china; 
V'nces ; and Kaung hi, one of the moil celebrated of the 
Chinefe monarchs, gave, in the like Circumftance, a me¬ 
morable example of fevere juftice. Having retired a little 
way from his attendants, he perceived an old man weep¬ 
ing bitterly : “ What do you weep for ?” laid the empe¬ 
ror. “ TVIy lord,” replied the old man, who did not know 
the peribn of his fovereign, “ I had only one foil, in 
whom all my hopes were centered, and who might have 
become the fupport of my family: a Tartar mandarin 
has .torn him from me, and carried him away by force. 
I am now deprived of every affiftance, and know not 
where to feek relief; for how can a poor feeble old man 
like me obtain jultice from the governor againft a power¬ 
ful man!” “ Your fou will be reftored,” faid the em¬ 
peror, without making himfelf known : “ conduft me to 
the houfe of the mandarin who has been guilty of this 
aft of violence.” The old man obeyed, and, after having 
travelled two hours, they arrived at the mandarin’s houfe, 
who little expefted fuch a viiit. The emperor’s retinue 
arrived almolt at the fame time as the prince; and the 
houfe of the mandarin was foon filled and lurrounded. 
As he could not deny his guilt, the emperor immediately 
condemned him to lofe his head; and this fentence was 
executed upon the fpot. The emperor then turning to¬ 
wards the old man, with a grave tone, addreifed him thus: 
“ I appoint you to the office of the criminal whom I,have 
now put to death; be careful to diicharge the duties of 
it with more moderation than your predeceflor, and take 
warning by his crime and punilhment, left you yourfelf 
become an example to others.” 
A lingular regulation exifts with refpeft to degraded 
mandarins in China ; every mandarin who is removed to 
an inferior office, is obliged, at the head of all thole pre¬ 
cepts or warrants which he iflues, to mention the num¬ 
ber of Heps he has loft, as follows: “ I, fuch a man¬ 
darin, degraded three, four, or fix, fteps, according as the 
cafe may be, order and command,” &c. The infpeftor 
of a province has a very extenfive authority over thefe 
inferior mandarins. He can, by his own power, deprive 
them of their employments, if their offence be great; 
and he only confults the court in cafes where immediate 
punilhment is not neceflary. The father, Ion, brother, 
uncle, and grandlbn, are never admitted together into 
any of the tribunals at Pekin ; and relations in the fourth 
degree cannot have a leat at the fame time in any of the 
provincial tribunals. 
All mandarins,.whether Tartars or Chinefe, of arms, 
or of letters, are obliged, every three years, to give in an 
exaft account of the faults they have committed in dif- 
charging the duties of their office. This c'onfeffion is 
examined at court, if it comes from a mandarin belong¬ 
ing to any of the four firft dalles: but the confeffions of 
the mandarins in the lower piaffes, mult be laid before 
the provincial tribunal of the governor: government alfo 
makes private inquiry to dilcover whether in this confel- 
ffon drift regard has been paid to truth. Thefe informa¬ 
tions are addreifed to the tribunal of mandarins, and are 
there carefully examined; the merits and demerits are 
carefully'weighed in the balance of jultice, and the names 
of the examined mandarins are afterwards formed into 
three dalles. The firft confining of thole for whom re¬ 
wards and preferment are intended ; the lecond, of thole 
whofe conduft deferves reprehenfion, and to whom gentle 
admonition, accompanied with a few oblique hints re- 
fpefting their future conduft, will be given; and the third 
of thole whom it is intended to fufpend for a certain time, 
or to remove for ever from their employments. 
The principal military offices are held by Tartars: 
this precaution is taken to maintain their conqueft, in¬ 
dependent of the fuperiority which they have over the 
Chinele, in point of warlike genius. In times of war an 
exaft journal is kept of every military tranfaftion, and 
thofe are particularly mentioned, who have given proofs 
of remarkable courage, or dilplayed examples of fuperior 
flsill. Promotion is the consequence to thofe who have 
455 
fignalized themfeives, if they furvive; if not, the rewards 
which they have merited are conferred on their widows, 
children, or brothers. Neither the father of a numerous 
family, an only Ion, nor the fon of an aged widow, is 
obliged to perform military fervice, unlefs the ffate be in 
great danger, or in cafes of the raoft urgent neceffity. 
