186 



CHINA 



are artificially hatched. Comparatively little beef 

 is eaten, not so much because of the prevalence 

 of Buddhism, which forbids the taking of life, as 

 from a feeling of gratitude to the animal which 

 renders the most important service in tilling the 

 ground. Pork is the most used of all flesh meat, 

 and the number of pigs is enormous. In addition 

 to these animals, the seaboard, rivers, lakes, and 

 ponds supply an immense quantity of excellent fish 

 taken by the net. Angling is not much practised ; 

 but a boat with its complement of cormorants, 

 trained to dive for the fish and bring them to their 

 masters, is a pleasant sight. Shellfish also yield 

 their quota to the food of the people. An idea is 

 prevalent that the Chinese are gross feeders, but 

 this is true only of the very poor. A first-class 

 Chinese dinner with its twenty-seven courses may 

 hold its own with most luxurious tables. The 

 famed birds'-nest soup is a misnomer. Nests of the 

 Collocalia esculenta, brought from the Indian Archi- 

 pelago, are sliced into other soup, and supposed to 

 impart to the compound an invigorating and stimu- 

 lating quality, but the writer never felt that it 

 added either to its flavour or piquancy. 



For beverages the use of tea nas nearly superseded 

 every other. The plant does not grow in the north, 

 but is cultivated extensively in the western pro- 

 vinces and in those south of the Great Chiang. The 

 infusion of the leaves was little, if at all, drunk in 

 ancient times, but now its use is universal. Fu- 

 chien, Hu-pei, and Hu-nan produce most largely the 

 black teas ; the green comes chiefly from Cheh-chiang 

 and An-hui ; both kinds come from Kwan-tung 

 and Sze-ch'wan. Next to silk, if not equally with 

 it, tea is China's most valuable export ; and by 

 nothing does it contribute more to the comfort and 

 well-being of the rest of the world. To the people 

 themselves its use has been invaluable, and more 

 than anything else has promoted the temperance 

 that is characteristic of them. They are acquainted 

 with distillation, and from rice and millet produce 

 alcoholic liquors. Their literature abounds from 

 the 12th century B.C. to the present dynasty with 

 warnings against the injury of strong drink ; but 

 more effectual than the proclamations of authority 

 has been the habit of drinking tea. As compared 

 with the populations of western nations, the Chinese 

 are sparing in the use of strong drink, and it is rare 

 to see one of them intoxicated. They do not sit 

 down to tea as a special meal, nor do they make it 

 so strong as we do, or add sugar or cream to it, 

 but they have it at hand, and otter it to visitors, 

 all day long. The ordinary name of the plant is 

 ch'a; but the leaf was first imported into England 

 from Amoy in Fu-chien, where the dialectical 

 pronunciation of the name is t'ay, which the Irish- 

 man still retains. The use of opium will be dis- 

 cussed in a separate article. 



The next essential to food and drink in the 

 economy of life is clothing, and for this China 

 has abundant provision in its stores of silk, linen, 

 and cotton. It was no doubt the original home 

 of silk. From the 23d century B.C. and earlier, 

 the care of the silkworm, and the spinning and 

 weaving of its produce, have been the special work 

 of woman. As it is the duty of the sovereign to 

 turn over a few furrows in the spring to stimulate 

 the people to their agricultural tasks, so his con- 

 sort should perform an analogous ceremony with 

 her silkworms and mulberry-trees. The tree grows 

 everywhere, and in all the provinces some silk is 

 produced ; but Kwan-tung, Sze-ch'wan, and Cheh- 

 chiang furnish the best and the most. The manu- 

 factures of silk are not inferior or less brilliant than 

 any that are produced in Europe, and nothing can 

 exceed the embroidery of the Chinese. Indigenous 

 to the country also are hemp and other fibrous 

 plants, such as the Bcehmeria nivea, from which 



the grass-cloth is made. The cotton-plant, though 

 not indigenous, appears to have been introduced 

 from Khoten (Eastern Turkestan) in the llth cen- 

 tury, and is now found everywhere, but is culti- 

 vated most extensively in the great basin of the 

 Chiang. The well-known nankeen is named from 

 Nanking, a centre for its manufacture. The 

 Chinese cotton is inferior to the imported cloth in 

 its finish, but is heavier and more durable. ( For 

 the flora of China, see ASIA, Vol. I. p. 491.) Of 

 woollen fabrics the production is not large ; but 

 we meet with felt caps, rugs of camels' hair, and 

 furs of various kinds. As the houses have no 

 fireplaces, people keep themselves warm in cold 

 weather by increasing the number of garments 

 which they wear. On the whole China has more 

 resources in itself for the comfortable support and 

 clothing of its vast population than most other 

 countries. 



For building materials the Chinese use, like our- 

 selves, timber, bricks, and stone ; but in the south 

 inexpensive houses are often made of a kind of 

 concrete called 'sifted earth,' a compound of 

 decomposed granite and lime, with the addition 

 sometimes of a little oil, pounded in a wooden 

 framework, which is shifted till the walls have 

 reached their intended height. Anciently, as we 

 learn from the Shih King, the largest structures 

 were raised in this way. The walls, if well 

 protected by overhanging eaves and plaster against 

 wet, are strong and durable. Granite and lime- 

 stone are found in many places, and the largest 

 rocks are ingeniously split and wrought into build- 

 ing blocks. The architecture of China is defective, 

 however, in the grandeur and grace which mark 

 that of some other countries ; the best specimens of 

 it are seen in the marble bridge? and altars of 

 Peking, and in the Buddhistic buildings on the ' Hill 

 of Longevity ' and other places in the neighbour- 

 hood. No one who has seen them can ever forget 

 the gigantic figures of animals and the statues 

 lining the road that leads to the tombs of several 

 of the Ming emperors, a considerable distance north 

 from the capital. In the country, houses are 

 seldom of more than one story. Even in the 

 cities the public offices and large business establish- 

 ments are not remarkable for their height, but for 

 their depth, as you pass from one series of rooms to 

 another through intervening courts. Rising con- 

 spicuous above the other buildings are the pawn- 

 brokers' establishments, whilst the most substantial 

 and elegantly finished structures are the guildhalls 

 belonging to the various trades, or to the merchants 

 congregating in them from the different provinces. 



The most picturesque buildings are the pavilions 

 and pagodas. Of the former the most striking is one 

 in what has become famous by being miscalled the 

 ' Summer Palace ' at Peking, about 14 feet square 

 and 20 high, made of pure copper. The pagodas 

 are Buddhistic structures, borrowed from the topes 

 of India, where they were built at first as deposi- 

 tories for the relics of Buddha and distinguished 

 Arhats. In China they have taken a peculiar form, 

 and are supposed to exercise mysterious geomantic 

 influences. They are the most remarkable objects 

 in the landscapes of the country, and there are few 

 cities which cannot boast of one or more, always 

 of an uneven number of stories. The most cele- 

 brated of them, the Porcelain Tower of Nanking, 

 is now a thing of the past, having been blown up 

 by the iconoclastic T'ai-p'ings in 1856. It was of 

 an octagonal form, and was intended to be of thir- 

 teen stories, rising to a height of 329 feet; but only 

 nine stories were completed, the building of which 

 took nineteen years (1411-30). It was built mass- 

 ively of brick and faced with slabs of glazed 

 porcelain green; red, yellow and white ; with 

 lamps hanging outside from the projections of the 



