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DESTROYING TUE CHRYSALIDES. 97

very edge of the cliff; the spot he stands on, and the circular hollow all around him, being dimly lighted by the rays that pierce through the green waters, at the spot where they turn over the ledge of the summit. With this beautiful hue of green, the poetical historians of the wonders of the Shih-Mun are familiarly acquainted. They boast of having witnessed its lustre in the valley of mist, and compare its verdure to the Lan, the plant from which the rich colour employed in dyeing is extracted.

DESTROYING THE CHRYS.YLTDES, AND WINDING OFF THE COCOONS.

It has been shown, with a sufficient degree of certainty, that the invention of silk manufacture originated with the Chinese ;* their authors assert, that from the earliest period the Son of Heaven himself (the emperor) directed the plough ; the empress planted the mulberry-tree — examples which had the most luippy effect upon their subjects. An Imperial treatise on "Husbandry and Weaving," gives minute instructions for the culture of rice, from the first ploughing of the ground, to the ultimate packing of the grain ; and is equally circumstantial in detailing the process to be observed from planting the mulberry to weaving the silk. The Chinese are utilitarians ; laws for the promotion of any means, whereby food and clothing, the principal necessaries of life, might be obtained with more facility, of superior quality, and in greater abundance, would necessarily have become popular amongst them, and the author, or inventor, have secured the lasting reve- rence of the nation. But, it is less than questionable, whether these principles add to their happiness here; it is perfectly certain that they cloud their prospects of an hereafter. Possessing outward placidity of manner, for the purposes of conciliation and deceit, they are known to be bard-hearted and unforgiving. As a people, they are without virtue, deep feeling, or dignity of character; toiling for food like inferior animals. Their total absence of sentiment or delicacy, as well as their disgusting cupidit}', were glaringly obvious in the late Chinese war. Our fleet having destroyed the forts of Amoy, and killed hundreds of their count'-ymen, scarcely had tha firing ceased, when the small trader-boats were alongside our men-of-war, with dealers oifering fruits, fowl, rice, and other articles of fresh food, for sale to our men, so recently their mortal enemies. It is hardly possible to imagine a fact mere derogatory to national, more disreputable to individual character.

In the preparation of clothing — -or rather of a superior description, silk cloth — the Chinese have attained a remarkable degree of excellence. Commencing with the mulberry, the food which supports the extraordinary insect from which the original material is derived, they bestow the most tedious, yet profitable care, upon every step in the process, from its opening to its close. The provinces of Suchwen, How-quang, Kiang-si, and Che-kiang, traversed by the thirtieth parallel of latitude, are all adapted to the growth of the mulberry ; but it is in the beautiful valleys

• Ante, p. 44.

vol.. I. 2 b

98 DESTROYING THE CHRVSALIDES, AND WINDING OFF THE COCOONS.

and fertile plains of the latter that the worms are reared most successfully, and the finest silk obtained. Woollen clothing was generally worn until the veigii of Ouen-ti, of the Han dynasty, from which period silk has been the most esteemed, and constitutes the diess now most prevalent amongst all the opulent classes. The produce of Che- kiang, and of the adjoining silk district of Kiang-nan, is the most valuable, bringing, in the Canton market, double the price of that produced elsewhere, and being preferred by the English manufacturer to the cultures of India, Turkey, or Italy.

As the end of cultivation in mulberry gardening is the production of the greatest quantity of young and tender leaves, at the total sacrifice of the fruit, the trees are never allowed to exceed a regulated height and age. The branches are pruned off, and the parent tree headed down; leaves from the young scions being found to be more tender, more delicate in their texture, and more nutritious, than the coarse leaves produced upon older branches. Although there are many species of the genus 3Iorus, two only are distinguished in the East as supplying food for the silkworm ; the black, or common, which is a native of Ital}', and flourishes also in England ; and the ivhite, which is indigenous to China; the Persians, hovt'ever, use both species. The red mul- berry is a native of America, where it is much esteemed for the quality of its timber, and employed for knees in shipbuilding. The Morus Alba is propagated from seed, by layers, or from cuttings ; plants from seeds, in this, as in most other species, will be found to be more healthy, and therefore preferable, although more disposed to be fruitful.

