ON ITEMS OP CHIKESE ETRICS AND PHILOSOPHY. 51 



permitted to witness gratuitously theatrical performances, 

 and displays of fireworks, the object being that their minds 

 may be distracted thereby from the prevailing epidemic. In 

 the larger towns there exist hospitals for the aged and 

 infirm, and also for orphans, for the blind, and for lepers. 

 Societies for the prevention of infanticide are common all 

 over the empire, as also for recovering the drowning, and for 

 the burial decently of pauper dead. There are hospices into 

 ^vhicli are received not only deserted children but those of 

 very poor parents, who are voluntarily given up by them 

 permanently or for a time. With regard to the latter, it 

 sometimes happens that children who are voluntarily parted 

 Avith, as in times of severe famine, or inability on the part of 

 their parents to provide them with food, are again olairaed 

 when the particular emergency has passed away. In such 

 instances their legal right to their own children is at once 

 acknowledged by such institutions, and they are handed 

 back to them.* It has been asserted that fewer children die 

 in the Chinese orphanages than in those of certain French 

 esta])lishments in China, for the reason that they are better 

 nursed and cared for. In the large cities places are provided 

 in which those who in desperation give up the battle of life 

 may quietly lay themselves down to die.f At one time 

 societies with that object in view afforded the necessary aid 

 to such as desired to " sacrifice themselves to the manes 

 of their ancestors," otlierwise to commit suicide at their 

 tombs, under the belief that illness is caused by maleficent 

 spirits of the dead. A yearly service is performed, called 

 i'oo-z/wi^-^'oif? or "appeasing the burning mouths" with the 

 object of conciliating those spirits. 



Laws and Enactments. 



Such as the laws of China were when codified during the 

 period of the Chow dynasty (B.C. 1122-255) so in substance 

 have they continued down to the present day, with but 

 inconsiderable mothfications. This penal code so come down 

 from high antiquity has been described as " remarkable for 



* In the case of Roman Catholic orphanages it would appear that a 

 similar rule does not obtain. In them children who have been once 

 baptized are not restored to parents or relations. Hence, it is said, arose 

 the misunderstanding which in 1870 led to the massaci'e of Frencn priests 

 and nuns at Tientsin. 



t In I860 I saw one such place in the city of Shanghai. 



E 2 



