Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Ii Part 22

[126] Compare Gutzlaff's "History of the Chinese Empire," published by K.

Neumann; Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1847.

[127] The copper cash is the sole currency in use, and consists of a mixture of copper, iron, and tin. Its value, reckoned by the string of 100, is variable, and is calculated according to the proportional traffic in foreign merchandise. On the average, from 1250-1300 cash are about equal to $1.00 American, or 4_s._ 2_d._ English.

[128] In Shanghai the medium of exchange in common use is not as at Hong-kong reckoned in dollars, but in taels, an imaginary currency of the value of about $1.33, so that 100 taels = $133-1/3, or about 27 15_s._ Most accounts are rendered in taels, whence they are reduced into Mexican dollars, the only foreign silver that is current. When European merchants first came in contact with the children of the Flowery Land, the latter used to pay a sort of premium for American dollars, while for those bearing the effigies of Charles III. (known as the Karolus dollar), quite a special price was paid. Gradually, however, the value sank till, as already mentioned, 75 taels=$100. What has so often been reported of a special Shanghai dollar coinage is quite erroneous. There are neither gold nor silver coins struck in China, but solely of copper, and in some provinces of iron. The term Shanghai dollar is equivalent to tael, which, as already remarked, is, like the guinea in England, unknown to commerce.

1 tael=5_s._ 7_d._ English, but in trade it is taken as 6_s._ It occasionally rises as high as 6_s._ 6_d._, when the proportion between the dollar and the tael is as 100 to 72.

[129] An English translation of one of these reports will be found in the 1845 number of Morrison's admirably edited, but now rather rarely met with, monthly periodical, "The Chinese Repository."

[130] We occasionally saw the Queen of Heaven (Kwan-Yin) represented with a child in her arms, and have in our possession a piece of carved work representing such a group, which we purchased in a shop at Shanghai. This elegant figure seems to be a favourite deity with the Chinese, as it frequently adorns their little domestic altars, and is especially reverenced by the women who are desirous of the honours of maternity. The striking similarity between this exhibition and that of the Holy Virgin, as we see her represented in Catholic Churches, with the infant Jesus in her arms, must involuntarily suggest the idea that there has been an infusion of Catholicism intermingled here with the rites of Buddha. If the resemblance between the two is not accidental, it may readily be a.s.sumed that the same thing has occurred here as in the case of certain Christian legends, which the traveller encounters among various races, on whom the beams of Christian civilization have never been shed.

[131] The price of each meal is as follows:--

1 bowl of rice, 12 cash (1/2 _d._) 1 " vegetables, " " (1/2 _d._) 1 cup of tea, 6 " (1/4 _d._) Breakfast, consisting usually of rice, vegetables, and tea, 30 " (1-1/4 _d._) Bed, fire, and attendance, 20 " (7/8 _d._)

[132] This sacrificial paper, coloured and written upon, is usually called "Joss" or "Sycee"-paper in Canton-English, because the prayers addressed to the Divinity are usually for riches and silver ingots (_Sycee_), which the suppliants hope to obtain by entreaty.

[133] Properly spelt _Kong-fu-tseu_, from which the Europeans have constructed the Latinized name Confucius. _Kong-fu-tseu_ (sometimes also written _Kong-tse_) was born 550 B.C. in the city of Kio-siu-bien, in the modern province of Shantung.

[134] Lao-tse (Lao-tseu), born B.C. 504, in the village of Knio-schin, in the kingdom of Thsu, held the post of keeper of the archives of the palace under the Tscheu dynasty. In his Book of Philosophy (Tao-te-king) the following remarkable words occur: "The rule of antiquity has been, not to shed light on the people, but to keep them in ignorance. A people that comprehends is difficult to govern. On this subject men say, Whoso governs a kingdom in knowledge, the same is the destroyer of that kingdom; whoso governs a kingdom a.s.signing no reason, the same maintains that kingdom. In the family, in the school, children are brought up among idols. When they enter school in the morning they are taught to do honour to the image of Kong-tse. This custom must be forthwith dispensed with." (Compare J. R.