Suitable soil is pi-epared by trenching, mixing it with ashes and river-mud, and making the compound moist and loamy; it is thrown up into beds or ridges, about a foot in height, and in these the plants are set, generally in the quincunx form, and at convenient distances. The intervals between the rovi's serve as conduits for water, occasionally; but are uniformly occupied with rice, millet, or pulse of some kind, so that not a square foot of land is lost to either landlord or tenant. Various stratagems are employed for the destruc- tion or prevention of insects; and, in applying essential oils, as well as in gathering the leaves, double ladders are always used, the trees being too slender to sustain any great weight or pressure. Gathering of the leaves, the lungs of a tree, necessarily superinduces disease, which the cultivator endeavours most artfully to relieve, or to remedy, by jjruning, lopping, and cutting out old wood. When these appliances all fail, and the inveteracy of the canker baffles the skill of the physician — when the tree shows a greater tendency to the production of fruit, and a less to that of delicate leaves, it is removed altojrcther, and its place supplied by a healthy young plant from the nursery.

The silk- worm (Bombyx) of the genus Plialtenn, and by entomologists called "Phalccna bomhyx mori,' is originally a native of China. From the egg (about tlie size of a pin's head) when fostered by a genial warmth, proceeds a minute dark-coloured worm, that casts its skin three or four times, according to the variety of the species, in its progress to full-grown existence and to a caterpillar form. It now acquires a whitish colour, speckled with blue or yellow, ceases to feed, and commences those labours, which have rendered it so famous in natural and in commercial historj'. On the first day of its caterpillar-life, that is, about the thirtieth day of its entire existence, the insect

CHINA ILLUSTRATED. 99

puts forth, through two apertures in its nose, a viscid secretion, hy which it becomes attached to the surface on which nature or art may have placed it ; on tiie second, i^ forms, by means of duplicate filaments, proceeding through these nasal foramina, a ball of an ovoid shape around itself, as a shield against hostile insects, and against a frigid atmosphere; and, on the third day, this cocoon comidetely conceals the little labourer from view.

At the expiration of about ten days, its insect toils being completed, and the suste- nance previously laid up exhausted, the caterpillar changes into the chrysalis or nymph state, and remains for some days longer, awaiting another transformation. In the natural state, when the time has been fulfilled, and the pupa completely metamorphosed, the prisoner, guided by instinct, cuts through the silken barrier of the cocoon, and comes forth a new creature, the destined inhabitant of a new sphere, and, being furnished with limbs, antennas, and wings, takes flight towards the regions of liim that made him so wonderfully. In a state of culture, none of course are permitted to destroy their cocoons, save those that are to be preserved for the continuation of the species ; and these aurelias, or moths, are carefully brought together, and placed on soft cloth or other proper surface, to deposit their eggs. There is a viscous liquid around the eggs, which causes an adherence to the paper, or clotii, or leaf, on which they are laid ; but they are easily released from this encumbrance by dipping them in water and wiping them dry.

Nothing is more necessary to be guarded against in the rearing of silk-worms than the effects of noise and cold ; a sudden shout, the bark of a dog, even a loud burst ot laugliter, has been known to have destroyed whole trays of worms; and entire broods perish in thunder-storms. The utmost vigilance, therefore, is practised in keeping off visitors or intruders from the sheds, which are always constructed in a remote situation. It is this necessity for the formation of an artificial temperature that creates the great difficulty of rearing silk-worms in Europe. About 55° of Fahrenheit is the most suitable for the preservation of the ovum; but there is considerable risk attending any increase, lest the process of incubation may be accelerated so rajiidly as to precede the moment when the mulberry leaf shall have reached its edible age. In the silk- nursing provinces of Ciiina, the mean temperature, according to the same description of thermometer, from the first of October to the first of November, is about 55° at sun-rise, and 6.>° at noon, with an atmospheie uniformly clear and trancpiil; and seldom, at any season, exceeding 85°, the highest temperature to which the worm may with safety be exposed. Here then, evidently, is the native country of this extraordinary insect, where the process of incubation proceeds simultaneously with the growth of the oidy species of footl on which it can subsist.

