Part 54

[710] To Heaven, Earth, sovereign, and relatives.

[711] Held to be a great relief to the spirits of the dead.

[712] It is commonly believed that if the spirit of a murdered man can secure the violent death of some other person he returns to earth again as if nothing had happened, the spirit of his victim passing into the world below and suffering all the misery of a disembodied soul in his stead. See No. XLV., note 267.

[713] A very common trick in China. The drunken bully Lu Ta in the celebrated novel _Shui-hu_ saved himself by these means, and I have heard that the Mandarin who in the war of 1842 spent a large sum in constructing a paddle-wheel steamer to be worked by men, hoping thereby to match the wheel-ships of the Outer Barbarians, is now expiating his failure at a monastery in Fukien. _Apropos_ of which, it may not be generally known that at this moment there are small paddle-wheel boats for Chinese passengers, plying up and down the Canton river, the wheels of which are turned by gangs of coolies who perform a movement precisely similar to that required on the treadmill.

[714] In order that their marriage destiny may not be interfered with. It is considered disgraceful not to accept the ransom of a slave girl of 15 or 16 years of age. See No. XXVI., note 185.

[715] The soil of China belongs, every inch of it, to the Emperor. Consequently, the people owe him a debt of gratitude for permitting them to live upon it.

[716] Do their duty as men and women.

[717] A Chinaman may have three kinds of fathers; (1) his real father, (2) an adopted father, such as an uncle without children to whom he has been given as heir, and (3) the man his widowed mother may marry. The first two are to all intents and purposes equal; the third is entitled only to one year’s mourning instead of the usual three.

[718] As taxes.

[719] Visitors to Peking may often see the junkmen at T‘ung-chow pouring water by the bucketful on to newly-arrived cargoes of Imperial rice in order to make up the right weight and conceal the amount they have filched on the way.

[720] That is, with a false gloss on them.

[721] In order to raise to nap and give an appearance of strength and goodness.

[722] Costermongers and others acquire certain rights to doorsteps or snug corners in Chinese cities which are not usually infringed by competitors in the same line of business. Chair-coolies, carrying-coolies, ferrymen, &c., also claim whole districts as their particular field of operations and are very jealous of any interference. I know of a case in which the right of “scavengering” a town had been in the same family for generations, and no one dreamt of trying to take it out of their hands.

[723] Chiefly alluding to small temples where some pious spirit may have lighted a lamp or candle to the glory of his favourite P‘u-sa.

[724] This is done either by making a figure of the person to be injured and burning it in a slow fire, like the old practice of the wax figure in English history; or by obtaining his nativity characters, writing them out on a piece of paper and burning them in a candle, muttering all the time whatsoever mischief it is hoped will befall him.

[725] Popularly known as the Chinese Pluto. The Indian _Yama_.

[726] The celebrated “See-one’s-home Terrace.”

[727] Regarded by the Chinese with intense disgust.

[728] Father’s, mother’s, and wife’s families.

[729] I know of few more pathetic passages throughout all the exquisite imagery of the Divine Comedy than this in which the guilty soul is supposed to look back to the home he has but lately left and gaze in bitter anguish on his desolate hearth and broken household gods. For once the gross tortures of Chinese Purgatory give place to as refined and as dreadful a punishment as human ingenuity could well devise.

[730] A long pole tipped with a kind of birdlime is cautiously inserted between the branches of a tree, and then suddenly dabbed on to some unsuspecting sparrow.

[731] If this is done in Winter or Spring the Spirits of the Hearth and Threshold are liable to catch cold.

[732] I presume because God sits with his face to the south.

[733] Pious and wealthy people often give orders for an image of a certain P‘u-sa to be made with an ounce or so of gold inside.

[734] Primarily, because no living thing should be killed for food. The ox and the dog are specified because of their kindly services to man in tilling the earth and guarding his home.

[735] The symbol of the Yin and the Yang, so ably and so poetically explained by Mr. Alabaster in his pamphlet on the Doctrine of the Ch‘i.

[736] One being male and the other being female. This calls to mind the extreme modesty of a celebrated French lady, who would not put books by male and female authors on the same shelf.

[737] The symbol on Buddha’s heart; more commonly known to the western world as Thor’s Hammer.

[738] Emblems of Imperial dignity.

[739] Supposed to confer immortality.

