43 1 



CHINA. 



province are together subject to the Tsoong-to, commonly called by 

 Europeans the Viceroy. 



In each separate province there is a chief criminal judge and a 

 treasurer, the latter having usually cognisance of civil suits, but his 

 special business is the charge of the territorial revenue. With this 

 he first of all defrays the civil and military expenses of his province, 

 and whatever surplus remains is remitted by him to Peking. The 

 subordinate cities and districts of each province in the three ranks of 

 Foo, Chow, and Hien, are under the charge of their respective magis- 

 trates, who take their rank and titles from the cities they govern. 

 The total number of civil magistrates throughout China is estimated at 

 14,000. At Canton the amount and importance of the European 

 trade has given rise to the special appointment of the Haekuan, or 

 commissioner of customs, called by Europeans Hoppo, who ranks as 

 third in the province, but has no territorial jurisdiction beyond the 

 trade. No individual in China can hold a magistracy in his own 

 province ; and each public officer is changed about once in three 

 years, to prevent growing connexions with those under his govern- 

 ment. A son, a brother, or any other very near relation, cannot hold 

 office under a, corresponding relative. The various degrees of civil 

 and military offices are partly distinguished by the colour of the ball 

 which they wear at the apex or point of their conical caps. These 

 are red, light blue, dark blue, crystal, white-stone, and gilt. Each 

 ball is accompanied by its corresponding badge, which is a piece of 

 silk embroidery, about a foot square, with the representation of a 

 bird, or other device, on the breast and back of the ceremonial habit ; 

 together with a collar or necklace of very large beads, down to the 

 WBW 



whole amount of military throughout the empire, including 

 the uiilitia of each district, hag been estimated at 700,000, of which 

 the 1m ifest portion are fixed to their native districts, and cultivate the 

 laud, or follow some other pursuit. The whole are under the direc- 

 tion of the military tribunal, or board, at Peking. The trusty Tartar 

 are ranged under the eight standards, each of them comprising 

 10,000 men, and making a total of 80,000 for a standing army. 

 Very few mounted soldiers were seen by either of our embassies, 

 and whatever may be their actual amount, thev are said to be nearly 

 all Tartars. A great difference seems to ex;" t between the pay of 

 Tartars and Chinese. One of the former, being a foot-soldier, receives 

 about fivepence a day, with an allowance of rice ; one of the latter 

 only fourpence a day, without the rice. The principal arms of the 

 caviilry are bows and arrows, the bow being of elastic wood and horn 

 combined, with a string of silk. Their swords are generally ill made, 

 and their matchlocks are considered by them as inferior weapons to 

 the bow and arrow. Some are provided with shields, composed of 

 rattans turned spirally round a centre. In the recent war with 

 England it was made very evident that where there was (as often was 

 the case with the Tartar troops) the greatest bravery, they were 

 utterly inefficient against European soldiers. 



The residence of the emperor and his court for some hundreds of 

 years past has been removed from Nanking to Peking, a city whose 

 population has been stated at double that of London ; but various 

 reasons conduce to render this altogether improbable. Notwith- 

 standing the great extent of the area inclosed within its walls, there 

 are so many open spaces of great extent, that it is difficult, taking the 

 lowneaa of the one-storied buildings into consideration, to imagine 

 how such an immense number can exist within its precincts. A 

 large portion of the northern or Tartarian city is occupied by the 

 :re which contains the palace and pleasure grounds of the 

 emper r ; the remainder is .studded over at intervals with official 

 or religious buildings, all of them surrounded by hir^e open courts ; 

 and the Chinese city to the south has some very extensive spaces occu- 

 pied by immensely-spreading public buildings, with grounds attached. 

 There are besides large bheets of water, and gardens devoted to the 

 growth of vegetables for the city. The streets of Canton and of 

 most of the cities are extremely narrow, admitting only three or 

 fuur foot passengers abreast; but the principal thoroughfares of 

 Peking, connecting its different gates, arc fully one hundred feet 

 in width. 



Rccciiuet. The revenues of China are derived principally from a 

 land-tax, and the monopoly of salt, to which are to be added some- 

 thing for customs and transit-duties ; and a considerable sum from 

 the recently imposed duty on the importation of opium. At the 

 Mauchow conquest a capitation or poll-tax was imposed, but this 

 wa soon taken off again ; and the second emperor of the dynasty 

 ordained that the laud-tax, which under the Chinese had been takuu 

 from the cultivators, should ever after be taken from the land-owners. 

 Tho subject of the Chinese revenues seems never before to have been 

 very clearly understood. From the produce of taxation in each pro- 

 vince, the treasurer of that province deducts the civil and military 

 expenses, and all outlays, whether for public works or otherwise, 

 remitting the surplus to Peking either in money or kind. This sur- 

 plus has beeu the only point clearly ascertained, aud it has been very 

 erroneously mistaken for the gross amount of the revenue. The 

 difficulty of ascertaining the real expense that attends the adminis- 

 tration of tho empire arises from a considerable portion of the taxes 

 'unit,' levied in commodities instead of money, a grain, salt, silks, 

 and stores of different sorts. A portion of the allowances of public 



UKOU. DIV. VOL. it. 



