CHINA. 



281 



Literature, manner by inferior mandarins. Crowds of civil and mi- 

 * '~,~~ m/ litary mandarin* attended, some in sledges, some on 

 skaits, and some amusing themselves at foot-ball upon 

 the ice, the more expert of whom were rewarded by the 

 emperor. The ball was then hung up in a kind of arch, 

 and several mandarins passing it on skaits, shot at it as 

 a mark with their bows and arrows. Owing to the 

 form of their skaits, which were cut short under the 

 heel, and the fore part turned up at right angles, the 

 kaiters could not easily stop themselves on a sudJen ; 

 and hence, when they came near to the side of the ice, 

 or towards the quarter where the emperor was station- 

 ed, they tumbled in heaps one over th? other. The 

 ether entertainments, exhibited, consisted chiefly of con- 

 tortions of the human body, by posture makers and rope- 

 dancers, with the addition of a kind of pantomime hunt, 

 which was performed by men dressed in skins, and going 

 on all-fours, to represent wild beasts, and by b-iys ha- 

 bited like mandarins ai hunters ; an exhibition, which 

 was observed to afford great entertainment to the empe- 

 ror and the ladies of the court, who were concealed be- 

 hind Venetian blinds in an upper apartment. An en- 

 tertainment was given after an eclipse ot the moon, in 

 which, besides a multitude of juggling tricks and puerile 

 sports, there was likewise a pantomimical representation of 

 the battle between the moon and the great dragon, who 

 causes the eclipse. In this lunary contest, two or three 

 hundred priests, bearing lanterns at the end of long 

 poles, performed numerous evolutions, dancing and ca- 

 pering about the plain, or jumping orer chairs and 

 tables, to the infinite delight of the emperor and hi* 

 courtiers. 



Not only" are the theatrical exhibitions of the Chinese 

 thus mingled with such low absurdities and puerilities, 

 at are little superior to the tricks and puppet-shows 

 which amuse the populace at an English fair, but every 

 Ipecies of obscenity and indecency ulso is brought upon 

 their stage in so shameless a manner, that the mo-t un- 

 polished European seamen have often been known to 

 leave the Canton theatre* in disgust. The exhibitions, 

 indeed, to which foreigners are admitted in thi* city, are 

 asserted to afford no proper criterion for judging of the 

 Chinese public places in general ; but to be considered 

 by the natives themselves as sufficiently good for the 

 amusement of the despised barbarians of other countries. 

 As it is not, however, pretended by those, who allege 

 this palliation, that none but foreigners are allowed to 

 be present at such representations, it clearly indicates a 

 depraved taste, at least in the inhabitants of Canton, 

 when such indecencies are exhibited in places of enter- 

 tainment, which are open to the whole community. 



ARTS AVO Science, strictly FO called, can scarcely be said to ex- 

 SCIENCES. j gt j n China ; and not one of the arts has attained a hi^h 

 degree of cultivation. In the more useful arts of life, 

 excepting agriculture, or rather horticulture, (for it is 

 chiefly with the hoe and spade that the land is tilled,) 

 they have made little progress ; and in what are called 

 the fine arts, or those which indicate taste, with the ex- 

 ception of the embellishment of garden ground, they are 

 till in a state of barbarism. In those, which approach 

 rather to the character of manufactures, pottery is the 

 only one, in which they can be regarded as eminent, and 

 that chiefly owing to the peculiar excellence of their ma- 

 teriah j and in thoe, which discover great ingeuu.ty, 

 their pyrotcchny alone surpasses that of. all other na- 

 tions. 



A*!rono- Of all the sciences, astronomy is the most valued, but 

 least understood by the Chinese, and they profee* to 



TOL. VI. PART I. 



Arts and 

 Sciences. 



trace back their acquaintance with its principles to the 

 most remote periods. According to the Shoe-king, the 

 revolutions of the heavens, and th.- length of the solar 

 and lunar years, were known in the time of Yao, about 

 2357 years before Christ. Their astronomical observa- 

 tions, however, recorded during the long period which 

 their annals embrace, are so exceedingly few in number, 

 so obscurely detailed, and so doubtful in their whole 

 circumstances, as to afford no evidence of the skill of the 

 observers. But, however attentive and persevering their 

 observance of the heavens, they have not on that account 

 become more able astronomers ; nor can it be said of 

 them, as it has been of other nations, that their rage 

 for astrology has contributed to their progress in astro- 

 nomy. It does not appear that they were ever able to 

 calculate eclipses ; and their tables on this subject are 

 mere registers of what has happened, and not predic- 

 tions of what is to take place, founded upon astronomi- 

 cal computations. They are utterly ignorant even of 

 the first principles of the science, a';>1 have nothing in 

 their stead, but a confused jargon about judicial astrolo- 

 gy. They still maintain all the vulgar notions, which 

 their great philosopher inculcated more than 2000 years 

 ago, namely, that the heaven above is round, and the 

 earth a square fixed in the middle, with the clement of 

 water placed on the north side of it, that of fire on the 

 south, that of wood on the east, and that of metal on 

 the west ; and that the stars are all stuck in the blue 

 vault of the firmament, at the same distance from the 

 earth. From the earliest periods of their h story, indeed, Mathem., 

 an astronomical board has formed one of their official tical board 

 departments in the government ; but the principal, and 

 almost the only business of this board, is to prepare a 

 national calendar, in order to mark the returns of the 

 seasons, to fix the date* of the public ceremonies, and to 

 point out the most suitable times for important under- 

 takings. A committee is annually appointed to super- 

 intend the astrological part of this calendar, which it 

 chiefly composed of predictions respecting the weather, 

 a list of all the lucky or unlucky days of the year, and 

 a notice of the most proper times for taking medicine, 

 for marrying a wife, for entering upon a journey, fc; 1 

 laying the foundation of a house, &c. The astronomi- 

 cal part of their function, however, comprising tables of 

 the sun's rising, of the new and full moon, of the mo- 

 tions of the principal planets, and of the moon's conjunc- 

 tions with these luminaries, is generally committed to 

 foreigners ; and whenever the Chinese members have 

 been left to their own resources in this branch of their 

 duty, they have been involved in the grossest blunders. 

 In the 13th century, when G^n^is Khan first entered 

 China, and hi* successor Kublai Khan conquered the 

 country, their national almanack was found to be in the 

 greatest disorder; and the conqueror, by inviting to his 

 dominions learned Greeks from Bactnana, Maliommedart 

 and Christian missioniriep, succeeded in procuring their 

 chronology to be adjusted, their astronomical observa- 

 tions to be r. c 'tied, mathematical instruments to be im- 

 port' d, Mid the whole empire to be properly surveyed 

 and divided. The greater part of those learned men 

 eom to have been expelled from the country, when the 

 Tartars were driven from their sovereignty ; and when 

 China was again subdued by its present rulers, the 

 Mantchoo dyn?sty, it was found that the calendar had 

 become full of errors. Some German Jesuits, with Fa- 

 ther Adam Schaal at their head, had been appointed to 

 a^ixt the tribunal of mathematics ; but, when these were 

 ca-t into priooi in 1664-, the whole astronomical system 

 was again thrown into such confusion, that Father Ver- 

 2N 



