158 CHINESE PUZZLEDOM 



White, there must be two Queens instead of one; the 

 Queens must be the weakest pieces instead of being the 

 strongest, a stalemate must count as a victory, instead of a 

 defeat, and it is good form to insist on having the first 

 move, for the more you insist the greater is the compliment 

 you pay to your adversary in the sense that he is the better 

 player. Painting : It has been observed that there is no 

 perspective in Chinese paintings. This is a great mistake. 

 There is perspective, but of a different kind to ours. When 

 a foreign artist starts to work, he places his canvas per- 

 pendicularly on an easel, and the horizon in the picture, if 

 it be a landscape, is on the same plane as his eyes; and he 

 works out his perspective accordingly. The Chinese artist 

 paints his picture flat on the table; between the horizontal 

 position of his picture on the table and the perpendicular of 

 the canvas on the easel, there is an angle of 90 degrees. The 

 natural result of this is, that instead of looking level at his 

 horizon, the native artist looks down on it, and by force of 

 habit develops a kind of bird's-eye view, — a perspective of 

 depth rather than distance; now, between depth and distance 

 we get the opposite angle of 90 degrees. A foreign picture is 

 best seen when hanging flat against the wall, and as much as 

 possible, level with the line of sight. To appreciate the 

 perspective in a Chinese landscape, the picture should hang 

 on the wall level with the floor, and the observer should 

 stand on a chair to look at it. The truth of this statement 

 can easily be tested by anyone possessing a Chinese land- 

 scape painting. 



For these and other time-honoured differences too 

 numerous to relate, the Chinese have been spoken of as a 

 bundle of contradictions; and yet it must be granted that 

 they are a highly cultured and practical people, and that 

 their heads at least are not screwed on the wrong way. Why 

 then all this inexplicable contrariness? That is just where 

 the puzzle comes in, and I confess I fail to find a solution. 

 Whatever the explanation may be, it cannot be denied that 

 these are the things that go to make the Chinese so often so 

 difficult to understand, and us so difficult for them to under- 

 stand. Misunderstanding is, and always has been, the 

 cause of a great deal of mischief everywhere, and it stands 

 as one of the most troublesome stumbling-blocks between 

 Foreigners and Chinese in their intercourse. It is to be 

 hoped, now that foreign education is making fair advance- 

 ment in the country on the one hand, and more interest is 

 being taken by foreigners in the study of the Chinese 

 language on the other, that the day is not far distant when 

 mutual distrust and unreasonable prejudices will entirely 



