Full text of "Through hidden Shensi"

See other formats

o c

/^^O

H.l.H. I'RINCE CIIING.

THROUGH
HIDDEN SHENSI

FRANCIS H. NICHOLS

ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
TAKEN BY AND FOR THE AUTHOR

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK: :::::::::::::::: 1902

Published, October, 1902

TROW DIRECTORY

PRINTINQ AND eOOKBlNDING COMPANY

NEW YORK

ADS

£ MY MOTHER

I DEDICATE WHATEVER

MAY BE GOOD IN

1^ THIS BOOK

</5

PREFACE

S HEN SI is a naturally gray land of dim begin-
nings. Most of it is in the plain of Northern
Asia. Mountains, well-nigh impenetrable, sepa-
rate Shensi from the valleys of the South. It is a
land that has lingered far from world highways.
On the plain and in the mountains live a people
who have always been as they are now ; who are so
continuously old that on first acquaintance they
appear dull from sheer lack of any trace of racial
youthfulness.

But sifted into the • substratum of their char-
acter are grains of gold which have been brought
down on the stream of time from prehistoric
sources, and which gleam with an added lustre
because of the common clay in which they are
imbedded.

I had all the prejudices of the foreigner when
I first crossed the gray plain and met the old race.
They seemed then only a perpetuation of the com-
monplace ; but as I went in and out among them
they began to interest me. I found that they had

vii

PREFACE

achieved much, but were free from boasting ; that
they loved their own kind of learning ; that their
pride was tempered by reason and by the isolated
experience of their country ; that they strove to do
right as they saw the right ; that they did not
covet, and that because they had always honoured
their fathers and their mothers their days had been
longer in their land than had been the days of any
other race on earth. I came to respect their eter-
nity and to admire their love of their parents, their
ancestors, and their past.

The practical character of the work I had to
do left little room for the play of my prejudices.
I was denied the privilege of foreign condescen-
sion. I could not remain on a height contemplat-
ing the people below me. I was compelled to
meet them on their own ancient plain. As a re-
sult I came to see things in some measure through
their eyes and to accept their point of view.

I appreciated the seeming absurdity of a mod-
ern's attempt to pass the torch of an imported
civilisation to a land where its own had always
burned. I began to look upon Homeric literature
as recent, and to regard as experimental a theory
of government that began only with Magna Charta.

I have never been able to depart wholly from
this Shensi point of view. It may have found
unconscious expression in the following account of

viii

PREFACE

my travels, and in some descriptions of men and
things. For the fault of the absence from these
pages of both a militant and a missionary spirit, let
me urge in extenuation that this narrative offers no
solutions of Chinese problems, points no morals,
and draws no conclusions. It is an attempt at a
picture of Oldest China and its people as I saw
them in their land — sowing, reaping, toiling, think-
ing, and misjudging the world beyond their moun-
tains as persistently as that world misjudges them.

A WORD about the illustrations in this book.
The pictures of scenes in Sian were taken
for me by a native photographer in that city.
From him also I purchased the photograph of the
temple at Hua ih and the portraits of Rung Lu
and the Governor of Shensi.

" The Mountain Chair ; the Opium Refuge,"
and " The Opium Beggar " were given to me by
Dr. Edwards of Shansi, whose guest I was in Tai
Yuan.

The photograph of the " Gorge of the Wei
Ho " was taken for Mr. Duncan as a preliminary
exhibit to the provincial government of Shensi of
his plan for the irrigation of the Plain of Sian.

For the pictures of Han River boats I am
indebted to Rev. Mr. Harquist of Shensi, who

PREFACE

kindly obtained them for me from a missionary in
Fan Ching.

All the rest of the illustrations are the result
of a Chinese sun upon the author's own camera
films. An especial interest attaches to the frontis-
piece portrait of Prince Ching, from His High-
ness's declaration to me that it was the only pho-
tograph of him ever taken.

I WISH to make grateful acknowledgment: —
To my friend, Dr. Louis Klopsch, proprie-
tor of The Christian Herald, for his permission to
reproduce in this volume photographs taken while
representing him in Shensi.

To Dr. W. A. P. Martin, author of "The
Lore of Cathay," for his great kindness in trans-
lating for me the inscriptions of Shensi tablets that
are reproduced in these pages.

To Wang, to missionaries, to mandarins, and
to others who helped me on my way.

New York, August, 1902.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.

PAGES

Starting 1-9

Location and size of Shensi, i. Its age and isolation, i. Selection
of Sian as the city of the Imperial Exile, i. Shensi's intense hatred of
the foreigner, i. The Christian Herald {^ixmnc fund, i. My arrival in
Pekin, 2. Distance between Pekin and Sian an interval of silence, 2.
Necessary for me to go to Shensi, 2. Warnings of the dangers of the
journey, 2. Shansi massacres of missionaries, 2. My lack of extraor-
dinary bravery, 3. Confidence that no trouble awaited me, 3. China's
pledge to the allied Governments, 3. My decision to take the Chinese
at their word, 3. Obtaining Chinese Government credentials, 3. Pass-
ports from Prince Ching, 4. A Chinese sand-storm, 4. Penetrating
and overpowering, 4. Arrival at residence of His Highness, 4. Prince
Ching foremost figure in China to-day, 5. His rank and ability, 5.
His appearance, 5. His card, 6. Commonplace appearance of an
"open sesame" to China, 6. Adapting my American passport, 6.
Taking a photograph of His Highness, 7. My Chinese name, 7. My
passport and its seals, 7. Value of Prince Ching's card, 7. A Chris-
tian cook, 7. Need of an interpreter and guide, 7. First meeting
with Wang, 8. His ignorance of Shensi, 8. Starting from Chen Men
Gate, 8. Off for the land of Fuhi, 9.

CHAPTER n.
Pekin to Paoting 10-29

The road to Sian, lo. Shansi and Shensi the land of beginnings,
10. Similarity of names in native nomenclature, lo. Four stages of
the journey, lo. Struggles of the railroad through Chili, ii. An
international effort, ii. Polyglot railway construction, ii. Chinese
recent pride in the railway, ii. Heterogeneous trains and freight, 12.
The beginning of a railroad across China, 12. Paralleling an old
high road, 12. Paoting and its sand spile railroad station, 12. Eager-
ness of cart-drivers, 13. A dusty ''humbling," 13. Former mission-
ary activity of Paoting, 13. Sudden rising of Boxer storm, 13. Put-
ting out "foreign light," 14. Massacre of missionaries, 14. The
graves in the cabbage field, 14. The punishment of Paoting, 14.
"Punitive" columns, 15 Futility of opposition to Gospel, 15. The
destruction of Paoting's idols, 15. Accessibility of Paoting from

CONTENTS

PAGBa

Pekin to PaOTING — continued 10-29

Pekin the reason of the punishment, 15. The American missionary of
Paoting, 16. The spirit of forgiveness that animated his life, 16.
Gratitude of a Buddhist Priest, 16. A Christian who saved a heathen
temple, 17. Residence of the viceroy of Chili, 17. Chou Fu the
Fantai, 17. My meeting with him, 18. His advice, 18. His observa-
tions on the carrying of firearms, 18. Ting the railroad terminus, 19.
Meeting first escort, 19. Off across Chili, 19. System of travel in
China, 19. Discovery of error in treaty port opinion of Chinese, 19.
The protection afforded by Prince Ching's card, 20. A system of re-
sponsibility for the traveller's safety, 20. Protected but never " person-
ally conducted," 21. A wenshao, a bill of lading for the traveller, 21.
Its description of his credentials and his needs, 21. Sealed by the
mandarin who receives it, 21. Immunity from inns conferred by the
wenshao, 23. Horrors of Chinese inns, 22. Their inhospitable court-
yards, 22. Braying mules and domesticated hogs, 23. Kung kwans ;
official hotels, 23. The banchaiti and his duties, 23. Age of kung
kwans and their architecture, 24. The motif of right and left, 24. The
inferiority of the right hand, 24. Necessity of occupying left-hand room
in kung kwan, 25. Brick beds peculiarity of China, 25. The art of
sleeping on them, 25. Sleeping pookas, 25. A native explanation of
the reason for their discomforts, 26. Philosophy in the construction of
brick beds, 26. Kung kwan cooking and menus, 26. Foreign prej-
udice against Chinese food, 26. Vegetarian tendency and hygienic
recipes, 26. A kung kwan bill-of-fare, 27. Travelling from sunrise
to sunset, 27. The banchaiti's method of presenting his bill, 27. The
mafu, announcing the traveller's approach, 28. Taels, the bullion sil-
ver currency of China, 28. Money that is weighed and not counted,
28. Puzzling differences in scales and weight, 28. Ancient knowledge
of the decimal system, 28. Decimals in the Chou dynasty, 29.

CHAPTER III.
Across Chili 30-43

The Plain of Chili, 30. The roads of the Plain, 30. Chili roads
private property, 30. The road's condition nobody's business, 30.
Straw hats in November, 31. Liability to sunstroke, 31. A vast vege-
table garden, 31. The small size of a Chili farm, 31. Two crops every
year, 31. Cotton and tobacco in a temperate climate, 31. Donkey
operated wells, 31. Primitive artesian principles, 31. The oblivious,
blinded well donkey, 32. Pyramidal brick mile-stones, 32. Chinese
Li ; a measure of time, not of distance, 32. Road-side monuments and
their carvings, 32. Memorials of widows, 33. Imperial funds for
recognising the virtue of a widow who does not marry again, 33. Ab-
sence of isolated farm-houses ; scarcity of arable land, 33. Village
houses ; paper windows and thatched roofs, 33. Few men in the villages,
33. The village mill of Chili, 33. Women millers, 34. Grinding corn
on crippled feet, 34. Village temples and their idols, 34. Chili brick-
making, 34. Gray bricks baked by the sun, 34. A Pekinese epigram
of bricks, 35. Sinlo our first stopping-place, 35. The Sinlo mandarin,

xii

CONTENTS

PAOHS

Across Chili — contmued 30-43

35. A tea-cup conversation, 35. "The Emperor of America," 35.
The ubiquity of the Philistine, 36. Chengting and its kung kwan, 36.
Pride in a timeless clock, 36. The fords of the Huto, 36. Wading on a
river bottom, 36. Peculiarities of Chinese fording methods, 36. Fond-
ness of ponies to drink in mid-stream, 37. Sunken roads ; riding 30 feet
below the level of the plain, 37. Ravines worn by centuries of travel,

37. Sunken roads across the face of the land natural monuments of
the oldest continuous civilisation, 37. The philosophy of Chili carts,

38. Projecting axles that seem useless, 38. But in sunken roads pre-
vent broken wheels, 38. The beginning of the hill-country, 38.
Hwuyluh and the mines of North China, 38. Procession of men carry-
ing iron kettles, 38. Anthracite coal carried by donkeys, 39. Crude
methods of sawing and transporting coal, 39. Abundance of coal in
undeveloped Chinese mines, 39. Impassability of carts through the
mountains, 39. The unbroken Chinese pony, 39. His love of run-
ning away, 39. His one machine-like gait ; his endurance and persist-
ence, 40. The pony"s cornstalk food, 40. Never curried or permitted
a vacation, 49. A better road, 40. Granite paving-stones, 40.
Grooved and worn by absent wheels, 41. Ruts apparently worn cen-
turies ago, 41. Road a survival of an Imperial highway, 41. Tsingting
on the Huto, 41. A bridge that failed 150 years ago, 41. Chinese dis-
inclination to repair, 41. Fatalist belief that Tsingting must be bridge-
less, 42. My visit to the "Clever" mandarin, 42. The necessity of
imitating European methods, 42. Guides with paper lanterns, 42.
The curiosity of the townspeople, 4a. Their amusement at a conversa-
tion in English, 43.

CHAPTER IV.
Beyond the Wall of Shansi 44-55

The tablet on the boundary line, 44. Debris of the Great Wall, 44.
Disappointing brick heaps, 44. Strategic advantage of a hill-top defence,

44, Brick heaps on the ridge, 44. Wall of Shansi at right angles with
the main line, 45. Eastern boundary of Chinese Empire, 200 B.C.; re-
minder of Tartar Inroads from Chili, 45. Entering Shansi through old
bastion-towers, 45. Meeting Chinese soldiers in semi-foreign uniforms,

45. Their modern accoutrements, 45. The ''Shansi Police," 46. An
escort to Tai Yuan, 46. Description of the newly organized police, 46.
Inaugurated by the provincial government to propitiate foreigners, 46.
A wen shao not a necessary credential with the police, 47. English-la-
belled "Police stations," 47. System well organised ; rifles twenty-two
years old ; Shansi policeman a true soldier, 47. Police methods of carry-
ing the mysterious mail-bags, 48. Friendliness of a policeman ; his
knowledge of the mountains and their legends, 48. Old and new China ;
differences between Shansi and Chili, 48. Stone archways over the road,
49. Indications of an old period in architecture ; little knowledge of
curves ; square pedestals, 49. Tablets on tortoises, 49. Importance of
the tortoise in Chinese mythology, 49. Tablets to good mandarins and
Confucian teachers, 49. Shansi standards of virtue illustrated by tab-

xiii

CONTENTS

PAGES

Beyond the Wall of Shensi — continued . . . 44-55

let inscriptions, 30. Tablets supposed to be the home of departed
spirits, 50. First glimpse of "praying-trees," 50. Dwelling-places
of spirits who cure diseases, 50. Worship of trees ; testimonials in red
festoons, 50. Selection of one praying-tree from an entire grove, 51.
Terraces on the mountain-sides, 51. Scarcity of human beings, 51.
Their presence not necessary after spring planting, 51. Villages of
different construction from those in Chili, 52. Shansi houses built of
stone ; villages resembling Indian pueblos, 52. Village walls and gate-
ways ; pictures to frighten evil spirits, 52. Prosperous towns of the
mountains, 52. Ping Ting, its temple and market, white potatoes, 53.
The wall on the mountain-top ; an obstacle on the highway, 53. The
Plain the arch revealed, 53. A natural amphitheatre ; the sky and the
shadows, 54. The wall and the arch, a curtain, 54. The builder of the
archway ; his sense of beauty ; his appreciation of the point of vantage,
54, He was a Chinaman, 55.

CHAPTER V.
The Blight on the Land 56-66

Similarity of most of the mountain villages, 56. Isolated and remote
communities without "poverty alleys," 56. Villagers uniformly rich
and poor, without ambition and without discontent, 56. The occasional
blighted village, 57. Its crumbling walls, dilapidated roofs, and broken
windows, 57. Its sickly, unkempt inhabitants, 57. Dishevelled queues
and dying babies, 57. Opium the cause, 57. Opium villages disliked
by the Shansi poUce, 57. Reticence of the Shijang, 58. Opium victims
must die, 58. Introduction of opium into a village, 58. The process of
experiment, 58. Entire community begin to smoke opium, 58. It be-
comes the only interest of their lives, 58. No longer human beings ;
a company of the lost, 58. Their money spent for opium ; the death of
their village, 59. Thousands of opium victims annually in Shansi vil-
lages, 59. Opium cures and asylums, 59. Missionaries' opium refuges,

59. Small number of permanent cures, 60. Observations on a few
phases of the opium question, 60. The British Royal Opium Commis-
sion of 1893 in response to a world clamour, 60. A seven-volume report,

60. Commission's finding that opium does little harm, 61. Suitable lit-
erature for the King of Brobdignag, 61. A " reductio ad absurdum, ' ' but
supported by a voluminous testimony, 61. Mr. Duffs communication,

61. Comment on the communication from the standpoint of the Shansi
village, 62. Widespread Chinese belief in the harmfulness of opium,

62. China's darkest cloud, 63. The opinion of a Shansi Taotai, 63.
Recommendation of a man who does not smoke opium, 63. As individ-
uals Chinese to blame for persisting in the habit, 63. Impossible for
Chinese to resist subtle fascination of the drug, 63. As a nation and a
government China is not to blame, 64. China's efforts to put a stop to
the traffic, 64. Former prohibition of the cultivation of the poppy. 64.
British possession of Hong Kong ; the treaty of Tientsin, 64. Wen
Hsiang's appeal to Queen Victoria, 65. The British curt rejoinder, 65.
Present cultivation of opium by Chinese, 65. Resulting reduction of

xiv

CONTENTS

PAGES

The Blight on the Land — continued .... 56-66

revenues to the Indian Government, 65. Chinese cultivation of opium
not an argument that China desires continuance of the traffic, 66.
Laws against opium never repealed, 66. Determination of Chinese
Government to retain for its subjects the profits of the traffic, 66. The
attitude of China toward the greatest of Christian nations, 66. Western
surprise at the slow progress of gospel light in China, 66.

CHAPTER VI.
To Tai Yuan 67-84

A mountain wilderness, 67. Rain caves in the hill-sides, 67. Ravines
and precipices, 67. Cleverness of Chinese mules, 68. Camel caravans ;
meeting camels in the mountains, 68. Mongolian drivers, 68. Their
conversations in camel language, 69. Long-haul freight trains of China,
69. Camel resting-places, 69. The failure of my stirrup-straps, 69.
Slipping over a pony's head, 70. Wang and the Mafu, 70. " So I can
kick," 71. Chinese willingness to accept punishment, 71. Mountain
shrines, 71. Idolsof the three religions, 71. Few worshippers, 72. Tem-
ples a protection against evil spirits, 72. Care of the idols by the land-
owners, 72. Picturesque Imperial couriei-s, 72. System of pony relays
for carrying government despatches, 73. The speed of the courier ; his
bare head and his yellow sash, 73. My welcomersat Shou Yang ; their
aged leader, 73. The enthusiasm of the greeting, 73. Fire-crackers and
noise, 74. My recollection of my few virtues, 74. The banchaiti's ex-
planation, 74. The " missionary trouble," 74. Solicitude of Shou Yang's
mandarin, 74. Reason for my demonstrative welcome, 75. Still unap-
preciated ; attempting an address of thanks, 75. Effect of Prince Ching's
card, 75. Not a missionary, 75. The gray hills of the plateau, 76.
Tai Yuan on Sunday morning, 76. No emblems of eternal rest, 77.
The capital of Shansi, 77. Its population, business, and filth, 77. Siege
and capture of Tai Yuan by the Prince of Han. 78. Exile of the city's
inhabitants, 78. Tai Yuan's hatred of foreigners, 78. Memories of
Genghis Khan ; nearness to home of Prince Tuan, 78. His banishment
to Turkestan, 79. Rumors of another attack on foreigners, 79.
Shansi's part in the Boxer uprising, 79. Yu Hsien and his awful mur-
der of the missionaries, 79. Missionaries made prisoners in Tai Yuan,
79. Massacred at the governor's order, 80. Not the result of mob
violence, but deliberate murder, 80. Yu Hsien's suicide on order of
the Empress Dowager, 80. My meeting with Shen Tun Ho, head of
foreign office, 80. His English predilections, 80. Disliked by the
conservative party, 81. Banishment to the obscurity of Mongolia, 81.
Called to present position to propitiate foreigners, 81. Institutes post-
office and Shansi police, 81. His informal manner, 81. His recollec-
tions of New York, 82. His attempt to inculcate a sense of honor in his
soldiers, 82. Awakened by a night pandemonium, 82. The eclipse of
the moon, 83. Frightening the dragon away, 83. The missionary's
explanation and Wang's comprehension, 83. At Su Kou ; the dragon's
satiety, 83. My hopes for the dragon's digestion, 84.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII.

PAGES

The Land of Yau and Shun 85-96

John Chinaman not a distinct type ; an observation of the "Toads "
in their own country, 85. Certain characteristics common to all
Chinese, 85. But marked points of distinction between adjacent prov-
inces, 85. The Sichuanese ; Tartar traits and Shansi people, 86.
Shansi taciturnity and love of home, 86. Their worship of the spirits
of trees and rocks ; their closeness to nature, 86. Peculiarities of Shansi
dress, 86. The provincial dialect, 86. Entering Old China, 87. A
succession of large towns, 87. Noticeable improvement in roads and
kung kwans, 87. Recently repaired highways, 87. Travelling in the
same route as the Imperial Exiles, 88. Kiehiu ; a strange city, 88.
Two-story houses, 88. Mediaeval German architecture, 88. Laby-
rinthine streets ; a city for a minotaur, 88. Walking through winding
alleys between blank walls, 89. Houses with no apparent entrances, 89.
Method in the plan of the maze, 90. Kiehiu a Chinese puzzle, 90.
The difficulties of Linshi Pass, 90. Our slow progress through it, 90.
Recently improved for the Empress Dowager, 90. Linshis jolts for
Kwang Su, 91. Linshi a natural barrier of Sian, 91. Inaccessibility of
Sian by any route from the coast, 91. Ping Yang, the capital during
China's Satumian age, 91. The times of Yau and Shun, 2356 B.C., 92.
When " The Sky rained gold," 92. Temple of the two heroes in Ping
Yang, 92. Rebuilt by the present Emperor, 93. Description of it ;
tablets to early kings, but no idols, 93. Statues of Yau and Shun, 93.
Their unhappy expressions, 93. The early worship of Shang Ti, 93.
The ancient temple still undefiled by idols, 94. Ping Yang's evidences
of former greatness, 94. Its curious walls and gateway bastions, 94,
Impregnable against everything but dynamite, 94. The Sedan chair
and its heavy burden. 94. The reverence it inspired, 95. The idol oc-
cupant of the chair, 95. The weariness of idols and their occasional
excursions. 95. Usual spark of the Universal Soul in Chinese supersti-
tion, 96. Exceptional absence of it in idol procession, 96. Reason for
Yau and Shuns worried expression, 96.

CHAPTER VIII.
Where Genghis Khan Failed 97-109

The valley of the Fen Hoa, 97. Pagodas on promontories, 97.
Great height of pagodas ; monuments not temples, 97. Travelling
over the battle-fields of Genghis Khan, 97. Genghis' attempts to conquer
China, 98. His death in 1227, 98. His failure to subdue Northern
China, 98. Stubborn valor of Shansi and Shensi, 98. Sixty-years
battle with the Mongols, 99. Final triumph of Kublai Khan, 99. A
victory of the vanquished, 97. Absorption of the Mongols in Chinese
civilisation, 99. Shansi soldiers of to-day, 99. My escort from Ping
Yang, 99. Their opium-smoking peculiarities, 99. Their curious
armament, 100. An attempt to kill an eagle, 100. Searching for a
cartridge, 100. Loading a rifle under difficulties, 100. Meeting Shansi
regiment, 100. Ammunition not a necessity, loi. Picturesque uni-
forms, loi. Straggling tactics, loi. The young captain ; a much

xvi

CONTENTS

PAGES

Where Genghis Khan Failed — contmued . . . 97-109

travelled man, loi. Endurance and patience of the Chinese soldier,
102. Cool and brave ; opium his worst fault, 102. Recent innova-
tions in army organisation, 102. Substitution of the rifle for the broad-
sword with Manchu militia, 103. Imperial military colleges, 103. Ap-
pointment of military mandarins, 103. Methods of Shansi night-watch-
man, 104. Efforts to prevent the man guarded from sleeping, 104. The
raps on the bamboo stick, 104, My Tai Yuan pony, 104. His failure
at Heo Mah, 105. The visit of the military mandarin ; his expressions
of unbounded admiration for me, 105. My acceptance of his offer of
his pony ; we exchange saddles, 106. How the gift horse looked in
the morning, 107. The " bad news " at Wenhi, 107. Selling a dying
gift, 107. Wang's prophecy of a bright future for the military man-
darin, 108. Across a parched plain, 108. Praying for rain, 109. Down
a sunken road to the Yellow River, 109. Battlemcnted Tung Kwan,
106. " That is Shensi," 109.

CHAPTER IX.
Tung Kwan AND THE Original River .... 110-121

Tung Kwan that Genghis Khan never captured, no. San-kau-pa-
tu's failure, no. The Gibraltar of China, no. Ferried across the
Yellow River, in. A crowded craft ; quarters between the pony's legs,
in. The Wei Wen of the Governor, 112. The Wei Wen's regard for
my credentials, 112. His demonstrative welcome to Shensi, 112. Carts
with four wheels, 112. Mistake of generalising in descriptions of any-
thing Chinese, 113. Universality of two-wheeled cart disproved by
Tung Kwan exception, 113. The willow-lined road by the Wei Ho, 113.
A reminiscence of theiMohammedan rebellion, 113. Scarce knowledge
in the West of uprising of Islam in the valleys of the Yellow River,
114. Wholesale devastation wrought by the rebellion, 114. An after-
math of the Taipings, 114. Curious conversions to Christianity;
"Allah or the idols?" 114. Final subjugation of the rebels by Tso
Rung Pao, 115. His lack of money and commissariat, 115. A strike
for back pay cured by arbour culture, 115. Hua Shan and the temple of
Hua ih, 115. The five sacred mountains, 115. Early monotheism of
the Chinese, 116. Sacrifices by the Kings to Shang Ti on the sacred
mountains, 116. Survival of "mountain worship," 116. Visited
annually by thousands of pilgrims, 117. Co-operative pilgrimages,
117. Reticence of Chinese on the subject of '' mountain worship," 117.
Intermediaries between the plain and the Eternal, 118. Upward soul-
groping of the Chinaman, 118. Series of temples at Hua ih, 118. A
commingling of faiths, 118. A stone menagerie. 118. Worshipping
images of monkeys and tigers. 118. Contrasted with the imageless
temple of Confucius, 119. An illustration of Chinese building methods,

119. Ancient knowledge of the principles of American "Skyscraper"
construction, 119. The fonging pond, 119. Virtue in liberating ani-
mals, 119. Pious fonging of fish, 120. Sale of tablet rubbings to pil-
grims, 120. A preventative of evil spirits, 120. A Shensi rain-storm,

120. Drenched soldiers, 120. A night at Fu Shin, 120. An Awful
inn, 120. A leaking window-pane, 121. The cost of a paper window,

121. Labour cheaper than paper, 121.

xvii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER X.

PAGES

Shensi— THE Old Race 122-140

Hazy origin of the Chinese race, 121. First heard from in Shensi
valleys, 122. Fuhi and the "eight permutations," 122. Fuhi's birth
before the death of Noah, 122. Shensi the home of descendants of
Fuhi's subjects, 123. The Shensi type, 123. Yellow skins with a ten-
dency to redness, 113. Resemblance to North American Indians, 123.
Shensi love of learning and sense of justice, 123. An old race to whom
Mongol conquerors are moderns, 123. Sons of Han, 123. Their dispo-
sition to patronise ' ' new " Chinese, 124. Their opinion of the Pekinese
smart set, 124. The dialect of Shensi, 124. Free from Tartar vulgar-
isms, 124. The substitution of tA for J, 124, Prejudice without fanati-
cism characteristic of Shensi, 125. Foreigners regarded as inferiors, but
harmless, 125. Modern barbarians will ultimately be absorbed by Chi-
nese civilisation, 125. This view the cause which prevented murder of
missionaries, 125. Tuan Fang, the former Governor, 125. Ordered to
kill the foreigners, 125. The advice of the conservative race over
whom he ruled, 126. The Governor's moral courage, 126. Rescue of
the missionaries, 126. Providing them with travelling expenses and an
escort, 126. His act made possible by the moral support of his peo-
ple, 126. Shensi villages, 126. The " Head man," 126. His appoint-
ment due to his popularity with his neighbours, 127. Liberty of speech
and action in Shensi, 127. Few policemen, 127. Discussions in
Shensi villages, 127. Tea-house gossip, 127. No fear of Government
interference, 128. Wide-spread interest in politics, 128. News fur-
nished by the Imperial Edicts, 128. Learning of the death of Li Hung
Chang, 128. Absence from the villages of the condition called " pov-
erty," 128. Equality of conditions and few " unemployed," 129. Small
farms held by one family for generations, 129. The work of the village
women, 129. Disadvantages of the Shensi land system, 129. Its limi-
tation of competition and ambition at the same time, 130. Makes
provision only for agriculture, 130. A bar to other forms of industry,
130. Absence of the bathing habit in Shensi, 130. The washing
of clothes and invalids, 131. Soap an unknown quantity, 131. Dis-
like of the external uses of water, 131. Temperate habits of the vil-
lagers, 131. Drunkenness almost unknown, 131. Difficulty of obtain-
ing pure water, 132. Drinking boiled water, 132. The place of
habitual drunkards supplied by opium victims, 132. The children of
Shensi, 132. Their love for their parents the most beautiful trait in the
national character, 132. Children the joy of the villages, 132. Chil-
dren as companions and parents as friends, 133. Laws of filial piety
founded on natural affection, 133. Bright and healthy appearance of
the Shensi children, 133. No prejudice against foreigners, 133. Natu-
ral and never " spoiled," 134. Children's padlocks, 134. Means to
prevent child soul-stealing, 134. Calling children toads and pigs, 134.
The foundation of the queue, 134. Universal prevalence of foot-bind-
ing in Shensi, 135. " Disgraceful " for a woman's feet to remain
unbound, 135. Unjust to charge Chinese mothers with cruelty, 135.
Shensi schools, 135. The profession of teaching, 135. No illiteracy ;
knowledge of the analects by ten-year-old boys, 135. Little education

CONTENTS

PACKS

Shensi — THE Old Race — continued .... 122-140

for girls, 136. The village theatre, 136. The annual play the great
event in the life of the village, 136. No scenery or reserved seats, 136.
A noisy, all-day performance, 136. Harsh falsetto of the actors, 136.
Expressions of approval by the audience, 137. Social side of the
theatre, 137. Shensi flirtation and love-making, 137. Joyousness of
Shensi funerals, 137. Providing the dead man with money for the
spirit world, 137. Paper horses for spirit riders, 137. Funeral proces-
sions led by priests, 138. Loud lamentations of the widow and children,
but absence of tears, 138. My experience of a funeral procession near
Hua, 138. White garments of mourning ; their weirdness, 138. Ex-
iled criminals in Shensi villages, 139. Chinese system of banish-
ments, 139. Shensi a favourite place of exile, 139. Criminals paroled
and given partial liberty, 140. Banishment the punishment for minor
crimes, 140. More serious offences punished by death, 140. The man-
acled young murderer, 140. His indifference to his fate, 140.

CHAPTER XI.
Mandarins and Their Methods 141-151

Importance of mandarins in the life of Shensi, 141. Progression of
personal responsibility in Chinese Government, 141. Vesting of all
governmental functions in an individual, 141. His supremacy within
his own sphere, 142. The ladder of responsibility ; mandarins its
rounds, 142. Emperor's absolute power seldom applied directly, 142.
Mandarin responsibility concerned only with results, 142. Methods of
accomplishing his duties each mandarin's own affair, 143. His power of
life and death, 143. Governor of a province practically its king, 143.
His liability to punishment or an imperial suicide order, 143. His ab-
solute power while in office, 143. A Governor's duty to defend his
province from invasion, 143. Not the concern of the rest of the coun-
try, 144. Mandarin's responsibility to punish criminals, 144. A decree
obtained at a public examination requisite for a mandarin, 144.
Abundance of applicants for a mandarin vacancy, 144. Possibility of
advancement for capable mandarins, 144. Desire of mandarins for the
maintenance of " Peace," 145. The Shensi idea of " peace," incom-
patible with progress, 145. Troubles of a mandarin who attempts to
improve conditions, 145. His wisest course the maintenance of every-
thing as he found it, 145. " Squeezing," its definition and causes, 146.
The incentive to office-holding, 146. Wealth of mandarins, 146. Their
inadequate salary from the Government, 146. Mandarin's facilities for
stealing, 146. Tacit consent of Government and submission of the
people, 147. "Squeeze "a mandarin essential, 147. Good points in
mandarin system, 147. Mandarin only government representative in
his district, 148. Subordinate officials merely his servants, 148. The
" Chief servant " and his duties, 148. His knowledge of Confucius and
his care of the mandarin's correspondence, 148. Difficulties of man-
darin letter-writing, 149. An unusual vernacular, 149. Eliminating
originality from letters, 149. A mandarin's prescribed costume ; his
silk robe and button of rank, 150. His hidden hands and thick-soled

xix

CONTENTS

PAGES

Mandarins and Their Methods — continued . . 141-151

boots, 150. Beads at an audience with his superiors, 150. The man-
darins I met, 150. Their refined manners, 151. Quiet and dignified,
151. Anglo-Saxon savoir faire, 151. Sense of honour among man-
darins, 151.

CHAPTER XII.

SlAN AND THE SlANESE ....,•. 152-182

Chinese without " sense of beauty," 152. The sulphur Baths of
Lintoun, 152. The pavilions in the Yellow Lake, 152. Their variegated
roofs, 152. The shrine on the hill-top, 153. My first impressions of the
Baths of Lintoun, 153. The play of sunlight and colour, 153. Lin-
toun not conspicuous, 153. In a " Heathen " land, 153. Love of the
Old Race for the hillside, 154, Their idea of beauty, 154. Discovery
of a robbery, 154. Arrest of the culprit, 154. An audience with the
mandarin, 155. The "bamboo" inquisition, 155. A confession of
guilt ; the sentence 155. My loss reimbursed by the mandarin, 156.
The peculiar " Heathen " Chinese, 156. On the Alkali Plain of Sian,
156. Old stone bridges, 156. A monotonous ocean of plain, 157.
Seeming range of hills, 157. Miniature mountain-peaks, 157. "That
is Sian," 157. Supposed hills, the city walls, 158. Great height and
excellent condition of the walls of Sian, 158. Their commanding arch-
ery towers, 158. Sianese pride in the walls, 158. Suburbs of Sian,
159. The Cosmopolitan human islands, 159. Points of similarity be-
tween Sian and New York suburbs, 159. Entering the city, 159. On
the way to the residence of Mr. Duncan, 160. Riding through a me-
tropolis, 160. My attempt at Chinese clothes and methods ; discovery
of my disguise by the Sianese, 160. Followed by a pointing crowd, 160.
The "Funny foreign man," 161. The American kung kwan, 161.
Meeting the missionary of Sian, 161. The beginning of our acquaint-
ance, 161. A member of the brotherhood of mankind, 161. Name of
the founder of Sian unknown, 162. Birthplace of Fuhi, 162. Hwang-ti
and his queen Lui-tsu, 162. The great Yu ; his mastery of the Yellow
River, 162. Wu Wang first of the Chows, 163. The days of Sian's
glory, 163. Chung, the Wall builder, 163. The Han dynasty and the
age of literature, 163. Ping ti, the " Emperor of Peace," 164. Sack of
Sian by Kwang Wu Ti, 164. Yang Kien and Tai Tsung, " the glori-
ous," 164. The university of Sian, 164. Sian made provincial capi-
tal by Kublai Khan, 165. The rebellion of Li Tsi Chung, 165. His
temporary triumph, 165. His retreat from Pekin, 165. His last stand
at Sian, 165. Sian last to acknowledge Manchu supremacy, 166. The
eternity of Sian its peculiar charm, 166. Sianese reckless references to
time, 166. Realizing a comment of De Quincey on China, 166. Shen-
nung and his glass stomach, 166. The " Shen-nung treatment," 167.
The parade-ground and Chung's palace, 167. Estimate of Sian's popu-
lation, 167. Order in system of streets, 167. A contrast with most
Chinese cities, 168. Sian more imposing than Pekin, 168. The public
square, 168. Its jugglers and amusement makers, 168. Chinese
Punch and Judy, 168. The " Story-teller," 169. His clever imitation
of an old mandarin, 169. The Mohammedan quarter of Sian, 169.
Religion only point of difference between Mohammedans and other

CONTENTS

PAGES

SlAN AND THE SlANESE — continued .... 152-182

Sianese, 169. Tolerance of Islam in Sian, 170. Former hostilities
of Mohammedans to reigning dynasty, 170. Marco Polo's mention of
Sian " Saracens,'' 170. The Broadway of Sian, 170. Its shops and
business, 170. Substantial character of merchandise sold, 170. Near-
ness of Sian to Kansuh and Tibet, 170. Centre of the fur trade, 171.
Low price of furs, 171. " The shop of the metropolis," 171. Shensi
and Sian famous for banks, 171. Age of 'Sian banks, 171. Similarity
of system to that of the United States, 171. Correspondence in other
cities ; sight-drafts and bills of exchange, 171. Intereit on commercial
accounts ; promissory notes, 172. Strange banking methods, 172. In-
tricate calculations on a computing-board, 172. Simple bookkeeping,
172. One book for the entire business of the bank, 173. Absence of
post-offices in Shensi, 173. Sir Robert Hart's postal system, 173.
Sianese opposition to a regular mail service, 174. Letters a means of
communication with the outer world and consequently unpopular, 174,
The Imperial Telegraph, 174. Dislike of the " wire on the poles," 174.
Sian's telegraph office, 174. Its daily ase by the Empress Dowager,
X75. The operator who spoke English, 175. Residences of Sian's Four
Hundred, 175. The house of a rich man, its costly furniture, silk
draperies, and valuable porcelains, 175. Native appreciation of peach-
blows and Kiang Hi blues, 175. Primitive hot-air furnaces, 176. The
heating pit, 176. Flues under the floor, 176. Anthracite coal from
Shansi, 176. Sian clubs, 176. Exclusiveness of their membership, 176.
*' Clubs of the Provinces," 176. A convenience to visitors from other
parts of the Empire, 177. Sian " society," 177. Absence of women
from public gatherings, 177. Old families ; Chinese pride in their
lineage, 177. Sianese indifference to frivolous amusements, 178.
Disparaging references to the theatre, 178. Evening dinner parties,

178. Unfavourable conditions under which I saw Sian, 178. The after-
math of famine, 179. Hunger victims in caves, 179. Absence of slums,

179. No " poor quarter," 179. No submerged tenth, 179. Inequality
of wealth, but no " very poor," 179. Apparently narrower gulf between
rich and poor in Sian than in New York, 180. Chinese fondness for
gambling, but no gambling houses in Sian, 180. Enforcement of laws
against gambling, 180. No saloons, 180. No "dives" or rendezvous
of vice, 181. A Mohammedan commentary on Western civilisation,
181. No " necessary evils " in old Sian, i8x. Chinese " uncivilised "
and " Yellow Peril," 182.

CHAPTER XIII.
Sian and the Sianese, continued .... 183-198

Sian's importance in Chinese History little realised in the West, 183.
Seldom visited by white men, 183. Shensi dislike of foreigners, 183.
Marco Polo's description of Kenzan, 183. My scepticism of Marco's
statements, 184. Where was Ka-chau-fu ? 184. No silk produced in
Sian, 184. References to Sian by Abbe Hue and Professor Legge, 185.
The Roman Catholic Mission in Sian, 185. Destruction of first Prot-
estant Chapel, 185. Arrival of Mr. Duncan, 185. Compelled to
preach outside the city, 185. His popularity with native officials, 186.

xxi

CONTENTS

PAGES
SlAN AND THE SlANESE, CONTINUED .... 183-I98

His public debates and his book-store, 186. Anti-foreign orders of
1898, 186. Mr. Duncan's friendship with the Governor, 186. His ex-
pulsion and return, 186. His prominence in provincial affairs, 187.
Sian as city of Imperial exile, centre of anti-foreign sentiment, 187. My
excursions through the city, 187. Politeness and consideration I re-
ceived, 187. Conversations about the mysterious West, 187. Courtesy
of citizens, 188. Its cause — my friendship with the "missionary of
Sian," 188. His extraordinary position, 188. " A man's a man for a'
that," 188. Shensi's Governor Li Shao Fen, 188. More feared in
his province than the Emperor, 189. Ease with which I obtained an
audience, 189. My reception at the Governor's residence, 189. Alone
before the closed doors, 190. A theatrical scene, igo. Entering the
Governor's hall, 190. The two rows of guards ; their salute, 190. His
Excellency on the divan, 190. A ruler of the Sons of Han, 191. His
Anglo-Saxon manner, 191. A talk with the Governor, 191. "The dif-
ference between Americans and Englishmen, 191. Discussing the
famine, 192. My opinion as to its cause, 192. The Governor's ob-
jection to railroads, 193. Sudden attack of cleanliness in our kung
kwan, 193. " The Governor is big business,'" 194. Preparing for an
official visit, 194. His Excellency's arrival, 194. The ways of the Black
Haired People, 194. Side comment on Christianity, 195. Incidental
remarks on the missionaries, 195. The Governor's interest in my
journey, 195. Looking for the United States, 195. Error of Barbarian
maps, 195. " The world is flat," 195. The Governor not a Philistine,
196. His consideration for Barbarian ignorance, 196. A Sian dinner-
party, 196. An old restaurant, 197. Good manners of our hosts, 197.
Comment on Manchu swells, 197. Sian opinion of the Chinese Exclu-
sion Act, 198. A contempt for emigrants, 198. Thinness of the dis-
guise that hides " one touch of nature," 198.

CHAPTER XIV.
When Kwang Su was an Exile 199-227

Prominence of women in Chinese history, 199. Mei Hi i8i8 B.C. , 199.
Chang Sun and her dying request, 199. Wu How, "The Great and
Sacred Empress, equal of Heaven," 200. The present Empress Dow-
ager first woman who ruled China since Wu How, 200. Constant
repetitions in Chinese history, 200. Similarity in the careers and
characters of Wu How and Tsz' Hi, 200. Necessary for both to rule
more forcefully than men, 201. Limited education of both Em-
presses, 201. Both beloved by their subjects, 201. Attitude of Bar-
barians the same now as in Wu How's time, 201. Incorrect to call the
departure of the Imperial party from Pekin a flight, 202. The start in
August, 1900, 202. The journey to Sian determined upon, 202. Sys-
tem of public deception as to causes and intent of exiles, 202. Prac-
tice of Emperors to travel through their dominions, 203. Kwang Su's
departure from a profaned capital an act of virtue, 203. Wide-spread
belief in the invincibility of China, 203. Mandarin's preparations to
receive the Empress Dowager, 204. Activity on Shensi high roads,

xxii

CONTENTS

PAGES

When Kwang Su was an Exile— coniz'nued . . 199-227

204. Repairing kung kwans and temples, 204. Rapid journeys bad
form, 204. Slow progress of the Imperial exiles, 205. My experience
in travelling over the same route, 205. Reminiscences of the Empress
Mother, 205. " A thousand years " over kung kwan doorways, 206.
Beds where the Emperor had slept, 206. Comments of banchaitis, 206.
Dominating influence of the Empress Dowager, 206. Her recognition
of the Boxer failure, 206. Her dislike of anti-foreign fanaticism, 206.
The Boxer of Kiehiu, 206. The sudden severance of his head and
oration, 207. Degradation of the mandarin of Kiehiu, 207. The Man-
chu nobleman who " Squeezed," 207. His punishment, 207. The
decapitation conclusion of anecdotes of the Empress Dowager, 207.
Her resemblance to the queen of ''Wonderland," 207. Wholesale
decapitation did not lessen Empress Dowager's popularity, 208. Mis-
take to believe Empress Dowager is disliked by her subjects, 208.
No sovereign worship in China, 208. Loyalty to Tzi' Hi due to admi-
ration for her character and ability, 208. Belief in her desire to main-
tain " Peace," 208. Former viceroy's residence in Sian, 209. Later
belief that building was haunted, 209. Its selection as the Palace of
the Exile, 209. Remodelled in imitation of forbidden city in Pekin, 210.
Sacredness of a residence of the Emperor, 210. Difficulty of obtaining
admission to Sian palace, 21a Unsafe for a white man to enter, 210.
My walk that ended at the Palace gate, 210. The lions at the gate
and their cheerfulness, 211. My sudden determination to enter, 211.
Wang's conquest of the sentry, 212. The mandarin of the Palace,

212. His youthful appearance, 212. His refusal to admit me, 212,
"Also a foreigner," 213. A conversation with the Palace mandarin,

213. Thoughts of the Homeland, 213. The zither and the mandarin's
love of music, 213. Motive in music, 214. The mandarin's interpreta-
tion of the zither, 214. A respect for the Empire, 215. Realising the
solemnity of the Palace, 215. The delicacy of the climax ; " I am a
barbarian," 215. First man to enter the Palace of the Exile, 215. My
friendship with the young mandarm, 216. His stories of the Palace and
the Imperial Exile, 216. Description of the main building, 216. The
throne-room ; its yellow wall-paper and rag carpet, 216. The canopy
over Kwang Su's settee, 216. Reception of minor officials in the left
wing of Palace, 217. Place of honour for Emperor Dowager, 217.
Fondness of Emperor for clocks that did not keep time, 217. Empress
Dowager's left-hand room in the living apartments, 217. Her threat to
cut off heads of Palace Architects, 217. Kwang Su's retirement to
right wing of Palace, 218. The Sianese cooks of the Imperial menage,

218. Their sad death, 218. The Palace of Ta-a-ko, 218. His
gold-fish pond and lounging room, 218. Ta-a-ko Crown Prince of
China, Prince Tuan's son, 219. "Bonnie Prince Charlie" of China,

219. His attempts to enliven life in Sian, 219. His fondness for
gaiety and nocturnal adventures, 219. Incurred dislike of Empress
Dowager, 219. Her edict dismissing him from office, 220. Tuan
Fang's promotion, 220. Arrest of the young Manchus, 220. Their
arraignment before Governor Sheng, 220. Their disregard of the laws
of Shensi, 222. Sheng sustained by the Empress Dowager, 221.
Early morning audiences, 221. Wang Wen Shau, a kindly, amiable
old man, 221. Boxer leaders in the Palace courtyards, 222. Their

xxiii

CONTENTS

PAGES

When Kwang Su was an Exile — continued . . 199-227

anti-foreign advice to the Empress Dowager, 222. Rung Lu's lecture
on the pretentions of foreigners, 222. The small island where all
foreigners originate, 222. Imperial Edicts, a substitute for news-
papers, 223. Their mortuary character ; publication of the edicts in
magazine form, 223. Edicts that lingered in the Palace, 223. Depart-
ure of the Emperor through west gate of Sian, 224. The homeward
journey through Honan, 224. China again supreme among the nations,
224. Sianese allowed to gaze on their Sovereigns, 224. Size and
order of the Imperial procession, 225. Sheng's superintendence of
the baggage train, 225. Plot of Sheng's Manchu enemies, 225.
Wrath of the Empress Dowager, 225. Sheng's explanation, 225.
Her rage at Ta-a-ko and his friends, 226. Kwang Su's obeisance to
the Empress Dowager, 226. Active mind of the "Jezebel of China,"
226. Turbulent and distressed condition of Shensi at the time of
Emperor Dowager's arrival, 227. "Peace" when she departed, 227.
Why the Chinese wish for her " a thousand years," 227.

CHAPTER XV.
Shensi's Famine 228-240

Thirty per cent, of population of Province died of famine, 228. Little
interest in the awful death harvest in the Western world, 228. Americans
only contributors to famine relief fund, 228. Drought cause of famine,
228. Isolation of Shensi and difficulty of obtaining food-supplies, 229.
Loess soil of Shensi, 229. A desert without rain, 229. The famine of
Yang-Kien's reign, 229. Three years without water, 230. Disappear-
ance of rivers, 230. Rise in the prices of bread, 230. Flocking of the
villagers in Sian, 230. Caves for hunger sufferers, 230. Eating grass
and weeds, 230. Collecting the bodies of the dead, 231. Famine
cannibalism, 231. The Governor's relief committee, 231. Opening of
soup kitchens, 231. Liberal relief contributions from Chinese sources,
232. Sale of Government degrees, 232. Eating cats and dogs, 232.
The sale of children, 232. Market for the sale of little girls, 232.
Desire of every father for sons to succeed him, 233. Consequent mar-
ket for boys, 233. Sale of boys and girls in the vicinity of Sian, 234.
Speculating in children, 234. Dread of the arrival of the Court, 234.
Government caravans instituted by Empress Dowager, 234. Her
study of famine conditions, 234. " Squeezing " of famine funds, 235.
The riddle of the silver and the copper, 235. Cutting off the heads of
dishonest mandarins, 235. The abatement of the famine, 235. Arrival
of American relief fund, 236. The "American kung kwan," 236. Na-
tive famine lists basis of American distribution, 236. Co-operation of
mandarins in American relief work, 236. Management of relief dis-
tributions by native officials, 237. Difficulties of transportation of
money, 238. Weight of cash strings, 238. Fifty-two carts for $800,
238. Forwarding of money through Chinese banks, 238. The Gov-
ernor's stop to exorbitant rates of exchange, 238. A relief distribu-
tion in an old Sian temple, 239. Feeding 3,000 persons, 239. Grati-
tude of the starving, 240. Prohibiting kow tows, 240. No distinction
of race or creed in distribution of American money, 240.

xxiv

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVI.

PA0B3

Around About Sian 242-250

Excursions across Sian plain, 242. A treeless desert, 242. Absence
of travellers and farmers, 242. Roofless houses, 242. A plain of the
dead, 242. The strange mounds of the plain, 243. Their pyramidal
shape, 243. Apparent intention in their construction to have their sides
four square with the points of the compass, 243. Veneration of the
pyramids by villagers of the surrounding country, 244. Regarded as a
mystery, 244. Explained as burial-places of early kings of China,
244. Pyramids without inscription, 245. Pyramid rare in Chinese
architecture, 245. Possible that mounds were altars of a primitive
religion, 245. Former worship of Shang Ti the Supreme God, 245.
Natural that, as oldest province, Shensi should contain evidences of
former religions, 246. A conjecture in a description of an unsolved
riddle, 246. Many riddles worth solving in China, 246. The fords of
the Wei Ho, 246. Former irrigation trenches, 247. Cotton grown in a
cold climate ; a surviving village of cotton spinners. 247. The head
man, who made nineteen cents a day, 247. Bobbins from America, 247.
The spinner's explanation of the cheapness of his thread, 248. San
Yuan and its suffering from famine, 248. The Cemetery in the em-
bankment, 248. Chinese ability to forget suffering, 249. Indifference
of inhabitants of San Yuan to famine, 249. Centre of cotton trade, 249,
Enormous demand for cotton cloth in China, 249. Importing cotton
from the United States, 249. The camel caravans outside the city wall,
249. Labels in English language, 250. The product of Fall River,
250.

CHAPTER XVII.
Some Shensi Monuments 251-265

Stone tablets of China, 251. Miscellaneous character of their in-
scriptions, 251. Records of great events and illustrious personages,
251. Soul of the Chinese voiced in gray stone, 251. Repositories of
best thoughts, 252. Charm of Shensi tablets, 252. An expression of
hidden soul fires, 252. The dream of Hung Wu, 252. His visit to the
Western Mountains, 253. Hung Wu's strenuous life, 253. Guided by
a white rabbit, 253. The Emperor's account of his dream-pilgrimage,
253. The character for Happiness, 254. Interpreting a soul by flour-
ishes, 254, The brush flourish of Sieh, 255. The Happiness mono-
gram of Chen Toun, 255. The Hall of Tablets in Sian, 255. Memo-
rials of early Kings of China, 256. Original of the Pekin " Hall of the
Mings," 256. A national tablet gallery, 256. The stone classics of
Confucius, 256. Library of the oldest university, 256. Perpetuating
Confucian wisdom, 257. A visit to the Hall of Tablets, 257. The
crowd of sight-seers, 257. Their subdued deportment, 257. The Tab-
let of the chrysanthemums, 258. The proverbs and the irrelevant bou-
quet, 258. A fancy of Wu How, 259. The portrait of Tama, 259.
Impressionist methods in tablet portraiture, 260. The Nestorian Tab-

CONTENTS

PAGES

Some Shensi Monuments — continued .... 251-265

let, 260. World-wide interest it has created, 260. Its usefulness as a
missionary argument, 260. Doubt as to its authenticity, 260. Record
of first Christian Mission in China, 260. Semedo's account of dis-
covery of tablet, 261. Incorrect account of its present condition, 261.
My visit to the Nestorian Tablet, 262. Between two Chinese Tablets,

262. The only cross in Shensi, 262. The "illustrious religion," 262.
The story of Olupun, 263. Early success of the Nestorian doctrine,

263. Veneration of Nestorian tablet by Chinese antiquaries, 263. Ob-
taining an impression of the cross, 264. The supplementary inscrip-
tion, 264. The faith of the Nestorians, 264. The edict of Wu Tsung,

264. Relapse of " Illustrious religion " into Chinese civilisation, 265.

CHAPTER XVIII.
Through the Tsinglings 266-281

Beginning of the journey to " civihsation," 266. Necessity of the
southern route, 266. Preparing for rapid riding, 266. Lightening lug-
gage, 267. Farewell to the "mandarin of the Palace," 267. Riding
out of Sian, 267. First glimpse of the Tsinglings, 268. The military
mandarin's farewell to Mr. Duncan, 268. The temple of Fuhi's birth-
place, 268. Lan tien and the base of the mountains, 269. The two
mandarins, 269. The introduction of ''New Learning," 269. The
Empress Dowager's strange edict, 269. A talk with the mandarins of
Lan tien about New Learning, 270. Their scorn of it as gentlemen,
270. The sudden approach to the Tsinglings, 270. Original methods
of mountain climbing, 271. China seen from a pony's tail, 271. Pecul-
iar intelligence of Shensi ponies, 271. A pause at the summit, 272.
Last view of the Plain of Sian, 272. Plunging into the wilderness, 272.
Lonely solitudes, 273. Meeting lumber carriers in the trails, 273.
Danger of brigands, 273. Armed Muleteers, 274. Dreary mountain
villages, 274. Mountain inns, 274. The sleeplessness of muleteers,
274, Meals at mountain farm-houses, 274. Travel weariness a prep-
aration for brick beds, 275. Jaguars and wolves, 275. Inn-keepers
stories, 275. Dogs of the Tsinglings ; their resemblance to wolves,

276. Their kindliness and lack of prejudice, 276. The water-shed of
China, 276. The sources of the Han, 276. The spring on the moun-
tain-side, 277. Following the river windings, 277. In the Han gorges,

277. Riding along precipices, 277. Sure-footed ponies, 277. Danger
in meeting mule caravans, 278. An encounter with a caravan, 278.
Presence of mind of the Shijang, 278. A skilful manoeuvre of ponies,

278. The Shijang's comment, 279. Undeveloped possibilities of the
Chinese soldier, 279. The Shen town of Shang, 279. Refuge caves in
the mountain-side, 280. Hiding-places in times of danger, 280. Shensi
habit of cave digging, 280. Burrowed farm-houses in Sian Plain, 280.
Suggested resemblance of Shensi refuge caves to cliff dwellers' remains,
281. The end of a five-days ride, 281. Arrival at Lung Ku Chai, 281.
Wang's care for his master's beard, 281.

XXVI

CONTENTS

CHAPTER XIX.

PAGES

On the Han 283-296

Embarking on a shallow river, 283. Chinese objection to dredging or
river improvements, 283. Han River canoes, 283. Ancient system of
water-tight compartments, 284. Adapting freight boats for passengers,
284. Poles and clumsy oars as motive power, 284. The crew and the
lowban, 285. Contracting for a voyage through the gorges, 285. Start-
ing down the Han, 285. The strange folk of the gorges, 285. Their
resemblance to North American Indians, 285. Their taciturnity, 286.
Still ashamed of the queue, 286. Isolated life of Han boatman, 286.
The religion of the old river, 287. The Pantheism of the gorges, 287.
Worship of the River Dragon, 287. Singing to propitiate the spirits,
287. Boatmen's dislike of discussing distances, 288. The lowban's ex-
planation, 288. Omnipresence of evil spirits, 288. The incense fire to
the river dragon, 288. Songs of the boatmen, 288. Running aground,
289. Dredging with a wooden hoe, 289. Difficulties of progress on the
Han, 286. Frequency of rapids, 289. Lowering a canoe over a rapid,

289. Blockades of canoes, 290. Privileges of Prince Ching's card,

290. Chinese ability to wait, 290. The belated telegraph operator,
290. Wild beauty of the Han gorges, 291. An interim of wilderness
in a crowded land, 291. The restfulness of the shallow river, 291.
Precipitous sides of the gorges, 292. Varying tints of the mountain-
sides, 292. Dividing of the cliffs for the onrushing canoe, 292. Silent
birds ; their lack of fear of human beings, 292. Boatmen's regard for
birds, 293. Talk around the incense-fire, 293. Wang's " half wild
child " questions, 293. The dragon that is everywhere, 293. My be-
lief in his ultimate defeat, 294. Kingste Kwan, a former mission sta-
tion, 294. An attack of fever, 294. "The missionary of Sian"asa
physician, 295. The faithfulness of Wang, 295. A constant nurse,
295. His sleepless black eyes, 296. Awaking from a delirium, 296.
My " very good friend," 296.

CHAPTER XX.
Through Hupeh in a Junk 297-313

Widening of the river, 297. La Ho Kieu, a typical river town, 297.
Its stone pier and gateway, 297. Return to a thickly populated coun-
try, 297. Silk weaving in La Ho Kieu, 298. Methods of silk mer-
chants, 298. Indifferent to making sales, 298. The factory across
the court-yard, 299. Similarity between ancient Chinese methods of
silk weaving and American looms, 299. The brocaded silk of Hupeh,

299. Weaving of " mandarin cloth," 300. Farewell to the men of the
gorges, 300. Passing from a land of dreams to a commercial highway,

300. A junk of the lower Han, 300. Its cabin and dining-room, 301.
The "modern" captain, 301. A flapping sail, 301. Useless sails on
Han River, 301. Towing from the mast peak, 301. Passing junks
under the tow lines, 302. Disappearance of the gorges, 302. River
villages and bamboo groves, 302. Water buffalo ; their work in

CONTENTS

PAGES

Through Hupeh in a ]viiYi— continued . . . 279-313

Hupeh fields, 303. Their necessary daily immersion, 303. Vast ex-
tent of the river commerce of China, 303. Capacity of junks for freight-
carrying, 303. Ingenuity in stowing cargoes, 304. Catamarans of
timbers, 304. Improvising topsails from American cotton, 304. Chi-
nese objection to improved methods of transportation, 304. Enormous
population dependent upon river traffic for a livelihood, 305. Chinese
division of labour a fixed quantity, 305. No recourse for " unemployed "
but starvation or Boxerism, 305. Significance of Boxer outbreak on
the Pei Ho River, 305. War junks of the Han, 305. Their beauty
and swiftness, 306. Their soldiers in gay uniforms, 306. Cleanliness
of war-junks at variance with their environment, 306. Escorted by a
succession of war-junks, 306. Salutes from a brass cannon, 307.
Drum-beating at night, 307, Success of my expedient for stopping
noise, 307. Sister cities of Fan Ching and Siang Yang, 307. Their
defence against the armies of Kublai Khan, 308. Final surrender of
Siang Yang, 308. A residence of retired mandarins, 308. The steam
tug-boat of Yo Hia, 309. Embarking on it, 309. Length of the jour-
ney to Hankow, 309. Await at the li-king station, 308. The " mean
man " of the station, 310. The effect of Prince Ching's card, 310. Vic-
tory over the " mean man," 310. Gratitude of the tug-boat captain,

310. Dropping anchor at Han Kow, 311. The broad, dark Yang tse,

311. Alone in our san pan, 311. The silent Bund, 311. The two men
who had dined together, 311. The newness of a conversation of Chris-
tian civilisation, 31a. The end, 313.

XXVlll

ILLUSTRATIONS

TAKEN BY AND FOR THE AUTHOR

FACING
i'AGK

H. I. H. Prince Ching, .... Frontispiece

An Open Sesame to China : Prince Ching's Card,

Viceroy's Yamen at Paoting, ....

A Wenshao,

Chili Brickmaking — A Halt for the Noon-day Meal,

A Granite Highway

Soldiers of Two Provinces: A Shansi Policeman — A
Regular of Chili,

An " Old " Arch, Shansi

The Stone Curtain — The Scene it Disclosed,

Approaching an Opium Village, ....

Opium Refuge in Tai Yuan, ....

An Opium Beggar,

An Imperial Courier, ......

A Mountain Chair, ......

Main Street of Kiehiu,

To the Market in Ping Yang — A Shansi Mill,

Where Once Was a River,

Crossing the Yellow River at Tung Kwan, .

6
i8

54
56
60
66
72
78
88
92
108
no

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING

PAGE

Plan of the Temple Enclosure at Hua ih, . , .118

Buddhist Temple at Hua ih, 120

A Little Son of Han — By a Shensi Road-side, . .134

On the Way to Lose His Head, 140

Shensi Mandarin and His Musicians, .... 144
Cave Over the Sulphur Spring, Lintoun, . , . 152

One of the Pavilions, Lintoun, 154

The American Kung Kwan, Sian, .... 162
A Quiet Street, Sian — The Public Square, Sian, . 168
Li Shao Fen, Governor of Shensi, and his Two Grand-
sons 188

The Palace Gate and the Cheerful Lions, . . .210

Rung Lu, 822

A Pyramid of Sian Plain, ...... 244

Gorge of the Wei Ho : Ancient Irrigating Trench . 246

The Dream of Hung Wu, 252

The Happiness of Sieh, 254

Tablet of the Chrysanthemums, 258

Tama, 260

The Nestorian Tablet, 262

The Cross that Survived, 264

The Nestorian Tablet — Happiness with Divine Pro-
tection, 266

A Gorge of the Han, 276

A Burrowed Farm House, 278

Refuge Caves in the Tsinglings, 280

A Home on the Upper Han, 284

Boatmen of the Gorges, 286

XXX

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

Fishers of La Ho Kieu, 300

A River Freight Boat, 304

A Han War Junk, 306

At End of Volume

Map — Route of the Author's Journey Through Hidden
Shensi and Other Parts of China.

XXXI

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

" When I had JUS i quitted my native country and crossed tJie Chinese wall,
I Jancied every deviation Jrotn tlie customs and tnanners of China was a depart-
ing froTn nature. . . . But I soon perceived that the ridicule lay not in them,
but in me ; that I falsely condemned others for absurdity, because they happened
to differ from a standard originally founded in prejudice or partiality."

— "Lien Chi Altangi — Citizen of the World."

