to 
labour in vain, and the Taoists, having satisfied themselves that action 
modelled upon the examples of Yao and Shun was socially unfruitful, pro- 
ceeded to include abstention from such vain efforts in their ideal of personal 
moralitv. Men have the same duty to the State as to their own body, and 
die weariness which comes of much serving is an offence against the 
hitter. •"Let there be absolute repose, and absolute purity; do not 
wearv vour body, nor disturb your vitality, and you will live for ever. . . . 
Cherish and preserve your own person, and ail the rest will prosper of 



The original idea of philosophic Taoism was no doubt that to apprehend 
all truth it was necessary to cultivate a state ot intellectual passivity, in 
which the superficial distinctions between being and not-being disappear. 
but the disappearance of these distinctions has a further result : for if Xot- 
bein^ is the same as Heine', why should not inaction produce the same 
results as action, or rather, since inaction is the higher and purer state, 
results much greater and more valuable ? The Classics themselves 
recognise the idea of immaterial influences radiating from the person of the 
virtuous sovereign, and the occult action attributed to the possessors of 
Tao is scarcely more mysterious than that ; but while the Confucianists 
practically contemplate only an imitative or contagious virtue, among those 
exposed to the harmonising and instructive influence of a Yao or Shun, the 
Taoists. having lost hold of the limitations of sublunary experience, see 
no reason why the inactive master ot the "Way should not remove moun- 
tains and live for ever, as well as ramble at pleasure m transcendental 
space. 

Chuanc-t/.e himself does not indulge in much more magical formuke 
than Heeel, and ids anarchism is only a degree more radical than that ot 
p lC -;h i )-Kinu. He looks upon hie and death as immaterial, because : 
] : p in d e course of nature, and neither affect tiie eternal essences of 
things. Nature, as the great parent, comes in for some of the filial piety 
which in y'./.:.°. is independent of special gratitude for any benefited ais 
, lV cr and ; >\ the first great git ts ot lite and nurture. A son must ^o where 
' ; s • rent- ' : i him. and to a philosopher there is nothing terrible in the idea 
• n ) t - p> tleui and bon - will 1 e scattered over the lair surface of the world. 
t,) reaMiear in iresh combinations. " 1 ur those who accept the pheno- 
menon of birth and d at . in this sense, lamentation and sorrow have no 
jdace " even at tiie death of friends: and the desire li to prolong life, and 

; </:.: ;::,-.'o.. ; , 204. - /.'., p. 127. 



THE PHILOSOPHERS OF PJLE HUNDRED SCHOOLS. 



91 



to do away with one's end," incurs the condemnation due to one who 

misunderstands his destiny. 1 

The later TaoLsts, who practise legerdemain and seek for elixirs of 
immortality, grossly misunderstood the doctrine of their masters;- out 
abstract philosophy is not the forte of the Chinese, and it is easy to see- 
now the doctrine, that mind is superior to ail the restraints imposed by 
phenomenal existence, and that the preservation of the body is at once a 
duty imposed by nature and proof of conformity therewith, — should lend 
itself to the corrupt reading which lias enjoyed a vogue equal in duration if 
not in extent to that of the established orthodoxy. 

Philosophic Taoism is cultivated now mainly by the literati who do not 
take office, or by officials who have retired ; and as tiie only criticism of any 
weight which can be directed against orthodox Confucianism proceeds from 
this quarter, it is notable that the critics plead always for less, not different 
government, and undervalue the charms of office instead of competing 
for it. The opinion of the school on this subject was epigrammatically 
expressed by Chuang-t/.e. when the prince of Ch'u sent two high officials to 
invite him to undertake the administration of the State. He was fish- 
ing when they reached him, and, without turning his head, said to the 
envoys: '' Y have heard that in Ch'u there is a sacred tortoise which has 
been dead now some 3.000 years, and that the prince keeps this tortoise 
carefully enclosed in a chest on the altar of his ancestral temple. Now 
would this tortoise rather be dead and have its remains venerated, or be 
alive and wagging its tail in the mud ? " " It would rather be alive." re- 
plied the two officials, '"and wagging its tail in the mud.''' "Begone," 
cried Chuang-tze : '"I too will wag my tail in the mud." ;; 

On the whole, the criticism, assigned to Confucius by tiiis author him- 
self, can hardly be improved upon. "These men," he said, "travel be- 
yond the rule of life. I travel within it: consequently our paths do not 
neet." { China has two ideal characters — the sage or scholar in office, who 
•• turns night into day in his endeavours to compass the best ends," and 
the sage or scholar in retirement. Confucius wishes the sage to be em- 
1 loved, though admitting tiiat it maybe Ids duty to retire if debarred from 
executing his virtuous intentions. The Taoists, on the other hand, see in 
this daily and nightly toil itself a divergence from the true way, and regard 
tiie retired scholar as having chosen the better part. 

Buddhism as a religious philosophy, appealed to the same class of minds 
as Taoism, and its greater vogue in China since its introduction is only 
iwing to tiie fact that it provides for the " retirement " of persons who are 
neither scholars nor sages, buddhism, like Confucianism, has something 

: /' . my Chine Scrap-Boo!:. V. II. Hal four (1SS71, p. So. Lieh-Ue, the 

author of this sentiment, was a disciple of Lao-tze, and flourished :ir:. 400 11. r. 

- "How ■■ . ■■.'.■:: is it." exclaimed Yen-t/.u, "that from all nti piity 1 th 1 - ! ■ •■ 
minion lot of men ! It is rest for the virtuous and a hidin^-away of the had.' /'. 
!>. ( )2. Cf. in the Egyptian ritual the conclusion ol an add: -s to iIk lead : " Thy ex- 
istence is at res - .." 

3 Chuoi^-tzu. p. 217. 4 /-'., p. S4. 



9 6 OWNERSHIP IX CIIIXA. 

for all classes, but it provides no formula for practical every-day life : and 
as the Chinese, like their national teacher, are practical and positive rather 
than, devout, all their serious interests are regulated by Confucius, and only 
the idle after-beliefs, superstition pure and simple is left for Buddha. 

The two social ideals of Chinese thinkers are anarchy with the iiis of 
nature tempered to the masses by imperial benevolence, and anarchy with 
the ills of nature tempered to the wise by philosophic quietism. And the 
course of Chinese history for more than 2, ceo years has been so much in- 
fluenced, positively and negatively, by this fact, that it can hardly be passed 
over in the most summarv account of the nation. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE US UK PA TfON OF T'SfN AND THE BURNING OF THE BOOKS. 

The fall of the Empire, as distinct from that of the State of Chow, practi- 
cally dates from the fall of Tsao and Wu (two of the States founded some 
six centuries and a half before by King Wu) in 485, an event which imme- 
diately preceded the regime of the Warring States. This period (480-221 
11. c.) begins just two years before the death of Confucius, and the co- 
existence of political and philosophic discord which characterized it was a 
matter of general observation. The official history of the first Han Dynasty 
observes : " Amid the disorder and collision of the Warring States, truth 
and falsehood were still more in a state of warfare, and a sad confusion 
marked the words of the various scholars." l 

The great agent in the revolution which threatened to destroy the in- 
fluence of the literary class and the whole classic literature, was the State 
of T'sin, which included virtually all the settled part of China west of the 
State of Chow, and the eastern reach of the Yellow River in its great bend, 
while the borders of Chow itself were narrowed by grants made to T'sin of 
Sue oldest possessions of the ruling house. This cession encouraged the 
prince to commit the tentative usurpation of offering a sacrifice, to Heaven 
with imperial ceremonies and establishing a bureau of state historians. 
But it was not till the first half of the 4th century i:.c. that T'sin became 
a formidable candidate for the reversion of the empire. From the 8th 
century onward the north and western States had been disturbed at in- 
tervals by incursions of the Tatars. The troops of T'sin, in consequence 
of their position on the frontier, thus became practised in war, and the 
State came to be regarded by all the neighbouring princes as the most 
desirable of allies and the most dangerous of foes. 

The reign of Heaou (360 336 u.c), whose son and successor t ink the 
title of king, was memorable for other innovations, which ended by in- 
troducing private ownership of land and abolishing the Chow system o\ 
common fields. Apparently the revenue of T'sin was found to be in- 
sufficient as the power and ambition of its rulers grew. The State was 
large, but less populous than its neighbours, and wide tracts of land there 
tore remained uncultivated between the village enclosures. Chan,; vang, 
the duke's minister and adviser, whose name deserves to be recorded, since 
China owes to him her first experience of an agrarian difficulty, was an 
able and original, if unscrupulous statesman ; and he conceived the idea ot 

1 Legge's Confucius (6th Ed.), vol. i. p. 3. 
VOU. II. — P. C. 97 h 



9 S OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

increasing the fighting population of the State, by abolishing the Chow 
svsteni of grouping the village households for purposes of cultivation 
and taxation, while retaining the corresponding arrangement for military 
levies. 1 

Separate ways were made between the homestead.-, and each plot was 
taxed separately. According to some authorities the taxes were raised <o 
as to amount to one-third of the whole produce, but the change seems to 
have been more radical than a mere increase of taxation, and it is pro- 
. le that the innovation really consisted in the substitution of a fixed 
and uniform contribution for a proportion of the varying annual crop. 
Such a change has always been found profitable by financiers and burden- 
s me by the agricultural masses, and it is certain that the measures taken 
were unpopular, and gave rise to disturbances which called for severe 
repression. 

As an attraction to settlers from other States, land was ceded for the 
first time in absolute ownership : vacant lands were sold in freehold, and 
both these classes were freely saleable, which the village allotments never 
had been. With increase of population, of course inequality and distress 
began; war impoverished seme and enriched others, and after a time we 
find a Chinese author lamenting: "The owner of the land is one. but 
those who cultivate it are ten." '-' Another complaint to the same effect 
was that T'sin "• neglected the fields and taxed men;" '■' the taxes on persons 
being largely increased!, while the State ceased to provide all its subjects 
with lands out of which they could both live and pay the ordinary bar, 1 
tax. The holders of large estates brought the poorer cultivators int n a 
state of dependence by paying the personal tax for them, and thus assum- 
ing towards them the place of the State and the rights of a ] olitical 
superior : a transaction which has far more to go with the origin of rent 
than the competition i f cultivators tor land of a superior quality, but 
which in China has always been discouraged instead of favoured by the 
laws.' 1 

In I )e Manila's account of the innovations of Kong-sun-yang, as he calls 
him. he is said to have grouped the families by fives and tens for the 

.]/ ■ / <tr 'a ■'.*-•/." '.* A !a ' c/rie'ie territorial en Chine e. ' euie .' 
M. lvi. 11 7. .-/.-.. }me -er., vol. vi. pp. 2^-336. T 

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THE USURPATION OF T'SIN. 99 

maintenance of order by mutual responsibility ; idleness was punished, and 
skilled artisans were exempted from the great corvees. The tutor of the 
heir apparent was put to death when the latter joined the party of mal- 
contents. The separation of families was forbidden during the father's 
lifetime, and scattered families were brought together and settled in town- 
ships, so that, according to this version, die tendency of his measures was 
to restore rather than to abrogate the system of ('how. It was said at 
this time that while T'sin possessed a fifth of the territory of the empire, 
it only possessed a tenth part of the troops, and the prince was accordingly 
urged by his admirers to encourage the growth of population, and to avoid 
the dangerous hostility of neighbouring States by extending his possessions 
only towards the west at the expense of the barbarians. 

De Mailla's original is so late that his authority cannot over-ride that of 
any earlier texts, and, in fact, the policy here attributed to Chang-Yang 
bears a suspicious resemblance to that of a less notorious worthy. The 
Tso Chuen records a successful attempt made in the 6th century B.C., in 
the small State of Ching, to restore the system of common fields, and, 
though at iirst the people murmured at having " to count their fields and 
villages by fives, and accept a mutual responsibility," within three years 
the burden of the popular songs was changed, and they hailed the inno- 
vating minister as their own and their children's benefactor. 1 This ap- 
pears to have been the last of the thoroughly popular restorations of the 
Tsing system, though it is difficult to tell how far the unpopularity of 
Wang Mang '' was due to his attack on private property, and how far to 
his other measures. But from the days of the T'sin innovations onwards 
it seems to have been usual for those politicians who aimed at the 
aggrandisement of the central authority to disguise their encroachments 
by a professed desire to restore the ancient forms of communistic agri- 
culture.''' The distrust, which seems to have been generally felt towards 
such professions, rested, so far as we can judge, upon a correct impression 
that local self-government was a better protection to the proprietary rights 
of individuals and communities than any extension of the imperial 
authority, which was never likely in practice to stop short at enforcing the 
joint enjoyment and use of village lands. 

Early records of primitive custom sometimes omit to mention just those 
points which are of most importance, and so are treated as too notorious 
to need description. And this is probably the reason why. as already 
observed, there is nothing in the Chow I.i concerning any redistribution 
of the village lands at intervals, in the manner recognised by most archaic 
systems of village ownership. 

1 Legge, C.C., v. pt. ii. p. 557. 

" 1 'ide t '■■'.', p. 116. 

" The la»t experiment of the kind was made as recently as 1724. when a colony of 
tifty Mantchus, fifteen Mongols, and fifteen Chinese was established in accordance 
with the " Rites of Chow." It was given up at the I eginning of the next reign in 
1730. but its failure or aban lemment of course pi - iiing as 1 the m Tits 

svstcm, which demands, above everything, a thoroughly horn 'gene ais population. 



100 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

According to Ma-twan-lin, under the first three dynasties, all lands 
belonged to the State, hut not to the Emperor, whose authority over the 
feudal princes was like theirs over the cultivators on their appanages. The 
T'sin were the first to make one man master of everything, " but when 
they did away with the ancient redivisions, and abandoned the ownership 
of land to the people, so as to form a divisible inheritance, they gave 
what they had no right to give, and took what they had no right to take." 
In other words, the clan or primitive community was conceived as having 
a title to the land it occupied, superior to that of the sovereign or any 
individual tenant of his. but Ma-twan-lin obviously regards the joint 
ownership, subject to rt distribution, of the village lands as the essential 
ire of the Chow system ; and he writes as if this feature had survived, 
as it easily might, the more conventional nine-square division of the Tsing. 

With the institution of private property in land, the State ceased on the 
one hand to consider itself responsible for providing each individual with 
land enough to live by: and at the same time it ceased to regulate its de- 
mands upon the taxpayer by his known circumstances and ability. From 
the days of Yu the land was divided into nine classes, which were taxed 
in proportion to their fertility; but T'sin ''neglected the fields and taxed 
men," making the same demands upon all to the ruin of the poorest. 

We cannot pretend to trace in detail either the course or the conse- 
quences of this economic revolution. It was the first example of an 
experiment made more than once in the future, an attempt to combine 
political absolutism with economic individualism, or in other words to 
subvert at once the two mainstays of social life and morals in China. The 
heroes of these adventures have never won the final victory, which carries 
1; the light to tell their own story to posterity; but the judgment 
due to the unsuccessful revolutionaries is implied in that passed upon the 
system which thev failed to subvert : and those who value what survives 
in modern China from the ritual of ('now will join in the orthodox con- 
demnation of the Emperor, who, in the year 255 n.c, founded the famous, 
ived, d\ ua-tv of T'sin. 

'1 he final 1 :. -t w is . ffei ted almost without a blow : but as usual, the 

date given : 1 the ai cession of the dvnastv somewhat anticipates the full 

ap; in ipriatiou of all il ] iren igatives, and it was not till 321 \\x. that a 

new beginning was tr-tointe-i for the vear, and black chosen as the 

>ur. ! - in i ....■.:.• :. t : em] ier< >r fain ms as bail' ier ot 

the (heat W 1 and : r of 1 1 '.-. was said to be the son of a 

t. v. se slave the re:_ning prince carried off when cnct'uitc ; and 

■ tradition represents the consensus among historians to disparage the 

K . itimin y > a hi- 1 retell- 

' : dvi ■ is best known tor the destruction 

: . -:. : for the number of its in is, eight of 

wl ' h have keen pr er\ id I'lie fir.it of them has been attributed by 



THE USURPATION OF TSIN. 101 

Chinese scholars, whom M. Chavannes follows, to the King of T'sin, reign- 
ing 327-294 n.c. Its authenticity is not quite unimpeachable, hut tiie 
balance of opinion is in its favour. It denounces the king of Chow for 
his improprieties, cruelty, and impiety, and represents T'sin as only defend- 
ing itself and its altars against unjustifiable agressions. A suspicious 
phrase is, "He came to take possession of my rampart and my new 
ditch ; " but it is possible that a wall against Chow was begun by an 
ancestor of the emperor, who completed the wall against the outer 
barbarians. 

The second inscription, by Tsin-chi-hwang-ti himself, speaks of his 
ordering the measures and standards of length and capacity to be made 
uniform. It is dated the 26th year of ins reign, when he had "united all 
the earth in Ins hand, so that the lords and the black heads enjoyed great 
tranquillity." 

The third inscription disappeared in the icth century a.d., but was 
engraved on stone by a scholar, who had received a cast of it from his 
teacher. The remaining inscriptions, by the son and successor of the 
founder of the dynasty, and by his officers in his praise, are preserved by 
Ssema-tsien. They are diffusely eulogistic, and suggest that the flattering 
premier, Le Sze, had a hand in their composition. If the black heads 
had been as virtuous and prosperous as the inscriptions declare, it would 
hardly have been necessary to tell them so at such length. 

The fall of T'sin was caused, in the belief of posterity, by ten follies, 
among which the erection of the Great Wall was counted. But parts of it 
had been erected by different States before Hwang-ti's accession, and if he 
had given no other offence to the prejudices or principles of his subjects, it 
is not probable that he would have been condemned merely for completing 
and connecting the defensive works already begun, the need of which, as 
already observed, had been specially felt in his own State. 

The first, though by no means the last, of his unpopular innovations was 
the extension of the new agrarian system of T'sin to the rest of the empire. 
It will be remembered that the founders of the Shang and Chow dynasties 
both came forward, not as destroyers or innovators, but as restorers of die 
good old usages of the past, which had fallen into neglect in the degene- 
rate hands of the last kings. There was probably no constitutional 
principle better known to the mass of black-haired politicians than those 
regulating a change of dynasty. That T'sin should take the empire was 
one thing, that it should impose its own new laws was another, and there 
can be no doubt that every student of Chung and Mang 1 who had learnt 
to reverence the divine memory of the Duke of Chow, would be pre] 
to denounce as sacrilegious any proposal to abolish the common fields, the 

nlet enclosures, with their virtuous ditches, and the timed 
system of moderate tithing. What had provoked discontent, even among 
the unlettered and scattered population of T'sin, was likely to rouse 
rel elliuii elsewhere ; and while the scholars would be as usual on the side 

1 CI in::-! ■ :. ' M :.._■•-.•• ' ' - ' ' -• - ' '■• ■ 



io2 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

of the populace, the nobles and princes would not be on the side of the 
Crown : for ever}' Suite had the memory of some injury or affront to redress, 
to say nothing of the humiliation inflicted on all the princes, who found 
themselves deprived of their virtual independence by the restoration of a 
central authority. 

Bearing these facts in mind, we shall be able to understand the pro- 
ceedings of the great council held in the year 212 B.C., as reported by the 
historian. Ssema-tsien, a century later, and translated by Dr. Legge in 
the prolegomena to the first volume of his invaluable edition of the Chinese 
Classics. In the eighth year after his recognition as emperor, and the 
thirty-fourth of his reign as king of T'sin, Chi-hwang-ti gave a feast to the 
--event)- great scholars of the empire, whose official position very likely 
gave the suggestion of the still famous Haniin College, founded at the 
beginning of the Tang Dynasty. The emperor was of course concerned to 
conciliate these potentates, and Chinese usage warranted him in expecting 
more or less extravagant compliments from his guests. 

The first to speak was one of his chief ministers, who, after giving a 
glowing picture of the happy tranquillity of the whole empire, concluded : 
"This condition of tilings will be transmitted for 10,000 generations. 
Prom the highest antiquity there has been no one in awful virtue like your 
majesty." The emperor was pleased with this flattery, but one of the 
great scholars, a native of Tse — the latest and most formidable of the 
rivals of T'sin — advanced and said: " The sovereigns of Yin and Chow, 
for more than a thousand years, invested their sons and younger brothers, 
and meritorious ministers, with domains and rule, and could thus depend 
upon them for support and aid ; that 1 have heard. But now your 
majesty is in possession of all within the four seas, and your sons ami 
younger brothers are nothing but private individuals. . . . Without 
the support (of relatives), where will you find the aid which, you may 
require? That a state of things not modelled from the lessons of 
antiquity can long continue : — that is what 1 have not heard. Tsing (the 
former speaker) is now showing himself to be a flatterer, who increases the 
errors ot your majesty, and not a loyal minister." 

Thi ' m here raised was not new. The creation in the 12th 

century n.c. of hereditary , ; mages, held by branches of the ruling house, 
was an innovation, to which the dynasty of Chow was supposed to have 
' ■ . for much of its success, though it is sufficiently obvious now 
the t! . ot the Warring States were d\\^ to the resulting multipli- 

cation ot feudal princes. In consequence of a palace plot by a step- 
ther, th was taken in Tsin, at the beginning of the ;th century 

i a .. that they \vi din i n in: tin in the State any of the sons ot their 
marquises : , : ! :: m that time, f r nearly a centurv, aci ording to the Tso 
1 . . ". ■"thei wei in it which were branches ot the ruling 

The < ns uent im nveniences are not described, but we are 
told tiiat a 1 ... -■ .I2,h t to avoid them by giving offices ol various 

: ' ;■...'!< v, ■■■:-. ( '. C. v. p. 291. 



THE USURPATION OF T'SIN. 103 

degrees to the sons of his ministers, so as to create an artificial set of 
branch families. The end of this State, however, did not form an inviting 
precedent, for after figuring as one of the presiding States and a rival of 
T'sin, Tsoo, and Tse, about 400 r.c, Tsin had been broken up into three 
marquisates and lapsed into insignificance. Under these circumstances, 
it is not surprising that politicians, of what we may call the new Imperialist 
School, suspected the provincial scholars of invoking the authority of the 
ancients, to weaken the imperial power, by restoring the disorganization 
and turbulence of the period of feudalism. 

The emperor, we are told, invited others of the assembly to express their 
opinions, upon which the premier, Le Sze. spoke as follows: "The five 
emperors were not one the double of the other, nor did the three dynasties 
accept one another's ways. Each had a peculiar system of government, 
not for the sake of the contrariety, but as being required by the changed 
times. Xow, your .Majesty has laid the foundations of imperial sway, so 
that it will last for io.oco generations. This is indeed beyond what a 
stupid scholar can understand. And moreover, Yue only talks of things 
belonging to the three dynasties which are not fit to be models to you. 
At other times, when the princes were all striving together, they en- 
deavoured to gather the wandering scholars about them; but now the 
empire is in a stable condition, and laws and ordinances issue from one. 
Let those of the people who abide in their homes give their strength to 
the toils of husbandry, and those who become scholars should study the 
various laws and prohibitions. Instead of doing this, however, the 
scholars do not learn what belongs to the present day. but study antiquity. 
They go on to condemn the present time, leading the masses of the 
people astray and to disorder. 

