Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber Note

Text emphasis denoted as _Italics_ and =Bold=.

CHINA AND THE CHINESE

China

AND THE CHINESE

BY

EDMUND PLAUCHUT

TRANSLATED AND EDITED
BY

Mrs. ARTHUR BELL (N. D'Anvers)

AUTHOR OF 'THE ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF ART,' 'LIFE OF GAINSBOROUGH,'
'THE SCIENCE LADDERS,' ETC.

WITH FIFTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED

13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET

1899

_All rights reserved._

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

This brightly written little book by the well-known French author, Edmund Plauchut, who has spent many years in China, is the first of the new series known as the "Livres d'or de la Science" recently commenced by MM. Schleicher Frères of Paris. It gives in a succinct form a very complete account of the Chinese, both past and present, their religion, their literature, and their time-honoured customs. Touching but lightly on the many vexed questions of modern diplomacy, it yet presents a very true picture of the problems European statesmen have to solve in connection with the inevitable partition of the Celestial Empire, and will, it is hoped, be found of real service to those who wish to be abreast with the times, yet who have not the leisure to read the longer and more exhaustive books on the subject which are continually appearing.

Nancy Bell,

_Southbourne-on-Sea,
May 1899._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
The delight of exploring unknown lands--Saint Louis and
the Tartars of olden times--The Anglo-French force enters
Pekin--Terror of the "Red Devils"--The "Cup of Immortality"--The
"Sons of Heaven"--Hong-Kong as it was and is--The Treaty of
Tien-tsin--The game of "Morra"--First Tea-party in the Palace
of Pekin--Chinese agriculture and love of flowers--Chinese
literati--An awkward meeting between two of them--Love of poetry
in China--Voltaire's letter to the poet-king--The Chinese
army--The _Shu-King_, or sacred book of China--Yao and his
work--Chung, the lowly-born Emperor--The Hoang-Ho, or "China's
Sorrow"--Yu the engineer and his work--Chung chooses Yu to reign
after him--The foundation of the hereditary monarchy in China 1

CHAPTER II

Trip up the Shu-Kiang river--My fellow-passengers and their
costumes--A damaged bell--Female peasants on the river-banks--I
am caught up and carried off by a laughing virago--Arrival at
Canton--Early trading between China and Ceylon and Africa,
etc.--The Empress Lui-Tseu teaching the people to rear
silk-worms--The treaties of Nanking and Tien-tsin--Bombardment
of Canton--Murder of a French sailor and terrible revenge--M.
Vaucher and I explore Canton--The _fétes_ in honour of the
Divinity of the North and of the Queen of Heaven--General
appearance of Canton--An emperor's recipe for making tea--How tea
is grown in China--The Fatim garden--A dutiful son--Scene of the
murder of the Tai-Ping rebels--The Temple of the five hundred
Genii--Suicide of a young engineer--Return of his spirit in the
form of a snake 33

CHAPTER III

General Tcheng-Ki-Tong and his book on China--The monuments
of China--Those the Chinese delight to honour--A Chinese
heroine--Ingredients of the "Cup of Immortality"--Avenues of
colossal statues and monsters in cemeteries--Imperial edict in
honour of K'wo-Fan--Proclamation of the eighteenth century--The
Emperor takes his people's sins upon himself--Reasons for
Chinese indifference to matters of faith--Lao-Tsze, or the old
philosopher--His early life--His book, the _Tao-Teh-King_--His
theory of the creation--Affinity of his doctrine with
Christianity--Quotations from his book 57

CHAPTER IV

Lao-Tsze and Confucius compared--The appearance of Kilin, the
fabulous dragon, to the father of Confucius--Early life of the
Philosopher--The death and funeral of his mother--His views on
funeral ceremonies--His visit to the King of Lu and discourse on
the nature of man--Confucius advocates gymnasium exercises--His
love of music--His summary of the whole duty of woman--He
describes the life of a widow--He gives a list of the classes of
men to be avoided in marriage--The seven legitimate reasons for
the divorce of a wife--The three exceptions rendering divorce
illegal--The missionary Gutzlaff's opinion of Confucius' view of
woman's position--The Philosopher meets a man about to commit
suicide--He rescues him from despair--He loses thirteen of his
own followers 73