THROUGH
HIDDEN SHENSI

CHAPTER I

STARTING

IN the northwest corner of China is a province
called Shensi. Its area is greater than that of
England and Scotland combined. Its population
is nearly eight millions. It is old and isolated ; so
old that no one in China knows the story of its
beginnings, and so isolated that the Pekinese speak
of it as though it were a foreign country.

Sian, the capital of Shensi, was selected as a
city of refuge for the Empress-dowager Tsz Hi and
Emperor Kwang Su during their enforced exile, as
a place where there would be no foreign eyes to see
or to desecrate. Very few white men have ever
entered hidden Shensi. It is conservative and tra-
dition-clinging even for China. It is in the part of
the country where hatred of the foreigner is bitter-
est and most intense. So much I learned about
Shensi on my arrival in Pekin, but my most dili-
gent inquiries could discover no more than this.
The Christian Herald, of New York, had raised a

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

fund for the sufferers from a famine in Shensi, and
had cabled the money to the only missionary in
the province. As agent of that fund, I had been
sent to China to investigate famine-conditions and
to report on them. I supposed that a few days'
journey into the interior from Pekin would be
sufficient for the obtaining of all the information I
desired, but I soon discovered that I was mistaken.
The seven hundred and fifty miles that lay between
Pekin and Sian constituted as great an interval of
silence as the distance between the Far East and
the Far West. If means of communication are a
measure of distance, Sian is as far from the coast of
China as it is from New York. In Pekin, Chinese
officials knew that a famine was raging in Shensi, a
fact of which citizens of the United States had
been informed by Wu Ting Fang, Chinese minister
in Washington, but, as to details, no more was
known in the one place than in the other. Two
days in Pekin convinced me that, in order to dis-
cover anything of conditions in Shensi, I must go
to Sian.

The dangers of the journey were fully explained
to me. I was told that three hundred miles of the
road over which I should have to travel would lead
through the province of Shansi, where more mis-
sionaries had been killed than in any other of the
eighteen provinces ; that nearly all of that part of
the empire which I proposed to visit was the native
haunt of the Boxer and the foreigner-hater, and that

STARTING

a persistence in carrying out my intention of going
to Shensi was little less than taking my life in my
hands. In ignoring these warnings I was not actu-
ated by any motive of extraordinary bravery, for
that I do not possess. A man far braver than I,
who believed the dangers to be as great as they
were pictured to me, would have been compelled to
abandon the undertaking at the outset, because he
must have realised that the odds against which he
would have had to fight would have been over-
whelming. But I chose to believe that I should
not be compelled to fight, and that no trouble
worse than the usual discomforts of travel in China
was in store for me. Before the allied armies with-
drew from Pekin, the Chinese Government had
pledged itself to protect the lives and property of
foreigners travelling through the country. In de-
termining upon my journey, I believed that the
Chinese meant what they said, and I decided to
give them the benefit of the doubt. I have never
regretted my decision, and my experience in trav-
elling 1,500 miles through the heart of the empire
has convinced me that, if the Chinaman were more
often given the benefit of the doubt, it would be
better for the foreigner that deals with him. The
first step in my preparations for the journey was
to provide myself with proper credentials that
would enable me to claim government protection
anywhere in the provinces through which I was to
pass.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Thus it came about that one afternoon found
me swaying, in a Sedan chair, through the streets
of Pekin, accompanied by Mr. E. T. WiUiams,
Secretary of the American legation, on my way
to talk over the question of passports with Prince
Ching, the head of the government in the capital.
On this particular afternoon a sand-storm was in full
blast. A Chinese sand-storm is an overpowering,
contradictory thing, which seems at variance with
the conditions under which it blows. Beneath a
cloudless sky, with a wind not especially strong or
intense, clouds of sand arise and envelop and sub-
due. No one knows exactly where the sand comes
from. According to one theory, it is a product of
the desert of Gobi. Its colour is leaden-gray. There
is no escaping it. Mongolian complexions, green
palace-roofs, top-hats on Legation Street, even the
sun itself, take on a tinge of the universal gray. The
entire populace rubs its smarting eyes and retires
behind sheltering walls. The sand penetrates every-
where, and absorbs everything, turning all charm
and beauty into dulness, making the new seem old,
and the old, older. A force that does not wither,
but preserves, and that compels the earth to see the
sun-light only through darkened glasses.

Through the sand-gusts our chairs swayed and
lurched, until, after an hour and a half, we were set
down with a thump in front of a gateway, where
a guard of Chinese soldiers presented arms. A
sergeant directed us across a stone-paved court-yard

STARTING

into a parlour where Prince Ching stood waiting to
receive us. He led the way to a little table in a back
room, and seated himself between Mr. Williams and
myself, while a servant brought three cups of tea
and a basket of cakes.

Because of his rank and position, it is hardly
too much to say that Prince Ching is the foremost
figure in the Chinese Government of to-day. He
is a Manchu, and is an uncle of the Emperor. Be-
sides holding a number of minor offices and titles,
he is the head of the Wa Wu Bu, or foreign office,
which he had much to do with organising, and upon
which devolved a large part of the responsibility
for the complex negotiations which ended in the
maintenance of the integrity of China, and of the
payment of an indemnity to the powers. Li Hung
Chang was the only other man prominent at court
who remained in Pekin while negotiations were in
progress, and his failing health left Prince Ching to
battle almost alone with the diplomatic forces of the
entire western world.

Prince Ching is apparently about sixty-five
years old. His queue and long goatee are gray. His
eyes are piercing, and are set far back in his head.
His forehead is high, and his lips thin and com-
pressed. He is of medium height, and his shoulders
have a slight inclination to stoop. After listen-
ing, through the medium of Mr. Williams, to an
expression of my desire to go to Sian and my rea-
sons for undertaking the journey. His Highness

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

smiled, approvingly, and asked his secretary for his
card-case. From it he drew a piece of red paper.
'' This is my card," he said. " It is all you will
need to obtain ample protection and assistance any-
where in China. I seldom give my card to any-
one, and it is only because of the interest which
Americans have taken in our starving people that I
present it to you." His Highness's card was not
an imposing-looking document. It was about ten
inches long and three wide. On one side of it were
inscribed the three characters of his name. It was
devoid of embellishment of any kind, and would
easily have passed for a Chinese laundry^-ticket at
home. It certainly did not look as though it pos-
sessed the merits of an " open sesame," and I fear
that my doubts on the subject found vent in my
expression as he handed it to me. Mr. Williams
expressed to Prince Ching my gratitude for his
card, but he added that he thought it would be
better if my American passport could be made
effective for travel in China.

This His Highness readily agreed to do. He
took my passport and looked at it. My English
name would not do at all. *' I will adapt it for
you," he said. He informed me that no name was
legal in China unless authorised by the " book of
surnames."

Prince Ching noticed my kodak in my pocket
as I rose to go, and he asked what it was. When I
explained to him its uses, he inquired if it were

AN OPEN SESAME TO CHINA PRINCE CHING S CARD.

STARTING

capable of taking his piiotograpii. I informed him
that I thought it was, and he posed himself in front
of it in the centre of his court-yard, where all the
light that could filter through the sand-cloud fell
full on his face.

The next day my adapted passport was returned
to the United States legation. It bore the seal of
the Taotai of Pekin. It described my name in
three characters as Na Ko Su. It said that my
mission was one of peace, and it directed the gov-
ernors of the provinces of Chili, Shansi, Shensi,
Hupeh, and Honan to give me every aid and pro-
tection within their power. It was just the kind of
a paper that I had desired, and its formidable rows of
characters and its quaint seal made me confident of
being able to get into Shensi and out again without
any additional credentials. I had yet to learn that
all the characters in the Chinese alphabet, and all
the seals in the empire, did not possess one-tenth of
the value of that little piece of red paper on which
was only the name of the prime minister of China.

Without muc difficulty, I secured the services,
as cook, of a Shantung man, a Christian convert, who
had been a sort of native evangelist. From his
missionary education he had learned to sing " Hold
the Fort" and "Jerusalem the Golden," in loud
Chinese, and also to fry ham and to make buck-
wheat-cakes, in accordance with the directions on
the can of baking-powder. But the obtaining of an
interpreter was a much more serious problem. My

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

absolute lack of knowledge of everything Chinese
made it imperative that I should have with me
someone who was familiar with the ways of man-
darins and who could be my prompter and guide as
well as my medium of speech. After several days
of searching, I was introduced to Wang. He was
twenty years old and of rather diminutive stature.
He had clear, yellow skin and bright, red cheeks.
He wore a velvet blouse, a gray, kilt riding-skirt,
and around his waist a yellow sash. His queue
was neatly braided, and was elaborated into a silk
knot at the end after the fashion of Pekin swells.
When I sounded his knowledge of Shensi, he re-
plied, quickly, " I know nothing of that country,
sir, except that it is a far way, but if I follow with
you I will try — to serve you and we can do."

This answer won me, and then and there I en-
gaged him.

Our party of three, with several piles of camp-
outfit and a supply of American canned foods, took
the southward-bound train at seven o'clock one
morning at the platform just outside Chen Men
gate.

With Prince Ching's card in my pocket, I
settled down on a pile of blankets on a corner of
the bench in my compartment of the car, which
only a label distinguished from the rest as " first-
class accommodation." The diminutive locomotive
at the other end of the long train whistled and
wheezed. The Chinese conductor kicked two

STARTING

coolies off the steps of the car. The crowd on the
platform jabbered and shouted, and the car-wheels
slowly began to revolve over the first of the 750
miles of my journey. I was off for Shensi, the
land of Fu Hi and the dragon. Shensi, the cradle
of the Chinese race, the home of " old " families,
where the 2,000 years of Pekin are regarded as
only a yesterday, and whose civilisation was ancient
when Romulus and Remus were wolf's children.

CHAPTER II

PEKIN TO PAOTING

THE road from Pekin to Sian crosses three
provinces : Chili, Shansi, and Shensi. Shansi
is separated from Shensi only by the Yellow River,
down which are supposed to have come the first
of the Chinese race about 3,000 years before the
Christian era. The names Shansi and Shensi are
often coupled by the Chinese in referring to the
land of their beginnings. In fact, the difference of
vowels in their spelling is only a foreign adaptation.
In the native nomenclature the pronunciation of
the names of both provinces is the same, except
that Shensi is given more of a falling inflection
than Shansi.

Before the advent of the railroad, the journey
was divided into four stages : the first, of 1 50 miles
is to Chengting, in Chili ; and the second is of about
the same distance to Tai Yuan, in Shansi. The
next stage, the longest, is from Tai Yuan to Tung
Kwan, on the Shensi border, about 350 miles, while
the fourth, and last stage of 100 miles, extends thence
to Sian. With native methods of travel, the entire
journey formerly occupied from five to six weeks.
By the aid of the railroad over the greater part of

PEKIN TO PAOTING

the first stage, I was able to accomplish it within
twenty-nine days after leaving Pekin.

The railroad through Chili has found the strug-
gle for existence a hard one. It has had to con-
tend with the deep-rooted prejudices of the race
among whom it has laid two lines of undulating
rail. Its building was an international effort, and
evidences of the struggles by which its right of way
was wrung, mile by mile, from the government are
apparent along the entire line. The first section is
of English construction, the next of French, and
the last few miles have been added by Belgians.
The result is a mixture of the railway-construction-
methods of the entire western world. Part of the
track is ballasted with rock and part with sand. In
one section the bridges are of stone and in the next
of wood. Some of the locomotives were made in
the United States and others in Belgium. The cars
were built in China, after French models. The en-
gineers, firemen, and conductors are Chinese, while
the station-agents are usually either French or Ger-
mans.

Much as the Chinese disliked the idea of a rail-
road at the beginning, it has lately become im-
mensely popular with them. They take great pride
in it, and are very fond of telling you how it is
now possible to go 300 li (100 miles) in half a day.

The trains are all of the variety known in Amer-
ica as "mixed." Only a few of the cars are for
passengers. The rest are either freight or open flat-

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

cars, on which are huddled every kind of merchan-
dise and live-stock imaginable — chickens, bales of
cotton, kerosene-oil, horses, carts, and fodder in
indescribable confusion, with their owners riding
beside the goods they own. The majority of ship-
pers in China place little reliance in waybills, and
usually accompany to its destination anything they
send over a railroad.

Crude as the railroad is, it is a beginning which
may some day connect Hankow and the Yangtse
with Pekin. Another line northward was opened
in January, 1902, from Hankow to the southern
borders of Honan. By-and-by, the two lines will
meet somewhere near the ancient city of Kaifeng,
and the " steam-dragon " will be supreme in China.

The railroad from Pekin follows the line of the
old government high-road across the plain of Chili.
There is seldom a minute in the journey when a
look through the car-window does not reveal carts,
and mules and horses, toiling along through the
dust in the same ruts that have been travelled for
thousands of years. It is a paralleling of the old
and the new that I have seen nowhere else in
China. The place for changing cars is Paoting,
the capital of the Province of Chili, one hundred
miles from Pekin. The railroad does not enter the
town, but passes three miles to the westward of it.
The train stops beside a pile of sand, left over from
the track-ballasting. Into it freight, baggage, and
passengers are dumped promiscuously, to be gathered

PEKIN TO PAOTING

by cart-drivers, who are quite as eager and com-
petitive as Forty-second Street cabmen. A mis-
sionary once described Paoting to me as a city which
"persecuted the prophets, and was humbled in the
dust." I thought of this description as our cart-
wheels sank hub-deep in the bed of white sand,
which constituted the road to the town. Whatever
humbling has fallen to the lot of poor, dreary, dirty,
old Paoting has certainly been of a very dusty
character.

The population of Paoting is variously es-
timated at from 30,000 to 60,000. Previous to the
Boxer uprising, it was looked upon as one of the
few cities in Northern China which manifested a
turning toward the light of Christianity. It was the
centre of great missionary activity and it contained
two large institutional missions. Within an in-
closure, at the south end of the town, were the
schools, hospitals, and church-buildings of the
American Congregationalists, while a similar series
of institutions at the northern limit of Paoting were
maintained by American Presbyterians.

The Roman Catholics, too, had a large church
and school, and made converts at the rate of a
thousand a year. Missionaries of all three faiths
began to look forward, hopefully, to the time when
the capital of Chili would be reclaimed from the
darkness of heathendom. But there came a day,
in the early part of 1900, when the storm rose ;
with little warning, with comparatively little ex-

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

citement, swarms of Boxers suddenly poured into
Paoting. Accounts vary as to whence they came.
It may have been from Shantung ; perhaps, it was
from Shansi ; but, whatever their origin, or the
direct causes which brought them thither, certain
it is that in a few hours they had darkened the
streets of the town, and had begun, deliberately and
systematically, to put out all " foreign light."

They surrounded the mission-compounds, and
killed every one of the missionaries. As there were
no survivors of the massacre, one has to depend for
accounts of it on the stories of native eye-witnesses.
Although these vary considerably, they would all
indicate that the awful murders were not accom-
plished with any more cruelty or publicity than was
considered necessary to let all China know that the
work was done thoroughly. No one was spared.
Even some foreign employees of the railroad were
put to death. The mission-buildings were burned,
and their ruins would be difficult of identification
to-day, were it not for a row of little headstones
in a cabbage-field, close to the former Congregational
mission, marking the graves of more than twenty
men and women. Then the storm passed over, and
Paoting settled down again to walk in the paths
its fathers had trod for centuries. But it was a
quiet of short duration. After the taking of Pekin,
it was one of the first places toward which the allied
armies turned their attention.

It was the objective point of several of the
14

PEKIN TO PAOTING

earliest and most severe "punitive expeditions."
English, French, and German columns vied with
each other in impressing upon the inhabitants of
Paoting the futility of opposition to the spread of the
Gospel. The leading official of the town was tried
by court-martial, was found guilty of being a Boxer,
and was publicly beheaded.

Temples, where generations of men had pros-
trated themselves before the gilded Buddhas, and
the tablets of Confucius, were levelled to the ground.
The idols were overthrown and chopped to pieces.
A huge, gaping hole was blown with dynamite in
the old city wall, in order to convince the citizens
that they were wrong in supposing it invulner-
able. An indemnity of many thousand taels was
levied upon Paoting, and the way was cleared for
"mission-work" to begin over again. It was not
the only place in northwestern China where mission-
aries were murdered by Boxers. Awful as the mas-
sacre was, the number killed was not so great as in
Tai Yuan, the capital of Shansi, where the mo-
tives and methods were more deliberate and cold-
blooded. But Tai Yuan escaped with only the
payment of an indemnity, and a "suicide-order" for
the governor of the province. Tai Yuan can be
reached only by long, toilsome marches through the
mountains, which make the hauling of artillery-
trains and commissary-wagons exceedingly difficult,
but Paoting was easily accessible from Pekin.
Therefore, Paoting was punished.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

At Paoting I was, for two days, the guest of a
Presbyterian missionary, the only white man in the
place. He was an American, and a graduate of
Princeton. It is only by the accident of a chance-
absence from his station at the time of the mas-
sacre, that he is alive to-day. All of the victims of
the storm of Boxer fanaticism were his intimate
friends. Yet, for their murderers, the people to
whom he had devoted his life, he had nothing but
expressions of kindness. The " Forgive them ;
they know not what they do" spirit was always
uppermost. Strong as was the anti-foreign and
anti-christian sentiment in Paoting, this missionary
was universally beloved. The reception-room of his
little compound was a favourite meeting-place for
the scholars of the town, who liked to discuss with him
the relative merits of Confucianism and the Bible.
During our stay at his house I was surprised to
see a Buddhist priest enter the court-yard, and make
a low kow-tow. " Oh, that chap came to thank me
for saving his temple," was my host's reply, when I
inquired the cause of such an unusual visit. ** You
see," he continued, " he is a good man, according to
his lights. I have known him and argued with him
for many years. The Germans decided to destroy
all but a very few temples. Out of regard for my
friendship for that priest, I went to the colonel and
pleaded that the temple of which he was in charge
might be spared. My request was granted, and the
temple is standing to-day. It wasn't more than

PEKIN TO PAOTING

anyone would do for a friend. I really don't de-
serve the thanks he gives me. But the best part
of it is, that he is beginning to think that Christian-
ity is a queer sort of religion that would make me,
a foreigner and a missionary, go out of my way
to do anything for a Buddhist. He has just asked
me for a copy of the New Testament, in order that
he can see for himself what it has to say about for-
giveness of enemies."

If China is ever to be converted, it is little acts
of genuine Christianity like this that will do it,
not Maxim-guns, or dynamite, or indemnities. The.
man whose hospitality I enjoyed at Paoting was
a rare missionary. It is the very few such as he
who are the hope of Christianity in China to-day.

Being the provincial capital, Paoting is the
nominal residence of the Viceroy of Chili. Al-
though Li Hung Chang held the office of Viceroy,
he had not visited the city for several years prior to
his death. The Viceroy's yamen, or official resi-
dence, in the heart of the town, was, however, always
kept in repair and ready for his occupancy. It is a
long, one-story building, with two stone lions guard-
ing the gateway and two long, slanting flag-poles
always in readiness to fly the Viceroy's flag in
case he should see fit to visit his capital. In his
absence the government of the province devolves
upon the Fantai, or provincial treasurer. The
man who held that office at the time of my visit
was Chou Fu, an elderly, stout mandarin, who

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

had been selected for the post because of his repu-
tation for fairness and his ability to get on with
foreigners. It was Chou Fu who was really to
start me on my journey to the interior and give me
my final credentials before I said farewell to rail-
roads and all other forms of modernity. Shortly
after my arrival, a messenger brought me his red
card, and a few minutes later its owner stepped from
his sedan chair at the gate of the missionary com-
pound.

He was accompanied by an escort of about
twenty men. He told me, in a direct, business-like
way, that he had been informed of my coming by a
telegram from Prince Ching, and that he had de-
cided to give me an escort of soldiers, who would
accompany me as far as the borders of Shansi, and
who would be responsible for my safety while in
Chili. " You are not accustomed to travelling in
China ? " asked the Fantai. I told him that I was
not. " Then let me give you a few suggestions.
As far as possible, wear Chinese clothes, eat our
food, and try to live as we do. You will get along
a great deal better if you do."

I inquired about the advisability of carrying
a revolver to protect myself in case of attack.
"Don't do it," was the reply. "Let all your escort
know that you are unarmed, and that you depend
on them for protection. If you carry firearms they
may think that you are able to take care of yourself,
but if you are unarmed they will realise that their

PEKIN TO PAOTING

heads will be cut off if anything happens to you."
I followed the Fantai's advice, and carried no more
serious weapon than a kodak through China. By
noon of the next day we were at Ting, the terminus
of the railroad. In front of the official inn I
found an escort of soldiers awaiting me. They
were six in number — great, big, strapping fellows,
in red blouses, with Mauser rifles swung over their
shoulders. They saluted as I emerged from a tiffin
of boiled mutton and pickled ducks'-eggs. Our
luggage was thrown into a cart. Two of the sol-
diers rode beside it, and the remaining four closed
in behind Wang and myself. The sergeant, or
shi jang, looked back to see that the cart was fol-
lowing, kicked his pony in the ribs, and we were
off across Chili.

The further one penetrates into the " Middle
Kingdom," the more forcibly does he become con-
vinced that most of his preconceived ideas of the
Chinese are wrong. In the treaty ports he has been
told by devout missionaries that the people among
whom he is to travel are " heathen," and that much of
their philosophy and system of living is merely the
result of the promptings of the devil. He has been
assured by foreign merchants and traders that a
Chinaman is a barbarian and an inferior, a sort of
combination of child and knave, whom a severe
course of discipline may render capable of being
a servant to a white man, but who can never be
taken seriously, and who can seldom be trusted.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

But, after treaty ports and steamships and con-
suls and railroads are left behind, and the traveller
from the West is once fairly started on his way
through that vast, swarming, indefinite land, which
men on the coast refer to as " the interior," he
begins to realise that he is in the midst of a perfect
system of civilisation — a civilisation different from,
and often quite the reverse of his own, but one, never-
theless, that is in many ways more complete than
any he has ever known before, in which nothing
ever happens by chance, where there is a reason for
everything, founded on an experience that began
when the world was young.

One of the first evidences of this is the system
by which the bearer of government credentials is
guarded and cared for on his journey through the
country. The protection afforded by Prince Ching's
card means much more than a mere general super-
vision, such as providing the traveller with an escort
of soldiers, and then leaving him to shift for himself.

No matter where, or how far, he travels, there
is never a minute of the journey when there is not
some provincial official who is responsible for his
safety. Should he suffer the slightest loss along the
route, the responsibility can be fixed immediately,
and the official in whose district it occurred can be
held accountable, and is liable to severe punishment.
The traveller's journey is mapped out for him before-
hand. He knows how many days it will take him
to go from one place to another. Through govern-

PEKIN TO PAOTING

ment channels, he can always obtain as many mules
or carts as may be necessary for the transportation
of himself and his luggage. A lodging is provided
for him at night, and, yet, he is in everything a free
agent. In no sense is he "personally conducted."
He is never annoyed by effusive hospitality, much
less by incivility or insult. Once arrived in a town
or village, he can go where he likes, visit whatever
points of interest he wishes, ask all the questions
that come into his head, and he will be treated far
more kindly than would a newly arrived Chinese
laundryman in an interior American town. It is a
unique and original system, which, in the West,
finds a counterpart only in the bill-of-lading for
the transfer of freight across countries that we are
pleased to call civilised.

The wenshao is the Chinese bill-of-lading, for
the traveller and all his belongings. It is issued by
the mandarin of the shen, or district, from which
the journey begins. It consists of a folded piece
of thin paper, on one side of which is set forth a
description of the traveller and a list of his effects.
His passports and credentials are also described,
and the number of mules, or carts, necessary for his
transportation, is enumerated.

On the opposite side of the wenshao is the
seal of the mandarin who issues it. It is addressed
to the mandarin of a shen some six days' journey
distant, who, on receiving it, must issue another
similar document to a mandarin equally distant.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

In addition to this, at every intermediate town
which marks the end of a day's journey, the man-
darin is obliged to affix his seal, his signature, and
the name of his district, or shen. The wenshao thus
becomes a complete record of the traveller's progress,
with the responsibility for his safety always resting
upon the mandarin who last signed it. Another
benefit conferred by the workings of a wenshao is
the immunity it gives to its bearer from the horrors
of Chinese inns. In every town or village, no
matter how small, there is, at least, one inn, for
the convenience, or — to speak more correctly — for
the inconvenience, of the public. Few forms of
human habitation anywhere in the world can be
more cheerless or inhospitable. Imagine a large,
square yard, filled with a heterogeneous collection
of carts, merchandise, braying mules, and kicking
ponies, and you will have some idea of what the
most important part of an inn is like. Around
three sides of the court-yard are long, one-story
sheds, built of mud, and covered with thatched,
straw roofs. In these are the rooms of the inn's
patrons. The only furniture in each room consists
of two mud-beds, or kongs, a small table, and two
chairs. Here meals are served. The menu usu-
ally includes rice, tea, and, in some parts of the
country, of mian, a kind of macaroni. By the pay-
ment of a few cash, your cook is given access to
the oven, in the inn court-yard, and is allowed to
prepare such food as he can purchase in the town-

■#,.^

"""•Hjjf

A WEXSHAO.

PEKIN TO PAOTING

market. Another constant source of delight in an
inn is found in the "razorback" hogs, which the
proprietor frequently keeps as pets, and which he
permits to range at will through his patrons' rooms.
The hogs are very well domesticated, and have a
happy way of rubbing up against your legs when
you are eating your evening meal, and of climbing
up on your kong after you have blown out the can-
dles. Besides the hogs, there are swarms of fleas,
and insects silent and stealthy that are more often
endured than mentioned. Anyone who travels
through China can make up his mind that he will
have to undergo a certain amount of "life" at
inns, but, provided with a wenshao, he can avoid
it in all the larger towns by staying at the kung
kwans.

A kung kwan is an official hotel owned by the
municipality and under the control of the shen
mandarin. The banchaiti, as the man in charge of
it is called, is a member of the mandarin's official
household. Upon the arrival in the town of a man
with a wenshao, it is the business of the banchaiti
to take a corps of servants, whom he has engaged
for the purpose, to the kung kwan, open it, and
clean it, as much as Chinese houses are ever cleaned.
He must also have two cups of tea made for the
traveller to drink immediately on his arrival. These
preparations completed, the banchaiti replaces his
dirty cap with a mandarin's hat as a reminder of his
official position, and then, with the mandarin's card

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

in his hand, he stands at the door, awaiting his
guest.

The style of kung kwan architecture is about the
same in all parts of China. The official inn is usually
built of stone, one story in height, at the rear of a
series of court-yards. Few kung kwans are less than
a hundred years old, and many of them received their
first guest several centuries ago. Because their oc-
cupants are usually mandarins, they are arranged
with a special view to an observance of Chinese
official etiquette and good form. The motif in
their construction is the principle of right and left,
which pervades every department of mandarin life
and ceremonial. In eating, sleeping, talking, and
walking, anywhere amid Chinese civilisation, the
left hand is always the place of honour. The right
hand is an inferior position, which the stranger from
the West must carefully avoid if he wishes to retain
the respect of the people among whom he is living.
The centre room of the kung kwan is a square hall
which serves as a parlour and dining-room. Against
the wall facing the entrance is a large divan called
a konjr- A low table in the centre divides it into
two seats. For a kung kwan guest to so far forget
himself after a hard day's ride as to drop down at
the rio^ht side of the little table would be a breach
of good manners almost unpardonable. Extending
from both sides of the main hall are two wings,
each containing one room. The one at the right
is often far the more comfortable of the two, but

PEKIN TO PAOTING

you must not occupy it. If you do, and allow
your interpreter to have the left-hand room, he, and
not you, will receive a kow-tow from the banchaiti
as he brings the morning cup of tea. Although
kung kwans are far better furnished than the ma-
jority of houses in the Empire, the beds are no less
primitive in construction than those on which sleep
the poorest of the population.

A Chinese bed is a pile of bricks about five feet
in width and four in height, built across an alcove
or along one end of a room. The art of sleeping on
such a bed cannot be acquired in one night. One
must have had many long days' rides on a hard-
gaited pony ; he must have been fatigued to the
point of exhaustion by sun and dust and wind be-
fore he can sleep soundly on that unyielding pile of
bricks. Even after he has learned how to do so, he
must never be surprised or annoyed if, for the first
few hours of the next day, his joints ache painfully,
and he has sensations similar to convalescence from
rheumatism. In sleeping a Chinaman ties and but-
tons around him a sort of folding-quilt, called a
pooka. I modified this device into a sleeping-
sack made of goat-skin, which enveloped me from
head to foot. While it succeeded in keeping out
the cold, it did not in any way mitigate the discom-
fort of the brick-pile. I once asked a banchaiti
why springs or mattresses were an impossibility.
The substance of his answer was that the insect
life of China was so numerous and rampant that,

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

were occidental beds introduced, the sleeper would
have to endure active discomfort that would be far
worse than the present negative form. It was quite
as serious an error, the banchaiti thought, to have
too much in a bed as too little. I have not quoted
the banchaiti literally, but I have, I hope, para-
phrased his language sufficiently closely to explain
the reason for the mercilessness of kung kwan
beds. Like everything else Chinese, there is true
philosophy in their construction, the adaptation of
means to an end, and in this case the end is surely
most commendable.

Every kung kwan is provided with a first-class
Chinese oven, where American food can be pre-
pared with little difficulty, but a constant diet of
canned tomatoes and corned beef became so monoto-
nous that I soon was glad to avail myself of the
native food which the banchaitis provided for me.
My experience of kung kwan menus has con-
vinced me that the objection of most foreigners to
Chinese cooking is largely a matter of prejudice,
and I do not wonder at the supreme contempt
which educated Chinese have for the " foreign
devils' " food. It is hard to find a dish in the
Middle Kingdom that is not based upon the recipe
of some sage who lived centuries ago and who had
a hygienic principle in mind when he designed it.
Chinese food tends much more to vegetarianism
than does ours. Beef is never eaten except by
Mohammedans. Mutton and pork are obtainable in

PEKIN TO PAOTING

some towns, but the only form of meat which one
is sure of obtaining is fowl, which the Chinese know
how to prepare with greater delicacy and in a greater
variety of ways than any other people I have ever
met with. Other things that one is almost sure to
find at every well-regulated meal are lotus-stems
and buds, bamboo sprouts, bird's nests, pickled
duck's eggs, and shark's fins. Knives and forks are
a profanation of food so historic and original, and
to enjoy it one must accustom himself to the use of
chopsticks, a method of eating not at all difficult to
acquire.

The hours of travel, as prescribed by Chinese
custom, are from sunrise to sunset. Shortly after
day-break the occupant of the kung kwan is awak-
ened by the banchaiti, who makes a kow-tow, and
again holds up the mandarin's card. This is a polite
way of asking for his pay. Theoretically, the travel-
ler is the guest of the municipality, and is allowed to
occupy his apartment without charge, but long usage
has established a regular rate of tip, or cumshaw, as
a perquisite to the banchaiti, which is about double
the cost of lodging in an inn. An important per-
son in every traveller's party is the mafu. His work
is a combination of the duties of hostler and
guide. It is his province to see that the animals
are fed and cared for and that the saddle-girths are
properly tightened before the morning start. The
mafu usually rides at least one hundred yards in ad-
vance of the shi jang of the guard, and points out

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

the way. About five miles before approaching the
town which contains the kung kwan for the night,
the mafu kicks his pony into a gallop and dashes
on ahead to inform the mandarin of the traveller's
approach, so that everything will be in readiness on
his arrival.

Once away from the haunts of foreigners the
only money that passes current in China is taels. A
tael is merely a lump of bullion silver which weighs
one Chinese ounce. It is paid by weight and not
by count. To accomplish this an odd little pair of
scales is necessary, which is carried in a wooden case
especially arranged for travellers. But the perplex-
ity of taels does not end with the weighing of the
irregular-shaped lumps of silver. In scarcely any
two provinces is the price of silver the same, and,
consequently, there is apt to be considerable differ-
ence in the value of taels in travelling a distance
of only one hundred miles. In some places the
taels are made from purer silver than in others.
The scales used in Pekin are graduated differently
from those in vogue in the Yangtse valley. To
anyone but a Chinaman, the money of his country
is a hopeless puzzle. But, crude and clumsy as the
system is, it is founded upon a principle which came
into use in Europe only as an aftermath of the
French Revolution. If you examine the little ivory
weighing-bar of every pair of Chinese scales you
will see that it is marked off into tenths and hun-
dredths. The tael is divided decimally. Ever since

PEKIN TO PAOTING

there was such a thing as money in China, it has
been based upon the decimal system. The oldest
arithmetic contains an exposition of decimals.
That arithmetic was published in the Chou dynasty,
and the Chous reigned i loo years before Christ.

CHAPTER III
ACROSS CHILI

TO the south and west of Paotingfu there
stretches a gray plain which embraces nearly
all of the province of Chili and extends to the foot-
hills of the Shansi Mountains. Across the plain zig-
zag several high-roads connecting the larger towns,
much as railroads do in the United States. Old
and much travelled as the roads are, they are not
maintained by the government, nor are they public
property, as on the western side of the world. This
is not true of roads in all parts of the empire, but it
is the case in Chili. A road in that province is sim-
ply a continuous strip of land appropriated as a
thoroughfare from the edges of the fields. The use
of part of his land as a road does not interfere with
the owner's possession of it. He has still to pay
taxes on it as part of his property, and he fights
tenaciously against any widening or improving of
the thoroughfare which may further encroach on
his farm. Being private property, it is the business
of neither the general government, nor of the dis-
trict mandarin, to improve the road, and the result
is that it becomes merely a rut-worn track which
rain and melting snow convert into a mud-bog, and

ACROSS CHILI

the summer sun turns into furrows of dust. The
roads were in the height, or rather depth, of the dust
period when we left Ting in the middle of October.
Although a brisk autumn wind was blowing and
the temperature was quite cool, the rays of the sun
were fierce in their intensity. Nearly all the men
we met wore peaked, broad-brimmed, straw hats.
Cases of sunstroke, I was told, are known in Chili
as late as November. The appearance of the coun-
try for miles about was not unlike a huge vegetable
garden at home. Chili farms seldom consist of
more than three acres, and in many cases they are
not more than one acre in extent. The naturally
fertile soil is constantly manured and is made to
produce two crops a year. Every foot of it is
under cultivation. The climate and soil are similar
to Northern Illinois. Fields of cabbages, onions,
millet, and buckwheat are interspersed with patches
of cotton and tobacco, which are raised all over
China in a temperate climate that would be con-
sidered prohibitive in other parts of the world.
Every quarter of a mile or so a donkey at the end
of a long pole may be seen walking around a wind-
lass. He is raising water from a well by a chain-
pump, whence it is discharged into the furrows
that cross the fields in every direction. Some of
the wells are very deep and are constructed on the
Artesian principle, a series of hollow bamboo-rods
taking the place of iron pipe. A well-donkey is a
thing essentially Chinese. No one drives him or

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

apparently takes the slightest interest in him. He
wears big, straw blinders over his eyes, which prevent
his seeing anything. He is oblivious of his sur-
roundings. All the ordinary aims and ambitions of
donkey life he seems to have forgotten. Hour after
hour he walks slowly around the windlass, only a
speck on the flat landscape, only a cog in the simple
but vast system of agriculture which keeps millions
of men alive.

The milestones of Chili are square, truncated
pyramids of brick, about twenty feet in height,
placed by the road-side at a distance of five li apart.
Guide-books and descriptions of China usually im-
part the information that a li is equivalent to three-
tenths of an English mile, but in reality a li can
hardly be called a unit of distance at all. It is more
properly a measure of the time consumed in going
from one place to another over a level road. Across
the plain which we were traversing the five-li mile-
stones appeared at regular intervals of one mile and
a half, but, in the mountains, they were frequently
separated by a distance of not more than half a mile,
while a river a mile wide was usually estimated as ten
li, on the theory that it took three times as long to
cross it in a ferry as it would to ride the same dis-
tance on land. By the roadside we saw numerous
stone monuments consisting of two upright pillars,
connected at the top by a slab of granite. Along the
upper edge were usually stone-carved dragons and
grotesque figures of dogs and tigers. An inscription

ACROSS CHILI

on the slab invariably recited that it was erected by
some Emperor in honour of a widow of the vicinity
who had never married again. According to Chinese
standards, this loyalty constitutes the highest virtue
of which a woman can be capable, and in recognition
of it a fund is set aside every year from the imperial
treasury for the building of these monuments all
over the empire, although I saw many more of them
in Chili than anywhere else. In this part of China
there are no isolated farm-houses, as in America.
Arable land is too precious to permit of its be-
ing covered by houses or barns. As a means of
saving every square foot, the population herd to-
gether in the little villages which occur about every
half hour in a progress across the plain.

The houses are usually one story in height, and
are built of mud, with thatched roofs, and windows
covered with paper, for away from the railroads glass
in China is found only in very few places. Except
in the evening or early morning, one seldom sees
any men in the villages. They are given over almost
entirely to the women and children, while the male
portion of the population is at work in the surround-
ing fields. The houses are built close together along
the roadside. Just beyond the last house is generally
to be found the village mill. It consists of a round
flat stone about ten feet in diameter, elevated about
three feet from the ground. On it the corn is
placed, and a heavy stone roller, attached to a spin-
dle in the centre of the stone is pushed over it. In

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

other parts of China I have often seen the rol-
lers dragged over the nether stone by donkeys
in a method similar to a well-windlass, but in
Chili the roller is almost invariably propelled by
women.

On their little, bound, crippled feet they hobble
round and round the millstone, slowly pushing the
creaking roller in front of them. It looks like an
exceedingly painful process, but the women laugh
and chatter, as they hobble, as though they enjoyed
it. In every village there is at least one small
temple or shrine. It is usually open at the front,
and on a stage at the rear is a row of idols, all
painted in bright colours and liberally besmeared
with gilding. The temple is apt to be the best
building in the village and is often built of brick.
For a Chinaman any sort of clay soil seems pos-
sible for brick-making. He first finds a part of his
land which he can spare from cultivation. As this is
usually a difficult matter he often selects a place by
the roadside. There he digs a hole, shovels out
the clay, mixes it with straw and water, and then
stamps it down into moulds. He piles the em-
bryo brick where the rays of the sun can get at
them and goes away. In the course of a week or so
they are finished. Like the clay from which they are
baked, the bricks are a dull gray in color and are in-
clined at first to be damp, but the permanency of
such structuTcs as the walls of some of the older
cities proves that ultimately they become quite as

CHLLI BRICK MAKING.

A HALT FOR THE NOON-DAY MEAL.

ACROSS CHILI

hard and impervious to the elements as brick made
with the most approved machinery. The Pekinese
have a proverb which says: "The first year after a
brick house is built let your enemy live in it, the
second year your friend, and the third year occupy
it yourself."

Our first stop for the night was in the little
town of Sinlo. The mandarin of the place came to
see me almost as soon as I was settled in my kung
kwan. He was a simple, kindly man whose ex-
perience with foreigners had apparently been very
limited. With the tea-cups between us, he at once
started a conversation consisting largely of ques-
tions. "What is the name of the Emperor of
America now that the old one was killed ? " he
asked through the medium of Wang's interpreta-
tion. When I replied "Roosevelt," the mandarin's
sides shook and the corners of his mouth twitched
with suppressed laughter. "He laugh," explained
Wang, "that a man should have such a funny
name." My visitor wanted to know how old the
" American Emperor " was and what were his yearly
revenues. He asked his questions with the utmost
politeness, but in his manner there was a trace of
the same condescension which might characterise
the conversation of a prosperous, eminently respect-
able American with a Chinaman. The "stranger
from a-far" was to be treated courteously, but he
was not to be allowed to forget that he was a bar-
barian, and, therefore, could never hope to be an

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

equal. The Philistine is a plant indigenous to all
lands and all civilisations.

A day's journey from Sinlo brought us to
Chengting, a fu, or prefecture-capital, which was the
headquarters of the French army during its occupa-
tion of Chili. The kung kwan, where we spent the
night, had been the official residence of the com-
mander of the invading forces. It contained a
porcelain lamp that would not light and a clock
which could not be made to keep time, but the
banchaiti pointed to them with great pride, as evi-
dences that Chengting was not entirely ignorant of
Western civilisation. Two miles from Chengting is
the Huto River, which must be crossed before one
can strike the road to the westward, which leads to
Tai Yuan and Shansi. We made our way along
its low, sandy banks until the mafu shouted and
pointed to a party of three men with their nether
garments tied in bundles on their heads, wading
across the stream. This indicated the point where
the water was shallow enough to enable us to ford
it, and then we accordingly plunged in, horses, cart,
mules, and all, touching the sandy bottom for three-
quarters of a mile. Fording rivers is one of the
necessities of travel in China, and to do it grace-
fully, without wetting one's feet or undue splashing,
is an art which, like sleeping on brick-beds, has to
be acquired by practice. Ferries are used on the
broader and deeper rivers, but the only method
of crossing the great majority of smaller streams

ACROSS CHILI

is by wading. Tiie ponies and mules do not seem
to mind the process in the least, and the only
difficulty is to prevent them from stopping to drink
in mid-stream. Without the slightest warning, a
pony will pause suddenly, just where the current is
strongest, and, dropping his head, will begin taking
long gulps of the muddy water. The operation is
performed so quickly that, if his rider is not careful,
he will follow the line of the pony's arched neck
into the stream.

Westward from the fords of the Huto, the road
is some thirty feet below the level of the plain. The
effect of riding over a highway of this kind is the
same as passing through a canon. On either side
rise precipitous, gray cliffs of hard clay, with just a
patch of the blue, brassy sky visible between them.
These ravines are not the result of natural causes,
but are due to ages of incessant travel. Centuries
of wagon-ruts in the same path have worn them to
their present depth. No one ever has improved the
roads or has changed their direction until, from sheer
wear, they have sunk to the level at which one finds
them to-day.

It has been pointed out by some critics of
China that it possesses few monuments of its great-
ness ; that it has no marble temples or jewelled
palaces. But China needs none. Such furrows
as the sunken roads on the face of the land itself
are monuments of a continuous civilisation almost
as old as the race.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

It was in passing through these rut-worn ravines
that the philosophy of Chili carts first became ap-
parent. As far as the mountains of Shansi, the
carts are all built on the same model as in Pekin.
They are heavy and springless and have only two
wheels. From the centres of the hubs the axles
protrude a distance of six or eight inches. In passing
other vehicles these extensions are very inconvenient,
but when, as in the sunken roads, one side of the
way is much higher than the other, and the whole
weight of the cart and its contents often rests on
one wheel for a mile or more at a time, it is liable
at any moment to upset and fall on its side. In
this event, under ordinary conditions, the lower
wheel might buckle under the cart and break. But
such a catastrophe is prevented by the axle-exten-
sion, which receives the force of the fall and saves
the w^heel. From Hwuyluh we were in the hill-
country. The dust of the plain of Chili was left
behind. In its place was a rocky, narrow trail that
wound in and out among the mountains. Hwuyluh
is the centre of the mining industry of North China.

Probably no one knows what the mineral re-
sources of China are, but some idea of them can be
obtained from the thousands of freshly moulded iron
pots and kettles that come into Hwuyluh from the
surrounding country. Progress up some of the hill-
roads is really difficult because of the long proces-
sions of men and boys with crates filled with these
products of the iron mines swung from rods on their

ACROSS CHILI

shoulders. The kettles are moulded in only a very
few shapes, after models that have been in vogue for
ages, but the vast quantities of them that are shipped
every day from Hwuyluh would indicate that the old
mines from which they come must be almost exhaust-
less. Long trains of donkeys are frequently met
with, each with two blocks of coal balanced on his
pack-saddle. The coal is the finest kind of anthra-
cite, and all of it has to be sawed into these blocks
for transportation. The labor of sawing the coal
and the accompanying waste must be enormous.
Yet this same coal sells in Pekin at prices about
equal to twelve American dollars per ton. Coal is
burned as fuel in many parts of Northern Shansi,
and I was told (although I saw nothing of the kind
myself) that in many places all that a farmer has to
do to obtain it is to dig it out of a hillside on his
land.

From Hwuyluh to Tai Yuan carts almost cease
to be a means of conveyance. They are met with
only at very rare intervals, drawn by three or four
struggling mules. The ordinary method of travel
is on the backs of ponies or donkeys. Chinese
ponies are never broken, in the American sense of
the word. It is always to be expected that on first
getting astride of a pony in the morning he will
kick and buck, and, perhaps, try to run away. This
manoeuvre does not worry the average Chinaman in
the slightest ; he merely gives the pony free rein and
lets him run. In the course of half an hour or so he

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

finds the exertion of running away somewhat ex-
hausting, and he then settles down to his normal gait,
which is usually a hard, jolting trot, although about
one pony in every ten is capable of a single-foot.
Having once struck his gait, the pony goes ahead like
a little machine. He is always ridden with a loose
rein. Yet, he keeps to the road, and never misses
his footing. Up hill and down — across plains and
through mountain-trails, he keeps up the same mo-
notonous hard trot. When he comes to a river he
never pauses an instant, but plunges in, fording it if
possible, swimming if necessary. And all this, with no
food all the year round but chopped corn-stalks, and
without ever experiencing the refining influence of
brush or currycomb. At the end of the day's jour-
ney the mafu walks him up and down the court-
yard for half an hour as an antidote for stiffness of the
knees. Then the saddle is removed, and he is allowed
to roll in the dust of the road for a few minutes.
After that, he is tied to a manger under a shed,
and the next morning is ready for another thirty
miles.

As the way wound among the hills it began to
develop into the nearest approach to a road, in our
sense of the word, that I had yet seen in China.

The roads for miles near Hwuyluh are paved
with square blocks of granite. Their exposed sur-
faces are about the size of flag-stones in a Broadway
sidewalk, but they are from two to two-and-a-half
feet in thickness. How thousands of these blocks

A GRAXITK men WAY,

ACROSS CHILI

were ever placed on the steep hillside without steam-
hoisting machinery is one of the many mysteries of
things in the interior of China which have yet to be
explained. The stones are in some places sadly in
need of repair, and are deeply grooved and indented
by wheel- ruts. No one in that part of the country
to-day can remember when the ordinary method of
travel was other than on the backs of animals. Ap-
parently, not enough carts pass over the road in the
course of an entire year to make the slightest im-
pression on the granite surfaces. Yet there the ruts
are often from five to eight inches deep, seemingly
a survival of a time long passed in Chinese history,
when the road over which we were travelling was
the great highway of the Empire, when it was
crowded with the commerce that centred in the
capital in Shensi.

The last stop in Chili was at Tsingting, a pretty
little town divided into two parts by a tributary of
the Huto. Across the river is what was once a
huge bridge, built of stone. Some hundred and fifty
years ago a spring freshet carried away one of the
spans. It has never been replaced, and the portion
of the brids^e still standing: is now used onlv as a
sort of promenade by the citizens of the town. The
generations of men who have had occasion to pass
through Tsingting, since the disappearance of the
span have all been compelled to ford the river a
quarter of a mile below the bridge. The Chinese are
quite as disinclined to repair as they are to build any-

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

thing new. They have a sort of fatalist belief, that if
heaven had intended them to have a bridge, the
freshet would not have come to destroy it. The catas-
trophe proved that bridges were not for Tsingting.
The mandarin of the town was noted through all
the country roundabout for his exceptional integrity
and ability. When I went to see him, I found him
standing at the door of his residence. He received
me in a delightfully informal way and ordered a
feast brought in as we talked. The object of my
visit was only to procure two additional donkeys for
the next day's journey, but our conversation soon
expanded into a general discussion of the present
Chinese situation. "Whether we like foreigners
or not," said my host, " China must imitate some
European methods, if she wishes to maintain her
dignity and self-respect ; but," he added, "I think
there are some things in which foreign nations
might imitate us, and be better for doing so," and
the mandarin smiled and cracked a watermelon-
seed between his teeth. " He is clever man,"
Wang observed, "he understand the mandarin
business." It was dark when we left his residence,
and he insisted on giving us two men with paper
lanterns to walk in front of our horses' heads and
show us to the ford. Behind us followed more
than a hundred of the townspeople, who stared at
us curiously, and tried to listen to snatches of my
conversation in English with Wang. Whenever
they succeeded in catching a sentence or two, we

ACROSS CHILI

could hear a half-suppressed ripple of laughter pass
over the crowd behind us. To many of them it
was their first experience of any language more
foreign than Manchu.

CHAPTER IV
BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

A STONE tablet stands on a hillside five miles
beyond Tsingting. Large characters carved in
the stone record the fact that it marks the boundary
between Chili and Shansi. Strewn along the tops
of the neighbouring mountains are heaps of mouldy
brick. These, the mafu explains, are " the great
wall." With one's mind filled with impressions of
a great wall towering far above the surrounding
country, with a space on the top wide enough for
three chariots to ride abreast, these brick piles are
a sad disappointment. So far as their usefulness is
concerned in determining the form or character of
the wall itself, they might just as well be the debris
of a brick-yard as a survival of China's greatest
monument. But they do prove that Mung-tien, the
general who superintended the building of the wall
for Shih Hwang-ti, two hundred years before the
Christian era, clearly understood the strategic ad-
vantage of a hilltop as a point of defence against an
attacking foe. The brick-heaps follow the ridge of
the hills as far as the eye can reach to the north and
south. The direction of this section of the great
wall along the eastern border of Shansi is almost at

BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

right angles with the main line, which runs westward
from Shan-hai-kuan, on the Gulf of Chili, almost
to the limits of Kansun Province. The south-
ern branch of the wall shows the extent of the
Chinese Empire at the time it was built. The incur-
sions of the Tartars were to be dreaded not only
from the north, but also from the eastern plain, now
included in Chili Province. When Munor-tien was
superintending the building of the wall, the Black-
Haired People were still centred around the valley
of the Yellow River and its tributaries. The road
into Shansi makes a detour up the side of a hill be-
fore it turns sharp to the westward and passes be-
tween the brick-piles. The object of this was ap-
parently to make approach to the wall as difficult
as possible for an enemy. The bastion-towers of
what was once a gate across the stone-paved road-
way are still visible.

Just before we reached the wall we were met by
a party of six soldiers, in whose manner and general
appearance there w^as a touch of something that was
foreign and not entirely Chinese. Instead of the
usual crimson and white blouses, they wore com-
plete uniforms of blue khaki, which fitted better
and were more trim than any I had previously seen
in China. Mauser rifles were swung over their
shoulders, and they wore their cartridge-belts with a
jauntiness that would have done credit to any army
in the world. While I was wondering who this new
type of soldier might be, the shi jang, who was dis-

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

tinguished by a sword, advanced and touched his
hand to his turban. This was in itself a peculiar
gesture for a Chinaman, because the average soldier
of the Empire salutes only by clasping his hands in
front of his face and bowing. The shi jang pointed
to a white badge on his right arm, on which were the
words, in English, " Shansi Police." He explained
that his party had been sent to meet us and to
escort us to Tai Yuan. I thanked him and handed
him a cigarette, which he looked at rather suspi-
ciously before lighting with his striking-flint. Then
he gave a short " Hi " to his men. They sprang on
their ponies, and our journey through Shansi was
begun. The mounted police-force of Shansi is the
most newly foreign thing in the interior of China
to-day, and is the only real sign of anything like an
inclination toward Western methods that I met with
anywhere in the country.

Because of its murders of missionaries, old
Shansi came very near being invaded and "pun-
ished " by the allied armies. The Germans sent a
column as far as the great wall, and threatened all
sorts of things if the province did not at once come
to terms. The panic-stricken provincial govern-
ment, not only agreed to pay all the missionary in-
demnities demanded, but, in addition, introduced
several innovations for the purpose of propitiating
the " strangers from afar," and chief among these
was the Shansi police. It is their especial duty to
guard the life and property of all foreigners who

BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

may chance to pass through the province. With the
police a wen shao is not a necessary credential. All
that one need have in travelling to Tai Yuan is the
passport of his own government. This the shi jang
examines and approves, then jumps on his pony,
and gives his men the word to follow. In towns
along the road, at a distance of thirty or forty miles
apart, one finds a building labelled, curiously enough
in English, "Police-station." Into this the police-
escort disappear, to be replaced by another relay of
the same number, who accompany the traveller over
the next stage of the journey. The system is re-
markably perfect and well-organised when one con-
siders the short time it has been in operation and
how contrary it is to the ordinary, undisciplined
methods of Chinese soldiery. To be sure, the
breeches of their rifles show that the date of their
manufacture was 1876, and it is exceptional for a
Shansi policeman to possess more than three car-
tridges at a time ; but these are minor details, and the
adaptability, discipline, and easy swing of the newly
organised force go to show what the Chinese could
do as soldiers if properly drilled and armed. In
addition to their other duties, the Shansi police carry
the mail across the mountains from the newly
established post-office in Tai Yuan. Swinging
across the pommels of their saddles are the raw-
hide mail-sacks of the Imperial postal-service. From
what I saw of their system of handling the mail I
am inclined to believe that the average Shansi

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

policeman has only a very indefinite idea of what a
letter is. He often holds the sealed mail-bag up
to the light and tries to look through it. He uses it
as a blanket at night and as a cushion in the day;
but he knows that if one of the mysterious pouches
should be lost or stolen, he would " lose his face "
forever, and the result is that the Shansi mail now
reaches Pekin twice a week with unfailing regularity.
A Shansi policeman is just about the "best fellow"
to be met with anywhere in China. He has all
of the frankness and light-hearted gaiety which
distinguish a true soldier the world over. He
laughs merrily at times, an unusual act for a China-
man. His long pipe and tobacco-pouch are always
tied to his cartridge-belt, and nothing seems to
please him so much as to light the foreigner's
pipe with a spark from his own lighting-flint. He
is a moving encyclopedia of information about
the country over which he rides. He knows all the
legends about the heroes and spirits and dragons
who have at different times played a part in the his-
tory of the mountains. He has picturesque inci-
dents to relate of the roadside-temples, and he can
give you the biographies of nearly all the dead
mandarins whose stone tablets adorn the hills.

Once across the great wall, the traveller begins
to realise the difference between old and new China.

Shansi and Chili differ quite as much from each
other as do Massachusetts and Kansas. One of the
first-noticed points of dissimilarity is the much

BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

greater number of monuments and massive temples
in Shansi than in the Chili plain. Spanning the
road at frequent intervals on the way to Tai Yuan
are huge, square archways, built of stone. They
are devoid of the carvings and bizarre ornamenta-
tions which characterise the architectural style of
the Ming and Ts'ing dynasties. They belong to
a much older period, and in their outlines curves are
noticeably lacking. Their builders either possessed
no knowledge of curves or else purposely wished to
avoid them. The pillars supporting the arches are
always square and rest upon four-cornered pedestals.
Along the roads, too, are gray-stone tablets,
commemorative of men and women who died long
ago. The tablets frequently rest on the backs of
stone tortoises, carved with a remarkable fidelity to
life. In Chinese mythology the tortoise is given a
very high place. From the markings of its shell are
supposed to have come the first suggestion of char-
acter-writing. Because of the great age to which a
tortoise lives, it is also looked upon as an emblem of
immortality. Some of the tablets are erected to the
memory of "good mandarins," and the inscriptions
tell how the dead official "improved the roads" of
his shen, or perhaps " gave a thousand taels to the
poor." Other tablets are tributes of grateful pupils
to dead teachers who first expounded to them
Confucian wisdom. A few are in honour of men in
very humble walks of life, but whose virtues made a
great impression upon their fellow-townsmen. They

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

are interesting commentaries on Chinese standards
of goodness. Their inscriptions read like this : "He
lived in poverty all his life in order to provide for
his father," or a tablet to a woman may say, " She
was obedient to her husband, and when he died,
mourned for him all the rest of her life." In front
of some of the tablets are upright stone bars, which
give them something of the appearance of animals'
cages. In the space between the stone slab and
the bars, the spirit of the dead man is supposed, in
an indefinite way, to make its headquarters, and for
this reason it is not at all unusual to find bowls of
rice and other food placed there by pious relatives
in order to satisfy the hunger of the departed spirit.
In passing a grove soon after entering Shansi,
I noticed tied to the branches of one of the trees a
number of Httle red streamers, inscribed with char-
acters. This was my first glimpse of one of the "pray-
ing-trees " that are found in hundreds of places scat-
tered all over Northwestern China. They are believed
to be the dwelling-places of spirits who possess the
power of healing diseases and of bringing troubles
to a happy termination. The trees are devoutly wor-
shipped, and everyone who has been benefited by
them records the fact by hanging a piece of red cloth
on the boughs, where it serves much the same pur-
pose as a patent-medicine testimonial might on our
side of the world in calling attention to the wonder-
ful properties the tree possesses, and in inducing
others to worship its spirit. The reason why popu-

BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

lar belief selects certain trees as dwelling-places of
spirits, to the exclusion of others, is a question which
I have never heard satisfactorily explained. Out of
a grove of twenty or thirty trees, all of about the
same age and size, one only will be decorated with
red rags in honour of its curative powers. Whether
or not a sick Chinaman experiments with every tree
he may come across until he finds one that will heal
him of his infirmity, I do not know, but certain it is
that the "praying-trees" seem to be selected entirely
at random, and without any signs of spirit-habitation
that are visible to the eyes of the " outer barbarian."
The rugged beauty of the mountains is in some
degree obscured by the terraces which cover them
from base to summit. The earth of the terraces is
held in place by stone walls, about four feet high,
which extend along the sides of the mountain.
The stones of which the terrace-walls are built
are all loose boulders which can have been placed
in their present position only with great labour and
infinite patience. Every little patch of ground be-
tween the mountain-side and the edge of the wall is
under cultivation, usually with wheat or some other
variety of grain, but so far as human beings were
concerned, the mountain-terraces, when I saw them,
were deserted. Men and women were nowhere to
be seen. Their absence was explained to me as
due to the fact that the spring crop had been
planted only a short time before and that, conse-
quently, at that time required but little attention.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Villages along the road are as frequent as in
Chili, but their method of construction is often dif-
erent. In Shansi the houses are frequently built of
rough stone, one above the other, against the side of
a hill. A dwelling-place for an entire community of
several hundred will frequently not cover more than
a few acres of ground. From a distance a village of
this kind has the appearance of one large building,
not unlike a Zuni Indian pueblo in New Mexico.
Each house has at least two rooms ; one serves as a
general living and sleeping apartment, while the
other is used as a store-room for the stock of food on
which the family subsist during the winter. But
no matter how much a village may be concentrated
in an effort to economise land for purposes of culti-
vation, it is always sure to have across the road, as
one approaches it from either side, a high, stone
wall with a gateway in the centre. On the wall is
usually painted in gay colours a grotesque figure of a
dragon or a tiger. The wall and the picture are for
the purpose of frightening away evil spirits who
might be inclined to disturb the peace of the village.
In the course of every twenty-four hours, in the
Shansi Mountains, one is sure to pass two or more
towns of considerable importance. The amount of
business transacted in them and the quantity of the
produce of the country offered for sale in their
markets would indicate that the struggle of wrest-
ing a livelihood from the rocky, unyielding soil is
more successful than is at first apparent.

BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

One of the most prosperous of these towns
is Ping Ting, about two days' journey beyond the
great wall. Beside an imposing-looking temple
was a large market, where more than fifty venders
of vegetables were squatted on the ground shout-
ing their wares to passers-by. In a few of their
baskets I found white potatoes, which proved to
be as large and mealy as though raised in Ireland
or America. They are not indigenous to the soil
of the country and are very hard to obtain outside
of the foreign settlements. The white potato was,
it is said, introduced into China about fifty years
ago by Jesuit missionaries.

For an hour or two after leaving Ping Ting, the
steep road wound up the side of a mountain. As
we approached the summit, we were confronted by
a stone wall, some twenty feet high, built across the
road, with a shrine on the top and an archway in
the centre only wide enough to permit of two
mules passing each other beneath it. The road
had sunk at this point to a depth of more than five
feet, so that the wall at first glance seemed only an
additional obstacle to the highway, and I wondered
what motive had prompted its builders to place it
in such an awkward position. But the reason
became apparent as we passed through the archway
and emerged on the other side.

Far, far below us was a gray, furrowed plain,
almost circular in shape ; rising from it, up and up
almost to the hoofs of our horses, in regularity and

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

harmony, were terraces that completely encircled
the plain and looked down upon it like the seats of
some colossal amphitheatre. Beyond, to the north
and west, were other and higher mountains, whose
long, purple shadows fell slanting across the terraces
as the sun began to descend from a cloudless sky to
meet their snow-capped summits. Yet in all the
vast panorama, extending over fifteen miles, there
was only one point of vantage where the eye of
the beholder could grasp it all ; only one where the
elements of mountain and terrace and plain re-
tained their due proportions in the picture, and at
that point the wall spanned the road. A little
further down the mountain-side only a portion of
the terraces would have been visible. Looked at
from a greater height, the plain would have appeared
insignificant, but from the arched gateway the sym-
phony was perfect.

"The stone-wall is a curtain," the shi jang said,
as he pointed back to it with his riding-whip.
Several centuries ago some man realised the love-
liness of the scene commanded by that particular
mountain-crest. He did not wish future generations
of men, who would toil up and down that steep
road, to miss the superb unity of the natural amphi-
theatre that lay spread out at their feet. So he de-
signed a stone-curtain, narrowly divided in the
centre, where, while they paused and wondered for
a little, its glories would burst upon them. But
this wall-builder, this man possessed to such an ex-

A STONE CURTAIN.

Till': sci:xl: rr disclosed.

BEYOND THE WALL OF SHANSI

ceptional degree with a sense of the beauty of the
world in which he lived, was not a "white man."
He wore a queue ; he was a " heathen ; " he was a
Chinaman.

