Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation, diacritics, and spelling in the original
document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been
corrected.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

On page 18, "sanpans" should possibly be "sampans".

INTIMATE
CHINA

The Chinese as I have
seen them. By Mrs.
Archibald Little, Author
of _A Marriage in China_

With 120 Illustrations

HUTCHINSON & CO.
Paternoster Row, London ... 1899

PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY.

CONTENTS.

PRELUDE.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

PAGE

Arriving in Shanghai.--My First Tea-season.--Inside a
Chinese City.--Shanghai Gardens.--In the Romantic East at
last! 1

CHAPTER I.

ON THE UPPER YANGTSE.

Boat-travel.--Vegetation.--Trackers.--Terrace of the
Sun.--Gold Diamond Mountain.--Meng Liang's Ladder.--Great
Szechuan Road.--Steamer Voyage.--Chinese Hades.--Caves 31

CHAPTER II.

A LAND JOURNEY.

Large Farmsteads.--Wedding Party.--Atoning for an
Insult.--Rowdy Lichuan.--Old-fashioned Inn.--Dog's
Triumphal Progress.--Free Fight.--Wicked
Music.--Poppy-fields.--Bamboo Stream 58

CHAPTER III.

LIFE IN A CHINESE CITY.

Arrangement of a Chinese House.--Crowd in Streets.--My
First Walk in Chungking City.--Presents.--Cats, Rats, and
Eggs.--Paying a Call.--Ladies Affectionate.--Shocked at
European Indecency.--Cost of Freight.--Distance by
Post.--Children's Pleasures.--Precautions during
Drought.--Guild Gardens.--Pretty Environs.--Opium Flowers,
and Smokers.--Babble of Schools.--Chinese Girl-child 74

CHAPTER IV.

HINDRANCES AND ANNOYANCES.

Sulphur Bath.--Rowdy Behaviour.--Fight in
Boat.--Imprisonment for letting to
Foreigners.--Book-keeper in Foreign Employ
beaten.--Customs Regulations.--Kimberley Legacy.--Happy
Consul.--Unjust _Likin_ Charges.--Foreigners
massacred.--Official Responsibility 98

CHAPTER V.

CURRENT COIN IN CHINA.

Taels.--Dollars.--Exchange.--Silver Shoes.--Foreign Mints 120

CHAPTER VI.

FOOTBINDING.

Not a Mark of Rank.--Golden Lilies.--Hinds'
Feet.--Bandages drawn tighter.--Breaking the Bones.--A
Cleft in which to hide Half a Crown.--Mothers sleep with
Sticks beside them.--How many die.--How many have all
their Toes.--Feet drop off.--Pain till Death.--Typical
Cases.--Eczema, Ulceration, Mortification.--General Health
affected 134

CHAPTER VII.

ANTI-FOOTBINDING.

Church Mission's Action.--American Mission's
Action.--Tʽien Tsu Hui.--Chinese Ladies' Drawing-room
Meeting.--Suifu Appeal.--Kang, the Modern Sage.--Duke
Kung.--Appeal to the Chinese People 145

CHAPTER VIII.

THE POSITION OF WOMEN.

Official Honours to Women.--Modesty.--Conjugal
Relations.--Business Knowledge.--Opium-smoking.--Typical
Women 164

CHAPTER IX.

BIRTHS, DEATHS, AND MARRIAGES.

Missing Bride.--Wedding Reception.--Proxy Marriage.--
Servants' Weddings.--Love for Wives.--Killing a
Husband.--Wifely Affection.--Chinese Babies.--Securing a
Funeral 184

CHAPTER X.

CHINESE MORALS.

How Chinese look upon Shanghai.--A Viceroy's
Expedient.--Method of raising Subscriptions.--Deserving
Deities.--Trustworthiness.--Hunan Hero.--Marrying English
Girls 197

CHAPTER XI.

SUPERSTITIONS.

_Fung shui._--Devastating Eggs.--Demon Possession.--Sacred
Trees.--Heavenly Silk.--Ladder of Swords.--Preserving only
Children.--God of Literature on Ghosts.--God of
War.--Reverence for Ancestors 211

CHAPTER XII.

OUR MISSIONARIES.

European Prejudice.--French Fathers.--Italian
Sisters.--Prize-giving.--Anti-Christian Tracts.--Chinese
Saints and Martyrs 230

CHAPTER XIII.

UP-COUNTRY SHOPPING AND UP-COUNTRY WAYS.

Buying Curios.--Being stoned.--Chinese New Year.--
Robbers.--Protesting Innocence.--Doing Penance.--Medicines 253

CHAPTER XIV.

SOLDIERS.

Tiger Soldiers.--Woosung Drill.--General's
Gallantry.--Japanese War.--Admiral Ting.--Dominoes with a
Sentry.--Viceroy's Review 269

CHAPTER XV.

