258 Transactions of the 



china. 



The notable exception which China furnishes to other ancient nations, 

 is due to the fact that centuries ago she began to organize and practi- 

 cally develop the national intellect. She has thus to a considerable 

 degree obviated the evils of caste, created a motive for industry and 

 thrift, and maintained herself in permanent prosperity, while other 

 nationalities have melted away. 



China owes her immense population and wealth to the most thrifty and 

 skillful agriculture practiced on the face of the earth, except in Japan 

 and Holland. Shoo-Ming, who first substituted grain for raw meat, the 

 primeval farmer, and the Emperor Wanti, who took the plow into his 

 own hand and originated one of the great festivals of the nation, are 

 more highly honored than those monarchs who aggrandized the Empire 

 by the conquest of new peoples. One of their sagas, " Keep your lands 

 clean, manure tbem richly, make your fields resemble a garden," though 

 it has a modern sound to us, is of great antiquity. Scarcely any other 

 country exhibits such practical obedience to the teachings of its prophets 

 as China gives to those of Confucius, whose laws regulating labor are 

 still carried into effect by the Government. As the Government, i. e., 

 the Emperor, is the universal owner of land, the only security the 

 laborer enjoys with respect to its possession is the perfection of its 

 culture. Though the law allows him to be dispossessed at pleasure, 

 custom continues it in the same family for many generations. 



There is sound statesmanship in the proclamation of Wan Choo Tung, 

 Commissioner of Revenue of the Nan Kiang provinces, in the year 

 eighteen hundred and forty-five, who desired to introduce the silk cul- 

 ture into his district. After a somewhat exhaustive lecture on the ad- 

 vantages of this industry, he commands " all our officers to assemble the 

 village gentry and elders, and let them admonish the people and lay 

 down the best rules, and let the same be published with descriptive 

 plates. Let the father instruct his child, the husband his wife; then 

 shall we see men at the plow and women at the loom; no laborer will 

 be unemployed, and no resource of the soil be lost." Still higher patron- 

 age is given to this culture by the Imperial example. The Empress 

 must make silk weaving one of her occupations, and to her is committed 

 the homage due to the god of the silkworm. 



Long before the era of European civilization, China appears to have 

 understood the true relations of agriculture and the mechanic arts. The 

 division of labor led to wonderful results in the perfection of manufac- 

 tures and the extension of commerce. 



Marco Polo tells us that the Chinese have used paper money since the 

 year one hundred and nineteen B. C. We know they had established 

 banks, and conducted financial operations by promissory notes and bills 

 of exchange, at a very early period. 



Every practicable spot in China is devoted to tillage, which is mostly 

 accomplished by hand labor. Implements are few, light, and simple in 

 construction. The le or plow is of wood, with an iron point, and is 

 drawn by a single buffalo. Only the edge of the hoe is of iron; the har- » 

 row has teeth thickly set, and ten inches long, an excellent pulverizer. 

 The bamboo rake, used for harvesting, gleaning, gathering scraps of 

 manure, may be said never to leave the hands of the Chinese farmer. 

 The bill-hook or hen is another instrument, serving all the purposes of 

 pruning-knife, scythe, and sickle. 