CHAPTER V

THE BLIGHT ON THE LAND

NEARLY all of the chain of villages that line
the road through the Shansi Mountains from
the great wall to Tai Yuan, possess certain common
characteristics. Few villages have a population of
more than three hundred. They are as isolated and
as lonely, perhaps, as any communities of the same
number of human beings anywhere on earth. The
villagers have no luxuries, and few comforts, yet they
are happy and contented, and among them are no
paupers. In Chinese villages there are no " poverty
alleys." Perhaps no one in the entire community
makes more than twenty-five American cents a day,
but that sum is enough to clothe him and his fam-
ily, and enable him to fill the store-room of his stone
or mud house with enough corn-meal and millet for
the needs of the long, cold winter. The villagers
are very dirty, and they defy almost every known
sanitary law, but they succeed in living and in
maintaining an equality of conditions which pre-
vents both the ambitions and the discontent to
which we are accustomed in western civilisation.

I have said nearly all the villages, because in
the course of every twenty-four hours, in a progress

THE BLIGHT ON THE LAND

through Shansi Mountains, one is almost sure to find
at least one village whose conditions, no matter by
what standards they might be measured, could never
be called happy or fortunate. Even from a distance
the diiference between the sad village and the rest
is very marked. The walls at the entrance to it are
crumbling as though the inhabitants had ceased to
take any interest in spirits, good or evil. The roofs
of the houses are dilapidated and full of holes. A
nearer approach reveals windows from which the
paper panes are missing and doors supported by only
one hinge. No one is selling vegetables in the road,
and the one or two shops which the village possessed
are closed. In the shadow of the houses a few men
and women are lying or squatting — apparently in a
stupor. Their faces are drawn and leathery, their
eyes glazed and dull. Their clothes are masses of
rags, and, what is most hopeless of all, the men have
neglected to braid their queues ; their hair is dis-
hevelled and matted. Even some of the babies the
women carry in their arms have the same parched
skins and wan, haggard faces. And the cause of
all this is opiuin.

Such a village, whose wretchedness and degrada-
tion I have inadequately described, is known through-
out the surrounding country as an "opium village,"
No matter how cheerful and gay my escort of Shansi
police might be, they always became silent, and their
faces grave and serious, whenever we passed a place
of this kind. They almost invariably kicked their

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

ponies' ribs vigorously as we approached it, and
rode through at a gallop. The shi jang was very
loath to talk about opium villages. The subject
was evidently distasteful to him. He would usually
shake his head evasively when I asked him about
them, and his answers, as Wang translated them,
were invariably to the effect that " they must all die
sure." "There is no hope for them." " Opium has
got them." But from missionaries in Shansi and
provincial officials, I obtained some further account
of the havoc wrought by opium in the northwestern
provinces of China. Every year a number of the
mountain settlements succumb to the blight on the
land and sink into "opium villages." The entire
population becomes addicted to the habit simulta-
neously. The drug is introduced into a village.
Someone delighted with the sensations which follow
his first smoke tells his neighbours. They all experi-
ment with it. They, too, are all charmed with the
happy oblivion it gives to cold and fatigue and the
dull monotony of their lives. Men, women, and
children begin systematically to smoke opium. It is
only a question of time before they become its vic-
tims. Their fields are neglected ; they cease to care
for nourishing food ; the only interest they have in
life is the fatal fruit of the poppy ; they cease to be
recognised as human beings ; they are only dwellers
in an "opium village." From that time their doom
is sealed. Their village is shunned as far as possible
by everyone and they are referred to as a company

THE BLIGHT ON THE LAND

of the lost, very much as though they were already
dead. By degrees all that they have in the world
is spent to satisfy their cravings for opium. Either
as a direct result of its use or because of the exposure
and neglect incident to it, they die, one by one, un-
til what was for centuries a dwelling-place of peace-
ful, contented husbandmen becomes only a shapeless
mass of crumbling walls and roofless houses, deserted
and untenanted, where no sound of human voice
breaks the mountain stillness, and where the bitter,
Mongolian winds of winter sweep unchecked through
the wrecks of homes.

As there are no mortuary statistics in China, it
is impossible to give in figures the full force of the
destroying effect upon the population of the opium
traffic. But no one who has travelled through
Shansi and Shensi can doubt for a moment that the
number of its victims in these two provinces alone
reaches many thousands every year. It is hard to
find a town of any size that does not contain at least
one opium retreat or cure. On a much larger scale,
these institutions serve a purpose somewhat similar
to gold-cure and inebriate asylums in America.
Some of them are owned by Chinese physicians
who profess to have found a cure for the habit,
but many are maintained by the different shens or
districts, where they exist, as forlorn hopes for the
besotted wretches on whom the curse has fallen.
Some of the medical missions, too, maintain opium
refuges, and in some cases have effected cures by a

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

treatment which consists of a substitution of mor-
phine pills for opium. The quantity of morphine
is gradually reduced until the patient is able to do
without it altogether. But many as the refuges
are, the number of lives they save is infinitesimal
compared with the wholesale, wide-spread destruc-
tion which the scourge of opium has brought and
is bringing upon China.

It is not intended to discuss fully here the Eng-
lish opium traffic, about which volumes have been
written and which still goes on, and probably will go
on until either "helpless China" grows strong enough
to resist, or the conscience of a Christian nation be-
comes less complacently callous ; but, impressed as
I could not fail to be by the deserted, withered
villages of Shansi, I cannot refrain from making a
few passing observations on some of the phases of
the question.

In recognition of a clamour from almost the en-
tire civilised world against the injury which a persist-
ence in the Indian opium trade was inflicting upon
China, the British Parliament of 1893 appointed a
Royal Commission to inquire fully and thoroughly
into the subject. The sessions of the Commission in
London lasted for several months during the winter
of 1 893-1 894. The result of their labours and in-
vestigations was subsequently published in a report
which fills seven volumes. So far as the moral side
of the question is concerned, the substance of the en-
tire voluminous document was, that opium is not at

THE BLIGHT ON THE LAND

all a bad thing, that if smoked in moderation it did
not hurt anybody, that very few persons in China
smoked it to excess, and that the Chinese, as a
whole, had no desire to stop the traffic.

It is to be regretted that the report did not
make its appearance before Mr. Gulliver started on
his travels. Extracts from the seven volumes
would have made excellent literature for him to
read aloud into the ear of the King of Brobdingnag.
Even from what everyone knows to be the effect
of the use of opium upon its victims in Europe and
America, the finding of the Commission that it is al-
most harmless, is, on the face of it, so little less than
a redudio ad absurdum, that it would hardly be
worth taking seriously were it not that it is bol-
stered up by a mass of testimony from witnesses who
certainly ought to be conversant with Chinese con-
ditions. It is this testimony, it seems to me, far
more than the report itself, which might mislead
some persons into believing that the findings of
the Royal Commission were in some slight degree
founded on fact. The following is a sample of this
testimony : " We have," say the Commission, " re-
ceived also a communication in writing from Mr.
Duff, a merchant in China of thirty years' standing,
whose opinion is that, in the circumstances of their
living, food, climate, and habitations, opium has no
deleterious effect upon the Chinese, indeed quite
the contrary, for it is a positive need and they could
not do without it." That anyone could ever have

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

delivered himself of such an " opinion " would be
almost incredible were the fact not recorded in
the report. If "Mr. Duff, a merchant," had given
it as his " opinion " that the natural tendency of
a river is to flow up-hill, or, if he had said that
after thirty years' contemplation of the moon his
" opinion " was that it was of the substance of green
cheese it would have been equally creditable to his
judgment and power of observation. It may be
possible that during the long period in which Mr.
Duff maintained an upright position in China, he,
like many foreigners, seldom left a treaty-port.
Since reading his "opinion," I have wondered
whether, if Mr. Duff were to "stand," not for thirty
years but for thirty minutes in some dying Shansi
village, where he could see the " circumstances of
living " of the inhabitants and the awful wrecks of
former " habitations," he would not feel inclined to
revise his " opinion " that opium has no deleterious
effects upon the Chinese.

There may be Chinese in China who believe in
the harmlessness of opium and who desire to have its
sale continued. I have been told that there are
such, but I confess that I have never met them.
On the contrary, of the scores of Chinese in all
walks of life who discussed the opium question with
me, I have not found one who did not see in opium
the blackest and most foreboding cloud that hangs
over China to-day. Some of the officials even went
so far as to ascribe China's inability to cope with

THE BLIGHT ON THE LAND

newly arisen conditions, and her consequent losses
and failures, to the present weakened and besotted
minds and character of her people due to a century
of opium. When the Taotai of the Shansi foreign
office wished to assure me of the excellent character
of the soldiers who were to accompany me through
part of the province he said, "There is not an
opium-smoker among them, and you will find that
our people are all right as soldiers or anything else
when they leave opium alone, but when they use it
they are of no use to anyone." The highest form
of recommendation or praise which could be be-
stowed upon a man in the interior of China was
invariably, " He has never smoked opium."

But if the Chinese realise the awful evils of
opium, why do they persist in smoking it ? Look-
ing at the question solely from the standpoint of the
consumer, and considering the Chinese as indi-
viduals and free agents, I grant this part of the
argument of the defender of the opium traffic. So
far as he personally is concerned, the blame for
every opium-victim's blighted life and wrecked
mind and body must rest with himself. There is no
denying that while the average Chinaman fears and
shudders at the little jar that contains the product
of the poppy, it possesses for him a subtle fascina-
tion which he is no more able to resist than the bird
whom a snake is said to have charmed with its stare
can escape destruction. But, as a nation and a
government, the fault of the continuance of the

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

curse does not lie with tlie Chinese. Ever since
1773, when the British East India Company made
its first experimental opium-shipment, China has
fought and protested and pleaded to have the im-
portation of the drug stopped. In fact, it is doubt-
ful if the history of any other country during the
nineteenth century affords such an exhibition of a
long and hopeless struggle in the maintenance of a
principle against overwhelming odds. When opium
was first introduced into China from western Asia,
the government foresaw the death and disaster that
would come upon the empire if its use became gen-
eral. The cultivation of the poppy was forbidden,
and the enforcement of stringent laws against the
sale of opium succeeded in keeping it out of the em-
pire until its importation in British ships from India
began. Finding all appeals fruitless, the Chinese
Commissioner Li destroyed several thousand chests
of British opium in Canton, and the "opium war"
of 1842 was the result. It ended by China's paying
an indemnity of $21,000,000 to Great Britain, and
in transferring the ownership of the island of Hong
Kong to the victorious Christian nation.

By the treaty of Tientsin, in i860, following an-
other war with England, the importation and sale of
opium was declared legal ; but, even then, China,
crushed and humiliated as she was, did not give up
the struggle. In 1868 the prime minister, Wen
Hsiang, acting in the name of the emperor, sent a
most touching appeal to Her Majesty Queen Vic-

THE BLIGHT ON THE LAND

toria, begging her to put a stop to the awful opium-
crime which her people were forcing upon China.
The appeal " offered anything that might be desired
in the way of concession to British trade, anywhere
in the empire, agreeing in advance to yield to any
demand, if only this one curse against which China
had fought in vain for years might be removed." *
The only notice ever taken of Wen Hsiang's appeal
was a curt rejoinder from the British Minister in
Pekin to the effect that he had received no reply to
it from his Government and that none need be ex-
pected by the Chinese Cabinet.

While the Government of China has not al-
tered its attitude of pleading with all the nations of
Christendom to stop the traffic, it has during the
last twenty years permitted the cultivation and sale
of opium by its own subjects and within its own
borders. In southern Shansi and in the valley of
the Wei Ho, I have seen hundreds of fields abloom
with bright poppy-flowers. So extensive has the
domestic production of opium become, that the rev-
enues to the Indian Government resulting from the
sale of the drug were reduced from ^8,251,670 in
1879-80 to ^3,159,400 in 1895-96.-1- The fact that
opium is now raised by the natives is sometimes
advanced as an argument that China really desires
the continuance of the traffic ; but in point of fact

* The Real Chinese Question, by Chester Holcombe ; page 278.
t The Report of the Opium Commission by Arnold Foster in Contempo-
rary Review, 1898.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

it only goes to prove the reverse. The ancient
edicts prohibiting its cultivation and sale have
never been repealed, and to this day flagrant vio-
lations of them are occasionally punished in Pekin
and some of the larger cities ; but, realising, after
a century of defeat, humiliation, and loss of terri-
tory, that attempts to stay the British protected
scourge were fruitless, and knowing, too, that Eng-
land's real motive was only pounds, shillings, and
pence, the Chinese Government has decided that if
money must be made by the perpetuation of a na-
tional crime, the gain shall belong to its own sub-
jects, who are the sufferers. With a patience and
dignity that are the heritage of four thousand years,
China says to the greatest of Christian nations to-
day : " You are stronger than we. We cannot pre-
vent the deadly scourge with which you waste us at
noonday, which stupefies and degrades and withers,
which transforms once happy villages into charnel-
houses. We cannot stay your hand, but we can
and we will retain the profit of the transaction, and
your greed will be in vain."

And yet Christians in England and America
sometimes wonder why it takes so long a time for
the light of the Gospel to penetrate the " heathen "
darkness of China.

ifur^ir"

AX OI'ILM UiaUiAK.

CHAPTER VI

TO TAI YUAN

PING TING is about half-way through the
Shansi Mountains. Beyond it the road to Tai
Yuan passes through a wilderness. The terraces
and fields appear only at intervals. Towns are
farther apart, and, except for the incessant stream of
travel one meets with in the road, signs of human
habitation are rarely to be seen. The rocks and
boulders, too, so prominent in the landscape among
the foot-hills of the mountains, disappear as the
traveller advances. For mile after mile the hill sides
are all of a hard, reddish-brown clay, on which the
only vegetation consists of a kind of coarse grass
and a few stunted trees. Such few dwellings as do
exist consist only of clusters of caves built into
the clay of the hill side. The force of the freshets
which sweep down the mountains in the spring is
evidenced by other caves thirty or forty feet above
the level of the road, constructed as places of refuge
for travellers who might otherwise be swept away
by the sudden torrent. The narrow road runs
along the edge of deep gorges and ravines whose
banks rise so precipitously that I was in constant

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

expectation of seeing a balky mule go tumbling over
the side, but no such catastrophe ever took place.
The mules were Chinese mules ; and, although they
showed a great fondness for precipices, they never
lost their heads or their balance sufficiently to fall
over the edge.

This is the part of China where camels are most
frequently used as beasts of burden. They are as
much a source of terror to Chinese ponies as loco-
motives are to American horses. For this reason
camel-caravans are permitted to travel through the
mountains only at night. They are encountered
early in the morning or at sunset. Sounding through
the solitude of the mountain defiles at these times,
one is likely to hear the tinkle of a distant bell. It
grows gradually nearer and nearer, until the yellow
head and the long, ungainly neck of a camel come
swinging around a bend in the road. The bell is
the badge of the first camel, who is the leader of
the caravan. The rest follow behind in single file,
and will go anywhere that the tinkle may lead. The
head-driver of the caravan rides the first camel, and
three or four other drivers are scattered throughout
the train, but by far the greater number of them are
never guided in any other way than by the sound
of the leader's bell.

The home of the camel in Asia is Mongolia, and
from that country come most of their drivers. They
are natural nomads, and many of them have no
home but their perch on the camel's back. Their

TO TAI YUAN

costume differs considerably from the Chinese, and
is more picturesque. They wear short, goatskin
coats, that in pattern are not unlike American pea-
jackets, and raw-hide top-boots that extend above
their knees. The Chinese say that the drivers un-
derstand the camel-language, and frequently con-
verse in it, and it is a fact that it is a common occur-
rence, in passing a caravan, to find all the drivers
talking, in subdued undertones, to the animals they
ride, as though they believed they were being under-
stood. Camels might be called the " long-haul "
freight-trains of northwestern China. The local
transfers and "short-hauls" are made by carts or
donkeys, but it is on the humped backs of camels
that freight is carried for hundreds of miles over
roads that would be impassable for any other method
of transportation. On their clumsy pack-saddles
they carry every kind of merchandise known to the
Middle Kingdom, from bags of rice to Japanese
sulphur-matches. Outside of almost every large
town on the way, one finds an inclosure, surrounded
by a brick wall. This is a resting-place for camels.
Here they sleep during the day, with their drivers
lying on the ground beside them.

As we left our kung kwan one morning at a
place called Ja Shu, I noticed that my stirrup-straps
were made of knotted pieces of old rope. Through
Wang I remonstrated with the mafu, who was a
hulking, muscular chap, over six feet tall, but he
assured me that I would find the rope stronger than

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

any leather I had ever used. Within half an hour
after leaving the town we came suddenly upon a
caravan of camels emerging from a steep defile.
My pony shied, then stopped short ; both stirrup-
straps snapped, and I slipped neatly over the pony's
head. With an aching shoulder I managed to crawl
up on the bank by the side of the road. As I col-
lected myself and looked around I saw Wang vigor-
ously kicking the mafu, at the same time sputtering
in language which I could not understand, but
which, from the manner of its delivery, I judged to
be of a decidedly uncomplimentary character. Wang
was so much shorter than the mafu that, in order to
make his kicks effective, he had to stand two feet
above him on the bank. I called to him to desist,
and he came up to me with his black eyes blazing
and his yellow face pink with anger.

" What are you kicking him for ? " I de-
manded.

" I tell him he bad man, he foolish man, he
give my master stirrups that break 'em. I am
teaching him. He is Japanese."*

I told him that, while I appreciated his interest
in my welfare, I thought it would be better for him
to make no further attempts in the instruction of
mafus. I also tried to point out that kicking a man

* The use of the Chinese equivalent of Japanese as a term of opprobrium
is a survival of the time when the land of the Mikado was a tribute nation.
Great as has been the humiliation which China has suffered from Japan,
the worst insult with which a Pekinese of to-day can revile his enemy is to
call him "Japanese."

TO TAI YUAN

twice his size possessed a certain element of danger
to himself.

" Oh, that is all right, sir," he replied, earnestly.
" The mafu know he has done wrong. He know
he is no good. What can he say? He must be
silent. So I can kick."

Wang was right. The mafu did not seem to ob-
ject in the least to the punishment he had received.
He caught my pony and tied my stirrup-strings se-
curely enough to last until my arrival at the next
town, where I was able to obtain a pair of leather
straps. The episode first called to my attention a
peculiar trait of Chinese character, of which I sub-
sequently saw many instances. Whenever anything
goes wrong, or a mishap of any kind occurs, a man
who is in any way responsible, no matter whether
he is intentionally to blame or not, immediately
becomes passive. He makes neither excuse nor re-
sistance, but silently awaits the punishment which
is almost certain to follow.

Even in the most solitary parts of the moun-
tains we came frequently upon little shrines by the
roadside. Some of them were nothing more than
caves dug in the sides of the clay banks. Others
near the villages were more pretentious, and were
built of brick, but the arrangement of them all was
the same. On a shelf at the rear were always from
six to eight idols, images of the gods and heroes of
the three religions of China, Confucianism, Buddh-
ism, and Taoism, plainly indicating, by the way in

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

which they were grouped together, how the three
creeds have blended and virtually have become one.
The idols are usually made of clay, and are painted in
gaudy colours. The strange thing about the shrines
is that the worshippers are so few. Of the hundreds
of country shrines which I passed in a journey of fif-
teen hundred miles, I cannot recall more than three
where I saw men or women in an attitude of devo-
tion. A Chinese scholar in Sian subsequently ex-
plained to me that the shrines are looked upon more
as a protection against evil spirits and a source of
good luck than as places of worship. They are
erected by the Government, but the ground on
which they stand is private property, which the
owner is only too glad to devote to the purpose, as
he believes that no misfortune can befall him or his
family while the painted idols stand on his land.
In some cases, he places the idols under an ad-
ditional obligation by washing their faces two or
three times a month ; a far greater attention than he
ever bestows upon his own. He also dusts out
the shrine and keeps it in repair. Most of the
shrines are cared for in this way, although a few
are in charge of itinerant priests who travel from
one to the other, and are occasionally to be seen
standing in front of them, holding brass bowls for
the reception of a few cash thrown to them by pious
travellers.

Perhaps the most picturesque characters in the
mountains are the imperial couriers, who carry de-

AN IMPERIA[. CC)UR1.1-:K.

TO TAI YUAN

spatches from one provincial capital to another, and
from Pekin to the mandarins of the interior towns.
No matter how rough or steep the road may be,
the courier always rides at a gallop. By a system
of pony relays, provided by the Government, a
courier is able to cover as many as one hundred
English miles a day. He seldom wears a hat of
any kind. As he rides with his bare head thrown
forward, and his queue tied tightly around it, he
has the appearance of a mounted cannon-ball as
he comes dashing toward you. His despatches are
carried in a broad, yellow sash, tied tightly around
his waist.

About two miles before reaching the town of
Shou Yang, I was met by a motley collection of
soldiers, mandarins' servants, and boys, all wearing
a uniform of red and white blouses and round caps.
They were led by an old man, whom a sword dis-
tinguished as a retired army-officer. He clambered
down from his pony as I approached, and told me
that he and his followers had been appointed by the
mandarin of the place to act as my escort into the
town. They fell in behind Wang and myself, and I
suddenly found myself enjoying the entirely new
sensation of being the central figure in a triumphal
entry. The townspeople crowded into the street
and filled the doors and windows, pointing and talk-
ing. Even the dogs of Shou Yang took great de-
light in barking at my pony. The enthusiasm
reached such a pitch that several citizens discharged

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

bunches of fire-crackers at the gate of the kung
kwan. If any everyday, common-place American,
such as I, wishes to know how it feels to have
greatness noisily thrust upon him, I can recommend
a public entry into a Shansi town. Compared with
it the environment of the driver of a circus band-
wagon is quiescent and subdued. For a time I
was at a loss to understand why ancient, filthy Shou
Yang should so honour me. I began to wonder if
the fame of any of my few virtues had penetrated
so far from home. I had almost decided that such
was the case, and was sipping my tea with an en-
tirely unwonted sense of conscious rectitude when
I noticed Wang and the banchaiti engaged in ear-
nest conversation. "This place was much mission-
ary trouble," Wang presently explained ; " the ban-
chaiti is saying about him."

He told me how an English missionary, named
Piggott, had been sent in chains from Shou Yang
to Tai Yuan, where he had subsequently been put
to death. The mandarin of Shou Yang who had
ordered the outrage had since been dismissed from
office in disgrace. His successor, Wang said, " Have
much afraid of the European. He not want to see
them or talk to him because he think they make him
trouble, and he will get sack like other mandarin.
When we come Shou Yang, the mandarin run away
and hide him, but he send old man to meet us, so if
trouble come it will be to old man who has lived
long time already."

TO TAI YUAN

" But why does he make such a commotion
about meeting me ? " I asked.

"The old man is much afraid the European,
too," Wang repHed. " He wish to please you, so he
get his friends to follow with him and make the
noise. You will like it, and you will not make him
trouble ? "

With a feeling of disappointment at finding that
I was still unappreciated I finished my tea, and then
sent for the aged leader of my triumphal procession.
I told him that no one on earth had ever seemed
so glad to see me as were the citizens of Shou Yang,
and that no welcome I had ever received had af-
fected me so deeply. I assured him that I could
never forget him, and I requested him to convey
my greetings to the mandarin, whom it pained me
greatly not to have seen. As this, my first effort at
an address of thanks, was unreeled in translated
sections, I could not help noticing that the yellow
shrivelled face of my guest assumed a happier ex-
pression, and he settled down on his side of the
tea-cups with the air of a man from whose mind a
burden had been removed. After he had lighted
the cigarette I handed him, he asked something
rather hesitatingly, which came to me as "He want
to know if you are a missionary, sir ? " For reply I
not only said, " No," but I showed him Prince
Ching's card. The effect was magical. With an
agility that could not be expected for one of his
years, he stepped into the middle of the room and

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

made me a kow-tow. " The mandarin will be back
to-morrow," he said. "If you will wait you can see
him." I expressed deep regret that the length of
the journey before me would prevent a longer en-
joyment of the hospitality of the town. In the re-
cessional I insisted on the gray-queued veteran
preceding me. My last glimpse of Shou Yang was
two lines of welcomers, standing facing each other
on opposite sides of the road, with their leader by
his pony's head between them. He was looking
after me in a quizzical way, as if he wondered what
manner of man this might be who would visit Shou
Yang without being a missionary.

The hill-country was left behind a day's journey
from Shou Yang, and we emerged upon a sandy
plateau which extended all the way to Tai Yuan.
On the morning of the tenth day after leaving
Pekin our shi jang rose in his stirrups and pointed
to what looked like a range of gray hills that crossed
our path some miles away, but on a closer approach
they developed into the walls of Tai Yuan, the
capital of the province of Shansi, and the end of
the first three hundred miles of my journey toward
Sian. By referring to my diary I found that the day
was Sunday. It was about ten o'clock, and, familiar
as I had become by this time with the absence of
rest-days in Chinese weeks, I could not help a vague
expectation of finding quiet streets, closed shops,
and a portion of the population on their way to
some place of worship ; but I was soon disillusion-

TO TAI YUAN

ised. The gateway through which we had entered
led directly into the busiest part of Tai Yuan.
Shop-keepers were at their counters, venders of
various kinds of merchandise shouted their wares in
the streets. Mandarin's chairs were constantly pass-
ing, and even an opium-refuge showed signs of
activity. Its front-door was open and several per-
sons were passing in and out. Tai Yuan certainly
was devoid of " emblems of eternal rest."

During the three days following, in which I was
the guest of the one missionary and white man in
the town, I had an opportunity of seeing something
of Shansi's remote capital, which few white men
have ever visited. The population of Tai Yuan is
about 50,000. It is on the camel caravan-route from
Mongolia to the south, and is consequently quite
an important business centre. It contains a number
of Chinese banks besides several large shops. Its
streets are dirty and unpaved, as streets in Chinese
towns usually are, but they are also without that
regularity of plan and arrangement which are to be
found in some of the cities of the empire. It is al-
most impossible to walk a quarter of a mile on a
Tai Yuan street in the same direction. It twists
and turns without any apparent reason, and often
ends abruptly in the brick-wall of some house built
across it. In the 2,000 years of its history Tai Yuan
has known many of the devices of government, but
it is safe to say that among them all, a commissioner
of highways has never played an important part.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Tai Yuan is famous for its siege and capture
by the emperor Tai Tsung of the Sung dynasty.
For a long time previous the city had been the
capital of the dominions of the Prince of Han, who,
by an alliance with the Tartars, had set up an inde-
pendent kingdom and had defied the reigning dy-
nasty. In 980 of the Christian era Tai Tsung and
his general P'an-mei led an army against it and laid
siege to it. Its people starved and died, but would
not surrender. Not a stone was left in its huge
walls but what was broken or battered. At length
Liu, Prince of Han, seeing that further resistance
was useless, threw open the gates and admitted the
victorious host. Tai Tsung, struck with his heroic
defence, not only spared Liu's life, but made him a
duke of the Empire. Every man, woman, and child
in the captured capital was exiled to Chili, and the
inhabitants of a town in that province were brought
to Tai Yuan to take their places.

The people of Tai Yuan, and in fact all of Shansi
province, have always been extreme in their hatred of
foreigners. It is less than two hundred miles from
Tai Yuan to the borders of Western Mongolia, the
land which still cherishes memories of Genghis
Khan, and which adjoins Turkestan, the present
home of Prince Tuan. The fame of this great chief,
by whose orders Von Ketteler, the German Minister,
was killed, is everywhere in North Shansi. While his
residence in Turkestan is ostensibly a banishment
ordered by the foreign allies, it would not at all sur-

TO TAI YUAN

prise anyone familiar with the character of the man
if the period of his exile from court were really
only a period of preparation for another attempt
to expel foreigners from China. Rumors that such
was the case were rife everywhere in Shansi when I
visited the province. One story which I heard in
Tai Yuan, was that Prince Tuan was recruiting an
army on the border and boasting that within five
years not a foreigner would be alive in Pekin.
However much truth there may be in the reports,
and whatever may be Prince Tuan's future inten-
tions, there can be no doubt that his influence and
.he ideas he represented were paramount in Shansi
at the time of the Boxer uprising. It was in this
province that the anti-foreign movement of 1899-
1900 first assumed sufficient proportions to be
called dangerous.

At the time that the foreign legations were
besieged in Pekin, Yu Hsien was governor of
Shansi. He set about the work of exterminating
foreigners with a systematic, cold-blooded cruelty
that is almost unparalleled even in the awful story
of Boxer horrors. The only foreigners in the
province then, as now, were missionaries. These
Yu Hsien had placed under arrest by the district-
mandarins and sent to the capital. Some of the
missionaries had to be brought from quite a dis-
tance, and the work of collecting them in Tai Yuan
took several weeks. Yu Hsien confined them in a
comfortable building, where he sent them food and

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

allowed them to have servants. No one, not even
the governor's closest advisers, knew what he in-
tended doing with his prisoners. Some of the mis-
sionaries, I was told, believed that his object might
be to protect them from the violence of mobs. In
this way fifty-four missionaries were gathered to-
gether in Tai Yuan. Among them were a num-
ber of Roman Catholic nuns and the wives and
children of Protestants. One Sunday morning
they were led into the yamen yard of the governor,
where his soldiers put them all to death, with Yu
Hsien looking on and directing the massacre. For
the murders at Tai Yuan, no mob fanaticism can
be urged in extenuation. They were the deliberate,
wilful acts of the chief executive of the provincial
government in obedience to an " extermination
order " from the Empress Dowager's government.
Yu Hsien's death was later demanded by the allies
in Pekin, and the Empress Dowager was com-
pelled to order him to commit suicide. This he
did in Tai Yuan within nine months after his mur-
der of the missionaries. A new governor with less
anti-foreign sentiments was appointed in his place ;
a foreign office was organised in Tai Yuan for the
express purpose of dealing with indemnity ques-
tions, and Shen Tun Ho was placed at the head of it.
This man, who is one of the most important
characters in the present reconstruction period of
China, was for two years a student at Cambridge
University. He speaks English fluently, and is

TO TAI YUAN

quite as well informed on the current topics of the
day as any European or American. Because of his
known friendliness to foreigners, he had incurred the
hostility of the conservative party at court, and, in
order to get him out of the way, he had been made
mandarin of a little town near the Mongolian bor-
der, where he remained in comparative obscurity for
more than ten years. When Shansi needed some
one who could save the province from invasion and
punishment for Yu Hsien's crimes, Shen was hur-
riedly sent for and made Taotai of the foreign office
with full power to settle things as best he could.
Instead of confining his efforts to a consideration
of mere money indemnities, he began a policy of
conciliation, which has thus far worked remarkably
well with foreigners and Chinese alike. He insti-
tuted the Shansi police and established a post-office
in Tai Yuan, not only for the safety and conven-
ience of foreigners, but in order to bring them more
in touch with the natives, so that the people of
Shansi could realise that the " outer barbarians "
were human beings after all.

The privilege of a chat with Shen Tun Ho is
perhaps the pleasantest thing that can fall to the lot
of a visiting foreigner in Tai Yuan. After days of
dull, teacup, mandarin etiquette it was delightful for
me when I called on him to hear his inquiry, by way
of a beginning, " Do you prefer a cigar or cigarette ? "
In a very tactful way he told me of his visits to
the United States. " I want to see New York

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

again before I die," he said. " I want to see the
high buildings. They were not there when I last
passed through New York on my way to Cambridge.
I am very fond of America," he continued. " In
fact, I like it almost as well as I do England."

I complimented him on the Shansi police and
told him that they were the only men I had met
with anywhere in China who positively refused to
accept " cumshaw."

"Ah, I am glad that such was your experi-
ence," he replied, smiling. " I am trying to make
soldiers out of them, not merely fighters, but sol-
diers, as you foreigners understand soldiers. I am
trying to get it into their heads that they must have
a soldier's sense of honour, which will not permit
them to receive money for merely doing their duty."

About eleven o'clock on the last night of my
stay in Tai Yuan, I was awakened by a great noise
in the street. Men were shouting and running hur-
riedly about, beating drums and blowing trumpets.
Guns and fire-crackers were being discharged at the
street-corners, and pandemonium seemed to have
been let loose. Knowing that under normal con-
ditions a Chinese town is always exceptionally quiet
at night, I realised that something unusual must
have happened. With visions of Boxers and other
troubles, I dressed hurriedly and rushed into the
court-yard, where I found the entire household
assembled, with the missionary in the centre of the
group.

TO TAI YUAN

He pointed to the moon, the edge of which
was darkened by an eclipse. He explained to me
that according to Chinese astronomy an eclipse is
caused by a dragon eating the moon. The citizens
were making a noise for the purpose of frightening
the dragon so that he would let the moon alone.
The missionary then gave a very clear exposition of
the real cause of eclipses, and drew imaginary rings
on the court-yard pavement to show the relative posi-
tion of the sun and moon and earth. Among his
listeners was Wang, who looked very grave while
the explanation was in progress, and apparently
grasped it completely.

" You understand it, do you ? " the missionary
asked my interpreter as he concluded.

"Oh, yes, sir," he replied. "They teach the
same thing in the Jesuit school."

By and by, the eclipse passed away and the city
became silent again.

On the following evening we were at the little
town of Su Kou, thirty miles south of Tai Yuan,
on the road to Sian. At the close of a hard day's
ride Wang and I were seated at the door of the
kung kwan. In the cloudless sky the unblemished
moon was once more looking down peacefully on
the race which it has known for more generations
than any other of the children of men. Wang
looked at it and for some time contemplated it
in silence. Then he said : " I think, master, that the
dragon eat so much of the moon in Tai Yuan that

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

he is now satisfied. He will leave the moon alone
now, and he will eat other things. Do you not
think so, sir ? " I replied that I hoped only that the
dragon would not suffer from dyspepsia.

CHAPTER VII

THE LAND OF YAU AND SHUN

ON our side of the world we are disposed to re-
gard John Chinaman as an isolated, distinct
type, who is always the same — crafty, imperturbable,
and "heathen" — described by some worthy persons
as "more like a toad than a human being." But
even a casual observation of the " toads" in their own
country cannot fail to impress anyone with the fact
that there is really no such thing as a general Chi-
nese type. To be sure, all Chinamen wear queues.
The principles of their language are the same, and
they all believe in the wisdom of Confucius ; but,
racially, as well as in speech, customs, and habits of
thought, the inhabitants of two adjacent provinces
are often quite as different as are Englishmen and
Scotchmen. In Chili, traces of the Tartar are every-
where apparent. The people are more slender,
and their skin is much whiter than in other parts of
China. The inhabitants of the Southwest, especially
in the province of Sichuan, give evidence of racial
contact with India. The Sichuanese are short and
thick-set, and have dark-brown complexions. In
appearance they closely resemble the Ghoorkas of
the Himalayan foothills. Their temperament has

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

far less of reserve and dignity than has that of their
neighbours of the North.

In Central and Southern Shansi, in the valley of
the Yellow River and of its tributaries, live another
people. They are taller than the Sichuanese, with-
out the regular features of the Tartar. Their skins
are unmistakably yellow. Their noses are small and
their lips rather thick. They are of the original
Chinese stock, although their lineage is not so direct
as is the case with the inhabitants of southern
Shensi, of whom I shall speak later. The men of
Shansi are taciturn, industrious, and methodical.
They have neither the traditional fondness for war
and governing that are the heritage of the Man-
chus, nor the light-hearted gaiety of the Sichuanese.
They are devoted to their homes ; they travel as
little as possible to other parts of the Empire ; they
are content to reap small harvests from oft-tilled
fields. Perhaps it is their constant closeness to nat-
ure that makes them worship spirits in trees and
rocks more frequently and fervently than the people
of the plain. The dress of the people of Shansi
differs in some details from that worn in other prov-
inces. The men button their blouses on the left
side instead of the right, and, although the women
bind their feet, they frequently wear over them high
top-boots with long, pointed toes, similar to those
found in portraits of cavaliers of the time of Charles
II. The language of Shansi, too, is a distinct dia-
lect, not very unlike that of Chili, but entirely

THE LAND OF YAU AND SHUN

different from the speech of Shensi or Western
Honan.

It was into this different China that I plunged on
leaving Tai Yuan, with a new wen shao and another
escort of soldiers. In the seventeen days' journey
of four hundred and fifty miles from Tai Yuan to
Sian I met four white men. They were mission-
aries, who wore the native costume. From Pekin
the signs of any knowledge of the ways and meth-
ods of the outer world grow fewer and fewer as one
approaches Shansi, and after leaving Tai Yuan they
disappear altogether. It is no longer new China,
but the cradle of the Chinese race. The traveller
leaves his kung kwan in the morning in a town
whose population is perhaps 40,000, he stops for the
noon meal in another of 20,000, and rests for the
night within the walls of a city containing 50,000
inhabitants, and in all of them he will find local
traditions of kings and dynasties that ruled thousands
of years ago.

From the beginning of this, the third stage of
my journey, I could not fail to notice that the roads
and kung kwans were better than any previously
encountered. It is true that the change in none of
the highways was of a very radical character. They
were still essentially Chinese in their construction,
or, rather, lack of construction; but some of the
holes in the road had been recently filled with stones
or the branches of trees, and there was no part of the
entire journey through Shansi that was not possible

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

for a cart. The improvements, I learned from the
banchaiti at our first stopping-place, were made to
facilitate the flight, or, as he termed it, the progress
of the Empress Dowager and Emperor over the
same route. For the same reason the kung kwans
had all been cleaned and newly furnished, and the
majority of them had been freshly papered in red
and yellow for the imperial occupancy.

Four days' journey from Tai Yuan is Kiehiu,
the strangest city I saw in China. In all the coun-
try roundabout the houses are of mud or brick, and
none of them is over one story in height, yet the
buildings of Kiehiu are all two stories and are in-
variably of stone. The style of architecture is not
in accordance with ordinary Chinese standards, but
is strongly suggestive of a German town of the fif-
teenth century. A portico along the entire front
of the second story is reached by a stone stairway
which winds up the outside of the building from
the court-yard. The roofs are all of tile, and the
gables are usually ornamented with images of
dragons and birds. North and south through Kie-
hiu runs the main highway of Shansi. It serves as
the principal street of the town, and is its only real
thoroughfare. All the other streets are alleys about
ten feet wide that twist and wind for miles in every
direction, making of the city a labyrinth of which
a minotaur might be proud. In designing the
houses, care has apparently been taken to have no
windows overlook the alleys, so that in walking

.MA[X STREET OF KIEIIll

THE LAND OF YAU AND SHUN

through them one sees nothing but two blank
walls.

Accompanied by a soldier of my escort I
started on a little tour of exploration of the town.
Leaving the kung kwan we struck off into one of
the alleys and followed it continuously for about
half an hour, when we suddenly emerged at our
starting-point. My guide told me that we had re-
turned by a different route from the one by which
we had entered the labyrinth ; such may have been
the case, but my walk had certainly given me the
impression that I had traversed only one winding
alley. The entrances to the houses, too, are a part
of the maze. A small gate in the blank wall leads
by a passageway into a court-yard, which seems to
have been constructed for the express purpose of
misleading. The court-yard is usually surrounded
by blank walls, through which there seems at first
to be no exit other than the passage whence the
visitor has entered. At the farther corner the guide
presently discovers a small opening that leads into
another court-yard containing the house for which
he is searching.

No interior Chinese town makes the slightest
attempt at lighting its streets at night, and Kiehiu
is no exception to the rule. It would be interesting
to know how its citizens who attempt to return to
their homes after sun-down, succeed in finding their
way to their respective court-yards. But the laby-
rinth is not the result of chance or accident. The

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

alleys are all arranged in conformity to some plan
that existed in the mind of their designer. The
passage-ways between the walls never come to an
abrupt termination ; they always lead somewhere,
and I was told that, when the key to their general
scheme is once mastered, their intricacies become
as plain as the numbered streets on Manhattan Isl-
and. What is the reason for the labyrinth ? What
is its key ? Why should the height of the houses
and the style of architecture differ from all the rest
of Shansi ? Kiehiu is a Chinese puzzle.

A spur of the Shansi Mountains crosses the
road about one hundred miles south of Kiehiu. The
mountains are very steep, and a passage through
them is possible only by a narrow defile called
Linshi Pass. Although it is not ten miles long it
took our little caravan more than four hours to
make its way through it. Ahead of us were three
carts so heavily loaded that after every quarter of
an hour's climbing it was necessary for the mules
that drew them to lie down and rest. The road
was not sufficiently wide to permit us to pass the
struggling carts, and, in consequence, our progress
could be no more rapid than theirs. It seemed as if
I had never experienced a worse road than the one
through Linshi, and it was surprising to hear the
shi jang say that it was in remarkably good condi-
tion. He explained that, to mitigate its discom-
forts, five thousand soldiers had worked for two
weeks in repairing it before the Empress Dowager

THE LAND OF YAU AND SHUN

and her step-son passed over it on their way to Sian.
Poor Kwang Su. If the condition of Linshi, as I
found it, was the best his subjects could do for him,
the jolts on his road to exile must have caused his
head quite as much uneasiness as did ever his crown
in Pekin.

Yet the difficulties of Linshi constitute one of
the three barriers that, if properly defended, would
make Sian almost inaccessible from the outer world,
and a knowledge of these may have been one of the
reasons why the capital of Shensi was selected as a
eity of refuge. From the coast Sian can be reached
by three routes. The one from the east across the
province of Honan passes through Tung Kwan, the
Gibraltar of the Yellow River. The only way to
Sian from Hankow and the south is through the
mountain-wilderness of Southern Shensi, where
there are no roads, worthy the name, and where
many of the trails would be impassable for artillery
trains or commissary waggons. The road from the
north is guarded by Linshi Pass. Until railroads
have gridironed the Middle Kingdom, no Emperor
of China that takes refuge in Sian is in danger of
having his exile disturbed, however great the eager-
ness of his enemies.

Half way between Tai Yuan and the borders
of Shensi is Ping Yang, the capital of China during
its Saturnian age. Like other ancient nations, The
Black-Haired people love to tell of a time, peaceful
and perfect, with which they constantly compare

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

the troubles of the present as they long vainly for
its return. This period was far back near the start-
ing-point of Chinese history, during the reigns of
Yau and Shun 2356 to 2205 b.c, two hundred
years before the birth of Abraham. Yau and Shun
were later idealised by Confucius, and are to-day
reverenced everywhere in the Empire as its two
greatest heroes. Their beneficence and goodness
had an effect even on the elements. The wind
always blew softly, and once in every fortnight
there was a shower of rain. Everyone was honest.
There were no thieves, and greed and covetousness
were unknown. Yau is said to have been more
than ten feet in height. He reigned one hundred
and two years, and was succeeded by his son-in-law
Shun. "The sky rained gold in those days."
There were no Boxers or missionaries or opium ; it
was a serene, happy period, whose memory, after
four thousand years, China still fondly cherishes.
Yau and Shun set up their capital in Ping Yang.
According to Chinese story, one of the last acts of
Shun's life was to make a pilgrimage to the five
sacred mountains of the Empire. On his return to
Ping Yang he offered sacrifices to his ancestors '^ in
a temple that he had founded.

This temple, the Chinese say, was about three
miles south of Ping Yang, on the site of the pres-
ent temple of Yau and Shun, which is to-day one
of the most famous places of worship in the Em-

* MacGowan's History of China, page i6.
92

TO Tllli MAKKKT AT I'lxXG YANCL

A SHAN SI MILL.

THE LAND OF YAU AND SHUN

pire. A temple of some sort is said to have existed
on the spot ever since Shun's time. The present
edifice was recently enlarged and almost rebuilt by
order of the reigning emperor Kwang Su, who wor-
shipped at its altar while on his way to Sian. The
grounds cover about ten acres, inclosed by a high
brick wall. Around the temple are tablets to kings
of the early dynasties, but the usual shrines with
their painted idols are conspicuously absent. The
temple stands in the centre of the inclosure. It is
a one-story building, about sixty feet in height. In
a vestibule are two heroic statues of Yau and Shun,
that reach from floor to ceiling. They are painted
blue and red and yellow ; in their physiognomy
there is no evidence of the serenity of soul with
which they are accredited. Their expressions are
decidedly unhappy, and their heads are thrown for-
ward at an angle which gives them the appearance
of trying to scowl at any admirers of subsequent
generations bold enough to look up at them. In
the centre of the temple, on a high table, is a stone
tablet in honor of the two hero-kings, but, as in the
yard outside, there are no idols. Yau and Shun
lived long before China became inoculated with
Buddhism. They worshipped their ancestors and
Shang Ti, king of Heaven. Only the emperor in
Pekin is now privileged to offer sacrifices to Shang
Ti, so that many centuries have elapsed since the
" One and Supreme God " was worshipped in Ping
Yang. The temple is now consecrated only to the

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

memory of its founders, but it is still not profaned
by " images made with hands."

The city of Ping Yang gives evidence of its
age and of its former importance. Its black walls
are massive even for a Chinese tov/n. They inclose
an enormous area, only part of which is occupied by
the dwindled population of the city. The part not
covered with houses and streets is divided into small
farms like those in the surrounding country. In the
gates of Ping Yang there is a curious arrangement
of walls that proves an ancient knowledge of fortifi-
cation that would do credit to a modern engineer of
Europe or America. The gateway bastions are cir-
cular ; in size and appearance they are not unlike an
American locomotive round-house. Entering by a
passage through the centre, one passes into a stone-
paved street that is completely shut in by two par-
allel rows of high walls. The street winds between
them for almost half a mile before it passes through
a similar bastion into the city. The arrangement
would seem to make Ping Yang almost impregnable
to any attacking force not provided with heavy ar-
tillery or dynamite. Even should an army succeed
in forcing the outer gate, it could be annihilated
while passing through the narrow street, by missiles
hurled from the tops of the walls inclosing it.

While riding through the streets of Ping Yang,
I came upon what at first seemed to be a mandarin
and his escort on their way through the city. But
the sedan chair was larger than usual and had about

THE LAND OF YAU AND SHUN

twice the ordinary number of bearers. They walked
slowly, as though their burden were a heavy one, and
they frequently wiped their perspiring faces with
the sleeves of their blouses. Almost everyone
prostrated himself in the dusty road as the chair ap-
proached, and remained in that position until it had
passed. Curious to see who this much-honoured
mandarin might be, I reined up in the shadow of
a wall and stared through the uplifted curtains of
the chair. Within it sat not a human being, but a
huge idol. He or she or it (for the gender of idols
is somewhat indeterminate) wore mandarin-robes
and a velvet cap. The hideous, painted face of the
thing in the chair wore the mocking leer that is an
idol's prerogative. It seemed as if the idol were
exulting in ghoulish delight at its success in deceiv-
ing, and as if it were mocking the prostrate men and
women who had souls. Processions of this kind are
common in the interior towns of Shansi and Shensi.
It is the duty of the mandarin to see that all the
idols in his district are made as comfortable as pos-
sible. A well-regulated idol is supposed to grow
weary of spending its entire time in a musty tem-
ple and to find the labour of foretelling good or bad
luck for the townspeople a trifle monotonous ; to
keep it in good spirits, it is taken out for an occa-
sional airing and is paraded through the principal
streets. The outing is supposed to restore the idol's
equanimity and to make it content to dole out good
luck for some time to come.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

In every other manifestation of superstition or
religion that I encountered in China there seemed
to be at least a spark from the divinely implanted
universal soul. The dragon eating the moon was
the world-old allegory of the eternal struggle between
light and darkness, between good and evil. Much
of the image-worship of the temples could be ex-
plained as only a system of fixing the worshippers'
attention on the unseen god or spirit that the image
represented, and could no more be properly called
idolatry than a Romanist's adoration at a shrine of
the Virgin ; but in the idol-procession in the streets of
Ping Yang there was no allegory and no soul. It
was only the sodden worship of a piece of painted
wood which, for a race and a people that once pro-
duced a Confucius, was pitiful and saddening. After
I had seen it, I no longer wondered why old Yau
and Shun, in the vestibule of their imageless temple,
looked weary and worried.

CHAPTER VIII
WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

AT Ping Yang we came into the valley of the
Fen Hoa, one of the larger tributaries of the
Yellow River. For a considerable distance the road
ran along the banks of the river, at times crossing
rich bottom lands and at others skirting high clay
cliffs. On promontories where the river wound
among the hills we saw a number of pagodas. Few
pagodas are less than twelve stories in height, and
some have as many as sixteen or eighteen stories.
They are octagonal in shape, the base sometimes
covering two acres. The perimeter of each succes-
sive story is less than the one below it, so that when
viewed from a distance the entire structure has very
much the appearance of a huge obelisk. Pagodas
are not, as is sometimes supposed, places of worship,
although they are often by the side of temples and are
in charge of priests. They are more in the nature of
monuments commemorating some sage or especially
virtuous man.

The country over which we were now travelling
was the scene of the campaigns of Genghis Khan in
his wars for the conquest of China. While Gen-
ghis was busy in subduing the Mohammedan king-

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

doms of Western Asia, he sent his general, Mau
Hoa Li, to invade Northern Shansi. During the
four years following 1218 the Mongols pillaged and
massacred and burned until the Fen Hoa valley was
reduced to a desert. Genghis took command later
in person and was leading an army toward Honan,
when he died in Luh-pan, in Shensi, in 1227. His
son, Okkodai, continued the war, and in 1231 fought
his way through Shansi on his way to the capital in
Kai Feng. It is a commentary on the valour and
resourcefulness of the men of Shansi and Shensi of
those days that, although China was the first country
invaded by Genghis Khan and was the country
whose throne he seemed always most to covet, it
was the only kingdom which the great Mongol
never conquered.

From their position the two old yellow prov-
inces bore the brunt of the fighting. Their people
perished by thousands in defence of their homes.
Their fields were laid waste and their cities burned,
yet, with the dogged, patient, never-say-die ob-
stinacy that has always characterised the old Chin-
ese stock, they fought on. They were not able to
drive back the invaders, but they succeeded in so
harassing the Mongol armies that by the time they
had reached the Yellow River they were no longer
strong enough to conquer the country to the south-
ward. Forty kingdoms of Asia and Europe fell
beneath the tramp of the Mongol horses of Gen-
ghis, but Shansi and Shensi never surrendered.

WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

They succeeded in keeping up the struggle until
nearly sixty years after the death of Genghis, when
his grandson, Kublai Khan, was proclaimed Em-
peror of China and Mongolia. But the years that
the Mongols had passed in conquering the Empire
had imbued them with a profound admiration of
the arts and learning of the Chinese. Even more
than some of the native emperors who had preceded
him, Kublai did all in his power to keep undefiled
by foreign contact the system of Fuhi and the
wisdom of Confucius. He gave to the dynasty that
he founded a Chinese name. Yuan, and adopted
the dress, language, customs, and religion of his sub-
jects. In its permanent results the triumph of the
Mongol was really a victory of the vanquished. It
meant the absorption of the wild barbarians of the
North into the expanding civilisation of the people
they had conquered.

In sad contrast with the men of Shansi who so
long kept Genghis at bay are the soldiers one finds
in the province to-day. Ping Yang is the head-
quarters of a brigade. From the general who com-
manded it I procured one of the relays of my escort.
In detailing them he very graciously gave assurance
that they were six of his best soldiers. They were
friendly and well disposed, but they all smoked
opium to such an extent that they had to be dragged
from their brick beds in the morning, and they fell
asleep in their saddles so frequently that I momenta-
rily expected to see them fall from their ponies.

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

Four of the six carried no other weapons than
broadswords, slung across their backs. The other
two were armed with Mauser rifles of an ancient
pattern, but not one of the party possessed a cartridge-
belt. While riding through the fields one morning
we saw a large eagle calmly perched on a rock, less
than a hundred yards away. It was so superb a shot
that I was not surprised to see one of the soldiers
dismount and open the breech of his rifle. He
walked up to the only other member of the party
similarly armed, and the two held an animated,
though subdued, colloquy. It ended by the second
soldier climbing down from his pony and unstrap-
ping his pooka. He spread it on the ground, and
after some fumbling he drew from its recesses a
canvas sack ; this he untied and from it extracted a
cartridge, which he handed to his comrade. The
process of discovering the cartridge had consumed
fully five minutes, and by the time it was loaded in
the breech, ready to fire, the eagle was only a speck
against the blue sky, far out of range. Without a
sign of the slightest impatience the owner of the
solitary cartridge laboriously tied up his pooka again
and strapped it once more on his saddle.

On the way through Shan si I met several regi-
ments of soldiers returning from the scene of the
Boxer uprising in the north to their homes or gar-
risons in other parts of the country. None of them
were more modern in their methods or equipment
than the six who accompanied me. Some of the

lOO

WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

soldiers had rifles of various kinds, but cartridges
were few and far between. In fact, ammunition
hardly seemed to be regarded as necessary to the
effectiveness of a weapon ; western-made fire-arms
are as yet such a novelty in the interior of China
that they are supposed to be of themselves ample
means of defence without the aid of powder or bullet.
Chinese soldiers on the march look like the chorus
of a burlesque-opera at its first rehearsal. Their
uniforms are, I believe, more picturesque than those
of any other army in the world. Their tunics are
red, or purple, or yellow, bordered in front in white
cloth into odd designs, while on the back are Buddh-
ist emblems and the names of the regiment to which
their wearers belong ; their turbans and baggy trou-
sers are black. Without the slightest attempt at
marching order they straggle along the road, some-
times in single file and sometimes by twos and threes.
They are often left to their own devices by their
officers, who ride a mile or two ahead of the men
they command. Along the banks of the Fen Hoa
I was joined one day by a young captain whose
company were trailing somewhere behind. He
was a tall, handsome man, who made a notably fine
figure on horseback. He at once began a conversa-
tion by remarking that, although we had travelled
a long distance, he had probably seen more of the
earth's surface than any member of our party.
" I have been all over the world," he said. " I have
seen Mongolia on the north and Tibet on the west ;

lOI

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

I have seen the ocean at Hong Kong and Shanghai.
These places are near the edge of the world. One
cannot go much farther in any direction."

But, simple as the Chinese soldier is, he has
many good points. He is patient, strong, and
capable of enduring great fatigue. He can live on
a few bowls of rice a day, and he never complains.
Like the rest of his race, he is always cool and self-
possessed, and would doubtless be slow to run away
from danger. To be sure, he is mortally afraid of
devils and the spirits of his ancestors, but this
should act only as an incentive for him to do his
duty faithfully in order to escape their wrath.
From what I have seen of soldiers in Shansi I am
convinced that if they could be induced to leave
opium alone and if they were properly armed and
disciplined, they would fight as well as their ances-
tors did in the days of Genghis Khan. The Chin-
ese themselves apparently realise the weakness of
their army far better than they do other faults of
their system. The only innovations in which the
people of the interior seemed to me to take any
real interest were those which had to do with mili-
tary affairs.

Ever since their crushing defeat in the war
with Japan, changes in army methods have been in
progress. Although slow in their development, the
changes are radical, and contemplate nothing less
than the complete re-organisation of the vast mili-
tary forces of the empire. Manchus, in the eighteen

102

WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

provinces, who for centuries have been supported
by the government as a militia reserve, are now com-
pelled to be proficient with the rifle instead of the
cross-bow and broad-sword in order to receive their
pensions. As the result of a series of Imperial edicts,
a military college has been established during the last
two years in the capital of every province. Students
are admitted by appointment of the governor
much after the way that some West Point cadets
are appointed by the President. They are instructed
in European tactics and in the use of modern fire-
arms, with a view to their becoming officers. At
least, such is the theory on which the colleges were
instituted. Away from the coast the plan is not yet
realised because of the difficulty in obtaining foreign
educated teachers. Under the old regime all soldiers
in the interior provinces were in charge of the man-
darin of the district where they happened to be sta-
tioned. They were under his orders, and he was
held responsible for their drill and knowledge of
arms. As the mandarin was a purely civil function-
ary, he usually knew almost nothing of military mat-
ters, and consequently allowed the discipline of the
soldiers under his command to grow very lax. Civil
and military affairs are now separated by the ap-
pointing of officers of the army as military mandarins
to command in every district where there is a detach-
ment of soldiers. The military mandarin has full
charge of everything connected with the army, and he
has equal rank with the civil mandarin, who is nov/

103

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

relieved of authority over tlie soldiers in his dis-
trict.

An original theory of night-watchmen is one
of the peculiarities of Shansi. In that province it is
not the aim of a guardian of the peace to keep away
thieves and marauders, so that the man he is pro-
tecting may rest securely and without thought of
danger. On the contrary, a watchman's constant
effort is to prevent his charge from sleeping too
soundly, so that he may be able to rise quickly and
fight any sudden intruders. For this purpose the
watchman carries a piece of hollow bamboo, on
which he beats under the window with a short stick
every half hour. A description of this apparatus
may not convey the idea of its formidable character,
but when one is awakened by it from a sound sleep
after a hard day's ride its horrors begin to be real-
ised. An especially zealous and faithful watchman
is not content with making a racket at regular inter-
vals. He continues rapping his piece of bamboo
until the man he is guarding makes some outcry,
showing that he has been successfully awakened. A
watchman was included in the manage of only some
of the kung kwans where I stayed. Had he been
a member of all of them, sleep in Shansi would
have been for me an impossibility.

In Tai Yuan I had purchased a pony. He
proved to be the best horse I rode anywhere in
China. But after eight days of continuous travel
he failed from sheer exhaustion, and by the time we

104

WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

had reached Heo Mah, fifty miles south of Ping
Yang, he was unable to go farther. He was suffer-
ing only from fatigue and needed three or four days'
rest, which I was unable to give him. His drooping
condition was commented on by the soldiers of my
escort, all of whom expressed their sympathy that so
fine a pony could no longer be of service. When we
arrived at the kung kvvan the soldiers went to report
to the military mandarin of the place while the pony
lay down in front of his manger and went to sleep.
He was still lying there when the military mandarin
passed through the court-yard on his way to see me.
I was somewhat surprised at his visit, because I had
no business to transact with him, and all calls of a
purely friendly character had up to this time been
made by the civil mandarins. My visitor began by
making a kow-tow and asking if there were any-
thing that any human being in Heo Mah could do
that would add to my comfort or happiness.

I replied that I would avail myself of his kind
offer by asking one favour. " My v/en shao," I said,
" calls for four public ponies. Heretofore I have used
only one, but now that my own horse is exhausted I
shall have to ask for another." His face brightened
greatly at this, and he at once asked whether I did
not want his pony. " What is your price for him ?"
I inquired. He said that he had no intention of
selling him, but begged that I would accept his
pony as a gift. He grew enthusiastic in his expres-
sions of unbounded admiration for me ; he bumped

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

his head on the floor and pressed his hands on his
stomach. I tried my best to induce him to accept
pay for his pony, but he absolutely refused, and I
finally accepted. I thanked him in my best style
and gave him my last handful of cigars, which he
said he would keep as long as he lived as a remem-
brance of me. I think it likely that he may have
kept his promise in this regard, because I am certain
that he had never seen a cigar before. As the mili-
tary mandarin rose to go, he asked whether I in-
tended to leave my pony in Heo Mah. When I re-
plied in the affirmative, he said quickly, " Then I
will exchange saddles now ; I will leave my pony
here and take yours with me." He did so and he
and my drooping pony disappeared together.

I was surprised to find that my feelings of
gratitude to the military mandarin were not shared
by Wang, who had been the medium of our conver-
sation. He looked worried about the whole trans-
action and said, " This is funny thing. He have got
politeness for you too quick, sir." When I came to
inspect my new gift-horse for the morning's start I
saw why the military mandarin had been generous.
All four of the pony's knees were sprung. His ribs
could be counted from across the court-yard and all
over his body his joints protruded like hat-hooks.
My visitor of the night before, learning from my
soldiers of the condition of my pony, had taken this
means of making an exchange after dark, by which
he had obtained one of the best horses in Shansi,

106

WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

and to me had been left an animated bag of bones.
With a wish that David Harum could have met
the military mandarin, I mounted my new horse,
and after a day's vigorous kicking and urging I suc-
ceeded in getting him to Wenhi, our next stopping-
place. Fifteen minutes after our arrival the shi
jang came up and said he wished to speak with me.
" He say he have bad news," Wang interpreted,
"but it is on his heart and he must tell."

I replied that I had nerved myself to hear the
worst, and told him to speak on.

" He think that your pony have disease. He
believe that it will die soon. He say it is no good."

" I am quite sure that your opinions on the
subject are correct," I said, addressing the shi jang,
and then I went into the court-yard and looked at
the pony. He was the most melancholy thing I
had seen in Shansi. His head hung down and he
was sniffing the dust. His front-knees were half
bent as though he were too tired to stand up and
too disgusted to lie down.

For a time we all surveyed him in silence ; then
Wang said, " Maybe the banchaiti can sell it. The
feet and the skin is good, and poor mens can eat the
meat of it."

I immediately accepted the suggestion and told
the banchaiti to try to sell the dying gift. He suc-
ceeded in doing so. After deducting his commis-
sion I realised as the net amount of the sale four
taels ($2.80). As Wang weighed the lumps of sil-

107

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

ver he remarked very seriously, "The mihtary man-
darin is only young man, sir."

"Yes," I assented.

" He is such a young man and yet such a
clever man that by-and-by he will be a general,"
added Wang.

All the rest of the way to Sian I rode one of
the public ponies, called for by my wen shao. They
were most willingly given by the mandarins of the
shens through which we passed, and I was never
allowed to pay anything for them beyond a cum-
shaw to the mafu. So, after all, I have no ground
for complaint on the question of ponies, and I
sincerely hope that Wang's prophecy may be ful-
filled and that the military mandarin may some day
command thousands of men in yellow and purple
uniforms. But it would be a source of great satis-
faction to me if I could know that in the hour of his
triumph he rode to his first review on a thick-necked,
red, little pony whose mane and tail had never been
combed and who could be induced to singlefoot by
a kick high up on his left flank.

