188 



CHINA 



many places, but little has been done to make the 

 stores of them available. More attention has been 

 directed to their mines since the government and 

 companies began to have steamers of their own ; 

 and a scheme has been approved by the govern- 

 ment for working the gold-mines in the valley of 

 the Amoor River. The government has become 

 conscious of its mineral wealth, and there is no 

 calculating the resources to which it may attain. 



A gold and silver currency is one of the 1 first 

 things which it has to provide. Thus far the only 

 currency has been the copper cash, cumbrous and 

 often debased, varying in its relative value in every 

 district, and the source of endless trouble to the 

 traveller. Even foreign silver coins are treated as 

 bullion, and taken by weight. What is called 

 ' sycee silver ' is made from them. After they 

 have been defaced and broken to pieces, they are 

 melted and cast into ingots of different sizes called 

 'shoes.' Much inconvenience is caused by the 

 necessity of keeping small fine scales or steelyards 

 to weigh every outlay and receipt. Since 1890 

 silver dollars have been coined at Canton. Paper 

 money is indeed in circulation, but the banking sys- 

 tem exists as yet only in a rudimentary condition. 



Another want in Cnina is that of good roads and 

 comfortable conveyances. The necessity for good 

 roads first presented itself to Shih Hwang Ti (214 

 B.C.), who, after he had extended the empire to 

 nearly its present limits, ordered the preparation of 

 them seven years before he commenced the building 

 of the Great Wall ; and it has been said that there 

 are now 20,000 roads in China ; but according to the 

 reports of travellers in the present century, the 

 good roads among them are very few. The govern- 

 ment couriers pel-form their journeys on horseback. 

 Where communication by water is abundant the 

 want of roads is not so much felt ; but in their 

 absence in times of scarcity it is a most difficult 

 thing to convey supplies to starving populations, 

 as in the famine which prevailed in Snan-hsi and 

 other northern provinces a few years ago. It is 

 owing doubtless to the want of roads that the 

 wheelbarrow is so much used as the chief vehicle of 

 communication and commerce from the Chiang 

 northwards. The writer once had an experience of 

 this, when, along with a companion, he was con- 

 veyed 280 miles on one of those ' cany wagons 

 light' in about 8 days. Slow as the journey was, 

 the fatigue was much less than if they had been 

 jolted over the same distance in a springless mule- 

 cart in half the time. Even at Peking roads once 

 paved with marble slabs have been allowed to fall 

 into such a state of dilapidation as to be full of dis- 

 comfort and danger ; and the route and convey- 

 ances from the capital to T'ien-tsin, its port, are 

 disgraceful to the government. 



Social Habits. The dress of the poor is very 

 much alike in both sexes ; and though it is regu- 

 lated for all classes by sumptuary laws, it is varied 

 among the wealthy by the richness of the materials 

 and the various ornamentation. The most striking 

 thing in the appearance of the men to a foreigner 

 is the queue or plaited tail from the hair of the 

 crown, all the rest of the head being shaved. This 

 was not the old fashion of doing up the hair, but 

 was enforced on the Chinese by the Manchus in 

 1627, when they had commenced the conquest of 

 the empire. Inscriptions on stone tablets in old 

 temples in Japan, erected by refugees of the 17th 

 century, mention this degrading requirement as 

 one of the reasons why they had fled from their 

 country. All dislike to the custom, however, has 

 now disappeared. A foreigner is surprised in the 

 same way by the small feet of the more respectable 

 women. These were not enforced upon them by 

 the Manchu conquerors, whose women allow their 

 feet to grow to the natural size, nor was it a very 



ancient practice in the country, though it seems to 

 have prevailed since our 6th century. The distor- 

 tion is produced by bandaging the feet in early 



Foot of Chinese Girl (aged 16 Years), in three positions; 



Copied from a cast in Trinity College, Dublin. 



(Length of foot, 4j} inches.) 



years, so as to prevent their further growth. The 

 very poor and servants are not subjected to this 

 torture, but such is the force of fashion that we 

 have known humble girls of twelve or thirteen 

 vainly try to reduce the size of their feet, thinking 

 thereby to make themselves more attractive. 



The separation of the sexes until marriage has 

 been a feature of the social life from the earliest 

 times. In the old feudal period, ' at the age of 

 seven, boys and girls of the same family did not 

 occupy the same mat, nor eat together, and at the 

 age of ten a girl ceased to appear outside the 

 women's apartments. Her governess taught her 

 the arts or pleasing speech and manners, to be 

 docile and obedient, to handle the hempen fibres, 

 to deal with the cocoons, to weave silks and form 

 fillets, to learn all woman's work, how to furnish 

 garments, to watch the sacrifices, to supply the 

 liquors and sauces, to fill the stands and dishes 

 with pickles and brine, and to assist in setting 

 forth the appurtenances for the ceremonies. At 

 fifteen she assumed the hairpin (as a token that 

 she had arrived at woman's estate), at twenty she 

 was married, or if there were occasion for the delay, 

 at twenty-three.' We read nothing of any lite- 

 rary training for the daughters then, nor is there 

 any now, though Chinese history is not without 

 instances of learned women and distinguished 

 authoresses. In the important event of marriage 

 the parents exercise a supreme control ; and this 

 has given rise to the class of match-makers or go- 

 betweens, who are consulted by the parents, make 

 inquiries, and by an examination of the horoscopes 

 of the parties and other methods of their profession 

 determine the question of the mutual suitability of 

 the match. When a marriage has been agreed 

 upon, it is carried through with a great variety 

 of ceremonies, the parties most concerned being^ 

 supposed never to have previously seen each 

 other. In the majority of cases the husband 

 and wife thus brought together seem to take 

 to each other very well. Notwithstanding its 

 defects and differences from our ideal, its result 

 seems to be a fair amount of peace and happi- 

 ness. When the wife becomes a mother sne 

 is treated as a sort of divinity in the household. 

 There is but one proper wife (chdng-ch'i) in the 

 family, but there is no law against a man's having- 

 secondary wives or concubines ; and such connec- 

 tions are common wherever the means of the family 

 are sufficient for their support. Many of the 

 greatest names in the nation s history are stained 

 with this practice, and the evils of it have been and 

 are very great. There are seven legal grounds for 

 divorcing a wife : Disobedience to her husband's 



Sarents ; not giving birth to a son ; dissolute con- 

 uct ; jealousy (of her husband's attentions i.e. 

 to the other inmates of his harem); talkativeness; 