"At the risk of my life, I, the prime minister, say. — Formerly when the 
empire was disunited and disturbed there was no one who could give 
unity to it. The princes therefore stood up together; constant references 
were made to antiquity to the injury of the present state: baseless state- 
ments were dressed up to confound what was real, and men made a boast 
of their own peculiar learning to condemn what their rulers appointed. 
And now when your Majesty has consolidated the empire, and distinguish- 
ing black from white has constituted it a stable unity, they still honour their 
peculiar learning and combine together; they teach men what is contrary 
to your laws. When they hear that an ordinance has been issued, every 
one sets to discussing it with his learning; in the court the}' are dissatis- 
fie 1 in heart : out of it they keep talking in the streets. While they m 
a pretence of vaunting their master, they consider it fine to have ex 
ordinary views of their own. and so they lead on the people to be guilt}" or 
muring and evil speaking. If these things are not prohibited, your 
sty's authority will decline and parties will be formed. The best way 
is to prohibit them. I pray that all the records in charge of the historio- 
graphers be burned, excepting those of T'sin; that with the exception ot 
those officers belonging to the Board of Great Scholars, all throughout the 



ic 4 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

e:i pire who presume to keep copies of the Shi-King, or of the Shoo-King, 
or of the books of the hundred schools, be required to go with them to 
the officers in charge of the several districts and burn them; that all who 
may dare to speak together about the Shi and the Shoo be put to death, 
and their bodies exposed in the market place; that those who make 
mention of the past so as to blame the present, be put to death along with 
their relatives : that officers who shall know of the violation of those rules 
and not inform against the offenders, be held equally guilty with them: 
and that whoever shall not have burned their books within thirty days 
after the issuing of the ordinance, be branded and set to labour on the wall 
for four years. The only books which should be spared are those on 
medicine, divination, and husbandry. Whoever wants to learn the laws 
may go to the magistrates and learn of them/'' The imperial decision was 
" Ap; roved. - '' 

As the posses-ion of a common writing and a common literature has 
always been one of the strongest influences at work in maintaining the 
unity of die Chinese Empire, it is carious that this attack upon letters 
and the literati should haxc been made in the interests of centralization. 
bur the same minister who is made answerable for the burning of the 
i ks addressed another memorial to the emperor, when if was proposed 
to banish all natives of other States, in which he urged the importance 
of employing all the talent- of the empire. So that it is probable that 
after all his ambition was. rather to substitute a hierarchy of practical 
st itesmen for the arrogant and unworldly students of antiquity, than to do 
iway with the peculiarly Chinese notion of absolute government, su 
the :. Ivice of intelligent ministers. 

The ( ondemned books included the popular 'poetry and sacred lit irgi :s 
a- well a- the law-, the legends, and the history of antiquity. So far as 
Confucius car. be said to have founded a religion it was the religion ot 
. tters and ot' prietv. and this religion was to be outraged by a new Inqui- 
sition, Martyrs were not wanting. The persecution cannot haver ged 
for more th three vears. but on one occasion 46c lars were bun 1 

live 1 r i vim: the 1 rbi dden bd iks in their p issessi in. and the emperor's 
rld'-st s >n. who had ventured to intercede for them, was banished to the 
(irea! \V; 1. Three years after the passing of the edict the emperor died, 
and his successor, after a troubled reign of another three years, a - 
1 ■ 1 bv the unlearned bat goo 1-n itured - i iter 1 : 1 mine \vh 1 
)\ :: stv, and t 1 ik the title 1 : Km; er r, 201 1 

:' and imarj u Lenta; iv ■ : he came 
air \ oke of TVm : aii 1 _■ ... ws 1 a the late 
■ i. an I in t;i -ir pi ace three pi nalfies alone imposed. - 
hate punishment for as.-aait and thett. 
ail of the ] ■'. -a • iting b\ nasty were n< a 
- oi t..e -a: a ..... _ liter ti those 1 

bad i ulers. The 
- ' ' r v, h - : jd high in . . - 



1 sty, a: 


■ • 


a. on w 




m ti; : 




.and i: 

d prop 


1 t 


n . a , , 


mi; 


r 1 ' j t'n 





THE USURPATION OF T'SIN. 105 

favour, to restore the ancient books. " What do I want of year books? " 
he asked with some scorn. ,: I have conquered the empire on horseback and 
made myself your master without any help from Shoo or Shi. : ' To which 
of course it was replied, that the empire may be conquered from the back 
of a horse, but that it must be preserved and administered by the help of 
wisdom and justice, as the disasters of the house of T'sin abundantly 
showed. The temporary misunderstanding which had led to the scholars 
appearing as the champions of feudalism was cleared up, and they began 
again to take the position which they regarded as their due, as advisers 
and spiritual auxiliaries of the strongest depository of temporal power. 

( )ne traditional classification gave as the four sources of disorder <; equal 
queens" (or the concubine put on a level with the first wife), "equal sons''' 
(younger or halt-brothers put on a level with the heir), " two governments" 
{i.e. favourites on a level with ministers), and '" equal cities/' ' or provincial 
towns allowed to rival the capital. The orthodox doctrine was distinctly 
in favour of a strong. central government, and though it was also in favour 
of a benevolent government, the Han Dynasty soon came to understand 
that they could afford not to oppress the masses of the people, if they 
could succeed in abolishing the feudal aristocracy and establish themselves 
as its only heir. The soldierly emperor paid a solemn visit to the grave 
of Confucius and rendered imperial honours to his memory (195 i:.c. , 
"which had never been done before;" he employed scholars to prepare 
official treatises on government, music, tactics, and the like, and his 
successors not only had the ancient texts restored, edited and commen- 
tated by the learned, but also listened favourably to the advice of scholars, 
who wished to have ail doctrines save those of Confucius proscribed, and 
to have the doors of office closed against all who had not passed through 
the schools established for the study of orthodox learning. 

The T'sin Dynasty was allowed to bear all the odium of the change from 
a feudal to a centralized government, but the Han emperors surrendered 
none of the ground gained by their unpopular predecessor. They made 
no attempt to restore the feudal system, the destruction of which was 
counted among the ten great follies of the fallen dynasty. On the contrary. 
they were on their guard against the growth of a new aristocracy of royal 
kinsfolk, and when the great emperor Wu-ti was warned that many princes 
of the imperial house held territories of 1,000 li in extent, he issued an 
edict (128 e.g.), o mpelling all the feudal nobles to divide half their domain.-, 
e inally amongst their younger sons, leaving only the other half to the 
eldest, whose portion would be again subdivided in the next generation. 

It is more difficult to estimate the effects of another of the ten follies. 
the erection of the Great Wall of China ; but it is remarkable to rind ;'..- 
once admired contribution to the wonders of the world, uniformly t . 
demned by native writers as a costly and injurious blunder. U r >i 
Richthofen has suggested that the strength of this barrier contributed 
indirectly to the fall of Rome ; that the Tatar hordes which, for centuries 

1 ' \C, vul, v. p. 71, 



io6 OWNER Sill J' IN CHINA. 

had been seeking an outlet on the east, finding their path blocked in that 
direction, turned their faces westward, and gave the first impetus to the fall 
of that human avalanche, which afterwards swept like a Hooded mountain 
torrent over Europe. 1 There is something fascinating in the hypothesis 
which establishes an unconscious link between the histories of the greatest 
empires of the East and West : and there can be little doubt that the 
military revival of the Chinese empire was one of the causes which contri- 
buted to make the line of least resistance to barbarian invasion point 
Romewanls. 

But the disapprobation with which serious Chinese politicians always 
regarded the Great Wall was not based merely on prejudice against its 
maker, nor entirely upon the useless and oppressive expenditure connected 
with it; and the safety of the Chinese border province after its erection 
was not believed to be owing to its protection. The safety of the frontier 
depended on the existence behind it of a force strong enough to take the 
offensive against an insolent neighbour, and the early Han emperors used 
the wall rather as a base for their own campaigns in Central Asia than as 
a rampart behind which to shelter themselves from attack. The feeling ot 
the historians in regard to frontier defences is like that concerning the 
varying preferences of successive emperors for the Western or the Eastern 
court, as the cities of Si-ngan-iu and Loyang (the modern Honan-fu) are 
respectively called. Loyang means luxury and love of peace in the heart 
of the kingdom, and probable encroachments from the neglected enemy on 
the borders. Si-ngan-fu means a strong government, and a ruler prepared 
in his own person to stand between the peace-loving masses and the pre- 
sumption of barbarians beyond the pale. 

Something of the same idea no doubt underlies the d'.ctum of the Ei Ivi :~ 
".Many ramparts in the country round and near (its capital city), are a 
disgrace to its high ministers and great officers." With slight variation the 
experience of Chow repeated itself so often in the revolving centuries that 
it became an historical commonplace at last that the safety of a province 
depended on the army, or the general, and not upon the wall. '1 lie decay 
of a dynasty was always at hand, when the emperor sought ease and luxury 
in the centre or southern provinces, instead of heading campaigns himself 
beyond the frontier, or giving peace to the frontier provinces by his 
vicinity. 

In general, it may be doubted whether the usurpation of T'sin, and the 
accession of the Hans, did not together do more to restore the monarchy 
to the position it occupied under the first kings of Chow than to alter or 
revolutionize t al constitution. T'sin-chi-hwang-ti certainly aimed 

at reviving the ; n< ient Empire in fact and name, and die pertormance ot 
•//gaud r/w ceremonies, with which lie vainly son-lit to consolidate 

; dynast}', was evidently regarded as meritorious, when etlected by the 

ror Wu in mo i:.c. The correct form of these ceremonies was not 

c;ir-y to ascertain, owing to their being normally repeated only alter an 

1 Chin i, i. p. 445. '-' S.Jh, xwii. D2. 



THE USURPATION OF T'SIN. :o 7 

interval of centuries. The account of them by Ssema-tsien no doubt em- 
bodies all that was ascertainable by the learning of his age. For the fotig 
ceremony the Emperor ascends a high hill towards the east, raises a mound 
upon it. invokes the gods, and adjures them to favour the Hundred 
Families. Then he descends ; a space is levelled on some adjoining hill, 
and there he invokes the gods of earth, and this completes the clian 
ceremony, the idea clearly being to worship heaven upon a site naturally 
and artificially raised, and earth upon one artificially levelled. 

Han-wu-ti chose an auspicious time for his celebration ; two years 
before (112 B.C.), he passed by Loyang, and granted thirty // of ground 
and the title of Prince of Chow, to a representative of the Chow Dynasty, 
to enable him to accomplish the sacrifices to his ancestors ; x and for a 
Chinese ruler to deal in this way with his predecessors is always an indica- 
tion that the " Appointment of Heaven " has declared unequivocally in his 
favour. After the important ceremony, 8 the emperor bestowed an ox and 
ten measures of wine on every group of 100 hearths, while orphans, widows, 
and octogenarians received a piece of silk and cloth. The places through 
which he had passed were also exempted from corvees, and those in the 
neighbourhood of the place of sacrifice from all taxes, to make up for the 
expenses thrown on them by the royal progress. A general amnesty was 
also proclaimed, and all charges which had been pending for two years or 
longer were to be dropped. 

1 Joum. Pel: Or. Soc, iii, p. 50. "- /{>., p. bo, 



CHAPTER X. 
REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. 
(206 B.C.-229 A.D.) 

Tin-: disorders which had preceded the rise of the Han Dynasty had im- 
poverished all classes, except the speculative traders, whose nets generally 
secure the largest haul when cast into the troubled waters of a long war. 
Prosperity was long in returning. The able-bodied men had been taken 
off to the army, the old and Noting were employed in carrying food; the 
rich drove in bullock-carts for chariots, and even the emperor could not 
afford a team ot horses to match. Corn was scarce, and monopolists drove 
up prices, holding out for a rise till rice was 3:/. a pound and famine was 
in sight. 

The traders, who alone had prospered during the war, were held answer- 
able by the impoverished people tor their sufferings, and the soldier 
Kmperor found it popular as well as convenient to levy additional taxes 
upon this class in order to keep them down, while they were also forbidden 
to wear silk, or drive in carriages : and when a t\-\\- years later, these 
restrictions were withdrawn, the sons ot traders were still disqualified from 
holding official rank. 1 At the same time money was raised by selling 
titles of honour and rank to rich persons willing to contribute grain for 
the public service, while rich criminals were allowed to commute their 
penalties for a tine. by this means the burdens of the cultivators were 
relieved - > that the peasants no longer had to sell their crops at half va 
or to borrow money at usury, or to sell their children or the ancestral home- 
stead to swcil the gains of unprofitable idlers. 

With the return of peace abundance reigned again. Village elders ate 
meat and drank wii is in the golden age ot Wen and \\ 11 : the Govern- 
ment : " is ries were fuil, t'ne ] ul lie granaries were well st K/ked, the im- 
perial storehouses were crammed to overflowing, so that the grain grew 
mou'.dv because there were none to eat it. though horses were again plenti 
: 1] .,: in droves along the high road. With the growth of 

-. n : mbition revived, and the military c.\- 
■ iitions, .'...' ■ i\ red t'ne Han emperors with gl ry. and spread the 
sway ot ( 'iiin ir .,: Core.i to Khotan,'-' pre] ired the dynasty's decay. 

The 11 lib re tne oul\ Cninese emperors who seem to have aimed at 



u ] n _ ' 



ie ordinary arts ot war and conquest. 
!■;.- I! •.' ;-. A 1 ; : -. i>*> ;. ; . 5;. 



. 7. 



::. 1 : 



REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. 109 

123rd book of Ssema-tsien's history, which treats of the trading expedi- 
tions and commercial wars of the first Hans, during the years between 
140 and 97 B.C., has been translated. 1 and gives a very graphic, circum- 
stantial and, to all appearance, accurate account of the Chinese campaigns 
with the kingdoms east of the central desert and the motives which led 
to them. The chief of these kingdoms, Ta-ouan and Ou-sun, were identi- 
fied by Klaproth approximately with the modern districts of Hi and Fer- 
ghana. They were reported to be populous, civilized, resembling the 
I Ian in their government, and to contain rare and valuable commodi- 
ties. It was therefore represented to the emperor that they might be in- 
duced by presents to bring- t lie homage of their commerce. 2 Caravans were 
accordingly sent to explore alternative routes; those to the north of the 
desert were rendered insecure by the Huns and other barbarians, while to 
the south food and water were lacking, so that half the members of a 
single expedition perished. 

The number of caravans sent, notwithstanding these difficulties, varied 
from five to ten in a year, the longest journey occupying nine years. 
Embassies were exchanged, and the Emperor of China was particularly 
anxious to obtain horses of a rare breed from Ta-ouan. But the Western 
kingdoms had apparently as much trade as they wanted, and believed the 
Hans to be too far off to be dangerous, so even food was refused to the 
Chinese caravans. "One was discredited in the exterior countries/''' 1 
The Huns were near and formidable, so traders protected by the Huns 
were secure, while "those of the Hans, on the contrary, only obtained food, 
baggage animals and admission to the bazaars by producing their wares." l 

Finally war was declared, and expeditions sent both against Ta-ouan 
and Ou-sun. The Chinese, who seem to have begun where Western 
kingdoms end, went through the experience common to Europeans who 
indulge in the luxury of little wars ; they suffered much loss and privation 
before learning how to manage their campaigns, 5 but when at last they 
succeeded in bringing an army to the gates of the hostile capital, their 
victory seemed certain. After a sieu r e, the capital hoped to escape a 
capitulation by offerii g to send the horses previously refused and by 
appointing a ruler approved by the Chinese. The army was evidently 
thankful to accept anv approach to submission, and the minor kingdoms 
on the road also rendered homage. This successful expedition lasted four 
years, till 97 i;.c. and was comparatively inexpensive. 

T'ne pains taken in the vain endeavour to open up a trade route to 
India made it possible to introduce a less valuable commodity, the wor- 
-1 ip of bo : ,; but the drain upon the resources of the country was so great 
that the spreading reputation of the Sons of Han proved to be too dearly 
bought. To provide for the army the currency was debased, and even 

-'.".." ut yourna! A iaii >i(<\ 1S2S. vol. ii. p. 41S. 
- /-'■., p. 427. 3 /'.. p. 435. 4 /•'.. p. 43S. 

' f. < iik-s, (/, ■: ; pp. f)S 72. 
M. Terricn <lc 1 ! ' : . ■ :. w I ..' >. 0. 1 :'::■-• intr 1 tion of E 

before the accession of the Hans. 



no OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

victories proved expensive because every band of tribute-bearers was en- 
tertained at the Imperial cost, and dismissed with presents far exceeding 
the value of their own offerings. This magnificence, which was politic in 
a power aiming only at an honorary protectorate over the whole continent, 
was found bv the weaker princes of the line to be so heavy a burden, that 
it was once seriously proposed to decline to receive an envoy from the 
Huns on the ground of expense. And when the records of the Han 
Dvnastv were closed, the chief moral which they seemed to posterity to 
point was a warning against military ambition and the sacrifice of the in- 
ternal administration to a brilliant foreign policy. 1 

It was t'ne boast of the Tang Dynasty that it accomplished by peaceful 
policy more than was attempted unsuccessfully by the warlike Hans. The 
ideal of the native statesmen was a government too formidable to be 
attacked and too prudent to be aggressive ; and the Hans, notwithstand- 
ing their brilliant campaigns in Central Asia, were exposed to incursions 
on the east anil south of so foraiidable a character that in one case the 
people of a border principality were removed en masse to a more sheltered 
settlement north of the Kiang. 

Trade with foreigners is said to have been carried on at Canton since 
1 76 A.i).,- but it is doubtful from wiiat distance t'ne traders may have 
come. The Cingalese told the ambassador of the Emperor Claudius that 
they traded with the Seres, but as they described the people so designated 
as tall, with blue eyes and red hair, t'ne name in this case clearly does not 
refer to the Chinese. 

The rumours about the remote people of silk makers, which had 
reached the Western world in the days of Augustus, refer to the China of 
the Hans : and we can judge from them how far the native historians are 
from exaggerating the strength and fame of the empire. While intelligent 
criticism at home was pointing a remorseless finger at social and eco- 
nomic evil-, which, however real, are only explicitly recognised as such 
by a comparatively advanced civilization, the inquiries of distant savants 
like Pliny and Ptolemy, elicited nothing but praise of t'ne powerful, 
y. and humane community. 

Sir Henry Yule has brought together all the passages in classical litera- 
ture referring to the Seres, and his summary of their substantial purport 
may be accepted as a fair account of what well-informed Europeans knew 
ot China [,Soo year- ago. :J "The region of the Seres is a vast and popu- 

1 'I'll--- av.'.l; lity oi the [; <,f ( )des mi^ht have been, arnl no uYmbt was, ([noted to 

" I > ' :: ". ' ry to cultivate Ileitis too lar^e, 
I he \w< N wili only e,o>\v lu.Mtriantlv ; 

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REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. in 

lous country, touching on the east the ocean and the limits of the habit- 
able world, and extending west nearly to Imaus and the confines of 
Eactria. The people are civilized men, of mild, just and frugal temper, 
eschewing collisions with their neighbours and even shy of close inter- 
course, but not averse to dispose of their own produce, of which raw silk 
is the staple, but which include also silk stuffs, furs, and iron of remarkable 
quality." For a report like this to travel from the inaccessible kingdoms 
of Central Asia to Imperial Rome, it is obvious that China must have been 
well known in regions that were in constant communication with the wes- 
tern parts of Asia, accessible to the commerce of the Mediterranean. The 
impression so transmitted was vague, and liable to mistakes of the sort 
embodied in Virgil's pretty confusion of the mulberry leaves with the 
silkworms ; l but it rested upon a ground of real knowledge, and it is 
significant to note that the widest-spread rumours spoke of a civilized 
and industrious trading population rather than of a mighty emperor. 

For descriptive purposes it is natural to regard the Han Dynasties as 
forming a single period, and this period is so much foreshortened by its 
remoteness in time that we do not at once remember that it represents an 
interval like that which separates the accession of Queen Victoria from 
that of Henry V. Evidently, therefore, there is room for a good many 
discordant estimates of the national prosperity to be appropriate in their 
turn. The reign of the warlike Wu-ti was marked by the spread of luxury; 
many wives, many horses, many clothes, and a thousand costly ornaments 
seduce the prince to abandon the antique simplicity of his ancestors. A 
memorialist in a subsequent reign (48 b.c.) reiterates the same complaints, 
and is particularly scandalized at the thought of horses eating grain and 
growing so fat and frisky that they have to be taken out to exercise merely 
to subdue their spirits, and this while the emperors subjects are dying of 
hunger. " Is this to be the father and mother of his people ? Is great 
heaven blind ? " 

These remonstrances are not mere literary exercises in the manner of 
Mencius ; they have a direct bearing on the most crying evils of the times, 
and the chroniclers always record whether any action was taken in conse- 
quence. The men of letters for the most part remained faithful to the 
belief that poverty and wealth were equal and correlative evils : but there- 
were not wanting apologists for the existing state of things, who forestalled, 
after the Chinese fashion, most of the arguments, which have been in- 
vented since, in praise of the social utility of wealth. Poor people, it was 
said,- who have no property of their own, are able to take a farm from the 
rich and live as tenants. In time of want and famine, the poor apply to 
the wealthy for a loan of bread or money. Shopkeepers, artisans, and all 
the minor industries are supported at the expense of the rich. They make 
special contributions to the revenues of the State, officials apply first to 

1 Gt orgies, ii. 121. Pliny calls silk a wool growing on trees. 

- Uc'<cr das Grundeigenthum in China, 1. SacharoiT. Arbiitcn Jcr Russi : n Gc- 
sandschaft, p. 14, tr. by Abel and Mecklenburg. 



ii2 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

them for assistance, and thus they arc the support of high and low alike. 
It is true they enjoy great advantages, but when their labours and sacri- 
fices are considered, it will be admitted that they deserve a proportionate 
reward ; even if some act as heartless oppressors of the poor, that must be 
dealt with in other ways, not by depriving them of property acquired by 
their personal exertions ! If the modern Chinese undervalue the deserts 
of tiie trading class, it is evidently not for want of having had the opposite 
doctrine set before them. 

Jn the year 163 B.C. an imperial manifesto, issued in a season of scar- 
city, suggests among the points to be considered by the contrite rulers : 
"Is there unoccupied land or a surplus population? Is agriculture 
neglected for commerce? Is too much grain used for making wine?" 
To guard against the neglect of agriculture, the rite of the Imperial plough- 
ing had already been revived (1 ;S B.C.), and the classical doctrine as to the 
connection between crime and poverty found an able exponent in Cha'o 
Tso', a general who tell a victim (1=15 B.C.) to the hostilitv of the nobles, 
provoked by lbs steady resistance to any revival of the feudal system. 

"('rime,'' he says, "begins in poverty; poverty in insufficiency of food : 
insufficiency of food in neglect of agriculture:" 1 and he dwells upon the 
moralizing effect of the tie which holds a man to the soil from which he 
draws his nourishment in exactly the same spirit as the modern Chinese 
scholars, whose conversation is reported by M. Eugene Simon.'- Jealousy 
of the merchant's larger profits is frankly expressed and justified; these 
men rear no grain crops, their women spin no silk, yet they draw from the 
labour of others rewards far exceeding those which compensate the hus- 
bandman for his necessary toil. The love of gold, silver, and jewels seems 
to this earl\" economist to be the root of all social evil. '' Man makes tor 
grain as water flows down hill. Cold and jewels are easily portable, 
bribing thieves and traitors ; grain and cotton come from the earth, by the 
labour of man, and a \c\y hundredweight are more than a. man can carry. 
They offer no inducement to crime. Therefore the wise ruler holds -rain 
111 high honour, but degrades gold and jewels." Faith and honour, that 
would be proof against bulkv bribes ;! in common articles ot use, yield to 
trie offer of a handful of valuables, warranted to buy luxury in any quarter 
of the globe. The conclusion, that gram should, as far as possible, be 
treated as the staple eurrcnov is not quite satisfactory. bat there is an 
element of truth in the somewhat Lvcurgean theorv, and at all events the 
influence oi kindred ideas on the economic development of China has been 
too eonsidi r ible to be ign< ired. 

So tar as can be ascertained, the price of grain, as expressed in copper, 
after the first few years of distress, was exceedingly low during this whole 
period; sometimes lower even than the authorities approved. It was 

C ■ r r:. ! i Herbert dies, p. 74. 

it. ['..] . 1/ ■ .'.'/ ■: . iii. .\S 71 : - 

'• ( )li ilnit -ti ".' 1" - ■'.•-'-. 

Still, n <\ >! , encumbered villi m\ ! " 



REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. 113 

actually proposed, in the middle of the 2nd century a.d., to issue coins of 
a higher value than those in common use, as a device for raising prices. 
And, though the remedy is singular, experience shows 1 that the value of 
the lowest monetary unit is not without effect upon the price of commo- 
dities. 