At Wenhi we left the fertile river-valley and
struck across a dry, rolling, clay plain. The heavy
white dust and parched fields proved that we were
approaching the famine-country. The corn and
millet were only about one-quarter as high as they
should have been at that season of the year, and
even the poppy-plants looked wilted and sickly. In
a number of villages we passed under yellow

io8

WHERE GENGHIS KHAN FAILED

streamers hung across the road inscribed with pray-
ers to the gods for rain. The drought that had
caused the terrible famine in Shensi had been
equally long-continued in Southern Shansi, but
while Shensi was starving, Shansi was able to get
food from the perpetually fertile valley of the Fen
Hoa.

On the fourth day after leaving Wenhi we were
riding one afternoon through a sunken road, whose
banks rose so high that we were completely shut in
from a view of the surrounding country. The road
suddenly turned sharply to the right and went down
a steep decline. A few minutes later we emerged
on the sandy beach of the Yellow River. A mile
across its sluggish, muddy current the black moun-
tainous cliffs of the farther shore rose steep and
lowering from the water's edge, crowned at their
summit by the walls and battlements of Tung
Kwan — Tung Kwan that for centuries has held the
road to Sian, Tung Kwan that Genghis Khan could
never storm ; there it was still, old, gray, impreg-
nable, looking down on the original river of China.
The shi jang pointed to it and said, " That is
Shensi."

109

CHAPTER IX
TUNG KWAN AND THE ORIGINAL RIVER

IN his first campaign for the conquest of China,
Genghis Khan sent ten thousand men under a
general named San-kau-pa-tu to take the city of Kai
Feng, in Honan, which was at that time the capital
of the Empire. After some hard fighting in Shansi
the army reached the Yellow River. From some
point on the north shore, probably very near to the
strip of sand on which we emerged from the sunken
road, the wild Mongols looked on Tung Kwan.
They belonged to a race who were the world-con-
querors of their time, but they realised that they
could not pass the city on the opposite height. The
plan of a direct advance on Kai Feng was abandoned,
and San-kau-pa-tu made a long detour through the
mountains of Southern Shensi. His men were so
exhausted by the difficulties of the journey that be-
fore reaching the capital, they were easily defeated
and driven back across the Yellow River.

No one who sees Tung Kwan to-day can won-
der why the soldiers of Genghis gave up the idea of
taking it. Although it is in Shensi, the city is so
close to the boundaries of Honan and Shansi that
it is the key to all three provinces. The only ap-

IIO

TUNG KWAN

proach to the huge stone citadel is a broad road
that winds up the side of the mountain from the
water's edge ; on one side, the road is protected by
a stone wall, and on the other by a series of stone
forts. The business portion of Tung Kwan is be-
low the citadel, on the Shensi side of the mountain.
The ferry on which we crossed the Yellow River
was a huge scow with a mast at one end. The old
sail which beat against it was furled and showed
little sign of use ; the propelling power was con-
fined to the poles and oars of the boatmen. At
first sight of the ferry I wondered how all of our
belongings could be dragged aboard. On the beach
where we stood there was no pier or landing-place,
and to force our cart over the oozing sand appeared
to be an almost impossible task. The boatmen laid
planks from the scow's edge to the shore, and up
these the ponies were led. Then the planks were
spread to meet the cart-wheels ; a boatman got be-
tween the shafts, while the remainder of the party,
soldiers, cartmen, and mafu put their shoulders to
the rear of the cart, and, with a vast amount of
shouting and shoving, succeeded in forcing it up
on the scow. The advent of our party left so very
little room for the other passengers that several of
them were compelled to seek quarters between the
ponies' legs. After three-quarters of an hour, our
cart, ponies, and ourselves were unloaded on the
Shensi shore and were led through the principal
street of the town to our kung kwan.

Ill

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Here I found awaiting me a little man with a
shiny, smiling face and small, piercing eyes. He
announced that he was a Wei Wen of the governor
of Shensi, and displayed His Excellency's card. I
subsequently learned that a Wei Wen is a petty
mandarin, detailed on a special commission by a
provincial governor or a court-official in Pekin.
The duty to which the one who met me had been
assigned was to officially welcome me to Shensi and
personally to conduct me to Sian. When I handed
him Prince Ching's card he touched it tenderly, as
though afraid of injuring so precious a document.
He placed it on the table in front of him, and for
some minutes contemplated it in silence. He then
made a short speech, in which he told me of his un-
bounded regard for me. He pressed his hands on
his stomach and swore by Confucius that he would
protect me with his life. He was so effusive in his
demonstrations of admiration that I began to fear
that his welcome might be the preface to another
horse-trade, but nothing of the kind happened, and
I found during the four days in which the Wei
Wen directed my travelling affairs that he was a
kindly, harmless man whose sole object in life
seemed to be to make me as happy as a barbarian
could be in Shensi.

Carts with four wheels are the kind most in
vogue in Tung Kwan. The carts do not have axles,
but the wheels revolve in iron hangers suspended
from the four corners of the waggon-box. A pref-

112

TUNG KWAN

erence for four wheels has come to Tung Kwan from
Honan, where a two-wheeled vehicle is seldom seen.
The carts I saw in Tung Kwan are an object-lesson
in the mistake of generalising in attempting to de-
scribe anything Chinese. Customs and methods vary-
to such an extent in different parts of the Empire
that a sweeping declaration about any of them that
might be true when confined to some particular
province may be inaccurate when applied to the one
next to it. I had been told by a foreign resident
of Pekin that the Chinese mind was incapable of ad-
vancing beyond the idea of two wheels on a vehicle.
This I found to be the case in every place through
which we passed, with the exception of Tung
Kwan, but the exception was so marked that it dis-
proved the rule.

Tung Kwan is near the point where the Yellow
River is joined by the Wei Ho, a river that rises in
Kansuh, not far from the Tibetan border. The
road from Tung Kwan to Sian lies across a plain,
which extends from the Wei Ho on the north to
the foot-hills of the Shensi Mountains on the south.
For more than fifty miles the road is lined on both
sides by rows of willow-trees. Their planting was
an incident of the Mohammedan rebellion of 1868

to '7?>'

The people of the Yellow River valleys are so
far out of what we call " the world " that some of
even the more ponderous histories of the last fifty
years in China make only scant mention of this war

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

that devastated three provinces, cost thousands of
lives, and left Shensi helpless and desolate. Because
of its nearness to the Mohammedan countries of the
west, Shensi numbers among its inhabitants more
followers of the Prophet than does perhaps any
other of the eighteen provinces. Although their
dress and language are the same as those of the peo-
ple among whom they live, they are not free from
the religious fanaticism that has always distinguished
men of their faith everywhere. Taking advantage
of the disordered state of the Empire after the
Taiping rebellion, the Mohammedans of Shensi and
Kansuh rose in revolt against the Chinese Govern-
ment. Their apparent object was to place a fol-
lower of the Prophet on the dragon -throne. They
never succeeded in accomplishing much south of
the Wei Ho, but north of it town after town fell be-
fore them ; and men, women, and children were put
to the sword. So great was the desolation they
wrought, that after the rebellion had been finally
suppressed, there were not enough men left in
Shensi to till its fields. Immigrants were brought
from other provinces by the Government to re-
populate the desert left by the war.

One of the curious results of the Mohammedan
uprising was the large number of nominal conver-
sions that it was the means of making to Chris-
tianity. " Do you believe in Allah or the idols?"
was the question the rebels asked of their prisoners.
If they answered that they worshipped the idols

114

TUNG KWAN

they were immediately put to death, but their pro-
fession of a belief in Allah usually meant only a
brief respite from the same fate, because the next
detachment of Imperialist troops that passed that
way was sure to kill all apostates from the religions
of Confucius or Buddha. In their dilemma, hun-
dreds of wretched men and women professed belief
in the Christians' God, whom the Mohammedans
did not deny and whose worshippers the Govern-
ment was not then persecuting. After eight years
of most sanguinary warfare Tso Kung Pao, com-
mander of the Imperialist forces, was finally able to
put down the rebellion. In his campaigns Tso was
often greatly hampered by lack of food and money,
as the funds in the Imperial treasury had been sadly
depleted. For an entire year he turned his soldiers
into farmers, and thus provided a sufficient commis-
sariat to enable him to continue the war. On one
occasion, when his men were striking for back-pay,
he made them forget their grievances in hard work ;
he kept his entire army busy in planting the willow-
trees that now shade the white, dusty road from
Tung Kwan to Sian.

Fifty miles west of Tung Kwan, at the base of
the mountain of Hua Shan, is the temple of Hua ih.
China has five sacred mountains, and Hua Shan is
one of them. The other four are Tai in Shantung,
Heng in Hunan, Hang in Shansi, and Sung in
Honan. The adoration of the mountains is a sur-
vival, in a decadent form, of the monotheism of early

115

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

China. There was a time, obscured by the dim
myths of their history, when the religion of the
Black Haired People was not unlike that of the
Hebrew Patriarchs. It was then that they wor-
shipped Shang Ti, the supreme ruler of Heaven,
who was an unseen deity, not represented by idols,
and never manifested in rocks or trees. Once a
year the kings offered sacrifices to him on one of
the five mountains that have since become sacred.
Why these should have been selected from all the
mountains of the empire, is a question not easy to
determine. Three of the five are comparatively near
Sian. In the course of centuries the worship of
Shang Ti became the exclusive prerogative of the
Emperor, on the theory that he alone was worthy
to address the Supreme Being, although a reaction-
ary tendency to revert to the universal worship of
Shang Ti has more than once manifested itself. In
A.D. 625, for example, Kau Tsu, an emperor of the
T'ang dynasty, disgusted with the corruption of the
Buddhist priests, issued an edict permitting his sub-
jects to erect altars to the ruler of Heaven.*

Emperors of China still worship Shang Ti once
a year, but no longer on the mountain-tops. " The
Temple of Heaven," in the southern part of Pekin,
is used for that purpose by the present dynasty. As
a substitute for the worship of the One Supreme
God, no longer permitted to them, the people of
China turned to an adoration of the five sacred

* MacGowan's History of China, page 290.
116

TUNG KWAN

mountains where once had been " worshipped the
Father." They are visited every year by thousands
of pilgrims from all over the empire. To defray
travelling expenses, co-operative societies are formed
in the various provinces, and the men of several ad-
jacent villages make up a special excursion party, by
which the cost of the pilgrimage is paid from a com-
mon fund. Many of the larger cities, too, contain
temples dedicated to the Five Sacred Mountains.
The adoration of the mountains is entirely outside of
and beyond the three prevailing religious systems.
In the long procession of pilgrims who toil wearily
up the mountain-trails are an equal proportion of
Confucians, Buddhists, and Taoists. The temples
at the base and summit where they leave their
offerings of cash-strings are not materially different
from thousands of other places of worship scat-
tered all over the empire. They contain only idols
and tablets, but their especial merit is the fact of
their nearness to the cloud-capped mountain-peaks.
It is difficult to obtain from a Chinaman a satis-
factory explanation of the motive which prompts
him to walk hundreds of miles to worship on a
mountain-top. About all he will admit on the sub-
ject is that the "mountain is a good thing," and,
after all, this answer is not very far from the truth.
Outside of China, one hears little of the sacred
mountains. References to them in descriptions of
the land and the people which come to us are not
nearly so frequent as to " idolaters" and " Boxers."

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

The sacred mountain-top is an intermediary between
the dusty plain with its idols and its sorrows, and
the sky which is the abiding-place of the Eternal.
In his soul-groping, the Chinaman gropes upward.

The present temple, or rather the series of tem-
ples within the inclosure at Hua ih, are said to have
been built by the Emperor Kang Hi about two
hundred and fifty years ago. In their arrangement
there is a strange commingling of the Confucian
and Buddhist faiths. A silent menagerie fills the
front of the temple-yard. In rows of heavily barred
brick cages are stone images of animals. They
are all life-size and are remarkably well executed.
Among them are elephants, tigers, and monkeys,
whose sculptors must have secured their models a
long distance from Shensi, where the originals are not
found. The stone animals stand for the Buddhist
idea of reincarnation. They are worshipped as sa-
cred, and are supposed, in a vague way, to be en-
dowed with life. It is to prevent them from escap-
ing and running away from their worshippers that
the cages have wooden bars in front of them. The
priest, who acted as my guide, explained that each
supplicant selects an animal to which he addresses
his prayers. If they are not answered within a rea-
sonable time, he tries the same prayers on another
image, in the hope that its stone heart may prove
less hard than the first.

But to me the most curious thing about the
stone animals was their position directly in front

ii8

PLAN OF Till-: THMl'IJ-: Al' lU'A Hi.

TUNG KWAN

of a Confucian temple, whose only sacred object was
a tablet of the sage to whom it was dedicated. From
prostrating themselves before stone dogs and horses,
the temple pilgrims turned to this shrine of the
greatest atheist the w orld has ever known. A stone
walk led to the rear of the inclosure, where was a
Buddhist temple, four stories high, filled with idols.
In its construction, this temple, like many of the
larger buildings of China, showed a knowledge of
the principles which have made twenty-story build-
ings possible in the United States. The roof and
floors of the temple rested upon cross-beams attached
to upright poles, the ends of which were sunk in
piers of cement embedded in the ground. In Shensi,
as in New York, walls are an afterthought. The
skeleton of such a building as the temple is always
practically completed before the work of inclosing
it with walls is begun.

Between the two temples was a pond where fish
were fonged, or set at liberty. In its workings the
system of fonging animals has very much the effect
of a humane society on the western side of the world.
On the theory that any of the brute creation may be
the dwelling-place of the soul of a former human
being, lame and sick animals become the care of the
priests ; in some of the larger temples special pro-
vision is made for caring for sick cats and dogs. To
fong an animal of any kind is considered an act of
supreme virtue. To obtain good luck, a pious
Chinaman will sometimes purchase a live fish and

119

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

have a priest fong it. This is done by placing it in
the pond reserved for the purpose near the temple.
One of the principal sources of revenue to the
priests of Hua ih is the sale of rubbings of the in-
scriptions on the stone tablets scattered throughout
the grounds. These are purchased by pilgrims, who
hang them on the walls of their homes as a means
of keeping away evil spirits.

We left Hua ih in a pouring rain, the first I had
encountered anywhere on my travels. During the
next twenty-four hours I had an opportunity of
seeing what Shensi skies can do, on the very rare
occasions when their flood-gates are opened. With-
in half an hour after the beginning of the storm
our party was drenched and drooping. The dusty
road of an hour before was transformed into a
morass, through which the cart struggled, hub-deep
in mud, and in which our ponies, with lowered
heads, slipped and floundered. Little rivulets ran
down the backs of the soldiers' tunics, causing the
red and purple to blend until they looked as though
they were made of watered silk ; queues became
dishevelled and turbans limp as the rain soaked and
penetrated. Our objective point as the end of the
day's journey was the city of Hua, but the condition
of the road prevented our reaching it before dark-
ness set in. We were compelled to spend the night
in a wretched little inn in the village of Fu Shin,
about ten miles from Hua. The paper pane of the
one window in my room was full of holes, through

I20

BUDDHIST TEMI'LK AT IIIA III.

TUNG KWAN

which the rain poured in torrents. I called the
landlord's attention to it, and he promised to have
the window repaired. A dirty boy carrying a saucer
of flour-paste presently emerged from the group of
dripping mules and horses huddled in the centre of
the yard. He began to paste scraps of paper of all
sizes and shapes over the holes in the pane, giving
it much the appearance of a New England crazy-
quilt. When I asked him why he did not tear off
the entire tattered sheet of paper and replace it with
a new one, he replied " My labor is by the day, but
paper costs two cash." As Wang translated this
epigram, he thrust the crop of his riding-whip
through the paper pane and tore it down. The boy
ambled off grumbling at the enforced extravagance,
while Wang said, "The Shensi mens is different
from Pekin."

121

CHAPTER X

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

WHENCE the first Chinese came is a happy,
little, hazy problem, about which many his-
torians and ethnologists have guessed and disputed,
but which none have solved. But, whatever may
have been their starting point, the Chinese were
first heard from in the Shensi valleys, through
which the Yellow River winds, from Mongolia to
its junction with the Wei Ho. It was out of the
Yellow River that the original dragon brought to
Fuhi the scroll on which were engraved the marks
of " the eight permutations," from which have been
developed the alphabet of China and its systems of
philosophy. Fuhi belongs to the period of legends.
According to Chinese traditions, all law and gov-
ernment began with him. He was born ten miles
from Sian, and he is said to have begun his reign as
first ruler of China in the year 2852 e.g., or forty-
seven years before the biblical date of the death of
Noah.* The direct descendants of Fuhi's subjects
live south of the Wei Ho to-day. Internal wars
and foreign invasions have modified and partially
obliterated the original race in Northern Shensi,

* According to Professor Legge, the date of Fuhi's accession was 3322 B.C.

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

but they never have been supplanted in the country
between the Wei Ho and the Han. The men of
Southern Shensi, of the old blood, constitute
another of the distinct types of China. Their skins
are yellow, but never sallow. Exposure to the sun
has a tendency to turn Shensi complexions red.
This fact, in addition to their high cheek-bones and
straight features, gives to many of the dwellers in
the villages the appearance of North American
Indians.

More than any other Chinese I have ever met,
the men of Shensi are philosophical and thoughtful ;
combined with the practical element so noticeable
in all Chinese character, they have a love of learn-
ing and a refined sense of justice that I have found
nowhere else in the Empire. They know their
heritage and they are proud of it. They are fond
of telling of the events of Fuhi's time as though
they had happened yesterday. In speaking of
their country's history, they seldom refer to the
occurrences of the last fifteen hundred years. To
them Mongol conquerors are moderns, in whom
they take little interest. The inhabitants of the
province of Shensi belong to the old families.
Only occasionally do they refer to themselves as
"Chinese." They much more frequently use as
their prerogative the term Sons of Han, by which
they commemorate the days of Shensi's glory, when
the first Han dynasty held sway in Sian, two cen-
turies before Christ. The Sons of Han are in-

123

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

clined to patronise the inhabitants of other and
" newer" parts of the Empire. The Pekinese may
dress better and may belong to the smart set at
court, but they have been Chinese for only a thou-
sand years ; they lack culture ; they are hopelessly
new.

For Chinese in Shanghai and Hankow who
have grown rich by trading with foreigners, there is
as much courteous condescension in Shensi as was
ever expressed on Beacon Street for Monanta mil-
lionaires. Because Pekin is the capital and the
residence of the court, the dialect spoken by its
citizens approaches more nearly to the official lan-
guage than does any other vernacular of the Em-
pire. It is the boast of the Pekinese that, in their
city, "beggars can speak mandarin." But in Fuhi's
country the Pekinese dialect finds little favour. It
is provincial and very bad form. It is to be used
in addressing a government official but not by gen-
tlemen in conversation. " We speak pure Chinese,"
an old scholar explained to me in Sian ; " we do
not pronounce as Tartars do."

Even to my ignorant ears, the difference in
dialect was noticeable after leaving Tung Kwan.
The sound of aspirated s seemed to have been lost
in the Yellow River ; in its place was a persistent
cA, which played a prominent part in every sen-
tence. The capital of Shensi was no longer Sian
but " Chian," with the accent falling heavily on the
last syllable. As might naturally be expected in

124

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

the oldest province of China, keen dislike of the
foreigner is a characteristic of the Sons of Han.
But, with all their prejudices and exclusiveness,
they have little of the fanaticism and cruelty which
are to be found in some of the other provinces.
The foreigner is a barbarian and something of a
fool. He should never be allowed to forget that he
is an inferior, and anything that he may say or do is
worthy of the scorn and contempt of sensible men.
But, after all, why should he be taken seriously
enough to be regarded as an enemy. To persecute
him is only to dignify him. He is harmless though
detestable. Let the dog continue to bark at the
moon. Shensi has seen many tribes of barbarians
come and go since Fuhi's time and they all have
ultimately disappeared in the sea of Chinese civili-
sation. Just give these modern barbarians with
short coats time enough and they, too, will share
the same fate.

From what I have seen of Shensi character, I
believe that it was the prevailing of this sentiment
which prevented the bloodshed and murder that
marked the Boxer uprising in adjacent provinces.
At the outbreak of the storm, Tuan Fang was gov-
ernor of Shensi. He was a Manchu and a relative
of Prince Tuan, the bloodthirsty leader of the anti-
foreign party at court. Along with all the other
governors, Tuan received the Imperial order to ex-
terminate all foreigners within his province. Boxer
sympathisers in Pekin warned him that his head

125

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

would be the forfeit if he disobeyed the order. But
against this was the advice of the best men among
the conservative, tradition-clinging people over
whom he ruled. They reminded him that to kill
the foreign missionaries would be murder, and that
if he, a Confucian, were guilty of that crime an in-
delible stain would rest upon Shensi. Their advice
prevailed and, with superb moral courage, Tuan
Fang resolved to save the lives of the missionaries,
even at the jeopardy of his own. He assembled the
missionaries in Sian and sent them in detachments,
under a large armed escort, out of the province to a
place of safety on the road to Hankow. In the
suddenness of their enforced departure, some of
the missionaries were without money for travelling
expenses. For these Tuan Fang provided from his
own funds. He is now governor of the province
of Hupeh and is regarded by all foreigners in
China as a hero, and the noblest living Manchu.
Such he undoubtedly is, but it is questionable
whether he would ever have dared to defy the
command of the Manchu Government had he not
received the moral support of the people of the old
land, that was in its zenith when the Manchus were
only a tribe in the northern wilderness.

A Shensi village seldom consists of more
than two hundred inhabitants, or forty families,
according to Chinese methods of estimating. The
only person in the entire community possessed of
any authority is the " head man," who is appointed

126

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

by the mandarin of the district. The head man
carries no badge of authority, but is simply a farmer,
like the rest of the villagers. His appointment to
office is usually the result of his popularity with his
neighbours, who have informed the mandarin of
his especial intelligence and virtues. I had always
supposed that, under the absolute despotism of the
Chinese Government, very little liberty of speech
or thought was permitted to its subjects, but I found
that in Shensi quite the reverse is the case. In no
village is such a thing as a policeman to be found.
On the very rare occasions when an arrest is to be
made, the head man notifies the Shen Mandarin,
who sends one of his servants for the purpose. The
villagers seldom give anyone cause for trouble, and,
as a result, they are most of the time let alone.

They discuss the topics of the day, talk politics,
and gossip about each other's affairs quite as much
as is the custom in the United States. In Shensi a
tea-house takes the place of the American saloon or
country store as a rendezvous and lounging-place.
A cup of tea sometimes costs ten cash (a little less
than a cent), an exorbitant price, which makes it a
luxury, but a cup of hot water for two cash is a pop-
ular drink within the means of almost everyone.
Over these cups of hot water radical and conservative
politics, the faults and merits of the Empress Dow-
ager, and the doings of the " barbarians" are freely
discussed along with quotations from the " analects "
and the condition of the crops. So long as a man

127

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

does not avow an intention of starting a rebellion,
he can believe and say what he pleases in Shensi
without any more fear of Government interference
than in New York. In fact, I found that whenever
anyone wished to impress me with a sense of his
superior learning and ability, he invariably com-
mented upon the affairs of the Empire. Nor are the
inhabitants of Shensi villages so completely without
news of the outer world as we are apt to suppose.
The Imperial edicts are made public by the man-
darins, and the news they contain filters down
through the head men to the villagers. It was
really exceptional for me to find a banchaiti who did
not greet me in the morning with the news of the
day, and give me his opinion about it. The ban-
chaiti of the kung kwan of a little town in Shensi
was the medium through which I learned of the
death of Li Hung Chang. " He was a clever man,"
said my informant. *' He made much money out
of China, but there are others just as clever."

In Shensi there is a complete absence of the
condition that we call "poverty." Although, rela-
tively speaking, in comparison with the income of
the poorest-paid day-labourer in the United States,
all Shensi villagers must be accounted poor. The
equivalent of twenty American cents is very good
pay for a day's work in Shensi, but much less than
that sum is sufficient to provide for the needs of a
family. In an entire village there may be no house
built of other material than mud, but as every fam-

128

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

ily owns a home of this kind, and, as no one in
the entire community lives in a better house, there
is no annoying yearning after " higher and better
things." By Shensi roadsides one finds some pro-
fessional beggars, most of whom are opium-victims,
but there are very few " unemployed," except as the
result of a universal calamity like a famine or a flood.
Shensi farms seldom contain more than three or four
acres, but they often remain in the possession of one
family for generations. No one ever seems to de-
sire more land or to hold it solely for the purpose of
selling it again. The members of each family till
their own plot of ground, and from it raise enough
food to supply their needs. When the father be-
comes too old or infirm to work, his sons continue
to sow and reap in the same field, and their children
follow in their footsteps.

Only a few of the larger villages have shops of
any description. Almost everything that the vil-
lagers use they make themselves. The care of the
cotton-crop is the especial province of the women.
They pick the raw cotton, spin it into thread, weave
and dye the cloth, and make the clothes of the en-
tire family. The Chinese system of land and agri-
culture has been described as Utopian by some
Western writers on sociology. From what I saw of
it, as exemplified in Shensi, I am led to believe that
while it has some points in its favour, it is also pos-
sessed of decided disadvantages, which have con-
tributed to the present helpless condition of the

129

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

country. It enables the huge agricultural popula-
tion of the empire to live and multiply. It so limits
competition that it is hardly possible for any man
to be much richer than his fellows. It prevents
both idleness and over-production by providing
every man with a place where, by his own labour,
he can produce only enough for his own needs.

As a result of it, the Sons of Han all work
hard and are contented, but they have little ambi-
tion and a horror of change. The system offers no
incentive to a man who may be disposed " to toil
upward in the night while his companions sleep,"
although there is no danger of the jealousy of
" companions " who preferred to stay in bed. The
system makes provision only for agriculture, and is,
in consequence, a bar to the undertaking of other
industries, without which the vast resources of
China can never be developed. If a large manufac-
tory, for example, were to be started anywhere in
Southern Shensi some of the small farms would
have to be appropriated for its site. The owners of
the land could not find employment in the factory,
because they would have no knowledge of any other
trade than farming. They would consequently be
deprived of the means of earning a livelihood, and
the entire economic conditions of the community in
which they live would be disturbed.

The Sons of Han are very dirty, and so are
their families and their homes. It is hardly an ex-
aggeration to say that the)^ never bathe. For the

130

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

purpose of preserving clothes the women, at rare
intervals, soak the family garments in a running
stream and then beat them with a stick. As part of
a course of medical treatment, a Chinese physician
will sometimes prescribe a bath for a patient.
These were the only two washing processes that I
was able to discover in Southern Shensi. Prejudice
against the external use of water is second only to
dislike of the foreigner. Soap is unknown, nor can
its introduction be expected for many years to come.
Shensi boys never "go in swimming." No matter
how near they may live to a river they never get into
it. Boatmen and ferrymen are sometimes compelled
to wade in a stream in order to push their boat when
it runs aground, but they always carefully avoid an
immersion. But the objection to the external ap-
plication of water does not lessen its popularity as a
beverage. All over Shensi the raw whiskey called,
in pigeon English, samshaw, is distilled from a
kind of wild corn. There is no tax on its manu-
facture, and it can be obtained everywhere for a
trifling sum. Besides samshaw, a cordial made
from rice is sold in the larger towns. But the Sons
of Han drink liquor very sparingly. Drunkenness
is almost unknown. Missionaries who have lived
for years in Shensi have told me that they have
never heard of anyone drinking to excess.

Their temperance is all the more to the credit
of the people of Shensi because good drinking-water
is so hard to obtain. It is perhaps because the soil

131

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

has been constantly fertilised for centuries that the
well-water is murky and brackish. No one re-
gards it as fit to drink in the condition in which it
comes from the ground. It must first be boiled.
For this purpose, in the front yard of almost every
house, a charcoal fire is kept constantly burning
under a kettle filled with water, which is never
allowed to cool, but is always drunk hot, just as it
comes from the kettle. After I had become accus-
tomed to draughts of boiling water I found them
quite as refreshing as any ice-water I had ever
tasted on the other side of the world. But if there
is no liquor-slavery in Shensi, the opium-curse more
than takes its place. Begging by the road-side,
sleeping under the shadow of the houses, or moping
idly on the benches of the tea-houses, are found the
victims of the blight on the land. They are always
distinguished by their sallowness and their rags.

To me, the children of Shensi were always
charming. The universal love of children for par-
ents and parents for children is the most beautiful
trait in the character of the old race. The one thing
for which the people of Shensi seem to live is their
children. In many of the monotonous lives spent
in sowing and reaping the old fields, children are the
only light and joy. Ride into any Shensi village
about sunset on a summer evening and you will see
a father and mother in front of their mud house
with their four or five little boys and girls about
them, playing, romping, and all laughing and happy

132

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

together. A man of Shensi looks upon his child as
his companion, and likes to have it with him at all
times. In meeting a farmer on his way to market,
it is not at all unusual to find that one of his baskets
contains his five-year-old child, whose weight balances
the load of farm-produce that swings from the other
end of the stick on his shoulders. Only on very
rare occasions are Shensi children punished or dis-
ciplined, and, so far as I could see, they seldom
needed it. From their earliest infancy they regard
their parents as their best friends. As they grow
older they seem to really enjoy " honouring their
fathers and their mothers" to a degree that cannot
be explained by the existence of laws making filial
piety obligatory. The prominent place given to
filial piety in Chinese law and religion is, I be-
lieve, founded on a natural and reciprocal love and re-
spect for children and parents, which is the peculiar
glory of their "heathen" civilisation.

Unlike some children who work in sweat-shops
and live in tenement-houses in Christian cities,
Shensi children are strong and healthy. Their com-
plexions are ruddy and their eyes bright. They
laugh and have the joy of living that is a child's
right. They have a simple, trusting manner with
strangers. In the democracy of childhood they have
not yet acquired the mistrust of foreigners that
comes with maturer years. They cuddle up to the
traveller from the West, as he rests in a tea-house,
and prattle to him with at least the appearance of

^33

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

being keenly disappointed at his inability to under-
stand them. They are natural and never nervous
or '* spoiled," although they certainly are not " well
brought up." Suspended by a cord around his neck
a Shensi child wears a padlock, that is supposed to
lock his soul within his body so securely that it can-
not be stolen by evil spirits. A child is very proud
of his padlock, and always holds it up for your ad-
miration as soon as he makes your acquaintance.
Although a child's name is always taken from the
" book of surnames," his parents seldom use it in
addressing him. They much more often call him
by the name of some lower animal like " toad " or
*' pig." This, too, is to foil the evil spirits, who in
their search for children's souls, will not be so readily
attracted to a child called " toad," as they would be
to one addressed by his real name. Almost from
the time a Shensi boy can walk, the top of his head
is shaved, and only a small tuft of hair is left as a
foundation for a queue.

A girl is allowed to play about with the boys
and to have quite as good a time as her brothers
until she is about eight years old. At that age the
awful process of foot-binding begins, and five or
six years are needed to render her feet hopelessly
misshapen for life. By the time this is accom-
plished she is regarded as a woman, and is not al-
lowed to leave her home. In Pekin and other
cities where the Manchu influence predominates
there is a slight tendency to abandon the cruelties

134

A LITTLE SON OF HAN.

BV A SHENSI ROADSIDE.

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

of foot-binding, but in Shensi the custom is uni-
versal. For a woman not to have her feet bound
and misshapen is almost a disgrace which might
prevent her marrying and would certainly result in
her being looked upon as "peculiar" to an extent
that would make her the object of dislike and ridi-
cule in the village where she lived. It is to be
hoped that this, the most barbarous of all Chinese
customs, will some day be abolished by law, but un-
til it is Chinese mothers cannot justly be accused
of cruelty when they thus torture their daughters.
Were any Shensi mother to refrain from subjecting
her daughter to the agonies of crippled feet she
would be condemning her to a life of humiliation
and sorrow and perhaps of disgrace.

Almost every village has a school, to which are
sent all the boys under the age of twelve. When a
village wishes to establish a school the inhabitants
take up a subscription among themselves and hire a
teacher. In Shensi, as with us, teaching is a profes-
sion. A village would not be apt to engage as the
instructor of its children a man not possessed of a
degree obtained at some of the public examinations.
Rudimentary education, according to Chinese stand-
ards, is almost universal in Shensi, and it is really
exceptional to find a man who cannot read and
write in at least one of the dialects. Almost every
boy of ten can repeat chapters of the Confucian
analects and a list of the dynasties. Girls are not
sent to school. In some of the larger towns a few

135

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

men engage tutors to give lessons to the women of
their families, but among the farmers it is excep-
tional to find a woman who has any education be-
yond a knowledge of weaving, spinning, and house-
hold drudgery.

The great event in the life of the people of
Shensi is the play which is given once a year in the
village-theatre. The stage consists of a brick-plat-
form, covered by a roof, supported on poles. At
the back is sometimes a stationary scene on which
are painted pictures of dragons and gods. Months
in advance a village engages a travelling theatrical
company to give a performance. It is paid for by
popular subscription, and there are no such things
as admission-tickets or reserved seats. The entire
population of the village are at liberty to stand
around the brick-platform and watch the play, which
is usually of an historical character and lasts con-
tinuously for five or six days. The daily perform-
ance is from ten o'clock in the morning, until five
in the afternoon, with a wait at noon of an hour be-
tween the two acts. I know of few things on earth
that are more jarring and nerve-racking to Western
ears than a Shensi theatre. At the back of the
stage squat an orchestra armed with kettle-drums
and cymbals which they beat and clash at irregular
intervals until the din becomes deafening.

In order to make themselves heard above the
noise, the actors have to assume a shrill falsetto in
reciting their lines that makes one's throat ache

136

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

from sympathy, but the audience enjoy the play
hugely. Although they never express their ap-
plause by hand-clapping, an "Ah-a" of approval
frequently sweeps over the crowd. The annual play
is also an important social function in the life of
the village. It is the only amusement in which the
women can participate with propriety, and it thus
gives Shensi youths an opportunity of meeting vil-
lage-maidens whom they see at no other time. The
open yard around the theatre is the scene of numer-
ous little flirtations, and is really the only place
where anything like love-making is permissible.
Chinese marriages are arranged entirely by the par-
ents of the principals, but it sometimes happens in
Shensi that a son will tell his father that he would
prefer as his wife a certain girl whom he has met at
the play, and will request that her parents' consent
be obtained to their marriage.

Funerals in Shensi are not accompanied by
that show of sadness and depression of spirits which
characterises them in the United States. When a
Son of Han dies the entire village holds over his
body a joyous wake that lasts for several days. As
a means of providing the dead man with sufficient
money to have a good time in the spirit-world, his
friends burn long strings of pieces of tinsel paper,
which are supposed to be transformed by the flames
into taels. In order that he may have a pony to
ride, they make a bonfire of a paper image of a
horse, which is believed immediately to assume

137

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

spirit form and to find its owner. At the end of
about the third day, the funeral procession starts for
the cemetery outside of the village. Three or four
priests in white robes lead the way, followed by the
heavy, wood coffin containing the deceased. Close
behind the coffin follow all the men of the village,
laughing and talking, and, apparently, keenly enjoy-
ing the outing which the funeral gives them. Last
of all, in an open cart, are the widow and children
of the man who died. They publish their sorrow
by a loud howling which often makes a funeral
procession heard long before it can be seen. But
in the faces of the women there is seldom depicted
any sign of grief that is perceptible to Western
eyes. As they howl, they sit bolt-upright in the cart,
and nod and smile to their friends. In a funeral
procession which I saw in a village near the town of
Hua the party of feminine mourners was larger than
usual. The younger members took turns in desisting
from the howling process long enough to lean over
the edge of the cart and carry on a sprightly con-
versation with the young men who walked beside it.
The colour of mourning-garments in China would
have pleased Mr. Ruskin. Their original colour is
white, but as mourners do not wash their clothes
more frequently than the rest of the population, the
garments of sadness soon take on the colour of the
soil of the country and become a dull gray. Among
a crowd of Shensi farmers, all dressed in blue or
black, the white clothes of a mourner sometimes

138

SHENSI— THE OLD RACE

give him a ghostly appearance. In riding across a
plain after sundown it gives one a sensation of the
uncanny to see a widow in white outline against
the darkened sky.

Scattered among the villages of Shensi are men
who, because of some crime committed in another
part of the Empire, are condemned to a life of exile.
Although Chinese cities have their jails and prisons,
long sentences are seldom imposed on criminals ;
they are, instead, banished for a term of years to
a distant province. The punishment by exile is
founded on the theory that it is "never too late to
mend," and that it is better to give a man who has
"gone wrong" an opportunity of beginning life
over again amid new surroundings than it is to
compel the community among whom he is dis-
graced to support him in prison. In accordance
with this purely " heathen " idea of giving a bad man
"another chance," hundreds of men are every year
sentenced to banishment. As Shensi is so remote
from the more populous parts of China, it has be-
come the province to which mandarins of the South
and East most frequently exile criminals. The
sentence of banishment always specifies the Shen
where the convicted man must reside. He is sent
thither under Government escort and is paroled
to the mandarin ; should he try to escape during
his term of sentence, he will be put to death, but
within its boundaries his liberty is no less than that
of any other citizen. He can engage in trade or

139

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

farming, and is in every way encouraged to lead an
upright life. If at the end of two or three years his
conduct is such as to obtain the approval of the
mandarin, he is allowed to send for his wife and
children to join him, but banishment is a sentence
imposed only for such crimes as larceny or fraud.
Murder or treason is always punishable with
death. In the court-yard of an inn one day I saw a
young man leaning against a wall. His feet and
hands were manacled, but his expression was ex-
ceedingly happy, and he was chatting gaily with a
group of cart-drivers about him. I joined the group,
and presently asked him, through Wang, what crime
he had committed. " I killed a man," was the smil-
ing reply.

" And you are now on your way to exile ? "
" Oh no. The Shen Mandarin will cut off my
head. Will you let me have two cash for a cup of
hot water ? "

140

UN THE WAV TO LOSM JUS HEAD.

CHAPTER XI

MANDARINS AND THEIR METHODS

ABOVE and beyond everything else in the life
of Shensi, are the mandarins. To the people
of the interior it is not the Emperor in Pekin but
the mandarins of the province who are government
and law and power. The workings of the man-
darin system in Shensi are in no essential respect
different from what they are all over the Empire,
but as I am writing of the life of the people of
Shensi, I include the result of my observation of
mandarins and their methods in this brief descrip-
tion of some of the institutions and customs of that
province. Chinese government is a progression of
personal responsibility. No matter how great may
be the power intrusted to an individual, he is always
responsible for the results of the execution of his
commission or the administration of his office to an
official above him, who in turn can be held account-
able by some one a degree nearer to the throne.
In the interior of China, the functions of govern-
ment are not, as with us, separated into executive,
legislative, and judicial departments. They are all
vested in an individual who is supreme and who
is held responsible for everything that happens

141

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

within his particular sphere of action. The Govern-
ment of China may be described as a ladder of
personal responsibility that extends from the hum-
blest village in the Empire to the dragon-throne in
Pekin.

The rounds in the ladder are the mandarins.
The mandarin of a Shen or district is responsible for
all the villages it includes. A certain number of
Shen Mandarins report to each Chau or township
mandarin. They in turn are under the orders of the
mandarins of the Tings, or sub-prefectures. Ting-
mandarins are accountable to the Fu or county-man-
darins, whose place in the scale is in the step next
below the governor of the province. It is a pecu-
liarity of the system that although the Emperor
holds an absolute power of life and death, he very
seldom applies it directly to his subjects. An Im-
perial order affecting an individual is communicated
to the governor of the province of which the object
of the order is a citizen. Through a Fu Mandarin,
the governor starts the order down the line, until it
finally reaches the Shen Mandarin, whose duty it is
to execute it. But the responsibility resting upon
mandarins applies only to results. It has nothing
to do with ways or means. The methods which a
mandarin may employ in executing an order ; his
administration of justice, and the general conduct
of his office concern no one but himself. Should
a mandarin fail to raise the amount of taxes
assigned to his district, he would lose his office

142

MANDARINS AND THEIR METHODS

and would perhaps be severely punished, but if he
wrung the money from the poor farmers by cruelly
torturing them no one would interfere. Within
his own sphere of action, each mandarin is supreme
and independent. Laws and precedents there are,
to be sure, but these give only a general trend and
direction to his policy. The settlement of every
question that may arise within his own jurisdiction
is left entirely to the mandarin's own judgment and
discretion. He can cut off heads, put men in
prison, and do just about as he likes so long as he
remains in power.

The governor of each province is practically its
king. He can be removed from office at a word
from the Emperor. He can be put to death with-
out a trial, and he may, at any time, receive the Im-
perial "silken cord," commanding him to commit
suicide, which, as a mandarin and a man of honour,
he is bound to obey, but while he lives and is gov-
ernor no one of the millions of inhabitants of the
province can question his authority for an instant.
The government in each stage of the progression
expects that the next order below shall be able to
cope with all difficulties that may arise within their
districts. If a province is invaded by a foreign
enemy, it is the business of the governor to raise
an army and to drive back the invaders. So long
as the war is confined to that particular province,
no one outside of it takes much interest in the re-
sult ; and this is the reason why war may be raging

143

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

in a third of the Empire while the business of the
other two-thirds will go on as though nothing un-
usual were happening. If a governor is unable to
suppress a rebellion that has broken out in his prov-
ince, no matter whether he is really to blame or not,
he will be disgraced for life, or, as the Chinese would
say he will ** lose his face," and his death may be the
punishment for his misfortune.

Whenever a murder or robbery is committed,
it is the duty of the Shen Mandarin to find the
guilty man and punish him. Should he fail to do
so, he is almost certain to be removed from office.
Before a man can become a mandarin he must hold
a degree, which he is supposed to have obtained by
passing a public examination ; but as a matter of
fact, in the prevailing state of government corrup-
tion, degrees are often obtained through bribery.
Mandarins throughout the Empire are appointed
by a board in Pekin, usually at the recommendation
of a governor or high official. For every position
there are at least three or four eligible applicants,
and this fact makes the government not at all slow
to remove a mandarin whose administration of the
affairs in his district has not produced the results for
which he is responsible. On the other hand, if a
mandarin in a lower grade proves himself to be
especially capable and to be possessed of more than
ordinary ability he may be promoted to a higher
position in the scale. The result of all this is to
make a mandarin very desirous of maintaining the

144

SHEXSI MAXDAkIN AND HIS MUSICIANS.

MANDARINS AND THEIR METHODS

condition that is described by his countrymen as
" Peace."

The Shensi idea of peace differs very materially
from the American. Stagnation would perhaps be
a better definition of the ideal condition of the Sons
of Han. Progress or improvement is absolutely
incompatible with it. No matter how fully a man-
darin may realise faults in the existing order, he is
sure to find himself in trouble if he attempts to
change or improve anything. If he repairs a road
so as to make it passable for carts, the muleteers
whose business is injured are almost certain to come
to blows with the carters, and the mandarin is held
responsible for bringing on a row in his district. If
he shows an interest in Western learning, the anti-
foreign element may be aroused, and in the contro-
versy that follows somebody may throw a brick
through the window of the mission-chapel. The
man next above in the official scale will want to
know what it was all about and the mandarin will
have to take the blame. So that if a mandarin is
wise in his time and generation he will always act on
the principle that " whatever is, is right." He will
take care to see that his district is in exactly the
same condition at the expiration of his term of office
that it was at the beginning. His aim will always
be to allow nothing to get out of the ruts where it
has run for centuries. If he consistently maintains
this policy he will be deeply beloved by his people.
They will refer to him as a " good " mandarin and

145

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

they will rather enjoy seeing him amass a fortune
by "squeezing."

The translation of this often-used, pigeon-Eng-
lish word is steal. The motive which makes so
many men anxious to become mandarins is not the
honour which attaches to the position, but the op-
portunity it gives them of enriching themselves.
Any mandarin of a small township who is clever
enough to remain in office for ten or twelve years
is almost certain to be rich for the rest of his life.
In every shen town in Shensi, the mandarin is in-
variably the richest member of the community, and
neither he nor anyone else attempts to conceal the
fact that he has accumulated his wealth by steal-
ing from the public funds. A mandarin's salary
from the Imperial Government is a mere pittance,
sometimes not a tenth of what he has to spend in
the maintenance of his household and his retinue of
servants. He makes up the deficiency by helping
himself to a share of all the money that passes
through his hands. But he does not stop at an
amount sufficient only to pay the expenses of his
office ; he appropriates for himself a surplus that is
described in China as the " profits of the man-
darin business." As every mandarin is his own
county treasurer, assessor, and collector, his facilities
for "squeezing" are limited only by the amount of
money that his district can produce. He steals
openly and with the tacit consent of the Govern-
ment. The men who compose the Government are

146

MANDARINS AND THEIR METHODS

themselves mandarins who share in the " squeeze,"
so that were the lower mandarins to be honest in
their administration, the Government would have to
increase their salaries, and as a result there would
not be so much squeeze available at the top of the
ladder. When an order comes from Pekin for the
levy of the annual provincial taxes, the governor
adds to the sum demanded a large sum for himself,
and then apportions its collection among the Fu
Mandarins. They each in turn take a liberal com-
mission and allow the men below them to do the
same. As a result, the burden of taxation which
falls on the poor farmer is much heavier than it
ought to be, but it is no more than it has been in
previous years. He pays his share without a mur-
mur, hoping that by doing so he will have " Peace."
*' Squeeze " is an integral part of the whole
mandarin system. It is the incentive to office-hold-
ing which provides the Government with a large
number of eligible applicants for mandarin-posi-
tions, and is the lubricant which keeps the entire
vast machinery running smoothly. As a Shensi
man once explained to me, "a mandarin would not
be a mandarin if he did not squeeze." But if it
were possible to eliminate " squeezing " from man-
darin administration, the system could not be said
to be without its advantages. In a country like
China, the mandarin system insures liberty to the
individual and stands between an absolute monarch
and the people.

147

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Except in a time of rebellion or disorder, when
the appointment of officials with extraordinary
powers becomes a necessity, the mandarin is the
only person in the district who directly represents
the government. All of the subordinate officials,
such as clerks of the court, tax-collectors, jailers,
and policemen are merely servants of the mandarin.
They are hired by him and they are paid from his
private funds. They live in or near his residence,
and constitute his official family. They are quite as
much at his beck and call as are his cooks or chair-
carriers. No matter how important and responsible
may be the position of a subordinate official, he is
never referred to by any other title than " servant of
the mandarin." Chief of the "servants" is a man
whose duties are a combination of prime-minister
and secretary. He is paid a large salary and is the
only member of the household whom the mandarin
at all regards as an equal. He is privileged to ad-
dress his master without a preliminary kow-tow,
and he can urge the adoption of a measure which
he believes to be for the interest of the people of
the district. The chief "servant" is usually well
advanced in years. He has Confucius and the com-
mentaries at his tongue's end. He is consulted in
deciding all vexed questions, and is in charge of the
mandarin's correspondence.

The writing of even a short note in conformity
with all the requirements of mandarin good form is
a formidable undertaking which very few men in a

148

MANDARINS AND THEIR METHODS

Shensi town can accomplish successfully. Not only
must every letter be written in the official language,
a vernacular never used in ordinary conversation,
but the ideas expressed in any document that bears
the mandarin's signature must never have the ap-
pearance of being original with the writer. Every-
thing that the mandarin does or says must appear to
be a repetition of the act of some great man who
lived hundreds of years ago or a modern application
of the wisdom of some ancient sage. Every para-
graph in a mandarin's letter usually concludes with
a quotation from the classics or a reference to an
event in Chinese history, so that no one will sup-
pose for a moment that the mandarin has commit-
ted the grave error of doing or saying anything
new. The responsibility of eliminating all original-
ity from the official correspondence rests with the
chief servant. His success depends upon his abil-
ity to clothe all his master's ideas in language that
will make them belong to the past.

A mandarin's dress is prescribed by the Gov-
ernment, and for anyone else to imitate it, even in
the smallest detail, is a crime, punishable by law.
A mandarin wears a round cap, the brim of which
turns up in a way that gives it much the appearance
of the cover of a saucepan. The top is covered
with a kind of rosette of red cord ; in the centre is
the button, whose colour indicates the rank of the
mandarin. His servants are permitted to wear caps
of a similar pattern when in the discharge of their

149

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

official duties, but under no consideration can they
wear a button or decoration of any kind. The long
robe which envelops a mandarin from his neck to
his ankles is of brown silk. The only ornamenta-
tion permitted is a square on the front and back, in
which is embroidered a design in gold or silver
thread. The sleeves are of extra length in order to
conceal his hands. For a mandarin to expose so
much as the tip of a finger at a public audience
would be a very grave breach of propriety. A
mandarin's boots have enormously thick soles.
This is to give to their wearer a commanding pres-
ence, and to make him appear taller than men of
common mould. Whenever a mandarin is officially
received by a superior, he wears around his neck a
long string of wooden beads. Upon entering the
audience-chamber of the man whose rank is higher
than his own, the mandarin must drop on one knee,
and holding the beads at arm's length from his face
must fix his entire attention upon them. It would
be a sad day for him if on such an occasion he
should allow his eyes to wander for one moment to
the floor or the ceiling. The offence would be in-
stantly reported, he would be rebuked, and his " face
would be lost " forever.

By the time I had reached Sian, I had met sev-
eral score of mandarins ; it would be hard to find
anywhere more delightful or companionable men. I
grew to look forward to the half hour passed with a
mandarin at my kung kwan as the happiest incident

ISO

MANDARINS AND THEIR METHODS

in the day. I have never talked with a mandarin,
whose manner did not indicate a great degree of
refinement and cultivation, and who did not possess
a certain savoir /aire t\\2it seemed remarkably in ac-
cordance with Anglo-Saxon standards. A manda-
rin is always quiet and dignified. He has none
of the effusiveness or gush of the Latin races ; he
has a sense of humour, he can tell a story well, and
his conversation is often interlarded with bits of
cynical persiflage which he does not object having
answered in kind by a " man from the West." A
mandarin is usually adaptable ; he can be serious or
gay as the occasion demands. He never over-
whelms a stranger with politeness, but usually asks,
as an American might, " Is there anything I can do
for you ? " A mandarin must of necessity be well
educated, and he is an authority on everything that
has to do with the history or monuments of the dis-
trict over which he rules. Notwithstanding "squeez-
ing," in all transactions with individuals he has a
man's sense of honour, and his word once given
will surely be kept. Some Shensi towns, too ob-
scure to appear on any map, are ruled by mandarins
who in any assemblage in New York would be
called "men of the world."

151

CHAPTER XII

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

"^ I ^HE Chinese have no sense of beauty," a
-i. missionary once explained to me.
The kungkvvan where we stayed the last night
before reaching Sian was near the Baths of Lintoun.
In the side of a hill was a hot sulphur-spring. A
stone-cave built over it inclosed a pool about forty
feet square. The yellow water had been bubbling
up into its rock-hewn bowl while empires on our
side of the world had come and gone. An inscrip-
tion over the entrance to the cave told of its having
been repaired by an emperor of China who reigned
two thousand years ago. By a system of under-
ground pipes the steaming water was carried about
a thousand yards to a hollow on the hillside, where
it formed an artificial lake. Its margin was shaded
by shrubbery and plants of varieties rare in Shensi.
Narrow piers on piles extended from the shore to
a series of pavilions in the centre of the lake. A
narrow walk connected the pavilions and wound in
and out among them. With an exquisite attention
to detail, the walks were inclosed by a low balus-
trade composed of serpentine railings that alternated
in a succession of red and blue above the yellow

152

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

water. In designing the pavilions care had evidently-
been taken that no two of the tiled roofs should be
of the same colour. Above the lake labyrinthine
paths led up the side of the hill to a little shrine at
the top.

When I first saw the lake the sun was drop-
ping into the plain away off in the direction of
Sian. As the last light of day fell across the glazed
pavilion-roofs, they glinted and flashed for a few
minutes and then their colours began to blend. Purple
and green and red, all melted into gold, while the
mist of yellow steam breathed softly into the bushes
on the shore. I watched that play of God-made
sunlight and man-made colour until the rising mist
met the falling twilight and darkness came. It was
then that I remembered that the " Chinese have no
sense of beauty." If that hillside with its lake and
pavilions had been part of the gardens of a man who
had founded a trust or who had consolidated a rail-
road-system, it is safe to say that we should have
heard all about them long ago. We should have
been accurately informed as to how much they cost,
and we should know where their landscape-gardener
" got the idea " which he followed in their design.
But Lintoun has not the advantage of being con-
spicuous. The glinting roofs play with the sunlight
that falls on a grey, forgotten land, whose " heathen "
people have always scorned the stare of the crowd
and who have never worked for praise. To the
men and women of the Shensi villages around Lin-

153

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

toun it is enough that the cave is on the hillside,
and that the yellow mist is forever rising under the
shadow of the green and purple pavilions. They
love it all as their fathers did before them. They
may not know what moderns mean by a "sense of
beauty," but the day may come when the West will
go to that yellow race in that old grey land and will
say, "We are children. Teach us what beauty is."
During the evening that we spent in Lintoun
Wang discovered that a few taels of silver which he
carried for our daily travelling " cumshaw "-money
had been stolen. The carter, Wang said, had seen
the money in his possession and he strongly sus-
pected him of being the thief. Although the amount
of my loss was very small, I decided, in order to
prevent subsequent robberies on a larger scale, not
to allow it to go unnoticed. The Wei Wen, accom-
panied by Wang, went to the inn of the town and
there arrested the carter. Together we took the
prisoner to the mandarin of the town. By this time
it was nearly nine o'clock, and the mandarin would
have been justified in expressing annoyance at being
disturbed at so late an hour, but instead he only
asked politely what I wanted. When I explained
to him the cause of our visit, he asked the carter if
he had taken the money. Our prisoner fell on his
knees and swore by Confucius and several other
things that he was innocent. He was so demonstra-
tive in his protestations that I was half inclined to
believe him, but the mandarin only smiled blandly

154

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

and said to one of his servants, "Twenty bam-
boo." The prisoner's right hand was bound to
a cord around his waist and on the open palm
the servant struck twenty short cutting blows
with a piece of rattan. " Do you still say that
you did not steal the bag of taels?" the man-
darin asked. The answer was again in the negative,
but this time was given much more hesitatingly.
" Fifty bamboo." After about the tenth blow of
the second series the carter held up his left hand as
a signal to stop. He reached in his blouse and drew
out the empty canvas sack that had contained the
money. With much weeping and howling he ex-
plained that the temptation had been too great for
him. He had stolen the money and he had spent it.
" Put a board around his neck and keep him here
for ten days," was his sentence. As our unfortunate
carter was led away the mandarin turned to me and
said, " I think you will have no more trouble with
thieves. But if you should, do not try to settle the
case yourself, but report it to the mandarin of the
district."

I thanked the mandarin for the trouble he
had taken in the matter and rose to go, but he
stopped me. " You have met with a loss in my
district," he said, " and to that extent I have lost
my face to you and to Prince Ching, whose card you
carry. I owe you the amount that has been stolen
from you." I assured him that he owed me nothing,
but that I was under obligations to him ; that

155

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

the loss was mine and not his, but the mandarin
grew quite stern. '*I must compel you to accept
the amount the carter stole from you." At his
direction his secretary weighed out the money, which
under the circumstances I could only accept. I have
heard of Mott Street Chinamen being held up and
robbed by " toughs " on the Bowery, and I believe
that some of the thieves have been punished, but I
have yet to learn of one such case in which a police-
captain refunded to the complainant the amount of
his loss. Yes, " The heathen Chinee is peculiar."

The eastern boundary of the Plain of Sian is
about two miles to the westward of Lintoun. Near
it the mountains veer to the southwest, partially
inclosing a level plateau that extends for hundreds
of miles northward from Sian. The soil of the plain
is a kind of alkali which when well watered can be
made very productive, but which in time of drought
turns to a fine, white powder, in which nothing can
grow. The plain is treeless, and the only vegetation
that is natural to it is a coarse grass that grows in
rank profusion all over Northern Shensi. A series
of small rivers which flow into the Wei Ho zigzag
across the plain. The road from Lintoun crosses
them on stone-bridges that were once fifteen or
twenty feet above the bed of the river, but a continual
accretion of mud carried down by the current has so
buried the stone pillars on which they rest that the
bridges are now only about two feet above the water.

Within a radius of fifty miles from Sian there
156

SIAN AND THE SIAMESE

is no stone of the kind of which the bridges are
built. The cutting of these tons of granite in some
distant quarry and their transportation to their pres-
ent resting-place is only another commentary on the
originality of Chinese methods in performing dif-
ficult tasks. When I first rode over the plain of
Sian, the crops, whose planting had been delayed by
drought, were just beginning to appear above the
ground, and men and women were at work in the
fields. Here and there rose a temple or a mud-
village like an island in an ocean. Mile after mile
in every direction stretched the level, monotonous
plain as far as the eye could reach, without an object
to please or interest anywhere — a land that seemed
to have been designed by nature for a desert, and
that would have been hopeless for any race on earth
but the Sons of Han.

On the western horizon I presently noticed
what I at first took to be a range of low hills. The
crest of the ridge was broken at intervals by sharp
peaks, which looked like miniature mountain-tops.
As we drew nearer to them a certain angularity and
sharpness of outline became visible, which gave me
the first suspicion that they might be something
else than hills. I called the shijang and pointed
to the ridge on the western horizon.

"What is that?" I asked.

** It is Sian," was his reply.

What I had supposed to be hills were in reality
the walls of the city we were seeking. The peaks

157

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

were the archery towers. Accustomed as I was by
this time to Chinese city-walls, I was not prepared
for anything so imposing as this environment of
Sian. Compared with their great height and excel-
lent condition, the walls of Pekin are straggling
and insignificant. Sian's walls are about fifteen
miles long. They were rebuilt in their present
form in 1368 by the Emperor Hung Wu of the Ming
dynasty. At no point is their height less than
thirty feet, and near the gates the distance from the
ground to the roadway on the top is fully seventy
feet. The towers which surmount the walls are
enormous structures, each containing four or five
stories with sixty or seventy windows through which
archers could shoot down at an attacking force ad-
vancing on the city from the plain. The walls are
an object of pride to the Sianese. In speaking of
the points of interest in their city they invariably
call a stranger's attention to the walls in much the
same way that a Chicagoan might ask, " Have
you seen the stock-yards " ? With the introduction
of improved implements of warfare, and the disap-
pearance of the danger of Mongol invasions, the
majority of Chinese cities no longer take as much
interest in their walls as formerly, and a tendency is
manifest to allow the old defences to fall into a
state of dilapidation, but Sian is not modern enough
to be afraid of dynamite or "twenty-pounders." Its
citizens still pay an enormous tax every year to keep
the walls in constant repair. Outside of them are

158

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

a series of suburbs, through which we passed in
approaching the eastern gate of the city.

Different and strange to each other as are the
peoples of the earth, there are points where their
civilisations touch and lose their differences. In
the wide ocean that separates the East from the
West, and the oldest race from the newest, there are
a few small islands where men from both continents
can meet, and can say : "This little land belongs to
our common humanity." We are apt to regard a
suburbanite as an ultra-modern product, but when
Wang translated the shijang's explanation that "some
mens likes to live outside the city wall because land
is cheaper and they can go into the shops every
day," I found myself wondering how much of a
reduction from the regular fare Sian suburbanites
obtained by purchasing monthly commutation tick-
ets. Sian suburbs possess many of the elements
that might characterise a nearby dependency of New
York. Their population is frequently quite large.
They have schools and temples, but no shops or
market-places. For their shopping the inhabitants
must go into town ; and Sian suburbanites have
travelled back and forth between their homes and
their offices every day for the last 5,000 years.

We passed over a bridge across a moat in front
of the eastern gate, and entered the city. Our ob-
jective point was the residence of Mr. Duncan,
British missionary, who had been in charge of the
distribution of the American famine-relief-funds.

159

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Our ride to his house gave me an opportunity of ob-
taining an impression of the size and extent of Sian.
For more than three miles we rode through streets
that were lined with stores, and banks, and markets.
Carts, mandarin's chairs, and men on horseback
were making their way in and out among the mov-
ing crowds, and everywhere were signs of life and
activity. The deeper I had progressed into the
hidden part of the Middle Kingdom the more I had
become impressed with the fact that it is better in
China to do as the Chinese do. Not only had I
become a master of chop-sticks, but by a series of
purchases on the journey I had acquired a suit of
Chinese outer garments in which I always appeared
in public. I found that by wearing them I gener-
ally saved myself from the curiosity of the people of
the towns through which I passed, and I was able
to eliminate from conversations with mandarins an
inquiry as to why " men from the West insisted on
wearing their trousers outside of their boots."

When I rode into Sian, I was enveloped in a
long sheep-skin coat, Chinese top-boots, and a fur-
lined cap that came down over my forehead, but the
Sianese saw through my disguise at once. Men in
the street stopped to stare. Women and children ap-
peared at the windows and pointed at me while the
soldiers of my escort were kept busy in dispersing the
crowd of small boys who followed at my pony's heels.
I could not, of course, understand the comments of
the crowd, but Wang informed me that "the par-

160

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

ents want the children to see what a funny thing
the foreign man looks like." Presently the Wei
Wen who was acting as our guide dismounted before
a low gateway, over which was a pasteboard sign in-
scribed with the words, "American kung kwan."
In front of the gateway stood a man in Chinese cos-
tume. Through his gold-rimmed spectacles his steel-
grey eyes looked at me with that sincere kindliness,
of which I sometimes think only Scotch eyes are
capable.

" Hello, Mr. Duncan," I said, as, stiff and
stumbling, I climbed down from my pony. " I
have been looking for you for some time."

The merry twinkle behind the spectacles ex-
panded into a hearty laugh as he surveyed my poor
attempt at a Chinese appearance. " It's a hard
thing for a Yankee to look like a Chinaman," he
said, " but I am glad to see you. The governor
told me you were getting near the city. I was
afraid you might not make it. There are a few
Boxers left up the country. Come in. I've a bit
of tiffin for you that you can eat with a knife and
fork."