CHINESE STUDENTS.

Number of Degrees.--Aged Bachelors.--Up for
Examination.--Necessary Qualifications.--Crowding.--
Scarcity of Posts.--Chinese Dress 292

CHAPTER XVI.

A FATHER'S ADVICE TO HIS SON.

Tseng Kuo Fan.--"Neither envious nor fawning."--Repose of
Manner.--Cultivation of Land.--Early Rising, Diligence in
Business, and Perseverance.--Dignity.--Family
Worship.--Reading 317

CHAPTER XVII.

BUDDHIST MONASTERIES.

Monastery near Ichang.--For the Dead.--Near
Ningpo.--Buddhist Service.--Tʽien Dong.--Omi Temples.--Sai
King Shan.--Monastery of the Particoloured Cliff 327

CHAPTER XVIII.

A CHINESE ORDINATION.

Crowd.--Nuns.--Final Shaving.--Woven Paces.--Burning
Heads.--Relationships.--A Living Picture 350

CHAPTER XIX.

THE SACRED MOUNTAIN OF OMI.

Luncheon with a Chief Priest.--Tigers.--Mysterious
Lights.--The View of a Lifetime.--Pilgrims.--Glory of
Buddha.--Unburied Priests 362

CHAPTER XX.

CHINESE SENTIMENT.

In Memory of a Dead Wife.--Of a Dear Friend.--Farewell
Verses.--Æsthetic Feeling.--Drinking
Song.--Music.--Justice to Rats 383

CHAPTER XXI.

A SUMMER TRIP TO CHINESE TIBET.

Drying Prayerbooks Mountain.--Boys' Paradise.--Lolo
Women.--Salt-carriers.--Great Rains.--Brick-tea
Carriers.--Suspension Bridge.--Granite Mountains.--Tibetan
Bridge.--Lamas.--Tibetan Women.--Caravanserai at
Tachienlu.--Beautiful Young Men.--_Lamaserai._--Prayers?--
Fierce Dogs.--Dress.--Trying for a Boat 396

CHAPTER XXII.

ARTS AND INDUSTRIES.

Porcelain.--Bronzes.--Silver-work.--Pictures.--
Architecture.--Tea.--Silk.--White Wax.--Grass-cloth.--
Ivory Fans.--Embroidery 425

CHAPTER XXIII.

A LITTLE PEKING PUG.

Enjoyment.--Anticipation.--Regret 446

_AFFAIRS OF STATE._

PRELUDE.

PART I.--GETTING TO PEKING.

House-boat on the Peiho.--Tientsin.--Chefoo.--A Peking
Cart.--Camels.--British Embassy.--Walking on the
Walls.--Beautiful Perspectives 457

PART II.--THE SIGHTS OF PEKING.

Tibetan Buddhism.--Yellow Temple.--Confucian Temple.--Hall
of the Classics.--Disgraceful
Behaviour.--Observatory.--Roman Catholic
Cathedral.--Street Sights.--British
Embassy.--Bribes.--Shams.--Saviour of Society.--Sir Robert
Hart 473

CHAPTER I.

THE CHINESE EMPEROR'S MAGNIFICENCE.

The Emperor at the Temple of Heaven.--Mongol Princes
wrestling.--Imperial Porcelain Manufactory.--Imperial Silk
Manufactory.--Maids of Honour.--Spring Sacrifices.--Court
of Feasting.--Hunting
Preserves.--Strikes.--Rowdies.--Young Men to be prayed for 493

CHAPTER II.

THE EMPRESS, THE EMPEROR, AND THE AUDIENCE.

A Concubine no Empress.--Sudden
Deaths.--Suspicions.--Prince Chʽün.--Emperor's
Education.--His Sadness.--His Features.--Foreign
Ministers' Audience.--Another Audience.--Crowding of the
Rabble.--Peking's Effect on Foreign Representatives 515

CHAPTER III.

SOLIDARITY, CO-OPERATION, AND IMPERIAL FEDERATION.

Everybody guaranteed by Somebody Else.--Buying back
Office.--Family Responsibilities.--Guilds.--All Employés
Partners.--Antiquity of Chinese Reforms.--To each Province
so many Posts.--Laotze's Protest against Unnecessary
Laws.--Experiment in Socialism.--College of
Censors.--Tribunal of History.--Ideal in Theory 532

CHAPTER IV.

BEGINNINGS OF REFORM.

Reform Club.--Chinese Ladies' Public Dinner.--High School
for Girls.--Chinese Lady Doctors insisting on Religious
Liberty.--Reformers' Dinner.--The Emperor at the Head of
the Reform Party.--Revising Examination Papers.--Unaware
of Coming Danger.--Russian Minister's Reported Advice 549