We are indebted to Ma-twan-lin for an account of the annual expenses 
of a small cultivator under the Hans. The State of Wei seems to have 
been fortunate in the number of paternally disposed princes to whom the 
government was committed. The minister of one of these makes the 
following report, near the middle of the 1st century n.c. : "A householder 
undertakes the cultivation of 100 mow; the gross return of grain per mow 
is 1 1- chi, giving a total of 150 chi. One householder represents five persons, 
bach person consumes 1 .', chi monthly : from the produce of his 100 mow 
the cultivator pays his taxes with 15 chi (i.e. 10 per cent, of the gross pro- 
duce of his holding), with 90 chi he has the food for his family, and there 
remain 45 chi, which, at 30 tsien the chi, are worth 1,350 tsien A the cere- 
monies celebrated in every village at spring and autumn cost 300 tsien, and 
the surplus serves to clothe the five members of the family.'' 3 

Other authorities cited by Ma-twan-lin estimate the taxation of a family 
under the Hans at 200 tsien only, and it is possible that the imperial 
authorities did not exact more, the rather that the commentator clearly 
considers the Wei cultivator to have been hardly treated. Ma-twan-lin. in 
a note on this passage, estimates the cost of clothing at 300 tsien per head, 
and taxes the budget with a deficiency of 450 tsien, cr about 6 shillings ; 
and he exclaims against the impossibility of clothing being so cheap as to 
allow the cultivator to live with so narrow a margin. The learned ency- 
clopaedist, however, probably failed to allow for the lower value of money 
at the earlier period ; and so far from pitying the poverty of the Wei 
cultivator, we are compelled to wish that an equally satisfactory budget 
could be drawn up for the agricultural millions subject to British rule in 
India. 

The standard of comfort was no doubt higher in China than Egypt, 
where the loin cloth, which formed the labourer's ordinary dress, would 
certainly not cost the wearer 5^. a year, but the Egyptian estimate of the 
cost of a labourer's maintenance was a little over 1 .', centimes, while the 
Chinese budget gives at the rate of 2\ c. per diem for each member of 
the family : and if the lower sum did not imply penury, the higher is not 
incompatible with comfort. Xo allowance is made for the flax. silk, and 
other plants cultivated to provide clothing materials, nor for the fruit. 

1 [11 Oc' '.'. 1 Vn : . - : ' : ' '- : . - ' - I to revive ihe old law? wing municipal 

mil'? to fix : f oread in Y ranee, t he f " that t! : ■ five ''//.'/ 

I c irrent use. v ■; aliened as oi r ■ - w \ 'revents sm i 

t ions in ! ■ : ■ ■:' i 'ad folio wine; a fail in that of corn or flour. A:. ■:. • '. 

v oi . j; the waives of journeymen bakers in Kn^iand. is that the -:n;i ■-'- 

. ' rice ' r 'ad j :'■ | er loaf is ■ nit 1 if ali ' r ; irti ■.. I itieii t 

Cover the increase of wayes asked for. 

- A lint, r to M. ]! t. 22 :':'. v ■ .'. f modern French m ney. 

" f':tni. As., 3111c ser. , vol. iii. p. 456 u. 

\ iL. I I.- - I'.C. 1 



ii4 OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

vegetables, pigs and poultry reared by every cultivator of too mow, and 
serving both to vary his diet and increase his surplus of saleable pro- 
duce. 

The development of slavery in China dates from the Han Dynasty, and 
the impoverishment of the lower orders through war and famine. The in- 
jurious results of this change were more felt by the State than by the enslaved 
individuals. The slaves, of course, paid no land tax : and as noble proprie- 
tors and officials were also exempt, it was estimated that about a quarter of 
the whole population made no contribution to the revenue. On the con- 
trary, the maintenance of the State slaves ('condemned criminals, or rebels) 
was a heavy burden in times of scarcity, and we hear at intervals of their 
emancipation in numbers, avowedly to relieve the community from the ex- 
pense of their support. One of the minor dynasties, in the 6th century, 
improved upon this somewhat ambiguous boon by enfranchising all public 
slaves of the age of sixty-five years and upwards. 1 

Besides the case of those who had lost their liberty through poverty, 
there was also a large and increasing class who had lost their lands from 
the same cause. The historians use a special term signifying agglomeration 
to desi ribe the accumulation by one owner of more land than he could 
cultivate himself; and it was by these great land-owners that the free, but 
landless cultivators were reduced to a state of semi-feudal dependence, the 
landlord taking half their crop in consideration of his engaging to [jay their 
taxes. But as it was contrary to propriety for the imperial taxes to exceed 
a tithe, it was clearly incorrect for pne dial lords to derive five times as 
much revenue from the same source. And hence the encroachments of 
the aggiomerators, even when tolerated fur a time, never ceased to be re- 
garded as unlawful and inexpedient. As a rule, taxation was light under 
the Hans ; and this moderate :. bad the incidental advantage of discourag- 
ing fraudulent understatements of population, so that the census returns of 
tl i may be relied on. 

Sh irtiy before the innovations of Wang-mang. the cash in the imperial 
treasury ami inti I to ab ut :.:::.:::. according to Ma-twan-lin, who 
Bat as the proportion of the revenue whii h con- 
lid in kind, went on diminishing, and was greater 
it any later time, the two millions would represent a 
■ he i 3th century. The cust< m of 
;is of making " returns " oat ot rent was followed 
ay p. ■ ul ir : rince-s. A vcar's taxes were frequently 
rnii ■ had a; a , rished a neigiibour'n I, 
the - me gr; ■ w; - acci n led a- olten as the 
aalgeni-e. A:; ... es.T a 1 a' marriage w .- < on- 
: : remitting taxes, as well as for amnestying 

' .■ eS. 

i an approached more to the ordinary 

• 'c .' : :' ;' ( ' - ■ : ;', -:r: itcitr ga. ■:>: Chin . 1.. la a 

M.uch, ia ;; . y. 255. 



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REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. 115 

type of oriental monarchy than during the decadence of the Han Dynasty. 
The influence of eunuchs, and of the favoured relations of successive em- 
presses, gave occasion to frequent complaints. The bonds of alliance, it 
was said, were preferred to those of blood ; and the wealth accumulated by 
the favourite of a single reign reached such an amount that its confiscation 
seemed rather a judicial penalty on extortion than a fresh oppression. By 
the time the dynasty was thoroughly enfeebled and discredited, it was over- 
thrown for a time by Wang-mang, a usurper who reigned from 9-23 a.u., 
after ten years of virtual supremacy, during which he had followed the 
policy of the unjust steward at the expense of the titular sovereign. 

Like most oi the Chinese rulers who have got a bad name as innovators, 
Wang-mang professed to aim at restoring the Rites of Chow ; and Chi- 
nese scholarship points to passages in that sacred text which were interpo- 
lated by him to justify his measures. As prime minister, he had advised 
the Empress, to whom he was related, and by whose favour he had been 
raised to power, to reduce the expenses of her household, while he himself 
set an example of economy and simplicity, distributing large sums of money 
to the poor, and ceding to them 3,000 acres of his own land for cultivation. 
He showed his respect for antiquity by proposing, in our year one, to revive 
the names of the ancient astronomical clans J as honorary titles for the im- 
perial board of mathematicians. And his first extraordinary measures for 
raising money might have seemed to be dictated by a real concern for 
the welfare ot the impoverished masses. 

He prevailed upon the empress to allow him to open the tombs of the 
royal family, as well as of wealthy private persons ; and he issued an edict 
forbidding in future the burying of valuables in the graves of the deceased. 
He offended the moral sense of the community by confiscating the treasures 
brought to light by his sacrilegious researches, but the prohibition itself 
was only slightly in advance of the time. In the reign of Hwan-ti (147 A.o.) 
a benevolent officer opened his lather's grave in order to give away the 
buried treasures it contained during a time of distress, and the fact is re- 
corded without censure. It was contrary to the national creed to dedicate 
to the unconscious spirits of departed ancestors valuables which could be 
converted into food for men in want ; and besides, when distress was com- 
mon and intense, the tombs were certain to be vi dated by force. This was 
the case with the tomb of the emperor just mentioned : and the dvn isty 
which succeeded the Three Kingdoms in 275 a.o.. is said to have intro- 
duced the custom, still in use. of burning paper representations of valu- 
ables, instead of burying the things themselves in graves, so as to avoid the 
double sin of extravagance and sacrilege. 

But to return to the innovations of Wang-mang. He altered the currency. 
introducing gold, silver, tortoise-shell, and cowries as mediums of exchange, 
in addition to copper ; and when an immense quantity of counterfeit coin 
was issued in consequence, a hundred thousand forgers were condemned 

1 The Hi and I Jo, who were to be put to death if the eclipses were not correctly fore- 



irG OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

to slavery by a single edict. 1 Besides his interference with the currency, 
he imposed vexatious duties on trade. The taxes on salt, iron, and wine 
had been abolished by an emperor nearly ico years before: but when a 
local governor proposed to restore order in his district by reducing or 
abolishing the unpopular imposts, Wang-mang turned upon him and con- 
fiscated his wealth, which proved to be very great. He then directed his 
attention to the official class generally, and to all those whose riches ex- 
ceeded the lawful profits of their ostensible callings, confiscating four-fifths 
of ah the treasures thus discovered. He also forestalled VYang-ngan-chi, the 
great innovating financier of the -Sun:,'' Dynasty, by a scheme for State bank- 
ing; and the edition of tiie Chow Li which was published under his in- 
spiration containedi a spurious passage, making it one of the duties of 
the treasurer to fix the rate of interest on loans in accordance with the 
requirements of the State. 

At the same time he attempted to restore the old system of common 
cultivation, and the tsi//,z, which were called '"'imperial fields/' because of 
an edict bv which he prop >sed to abolish private property in land, and to 
claim again for the emperor the role of universal landlord. Xo subject 
was to be allowed to hold more than a certain amount of land, and the ex- 
cess was to be forfeited to the Crown, and allotted, as required, to the vil- 
lages : while the sale of land was forbidden that ail might retain the means 
nf subsistence. The edict was repealed after three years, and it was said 
that Ya and Shun themselves could not have restore 1 the common fields ; 
the very rivers had changed their beds - since the days of old. and how 
< mid bvgone customs be renewed! ? 

One token of YYang-mang's unp ipul rity was the fact that the copper 
monev issu d bv him used to be re-cast secretly in the form of the favourite 
c inage of VYu-ti : and the use of this money came to be regard d as a 
tacit pr fession of 1 oval tv to the dynasty by which it was originally issue i. ,: 
Warnr-mat.^ was fmaliv defeated and put to death in 23 a.i>.. the Han 
dvnastv restored, and its lustre revived by a succession uf able and en- 
he' ' ne 1 rulers. between 25 and So A. l>. three emperors ot go id repute 
m [the throne.' 1 though the second. Han-ming-ti, is ';:■■'.<': to have 
• •'■■ : -' ■■ * - idorv bv formaliv introducing the \vi irshi] ol 1 lluudha). 
•...!>. ();:': orrupti nw ~ valt with in the most elticient manner by 

r; idn_ d sb t;es o| res] onsib e oftb • rs, while oppress >n , ;■ ■ 
were pur.bhed '.'. d ins'aut dismissal, or death. bur more than hail a 



- 3 ' '■ 



A . . '.-. 

\ ■ I' 



REIGN OF THE BAN DYNASTY. 117 

century the country enjoyed one of those periods of peace and prosperity 

which recur often enough in the history of China to furnish each great 
dynasty with a standard of comparison within itself. 

In 78 A.D. financial difficulties were beginning to be felt again. Grain 
was dear and scarce, and money depreciated, so that the land tax was re- 
quired to be paid in pieces of silk or cloth. These troubles, however, might 
be regarded as the price paid for the military glory which, at this time, was 
rewarding the campaigns of Pan-tchao. In the year 72 this officer was 
sent, for the first time, to restore the federal supremacy which China had 
obtained over the princes of Western Asia under the first Han Emperors. 
Only eight of these princes, beginning with Ivashgar, had acknowledged 
themselves tributary ; but in 94 a stronger force was despatched, and, with 
the help of the eight allies, victories were obtained over the Northern Huns, 
and so much of Bokhara conquered that fifty different princes submitted, 
and sent hostages to China. All Asia, from the sea of Japan to the Cas- 
pian, was tributary to the Middle Kingdom. 

Pan-tchao despatched one of his lieutenants to reach the " western sea" 
and proceed to Ta Tsin, that great western empire of which dim rumours 
had arrived as far as China. It may be doubted whether the western sea 
reached by this officer was anything more distant than the Caspian, or at 
most the Persian Gulf; at any rate, the Persian accounts of the long and 
dangerous journey between them and Rome served to deter him from exe- 
cuting his commission in full. Persia, however, was more or less subdued, 
and it is evident from native sources that China was at this time willing, 
and even anxious, to enter into direct commercial intercourse with the 
Roman empire, and was only hindered from doing so by the jealousy of 
the Parthians and other nations in Western Asia, who feared to lose the 
profitable business of intermediaries. The Chinese had heard of the coral 
fisheries of the Mediterranean, and the Romans wished to obtain raw silk 
for their dyers and weavers to manipulate. An embassy, sent by Marcus 
Aurelius, reached Southern China by way of the sea and Tonquin in 166, 
and the arrival of other ambassadors, described as bringing " tribute,''' is re- 
corded in the next century. Put Roman commerce seldom outstripped the 
march of Roman armies, while China was never at a loss for markets nearer 
home ; so the chances of closer intercourse between the two empires were 
never realized. 

The emperor Ho-ti, in whose reign tins great expedition was undertaken, 
is also known as the patron of Pm-hoeiq>an, a sister both of the general 
Pan-tchao, and of an eminent historian Pan-kou. Pan-hoei assisted her 
brother in his literary labours during his life, and completed his historical 
manuscripts after his death. She also wrote on her own account a curious 
treatise on the duties of her sex, the humility of which is perhaps less 
profound than it seems, for when emperors issue proclamations about their 
own lack of virtue, a learned lady with pretensions to good manners could 
hardly do less than claim for her sexto ■'occupy the lowest rank in the 
human species." Pan-hoei, at all events, was not without honour in her own 



nS OWXERSHIP IN CHINA. 

country : all the treasures of the Imperial Record Office were placed at her 
disposal, and the history of the first Han empire, which she published in 
her brother's name, and for which she received quite half the credit, still 
ranks among the best of the ancient historical works which survive. She 
occupied a special post as instructress of the Empress and the other ladies 
ot the palace, and her example must have produced an appreciable 
number of femmes saranfes, as she thinks it necessary to explain in her 
treatise that a lady who is always quoting the Classics will not be thought 
agreeable in society, and that she should keep her learning in reserve till 
it is asked for. 1 

The best known of Chinese institutions, the system of literary examina- 
tions, dates from the Han Dynasty. The revival of letters was followed, 
or rather accompanied, by the restoration of schools, where the literati 
were once more free to discuss the principles of government. In 170 B.C. 
Wen-ti repealed the law of T'sin, which made it a crime to speak against 
the government, on the ground that without free criticism the emperor 
could not tell what to amend in his administration. The existing schools 
seem to have enjoyed some degree of official recognition, as \\ u-ti was 
asked, in 140 B.C., to cause all officers to be taken from them. The 
Imperial college, called Thai-hio, however, was not founded till 124 B.C. : 
it was to admit fifty scholars, iS years old or upwards, chosen trom lists 
presented by the Minister of Rites on the one hand, arid the provincial 
officers on the other.- These pupils were regularly examined and pro- 
moted according to merit. Admission to these scholarships, as they may 
be called, was by nomination : but unsuitable or incapable candidates were 
dismissed at the first examination, and the patron was punished for a bad 
choice as for corruption in levying the taxes. 

The men of letters of the Han period were by no means mere formalists. 
The '• Record on the subject of Education." which forms one of the books 
of the Li Ivi, is evidently the work of a time when the theory and practice 
of education were a subject of discussion and reflection. There are, it is 
said, teachers who content themselves with multiplying questions, and 
humming over the tablets whi< h they see before them, who speak of the 
r's m king rapid advances and pay no regard to their ''reposing" 
11 v\ m 1 -. • learnt). The authors of the Record do not value this 

merely :::■■< hanical instruction or "cramp' the effects of which, moreover, 
are su; riicial and evanescent. Their description of the superior man 
who is 111 to become a teacher of others ;i is mature and graphic. '• In his 
<is, and does not dra'i ; he strengthens, and does not dis- 
courage : he op 'us the wav, b it does not conduct to the end (without the 
learner'.-, own efforts). Leading and not dragging produces harmony. 

• I ' i- ""i f 1 .'.■'..■■'.- '..' -■ riai '■" as an 1 ' ■ ■ 1 her 

- /•. '.'. ' . .- / ■< .'/■■. ciiC'Uii ■. C ■; ■ ::. n u leiti\s. K. Mi >:. 1S45, 



REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. 119 

Strengthening and not discouraging makes attainment easy. Opening the 
way and not conducting to the end makes (the learner) thoughtful. He 
who produces such harmony, easy attainment, and thoughtfulness may be 
pronounced a skilful teacher."' 

Different studies require different methods, and so do different students ; 
the teacher must be able to adapt himself to both ; but after all, much 
rests with the pupil, a good learner will profit more by a bad master than 
a bad one by the most diligent teacher. The ideal is reached when the 
"pupil and master talk together, and the subject is explained." 1 
' ; The master who skilfully waits to be questioned, may be compared to a 
bell when it is struck ... let it be struck leisurely and properly, and 
it gives out all the sound of which it is capable. . . . He who gives 
('only) the learning supplied by his memory in conversations is not lit to 
be a master. Is it not necessary that he should hear the questions (of his 
pupils; ? Yes ; but if they are not able to put questions, he should put 
subjects before them. If he do so and they then do not show any 
knowledge of the subjects, he may let them alone." 

The language of these passages is difficult, and they have evidently 
suffered somewhat in translation, but they could only have been written 
in a country where the learned class looked upon instruction as a part of 
education, and where a teacher aimed at being the Master of a school 
rather than a schoolmaster. " Idle good singer makes men fable) to 
continue his notes, and the good teacher makes them able to carry out 
his ideas. His words are brief, but far-reaching ; unpretentious, but deep; 
with few illustrations, but instructive. In his way he may be said to per- 
petuate his ideas.'' The best witness to the skill of the teachers of the 
age is to be found in the success with which their ideas have been per- 
petuated, even to the present day, by generations of teachers trained out 
of this " Record. " 

The introduction of the ''Competition Wallahs : ' into the public service 
must have been effected gradually. It was specified what offices they 
were at each stage qualified to hold — those, for instance, who could write 
9.000 characters or more were eligible as annalists, — but as offices of the 
same grade were already tilled by non-collegians, the grades reached by 
examination are liable to be confused with the functions of equal profit 
and dignity not so reached. While only a few scholars were turned out 
every year, they were naturally absorbed by the teaching and examining 
bodies employed by the State, so that the first effect of the literary revival 
seems to have been mainly the addition of some endowed schoolmasters 
to the ranks of the official hierarchy. 

Shortly before the usurpation of Wang-mang, the number of scholars on 

the imperial foundation was raised to 3, coo, in memory of the number of 

disciples said to have followed the teaching of Confucius. The revival of 

a systematic scheme of local instruction is ascribed to a governor of Ching- 

1. about 140 u. c. and the example of this distant and isolated settle- 

1 S. B. xxviii., p. S9. 



izc OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

inciit was recommended for general imitation throughout the empire. 
Tnere were two grades of local schools and two of higher colleges, and 
many scholars are commemorated in later ages in connection with their 
care for these schools in their native places or in the districts under their 
government. In less than 150 years, twenty edicts were issued, urging 
the importance of employing capable persons in the public service ; and 
the informal review of all the talents and all the virtues of a district, which 
would enable a provincial governor to "' present '' such persons to the 
emperor, seems to have been the germ out of which the present examina- 
tion system grew. 

There was an intermediate stage, when the State aimed at conducting 
the higher education of its future employees ; and then success in the pro- 
vincial examinations was the most obvious qualification for selection as 
an imperial scholar. Subsequently the examination test was retained and 
used more and more widely, without reference to the imperial colleges. 
The number of students allowed to be recommended for examination was 
limited in proportion to the population, as the number of degrees to be 
conferred annually is now. In the reign of Ping-ti (1-6 a.d. >. we are told 
that forty of the first class of competitors became officers, twenty of the 
second class were joined to the household of the Heir Apparent, and forty 
of tile third class entered the department of the .Minister of Rites. One 
ot the innovations of Wang-mang was that he obliged the sons of superior 
officers to pass the public examination as a condition of receiving office. 

It is clearly explained that under the Eastern Hans there were two 
alternative modes of entry to the public service: promotion from inferior 
posts, in which the aspirant was the employee of an officer, not ot the 
State : and appointment to office as a reward for success in the examina- 
tions, besides the casual admissions granted on the ground of birth or 
favour. An empress in the 2nd century a.d. founded a school tor the 
educati >n ofroval children of both sexes, and as it was to be open to the 
•• four families ' ; ' of external relations, it would seem that the empress had 
intention of assailing the established mode of tracing relationships 
le male line only : and as tiie logical result of this would have been 
to en ' ie women to reign in their own ri_ : ;t — which the empress motners 
often felt well able to do — it is :. t surprising that the scheme : r the 
higher education of women met with little favour, and was allowed : • 
■ cri -i. u itii its origin ! r. 

L*p to this time the jealousy felt by tiie race of practical politicians 
for t ! ill •. j ; m lo compete with them tor 

tiie s] uls of office, seems to haw resembled the natural rivalry between 
the 1 nd tiie 1 ,-ri . . m ... th r countries butt w : 
of tiie 211 i < en: try the intr won of a third net of < m; oil ;rs resulte 1 in 
, - rt ntri.inj li .r d :el. f r wii: , it would be hard to find a parallel or 



REIGN OF THE HAN DYNASTY. 121 

precedent in history. The emperor Ho-ti (89-105 a.d.) was the first to 
raise eunuchs to the highest office, and for long afterwards their employment 
as generals or in other posts of authority outside the court was regarded 
as a grave scandal. But the elaborate forms and ceremonies of the 
Chinese court gave these official chamberlains peculiar opportunities for 
entangling their imperial master in a maze of etiquette, of which none but 
themselves had the clue, so that even duly appointed ministers could only 
obtain access to the emperor's person by their favour. The literati had 
more reason to resent this innovation than the nobles, because the weak- 
ness of the royal power, of which the influence of these palace slaves was 
a symptom, gave to the holders of provincial governorships the very oppor- 
tunity they most desired, tor re-establishing the hereditary character of their 
charges and therewith their own feudal independence. 

The literati had no such compensation, and their disaffection showed 
itself in cabals, not to say conspiracies, of which the importance may be 
measured by the fact that a private " authors' association " was made the 
subject of criminal prosecution in the year 166 a.d. 1 The party, however, 
was not broken up by the attack, for twelve years later the attempt to 
found a new imperial academy broke down, because of the refusal of all 
the leading scholars to take part in the project, private schools under their 
direction being preferred to the imperial establishment with a staff of 
mediocrities. The discontent was not limited to the orthodox school, for 
the insurrection of the " Yellow caps," which was not suppressed without 
great bloodshed, was headed by three brothers, who professed an ardent 
devotion to the doctrines of Lao-tsze. 

In t'ne latter half of the 2nd century a.d., the double demand for copper, 
for religious images and weapons of war, left so little available fur t'ne 
currency that its depreciation followed as a matter of course. At the 
same time (165—185 a.d.) the land tax had been raised to 10 tsien per mow, 
which would make the burden of t'ne tenant, with 100 mow, five times as 
heavy as in the earlier years of the dynasty." Over-taxation, civil war, and 
a pestilence which raged between 170 and 175, combined to desolate the 
provinces, and during t'ne reign of the last Emperor (190-220 a.d.) tiie 
virtual dismemberment of the empire had gone so far that the generals, who 
founded the three kingdoms, did so at t'ne expense of other rebels, rather 
than at that of any legitimate ruler. 

With all its social and political vicissitudes, the reign of the Han 
sovereigns remains one of tiie most important epochs in the history ot 
China, as the fact that the whole race has been called by their name —the 
si mis of Han— sufficiently proves. The Middle antiquity of China ends 
with t'ne Chow Dynasty, T'ne modern history of t'ne empire must be 



1 It: it, /.7// 'ruction puhlique, p. 1S9. De Mailla. iii. p. 473. Scci 
. ;. lander : : China. Chuang-tze (p. 272) instances, amon:.; 

appointment by Win Want; of a minister who ''issued no unjust 1'cl; 
■' m^erous organizations were broken up. "' 

- J urn. As., .'.... p. 270, 



122 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

to begin with the Tang Dynasty, but its foundation may be attributed to 
the Hans, who codified its law, edited its classics, extended its renown, and 
witnessed the invention of its most distinctive manufacture, the porcelain, 
which was first made during this period, in lieu of common earthenware, 
till then used in China as elsewhere. 



CHAPTER XI. 

FROM THE THREE KINGDOMS TO THE SOUY DYNASTY. 
(221-620 A.D.) 

