Chapter XIV: Social Life Among the Chinese (3)

If this sketch of the customs and amusements of the Chinese in their social intercourse and public entertainments is necessarily brief, it is perhaps enough to exhibit their character. Dr. Johnson has well remarked that no man is a hypocrite in his amusements. The absence of some of the violent and gladiatorial sports of other countries, and of the adjudication of doubtful questions by ordeals or duels; the general dislike of a resort to force, their inability to cope with enemies of vastly less resources and numbers, and the comparative disesteem of warlike achievements, all indicate the peaceful traits of Chinese character. Duels are unknown, assassinations are infrequent, betting on horse-races is still to begin, and running amuck à la Malay is unheard of. When two persons fall out upon a matter, after a vast variety of gesture and huge vociferation of opprobrium, they will blow off their wrath and separate almost without touching each other. Some contrarieties in their ideas and customs from those practised among ourselves have frequently been noticed by travellers, a few of which are grouped in the following sketch:

~CONTRARIETIES IN CHINESE AND WESTERN USAGE.~

On asking the boatman in which direction the harbor lay, I was
answered west-north, and the wind, he said, was west-south; he still
further perplexed my ideas as to our course by getting out his
compass and showing me that the needle pointed south. It was really
a needle as to size, weight, and length, about an inch and a half
long, the south end of it painted red, and all the time quivering
on the pivot. His boat differed from our vessels, too, in many
ways: the cooking was done in the stern and the passengers were all
accommodated in the bow, while the sailors slept on deck and had
their kits stowed in lockers amidships.

On landing, the first object that attracted my attention was a
military officer wearing an embroidered petticoat, who had a string
of beads around his neck and a fan in his hand. His insignia of rank
was a peacock’s feather pointing downward instead of a plume turning
upward; he had a round knob or button on the apex of his sugar-loaf
cap, instead of a star on his breast or epaulettes on his shoulders;
and it was with some dismay that I saw him mount his horse on the
right side. Several scabbards hung from his belt, which I naturally
supposed must be dress swords or dirks; but on venturing near through
the crowd I was undeceived by seeing a pair of chopsticks and a
knife-handle sticking out of one, and soon his fan was folded up
and put in the other. I therefore concluded that he was going to a
dinner instead of a review. The natives around me shaved the hair
from the front half of their heads and let it grow long behind: many
of them did not shave their faces, and others employed their leisure
in diligently pulling the straggling hairs down over their mouths.
We arrange our toilets differently, thought I; but could easily see
the happy device of chopsticks, which enabled these gentlemen to put
their food into the mouth endwise under this natural fringe. A group
of hungry fellows, around the stall of a travelling cook, further
exhibited the utility of these _kwai-tsz’_, or ‘nimble lads’ (as I
afterward learned chopsticks were called), for each had put his bowl
of rice to his lips, and was shovelling in the contents till the
mouth would hold no more. “We keep our bowls on the table,” said I,
“do our cooking in the house, and wait for customers to come there
instead of travelling around after them;” but these chopsticks serve
for knife, fork, and spoon in one.

On my way to the hotel I saw a group of old people and graybeards. A
few were chirruping and chuckling to larks or thrushes, which they
carried perched on a stick or in cages; others were catching flies or
hunting for crickets to feed them, while the remainder of the party
seemed to be delightfully employed in flying fantastic paper kites.
A group of boys were gravely looking on and regarding these innocent
occupations of their seniors with the most serious and gratified
attention. A few of the most sprightly were kicking a shuttlecock
back and forth with great energy, instead of playing rounders with
bat and ball as boys would do.

As I had come to the country to reside for some time, I made
inquiries respecting a teacher, and happily found one who understood
English. On entering he stood at the door, and instead of coming
forward and shaking my hands, he politely bowed and shook his own,
clasping them before his breast. I looked upon this mode as an
improvement on our custom, especially when the condition of the hands
might be doubtful, and requested him to be seated. I knew that I was
to study a language without an alphabet, but was not prepared to see
him begin at what I had always considered to be the end of the book.
He read the date of its publication, “the fifth year, tenth month,
and first day.” “We arrange our dates differently,” I observed, and
begged him to read--which he did, from top to bottom, and proceeding
from right to left. “You have an odd book here,” remarked I, taking
it up; “what is the price?” “A dollar and eight-thirds,” said he,
upon which I counted out three dollars and two-thirds and went on
looking at it. The paper was printed only on one side; the running
title was on the edge of the leaves instead of the top of the page,
the paging was near the bottom, the number and contents of the
chapters were at their ends, the marginal notes on the top, where the
blank was double the size at the foot, and a broad black line across
the middle of each page, like that seen in some French newspapers,
separated the two works composing the volume, instead of one being
printed after the other. The back was open and the sewing outside,
and the name neatly written on the bottom edge. “You have given me
too much,” said he, as he handed me back two dollars and one-third,
and then explained that eight-thirds meant eight divided by three, or
only three-eighths. A small native vocabulary which he carried with
him had the characters arranged according to the termination of their
sounds, _ming_, _sing_, _king_, being all in a row, and the first
word in it being _seen_. “Ah! my friend,” said I, “English won’t help
me to find a word in that book; please give me your address.” He
accordingly took out a red card, big as a sheet of paper, on which
was written Ying San-yuen in large characters, and pointed out the
place of his residence, written on the other side. “I thought your
name was Mr. Ying; why do you write your name wrong end first?”
“It is you who are in the wrong,” replied he; “look in your yearly
directory, where alone you write names as they should be written,
putting the honored family name first.”