CHAPTER V

My voyage to Macao--General appearance of the port--Gambling
propensities of the Chinese--Compulsory emigration--Cruel
treatment of coolies on board ship--Disaster on the
Paracelses reefs--The _Baracouns_--The grotto of Camoens--The
_Lusiads_--Contrast between Chinese and Japanese--Origin of the
yellow races: their appearance and language--Relation of the
dwellers in the Arctic regions to the people of China--Russian
and Dutch intercourse with the Celestials--East India Company's
monopoly of trade--Disputes on the opium question--Expiration of
charter--Death of Lord Napier of a broken heart--Lin-Tseh-Hsu
as Governor of the Kwang provinces--The result of his measures
to suppress trade in opium--Treaty of Nanking--War of
1856-1858--Treaty of Tien-tsin and Convention of Pekin--Immense
increase in exports and imports resulting from them 97

CHAPTER VI

French aspirations in Tonkin--Margary receives his
instructions--Work already done on the Yang-tse--Margary
is insulted at Paï-Chou--He awaits instructions in vain at
Lo-Shan--The Tung-Ting lake--A Chinese caravanserai--The explorer
leaves the river to proceed by land--He meets a starving
missionary--Kwei-Chou and the French bishop there--A terrible
road--Arrival at the capital of Yunnan--Armed escort from
Bhâmo--Meeting between Margary and Colonel Browne--Threatening
attitude of natives--Margary crosses the frontier alone--Colonel
Browne's camp surrounded--Murder of Margary outside
Manwyne--Importance of Yunnan and Szechuan to Europeans 118

CHAPTER VII

Sir Thomas Wade demands his passports--Retires to man-of-war
off Tien-tsin--Interviews with Li-Hung-Chang--Convention of
Che-Foo--Description of Ichang on the Yang-tse--The Manchester
of Western China--Pak-hoï and its harbour--A magnificent
pagoda--Ceremony of opening the port to foreign trade--New
Year's _féte_ at Pak-hoï--The game of Morra--Description
of Wenchow--Temples and pagodas turned into inns--Wahn
and its native officials--Dislike of mandarins, etc., to
missionaries--Beautiful surroundings of the town--An eclipse of
the moon expected--The eclipse does not keep time--Excitement
of the people--The dragon attacks the moon at last--Threatening
message from the Emperor to the astronomers--Two astronomers
beheaded in B.C. 2155--Reasons for importance attached to
eclipses in China 135

CHAPTER VIII

I land at Shanghai--The Celestial who had never heard of
Napoleon--Total value of exports and imports to and from
Shanghai--What those exports and imports are--The devotion of
the Chinese to their native land--The true yellow danger of
the future--I am invited to a Chinese dinner at Shanghai--My
yellow guests--The ladies find me amusing--Their small feet
and difficulty in walking--A wealthy mandarin explains why
the feet are mutilated--Sale of girls in China--Position of
women discussed--A mandarin accepts a Bible--Our host takes
us to a flower-boat--Description of boat--My first attempt at
opium-smoking--A Celestial in an opium dream 151

CHAPTER IX

Great commercial value of opium--Cultivation of the
poppy--Exports of opium from India--What opium is--Preparation
of the drug--Opinions on the English monopoly of the trade
in it--Ingenious mode of smuggling opium--Efforts of Chinese
Government to check its importation--Proclamation of the Viceroy
Wang--Opinion of Li-Shi-Shen on the properties of opium--The
worst form of opium smoking--Its introduction to Formosa by the
Dutch--Depopulation of the island--Punishments inflicted on
opium-smokers--Opinions of doctors on the effects of opium-eating
or smoking--Chinese prisoners deprived of their usual pipe--The
real danger to the poor of indulgence in opium--Evidence of
Archibald Little--The Chinese and European pipe contrasted 166