Chapter VIII: Village Customs, Festivals and Folk-Lore (2)

The festival of Cold Food (_Han Shih_)--so called because it was once customary to partake of no hot provisions on this day and to light no fire--occurs on the eve of the Ch'ing-Ming festival. The Chinese in Weihaiwei have no clear idea why cold food was compulsory on this occasion, but the custom is undoubtedly connected with the ancient rite, once prevalent in many parts of the world, of kindling "new fire" once a year. The Chinese _Han Shih_ would thus represent an intervening day between the extinction of the old fire and the lighting of the new. The custom seems to be connected with sun-worship. "The solar rite of the New Fire," says Dr. Tylor, "adopted by the Roman Church as a paschal ceremony, may still be witnessed in Europe, with its solemn curfew on Easter Eve and the ceremonial striking of the new holy fire."[140] Another writer observes that "formerly throughout England the house-fires were allowed to go out on Easter Sunday, after which the chimney and fireplace were completely cleaned and the fire once more lighted."[141] It is curious to note that similar observances took place even on the American continent. "In Peru, as in Mexico," says a writer on the religious systems of ancient America,[142] "there was a solemn religious ceremony of renewing at stated periods, by special generation, the fire used in the temples and even in the households.... It is one of the oldest rites of the human race, and it has survived under all religions alike down to the other day, when perhaps it received its death-blow from the lucifer match."

The Ch'ing-Ming or "Pure and Bright" festival is as carefully observed at Weihaiwei as elsewhere throughout China. It is a movable feast generally occurring early in the third Chinese month.[143] Edible delicacies of various kinds are diligently prepared in every household and taken to the family graveyard to be sacrificially offered to the ancestral spirits. At this season, and at the corresponding festival held on the first day of the tenth month, all the members of the family who can attend prostrate themselves on the ground in front of their ancestors' graves.[144] These observances are known as _shang fên_--"going up to the tombs."[145] This is one of the occasions on which family reunions take place. It is a holiday season and there is plenty of jollity and feasting; but the sacrifices and the "sweeping of tombs" are regarded as sacred duties, the omission of which through negligence would show a discreditable lack of filial piety and might entail misfortune on the present and future generations of the family. The virtues of obedience and submission to authority are also emphasised at this season in the village schools, where the pupils formally salute their teachers. An old custom sometimes observed at this time is the wearing of willow-leaves on the head. This is supposed to produce good weather for agriculture. This practice is not so common in Weihaiwei as in Shansi and some parts of Chihli and Honan, where in seasons of drought--only too common in those parts--men and boys go about for many days wearing on their heads wreaths made of fresh willow-branches. The willow is a tree that loves water and the banks of rivers, and willow-wreaths are therefore regarded as rain-charms.[146]

In the third month comes the festival of Corn-rain (_Ku Yü_). This is the appropriate time for obtaining written charms as antidotes against snakes and grubs and venomous or destructive reptiles and insects in general.

The so-called Dragon Festival[147] is held on the fifth day of the fifth month. This is the occasion on which the well-known dragon-boat races take place at Canton and elsewhere in south China. According to tradition, the festival was inaugurated in memory of a high-minded statesman and poet named Ch'ü Yüan of the Ch'ü State (south of the Yangtse) who was driven to commit suicide in the fourth century B.C. It is with the simulated object of recovering his body that the dragon-boats--so named from their length and peculiar shape--annually dash through the waters of the southern rivers. But there are no boat-races of this kind at Weihaiwei. Little cakes called _tsung-tzŭ_--made of rice or millet with a morsel of fruit or sweetmeat inside--are eaten by the people; but there seems to be no local knowledge of the fact that these cakes were originally intended as sacrifices to Ch'ü Yüan and ought to be thrown into flowing water as offerings to his spirit.