Kaeuffer's History of Eastern Asia, for "Friends of the History of Mankind," Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1859, vol. ii. p. 64, and K. F. Neumann's Eastern Asiatic History, Leipzig, W. Engilmann, 1861, p. 129.)

[135] Copper coins, struck by a ruler with whose reign any memorable occurrences are a.s.sociated, command a high price as health-giving amulets.

Some of these, those, for instance, of the Ming and Sing dynasties, have very special healing virtues attributed to them. The currency of Tsching-ta (1506-1522) are unfailing preservatives against the perils of pregnancy, and the illnesses consequent thereon. Others are held in great honour as prophylactics. The mode of application consists in the invalid dragging them by a cord over various parts of his body in a certain prescribed order.

[136] The Chinese attribute the most marvellous healing powers to water, and accordingly apply it in a variety of forms, in numbers of maladies of the most dissimilar character. Water, cold, tepid, warm, and hot, as also snow and iced-water, figure among the list of medicaments, as do also rain-water, well and river-water, brackish water, dew, water from any eddy or whirlpool, or a stream, boiling water, and steam.

[137] The Chinese women are for this reason anxious to keep their children at the breast for two or three years and even longer, partly by way of speculating upon their having a constant breast of milk, and in this singular manner make up for any deficiency of cow's milk, between the market demand and the actual supply. A Chinese who possesses five or six concubines in addition to his legitimate spouse, may thus boast of a regular dairy farm. As sailors on arriving in port are usually excessively fond of milk, which they drink in large quant.i.ties, we were not a little amazed on learning from a physician at Hong-kong the source whence in all probability had been derived the milk that was so plentifully supplied!

[138] In German _Bruch-porzellan_, in French _porcelaine-craquelee_.

[139] _Description generale de la Chine._

[140] Not alone this oil-cake, but ground horns and bones, hair from the beard, and nail-parings, rust, ashes, and even human excrement are used as manure. And it is a singular fact that the price of the latter varies according to the race of men by whom it has been evacuated. The succulently nourished flesh-eating English and Americans are in this respect in far greater demand than the more sparely-fed cross-breeds; while the Chinese, subsisting almost exclusively upon fish and vegetables, are in respect to the value of their _faeces_ as manure, behind every other race inhabiting the country. The price of this manure varies with the quality from one dollar to three dollars the _picul_. This custom of collecting and disposing of human excrement for manure is much more extensively observed in the interior of the Empire than in the provinces along the coast. "If," writes M. Huc, the well-known missionary,--"if we were not aware to what perfection the denizens of the Celestial Empire have carried the art of manuring, one would be at a loss how to reconcile the fondness of John Chinaman for making money with the conveniences free of all charge which the proprietors of the soil everywhere erect for the comfort of travellers. There is not a city nor a village in which this is not universally the case. In the most crowded streets, or the most out-of-the-way abandoned spot, one frequently marvels to find these "cabinets" in cane-work, earth, or even masonry. One is almost tempted to believe he is in a country where the care to provide plenty of public latrines is pushed to the extreme. Utilization, however, furnishes a sufficient explanation of all these edifices."

[141] In every part of this extensive empire, travellers encounter these national tributes to the memory of distinguished women, and Dr. Medhurst, as also Fortune and other authorities upon China, relate numerous instances of these remarkable memorials. One of these, an archway of stone, is spoken of by Medhurst as of singular beauty. It is half a mile from the city of Kw.a.n.g-Tib, and was erected by the community of that region, with the approval of the Emperor, in honour of a lady of that city, of singular piety and benevolence. Over the portico are inscribed the words "Kin-sin-tsae-tschung" (a golden and perfect heart precisely in the middle).

[142] In the hospital, in what is called the western suburb of Canton, which was under the charge of Dr. Hobson from 1848 to 1858, the annual number of patients of both s.e.xes under treatment averaged upwards of 20,000. During the most unhealthy season (May and June) the number imploring a.s.sistance frequently amounted to from 3000 to 3400. In the dispensary there were, moreover, from 200 to 250 patients, who received medical advice three times a week, and were supplied with medicaments gratuitously.

[143] We saw this huge work in the private library of the chief of the medical staff at Hong-kong, Dr. W. A. Harland, who had conceived the idea of publis.h.i.+ng a more important work upon Chinese drugs, when death struck down this distinguished and most industrious gentleman while in the active discharge of his duties.

[144] In the Leper village near Canton, which is under the superintendence of a Chinese physician, there are about 100 lepers of both s.e.xes, each of whom receives about 20 cash (not quite one penny) daily for his support.

The superintendents stated to Dr. Hobson, who repeatedly visited the village, as the result of their many years' experience and observations, that leprosy is not in every case transmitted from parents to children; that several wives of leprous persons have no trace whatever of the disease, but that these women in all probability belong to those of the third and fourth generation, who wholly escape. The Chinese overseers and attendants, however, can have had as little opportunity for remarking upon the breaking out of leprosy among the children of those whose parents were entirely exempt from it as they had of informing themselves with accuracy as to the various forms and rapid diffusion of the disease in the case of the one, or its mild type and gradual disappearance in the other.

Perspiration or suppuration in the diseased parts are never remarked in these patients.

[145] At the Refuge for the Dest.i.tute (_Monegu choultry_) at Madras, where Dr. Mudge was at the same time inst.i.tuting experiments lasting over two years, exhibiting these same remedies in every form and shape of elephantiasis, to which cases a special ward had been set apart, rarely entertaining fewer than 100 patients, that gentleman found it to be perfectly inoperative, and he accordingly entirely ceased prescribing it.

In lieu of the Tscharul Mugra, the Hindoos in cases of leprosy make use of what are known as the "Asiatic pills," consisting of a.r.s.enic, pepper, and the root of the _Asclepia gigantea_.

[146] In an old Chinese medical work occurs the following remarks upon the plant: "Tae-fung-tzi. Taste, acrid and burning: imported from the South (this obviously alludes to the Straits of Malacca). Acts as an alterative on the blood, and is accordingly useful in cases of leprosy, when the blood is corrupted. The oil pressed from the seeds is also used as a remedy in ulcers, eruptions, and psoriasis, and for killing worms. This drug must be exhibited in the form of pills."

[147] Geography, Statistics, and Natural History of the Chinese Empire--New York, 1847; Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese language--Canton, 1856; Chinese Commercial Guide. Fourth edition--Canton, 1856.

[148] In the figures of the Chinese original, which represents the Lo-hau-miau or Buddhist aboriginal, Buddha is represented in a cavity of a rock. Two burning lamps are standing beside him, one on each side, and in front are two wors.h.i.+ppers in devotional att.i.tudes, while at a short distance one perceives a woman with a little child, who is approaching the divinity. The men wear fox-tails as ornaments to the head, and their long locks hang loose and dishevelled, far below the shoulders. Every year on the third day of the third moon, our Chinese traveller goes on to state, old and young, man, woman, and child, bring offerings of fruit to Buddha, and for that and the three next succeeding days, they sing and dance, and at the same time make offerings of all manner of _cooked_ food. From their custom of wearing a fox-tail on their heads, which was also common among the ancestors of the present Mantchoos, and that these wild tribes reverence the image of Buddha, Dr. Bridgman is disposed to cla.s.s them amongst foreign nations.

[149] Among these there were, besides a small quant.i.ty of Sorghum, several species of vegetables, which are suited for cultivation in temperate climates, such, for example, as Poussen, Pa-tse, Pon-ta-tse, with which since our return experiments have been inst.i.tuted in various parts of the Austrian Empire. M. de Montigny has also since our return sent, quite lately, a large quant.i.ty of Chinese seeds by way of souvenir, and despite illness, is so much interested in forwarding the objects of the Imperial Expedition, that he was a short time ago decorated with an Austrian order.

[150] We are however in a position to furnish an extract from the note-book of an English sailor, left in charge of the yacht of an English merchant at Shanghai, who accompanied the expedition of Lord Elgin to the Pei-ho as c.o.xswain. Notwithstanding the occasional _nave_ expressions made use of, it is a valuable narrative, such as may call up many strange reflections in the mind of the reader:--

"1858. May 30th.--The river Pei-ho is about 150 yards wide at its mouth, and at dead low water varies from 1-1/2 to 4-1/2 fathoms in depth. On the bar, which is two miles wide, the difference between the ebb and the flood is from 9 to 10 feet. Easterly winds cause the highest tides. In the interior, near Tien-Tsin, the river is from 3 to 6 fathoms deep, and from 50 to 100 fathoms wide. Countless villages stud the banks. The houses are built of clay or straw. The boys run about naked to an age of eight years.