The history of the next 400 years may be passed over briefly, not that it is 
wanting in matter of human interest, but because the enduring features of 
Chinese civilization are elaborated in the flourishing days of a united 
empire. Yet we must not exaggerate the extent to which the country as a 
whole is affected by the intervening periods of comparative anarchy or 
disruption. Of course the people suffered severely from the outbreaks of 
rebellion and civil war which heralded and succeeded every change of 
dynasty, but outside the actual seat of war, life went on as usual, and 
there was seldom a time when, taking the empire all through, disorder was 
not the exception and peaceful industry the rule ; so that, even during the 
most inglorious periods, the habits of settled application, which had 
always characterized the peasantry, were able to go on gradually and 
silently gathering the strength of a second nature, till they appear as the 
essential and dominant feature of the whole social body. 

Ssema-tsien, and later historians and philosophers after him, speak as 
of an everlasting law, of the sequence of prosperity and decay ; but on 
looking back over the 2,000 years during which the history of China has 
been recorded at length, we see that in each period of prosperity, the 
standard of civilization and well-being stands a degree higher than that of 
the last corresponding period. The proportion of the population un- 
touched by the horrors of civil disorder was greater during the period of 
the three kingdoms, which followed the fall of the Eastern Hans, than in 
the days ot the Warring States before the reunion of the empire under 
Chi-hoang-ti. The prosperity of the Tang Dynasty was wider spread and 
more deeply rooted than that of the Hans, and the reaction under the 
five Posterior dynasties did not reproduce all the anarchy of the Three 
kingdoms. 1 Chinese literature reached its golden age under the Sung 
1 lynasty, which in most other respects was an advance upon that of Tang. 
and henceforward the whole empire was never broken up into disordered 
fragments. The Mongols sought to keep the empire in the state they 
found it, since in no other could its sovereignty be so rich a prize. The 
native Ming Dynasty, which succeeded the warlike Yuen, was, as com- 
pared with the latter, as the politic Tang emperors compared to the 

1 For the order of the dynasties see Appendix I., and for specimens of the materi ■'. - 
>r the historv of China even in us obscurer periods, Prizmaier, N-: ) i : :fcn aits 



i -M OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

military Hans, exercising with less effort a more potent sway; while 
there can be little question that the founders of the Mantchu Dynasty were 
centuries ahead in civilization of Genghis and Kubla. 

Whether the civilization of the masses in China proper has made much 
progress between the days of Marco Polo and of Father Ricci, or between 
those of Ricci and Dr. Legge, is not so easy to determine; but the civili- 
zation, such as it is, has never ceased to spread over a wider area, an 1. 
while its volume does not detract from its vitality, there is always the 
presumption in human affairs that the quantity of a torce will in some 
measure re-act upon its quality. It is a reasonable conjecture that there 
has been as much progress, in regard to the minor derails which constitute 
the finish of material civilization, during the last five or six centuries in 
China as during the last five or six decades in Europe. This kind of 
progress, like the motion ot a glacier, is easily mistaken for a state of rest : 
but 2.000 years of it are no more than sufficient to account for the positive 
level of general culture and comfort in the Middle Kingdom of to-day. 

After the fall of the Hans the empire was divided, for forty-five years, 
into three kingdoms. This is the period celebrated in the San-kwo-chi, a 
vast historical romance with a large substratum of fact, from which Chinese 
dramatists are chiefly wont to derive the plots and incidents of their 
historic plays. Of the three kingdoms, the most powerful bore the name 
of Wei, and included the northern provinces of China with Loyang for 
its capital. The second, of which the capital was ultimately fixed at 
Nanking, embraced most of the south ; while the after Hans, who alone 
claimed the throne by inheritance, were restricted to the provinces of the 
south-west, of which Tching-tu-fu was the natural capital. The empire was 
reunited in 265 a.d., after which six minor dynasties reigned in succession ; 
the fourth of these bore the name of Sung, but must not be confounded 
with the great dynasty which precede] the Mongols. The empire was 
again divided on its accession, 420 a.d., and the Sung and successive 
imperial dvnasties ruled over S ruthem China; while a Tatar dynasty, 
which had taken the name of Wei, was supreme in the north. This 
period lasted from 420 a.d. to 5S9 a.d. and is called the age of the 
Northern and Southern Kmpires. 

It was m tiie year 335 a.d.. in one of the seventeen small kingdoms 
which divide 1 China d iring the short and feeble rale o( the T'sin Imperial 
Dynast}', t mt natives of the empire were first allowed to take Lluddhist 
- : -ti vow . !:;•-■:. \ ears later there were as many as forty-two pagodas 
enum a; te 1 ..1 1. ivang. an : the Taoists began to deprecate the antagonism 
ol t'ne rehgi m, wha h they saw was likely to prove a danger >us rival, by 
claiming LuTlhu is .01 ::. imati 11 of La o-tsze ; but the overture was 
met by a revision 0! the eiastii lluddhist chronology throwing t'ne date o! 
I 'riii e Sakhyu Mutmi far en tigh back to exclude the possibility of such a 
deroeiatorv hyputhe-T. In 40c a.d., the first of the string of Chinese 

pi 1_ rim- to ! :' 1 1 Idh his i\ >rded travels, ait i :r >m l-'a- 

i.ie: and h:>. success rs, the Brahmans quoted by the Armenian Cosmas, 



FROM THE THREE KINGDOMS TO SOUY DYNASTY. 125 

(550 a.d.) learnt to think of China as equal in size to half the world. In 
518 an embassy was sent from the Northern empire to bring Buddhist 

books from India, and the division of the empire was known in the West 
without prejudice to the reputation of the people, of whom a writer early 
in the 7th century tells us that ''they have just laws and their life is full of 
temperate wisdom/' 

In 43^ a.d., a provincial governor addressed a memorial to the emperor 
on the dangerous spread of Buddhism in the past 400 years. Temples of 
Fo, he complains, are to be seen in the smallest villages ; to say nothing 
of the waste of labour, valuable building materials, stone, bricks, and 
timber are thrown away upon these useless structures, while quantities of 
gold, silver, and copper, that might otherwise be used in the public service, 
are consumed to make the idols worshipped by the perverted people. 
The memorialist concludes by begging that the temples may be destroyed 
and the materials used for the repair of public buildings. Tim Emperor 
approved of the suggestion, and issued an edict in accordance with it, 
almost exactly to the same effect as those which, 1,300 years later, put a 
stop to the spread of Catholic Christianity in China. 1 

We may be sure that at the earlier, as at the later date, there was no 
intolerance of speculative opinion at work. The Chinese dread of clerical 
aggression is purely civil and economical. The temporal authority cared 
nothing about the beliefs or opinions of its subjects, but it claimed to 
control their conduct, and it was contrary to the public interest that they 
should systematically waste their substance in endowing convents. Their 
money was their own as long as they spent it properly — in nourishing 
parents and children, in paying taxes and performing the customarv cere- 
monies, — -but if the emperor's subjects tried to subsidize an independent, 
spiritual authority by temporal gifts, it was at their peril, and the gifts 
were liable to be confiscated, like the treasures of a rebellious prince. 

The material progress of Buddhism was not arrested and scarcely checked 
by these edicts, but they were really successful in resisting the danger — 
which the biography of Hiouen-thsang shows not to have been chimerical 
— of the machinery of public instruction falling into the hands of the heresi- 
archs and being used to train priests for the service of the religious sects, 
instead of scholars for the service of the State. Hitherto, as subsequently, 
independent scholars had led the way in literature, and the imperial c illeg :s 
depended for their popularity and success upon the eminence of the 
teachers they could enlist. 

The doom of orthodoxy would have been sealed if its defence had been 
abandoned to the State schools, while heretical teachers succeeded to the 
: an 1 influence of the unofficial Confucianists. Naturally the new 
teachers fought less hard for the control of the schools, about whr 1, they 
cared little, than for the endowments of temples and monasteries, about 
which they cared a great deal ; and so the state of antagonism was per- 
petuated between the ic\\\ who knew much and believed little, and the 

! 1 >e Mailla, v. p. 42. 



i26 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

many, whose credulity was to be excused by their ignorance. As regarded 
temporalities, the struggle with Buddhism did not reach its height tor 
some centuries, but the intellectual supremacy of Confucianism was not 
seriously endangered by its rivalry after the stringent measures of the 
5th century. 

The gco years before the accession of the Tang Dynasty belong to the 
Dark Ages of Chinese history. It was complained that not one in forty of 
the dignitaries employed at court knew how to handle a pencil. 1 The State 
colleges seem to have degenerated into boarding schools for a class of 
privileged idlers, as their endowments survived, while the custom of employ- 
ing collegians fell into abevance. The private schools, which generally en- 
joyed and deserved the confidence of the learned, were refused all official 
countenance, apparently from the suspicion that voluntary schools, as we 
may call them, were destined to promote the interest of religious se< ts 
rather than disinterested study of the native classics ; and even if this sus- 
picion was to some extent justified by fact, it is certain that the discourage- 
ment of ail private schools indifferently had an injurious effect on the 
standard of education. 2 

Xo material change in the condition of the industrial population took 
place during this period. The T'sin (280-419 a.d.) divided able-bodied 
workers into classes according to age, giving each a certain allowance of 
land, with extra quantities for nobles and princes. This example was fol- 
lowed by the northern Wei Dynasty, and in 485 the latter made a serious 
attempt to revive the agrarian policy of the ancients. Every adult male 
was allowed 40 mow for corn and every female 20, besides 20 mow for 
mulberry trees allotted to every house, which latter portion became inalien- 
able/ 1 Land in excess of this amount was not confiscated, but was allowed 
to be sold, which the duty fields were not. At the beginning of the same 
century the Government endeavoured to promote the plantation of mulberry 
trees and the cultivation of waste lands by giving distinctions to the 
families which had oxen tor the plough. It is curious that those who had 
no oxen were expecte : t > have slaves, for the law seems intended to limit 
th : 1 : r : slaves held by one owner, while it is scarcely likely ti at cul- 
tivators too poor to have anv oxen should have too many slav s. High! 

. -. th unber allowed to a married householder, were reckoned for 
pur; ' of cultivation as ii\ lent to a v ke of ten 1 >xen. ; 

By ti legislati :. ;:. : or- i ■• .-. :. 4-- .\.I>. and 499 A.O.. ah cultivators 

had a 1 .■!■'.; in -h re of i • tted to them : land held in e\> ess of this 

1 o >c sold, and no excess might be bought. It a house- 

blcr . nn re] resentative. hi- relations, i.e. the < Ian or family 

community. re<eiv< 1' e ml ,-ritance in preference to strangers; but failing 

tafives, tin State resumed possession of the land, in whii h 

the grantee h .0 no:;,:-: Lily onh interest. Migration was again recog- 

. b} the State sa means ot providing for surplus population, and it 

: / :.•' .7" rir.-ini ■;' a , A it : .7.7. a: C/'r'i:-;, y. 211. - I ' -M ..'.'.'.?.. v. ;'...:. :.;. 

'J ••'■»• - ; ;■ -\' : ; ' ■- v- 2S7. 



FROM THE THREE KINGDOMS TO SOUY DYNASTY. 127 

the people refused to move when in want, they were compelled to cut down 
their trees and plough up their orchards to leave more room for grain. 
Northern China was colonized at this time, and it was noted that property 
was much less unequally divided there than in the south, where positive 
legislation could not entirely undo the effects of feudalism and the con- 
centration of wealth in a few hands, which had gone on in times of dis- 
order. 

It is not clear how the enactment providing for home colonies was car- 
ried out in fully settled parts, where there were few or no waste lands at 
the disposal of the Crown ; but in 4S4 a.d. the system of paying officers by 
salaries instead of land grants was introduced, 1 and this change would no 
doubt set free a good deal of State property. At all events, in the next 
century we read of persons renting the public lands, so that these cannot 
have been exhausted by the allotments. 

The system of land tenure was never independent of that of taxation. 
From the days of Chow two main sources of revenue had always been re- 
cognised -the land tax, which was liable to fall off when from any cause the 
cultivators ceased to form the bulk of the population, and the personal tax, 
paid in respect of what we should still call personal property. The govern- 
ment allotments of land were not apparently intended to represent what 
was required for the maintenance of a family, but only to furnish where- 
withal to meet the demands of the tax collector: hence the tax payable in 
respect of these allotments seems extraordinarily high for China, reaching 
a third of the produce, while those who rented a whole farm only paid about 
a tenth, which was always regarded as the legitimate proportion, whether 
levied under the name of rent or land tax. It is obvious that the condition 
of tree cultivators without land could not become intolerable so long as 
they were able to rent it on the simple condition of paying the ordinary 
tax : and as long as the State had land to let on these terms, private agglo- 
merators would be unable to get farmers to pay more to themselves : so 
that large estates could only be profitable on condition of evading the land 
tax, or being tilled for the owner by servile labour. 

Tile gradual pacification of the empire was much assisted by the reluc- 
tance of the free cultivators to leave their homes, when not suffering from 
distress, to fight for one feeble ruler rather than another. At the end of 
the 5th century a general, summoned to lead his troops to a distant province, 
demurred on the ground that the men of the north do not willingly go 
far from their homes, and can only be depended on to keep together for 
short raids where booty is to be got.'-' The mercenary element in the 
Chinese character was by preference pacific, and it was never necessary to 
prolong a war for fear of leaving the army out of work. 

It appears from the edifying anecdotes preserved in history that the 

pleasures of the chase were still a snare to Chinese monarchs, but they were 

seldom left without some superior man to keep before them the moral 

ideals of earlier and greater days. The hereditary prince while out hunt- 

1 L.c, p. 2S8. - De Mailla, v. p. iSS. 



128 OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

ing admires the beauty of a waving corn-field — the sight which filled Keats 
with ecstasy — and he is at once reminded of the labours that have been 
spent on it and. by implication, of the wickedness of destroying their fruits 
by letting the hunt sweep over them. And an emperor who had stayed out 
bevond the customary hour, was rebuked by the officer on guard, who 
affected not to recognise him. The emperor had gone out early, and it 
was impossible that he should so far have neglected the duties of his office 
and the rules of propriety as to stay out hunting all day! It was also 
regarded as the extremity of license for the palace gates to stand open by 
night, or for the heir apparent to mix freely for pleasure with the common 
people or discard the orthodox robes of state. Anarchy could hardly 
obtain in the kingdom, when the court was in such rigid subjection to the 
Rites and their interpreters. 

The license refused to members of the imperial family or persons still 
holding official rank might be taken without censure by those who delib- 
erately preferred a private station. A poet who flourished towards the 
close of the T'sin Dynasty gave un official life, after three months' trial, 
rather than • tit on a dress of ceremony to visit the provincial inspectors, 
and after his retirement, -gent his tune in drinking, studying, and writing 
verses — a record which was not considered discreditable. Besides this 
•■('■-tor of the five willows." there was a scholar who held office with 
credit, in the - ond carter of the 5th centurv, in spite of his passion for 
roaminu al ne upon solkary hill-tops or in wooded ravines : so that it seems 
;is if in China, unlike Europe, tiie taste for wild scenerv had preceded that 
for tame and cultivated country. In China, as in f.gvpt. the enjoyment of 
natural beauty seems to have been frank and keen. "The Master said. 
'The wise find pleasure in water; the virtuous find pleasure in hills,''" 1 
and the extent to which the pleasure is experienced, without pedantry or 
affe ' tti n. is a str >ng testimony to the diffusion of wisdom and virtue, in 
the Middle Kingdom. And we should undervalue the decree of civilization 
attained in it. even during these dark aires, if we did not realize that the 
modem taste f <r flowers and scenery was already developed. 

Inter* ; urse with Western Asia was kept up oc •asionallv. Wen-ti ol the 
Wei ])\: i-^ty received ambassadors from three kings — of Khotan. of another 
rhbtrii t on t •■ river Hi. an 1 one near Lop-nor — and published a deer 

ur of tl ■ 've .'. in wi ii h he ju •' 1 the Shi and SI 00 for the praise of 

submissive barbari ns, and conclude 1 : " Xow that the strangers oi the 

western 1 n A com : with sincei — ! 1 s licit reunion with the em: ire. 1 ' th : 

- A t: t t! v S'-ii'l be rei eived and supported."- < 'tl :r e il issies 

were i in 46A n d i/A .\.o., and one was sent Acn a.d.) with 



: - en.ts v tne I :r-ua:i Kin;. konan, wnose reiun is ot lerwi-v 1 :m 






f : •' 'i uver ft lie so : list M zdek. The inter' rirse : ietween the 1 I'.trts 
rif ( ":.i: nd 1 'erb 1 rem ws auv dun* ultv that mi: t oti :rw is A. ive ; >een 
felt : : ' - M ' A . as 1 discinle of Men< i is. and the resemblan : 



FROM THE THREE KINGDOMS TO SOUY DYNASTY. 129 

some remarks, attributed to him in the Shah-nameh, to those of Mencius 
quoted above is too close to be accidental. 

There was a drought, we are told, causing famine, and great and small 
came to the palace asking for food. Mazdek said to the king: " A man 
has been bitten by a serpent, another has an antidote and will not give it : 
what shall be done to him ? " "He is a murderer," replied the king, "and 
shall be slain before my gate as soon as the family of the dead can seize 
him."' '['he next day Mazdek begged to be instructed again : " Suppose a 
man has been bound with chains and would give his life for a loaf of bread, 
and it is refused him and he dies, what should be the punishment of him 
who, having bread, refuses it to the prisoner? " The king replied, " He is 
a wretch, and is answerable for the death which he might have prevented." 
Then Mazdek went out at the palace gate and bade the hungry crowd go 
and wherever they could find corn concealed, take it for themselves, and if 
they were asked to pay for it, burn the village. His own granaries and the 
king's were plundered like the rest, and when people came to the king to 
remonstrate, Mazdek declared that he had only followed the royal in- 
structions, for bread was the antidote to the mortal poison of hunger. 

He then delivered a discourse which seemed to his hearers so just that 
they all, including the king, expressed their assent to it. The man with 
nothing, he contended, is the equal of the rich, and no one should be 
suffered to retain superfluous possessions. The rich should be the warp 
and the poor the woof; there should be equality in the world, and the 
excess of wealth is bad and unlawful. Women, houses, and goods should 
be shared, and the poor made the equal of the rich. Chinese radicalism, 
it seems, lost some of its sweet reasonableness and temperance in the 
course of transmission, and the communistic element in Mazdek's doctrine 
is a purely Persian addition. The king's son, Kesra (Chosroes), who was 
not converted, among other objections urged that if the new and revolu- 
tionary doctrine was received, the father would not know his son ; and in 
the eyes of the domestic races, it would be not less certainly condemned if 
children as well as wives were to be common, so as to disable the son from 
knowing his own mother. Yet the tragic conclusion of the tale leaves 
modern sympathies rather on the side of the revolutionary. Prince Kesra 
spent six months in exhausting all the wisdom of Zoroastrian sages, and 
then proceeded to re-convert his father by such arguments as these. 

"It men are all equal and there is no difference between great and small, 
who will be willing to serve, and how can authority be exercised? Who will 
work for you and me, and how will the good be separated from the bad ? 
W hen a man dies, to whom will his house and fortune belong if the king 
and the mechanic are equal ? When all are masters, where are the paid 
servants? When all have treasures, where is the treasurer? Xo founder of 
religion has ever spoken like this before." Ivobad, like some social 
philosophers of a much later date, thought these criticisms convincing, and 
gave Kesra carte blanche to deal with the heresiarch and his followers. 
He planted the latter, to the number of 3,000, head downwards, along the 

VOL. II. — P.C. K 



i;;o OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

walls of his garden, and then summoned Mazdek to see the fruit borne by 
the seed he had sown. Then he hung the teacher head downwards from 
a high gibbet, and slew him with arrows. 1 

The story shows that Chinese literature was known to serious thinkers 
in other countries, though the influence of the Middle State, as a civilizing 
force, was strictly limited to its own subjects. A generation or more 
before, Moses of Chorene spoke of the Chinese people as wealthy/civilized, 
and eminently pacific, and there can be little doubt that trade with Persia 
and the various kingdoms bordering the desert went on continuously in 
spite of the subdivision of the empire. The superior safety and quickness 
of the land traffic is alleged by Cosmas as a reason why there was so much 
silk in Persia, and the quantity exported is proved to have been consider- 
able, by its reaching the empire of fustinian in quantities sufficient to 
suggest the thought of acclimatizing the precious worm. Another Persian 
embassy was received in 567 a.d. 

The last of the six minor dynasties preceding the Tang did a good deal 
to facilitate its work by consolidating the imperial authority. In 607 the 
emperor threatened to drop all correspondence with Japan, because it was 
addressed from the ''Great son of heaven in the East" to the " Great son 
of heaven in the West,''' and this was "contrary to the Rites." This was 
equivalent to a declaration of hostility, because, as Amyot observes, 
"tributary" in Chinese history means virtually ally, and Japan conse- 
quently protested against being erased from the list of tributaries. The 
Chinese were forbidden, in the same reign, to carry arms — a change always 
significant of an important stage in national progress. The Sony emperors 
(589-619 a.o.) gave some attention to letters, though the attempt to take 
stock of t'ne surviving literary monuments of former ages ended in the 
discovery that 60 or 70 per cent, of the works known to have existed 
under the Hans had been lost beyond recovery. The form of character 
now in use was adopted (375 A.o.) towards tiie close of the T'sin Dynasty. 

About the same time (350 a.d.) the earliest mention of the tea plant 
being cultivated lor the infusion made from its leaves is met with, and it 
is noticeable that references to drunkenness become much rarer in future 
than in the literature of the earlier times. The general use of hot tea as a 
beverage lias also contributed to the remarkable freedom from epidemics 
of modern China; the water boiled fur tea is rendered innocuous, and 
besides, since the habit of taking 'not drinks lias been formed, it lias 
become usual tor those who cannot obtain tea, to drink always hot water, 
instead ol cold. One other worthy of the 3rd century should be men- 
id, the doctor Chua-to, because he is stiil venerated as the patron 
saint of t'ne medical profession, and has incense burnt before his tablet by 
every member ot the faculty. He is said to have invented amesthetics 
and to have been put to death by a general who suspected the motives 
of Ids offer to try trepanning as a cure for headache. 

: I. MoliI, / •' I.ivre Jt /':. vjl.vi.ji. 109. The puet concludes: " It'thou art a 
n.aii of -'".i~'', (lu nut lulluw tiic way i M.i/ irk." 



FROM THE THREE KINGDOMS TO SOU Y DYNASTY. 131 

The arts as well as letters were held in honour under the Sony princes, 
for besides the production of a famous green porcelain, the dynasty is 
notable as the first in which a famous artist in pottery is commemorated by 
name, an honour conferred upon one who brought to the capital some 
vases which were described as "artificial jade." 1 Manufactories had 
previously been established at Si-ngan-fu and Loyang under the first Wei 
(220-264 ad.) and under the T'sin Dynasty (265-419 a.d.) blue china of 
high repute was made in the province of Tche-kiang. The prosperity of 
different parts of the empire was unequal, but all the rich towns, which 
Tai-tsong-tang was shortly to gain credit by refusing to sack, could not 
have existed, if the individual life of the people had not gone on its 
tranquil course, habitually unmolested even by the weak and tyrannical 
rulers whom he superseded. 

1 Histoire ct Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise. Ouvragc tradiiit Ju Chinois, par 
M. Stanislas Julien, 1S56, xxiv. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE TAXG DY.XASTY. 
(620-907 A.D.) 

§ i. Historical Sketch. 

With the accession of Kao-tsou, the founder of the Tang Dynasty, a new 
period begins — a period not cut off from what precedes it by any great up- 
heaval or transformation of the national life, but one which joins on still 
mi ire closely to the ages which follow it. The first Tang emperor did not 
long survive his triumph ; he scandalized the tribunal of Rites by insisting 
on having one of his daughters buried with military honours, because she 
had raised an army and marched to his relief when hard pressed ; and he 
was also accused of a leaning towards Taoism. A palace intrigue to get 
rid of the younger son. whose victories had done much to establish the 
dynasty, was defeated, and in 626 a.d. Rao-tsong abdicated in favour ot 
this prince. 