I could only say, “Customs differ;” and begged him to speak of
ceremony, as I gave him back the book. He commenced, “When you
receive a distinguished guest, do not fail to place him on your
left, for that is the seat of honor; and be careful not to uncover
the head, as that would be an unbecoming act of familiarity.” This
was a little opposed to my established notions; but when he reopened
the volume and read, “The most learned men are decidedly of the
opinion that the seat of the human understanding is in the belly,” I
cried out, “Better say it is in the feet!” and straightway shut up
the book, dismissing him for another day; for this shocked all my
principles of correct philosophy, even if King Solomon was against me.

On going abroad I met so many things contrary to my early notions of
propriety that I readily assented to a friend’s observation, that
the Chinese were our antipodes in many things besides geographical
position. “Indeed,” said I, “they are so; I shall expect shortly to
see a man walking on his head. Look! there’s a woman in trousers
and a party of gentlemen in petticoats; she is smoking and they are
fanning themselves.” However, on passing them I saw that the latter
had on tight leggings. We soon met the steward of the house dressed
in white, and I asked him what merry-making he was invited to; with
a look of concern he told me he was returning from his father’s
funeral. Instead of having crape on his head he wore white shoes,
and his dress was slovenly and neglected. My companion informed me
that in the north of China it was common for rich people at funerals
to put a white harness on the mules and shroud the carts in coarse
cotton; while the chief mourners walked next to the bier, making loud
cryings and showing their grief by leaning on the attendants. The
friends rode behind and the musicians preceded the coffin--all being
unlike our sable plumes and black crapes.

We next went through a retired street, where we heard sobbing and
crying inside a court, and I inquired who was dead or ill. The man,
suppressing a smile, said, “It is a girl about to be married, who is
lamenting with her relatives and fellows as she bids adieu to the
family penates and lares and her paternal home. She has enough to cry
about, though, in the prospect of going to her mother-in-law’s house.”

I thought, after these unlucky essays, I would ask no more questions,
but use my eyes instead. Looking into a shop, I saw a stout fellow
sewing lace on a bonnet for a foreign lady; and going on to the
landing-place, behold, all the ferry-boats were rowed by women, and
from a passage-boat at the wharf I saw all the women get out of the
bow to go ashore. “What are we coming to next?” said I; and just then
saw a carpenter take his foot-rule out of his stocking to measure
some timber which an apprentice was cutting with a saw whose blade
was set nearly at right angles with the frame. Before the door sat a
man busily engaged in whitening the thick soles of a pair of cloth
shoes. “That’s a shoewhite, I suppose,” said I; “and he answers to
the shoeblacks in New York, who cry ‘Shine! shine!’” “Just so,” said
my friend; “and beyond him see the poor wretch in _chokey_, with a
board or cangue around his neck for a shirt-collar; an article of his
toilet which answers to the cuffs with which the lads in the Tombs
there are garnished instead of bracelets. In the prisons in this
land, instead of cropping the hair of a criminal, as with us, no man
is allowed to have his head shaved.”

In the alleys called streets, few of them ten feet wide, the signs
stood on their ends or hung from the eaves; the counters of the shops
were next the street, the fronts were all open, and I saw the holes
for the upright bars which secured the shop at night. Everything was
done or sold in the streets or markets, which presented a strange
medley. The hogs were transported in hampers on the shoulders of
coolies, to the evident satisfaction of the inmates, and small pigs
were put into baskets carried in slings, while the fish were frisking
and jumping in shallow tubs as they were hawked from door to door.

A loud din led us to look in at an open door to see what was going
on, and there a dozen boys were learning their tasks, all crying like
auctioneers; one lad reciting his lesson out of Confucius turned his
back to the master instead of looking him in the face, and another
who was learning to write put the copy-slip under the paper to
imitate it, instead of looking at it as our boys would do.