Much attention is given by the Americans of the United States to the culture* of the silk-worm and the establishment of silk manufactories, and this branch of industry is ra{)idly spreading amongst tiiem. The morns niitlticaulis, on the leaves of whicii tliry feed the worms, appears to thrive luxuriantly in most of the States ; and the government seem so intent upon at least supplying the home consumption of this valuable article of

100 DESTROYING THE CHRYSALIDES, AND WINDING OFP THE COCOONS.

commerce, that twelve of the States pay a handsome bounty for the production of cocoons, or of the raw silk. In the year 1842, upwards of 30,000 pounds of silk were obtained from the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Ohio alone ; but it is fully ascertained, that from the Southern border of the Union, up to the 44th degree of latitude, the climate is admirably suited to the culture of silk. Success in rearing the silkworm has naturally encouraged the application of machinery in the preparation and manufacture of the filaments ; and the inventions for reeling, spinning, and weaving silk into ribands, vestings, damasl^, &c., deposited in the National Gallery and Patent Office of the Republic, are equal in ingenuity to any that can be shown in China or in Europe. The annual value of silk stuffs imported into the United States exceeds 20,000,000 of dollars ; the silk annually manufactured in France is valued at 25,000,000, and of Prussia at 4,500,000. It has been calculated that if one person in one hundred of the States' population were to produce annually one hundred pounds of raw silk, the yearly value of such product would be double that of the cotton now exported, and nine times the worth of the exported tobacco. This estimate is not unreasonable as regards the quantity of silk that might be obtained by the industry of the people, for, the Lombardo- Venetians, only four millions of souls, have raised and shipped, in a single year, six million pounds of silk : the American conclusion, as to value, is, of course, fallacious, because when they are able to raise silk enough to throw Venetian produce on the general market, the price would fall in proportion.

Hindoostan is the native country of several species of moths, resembling in habits the common silk-worm ; most of them, however, live wild, and in this state have hitherto proved so productive, that the Hindoos have not thought it necessary to nurse them. The Joree worm, of Assam, feeds on the pipul tree; the Saturnia, including several species, lives on the hair-tree leaf; this is the largest moth known, measuring ten inches between the tips of its wings ; and its cocoons, the size of a hen's egg, are brought in quantities to Bhagelpoor and Calcutta. One species, the Eria, which lives on the palma-chrlsti leaves, is domesticated in India; while another, of the Saturnia tribe, is wholly neglected by the Assamese.

Silk has been obtained from the spider's web, and gloves, made of this strong, glossy, and beautiful material, were presented both to the Royal Society of London, and the Academy at Paris, by Monsieur Bon. It was soon perceived, however, that great diffii-ulty must attend any attempts to appease the voracity, or calm the inquietude, of the spider. It was almost impossible to rear them in any considerable quantities; and when a number, at the expenditure of much time, trouble, and anxiety, were brought together, unless they had an ample supply of flies to prey on, they quickly destroyed each other.

DYEING AND WINDING SILK. 101

DYEING AND WINDING SILK.

Hour after liour the growing line cxteiiils, Nor time nor circunistaiu'e controls its ends ; Soft cords of silk the wliirling spoles reveal, If smiling lortune turn the giddy wheel.

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

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

Around a pool, of a foot or two in de|)th, sheds or open corridtirs are arranged, appropriated to different parts of the process of cleaning and preparing the floretta for market. Beneatli one series are the females employed in the less laborious duty of reeling the raw silk that has been brought from the magnaniere, or purcliased for filature from the feeders. From the reefers' verandas, the nuiteiial is consigned to those of the washers, and dyers, and bleachers, successively.

