146 Through the Yang-tse Gorges 



that their Manchu conquerors two hundred years ago were 

 persuaded to rescind a similar edict. 



To return to the Tung family, who are rich and influential. 

 The father, now deceased, bought official rank of the fifth 

 grade for himself and his sons, who are now addressed as 

 " Lao-yeh" (" Old Sire," i.e. Honourable). The family have 

 lost a good deal of their money, chiefly by shipwrecks in the 

 rapids, though they still own a coal-mine thirty miles distant, 

 a soap factory, silk-spinning, and weaving, and dyeing 

 establishments ten miles distant, besides shops in the city 

 itself, where they retail their produce. One brother is a 

 prefect (Che-fu) in the adjoining province of Kwei-chow, 

 the other three attending to the various businesses. These 

 all live together. One tutor teaches the boys; and the 

 little girls, pretty-looking and gaudily dressed, but piteously 

 hobbling on their mutilated feet, learn needlework, house- 

 keeping, and water-colours. At table I was surprised to 

 see at the upper seat — that is, next to mine — and among my 

 handsomely clad hosts, a poorly dressed, pale young man, 

 who, I was told, was the " Lao-sze " (literally, " Old Scholar)," 

 or family tutor. It is gratifying to see the extreme respect 

 everywhere paid in China to teachers, whose extreme 

 poverty would render them despised in Europe. 



Tiiesday, April 10th. — Another beautiful, warm summer 

 day. I went for a short stroll, accompanied as usual by my 

 hosts, and again admired the view of the river valley hidden 

 in mist, above which the bright-green hills, interspersed with 

 variegated sandstone cliffs, shone resplendent in the sun- 

 shine. The hill-summit belongs to Mr. Tung, and upon it 

 some ten years since they opened a stone-quarry. The 

 people, fearing for their " Feng-shui," remonstrated, and 

 entered suit against the Tung family in the local magistrate's 

 Ya-men. After long delays, profitable only to the magistrate, 