Such was my first introduction to the " mis-
sionary of Sian," one of those few great-hearted
men who do not belong to any race or nation, but
to the brotherhood of mankind ; whose unseen la-
bours in the hidden places of the earth are knitting
the world together. With an Oxford education Mr.
Duncan had lived for years in that far-away, vast

i6i

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

city, in order that "some might be saved"; from
being regarded as almost a foreign outcast he had
come to be adviser of the government, and a power
throughout the whole of Shensi.

No one knows when or by whom Sian was
founded. From all that I have ever been able to
discover on the subject I am led to believe that
when Noah was a little boy, Sian was not very dif-
ferent from what it is to-day. Sian was a flourish-
ing town when Fu hi was born, and Fu hi stands at
the beginning of Chinese mythical history. Hwang-
ti, the *' Yellow Emperor," whose reign began in
B.C. 2697, made Sian his capital. Hwang-ti invented
carts, and bows and arrows, and devised the Chinese
calendar. His queen, Lui-tsu, invented silk weaving
and is to-day worshipped by all silk-makers as a sort
of patron saint. " The Great Yu " is a prominent
figure in the early history of Sian. In b.c. 2286 Yu
was assigned by the Emperor Yau to the task of
stemming an inundation of the Yellow River and
the Wei Ho, which had overflowed nearly all of
Shensi. "The waters," said Yau, "envelop the
mountains and rise higher than the hills. They
threaten the heavens so that the people complain."
It was eight years before Yu completed his task of
turning back the waters into their original channels.
He obtained the idea of a drainage-system from the
marks on the back of a turtle and divided the coun-
try into nine districts, which were subsequently en-
larged into provinces. Shensi he called Kuanchung,

162

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

a name by which it is sometimes known to this day.
Wu Wang, who founded the Chow dynasty, reigned
in Sian in b.c. 1122. In the days of Wu and his
son Chung ambassadors from distant countries
brought presents to the " glorious emperors " in
Sian. We are told that a king who ruled some-
where in the Malay peninsula sent a " white pheas-
ant," which may be the first record of a White
Cochin chicken.

In the reign of Chung or Shih Hwang-ti, b.c
246, Sian probably reached the zenith of its power
and prosperity. Chung has been called the Napo-
leon of China. He built the Great Wall, cut canals,
opened roads, and solidified the scattered provinces
which make up the Empire of to-day. In and
around Sian, Chung built a series of palaces whose
splendour and magnificence has never been rivalled
by any of his successors. At one palace at Hein
Yang, about twenty miles from Sian, he collected
all the furniture and jewels of the kings who had
submitted to him. Chung's grave is near Lintoun.
From B.C. 206 to a.d. 25 the emperors of the first
Han dynasty occupied the dragon throne in Sian.
This was China's " Elizabethan age," when arts and
literature flourished, when the love of learning
which Chung had crushed was revived, and when
the thirteen classics of Confucius were cut in stone
and were set up in the Hall of Tablets. The first
Hans did much to enlarge the Empire. Their
armies pushed across Central Asia to the Caspian

163

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

and brought back to Sian stories of the Romans,
who lived to the westward, "who are simple and
upright, and who never have two prices for their
goods."* By a strange coincidence the Emperor
who ruled in Sian at the time of the birth of Christ
was Ping ti, which means the " Emperor of Peace."
Sian was captured and burned by Kwang Wu
Ti, of the second Han dynasty, but it was almost
immediately rebuilt, and was again the capital of the
Empire during the Sui and Tang dynasties from 589
to 906. Yang Kien was the first emperor of the Sui.
For several hundred years before his time China had
been divided into two empires ; the one over which
Yang Kien ruled was supreme in Shensi and Shansi,
while the capital of the other was at Nanking, on
the Yangtse. There came a day in 590 when How
Chu, emperor of the south, was led in triumph as
prisoner through the streets of Sian and was forced
to worship Yang Kien's ancestors in his " Palace of
the Long Lived Benevolence." Tai Tsung, " the
glorious," reigned in Sian in 630. He drove back
the barbarians of the west and north and founded a
university in Sian which became famous all over
Eastern Asia. Young princes from Corea and
Japan and Turkestan were sent to Sian to be edu-
cated. It was Tai Tsung who said, " If a ruler re-
frains from extravagance, makes the taxes light, and
sees that his people have more than enough for their
daily needs, and appoints high-minded magistrates

* Williams' Historical Chapters, page 29.
164

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

to rule over them, the country will be at peace and
theft and robbery will disappear from society."*

The Mongols never took very kindly to Sian.
Kublai Khan made Pekin the capital in 1264, and
appointed his son, Mang Kola, governor of Shensi,
Sichuan, and Tibet. Sian was made the provincial
capital. Five miles from the city Mong Kola built
a palace, which Marco Polo says was " embellished
with many fountains and rivulets, both within and
on the outside of the buildings." f

When the Ming dynasty in 1630 was no longer
able to repel the encroachments of the Manchus, a
man of Shensi named Li Tsi Chung started a rebel-
lion whose avowed object was to overthrow the
reigning house and to save China from the Manchu
barbarians. Li captured Sian and there established
the capital of a new dynasty which he called the
Tai Tsing. All of Northeastern China acknowl-
edged Li as Emperor, and at the head of a large
army he marched on Pekin in 1643. Its gates
were opened to him ; the Emperor Chwang Lieh
Ti committed suicide, and a Sian dynasty once
more ruled over China. But Li's triumph was
short-lived. The scattered remnants of the Ming
party persuaded the Manchus to aid them in driv-
ing Li from the throne. The allied armies com-
pelled him to retreat from Pekin to Sian, where he
made a last stand. Again he was defeated, and

* McGowan's History of China, page 295.
f Marco Polo's Travels, Wright's translation, page 249.
165

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

with a handful of followers fled into the wilderness
south of Tung Kwan. Here he was killed by a
party of farmers who were tired of the , troubles
which his wars had brought on the country. With
his death the last opposition to the present Ts'ing
dynasty disappeared, but it is worth noticing that
Sian was the last place of importance in China to
acknowledge the supremacy of the Manchus.

The fact that Sian has always been is its pecul-
iar and unique charm. During the long centuries
Sian has been besieged and taken and sacked and re-
built times without number. Within its walls kings
have been assassinated, and dynasties overthrown,
but the old city has lived on. It is this eternity of
things that for a modern from Europe or America
gives to Sian a strange fascination. The Sianese
have a reckless way of referring to lapses of time
that seems hardly human. In listening to accounts
of occurrences in the reign of Hwang Ti, discussed
as familiarly as though they had happened fifty years
ago, I began to realise what De Quincey meant
when he said in an opium-flash, " If I were com-
pelled to forego England and to live in China and
among Chinese manners and modes of life and
scenery, I should go mad." In Sian they tell you
anecdotes of Fu hi and Shen-nung, who succeeded
him. Mr. Shen-nung had a glass-stomach, through
which he was wont to study the process of diges-
tion of different herbs and vegetables. From the
result of his observations he devised recipes for

i66

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

various dishes that are eaten with the chop-sticks
to-day. Mr. Shen-nung's free clinic, where he lect-
ured on the subject of his study of his interior, was
in Sian, and an old scholar who showed me about
town talked of the " Shen-nung treatment " quite as
nonchalantly as we might speak of the experiments
of Dr. Koch or Pasteur. The parade-ground of the
Shensi troops is on the site of the palace of Chung,
the great wall-builder, whose reign was contempo-
rary with Alexander the Great. A curio-dealer tried
to sell me some pieces of baked clay which he said
were bricks from Chung's palace. I asked a Sian
man whether he thought they were genuine. " They
probably are counterfeits," he replied, " but even if
they are real they are not old enough to be interest-
ing."

The present population of Sian, like that of
most Chinese cities, cannot be determined with ac-
curacy. The local officials estimate that before the
recent famine it contained a million inhabitants.
This was probably something of an exaggeration.
Perhaps seven hundred thousand would be an ap-
proximate estimate of its present population.

A fault common to many Chinese cities is the
lack of anything like plan or system in the arrange-
ment of their streets. No matter how great may be
the population of a town, it seldom presents to West-
ern eyes the appearance of a metropolis. Streets
and alleys usually straggle blindly in all directions
without plan or method. But Sian is an exception

167

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

to the rule of disorder. While its streets have no
sidewalks, they are all wide and extend across the
city from wall to wall. They always intersect at
right angles and the principal thoroughfares are
paved with stone-blocks that, from centuries of use,
are much worn and furrowed. Because it is so com-
pact and the arrangement of its streets so regular,
Sian is a far more imposing-looking city than Pekin.
This fact the Sianese thoroughly appreciate and
often ask strangers if they are not more favourably
impressed with Sian than with the Manchu capital.

In the centre of the city, in front of the gov-
ernor's residence, is the public square, where a fair
is continuously in progress from sunrise to sunset.
The sides of the square are lined with the tents and
booths of peddlers, jugglers, fortune-tellers, and
amusement-makers of every description known to
Shensi. Late in the afternoon, after the day's work
is done, the square is filled by a laughing, happy
crowd, which passes from one booth to another ap-
plauding the various shows and throwing cash to
the performers.

It was in the plaza that I first saw the Chinese
version of Punch and Judy. Wooden figures of a
man and woman were manipulated from behind a
screen. They quarrelled and took delight in cut-
ting off each other's heads. Their operator con-
ducted the dialogue in the same falsetto voice that
English Punch-and-Judy men have made familiar
to Americans. But the most interesting of all the

i68

A OLIIET STREET SI AN.

THI-: rr lu.tc souaki-: — siax.

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

shows was the booth of one whom the natives called
a " story-teller." During the greater part of the
time the story-teller sat demurely on a stool appar-
ently taking little interest in passing events, but
suddenly, without any warning, he would leap on a
platform and begin shouting out something in a
loud voice, accompanying his harangue with vigour-
ous gestures. At the beginning of each perform-
ance he set his face in a grimace which completely
concealed his natural expression like a mask and
which he never changed until the story was finished.
At times he told jokes and gave conundrums for
the crowd to answer, interspersed with favourite
quotations from the classics, and occasionally he
varied the performance by a burlesque of a char-
acter or type with which his listeners were familiar.
An imitation of an old mandarin which I witnessed
under the awning of a story-teller's booth was one
of the cleverest bits of " take-off " I have seen any-
where. Although I did not understand a word
of the monologue, I recognised the character in-
stantly.

In the northwestern part of Sian is the Mo-
hammedan quarter. It contains two mosques and
schools for the study of the Koran. Religion is
the only difference which distinguishes followers of
the Prophet from other citizens of Sian. Moham-
medan mothers are quite as punctilious as are Budd-
hist and Taoist in binding the feet of their daughters.
Men of the established religions have constant busi-

169

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

ness-dealings with Mohammedan merchants whose
shops are scattered all over the city. When it is
remembered that only a few years ago these same
Mohammedans tried to gain the dragon-throne for
Islam and killed thousands of helpless Shensi vil-
lagers, the peace and security in which they live in
Sian go a long way to make one question whether
the Chinese are really possessed of all the fanatical
prejudice against imported religion with which they
are usually accredited. The Chinese assertion that
Mussulmans have long dwelt in Sian is strengthened
by the fact that Marco Polo mentions " Saracens "
as one of the religious sects to be found in Sian in
the thirteenth century. He frequently refers to the
" Saracens " of Tartary and India, but his descrip-
tion of the capital of Shensi contains the only men-
tion of Mohammedans to be found anywhere in his
account of the Eighteen Provinces.

The Broadway of Sian extends from the north-
ern to the southern gate close to the eastern wall.
Many of the shops which line it are very large, and
the stock of merchandise they expose for sale is large
and varied. In neither the shops nor their contents
is there so much of the bazar-effect as in Shanghai
and some of the southern cities. Silver jewelry,
ivory carvings, and bits of jade are seldom sold over
Sian counters. The demand seems to be for things
of a more substantial character, like silk, cotton-
cloth, and tea. Because of its nearness to the moun-
tain wilderness of Kansuh and Tibet, where wild

170

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

animals abound, Sian is the centre and shipping-
point for the fur-trade of the northwest provinces.
Shensi is the source of supply for the mink and
otter-skins which mandarins all over the Empire use
for the linings of their official robes. For several
blocks the long street is devoted to a market for
furs. The prices at which they are sold seem to an
American ridiculously low. Ten taels (seven dollars)
will purchase a large leopard-skin. Sian has one
department-store called the " shop of the metropo-
lis." It was described to me as a place where
foreign goods were sold, but on visiting it I found
that the only things not of Chinese origin which it
contained were a few cakes of French scented soap
and about ten packages of American cigarettes.

Sian has long been famous all over China for
its banks. In Pekin, the Sianese are sometimes re-
ferred to as the " banking men." On a street
that extends westward from the public square about
half a mile are nearly a score of banks, whose busi-
ness amounts to many millions of taels annually.
Banks like those of the present day have existed in
Sian for thousands of years, and yet the system on
which their business has always been conducted is
verv similar to that of the United States. In all
large cities of the empire Sian banks have correspon-
dents with whom they keep funds on deposit, and
against them they issue sight-drafts and sell bills of
exchange. The rate of exchange depends upon the
remoteness of the bank against which the draft is

171

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

issued and the difficulty of its collection. A Shensi
draft is made payable to bearer, but the bank on
which it is drawn will never pay it until the man
who presents it is satisfactorily identified. Sian
banks pay interest on commercial accounts, although
few merchants allow their deposits to reach an amount
lararer than the immediate needs of their business.
Their reserve-funds and profits are usually invested
in other ways. Banks also issue promissory-notes
in denominations of 5,000 and 10,000 cash which
pass current as money everywhere in Shensi.

But if there is a similarity in the banking-sys-
tems of Sian and New York, there is a vast differ-
ence in methods. Down the side of a Sian banking-
room extends a long counter, at one end of which
are the scales for weighing taels. Behind the coun-
ter sit the clerks, each with his computing-board in
front of him. If you ask any clerk to tell you what
will be the amount of exchange on a certain number
of Hankow taels at four and seven-eights per cent,
he at once begins to move the wooden balls up and
down the rods of his computing-board. His fingers
fly over it in a sort of lightning backgammon which
lasts for about a minute, and then he answers your
inquiry correctly down to the thousandths of a tael
cent. In making a computation a Sianese bank-
clerk never uses a piece of paper or makes a figure.
He does it all with his fingers and his Chinese brain.
To me the strangest thing about a Sian bank was
the simplicity of its book-keeping. As soon as a

172

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

transaction of any kind is concluded, the clerk writes
a few characters with a marking-brush in a book
which lies on a table behind the counter. It
makes no difference whether it is the sale of a bill
of exchange, or the receipt of a deposit, or the pay-
ment of interest, the entry is always made in that
one book, and yet by referring to it a Sian banker
can always give you a statement of your account
quite as readily and accurately as can any book-
keeper in New York. If the time should ever
come when Chinese methods are studied in detail,
it would be interesting to learn how a large and in-
tricate banking-business can be successfully con-
ducted with one brown-paper book.

How the 7,000,000 of Shensi's inhabitants
have been able for 5,000 years to get along with-
out a post-office is another interesting problem that
awaits a satisfactory explanation. In the entire
province there is no provision for sending or receiv-
ing letters. When it is necessary for a merchant in
Sian to send a letter to a correspondent in Han-
kow, he pays a muleteer of a caravan to carry his
letter to its destination. Missionaries in the neigh-
bourhood of Sian, occasionally hire a courier to
carry their mail to the nearest post-office in Tai
Yuan, 300 miles to the northward in Shansi.
These are really the only two methods by which it
is possible for a citizen of Sian to communicate by
letter with the outer world. The postal system
inaugurated by Sir Robert Hart has now extended

173

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

through most of the eighteen provinces. In Si-
chuen, for example, a line of government post-
offices extends almost to the borders of Tibet.

But Shensi is unalterably opposed to a post-
office. Sian has frequently been sounded on the
subject by the foreign ofhce in Pekin, and the an-
swer has always been strongly in the negative. A
large part of the opposition of the Sianese to a regu-
lar mail service can be ascribed to their dislike of let-
ters. Nine-tenths of the citizens of Sian never write
a letter from one year's end to the other. A letter
is a means of communication with the outer world.
To a certain extent it would bring the Sons of Han
into touch with the foreigner, and is therefore to be
avoided as a dangerous thing. The only institution
of foreign origin in Sian is the telegraph-office.
The single wire of the Chinese Imperial Telegraph
now penetrates the most remote districts of the
Middle Kingdom, and over it are daily transmitted
the government-edicts and the orders to the man-
darins, but, apart from these, two messages a month
constitute a large business for a telegraph-office in
an interior town of 200,000 inhabitants. The
" wire on the poles " is heartily disliked by most
Shensi farmers, who regard it as the abode of an
evil spirit, and one of the first acts of the Boxers
was to destroy the line for hundreds of miles.
Sian's telegraph-office was established about eight
years ago, but no one ever took it very seriously
until the arrival of the exiled court, when it at once

174

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

became the medium by which the Empress Dow-
ager could daily scold Li Hung Chang and Prince
Ching in Pekin. The fact that the telegraph was
used by the Emperor gave it a popularity with
merchants and bankers that it had never enjoyed
before. When I visited Sian the telegraph-office
employed four operators, one of whom enjoyed the
distinction of being the only Chinaman in the city
who could speak English. He had been brought
from Nanking at the time of the peace-negotia-
tions, in order to facilitate the transmission of gov-
ernment-messages to representatives of the foreign
allies.

The southern part of Sian contains the resi-
dences of its Four Hundred. The exteriors of their
houses give little idea of the beauty of the interiors.
A gateway in a low wall on the street opens into a
court-yard, in which is usually a fountain or a gold-
fish pond. The house stands at the rear of the
court-yard, with wings extending around three sides
of it. The furniture in the house of a rich man is
always of sandal-wood or teak. In the corners of
the rooms are draperies of gaily coloured silk, and on
cabinets against the wall are rare specimens of porce-
lains, many of them quite as valuable in China as they
would be in New York. The collecting of " peach-
blows" and " Kiang Hi blues" is the favourite fad
of most Sianese men of wealth. Because of the
severity of Sian winters, houses of the better class
are heated by a system of hot air, which antedates

175

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

an American furnace by several thousand years.
On the outside of the house, close to the wall, is a
covered pit about five feet deep and four feet
square. Just below the surface of the ground is a
row of apertures that connect with a series of
copper-lined wooden troughs extending under the
stone or brick floors of the house. During the
winter months a fire is kept constantly burning
in the pit and the heat rising from it circulates
through the flue-troughs. As timber is scarce in
Shensi, wood is seldom used for fuel. Anthracite
coal of an excellent quality is brought on flat boats
up the Wei Ho from Shansi and is sold at a rea-
sonable price in Sian.

Sian, too, has its club and clubmen. Besides
the societies of scholars and students to be found in
all large Chinese cities, there are clubs whose mem-
bership is composed of coteries of men of different
sorts and conditions on much the same plan as in
the United States. There is the club of "the civil
officials" and the "Military Club," besides several
others, exclusive and expensive, whose members are
nearly all mandarins' sons or rich young men about
town. As a convenience for merchants and business
men whose commercial interests may bring them to
Sian from distant parts of the Empire, the rich
residents of the city provide " Clubs of the Prov-
inces." These occupy large buildings in the heart
of the city. Each one is for the exclusive use of
men from the province after which it is named. A

176

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

fur-buyer from Hankow would be put up at the
Hupeh Club. A Pekin correspondent of a Sian
bank would go to the Chili Club. At the club of
his province an out-of-town visitor is expected to
make his headquarters during his stay in Sian. He
engages a room in the club-house, and uses it as
a place for receiving men with whom he has busi-
ness dealings.

If it be true that " society is not society without
women," then there is no '* society " in Sian. Wives
and daughters rarely appear in public, and even in
their own homes they are never allowed to meet
any men who may call on their husbands or
brothers. The more rich and prosperous a man
may become the more he will invariably seclude the
women of his family. The very few women to be
met with in the streets of Sian all belong to the
poorer class of the population. But if there is no
"society" in Sian, there is no lack of old families.
It is doubtful if family-trees older than those of Sian
can be found anywhere on earth. Among the
Sianese of to-day are a number of families in whose
veins flow the blood of the men who helped to
place the first Han dynasty on the throne. As a
part of the worship of their ancestors the Chinese
lay great stress on their lineage and keep close
account of the names of all the great men of previ-
ous generations from whom they can claim descent.
In the course of a conversation about some man
who played a prominent part in the early history of

177

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

China, it is not at all unusual for the resident of
Sian with whom you are talking to add, " He was
my ancestor."

The Sianese do not take kindly to amuse-
ments of a light or frivolous character. The thea-
tre is much less a factor in the social life of the cap-
ital of Shensi than it is in some of the other large
cities. As a rule there are few things that a China-
man enjoys more keenly than a clanging, discordant
performance at a theatre. But in Sian I fre-
quently heard the stage spoken of disparagingly.
Several men assured me that they never went to the
theatre because Confucius had expressed his dis-
approval of it. The most frequent social functions
in Sian are the evening dinner-parties. For the
purpose the host usually engages a room at a restau-
rant or in his club. The number of his guests is
seldom more than twenty. A dinner of this kind
usually lasts half the night. The twelve or fifteen
courses are eaten very slowly and are interspersed
with long discussions of a very serious character.

When I visited Sian it was just beginning to re-
cover from one of the worst famines of the century.
Less than six months previous to my arrival human
flesh had been sold as food on its streets, and thou-
sands of men and women had died of hunger in
one suburb. Not since the Mohammedan rebellion
had Sian known so much poverty, wretchedness, and
suffering as followed in the wake of the famine of
1900, and at no time during the last thirty years

178

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

would it have been possible to see Sian under worse
conditions than existed there when I reached it
after a ride of twenty-seven days from Pekin. Yet
in all that vast old city, with its crowded population,
its diversified interests and occupations, there was no
slum. There was no street that corresponded in any
way to what we would term a " poor quarter." By
the roadsides outside of the city were the caves where
hundreds of wretches had died of hunger. But the
sufferings of the dwellers in the caves were due to a
special and extraordinary cause, a famine that had
followed a drought. The famine-victims were not
the sort of "poor" whom the Sianese could be said
to "have always with them."

Under ordinary conditions almost every human
being within the walls of Sian has a house to live
in and is comfortably clothed. Almost the only
exceptions are opium victims. A ride over the
whole of Sian reveals no evidences of that habitu-
ally hopeless, heart-broken, degraded portion of the
community who swarm in tenements on East Side
alleys in New York, who are always a "necessary
evil," and are sometimes described as "submerged."
I do not mean to say that there is anything like
an equality of wealth in Sian. On the contrary,
among the mandarins, merchants, and bankers are a
score of men who would be accounted rich any-
where in the world. But this fact makes it all the
more curious that, while there should be some men
in Sian whom we would call "very rich," there are

179

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

almost none to whom the term "very poor" could
be applied in the sense in which it is understood in
Christendom. Between the richest man whose
villa is near the south wall and the poorest inhabi-
tant of Sian there is not so wide a gulf of difference
in education, opportunity, and environment as ex-
ists between a Fifth Avenue millionaire and the
tenant of a Bowery lodging-house.

As a race the Chinese are natural gamblers.
They seem by instinct to have a passion for games
of chance. In the villages the farmers will sit for
hours over a game played with cash, similar to San
Francisco fan-tan. Men of means bet on games of
dominoes, and even the process of drawing good or
bad luck before the idols is a kind of religious lot-
tery. But there are no gambling-houses or public
games in Sian. Gambling is not only prohibited by
law, but the law is enforced. Shensi missionaries
have told me that nothing is considered more dis-
graceful in a mandarin's administration than his
failure to suppress public gambling within his dis-
trict. Many of the mandarin's faults may be con-
doned by his superiors, but should a gambling-house
exist anywhere within his jurisdiction he would
" lose his face " for life, and would probably be ban-
ished or imprisoned.

There are plenty of shops in Sian where liquor is
sold, but there are no saloons. A man may pur-
chase a bottle of sam-shaw to drink very sparingly
at home. But only at large feasts or dinner-par-

i8o

SIAN AND THE SIAMESE

ties does he drink liquor in public, and even on
these occasions he would bring lasting disgrace
upon his family and relatives if he were to drink
to excess.

There are no " dives " in Sian, no haunts of
crime and human degradation, neither are there any
rendezvous of gilded vice and dissipation. Places
of this character exist in China, only in foreign
concessions, in treaty ports, where they are beyond
the reach of Chinese law. Perhaps the saddest
commentary I have ever heard on our civilisation
was the remark of a fine old Mohammedan tea-
merchant, with whom I became quite well ac-
quainted in Sian. In his shop, near the north gate,
we had been talking one afternoon about the
Mohammedan rebellion that had come very near
succeeding, but had failed. My friend said that he
no longer considered the triumph of Islam prob-
able in China because the nations who recognised
the Prophet were not strong or powerful enough
to make an impression on Confucian civilisation.
" For my part," he continued, " I should rather like
to see the Christians overthrow the idols and con-
vert China to the worship of the * One God,' but,"
he added, "the only trouble is if Sian were a Chris-
tian city, it would be as bad as Shanghai."

I shall not weary the reader with any theory
of my own as to why these " necessary evils " of a
Christian metropolis are unknown in an ancient
and hidden city of China. If a native of Sian had

i8i

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

visited New York and were trying to describe it to
his fellow-townsmen on his return, he would natu-
rally refer to "submerged tenths," and gambling-
houses and saloons, as phases of city life to which
he was unaccustomed, and that consequently seemed
to him novel and curious. I experienced a corre-
sponding feeling of surprise and interest on finding
that these same institutions were conspicuously
absent in Sian. I would not be telling my story
honestly and fairly if I described only things and
never conditions. I have no desire to draw com-
parisons between two civilisations. I fully appre-
ciate that the reader has many times been told that
the Chinese are " uncivilised " and that they are
"the Yellow Peril."

182

CHAPTER XIII

SIAN AND THE SIANESE—Contmued

THE importance of Sian and the prominent
part it has played in Chinese history are
imperfectly understood on the Western side of the
world. Even in parts of China as remote from
Shensi as Pekin, very little is known of Sian.
Shensi is separated from Tibet only by the prov-
ince of Kansuh, and Sian is often referred to as a
city of the border. Only during the last twelve
years has it been possible for foreigners to live in
Sian, and the number of white men who have ever
visited it can be counted on the fingers of a man's
hand. Even to-day no foreign resident can feel
secure in Sian. The appointment of a reactionary
governor or an outbreak of the anti-foreign element
is likely at any time to result in all foreigners being
ordered out of the city.

In the itinerary of a journey from Pekin to
Tibet, Marco Polo describes a place called Kenzan,*
which commentators have generally identified as
Sian. Such it may be, but my own experience in
travelling over the same route pursued by Marco's

* Kenzan is the name given to this somewhat indeterminate city by
Wright, page 248. According to Yule, it is Kanren.

183

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

imaginary traveller (for it is only charity to believe
that the author of Marco Polo's travels never
visited the places in China which he described) has
made me skeptical of his statements about any-
thing. It seems to me that such truth as is to be
found in his account of the Eighteen Provinces is
largely confined to the copious foot-notes of his
modern editors. Since reading the fantastic story
of the " Prince of Dor," whose castle at "Thaigin "
was somewhere between Ping Yang and the Yel-
low River, I am inclined to believe that the old
Venetian traveller would have been heartily amused
if he could have foreseen the seriousness with
which his yarns have been interpreted by commen-
tators of subsequent generations.

" Departing from Ka-chau-fu," says Marco
Polo, " and proceeding eight days' journey in a
westerly direction, you continually meet with cities
and commercial towns, and pass many gardens and
cultivated grounds with abundance of the mulberry
or tree that contributes to the production of silk.
At the end of those eight stages you arrive at the
city of Kenzan, which was anciently the capital of an
extensive, noble, and powerful kingdom, the seat of
many kings highly descended and distinguished in
arms." * The most diligent inquiry of recent com-
mentators has been unable to discover what place is
meant by Ka-chau-fu. No silk is now produced
nearer to Sian than Lao ho Kieu, in Hupeh, 200

* Wright's translation of Marco Polo's travels, page 248.
184

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

miles to the southward. The climate of Shensi is
too cold for the successful cultivation of mulberry-
trees. The climate may have changed since Marco
Polo's time. In their descriptions of the Nestorian
tablet, both Abbe Hue and Professor Legge referred
to Sian, but neither of them had visited it. For his
copy of the tablet-inscription, Professor Legge was
indebted to a missionary named Jonathan Lees, who
travelled through Shensi in 1866.*

For more than twenty years the Roman Cath-
olics have maintained a small chapel in Sian. The
resident priests have, with few exceptions, been Chi-
nese converts, although the chapel was in charge of
the Italian Dominicans at Kao-ling, some thirty-five
miles away. About fifteen years ago, a Protestant
medical missionary opened a free dispensary in Sian,
and tried to establish a mission. A mob destroyed
his chapel and compelled him to flee for his life.
During the three years which followed, the anti-
foreign sentiment was so strong that no foreigner
was allowed to enter Sian, much less to live there.
Such were the conditions when, in 1890, Mr. Moir B.
Duncan, of the British Baptist Missionary Society,
rode through the streets of Sian, hidden away in a
Chinese cart driven by a native convert. At first
he preached in a suburb outside of the city-wall,
but within a year he was allowed to rent a house in
the centre of the city. Almost from the first Mr.
Duncan was liked by the provincial officials. He

* Christianity in China, by James Legge, page 34.
185

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

held a series of public debates at the clubs with the
ablest scholars of the city, on questions of astron-
omy and geography. The debates were largely
attended and became fashionable with young man-
darins and the men who surrounded the governor.

Mr. Duncan opened a book-store where trans-
lations of the writings of standard English and
American authors were sold. In 1898, as the
result of an anti-foreign outcry, special orders were
issued by the governor which forbade the sale of so
much as a yard of cloth made in any other country
than China ; any person known to have a foreign-
made button on his coat was punished with a fine
or imprisonment, and the sale of foreign-written
books was prohibited, but the order in no way
affected Mr. Duncan's personal popularity. The
Sianese had ceased to regard him as a foreigner, and
wad grown to look upon him as one of themselves
He became a friend of the governor and devised
for him a system of irrigating the arid lands in the
valley of the Wei Ho. The plan would have been
carried out had it not been for the Boxer outbreak,
which compelled Mr. Duncan to leave Shensi along
with the other missionaries. On his return, in July,
1 90 1, he received almost an ovation. He was wel-
comed as a beloved citizen. Although he always
took pains never to criticise or interfere with the
government, his advice was sought by mandarins of
the highest rank, who were proud to call him their
friend. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that

186

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

no native of Shensi in private life was more promi-
nent in the affairs of the province or had a wider
sphere of influence than the missionary whose
kung kwan I shared for three weeks.

I reached Sian just three weeks after the Em-
press Dowager and the court had left it. For six
months the capital of Shensi had been the centre of
all the fanatical, the reactionary, and the anti-foreign
elements of the Empire. In Pekin I had been told
that " a white man's life is not worth five taels in
the Empress Dowager's place of exile." These
warnings were not of a kind calculated to prepare
me for the kindliness and consideration I met
with in Sian and the hospitality shown to me by
almost every one with whom I came in contact. In
the course of my investigation of famine-conditions
I was compelled to ride all over the city and to make
a number of inquiries. In these excursions I usually
was accompanied only by my interpreter Wang.
Not only was I never molested or interfered with,
but men of all sorts and conditions went out of
their way to assist me and to give me information.

Whenever I had occasion to enter a shop or
office, the proprietor would invariably offer me a cup
of tea, and would ask me questions about my journey
and the mysterious West from which I came. The
motive which prompted the inquiries may not have
been any real curiosity as to the world outside of
China. It was more an act of friendliness in select-
ing a subject of conversation that might interest me.

187

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Several men whom I met casually in my wander-
ings about the city called on me at the kung kwan
to present their compliments and to say that they
had been pleased to make my acquaintance. The
courtesy and consideration I received from officials
could be explained as a mark of respect to Prince
Ching's card and as an expression of gratitude to
the Americans whose generosity had kept hundreds
of human beings from starving ; but my credentials
and my connection with the famine-fund were not
known to the Sianese in general. Their kindness
may be attributed to the fact that I was known to
be a friend of Mr. Duncan, and was therefore not
to be included in the general dislike of foreigners.
The unique and rather extraordinary position of
"the missionary of Sian" in that far-off corner of the
world was due simply to the fact that his life was
an exemplification of his oft-expressed belief that
" a man's a man for a' that," no matter what his
colour or clothes or language. I have spoken of him
somewhat at length not only because of the great
assistance he gave to me, but because his life and
work in Sian were an illustration of the fact that
although China is still on a silver-basis the practice
of the golden rule is quite as much appreciated
there as in "enlightened" countries like our own.

The Governor of Shensi when I visited it was
Li Shao Fen. By all of seven million inhabitants
of the province he was much more often referred to
and was far more greatly feared than was the Em-

SIAN AND THE SIAMESE

peror in Pekin. If a new arrival in Sian had never
heard of Kwang Su or the Empress Dowager he
would have believed that the China in which he
lived was a kingdom of which the Governor of
Shensi was the supreme power. By the people of
Shensi an audience with a mandarin of any kind is
regarded as a very serious matter, and a conversa-
tion with the Governor is almost the event of a
lifetime. Yet when my host, Mr. Duncan, sent
word to the Governor that I wished to talk over
the famine-situation with him, a courier almost im-
mediately brought back a note replying in the
affirmative and appointing an audience for the fol-
lowing afternoon.

His Excellency Li's residence was called the
palace. It was long and low and was not far from
the yamen or council-chamber in the centre of the
city. As Mr. Duncan and myself alighted from our
cart at the gate at the appointed time, we were met
by a mandarin's servant who took our cards and led
us through a succession of court-yards to within a
hundred feet of the big front-doors of the palace.
Here he suddenly left us and disappeared through
a side-building. For some minutes we stood alone
in the centre of the court-yard, while the sounds
which we heard from behind the closed doors gave
evidence that something unusual was happening.
Orders were given in a loud voice and there was a
noise as of furniture being moved over a stone floor.
Several soldiers who were lounging lazily about near

189

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

the door suddenly aroused themselves and hurried
into the building. The unseen preparations pro-
duced an impression similar to a wait at a theatre
before the beginning of the play. This effect was
heightened by the doors themselves. They were of
great size, and on them was painted a design of
dragons and gods and flowers that would have done
very well for a drop-curtain.

Presently from somewhere within the recesses
of the building a discordant blast was blown on a
trumpet and the doors swung back. A young sec-
retary of the Governor stepped out and clasped his
hands in front of him. We followed him to the
doorway and looked down a long hall. In the
centre of it stood two lines of soldiers and man-
darin's servants facing each other and forming a
lane which ended in a divan at the farther end of the
room. The soldiers belonged to a crack Shensi reg-
iment that constituted the Governor's body-guard.
They were armed with broadswords and their uni-
forms were new and immaculate. As we passed
down the human lane each man in succession
dropped on one knee and made a sort of curtsey.
To the right and left of the divan of the Governor
were grouped the subordinate mandarins of the
city. In front of them was the Governor, an iron-
grey man with a strong jaw and an immobile, emo-
tionless face. He was rather tall and slender ; his
nose was aquiline and his lips thin and compressed,
an aristocrat anywhere, a man able to govern

190

SIAN AND THE SIAMESE

others because he had first learned to govern him-
self, a conservative by nature and education, a ruler
of the Sons of Han. Such were my first im.
pressions of His Excellency Li Shao Fen. Even
more than with most mandarins his manner was
Anglo-Saxon. In talking with him it would be
impossible for an American to have that sense of
strangeness and hesitation as to what to do next
that he might experience in an interview with
an official of Spain or Italy. His Excellency in-
sisted on my taking the left-hand seat beside him
on the divan, an honour which I was loath to accept
in the presence of one so great and mighty. Dur-
ing the interview which followed, the lines of
soldiers and servants remained immovable, facing
each other without glancing either to the right or
the left. I felt that they must have been inwardly
cursing me for keeping them standing for so long
a time and I sincerely wished that Chinese etiquette
permitted chairs for the witnesses of an official
interview.

" My people in Shensi," said the Governor, " are
very grateful to the men from the West who have
sent this money to the sufferers from famine. You
say that the contributors are Americans. I was
never able to understand the difference between
Americans and Englishmen. They dress alike, they
belong to the same race, they speak the same lan-
guage though in different dialects. Everyone who
belongs to our race we consider Chinese. This

191

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Western idea of two men of the same blood belong-
ing to different nationalities, I do not understand."

I tried to throw a little light on this complex
problem, and then we talked about means and meas-
ure for famine-relief. I found that there was no de-
tail of the subject with which the Governor was not
entirely familiar. The co-operation which the sub-
ordinate officials had given Mr. Duncan in his dis-
tribution of the American money was all in com-
pliance with His Excellency's orders. " You have
travelled a long distance," he said.

" You have seen something of my province and
my people, who, were it not for famine, would be
very happy. What do you think ought to be done
to prevent the recurrence of such a calamity ? " I
replied that I feared it would be an act of great pre-
sumption for me, a stranger, to offer an opinion on
the subject to one so much better informed than I
on the conditions and needs of his people. " Oh
no," he said, quickly, " I would not have asked you
if I did not want your reply. Tell me what you
think would be the best way permanently to prevent
famines."

Thus urged, I had no recourse but to tell the
Governor of what seemed to me the only method
by which Shensi famines could be made impossible
in future. " If a railroad," I said, "connected Sian
with any of the food-markets of the Empire, like
Hankow or Pekin, a widespread famine could be
averted, because by this means enough to supply

192

SIAN AND THE SIAMESE

the needs of your people could always be brought
from the more productive parts of the country, no
matter how severe and long-continued was the
drought in Shensi."

" In some ways I agree with you," he said,
slowly. ** It is true that our famines could be
averted by railroads, but connected with them are
several disadvantages. They bring in foreigners,
whom I do not like, and they throw men out of
work. A railroad to Sian would deprive hundreds
of families of the means of earning a livelihood. I
have always been opposed to railroads, but since I
have seen the horrors of this famine, I have about
decided that they are a necessity, and I should not
oppose one whose terminus was in Sian."

On the afternoon following our audience at the
palace, I returned from a short walk to find our
household at the kung kwan in a state of unusual
excitement. At a row of basins on a bench in the
court-yard, the servants were washing their faces.
A tall convert was sweeping the flag-stones. This
extraordinary exhibition of cleanliness alarmed me,
and I sent hurriedly for Wang. He emerged from
his room at the side of the yard, with his hair
hanging in loose tresses over his shoulders. He
was followed by a barber, carrying a comb and
razor.

"What is all this about?" I demanded, stern-
ly. ** What are you all washing your faces for ?
Haven't I told you that you are not to have your

193

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

queue braided until evening, after your day's work
is done ? "

"I know it. I know it, my master," he cried,
" but the Governor, he send a man to say he will
call on you in an hour. It is a big business, the
Governor is. For such a big business, man must
wash the face and braid the queue." Then I, too,
caught the infection of preparation and tried to rise
equal to the occasion. The brick bed in my room
was transformed into a divan by throwing over it a
red cloth. My cook was posed in a corner beside a
tea-pot. I put on the one unsullied linen shirt that
had survived the long journey through a laundryless
country.

These preparations were hardly completed when
a shouting in the street announced the arrival of
His Excellency. His sedan chair was accompanied
by about twenty soldiers on horse-back. A secre-
tary brought me the Governor's card, and I hurried
to the gate to meet him. As we walked together
through the court-yard I apologised for the un-
worthiness of the surroundings of his reception, but
as the Governor settled down on our improvised
divan, he said to me, through Mr. Duncan, " I see
that you have learned the ways of the Black Haired
people. You know the difference between the right
and left-hand seat."

We talked about my journey through his prov-
ince. I found that there was not a town of which
he did not know the population nor a temple whose

194

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

builder he could not tell at a moment's notice. " I
have been told," he remarked, dryly, "that Christian-
ity teaches men to forgive those who have wronged
them. This famine-money would seem to indicate
that such was the case, because American Chris-
tians have considerable reason to dislike the
Chinese, for the way in which the Boxers perse-
cuted the missionaries, but until now I have never
seen any indications that Christians really forgave
their enemies. Of course you cannot understand
why my people dislike the missionaries. No man
from the West can be expected to do that. It may
be that we shall understand each other better now
that the trouble is over. Confucius taught us that
all men are brothers, and if my people realise this
fact, they will not annoy the missionaries,"

The Governor showed considerable interest in
my map of China, on which I had marked, by days,
the stages of journey from Pekin, but turning quick-
ly, he asked : " Now where is the United States." I
took down a wall-map of the world, and tried to
explain the relative position of the Eastern and
Western hemispheres. As Mr. Duncan translated
my words, a kindly smile overspread the Gover-
nor's face. "Your barbarian map is wrong," he
said. " The United States borders upon China ; it
must do so because China is the Middle Kingdom ;
it is in the centre of all nations and the world is
flat." I replied that in our country, we laboured
under the impression that the world was round, but

T95

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

that a knowledge of its shape was, after all, not
nearly so important as a proper understanding of
the peoples who lived on it, and that, as my learning
was greatly inferior to the Governor's, I should dur-
ing my stay in Shensi act on the supposition that
the world was flat. In this fashion we talked for
nearly an hour. The conversation was quite as
simple and natural as it would have been had my
visitor been an American with whom I had be-
come recently acquainted. In the governor's man-
ner there was no trace of pompousness or Philistine
complacency. To my barbarian ignorance he de-
ferred with far more consideration than many esti-
mable persons in the United States would have
shown toward an expression of Chinese ideas of
geography. The governor of Shensi did not use
my remarks about the roundness of the world as a
text for a lecture on the hopeless darkness of non-
Confucian civilisation. Neither did he hold me up
as a sad object-lesson in the ignorance of the
heathen. He was willing to allow me to hold my
own opinions on non-essentials. In other words L.
Shao Fen was a gentleman, and would have passed
for such quite as much in New York or London
as in Sian.

On an evening a few days before the depart,
ure from Sian of Mr. Duncan and myself, a little
dinner was given in our honour by several young
men of the city. None of our hosts were Christian
converts. They were either mandarins' sons or

196

SIAN AND THE SIANESE

men who had recently taken degrees at the public
examinations. The restaurant where the dinner
was held had been the Delmonico's of Sian for
several centuries. It was a long, narrow building
with a stairway at the back that led to a series of
private dining-rooms, one of which we occupied.
While waiting for dinner we sat on a large divan at
the end of the room, where our hosts smoked their
water-pipes and provided us with cigarettes. The
dinner consisted of many courses and was served
on a large, round table. With the exception of the
chop-sticks there was nothing in the manners or de-
portment of our hosts that differed very essentially
from Western standards of good form in dining. In
beginning a course they always waited until Mr.
Duncan and myself, as guests, had taken the initia-
tive. They did not talk in loud tones, and they never
rested their elbows on the table. We talked about
the politics of the day, joked, and told stories. They
all had a very poor opinion of the pretensions of
the Pekin Court set, with whom they had come in
contact during the Imperial exile in Sian. Our
hosts said that the Manchu swells " wouldn't do " at
all. They had a penchant for gaily coloured tunics,
and they wore their caps on one side. They liked
to be conspicuous in the street. They were really
very amusing, but, after all, you couldn't expect
them to be otherwise. They were practically for-
eigners. Their ancestors came into China only four
hundred years ago.

197

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

The talk turned on the Chinese in the United
States, and one man said : " Of course, the emigrants
from China to America are of the most ignorant
and worthless kind. The mere fact that a China-
man wants to leave his native land is proof that
something must be wrong with him. No gentle-
man would ever think of living in a foreign country.
It is not at all strange that the United States
Government prohibits such Chinese from landing.
The only wonder to me is that they are tolerated at
all." This sentiment I heard repeated several times
in Shensi. The men of that province who have
heard of the Chinese Exclusion Act bear the United
States little ill-will because of it. The Shensi view
of Chinese emigration to the United States is not
shared by the residents of Hong Kong or Shanghai.
In these places there is a loud outcry against "Ameri-
can discrimination," mingled with talk of retaliatory
measures, but the men of the old land believe that
China is quite as good a place for their race to-day
as it has been at any time during the last five thou-
sand years ; they have a hearty contempt for an
emigrant.

As the dinner-party broke up amid "good-
nights" and "good-byes," and we rode homeward
through the darkened streets, the thought upper-
most in my mind was that queues and a yellow skin
and chop-sticks are, after all, only a very incomplete
disguise that thinly hides " one touch of nature."

ig8

CHAPTER XIV

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

ALTHOUGH in China women have always
been regarded as inferiors and their position
as defined by law has never been much better than
that of slaves, they have always played a prominent
part in Chinese history, and several times a woman
has been as much the real ruler of the empire as is
the Empress Dowager to-day. As far back as 1 8 1 8
B.C. Mei Hi, the beautiful queen of the Emperor
Kwei, caused the downfall of the Hia dynasty by a
revolution that resulted from her extravagance and
cruelty. The women who have succeeded Mei Hi
in power have nearly all rivalled her in wickedness,
although there have been exceptions like Chang
Sun, the queen of the great Emperor Tai Tsung.
When she was dying in Sian, Chang Sun said to her
husband : " Put no jewels in my coffin. Let my
head rest on a wooden tile and fasten my hair with
wooden pins. Listen to no unworthy men and
build no costly palaces. If you promise me these
things I shall die happy." But the most remarkable
woman in Chinese history was the Empress Dowager
Wu How. In the days of the T'ang dynasty Wu
How was the queen of Kau Tsung. On the death

199

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

of the Emperor in a.d. 684, she was declared re-
gent during the minority of her step-son, Chung
Tsung. Wu How ruled with an iron hand. She
was cruel and fanatical. She tortured and killed
her enemies by scores. She persecuted the Nes-
torian Christians. She scandalised Sian by her va-
garies and wild amours, but under her the Empire
prospered. Her armies put down rebellions and
drove back the barbarians. She was feared but be-
loved, and to this day she is usually referred to by
the title she assumed for herself, "The Great and
Sacred Empress, equal of Heaven."

Tsz' Hi, the present Empress Dowager, is the
first woman who has occupied the dragon-throne
since Wu How. It is a misapplication of terms to
say that Chinese history repeats itself in the sense
that it contains isolated parallels such as are found
in the histories of other nations. The history of
China is one long continuous repetition. Its cur-
rent never changes its course or increases its speed.
Time makes no difference in customs, or systems, or
points of view. The continuous existence of the
same conditions in China makes possible only a
recurrence of similar events. The range of action
is limited. As a matter of course, the same things
happen over and over again, with changes only in
the dates and in names of the actors. Like Wu
How, Tsz' Hi was the relict of one Emperor and
the guardian of another. Like Wu How, Tsz' Hi
was a woman, in a country where women have al-

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

ways been treated with contempt. Like her prede-
cessor of twelve centuries ago, the reigning Em-
press Dowager realised that if she were to rule at all
she must be more forceful, more aggressive, more
cruel than any man. In order to further their own
selfish schemes Tsz' Hi's enemies used against her
the same arguments as had the men who sought the
downfall of Wu How. They said she was only a
poor, weak woman, unfit to govern. She showed
her subjects that her enemies were mistaken by
cutting off their heads, exterminating their families,
and seizing their property.

Being women of China, neither Wu How nor
Tsz' Hi had any education beyond the results of
their own experience. They both were exception-
ally fanatical and superstitious. Wu How helped
to drive out the Nestorians and Tsz' Hi has always
hated Christians. But these very faults have helped
to make the reigning Empress Dowager beloved by
the great mass of the people just as was W^u How.
Both have always been regarded as the defenders of
the ancient faiths and systems, and both have re-
ceived the homage that a strong nature has always
commanded since the world began. The attitude of
the barbarians during the present regency of Tsz'
Hi has been exactly the same as it was in Wu How's
time. On the outside of a nation as exclusive as
China there must always be some peoples who chafe
at not being allowed to enter it. During a momen-
tary triumph of her barbarian enemies, the Empress

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Dowager naturally retired, with her court and the
Emperor who was her ward, to the city that Wu
How's similar reign had helped to make glorious,
and the second greatest woman in Chinese history
made Sian the capital of the Empire.

Although her departure from Pekin was en-
forced, it has never seemed to me exactly correct to
call it a flight. No one had molested the Empress
Dowager during the thirty-six hours following the fall
of the capital, and whatever may have been the inten-
tions of the allies, no one had yet attempted to make
her a prisoner. In the light of the laissez-faire policy
pursued by the foreign plenipotentiaries toward all
Chinese offenders it is doubtful whether the Empress
Dowager would ever have been treated with great
severity. During the foreign occupation of Pekin,
Tsz' Hi and Kwang Su might have been detained
on parole and subsequently released when the trouble
was over. Certain it is that there was nothing in
the action of the allies to give the Empress Dowager
or her step-son any cause for immediate alarm, when
on the morning of a day in August, 1900, they
climbed into their carts and were driven quietly out
of the north gate of Pekin. No attempt was made
at pursuit, and after a short rest near Kalgan, in
northern Chili, the journey to Sian was determined
upon and a cloak of systematic deception w^as thrown
over the Imperial exile which has beer continued
ever since. Orders were sent to the mandarins at
every town along the route to prepare for the com-

202

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

ing of the Emperor of China, who had decided to
make a progress through his dominions. It was
officially announced that the presence of so many
foreigners in Pekin was distasteful to the Emperor,
and that, loyal to the traditions of his country, he had
decided to remove his capital to Sian.

From the time of Yau and Shun it has been
the practice of Emperors of China occasionally to
travel leisurely through their dominions, studying
the conditions of their people and worshipping at
the famous temples. That Kwang Su should follow
the example of his predecessors was very much to
his credit and was a cause of great rejoicing to his
subjects. In their eyes, too, his departure from a
capital that barbarians had profaned was an act of
especial virtue, worthy of an Emperor of China.
In this light the people of Shansi and Shensi re-
garded the journey of the Empress Dowager and
the Emperor through the two provinces, and this
view of what the West calls " the exile " is held to-
day all over the interior of China. Of the scores
of men who have given me their opinions on the
subject, not one has ever intimated a belief that the
Empress Dowager was compelled to leave Pekin,
or that the foreign allies were in any way the vic-
tors. In discussions of the trouble with the barba-
rians it was always taken for granted that they were
unsuccessful in any designs they might have enter-
tained against China, because China was invincible,
and that all enemies must eventually retire, leaving

203

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

things as they found them ; and as a matter of fact
this is just about what happened before the exiled
court consented to return to Pekin.

Every mandarin along the route of nearly eight
hundred miles knew that if the Empress Dowager
found that insufficient provision had been made for
her in his district, his head would likely be the for-
feit of her displeasure, and all the mandarin's sub-
jects realised equally clearly that any failure on their
part to comply with official orders for a public re-
ception would be punishable with death. The
result was that the highroads of Shansi and Shensi
showed signs of activity such as they have not
known since the days of Genghis Khan. Villages
were swept and dusted ; dilapidated kung kwans
were remodelled and redecorated ; old idols in the
temples were given fresh coats of paint and gilding;
and thousands of men repaired roads and bridges.
At the resting-place near Kalgan assembled the
members of the court who were to accompany the
Emperor into exile. Along with them came a vast
train of attendants and three or four regiments of
soldiers. The extensive luggage of this small army
was carried in carts which preceded the yellow chairs
of the Emperor and Empress by several miles.

According to Chinese ideas of propriety rapid
journeys are extremely bad form. The greater the
dignity and position of the traveller the slower must
be his progress. The Empress Dowager and the
Emperor stayed for at least tw^enty-four hours in

204

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

every town of importance through which they
passed ; they worshipped at all the principal temples
and they received the petitions and the addresses
of hundreds of mandarins. They never hurried and
they always acted as though the foreign allies in
Pekin and anything they might do was too unim-
portant to be worthy of their consideration. They
succeeded in creating the impression everywhere
that it was only their good pleasure to travel to
Sian, and the simple farmers to-day speak of the
Imperial exiles as though they had conferred a last-
ing honour on the old land by travelling over it.

From Kalgan the Imperial party journeyed
southwest to Tai Yuan in Shansi. The route thence
to Sian was the one I followed fifteen months later.
The Imperial progress was still the all-absorbing
topic of conversation, and, to judge from appear-
ances, will continue to be so for a generation. In
a place as dull and workaday as a Shansi town the
visit of the Son of Heaven was a thing never to be
forgotten. More than one mandarin has told me
that he regarded the welcome that he was able to
give to the Empress Dowager as the greatest event
of his life. In the larger towns the Imperial resi-
dence was the district yamen, but in the smaller
places, where the mandarin was not rich enough to
afford a yamen, the kung kwan became the tem-
porary home of the sovereigns of China. Over the
entrances of at least ten of these official inns I found
signs inscribed with the words " A thousand years,"

205

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

a Chinese form of greeting to the Emperor, that is
about equivalent to the French " Vive." I became
accustomed to being gravely reminded by the ban-
chaiti that the pile of bricks on which I slept was
the same bed on which the " Son of Heaven " had
passed the night. For the next ten years Shensi
banchaitis will probably continue to say to travellers,
"My Emperor liked this tea," or the great Empress
Mother said, " How beautiful is this wall-paper."
There was scarcely a town along the entire line of
the journey that had not a story of some incident of
the Imperial progress. Although the importance of
these incidents was doubtless unduly exaggerated in
the minds of the people of the dull towns where
they occurred, they showed that the Empress Dow-
ager was always the dominating personality. Com-
pared with the power that she never hesitated to
exercise and the fear she everywhere inspired, the au-
thority of the Emperor was only that of a weak child.
From the time of her departure from Pekin the
Empress Dowager seemed to have made up her mind
that the Boxer movement was a sad failure, for
which she had feelings only of disgust and detesta-
tion. To the great surprise of the mandarins, all
attempts to revive anti-foreign fanaticism along the
line of the journey were crushed quickly and merci-
lessly. As Tsz' Hi was entering Kie hiu, a man in
Boxer regalia ran into the road, and kneeling be-
side her chair, began a eulogistic address on her
efforts to exterminate the "foreign devils." The

206

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

Empress Dowager, so an eye-witness told me,
merely motioned to one of her body-guard, who
quietly walked behind the Boxer, and with one
stroke of his sword cut off his oration and his head
at the same time. The Empress Dowager sent for
the mandarin of Kie hiu, and, after publicly upbraid-
ing him for allowing such a demonstration to take
place, she degraded him from office. As it hap-
pened, the mandarin had done all he could to sup-
press the Boxers in his district, and he had saved
the life of a missionary. The Boxer had been al-
lowed to make his address only because the man-
darin supposed that it would please the Empress
Dowager. But he was degraded, nevertheless, and
when I visited Kie hiu he was still out of office.

Word was brought to the Empress Dowager
that a member of the Imperial household, a Manchu
of high rank, was making a handsome " squeeze "
out of a contract for the carts that carried the lug-
gage of the court. She at once announced that as
official corruption was the cause of all of the troubles
of China, an example must be made of the dishonest
official ; a few minutes later his head was rolling in
the dust of the Shansi road. Nearly all the stories
that were told to me to illustrate the true greatness
of the Empress Dowager concluded with the words
"and his head was cut off." Accounts of the impe-
rial progress through Shansi and Shensi, as related
by mandarins and banchaitis, strongly resemble the
experiences of " Alice " with the " Wonderland "

207

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

queen. But this wholesale decapitation did not
tend to make the Empress Dowager less popular
with her subjects.

Some of the accounts of recent happenings in
China convey the impression that this wonderful
old woman maintains her position and prestige only
by the fear that she has inspired in her people, who
hate her, and who would rejoice to see her deposed
from power forever. How far this feeling may pre-
vail in the treaty-ports and places where foreign
influence has made itself felt, I am unable to judge,
but certain it is that throughout the interior of the
Empire, Tsz' Hi, reigning regent of China, was never
more beloved than she is to-day. The Chinese do
not have that blind worship of the person of the
sovereign as such, which characterises a subservient
Russian peasant. The existing sentiment of ex-
treme loyalty to the Empress Dowager is due to
a great admiration and respect for her character and
an unbounded confidence in her ability. Some of
the younger mandarins admit that she has made
mistakes, but these are due to her intense zeal for
the welfare of her subjects. By the common people
she is almost worshipped. In their eyes her faults
and cruelties are virtues. They believe that her
only motive in cutting off heads and torturing offi-
cials who have dared to oppose her is to maintain
" Peace." Wherever the Empress Dowager goes
there is " Peace." For this reason she is an ideal
ruler. " May she live a thousand years."

208

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

In a park in the northern part of Sian there
stands a long, low, brick building. It is very old, and
was for several centuries the official residence of the
viceroys of the northwest provinces. Since the ac-
quisition of Eastern Turkestan by the Chinese Em-
pire, the residence of the viceroy has been removed
to Lanchou, in Kansuh. For a time, the old house
in the park was occupied by successive governors of
Shensi, but about twenty years ago somebody an-
nounced that it was haunted. Just who the spirits
were who showed a preference for the dreary old
pile, or how they manifested themselves I was never
able to discover. But it was haunted, and it was
therefore abandoned to rats and bats for nearly two
decades. This was its condition when Tuan Fang,
governor of Shensi, was notified that Sian was to be
the capital of China, and that the Empress Dowager
and her step-son must find a palace prepared for
their reception on their arrival. However disagree-
able Chinese spirits may be to ordinary persons,
they invariably flee from the presence of the Son of
Heaven. They would never trouble Kwang Su
and his step-mother. The old viceroy's yamen was
larger than any other of Sian's pubHc buildings. It
was selected as the palace. Three hundred carpen-
ters and decorators were put at work to renovate
and redecorate it. A number of buildings on adja-
cent lots were appropriated as houses for the mem-
bers of the court. These, too, were remodelled
and the grounds around them were ornamented by

209

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

the building of summer-houses and arbours. The
whole area, comprising about fifteen acres, was then
inclosed with a high brick-wall, in evident imitation
of the forbidden city of Pekin.

In Chinese eyes any palace where the Emperor
has lived is sacred and must remain for several
months in exactly the same condition as he left it.
Immediately on the departure of the court for
Pekin the gates in the wall around the Sian palace
were closed and a guard of soldiers was stationed in
front of them. A mandarin and a corps of soldiers
were placed in charge of the premises, to see that
none of the furniture was moved, and that the
buildings were dusted and cleaned every morning
as carefully as though Tsz' Hi and Kwang Su still
occupied them. Everyone was forbidden by the
Governor under severe penalty from attempting to
enter the palace-grounds without the express permis-
sion of the mandarin in charge, and this could be
obtained only on rare occasions by officials of high
rank. Even my host, Mr. Duncan, told me that
the palace was the one place in Sian which he did
not consider it wise or safe for a foreigner to at-
tempt to visit.

After I had been about a week in Sian, Wang
and I started out one afternoon from the kung
kwan for a walk before dinner. We wandered
around the public square for a while, and then
struck off toward the north gate. We had no par-
ticular objective point in view and were strolling

2IO

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

along very leisurely when we discovered that the
street which we were following terminated at the
gate of the palace. I had several times passed the
gate before, although I had never approached it by
this particular street, I had abandoned the idea of
visiting the palace, but as the gate confronted us on
that particular afternoon, a sudden and overpower-
ing desire to see what was behind it came over me.

Guarding the gate were two huge stone lions.
They probably were sitting there when Columbus
first sailed for America, but their youth recently
had been renewed by bright, green paint and the
tongues which hung out of their mouths had been
newly gilded. Their colour had destroyed any trace
of fierceness they ever possessed. They looked as
though they might be British lions who had
adopted Irish colours, and were in consequence
unusually cheerful. With their mouths wide open,
the lions seemed to be laughing at Wang and
me, as they looked down at us from their ped-
estals. "Try it," they seemed to be saying, "It's
easy," and I determined to act on the suggestion.

" Wang," I said, " it's up to us. We are going
into the palace."

"May be we get the heads cut off," he said;
"but if my master say so, for me it is must can do."

We walked over to a soldier standing in front
of a sentry-box. I gave him my card and asked
him to call the mandarin, as I wished to speak with
him. The soldier demurred and refused to receive

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

my card. Wang turned on him and began a ha-
rangue in Chinese. I could only guess its nature
by the way in which the soldier receiv^ed it. Every
time he tried to get a word in edgeways, Wang in-
creased the speed of his speech. Without raising
his voice he poured out a torrent of words at the
rate of about a thousand a minute. By and by the
soldier seemed to droop under the fire. He hung
his head and looked at the ground humiliated.
Without letting his voice drop, Wang came to a
sudden stop. The soldier took the card and ambled
off through the gateway. "He can do now," Wang
explained, " I speak with him in scolding."

With my previous experience of mandarins, I
had pictured the man in charge of the vacant palace
as being well advanced in years and exceptionally
grave and sedate. I was quite unprepared for such
a youthful mandarin as the one who returned with
the soldier to the gate. He was not more than
twenty-five years old. He wore a purple-silk tunic
and a grey kilt. The button on his cap indicated
his rank unmistakably. The fact that he had
attained to such a position so early in life seemed
to indicate that he was possessed of more than
ordinary ability. I told him that I had a great
desire to get some idea of a place which had been
the residence of a monarch who ruled over more
men than any other man on earth; and I requested
permission to walk through the palace-grounds.
"The Son of Heaven lived here," he said, "and no

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

one can enter the place where he has been. But
come into my office," he added, " I want to talk to
you." He led the way to a little building just
inside the gate. " I, too, am a foreigner," said the
young mandarin as a servant brought us some tea.
" My home is in Sichuan. I have been only a year
in Shensi. Sichuan is a beautiful land, where there
are waterfalls and high mountains and bamboo
forests." As he talked of home the stiffness and
official reserve vanished. I forgot that' he was a
Chinaman and a mandarin, and he acted as though
he had forgotten that I was a foreigner. We were
both men talking about home.