Little celebrated for integrity, the total forgetfulness of that high quality by the Chinese is flagrantly conspicuous in their preparation of silk for the loom. Imperfec- tions in the texture of this delicate fabric arc sometimes of early date, originating in VOL. I. 2 c

102 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

SOWING mCE, AT SOO-CHOW-IOO. 103

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

PROVINCE OF KIANG-SI. Then, wake, that you may live.

Here, take the best prescription I can give ;

Your bloodless veins, your appetite shall fail.

Unless you raise them by a powerful meal, —

Come, take tliis rice. HoiiACS.

It is to the productiveness of the ory~Ai sativa, a simple grass, on which nature has conferred the peculiar property of growing in marshy or inundated grounds, that the vast regions of the East owe the density of their population, and their early submission to social obligations. Immense districts in China and Hindoo would, unquestionably, have still lain desolate and untenanted, were it not for the ability to alter and to cultivate the surface of the globe, which a knowledge of the rice-plant conveys. To what simple causes, therefore, does deliberate analysis sometimes lead, in our efforts to trace the most remarkable effects to their proper sources ; for, the destiny of nations, from the earliest periods, seems to have been materially influenced by the discovery and cultivation of this " staff of life." Previous to its introduction into Egypt and Greece, it had been long known in more eastern lands, for Pliny, Dioscorides, and I'heophrastus all speak of its importation from India: but, in their age, it was little cultivated on the shores of the Mediterranean. Within the last three centuries, however, its popularity has become universal, restricted only by the limits of climate, for it now occupies the same place in intertropical countries as wheat in the warmer parts of Europe, and oats and rye in those that are more northern. In the United States of North America, Carolina especially, the cultivation of rice forms a principal occupation of the rural population, and chief export of the maritime ; there, the date of its introduction, ]()97, is tenaciously remembered, the benefits of its naturalization being of such importance to the national wealth and happiness.

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

* It is called in Arabic, nruz ; Hindoostan, chawl : Latin, onza : Italian, riso ; French, riz.

]()[ CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

In Oriental countries, rice is extolled as superior to all other species of food, and in China it is an article of the first necessity. So completely is its presence deemed requisite at all meals, that the term fan, boiled rice, enters into every compound that implies the ceremony of eating ; fche-fan, to eat rice, signifies a meal generally ; tsao- fiDi, morning rice, means breakfast; and by ounn-fan, evening rice, supper is implied. It is undoubtedly a light and wholesome diet, although it is supposed to include less of the nutritive principle than wheat.* From the small proportion of gluten which it contains, it is not capable of being made into proper bread, but is highly valued for puddings, and many culinary preparations. Its excellent qualities, rapidity of pro- duction, and consequent cheapness, confer upon it claims to attention as a general article of sustenance for the poorer classes of society ; and, it is ascertained, that a quarter of a pound of rice, slowly boiled, will yield upwards of a pound of solid and nutritive food.

Besides its offices in the support of life, there are otliers which rice discharges, useful, profitable, and agreeable. Its flower being reduced into a pulp with hot water, is moulded into Kgiires, and images, and plates, which the Chinese harden, and orna- ment with scroll-work, resembling mother-of-pearl toys. In our cotton factories, it is used in making weavers' dressings for warps ; and at Goa, on the Malabar coast, as well as in the island of Batavia, the ardent spirit called rack, or an-ack, is obtained from a decoction of rice, fermented and distilled, and mixed with the juice of the cocoa- nut tree. Civilization is not, in this instance, solely chargeable with the guilt of fur- nishing intoxicating liquors to the Indians, for, before the Portuguese, or the Dutch, or the British, had any settlements in the far east, the demoralizing beverage of seauu-tchoo, a (listillatioi> from rice, was sold in every little public-house in China.

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

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

SOWING RICE, AT SOO-CHOW-FOO. JQo

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

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

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

VOL. I.

