C H I N A; 
496 
is univerfally black, which induces a ftrong national 
cbarafter in their general appearance. The men encou¬ 
rage the growth of a whilker ; but amongft the Chinele 
there is a great paucity of beard ; a few ltraggling hairs 
form a pendent beard from the chins of thofe advanced 
in life, though it is never greatly confpicuous but in the 
very aged : the long queue, formed with the hair left to 
grow from the crown of the head, belongs not to the 
original Chitiefe, it is a Tartar cuftom, introduced only 
with the prefer.t dynalty. The proper names of the ori¬ 
ginal Chinele, independently of the additions which 
defignate their quality, as we are informed by fir George 
Staunton, are all of one lyllable ; as is every word in the 
Chinefe language. The additions are the more necefiary, 
as a fimple name implies no diftinftion in favour of the 
family which bears it.. Sir George obl'erves, that there 
are not above one hundred family names known through¬ 
out the empire, and the expreflion of the hundred 
names, is often ufed .as a colle&ive term for the whole 
Chinele nation, Individuals, however, occafionally af- 
fume, at different periods, or under different circum- 
ilances of their lives, other appellations, exprelfive of 
Come quality or event. Each family name is borne by 
perfons of all clalfes. Identity of fuch names, however, 
implies fome connedtion. All who bear it, may attend 
the hall of their fuppbfed common anceftor. A Chinele 
feldom, if ever, marries a woman of his own family 
name; but-the fons and daughters of lifters married to 
hulbands of two different names, marry frequently: 
thole of two brothers bearing the fame name, cannot. 
The names do not always denote diftindtions; and 
though no hereditary nobility exifts in China, pedigree is 
there an objedl of much attention. He who can reckon his 
anceftors to a diltant period, as if diltinguifhed by their 
private virtues, or public fervices, and by the honours 
conferred upon them in conlequence by the government, 
is much more refpedled than new men. The fuppofed 
defendants of Confucius are always treated with parti¬ 
cular regard ; and immunities have been granted to them 
by the emperors. The ambition of an illuftrious defeent 
is fo general, that the emperors have often granted ti¬ 
tles to the deceafed anceftors of a living man of merit. 
Indeed, every means are tried to ftimulate to good, and 
to deter from evil adrions, by the reward of praife, as 
well as by the dread of fhame. 
Although the cuftoms and manners of the original 
Chinefe belpeak great fnnplicity, and betray much igno¬ 
rance with refpedt to many European inventions and im¬ 
provements; yet their general or native knowledge is 
confeffedly fuch, as to prove them always to have been a 
civilized and enlightened people. Their cycle of lixty 
years, mentioned at the beginning of this article, as 
evidence of their high antiquity, is alfo an irrefragible 
proof of their early powers of calculation, and know¬ 
ledge in aftronomy. This people are laid to have pof- 
felled, three hundred years before the birth of Chrift, a 
treatife of Clepfydras and Gnomons, t*be latter of which 
fiiredls how to find the latitude of a place, and to draw 
a meridian line : a degree of knowledge not attained, at 
that period, even by the Romans, who, for a confidera- 
ble time, had no other way of determining the meridian, 
or mid-day, at Rome, than that of obferving when the 
fun came between the fenate houfe and the tribune ; and 
who ufed for many years a fun-dial calculated for ano¬ 
ther latitude, imagining that it was equally applicable 
to all places: an error into which fome of the Chinefe 
have been fince accufed of falling themfelves. Ingeni¬ 
ous, however, as thefe people are, they do not feem to 
have any idea of the earth’s motion; but imagine that 
the fun actually moves through the fixed ftars. Their 
day is divided, as by the ancient Egyptians, into twelve 
parts only, confifting each of two European hours; the 
Sirft beginning at eleven at night, and ending at one. 