CHINA. 4S2 



servants, especially at Peking, as well as of the stipends of imperial 

 relatives, is paid in the shape of rations and supplies. Du Halde 

 states the total revenue of the empire, including the provinces, 

 at "about 200 millions of taels (or upwards of 60 millions 

 sterling), of which only 12 millions sterling are transmitted to 

 Peking ;" and more recently obtained information appears to confirm 

 his statement. 



Laws. We possess a translation of the Tartar-Chinese penal code, 

 from Sir George Staunton, and this specimen of legislation presents a 

 very advantageous comparison with other Asiatic systems. If we 

 estimate Chinese legislation by its result, we shall find it (as Sir 

 George Stauuton observes) wholly inconsistent with the hypothesis 

 of a very bad government, or a very vicious state of society. Mr. 

 Ellis, who had long been in Persia aud India, pronounced China 

 " superior to the other countries of Asia, both in the art of govern- 

 ment aud the general aspect of society;" and adds, "that the laws 

 are more generally known, and more equally administered ; that 

 those examples of oppression, accompanied with infliction of bar- 

 barous punishment, which offend the eye and distress the feelings of 

 the most hurried traveller in other Asiatic countries, are scarcely to 

 be met with in China ; that the proportion which the middling 

 orders bear to the other classes of the community appeared to be 

 considerable ; that, compared with Turkey, Persia, and other parts 

 of India, an impression was produced highly favourable to the com- 

 parative situation of the lower orders." It is a popular maxim with 

 the Chinese, that to violate the law is the same crime in the emperor 

 as in a subject. " This plainly intimates (observes Sir J. F. Davis) 

 that there are certain sanctions which the people in general look 

 upon as superior to the will of the sovereign himself : these are con- 

 tained in their sacred books, whose principle is literally, ' salus populi 

 suprema lex :' aud however much this principle may at times be 

 violated under the pressure of a foreign Tartar dominion, it never- 

 theless continues to be recognised, aud must doubtless exercise more 

 or less influence on the conduct of the government." 



History. Without attempting to deny to the historical records of 

 the Chinese euipiro a very high degree of antiquity, it is now pretty 

 generally admitted, on the testimony of the most respectable native 

 historians, that this point has been considerably exaggerated. The 

 persons styled Fohy, Shin-nooug, and their immediate successors, 

 must be ranged rather under the head of mythology than of history ; 

 resembling those demi-gods and heroes of Grecian fable who rescued 

 mankind from primeval barbarism. The fabulous part of Chinese 

 history commences with Puan-koo, who is represented in a dress of 

 leaves, and concerning whom everything is wild and obscure. He is 

 said to have been followed by a number of persons with fanciful 

 names, who in the style of the Hindoo chronology reigned for thou- 

 sands of years until the appearance of Fohy, who is said to have 

 invented the arts of music and numbers, and taught his subjects to 

 live in a civilised state. At length came Yaou aud Shun, who are 

 stated to have been the patterns of all Chinese emperors. To the 

 age of Shun they refer their tradition of an extensive flooding of the 

 lauds, which by some has been identified with the Mosaic deluge. It 

 was for his merit in draining the country, or drawing off the waters 

 of the great inundation, in which he was employed eight years, that 

 ' Yu the Great ' was chosen by Shun for his successor. He com- 

 menced the period called Hea, upwards of 2100 years before Christ; 

 and the whole of the long space of time included under Hea and 

 Shang is full of the marvellous, until Woo-wong was called upon to 

 depose a tyrannical emperor, the last of the Shang, about 1100 years 

 before Christ. With him began the period of Chow, which may be 

 considered as the commencement of authentic history, and during 

 which Confucius himself lived. Though it might be going too fur 

 to condemn all that precedes that period as absolutely fabulous, it is 

 still so much mixed up with fable as hardly to deserve the name of 

 history. 



The race of Chow filled the long period of 800 years, during 

 which China appears to have been divided into a number of petty 

 independent states engaged in perpetual disputes with each other. 

 The king of Tsin had long been growing powerful at the expense of 

 the other states ; he fought against six nations, and at length com- 

 pelled them all to acknowledge his authority. The chief government 

 began now to assume the aspect of an empire which comprehended 

 that half of modern China lying to the north of the great river Kiuug, 

 but which was doomed after the lapse of some centuries to be split 

 again into several parts. The first emperor of the Tsin dynasty ren- 

 dered himself famous by the erection of the Great Wall which has 

 now stood for 2000 years, as well as by ordering all the books of the 

 learned (including the writings of Confucius) to be cast into the 

 flames. 



About the year B.C. 201 the race of Tsin was succeeded by that of 

 Haii, which filled one of the most celebrated periods of Chinese history. 

 It was now that the Tartars became the cause of eudless disquiet to 

 their more civilised and peaceful neighbours, who were frequently 



and romances of the Chinese. The leader of one of these ' Three 

 ' having ut length obtained the sovereignty, established tho 