The fifth month is regarded as the most "poisonous" of all the months in the year, and antidotes and charms of all kinds are necessary to repel the deadly influences that assail suffering humanity at this period. Children are protected from the many dangers that surround them by tying bands of parti-coloured silk threads round their fore-arms. Among the most efficacious family-charms is the mugwort plant (_Artemisia moxa_), which is hung over every doorway. Prof. Giles cites an old saying to the effect that "if on the _Tuan Wu_ festival one does not hang up mugwort, one will not eat any new wheat"; and explains it by the comment that a famous rebel named Huang Ch'ao gave orders to his soldiers to spare any family that exhibited this plant at its door. But the superstitious use of mugwort is far more ancient than any such story would imply. Its extreme antiquity is shown by the fact that this plant has been similarly used as a valued charm against evil in other parts of the world, including France, Germany and Britain.[148] The custom in such lands was to pluck the plant at the summer solstice (Midsummer Day) and to wear it on the person or (as in China) to hang it over the doorway. This is only one of innumerable examples of the strange unity that seems to underlie old popular customs and superstitions all the world over.

In spite of the terrible potency of the evil things rampant during the fifth month, it is supposed in Weihaiwei that from sunrise to sunset on the fifth of the month (the festival we are now considering) all poisonous and destructive influences--material and spiritual--totally disappear, perhaps owing to the efficacy of the charms universally used against them on that day. It is believed that even poisonous plants are absolutely innocuous if plucked and eaten on the fifth of the fifth moon, while medicinal herbs attain their supreme degree of efficacy.

A well-known custom is to rise early and walk exactly one hundred paces into a grass-field without turning the head; then to pluck one hundred blades of grass, which must be carefully taken home. The grass is put into a pot of water and thoroughly boiled. The water--into which all the virtues of the grass are now supposed to have passed--is poured through a strainer into a second vessel, and the grass-blades are thrown away. A second boiling now takes place, and the liquid is poured into a bottle and kept for use as required. It is believed to be a sovereign remedy for headaches, small wounds and bruises, and various nervous disorders. The Chinese know it as _pai ts'ao kao_--"hundred-grass lotion." The wise men who hand down this valuable recipe from generation to generation are careful to explain that the medicine will be of no avail whatever if any of the prescribed conditions have been neglected. It is absolutely necessary to walk neither more nor less than one hundred paces, to pluck neither more nor less than one hundred blades of grass, and to boil and strain the water in the manner laid down. Above all, everything must be done on the fifth day of the fifth month, as it is only on that day that ordinary grass possesses _ling_--spiritual or health-giving properties.

The seventh day of the seventh month is celebrated throughout China in connection with a love-story to which allusion is constantly made in Chinese literature. It is said that the Herd-boy (the star β γ Aquila) and the Spinning Maiden (α Lyra), separated throughout the rest of the year by the Milky Way, are allowed to cross a mystic bridge made by magpies, and to meet and embrace each other on that night only. In Weihaiwei, where there are large numbers of magpies, it is said that not one of these birds will ever be seen on this day until after the hour of noon: all having gone up to the skies to perform the duty of making a bridge for the celestial lovers. The day is regarded as one of good omen and suitable for fortune-telling and the drawing of lots.

On the preceding evening (the sixth of the month) boys and girls put bowls of water on the window-sill and leave them standing all night. In the morning each child picks a bristle from an ordinary broom[149] and places it carefully on the surface of the water. The shadow made in the water by the bristle is supposed to indicate the child's future lot in life. If, for instance, the shadow seems to take the shape of a Chinese brush-pen, the boy will become a great scholar; if it is shaped like a plough he will remain in the condition of a peasant or farmer. I have been told of a child who saw in the water the form of a fish. This was interpreted to be a _mu yü_ or the "wooden fish" of Buddhist temples--a queer hollow instrument of wood that lies on every Buddhist altar in China and is tapped by the monks while reciting their prayers. The wise men of the neighbourhood foretold, therefore, that the boy was destined to become a monk. The prophecy was a true one, for subsequently of his own accord he entered "the homeless state."

Another children's amusement on this occasion is to catch a spider and put it under an inverted bowl. If, when the bowl is turned up, the spider is found to have spun a web, the child and his parents are overjoyed: for it is supposed that good fortune will adhere to him throughout the ensuing year just as a captured fly adheres to a spider's web.

On the fifteenth of the seventh month sacrifices are again offered to the dead. This is a "Festival of Souls."[150]

On the first of the eighth month it is customary to collect some dew and use it for moistening a little ink.[151] This ink is devoted to the purpose of making little dots or marks on children's foreheads, and this, it is supposed, will preserve them from sickness.

On the mid-autumn festival[152] of the fifteenth of the eighth month reverence is paid to the ruler of the night. Offerings of cake, wine and fruit are made to the full moon and then consumed by the worshippers.[153] The occasion is one of family gatherings and festal mirth.

On the Ch'ung Yang festival of the ninth day of the ninth month it used to be the custom in many parts of China to eat specially-prepared flour-cakes called _kao_[154] and to drink wine made of the chrysanthemum.

The cakes are still made and eaten in Weihaiwei, but the chrysanthemum wine appears to be obsolete.[155] On this day it is customary for young men (especially those of the lettered classes) to climb to the top (_têng kao_) of one of the hills of their neighbourhood. The advantages are two in number: it will lead to the promotion of those who are engaged in climbing the steep slopes of an official career, and it will free them for the ensuing year from all danger of sickness. This is equivalent to the _tsou pai ping_ of the women on the fifteenth of the first month.

On the first day of the tenth month the family tombs are visited, and the same ceremonies observed as at the Ch'ing-Ming festival. This is one of the three days in the year that are regarded as specially sacred to the souls of the departed (_Kuei Chieh_ or Festivals of Souls or Spirits): the Ch'ing-Ming (movable) in or about the third month, and the fixed festivals of the fifteenth of the seventh and the first of the tenth months. Similarly there are three festivals specially provided for the living (_Jên Chieh_ or Festivals of Men), and these are marked by feasting and merriment; they are the New Year festival, the fifth of the fifth and the fifteenth of the eighth months. The former list does not, however, exhaust the occasions on which reverence is paid to ancestors. At the winter solstice,[156] for instance, ancestral sacrifices are offered in the family temples; and at the New Year, as we have seen, the living do not forget, in the midst of their own pleasures, the sacred duties owed to the souls of the dead.

On the eighth of the twelfth month it is customary for matrons to regale their families with a concoction made of grain, vegetables and water called La-pa-chou, which means "gruel for the eighth of the sacrificial month." Children are made to partake of an unsavoury cake made of buckwheat, hare's blood, sulphur, cinnabar and tea-leaves. This, it is believed, will protect young people from smallpox--a somewhat prevalent disease among the native children of Weihaiwei.

In the evening of the twenty-third of the twelfth month an important family ceremony takes place known as _tz'ŭ tsao_ or _sung tsao_--"Taking farewell of the Hearth-god." The hearth-god or kitchen-god (_tsao shên_) is a Taoist divinity who is supposed to dwell near the kitchen fireplace of every family,[157] and whose business it is to watch the doings of every member of the family from day to day with a view to reporting them in detail at the close of the year to the Taoist Supreme Deity. In order to make his annual report he is supposed to leave the kitchen on the twenty-third of the last month of the year, and ascend to heaven. Before he goes, obeisance is made to him by the family, and he is presented with small round sugared cakes called _t'ang kua_ and lumps of _no mi_, a glutinous rice. The object of providing the god with these dainties is to make his lips stick together so that he will be unable to open his mouth and make his report. The family is thus saved from any inconvenient results arising from an enumeration of its misdeeds. Needless to say, the matter is not regarded very seriously in most households, and the ceremonies are chiefly kept up as a source of amusement for children, who receive their full share of the sticky cakes. After a sojourn of a week in heaven the hearth-god returns to his own fireside on New Year's Eve.

On the twenty-fourth of the month every house is thoroughly swept out in preparation for the New Year's festivities. The object of this ceremony is not merely the practical and necessary one of cleanliness: the sweeping process will, it is believed, rid the house of all malign influences that may have collected there during the past year, and thereby render it fit for the reception of every kind of joy and good luck. This is an auspicious day for the celebration of marriages.

New Year's Eve (_Ch'ü hsi_) marks the beginning of the Chinese holiday season, and is a day of mirth and feasting. In many families it is the custom to sit up all night; the phrase _shou sui_ has practically the same signification as our "seeing the Old Year out and the New Year in." In the evening, new red scrolls, such as adorn the outside and inside of nearly every Chinese house, are pasted over the old ones that have now become faded or illegible. The brilliant colour of these scrolls and the felicitous phrases, virtuous maxims and wise literary allusions with which they abound are regarded by the common people (who can rarely read them) as equivalent to powerful charms that will bring happiness and good fortune to all who dwell beneath the shadow of their influence. Fire-crackers, the delight of old and young in China, are let off at every doorstep, helping at each explosion to dissipate any traces of bad luck that may be lingering in the neighbourhood and to frighten away the last malignant spirit who might otherwise mar the happiness of the New Year.

FOOTNOTES:

[96] See pp. 336, 371-7, 382, 386 _seq._

[97] See pp. 95, 289.

[98] The same tendency, with the same result, showed itself in Burma after the annexation to the Indian Empire.

[99] This process, whereby the expelled one ceases to enjoy the rights to which his birth entitles him, is known as _ch'u tsu_,--"expulsion from the clan."

[100] A _tiao_ is at present worth approximately eighteenpence.

[101] Half a _tiao_.

[102] Silk-worms are fed on the leaves of the scrub-oak on the open hillsides.

[103] Literally, "not clear" (_pu ming_).

[104] _Han tao mi._

[105] The Government fruit-grower has recommended the Black Hamburgh, Muscat of Alexandria and Malaya--which ripen in succession--as the best varieties of table-grapes for Weihaiwei, while of wine-grapes the most satisfactory are the Mataro, Alicante Bouschet, Black Malvoise, Grenache, Zinfandel, Charbons and Johannesburg Riesling.

[106] See pp. 56, 57.

[107] The local Government--not very wisely from the point of view of sound economics--levies small "wharfage-dues" on imported timber.

[108] This is the _pai-la shu_ so well known in Ssŭch'uan in connection with the insect-wax industry, which is also carried on to a small extent in Shantung though not in Weihaiwei.

[109] Probably the finest specimen of the _ginkgo_ or maidenhair tree in the Territory is that in the grounds of Pei-k'ou Temple. Besides being very tall, it measures fourteen and a half feet in circumference five feet from the ground. See p. 381 for remarks on another of these trees.

[110] For temporary purposes of trade.

[111] Sale of children by starving parents is a painful feature of famines in some parts of China.

[112] This criticism from a Chinese writer is interesting, when we remember that the practice is much the same throughout the greater part of the Empire.

[113] This is exceptionally rare at the present time. The overwhelming majority of women are married before the age of twenty-five.

[114] Mercenary views are held all the same.

[115] In proportion to the population there are very few concubines in Weihaiwei, and most of them are imported from Peking and other places.

[116] It is a curious fact, and one never yet satisfactorily explained, that people of non-European races all seem to lose their native grace of manner after a period of contact with Europeans. This does not apply to Asiatic peoples (Indian and Chinese) only: it is apparently equally true with regard to certain African races. Miss Bleek, in a recent work published by the Clarendon Press under the auspices of the Royal Anthropological Institute, remarks that the Bushmen are by nature truthful, clean, honest and courteous. "Once another Bushman visited ours for a few days. He was so much rougher than the other that our man was asked why his friend was different. He said, 'Missis must excuse: this man lost his parents early and was brought up by white people.'"

[117] _The United States and China_, by Wei-ching W. Yen (American Association for International Conciliation: New York).

[118] See illustration.