" Whenever I think of my native land," said
the mandarin of the palace, " my thoughts take the
form of music. One cannot speak in words of such
a thing as home." From a drawer in a cabinet in
the corner of the room, he took out a zither and
laid it on the table in front of him. ** I am on a
Sichuan mountain," he said. "The sun is shining
down on me through the bamboo leaves. I can
hear the sound of a waterfall, and white rabbits are
playing near me. It is one of the hours when one
cannot help being happy." His fingers ran over the
zither-strings ; his dark Sichuanese face lighted ; his
eyes sparkled. For the moment he seemed obliv-
ious of us and everything about him. His playing,
soft at first, grew louder and faster and lingered on
the high notes ; then died away in a dreamy monot-
ony around the middle of the scale. " Were you

213

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

improvising?" I asked, as he finished, "Certainly,"
he replied, as though surprised at my question.
" Music is the words of a man's soul. No two men
have the same soul, and one man cannot read the
soul of another. If I were to play notes that some-
one else had written, it would not be my soul that
speaks ; it would not be music. Barbarian music
is not the speech of the soul. It is noise. I have
heard Christians singing in the mission chapels."

" There is considerable truth in what you say of
the songs Chinese Christians sing," I replied; "but
you are entirely wrong in supposing that all of our
music is without meaning. Between the Black-
Haired People and us barbarians there isn't so much
difference as you suppose. In the theory of music,
as with everything else, the difference lies chiefly in
the fact that what is a very old story with you is a
new one with us. During the last one hundred
years a new kind of music has become popular in
barbarian countries. Every note means something.
Its sound is nothing ; its motive everything. Men
who understand it and a lot more who don't say
that it is the language of their souls. Being an old-
fashioned barbarian, I personally prefer music that
is noise, but I realise perfectly that a man can't tell
in words about the land where he was born, and we
barbarians sing about our homes, which we love
quite as dearly as you do Sichuan."

"Then the zither has at least made you under-
stand the love I have for my country, and you have

214

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

a respect for this Empire ? " he asked. I answered
in the affirmative, wondering what he was going to
do next. ** I have played to you," he said, springing
up from the table, " in order that the music might
make you feel the love we have for our country, so
that you would respect it. If you do that you will
also respect the place where my Emperor has lived.
The responsibility of admitting anyone to these
grounds rests with me. I usually do not allow my
countrymen to enter, for even they cannot realise
what a solemn thing it is to walk through the
rooms from which my country has been ruled.
You could not be expected to respect the palace
because you are a barbarian, and so I refused when
you asked me for permission to walk through the
grounds. But I have changed my mind. You un-
derstand what the zither said. You are my friend.
I will myself show you through the palace." I tried
to thank him. But the delicacy of the climax had
overwhelmed me. I was the one now who was at
a loss for words — not merely Chinese words, but
words of any kind. I so far forgot the rules of
mandarin decorum as to shake his hand. Turning
to Wang, whose powers of interpreting were being
strained to the uttermost, I said : " Tell him that
he is right. I am a barbarian."

It was in this way that I happened to be the
first white man to enter the palace of the exile in
Sian. The young mandarin and myself grew to be
very good friends. He called on me at the kung

215

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

kwan, and I visited him several times in his office
by the gate. Not only did he keep his promise to
show me through the palace, but he told me much
of the gossip of the hidden court that centred
about the Empress Dowager. Probably several of
the narratives were exaggerations of fact. Possibly
a few were untrue, though never intentionally so.
Several times my guide and friend expressed sur-
prise that I, as a barbarian, could at all comprehend
the meaning of his stories of court procedure and
intrigue.

The main building of the palace was painted
red and was covered with a roof of brown tile. As
in most Chinese houses of the better class, the front
door was directly in the centre. There was no at-
tempt at vestibule or hallway, but upon entering one
passed directly into the throne-room. The ceiling
was high and was covered with bright yellow paper.
On the floor was a carpet composed of small
patches of red cloth sewn together. Opposite the
door against the rear wall was a square settee of
teak-wood. Its back and sides were quaintly carved,
and over it hung a crimson canopy. On this settee
the Emperor Kwang Su sat cross-legged on the
state occasions when he received Manchu princes of
the blood royal. Even in its vacancy my mandarin-
guide always approached the former throne with the
greatest reverence and made an involuntary kow-
tow to the mighty presence that had recently occu-
pied it. AH mandarins and the ordinary court offi-

216

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

cials were received in the left wing of the palace.
This was a long, narrow room in which the prin-
cipal piece of furniture was a bamboo bench covered
with a yellow silk cushion. On this the Empress
Dowager and Kwang Su sat during the daily au-
diences. The Empress Dowager invariably received
the first kow-tow of a visiting mandarin, and she al-
ways occupied the left-hand seat. The only other
articles of furniture beside some ebony stools and
settees were two large French clocks which had
been brought from Pekin, and that had never made
the slightest pretence of keeping time, but this de-
fect did not lessen their value in the eyes of the
Emperor. He was very fond of them, and he often
fixed his gaze on them while the mandarins were
presenting their petitions to his stepmother.

Directly in the rear of the palace was a similar
building that constituted the living apartments of
the Imperial exiles. It, too, was flanked with large
wings, the Empress Dowager's room being at the
left of the entrance in the centre. In the original
plan for remodelling the viceroy's yamen into a pal-
ace, a large suite of rooms in the right wing was set
aside for the Empress Dowager, but when, on her
arrival, she discovered the provision that had been
made for her she flew into a violent rage and threat-
ened to cut off the heads of all the architects and
builders who had anything to do with renovating
the palace. She was pacified only by being allowed
to make her own selection of rooms. This she did

217

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

by appropriating the apartments set aside for Kwang
Su in the place of honour in the left wing. He, as
usual, yielded and meekly retired to the right wing
of the building.

Two of the finest chefs in Sian were engaged
to provide the imperial meals. From the first the
Empress Dowager did not take kindly to their
Shensi methods of cooking. She constantly scolded
them and frequently had them punished. One night
the shed which served as a kitchen caught fire and
burned to the ground. The wrath of the Empress
Dowager was kindled against the two cooks. She
had their heads cut off in the palace court-yard.

The most picturesque part of the Sian palace
were the quarters set aside for Ta-a-ko, who some
years ago was announced as the Heir-apparent to
the throne of China. His Royal Highness occupied
a large building in the rear of the park, some little
distance from the palace. In front of his house was
an artificial pond filled with gold-fish. In one of
the wings of Ta-a-ko's house was a long hall, whose
front-wall by a curious arrangement could be re-
moved like a screen. On hot summer days this
was a favourite lounging-place for young princes.
Here they reclined on divans, gossiped, smoked
their water-pipes and a little opium and looked at
the gold-fish.

Ta-a-ko is Prince Tuan's son. His selection as
Crown Prince was supposed to be due to the over-
powering influence at court of his father. It was

218

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

supposed in Pekin that Ta-a-ko had followed Prince
Tuan into Turkestan. Instead, however, the Heir
Apparent joined the exiled court in Sian, where he
at once became the leader of what might be called
the younger set among the Manchu princes. Ta-a-ko
was the ** Bonnie Prince Charlie " of China. He
was about nineteen years old. In the opinion of
almost everyone in Sian, he was the handsomest
boy in the Eighteen Provinces. Being a Manchu
of the blood-royal he apparently found Sian a very
dull capital, and he undertook to enliven it by
methods of his own. He scandalised the Sons of
Han by riding out of the palace without an attend-
ant, and by frequently remaining away until after
the last paper lantern in the streets had flickered
out in the darkness. A series of adventures gained
for him the reputation of a Manchu Don Juan.
Accompanied by several kindred spirits of his own
age, he frequented the cafes and restaurants, and
was on one occasion brought back in a mood made
boisterous by lingering too long ov^er a cup of rice-
wine. Ta-a-ko was greatly admired by the man-
darin of the palace. He never tired of telling me
stories of the Crown Prince, although he said that
Ta-a-ko's gaieties and frivolities had brought upon
him the dislike of the "Great Empress Mother."
The result of her displeasure was manifested in an
Imperial edict that was published in Sian while I
was there.

The edict emanated from Kai Feng, where the

2ig

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

court was resting for a few weeks before resuming
the homeward journey to Pekin, and contained the
announcement that Ta-a-ko was no longer heir to
the throne of China. He had been dismissed from
the court and had been ordered to return to his
father in Turkestan. Ta-a-ko was such a good fel-
low and his wanting to have a good time was such a
rare Chinese fault that these characteristics might
have proved an antidote to hereditary narrowness
and fanaticism. One can hardly help regretting
that he will never sit cross-legged on the throne
of the black-haired people. In order to propitiate
the foreign allies Shensi's governor Tuan Fang was
transferred to the richer and more important prov-
ince of Hupeh and it was officially announced that
his promotion was due to the fact that he had pre-
vented the Boxers from murdering the missionaries.
In Tuan Fang's place, a mandarin named Sheng
was appointed Governor of Shensi. One night a
party of young Manchu swells who were members
of Ta-a-ko's set started out to paint Sian a tint of
the Imperial red. They became very uproarious,
they broke shop-windows and they succeeded in
creating considerable disturbance. They were ar-
rested by the governor's servants and locked up in
the city jail. When they were brought before
Sheng in the morning they treated him with great
haughtiness. They told him that they were princes
of the Empire, that their rank was much higher
than his and that they did not recognise his author-

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

ity. Sheng promptly told the young princes that
they were in Shensi now, a province where Man-
chus counted for very little, and that as Governor
of old Shensi he proposed to enforce the laws. He
then gave them a lecture on the proper conduct of
princes and dismissed them with a severe reprimand,
telling them that if they again disturbed the peace
and quiet of his capital, they would be treated as
common criminals. The princes hurried back to
the palace and told their troubles to the Empress
Dowager, but she only gave them another scolding
and complimented the governor on his impartiality
and courage.

From time immemorial it has been the custom
for Emperors of China to hold audiences before
daybreak. The greater the rank of the official the
earlier is the hour at which he is received by his
sovereign. While in Sian the sessions of the Em-
press Dowager's council were at four o'clock in
the morninor. Minor officials of the court were
received between six and seven, while the Governor
of Shensi and the mandarins were not admitted
until ten o'clock. The routine business of the day
was usually finished by noon, when the Empress
Dowager passed upon the daily correspondence
which Wang Wen Shau, of the foreign office, was
carrying on with Li Hung Chang and Prince
Ching in Pekin. As successor to Li Hung Chang,
Wang Wen Shau is now minister plenipotentiary
to the foreign powers. He was known in Sian as

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

a kindly, amiable old man who was never a violent
partisan but was always devotedly attached to the
Empress Dowager.

Among the familiar figures in the court-yards
of the old viceroy's yamen were several men whom
the Boxers had recognised as leaders and whose
whereabouts were unknown to foreign generals.
The fanatical hatred which these men entertained
toward foreigners was no less extreme in Sian than
it had been in Pekin. They urged the Empress
Dowager to make another effort to rid China of
the barbarians from the West, but fortunately the
strange woman who rules the Middle Kingdom had
learned a lesson, and for the time being she lis-
tened to the councils of the more moderate party.
On one occasion Rung Lu is said to have delivered
a sort of lecture on the pretensions of foreigners.
He maintained that they all came from one small
island, which was now almost depopulated because
of the large number of its inhabitants that had
emigrated to China. In order to deceive and cheat
the Chinese the foreigners called themselves by the
names of different nationalities, as French or Ger-
man or English ; they really were all of the same
race and spoke but one language. According to
Mr. Rung Lu, the foreigners have a custom of
changing their nationalities as they would a dis-
guise, so that a German on Monday is often a
Frenchmen on Tuesday.

The belief prevails on our side of the world that

222

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

China is without newspapers, save the rather weak
imitations of foreign publications that are printed in
the treaty ports. For centuries one or more " Im-
perial Edicts" have emanated every day from the
capital of the Empire. These edicts are quite dif-
ferent from what the name would imply in Europe
or America. Besides containing copies of the
general orders to the mandarins, the edicts consti-
tute a record of all the official acts of the govern-
ment. They give the reasons for every order and
review each case. A compilation of the edicts is an
excellent commentary on happenings in China and
is a very fair substitute for a newspaper. The chief
fault is the mortuary character of most of the news
they contain. " We have this day cut off the head
of the mandarin of so and so, because he stole
from the taxes or was disloyal, or because he sym-
pathised with a rebellion." This is the form of in-
troductory paragraph most frequently found in im-
perial edicts. Following the statement that the
mandarin has expiated his crimes is a neat little
obituary notice, telling when and where he was
born, the various positions he had held, and the
names of his sons. As soon as an edict is issued it
is immediately telegraphed to the governors of the
provinces, and by them is disseminated among the
subordinate mandarins. An official of the court
has the privilege of publishing a monthly edition of
the edicts in magazine form. Bound in yellow
covers, they are sold to subscribers all over the

223

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

Empire. Scattered about the palace in Slan I
found several copies of the edicts. They were
mussed and crumpled very much as newspapers
might be that have lingered over night in a club-
room at home.

When the Emperor came to Sian, he entered by
the east gate. For that reason it was necessary for
him in leaving the city of his exile to pass through
the west gate, although the route of the return
journey to Pekin lay to the eastward through the
province of Honan, and, as far as Tung Kwan, was
the same over which he had previously travelled.
It is considered a day of evil omen for China when
the Emperor leaves a city by the same gate through
which he has passed into it.

The procession on the day of departure was a
triumph for the Empress Dowager. It was in-
tended to impress the Sons of Han with the fact
that China had again risen supreme among the na-
tions. The barbarians had been compelled to re-
tire ; they no longer desecrated the capital, and the
Son of Heaven could once more set up the dragon-
throne in the city of the Manchus. Pekin prece-
dents were discarded, and the Sianese, kneeling by
thousands in the road, were allowed to gaze upon
the faces of their sovereigns. Kwang Su led the
procession in a yellow sedan chair. The Empress
Dowager came next, followed by the Empress, the
first wife of Kwang Su. Ta-a-ko, in a purple chair,
was the fourth member of the party. Behind him

224

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

came a retinue of wives, princes and court-attaches,
besides a body-guard of more than three thousand
soldiers. Passing through the gate the procession
made a circuit of the city outside of the walls and
then began the long lingering stages of the home-
ward journey. Sheng, Governor of Shensi, was
given the great honor of superintending the hun-
dreds of luggage-carts which preceded the main
procession by ten miles.

The young men of the court, who were still
smarting under the rebuke Sheng had given them
in Sian, devised a plan of revenge. They bribed a
muleteer to allow a long train of donkeys to inter-
cept the baggage-train from a cross defile in the
mountains east of the Tung Kvvan. So far as creat-
ing the confusion that Sheng's enemies desired, the
plot worked admirably. The donkeys ran in and
out among the carts, frightening horses and upset-
ting luggage. It was several hours before order was
restored in the vanguard, and in the meantime the
Empress Dowager arrived on the scene. She was
furious at this delay in her progress, and sent for
Sheng. Kneeling beside her chair, he said that this
was the saddest hour of his life ; he expressed a wil-
lingness to have his head cut off, then and there, if by
doing so he could add to his sovereign's peace of
mind. He did not deny that he was responsible for
all the trouble, but he added that he knew the reason
why the donkeys had tried to cross his carts. It was
because the boys were at their old tricks again. The

225

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Empress Dowager promptly pardoned Sheng. Her
wrath was diverted to the boys. She talked to them
about the pleasure it would give her to cut off the
heads of several young Manchus if there were any
more trouble with the baggage-train. Sheng and his
carts encountered no more donkeys, and within
three weeks afterward poor Ta-a-ko was cashiered.

As he approached the gate of a Shensi town, the
Emperor usually alighted from his chair and knelt
in the dust until the Empress Dowager had passed
on the way to her yamen or kung kwan. For the
five months consumed by the homeward journey
the real capital of China was the yellow sedan chair
of the contradictory old woman who was slowly
moving across her dominions. Every day, with
great regularity, came the edicts, always dated from
the place where the chair happened to be resting.
They showed that the Empress Dowager was cer-
tainly not leading an idle life. The question upper-
most in her mind seemed always to be " Whose
head will come off to-day ? "

The Empress Dowager came to Shensi only a
few months after all the missionaries had been ex-
pelled from it. Mission chapels had been burned
and converts terrorised. About half the popula-
tion sympathised with the Boxers, and the other
half bitterly opposed them. The long-continued
drought had made thousands homeless and desper-
ate. Petty mandarins, taking advantage of the
freedom from restraint that followed the disordered

226

WHEN KWANG SU WAS AN EXILE

state of the Empire were plundering and taxing
their helpless subjects. Not since the Mohamme-
dan rebellion had the old province been so turbulent
and distressed.

When Tsz' Hi, Empress Dowager of China, left
Sian the Boxer movement had been so effectually
suppressed that missionaries could travel anywhere
in the province with perfect safety, and were every-
where received far more cordially than they had
ever been before. The people had gone back to
their farms. Excessive "squeezing" by mandarins
had been stopped by cutting off the heads of the
principal offenders. Shensi was at " Peace."

The Empress Dowager is undoubtedly a very
wicked woman. She richly deserves the title of
" The Jezebel of China," by which she is often
referred to in missionary reports ; but if I were
a Chinese resident of Sian, who, with Chinese eyes,
had watched the progress of recent events in Shensi,
I confess that I, too, should feel inclined to say
" May she live a thousand years ! "

227

CHAPTER XV

SHENSrS FAMINE

DURING the three years that preceded July,
1 90 1, more than two million men, women,
and children died from hunger in Shensi. Ac-
cording to the "Statesmen's Year Book" for 1899,
the population of the province was 8,432,193.
Thirty per cent, of this number perished in the
famine that came because rain failed. The reaping
of so fearful a death-harvest in almost any other
country would have been a subject of world-wide
comment and the country that suffered would have
received the universal sympathy of Christendom.
But Shensi is so near to the edge of what the West
calls the world that in the long perspective, any-
thing that can happen in the old province is small
and inconsequent. With the exception of a few con-
tributors from England, through missionary chan-
nels, the only people who took the slightest interest
in the starving yellow race were Americans. In
the United States a fund was raised, which was
forwarded to Shensi through a missionary com-
mittee, whose head-quarters were in Tientsin.

The primary cause of the famine was drought.
In any agricultural community the absence of

228

SHENSrS FAMINE

rain for three years would have caused suffering
and privation, but the death-harvest would never
have followed, had it not been that Shensi was
exceptionally remote and isolated. The province
is enclosed on the south and west by high moun-
tain ranges and separated from the coast by other
mountains and wide plains, so that it is impossible
to bring food into Shensi from without. When
the resources of the province fail, there is no alter-
native but death from hunger for its people.

From the borders of Mongolia to the Wei Ho
River the soil of Shensi is a kind of porous loess.
When well watered it is of much the same nature
as clay and is well adapted to the cultivation of
millet and corn, which are the chief articles of food
in the province, but the absorbent soil of the tree-
less plain will not retain water for any length of
time, and with even a slight diminution of the rain-
fall, the ground turns to a dry, white powder, in
which the crops parch and wither and die. Drought
and famine are conditions not new to the hidden
province. The history of almost every dynasty
contains the record of a famine that raged in
Shensi. In a.d. 595 the Emperor Yang-Kien was
compelled to emigrate, with his court, from Sian
to the province of Honan, because there was not
food enough in Shensi even for the Emperor.

Previous to the recent famine the last showers
of rain were in the spring of 1898, and from that time
until May, 1901, not a drop of water fell anywhere

229

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

in sixty-three of the seventy-two Shens of the prov-
ince. The small reserve of food that the farmers
had stored in the granaries of the villages was soon
exhausted. Wells and rivers, that helped to irri-
gate the plain, dried up. All the smaller tribu-
taries of the Yellow River and the Wei Ho dis-
appeared. The entire country became one vast,
white, parched desert. With the failure of rain
the provincial government realised that Shensi was
once more face to face with an awful famine. With
the limited means at their command they took
steps to meet the emergency. Appeals for assist-
ance were sent to other parts of the Empire. The
response in money was generous, but money could
not buy food when there was none for sale. Some
even of the rich men in Shensi towns found it
difficult to obtain flour and provisions at any price.
The price of a bushel of wheat rose from 400 to
6,000 cash. Bread was sold at 120 cash, just ten
times its value under ordinary conditions.

With the continued desolation of their fields,
the farmers began flocking into Sian. During the
winter of 1900-01 more than 300,000 villagers, des-
perate and starving, made their way to the capital of
the province. Owing to a fear of bread riots, the
Governor did not allow them within the city walls.
The famine sufferers were compelled to live in fields
in the suburbs. For shelter they dug caves in the
clay banks by the side of the road, and they made
their death lingering by eating coarse grass and

230

SHENSrS FAMINE

weeds. All around Sian when I visited it were
these grim, blackened caves. They were nearly all
empty. The men, women, and children who had
lived in them were all dead. According to native
statistics 130,000 perished from hunger in one sub-
urb. On the morning of each day for three months
more than 600 bodies were collected by the gover-
nor's servants, and were buried in a field near the
eastern gate. As a result of famine-conditions a
disease that seemed a combination of dysentery and
cholera broke out in Sian, causing the death of
hundreds of residents of the city, who had escaped
the worst rigours of hunger.

And all the time food was becoming scarcer.
By-and-by human flesh began to be sold in the
suburbs of Sian. At first the traffic was carried on
clandestinely, but after a time a horrible kind of
meat ball, made from the bodies of human beings
who had died of hunger, became a staple article of
food, that was sold for the equivalent of about four
American cents a pound. The trade in human
flesh had assumed considerable proportions before
it was summarily stopped by Tuan Fang, the Gov-
ernor, who cut off the heads of three men who dealt
in it.

Tuan Fang appointed a relief committee, whose
members were prominent merchants and bankers
of the city. They opened thirty-two soup-kitchens
in Sian for the hungry in the suburbs. From the
mandarins the committee obtained lists of destitute

231

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

families. The committee had charge of the 3,000,000
taels contributed from native sources during the
three years of famine. The money came from the
Imperial treasury in Pekin, from Shensi provincial
funds, and from Chinese charitable societies. The
relief funds were further augmented by the sale of
degrees. That the government should resort to
such a step is proof of the straits to which it had
been reduced in contending with the hunger-cloud
which overhung the country. Under ordinary con-
ditions it is sometimes possible for a man to obtain
his degree by bribing the official who conducts the
examination, but, however it may be obtained, a
degree is absolutely essential for an appointment
as mandarin. At the direction of the Governor,
degrees in Shensi were offered, without an examina-
tion, to anyone who would pay a certain amount to
the famine-fund. Awful as were conditions in
Sian, the suffering in the country was worse, if
such a thing could be possible. Whole villages
subsisted for a while on cats and dogs and horse-
meat, and then slowly starved to death. In order
to buy food the farmers sold first their scanty stock
of furniture and farming tools, then the roofs of
their houses, and, lastly, their children.

When Chinese parents, with all of their intense
love for their little ones, can be induced to sell them,
the worst and last phase of famine-horrors has been
reached. There is always a market for children in
China, and the demand is usually far greater than

232

SHENSrS FAMINE

the supply. Housemaids and women in domestic
service in the interior towns usually receive no
wages. Until they are married they are the prop-
erty of their masters, who have purchased them
when they were little girls. Since the advent of
foreigners and treaty-port civilisation, girls are
bought and sold to a worse fate than that of Chi-
nese servants. In all parts of the Empire a traffic
goes on more or less all the time in girls who are
orphans, or who, because of their parents' opium
habits, have become a public charge on the com-
munity.

Mencius taught that the worst crime a man
can commit is to leave no son to worship at the
ancestral altar. If a man is childless he must
buy a boy, whom he brings up as his son, and
who is bound to him by the same obligations of
filial piety as though he were his own. But the
same reason which makes some men willing to
pay a high price for a little boy makes fathers very
loath to part with their sons. Apart from his great
love for him, every Chinese father likes to think
that when he is dead the little boy now trudging
beside him in the field will worship before a tablet
to his memory. It is only in time of famine that
a poor farmer who is the father of a large family
will sometimes consent to sell one or two of his
sons, to save the rest of his children from death by
starvation. When the famine was at its worst in
Shensi, men in carts appeared in Sian They were

233

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

speculators whose business was the buying of chil-
dren in the famine-market. Starting from Sian
as a headquarters for the trade, they made excur-
sions into the surrounding country. From the
dwellers in the caves and from the villagers they
bought hundreds of children. The ordinary price
of a little boy was about 2,000 cash, while a little
girl could be purchased for half that sum. The chil-
dren were bought at wholesale, and were sent away
to be retailed all over China.

These were the sad conditions of old Shensi
when the Empress Dowager and her manage came
to Sian. The coming of the Court was dreaded,
because it meant 10,000 more mouths to feed
from the ever-diminishing supply of food. But
the "Jezebel of China" brought the first real relief
that Shensi had known for three stricken years.
Immediately upon her arrival she instituted be-
tween Sian and the cities of the south and east
a system of government caravans, to bring supplies
of food in quantities that had been impossible for
the provincial government to obtain, with the
limited means at its command. Besides providing
for the soldiers and the attendants of the court,
the caravans brought, in addition, a supply of corn
and flour, whose sale in open market tended to
relieve the hunger-suffering.

By a personal study of famine-conditions, the
Empress Dowager discovered that the large contri-
butions of money from native sources had done

234

SHENSI'S FAMINE

little to relieve the distress of the people of the
province. With her long experience of the pecu-
liarities of mandarins she reached the conclusion
that a part of the funds had been "squeezed" by
the officials to whom they had been given for dis-
tribution. According to the story told in Sian, the
Great Empress-Mother appeared one day at a meet-
ing of her council, carrying in one hand ten taels of
silver, and in the other a string of copper cash.
" This is a riddle," she said, "which I want you to
answer." When her councillors pronounced its so-
lution impossible, she explained that the silver rep-
resented what had been given to the people of
Shensi and the cash the amount they had received.
To determine where the difference between the sil-
ver and the copper had gone, an examination of
famine-accounts followed, that ended in cutting off
the heads of three of the most prominent man-
darins of the province. From that time famine-
funds had immunity from " squeezing."

Early in May, 1901, the rain fell again in Shensi.
It enabled some of the farmers to plant their fields.
The rain was followed by an edict announcing that
the famine was over and that no more contributions
were needed from other parts of the Empire. But
it was still five months to the harvest and the daily
death-rate was nearly as large as ever, although the
government caravans had caused a change in the
situation. In Sian food brought from other prov-
inces was now obtainable, but the villagers who

235

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

had survived the three years of famine were with-
out means to purchase it. Soon after the first rain-
fall, the first American relief money was brought to
Shensi by Mr. Duncan. The Empress Dowager
heard of his coming, and expressed a wish that
everything possible should be done to aid him. It
was largely due to her approval that he received the
co-operation and support of every official in the
province, from the governor to the Shen mandarins.
The laws of Shensi forbid the use of a public build-
ing by a foreigner, but that Mr. Duncan might not
lack proper facilities for conducting the distribu-
tion of the famine-funds in his charge, the native
relief committee placed at his disposal as an office
and residence, a large building in the heart of
Sian, the city from which less than a year before
all foreigners had been expelled. Over the gate-
way of Mr. Duncan's house was placed a sign
inscribed with the words "American kung
kwan."

All of the thousands of taels at Mr. Duncan's
disposal were distributed through Chinese channels
in accordance with Chinese methods. The basis of
his calculations of the extent of famine-sufferinsf,
were the lists that had been compiled by the native
relief committee and which were placed at his dis-
posal. Arranged in columns on the pages of a
Chinese famine-list, are characters that represent
the needy families of the district. The name of
the husband and father always appears at the top

236

SHENSrS FAMINE

of the page. The women and children dependent
upon him are referred to as "mouths" and are
entered in the list by number and not by name.
By men in his own employ, Mr. Duncan verified the
accuracy of the lists of " mouths," and to the head
of each family he gave a ticket entitling him to a
share of the American famine-fund. The man-
darin was then informed on what day the distri-
bution would take place in his Shen. The head
men of the villages notified all holders of tickets
to assemble on the appointed day at some building
which he designated for the purpose. These build-
ings selected for a famine-distribution were usually
temples or yamens. They were always of an essen-
tially Chinese character and were the last places on
earth where, under ordinary conditions, a foreigner
would be welcome.

At each public distribution the Shen Mandarin
presided, order was maintained by his soldiers and
servants, and the money was paid out by a repre-
sentative of the relief committee in Sian. Mr.
Duncan personally supervised each famine-distribu-
tion, and he held the mandarins to a strict account
for every tael paid out ; but he always acted on the
principle that as the money was for Chinese, the
men best qualified to manage the details of its dis-
tribution were Chinese officials. Besides this, Mr.
Duncan believed in the Chinese on general princi-
ples and respected them ; they on their part liked
him, and as a result there was no prejudice against

237

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

foreigners, in the distribution of American famine
relief funds in Shensi.

Tlie transportation of the money from Sian to
the place of distribution was one of the most diffi-
cult problems of the work. Cash strings were the
only available medium by which the funds could
be disbursed in small amounts. A string of cash
whose value is about seventy cents weighs more
than four pounds, so that the equivalent of com-
paratively few American dollars constituted a load
for a cart drawn by two mules. To distribute $800
at Lintoun, fifty- two carts were necessary to carry
the cash. The experiment was tried of disbursing
the money in promissory notes issued by the local
bank of the Shen where the distribution took
place, but this method had to be abandoned, be-
cause the cashing at one time of so many notes
caused runs on the banks that almost caused
riots.

Through Anglo-Saxon channels the American
money could get no nearer to Sian than Hankow.
By arrangement with a Chinese bank at that place,
relief funds were telegraphed in instalments to the
banks in Sian, who at first demanded an exorbitant
rate of exchange. When the Governor, Li Shao
Fen, was apprised of the fact, he sent one of his
secretaries down to the banking street, to say that
His Excellency was pained to learn that the banks
would rob his starving people, by charging a high
rate of exchange on money that Americans had sent

238

SHENSI'S FAMINE

to their relief ; and that the next banker who de-
manded more than the ordinary rate would be pun-
ished. The bankers knew that punishments by the
Governor, frequently ended fatally for the offender.
They decided that their heads were worth more
than the profits of exchange. After the visit of the
Governor's secretary, the cost of sending money
into Sian for famine purposes was very inconsider-
able.

A distribution of American famine relief
funds to the families who still lived in the caves
took place while I was in Sian. The place desig-
nated by the governor was the Temple of the Five
Sacred Mountains, the largest of all the city tem-
ples. When Mr. Duncan and I alighted from our
carts at the appointed hour on the morning of the
distribution, we found more than 3,000 men, women,
and children huddled in the court-yard of the temple.
They were all in rags ; their hair was matted ; their
faces were emaciated, and wore that look of hope-
less want that only hunger can stamp on human
countenances. The temple-yard was divided into
two parts by a kind of high fence which surmounted
a stone platform extending from one side of the yard
to the other. Waiting for us on the platform were
the chairman of the relief committee, a score of man-
darins, and about fifty soldiers and servants. The
crowd were driven back into the rear yard, from
which they were admitted in single file through a
gate in the fence. As they passed our table we

239

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

gave to each bank notes in denominations of from
500 to 2,500 cash.

Such gratitude as these poor starving men and
women of the old yellow race manifested I have
never seen equalled anywhere in the world. Many
of them wept as the brown paper bank notes passed
from our hands to theirs. In the narrow space
between our table and the line of soldiers, they
one by one dropped on the stone floor and made
pitiful attempts at kow-tows. The shi jang by my
side seemed to be of the opinion that a kow-tow
was no more than our due, but I told him that as
an American barbarian I preferred to see men
standing erect at all times, and at my request he
put a stop to the kow-tows. The work of giving
money to the hungry crowd lasted five hours, but
after the last man with a bank note in his hand had
disappeared through the temple gate, the mandarins
would not allow Mr. Duncan and myself to leave
until they had drawn up all the soldiers in line to
salute us by dropping on one knee.

In the feeding of thousands of human mouths
by the American dollars that the Christian Herald
had collected there were no distinctions of race or
creed or politics. Among the men and women
in Shensi who received the cash strings were Box-
ers and Taoists and Mohammedans. They were all
Chinese, they were human beings, and they were
fed. Before the coming of the American money to
Sian it is probable that two-thirds of the inhabitants

240

SHENSrS FAMINE

of Shensi had never heard of the United States.
To-day, from one end of the province to the other,
it is known as the one foreign nation that is really
a friend, and whose people, though barbarians, are
strangely kind.

241

CHAPTER XVI

AROUND ABOUT SIAN

TO get a better idea of the ravages of famine
throughout the province of Shensi, I passed
five days in an abandoned mission station in the
town of San Yuan, about thirty miles north of Sian.
Accompanied by a missionary who had assisted Mr.
Duncan in his relief work, we made excursions from
San Yuan out across the plain of Sian. The coun-
try gave evidences of a former dense population.
Every quarter of a mile a mud village rose out of
the white, treeless desert, which stretched away to
the north, east, and west like a limitless ocean. The
vast plain was silent. Along the old roads, all worn
and sunken, we met no travellers. No farmers were
in the fields. In some of the villages were groups
of half -starved men and children, the only survivors
of communities that had perished. The plain was
silent because its inhabitants were dead. Only at
rare intervals was a house with a roof visible any-
where. The thatch of which the roofs of Chinese
houses are made always finds a ready market in the
towns as fuel, and as a last resort before abandoning
all hope the starving villagers had sold the shelter
of their homes.

242

AROUND ABOUT SIAN

Besides ruined and deserted mud villages, the
only objects which broke the monotony of the land-
scape were moundsjwhich_dottM^
Sian and the fords of the Wei Ho River. The
mounds were built by nien^Jbi]t_when or for what
purpose jsajmy^t^^ ^he mounds were all pyra-
midal in shape. They were made of a kind of clay,
apparently a different material from the loess of the
plain. Their sides were covered with a verdure of
coarse grass and low bushes. Although the action
of time and the elements had partly obliterated the
former angularity of the outline of the mounds,
their original shape was still plainly discernible.
Theyjyere_all square pyramids, about eighty feet in
height from the centre of the plane of the base to
the apex. The four base lines of each pyramid are
of equal length, usually about 300 feet. Jt seemed
as^houg^lLJJi-intentio&-w€re^ apparent-ift^ theiiLCDn.-
struction to have the sides four square with the
points of the compass^ The road from Sian to San
Yuan runs directly north, and as we passed a suc-
cession of mounds on either side of it, I noticed
that we were always confronted by the face of the
pyramid, and never by one of its corners. The
base lines of its northern and southern sides were
invariably at right angles with the road. I found
also that, although scattered over an area of ten
square miles, the corresponding sides of any two of
the pyramids always faced in the same way. Al-
though I did not test accurately their points of

243

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

direction, I am strongly of the opinion that lines
drawn at right angles with the four bases of the
sides of any of the pyramids would lead directly
north, east, south, and west.

The mounds have always been held in great
veneration by the people of the surrounding country.
They are situated in the midst of a plain where
until the famine every square foot of ground was
in demand for cultivation, yet no crop was ever
sown or reaped on the sides of the mounds. They
are regarded as mysteries, and consequently it would
be bad luck for any one to attempt to dig into them.
The Sianese explain them by saying that they
mark the burial-places either of some of the early
emperors or of the great characters in Chinese
history. It was formerly the custom when an em-
peror died to place his body in an immense tomb,
in which his wives and several hundred of his ser-
vants were buried with him in order that they might
accompany him to the spirit-world. Over the whole
structure was built an immense mound. These
tombs of emperors are found in various parts of
China, usually near a city which was once the
capital.

But to my mind this theory does not satisfac-
torily explain the mounds of the plain of Sian.
More than most nations, the Chinese keep a care-
ful record of their monuments. An accurate knowl-
edge of the places where the great ones of antiquity
are buried is part of the ancestor-worship of the

244

AROUND ABOUT SIAN

country. If each of the Shensi mounds covered
the tomb of an emperor the fact would be generally
known, and a tablet recording the fact would be
placed near it. But such is not the case. No in-
scription of any kind is found near the pyramids.
Grimly silent, they rise from the plain as though
guarding some secret of the past too sacred even
for the Sons of Han. The shape of the mounds,
too, is another objection to the idea that they are
the burial-places of emperors. Over an emperor's
tomb was usually piled a huge heap of earth of in-
discriminate size and shape that in time assumed a
rounding oval form, not unlike a natural hillock.
But the pyramid, or anything like it, was never at-
tempted. The pyramid is rare in Chinese archi-
tecture, although the tapering octagonal tower of
the pagoda may be an evolution from it.

A member of our party on the Han River was
a scholar and teacher from Sian, who was excep-
tionally well informed on the history and monu-
ments of Shensi. In speaking one day of the
mounds of Sian plain, he said that they might have
been the altars of the primitive religion that once
prevailed all over China. I am not an archaeologist,
and I have never made a study of Chinese monu-
ments, but I must confess that this explanation
of the pyramids is the most reasonable I have
ever heard. For several thousand years prior to
the birth of Confucius, 551 e.g., Shang Ti, the
One and Supreme God, was worshipped in China.

24s

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

As the oldest province, Shensi would naturally con-
tain more evidences of the former faith than any
other part of the Empire. Can it be that the name-
less pyramids which for centuries have pointed up-
ward from Sian plain are a survival of the ancient
universal faith that began with the race in Central
Asia and found a manifestation in the pyramids of
Egypt ? It is not my intention to hazard a positive
opinion on the subject. A conjecture is permissible
in describing an unsolved riddle. Among the mon-
uments of the past in China there are not a few
riddles whose study might add greatly to the world's
knowledge of many things. But it will be a long
time before a solution of any of the riddles can be
expected. They will never be even considered
worth solving until the West learns that China is
something more than a "Yellow Peril" and a
** Mission Field" and a market for opium.

The Wei Ho River must be crossed twice on
the way from Sian to San Yuan. The first cross-
ing is made by a ferry and the second by a ford
through the swift current. Ten miles to the west-
ward of the ford the river dashes through a deep
gorge, which it seems to have furrowed for itself
below the surface of the plain. The water bubbles
and foams between its narrow walls, but strong as
is the current it is considerably shallower than for-
merly. Just above the point where the Wei Ho
again emerges on the plain of Sian, are deep gulleys
cut in the rock. They are now several feet above

246

AROUND ABOUT SIAN

the stream, but they were once used as irrigating
trenches, to divert the current across the surround-
ing fields.

Although the climate of Shensi is about the
same as that of northern Ohio, the country north
of the Wei Ho has long been famous for the
production of cotton. Withered cotton plants
were everywhere visible when I rode over the
desert plain. Within a radius of twenty miles from
San Yuan the only human beings I met who
seemed to have been untouched by the famine were
the twelve survivors of a village whose inhabitants
had numbered almost a hundred. They were all
cotton-spinners, who at the beginning of the
drought had emigrated to the south, returning only
when the famine was over. In one of the two
rooms of the house of the head man was his loom.
He explained that by working from sunrise to
sunset he was able to weave enough cloth for a
wholesale merchant in San Yuan to provide an
income of about nineteen American cents a day.
His family consisted of his wife and five-year-old
son. They seemed very happy, and they were pro-
foundly thankful at having escaped the famine.

As I watched the shuttle that he threw back
and forth across the loom, I remarked upon the ap-
pearance of the bobbins from which the thread was
unwound. *' They look as if they were wound by
machinery," I said. "And so they were," the spin-
ner replied. "My bobbins come from America."

247

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Besides the famine-fund, the cotton thread was the
first link of communication between China and the
United States that I had discovered anywhere in
Shensi. In reply to my inquiries, the spinner told
me that American cotton thread was better than
any grown in Shensi, and could be bought for just
about the same price. He accounted for its cheap-
ness by the theory that the United States was an
island not far from China. When I told him that
the country from which the thread came was
18,000 li from the plain of Sian, he shook his head
dubiously. " The thread would cost more," he said,
"if it had to be brought such a long distance."

Before the famine San Yuan was a rich town
of about 50,000 inhabitants. Its population, when
I visited it, was reduced to less than 20,000. On a
smaller scale, San Yuan's experience of the three
years' drought was very similar to that of Sian.
From the country round about thousands of men,
women, and children flocked to San Yuan, vainly
seeking escape from hunger. They nearly all died
in the city to which they had fled for refuge. In
an embankment against the outside of the city-
wall the dead were buried. Enough earth was
thrown over the bodies to conceal them, but not
enough to protect them from the dogs, who always
prowl about the walls of a Chinese city. In the
embankment were holes, from which protruded
skeletons and bits of clothing, marking the visits
of the dogs of San Yuan.

248

AROUND ABOUT SIAN

Probably no one can endure suffering more pa-
tiently than a Chinaman, and no one forgets his suf-
fering more persistently when it is past. It seems
to be part of his striving for " Peace " to put out
of his mind the recollection of anything that is un-
happy or unpleasant. The inhabitants of San Yuan,
which had been for three years the scene of an
awful famine, might be expected to turn away from
their city with a shudder, and to abandon it forever,
but, instead, I found that nothing seemed farther
from their thoughts than the famine. It was at an
end, and they no longer even cared to talk about it.
San Yuan is a centre of the cotton trade of north
China. When it is remembered that the entire
population numbers more than 300,000,000, and
that 90 per cent, of this number wear cotton clothes,
some idea can be formed of the volume of the
cotton trade of the Empire. From San Yuan cara-
vans of camels, laden with bales of cotton cloth,
start for Kansuh Turkestan and Inner Mongolia.
The failure of the cotton crop of Shensi did not
seem to discourage the merchants of San Yuan in
the slightest. They at once began filling their
orders with imported cotton cloth. Their ware-
houses were filled with bales of cotton cloth woven
in England and the United States.

As Wang and I stood one afternoon in the
road outside of the city-wall, looking at the ghastly
embankment, we were forced to step aside to make
way for a long line of camels, that were swaying

249

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

along towards the south gate. The camels were
carrying cotton bales. Wang pointed to them, and
said, " It is marked in the English language." I
looked, and, sure enough, the labels on the bales
showed that to old San Yuan, which probably
not more than six white men had ever seen, the
camels were bringing the product of Fall River,
Massachusetts.

250

CHAPTER XVII

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

SCATTERED all over China, by roadsides, in
village streets, and in temple court-yards are
granite tablets carved deep with inscriptions.
None of them are modern as the West reckons
modernity. Few were erected since the Declara-
tion of Independence was signed in Philadelphia,
but some are much older than others. Most of
them record the virtuous deeds of mandarins, who
lived and died during the last two dynasties, but
occasionally one meets with an inscription that tells
of something that happened long ago ; a bit of phil-
osophy suggested by some incident in history ; a
memorial of an illustrious Emperor, or sometimes an
inscription on a spot made famous by a great event,
like a battle or the birth of a sage. Stone tablets
are an institution peculiar to China. Much of the
so-called ancestor-worship is really only a resort to
this national method of raising an enduring monu-
ment to previous generations.

In the carvings on the grey stone, far more than
in the ponderous and stilted literature the soul of
the Chinese speaks. Besides recording events for
public interest, the tablets often serve as reposi-

251

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

tories of the best thoughts of individuals. When
to one of the old yellow race, whom we like to car-
toon, there comes a great thought he weighs and
measures it. If it stands the test of his reflection, he
treasures it silently for years, perhaps forever. He
regards it as an illumination of his soul by a higher
power. It becomes his ambition to transmit to
those who shall follow after him the one great idea
that has flashed across his life. On a stone by a
roadside, he has his soul's light carved where men
may see it. Usually it finds expression in an epi-
gram or a verse of poetry, but occasionally it is
pictured in the carving of a flower or the outlines
of a face.

To me the tablets of Shensi always possessed
a strange charm. They seemed a part of those
strong, deep repressed fires that, underneath the
mask of national stoicism, have smouldered at the
foundation of the Chinese nature since time began,
and which may some day flash forth with a con-
centrated brilliancy that will startle the world. Of
some of the tablets it is possible to obtain impres-
sions made in lampblack on sheets of tissue paper.
These are sold by priests to pilgrims, who hang
them on the walls of their homes. A few of these
tablet-impressions I purchased at different places
on my journey through Shensi.

The Emperor Hung Wu, who in 1368
founded the Ming dynasty, saw in a dream the
sacred mountain of Hua. Later he visited it and

252

Tin-: DKHAM OF IILWC \\ L"

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

found the way to the summit, to be the same that
had appeared to him in his sleep. Hung Wu's was
one of the most strenuous lives in Chinese history.
He overturned the dynasty that Kublai Khan had
founded and he broke the power of the Mongols.
His armies subdued Corea and Burmah. He was
a warrior and a man of action, yet he always re-
garded his dream as the illumination of his life.
The picture of the sacred mountain, as it was indeli-
bly stamped on Hung Wu's memory, was carved
on a stone tablet in the yard of the temple at the
base of the mountain. The white dotted line is the
winding, difficult trail up the mountain-side. The
figure of a man in the various stages of the ascent is
Hung Wu in the garb of an ordinary pilgrim. The
white spots represent the course of the rabbit
which was the Emperor's guide in his dream-pil-
grimage. Around the picture is carved his de-
scription of his experience in his own words.

" How sublime the height of the Western mountain.

I once dreamed that I was there.

When I was still distafit aboiit a hundred li, sud-
denly the mountain-top appeared to burst its covering of
clouds and to pierce the heavens.

It glittered with all the five colours.

In a ino7?ient, I knoiv not how, I found my way to the
summit, whence I looked dozvn on a sea of peaks clothed
with green pines and rugged rocks.

For a moment I lost the trail of the white rabbit {that
was leading vte), but a pair of white doves came doivn to
meet me.

253

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

/ zms making the circuit praying aloud when some one
knelt before me and said:

* Be reverent, for Shang Ti {the Supreme God) is near
you.'

I heard and bowed fny head in worships

On another tablet in the same old temple-yard
at Hua ih is a copy of the character meaning Hap-
piness, which was made several hundred years ago,
by a flourish of the brush of a Chinese general
named Sieh. The Chinese idea of flourishes and
curves differs greatly from ours. Scholars and
thoughtful men have a curious habit in a moment
of introspection of making idealised characters with
a marking-brush. The mood of a Chinese at such
a time is far different from that of an American
school-boy attempting to write his name in flour-
ishes. The man with the ink-tablet and the mark-
ing-brush is trying to interpret his soul. He selects
at random any well-known character of the alpha-
bet and then allows his brush to swing in curves
over the paper, trying, as far as possible, to keep his
own personality out of his writing. I have seen a
Chinaman sit silently for hours in a moment of
illumination, while his brush wanders dreamily over
the piece of brown paper before him. Only very
rarely, sometimes not more than once or twice in
his lifetime, does he succeed in making a character
in which he sees his soul reflected. This can hap-
pen only when the ego is completely eliminated and
it is his soul and not himself that makes the flour-

254

THE HAPPINESS OF SIEH.

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

ish. Such a character is on the tablet of Sieh.
Care has been taken in the carving to preserve the
hair-brush marks of the original. A friend of
Sieh's named Hew Kwo Tung was delighted with
the character. An inscription in one corner of the
tablet says,

" General Sieh, in a joyous mood, wrote this word,
happiness, giving it so much expression that I have thought
Jit to have it cut on stone to afford pleasure to others, —
Hew Kwo Tungy

Another conception of the word happiness is
a monogram on a tablet erected by a man named
Chen Toun. The monogram consists of the char-
acter for mouth with a field to supply wants and a
third character signifying divine protection.

In a park in the southeastern corner of Sian
is a row of long, one-story, brick sheds. These
comprise what ts known as The Hall of Tablets,
famous all over China as the oldest collection of
stone memorials of the past. The Hall was re-
built and the tablets placed in their present posi-
tions during the Han dynasty about ico B.C., but
some of the granite slabs stood in a previous col-
lection in Sian long before that time. Like many
other things in Shensi, the beginnings of the Hall
of Tablets belong to the period of legends and not
to history. The sheds are about six in number and
each is about 500 feet long. Side by side in rows,
with only sufficient space for a man to walk be-

255

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

tween them, are tablets of every sort, shape, and
description. Here are kept the memorials of the
rulers and kings and sages and emperors of China
from Fuhi to the Tangs. It was the Hall of
Tablets in Sian that gave the suggestion for the
"Hall of the Mings" in Pekin. But the monu-
ments in the Sian Hall are not confined to memo-
rials of men. It contains thousands of tablets of
all kinds that are entitled to a place in the long
aisles because of their especial merit or interest, in
somewhat the same way that exceptionally fine
paintings might be selected for a national art
gallery.

In order to obtain admission to the Sian Hall,
the carvings on a tablet must be well executed
and the calligraphy of the inscription must be per-
fect. Chief of its treasures in Chinese eyes are
the original thirteen classics of Confucius. They
once formed the imperishable library of the Kuo
Tze Chien, the oldest university in the world,
which still exists in a decadent form. " It was in
its glory before the light of science dawned on
Greece and when Pythagoras and' Plato were
pumping their secrets from the priests of Heliopo-
lis." * When in the course of centuries all of
Chinese learning and literature came to centre
about the writings of Confucius, a monument to
the great sage as a basis for a university library
was carved in stone and set up in the Hall of

* The Lore of Cathay, by Dr. W. A. P. Martin, page 371.
256

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

Tablets in Sian. Once before in the reign of
Chung the wall builder, all the Confucian books
that the Government could seize had been destroyed,
and, largely to prevent the recurrence of such a
calamitv, stone was selected as the material in which
to preserve the greatest treasure of the library. As
the Kuo Tze Chien is under the patronage of the
Emperor, it was transferred to Pekin when that
city became the capital, and, in imitation of the
stone library of Sian, the thirteen classics were in-
scribed on stone columns in front of the present
university buildings.

Anyone possessed of an adequate knowledge
of the Chinese language and literature could find
few things more delightful than to spend weeks in
studying the old gray slabs in the Sian Hall of
Tablets. On the afternoon when with Wang I
visited it, we secured the services of a Budd-
hist priest as guide. A number of Chinese, evi-
dently students or sight-seers, were scattered along
the aisles reading the inscriptions. Their deport-
ment was very similar to that of a well-behaved
crowd at a picture exhibition at home. Everyone
spoke in low tones and moved about as quietly as
possible. Even with my ignorance of the language
in which the inscriptions told their stories, I readily
understood the hush that the tablets inspired.
Apart from their antiquity there seemed to me a
cold beauty in some of the outlines on the stones
that made commonplace comment sound jarring.

257

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

From a man whose trade it was to make rub-
bings of the inscriptions, I bought reproductions of
a few tablets that especially attracted me as I passed
them. A large oblong tablet was covered for
the most part by a series of ponderous proverbs
like

Truth is not confined to speech^ but the use of
speech is to reveal truth, and

The void has no form, but form reveals the
void.

But mortised into the centre of the slab was
a panel that had nothing to do with the proverbs.
On the panel was pictured a spray of chrysanthe-
mums and bamboo branches. In spite of the diffi-
culty of portraying flower petals on coarse stone,
the delicacy of the outline was so perfect that no
one who saw it could help an involuntary expres-
sion of the sentiment written in verse around the
chrysanthemums :

How exact their resemblance,
Their whiteness rivals the snow.
And you almost smell their fragrance,

and the signature of the engraver, Chang Tai Ho
of Kurgi7i. The tablet must at one time have
been quite famous because several pilgrims, nearly
all of them mandarins, have recorded, near the top
of the stone, their names and the fact that they
had visited it. A date on the tablet shows that it
was placed in its present place a.d. 679, in the

258

TABLET OF THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

twenty-ninth year of Kau Tsung. This emperor
was the husband of Wu How. When Chang's
chisel carved the chrysanthemums, she was the
dominant power in Sian and in China. It may be
only an idle fancy, but more than once, as I have
looked at the lamp-black impression of the picture
of the white flowers that bloomed twelve centuries
ago, I have believed that it was Wu How herself
who had the panel mortised into the centre of the
slab. It was not like a man — not even a Chinese
man — to break the monotony of dreary old prov-
erbs with an irrelevant bouquet. It looks to me
like the work of a woman. And Wu How, like
her successor on the dragon throne to-day, although
an Empress and a " Jezebel," was still a woman.

Another tablet rubbing in the Siam Hall
was a portrait of the Buddhist apostle Tama, who
lived about two centuries after the Christian era.
In accordance with Chinese ideas of propriety,
Tama sits on his halo instead of wearing it around
his head. The picture shows him in an attitude of
meditation, contemplating a bowl of incense in his
lap. The inscription reads,

An original likeness of the patriarch Tama. It
was drawn on paper with a faithful hand, but
paper and ink cannot . . . resist the tooth of
time. Hence we have it ctit on stone.

Fung Ti drew the portrait of Tama, of
which this is a stone reproduction. It is only fair

259

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

to suppose that Fung Ti had never heard of curve
harmony, yet he succeeded in having the sweep of
Tama's mantle and the drapery of his sleeves in
perfect accord with the under lines of his face.
Neither had Mr. Fung Ti ever studied impression-
ist poster methods of portraying hair ; and yet
Tama's ringlets are all a series of interwoven circles.
The only object in Sian that has to any con-
siderable extent attracted the attention of the
Western world is the tall granite slab called the
Nestorian Tablet. In the discussions of which it
has been the subject ever since its discovery, nearly
three hundred years ago, such men as Voltaire,
Renan, Abbe Hue, and Legge have participated.
As a proof that the Christian religion is not new in
China, but was introduced into Shensi a.d. 635, the
Nestorian tablet has always been a very useful argu-
ment for missionaries ; they have stoutly defended
its authenticity against the scepticism of some anti-
quaries like Professor Salisbury of Yale College,
who published an article in 1853 to prove that the
Nestorian Tablet was a forgery. The more recent
researches, however, of Legge and Wylie have
established, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the
Nestorian Tablet is what Chinese scholars have
always regarded it, a truthful record of the first
Christian mission in China. But my visit to the
famous tablet convinced me that very few of the
learned missionaries or laymen who have written
about it had ever visited it.

260

TAMA.

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

The Nestorian Tablet was first mentioned
in the " History of the Great and Renowned
Monarchy of China " by Alvarez Semedo, Roman
Catholic procurator of the provinces of China and
Japan. He told of the discovery of the monument
by workmen, who were excavating for the founda-
tions of a building in Sian in 1625. Semedo says
that the Governor of Shensi " caused it to be placed
upon a fair pedestal under a small arch sustained
by pillars at each end thereof."* Abbe Hue, in his
description of the Nestorian Tablet, says that he
had been informed by Jesuit missionaries in Sian
that a pagoda had been built over the monument,
and Williamson, in "Journeys in North China,"
speaks of the Nestorian Tablet being imbedded in
a wall. None of these descriptions give the slight-
est idea of the present condition of the tablet, as I
saw it, and as it can be seen by any one in Sian
who will take the trouble to walk to a neglected
field, about a mile beyond the western gate of the
city.

At the back of the field, some distance from
the road, is a small dilapidated Taoist temple ; in
front of it are scattered heaps of mouldy brick and
broken stone columns, which may or may not be
the ruins of the Nestorian cathedral. In the midst
of the ruins are three tablets, side by side. They
are not protected either from vandals or the ele-

* Hsian past and present, published by North China Herald, Shanghai,
page 13.

261

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

ments, but are merely mounted on stone tortoises
after the fashion of many Chinese tablets. Two
of the three are only commonplace memorials
of mandarins. On the centre tablet, higher than
the others, a small Greek cross is visible near the
top, and this is the Nestorian Tablet. Under the
cross are three short columns of Chinese char-
acters, which constitute a heading to the inscription
that follows. The heading may be translated, "The
eulogistic verses on the stone monument commem-
orating the diffusion of the illustrious religion in
the Middle Kingdom, with prefatory notices."*
The greater part of the inscription that follows is
in Chinese, but it also contains a few supplementary
paragraphs in Syriac, a language now unknown in
China. After a long exposition of Christian doc
trine, including the birth of Christ, who is called
"Ta Tsin," the inscription says that during the
reign of the Emperor Tai Tsung (a.d. 627-649) a
man of the " highest virtue " named Olupun came
to Sian from Syria. He brought with him the
" True Scriptures," which he expounded to the Em-
peror with the result that Tai Tsung issued a proc-
lamation beginning, ** Systems have always the same
name, sages have not always the same personality.''
The proclamation declared Olupun's " system " to
be "helpful to all creatures and profitable to men."

* The short extracts from the inscription on the Nestorian tablet, that
I have quoted here are taken from Professor Legge's translation contained
in "Christianity in China," Triibner & Co., London, 1888.

262

^ *- ** a * h ^ -K * •^- it ?■•< jK. 't4. ?;. * '

: ^ i V-- ^- ^ i r; -^ <!. -- ii A « vi :r^ -t 4 ^ i^< ,'. ^ »i- •$■
•-i A £. -Ir -ii"5^ * -^ ^1 A ■5' -S f^i.-^^', -f-^- ff: mi] ^■■•■i' -i- t ff.

,. - -fi 'J*^ -t-'ff -f? ?r '9;-5' t^-S-ft. iLji "-, •;;

! ■ -^««S7.-«l/l:i'': l; «,:$ ** ,=s S-^til^-iij^'t.-iC ^ ,n K i,

V ^', :^i.■s.l.^f^± i; >{.^-4 B, ,r «p T gg.;^ ,a ^,5 -s'f a '«■ *; j'^ ^

•:- ■■^ .V: ■« ? * :^.!' 'f- «i ^ v' ''^'^-^^'U U « -fu--

V4 ^ £'*.,« ic- .;l ^. >f *r :?: -.!? t- a ^- jt ^ f, ^^.jjj.-^. ^f ,'9 i£_-^-

f^--K-jr / ■. ,- .^_ ■-, .- ,",>; iL^^ifs ;ii A^x'^sy^-.?'; .«) .»}■ t"A'■js-^-f;•
••' •" « * /L » i*-.^' f^- m ."t Tv .>'2 ^f - ,;: •>.; ".'.

;,s*jt4 ^ ff.^ ■■• --^ -. ;//v', .•

i vlfi ^^ g .. * ,; J -i;, ^ :g ^,*t =t-ji ^tq :. ^ _j,-,=.
r -r^ ^iii K ;i <«■ -.V fi' -j: Tt S i^'-^' r^.r, ,f'^^

''!-^:ii:'^!%hf^,%

^ -:■. ^^ J-. «• t t ii <• I;-
.* 'fro-- vri^t^ .-i ?c ^r^

THE NESTORTAN TABLET.

SOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

According to the tablet, the succeeding reign
of Kao Tsung was a period of great prosperity
for Christianity in China, and one would almost
infer from reading the inscription that the Emperor
himself was a convert to it. " He caused monas-
teries of the illustrious religion to be erected in
every one of the Prefectures." The persecutions of
Wu How are tactfully passed over in the inscrip-
tion with the statement that the " Buddhists, taking
advantage of their strength, made their voices heard,"
and "some inferior officers greatly derided the
Nestorians, slandering them and speaking against
them." During the succeeding reigns of the eighth
century, the new religion made such headway, so
the inscription narrates, that a large part of the
population of Shensi must have become Christian.
The inscription concludes with a fulsome eulogy
of the reigning Emperor Chien Chung (780-783),
and one of his ministers named I-sze, who was
originally a Buddhist priest from India, but who
apparently had been converted to Christianity.

Chinese antiquaries hold the Nestorian Tablet
in great veneration as an historical curiosity, and rub-
bings of the main part of the inscription are easily
obtainable in Sian, but impressions of the top of the
monument containing a picture of the cross are not
for sale anywhere. I had to hire a man to make
the rubbing that is reproduced on the opposite
page. I also obtained an impression of a little in-
scription on the side of the tablet which, so far as I

263

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

have been able to discover, has escaped the atten-
tion of all of the eminent commentators on the
monument. Dr. Martin has translated this supple-
mentary inscription for me, as follows: "In the
reign of Hien Fung, 1079 years after the erection
of this monument, it was visited by Han Tai Hua,
of WuHn, who caused the pavilion to be rebuilt. I
grieve that my deceased friend, Governor Woo,
could not be with me on this occasion." Hein
Fung was an emperor of the present dynasty, who
reigned from 1851 to 1862. The inscription may
mean that during this period the tablet stood in a
pavilion, in the wall of which Williamson saw it
when he visited Sian in 1866, and, furthermore, that
Han Tai Hua's pavilion was the successor of the
former one referred to in earlier descriptions of the
tablet.

The most common criticism of the Nestorian
Tablet by men sceptical of its authenticity is the
question, What became of the Nestorians? The
sudden disappearance of their converts, their 3,000
priests and their monasteries, caused hardly a ripple
in the stream of Chinese history. An edict issued
in 841 by the Emperor Wu Tsung explains why
they disappeared. Wu Tsung was a fanatical
Taoist, who persecuted Buddhists and Nestorians
alike. "As to the religions of foreign nations,"
says his edict, "let the men who teach them, as
well as those of Ta Tsin ... be required
to resume the ways of ordinary life and their un-

264

THE CROSS THAT SURN'IX'KD.

oOME SHENSI MONUMENTS

substantial talkings no more be heard." The fate
of the Nestorians does not seem to me to be a mat-
ter difficult of conjecture. Like every other for-
eign-born influence that has been left to itself to
battle with the traditional conservatism of Shensi,
the Christianity of the eighth century was simply
dissolved in its environment as easily as the waters
of a spring might lose themselves in the sands of
the desert. When placed under the ban by the
Government, Nestorians became Chinese again,
and the " illustrious religion " was lost in the civili-
sation of the Sons of Han.

But the cross on the stone survived.

265

CHAPTER XVIII

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

IT was in the last week of November that Mr.
Duncan and I began our journey from Sian
back to "civilisation." The climate at that season,
in North China, was too cold to permit of our return
over the route by which I had come. The only way
possible was down the Han River to Hankow,
nearly six hundred miles to the southward. From
the leader of a caravan we learned that the Han
was then navigable from Lung Ku Chai, a town
only one hundred and twenty miles distant, but
reached by a mountain-trail so difficult that seven
days were considered necessary for the journey on
the back of a Chinese pony. Business that de-
manded my attention in Shanghai made a speedy
return to the coast necessary for me, but several days
more were necessary for the completion of Mr.
Duncan's work in Sian, We therefore decided to
attempt the seven days' ride in five. I knew that
it meant some desperate travelling, but there was
no help for it, and we made our preparations accord-
ingly.

