CHINA. 



965 



helmets, quilted petticoats, and fans ; he sees punishments inflicted in tlie streets, all the opera- 

 tions of trade carried on there, and signs over the shops affirming, that they do not cheat here, to 

 do away the more probable supposition that they do. The government of China is one of fear, 

 and it has produced the usual effects, duplicity and meanness. J^rostration to authority is no- 

 where more humble than in China. Ceremony directs the life of the Chinese, and their most 

 indifferent actions are moulded on it. Their very filial duty, which is prescribed to such an 

 extent, as to destroy the principle, is rather a political institution than a sentiment. It gives 

 to the parents too much authority to leave space for atlectioii. The parents have the right to 

 destroy or mutilate their infant children, and thousands arc exposed yearly to perish in the 

 rivers. A son is a minor during the life of his father, and liable for all the parental debts but 

 those contracted by gaming. The government sustains in the greatest rigor all this parental 



authority ; as the emperor assumes, that he is the 

 general father, that he may exact from all, more 

 than the obedience that is paid to a father by a 

 son. The lash of the mandarin's whip or the bam- 

 boo is often applied in the most summary man- 

 ner. Marriage in China is hardly an affair of the 

 affections. The husband does not see his future 

 wife till she is brought to his house, and then the 

 Chinese laws of gallantry allow him to send her 

 back, if, on opening the palanquin, he discovers 

 her to be unattractive. Divorces may be had on 

 grounds as slight as those of this rejection ; and 

 even excessive loquacity in the females is a legal 

 cause. The funerals are conducted with pomp, and 

 a ceremony truly Chinese. The coffins of the 

 rich are costly and they are often provided for years 

 before the decease, and a poor ma.i has been 

 known to sell himself to slavery, that he might 

 give his father a splendid burial. The festival 

 in commemoration of the dead is held by mem- 

 bers of the same family, the rich and the poor, 

 at the expense of the former. There are many 

 festivals, but games of chance are the com- 

 mon amusements. Cards and dice are always 

 carried about. Quail fighting and locust fighting 

 are common, and the Chinese are immoderately 

 fond of them. The fireworks excel those of 

 Europe. The chief festival is the feast of Ian • 



Mandarin's Officer. 



terns, when gorgeous lanterns are everywhere displayed 



16. Language, Literature, Arts, &c. The language is a string of monosyllables, and these 

 are not numerous, but their meaning is varied by different pronunciations. Thus the word tchu, 

 spoken by lengthening the n, ineans master, when pronounced rapidly it signifies kitchen, and 

 when spoken with a loud voice, and depressed toward the end, it signifies pillar. The language 

 of the provinces varies, and even among the natives of the same provinces signs are used to 

 relieve the ambiguity of words. There are not more than 350 sounds in the language, that can 

 be distinguished by the English alphabet, and the written language has 80,000 characters, rep- 

 resenting objects or ideas. The vocal language being so deficient to the ear, it is common, to 

 prevent mistakes in talking, to make with the finger the sign of the character that one means to 

 express by the word ; for 229 different and discordant ideas are, on an average, to be express- 

 ed by one sound so similar, that the difference cannot be conveyed by our alphabet. 



The Chinese characters seem devised as a communication between those who are de- 

 prived of speech ; the sign is sometimes arbitrary, and at others it represents the object de- 

 scribed. Thus a prison is represented by a square, denoting an inclosure ; and the addition of 

 a dot within it, represents a prisoner. The character that represents a tree, used twice, 

 denotes a thicket, and thrice, a forest. The character for time, repeated, means eternity. 

 Some of the combinations of the characters to express other ideas are ingenious. Thus 

 the characters combined, of good and word, make praise. A bargain is denoted by word and 

 a nail ; comfort is expressed by rice and month, and listening by door and ear. The com- 



