966 



CHINA. 



pounds Sire various, and very many of them sliow the low estimation in which females are held 

 in China. The character for vicious is composed of the sign for woman and fugitive. Sub- 

 jection IS denoted by the sign of a icoman and a claw. To scold is expressed by the sign for 

 two women. Levity is denoted by the character for a man jjlaced between two women. Jlnger 

 is expressed by the characters for woman and sour u'inc. Some combinations, however, are 

 expressed in a more gallant spirit. A young unmarried damsel is expressed by the characters 

 which denote woman and bending down., like an ear of corn. Handsome is denoted by the 

 characters for a ivoman and sigh. 



The literature of the Chinese is the richest and most important of Asia. The classical 

 works called King are of great antiquity, and the disciples of Confucius have made them the 

 basis of their labors in morality and politics. History has always received the attention of the 

 Chinese, and their annals form the most complete series extant in any language. Poetry, the 

 drama, and romantic prose fictions are among the productions of the Chinese literati, and their 

 dictionaries, encyclopaedias, commentaries, &,c., are numerous ; they use silk paper, printing 

 only one side. Geography has been cultivated among them from a remote period ; the impe- 

 rial geography forms 260 volumes, widi maps. Astronomy and mathematics have not made 

 much progress, and medicine is practised with a variety of superstitious ceremonies Drawing 

 and painting are executed with mechanical skill, but without a knowledge of scientific princi- 

 ples. It is remarkable, that the Chinese were in possession of three of the most important in- 

 ventions or discoveries of modern times, long before they were known to the nations of Europe, 

 beside which they were the inventors of two remarkable manufactures, silk and porcelain. The 

 art of printing was practised at least as early as the 10th century, but the use of movable types 

 instead of blocks seems never to have occurred to this ingenious people. The knowledge of 

 gunpowder among them dates at a very remote period, but here again they stopped short in the 

 application of it to use, not having applied it to firearms until they learned so to do from 

 Europeans. Finally, the peculiar directive properties of the loadstone were appHed to purpo- 

 ses of navigation by the Chinese several centuries before they were employed in Europe. 



The architecture resembles that of no other 

 nation. The houses ap])ear fantastic, if com- 

 pared with the orders that are established as 

 standards in Europe. They are generally of 

 wood, and mostly of but one story. They 

 are small, and the partitions are slight, fre- 

 quently only mats. The whole building is 

 surrounded by a wall six or seven feet high. 

 Each house contains a family of several gene- 

 rations. The most solid material is half-burnt 

 brick, and the mansions of the highest as well 

 as the lowest are formed on the model of the 

 primitive Manchoo tents ; even in the great 

 cities, a traveler might fancy himself, from the 

 low houses, with carved overhanging roofs, un- 

 interrupted by a single chimney, and from the 

 pillars, poles, flags, and streamers, to be in the midst of a large encampment. The fronts of 

 the shops are covered with varnish and gilding, and painted in brilliant colors. The external 

 splendor of the palaces and pagodas consist merely in colored varnish and gilding. 



The great wall is one of the most remarkable monuments of Chinese industry, and is one ol 

 the greatest works ever executed by man. It extends along the northern frontier for the dis- 

 tance of 1,500 miles, over valleys, rivers, and mountains, and has stood for 2,000 years. It 

 consists of two brick walls at a little distance from each other, forming a sort of shell, which is 

 filled up with earth, thus composing a solid rampart, about 15 feet thick, and varying in differ- 

 ent places from 30 to a few feet in height. It was constructed as a defence against the noma- 

 dic warriors of central Asia. The great garden near Peking, attached to a royal summer resi- 

 dence, covers 60,000 acres, and is filled with artificial hills, rivers, lakes, &c., and adorned 

 with palaces, pavilions, and every sort of decoration, that human ingenuity can devise. 



The facilities for traveling are chiefly confined to the rivers and canals, and these are filled 

 with every variety of craft. The inns ari3 mean, and aflx)rd little but shelter. The sedan or 

 oalanqnin is the common vehicle of China Besides the dramatic exhibitions, which are some- 



vninese Cuy. 