We secured from the Shen mandarin an
escort of six soldiers, mounted on ponies that were

266

/^ vS

#w*

TIIIl nestorian taulet.

HAPPIXESS WITH DIVINE PROTECTION.

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

supposed to be possessed of exceptional endurance
and strength. Two days before our departure from
Sian, Wang started with our luggage on three
mules for Lung Ku Chai, with orders to wait there
for our arrival. We carried with us, in our pookas,
only two cans of beef, a few cans of condensed
milk, and three bars of chocolate. It was out of
the question to divide the journey to Lung Ku
Chai into systematic stages in the short time we
had allowed to accomplish it, and we were prepared
not to depend upon kung kwans for shelter, but to
ride as far as we could every day, staying at the inn
of the village, which we happened to reach at sun-
down. In our party was a Chinese scholar of Sian,
who had been appointed by the governor of Shensi
to go to Shanghai to study foreign methods of edu-
cation. The mandarin of the palace called on me
the evening before we left, to say good-bye.
" Some day," he said, " I may visit the barbarian
countries, and if I do, I shall try to see you." I am
sure that he thought that all the countries of the
world, outside of China, combined, amounted to less
than the province of Shensi, but for all that he was
a very good friend, and I sincerely hope that his
head is still on his shoulders.

A cold north wind was whirling the dirt of Sian
streets into dust eddies on the morning when we
climbed on our ponies in front of the "American
kung kwan " and clattered over the stone pavements
through the south gate. Across the plain to the

267

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

southeast, stretched the white road ending near
the horizon edge in the high, blue mountains of the
Tsingling range, which forms the southern boundary
of the plain of Sian. The higher peaks were cov-
ered with snow, and flashed in the sunlight of the
morning.

The Tsinglings are the water-shed of China.
Near their crest was one of the sources of the
Han River, whose windings we were to follow to
the Yang tse and to the sea. About half a mile
beyond the gate of Sian we found a troop of
cavalry drawn up by the side of the road awaiting
us. Their leader was an elderly man whose rank as
a military mandarin was indicated by his red button
and horse-tail cockade. As we approached, the
soldiers dismounted and, standing at their ponies'
heads, made a salute by dropping on one knee.
The mandarin prostrated himself in the dust and
then, rising, took hold of Mr. Duncan's stirrup. He
said that he had been sent by the Governor, Li
Shao Fen to carry his farewell to his " friend," the
" missionary of Sian," who had done much for
Shensi and who had laboured to feed its starving
people. By the side of the road, about an hour
after leaving Sian, we passed a little temple that
was in nowise different from thousands of other
little places of worship in Shensi. An inscription
over the entrance said: "On this spot the great
Fuhi was born." From the indifferent way in
which a soldier pointed it out to me it was hard

268

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

to realise that Fuhi was less recent than Washing-
ton.

By nightfall we had reached the little town of
Lan tien, at the base of the mountains. At the inn
where we spent the night we were visited by two
mandarins. One was the magistrate of the town
and the other came from another district some ten
miles away. A few days before, an Imperial edict
had been promulgated at Sian ordering all the man-
darins of the province to introduce " New Learn-
ing " into the curriculum of the schools under their
jurisdiction. New Learning is the general term
employed in China to denote the systems of educa-
tion of Europe and America, including a study of
geography and the history of nations other than
China. New Learning has for several years been a
bone of contention between the liberal and anti-
foreign factions in the government, and until re-
cently it met with the strong opposition of the
Empress Dowager. But either as a means of
conciliating the missionaries and foreign ministers,
or because recent happenings had convinced her of
the need of a change in educational methods she
had allowed this remarkable edict to emanate from
her sedan-chair on the homeward journey.

The edict caused almost a panic among Shensi
mandarins, who to a man were opposed to New
Learning in every form. The object of the visit of
the two mandarins at Lan tien was to consult with
Mr. Duncan as to the best way of introducing New

269

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

Learning as speedily as possible. It was their
evident belief that the little good in any especial
knowledge that barbarians possessed could be ac-
quired by a Chinaman within a few weeks. They
asked where they could obtain text-books for the
use of children in the schools. Mr. Duncan offered
to send to the two mandarins several copies of
different Chinese school geographies and histories,
from which they could make a selection. This
offer they politely declined. " Oh, no," said one of
our visitors, " we read only books in Wen li (the
official dialect), and anything written by foreigners
would contain so many errors of language that it
would be really distasteful to us ; besides, no books
of New Learning could teach us anything. Our
Emperor has directed that some forms of foreign
knowledge shall be taught in the schools, and we
must obey his command, but as mandarins and
gentlemen we wish to have nothing to do with it."
The conversation of the two mandarins at Lan
tien is an excellent example of the spirit in which
the much-talked-of " educational awakening " is re-
ceived in the interior of the Middle Kingdom.

The approach to the Tsinglings gives no indi-
cation of their difficulties. The plain, as level as a
table, extends in unbroken monotony to the base of
the mountains. Without any preliminary rise of
ground, the rut-worn road narrows into a path only
wide enough for a pony or mule, and then suddenly
takes a sharp turn upward. The transition from a

270

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

level to the ascent is so abrupt that one is almost
unprepared for the lurch backward in the saddle
that he receives as his pony begins to climb. After
about fifteen minutes our ponies began to lather
and to pant painfully. As we reached an excep-
tionally steep quarter of a mile the shijang dis-
mounted and cutting his pony sharply with the
whip, seized him firmly by the tail. The rest of the
party followed the shijang's example, and in single
file we were dragged up the mountain-side. This
manoeuvre was repeated many times a day during
our journey through the mountains. In fact, a pas-
sage through the Tsinglings might be described as
China seen from a pony's tail.

A certain amount of judgment and a knowl-
edge of the methods of ponies is necessary, how-
ever, for this method of travel. A horse in
China has a happy faculty of kicking on very
slight provocation. It is safe to take hold of his
tail only when the road is so steep and rocky
that were he to lift his hind legs from the ground
long enough for a kick he would fall over a preci-
pice or slip backward. The pony realises the dan-
ger of his position quite as well as the man he is
pulling up the mountain-side ; he makes no protest
until level ground is reached, when he invariably
kicks vigorously. When a line of travellers is toil-
ing upward in single file, each man looks anxiously
around his pony's flanks, at the shijang, who is in
the lead. As he approaches a temporary respite in

271

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

the climb, he gives a sharp " Hi" and lets go of his
pony's tail. Instantly all the rest follow his example,
at the same time stepping well away from the hoofs
in front of them. One by one, as the ponies reach
the level, they kick and rear and plunge; then they
settle down again and are ready for the next climb.

On the summit of the first mountain we paused
to take a last look at the plain. It lay spread out
below us like a huge map, seamed with white roads
and dotted with mud villages. Across it, to the
northward, twisted the old Wei Ho on its way to
join the Yellow River at Tung Kwan. Far away
to the northwest the gray walls and towns of Sian
were ruggedly outlined against the intense blue of
the Shensi sky. Steep and rugged as was the trail
which we were following, men had come and gone
over it since Fuhi took his first toddling steps on
that loess plain five thousand years ago. Hundreds
of generations had looked on that land at the base
of the Tsinglings. But they were nearly all chil-
dren of the Yellow race, all " Sons of Han." To
the West it was still a hidden country.

The dense population of China is left behind
when one plunges into the mountains of South
Shensi. The one trail passes through a wilder-
ness in which the signs of human habitation grow
fewer and fewer the farther one advances into
it. After leaving Lan tien, there are no villages,
and between the isolated caravan towns are only
a few scattered farm-houses. These, too, disappear

272

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

after the second day of the journey, and for hours
the traveller rides and climbs and slips through soli-
tudes as unbroken as in the most newly discovered
country of the world. In the loneliness of the
mountain defiles it is really a relief to hear the
distant tinkle of the bell of an approaching caravan.
It is almost the only sound that breaks the stillness
of the Tsinglings. The wilderness is treeless. The
mountain-sides are covered with coarse underbrush
and grass. There are no whispering pines and no
singing birds. The only winged things are a few
flocks of crows. As far as the crest of the range
there are no streams of any size, and the sameness
of the mountains prevents in this part of them any
beauty of landscape.

A number of men on foot are to be met
with in the trails. Hanging from sticks across
their shoulders, are baskets of merchandise that
they carry hundreds of miles from the Yang tse
into Shensi. Occasionally, too, one encounters
processions of lumber-carriers. The round, un-
hewn timbers are strapped together in the form
of a letter A ; through the apex the carrier sticks
his head and then struggles with his load up the
mountain-side. In the fastnesses are several bands
of robbers. Some of them are political criminals
who have been outlawed, and to whom brigandage
is the only possible means of earning a livelihood.
Because of the robbers, travellers on foot never go
through the mountains alone, but always in groups

273

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

for mutual protection. Even mule caravans never
travel at night, and two or three of the muleteers
are always armed with broadswords. Shen towns
in the Tsinglings are dreary little clusters of houses
along the trail. The two or three hundred inhabi-
tants earn a livelihood by giving shelter and food
to passing caravans.

The most important building in every town
is the inn. It is always large and noisy and dirty.
A peculiarity of Chinese muleteers is their ability
to get along with very little sleep. After their
evening meal they gather about a candle in one
of the rooms of the inn, where they play dominoes
and gamble for cash until long after midnight.
When the caravan starts at daybreak few of the
drivers have had more than four hours sleep, yet
they are always cheerful and talkative, and ready
for another twelve hours of clambering and mule-
beating. As we were making a dash through the
mountains it was necessary for us to leave the inn
every day an hour before sunrise. Our horses
would be saddled and brought into the road in
front of the gate, and we would issue from our
rooms as noiselessly as possible, stepping over the
prostrate bodies of drivers sleeping beside their
mules on the hard ground of the court-yard.

Our noon meal was usually eaten near some
farm-house. From the farmer we could buy a little
rice and a few eggs, and from his well we could
obtain enough water to make three cups of choco-

274

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

late. Tired and faint as we often were after seven
or eight hours' climbing and riding, we never dared
to linger long over our food in the middle of the
day for fear of a stiffness in our joints that would
prevent our covering an equal distance in the after-
noon. Inns and brick beds soon lost all their
horrors. The most delightful sight of the day was
the group of dirty houses where we were to find
shelter for the night. After two cups of tea, a
bowl of rice, or some canned beef, we would crawl
into our sheepskins and sleep as only exhausted
barbarians can, until we felt the touch of the shi-
jang's awakening hand in the morning. We always
started by the light of the stars, and very beautiful it
was to see them, one by one, flicker out as the rays
of the sun shot up from behind some mountain-
top.

There are a few jaguars in the mountains, and
some wolves of whose depredations great stories are
told. Shensi inn-keepers, after the fashion of their
guild the world over, take great delight in telling
their patrons of marvellous happenings in the coun-
try where their inns happen to be. In such con-
versations, wolves are a favourite subject. I have
listened to accounts of how wolves entered villages
and carried away children, of how they attacked
caravans, and of how they prowled around temples
and hid behind idols in a search for unwary pil-
grims, but I never yet heard of a wolf seeking his
prey in an inn. Inn-keepers never laid the scene of

275

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

their stories in one of their own taverns. Bold and
bad as Shensi wolves may be, they are sensible
enough to avoid entering one of the awful inns of
the country.

I never met any wild wolves in the Tsing-
lings, but the curious dogs about the farm-houses
always looked to me like wolves that had been
tamed. As you ride up to a mountain farm-
house, three or four animals, that seem for ail
the world like American prairie wolves, come run-
ning out to meet you. Their colour is a brownish
gray. They have pointed noses and bushy tails.
They look genuine and ferocious, and you wonder
whether their hunger can be stayed with a can of
corned-beef while you make a hurried dash for life,
but as you dismount and make their acquaintance,
you find that their manners are not at all wolfish,
but that they are just simple, kindly dogs who rub
up against your legs and who do not share their
master's prejudice against foreigners.

On the morning of the third day we came up-
on a little temple by the roadside ; over its arched
entrance were carved the words, "Here the waters
divide." By the temple side was a spring, from
which a tiny stream trickled down the side of the
mountain. This was one of the sources of the Han,
one of the great rivers of China. We had reached
the water-shed. On one side of the temple all the
streams flowed northward toward the Yellow River.
From the other side their direction was south to the

276

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

Yang tse. From where our horses stood by the
temple arch, we could watch the windings of the
water from the spring. Near the base of the moun-
tain, the stream was joined by two other brooks,
and began its course as a full-fledged river through
a gorge. All the rest of the way through the
mountains, the trail followed the windings of the
river. Sometimes we rode for miles on a gravelly
bottom that the current had covered in high water.
Often we crossed it, and occasionally we rode along
a narrow shelf on the sides of the gorge hundreds
of feet above the stream.

As we got farther into the gorges, the scenery
became more beautiful. To the Chinese, a great
river is a thing sacred, and is to a certain extent an
object of worship. On the wildest and most in-
accessible promontories of the Han were little shrines
and temples. At times from some precipice we
could look down on a tiny waterfall or a rapid where
the stream was churned white with foam. The sides
of the gorges were bare rock that seemed to have
been split by some convulsion of nature. Along
their sides the trail had apparently been partially
chiselled out of the rock and then had been widened
by a wall of stone. Riding along a gorge ledge,
six feet wide, a hundred feet above a river, is not the
pleasantest kind of travelling, but as long as one can
keep his seat on the back of a sure-footed pony, there
is little danger, except in meeting a long mule car-
avan coming from an opposite direction. The road

277

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

is hardly wide enough to permit of two animals pass-
ing, and to add to the difficulty, mules always have
the effect of making the ponies shy and plunge, and
evince a strong desire to jump over the edge of the
precipice.

For half an hour our ponies had been creeping
cautiously along the ledge one afternoon, when we
suddenly heard the harsh " tur tur " of a caravan of
mules approaching from the other side of the pro-
montory we were rounding, which had hidden them
from us. Our shijang reined short and looking
back gave a quick command. Every man in the
line sidled his pony close against the side of the
rock so as to keep the inside of the road. A min-
ute later the nose and ears of the bell mule came
around the point of the promontory. Every pony
rose on two legs wild with fright. But the shijang
only urged his pony forward by plying his whip
and we followed. Had we halted at that moment,
some horse and rider might have gone into the
Han, a hundred feet below, but by persistently
moving ahead we were shut in by a barrier of
mules. Our ponies had not room enough to turn
around, so that their only recourse was to plunge
forward close to the wall that rose above us. The
caravan was a long one, and several especially dis-
agreeable mules made lunges at us with their hind
legs. The soldiers were prepared for this, and
whenever they saw a mule get too close, crack
would go a whip and a saddened mule would hurry

278

A RURROWKD FARM-HULSli.

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

back to join the caravan. It seemed to me a very
ticklish experience that I was glad to have ended
safely on the rocky shelf, and not in the rushing
torrent below.

Through the medium of Mr. Duncan's inter-
preting, I told the shijang that I greatly admired
the nerve and coolness he had displayed in guiding
us past the mules. He smiled kindly at my bar-
barian fears. "In riding," he said, "there is never
any danger if you can only make your pony do
what you want him to." The shijang was a fair
specimen of the kind of soldiers who rode with me
through China. The pay of men of their kind is
about three dollars a month ; their food is rice and
tea. Their grotesqueness is a source of endless
amusement to every foreign second lieutenant sta-
tioned in Tien-tsin and Shanghai, but I am just un-
military enough to believe that if these same sol-
diers, who wear gaudy uniforms and who tie their
queues around their heads, received half the training
and drill over which Tommy Atkins grumbles daily,
they might surprise men who wear V. C's and Black
Eagles.

The scarcity of population in the Tsinglings is
shown by the fact that the whole district from Sian
to the borders of Honan is embraced in the one
prefecture of Shang, an old walled town on the
banks of the Han. For fifty miles south of Shang
one frequently sees openings high up on the moun-
tain-side just large enough to permit of one person

279

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

entering at a time. These are the entrances to
huge caves that are places of refuge for the scat-
tered farmers of the community. In time of war
or rebellion, when an alarm of an approaching
enemy is sounded, the inhabitants of the entire
country-side hurry to the caves and hide in them
until the danger is passed. The cave entrances,
I passed, were always in the steepest parts of the
mountain and were not approached by road or
pathway. How the refugees succeeded in enter-
ing them I was never able to discover. In the
face of a bluff overlooking the Han, I counted as
many as fifteen of these odd-looking holes, which
one of the soldiers told me had been made during
the Mohammedan rebellion.

A fondness for digging caves is a peculiarity
of the people of Shensi. On the larger farms the
granary and storehouse is usually a cave in the side
of the mountain. Of the thousands of famine-
victims who starved to death in the caves of Sian
suburbs, I have already spoken. On the plain near
San Yuan, I saw several Shensi homes that were
simply burrows dug under the loess soil like rabbit
warrens. They were in some cases divided into
rooms and were lighted by a hole through the sur-
face of the ground. But the refuge caves of the
Tsinglings were the strangest form of the cave-
building habit that I saw manifested anywhere in
China. In our hurried ride past them I had no
opportunity of exploring them. It is possible that

280

THROUGH THE TSINGLINGS

a study of the caves of Southern Shensi might ex-
plain some of the unanswered questions of the cliff-
dweller remains of our own country.

Late on the afternoon of the fifth day after
leaving Sian, we clattered over the stone pavement
of the one long street of Lung Ku Chai. Our
ponies were lathered and drooping. Our last
bar of chocolate and our last drop of condensed
milk had been consumed at the day's noon meal.
Our voices were husky and our clothes were travel-
stained. As faint and aching I finally drew up at
the gate of the inn, the first person I saw was
Wang, who had arrived only an hour before us.
He, too, showed the effects of a journey through the
Tsinglings. His velvet blouse was covered with
dust and his queue was sadly dishevelled. He had
bruised his knee in climbing a mountain and
limped painfully, but from the piles of luggage still
strapped to the pack saddles in the court-yard, he
had extracted my shaving kit.

As a soldier half lifted me from the saddle,
Wang handed me my razors. "For five days," he
said, " the beard of my master is growing. I think
maybe he like to cut it off." I thanked him for
his thoughtfulness, but I added, " You are in a
great deal worse shape than I am. You needn't
trouble about me. Have your queue braided and
then lie down on your pooka and take a nap."
He smiled with the far-aw^ay, rather sad smile of
his race. " It would not be right for me to sleep,

281

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

sir," he said, " before I see that you are resting.
The queue is Chinese ; it can wait patiently, but
the beard is European ; it cannot wait ; it must go
quickly."

282

CHAPTER XIX

ON THE HAN

NO one but a Chinaman would ever think of
calling the upper Han navigable. For
more than a hundred miles below Lung Ku Chai
the water is seldom more than two feet deep and in
many places the sandy bottom can be seen at a depth
of five inches.

As a means of facilitating the transportation
of the vast amount of freight that comes into
Shensi by way of the Han, any ordinary race would
deepen the river by dredging, but that is not the
Chinese way. The natural depth of the river must
not be changed. Boats must be adapted to meet
conditions that have always existed. Han River
boats are entirely different from the junks so com-
mon both on the coast and the larger rivers of
China. Through the Han gorges the boats are
canoes, remarkably like those of North American
Indians. The boats are pointed at both ends and the
prow and stern are both continued above the gunwale
in long, sweeping curves. Although they are with-
out keels the sides of Han River canoes have a sheer
slope toward the centre of the bottom, which is
seldom more than four inches wide. This shape

283

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

helps to steady the canoes and prevents their up-
setting when rounding a sharp turn in the river or
in passing through a rapid. Ever since the Chi-
nese have had boats they have divided them into
water-tight compartments on the same principle
which has been introduced into the construc-
tion of ocean liners during the last quarter of a
century.

In many junks the compartment bulkheads are
only high enough to protect the keel, but in Han
River canoes they extend to the gunwales. They
are very awkward to climb over when one has to
pass from one end of the boat to the other, but they
make it impossible for the canoe to sink in case of
an accident. If a boat on the Han were cut in two
both sections would still remain afloat. Although
the canoes are built for carrying freight, they are
made habitable for passengers by covering them
with a roof of matting stretched on a bamboo
frame. Between the bulkhead compartments
shelves are nailed that serve as benches by day and
as beds at night. At the bow and stern is a small
triangular deck, fitted with a clumsy row-lock.
Through this is inserted a long handle with a flat
board on the end that performs the double duty of
oar and rudder. At this oar the boatmen take
turns when the water is deep enough to permit of
its use, but most of the time the propelling power
is only the long poles over which the crew toil and
perspire.

284

'^ i^l

1 T

ON THE HAN

The crew of a canoe usually consists of five
men, under a captain who is called a lowban. In
some cases the lowban is also the owner of the
boat, but most of the Han canoes are owned by a
Chinese transportation company, whose headquar-
ters are in Honan. Contracts for freight and
passengers are made with the lowban. For the
voyage through the gorges we chartered three
canoes.

Two of them we fitted up as living quarters,
and the third served as a kitchen, dining-saloon,
and sleeping apartments for servants and the sol-
diers who accompanied us. Our meals were cooked
in a little mud oven that we purchased in Lung Ku
Chai, together with some fagots for fuel and a sup-
ply of fresh eggs, rice, and tea, that constituted our
commissariat. About daybreak on the morning fol-
lowing our arrival in Lung Ku Chai, the lowbans
shouted to their crews. The poles were shoved
into the mud of the bottom and our three canoes,
in procession, were headed down the Han.

The boatmen of the gorges are strange folk,
who neither look nor act like other Chinese, but
both in appearance and manner are as much like
North American Indians as their boats are like
canoes.

Their skins are the colour of copper, and their
features are straight, with high cheek-bones and
eyes less almond-shaped than those of the Mongol
type. They are tall, straight men, very agile and

285

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

sinewy. They are taciturn and rather gruff. Their
conversation is usually carried on in monosyllables.
They smile sometimes, and occasionally startle one
by the suddenness and loudness of their laughter,
but they say little. To me they always seemed de-
void of the ordinary Chinese fondness for argument
and serious conversation. The men of the upper
Han were the only Chinese I have ever met with
who disliked their queues. I Kave never known a
boatman to remove the turban that he wore over
his queue tightly coiled around his head. Among
the boatmen it is regarded as a disgrace for a man
to allow his queue to be seen. This feeling once
prevailed all over China. The queue was original-
ly a mark of subjection enforced upon the Black
Haired People, four hundred years ago, by the
Manchus, but the braided hair soon became fash-
ionable and is to-day generally regarded by Man-
chus and Chinese alike as a m.an's chief beauty.

Han boatmen never get nearer to the thickly
populated part of the Empire than the borders of
the province of Hupeh, where all freight bound up
or down the river is transferred from their canoes
to junks. Their wives and children, whom they sel-
dom see, live in isolated villages that are hidden
away among the mountains.

The boatman's days and nights are spent on
the old river, whose primitive wildness has never
been disturbed during the thousands of years it has
been traversed by the Sons of Han. To a man of

286

ON THE HAN

the gorges, the river is not only a means of liveli-
hood, it is his life and his religion.

Although in the wildest part of the Han cliffs
one finds shrines and temples, they are of little
interest to the men who pole slowly past them.
The boatmen have a religion that is all their own
and that is neither Buddhist nor Confucian. A
kind of primitive Pantheism prevails in the gorges.
The trees and rocks and the river itself are peopled
by spirits, some of vv^hom are good and some evil.
The spirits are omnipresent and never sleep ; they
are all under the control of a mysterious being
called the River Dragon. Occasionally he renders
assistance to good boatmen, but most of the time,
so far as I was able to discover, he is an intensely
disagreeable person. He sends adverse winds and
he puts hidden rocks in the shallows. Like the
traditional Manitou of the Indians, the River
Dragon sometimes assumes the form of a bird or
a tree. The home of the River Dragon is some-
where under the river, where there are green fields
and no mountains. Whenever a contrary wind is
blowing up the gorges, all the crew stop work.
The lowban sits cross-legged on the triangular deck
forward and makes a crooning noise in imitation of
the wind. This constitutes a sort of prayer to the
River Dragon for a favourable breeze. For several
days after our embarkation at La Ho Kien, I was
at a loss to understand why the boatmen w^ould
never tell how many li we had gone during the day

287

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

and would always grow sullen and morose when
asked questions about the journey.

As it was sometimes important for us to have
some idea of the progress we were making, I one
day took the lowban severely to task for his strange
dislike of discussing distances. " I don't want any
more nonsense about it," I said. " When you are
asked how far we have gone, you must reply."

" Do you not understand," the lowban asked,
in a pleading tone, "that the evil spirits are listen-
ing to every word we say ? If they understood that
we were in a hurry they would put obstacles in our
way from sheer malice. The only way is not to
let them know what we are doing."

At night the canoes are anchored by sticking
the poles through holes in the curved bows into the
mud of the river bottom. After the crew have
eaten their evening meal they make a little bonfire
of incense-sticks in the rice-kettle. This is an offer-
ing to propitiate the River Dragon and to secure
his favour for the next day's voyage. Around the
incense-fire the boatmen seem to throw aside some
of their habitual reserve. They tell stories about
the old spirits, and sometimes, led by the lowban,
they break into a song. It is the same kind of sing-
ing that one hears all over China, a sort of chant in
a guttural monotone that usually is discordant and
jarring. The only time and place where I found it
at all bearable, was at night in the gorges, where
the harshness of the singing was softened by its

288

ON THE HAN

echoes on the cliffs and mountains that surrounded
us. The greater part of the time the boatmen wear
no shoes, and their trousers are invariably rolled up
to their knees. Whenever a grating noise gives
warning that a canoe is fast on the bottom, the crew
jump overboard and begin a series of manoeuvres to
get it off. This is sometimes accomplished by pull-
ing and hauling at the bow and stern, but when
the shallow extends for some distance the lowban
produces a large wooden hoe from under the deck,
and with it the boatmen dredge out a canal into
deeper water.

Shallows and adverse winds and rocks make
travelling on the Han exceedingly slow. Twelve
miles is a good day's progress, and I doubt if any
other boatmen on earth would have the patience to
do so much strenuous shoulder shoving as is re-
quired for even this short distance. Shallow as is
the water of the river, one encounters rapids at
intervals of every twenty or thirty miles. Strewn
along the banks are numerous wrecks of canoes that
have gone to pieces on the jagged rocks that rise in
the midst of the current. On approaching a rapid,
the crews of our three boats would go ashore and
fasten long ropes to the sterns of the canoes. Then,
holding back with their united strength, they would
lower each boat down the descent, in much the same
way that a barrel might be let down into a cellar.

The gorges in some places are so narrow that
there is hardly room for two canoes to pass each

289

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSl

other. Whenever one of them runs aground on a
shallow, it partially blockades the river. All heavily
laden canoes bound up or down the river must wait
until the one aground has been floated again. Be-
fore this can be accomplished, the cargo may have
to be lightened, or a hole patched that has been
made in the bottom by a rock.

We frequently passed thirty or forty belated
boats waiting for the derelict to be dislodged. Our
canoes were always able to squeeze through the
press, partly because they were lighter and drew less
water than the rest, and also because Prince Ching's
card gave us special privileges on the Han as else-
where in China. Whenever we came to a blockade
our three soldiers compelled the boatmen of the
belated fleet to assist in pushing us through. The
shoulders of twenty stalwart men of the gorges
shoving at the stern of a boat whose only cargo is
four men and their pookas, furnished sufficient
motive power to carry us some distance over dry
ground.

The Chinese characteristic of knowing how to
wait is nowhere better illustrated than in these
blockades on the Han. In passing a blockade by a
shallow, we were, one day, hailed in English by a
passenger of one of the boats, who was a Chinese
telegraph operator on his way to a town in Hupeh.
He said that his canoe had been for three days in
the position where we saw it, but he added that
life on the Han was quite as pleasant as anywhere

290

ON THE HAN

else, and he had no objection to waiting for three
days more. Our crews looked upon the blockades
as places for resting, and several times complained
at our hurry to pass through them.

Like the canoes and the boatmen, the Han
gorges are themselves different from anything else
I have seen in China. Without inhabitants, without
farms or roads or carts, the land through which the
Han winds is a lonely wilderness that separates old
China from the new ; a lovely interim between the
crowded, grey plains of the North and of the South.
Most of China is a level field for the study of iso-
lated man and his work, his learning, his originality,
and his eternity ; but for three hundred miles below
Lung Ku Chai it is nature, beautiful and primitive,
that unfolds in an unending panorama as the canoe
drops down the river. It is really a relief to find
anything in the country of the isolated man that is
older than he. He seems never to have begun or
to have changed. He has always been as he is to-
day. But long before he came, the cliffs and the
mountains were as wild and simple as now.

This restfulness adds to the charm of the
gorges through which the Han wanders lazily on
its way to the Yang tse. Sometimes the shallow
current lingers around the base of a mountain tower-
ing far above. Sometimes the water is compressed
into a torrent that foams and bubbles through a fis-
sures pecially prepared to receive it. In such places
the walls of the gorge rise from the water's edge as

291

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

sheer and unyielding as the walls of a house, often
so high that they partially shut out the sunlight, and
the cabin under the matting is darkened at mid-day.
Again one floats for miles past sandy beaches, from
which the Han has receded and which form a white
margin at the base of the picture.

When there are no rocks along the gorges, the
hills and lower mountains are covered with under-
brush whose tints vary with the sky and the day.
At noon the colour of the gorges is green. In the
early morning they are purple, and when a sunset
ray flashes across them, hills and cHffs and river
take on a golden brown. Often the river seems to
end at a point in mid-stream where two opposite
mountains meet, but on nearer approach they are
seen to divide and make way for the current that
turns sharply around one of them. The boatmen
jump overboard and silently throw their shoulders
against the stern. The lowban shouts an order
and the canoe swishes on again.

There are birds, too, in the gorges, but, like
their environment, they are silent. No winged
song is heard in the solitudes. Pheasants occasion-
ally come out from underneath the bushes to stare
at the canoes as they pass ; and grey birds that
look like large pigeons with long, sharp bills, some-
times fly into the canoes and gaze at the human
beings under the matting. These birds are always
in pairs, and are for this reason called "married
birds." They are almost without fear of man, and

292

ON THE HAN

will often fly almost near enough to allow you to
touch them. The boatmen think that the birds may
be spirits in disguise and treat them with great re-
spect. They frequently throw to them grains of
rice that they can ill afford to spare from their own
scanty supply.

Oh, the nights on the Han when the anchor
poles were all stuck close to a white beach or in the
mud of some little cove, and the stars shone down
from a clear December sky ! It was at such times
that Wang and I would try to make the lowban
talk over his incense-fire and tell us stories about
the River Dragon and the wind spirits and all the
rest of the delightful old lies that were yet unwith-
ered by a knowledge of facts. I think that down
in the depths of his heart, Wang half believed the
lowban's yarns. He often took occasion during
our talks around the incense-fire to ask me " half
wild-child " questions that he kept carefully to him-
self at other times. He always asked them timidly
as though he expected that I would laugh at them.

"The lowban is foolish man," Wang once
said to me ; ** he does not understand right. The
dragon is not of the Han River only. He is the
big dragon that is everywhere. Some day he will
eat every good thing in the world so that it will dry
up and go to pieces. The European and the mis-
sionary say that such a thing is fool-talk. I sup-
pose you think so, too." I replied that to a very
large extent I agreed with him, and that I certainly

293

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

did believe in a universal dragon who was always
fighting against truth and light and who would
undoubtedly like to wither the world, but I said
that I did not consider the victory of the dragon a
foregone conclusion. It seemed to me that the
dragon was being constantly driven into the back-
ground, and that the time might come when he
would disappear altogether.

The nearest approach to a town — on the upper
Han — is the cluster of houses called Kingtse
Kwan that mark the boundary line between Shensi
and Honan. When the river is at especially low
water in mid-summer, Kingtse Kwan is the head
of navigation, and for that reason is a place of some
importance. Before the Boxer uprising it was the
centre of considerable mission activity, but the
missionaries were compelled to fly for their lives,
and their station was partially destroyed by a mob.
At Kingtse Kwan the river bends to the south-
ward, and for more than fifty miles its course is
through the western end of Honan.

On one of these days on the Han I was over-
taken by a mild attack of the fever that sooner or
later is almost certain to find every foreigner who
ventures far into China. As is usually the case, the
fever was as sudden as it was overpowering. Half
an hour after the appearance of the first symptoms
I was lying on my bunk under the matting with
my brain sadly tangled and my temperature rapidly
rising. ** Quinine, phenacetine, and perspiration " was

294

ON THE HAN

Mr. Duncan's treatment, and for fighting a Chinese
fever under difficulties I would rather trust the
"Missionary of Sian " than the most skilful physi-
cian in the world. The medicine was quickly ad-
ministered, from phials which the missionary always
carried in a raw-hide case ; but the carrying out of
the rest of the programme required some nursing,
and for this I was dependent upon Wang,

Nearly two months before, he had been carried
into a Shansi kung kwan suffering from a kind of
nervous exhaustion due to fatigue. I had sat up
with him during the night and I had taken care of
him, but all that I had been able to do for him
amounted to nothing, and I had almost forgotten
all about it ; but on the afternoon of my fever,
Wang said to me, " When I was sick you were to
me a father. You are my master, but besides you
belong my friend. You are European and I am
Chinese, but all the same we are one. When you
are sick it is for me to show that I can stick to you."

Besides all my own blankets and sheepskins, he
piled over me his own pooka, although it was his
only covering at night from the cold December
wind, against which the flimsy matting-roof of our
cabin afforded little protection. He stole several
sheepskins from the lowban, and added them to the
pile. While my fever lasted, Wang never left me
for a minute. He would not go into the cook-boat
for his meals, but lived on bowls of rice that he got
from the lowban. At night he lay down on the

295

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

narrow keel-board alongside of my bunk, but when
he slept I do not know. Whenever I awoke from
a kind of delirious sleep, there were Wang's black
eyes shining at me out of the darkness. If I kicked
off a pooka, he would jump up instantly and re-
place it on the pile again. He never said anything,
but occasionally when he thought I was sleeping he
would gently take hold of my hand to see if my
temperature had fallen.

After about thirty-six hours under the blankets,
I awoke one morning with the fever broken. " Hello,
Wang," I said. "You can take away some of these
things now. I am coming around." For reply, he
sprang up from the floor and shouted to Mr. Dun-
can, who was in the bow with the lowban. " It is
good thing. He is not crazy now." Many times
since, when I have read of the heathen darkness
and original sin that in the opinion of some persons
are the two chief elements in Chinese character, I
have thought of those two faithful black eyes that
were never closed during those feverish days and
nights in the gorges of the Han. Wang, with his
immobile yellow face and his long queue, was "only
a Chinaman," and he had only a Chinese heart and
a Chinese soul. But without him I never could
have gone through China. He perhaps saved my
life. I am proud to say that he was my " very good
friend."

296

CHAPTER XX

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

IF the wind spirits of the Han are not especially
unpropitious the voyager will on about the tenth
day after leaving Lung Ku Chai drift with the cur-
rent around a promontory out upon an abrupt wi-
dening of the river that at first sight seems almost
like a small lake. On one side, the bank rises in a
high bluff that is surmounted by a stone wall and
gateway, the unmistakable signs of a city. A stone
pier juts out into the river, and from it a stairway
winds up to the gateway. This is La Ho Kieu, one
of the river-towns of Hupeh. It is from this point
that the Han becomes essentially commercial. In
the river-bed are twenty or thirty junks of every
variety known to China. Some are for passengers
and some are for freight. Some are moored to the
wharf and some are anchored in mid-stream. On
the junks and about the wharves are crowds of men
transferring merchandise from one boat to another
and carrying it in long processions that wind in
single file up the stairway. The life and activity of
the scene are accentuated by contrast with the silent
gorges from which the canoe has just emerged. The
barrier mountains tower dim behind. The traveller

297

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

is on a mighty commercial river of commercial
China.

As in most of the towns in Western Hupeh, the
weaving of silk is the chief industry of La Ho Kieu.
In the fields about the town are thousands of mul-
berry trees, from which the cocoons are gathered,
and are brought in baskets to the factories in the
town. The exterior of a Chinese silk factory gives
little indication of the nature or extent of the busi-
ness carried on within. Chinese merchants of all
kinds seem always quite as anxious to conceal the
magnitude or the success of their enterprises as
Americans are to advertise them. A little sign
over a doorway informs the passer-by that this is
the entrance to a "silk shop." In the small front
room is a divan with the persistent tea-cups and the
right and left hand seats. No silk or any other kind
of merchandise is visible anywhere, and there is
nothing in the conduct of either the proprietor or
his clerks that indicates a desire to sell anything. A
customer sits on the divan while a servant brings
him a cup of tea. If he expresses a desire to pur-
chase, the proprietor begins taking from a chest in
the corner, roll after roll of silk, which he spreads
on a little table in the centre of the room. His
manner, meanwhile, is supremely indifferent. He
silently displays his wares without deigning an ex-
planation, much less urging a purchase. He takes
pains to unroll, at first, silk of a cheap and inferior
quality, reserving an exhibit of the finer grades until

298

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

his customer expresses a desire to see them. Across
a court-yard, in the rear of the shop, is the factory.
It consists of three or four large rooms, where can
be seen the entire process of silk manufacture from
the cocoon to the cloth.

Although the silk industry of China dates from
the time of Hwang Ti, 2800 b.c, and the processes
employed have never differed materially from what
they are to-day, the system of manufacture is remark-
ably like that found in large silk-mills on our side of
the world. The looms are quite as intricate as those
used in America, the only essential difference being
that the motive power in Hupeh is afoot-treadle in-
stead of steam. Two men are employed at every
loom, the weaver sits in front at the treadle and
works the shuttle while another man sets the pattern
above on a network of catgut strings. As silk
weaving is a form of skilled labour requiring three
or four years to master, a weaver receives the ex-
traordinarily high wages of fifty cents a day, which
is more than twice as much as can be earned by a
labourer in any other trade in Hupeh. The kind of
silk that I saw produced on the looms of La Ho
Kieu is very different from the flimsy material sold
in New York as China silk.

The silk cloth of Hupeh is very heavy and is
woven in brocaded patterns of various shades and
designs. An unfailing market for the product of
the mills is afforded by the government rule requir-
ing all of the thousands of mandarins to wear only

299

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

silk robes of a prescribed texture and fineness. In
the mill at La Ho Kieu hundreds of yards of this
brown "mandarin cloth" were slowly unwinding
from the looms.

At La Ho Kieu we said good-bye to our canoes
and the men of the gorges. The boatmen piled
our luggage carefully on the pier. Wang handed
to the lowbans the number of taels that we owed
them. They tested the genuineness of each lump
by knocking it on the flagstones ; they slipped
the money into pouches that hung from their belts,
then dropping on their knees they solemnly bumped
their foreheads on the wharf, in token of grati-
tude. As their canoes reached the middle of the
stream, the boatmen assembled on the afterdecks,
and, looking back at us, waved their hands in a
last farewell. I watched them sculling up-stream
against the current. As they disappeared around
the dark promontory I felt that the last link was
breaking that had bound me to old Shensi, the
country of the ancient plain and the primitive
mountains. We had left the by-path where dwelt
the River Dragon and the spirits and were now on
a highway, crowded with men and things, and
crowds on highways, even in China, always are
pressed forward toward realities. The land of
lingering and dreams was passed.

Compared with the canoes, the large junk on
which we embarked at La Ho Kieu was a modern
and convenient craft. It was divided into five

300

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

cabins and had a tiny little dining-room that re-
joiced in the luxury of a table and three wooden
stools.

In an extension built over the huge, ungainly
stern was a kind of house where lived the captain
and his wife. To them the junk was both a home
and a livelihood. The captain was an affable,
rather modern Chinaman, who had frequently
visited Hankow. He explained that although we
were the first passengers not Chinese whom his
junk had carried, he had often seen foreigners
before and *' had watched their ways." The junk
was fitted with a mast and a clumsy square sail that
was hoisted only with great difficulty and that
creaked and flapped painfully. My experience of
Han River boats has led me to believe that they
carry sails more from force of habit than as a
motive power.

There is scarcely a mile of the river that does
not contain at least two sharp angles around which
the junk must alter its direction. The same wind
that for a few minutes makes the heavy sail fill,
will cause it to flap or draw backward when the
junk changes its course, but it is such a difficult
task to lower the sail that although it is often an
impediment, it is usually allowed to remain set all
day after it has been hoisted in the morning. Far
more useful than the sail is the mast. For the
greater part of the way the peak is about on a
level with the top of the clay bluff that forms the

301

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

bank. From the mast-peak a tow-rope is carried
ashore. The captain and crew tie it around their
waists and then walk along the top of the cliff or
bluff slowly pulling the junk after them.

The number of junks on the Han is so great
that were the tow-ropes to be fastened to the bows
after the manner of American canal-boats, all craft
on the river would be constantly involved in a net-
work of ropes hanging close above the surface of
the water. But by elevating the tow-lines to the
peak of the mast, junks are enabled to pass under
them.

At the border line between Honan and
Hupeh the gorges disappear. From that point
to its junction with the Yang tse at Hankow
the Han flows between high clay banks. The
current is brown and murky, very different from
the clear, shimmering stream fed by springs in the
Shensi mountains. The towns which one finds
on the river-bluffs are all very much alike. They
have stone gateways, from which a flight of stone
steps descends to a pier extending into the river.
Occasionally on a beach in a cleft in the wall-like
bluff is a little mud village whose inhabitants make
strenuous efforts to sell eggs and vegetables to
passing junks. In the background of the villages
are often groves of bamboo-trees which from a dis-
tance look not unlike American willows. Hupeh,
too, is the country of the water-buffalo. Every
few miles on the Han one sees the long, drooping

302

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

horns of a buffalo just visible above the surface of
the water.

In Hupeh the buffalo divides with the cow the
labour of ploughing and harrowing the fields, but
the buffalo's capacity for work is not so great as
that of the patient, unmilked Chinese cow. A
buffalo must stand with all but his head immersed
for several hours every day to maintain his normal
equanimity. Although he is for the greater part of
the time a most docile beast of burden, if his daily
plunge in the river is denied him he becomes wild
and goes on a rampage, trying to kick and gore
everyone with whom he comes in contact. The
Hupeh way of characterising a man in a rage is to
say, " He is as mad as a water-buffalo."

It would be interesting to know the amount of
the annual tonnage of the Han River. If it could
be presented in figures the West might form some
adequate idea of the internal commerce of China.
The Han is one of seven or eight rivers, which, on
every day in the year, are crowded with thousands
of junks loaded to the gunwales with every form of
merchandise known to the Black Haired People.

The junks are of light draught, and, according
to Western ideas of shipbuilding, are ungainly and
top-heavy. Yet one of these flimsy boats is able to
carry an amount of freight that would tax the
capacity of a large American coasting schooner.
There seems to be almost no limit to the amount
of cargo which a fleet of junks can transport

3^3

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

from one point on the river to another. Chinese
ingenuity is in nothing more manifest than in the
methods of stowing freight. The cabins and upper
works are not nailed, but are merely fastened to-
gether by skilful dovetailing. When the cargo is
greater than the hull will hold, the cabins are re-
moved and the surplus of freight is piled high above
the gunwales. Cargoes of long timbers are tied
across two or three junks abreast, forming of them a
gigantic catamaran, on which the crew sleep and eat
and cook their meals as comfortably as on the floor
of a house. We passed some twenty or thirty junks
heavily laden with bales of American and British
cotton cloth. Room was always provided for an
extra bale by unrolling it and from it improvising
a temporary topsail. The cloth sail was never cut,
but on reaching its destination it was rolled up
again and delivered to the consignee in the origi-
nal bale that the boatman had received from the
shipper.

A voyage on a great waterway of China is
enough to convince anyone that there is consider-
able foundation for the Chinese argument against
a change to improved methods of transportation.
The crude and unwieldy junks on the Han River
must afford a means of livelihood to hundreds of
thousands of families. Were the river to be
dredged so as to be navigable for steamers, or were
it to be paralleled by a railroad, all of the men who
directly or indirectly make a living from the junks

304

■

H-

■^—

i I^^^^^^^^^^^H^ 1

1 i

i^H

Ih '

■

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

would be thrown out of work. In any other coun-
try in the world, there might be a chance of their
finding employment in some other trade or busi-
ness, but this is impossible in China, for the reason
that the division of labour is hxed and permanent.
There is no shifting of the centres of population or
the opening of new avenues of industry.

From birth to death every Chinese moves along
a path which his fathers trod before him. So long
as he is allowed to remain in that particular path he
will never be idle or in want, but if he be forced out
of it there is no alternative for him but to starve or
to become a vagabond or a Boxer. The prospect of
thousands of boatmen permanently unemployed is
enough to make a government far less conservative
than that of China hesitate before inaugurating
river improvements that would precipitate such a
calamity. It is significant that the Boxer fury first
manifested itself in the neighborhood of Tientsin
and Pekin, where a short railroad to the coast had
to a large extent destroyed the business of the
junks that for ages had carried freight up and
down the Pei Ho River. Almost without excep-
tion, the former boatmen were Boxers.

From La Ho Kieu to Hankow the Han is
patrolled by a succession of war junks, whose busi-
ness it is to prevent smuggling and to suppress the
river-pirates who now and then steal out at night
and rob fleets of freight-boats anchored near the
shore. Accustomed as I was by this time to the

305

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

appearance of slovenliness and neglect that char-
acterised everything belonging to the government,
the neatness and trim beauty of the war junks was
a pleasant surprise. They are by far the swiftest
and triggest craft on the river. Although built
after the model of an ordinary junk, their lines are
exceptionally graceful. The gunwale dips amid-
ships, the prow is lower, and the stern overhang is
less ungainly than in other boats.

A war junk is manned by a crew of about
twenty soldiers, who work the long oars. Soldiers
of the junks pride themselves on the beauty of their
uniforms. Their tunics are always of the gayest
colours, pink or green or purple, embroidered in
white or yellow braid. In a small cabin over the
stern are the quarters of the captain, who has the
rank of major in the Chinese army. But the
strangest thing about a war junk is its immacu-
late cleanliness, so completely at variance with the
country of its environment. Every morning and
evening the deck is washed and scrubbed, and the
crew spend most of their leisure hours in painting
their craft with a kind of shellac that prevents its
exterior from ever looking dirty or stained. The
most beautiful sight on the Han River is a war junk
cutting through the muddy water with twenty sol-
diers at the oars, their backs rising and falling in uni-
son. Because I possessed a little piece of red paper
inscribed with Prince Ching's name, we were accom-
panied down the river by a succession of war junks.

306

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

As each of them left us at the end of its line of
patrol a diminutive brass cannon on the bow would
be fired three times as a salute ; this would be an-
swered by the same number of shots from the reliev-
ing junk that was to accompany us for the next
stage of the journey.

At night the crew of the war junk anchored
alongside of us, manifested interest in our safety in
accordance with Chinese methods by beating a drum
once in every hour during the night. Although this
process made sleep impossible, it seemed to me base
ingratitude to tell the captains that I disliked the
noise that their men were kind enough to make for
my protection. I explained to them that I fully ap-
preciated the honour conferred upon me by the din
of the junk's drum, but that I felt so secure with their
brave men near me that I believed I could dispense
with it in order that the crew of the war junk might
sleep instead of keeping awake for the purpose of
making a noise. This expedient for stopping the
nightly drum-beating worked admirably. The war-
junk captains always thanked me for my considera-
tion of their men and allowed no sound to break
the stillness of the night more strenuous than the
ripple of the current around the prow.

On the opposite banks of a bend in the river,
fifty miles south of La Ho Kieu, are the Shen cities
of Fan Ching and Siang Yang. They are now
only sleepy, old river-towns with crumbling walls
and dilapidated wharves, but there was a time, seven

307

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

hundred years ago, when they successfully defied
the besieging armies of Kublai Khan. All the
country to the northward had been conquered by
the Mongols, but for two years the Chinese gar-
risons of Fan Ching and Siang Yang held the way
to the capital in Kai Feng. Again and again Kub-
lai's soldiers attempted to scale the walls and were
as often driven back. In despair at ever taking the
two stubborn cities, Kublai sent to his nephew in
Persia for cannon of an improved pattern.

By means of the huge missiles that these new
war engines hurled at the walls of Fan Ching a
breach was made that permitted the Mongols to
enter. Unable to continue the fight alone, Siang
Yang surrendered. The heroism of the garrisons
had so won the admiration of the Mongols that
Kublai spared their lives and took them all into his
own service. With the fall of Fan Ching and Siang
Yang the last hope of saving China from the Tar-
tars failed. Within a year afterward, Kublai Khan
was proclaimed in Pekin Emperor of China and
Mongolia.

Fan Ching to-day has a large market and con-
tains a few silk factories, but Siang Yang lives
largely upon its memories. Because of its traditions
it is a favourite place of residence for aged man-
darins, who have retired from active life with snug
fortunes accumulated by years of " squeezing." The
space within its walls is divided into gardens sur-
rounding the villas of its residents. Throughout

308

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

China Siang Yang is renowned for the glory of its
past and the exclusiveness of its present.

Early one morning, opposite to the village of
Yo Kia, we discovered a tugboat — by courtesy
called a steamer. It was owned by a Chinese com-
pany in Hankow who make a business of carry-
ing passengers and the mails up the river. We
hailed the steamer and climbed aboard, piling all
our blankets and pookas in a huge heap in the
centre of the deck in the midst of the Chinese pas-
sengers. We asked the young captain at what
hour he expected to reach Hankow. " About mid-
night," he replied. As the distance was only about
seventy miles, and the dirty tug made about nine
knots an hour, we were for a time at a loss to
understand why sixteen hours should be necessary
for the journey, but the reason became apparent in
the course of the afternoon when we anchored in
front of a town where a dragon flag on the top of the
bluff proclaimed the existence of a li-king station.

Li-king is the abominable internal revenue toll
which all Chinese boats must pay at intervals in
passing up and down rivers of the Empire. The
li-king tax is supposed to go to the general gov-
ernment, but, as a matter of fact, most of it is ap-
propriated by the mandarins in whose districts the
stations happen to be. In front of the li-king station
the fires of our steamer were allowed to go down
and preparations were made for a long wait. The
amount of li-king which our captain had to pay was

309

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

only 2,000 cash (about $1.40), but he explained that
the official in charge of the station was a " mean "
man who did not like the idea of steamboats sup-
planting junks in the carrying trade. " Just to
make trouble for us," the captain said, " the li-
king man usually detains me for two or three
hours before he will receive my money and let me
go on again." At Mr. Duncan's suggestion I gave
Prince Ching's card to the captain and told him to
show it to the " mean " man in offering to pay his
li-king.

Within ten minutes after he had left the boat,
the captain came running down the path from the
station, his face overspread with smiles. He at
once gave orders to heave anchor and start again.
He told us what had happened at the station.
" When I showed Prince Ching's card to the mean
man," he explained, " he asked where I got it. I
replied that it belonged to a passenger on the
steamer. * If you do not start within fifteen min-
utes,' said the mean man to me, 'I will have you
bambooed. Don't you have sense enough not to
delay a man who carries His Highness' card. Get
out quick and don't stand around here.'" The cap-
tain's gratitude to us for helping him to get the
better of the "mean" man knew no bounds. Af-
ter passing the li-king station he gave us special
privileges on the tug. We were allowed the ex-
clusive use of the dirty cabin aft of the engine, all
the first-class Chinese passengers being driven on

310

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

deck, and a boy, whose face, I am sure, had not
been washed for a month, was detailed to bring us
cups of tea at intervals of every half-hour.

The li-king station was the last place where
Prince Ching's card was of service to me. About
nine o'clock in that evening, twenty-one days after
leaving Sian, our steamer dropped anchor off the
Chinese quarter of Hankow. We loaded our be-
longings into three san pans and were slowly sculled
through a press of junks into the broad, dark Yang
tse. An hour later the square bows grated on the
stone coping of the embankment that leads from
the Bund down to the water's edge. Above us
were the electric lights and high, stone buildings
of the foreign concession. Wang and I were left
alone in our san pan while the rest of the party went
ashore to find porters to carry our luggage to the
hotel. It was ten o'clock, on a starlight, crisp,
December evening. The Bund was silent, save
for the occasional rattle of a rickshaw carrying a
lingerer from the club to his home. On a bench
at the top of the embankment two men were sit-
ting. They had apparently dined late and together.
Their conversation, as it floated down to where we
lay in our san pan on piles of pookas, was some-
thing like this :

" And his luck had such a run," said one of
the men. "Three jackpots — took them all in.
It's always the way with that chap when he's
drunk. Why, he never holds anything better than

311

THROUGH HIDDEN SHENSI

nine spots when he's sober, but he was drunk
to-night — ha, ha, loaded to the guards. During
the last deal his boy had to steady him to keep
him from falling off his chair — and game — never
moved an eyelash when he called that straight
flush. Superb, wasn't it ? "

"Good thing, anyway," replied the other man.
" He needed a turn. He lost quite a bit when
Golden Pheasant ran third at Shanghai last month.
Great Scotch that, to-night. I understand it was a
special lot the steward ordered some time ago —
came in only yesterday on the Jardine. By the
way, young Chumpkins wasn't in his corner this
evening. He seldom misses a game — wonder where
he was."

" Oh, girl I fancy. I heard to-day his engage-
ment will be announced soon."

" Guffenbach's daughter ? "

" Yes. Just a rumour."

" Jolly good for Chumpkins. She's an only
child. Guffenbach's getting pretty well along in
years, but he has one of the clearest heads on the
river. Came into twenty thousand taels on his last
opium spec', you know."

I had been so long in the " heathen " part of a
" heathen " land, and I had become so inured to the
ways of "yellow barbarians," that these first familiar
snatches of the conversation of Christian civilisa-
tion sounded strangely new and jarring. Wang, in
the stern of the san pan, was blinking at the electric

312

THROUGH HUPEH IN A JUNK

lights. "The Europeans live in nice places," he
said ; " the houses are large, the streets are clean,
and the lamps are bright; but for me, my master, it
is better the kung kwan and the mandarin and
the lowban and the mountain."

THE END

313

•ks. 25.

ed art,

;rly oc-

^ Tsing-

^ aces of

Shansi,

768. Be-

se with,

lance of,
Indians,

ROUTE OF THE AUT

3 O

ROUTE OF THE AUTHOr's JOURNEY THROUGH HIC^^^N SHENSI AND OTHER PARTS OF CHI]

INDEX

"American Kung Kwan," dismount-
ing at entrance, i6i. Placed at the
disposal of Mr. Duncan by Native
Relief Committee, 236. Departure
from, 267.

Ancestor worship, knowledge and care
of monuments, part of, 1:44. Much
of, only method of raising monu-
ments to previous generations, 251.

" A Thousand Years," form of saluta-
tion to Emperor, 205. Equivalent
of "Vive," 205. Wish of Sianese
for Empress Dowager, 257.

Audiences ; early hour of, in court at
Sian, 221.

Bamboo trees, in Hupeh near Han
River, 302.

Banchaiti(s), duties of, 23. Members
of mandarin's officials household, 23.
Fondness of, for imparting political
news, 128. Gossip of, about Imperial
visitors, 206.

Banished criminals, system of punish-
ment by exile, 139. Theory of sys-
tem, 139. Criminal exiles in Shensi,

139-

Banks, of Sian famous in China, 171.
Street of, 171. Volume of business,
171. Age of, 171. System of, sim-
ilar to that of United States, 171.
Drafts issued by, 172. Interest on
commercial accounts, 172. Promis-
sory notes of, 172. Weighing of
money in, 172. Calculations on
computing board, 172. Simplicity
of book-keeping of, 172. One book
for all accounts of, 173. Exorbitant
rate of exchange demanded by, in
transmission of American Relief
Funds, 238. Reduction of rate en-
forced by Governor, 238.

Barbarians, their similar attitude dur-
ing reigns of Wu How and Tsz' Hi,

201. Empress Dowager advised to
rid China of, 222. Rung Lu's lecture
on, 222.

Beds, Chinese, consist of bricks, 25.
Sleeping on them an acquired art,
25. Sleeping on those formerly oc-
cupied by Emperor, 206. In Tsing-
ling Mountains delightful places of
rest, 275.

Birds, silence of, in Han River gorges,
292. " Married Birds," 292. With-
out fear of man, 292.

Boatman of Han River, strange men,
285. Resemblance of, to North
American Indians, 285. Copper-
colored skins of, 285. Taciturnity
of, 286. Dislike of, for queues, 286.
Isolated lives of, 285. Pantheism, re-
ligion of, 287. Belief in spirits in
trees and rocks, 287. Singing for
wind, 287. Songs of, at night, 288.
Offerings to River Dragon, 288.
Method of dredging with wooden
hoe, 289. Canoes lowered over
rapids by, 289. Their custom of
feeding birds, 293.

Boxers, uprising of, said to be due to
Prince Tuan's influence, 79. Lead-
ers of, in Sian, 222. Outbreak of,
first manifested itself on Pei Ho
River, 305.

Bricks, method of making, in Chili, 34.

Bridge(s), remains c^. in Tsingling, 42.
Over rivers in Plain of Sian, 156.
Columns of, made of granite, 157.

Brigands, in Tsingling Mountains,
273-

Camels, Freight carriers of Shansi,
68. Home of, in Mongolia, 68. Be-
lief that drivers can converse with,
69.

Canoes of Han River, resemblance of,
to canoes of North American Indians,

315

3i6

INDEX

283. Peculiar shape of, 283. Di-
vided into compartments, 284.
Buoyancy of, 284. Oars and poles,
of, 284. How adapted for pas-
sengers, 284. Crew and Lowban
of, 285. Embarking on, 285. Ar-
rangements for meals on, 285. Low-
ering over rapids, 289. Wrecks of,
by rapids, 289. Blockades of, 290.
Cabins of, darkened by high walls
of gorges, 292. Last view of, 300.

Captain who had travelled, conversa-
tion with, loi.

Card of Prince Ching, given to author,
6. Description of, 6. Insignificant
appearance of, 6. Absolute protec-
tion by, to bearer, 20. Effect of, on
mandarin's representative at Shou
Yang, 75. Impression produced by,
upon Wei Wen, 112. Special priv-
ileges conferred by, on Han River,
290. Enabled by, to pass blockade,
290. Escort of war-junks on Han
River secured by, 306. Victory ob-
tained by, over "mean man," 310.

Carts, Chinese, description of, 38.
Philosophy of axle extensions, 38.
With four wheels at Tung Kwan,
113. Discovery of example of mis-
take of generalising in Chinese de-
scriptions, 113.

Caves, dwellings in Shansi Mountains,
67. Refuges from spring freshets,
67. Dug by famine sufferers near
Sian, 231. In Tsingling Mountains
places of refuge for entire com-
munities, 280. In a bluff overlook-
ing Han River, 280. Habit of dig-
ging peculiar to Shensi, 280. Farm-
houses in Sian Plain, 280. Sugges-
tion of resemblance to North Ameri-
can Cliff Dwellers, 281.

Chang Sun, wife of Emperor Tai
Tsung, 199. Exceptional virtues of,
199. Dying request of, 199.

Character and traits, Chinese, false
ideas regarding, 19. Fatalism of,
exemplified by Tsingling bridge, 42.
Sense of beauty of designer of stone
curtain, 53. Willingness to receive
punishment, 71. Racial differences
in , 85. Refutation of usual belief con-
cerning, 85. Upward soul-groping

exemplified by adoration of Sacred
Mountains, ii8. Love for children,
132. Missionary declaration of lack
of sense of beauty in, 152. Apprecia-
tion of beauty illustrated by Lintoun,
154. Peculiarity of, shown by man-
darin of Lintoun, 156. Ability to
forget suffering, 249. Repressed
fires of, and their possibilities, 252.
Ability to wait patiently illustrated
on Han River, 290. Ingenuity of,
shown in stowing freight, 304. Chi-
nese remain in path followed by
fathers ; new avenues of industry
impossible, 305.

Charitable Societies, contributions of
for relief of famine in Shensi, 232.

Chen Men Gate, in Pekin, starting
point for Shensi, 8.

Chenting, former headquarters of
French Army in Chili, 36.

Chien Chung, Emperor, reference to,
on Nestorian Tablet, 263.

Children, love of, for parents most
beautiful trait in Chinese character,
132. Only joy of monotonous lives,

132. Treated as companions by
parents, 133. Seldom punished,

133. Filial piety founded on natu-
ral love, 133. Joy of living of, 133.
Padlocks worn by, to keep away
evil spirits, 134. Called by names
of animals, 134. Foot-binding of
girls, 134. Sale of, in Shensi fam-
ine, 232. Constant market for, 232,
Sale of girls for domestic service,
233. Mencius' injunctions against
childlessness, 233. Parents' intense
love for, 233. Speculating in, during
Shensi famine, 234. Famine prices
of, 234.

Chinese Exclusion Act, comment on,
at dinner in Sian, 198. Shensi view
of, 198.

Ching, Prince, description of, 5. Fore-
most figure in Chinese Govern-
ment, 5. Uncle of Emperor, 5.
Taking photograph of, 7.

Chopsticks, appropriate for historical
food, 27. Art of eating with, easily
acquired, 160.

Chou dynasty, first Chinese arithme-
tic appeared during, 29.

INDEX

317

Chou Fu, Fantai of Paoting, 18. Gives
final credentials and escort, 18.
Advice of, 18.

Christian Herald, absence of creed or
race distinction in distribution of re-
lief funds raised by, 240.

Chrysanthemums, Tablet of, in Hall of
Tablets, Sian, 258.

