Native Guilds 201 



winter season. On this day I visited the Shansi Guildhall 

 — a handsome, spacious, highly decorated building, situated 

 just within the wall, and facing the picturesque hills on the 

 opposite bank. The view from the terrace between the hall 

 and the city wall, and on a level with the embrasures in the 

 latter, is thus magnificent; but nothing of it is seen from the 

 interior of the building, which is, as usual, entirely enclosed 

 in four lofty walls. A dinner and theatrical performance 

 was in progress, and lively groups of eight surrounded the 

 tables with which the courtyards were filled. I kept myself 

 out of sight behind the colossal, gilded josses that occupy 

 the dais at the upper end, not wishing to join in the feast 

 nor to cause the commotion which my unexpected appear- 

 ance would have created. There is much in the present 

 aspect and uses of these guilds in China, as, indeed, in many 

 other things, to remind one of the condition of our own 

 coimtry in the Middle Ages. 



The same contrast between the glory and magnificence of 

 the public institutions and the comparative squalor of the 

 homes; the exclusion of the fair sex from their festal 

 meetings ; * the richness of the costumes and the dirt hidden 

 beneath them ; the universal interest with which all public 

 festivities, religious as well as secular, are regarded ; the 

 rigid thrift observed in private combined with a magnificent 

 lavishness in public ; the settlement of all trade disputes by 

 the guild, and the shunning of all laws and lawyers ; the 

 rules laid down by the guilds obeyed unquestioned, and the 

 unwritten etiquette of business no less strictly observed; 

 the Uberal subscriptions and legacies given to the guilds, 

 and the way in which these institutions are the first to be 

 called upon for funds in times of calamity and distress — • 

 mark the resemblance between East and West in different 

 * In London this is a modern development. 