2d

106 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

TRANSPLANTING RICE.

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

Homer

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

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

* Vide illustration, " Sowing Uiee at Soo-chow-foo," p. 103 )irceeding

TRANSPLANTING RICE. , 107

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

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

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

• The r«Iy\ i? a bivalvular uniliorous glume ; the corolla bivnlvilar, nearly eqiiiil. and adhering to the seed.

108 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

PLAYING AT SHUTTLECOCK WITH THE FEET.

With dice, with cards, with hazards far unfit, With shuttlecocks niis-sceming manly wit.

HiTBBAKD's Tale.

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

PLAYING AT SHUTTLECOCK WITH THE FEET. 109

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

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

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

VOL. I.

2 K

no

CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

ENTRANCE TO THE HOAXG-HO, OR YELLOW RIVER.

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

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

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

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

ENTRANCE TO THE HOANG-HO. HI

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

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

• Winn a Cliiiiamnn wishes to deny the possibility of an event, he sometimes expresses his incredulity by the well known proverb, " that it will come to pass so soon as the Yelluw river becomes dear.'

t So, hIso, the Lcvitical law prescribes, that " the priest shall bring it {the fowl) niito the altar, and wring off its head, and hum it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar, and he shall pluck away his crop with the feathers, and cast it beside the altar."

t When the Duke of Wellington, (Sir Arthur WfUcslcy,) was stntioiied at Hastings, immediately after hjs return from India, a friend expressed his surprise that the general, who had led so many thousands to victory.

113 CHINA ILLUSTilATED.

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

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

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

Thomson.

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

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

could 90 soon become reconciled to the command of a brigade. " I am mimmukwaUah," replied Sir Arthur, "us we say in the East; that is, I have eat the kings salt, and therefore I conceive it to be my duty to serve, with unhesitating zeal and ciieerfulness, when and wherever tin: I'.ing and !iis government may tliink proper to employ me." — Wright's Life and Campaigns of Wellington, vol. i. p. 97.

SACRIFICE OF THE HARVEST-MOON. 113

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

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

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

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

" Tliat, with to-morrow's sun, tlieir annual toil, Bigins again the never-ceasing round" —

the Chinaman holds his agricultural festival, unimpeded in his religious duties by the claims of those that are temporal; the labours of the barn, performed by the swingel — the operation of winnowing, in which a bamboo sieve and spacious cotton sheet are the only implements — and the preparation of tiie fields for another crop of rice, all " go bravely on," while the family, in the attitude of prayer and thankfulness, are engaged before the altar of their rural gods. In the vicinity of the farm-buildings, but always in an open posi- tion, a portico is constructed, in a style of peculiar neatness, for the reception of the image selected by the patriarch of the family. A table in front of the niche in which the rude figure is set up, serves as an altar on which flowers, and pastiles, and tapers, are ranged, with Clips of rice or tea. Here, before this most contemptible mockery of intelligence and power, the mother of the family presents herself, holding in her apron such [iroduce vol,. I. 2 V

114 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

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

THE WESTERN GATE OF PEKING. ]15

THE WESTERN GATE OF PEKING.

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

The City of Damascus.

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

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

116 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

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

• As in Ik'Miiiiiaris Castle, Nortli \Vale»

THE WESTERN GATE OF PEKING. J 17

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

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

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

VOL. I. i> Q

IJg CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

THE GROTTO OF CAMOENS, MACAO.

" He was in sooth a genuine bard ; His was no faint, liutitious flame. Like liis, my love, be tliy reward, But not tliy liapless late the same."

Byron — Slamas, with ihePuems of Camoens.