[740] Unfit for translation.

[741] This is ingeniously expressed, as if _mothers_ were the prime movers in such unnatural acts.

[742] On fête days at temples it is not uncommon to see cages full of birds hawked about among the holiday-makers, that those who feel twinges of conscience may purchase a sparrow or two and relieve themselves from anxiety by the simple means of setting them at liberty.

[743] Bones are used in glazing porcelain, to give a higher finish.

[744] The seven periods of seven days each which occur immediately after a death and at which the departed shade is appeased with food and offerings of various kinds.

[745] To warm them.

[746] When they are born again on earth.

[747] Heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and kidneys.

[748] Many millions of years.

[749] The following recipe for this deadly poison is given in the well-known Chinese work _Instructions to Coroners_:--“Take a quantity of insects of all kinds and throw them into a vessel of any kind; cover them up, and let a year pass away before you look at them again. The insects will have killed and eaten each other, until there is only one survivor, and this one is _Ku_.”

[750] He who “turns the wheel;” a _chakravartti raja_.

[751] The capital city of the Infernal Regions.

[752] The ghosts of dead people are believed to be liable to death. The ghost of a ghost is called _chien_.

[753] On the “Three Systems.” See note 702, _Appendix_.

[754] Women are considered in China to be far more revengeful than men.

[755] See _Author’s Own Record_ (in _Introduction_), note 28.

[756] While in Purgatory.

[757] It was mentioned above that the rewards for virtue would be continued to a man’s sons and grandsons.

[758] That is, go to heaven.

[759] Of meat, wine, &c.

APPENDIX B.

ANCESTRAL WORSHIP.

“The rudimentary form of all religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors, who are supposed to be still existing, and to be capable of working good or evil to their descendants.”--SPENCER’S ESSAYS. Vol. iii., p. 102.--_The Origin of Animal Worship._

BILOCATION.

“As a general rule, people are apt to consider it impossible for a man to be in two places at once, and indeed a saying to that effect has become a popular saw. But the rule is so far from being universally accepted, that the word ‘bilocation’ has been invented to express the miraculous faculty possessed by certain saints of the Roman Church, of being in two places at once; like St. Alfonso di Liguori, who had the useful power of preaching his sermon in church while he was confessing penitents at home.”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. i., p. 447.

BURIAL RITES.

“Hence the various burial rites--the placing of weapons and valuables along with the body, the daily bringing of food to it, &c. I hope hereafter, to show that with such knowledge of facts as he has, this interpretation is the most reasonable the savage can arrive at.”--SPENCER’S ESSAYS. Vol. iii., p. 104.--_The Origin of Animal Worship._

DREAMS.

“The distinction so easily made by us between our life in dreams and our real life, is one which the savage recognises in but a vague way; and he cannot express even that distinction which he perceives. When he awakes, and to those who have seen him lying quietly asleep, describes where he has been, and what he has done, his rude language fails to state the difference between seeing and dreaming that he saw, doing and dreaming that he did. From this inadequacy of his language it not only results that he cannot truly represent this difference to others, but also that he cannot truly represent it to himself.”--SPENCER’S ESSAYS. Vol. iii., pp. 103, 104.

SHADE OR SHADOW.

“The ghost or phantasm seen by the dreamer or the visionary is an unsubstantial form, like a shadow, and thus the familiar term of the _shade_ comes in to express the soul. Thus the Tasmanian word for the shadow is also that for the spirit; the Algonquin Indians describe a man’s soul as _otahchuk_, ‘his shadow;’ the Quiché language uses _natub_ for ‘shadow, soul;’ the Arawac _ueja_ means ‘shadow, soul, image;’ the Abipones made the one word _loákal_ serve for ‘shadow, soul, echo, image.’”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. i., p. 430.

SHADOW.

“Thus the dead in Purgatory knew that Dante was alive when they saw that, unlike theirs, his figure cast a shadow on the ground.”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. i., p. 431.

THE SOUL.

“The savage, conceiving a corpse to be deserted by the active personality who dwelt in it, conceives this active personality to be still existing, and his feelings and ideas concerning it form the basis of his superstitions.”--SPENCER’S ESSAYS. Vol. iii., p. 103.--_The Origin of Animal Worship._

TRANSMIGRATION.