Government then advances money to thole who enlift; 
they alfo receive double pay; the firft for themfeives, 
and the fecond for their family ; and this they enjoy till 
their return. 
That efteem in which military men are held in time of 
danger, feems, in China, to ceale,almoft the inftant that 
the danger is over. On thefe occafions government be- 
itows, with a laviffi hand, diftinftions, rewards, and ho¬ 
nours of every kind; and it extends its favours to the: 
loweft military clafs. Does a common horfe or foot fol- 
dier fall in battle, his hair, his bow, or his fabre, is tranf- 
mitted to his family, to be interred, inftead of his body, 
in the fepulchre of his anceftors. An eulogium, fuited 
to what he has atchieved, is added, to be engraven on the 
tomb in which thefe relics are depofited. A (till greater 
fliare of diftinftion is bellowed on officers who have fallen, 
in defence of their country. Either their wholg armour, 
their allies, their bones, or their entire bodies, are con¬ 
veyed to their relations. Their rank, or the manner in. 
which they have diftinguiflied themfeives, generally lerves 
as a rule upon thefe occafions: ceremonies are performed 
in commemoration of foine, and monuments are erefted 
to others. The body of an officer, or the hair of a com¬ 
mon foldier, is thus often tranfported, to the dillance of 
a thoufand or fifteen hundred leagues. The latter, as 
well as the former, is mentioned with honour in the Ga¬ 
zette : his name thus pafies before the eyes of the public, 
and thence into the general hillory of the empire. 
The degradation, or difmiflion, of a fuperior officer in 
China, can neither fix a ftigma on the charafter of his fon, 
nor in the leaft impede his promotion. When the fon is 
alked by the emperor refpefting his family, he will reply, 
coolly, “ My father was difgraced for a certain offence; 
my grandfather was beheaded for fuch a crimeand 
yet, this acknowledgement is not in the leaft detrimental 
to the perfon who makes it. 
To judge of the religious fyllem of the Chinefe, the, 
ancient and permanent religion of the ftate mull not be 
•confounded with popular fuperllitions introduced in lat¬ 
ter ages. The primitive worlhip of this people has con¬ 
tinued nearly the fame, even to the prefent time. And 
though, in religious opinions, men’smindsare unfettered 
in China, every individual being at liberty to follow his 
own mode of worlhip ; yet it Ihould leem extraordinary, 
that, in fo extenfive an empire, and in fuch a long feriys 
of years as mult have elapled from its f £rft eftablilhment 
to the prefent time, there have fprung up only two <lif- 
fenting lefts, different from the ancient or eltablilhed 
form: thefe are, the feB of the Fao-Jfe\ and the feB of 
the god Fo. With refpeft to their ancient or original form 
of worlhip, Pere Amiot, a miffionary long relident in the 
country, aifures us, that “it bears every charafteriftic 
'mark of the primitive doftrine of the chofen people of 
Ifrael, cotemporary with Mofes; and that it may be 
traced back from age to age, without interruption, to 
the renewal of the human race by the grandfon of Noah.’’ 
And it will appear, that this ancient or original form of 
worlhip, as well as their cycle of years, ftrongly fupports 
the opinion of fir George Staunton, that China was ne¬ 
ver peopled by a colony from India. The canonical 
books of the Chinele every where imprefs the idea of a 
lupreme being. They mention him under the names of 
1 Tien, or Heaven ; Chang-tien, or Supreme Heaven ; Cb.nvg- 
ti, or Supreme Lord : and of Hcang-chan-li, or Sovereign 
and Supreme Lord. “ This Supreme Being;” fay thefe 
books, “is the principle of every thing that exilts, and 
the father of all living; he is eternal, immoveable, and 
independent; liis power knows no bounds; his fight 
equally comprehends the pall, the prefent, and the fu¬ 
ture, 
