72 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



for the gift of male offspring as Hannah of old must have prayed for 

 Samuel. In reading the legends, biographies and anecdotes of Chinese 

 life, one is struck with the respect paid to the mother as well as with 

 the love rendered her by her children. In the works of the two great 

 sages, Confucius and Mencius, love, reverence and obedience are en- 

 joined as the due of both parents. The funeral rights of both parents 

 are to be duly celebrated, and the ancestral tablet of the mother is 

 always placed by that of the father and reverence is given to both. 



In the history of China we read of several great empresses and 

 empress dowagers who added to the luster of the renowned people of 

 Han. In the ancient Book of Poetry, which is one of the great classics 

 of the world, many women are celebrated in song for their piety and 

 virtue, their wifely devotion, or motherly tenderness. There is a book 

 of memoirs of distinguished women written about 125 B.C. and I know 

 of no other book in any language at that time dealing with the great- 

 ness and goodness of women. Likewise the first book on the education 

 of women is said to have been written in this language about two cen- 

 turies later by a celebrated poetess and historian, Pan Chao, who for 

 her learning and piety was appointed preceptress of the empress and 

 honored by the emperor with the title of the Great Lady Tsao. Thus 

 we see that in olden times the women of this country held a relatively 

 high position, perhaps as high as the women in any pre-Christian 

 civilization ever held. 



But there is a somewhat darker side to be shown, when we come to 

 speak of the modern Chinese woman as other than a mother. The 

 childless wife of a rich man, or one who has borne him no sons, lives 

 in fear lest he will take other wives. The presence of secondary wives, 

 for according to law it is impossible for a man to have more than one 

 legal wife, does not make for harmony in the household, especially if 

 they succeed in alienating the affections of the husband. Divorce of 

 the first wife is almost unheard of, and as the greatest crime a man can 

 commit is to bear no sons, the practise of polygamy is defended on 

 the highest ethical and religious grounds. The secondary wife is said 

 to have no legal standing, but her children are considered just as 

 legitimate as those of the first wife, to whom indeed they are said to 

 belong. "We have to picture to ourselves conditions somewhat as 

 shown in the Biblical story of the patriarch Jacob and his wives and 

 their handmaidens. 



If the lot of the first wife is not always enviable, one can imagine 

 that the concubines are not exactly happy. They are expected to be 

 obedient to the headwife who rules the inner apartments, or women's 

 quarters. In some cases they are little more than high-class servants 

 and are often drawn from a class of society lower than the husband. 

 Sometimes they are secured at brothels where they have captured the 

 fancy of a rich man by their beauty and accomplishments. In some 