We next passed a fashionable lady stepping out of her sedan chair.
Her head was adorned with flowers instead of a bonnet, her hands
gloveless, and her neck quite bare. Her feet were encased in red silk
pictured shoes not quite four inches long; her plaited, embroidered
petticoat was a foot longer than her gown, and her waist was not to
be seen. As she entered the court-yard, leaning on the shoulder of
her maid to help her walk on those cramped feet, my friend observed,
“There you see a good example of a live walking-stick.”

A little after we met one of his acquaintances accompanying a
prettily carved coffin, and he asked who was dead.

“No man hab catchee die,” replied the Celestial; “this one piecy
coffin I just now gib my olo fader. He likee too much counta my numba
one ploper; s’pose he someteem catchee die, can usee he.”

“So fashion, eh?” rejoined my friend; “how muchee plice can catchee
one alla same same for that?”

“I tinky can get one alla same so fashion one tousan dollar, so; this
hab first chop hansom, lo.”

“Do you call that gibberish English or Chinese?” I asked; for the
language sounded no less strange than the custom of presenting a
coffin to a living father differed from my preconceived notions of
filial duty.

“That’s the purest pigeon-English,” replied he; “and you must be the
Jack Downing of Canton to immortalize it.”

“Come, rather let us go home, for soon I shall hardly be able to tell
where or who I am in this strange land.”[389]

~COMMENDABLE TRAITS OF CHINESE CHARACTER.~

In summing up the moral traits of Chinese character--a far more difficult task than the enumeration of its oddities--we must necessarily compare them with that perfect standard given us from above. While their contrarieties indicate a different external civilization, a slight acquaintance with their morals proves their similarity to their fellow-men in the lineaments of a fallen and depraved nature. Some of the better traits of their character have been marvellously developed. They have attained, by the observance of peace and good order, to a high degree of security for life and property; the various classes of society are linked together in a remarkably homogeneous manner by the diffusion of education in the most moral books in their language and a general regard for the legal rights of property. Equality of competition for office removes the main incentive to violence in order to obtain posts of power and dignity, and industry receives its just reward of food, raiment, and shelter with a uniformity which encourages its constant exertion. If any one asks how they have reached this point, we would primarily ascribe it to the blessing of the Governor of the nations, who has for His own purposes continued one people down to the present time from remote antiquity. The roots of society among them have never been broken up by emigration or the overflowing conquest of a superior race, but have been fully settled in a great regard for the family compact and deep reverence for parents and superiors. Education has strengthened and disseminated the morality they had, and God has blessed their filial piety by fulfilling the first commandment with promise and making their days long in the land which He has given them. Davis lays rather too much stress upon geographical and climatic causes in accounting for their advancement in these particulars, though their isolation has no doubt had much to do with their security and progress.

When, however, these traits have been mentioned, the Chinese are still more left without excuse for their wickedness, since being without law, they are a law unto themselves; they have always known better than they have done. With a general regard for outward decency, they are vile and polluted in a shocking degree; their conversation is full of filthy expressions and their lives of impure acts. They are somewhat restrained in the latter by the fences put around the family circle, so that seduction and adultery are comparatively infrequent, the former may even be said to be rare; but brothels and their inmates occur everywhere on land and on water. One danger attending young girls going abroad alone is that they will be stolen for incarceration in these gates of hell. By pictures, songs, and aphrodisiacs they excite their sensuality, and, as the Apostle says, “receive in themselves that recompense of their error which is meet.”

~MENDACITY OF THE CHINESE.~

More uneradicable than the sins of the flesh is the falsity of the Chinese, and its attendant sin of base ingratitude; their disregard of truth has perhaps done more to lower their character than any other fault. They feel no shame at being detected in a lie (though they have not gone quite so far as not to know when they do lie), nor do they fear any punishment from their gods for it. On the other hand, the necessity of the case compels them, in their daily intercourse with each other, to pay some regard to truth, and each man, from his own consciousness, knows just about how much to expect. Ambassadors and merchants have not been in the best position to ascertain their real character in this respect; for on the one side the courtiers of Peking thought themselves called upon by the mere presence of an embassy to put on some fictitious appearances, and on the other, the integrity and fair dealing of the hong merchants and great traders at Canton is in advance of the usual mercantile honesty of their countrymen. A Chinese requires but little motive to falsify, and he is constantly sharpening his wits to cozen his customer--wheedle him by promises and cheat him in goods or work. There is nothing which tries one so much when living among them as their disregard of truth, and renders him so indifferent as to what calamities may befall so mendacious a race; an abiding impression of suspicion toward everybody rests upon the mind, which chills the warmest wishes for their welfare and thwarts many a plan to benefit them. Their better traits diminish in the distance, and patience is exhausted in its daily proximity and friction with this ancestor of all sins. Mr. Abeel mentions a case of deceit which may serve as a specimen.