It is a very wretched population. The coolies plunge into the water after the empty bottles which are swimming about. They seem exceedingly willing to be serviceable to foreigners. At Tien-Tsin, ten and a half hours from the mouth of the river, the thermometer marks 89 Fahr. in the shade. Lord Elgin is living in a private house on sh.o.r.e. The interpreters live in a pa.s.senger-junk. Provisions are on the whole cheaper than at Shanghai. An immense number of natives keep crowding open-mouthed round the "barbarians" and their s.h.i.+p during the entire day, hundreds following us at every step. Almost all the shops are shut, through dread of the barbarians."

"4th June.--Thermometer 95. The people very willing to supply the strangers with water, tea, &c. The natives are on the average from five to five feet three and well-proportioned. Some of them are "tremendously"

fat, with huge heads. Among the entire lot I could not see one single woman. The streets are narrow, filthy, and uneven. Saw several hand-carts, which were used to convey water from the river to the village. On each barrow there could be from six to eight buckets of water. There were also plenty of mules and donkeys, but very few horses."

"June 18.--This day the Russian minister concluded his treaty. A Russian courier starts to-morrow for St. Petersburg with dispatches."

"June 26th.--At 6 P.M. to-day the treaty with England was signed. Went in procession to the town. All the s.h.i.+pping dressed with flags, and manned yards. The festivities went off in the Yamun. Lord Elgin sat at the middle table, with a Mandarin on each side of him. I hear their names were Wa-schu-nau and Kwei-liang. The first-named is a strong, corpulent man of about 45; the latter is much older, and seemed very much dejected; he has however just recovered from sickness, which may account for it. After the ceremonies of signing and sealing had been gone through, they all partook of refreshments provided by the Mandarin. Lord Elgin proposed a toast to the health of the Emperor of China, and to the future friends.h.i.+p of the two nations, which was responded to by the Mandarins. Shortly after the a.s.sembly broke up, and we all marched home to the excellent music of the flag-s.h.i.+p's band and the bugles of the marines. The whole affair lasted about three hours and a half. It was full moon, and a splendid night.

"June 27th.--This afternoon the treaty with the French was signed.

Returned to their s.h.i.+ps by torch-light, port-fires, &c. &c. Ki-ying, the Mandarin who a.s.sisted in bringing about the treaty, was sentenced to be decapitated, as he was blamed for opening the door to the barbarians, but he has since been pardoned."

"July 3rd.--News came from Pekin that Ki-ying has committed suicide by cutting his throat."

"July 4th.--Thermometer 96 on board, despite awnings and sprinkling the roof of the wheel-house with water!"

"July 6th.--Left Tien-Tsin. After a long, tedious, and tiresome pa.s.sage of 15 days we reached Shanghai once more on 21st July, all well.

"Price of provisions at Tien-Tsin, as contracted for on 28th May, for the supply of the English fleet:--

Oxen (average weight 4 piculs, or 533 lbs.), the carcase $10 Sheep, " 2 Hens, per dozen 1 Geese and ducks, " 2 Eggs, per thousand 3 Vegetables, picul=133-1/2 lbs. 1.50 Rice, " 5 Sugar, " 6 Yams, per dozen 1 Pears, per hundred 1 Apples, " 1.50 Ice, per lb. 16

"All articles to be delivered of the best quality. The prices are reckoned in American dollars. Every morning a boat was sent off to the _Coromandel_, on board which the purchases took place."