The reign of Tai-tsong opens with the exchange on all hands of senti- 
ments appropriate to the dawn of a new golden age. The Emperor deters 
piously to the patriotic counsels of his mother, cultivates sincerity of speech, 
rejects flatterers, discourages superstition, and gives his confidence to 
worth}' ministers, all of which traits are illustrated by edifying anecdotes 
which it is not necessary to quote. The late emperor had made all mem- 
bers of his family princes of the first rank, and complaints were heard ot 
the expense thus imposed on the country. Tai-tsong accordingly reduced 
die number of princes, allowing those only to retain the first rank who had 
deserved their place by services rendered to the State. In 637 a new code 
was drawn up in 500 articles. Milder penalties were substituted tor ninety - 
two causes of death, and seventy-one of exile previously recognised, and 
the total number of penalties was reduced to twenty : 1.500 rites and cere- 
monies, having the force of law, were enumerated, but, a- usual, these were 
mostly derived from former codes. 

I'.y hi- orders an eminent scholar drew up a report upon the popular 
manuals of astrology, which were denounced as pernicious and delusive. 
In pursuat.ee of the d lightfu Chinese plan of giving reasons for every offi- 
cial decree, it is explained that, according to the astrologers, all persons 
born at the same day and hour should have a similar fate, which experience 
: - ves not to be the case : while many of those who are actually overtaken 
by the same destiny — as. for instance, the soldiers who perished in a great 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 133 

historical massacre — were certainly not all born under the same constella- 
tions. 1 The same manifesto contains a warning against the arts of diviners 
who profess to tell what burial-places, if chosen, will bring good luck to the 
survivors. It is mentioned incidentally that burial-places used always to 
be on the north side of a town, which, as the cold or shady side, might 
originally have been preferred on hygienic grounds. 2 But the superstitions 
attacked were too thoroughly indigenous to be suppressed by edict, and 
the}' survive at the present day in the well-known form of Feng-shwuy. 
The Emperor declined a flattering invitation to have his public utterances 
collected in a book, as three emperors of recent short-lived dynasties had 
done : but he finally bequeathed a book of instructions, called Ti-fan-fu, for 
the use of his son and successor. 

The next reign was disturbed by Tatar incursions, Tibetan aggressions. 
and palace intrigues, the lawful Empress having been supplanted by a ci-de- 
vant Buddhist nun, 3 whom she herself brought to court to supersede another 
favourite. The new-comer obtained complete ascendancy over the em- 
peror, and, on his death, she took upon herself, as empress mother, to de- 
pose the emperor for having raised his wife's father to an unsuitable dignity, 
and reigned herself in his stead. The usurpation was successful, and if the 
supreme power had come legitimately into her hands, the Empress Wu-heou 
would probably have been allowed to count among the capable and suc- 
cessful rulers of the dynasty. As it was, insurrections were frequent, and 
many officers of high standing held aloof from her administration. She 
attempted to change the name of the dynasty, and by raising her ances- 
tors to the imperial rank, attempted to substitute her own family for 
that of Tang. 

She is said to have established examinations for women, with a view to 
admitting them to the civil service. And she provoked a dangerous 
amount of discontent by allowing and inviting secret reports, addressed to 
herself, not through ministers, which it seems took the form of delations. 
In 689 a.d. she had the unparalleled audacity, in her own womanly person, 
to offer sacrifice in the imperial robes. The comparative leniency with 
which the historiographers, nevertheless, record her offences, may be due 
to the fact that she felt herself strong enough to tolerate the usual amount 
of free-spoken criticism, as to the favour shown to her own relations and 
the like. The best princes heed such remonstrances in Chinese story, but 
the praise of second-bestness is always allowed to those who listen without 
resentment, even when, it is added, they take no further notice. In 705 
a.d., after twenty years of empire, and shortly before her death, at the 
venerable age of eighty-one, Wu-heou was forced to make way for her son, 
who, in his turn, was ruled by his wife, a lady whom the candid historians 
admit to have been much cleverer than himself, though she failed in the 
attempt to interrupt the succession as Wu-heou had done. 

1 IV- Mailla, vi. p. 94. 2 Cf. S. H. . xxvii. p. 170. 

" ( >r rather by a member of the late emperor's harem, who, ac :■ r liny to the . :-l i 1 

if the period, ha ! >een f reel to retire to a convent. 



1,34 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

After another short reign, we come to that of Hiuen-tsong, 714-756 A.D., 
which began prosperously, but ended in disaster and abdication. The 
faults which the historians lay to his charge are the want of self-control, the 
love of women, elevation of eunuchs, and addiction to magic rites and reli- 
gious superstitions. But the troubles were at first local, and did not pre- 
vent a moderate increase in the numbers of the tax-paying population : a 
census of 726 gives over seven million families or forty-one million persons 
in the empire, besides those employed in the army or the civil service, and 
in 754 the families exceed nine millions, and the total population fifty-two 
millions. In 746 the revolt which endangered the dynasty began. It was 
headed by a successful general, and former favourite of the emperor, of 
barbarous origin, who took that means of defending himself against rivals 
and detractors. The capital and central provinces suffered most severely, 
and before his abdication, Hiuen-tsong had been driven to take refuge in 
Sz'chuen. 1 

The census of 764 a.d. shows an almost incredible falling off in the popu- 
lation during the decade, less than three million householders being regis- 
tered. The figures may be taken as an authentic record of the empire's 
weakness, though the actual loss of life in battle and famine cannot have 
been so great as they imply. Some districts were depopulated, and it is 
stated that during one siege, in Honan, human flesh was eaten. Si-ngan-fu 
also suffered from famine owing to the blocking of the canals, by which 
grain was imported from the south. But the census returns would also be 
affected by the necessary omission of all districts in the hands of the rebels, 
as well as those temporarily deserted by the cultivators, to say nothing of 
all that would profit by the disturbances to make fraudulent returns. 

At the same time a determined attempt was made, especially in Honan, 
Shantung, and Petcheli, to restore the hereditary character of provincial 
governorships, and in 784 a.d., a number of these governors united to- 
gether to force the emperor to appoint the sons of all the allies to succeed, 
on their fathers' death. The fate of the provinces at this time depended 
much on the local governors, who for good or evil were able to make 
themselves tolerably independent of the empire. Sz'chuen seems to have 
enjoyed exceptional good fortune in this respect. The law provided (as 
it still does) that rations should be given to the families of soldiers on a 
campaign, in addition to their regular pay ; but the general in charge of 
this province earned much gratitude, by continuing the allowance to the 
widows and children of deceased soldiers, till the former married again 
and the latter were of age to work. And this liberal ruler was so good 
an economist in other respects, that he was able to remit the usual tribute 
to court and at the same time levy less than the customary amount of 
taxes. 

Tibet and the Tatars were still the most formidable neighbours, and the 
relations with the latter are a curious commentary on the Chinese preten- 

1 Mt'm in tit r ia I 'ti ' !e la Chiin d scs variations. E. Biot, Joitrn. As., 1836, 

1 ■ ■!"• 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 135 

sions to have to do only with tributaries. It had been agreed that the 
Tatars should bring in so many horses annually, which the Chinese Govern- 
ment undertook to buy. The Tatars looked upon the agreement as 
entered into for their own interest, and brought in all their worn-out beasts, 
to the disgust of the Chinese officers. On appealing, however, to the 
emperor in 773, they were instructed not to trouble themselves about the 
quality of the horses, but to pay a fixed price in silk for every animal, and 
take their chance of finding a few available as cavalry mounts : an arrange- 
ment with which the Tatars were graciously pleased to rest contented for a 
while. 1 

By the accession of Te-tsong, the ninth Emperor of this dynasty 
(779-802 a.d.), open rebellion had been suppressed, and his reign began 
peaceably and in good hope. He ordered exact registers to be kept of all 
that was brought into the imperial treasuries to check waste and peculation, 
and he won great popularity by establishing a special tribunal to hear 
appeals from the people who considered themselves wronged by any of 
the officers of State. He also revived the legendary use of the drum, by 
which those who had vainly sought to obtain justice elsewhere made their 
appeal resound in the ears of the emperor himself. But the time for this 
primitive remedy was found to have gone by, and so many frivolous cases 
were brought before the e.nperor that he ordered all causes to be first con- 
sidered by the new tribunal and only those of importance finally referred 
to himself. The same edict forestalled the more stringent prohibitions of 
Hien-tsong, by making it illegal to erect any new temples, or receive fresh 
candidates for Buddhist orders. 

In the year 78c a.d. the census returns showed an increase of about a 
million families since the disasters which were at their height in 764;'- die 
army at the same period consisted of 86S,ooo effective soldiers, and the 
revenue is given at 20,557,000 measures of grain, 3 and 30,898,000 taels ; 
but internal peace was not long maintained ; local governors drove the 
people to revolt by oppressive taxes, and when the revenue fell off it was 
impossible to pay the soldiers, who were ready to follow any leader who 
ottered them a chance of plunder. In 784 the Emperor proclaimed a 
general amnesty, and in one of the penitent manifestoes, to which Chinese 
sovereigns are addicted, he takes to himself the blame for the misdeeds of 
all his subordinates and appeals to them to help him to behave better in 
future. The curious document served its purpose for a time, peace was 
restored, the harvests were abundant, and the emperor allowed himself to 
believe that the people must be prosperous at last. In 7S7 a.d., com- 
plaints were made of a dearth of horses, animals which seem never to 
have been really naturalized in China. In 793 a tax was for the first time 
levied on tea. 

1 De Mailla, vi. p. 311. An abridged history of the Tang Dynasty, translated by P. 
Gaubil, supplements De Mailla fortius period. 
■ fount. A;., 1836. p. 457. 
;i Of 100 lbs, each. 



156 OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

The reign of Hien-tsong (805-820' began with virtuous protestations 
that "not a piece of silk is used in the palace without being recorded,''' 1 
whereby he was enabled to use the more liberality in dealing out grain to 
the distressed ; but later in the reign he is accused both of wasting his 
treasures in lavish gifts to unworthy favourites, and of accepting large 
gifts one of a million pieces of silk) from officers, who it was notorious 
could only have obtained them by oppressing the people. This reign is 
also memorable for the revival of the political power of the eunuchs, with 
results to the dynasty like those of a similar development in the last cen- 
tury of the Han rule. In 809 a.d., an eunuch was appointed general, in 
defiance of public opinion, and the division between the officers of the 
interior, and those of the exterior, began to assume importance. The 
eunuchs succeeded in nominating a majority of the officers of State, and re- 
sented as an interference with their rights the attempt of YVen-tsong 826- 
.S40 a.d.) to promote meritorious officers for their services without money 
or interest. 

In S28 the subject for an essay given at the public examination was that 
of duty and fidelity to princes. The most brilliant composition sent in 
was an elaborate attack on the eunuchs, and an appeal to the emperor to 
suppress their brigandage and cruelty. The examiners, while privately 
loud in the praise of this piece, did not dare to select its author, and 
recommende 1 twenty-two others, who were at once provided with places. 
The twenty-two memorialized the emperor a_ r ainst the injustice, but 
without obtaining redress for their daring comrade. - 

In .S34 a.d., the Emperor complained that the dissensions of the nobles 
gave him more trouble than the raids of Tatars or Tibetans. He attempted 
to reduce the power of the chamberlains by degrees, but with so little 
success, that in S35 he joined in a kind of conspiracy with two officers to 
have them massacred. The plot failed, apparently because the officers in 
command of the palace guard were not in the secret ; and the eunuchs' 
party was so strengthened by the abortive attack, that they compelled the 
emperor to decree that henceforward all affairs should be discussed and 
decided in their tribunal (that of the interior;, and the rest of the Govern- 
ment reduced to pure!}' ministerial functions. 

Between 839. and 845, the census returns showed a falling oft" in the 
population of over 40x00 families, which caused some surprise, as there 
had been no war, famine, or pestilence to account for the loss. In the 
eight* .•:/.. ; :ign ■■: the dynasty, iisorders prevailed everywhere; a popu- 
lar minister was p jisoned by the eunuchs ; rebellion was rife, and popular 
subs' r;; ti iii- ii.id to be invited to provide funds for the imperial troops, 
i.oyang was cip: ired without resistance by a rebel leader, and. though 
11 is s id that the inhabitants were not molested, a few vears later the 
>.. ■ r; .. and populous city an 1 suburbs are des ribed as ruined and 
deserted. 

The corruption . of the eunuchs still increased : in 886 a.i>. 

; io M ;::.!, \\. : . ;m. - /.'., ; . 4;;. 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 137 

one of them attempted to obtain control of some salt mines, which under 
honest management were bringing in a large revenue to the State, and on 
the refusal of the governor to surrender his charge, an accusation of dis- 
loyalty was brought against him by the eunuch's adopted son. From 
henceforward to the close of the dynasty, the palace officials fought vigor- 
ously, and with ability worthy of a better cause, in defence of their own 
disastrous supremacy, and they would probably have succeeded in holding 
their own against domestic rivals for imperial favour, if their parasitic clutch 
had not once more proved fatal to the imperial house, to which they clung 
and which buried them in its fall. 

Formerly the eunuchs' had been content with personal influence within 
the palace, and the opportunities of enriching themselves so afforded. For 
them to form a political party shows the weakness of other interests, as well 
as the Chinese aptitude for association under the least encouraging con- 
ditions. It was said on one occasion, when it had been attempted to 
weaken them by detaching some from the cabal or sowing dissension 
among them, that they all held together, and that if one was attacked, the 
others would all sink their differences and come to his assistance. Such 
instances of esprit de corps, apart from family ties, are of course not un- 
known, and the partisanship of a celibate clergy, of mercenary troops, or 
a mixed society like the Knights Templars, is not altogether unlike the 
spirit of these Chinese officers of the Interior. Politically their influence 
would naturally differ from that of outside politicians, as the temper of 
the permanent staff in a Government office differs from that of the respon- 
sible statesmen from time to time placed at the head of the department. 

But to make themselves formidable beyond the palace as well as in it, 
it was indispensable for them to obtain adherents outside their own body ; 
and about this time the chief eunuchs set themselves to strengthen their 
party by adopting young men of promise as their sons, whose promotion 
they were of course able to ensure, and who, as great officers or generals, 
were entirely devoted to their "fathers' " interests. In 891 there were as 
many as 600 of these adopted sons, most of whom held office. The 
adherence of other officers and troops, and especially of the palace guards, 
was secured by largesses, while the soldiery were instigated to mutiny 
against hostile nobles. 

The climax was reached in 900 A.D., when the emperor was imprisoned in 
his own palace by the eunuchs. He was released by force of arms the next 
year, but even then the proposal to exterminate the rebels was rejected on 
tiie ground of the immense number of them employed about the palace. 
They thought themselves powerful enough to refuse all offers, even of 
honourable employment, which would take them away from the court : but 
in 903 the coalition between a successful general and a loyal minister pre- 
vailed. An edict was published abolishing the custom of reporting affairs 
of State, first to an '• inner tribunal" of eunuchs, who were, it was claimed, 
able to discuss them more intimately with the emperor, and therefore decide 
them better; though, in fact, the only decision taken was often to keep the 



i 3 S OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

whole matter from the emperor's knowledge. The ministers were now 
required to report direct to the emperor himself, and the emperor's new 
masters demanded the abolition of all the " interior tribunals," and the 
recall of the provincial inspectors employed by the eunuchs to terrorize the 
local officials. 

As in the days of the Warring States, local governors seized provinces 
for themselves, only asking formally for the emperor's sanction to the. fait 
accompli. The country was desolated by their private wars, and these 
revolts too were laid to the eunuchs' charge, since they were caused by 
impatience of the authority exercised by such unfit menials. After this the 
massacre began, and thousands were put to death : only a few boys and 
old men were spared to sweep the courts of the palace, and the emperor's 
orders were conveyed directly to the nobles ; but so deeply rooted had the 
habit of employing god:ietweens become, that women were employed in the 
mechanical office of receiving the memorials to be handed to the emperor, 
and of transmitting his replies to the ministers. 

The emperor had long been treated only as a puppet, the charge of 
whose person gave a certain advantage, in the game of civil war, to the 
leader who secured it. The chiefs of the movement against the eunuchs 
had fallen out amongst themselves, and in 904 a.d. the emperor's gaoler, 
the general Tchu-wen, put him and his family to death, sparing only one 
younger son, whom he proclaimed emperor. Then follow massacres of 
the best remaining nobles, and as the patriotic clubs or secret societies, 
which had tried to stem the disorders of the last reign or to pave the way 
for a new order, had been stamped out, no further resistance was possible. 
The titular monarch abdicated in favour of his father's murderer, and so 
the dynasty ends ; but the usurper was not held to have succeeded by the 
appointment of heaven, as ids elder brother condemned his disloyalty and 
refused to accept rank or honours at his hands. 

j 2. Intercourse with Foreigners. 

During the Tang Dynasty the intercourse between China and other con- 
siderable powers was not only closer but conducted on more nearly equal 
terms than at any other time. In 632 the ancient settlement of lvhotan, 
or the '' breast of the world." reappears in Chinese history as sending an 
ambassador, while the account of the people given by our Chinese author- 
ities is -t 11 ->trangely sympathetic. "They understand rites and justice. 

1 ;•'':. gentle, studious, and ingenious,'' 1 possessing, that is. just 
those qualities in the cultivation of winch the Chinese esteem their own 
super: >rity to i.e. and for the want of which they pity and despise ail the 

: barbarians with whom thev are brought in contact. The men of 
Khotan, it was reported, even went beyond trie Chinese in ceremoniousness. 
for trie}" were said formerly to put a. knee to the ground in greeting eacii 
(■tiler. Iliouen-thsang speaks of their capital as a city which no one lias 
been able to capture, and notices the decorous and equitable manners of 
1 lli.i. •'• '•:.'.'.': h h'hetan. A. Remusat, p. 32 ft". 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 139 

the people, their courteous and law-abiding temper, their love of music and 
dancing, and their skill in weaving fine felt and taffetas. 

The neighbouring kingdom of Tibet is first mentioned in the annals for 
634 a.d. as sending ambassadors with tribute and being able to raise a 
large and formidable army. The first conquests attempted by it are over 
the petty kingdoms of the West, and in 669 the intercourse with China is 
still of a friendly character, by which the Tibetan envoy profited to give a 
glowing description of the simple virtue and patriotism of his people. But 
half a century later, when in reply to an embassy from Cashmere, the 
Chinese Government had sent to assist Cashgar and the neighbouring 
States against the troops of the Caliphs, the Tibetans formed an alliance 
with the Turks against China. The relations were, however, more often 
friendly than not; and in 731, when the question of sending copies of the 
Chinese Classics to the king of Tibet was discussed, it was decided not to 
withhold from him those means of spiritual improvement. The profit 
thence derived must have been small, for in 787 a.d. China was actually 
induced to seek alliances in Yunnan and India with the Caliph and the 
Uigours against the Tibetans, whose incursions were felt in Shensi and the 
settlements north of the desert as well as in Sz'chuen, till peace was re- 
stored in 821 a. v., by a treaty, which is said to be still preserved at 
Lhassa. 

Appeals from Persia and India for help against the Saracens were 
addressed to China more than once in the 7th and 8th centuries ; and the 
heir apparent to the Persian throne resided for a time as hostage at the 
court of China. An embassy was actually sent from Constantinople in the 
time of Leo the Isaurian to the great power of the East. In 798 the kotow 
was performed — not without reluctance — by an embassy from a Caliph 
Galun, 1 but a politic mandarin in Central Asia received Turkish princes 
according to their own rites, and rebuked the Chinese officers who ridiculed 
all strange usages as barbarous. But for the physical structure of the con- 
tinent, which isolates India and China, while freezing Tibet and nomadizing 
Tartary, the spread of Arab conquest round or across the desert would 
have reached a point near enough to bring about a collision with China. 
As it was, a general impetus was given to foreign travel and foreign 
commerce; and while the court was filled every year by strangers coming 
peaceably from regions that Han-wu-ti had vainly endeavoured to subdue 
by force of arms, colonies of traders established themselves in the southern 
ports, as well as along the continental trade routes. 

In 648 a.d. a kingdom hitherto unknown sent ambassadors, who are 
described as tall, martial men with red hair and blue eyes ; and they had 
been preceded by messengers from a kingdom in the far North- west, where 
the days are long and the nights short, and not dark, even when the sun 
has set, because of the twilight that never leaves the horizon. About 
the year 700 a.d. a market for strangers was opened at Canton, and an 

' The famous Harun al Raschid, 7S6-S0S A. D., correspondent also of Charlemagne. 
Gaubil's Histoire ties Tha>ig, 79S A.D. : Mem. cone, les Chinois, vol. xvi. p. 144. 



1 4 o OWNERSHIP IN C II IX A. 

imperial commission appointed to levy duties. In 714 a.d. we hear of a 
petition of foreign merchants, arriving by way of the southern sea, which 
is forwarded from the coast in quite modern fashion for the emperor's con- 
sideration. It set forth all the precious things which the merchants could 
bring from the countries of the West, and represented them as only desirous 
of collecting medicinal drugs and simples. Unfortunately for the traders, 
they arrived at the beginning of a new reign, when a vigorous attempt had 
been made to put down the luxury of the court, and the Emperor, after 
proscribing the use of gold and silver ornaments, had given directions 
for a great " burning of the vanities " at the gate of the palace. Hence, 
when he proposed to send one of the censors to question the strangers, he 
was reminded of the praiseworthy indifference shown by the ancient kings 
to useless curiosities and the interested pleas of foreign merchants, and it 
was concluded to take no further notice of the petition. 

Foreign trade continued to exist on sufferance, but so far as the Chinese 
were concerned, it was limited by the attitude of the Government to a 
moderate exportation of staple commodities, paid for in foreign coin or 
precious metals. What China had to sell was much more important to the 
Western nations than anything she or her rulers could be prevailed upon to 
buy : and so long as the trade dealt with surplus manufactures, like silk, or 
natural products, like musk or rhubarb, and did not endanger the local 
food supply, it was not interfered with. In 794 a.d. complaints were made 
that trade was leaving Canton for Cochin China, but the traders' schemes 
for recovering or pursuing it were discouraged by the Government, which 
(-pined that there must have been intolerable extortions used to drive it 
away, or a want of natural inducements to bring it, and quoted the Shoo : 
'• Do not prize strange commodities too much, and persons will come from 
remote parts.''' 

Arab geographers and travellers of the 9th century show what a develop- 
ment had been reached by foreign commerce under this modified freedom. 
The Jewish merchants described by Ibn Khordadbeh as speaking Persian, 
Latin. Greek, Arab, Spanish, Slavonic, and Lingua franca, and trading by 
sea and land to the remotest regions, had their representatives at Canton : 
and the four trade routes, enumerated by Sir Henry Yule. 1 enabled all 
the great commercial communities to try their hand at the China trade. 
The first of these routes led from the Mediterranean over the Isthmus of 
Suez, and onwards by sea : another reached the Indian sea via Antioch, 
Bagdad and Bussora and the Persian Gulf; a third followed the coast of 
Africa by land from Tangiers to Egypt and thence by Damascus to 
Bagdad, while the fourth led south of the Caspian Sea and north of the 
central Asian desert to the gates of the Great Wall. The Chinese traders 
either met the Western merchants at Ceylon, or themselves came as far as 
the mouth ol the 1 Aiphrate.s. 

1 C.i'.k: iv, nit »;".;/ '..': ',•■•--, v oh ii. p. 550. Another indication of the ran; 

1 - ... . the < hilie.-e Vel'>ion of the Yelli.-ei il.S A ';/., 

\. 2 . 1 >u4 •.', . v - ■ ; ■■ :,. :..::.;.,.'-■: tearing other in.- riptions in an unk:, 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 141 

The account of Chinese manners and customs given by two Arab 
travellers in the middle of the 9th century is particularly interesting, as they 
are the first eye-witnesses whose impressions we are able to compare with 
the sketches of the black-haired people, as painted by themselves, upon 
which we have hitherto been obliged to rely. Their standard of civiliza- 
tion must of course be based upon that of the Caliphate, which in 85 1 a.d. 
was already past its prime, but still outwardly magnificent, and in material 
civilization ahead of any Christian court in the West. Every traveller in 
China, we are told, 1 is furnished with a pass for himself and his goods, so 
that the latter cannot be carried off. The Chinese "administer justice 
with great strictness in all their tribunals," and both parties to a suit are 
warned that they will be beaten if guilty of perjury. When any dearth 
makes the necessaries of life very dear, "then does the king open his store- 
houses and sell all sorts of provisions much cheaper than they are to be 
had at market," 2 and hence no scarcity can be of long continuance. 