Thefe portions of time are meaiured with tolerable ac¬ 
curacy, by means of a lighted taper made from the 
a 
pith of a particular tree, of which the confumption by 
ignition is fo regular, that divided into twelve equal 
parts, each continues burning during the twelfth part of 
the twenty-four hours. The gradual motion of fand, 
and the defeent of liquids, have been likewife applied 
to the fame purpofe. To announce the hour, even at 
prefent, in Pekin, they have no better method than that 
of ftriking with a mallet upon a large bell a number of 
ftrakes correfponding to that of the hour, by a perfon 
who mu ft wait and watch the progrefs of time, as indi¬ 
cated by fome of the methods above delcribed. In this 
ftate they were found when conquered by the Tartar 
tribes; and in it they feem ever fince to have continued. 
The preference {hewn to the Tartar race in the prefent 
day, has been already noticed. The native Tartar 
princes ufually marry the daughters and nieces of the 
imperial family, and then hold a diftmguilhed place at 
court, in conlequence of fuch alliance. Their educa¬ 
tion is ufually diredted to the ufe of the bow and feimi- 
tar; weapons which they prefer to all others. Thefe 
princes are at the head of all the military departments, 
as being thofe only in whom the emperor can with fafety 
confide. On their part, they hold the emperor in the 
greater veneration; as confidering him defeended from 
the Tartar prince who conquered China in the thir¬ 
teenth century. His defeendants, being afterwards driven 
out by Chu, fled into the country of the Manchoos in 
Eaftern Tartary ; and from their intermarriages with the 
natives, fprung the Bog-doi-khans, who, in the feven- 
teenth century, entered China, and formed the prefent 
dynalty, under Shun-chi, great grandfather of Tchaen- 
lung, at whofe death, in 7799, it liad continued one hun¬ 
dred and fifty-five years; the longeft dynalty of any four 
princes in an uninterrupted lucceflion, that can be re¬ 
membered in any country, except thofe of the four laft 
reigning princes of the ancient monarchy of France, 
which had continued one hundred and eighty-three 
years, when the laft lbvereign, Louis XVI. was cut off 
by an untimely death. But the four Chinefe reigns, viz. 
thofe of Shun-chi, Kaiing-hi, Yong tchien, and Tchi- 
en-lung, though extended over a people whofe,fubjec- 
tion was completed only in the courle of them, and 
who, perhaps, are not yet perfectly reconciled, were not 
only long but almoll beyond example, profperous. 
The firft, indeed, though begun in a minority, had all 
the vigour and exertion of a new dynalty; and thofe 
which fucceeded, were equally remarkable for wifdom, 
firmnefs, and adlivity. That year, which in the Britilh 
annals is juftly termed the glorious 1759, was glorious 
alfo to Tchieu-lung. He conipleted in that year the 
conqueft of the Eieuths, who poffeffed a great portion 
of what formerly was called Independent Tartary. 
It is a Angular faff, that although the three laft Chi¬ 
nefe emperors, as well as the prefent, Ka-hing, who 
fucceeded to the throne in March J799, were all born at 
Pekin, yet they are univerfally regarded by their fubjedls, 
and indeed by therafeives, as Tartars. Their principal 
minifters, their confidential fervants, the chiefs of their 
armies, moft of their wives, concubines, domeftics, and 
eunuchs, are of that race. Every male in China, of 
Tartar parents or defeent, is allowed a ftipend from his 
birth, and is regiftered among the foldiers or fervants of 
the emperor- Thefe form his body guards, to whom his 
perfonal fafety is confided. Such a preference of Tar¬ 
tars, apparently partial and impolitic, was deemed ab- 
folutely neceffary in the commencement of the dynalty, 
when the conqueft of the country was not complete, and 
little reliance was to be placed on the fidelity of thofe 
who had been vanquifhed. It became, however, the 
fource of additional difaffe&ion, which, in its turn, 
called for the continuance of the meafure which pro¬ 
duced it. No change in the circumftances of the Tartar 
and Chinefe nations fince they became fubjedt to one fo- 
vereign, has contributed to their union, or to overcome 
the oppofition approaching to antipathy, which muff 
have 
