CHAPTER XIV.
SOCIAL LIFE AMONG THE CHINESE, 782-836
Features and professions in Chinese society, 782; Social relations between the sexes, 784; Customs of betrothment and marriage, 785; Laws regulating marriages, 792; General condition of females in China, 794; Personal names of the Chinese, 797; Familiar and ceremonial intercourse: The _Kotow_, 800; Forms and etiquette of visiting, 802; A Chinese banquet, 807; Temperance of the Chinese, 808; Festivals; Absence of a Sabbath in China, 809; Customs and ceremonies attending New-Year’s Day, 811; The dragon-boat festival and feast of lanterns, 816; Brilliance and popularity of processions in China, 819; Play-houses and theatrical shows, 820; Amusements and sports: Gambling, chess, 825; Contrarieties in Chinese and Western usage, 831; Strength and weakness of Chinese character, 833; Their mendacity and deceit, 834.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I.
PAGE
WORSHIP OF THE EMPEROR AT THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN, _Frontispiece_
TITLE-PAGE, REPRESENTING AN HONORARY PORTAL, OR _PAI-LAU_. (The two characters, _Shing chí_, upon the top, indicate that the structure has been erected by imperial command. In the panel upon the lintel the four characters, _Chung Kwoh Tsung-lun_, ‘A General Account of the Middle Kingdom,’ express in Chinese the title of this work. On the right the inscription reads, _Jin ché ngai jin yu tsin kih so_, ‘He who is benevolent loves those near, and then those who are remote;’ the other side contains an expression attributed to Confucius, ‘_Sí fang chí jin yu shing ché yé_,’ ‘The people of the West have their sages.’)--Compare p. 757.
A ROAD-CUT IN THE LOESS, 38 AN-TING GATE, WALL OF PEKING, _to face_ 63 PLAN OF PEKING, 66 PORTAL OF CONFUCIAN TEMPLE, PEKING, 74 MONUMENT, OR TOPE, OF A LAMA, HWANG SZ’, PEKING, _to face_ 79 VIEW OVER THE LOESS-CLEFTS IN SHANSÍ, 97 TEMPLE OF THE GODDESS MA TSU-PU, NINGPO, _to face_ 123 LUKAN GORGE, YANGTSZ’ RIVER. (From Blakiston.), _to face_ 146 VIEW OF A STREET IN CANTON, _to face_ 168 MIAOTSZ’ TYPES, 179 DOMESTICATED YAK, 242 FAÇADE OF DWELLINGS IN LOESS CLIFFS, LING-SHÍ HIEN, 301 COAL GORGE ON THE YANGTSZ’. (From Blakiston.), _to face_ 306 _FÍ-FÍ_ AND _HAI-TUH_. (From a Chinese cut.), 316 THE CHINESE PIG, 324 MODE OF CARRYING PIGS, 325 THE _KÍ-LIN_, OR UNICORN, 342 THE _FUNG-HWANG_, or PHŒNIX, 343 DIFFERENT STYLES OF OFFICIAL CAPS, 414 MODE OF CARRYING HIGH OFFICERS IN SEDAN, 503 PRISONER CONDEMNED TO THE CANGUE IN COURT, _to face_ 504 MODE OF EXPOSURE IN THE CANGUE, 509 PUBLICLY WHIPPING A THIEF THROUGH THE STREETS, 511 INTERIOR OF _KUNG YUEN_, OR ‘EXAMINATION HALL,’ PEKING, _to face_ 551 CHINESE HIEROGLYPHICS AND THEIR MODERN EQUIVALENTS, 584 SIX STYLES OF CHINESE CHARACTERS, 596 WORSHIP OF CONFUCIUS AND HIS DISCIPLES, 665 DIAGRAM OF CHINESE ROOF CONSTRUCTION, 726 THE _PIH-YUNG KUNG_, OR ‘CLASSIC HALL,’ PEKING, _to face_ 730 WHEELBARROW USED FOR TRAVELLING, 747 BRIDGE IN WAN-SHAO SHAN GARDENS, NEAR PEKING, 754 BRIDGE, SHOWING THE MODE OF MORTISING THE ARCH, 756 BARBER’S ESTABLISHMENT, 760 TRICKS PLAYED WITH THE QUEUE, 762 PROCESSION OF LADIES TO AN ANCESTRAL TEMPLE, _to face_ 765 APPEARANCE OF THE BONES OF A FOOT WHEN COMPRESSED, 767 FEET OF CHINESE LADIES, 768 SHAPE OF A LADY’S SHOE, 769 BOYS GAMBLING WITH CRICKETS, 826 CHINESE CHESS-BOARD, 827
NOTE RESPECTING THE SYSTEM OF PRONUNCIATION ADOPTED IN THIS WORK.