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

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

THE GROTTO OF CAMOENS, MACAO. ]J9

tomb was honoured with the laurel-wreath that should have adorned his temples. The son of a ship-captain, and born at Lisbon about the year 1524, he was placed at tlie college of Coimbra; from which he returned, after passing the required time, to his native city. Here he fell passionately in love with a lady of the palace, Catherine d'Attayde, and was banished to Santarem, as the result of a dispute in which his luckless attachment had involved him. Strong passions are frequently found united with eminent talents; and the ardent lover of Lisbon, was now the delightful poet of Santarem. It was here that he poured forth his spirit of poetry, that he bewailed the pangs of broken hopes, in numbers which are compared to the lyrics of Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso; and, inspired with the most noble sense of patriotism, that he attuned his harp to lays more mournful-^the wrongs of his country. Despair preying on a mind so sensitive, he now became a soldier, and serving in the expedition which the Portuguese sent against Morocco, he composed poetry in the midst of battles. Danger kindled genius — genius animated courage. An arrow having deprived him of his right eye at the siege of Ceuta, he hoped that his wounds would receive a recompense which was denied to his talents; but in this expectation also he was deceived, owing solely to the machinations of envy. Filled with indignation at this studied neglect, he embarked for India in the year 1553, and landed at Goa, near to the spot where his father perished by shipwreck only three years after. At first he was incited to deeds of glory by the example of his countrymen in India, and exercised his powerful imagination in celebrating their praise in a lengthened epic poem. The vivacity of the poet and the patriot's mind, however, is not without difficulty restrained by that moderation which a state of dependence exacts; and Camiiens, disgusted with many acts of cruelty and perfidy in the government of India, wrote a satire upon the authors, vthich caused his banishment to llie settlement of Macao. His appointment of judge at this place was but an honourable name for exile: and hero he had, during several years, no other society than that of nature, which poured around him in abundance all the charms of the East.

Leisure was found at length for the imbodiinent of his great conceptions, and, selecting Vasco de Gama's Indian expedition as the subject, Camiiens devoted the palmy years of his life to the composition of the " Lusiad." The most celebrated passages in this immortal performance, are the episodes of Inez de Castro, and the appearance of Adamastre, who, by means of his power over tlie storms, endeavours to stop Gama when lie is about to double the C:'pe of Good Hope. Tlic poet is hardly responsible for the nii.xture of Christianity with mythological fable of which he has been guilty, for such was the pre- vailing taste of tlie times. To this taste also is to be attributed that imitatioTi of the works of classical antiquity, which is employed in conjunction with the splendour of poetic description, so bright, so completely original, as to cause regret that fasliion should have moulded the features of his genius ii any respect. 'I'iie versification of the Lusiad is so charming and harmonious, that not only the minds of the cultivated, but of the common people, m Portugal, are enraptured by its magic, and learn by heart, and sin favourite stanzas from it. Gen\iine patriotism pervades every line of this great jioem, and the national glory of the Portuguese is emblazoned in every form, in all the colours which

120

CHINA ILLUSTHATED.

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

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

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

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

THE CATABACT OF SHIH-TAN. 121

THE CATARACT OF SHIH-TAN.

PROVINCE OF KIANG-NAN.

He glorieth in his might alone,

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

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

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

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122 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

GARDENS OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE, PEKING.

Fatigued with form's oppressive laws,

When Taou-Kwang avoids the great. When cloy'd with merited applause,

He seeks the rural calm retreat; Does he not praise each mossy cell, And feel the truth these numbers tell.

Rural Elegance.

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

GARDENS OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE. 123

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

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

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

124 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

CAP-VENDER'S SHOP, CANTON.

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

Hamlet.

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

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

CLOSE OP THE ATTACK ON CHAPOO. 125

inclemency of the season, and to an economic people possessed an additional recom- mendation. The preservation of this most useful gift of nature became the subject of a sanguinary civil war, in which Tartar tactics triumphed, and Tartar tyranny used its triumph so ignobly, that the conquered were compelled to shave the head in future, reserving only one lengthened lock, depending from the crown, — the badge of their subjection.

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

CLOSE OF THE ATTACK ON CHAP 00.

" Hark tlie fierce music on the wind, the atahal, the ponp, The stern avenger is at hand, — he has not tarried long."