[119] See illustration. The _T'ien Kou_ is the Japanese _Tengu_. See _Trans. As. Soc. Jap._ Pt. ii (1908).

[120] For the magic uses of peach-wood see De Groot's _Religious System of China_, vol. iv. pp. 304 _seq._

[121] "I see no race of men, however polished and educated, however brutal and barbarous, which does not believe that warnings of future events are given, and may be understood and announced by certain persons." Cicero's words, after the lapse of a couple of thousand years, are still true. (See Cic. _de Divinatione_, i. 1.)

[122] A very similar method of divining is practised in the Malay States. See Swettenham's _Malay Sketches_, pp. 201-7, and Skeat's _Malay Magic_, p. 542.

[123] The following remarks in Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_ (pp. 56 _seq._) will be of interest to those who are wise enough to regard this subject with unorthodox seriousness: "Divination is in China as popular as, and probably more respectable than, it was amongst the Israelites in the days of the witch of Endor, and it is not perhaps going too far to say that there is not a single means resorted to in the West by way of lifting the impenetrable veil which hides the future from curious mankind which is not known to and practised by the Chinese. From 'Pinking the Bible' to using the Planchette, from tossing for odd and even to invoking spirits to actually speak through crafty media, the whole range of Western superstition in this regard is as familiar to the average Chinaman as to the most enthusiastic spiritualist at home. The coincidences of practice and belief are indeed so startling that many will doubtless see in them a sort of evidence either for their truthfulness, or for a common origin of evil.... It is when we come to the consulting of media, the use of a forked stick, writing on sand, and similar matters that the Chinese practice becomes singular in its resemblance to superstitions openly avowed at home. I would here remark that I am no spiritualist. But how, without any apparent connection with each other, such beliefs should at once be found in full force in the farthest East and the extreme West is puzzling. Is our Western spiritualism derived from China?" It may be added that Japanese "occultism"--to use a disagreeable but useful word--is very similar to Chinese, and offers equally striking analogies with that of Europe. (See Percival Lowell's _Occult Japan_.)

[124] It is not so well known that almost equally disgusting medicines used to be prescribed in England. One writer says of some old Lincolnshire remedies for ague that they "were so horribly filthy that I am inclined to think most people must have preferred the ague, or the race could hardly have survived." One of these remedies consisted of nine worms taken from a churchyard sod and chopped up small. (See _County Folk-lore_, vol. v, p. 117.)

[125] Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.), vol. i. p. 84. On this subject see also Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_, pp. 51-2.

[126] "If the first person who enters a house on New Year's morning brings bad news, it is a sign of ill-luck for the whole of the year."--_County Folk-lore: Lincolnshire_, p. 168.

[127] The knots or joints of the hemp-stalk are supposed to represent successive stages of advancement.

[128] _Ying ch'un._ The ceremonies differ from place to place in minor details. Those here described are observed (with variations) at the district cities nearest to Weihaiwei-namely Wên-têng, Jung ch'êng and Ning-hai.

[129] _Ch'un Niu._

[130] In Shanghai, and probably elsewhere, a real ox is still sometimes used, and he is led by a real child (_T'ai Sui_) instead of a cardboard _Mang-Shên_. See the Rev. A. Box's "Shanghai Folk-lore" in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ (China Branch), vol. xxxiv. (1901-2) pp. 116-7, and vol. xxxvi. (1905) pp. 136-7. Needless to say, no blood is shed nowadays, though it seems not unlikely that at one time a living child and a living ox were both offered up in sacrifice to promote the fertility of the crops. In Northumberland, England, it is or used to be a custom to hold rustic masquerades at the New Year, the players being clothed in the _hides of oxen_ (see _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv.). It would be interesting to know whether the Northumbrian custom was originally a ceremony to promote fertility.

[131] Probably the Spring Ox is still, in some parts of China, made of clay only, not of paper.

[132] _Shang Yüan Chieh_, Feast of the First Full Moon.