In this the values of the vowels are as follows:
1. _a_ as the italicized letters in f_a_ther, f_a_r (never like _a_ in h_a_t); e.g., _chang_, _hang_--sounded almost as if written _chahng_, _hahng_, not flat as in the English words _sang_, _bang_, _man_, etc.
2. _ă_ like the short _u_ in b_u_t, or as any of the italicized vowels in Americ_a_n, s_u_mmer, m_o_ther; the German _ö_ approaches this sound, while Wade writes it _ê_; e.g., p_ă_n, t_ă_ng, to be pronounced as _pun_, _tongue_.
3. _e_ as in m_e_n, d_ea_d, s_ai_d; as _teh_, _shen_, _yen_.
4. _é_, the French _é_, as in th_e_y, n_ei_gh, pr_a_y; as ch_é_, y_é_, pronounced _chay_, _yay_.
5. _i_ as in p_i_n, f_i_n_i_sh; as _sing_, _lin_, _Chihlí_.
6. _í_ as in mach_i_ne, bel_ie_ve, f_ee_l, m_e_; as _lí_, _Kíshen_, _Kanghí_.
7. _o_ as in l_o_ng, l_aw_n; never like n_o_, cr_ow_; as _to_, _soh_, _po_.
8. _u_ as in r_u_le, t_oo_, f_oo_l; as _Turk_, _Belur_, _ku_, _sung_; pronounced _Toork_, _Beloor_, _koo_, _soong_. This sound is heard less full in _fuh_, _tsun_, and a few other words; this and the next may be considered as equivalent to the two _u_-sounds found in German.
9. _ü_ nearly as in l’_u_ne (French), or _u_nion, rh_eu_m; as _hü_, _tsü_.
10. _ai_ as in _ai_sle, h_igh_, or longer than _i_ in p_i_ne; as _Shanghai_, _Hainan_. The combination _ei_ is more slender than _ai_, though the difference is slight; e.g., _Kwei chau_.
11. _au_ and _ao_ as in r_ou_nd, _ou_r, h_ow_; as _Fuhchau_, _Macao_, _Taukwang_.
12. _éu_ as in the colloquial phrase _say ’em_; e.g., _chéung_. This diphthong is heard in the Canton dialect.
13. _ia_ as in _ya_rd; e.g., _hia_, _kiang_; not to be sounded as if written _high-a_, _kigh-ang_, but like _heä_, _keäng_.
14. _iau_ is made by joining Nos. 5 and 11; _hiau_, _Liautung_.
15. _ie_ as in s_ie_rra (Spanish), R_ie_nzi; e.g., _hien_, _kien_.
16. _iu_ as in p_ew_, p_u_re, lengthened to a diphthong; _kiu_, _siun_.
17. _iue_ is made by adding a short _e_ to the preceding; _kiuen_, _hiuen_.
18. _ui_ as in L_oui_siana, s_ui_cide; e.g., _sui_, _chui_.
