CHINA. 
493 
and burning perfumes before them. No perfons are al¬ 
lowed to be interred within the walls of their cities or 
towns; but in villages many are buried in gardens, or 
by the way-fides. 
What has been fuggefted by profeflor Beckmann, un¬ 
der the article Chimney, feems to be corroborated and 
confirmed by fir George Staunton, with relpedt to the 
modern date of that invention. He fays the Chinele 
have no chimneys, nor open fire-places, nor grates, but 
burn their fuel in clofe ftoves, very fimilar to the Per- 
fianftyle; for which purpofe they commonly char their 
coal, previoufiy to its being employed for fuel; and for 
this purpofe deep pits are dug in the vicinity of the 
mines. And in the 1'pirit of Chinefe economy, rendered 
perhaps neceffary by the immenlity of their population, 
the dult even of the coals is not lolt by them. A liveli¬ 
hood is. obtained by gathering this dult, and mixing it 
with equal quantities of boggy earth; which, when 
moulded into pieces of a fquare form, and hardened in. the 
fun, are tranfported to diltridts where no coal is found. 
Hofpitality to ltrangers, is the afl'umed charadteriltic 
of the Chinefe xtation, the moment any fuch are fuffered 
to come within their dominions; and Purely no country 
on earth could have chofen a more worthy or more effec¬ 
tual method to dignify its name. It was this principle, 
and this cultom, which alone influenced the Chinefe em ¬ 
peror to take the gentlemen of the Britilh embafiy un¬ 
der his own immediate protection, to fupply them in 
abundance with provifions, and to defray every expence 
attending them and their retinue, both by land and wa¬ 
ter, during their continuance within his territory, which 
was from the time they landed at Cliu-fan, until their 
departure from Canton. The police of China is like- 
wile conduced upon a molt admirable plan, fince every 
traveller pafl'es, as it were, l'ecure from thieves and rob¬ 
bers, few fuch being known in the country; and, in their 
cities and towns, in their villages, or by their way-fides, 
not a beggar is to be feen, nor any wretched objeCt of 
diltrefs. Neatnefs and decency is feen in all their abodes; 
yet they have not the ufe of linen. Their dining-tables, 
which the ftrcng body of varnifh laid upon them always 
fecures from dirt and moilture, are not covered with 
cloths. They fpread no llieets upon their beds ; and 
white cotton, the growth of their country, is applied to 
but very few of the purpoles to which linen is deltined 
in England. The rules of external decency are ftriCtly 
guarded by the manners and fentiments of all perfons of 
•education and refinement; and whatever fimilitude may 
be drawn betwixt the paganilm of China and that of its 
neighbour Hindooftan, the former feems not to have bor¬ 
rowed from the latter, any of the oblcene pollutes fome- 
times carved on the outiide of the Indian temples. If, 
from the loofe expreflions familiarly introduced by fome 
of the molt elegant writers in antiquity, and from the in¬ 
decent images dii'covered among ancient buildings; as, 
for example, at Pompeia, as well as fiom fome remains 
-of obfcene worfhip, in an obfcure part of the fame coun¬ 
try, and the fiiatnelefs praCtice of fome diftant favage 
tribes, it be inferred that decency is not a ltrong, innate, 
and neceflary, lentiment of nature, it nrnft be acknow¬ 
ledged, that it is at leaf! a happy artifice of fociety, not, 
indeed, precluding vice, but covering its exterior turpi¬ 
tude, and adding refinement and delicacy to natural en¬ 
joyments. And in this fpecies of factitious virtue, the 
Chinefe have preceded, as well as furpaffed, molt other 
nations. Even fo delicate are their fenfations, that no 
male phyfician is permitted to attend a pregnant woman, 
and ftill lefs to praCtife midwifery ; in the indelicacy of 
of which both lexes feem to agree in China. Nor can 
the pretence of its utility, on the gound of preventing 
cripples, or crooked or diltorted limbs, by improper treat¬ 
ment in the adt of parturition, be there of any weight, 
•lince very few deformed perfons are to be found in Chi¬ 
na : not one fuch was feen by the gentlemen of the em¬ 
bafiy among any of the crowds of fpeftators, nor through 
Vox. IV. No. 2i£. 
their whole route, from the northern to the fouthem ex¬ 
tremity of China. B-ut, nolwithflanding the vigilant and 
fcrutinizing police of the Chinefe magiltrates, books dis¬ 
approved by them are fometimes privately printed and 
dilleminated in China. It is not ealy to prevent, or even 
always to detedl, the operations of a trade which, befide 
paper and ink, require little more than lome pieces of 
board, and a knife to cut out chara&ers upon them. The 
books thus publilhed furtively, are chiefly thole which 
are offenfive to decency, and inflame the imagination of 
young minds. 