[133] Cf. pp. 262 _seq._ From Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_ (vol. i. p. 344) we know that long after the establishment of Christianity there was kept up, in Europe, a pagan festival at which it was customary to decorate the doors of houses with branches of laurel and to hang out lanterns. The doors of Roman houses were regarded as being under the special protection of the household gods.

[134] _Yüan hsiao._

[135] For some interesting notes on the bridge-walking customs, see Rev. E. Box's "Shanghai Folk-lore," in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_ (China Branch), vol. xxxvi. (1905) pp. 133-4. These practices are not confined to China. In Korea, on the fourteenth and fifteenth of the first month the men and boys of Seoul walk over three particular bridges in succession, in order to safeguard themselves from pains in the legs and feet throughout the ensuing year. (See article by T. Watters in _Folk-lore_, March 1895.) For the beliefs of many races on the subject of the expulsion of evils in general, see Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. iii. pp. 39 _seq._, 70 _seq._

[136] This may be compared with the Scottish customs in connection with the guisers or guisards. In Shetland a torchlight procession sometimes formed part of the revelry. (See _Folk-lore_, vol. iii. [Orkney and Shetland], pp. 203 _seq._)

[137] For remarks on the supposed remarkable properties of this shrub, see De Groot's _Religious System of China_, vol. iv. p. 320.

[138] See _County Folk-lore_, vol. iv. (Northumberland) p. 73.

[139] In different parts of the Empire the date is variously assigned to the second, tenth, twelfth and fifteenth of the month. For Shanghai customs in connection with this festival, see Rev. A. Box, _Journal of the R.A.S._ (China), vol. xxxiv. p. 117 and vol. xxxvi. pp. 137-8. In that part of China "the women and children adorn the flowering shrubs with paper rosettes, and recite verses and prostrate themselves in token of respect and in hope of a fruitful season."

[140] Tylor's _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.), vol. ii. pp. 277-8, 290 _seq._, 297 _seq._, and p. 432. See also Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. iii. p. 251.

[141] Gomme's _Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life_, p. 97.

[142] J. M. Robertson in _Religious Systems of the World_ (8th ed.), p. 369.

[143] In 1910 it falls on April 6, which is the 27th of the second Chinese month.

[144] See illustration.

[145] See p. 257.

[146] Instances of similar rain-charms may be found in Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. i. pp. 188-9.

[147] _Tuan Wu_ or _Tuan Yang_.

[148] See Frazer's _Golden Bough_ (2nd ed.), vol. iii. pp. 268, 270, 274 and especially pp. 337-8. See also _Folk-lore Journal_, vol. iii. p. 148.

[149] There is supposed to be some magic efficacy attached to brooms, and evil spirits are believed to have a special dread of them. In Europe, as every one knows, a witch must have her broomstick just as she must have her black cat.

[150] _Kuei Chieh._

[151] The so-called Indian ink ordinarily used by Chinese.

[152] The ordinary Chinese name is _Chung Yüan_, a reference being understood to the _Shang Yüan_, or the fifteenth of the first month, and the _Hsia Yüan_ or the fifteenth of the tenth.

[153] Cf. the offerings to Ashtoreth the Moon-goddess of the Hittites. For mention of similar offerings in England itself, see Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_, p. 28.

[154] There is a play on this Chinese word, which has the same sound as a different character meaning _to go up_ or _to receive promotion_. He who eats the cake is supposed to be securing his own advancement in life. There is a similar double-meaning in the phrase _têng kao_.

[155] For remarks on the ancient custom of drinking this wine, see De Groot, _Religious System of China_, vol. iv. p. 322.

[156] See p. 277.

[157] There is some reason to believe that the Hearth-god was once regarded as an anonymous ancestor of the family, though nowadays this relationship is ignored. The Chinese _Tsao shên_ may be compared with the Japanese Kojin. For some valuable notes on Hearth-worship in general, see Gomme's _Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life_, pp. 87 _seq._ The cult of a hearth-god has been known in western Europe and also in New Zealand.