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

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126 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

It was on the 17th of May, in the year 1842, that a British fleet, under the command of Vice- Admiral Sir William Parker, arrived before the city of Chapoo; and, on the following morning. Sir Hugh Gough succeeded in landing a force of 1,300 men on a sandy beach, two miles east of the city, without the least opposition from the Chinese. With childish precaution, the enemy had assembled their entire force, 8,000 men, within the city, relying mainly on the strength of their fortifications, leaving the range of heights, a natural battery, and one that commanded their streets and the bay where the British lay, wholly unoccupied. Wiiile the British forces were ascending and forming on the hills, the ships 'of war opened upon the fortifications on shore, which were immediately silenced, and a brigade of 700 seamen landing, under cover of a heavy fire from the ships, drove the Chinese from their guns towards the city. Sir Hugh Gough was now in possession of the heights, from which the whole Chinese army was descried, defiling regularly through the streets, in full retreat. Their movements appeared to receive occasional acceleration from the fall of shells and grape amongst them, according as the howitzers and field-pieces came nearer and nearer; at length. Colonel Schoedde's escalading party getting completely over the wall, the rapid volleys of his musketry completed the confusion and route.

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

AN ITINliRANT BARBER.

127

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

A sort of wild despair took possession of the whole population of Chapoo, upon the sudden discovery of our infinite superiority in the art of war. The men, including 6,500 regular troops and 1,700 Tartars, abandoned the city; the women, ignorant of the English character, and equally horror-struck at the flight of their cowardly husbands, having destroyed their children, committed self-immolation, and numbers were found suspended from the ceilings of their once happy homes. Had our opera- tions been a little more rapid, it is possible that many of those miserable events might have been prevented, for if the citizens had but stayed to witness the gene- rosity with which our brave army exercised their power, indignation would thenceforth have pointed at the real authors of these miseries — the calumniators of British national character. Amongst the spoils of Chapoo were ninety pieces of ordnance, jingalls, matchlocks, bows, and gunpowder. The loss on the part of the Chinese was estimated at 1,500 men, on ours it is known not to have exceeded nine men killed, and fifty wounded.

AN ITINERANT BARBER.

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

Conquest of Cathay,

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

128 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

SCENE IN THE SUBURBS OF TING-HAE. 129

SCENE IN THE SUBURBS OF TING-HAE.

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

Goldsmith.

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

Performers in a festivity are generally assembled in a booth or temporary erection ; where viands of various kind, fruit, pastry, and other delicacies, are spread in profusion, while prayers are offered, bells sounded, and flutes blown, with a determination that measures the zeal of the j)erformer. The gods frequently manifesting indifference to the banquet, the votaries proceed to divide the dainties, some demolishing their portions, while others cast theirs amongst tlie noisy and mirth-loving crowd. Sanctity would appear to form no share in the ceremony : merriment, pleasantry, fun, in its VOL. I. 2 k

133 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

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

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

AMOY, FROM THE OUTER HARBOUR.

" Again their own shore rises on the view No more polluted with a hostile hue : No sullen ship lies bristling o'er the foam, A floating dungeon — all is hope and home."

BVRON.

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

AMOY, FROM THE IXNER HARBOUR. 133

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

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

VOL. I. 2 L

184 CHINA ILLUSTRATED.

A MARRIAGE PROCESSION

AT THE BLUE-CLOUD CREEK.

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

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

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

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

A MARUIAGE PROCESSION. 135

The lady also changes her costume : she braids her hair as matrons do, fastening it with a pin presented by her lover — her companions now shave her face, and perform other friendiv offices for her; after which they sit and weep with her, until the day she bids farewell to her parental home.

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

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

136 CHINA ILLUS-.IATED.

LANDING-PLACE AT THE YUK-SHAN.

Upon those mystic waves of thine

Time finds a symbol, and faith sets a sign.

Thus does Time's tlood roll silently away —

Losing the sunshine of its earlier day. The Water of Life.

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

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

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

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