The Chinese " have gold, silver, pearls, silk, and rich stuffs in great 
abundance, but they consider them only as movables and merchandise, 
and copper pieces are the only current coin." :! The men "adorn their 
girdles " with these things and with tortoise-shell, and ivory, and these 
girdles and rich apparel used to be buried with their kings and princes ; 
" but this custom is now no more " because of thieves who dug them up. 
The same writer says that there is no land tax in China — a mistake which 
would be excusable if his inquiries were limited to the commercial towns 
of which the statement would be true. Another remark is very significant 
of the difference between China and other Oriental countries where 
diseased mendicancy is so common that the absence of it strikes a 
traveller with surprise : " Scarce a one-eyed or a blind person is to be 
seen or any one subject to the like afflictions. " 4 

The populousness of the fertile plains was then as now an object of 
remark : the villages seemed so close as almost to touch, and the cocks 
answer each other continuously from hamlet to hamlet for 100 leagues 
together."' The people " are divided among themselves into families and 
tribes like the Arabs and some other nations, and they know each other 
by the difference of their descents. Xo one marries in his own tribe, and 
a man of one family espouses not a woman of the same; but as if, for 
example, a man of the family of Robayat marries into that of Modzar, and 
inversely a Modzar conjoins with a Robayat. They are of opinion that 
such alliances add to the nobility of the children." The last sentence 
seems to show that tradition had not yet lost sight of the reason which had 
led to the general adoption of the rule, under the Chow Dynast}', when 
intermarriages within the narrow limits of the hamlet were, if unchecked, 
almost sure to result in physical degeneracy. Allowing for a moderate 

1 Ancient Accounts of India an I China by t:eo Maiiomincdau travellers xvho -oent to 
those farts in the gih century, translated from the Arabic by Eusebius Renaudut, p. 26. 
- lb., p. 24. ■■ lb., p. 20. 

4 //'., p. 37. h lb., p. 62. Cf. Mencius, Life and Works, p. 161. 



142 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

proportion of travellers' wonders and misunderstandings, there can be no 
doubt that our two Arabs saw and admired a China very like that of later 
travellers, and corresponding in external features to that which is more 
completely portrayed by native historians. 

The first of the memoirs was written in 851 A.D. : by 877, according to 
the second writer, the Arab trade with China was interrupted by the internal 
troubles which had " put a stop to the justice and righteousness there 
formerly practised." Two rebel armies were, in fact, ravaging Southern 
China, and one of the rebels, having vainly demanded to be installed as 
governor of Canton, besieged and captured that rich and populous town ; 
and, according to the Arab account, massacred the whole of its large 
foreign population, of jews, Mahommedans, Christians, and Parsees. As 
many as 100.000 are said to have perished, and the numbers are defended 
on the ground that an accurate register of the strangers was kept for the 
sake of the poll tax levied on them. It is scarcely possible, however, that 
so large a foreign colony should have been tolerated in a single town, and 
the numbers given may have included both the Chinese servants of 
the foreigners and all the natives exclusively engaged in dealings with 
them. The fall of the Tang Dynasty, which followed in 908 a.d., co- 
operated with the decline of the Arab power to break off the growing 
intercourse between South China and the Western nations by way of the 
Indian seas. The journey was too long to be undertaken without the 
assurance of a peaceful market, while the supply of merchandise itself 
must have fallen short for the time, as the rebel armies are accused of the 
supreme barbarism of cutting down the mulberry trees. 

§ 3. Literature, Orthodoxy, and Buddhism.- 

It may be doubted whether the political influence of the literati stood 
as high during this period as under the Hans. They had to contend for 
the maintenance of their spiritual authority against Buddhists and Taoists, 
and both they and their rivals had comparatively little to do with the 
other struggle being waged meanwhile between courtiers, condottieri, and 
feudalizing nobles for the spoils of empire. Confucianism alone was not 
compromised in the disasters of the dynasty, since it alone had not con- 
tributed to produce them. The system of examination as a means of 
selecting officers was not condemned, for it had not been fairly tried, 
though the machinery of the examinations themselves had been elaborated, 
as it in preparation for a time when its importance would be more fully 
rccognisc< 1. 

The so-called Imperial College' consisted of six higher schools, to which 
youths were admitted between the ages of 14 and 19 ; the total curriculum 
extended at furthest over io. 1 , years. The first school received 300 
students, and corresponded to that in which the emperor's sons were 
anciently supposed to receive their education along with the sons of 
higher officers of State; it was open to the sons of lower, and the sons. 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 143 

grandsons and great-grandsons of higher officers. The second school, or 
"Great College," admitted 500 sons or remote descendants of inferior 
officers. The third, or " College of the four gates," received 1,300 students 
— 500 drawn from the class of landowners and inferior officials, while Soo 
were " men of the people" distinguished in the examinations held all over 
the kingdom. The fourth, or school of laws, had only 50 students, and 
the schools of writing and arithmetic only 30 each, all of whom were 
taken cither from among the people or the sons of the lower officers, and 
these were doubtless intended to provide a kind of technical training for 
clerks on the permanent staff of Government boards. 1 

The actual number of the students probably fluctuated with the 
imperial liberality and the reputation of the schools, and it was said to 
have reached 10,000 in the reign of Tai-tsong (629-649). Students of the 
great college who distinguished themselves might be promoted to the 
college of superior dignity nominally reserved to the sons of high officers. 
In 729 a.d. we meet with the complaint that- correct pronunciation was 
more attended to than the meaning of words, and Han-yu pleads for less 
respect of persons and greater strictness in the examinations. But the 
purely literary and unpractical character of the tests was not yet acquiesced 
in. Three papers, so to speak, were set — one in the classics, one to test 
the candidate's style and literary attainments, and one containing five 
questions relating to affairs of the day, 2 — to one of which the famous 
denunciation of the eunuchs was an answer. 

By an edict of 706 a.d. the payment to be made by scholars to their 
teachers was laid down. 3 Tuition has always been cheap in China, where 
the remuneration of the learned professions is still as nearly on a level 
with that of the mechanical arts as it was in medireval Europe ; and the 
presents of silk, wine, and meat required from the students were very 
modest in amount. The reason for prescribing the payment probably was 
that the State had hitherto paid the teachers' salary, and that it was an 
innovation for the professors to depend on the students' fees. The imperial 
library was founded in 723 a.d., but the funds at its disposal must have 
been scanty, as the buildings when injured by rain were not repaired. The 
famous Han-lin college, which now furnishes the imperial historiographers, 
examiners, and directors of public instruction, was founded in 740 a.d. to 
" answer the emperor's questions about language and literature." 4 The 
period was one of considerable literary activity, and the brilliant original 
writings of the day distracted attention from the mechanical cares of 
bibliography, so that many works of repute were found to have disappeared 
when the erudite compilers and commentators of the Sung Dynasty began 
their researches. Ssema-tching, who flourished at this period, is the first 

1 V Instruction pnblique en Chine, p. 256. 

2 /■'*., pp. 270-9. 
•> lb., p. 283. 

4 lb., p. 305. Pauthier gives 712 a.d. as the date of the foundation. But its com- 
plete constitution mi-ht easily occupy a generation. 



r 4 4 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

historian, at least the first whose works survive, who gives an account of 
the legendary period preceding the sufficiently mythical emperor Fou-hi. 

In 736 A.D. an important change was made, which on the one hand 
raised the standard of the examinations and on the other diminished the 
chances of the successful candidates obtaining office. 'The direction of 
the examinations was transferred from the "minister of Offices'"' to the 
minister of Kites, presumably because the former allowed extraneous 
circumstances to weigh in the bestowal of degrees. But as the bestowal 
of office still rested with the department by which the officers were 
employed, a constant feud between the two was kept up for several 
centuries. Candidates who had passed successfully the examination con- 
ducted by the board of Rites were only thereby qualified for appointment 
to office ; their actual nomination for active service rested with the Board 
of Offices, which, not being able to employ all the successful candidates, 
used its discretionary powers of rejection in a way which the mass of 
graduates resented as unfair, even when preceded by a third examination. 1 

In the middle of the 8th century orthodoxy was exposed to a danger 
like that which threatened under the Sony Dynasty, when public examina- 
tions were held in the works of Buddhist theology. Hiouen-tsong's 
partiality for Taoism showed itself by the attempt to add the works of 
Lao-tze to the official literature, and between 741 and 763 a.d., students 
were allowed to " take up " the works of this philosopher, either instead of or 
in addition to the regular classics.'- In the next reign this concession was 
revoked, and we hear no more of Taoist degrees till the beginning of 
the 1 2th century; but learning was affronted by the appointment of an 
ambitious eunuch as examiner, and scholarship was so ill paid, that pro- 
fessors complained they had to eke out their salaries by taking to 
agriculture. That the importance of success in the examinations on the 
whole continued to increase, is proved by the precautions first taken at 
this time, by order of the Empress U u-heou, to prevent favouritism or 
corruption, by concealing the authorship of the papers given in. 

The career of 1 liouen-thsang, the famous traveller, who was born 602 a.d., 
is thoroughly illustrative of the mixed tendencies of the age. His lather 
had wisely withdrawn from office in view of the prevailing disorder, and 
passed his time in private study. His grandfather had presided over the 
Imperial College under the Thsi Dynasty, and received byway of salary the 
luxes of an important town ; and his great-grandfather had held a governor- 
ship under the most enlightened of the northern dynasties, the Yuen Wei. 
He thus belonged by birth to the class from which successful students and 
officers are drawn, and he was taught to read by his father out of the 
classical books. but one of his elder brothers had entered a Buddhist 
convent, and saw in the grave and studious boy an excellent recruit for the 
propagation of the same faith. Ami while still under thirteen, he was 
diverted from the study of the classics to that of Buddhist books of 
devotion. Soon afterwards, the emperor issued a sudden decree, com- 
1 /'//; tntiden pubtiquc m Chine, p. 310. - lb., p. 2S9. 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 145 

manding the ordination of twenty-seven monks, at Loyang, and by a 
curious jumble of ideas, the privilege was to be accorded to the successful 
candidates in an examination. There were several hundred competitors, 
all remarkable for their learning, and Hiouen-thsang, though too young to 
be allowed to compete, was accepted without examination, on account cf 
his promising appearance and discreet conversation. For the next few 
years he devoted himself to study, and obtained a great reputation in 
theological circles. 

It is after all no great reflection on the intelligence of a Chinese con- 
temporary of St. Columban, that he was more attracted by the doctrines of 
Buddhism at its best than by Confucianism at its worst. But the ration- 
alistic bent of the Chinese mind showed itself with Hiouen-thsang in the 
elaboration of doubts and difficulties, which, fortunately for his spiritual 
peace, admitted of being traced to an imperfect possession of the sacred 
texts. And it was for the satisfaction of these doubts that he determined 
upon the journey to India, by way of Central Asia, to which we are in- 
debted for the Si-Yu-ki/ and the pilgrim himself for a cosmopolitan 
celebrity. He started at the age of twenty-seven (629 A.D.), early in the 
reign of Tai-tsong, to whom he had applied without success for per- 
mission to leave the country. He returned in 645 with twenty-two horse- 
loads of books and statues, and relics innumerable. He was favourably 
received at court, where the best emperors were always eager to cross- 
examine intelligent travellers about the customs, products, and government 
of foreign lands ; and he was even invited to lay aside the " yellow 
mantle " and abandon the religious life, so that he might be employed as 
a minister of State. 

His answer is curious, and shows that the most disinterested votaries of 
the new law had not thought of supplanting the Confucian hierarchy in 
the regulation of secular affairs. He had " left his family " 2 in childhood, 
and ever since devoted himself with ardour to the study of the mysteries 
of the law of Buddha. He knew nothing of the doctrine of Confucius, 
which was the life and soul of the government, and if he left his vocation 
tor a secular life, he would resemble a vessel under full canvas, which left 
the sea, and tried to sail on dry land ; he would not only fail, but would 
destroy himself in the attempt. 

This glimpse of things from the Buddhist point of view is an instructive 
supplement to that presented by the official histories. Three years before 
the departure of Hiouen-thsang for the countries of the West, a scholar 
named h'ou-y had addressed a memorial to the emperor Kaotsong, 
against the two heretical sects of Buddha and Lao-tze. He accuses the 
first of despising the virtues of loyalty and filial piety, and, without carica- 
turing the doctrines he attacks, he briefly accentuates their fundamental 
incompatibility with the Chinese ideal of family life and social duty. Both 

1 Memoires sur les con trees occidentales traduites du San crit en C hinds en l\in ('-I s t ir 
Hiouen-lhsan^ et du Chinois en Franaiis, par M. Stanislas Julien, 1S5S. 
' I.e. entered a convent. 
VOL. II, — P.C. I. 



146 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

doctrines are accused of promoting an immoral quietism, resignation to 
the law of Fo taking the place of a wholesome regard for the natural 
system of rewards and punishments administered by princes who under- 
stand the laws of Heaven and Karth. The Taoist dreams of immortality 
have the same effect in making men indifferent to the consequences of 
their actions. All the evils which had fallen on China since the decadence 
of the Hans are attributed to the spread of false doctrines, and the fate of 
Wu-ti, the founder of the Leang Dynasty, is quoted as a warning. 1 

In conclusion. Fou-y points out that there are 100,000 Buddhist monks, 
and as many nuns, living in celibacy, and that if they were obliged to 
marry each other there would be 100,000 families to contribute soldiers to 
the defence of the country and labourers for its support. 2 To please the 
emperor, who was supposed to have a penchant for Taoism, the nobles 
to whom this memorial was referred, in Chinese fashion, for consideration 
and report, concurred, with one exception, in condemning the proposition ; 
but the instincts of the emperor were stronger in Kao-tsong than those of 
the sectary, and he could not approve of having so many of his subjects 
withdrawn from productive pursuits. The local officers were therefore 
commanded to ascertain the number of the religious orders, with a view 
to reducing it, and they were instructed to tolerate one temple only in 
each town of the first class, and presumably, none elsewhere. 

Nearly 200 years after the memorial of Fou-y, the unsatisfactory state of 
the revenue, even in time of peace, led to an inquiry ; and the ministers 
reported that there were at that moment (811 A.D.) S00.000 troops in the 
empire, and that a full half of the rest of the population consisted of 
merchants, priests, and others, who did not cultivate the ground, so that 
really three-tenths of the population did the work necessary to feed anil 
clothe the remaining seven. ;; The number of officials had increased 
to no less than 10,000, and their salaries had been gradually increased by 
raising towns of the third rank to the second, and so on, in order that 
their governors might be paid the salaries belonging to the higher grade. 
Formerly, mandarins of the first rank received a monthly allowance ot 
1, coo large measures of grain, and 3,000 strings of cash; but in the 
reign of Tai-tsong (762-77S a.i>.). the latter amount was trebled, and 
now the governor of the least third-class town received several thousand 
strings monthly. While learning was thus honoured —for these posts ot 
growing value were being granted in larger measure than before to the 
successful candidates in the examinations — the literati in and out ot office 
must have watched with comparative equanimity the spread of Buddhism, a 
doctrine which, in the words of a writer of the period, '•admits no envious 
rivalry for place or power.'' The remedy proposed by the censors was 
simple and effective, being merely to reduce the number and the salaries ot 

1 Like pi on- prince^ in India, lie pledged hi-; own person as a security for promised ra :: s, 
which was of eotii •. iii ' ntoleralile degradation of the imperial dignity. 

- I)e Mai!! i. vi. p. .:<>. 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 147 

the official class ; but after this display of impartiality, there was a notable 
revival of anti-Buddhist zeal. 

This memorial was presented in the reign of Hien-tsong (S05-S20 A.D.). 
The Emperor himself was an ardent Buddhist, and received with ex- 
travagant demonstrations of honour and respect a relic of Buddha, 
consisting of a finger which was supposed to unbend itself once in thirty 
years. Han-yu, otherwise called Han-wen-kung, a brilliant writer of the 
period, known as the Prince of Literature, addressed an indignant memorial 
to the emperor, recapitulating the warnings of history, and pointing out 
that Buddha himself was a man from the barbarous West, whom, if living, 
the emperor could only receive with moderate and appropriate courtesy, in 
which the general public would take no part. How unfitting, then, that 
when the man is dead, the reception of one of his bones should be 
treated as a matter of imperial importance, and an occasion of national 
rejoicing 1 Han-yu concludes by defying the power of this foreign idol, 
much as Christian missionaries in barbarous lands were wont to do, in the 
hope of proving the impotence of false gods to execute judgment on the 
blasphemers of their claims. Unfortunately for the argument on this 
occasion, Fo had the emperor for an ally : and the bold memorialist, barely 
escaping with his life, was sent in virtual exile to the barbarous South, 
where he was appointed co the governorship of a town in Kwang-tung. 1 

This was a favourite way of punishing inconveniently scrupulous 
officials; and though some of them indulged in Ovidian laments over their 
hard fate, others, like Han-yu, solaced themselves by putting in practice, at 
a safe distance from envious eunuchs and mercenary rivals, all those 
maxims of good government which they had vainly tried to carry out at 
court. The local popularity which, then as now, rewarded a disinterested 
administrator was a sort of compensation, and there was always the 
probability of the exile being recalled, by another turn of the wheel of 
fortune, as was the case with Han-yu in the next reign. When we 
remember how much the Roman Empire suffered from the oppressive and 
extortionate administration of corrupt provincial governors, we are almost 
tempted to see a kind of Macchiavellian cunning in this way of employing 
honest officials wherever their honesty was not inconvenient to the corrup- 
tion at headquarters. Whether the policy was deliberately followed or 
not. it was certainly one of the causes which contributed to the spread and 
consolidation of a civilized order in the more distant parts of the empire 
during this and other dynasties. 

On the subject of the prevailing latitudinarianism, Han-yu complains 
that even Confucianists talk of their master as having shown respect for 
Lao-tze and Buddha — though the worship of the latter was not known 
m China till the eastern Hans — and he denounces, as the great evil of 
the day, the craving after the supernatural, which Confucianism most 

1 For Life of Han-yu, by T. Walters, see N. China Branch of R. As, Soc, X.S.. vii. 
p. 16;. 'J he Ami-Buddhist Memorial is translated by Mr. Giles, in The Cciis:ial 
F.mtfn . 



148 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

emphatically discourages. 1 But the a priori arguments of the ancients are 
rather taken for granted by the later controversialists, and Han-vu insists 
principally upon the practical disadvantages of tolerating two new classes 
of non-producers. Anciently the people were divided into four classes, 
the scholars, husbandmen, artisans, and traders, of whom the first onlv had 
to be maintained out of the labours of the rest : but now six classes have 
to be maintained by three, so who can wonder if crime and beggary 
prevail ? 

Another brilliant writer, a friend and contemporary of Han-yu, had 
consorted with educated Buddhists and found much to approve in their 
doctrines of morality, while he sympathised with their taste for a life of 
calm study and contemplation, lint though a scholar might lead a life 
of studious contemplation if his means allowed, or if his philosophy was 
sturdy enough to put up with peasant fare, such a life was not the highest 
ideal of a Chinese statesman. Self-culture was a part of the duty of every 
citizen, but the proof of eminence in that art was the production of a self 
admirably adapted for the service of society, a :i man useful to others.'''' 2 
and such service was the duty as well as the privilege of the select few. 
For individuals, who did nothing but try to save their own souls, to 
demand to be maintained at the expense of the community while so 
engaged, was not only absurd but anti-social. And in fact, so long as the 
quarrel between religious asceticism and political secularism continued in 
China, the secularists posed consistently as the champions of social duty 
as opposed to spiritual egotism. 

The next attack upon the new religions came from a different quarter, and 
was aimed at the Buddhists only, by Wu-tsong (841-864 A.D.), an emperor 
who shared the weakness of his house for the Taoist sect. He began by 
ordering the destruction of all pagodas erected by private persons without 
authority, and renewed the prohibition against tolerating more than one 
temple of the sect in provincial towns. The two temples allowed to the 

1 Tii" - •-. we are told, on which the Master did 11 it talk were extraordinary 

,: : : :.:;-. feat- of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings. When . lb iple a-ked him 
abrr.u serving the Spirits of the dead, he answered : " While you are not able to serve 
men. h : -erve their spirits?" \Atiah r. xi. in. And when the indbcre t 

scholar l-.r.i eeded "to ask about death : " "While you do not know about life, how 
ran you ;i w a' u! death?" was the reply. Still in re ingenious ;< the recorded 
eva-dot of the 1 vies' i n whether the dead have knowledge of the hon ir- at I -a ril :es 
• .id t 1 The Master replied : " If I w. r • to >ay that the dead ha\ - . h i.: v. '.■: ige, 

I .'in ••■ ! th - :" 'son-; nd du'iful ijTan Isons •■' mid injure tl : - • -' n ' in paving 
the in.>; ::. - • ' • tried : an I if I were to -ay thai tl e have no such kn nv- 

led„'e, [ ■:'.': !e-' unfdial sons should leave their 'parent- unburie : . Vou need 

> • — k to know whether th 11 ive ki ' '. ■ r not : 1 ref: \ 1 \\ . know- 

it v ur-elf." hi •'■ - - me spirit it is ex til ail : : " t lie Id Ki. tl I ■:':'■ n ■; are made to 
■ • ' ■ ■ f the - viv rs. not to supply the w :.' - ' the departed. " I > es 

he know tl ' ■' -: ir: * v.dll ■ t! m ? i Ie is guided < mly : v 

heart.' 1 It v '-■.-'•' t th e.id ' '.-'■ r - ■ ' ' | tak of the 1 >tf 'int, r s, and 

' ' I 'er- inat* ir of the dead " see for th.is ] - S,ic. 

.'" ' -. iii.'i . ;,oi .,', ■• ',..,- w ] ;; • •; . .. i r ; ls have left.'' ace - tit g the ; r .vi.-i :.- as a glh 

- The Master said. " The meritori >v,s -ervices of Han Ki were the greatest of ail in ier 
i I ven . . . there: I him-elf that he was dm; ly ' a m m tt.-ef 1 t 

ithers.'" '.i A'i. xxix. : S./l., xxviii. p. 340.) 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 149 

capital were limited to thirty priests each, the remainder to five or ten ; and 
the inmates of all the other monasteries, male and female, to the number 
of 265,000, were commanded to return to their homes and resume their 
place in the taxpaying community. In all, 44,600 monasteries and temples 
were condemned, of which only a tithe had received official sanction. The 
number of the monasteries is not given separately ; but judging from the 
numbers of their inmates it must have increased formidably since the 
middle of the 7th century, when, according to the memoirs of Hiouen- 
thsang, there were 3,716 convents in the whole Empire, and the ordination 
of 1S.500 monks and nuns, authorized upon the traveller's intercession, 
was sufficient to make up for the depopulation of the monasteries during 
the stormy close of the Souy Dynasty. 

The convent lands were confiscated, the materials of the temples used 
for the repair of public buildings, the copper statues melted down to make 
money, and the lesser movables most probably annexed by the officials 
sent to cany out the Imperial edict. The slaves of the monasteries, to 
the number of 150,000. were set free, and, like the monks, added to the 
ranks of the common people, who were liable to the payment of land and 
labour tax. The stringency of these anti-Buddhist edicts was partly re- 
laxed at the beginning of a new reign in the following year, but the 
indulgence was abused so that in 852 the Chinese were again forbidden to 
take Buddhist orders. 

The intercourse with the West, which was closer under this dynasty than 
at any former period, had opened the door to other strange religions, two 
of which were dealt with in a second edict. The priests of foreign origin 
were to be conveyed to the frontier nearest their own country, while the 
Chinese converts were required, like the Buddhists, to return to their 
secular duties. As there were 3,000 priests or monks affected by the 
edicts, it is obvious that the congregations cannot have consisted ex- 
clusively of foreigners, and the clash of different proselytizing sects, com- 
peting for the contributions of the ignorant populace, was particularly 
abhorrent to the rulers. The banished religions were those of Ta-tsin, 
which is described as " a kind of Fo religion," and is certainly Christianity, 
and that of Mou-hou-fou, a name which suggests Mohamedanism, though 
the description given answers better to some form of Magianism or Mani- 
chajism { imported from Persia. 

It is curious that at the same time (845 A.D.) the control of the surviving 
monasteries was put under the Chinese Foreign Office, for the very logical 
reason that " the religion of Fo came from India/' The official religion 
was a part of the internal polity of the realm, and the Board of Rites could 
no more be asked to look after foreign superstitions than a European 
minister of religion to look after secular education. 