The consonants are sounded generally as they are in the English alphabet. _Ch_ as in _ch_urch; _hw_ as in _wh_en; _j_ soft, as _s_ in plea_s_ure; _kw_ as in aw_kw_ard; _ng_, as an initial, as in si_nging_, leaving off the first two letters; _sz’_ and _tsz’_ are to be sounded full with one breathing, but none of the English vowels are heard in it; the sound stops at the _z_; Dr. Morrison wrote these sounds _tsze_ and _sze_, while Sir Thomas Wade, whose system bids fair to become the most widely employed, turns them into _ssŭ_ and _tzŭ_. The _hs_ of the latter, made by omitting the first vowel of _hissing_, is written simply as _h_ by the author. _Urh_, or _’rh_, is pronounced as the three last letters of _purr_.
All these, except No. 12, are heard in the court dialect, which has now become the most common mode of writing the names of places and persons in China. Though foreign authors have employed different letters, they have all intended to write the same sound; thus _chan_, _shan_, and _xan_, are only different ways of writing 閂; and _tsse_, _tsze_, _tsz’_, _𝔷h_, _tzŭ_, and _tzu_, of 字. Such is not the case, however, with such names as _Macao_, _Hongkong_, _Amoy_, _Whampoa_, and others along the coast, which are sounded according to the local patois, and not the court pronunciation--_Ma-ngau_, _Hiangkiang_, _Hiamun_, _Hwangpu_, etc. Many of the discrepancies seen in the works of travellers and writers are owing to the fact that each is prone to follow his own fancy in transliterating foreign names; uniformity is almost unattainable in this matter. Even, too, in what is called the court dialect there is a great diversity among educated Chinese, owing to the traditional way all learn the sounds of the characters. In this work, and on the map, the sounds are written uniformly according to the pronunciation given in Morrison’s Dictionary, but not according to his orthography. Almost every writer upon the Chinese language seems disposed to propose a new system, and the result is a great confusion in writing the same name; for example, _eull_, _olr_, _ul_, _ulh_, _lh_, _urh_, _’rh_, _í_, _e_, _lur_, _nge_, _ngí_, _je_, _jí_, are different ways of writing the sounds given to a single character. Amid these discrepancies, both among the Chinese themselves and those who endeavor to catch their pronunciation, it is almost impossible to settle upon one mode of writing the names of places. That which seems to offer the easiest pronunciation has been adopted in this work. It may, perhaps, be regarded as an unimportant matter, so long as the place is known, but to one living abroad, and unacquainted with the language, the discrepancy is a source of great confusion. He is unable to decide, for instance, whether _Tung-ngan_, _Tungon hien_, _Tang-oune_, and _Tungao_, refer to the same place or not.
In writing Chinese proper names, authors differ greatly as to the style of placing them; thus, Fuhchaufu, Fuh-chau-fu, Fuh Chau Fu, Fuh-Chau fu, etc., are all seen. Analogy affords little guide here, for New York, Philadelphia, and Cambridge are severally unlike in the principle of writing them: the first, being really formed of an adjective and a noun, is not in this case united to the latter, as it is in Newport, Newtown, etc.; the second is like the generality of Chinese towns, and while it is now written as one word, it would be written as two if the name were translated--as ‘Brotherly Love;’ but the third, _Cambridge_, despite its derivation, is never written in two words, and many Chinese names are like this in origin. Thus applying these rules, properly enough, to Chinese places, they have been written here as single words, _Suchau_, _Peking_, _Hongkong_; a hyphen has been inserted in some places only to avoid mispronunciation, as _Hiau-í_, _Sí-ngan_, etc. It is hardly supposed that this system will alter such names as are commonly written otherwise, nor, indeed, that it will be adhered to with absolute consistency in the following pages; but the principle of the arrangement is perhaps the simplest possible. The additions _fu_, _chau_, _ting_, and _hien_, being classifying terms, should form a separate word. In conclusion, it may be stated that this system could only be carried out approximately as regards the proper names in the colonies and outside of the Empire.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM.