VI.] THE SOUTHERN MONGOLS. 221 



hold intercourse through "Pidgin English 1 ,'' the lingua franca of 

 the Chinese seaboard. 



Nevertheless a general homogeneous character is imparted to 

 the whole people by their common political, social, and religious 

 institutions, and by that principle of convergence in virtue of 

 which different ethnical groups, thrown together in the same area 

 and brought under a single administration, tend to merge in a uni- 

 form new national type. This general uniformity is conspicuous 

 especially in the religious ideas which, except in the sceptical 

 lettered circles, everywhere underlie the three recognised national 

 religions, or " State Churches," as they might almost be called : 

 ju-kiao, Confucianism ; tao-kiao, Taoism, and fo-kiao, Buddhism 

 (Fo = Buddha). The first, confined mainly to the educated upper 

 classes, is not so much a religion as a philosophic system, a frigid 

 ethical code based on the moral and matter-of-fact 

 teachings of Confucius 2 . Confucius was essentially i s m nfucian " 

 a social and political reformer, who taught by ex- 

 ample and precept ; the main inducement to virtue being, not 

 rewards or penalties in the after-life, but well or ill-being in the 

 present. His system is summed up in the expression " worldly 

 wisdom," as embodied in such popular sayings as : A friend is 

 hardly made in a year, but unmade in a moment ; When safe 

 remember danger, in peace forget not war ; Filial father, filial son, 

 unfilial father, unfilial son ; In washing up, plates and dishes may 

 get broken; Don't do what you would not have known; Thatch 

 your roof before the rain, dig the well before you thirst; The 

 gambler's success is his ruin ; Money goes to the gambling den 

 as the criminal to execution (never returns) ; Money hides many 

 faults ; Stop the hand, stop the mouth (stop work and starve) ; 

 To open a shop is easy, to keep it open hard ; Win your lawsuit 

 and lose your money. 



1 In this expression " Pidgin " appears to be a corruption of the word 

 business taken in a very wide sense, as in such terms as talkee pidgin a con- 

 versation, discussion; singsong pidgin = a concert, &c. It is no unusual occur- 

 rence for persons from widely separated Chinese provinces meeting in England 

 to be obliged to use this common jargon in conversation. 



2 Kung-tse, "Teacher Kung," or more fully ftiing-ftt-tse, "the eminent 

 teacher Kung," which gives the Latinised form Confucius. 



