CURIOUS CUSTOMS OF CHINA 



805 



having the finest outlook is chosen. The 

 tombs of the sages are in fine groves of 

 beautiful cypress trees. 



Temples receive far less attention than 

 graves, and, as they depend on voluntary 

 support, in the majority of instances are 

 often allowed to fall to decay. 



Priests in China are classified very low 

 down in the social scale. The Chinese 

 proverb states that "when the priest and 

 temple come to town morals fade." 

 Priests and their sons are not allowed 

 to become scholars. 



The son is the climax and supreme 

 desire of the family, because only a son 

 can render the proper service to the 

 father's spirit. For this reason female 

 children are not welcome and infanticide 

 is frequent, but always of the living 

 child, necessarily ; otherwise a son might 

 be slain. 



WHAT MONKY WII.I, DO 



The rich Chinaman, if condemned to 

 death, easily procures a substitute. 

 Some poor wretch without money to se- 

 cure his spirits from becoming wandering 

 devils, with the price of his miserable 

 life can purchase proper care for his 

 spirit. Anything, in fact, can be done if 

 you have the money. 



It is this belief that causes the China- 

 man to commit suicide by taking his life 

 on the premises of his enemv to take 

 vengeance on him. Ilis s])irit, he be- 

 lieves, will forever haunt him. There is 

 another reason also: he knows that as 

 sure as fate the officials will under such 

 circumstances come down upon his 

 enemy and strip him of everything. 



Poor Chinese have been known to sell 

 everything they possessed, tear down 

 their houses to sell the timber, sell or 

 rent out their wives and children, and 

 even sell themselves to procure money 

 for the proper rites for the peace and 

 comfort of the ancestral spirits. One 

 thing alone he will not do, namely, sacri- 

 fice his son. 



At the death-bed. where with us the 

 hush of sorrow reigns and affection 

 brings silence, the awful beating of 

 drums, the crash of cymbals, and the 

 tumult of fireworks hold carnival to 



frighten away the devils who are tor- 

 menting the dying and causing death. 



China, rich and picturesque, with cli- 

 matic conditions ranging from the Arctic 

 to the Torrid Zone, has an unrivaled 

 history of over 4,000 years. Her dis- 

 coveries and accomplishments cover — 



Arches in architecture, carving in 

 wood and moulding in bronze and other 

 metals, painting with unrivaled colors, 

 ])rinting, paper from wood pulp, the 

 mariner's compass, gunpowder and guns, 

 books, astronomy, public assembly codi- 

 fied laws, civil service examinations, 

 bank notes and coins, and heating houses 

 by hot-air pipes carried from a furnace. 

 All of these she ])ossesse(l centuries be- 

 fore they were dreamed of in the West. 



Travelers find salt mines 2,000 feet 

 deep, crudely sunk by two generations 

 of laborers. 



Her mighty rivers, some of them 3,500 

 miles in length, have been so connected 

 by thousands of miles of artificial canals 

 that this land is a ])crfect network of 

 waterways. 



Her economists saw stability and e({ual- 

 ity in a proper division of the land among 

 the people, in making labor noble, and 

 in taxing the owners of unproductive 

 land. To this day the Emperor, with 

 great ceremony once a year, with a 

 golden-handled plow turns up a furrow 

 of land to point to agriculture and give 

 labor dignity. 



Although China's government is an 

 imperialism, yet the Chinese people have 

 always acted in opposition to the maxim 

 of the divine right of kings. They have 

 held inflexibly through the centuries that 

 every man has an inalienable right to 

 free thought and sjDcech. They have al- 

 ways tolerated any and every form of 

 religion, so long as it did not interfere 

 with or in any way imperil the authority 

 of the state. 



KXALTKD IDEALS KMBODIl^D IN THETR 

 PROVKRBS 



Xo people are less riotous or more 

 amenable to the voice of reason. A Chi- 

 nese mob, more than any mob, can be 

 influenced, subdued, and made ashamed 

 by a reference to the teachings of their 



