CHAPTER XLIII
WEALTH, SPORTS, ETC.
Ancient and modern ideas of wealth—Ts'in and Ts'u valuables— Furniture—Mats and divans—Tea and wine—Tartar couches—Inlaid ivory sofas—State treasure—Wealth in horses-Silks and furs in Tsin and Ts'u—Women as property—Pearls and jade as portable property—A Chinese Crocesus—Escape by sea to Shan Tung—Gold as money—Bribery with "metal"—Iron and gold mines in Wu—Fine Wu swords—"Cash" as coins—Ts'u money—Weight of a gold piece—Cooks important personages—"Meat-eaters" meant the ruling classes— Silk universal—Poor wore hemp—No cotton—Ts'in custom of wearing swords—Jade marks of rank—Sports—Egret fights-war hunts—Horses in Peking plain—Hunting chariots and "shaft-gates"—Yamen, ya, and Turkish encampments—Cockfighting-Lifting heavy weights—Ball games—Women at looms—Little said of family life— No homely pastimes—No squeezed feet—Helplessness of the people under their taskmasters.