[151] The Tau-Tai, whose authority extends over the three prefectures of Soo-Chow, Sung-Kiang, and Tai-tsing in the north-east of the province of Kiang-ti, is under the governor of Soo-chow, and has resided at Shanghai ever since that port was thrown open to trade. His salary by law is only 4000 _taels_ (1445), but the various perquisites and emolument attached to it make his actual income about 365,000 _taels_ or 105,000 per annum; out of which he has, however, to defray all expenses of subordinates, &c.; so that the net annual income of this post is estimated at from 25,000 to 30,000 _taels_ (7000 to 8700). Besides the Tau-Tai there is only the Tschi-hien, a sort of magistrate who lives in Shanghai, and trades with the foreigners.

[152] As another example of an interview with the highest cla.s.s of Chinese officials, we must briefly describe one enjoyed by some of our Expedition with a Mandarin named Li-hoi-wan. He received them in a chamber of his house, in which were a few small tables and chairs, while at the other end was an elevated cus.h.i.+oned seat on which sate Li-hoi-wan, a large stout man. He wore a Mandarin hat, with a blue b.u.t.ton, and a greyish blue coat reaching to the ground. He saluted the foreigners by folding his palms across his breast, invited them to be seated on the das beside him, and ordered cigars and tea to be brought. Afterwards sweetmeats of every description, confectionery, and fruit were served, as also Chinese wines, the latter, to judge by their flavour and their fragrance, seeming as though they must have hailed from a perfumery store rather than a wine cellar. Two days after the Chinese, with delicate courtesy, returned the visit at their quarters in the residence of M. Probst, the Consul for Oldenburg. Punctually at the appointed hour three far-resounding taps of the gong were heard, a foot-soldier of police presented a flaming red "_carte de viste_," bearing the name and t.i.tles of Li-hoi-wan, who forthwith was received by the travellers at the threshold, in compliance with Chinese customs. He was attired in heavy silk clothes, his fan in an elegantly worked sheath, a gold lever watch in his girdle, and was in excellent spirits. The hospitable host had, according to the custom of the country, prepared a chow-chow, or collation, at which, however, instead of Samschoo, champagne was the prevailing beverage. A few days later the Mandarin visited his newly acquired friends on board the frigate, and begged their acceptance of a variety of presents, such as silks, nuts, tea, dried fruits, and Chinese maxims and proverbs, written on long rolls of paper, that, as he navely expressed it, we might think of him "as a brother."

[153] Mr. Hogg has since left that firm, and with his brother, Mr. Edward J. Hogg, has established the firm of Hogg Brothers, in Shanghai.

[154] Under the Emperor Yang-ti of the Tsin dynasty, which filled the throne during the 6th century, more than 1600 miles of ca.n.a.ls were partly constructed, partly rebuilt and repaired, the immense works being distributed among the soldiery and the inhabitants of the cities and villages. Each family was bound to furnish one man, between the ages of 15 and 20, whom the Government only found in provisions. The soldiers, on whom devolved the heaviest portion of the work, received higher pay. Some of these ca.n.a.ls, which were the making of the commerce of the interior, and thus were of the utmost service to the welfare of the Empire, were forty feet wide, and were planted on either bank with elms and willows.

[155] These lanterns, often beautifully carved and otherwise adorned, are among the most characteristic furniture of a Chinese room. Into their manufacture enter not alone gla.s.s, horn, silk, paper, &c., but also the glutinous matter derived from a species of sea-tangle (_Gigartina tenax_--called by the Malays _Agar-Agar_), with which the paper employed in covering the sides of the lantern is fastened on. In the silk and paper manufactures too this omnipresent Agar-Agar paste plays so important a part, that above 500 piculs at $2 a picul, are annually imported from the Indian Archipelago.

[156] Vide Huc's Chinese Empire, Vol. I.

[157] The Chinese find it not less inexplicable that we use such murderous-looking instruments to divide and convey our food to our mouths, with which they think we must every moment be in danger of wounding our lips or putting our eyes out, than that we should remove the bones from the flesh, or crack the sh.e.l.ls of nuts and almonds, both which operations seem to them excessively absurd. In fact, it is no mere bon-mot which represents a Chinese gazing in astonishment at Europeans playing billiards, or nine-pins, waltzing, or "polking," and remarking, with an ill-concealed a.s.sumption of superiority, that wealthy people ought to leave such fatiguing things to be done by their servants!!

[158] Since the well-known minister and envoy to j.a.pan.