1 According to Ma-udi. the Manich-.eans had considerable influence in Eastern 

Turkestan, as late as 044 a.i'j. Kinistan, a name sometimes sup] - I ' let to 

Samarcand, is also used [lluudahcsh, w. 29; S.B., v. pp. 59. 2901 for Sinik, the 

try of the Senior Chine-e ; and there are either indications in the L'ehlevi texts if 

Persian intercourse with China and Chinese dependencies. 



150 OWNERSHIP IX CHINA. 

§ 4. Agrarian Economy of the Tang. 

The encyclopaedist Ma-twan-lin mentions the period between 627 and 
649 a.I). as the last, during which the Government attempted to restore 
the old agrarian customs. It may be doubted whether the revival can 
have been actually carried out all over the empire, but the intention was 
to give every householder one lot of land for perpetual, and another, con- 
sisting of orchard, for temporary ownership, the last answering to the duty 
fields of the .Sony. These lots as a rule were to consist of eighty and 
twenty mow respectively, and the repartition took place after the last of the 
crops were gathered in. The restrictions on sales, enforced by the Yuen 
Wei, were retained, but land might be pledged by an absentee owner, who 
had no natural representatives to occupy it for him, and a cultivator, 
desirous of migrating to another district, might sell his allotment and 
employ the purchase money in obtaining another elsewhere. 

The limits on purchases were evaded by rich men who bought land in 
the name of agents or farmers, and the practice of subletting, which reached 
a considerable development under the Sung, seems to have originated at 
this time, as the reserves of State land became exhausted and the low 
official rent ceased to act as a check upon private owners. The fixity ot 
tenure allowed by the State to its tenants contributed to this result, for 
land, let to one generation after another, came to be regarded as private 
property subject to land tax. which it resembled in all particulars except 
the original title. 

It had formerly been a maxim of State that the land tax should be paid 
by the occupier, who was normally also the owner ; but as the effect of the 
redistribution of lands at the beginning of the dynasty wore off, some of 
the cultivators fell again into poverty and the land tax into arrears. Yang- 
j in, one of the innovating financiers, then hazarded the startling doctrine 
that it did not matter who paid the taxes provided enough was paid. 1 He 
therefore introduced a new plan of taxing artisans and tradesmen, so as to 
make the personal tax of these classes as remunerative as the land tax. A 
great development of trade is said to have followed this measure, so we 
must suppose that previously the Government had put difficulties in the 
way nt the cultivators leaving the land for other pursuits. The same 
principle served to justify the indulgence now extended to the rich pro- 
prietors who undertook to pay the personal taxes of their dependants, 
while taking their chance of evading the kind tax altogether. The increase 
111 the amount levied gave the landless poor an additional motive for 
accepting the protection thus offered, without regard to its probable 
ulterior results. 

Taxation was on the whole much heavier than under the Hans. hue 

demand for monev payments in 766 a. p. was in itself burdensome, and 

when three years later this was commuted into a biennial grain payment, 

rop rtion of the produce taken, in the case of tiie more fertile binds, 

! A> .*'.' '.' '. / • G .. p. 20: jiiirn. As., iSjS, p. .500. 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 151 

was nearer 25 than 10 per cent. Another account describes the people as 
divided into three classes, each comprising three sections and paying a 
kind of graduated income tax ranging from 4,000 tsien in the highest of 
the first class to 500 in the lowest of the third class. 1 The rate of pay- 
ment is thus twenty times as much as that paid by an ordinary cultivator 
under the Mans ; but the great falling off in the number of the taxpayers 
is the cause of the apparent increase. 

Vang-jin, already quoted as maintaining that it did not matter who paid 
the taxes, gave, in the early years of Te-tsong (780 A. n.), the formal sanction 
of the exchequer to the feudalizing tendency of rich landowners, by taxing 
the estate as a whole, and making the landlord responsible for taxes levied 
on all the landless families settled under his protection. Free labourers 
with no fixed settlement or occupation were called "strangers;''' and as 
this class increased in numbers, the loss to the revenue, from the impos- 
sibility of taxing the migratory poor, became considerable. 

'five ncx measure, though taxing land which had previously escaped, 
was not unpopular with the rich, because it gave for the first time a kind 
of legal sanction to the system of '•agglomeration;' - ' and by allowing, so 
to speak, the lord of the manor to stand between the State and the culti- 
vators, it sanctioned his usurpation of those imperial functions which had 
hitherto been sedulously guarded. The State, in fact, waived its right of 
determining what burdens should be imposed on the peasantry, in order 
to facilitate the collection of revenue, and the result was much the same as 
in the case of more deliberate attempts at farming the taxes. The new 
feudal chiefs used their power to make themselves independent of the 
Crown, the land tax became a sort of tribute, to be refused by those who 
were strong enough to do so with impunity, and the gradual decay of the 
imperial authority which led to the fall of the dynasty, was held to begin 
with this surrender of direct, influence. 

In somewhat the same way, though more legitimately, the revival of the 
village system was used as a means of increasing the corvees, which at 
this time formed a serious and unpopular burden. The payment required 
in lieu of personal services was three times as much as that paid for the 
duty fields, and instead of the three days' labour required by the Chow Li, 
it was regarded as a concession to demand only twenty-two days' labour in 
the year. Individual labourers apparently had succeeded in evading the 
demands on them, and the labour tax was therefore assessed upon the 
village as a whole, so that the local authorities were obliged in self-defence 
to force all the inhabitants to contribute. The central government was 
apt to transfer unpopular duties like this to the village authorities in other 
cases. Thus, for example, in 683 A.D., when the issue of counterfeit 
money was punished by death, the neighbours in towns and villages were 
made responsible for each other, so as to prevent tacit complicity. 

As an encouragement to agriculture, newly reclaimed land was allowed 
to be held h~tc of tax, and it is significant of the depressed state in which 
'/«"•". A:., I.e., p. 299. 



152 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

the cultivators found themselves, that this permission was followed by 
complaints that the old taxed land was being abandoned in favour of the 
free wastes. Several memorials were addressed to Tai-tsong, against the 
oppression caused by public works, and he was reminded of the full 
treasuries left by the deposed Souy Dynasty, to show how little a ruler is 
likely to gain by economies made at the expense of his subjects. Through- 
out the prosperous times of the dynasty, it seems to have been a standing 
source of surprise and disappointment to the more thoughtful politicians, 
that the common people were not as much better off as was to be expected 
from the aggrandizement of the empire ; and the only explanation that 
presents itself is that the Government was more expensive as well as 
stronger than its predecessors. 

The emperor Te-tsong (779-802 a.d.) is reported to have held a conversa- 
tion with a peasant, whom he met, when incognito, on a hunting expedition, 
which explains why even the best days of the Tang Dynasty fail to rank 
among the golden ages of popular tradition. Instead of the lawful tribute 
collected twice a year from the cultivator, this rustic complains that he is 
burdened with all sorts of mysterious and additional charges. He has to 
deliver the grain at court himself, without being paid a better price than 
when the Government collected it, though he has either to hire animals to 
bring it or wear out his own on the journey ; and when by any chance a 
favourable harvest might make amends for his losses, he is obliged to sell 
his surplus at the lowest price and buy it back again at the highest, the 
first time he is in want. 1 In other words, the abuse which Ma-twandin 
describes under the name of "grain purchase by agreement" was rife at 
this time, and the so-called voluntary contract was forced on the helpless 
cultivators by the ever-growing army of tax collectors. 

An apologue, by Lin-tsung-yuan (773-819), the philosophic defender of 
buddhism against the diatribes of Han-wen-kung, represents the people as 
suffering quite as much from the indiscreet zeal of their rulers as from 
direct oppression. A certain market gardener"- is described as famous be- 
cause everything he plants is sure to thrive, and bear fruit or flowers early 
and abundantly. He is asked to describe his method, and explains that 
it (''insists only in letting tilings alone, in not worrying the plants with 
watching or training, but allowing them to grow as nature prompts when 
they are once well planted in good soil. He is asked it these principles 
can be applied to government. "Ah," he replied, "1 only understand 
nursery gardening ; government is not my trade. Still, in the village 
where I live, the officials are for ever issuing all kinds of orders, as it' 
^really compassionating the people, though really to their utter injury, 
Morning and night the underlings come round and say, ' His honour bids 

1 I v Mailla. vi. p. 350. \\. the -ame reign it was complained of as a serious griev- 
ance thai an avaricious mini-ter I. il ! to provide the troops called out for a campaign 
ivil full rations, ii 1 to the pay reserved for the maintenance ol their families. 

It \vn c-timated that their li ;. pay was practically tripled during their time ol 
■ !ive s r vi e. I /' . . p. 33 I.) 

- I leii'crt ( ii'e-. '.J, ;n uf Chin Literature,^*. [48. 



THE TANG DYNASTY. 153 

us urge on your ploughing, hasten your planting, and superintend your 
harvest. Do not delay with your spinning and weaving. Take care of 
your children. Rear poultry and pigs. Come together when the drum 
beats. Be ready at the sound of the rattle.' Thus are we poor people 
badgered from morn till eve. We have not a moment to ourselves. How 
could any one flourish or develop under such conditions ? " 

The fable, which is evidently by a disciple of Chuang-tze, has an 18th 
century sort of sound, which makes it difficult to realize that it comes to us 
from the age of Egbert, but there is at least no difficulty in understanding 
how even a well-meaning oriental Government at that date might over- 
govern and over-burden its subjects in the name of progress. Like the 
contemporary secularism of Han-yu, the fabulist's belief in free industry 
survives in modern China, less as a speculative opinion than as an organic 
habit of mind and manners. 

There is a Chinese proverb : " When swords are rusty and spades 
bright, prisons empty and granaries full, the steps of the temples covered 
with mud and the courts of the tribunals filled with grass, doctors on foot 
and bakers on horseback, when old men and children abound, the empire is 
well governed." Except with regard to the frequentation of temples, the 
Tang Dynasty did not as a rule stand very high in its conformity to these 
tests. The whole period was one of increasing commercial activity rather 
than one of increasing industrial prosperity. Both industry and commerce 
were hampered by Government interference, which was at least as often as 
not of an interested kind, and, as we have seen, resulted in the conversion 
of some of the leading writers of the day to the doctrine of laissez faire in 
its most extreme form. 

But some of the legislation was honestly' meant to check the danger of 
excessive inequality in the distribution of wealth, to which the Government 
had always been alive ; and even the clumsy restrictions on trade, in the 
supposed interest of the treasury, had at worst the same tendency. No 
country in the wond has really less to gain than China by foreign commerce, 
and, blunder for blunder, it is less unintelligent for a Government which 
distrusts the mercantile class to discourage trade by legislative restraints, 
than for those which intend to promote trade and manufactures to hamper 
both by would-be protective regulations, such as were universally believed 
in by European rulers till within the last century or two. 

The Chinese method of utilizing experiments in the art " how not to 
do it " is in the main negative. When legislation of one sort has missed 
its aim or proved vexatious in fresh ways, the legislation is allowed to 
drop ; it is not thought necessary to try a new plan at the risk of new 
inconveniences. The State learns what to let alone, and the people profit 
by their widening liberties to do for themselves what the Government had 
failed to do for them. The result is that industry and commerce are at 
the present moment more entirely left to themselves in China than in 
any other civilized country, with in the main satisfactory results. But it 
is only just to her earlier rulers to point out that this paradisaical state of 



154 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

laissez faire was not reached by popular wisdom, in spite of State bungling, 
but under cover of legislation, wise and otherwise, yet, in the main, de- 
signed to compass the identical results which now commend themselves to 
public opinion in the Middle Kingdom. In other words, the experience 
of China proves that the industrial condition of a country may be per- 
manently influenced by its legislation, when that legislation gives voice to 
powerful and deep-rooted national tendencies. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHINESE FINANCE FROM THE II AN TO HIE TANG DYNASTY. 

The leading ideas and recurring difficulties of Chinese financiers did not. 
undergo any material change between the Han and the Tang Dynasties. 
One of the chief difficulties of the Government, the prevalence of illicit 
coining, was mainly owing to the simplicity of the mode, still in use. of 
casting money — a process which was easily imitated. Some ancient moulds, 
as well as coins, have been found, and in some cases the forger actually 
renders a service to the antiquary by preserving a piece which is ancient 
in everything except the date of casting. A curious bird-headed piece in 
the British .Museum is a forgery of this kind, 1 representing a rare issue, 
dated between the T'sin and the Han. The legend has some reference to 
measures of corn, and it may possibly have been mure like the tea or salt 
bonds of later times than a regular money. 

Another curious, half scarab-shaped piece is known only from Chinese 
works. Members of the Han-lin College, towards the end of the Tang 
Dynasty, deciphered, but did not interpret, the characters on it. The 
collector must have begun his work in China with the literary revival of 
the Han. Quotations from native catalogues of collections made in the 
6th century a.i>., are met with in recent native works, and M. Terrien de 
la Couperie refers to five such of the present century which " are remark- 
able for the accuracy of their reproductions of coins, engraved from actual 
rubbings." 2 Indeed, it is probable that coins have been regarded as his- 
torical records, and consequently of value as such, for nearly as long as 
they have been in use. 

Twenty years after the establishment of the Han Dynasty, another 
attempt at an enlarged issue was made with eight-tchu pieces ; eleven years 
later Han-wu-ti issued cash of four tchu again ; but free trade in coin was 
already permitted (177 li.c.) in the hope of putting down illicit coining. 
It was only stipulated that private mints should conform to the official 
standard of weight, shape, and purity. :! Under the Chow, kings and princes 
'had coined money in such quantities as suited themselves, leaving traders 
and towns to provide for their own needs as they pleased. It was not till 
the central authority was powerful enough for its issues to be generally pre- 
ferred that the temptation to fraudulent coining began ; and the toleration 

1 Catalogue of Chinese Coins, p. xxi. 

- lb. . lwiii. 

'■' Mini ire sitr L Sys'iim monetairc des Chinois, par E. Bint, Journ. As., 1 S 3 7 . i>. 447. 



156 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

of free trade in money, which seems so paradoxical, all through the financial 
history of China, is really to be explained by this early experience, that it 
would not pay to counterfeit the money of the State, if there were a number 
of equally popular mints open. 

About t'ne middle of the 2nd century B.C., a prince of Wei issued a success- 
ful round money with rimmed edges; and a coinage, of which no specimens 
remain, was cast at the same time in North Sz'chuen, by Teng T'ung, the 
man whose name stands as a proverb, like that of Croesus, for the uttermost 
possibilities ot wealth. He had a concession to work the copper mines of 
Va-chu-fu in that province ; and, while Ids money was preferred on account 
of its purity to that of the Covernment, the great wealth he had accumulated 
was regarded as a warning against the toleration of such monopolies in 
private hands. In the year 135 B.C., free coining was again forbidden, and 
ancient coins, knife, leaf, saddle, and other old currencies were demonetized. 
In 1 1 y a white metal currency of tin and silver was tried, and in the fol- 
lowing year Han-wu-li issued tiie favourite tchu coinage, which remained 
a standard down to the Tang Dynasty. The new cash were made with a 
rim to prevent forgery. The edict of 135 must have been disregarded, for 
Wu-ti issued another in 112 B.C., suppressing private mints, and ordaining 
that the most skilful of the coiners should be employed in t'ne Imperial 
Mint. He at the same time appointed three officers to watch over the 
currency, and the money issued at this period became, and long continued, 
exceedingly popular. It must be admitted that the Chinese Government 
was hardly dealt with in the matter of coining, for if it issued good money 
it was clipped, and base coin made of the clippings, while if it issued bad 
coins the people declined to use them, multiplying instead imitations ot 
the earlier issues it preferred. In 190 A.D., coins were cast like those ot 
Wu, only without tiie rim, which used to be clipped off. 

It is almost incomprehensible that the nation which first invented 
letters of credit, exchequer bonds and bank notes, should have been so 
slow to adopt the use of money at all, and should have continued to limit 
its currency to the tiny copper coins of which a hundred pounds worth 
weighs a ton. Vet if t'ne question is looked at. as the advisers of the best 
emperors always sought to look at it. from the point of view ot the small 
cultivator's interest, it is not so evident what this class had to gam by the 
introduction of a gold or silver coinage. So long as the Government 
allowed the taxes to be paid 111 kind, t'ne villagers only needed money to 
effect occasional exchanges of produce, or for small marketings, both ot 
v. ii h might at times take tiie form of simple barter. The value ot the 
coins could hardly be too trilling when their chief function was to enable 
one villager to pay another for a handful of seed or a pair ot sandals. 

The transactions of tiie merchant, who bought the produce at one dis- 
trict in order to sell it in another, were normally upon something the same 
scale. The primitive merchant is little more than a carrier, and it is only 
in the case ot exceptional commodities, like rare drugs and precious stones 
or metal.-, tiiat the load, personally convoyed by a single dealer, can re- 



CHINESE FINANCE. 157 

present much wealth. Any rudimentary tendency amongst traders to 
convert their whole store of useful commodities, i.e. their private capital 
into coin, to be spent in buying up commodities for sale at an advanced 
price, would have seemed to the legislators of the period as a diversion 
of industry from its proper functions, which should, as far as possible, be 
discouraged and deprived of all convenient implements. As la petite eidture 
has been advocated by modern economists in the West, ia petite commerce 
would have been deliberately defended, by all the generations of Chinese 
statesmen, whose policy has actually resulted in making every other China- 
man a little trader. 

If the coinage was scarce, inconvenient, or unpopular, the people readily 
improvised standards of value, and used handfuls of grain for small change, 
and lengths of silk for larger values, as, to this day. salt is used in Yunnan 
and brick tea in Mongolia. Additional taxes, however oppressive, did not 
increase the demand for coin, as salt, iron, wine, and other articles, on 
which duties were from time to time imposed, were all as acceptable to the 
treasury as the normal payments of grain. A small token coinage seemed 
to meet the practical needs of the people, and the ideal of the Government 
thenceforward seems to have been, more or less consciously, to bar the way 
to accumulation by not recognising money as a commodity at all. 

The Chinese emperor had less to gain than most European princes by 
tampering with the currency, because there was no public debt, and most 
Government expenses were borne locally, while salaries still consisted 
partly in allowances of grain. And provided the Government were honestly 
intent on doing so, it would have no more difficulty in limiting the issue 
of a token coinage, which represented the circulating surplus of silk and 
grain, than in limiting the issue of a token coinage representing the pro- 
portion of gold or silver available as money. The functions of such a 
token coinage are necessarily limited ; but it is admitted by economists 
that a community, which agreed to use the tokens as machinery for the 
exchange of commodities, would not find the comparative value of the 
goods themselves affected by its substitution for metal. 

Some of the economic heresies of the Chinese seem to have been on 
the whole original and peculiar to themselves. The words used to de- 
scribe money as cheap or dear have reference to weight, not price or 
scarcity. Money is "heavy." i.e. dear, when a coin of fixed nominal 
value will buy a larger weight of commodities than usual, and it is "light," 
or cheap, when the reverse is the case. But by a confusion of ideas, 
such as abound in the history of economic speculation, it seems to have 
been thought that the value of the money, or its purchasing power, could 
be increased by the simple increase of its weight: 1 in fact, it was proposed 
to aim at the desirable result of cheap commodities and "* heavy '" money 
by raising the value of the money issued. The quantity of copper coin 

1 I: is recorded that in 524 B.C. the emperor was desirous of having "large money" 
cast, and was dissuaded from doing so by his council, so currency questions were evi- 
dently discussed at an early period. 



158 OWNERSHIP IN CHIN si. 

in circulation remaining the same, of course, the people suffered incon- 
venience from not having money small enough to serve for trifling trans- 
actions; but the error of the Government was not more gross, and certainly 
more disinterested, than the far more common mistake made in the 
opposite direction, by rulers who have expected to enrich themselves, 
without impoverishing their subjects, by issuing "light" money at the 
nominal price of " heavy." In the " Rites of Chow," one of the recognised 
methods of regulating prices is tor the State to issue money when prices 
are high, and to withdraw from circulation the cash received in payment 
of taxes when they are low. 1 One of the arguments urged against free 
coining 2 is based on the inexpediency of surrendering this part of the 
supreme power. " Riches are the handle held by the riders of men," and 
to give up the handle is to endanger the rule. 

The currency continued to be a source of great embarrassment, and 
from time to time the Government was on the [joint of reverting to the use 
of silk ami grain as a medium of exchange instead of copper, though a 
very short experience showed that it was as easy to tamper fraudulently with 
the natural weights of these substances as to manufacture copper money 
with an undue proportion of alloy. One of the nameless emperors, whom 
history knows only as "the Deposed," in 465 A.D., reverted to the experi- 
ment of Wen-ti, and allowed the people to cast their own money; the result 
was seen in the production of diaphanous tokens, fit, according to the 
contemporary phrase, to " float on water or fly in the wind," of which it 
took ten thousand to pay for a bushel of rice.'' This license was nonii- 
nallv withdrawn in 494; but there was still no uniformity, and each district 
did the best it could for itself, using silk and grain whenever the copper 
money was hopelessly depreciated. 

The Leang Dynasty issued iron money, which was open to all the same 
objections as the copper ; and, for a short time, tin was used in addition 
to grain and silk. This dynasty has also the credit of a curious device 
for testing the value of the coin in circulation in different districts. It was 
proposed to send silk worth two hundred good copper coins for sale in 
different parts of the country, which in some places fetched as much as 
three hundred coins, "not because the side was higher valued, but because 
the money was debased." J In the Northern Empire at the same time the 
salaries of officers were paid alternately in silk or copper, while private 
coining was allowed, providing the Government standard of purity was 
adhered to. 

d'iie short-lived Sony Dynasty set itself seriously to do away with the 
multiplicity of coins of every degree of worthlessness. Payment for 

' A> tin" bank ol I .-.,._'.. n I i lis •- the rate of discount when money is scarce. 

'-' YY. \'i>-rriiiL, r , On dim , Currenry, p. 36. 'l'liis useful essay consists of translations 
from Ma-iwan-lin\s ^real work, in which the very words of ancient speakers or 
nieiiioriali.-s art.: reproduced for the instruction of posterity. Reviewed by Sir John 
Lubbock. Xiii< t,rnl>, Cenfnry, Nov. 1S70. 

" / urn. A . (An;.), 1837, p. loo. Catalytic of Chinese Coin;, p. 425. 

4 'Vi,,eiin-, p. 91. 



CHINESE FINANCE. 159 

officers' salaries, taxes, octroi and market duties were accepted in the old 
money, which, as it came in, was broken up and the metal appropriated 
by the administration. Five of the old issues were tolerated, but any 
other money found in circulation was confiscated. Unfortunately for the 
success of these reasonable measures, the trade of the coiner was always 
briskest when the copper coinage was unadulterated ; and it was in vain 
that the State prohibited the working of tin and lead mines, which had 
hitherto been free, so as to monopolize the illicit as well as the lawful 
materials used. Before the fall of the dynasty, things were as bad as ever, 
and the people practically used for purposes of exchange any article — 
cloth, grain, paper, or metal — which was in common demand and easily 
divisible. 

The fact that the copper tsien had always been cast, instead of stamped 
or hammered, of course made the coiners' work easier ; but this would 
not of itself make the work so profitable, as to explain why the offence 
continued for ages to be so common, that the Government was again and 
again compelled to condone it. In 713 A.D. a million bushels of grain 
were issued from the public storehouses and sold to the people, payment 
being accepted in the counterfeit coins, which it was desired to call in and 
destroy, an end which could not be secured by penal measures. 

The explanation of the forgers' persistency is so simple that nothing 
but force oi habit can have prevented its discovery by Chinese financiers. 
The State charged 25 per cent, for manufacture. The copper coinage was 
never really adequate to the commercial requirements of the people, so 
that private coiners of good money were meeting a real want while 
realizing a satisfactory profit to themselves. The trade was therefore not 
regarded as essentially discreditable, and to allow private issues of copper 
coin was no more considered as a concession to the criminal classes than 
the license given to bankers to issue private notes. But the mistaken 
habit of charging 25 per cent, on the cost of the metal and labour 1 clung 
to the private mints, and hence free competition did nothing to put down 
forgery. 

The total supply of copper was not materially increased by the abolition 
of the Government monopoly, and the comparative scarcity of good money 
made the manufacture of bad money always a possible source of profit, 
till the competition of private debasers forced other private issuers to 
lower their standard of quality. So that an increase of the currency, which 
was not excessive in quantity, led to its depreciation, because needlessly 
associated with its debasement. It seems simply not to have occurred to 
any one that the whole difficulty would disappear, if the State issued at 
cost price as much money as was required for circulation, and allowed free 
trade in copper for other purposes. 