Soon after we arrived at Kulang su, a man came to us who professed
to be the near relation and guardian of the owners of the house in
which we live, and presented a little boy as the joint proprietor
with his widowed mother. From the appearance of the house and the
testimony of others we could easily credit his story that the family
were now in reduced circumstances, having not only lost the house
when the English attacked the place, but a thousand dollars besides
by native robbers; we therefore allowed him a small rent, and gave
the dollars to the man, who put them into the hands of the child.
The next month he made his appearance, but our servant, whom we had
taken to be peculiarly honest for a heathen, suggested the propriety
of inquiring whether the money was ever given to those for whom it
was professedly received; and soon returned with the information
that the mother had heard nothing of the money, the man who received
it not living in the family, but had now sent a lad to us who would
receive it for her, and who our servants assured us would give it to
the proper person. A day or two afterward our cook whispered to me
that our _honest_ servant, who had taken so much pains to prevent
all fraud in the matter, had made the lad give him one-half of the
money for his disinterestedness in preventing it from falling into
improper hands; and further examination showed us that this very cook
had himself received a good share to keep silent.

Thieving is exceedingly common, and the illegal exactions of the rulers, as has already been sufficiently pointed out, are most burdensome. This vice, too, is somewhat restrained by the punishments inflicted on criminals, though the root of the evil is not touched. While the licentiousness of the Chinese may be in part ascribed to their ignorance of pure intellectual pleasures and the want of virtuous female society, so may their lying be attributed partly to their truckling fear of officers, and their thievery to the want of sufficient food or work. Hospitality is not a trait of their character; on the contrary, the number and wretched condition of the beggars show that public and private charity is almost extinct; yet here too the sweeping charge must be modified when we remember the efforts they make to sustain their relatives and families in so densely peopled a country. Their avarice is not so distinguishing a feature as their love of money, but the industry which this desire induces or presupposes is the source of most of their superiority to their neighbors. The politeness which they exhibit seldom has its motive in good-will, and consequently, when the varnish is off, the rudeness, brutality, and coarseness of the material is seen; still, among themselves this exterior polish is not without some good results in preventing quarrels, where both parties, fully understanding each other, are careful not to overpass the bounds of etiquette.

On the whole, the Chinese present a singular mixture: if there is something to commend, there is more to blame; if they have some glaring vices, they have more virtues than most pagan nations. Ostentatious kindness and inbred suspicion, ceremonious civility and real rudeness, partial invention and servile imitation, industry and waste, sycophancy and self-dependence, are, with other dark and bright qualities, strangely blended. In trying to remedy the faults of their character by the restraints of law and the diffusion of education, they have no doubt hit upon the right mode; and their shortcomings show how ineffectual both must be until the Gospel comes to the aid of ruler and subject in elevating the moral sense of the whole nation. Female infanticide in some parts openly confessed, and divested of all disgrace and penalties everywhere; the dreadful prevalence of all the vices charged by the Apostle Paul upon the ancient heathen world; the alarming extent of the use of opium (furnished, too, under the patronage, and supplied in purity by the power and skill of Great Britain from India), destroying the productions and natural resources of the people; the universal practice of lying and dishonest dealings; the unblushing lewdness of old and young; harsh cruelty toward prisoners by officers, and tyranny over slaves by masters--all form a full unchecked torrent of human depravity, and prove the existence of a kind and degree of moral degradation of which an excessive statement can scarcely be made, or an adequate conception hardly be formed.

END OF VOLUME I.

FOOTNOTES:

[370] Compare p. 628.

[371] _Social Life of the Chinese_, Chapters II. and III.; _China_, Chap. VII.; also _Fourteen Months in Canton_, by Mrs. Gray.

[372] _Chinese Repository_, Vols. IV., p. 568, and X., pp. 65-70; _Annales de la Foi_, No. XL., 1835.

[373] _Voyages à Peking_, Tome II., p. 283.

[374] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. I., p. 293.

[375] _China_, Chap. VII.

[376] Doolittle’s _Handbook_, Vol. III., p. 660, gives a list of names collected at Fuhchau, which are applicable to other provinces.

[377] _Memoir of Dr. Morrison_, Vol. II., p. 142.

[378] _Chinese Chrestomathy_, Chap. V., Sec. 12, p. 182. This phrase is the origin of the word _chinchin_, so often heard among the Chinese.

[379] Compare the _China Review_, Vol. IV., p. 400.

[380] _Chinese Repository_, Vol. XV., p. 433. _Book of Records_,