The amufements of the Chinefe appeartobe but few, and 
very Ample; as is evinced by thofe that were exhibited be¬ 
fore the gentlemen of the embafly at the court of Zhe-hol a 
on the celebration of the emperor’s birth-day. Their 
moll favourite, and moll rational, fource of relaxation, 
is in the drama. Plays are for ever performing in all the 
provinces of China; infomuch that an entertainment ia 
never given by a mandarin of even moderate rank, with¬ 
out a dramatic performance in his own houie, by way of 
folace and pleafure to his guefts. We have noticed that 
plays were exhibited on the river fldes, wherever the Bri- 
tifli embafiy flopped, in their way to Pekin, by order of 
the mandarins, for the amulement of the Englilh ftrangers; 
and we have aifo laid, that, during certain feitivals, plays 
are performed in the ftreets to exhilarate the common, 
people, at the expence of the emperor. And as their 
drama feems really calculated to inculcate virtue and 
morality, and fhews, perhaps, more than any thing elfe, 
the eftabiilhed manners of the people, we lhall give the 
call of one of their plays, entitled Chon-fon-k.au, or 
Fidelity Rewarded ; which has been lately tranilated by E. 
Van Braam Houckgeeft, fecona perlon in the recent Dutch 
embafly to the court of Pekin. The term included in the 
action of this play, compriles an interval of eighteen years. 
Act I.—Thaye, a mandarin of letters, has two wives. 
The lecond (Alaya) is brought to bed of a fon called 
Siou-ye. On occalion of this birth a grand feaft is given 
in the houfe of the mandarin. The relations who com- 
pofe the family, repair to it to blefs the child, and to 
partake of the common joy. During this feflival, which 
lafts many days, there comes an order to the mandarin 
from the emperor, who, informed of his great merit and 
his talents, invites him to court. The mandarin, wifhing 
to obey, aflembles all his family, among which appear 
his father and mother. He communicates to them the 
order of the fovereign, and his defigri to conform to it as 
foon as poflible. His two wives and his relations appear 
very much alarmed at this departure; but he conloles 
them, and gives counl’els and inltruftions to his wives 
and domeftics. He maintains, in his difcourfe, the ne- 
jcelfary obligation which he lies under to ferve,the mo¬ 
narch and nis country with all his might, and to be 
faithful to them. Then his father, a venerable old man - , 
flrongly recommends to him a faithful regard to his du¬ 
ties. He exhorts him never to deviate from the path of 
honour and virtue, the only one which can lead to re¬ 
nown, and render him worthy to pleafe the divinity. 
After this .difcourfe, which the mandarin hears in an up¬ 
right poiture, became a fon in China never fits down be¬ 
fore his father, he prolirates himfelf at the feet of the 
author of his days, and, with his head bent under, im¬ 
plores their benediction ; which they give him, each be¬ 
ing leated, and in a tone breathing fomewhat of rna- 
jelty. The father efpecially imprefles veneration ; but 
the mother alfo lets fall expreflions of her tendernefs and 
fenfibiiity, Thaye riles, thanks his parents, and parts 
from them, as well as from his wives, with marks of re¬ 
ciprocal attachment. His lafi movement of regret is for 
his old domeltic Atay, and for his female fervant Aoua- 
na ; to whom he recommends obedience and fubmifliort 
towards their two miflrefles, the care of whatever con¬ 
cerns the houfe, and, above all, attachment to his fon, 
during his own ablcence. He promiles them to fupply 
their wants.—[Exit.—The curtain falls.] 
.6 K. 
Act 
