558 CHINA AND ITS TRADE. 



such occasions is, that a continuance of life would be to the disad- 

 vantage of the victim. Female children only are thus disposed of, 

 though the destruction of males also is permitted. 



There is an astonishing uniformity in the personal appearance of 

 the Chinese throughout their vast empire. Their ideas of loveliness 

 and ours are very far from being similar. With them corpulence in 

 a male, and peculiarly diminutive feet in a female, constitute the essen- 

 tials of beauty. Their features are principally characterised by an 

 absence of expression ; but still they are accounted handsome when 

 contrasted with their hideous neighbours of Tartary. A Chinese 

 stomach has prodigious digestive capabilities ; the lower orders are 

 far from being epicurean in their culinary propensities, but devour 

 all things edible. They indulge in opium to the greatest excess, so 

 long as the means of procuring it can be obtained ; and the effect of 

 this drug is equally demoralising and destructive to health as the 

 most fiery alcohol. On the death of relatives the most extravagant 

 demonstrations of grief are evinced by the survivors ; the emperor 

 mourns his parents three years, and his subjects follow his example 

 in a corresponding ratio. Their domestic comforts are not enhanced 

 by cleanliness ; filthiness pervades every thing. Agricultural occu- 

 pations are deemed less disreputable than mechanical pursuits. In 

 the manufacture of silks, lackered ware, and embroidery, the Chinese 

 greatly excel. Disdaining to improve, and strangers to machinery, 

 they are now unable to compete with Europeans in porcelain, for 

 which they were once so famous. The acquirement of their language 

 is difficult in the extreme. Every district has its peculiar patois; 

 even the natives are frequently unable to express themselves intel- 

 ligibly to each other, without having recourse to writing. None of 

 their standard works a>e comprehensible without a commentary ; and 

 as no one presumes to think different from his fathers, it is highly im- 

 probable that a material alteration will be effected for many years to 

 come. Myriads of schools are established for the sole purpose of 

 teaching the language, which being without a regular grammar, and 

 the written essentially differing from the conversational phraseology, 

 is only to be learned by years of indefatigable plodding. 



Literature and science in the celestial dominions are unacquainted 

 with the visits of the schoolmaster, and are consequently not parti- 

 cularly flourishing. Physicians treat all diseases on the supposition 

 that the body is composed of five elements water, fire, metal, wood, 

 and earth ; success, it may be reasonably supposed, is not a constant 

 attendant on their prescriptions. In religious matters the Chinese are 

 strangely remiss ; it is not well known what they believe or what they 

 deny. Confucius, their great theologian, did not question the exist- 

 ence of one Supreme, but he did not inculcate his worship, nor the 

 immortality of the soul. In the ceremonies that are observed in 

 China the most absurd superstitions are practised, but the performers 

 therein do not seem to be cognisant of their meaning. Christianity 

 is, however, gaining ground ; and Mr. GutzlafF anticipates the hap- 

 piest results from its adoption. For historical details relative to in- 

 numerable dynasties, we are referred to the Ming-she, in sixty-eight 

 volumes ! 