“Whether the Buddhists receive the full Hindu doctrine of the migration of the individual soul from birth to birth, or whether they refine away into metaphysical subtleties the notion of continued personality, they do consistently and systematically hold that a man’s life in former existences is the cause of his now being what he is, while at this moment he is accumulating merit or demerit whose result will determine his fate in future lives.”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. ii., p. 12.

TRANSMIGRATION.

“Memory, it is true, fails generally to recall these past births, but memory, as we know, stops short of the beginning even of this present life.”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. ii., p. 12.

TRANSMIGRATION.

“As for believers, savage or civilised, in the great doctrine of metempsychosis, these not only consider that an animal may have a soul, but that this soul may have inhabited a human being, and thus the creature may be in fact their own ancestor or once familiar friend.”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. i., p. 469.

TREE-SOULS.

“Orthodox Buddhism decided against the tree-souls, and consequently against the scruple to harm them, declaring trees to have no mind nor sentient principle, though admitting that certain dewas or spirits do reside in the body of trees, and speak from within them.”--TYLOR’S _Primitive Culture_. Vol. i., p. 475.

THOS. DE LA RUE AND CO., PRINTERS, BUNHILL ROW, LONDON.

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

VOL. PAGE NOTE

Abstinence from Wine and Meat i. 23 52

Actors i. 218 188

Adoption i. 386 310 „ ii. 156 492 „ ii. 272 611

Adulteration ii. 332 675

Age of graduates i. 345 274

Age to marry i. 113 112

Alchemy i. 65 83 „ ii. 313 654

Alms’-bowl i. 246 211 „ i. 395 320

Amusements, Literary i. 215 186

Anatomy, Chinese ii. 253 590

“Angels” of Taoism i. 17 48

Arbiter of Life and Death i. 226 194

Archery i. 91 92

Aristocracy, The i. 186 156

Auspicious Sites i. 336 268

Bad Sons i. 147 131 „ „ ii. 212 545 „ „ ii. 281 622

Bambooing i. 55 76

Banquets, Theatrical Entertainments during ii. 54 396

Beadles ii. 17 373

Beauty, Chinese ii. 123 449

Beggars i. 246 212

Betrothals i. 108 108 „ i. 193 165 „ i. 227 195

Bikshu i. 395 320

Blowing into meat ii. 306 647

Blue China Epoch ii. 303 645

Bôdhisatva i. 208 182

Bridal procession i. 338 269

Bridegroom living in bride’s family i. 193 163

Brotherly deference i. 314 247 „ dependence i. 318 250

Brothers having separate establishments ii. 322 669

Brown deer of Formosa i. 399 329

Buddha, Repeating the name of i. 367 293

“Bull’s hide” trick, The ii. 180 518

Burials i. 197 171

Burying stray bones, &c. ii. 147 485

Caligraphy ii. 174 512

Capping verses i. 332 262 „ „ ii. 57 399

Cash i. 6 42 „ ii. 171 503

Cat and dog Restaurant ii. 308 649

Catalepsy i. 4 40 „ ii. 73 410

Celibacy i. 23 52

Censorate, The i. 229 197

Chai-mui i. 333 265

Chamber of Horrors i. 93 94

Change of residence i. 321 251

Charitable gifts i. 137 129

Chess, Chinese i. 46 66

Chou, General ii. 221 557

Chowry ii. 71 407

Clay-image makers ii. 276 616

Clepsydra i. 49 70

“Climbing trees to catch fish” ii. 305 646

Coffins i. 102 104 „ i. 197 172 „ deposited in Temples i. 237 203 „ for poor people ii. 316 658 „ Sleeping in ii. 354 691