Chung or Shih Hwang ti, Emperor,
Napoleon of China, 163. Reign in
Sian, 163. Built great wall, 163.
Palace of, at Hein Yang, 163. Grave
of, at Lintoun, 163. Site of palace
of, in Sian, 167. Bricks alleged to
be from palace of, 167. Destroyed
books of Confucius, 257.

Chwang Lieh Ti, Emperor, suicide of,
165.

Climate of Chili, similar to Northern
Illinois, 31.

Clubs of Sian, exclusive membership
of, 176. " Clubs " of the provinces,
176.

Coal, found in Chili and Shansi, 39.
Finest kind of anthracite, 39. Crude
methods of mining and transporta-
tion of, 39. Brought from Shansi
to Sian, 175.

Commerce, internal, of China, some
idea of magnitude obtained by
number of freight boats on Han
River, 303.

Confucius, thirteen classics of, in Hall
of Tablets, 256.

Conversation of Christian civilization
in Hankow, 312.

Cooks of exiled court. Conflagration
in kitchen of, 218. Beheading of, 218.

Cotton, cultivated in colder parts of
China, 31. Cultivation of, in coun-
try north of Wei Ho, 247. Spinners
of, who had survived famine, 247.
Earnings of spinner in Shensi, 247.
Bobbins from United States, 247.
American thread cheaper than na-
tive, 248. Spinner's explanation of
cheapness of American thread, 248.
San Yuan centre of trade in, 249.
Imported in bales from the United
States, 249. With American labels
carried by camel caravan, 250.

Couriers, Imperial, 73. Duties of, 73.
Picturesque appearance of, 73. Man-
ner of riding, 73.

Cross, at top of Nestorian Tablet,
262. Difficulty of obtaining impres-
sion of, 264. Sole survival of Nes-
torian religion, 265.

'■ Cumshaw," Tips as perquisites to
soldiers and servants, 27.

Decimals, long use of, by Chinese, 28.

De Quincey, comment of, on China,
166.

Dinners in Sian, given only for men,
178. Serious discussion at, 178.
Author's experience as guest at, 196.
Deportment of hosts of, their good
manners, 197. Conversation at, 197.
Comment at, on Chinese Exclusion
Act, 198.

Dogs, in Tsingling Mountains, 276.
Resemblance of, to wolves, 276.
Kindliness of, 276.

Donkeys, means of travelling on road
to Tai Yuan, 39. Confusion created
by, in Imperial baggage-train, 225.

Duff, Mr., communication of, regard-
ing opium, 62.

Duncan, Moir R. , on the way to his
residence, 159. In charge of Amer-
ican famine relief funds, 259. Meet-
ing with, 161. Arrival of, in Sian,
185. Compelled to hide in cart,
185. Liked by native officials, 185.
Public debates held by, 186. Book-
store of, 186. Personal popularity
of, 186. Friend of Governor of
Shensi, 186. Plan of, for irrigating
arid lands, 186. Expelled at begin-
ning of Boxer outbreak, 186. Ova-
tion to, on return, 186. Advice of,
sought by mandarins, 186. Life of,
an exemplification of Golden Rule,
188. American famine money
brought by, 236. Work of, approved
by Empress Dowager, 236. Given
"American kung kwan " by native
relief committee, 236. Distribution
of famine relief fund supervised by,
237. His belief in, and liking for,
Chinese, 237. Farewell of Gov-
ernor to, carried by mandarin, 268.
Prescription of, for fever, 295.

Eagle, unsuccessful attempt to kill,
100. Five-minute search for a car-
tridge, 100.

3i8

INDEX

Eclipse of the moon, Belief that cause
is eating of moon by dragon, 82.
Pandemonium because of, 82. At-
tempts to scare dragon away, 82.
Explanation of, by missionary, 83.
Wang's comprehension of scientific
cause of, 83. Wang's belief in sa-
tiety of dragon, 83.

Edicts, Imperial, military colleges es-
tablished in accordance with, 103.
News furnished by, to Shensi villa-
gers, 128. Transmitted over Im-
perial Telegraph, 174. Emanate
from capital, 223. Character of in-
formation contained in, 223. Substi-
tute for newspapers, 223. Bound in
magazine form, 223. Copies of, scat-
tered about palace in Sian, 224.
Order for " New Learning" issued
by Empress Dowager, 269.

Eight permutations, discovered by
Fuhi, 122.

Emperor of China, KwangSu; Temple
at Ping Yang rebuilt by, 93. Less
feared in Shensi than Governor, 189.
Reception by, of Princess in Sian
Palace, 216. Yielded left wing of
palace to Empress Dowager, 218.

" Emperor of Peace," Ping ti, 164.

Empress Dowager, Tsz' Hi, use by,
of Imperial Telegraph, 175. Sian
centre of anti-foreign party during
stay of, 187. First woman on throne
of China since Wu How, 200. Their
careers compared, 200. Necessity
for, to rule more forcefully than a
man, 201. Slandered by her ene-
mies, 201. Punishments of her
enemies, 201. Beloved for cruelties
and faults, 201. Retired to Sian
during triumph of barbarians, 202.
Unmolested after fall of Pekin, 202.
Dominating personality of, 206. Dis-
like by, of Boxer fanaticism, 206.
Receives address of Boxer of Kie-
hiu, 206. Boxer beheaded by order
of, 207. Resemblance of, to " Queen
of Wonderland," 207. Sentiments of
her subjects toward, 208. " Peace "
maintained by, 208. Place of honour
for, at Sian receptions, 217. Left
wing of palace occupied by, 217.
Rage of, at architects, 217. Dis-

missal by, of Ta-a-ko, 220. Verdict
of Sheng sustained by, 221. Ad-
vised to expel foreigners from China,
222. Wrath of, kindled against
Sheng, 225. Pardon of Sheng by,
226. Manchu Princes rebuked by,
226. Distressed condition of Shen-
si on arrival of, 226. "Peace" re-
stored in Shensi by, 227. "Jezebel
of China," 227. "A Thousand
Years," the wish of Sianese for, 227.
Arrival of, with court dreaded in
Sian, 234. Government caravans
instituted by, 234. Study of famine
conditions by, 234. Riddle of cash
and taels proposed by, 235. Dis-
honest mandarins beheaded by, 235,
Edict of introducing '' New Learn-
ing," 269.
Exile of Emperor and Empress Dow-
ager, incorrect to call flight, 202.
Departure from Pekin, 202. The
rest near Kalgan, 202. Orders to
mandarins, 202. Official announce-
ment concerning, 203. Leaving a
profaned capital, 203. View of, held
in Shensi, 203. Invincibility of
China, 203. Activity of preparations
for, 204. Tediousness of journey,
204. Repairing highways and kung
kwans, 204. Assembling of the court
at Kalgan, 204. Imperial worship
in temples, 205. Journey to Tai
Yuan, 205. Same route followed
by author, 205. Interest aroused by,
in Shensi towns, 205. Welcome of
"A Thousand Years," 205. Crush-
ing remnants of Boxer fanaticism,

206. Fate of the Boxer of Kiehiu,

207. Putting a stop to "squeeze,"
207. Wholesale beheadings, 207.
Efforts of Empress Dowager to main-
tain " Peace," 208. Fate of Imperial
cooks, 218. Character and career
in Sian of Ta-a-ko, 219. Down-
fall of Ta-a-ko, 220. Experience of
Manchu Princess with Sheng, 220.
Early morning audiences, 221. Box-
er leaders in Sian, 222. Rung Lu's
lecture on barbarians, 222. Depart-
ure from Sian, 224. Necessity of
leaving by West Gate, 224. Sianese
allowed to gaze on sovereigns, 224.

INDEX

3^9

Orde of recessional, 224. Appoint-
ment of Sheng to manage baggage
train, 225. Plot against Sheng by
Manchu Princess, 225.

Famine in Shensi, reasons why famine
in Shansi is not so severe as, 109.
Discussion of, with Governor, 192.
Isolation of province makes it diffi-
cult to obtain food from distance, 228.
Death from, of thirty per cent, of
population, 228. Americans princi-
pal contributors to relief fund, 228.
Drought the cause, 228. Former
famines, 229. Flight of Yang Kien
and court, 229. Disappearance of
rivers from drought, 230. Rise of
prices of food, 230. Flocking of vil-
lagers to Sian, 230. Caves dug by
hunger victims, 231. Burying the
dead, 231. Famine disease, 231.
Eating human flesh, 231. Relief
committee appointed by Tuan Fang,

231. Opening soup kitchens, 231.
Contributions of money from native
sources, 232. Selling of degrees,

232. Villagers eating cats and dogs,
232. Children sold, 232. Prices of
boys and girls, 234. Arrival of Em-
press Dowager dreaded, 234. Gov-
ernment caravans, 234. Empress
Dowager's study of conditions, 234,
" Squeezing " of famine funds, 235.
Riddle of taels and cash, 235. Be-
heading of dishonest mandarins, 235.
Fall of rain, 235. End of, 235. Ar-
rival of Mr. Duncan with American
relief funds, 236. Native famine
lists, basis of distribution, 236. Na-
tive lists of sufferers from, 237. Ref-
erences to women and children as
" Mouths," 237. Essentially Chinese
character of places where distribu-
tions took place, 237. Distribution
of relief managed by mandarins, 237.
Absence of prejudice against foreign-
ers in distribution of American re-
lief funds, 238. Difficulty of trans-
porting cash strings, 238. Feeding
3,000 in court-yard of Temple of Five
Sacred Mountains, 239. Gratitude
of recipients of American famine re-
lief money, 240. No distinction of

race or creed, 240. No human be-
ings in Plain of Sian, 242. Starva-
tion in San Yuan, 248. Burying dead
in embankment outside San Yuan
wall, 248.

Fan Ching, on Han River in Hupeh,
307. Withstood siege of Kublai
Khan, 308. Taken by siege guns
brought from Persia, 308. Market
and silk factories of, 308.

Fen Hoa River, tributary of Yellow
River, 97. Pagodas in valley of, 97.

Ferries, crossing Yellow River on, iii.
Difficulties of, iii. Crowded quar-
ters on. III.

Flourishes, Chinese habit of making,
254. Interpretation of soul, 254.

Fonging, System of liberating animals,
119. Based on idea of reincarna-
tion, 119. Setting fish at liberty, 119,

Food, Chinese, based upon hygienic
principles, 26.

Foot-binding, begun when girl is eight
years old, 134. Custom of, universal
in Shensi. Failure to observe cus-
tom disgrace to women. Mothers
cannot be accused of cruelty for
persisting in, 135.

"Four Hundred," residences of, in
Sian, 175. Sandal wood furniture
of, 175. Fondness of, for porcelain
collecting, 175. System of heating
houses of. 75.

Fuhi, starting for land of, 9. Legen-
dary character of, 162. Discovery of
scroll and "eight permutations,"
162. Born near Sian, 162. Anec-
dotes of, in Sian, 166. Temple of,
marking birthplace, 268.

Funerals, procession at, 138. Enjoy-
ment of villagers in, 138. Howling
of widows at, 138. White color of
mourning, 138. Devoid of melan-
choly, 137. Providing money and
horses for spirit world, 137.

Furs, Sian centre of trade in, 171. Low
price of, in Sian, 171.

Fu Shin, village of Shensi, inn of, 120.

Gambling, Chinese fondness for, i8a
Suppression of, in Sian, 180.

Genghis Khan, campaign of, in Shansi,
98. Failure to subdue old provinces,

320

INDEX

98. Death of, at Luh-pan, 98. Un-
able to take Tung Kwan, 109. San-
kau-pa-tu sent by, to take Kai
Feng, no.

Gorges of Han River in Tsingling
Mountains, 277. Precipitious sides
of, 277. Precipices and ledges along-
side of, 277. Narrowness of, 289.
Different from anything else in
China, 291. Lovely interim between
north and south, 291. Natural beau-
ties of, 291. Restfulness of, 291.
Diversity in fancies of current, 291.
Sheer and abrupt walls of, 292.
Varying tints of verdure of, 292.
Beauties of, 292. Charm of, at night,
293. Stories around incense fire, 293.

Governor of Shensi, his residence in
Sian, 168. Li Shao Fen, 188. Awe
which he inspired in subjects, 188.
Seriousness of audiences with, 189.
Granted an audience by, 189. Call-
ing at residence of, 189. Waiting
in court-yard of, 189. Theatrical
opening of doors of residence, 190.
Welcomed by secretary of, 190. Sa-
luted by soldiers of, 190. Appear-
ance of, 190. Anglo-Saxon manner
of, 191. Interview with, 191. Un-
able to distinguish between Ameri-
cans and English, 191. Discussing
famine conditions with, 192. Sug-
gestion to, of necessity of railroads,
192. Objections of, to railroads, 193.
His call, 194. His escort, 194. His
knowledge of his province, 194. His
comments on missionaries, 195. In-
terest of, in map of China, 195. Ideas
of, on location of United States, 195.
Belief of, that world was flat, 196.
Deference of, to " Barbarian igno-
rance," 196. Not a Philistine, 196.
A gentleman, 196. Reduction of
rate of exchange enforced by, 268.
Mandarin sent by, to bid farewell to
Mr. Duncan, 268.

Governors of provinces, practically
kings, 143. Liability to removal or
suicide order, 143. Absolute power
of, 143. Duty to repel invasion and
suppress rebellions, 143. Liability
of, to " lose face" on failure to sup-
press rebellion, 144.

Granite, blocks in pavement of road,
40. Ruts worn in, by ancient cart
travel, 40. Bridge, pillars of, in
Sian Plain, 157.

Great Wall, remnant of, in Shensi, 44.
Disappointing debris of, 44. Phi-
losophy of the brick-heaps, 44.

Hall of Tablets, Confucian classics set
up in, 163. In southeastern part of
Sian, 255. Oldest collection of tab-
lets, 255. Rebuilt by Han dynasty,
255. Thirteen classics of Confucius
in, 256. Memorials of early kings
and sages in, 256. Gave sugges-
tions for Hall of Mings in Pekin, 256.
Tablets of especial merit contained
in, 256. Charm of, 257. Visit of
author to, 257. Subdued demeanor
of visitors, 257. Awe inspired by
age and beauty of, 257. Tablet of
chrysanthemums in, 258.

Han Dynasty, reigned in Sian, 163.
Elizabethan age of China, 163. Pa-
trons of arts and letters, 163. Vic-
tories of armies of, 163. Rebuilt
Hall of Tablets, 255.

Hankow, end of journey at, 311. Em-
barking in san pans, 311. Bund of,
311. Two diners of, 311. Conver-
sation overheard in, 311.

Han River, head of Navigation, on
Lung Ku Chai, 267. Rise of, in
Tsingling Mountains, 268. Discov-
ery of spring at one of sources of,
276. Watching incipient stream down
mountain-side at source of, 277.
Gorges of, 277. Shallowness of,
near Lung Ku Chai, 283. Never
dredged, 283. Canoes of, 283. Boat-
men of, 289. Slow progress on, 289.
Rapids in, 289. Special privileges
on, conferred by Prince Ching's card,
290. Passing blockades on, 290.
An attack of fever during voyage on,
294. Broadening of, 297. Become
commercial at La Ho Kieu, 297.
Curves and angles of, 301. Changes
of wind currents on, 301. Towing of
junks on, 302. Clay bluffs of, in
Hupeh, 302. Towns of, 302. Im-
mence commerce of, 303.

"Head Man," man of authority in

INDEX

321

Shensi village, 126. Appointment
because of his popularity with neigh-
bors, 127.

Hein Yang, palace of Chung at, 163.

Heo Mah, in Shansi, exchange of
ponies in, 105.

Hien Fung, Emperor, reference to
reign of, on Nestorian Tablet, 264.

History, Chinese, a continuous repeti-
tion, 200. Range of action limited,
200.

Hong Kong, lost to China through
" opium war," 64.

Hot-air heating, system of, in Sian, 175.

Houses, in Chili, usually one story in
height, 33. Built of mud, 33. Con-
struction of, in Shansi, 52. Resem-
blance to Indian pueblos, 52.

How Chu, humiliation of, by Yang
Kien, 164.

Hua ih, temple of, 115. Built by Em-
peror Kiang Hi, 118. Stone me-
nagerie of, 118. Commingling of
faiths in, 118. Ponging Pond m, 119.
Construction of Buddhist temple at,
119. Tablets of, 120. Tablet of
Hung Wu's dream in, 252. Tablet
of Sieh in temple of, 254.

Hua Shan, sacred mountain between
Tung Kwan and Sian, 115.

Hue, Abbe, references of, to Sian, 185.
Description by, of Nestorian Tablet,
261.

Hung Wu, Emperor, rebuilt walls of
Sian, 158. His dream of Hua Moun-
tain, 252. Overturned dynasty of
Kublai Khan, 253. Subdued Corea
and Burmah, 253. Dream impressed
on memory of, 253. Guided by white
rabbit, 253.

Huto River, crossing on way to Tai
Yuan, 36.

Hwang ti, makes Sian capital, 162.
Discussions of his reign in Sian, 166.

Hwuyluh, centre of mining industry of
North China, 38.

Idol(s), procession of, in Ping Yang, 95.
Prostration of people before, 95.
Occasional outing necessary for
health of, 95. Exceptional absence
of spiritual element in procession of,
at Ping Yang, 96.

Inn(s), uninviting character of, 22.
Wenshao great help in avoiding, 22.
Ot Fu Shin, 121. Pajier, window-
panes of, 121. Economy of manage-
ment of, 121. In Tsingling Moun-
tains, noise and dirt of, 274. Fond-
ness of proprietors of, for telling
marvellous stories, 275.

Islands, Cosmopolitan, that belong to
common humanity, 159.

Japanese, a term of reproach in China,
70.

Ja Shu, town in Shansi, 69.

Junks on Han River, divisions into
cabins, 301. Dining room of, 301.
Modem captain of, 301. Clumsy
sails of, 301. Towed from mast-peaks
of, 302. Capacity of, for carrying
freight, 303. Great number of, 303.
Flimsily constructed, 303. Ingenuity
in Stowing cargo on, 304, Sails
made of cotton cloth, 304. Method
of carrying lumber on, 304. Means
of livelihood to hundreds of thou-
sands of families, 304. War-junks,
305-307.

Ka-chau, reference to, by Marco Polo,

184. Location of, undiscovered by

commentators, 184.
Kaifeng, ultimate meeting-place of

railroad lines, 12.
Kalgan, rest near, in Imperial exile,

202.
Kao-ling, Roman Catholic mission in,

185.

Kao-Tsung, account in Nestorian Tab-
let of friendliness of, to Christianity,
263.

Kenzan, described by Marco Polo,
183. Supposed to be Sian, 183.

" Kiang Hi Blues," collected by rich
men in Sian, 175.

Kiang Hi, Emperor, built temple at
Hua ih, 118.

Kiehiu, strange town in Shansi, 88.
Architecture media-val German, 88.
Two-story houses of, 83. Labyrin-
thine streets in, 88. Walking through
the maze of, 89. Court-yards with-
out gates, 89. Plan of design of
streets, 90. A Chinese puzzle, 9a

322

INDEX

Boxer of, and his address to Em-
press Dowager, 207. His decapita-
tion, 207.

Kingtse Kwan, town on Han River,
294. Former missionary activity in,
294.

Kuanchung, name given to Shensi by
Yu, 162.

Kublai Khan, proclaimed Emperor of

^ China and Mongolia. 99. Gave
Chinese name to dynasty, 99. Ad-
miration of, for Chinese civilisation,
99. Makes Pekin capital, 165.
Siege by, of Fan Ching and Siang
Yang, 308.

Kung Kwans, official hotel controlled
by Mandarin, 23. Architecture of,
24. Substantial construction, 24.
Few less than a hundred years old,
24. Of Shansi, renovated for Em-
press Dowager's arrival, 88.

Kuo Tze Chien. See University of
China.

Kwang Su. See Emperor of China.

Kwang Wu Ti, capture of Sian by,
164.

La Ho Kieu, river town of Hupeh,
297. Commerce of, 297. Stone
wharves of, 297. Silk industry of,
298-299.

Land System of Shensi, small hold-
ings under, 129. Land remains in
one family for generations, 129. Ad-
vantages and disadvantages of, 129.
Prevents idleness and ambition, 130.
Prevents any other industry than
agriculture, 130.

Lan tien, at base of Tsinglings, 269.
Visited in, by two mandarins, 269.

Lees, Jonathan, travelled through
Shensi, 185.

Legge, James, Professor, reference of,
to Sian, 185.

Li, measure of time, not distance, 32.

Li Hung Chang, informed of death of,
128.

Li-King, internal revenue toll on riv-
ers, 309. Encountering station of,

309. Payment of, by captain of tug-
boat, 310. " Mean man " of station,

310. Yielding of " mean man " to
Prince Ching's card, 310. Gratitude

of captain for assistance of Prince
Ching's card, 310.

Linshi Pass, in Shansi Mountains, 90.
Difficulties of passage through, 90.
Roads through, repaired by soldiers
lor Empress Dowager, 90. A de-
fence of Sian, 91.

Lintoun, sulphur springs and cave, 152.
Age of, 152. Lake, shrubbery, and
pavilions, 152. Balustrade over
yellow water, 152. Variegated roofs
of pavilions, 153. Play of colour,
153. Obscurity of, in hidden land,

153. Loss of money during stay in,

154. Grave of Chung near, 163.
Distribution in, of American famine
relief fund, 238.

Lions at gate of Palace, Sian, their
age, 211. Their cheerful aspect,
211.

Li Shao Fen. See Governor of Shensi.

Li Tsi Chung, rebellion of, against
Ming dynasty, 165. Capture of
Sian by, 165. Founds new dynasty,
165. Takes Pekin, 165. Last stand
in Sian, 165. Death of, 165.

Liu, Prince of Han, set up an inde-
pendent monarchy, 78. Made Tai
Yuan his capital, 78.

" Long Lived Benevolence," palace
of, built by Yang Kien, 164.

" Loss of face," disgrace for life, 144.

Lowban, captain of Han River canoes,

285. Habit of singing to wind spirit,

286. His dislike of discussing dis-
tances, 288.

Lui-tsu, invented silk weaving, 162.

Lumber, method of carrying through
Tsingling Mountains, 273. Making
catamarans of, on Han River 304.

Lung Ku Chai, distance from Sian,
266. Starting for, 266. Head of na-
vigation of Han River, 266. Arrival
in, 281. One street, 281. Exhausted
condition on reaching, 281, Shal-
lowness of river near, 283.

Mafu, combines duties of hostler and
guide, 27. Of Ja Shu, 70. Care-
lessness of, with stirrup-straps, 70.
Wang's dislike for, 70. Indifference
of, to being kicked, 71.

Mail, indefinite idea of, held by Shan-

INDEX

3^3

si police regarding letters, 48. Uses
of bags of, 48.
Manchu(s), constitute militia reserve,

102. Compelled to be proficient
with rifle, 102. Supremacy of, re-
cognised last by Sian, 166. Com-
ment on, at Sian dinner, 197. Noble-
man who " squeezed,' 207. Cutting
off head of, 207. Of court, their
nocturnal gaieties, 220. Arraigned
before Governor Sheng, 220. Disre-
gard of, for laws of Shensi, 220.

Mandarin(s), of Sinlo, 35. Treatment
of strangers courteous but conde-
scending, 35. Of Tsingling, 42. Con-
versation with, 42. His courtesy and
kindness, 42. Of Shou Yang, 75.
Afraid to meet a foreigner, 75. Sent
old man as substitute, 75. Military,

103. Duties of military mandarins,
103. Military of, Heo Mah, 106. Ex-
change of ponies by, 106. Possi-
bilities of becoming a general, io8.
Importance of, in life of Shensi, 141.
Progressive responsibility of system
of, 141. Concentration in, of al' func-
tions of government, 141. Imperial
orders applied through, 142. Meth-
ods of concern only of himself, 142.
Absolute power of, in own spheres
of action, 143. Duty of, to punish
crimes, 144. Penalty for failure to
execute orders, 144. Method of ap-
pointment of, 144, Promotion of,

144. Efforts of, to maintain " Peace,"

145. Aim of, to keep district in same
condition as found it, 145. "Squeez-
ing "of, 146. Wealth of, 1 46. Insuf-
ficient salary of, 146. Profits of, 146.
Government consent to dishonesty
of, 146. System of levying taxes
by, 147. Commissions stolen by
" Squeeze" important in system, 147.
System of, not without advantages,

147. Usually only representative of
government in districts, 148. Subor-
dinate officials servants of, 148. Chief
servant of; his privileges and duties,

148. Writing letters of, 149. Elimi-
nation of originality in correspond-
ence of, 149 Dress of, 149. Button
and badge of, 149. Robes of, 150.
Beads of, at audiences, 150. Pleasant

manners of, 150. Refinement of, 151.
Sense of humour possessed by, 151.
Individual lionour of, 151. Of Lin-
toun, 154, Taking prisoner to, 154.
Bamboo inquisition by, 154 Insists
on refunding money, 155. Prepara-
tions of, for reception of Imperial ex-
iles, 202. Punishable with death if
insufficient preparation made by, for
Imperial exiles, 204. Of Kiehiu, 207.
Degradation of, from office, 207.
Famine fund "squeeze" by, 235.
Punishment of, 235. Presided at dis-
tributions of American famine relief
funds, 237. Sent with official fare-
well to Mr. Duncan, 268. Of Lan-
tien, 269. Conversation with, about
New Learning, 269. Dislike of New
Learning by, 270.

Mandarin of the Palace, Sian, youth
of, 212. Meeting of author with,
212. Respect of, for Palace, 212. His
talk of Sichuan and home, 213.
Zither playing of, 213. Ideas of
music, 214. Inspires respect for
China and Emperor by music, 215.
Narratives of exiled court, 216. Call
of, to say farewell, 267.

Mang Kola, son of Kublai Khan, 165.
Sian made provincial capital by, 165.
Palace of, near Sian, 165.

Marco Polo, reference of, to Sian Sar-
acens, 170. Description of Kenzan
by, 183. Author's scepticism of
statements of, 184. Fantastic story
of " Prince of Dor," 184. Reference
of, to Ka-chau-fu, 184.

Mau Hoa Li, sent by Genghis Khan
to subdue Shansi, 98. Failure of, 98.

" Mean Man," dislike of, for steamers,
310. Delays tug-boat, 310. Yields
to Prince Ching's card, 310.

Mci Hi, wife of Emperor Kwei, 199.
Caused downfall of Hia dynasty,
199.

Mencius, definition by, of worst possi-
ble crime, 253.

Mile-stones, truncated pyramids, 32.
Built of brick, 32.

Military colleges, for officers of army,
103. Difficulty of obtaining instruc-
tors for, 103.

Mills in Chili operated by women, 33.

3^4

INDEX

Mines, undeveloped mineral wealth,
38-39. Iron and coal near Hwuyluh,

38-39-

Ming Dynasty, unable to repel Man-
chus, 165.

Missionary(ies), former activity in
Paoting, 13. Massacre in Paoting
and destruction of, 14 ; of Paoting,
forgiving spirit of, 16. Saves Buddh-
ist temple, 16. Of Tai Yuan, 79.
For three days guest of, 79. Massa-
cred in Tai Yuan, by order of Yu
Hsien, 80. Collected, by Governor,
80. No mob violence in extenuation,
80. Of Tai Yuan, 83. His explana-
tion of cause of moon eclipses, 83.
Of Shensi, saved from Boxers by
Tuan Fang, 126. Of Sian. See Dun-
can. Comments on, by Governor of
Shensi, 195.

Mohammedan(s), rebellion of, little
known in the West, 113. Object of
rebellion of, 114. Desolation wrought
by rebellion of, 114. Curious con-
versions toChristianitymadeby,ii4.
Rebellion of, quelled by Tso Kong
Pao, 115. In Sian, 169. Mosques
and schools of, 169. Business deal-
ings of, with other Chinese, 169. At-
tempts of, to overthrow reigning dy-
nasty, 176. Security of, in Sian, 170.
Long residence of, in Sian, 170.
Commentary on Western civilisation
by, iSi.

Mongols, attempts, of to subjugate
Shansi, 98. In conquest of China
absorbed into Chinese civilisation,
99. Realised inability to take Tung
Kwan, no. Dislike of, for Sian, 165.

Mounds, custom of building over
burial-places of kings, 244. Wives
and servants buried in, 244. Burial,
usually oval in shape, 245.

Mules, ability of drivers of, to dis-
pense with sleep, 274. Caravans
of, through Tsinglings, armed, 274.

Mung-tien, General, who superintend-
ed building of " Great Wall," 44.

Music, conversation with Mandarin of
Palace, 214.

Names, Chinese, of author described
in passport, 7. Resemblance of

Shansi and Shensi in native nomen-
clature, 10. Of lower animals given
to children, 134.

Nestorians, Christianity introduced
into Shensi by, 206. Scepticism as to
fate of, 264. Sudden disappearance
of religion of, 264. Edicts against,
by " Wu Tsung," 264.

Nestorian Tablet, world-wide interest
in, 260. Discussion of authenticity
of, 260. Useful as missionary argu-
ment, 260. Contains account of
early introduction of Christianity
into Shensi, 260. Discovery of, re-
corded by Alvarez Semedo, 261.
Descriptions of, by Abbe Hue and
Williamson, 261. Present condition
of, different from descriptions, 261.
Surrounded by brick heaps in neg-
lected field, 261. Position of, between
two ordinary tablets, 266. Cross
and inscription at top of, 266. Syriac
inscriptions of, 262. Account on, of
Olupun, 262. Account on, of pros-
perity of Nestorian church, 263.
Opinion of, held by Chinese anti-
quaries, 263. Difficulty of obtaining
impression of cross on, 264. Sup-
plementary inscription on, 264.

"New Learning," definition of, 269.
Ordered by Empress Dowager to
be taught in schools, 269. Disliked
by Shensi Mandarins, 269. Distaste-
ful to Mandarins of Lantien, 270.
Spirit in which generally received
exemplified by two Mandarins, 270.

Newspapers, a substitute for, in Im-
perial Edicts, 223.

Night watchmen, original theory of,
in Shansi, 104. Efforts of, to pre-
vent man guarded from sleeping,
104. Rapping of, on bamboo stick,
104.

Okkodai, son of Genghis Khan, 98.
Invasion of Shansi by, 98.

Olupun, references to, in Nestorian
Tablet, 262. Founder of Nestorian
church, 262.

Opium, villages of Shansi, 56. Differ-
ence from other villages apparent on
approach, 57. Dilapidated houses,
57. Haggard, wretched inhabitants,

INDEX

325

57. Dislike of soldiers for villages
given over to, 57. Ravages of, in
Shansi, 58. Introduction of, into
village, 58. Experimental use of,

58. Only object in life of villagers,

58. Work neglected for, 58. Slow
death of villagers cursed with, 59.
Refuges and asylums for victims of,

59. Missionary cure of habit, 59.
Report of Royal Commission on, 61.
Absurdity of report, 61. Communi-
cation on, of Mr. Duff, 62. Chinese
fear of, 62. Results of use of, 62.
Refraining from a recommendation
of good character, 63. As individu-
als, Chinese to blame for continu-
ance of, 63. Subtle fascination of,
for Chinese, 63. Traffic in, legalised
by treaty of Tientsin, 64. Wen
Hsien's appeal to Queen Victoria,
64. Efforts of government to pre-
vent traffic, 64. Suppression of, un-
til imported in British ships, 64.
Laws against use of, 64. "Opium
War," 64. Present attitude of Chi-
nese Government on question of, 65.
Cultivation of, now permitted, 65.
Reduction of Indian revenues by cul-
tivation of, 65. Cultivation of, not an
argument that Chinese desire con-
tinuance of, 66. Profits in, retained
by Chinese, 66. Victims of, only
beggars to be found in Shensi, 129.
Degraded condition of victims of, in
Shensi, 132.

Pagodas, in valley of Fen Hoa, 97.
Great height of, 97. Method of con-
struction of monuments to virtuous
men, 97.

Palace of the Exile — Sian, former resi-
dence of viceroys, 209. Supposed
to be haunted, 209. Renovated by
Tuan Fang for reception of Impe-
rial Exiles, 209. Ornamentation of
grounds around, 210. Sacrednessof
residence of Emperor, 210. Guards
to exclude visitors, 210. Unsafe for
a foreigner to attempt to visit, 210.
Walking to gate of, 210. Confronted
by lions at gate of, 211. Determina-
tion to enter, 211. Entering the
gateway, 212. Mandarin of, 212.

Author first white man to enter, 215.
Description of main building of, 216.
Settee of Emperor, 216. Left wing
of, 217. Reception of mandarins,
217. Bamboo bench in, 217. Seat
of honour of Empress Dowager, 217.
Timeless clocks of, 217. Room in,
of Empress Dowager in left wing,
217. Rage of Empress Dowager at
architects of, 217. Quarters of Ta-
a-Ko, 218. Son of Prince Tuan, 218.
Copies of edicts scattered about, 224.

P'an-mei, led army against Tia Yuan,
78.

Pantheism, of Han River, 287.

Paoting, capital of Chili, 12. Railroad
station three miles from town, 12.
Population of, 13. Former mission-
ary activity in, 13. Massacre of mis-
sionaries in, 14. " Punishment of,"
15. Capital of Chili, 17. Residence
of viceroy, 17.

Parade-ground, in Sian, 167.

Passport, description of, 7. ''Na Ko
Su," author's Chinese name in, 7.
" Mission of peace," 7. Received
from Prince Ching, 6.

" Peace," definition of, 145. Incom-
patible with progress, 145. In Shen-
si, restored by Empress Dowager,
227.

Pekin, explanation in, of dangers of
journey to Sian, 2. Author's ar-
rival in, 2. Little knowledge in, of
Sian or Shensi, 2. Road from, to
Sian, 10. Made capital by Kublai
Khan, 165. Capture by Li Tsi
Chung, 165.

Pheasants, present of, sent to Emperor
in Sian, 163.

Piggott, English missionary put to
death, 74.

Ping ti, reign of, in Sian at time of
birth of Christ, 164.

Ping Ting, market town of Shansi, 53.
White potatoes sold in, 53. Half-
way through Shansi mountain, 67.
Soil in vicinity of, not cultivated,
67. Few dwellings in vicinity of, 67.

Ping Yang, in Shansi, 91. Capital
during " Golden Age " of China, 91.
Evidences of age, 94. Peculiar ar-
rangement of walls, 94. Admirable

2i6

INDEX

system of defences of, 94. Idol pro-
cession in, 95. Headquarters of
brigade of army, 99.

Plain of Sian, eastern boundary of,
near Lintoun, 156. Alkali soil of,
156. Rivers of, 156. Bridges of,
156. A natural desert, 157. Ex-
cursions across, 242. Desolation
wrought by drought and famine, 242.
Absence of human beings in, 242.
Roofs of houses in, sold for food,
242. Pyramidal mounds of, 243.
Description of mounds and possible
origin, 243, 246. Bounded on south-
east by Tsingling Mountains, 268.
Last view of, 272. Caves as farm-
houses burrowed in, 280.

Police of Shansi, meeting with, 45, 46,
47. Semi-foreign appearance of,
45, 46, 47. Their care of foreigners,
45, 46, 47. Excellent discipline and
morals of, 45, 46, 47. Kindliness of,
45, 46, 47. Unusually mirthful for
Chinese, 48. Mail carriers of Shansi,
48.

Ponies, habit of drinking in crossing
rivers, 37. Purchase of one in Tai
Yuan, 105. Failure of, from exhaus-
tion, 105. Exchange of one pur-
chased by author with military
mandarin of Heo Mah, 105-108.
Assisted by tails of, in climbing
Tsinglings, 271. Time and place of
kicking, 271. Conduct of, in riding
on precipices, 277. Experience of,
in meeting mule caravan, 278. Fear
of mules, 278. Remark concerning
by Shi jang, 279.

Poppies, cultivation of, forbidden by
law, 64. Now cultivated in China,

65.

Post Office, institution of Tai Yuan,
47. Absence of, in Shensi, 173.
Letters carried by caravans, 173.
Missionaries substitute for, 173.
System of, inaugurated by Sir Rob-
ert Hart, 174. Extension of system
of, 174.

"Praying Trees,'' supposed curative
powers of, 50, 51.

Public square of Sian, booths of jug-
glers and fortune tellers in, 198.
Punch and Judy show in, 168.

Punch and Judy, Chinese, in public

square in Sian, 168.
Pyramids of Sian Plain, between SianX

and Wei Ho, 243. Made of clay, '

243. Shape discernible, 243. Seem-
ing intention to have their sides four
square with points of compass, 243.
Held in veneration by people of
surrounding country, 244. Ex-
plained as burial-places of kings,

244. Explanation inadequate, 244,
Without inscriptions, 245. Appar-
ently guarding a secret, 245. Shape
of, rare in Chinese architecture,

245. Suggestion of being altars of
former worship of Shang Ti, 245.
Conjecture as to origin permissible
in describing unsolved riddle, 246.
Are possible survival of ancient uni-
versal faith, 246.

Queen Victoria, asked to put stop to
opium traffic, 65.

Queues, dislike of, by Han River boat-
men, 286. Wearing of, enforced
by Manchus, 2S6. Regarded as
man's chief beauty, 286.

Railroad(s), struggle for existence a
hard one, 11. An international ef-
fort, Englisli, French, Belgian con-
struction, II. Few passenger-cars,
12. Heterogeneous freight and pas-
sengers, 12. Discussion of, with Gov-
ernor, 192.

Rain Storm, experience of, in Shensi,
120. Effect of, on road, uniforms,
and ponies, 120.

River dragon, mysterious being wor-
shipped by Han River boatmen, 287.
Similarity to American Manitou, 287.
Offerings to, 288. Theory of, ad-
vanced by Wang, 293.

Roads, in Chili not public property as
in other countries, 30. Belong to
farmers, 30. Poor condition of, 30.
Sunken by constant travel, 37.
Monuments of continuous civilisa-
tion. 37. Paved with square blocks
of granite, in Shansi mountains,
40. Improved for journey of exiled
court, 87. Between Tung Kwan
and Sian lined \\'ith willow-trees,

INDEX

327

113. Along precipices in gorges of
Han River, 277.

Roman Catholics, mission of. in Sian,
185. Mission of, in Kao-ling, 185.
Encounters with Chinese, 164.

Rung Lu, Lecture of, on foreign bar-
barians, 222.

Sacred Mountains, enumeration of,
115. Adoration of, 116. Survival of
primitive monotheism, ii6 Pilgrim-
ages to, 117. Adored by men of
all three religions, 117. Difficulty
of explaining motive, 117. Little
known in the West, 117.

Samshaw, raw whiskey, 131. Distilled
and sold in Shensi, 151. Sold in
Sian, but not in saloons, 180.

Sandstorm, possibly product of desert
of Gobi, permeating and overpower-
ing, 4-

San-Kau-pa-tu, attempt of, to take
Kai-feng, no. Compelled to make
a detour through Shensi, no.

San-pans, embarking in, at Hankow,

3"-

San Yuan, ravages of famine in, 248.
Embankment where hungry victims
were buried, 248. Famine forgotten
by citizens of, 248. Centre of cotton
trade, 249. Cotton cloth imported
to, 249.

Saracens, mention of residence in
Sian by Marco Polo, 170.

Schools in Shensi supported by sub-
scription, 135. Teachers in, must
have passed examination., 135. Il-
literacy of boys exceptional, 135.

Semedo Alvarez, account by, of dis-
covery of Nestorian Tablet, 261.

Shang, Shen town of Tsingling Moun-
tains on Han River, 279.

Shang Ti, supreme god, 93. Wor-
shipped by Yau and Shun, 93.
Substitution of sacred mountain for
worship of, 116. Former worship
of, 116. Religion of, similar to
that of Hebrew Patriarchs, 116.
Worship of, now exclusive preroga-
tive of Emperor, 116. Tendencies to
revert to worship of, n6. Temple of,
in Pekin, 116. Possible that pyramids
of Sian Plain were altars to, 245.

Shansi, police of, 46. Their duty to
guard life and property of foreigners,
46. Dissimilarity between, and
Chili, 48. More monuments in,
than in Chili, 49. Villages of, 52.
Concentration of farmers in, 52.
Dragons painted on walls of vil-
lages of, 52. Road through moun-
tains of, 67. Camels used as beasts
of burden in, 67. Racial traits of in-
habitants, 86. People of, devoted
to homes and close to nature, 86.
Costume of, peculiar to province, 86.
Language of, a distinct dialect, 86.
Author's journey through, 87. Few
white men in "Old China." Suc-
cession of large towns in, 87. High-
ways of, better than previously en-
countered, 87. Scene of campaigns
of Genghis Khan, 97. Valour of in-
habitants in repelling Mongol
armies, 98. Night watchmen of,
104.

Sheng, made Governor of Shensi, 220.
Young Manchus arraigned before,
220. His reprimand of Manchu
Princes, 221. Sustained by Em-
press Dowager, 221. Appointed to
have charge of baggage-train in
homeward journey of Imperial ex-
iles, 225. Plot for revenge against,
by Manchu Princes, 225. Wrath
against, of Empress Dowager, 225.
Received Imperial pardon, 226.

Shen-nung, glass stomach of, 166.
Hygienic recipes of, 166. Free
clinic of, in Sian, 167.

Shensi, area and population of, i.
Determination of author to visit, 3.
Dangers of journey to, 3. Begin-
nmg journey toward, 9. Moham-
medan rebellion in, 114. Chinese
originated in valleys of, 123. Ra-
cial type of inhabitants of, 123. Re-
semblance of people of, to North
American Indians, 123. Discussions
of ancient events, 123. Appellation
of " Sons of Han," 123. Condescen-
sion toward "new" Chinese, 124.
Dialert of, different from Pekinese,
124. Dislike of foreigners, tem-
pered by sense of justice, 125.
Foreigners to be despised but not

328

INDEX

persecuted, 125. Treatment of
foreigners during Boxer outbreak,
125. Villages of, 126. " Head
men " of villages, 126. Liberty of
speech and action contrary to pre-
vailing belief, 127. Political discus-
sian of inhabitants of, 127. Absence
in, of condition of "poverty," 128.
Relative equality of wealth in, 128.
No shops in villages of, 129. Work
of women of, 129. Land system of,
129-130. Dislike in, of bathing or
washing, 131. Temperance of peo-
ple of, 131. Impurity of water in,
132. Children of, 132-135. Schools
and school-teachers of, 135. Thea-
tres of, 136. Funerals in, 137.
Banished criminals in, 139. Con-
versation with a murderer of, 140.
Called Kuanchung by Yu, 162. Ab-
sence of post-offices in, 173. Dis-
like of farmers of, for telegraph wire,
174. Climate too cold for cultiva-
tion of mulberry-trees, 185. Travels
through, of Jonathan Lees, 185.
View held in, of Chinese Exclusion
Act, 198. View of Imperial exile,
203. Distressed condition of, on ar-
rival of Empress Dowager, 226.
"Peace" in province when Em-
press Dowager left it, 227. Loess
soil of, turns to desert from lack of
water, 229. Climate of, same as
Northern Ohio, 247. Parting with
last trace of, at l>a Ho Kieu, 300.

Shen Tun Ho, head of Shensi foreign
office, 80. Friendliness of, to
foreigners, 81. Incurred hostility of
anti-foreign party, 81. Instituted
Shansi police and post-office, 81.
Interview with, 81. Liking of, for
America, 82. Attempt of, to incul-
cate sense of honour in soldiers, 82.

Shih Hwang-ti. See Chung, 163.

Shijang, sergeant of soldiers, 46.
Coolness of, on meeting mule cara-
van, 278. Remark of, on Chinese
ponies, 279. Specimen of Chinese
soldier, 279.

Shop of the Metropolis, department
store of Sian, 171. Absence of
foreign-made goods in, 171.

Shops of Sian, absence of bazaar, ef-

fect in, 170. Substantial character
of merchandise sold in, 170.

Shou Yang, demonstrative reception
in, 73. Mistaken for missionary, 73.

Shrines, on the roadsides, 71. Confu-
cian, Buddhist, and Taoist faiths
commingled, 71. A protection
against devils rather than places of
worship, 72. Cared for by owner
of land, 72.

Sian, capital of Shensi, i. Place of
exile of Empress Dowager and Em-
peror, I. Conservative and foreign
hating, i. Journey to, divided into
four stages, 10. Reached by three
routes, 91. Inaccessibility of, 91.
First glimpses of its walls, 157.
Their resemblance to hills, 157.
Suburbs, 159. Entering the city,
159. First impressions, 160. A ride
through streets of, 160. Signs of
life and activity in, 160. Outline
of history of, 162. Last place in
China to recognise supremacy of
Manchus, 166. Charm of its eter-
nity, 166. Fascination of, for Euro-
pean or American, 166. Anecdotes
of early rulers told in, 166. Site
of palace of Chung in, 167. Popula-
tion of, 167. Regular arrangement
of streets of, 167. Comparison of,
with Pekin, 168. Residence in, of
Governor of Shensi, 168. Public
square of, 168. " Story tellers "' in
public square of, 169. Mohamme-
dan quarter of, 169. Tolerance
toward Islam in, 169. Marco Polo's
reference to Saracens in, 170.
Broadway of, 170. Shops of, 170.
Centre of fur trade, 171. " Shop of
the Metropolis " in, 171 Banks of,
171. Absence of post-office in, 173.
Telegraph-office of, 174-175. Resi-
dence of rich men of, 175. System
of hot-air heating in, 175. Coal as
fuel in, 175. Clubs of, 176. So-
ciety in, 177. Evening dinner par-
ties in, 178. Condition of, at time
of author's visit, 178. Sufferings
of, from famine, 178. Absence
of "Poor Quarter," "Necessary
Evils" and "submerged tenth," in,
179. Gulf between rich and poor not

INDEX

329

so wide as in New York, 179. Sup-
pression of gambling-houses, 180.
Author's surprise at not finding nec-
essary evils in, 182. Important part
played by, in Chinese history, 183.
Visited by few white men, 183. Inse-
curity as place of residence for for-
eigners, 183. Supposed to be Marco
Polo's " Kenzan, " 183. Reference to,
by Abbe Hue and Professor Legge,
185. Roman Catholic Mission, 185.
Arrival in, of Mr. Duncan, 185. Anti-
foreign order in, 186. Centre of
anti-foreign element during stay of
Empress Dowager, 187. Kindli-
ness and consideration in, shown to
author, 187. Again made capital
by Empress Dowager, 202. Palace
of the Exile in, 209. Description
of, and author's visit to, 210-223.
Crowded with famine sufferers, 230.
Hall of Tablets in, 255. Departure
from, 266. Last view of, 272.

Sianese, curiosity of, on first sight of
author, 160. Reckless reference of,
to lapses of time, 166. Prejudices
of, against Post-office, 174. Dislike
of frivolous amusement, 178. Ceased
to regard Mr. Duncan as foreigner,
186.

Siang Yang, on Han River in Hupeh,
307, Withstood siege by Kublai
Khan, 308. Surrendered to Mon-
gols, 308. Residence of retired
mandarins, 308.

Sichuan, home of Mandarin of Palace,
213.

Sieh, flourish of, in making character
for happiness, 254.

Silk, weaving of, invented by Lui-tsu,
162. Said by Marco Polo to be an
industry in Sian, 184. None in Sian
at present day, 184. Description of
industry in La Ho Kieu, 298. Shops
for sale of, 298. Indifference of pro-
prietor to sale of, 298. Age of in-
dustry, 299. Similarity of Chinese
methods of weaving to American
looms, 299. Heavy texture of,
299.

Sinlo, reception by mandarin of, 35.
Conversation about " American Em-
peror," 35.

" Society," in Sian, 177. Absence of
women in, 177. Age of family trees,
177. Characterised by pride in an-
cestors, 177.

Soldier(s), Chinese, of Shansi, 99.
Opium habits of, 99. Peculiar arma-
ment of, 100. Scarcity of cartridges
among, 100. Attempts of, to kill an
eagle, 100. Meeting returning regi-
ments of, 100. Weapons of, without
ammunition, loi. Grotesque ap-
pearance of, 101. Straggling march-
ing order of, joi. Captain of, who
had travelled, loi. Patience and
endurance of, 102. Fear of devils
by, 102. Reformation in army meth-
ods, 102. Military colleges for of-
ficers of, 103. Shijang of Tsinglings,
specimen of, 279. Amusement af-
forded by, to foreign subalterns, 279.
Capabilities of, 279.

Sons of Han, term to designate, 123.
People of Shensi, 123. Governor of
Shensi, ruler of, 191. Intention to
impress with China's victory over
barbarians, 224. Allowed to gaze
on faces of sovereigns, 224. For
thousands of years had crossed Plain
of Sian, 272.

" Squeeze," definition of, 146. Incen-
tive to office holding, 146. System
of, by mandarins, 146. Tacit consent
of government to, 146. Integral part
of mandarin system, 147. Of famine
funds stopped by Empress Dowager,

ass-
Steam tugboat on Han River, embark-
ing on, at Yo Kia, 309. Young cap-
tain of, 309. Discussion of time
necessary to reach Hankow, 309.
Anchorage opposite Li-king station,

309-

Stone curtain on hill-top, 53. Scene it
revealed, 53-54-

Story-teller, in public square of Sian,
169, burlesque of aged mandarin,
169.

Streets of Sian, regularity of arrange-
ment of, 167. Contrasted with other
Chinese cities, 167.

Suburbs of Sian, cosmopolitan resem-
blances, 159. Schools and temples
of, 159. Absence of shops in, 159.

33^

INDEX

Su Kou, town in Shansi, 83. Wang's

comment on moon at, 83.
Sunday, not day of rest in Tai Yuan, 76.

Ta-a-Ko, quarters of, in Sian Pal-
ace, 219. Son of Prince Tuan, 218.
Former Crown Prince, 218. Joined
exiled court in Sian, 219. Leader
of Manchu "Younger Set," 219.
China's " Bonnie Prince Charlie,"
219. Gaieties and adventures of,
219. Incurred dislike of Empress
Dowager, 219. Dismissal from
Court by edict of Empress Dowa-
ger, 220. Returned to Father in
Turkestan, 220. Disgrace of, soon
after plot against Sheng, 226.

Tablet(s), stone, around temple of
Hu ih, 120. Sale of rubbings of,
120. Found all over China, 251.
Variety of inscriptions of different
ages, 251. Part of ancestor wor-
ship, 251. Expression of the soul of
Chinese, 251. Records of individual
thought, 252. Expression of soul's
light, 252. Charm of, 252. Indica-
tion of repressed fires, 252. Impres-
sions of, sold to pilgrims, 252. In-
scription on, of Hung Wu, 254.
Happiness, 254. Flourish made by
Sieh, 254. Inscription by Hew Kwo
Tung, 255. Happiness monogram
of Chen Toun, 255. Oldest collec-
tion of, in Hall of Tablets, Sian,
255. Of especial merit in Hall of
Tablets, 256. Silence inspired by
age and beauty of, in Hall of Tab-
lets, 257. Of the chrysanthemums,
258. Portrait of Tama on, 259. In-
scription to Tama on, 259. Nes-
torian (q. v.) description of, and au-
thor's visit to, 260-265.

Taels, lumps of bullion silver, 28.
Payments of, made by weight not by
count, 28.

Tai Tsung, rebel dynasty founded by
Le Tei Chung, 165. Led army
against Prince of Han, 78. "The
Glorious " reigned in Sian, 164.
Drove back barbarians, 164. Found-
ed University, 164. Expression of
wisdom of, 164. Virtues of, described
on Nestorian Tablet, 262.

Tai Yuan, capital of Shansi, 15. Es-
caped ''punishment" only on ac-
count of inaccessibility, 15. Popula-
tion and business of, 77. Irregular-
ity of streets in, 77. Siege and capt-
ure of, by Emperor Tai Tsung, 78.
Defended by Liu, Prince of Han,
78. Extreme hatred in, of foreign-
ners, 78. Eclipse of the moon dur-
ing stay in, 82. Noise to scare away
dragon, 82.

Tama, Buddhist apostle, 259. Portrait
of, on tablet, 259. Inscription re-
garding, 259. Impressionist methods
in portrait of, 260.

Tang Dynasty, reigned in Sian, 164.

Ta Tsin, name given to Christ on Nes-
torian Tablet, 262.

Tea-houses, lounging places in Shensi
villages, 127. Places for discussions
of politics, 127.

Telegraph, Chinese Imperial, office of,
in Sian, 174. At first little used, 174.
Extension of system of, 174. Par-
tially destroyed by Boxers, 174.
Imperial edicts transmitted over,

174. Disliked by farmers, 174. In
Sian used by Empress Dowager, 175.
Sian operator of, who spoke English,

175. Operator of, belated on Han
River, 290.

Temple(s), destruction of, in Paoting,
15. Usually built of brick, 34.
Idols in, 34. Of Yau and Shun in
Ping Yang, 93. Rebuilt by present
Emperor, 93. Statues of founders
in, 93. Notable absence of idols in,
93. Marking source of Han River,
276.

Terraces, on side of Shansi Mountain,
51. Labour of construction of, 51.
Absence of human beings in, 51.

Theatre (s), play at great event in
Shensi, 136. Description of, 136.
Noise of performance in, 136. Im-
portance in social life of village, 137.
Scene of flirtations, 137. Disparaged
in Sian, 178.

Ting, terminus of railroad, 19. Escort
from, of soldiers, 19.

Tortoise, high place held by, in Chi-
nese mythology, 49. Emblem of
immortality, 49. System of drain-

INDEX

33^

age derived from marks on back of,
162.

Transportation, Chinese argument
against improvement in method of,
304. Thousands of families depend-
ent on present system of, 304.
Would be thrown out of employ-
ment by change in method of, 305.
No new avenue of industry, method
of change, 305, Result of changes
in methods of, on Pei Ho River, 305.

Travel, system of, illustrative of Chi-
nese character, 19. Completeness
of, 19. Brick beds, 20. Protection
afforded by Prince Ching's card, 20.
Freedom and security of traveller,

20. The Wenshoo and its privileges,

21. The horrors of inns, 22. Kung
kwans, official inns, 23. Descrip-
tion of kung kwans, 23. Food on
journey, 26. Intricacies of money
system, 27. Hours of travel, 27.
The manfu and his duties, 27. Meth-
ods of crossing rivers, 36. Through
Tsinglings described, 267. Lighten-
ing of luggage for, 267.

Treaty of Tientsin, sale of opium legal-
ised by, 64.

Ts'ing dynasty, end of opposition to,
166.

Tsingling Mountains, boundary of
Plain of Sian, 268. Water-shed of
China, 268. Source of Han River,
268. Abrupt beginning of trail
through, 270. Climbing assisted by
pony's tail, 271. View from, of Sian
and Plain, 272. Few inhabitants in,
272. Loneliness and silence of, 273.
Foot passengers in, 273. Method of
carrying lumber through, 273. Bri-
gands of, 273. Armed caravans in,

274. Habits of muleteers in, 274.
Meals at farm-houses, 275. Weari-
ness from continuous riding through,

275. Jaguars and wolves in, 275.
Inn-keepers of, 275. Resemblance
of dogs of, to wolves, 276. Discov-
ery in of, one of the sources of Han
River, 276. Windings of Han River
through, 277. River gorges in, 277.
Refuge caves in, 280.

Tsingting, town of Shansi divided by
tributaries of the Huto, 41. Last

stop in Chili, 41. Stone bridge of,
41. Clever mandarin of, 42.

Tso Kung Pao, Mohammedan rebel-
lion quelled by, 115. Lack of food
and money for army of, 115. Plant-
in.'/ of willow-trees by, 115.

Tsz' Hi. See Empress Dowager.

Tuan Fang, former Governor of Shen-
si, 125. Manchu prejudices of, 125.
Advised not to kill missionaries, 125.
Moral courage of, 126. Saved mis-
sionaries, 126. Moral support given
to, by people of Shensi, 126. Made
Governor of Hupeh, 220. Famine
relief committee appointed by, 231.

Tumn, Prince, leader of Boxers, 78.
Fame of, in Tai Yuan, 78. Banish-
ment of, to Turkestan, 78.

Tung Kwan, first glimpse of, 109. Im-
pregnable position of, 109. Battle-
ments and citadel of, 109. Key to
three provinces, no. Crossing Yel-
low River to, in. Entering town
of. III. Four-wheeled carts of, 112.
Junction point of Wei Ho and Yel-
low River, 113. Death near, of
Chwang Leih Ti, 166.

Turkestan, place of banishment of
Prince Tuan, 78.

University of China, founded by Tai
Tsung in Sian, 164. Huo Tze
Chien formerly in Sian, 256. Con-
tained thirteen classics of Confucius,

256. Under patronage of Emperor,

257. Transferred to Pekin, 257.

Viceroy of Chili, his capital in Paoting,

17. Position once held by Li Hung

Chang, 17.
Von Ketteler, minister to Germany,

78. Killed by order of Prince Tuan,

78.

Walls of Sian, their resemblance to
hills, 157. Archery towers of, 158.
Sianese pride in, 158. Imposing
appearance of, 158. Great height
and excellent preservation of, 158.
Rebuilt by Emperor Hung Wu, 158.

Wang, introduction to, and engage-
ment of, as interpreter, 8. His kick-
ing of delinquent manfu, 71. His

33^

INDEX

comprehension of cause of eclipse,
83. Later expression of his belief m
satiety of dragon, 83. Remarks by,
occasioned by paper window-panes,
121. His lack of gratitude to mili-
tary mandarin, 106. Accompanied
by, in excursions about Sian, 187.
Preparations of, for visit of Gover-
nor of Shensi, 193. Remarks by,
of visit of Governor, 194. Colloquy,
of, with sentry at gate of Palace of
Sian, 211. Meeting in Lung Ku
Chai, 281. Dishevelled appearance
of, 281. Regard of, for his master's
beard, 281. Theory of, regarding
River Dragon, 293. His faithful-
ness during his master's fever, 295.
His ability as nurse, 295. His as-
siduity with blankets, 296. His
Chinese character, 296. Author's
gratitude to, 296. Preference of,
for civilisation of China, 313.

Wang Wen Shau, head of foreign
office, Sian, 221.

War-junks, to maintain order on
Han River, 305. Cleanliness and
trim beauty of, 306. Peculiar model
of, 306. Crew and captain of, 306.
Gay uniforms of crew of, 306. Ac-
companied by succession of, 306.
Salutes from cannon of, 307. Drum
beating at night, 307. Expedient to
stop noise of, 307.

Water, difficulty of obtaining pure, in
Shensi, 132. Drinking boiled, 132.

Water Buffalo, work of, in fields,
303. Necessity of daily immersion,
303. Danger ofbecoming wild when
denied water, 303. Seen in Han
River, 302.

Wei Ho, river of Shensi, 113, Joins
Yellow RiTer at Tung Kwan, 113.
System of irrigating lands in valley
of, devised by Mr. Duncan, 186.
Crossing fords of, between Sian and
San Yuan, 246. Passes through
gorges, 246. Former irrigating gul-
leys cut in sides of gorge of, 247.

Wei Wen, petty official detail to
execute special commissions, 112.
Met by, at Tung Kwan, 112. Cour-
tesy of, 112. Guide in entering
Sian, 161.

Wells, operated by donkeys, 31. An-
cient knowledge of, 31. Artesian
principles, 31.

Wenhi, in Sian, 108. At beginning of
famine-stricken country, 108.

Wen Hsiang, former prime minister,
65. Sent appeal to Queen Victoria
begging her to prohibit opium im-
portation, 65.

Wen Shao, the Chinese bill of lading
for travellers, 21. Issued by man-
darins, 21.

Widows, Chinese, monuments erected
to, for not remarrying, 33.

Williamson, description by, of Nesto-
rian Tablet, 261.

Wolves, in Tsingling Mountains, 275.
Stories of depredations of, 275.

Women in China, not in Sian society,
177. Secluded in homes, Sian, 177.
Regarded as inferiors, but important
in history, 199. Often rulers of
China, 199. As Empresses usually
wicked, 199.

Wu How, Empress Dowager, 199.
Most remarkable woman in Chinese
history, 199. Queen of Kau Tsung,
199. Declared regent, 200. Ruled
with iron hand, 200. Persecuted
Nestorians, 200. Feared but be-
loved, 200. Career of, compared
with present Empress Dowager, 200.
Fancy as to her insertion of chrys-
anthemums in tablet, 259. Reference
in Nestorian Tablets to persecution
of Christians by, 263.

Wu Tsung, Emperor, edict of, against
Nestorians, 264.

Wu Wang, Emperor, founder of Chou
dynasty, 163. Reigned in Sian,
163.

Yang Kien, Emperor, reigned in Sian,
164. Reunited China, 164. Subdued
How Chu, 164.

Yau and Shun, legendary rulers of
China, 92. Ideally good, 92. Reign
of time of peace and prosperity, 92.
Temple of, in Ping Yung, 92. Lived
before idol worship became prev-
alent in China, 93.

" Yellow Emperor," Hwang ti, 162.
Makes Sian capital, 162.

INDEX

333

"Yellow Peril," 182.

Yellow River, separates Shensi from
Shansi, 10. Emerging on banks of,
109. Crossing on ferry to Tung
Kwan, III. Starting-point of Chinese
Race, 122.

Yo Kia, town on Han River, 309.
Finding steam tug-boat at, 309.

Yu Hsien, former Governor of Shan-
si, 79. Planned massacre of mis-

sionary, 80. Committed suicide,

• 80.

Yu "The Great,'' prominent in early
history of Sian, 162. Stems overflow
of Yellow River, 162. Named Shensi
Kuanchung, 162. Drainage system
of, derived from turtle's back, 162.

Zither, played by mandarin of Palace-
Sian, 314.

University of California Library
Los Angeles

This book is DUE on the last date stampedbelovv.

315

L 005 962 548 3

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

""'l||lll||| llllll !!l III III III lllll llll|lll ll|||lllll||i

AA 001 053 642 3

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Through hidden Shensi"

See other formats