As it did neither, the two mistakes aggravated each other. Copper 
was largely in demand for the construction of Buddhist images, and in- 
creasingly so for the manufacture of various domestic utensils. As the 
1 fount. As., I.e., p. 1 iS. 



160 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

copper mines were a Government monopoly, metal for these purposes 
could only be obtained by melting down the best of the current coins. 
This was illegal, but of course even more impossible to prevent than the 
manufacture of base coin, and, being illegal, its results in making good 
money scarce were not provided against by fresh issues. 

The first decree limiting the amount of copper, lead, or tin, to be 
possessed at one time by a single person, was issued in 769 a.d. ; and it 
seems to have been aimed merely at the coiners, on the supposition that 
no one else would think of hoarding a large stock of such metals. The 
small coiners, who carried on their trade in river boats, had a stock worth 
at most a few pounds, and it was thought feasible to prevent the storage of 
metal in quantities sufficient to make more than ten or twelve taels, or 
strings of a thousand tsien. The forger's industry, like all others, was 
carried on upon a modest scale, and any larger stock would have been 
sufficient for a brisk trade. 

The accumulations attacked in the second edict are on a much larger 
scale. Whether at the expense of the suffering peasantry or the imperial 
treasury, or from the profits of foreign trade, large fortunes had by this 
time begun to he amassed by individuals, who. unmindful of the lessons 
of Chao-tso. had transmuted them into the most precious metals in reach, 
so that there were actually individuals whose hoards of copper money 
were worth, according to M. Biot's estimate, something like ,£150.000 
sterling. 1 When the purchasing power of money at this time is con- 
sidered, the amount seems incredible ; however, only five officers are said 
to have had as much as this, and they may have held lucrative govern- 
ments and taken toll of the taxes. These moneys, we are told, were 
intended to be used in buying lands, and the alleged motive of the edict 
was to prevent the accumulation of large estates in the hands of a ic\\\ 
who would turn the cultivators into mere servants or tenants. 

No person, of whatsoever class, noble, scholar, merchant, or priest, was 
to be allowed henceforward to keep in his own hands more than 5.000 
strings of cash, or at the same rate of valuation as before, about ^.£, r.'oc. 
A month's grace was given to put the surplus coin in circulation, while 
the officers were condemned offhand to surrender one-fifth of their, pro- 
bably ill-gotten, gams. Some of the hoards consisted of old metal issues, 
since proscribed, and kept by speculators in the hope of their being 
tolerated, and therefore worth more as coin in future than as metal at the 
moment. Th s. of course, tended to defeat the intention of the Govern- 
ment in calling in these c >ins : but the offence is quite different from that 
of having too mm h ready money to invest in land on the one hand, or of 
withdrawing too much ot the lawful coin of the realm from circulation on 
the other. 

All the ec itiomic ideas of the time, and especially those relating to the 
currency, o much at variance with European usages and principles 

that it :- diffi lit to 1 e -are of our ground in any interpretation: but it 

1 / ., «..-/- .... p. I2S. 



CHINESE FINANCE. 161 

seems as if the speculators of the period had been addicted to " forestall- 
ing," or something of the kind, in relation to the copper currency. Money 
being scarce, prices were always low ; but for some purposes money was 
indispensable, especially when the Government interfered with the popular 
attempts at self-defence against the scarcity, by forbidding the use of silk 
and grain for exchanges.' On such occasions one may feel sure that 
copper money was not to be bought in small quantities by the people 
from the capitalists — who were aggravating the scarcity by locking up their 
coin — at a cost at all proportioned to the value of the copper regarded as 
a commodity, or even to the price at which it came from the mint. 

Ma-twan-lin criticises the measure as ill-judged, on the ground that it 
would be better to attack the evil complained of, directly, and forbid the 
acquisition of landed properties beyond a certain size. It should be the 
object, he assumes, of the Government so to administer the national 
wealth as to equalize as far as possible the fortunes of the rich and poor, 
but from this point of view he regards the landowner as a more dangerous 
enemy than the capitalist. Those who buy land do so in order to keep 
it, those who amass money do so in order to profit by circulating it : and 
when commodities are cheap, self-interest alone, he thinks, would suffice 
to make the accumulators unlock their money-bags. 

Of course we should not expect a contemporary of Chaucer to be an 
infallible authority as to the economic problems of the reign of Alfred, 
and it seems certain, whether the Sung writer understood the bearing of 
the fact or not, that the Tang Emperors felt their own prerogative and 
the common weal to lie menaced by the accumulation in private hands 
of wealth, vast enough to affect the general range of prices by its use or 
withdrawal from use. They seem to have suspected the moneyed classes 
of conspiring to " bear " the price of land and agricultural commodities, 
which was in effect to aim at undermining tiie national wealth ; and no 
measures taken to prevent such a result were likely to be thought 
arbitrary in China. The Government, by forcing all the holders of capital 
to realize at the same time, certainly obliged them to do so on disadvanta- 
geous terms, as shown by a passage referring to the legislation of Si 7 a.u., 
which concludes : " Then the people bought on a large scale farms and 
houses to convert their fortune, and precious things fetched a high price : ' : '-' 
a result which must have been satisfactory to the Government, as the 
coffers of the accumulators were drained by the high prices they had to 
pay. 

The mutual denunciations of officers and merchants, jealous of each 
other's wealth, also helped to make it easier for the Government to 
-: squeeze '' both in succession. At one moment foundries were granted 
to princes and high minister-, like the Stuart monopolies, as a sort oi 

1 \)y a decree of 734 a.!)., it was forbidden to measure silk by feet and in ! -. 

Ifuls, as urns oi exchange. This was repeale . .. . : 

end 01 the :entury, stones for grinding rice were received as '"money of an ir.t: de 
v ilue," and exchanged at the rate of one for ten copper cash. 

J \ i-ering, p. 123. 

VOL. II. — I'.C. M 



1 62 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

license to grow rich. At another (738) the old experiment of free trade 
in coining was revived. The arguments formally adduced on both sides 
of the latter question have been preserved, and the balance of opinion 
seemed unfavourable to the course. " If you allow private persons to 
cast money, the poor will not be rich enough to be able to do it ; and if 
the rich families occupy themselves with it, they will steal the more, and 
the poor will grow poorer and more overawed by the power of the rich. 
Free coining caused princes under the Hans to be as rich as the emperor.'' 
If private coining is allowed and is profitable, other trades will be deserted 
for it ; but if the quantity of coin is kept up by the State, there is no such 
tempting profit without adulteration. " When commodities are cheap, 
this is prejudicial to agriculture, and when the money is base it affects 
trade, therefore the duty of a good ruler is to control the relative value of 
commodities and the quality of money." 1 

Many of the phrases used show that the value of the copper coins ran 
up simply because there were not as many of theai as were required for 
use. The quality remained good in the capital, but vast loads of it were 
transported, and rich merchants were accused of gradually collecting the 
good money to sell it to the false coiners of Kiang-hoai. The Government 
could not make up its mind whether to suppress or take part in the 
financial speculations of the age. The Government monopoly of copper, 
as already observed, had the effect of compelling those who required that 
metal, for any other purpose than as money, to melt down the copper 
coinage and recast the metal. As the nominal value of the copper money 
was 25 per cent, above its cost, this was a serious tax upon the copper- 
smith's trade; and as the trade flourished nevertheless,- while the Govern- 
ment had to issue fresh coins to make up for what was melted, it occurred 
to some inventive Chancellor of the Exchequer that the State itself had 
better turn coppersmith, and sell manufactured articles at the advanced 
price fixed by its own fancy valuation of the raw material. 

It was not proposed to increase the output of copper from the State 
nunc-, but the amount of metal formerly allotted to make coin for a cer- 
tain district was ordered instead to be delivered at court and worked up 
into articles for ordinary use. The profit on this undertaking was so large 
that tile State was tempted to over-reach itself, and so many provincial 
copper foundries were opened that supply began to overtake demand, and 
the price of coj per fell. Then attempts were made to suppress all private 
foun iries. and on their failure a still more absurd enactment was passed, 
requiring ail manufactured articles of copper, however elaborate the 
workmanship. : ) be sold by weight at the same rate as the current c tin. 
This, of 1 urse, could not be carried out, and trade was still furthei dis- 
till! :d 1 ■ \ . -' ) is chei .:- '.in the circulation of money between different 
provim es, octrui duties being imposed on its exportation. 

; Vi, L-rir.-. ; . 1 : . 

i;u '. - -in . . :. in cr,.-h wa.- ;6o ve-r cent. 



CHINESE FINANCE. 163 

This fresh blunder seems to have led the way to a valuable innovation, 
and the first use of a kind of paper money in the shape of treasury bonds. 
In 807, ten years before the edict against hoarding coin, the Emperor 
Hien-tsong required all merchants to deposit their available specie in the 
Imperial treasury in exchange for bonds called fey tsien, or " light money," 
which were payable on demand in the chief towns of the province. The 
main object of the Government was, no doubt, to obtain an immediate 
supply of cash, though the measure may also have been a first step in the 
campaign against moneyed monopolists. But it was really useful as in- 
creasing the currency to the extent of a moderate issue of bank notes, and 
as saving the merchant trouble and expense in transporting large quantities 
of the cumbrous medium of exchange. 

The gain to the merchants was more obvious than that to the court, 
and when the fey tsien were abolished, provincial governors sent in me- 
morials begging for their continuance, with a special view to prevent 
hoarding and low prices. As already described, the hoarding of copper 
money was about to be attacked more directly, but fey tsien were issued 
again in return for deposits of salt and iron, and they were allowed to 
serve as a medium of exchange between the merchants of the capital and 
the provinces. 

All this time gold and silver were too scarce to count for much in the 
financial problems of the time. In 683 A.D. the exportation of grain to 
foreign parts had been prohibited, ostensibly because the strange money 
received in payment interfered with the ordinary exchanges, but more 
probably because the immediate result of such an export trade was to in- 
crease the treasure hoards of rich traders, and diminish the grain reserves 
of the cultivators. In the 9th century gold and silver were put into cir- 
culation to a limited extent by the Government itself, apparently with the 
intention of raising prices, but with the result of lowering them still 
further, it is hard to say why, unless copper was withdrawn from circulation 
faster than the gold was brought into it. This may well have been the 
case as, in 825 a.d., new edicts forbade the melting copper money into 
statues of Buddha, under the same penalties as those attached to coining; 
and shortly afterwards, by way of conciliating the obstinate devotees, 
they were permitted to make their statues of any metal except copper, such 
as gold, silver, lead, or tin. 

The following year, 830 a.d., the regulation of 81 7 was renewed in a milder 
form. The limit of coin allowed to be hoarded by a single person was 
raised to something over /, 2x00, and a respite of a year was granted to 
those whose stores reached ^30,000, and two years to those with twice 
as much. A curious provision is added, that in transactions involving a 
-urn of ,C?)° and upwards, half the price shall be payable in silk, rice, or 
other grain ; and this device, if it could have been carried out, would have 
ruined the game of those who were speculating for a fall of prices, which 
at this rate would have told disadvantageous^ on their own bargains. 

The suppression of the monasteries in the 9th century set so much 



164 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

copper free that foundries were opened in every district, and money was 
again abundant. The supply was thus for a time independent of the 
Government mines, and the provincial Governments took advantage of this 
circumstance to propose that each province should cast its own money at 
discretion, only adhering to the Government standard of size. After this 
arrangement was adopted we hear no more of economical questions amid 
the wars and tumults which lasted till the close of the dynasty. Notwith- 
standing the chronic complaints of low prices, the cost of necessaries 
seems to have doubled since the Hans. 

Agriculture had made no progress, as the area estimated to produce a 
year's food for one person is slightly larger than before. The cost of living 
had risen to something like a halfpenny a day. A piece of silk was equal in 
value to 100 lbs. of cleaned rice ; the size of the pieces is not given, 
but then as now it would be the length woven on the loom in common 
use. and may have varied little in i.coo years. The equivalence of these 
two values is certain, but the estimate of the price in copper money in- 
volves a good deal of guess work. M. Biot's calculations would make 
both worth about y. 3d., which is intrinsically probable enough. The 
estimated consumption of rice is t 3 , lb. a day for each person, which is 
midway between average plenty and dearth according to the standard of 
the Chow Li. 1 

In 763-5 A.D., a writer attempted to calculate the amount of money re- 
quired for circulation by estimating the annual outlay of the people in rice, 
clothes, sacrifices, etc. He estimates the individual's daily consumption of 
rice at a little over two quarts, and the other items as each as much again, 
so that the general rate of expenditure upon other articles than food, re- 
garded as necessaries, had risen considerably since the time of the Wei 
peasant, whose balance sheet was drawn up under the Hans. 

1 Journ. As., I.e., p. 120. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE POSTERIOR DYNASTIES AND THE SUNG. 

(907-12S0 A.D.) 

The period of disturbance intervening between the fall of the Tang and 
the foundation of the Sung Dynasty extends over little more than half a 
century : but during this interval, fifteen emperors and five dynasties suc- 
ceeded each other. They are known as the "posterior dynasties : ' because 
they all reproduce the name of some former ruling house. The Heou or 
"after" Leang reigned for sixteen years, and their fall required little further 
explanation to posterity than that a favourite musician had been employed 
as general. The Heou Tang occupied the throne for fourteen years : the 
dynasty was founded by a son of Li-ke-yong, " the one-eyed dragon," a 
Tatar prince who had helped the last but one of the Tang emperors to 
suppress a rebellion, and who stands high in the favour of the historians. 
He is repeatedly mentioned as a loyal ally who might have saved the Crown 
if he had not been distrusted and kept unduly at a distance, on account of 
his extraction. 

The name of the short-lived dynasty was adopted as a compliment to 
their former patrons. The first emperor of the stock was an enthusiast for 
the stage, and comedians are mentioned as taking the place of eunuchs in 
his favour. They not only enjoyed the license accorded to court fools in 
mediaeval Europe, but (924 a.d.) one of them was appointed to an impor- 
tant governorship, and they and the eunuchs together had influence enough 
to discredit any statesman who sought to reduce the expenditure of the 
court. 

Two measures of far-reaching consequences were taken in the middle of 
this 10th century; one was the sub-division of provincial governorships, 
which increased the number of officers who could look to the Crown for 
profitable emplpyment, while it lessened each governor's power of making 
himself dangerously formidable. The Sung Dynasty subsequently reaped 
the advantage of this change ; it fell by attacks from without, not from in- 
ternal disorganization, and its feebleness in resisting the foreign foe could 
nut seriously be attributed to the decay of feudalism, since the local poten- 
tates, who flourished at the expense of the empire, had never been famous 
tor patriotic resistance to alien armies. 

The other and more calamitous step was taken when the founder of the 
third minor dynasty, the Heou Tsin (936 a.d.), summoned the Khitan 
Tatars to his assistance, offering them, in return, a share in the northern 



1 66 OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

provinces of China. He promised a yearly tribute of 300.000 pieces of 
silk, and ceded at once sixteen frontier towns, thus throwing all China open 
to the Khitan armies. Some of the ceded towns rebelled, thinking it un- 
worthy of their civilization " to submit to barbarians ;" but parts of Shansi 
and Pecheli remained in the Tatars' hands, in addition to the wide region 
on the Xorth already held by them. The Khitan Dynasty at this stage 
took the name of Leao, by which, it is afterwards known, from the province, 
Leao-tong, row in its possession; its capital was subsequently placed at 
Peking. 

The Heou Han, shortest lived of all these shortdived families, was 
founded in 947 a.d. by a general of the emperor, who had previously been 
taken prisoner by the Khitan Tatars. He fixed his capital at and fortified 
Cai-fong-fu in Honan. The third prince of the line was deposed as soon 
as proclaimed, by the leader of an army which had gained some victories 
in the north. The Heou Chow (951-9 ) are regarded with less disfavour 
by the historians than any of their predecessors, and Chi-tsong (954 a.d.), 
hist but one of the fifteen " posterior " emperors, may be held to have begun 
the work of restoration continued by the founder of the Sung Dynasty. 
Under him, we hear of a town changing hands without loss of life or dis- 
turbance of trade, and he gave his personal name to a very exquisite blue 
china, manufactured at Cai-fong-fu — a thing for collectors to dream of in 
fond despair. 

He was asked to give an order, and commanded that the china for Im- 
perial use should be henceforward " blue like the sky between the clouds 
after rain/' His instructions were obeyed, the product being as thin as 
paper, lustrous, resonant, highly polished and delicately veined ; colour and 
texture were so perfect that in later years, when it had become rare, small 
fragments of it were used for ornaments, like precious stones. 1 Chi-tsong, 
had he lived, might have founded a great dynasty : as it is, he deserves to 
be remembered kindly by all who find delight in that purest, deepest, and 
brightest of heaven's blues, which is seen in precious morsels through the 
ragged rain-clouds, and which, since his day, no human art has succeeded 
in reproducing on the lower earth. The seif-consciousness of Chinese 
civilization has been noticed already, but it is curious to find that element 
mingling in what seems so purely spontaneous an art as Chinese pottery. 3 

Chi-tsong also recommended himself to t'iie chroniclers by a revival of 
the anti-liuddhist edicts. The consent of all the elders of a family was 
required before monastic vows could be taken, and all unauthorized 
temples were ordered to be destroyed: vet there still remained 60.000 
priests and nuns within the comparatively narrow limits of the imperial 
State, and statue- of Buddha were as numerous as coin of the realm was 
scarce. Chi-tsong's treatment of the religio-financial difficulty is in the 

1 /...' IVvc.'uin C : ;:it ' . tr. S; 1 islas J'llicn, p. 12. 

- " Wiv:-]'- on . r: .' ivi.-e artio- ... to \vntc!i the shadow ist ii I ri«jjli t 1 
litrln by a 1 1 v/hil v. ill." ■;>?. by Robert K. 1) v' -■ > [ 9-b) The 

•,...-■ nisi !.■-:.■' id ■"..-. . it by for . . thelic b- :rva.ii< ■ : ; he .*: :t : r 

repr , , • 11 th . ' - ' ■ ' re ideally per; ect as they .--tand. 



THE POSTERIOR DYNASTIES AND THE SUNG. 167 

best Chinese manner. He explained that lie did not wish "to raise doubts 
amongst the people by the confiscation of the Buddhas, but," he inquired, 
are these copper statues really what is called Buddha ? he had heard that 
.he virtue of Buddha was to do good to the people, and, in that case, 
since it is for their good to have more good copper cash for use, presum- 
ably Buddha would have wished to have his statues melted ! 

A contemporary statesman ventured to suggest a doubt as to whether 
the scarcity of copper could really be accounted for by the comparatively 
small quantity used for tools and Buddhas ; and even went so far as to ask 
whether, if it were due instead to the exportation of copper, this must be 
looked upon as a calamity or loss, since commodities of some kind, and 
presumably of at least equal value, must have been received in exchange 
for it. And, though this view does not seem to have commended itself 
even to so enlightened a ruler as Chi-tsong, it is interesting as one among 
many evidences that the Chinese have not rejected without consideration 
the political and economical ideas now prevalent in Europe. 

Apart from Tatar encroachments, none of the five dynasties had been 
acknowledged in the whole, or even the greater part, of China. The Im- 
perial Dynasty held indeed the Middle State, as in the degenerate days of 
Chow, but it was surrounded by a fluctuating number of minor States, 
sometimes as many as twelve, some of which were always intriguing with 
the Tatars, while others were at war among themselves. 

The founder of the Sung Dynasty, who was known as Tai-tsou (960 a.d. ), 
had served successfully against the Tatars under Chi-tsong. When the 
latter died, leaving only an infant son. what was left of the empire was 
threatened by a coalition between the Leao and the northern Hans, who 
held Tai-yuen and a territory comprising over forty towns ; and the army 
proclaimed their favourite general by force, the people approving, and the 
nobles not venturing to oppose. The new Emperor's first thought was how 
to put a stop to the incessant revolutions of the last half-century. At the 
time of his accession, besides the Khitan empire, seven separate princi- 
palities divided with him the inheritance of Tang. These were held by 
descendants or successful rivals of the governors, who secured hereditary 
offices for themselves in the degeneracv of the empire ; and Tai-tsou's first 
object was to guard against the growth of similar dangers in the future, 
even before reclaiming the severed fiefs. 

His first centralizing measure was well adapted to put the people on his 
side. He reserved to himself the power of passing capital sentences, and 
so gave a right of appeal to the emperor from the judgment of all provin- 
cial officers ; and in the same year he withdrew from them the command 
oi provincial troops, and required them to pay all tribute in full to the 
Imperial treasury, through which disbursements for local purposes were in 
future to be made. Without control of money or troops, the highest 
officers became powerless for evil, and their ambition was driven to content 
itself with the prizes that a powerful prince could bestow, in return for 
loval and diligent service. 



i6S OWNERSHIP IN CHINA. 

It took eighteen years to subdue all the minor States so as to re-unite 
tiie empire ; the central ones between the Yellow River and the Yang-tse- 
kiang fell first with little resistance ; then the second Chow, under whom 
S/'chuen had been independent for forty years ; then the important district 
held by the southern Han, with Canton for its capital ; and, finally, the 
remainder of the south, while a voluntary cession by the prince of Wu- 
yuei added a territory nearly equal to that of the reduced empire taken 
over by Tai-tsou in 960 a.d. ; the northern Mans also surrendered voluntarily, 
and their officers were retained in the service of the emperor, whose do- 
main- thus became conterminous on the north with the empire of the Leao. 
On the accession of Tai-tsou, under a million families paid tribute to the 
empire ; but on the accession of his son, Tai-tsong (977 a.d.), the number 
had increased to nearly four millions, not so much by growth of population 
or vigilance of the revenue officers, as by the addition of whole provinces 
to the Imperial territory. By 982 a.d. it was said that the empire was re- 
united, as in the days of Han or Tang, with the exception of the ill-fated 
cessions made to the Leao. And this was undoubtedly true as regards 
China proper, though the influence and authority exercised by the greatest 
Tang emperors, beyond the natural boundaries of the country, was never 
equalled by the Sung Dynasty, even in its palmiest days. 

The last record of three departments added to the empire in 9S5 a.d. is 
interesting, as the proportion between the tribute-paying families and others 
is mentioned. 1 The district was occupied by 125 different families, to 
whom 16,000 other households paid tribute, or rent. The proportion is 
doubtless mentioned because it is exceptional, as the same proportion, 
throughout the empire, would give an incredibly large population ; but it 
is a sufficient reason for doubting whether the population ever declined as 
much as the decline in the number of tax-paying householders implies. 

The restoration of peace was celebrated by public rejoicings, and the 
empire settled down to the enjoyment of internal tranquillity, only broken 
by occasional disturbances on the frontier, the significance of which it was 
always dangerously easy to ignore. The founder of the dynasty had wished 
to establish his capital in the ancient city of Loyang, a naturally strong 
position, and nearer to the formidable Tatars on the north-west than either 
Cai-fong-fu or I'ien-chow. Tai-tsou yielded reluctantly to the persuasions 
oi the courtiers desirous of returning to the latter, but he is credited with 
a prophecy, that before a hundred years had passed, the people would be 
exhausted by the large armies necessary to protect the empire, when the 
emperor himself did not stand sentinel at the point of danger. 

Tc;.:n-tsong, the third emperor of the dynasty, succeeded to the throne 
in 007. by this tune the Khitan people had become civilized, and con- 
verted to Chinese manners and modes of government. lake their succes- 
sors, the Kin and the Mongols, they began to value their Chinese subjects, 
_ ave no trouble and paid taxes ; and to employ Chinese officers, who 
knew iiow to make the role of emperor easy as well as profitable. The 
1 I V M liV.a, v. 1. viii. p. 95. 



THE POSTERIOR DYNASTIES AND THE SUNG. 169 

boundary between the two empires had never been satisfactorily determined, 
as the Chinese had never acquiesced in the cession of territory made by 
the Heou Tsin in 937, while the Leao Government demanded the restora- 
tion of some of the ceded towns which had been retaken. Ultimately 
peace was made in 1004, in consideration of an annual payment of silk 
and money on the part of China. The Khitan prince was described in 
the treaty as the ' ; younger brother " of the emperor, and it was believed 
that a little more vigour would have secured better terms, and have saved 
the empire from future disaster by driving the Leao back to the Great Wall. 
The emperor's timidity and love of peace was held responsible for the 
error, and the remain