Concubines i. 395 321

Confucius, Descendants of i. 33 61

Conservatism i. 427 348

Contemplation, Priestly ii. 71 406

Coroners ii. 196 530

Counting cattle, Method of ii. 255 594

Cow-herd and the Lady i. 27 55

Cricket-fighting i. 75 85

Crows, Feeding the i. 279 229

Cumquats ii. 301 644

Cycle, The Chinese i. 180 152

Cynthia, The Chinese i. 171 147

Damon and Pythias i. 166 143

Death i. 150 134 „ Fear of i. 101 103

Death-summons, The i. 150 134

Decapitation ii. 78 414

Degrees, The three i. 1 37

Devils, Good and bad ii. 201 534

Dice ii. 145 480

Divorce i. 360 288

Doctors ii. 293 634

Dogs, Chinese ii. 309 651

Dolphin, Fresh-water ii. 43 386

_Double-entendres_ ii. 176 515

Dragon-boat festival ii. 168 497

Dragons ii. 112 439 „ ii. 349 686

Dreams ii. 250 586

Dwarfs i. 224 193

Drunkenness i. 30 59 „ i. 365 292 „ ii. 30 378

Eating ii. 111 438

Education i. 297 237 „ ii. 322 668

Elixir of Immortality i. 19 49 „ „ ii. 168 498

Examinations, Competitive i. 195 168 „ „ ii. 64 403 „ „ ii. 91 426

Eye, Pupils of the i. 8 43

Fa Hsien’s journey ii. 232 567

Fabulous Lion ii. 343 682

Facing the South ii. 103 431

Falconry i. 22 51

Fan, An Autumn i. 361 289

Fantan i. 421 343

Fatalism i. 340 270

Feet of betrothed tied together i. 431 354

Fêng-Shui ii. 322 667

Feudal Governor ii. 287 628

“_Fiancé_,” Death of a i. 99 101

Figure-head ii. 54 395

Fire-wells ii. 238 575

Flageolets i. 28 58

Folk-lore in the North and South ii. 329 674

Fondness for children i. 401 332

Foot-binding i. 192 161

Fortune-tellers i. 47 68

Foundries, Iron ii. 216 549

Four Books, The i. 297 237

Four Seas, The ii. 116 444

Fox influence i. 32 60

Foxes, Soothsayers possessed by ii. 358 694

Gambling i. 421 343

Ganges, The ii. 28 377

Gates of a city shut at night ii. 262 598

Geese i. 255 217

“Gentleman,” The Chinese i. 168 145

Geomancy i. 227 195

Gioros i. 66 84

Girdles, The pearl i. 283 230

Glass i. 249 214 „ ii. 233 571

Go-betweens i. 187 157 „ ii. 154 490

God of War, The i. 2 39

“Golden lilies” i. 188 159

“Golden Orchid” Societies i. 196 170

Gongs ii. 105 433

Good fortune, Absorbing only a certain quantity of i. 342 271

Graduates by purchase i. 202 177

Graduates, Senior i. 199 175

Grave, The i. 240 207

Great beam, Fixing the ii. 267 602

Greed ii. 74 411

Han dynasty i. 258 219

Han-lin, The Chinese National Academy i. 195 169

Heart, The i. 96 97, 98

Homicide i. 353 285

Honesty in olden times ii. 250 587

“Hsi-yüan-lu,” The i. 98 100

“Hu,” The name i. 89 90

Hué i. 397 325

Human life, Value of ii. 338 678

Hungry devils ii. 270 607

Immortality i. 157 139

Immortals, Record of the ii. 88 423

Imperial mandates ii. 240 578

Impressment i. 220 190

Infernal Regions ii. 95 427 „ „ ii. 354 690

Inheritance, Law of ii. 345 683

Initiation of a Priest ii. 69 405

Inner apartments i. 53 74 „ „ i. 252 215 „ „ ii. 46 388

Jelly-fish ii. 332 676

Judas tree ii. 151 488

Judges ii. 96 429

Jugglers ii. 189 527

Khakkharam, The i. 395 320

Kangs ii. 133 469

Keeping secret professional knowledge ii. 255 593

Kidnapping i. 183 154

Kite-flying Festival ii. 268 605

Knife Hill, The ii. 205 539

Kot‘ow, The i. 388 314

K‘u-ts‘an ii. 255 592

Kuan-yin i. 241 208

Lanterns, Feast of i. 99 102

Li T‘ai-poh ii. 144 476

Lictors ii. 205 537

Lighting the Eyes ii. 224 558

Lingering death, The i. 396 322

Literary chancellor ii. 284 626

Literati, The ii. 36 384

Literature, God of ii. 320 662

Liu Ch‘üan and the melon ii. 351 689

Living Lictors of Purgatory, The i. 207 180

Loans ii. 171 501

Locusts ii. 242 579

Lohans ii. 321 666

Long Robes ii. 273 612

Lots, Drawing ii. 73 409

Love-matches i. 115 113

Lucifer Matches ii. 120 447

Lunatics ii. 30 378