FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr J. Henniker Heaton, M.P., in The Nineteenth Century and After, September 1906.
[2] Since reduced to thirty-six hours.
[3] The Far East, by Sir Henry Norman, p. 593.
[4] But there is another side to this story which does not reflect much credit on the foreigners concerned. This aspect of the matter has been fully detailed by Mr Chester Holcombe, in The Real Chinese Question, chap. i.
[5] China's Only Hope, by Chang Chih-tung, translated by S. I. Woodbridge, 1901.
[6] It was accomplished very successfully by a British river gun-boat as recently as the summer of 1907.
[7] For Itinerary, see [Appendix B].
[8] The word fu attached to so many Chinese place-names is usually translated "prefecture," which is an administrative division including several hsien or district-magistracies. Chou also signifies an administrative division or "department," smaller than a fu.
[9] Yule's Marco Polo, edited by Cordier, vol. ii. pp. 36-37.
[10] First published in the Royal Geographical Society's Supplementary Papers, vol. i.
[11] 書畫史.
[12] Clive Bigham, in A Year in China, p. 125.
[13] 江口.
[14] See Map.
[15] It will be observed by those acquainted with Chinese that here and elsewhere I have, for the sake of uniformity, transliterated all Chinese names according to the sounds of Pekingese, except in the case of a few stereotyped words.
[16] It is used, however, in the official Annals of the province (Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih).
[17] See chap. xv. p. 286 (note 1).
[18] S. Beal in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January 1882, p. 39. His view does not seem to have attracted much attention.
[19] See Waddell's Lhasa and its Mysteries (John Murray, 1905), pp. 289-290.
[20] See Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January and July 1886.
[21] See China Review, vols. xv. and xix.
[22] See chap. xv.
[23] 蛾眉.
[24] 天真皇人.
[25] 黃帝.
[26] 隨時易名.
[27] 寶掌.
[28] 千歲和尚.
[29] This name (蒲) is not to be confused with the P'u (普) of P'u Hsien. The sound is the same but the Chinese characters are different.
[30] The word P'u, which means Universal, is also the first character in the name of P'u Hsien.
[32] 普賢.
[33] He must not be confused with the Adi-Buddha or primordial deity of Red Lamaism, though the name is the same.
[34] 華嚴經. See especially chüan, 7-10.
[35] 龍樹 (Lung Shu) in Chinese.
[36] See Dhammapada, chap. xxiii. S.B.E. vol. x. p. 78.
[38] The Pali word is Kamma, which, like the Sanskrit, simply means "doing; action; work; labour; business." See Childers' Pali Dictionary, s.v. Kammam. Mr A. E. Taylor, in his admirable work The Elements of Metaphysics, describes the Buddhist karma as "the system of purposes and interests" to which a man's "natural deeds give expression."
[39] Cf. Virgil, Æneid, vi. 719-721:
"O pater, anne aliquas ad caelum hinc ire putandumst
Sublimes animas iterumque ad tarda reverti
Corpora? Quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido?"
The whole passage from 703 to 751 is of great interest to those who like to trace Buddhistic thought in non-Buddhistic literature. Lines 66-68 of the Third Georgic are equally striking in this respect:
"Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit, subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
Et labor et durae rapit inclementia mortis."
It was just such reflections as this that filled the heart of the Sakya prince with pity and love for mankind. Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalium tangunt, the beautiful utterance of "the chastest and royalest" of poets, expresses the feeling that prompted the Great Renunciation and gave to the world a Buddha.
[41] The Chinese 八聖道分.
[43] The Mahâ-Parinibbâna Suttanta, translated by Rhys Davids (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi. p. 38).
[44] Avalokiteçvara is the Chinese Kuan Yin, generally represented in China (where temples to this divinity are exceedingly numerous) as a female, and known to Europeans as the "Goddess of Mercy." The change of sex is due to an identification of this Bodhisattva with a legendary Chinese princess, who devoted herself to saving human lives, especially from the dangers of the sea. She has thus become in a special sense the guardian deity of sailors; but she is also worshipped by women as the goddess who grants male offspring. Mahâsthâma is the Chinese Ta Shih Chih, the Bodhisattva of Great Strength. Eitel, in his Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, says that this Bodhisattva is perhaps the same as Maudgalyâyana; but this is a mistake, as is quite clear from the fact that, in certain sutras, such as the Amitâyur-Dhyāna Sutra, they figure as separate personalities.
[45] The Japanese Amida.
[46] "The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Samgha": i.e. the Buddha, the law and doctrine of the Buddha, and the Church or Community of Brethren established by the Buddha.
[47] The Smaller Sukhâvatî Vyûha, translated by Max Müller (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlix.).
[49] Any one who is not hopelessly narrow-minded can thoroughly sympathise with the missionary position. The missionaries as a body are men of religious enthusiasm. They believe they have been summoned by their Master to preach to non-Christians a faith which they believe to be the only true faith; and some of them believe that an acceptance of this faith is "necessary to salvation." From their point of view, all missionary work is entirely justified; and from any point of view the work the Christian missions have done in alleviating sickness and pain in China is wholly admirable. As regards the purely religious aspect of the question, I am glad to refrain from expressing a personal opinion. It is a subject which requires to be handled with extraordinary delicacy, for many people are unable to discuss it dispassionately, and it gives rise to endless arguments which from the nature of the case are and must be utterly devoid of persuasive power. Now that Religion, as distinct from any systematised Creed, has taken its place among the recognised subjects of philosophical investigation (and psychological also, as in Professor James's brilliant book, The Varieties of Religious Experience), we may expect to hear missionary work discussed (at least by educated persons) with less bitterness and strong language than has sometimes disgraced the controversialists on both sides. A short and incomplete but very interesting discussion of the missionary question from an obviously impartial point of view may be found in Professor Knight's Varia, pp. 31-35. (John Murray: 1901.)
[51] 海會堂.
[53] This is the usually accepted estimate; but Sir A. Hosie has recently stated it to be only 10,158 feet.
[54] Ficus infectoria.
[55] 觀心頂.
[56] 繫心所.
[57] Literally, "the quelling of the passions."
[58] 長老坪.
[59] 開山初殿. See [Note 8] (p. 418).
[60] 阿羅漢.
[61] In the early Buddhist scriptures we learn that super-normal powers were even then supposed to be characteristic of the arhats, but it was generally considered undesirable to put such powers to the test.
[62] See the Saddharma-Pundarîka, translated by Kern in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxi. The Chinese version is known as the Miao Fa Lien Hua Ching (妙法蓮華經).
[63] See an article on this subject by T. Watters, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, April 1899. See also Edkins, Chinese Buddhism, pp. 249 and 394-395.
[64] 華嚴頂.
[65] Manjusri (文殊師利) is a Bodhisattva who in China is practically worshipped as the God of Wisdom. Like Ti Tsang, Kuan Yin and others, he is supposed to have had a human prototype, or rather to have been incarnated in the body of a historical personage. But the truth probably is that any person of superlative wisdom was liable to be identified by his admirers with Manjusri. There is an interesting reference to him in I-Tsing's Records of the Buddhist Religion, translated by J. Takakusu (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), p. 169. The translator comments on the fact that Manjusri was even by the people of India supposed, at one time, to be somehow connected with China, and the actual place of his residence was identified as Ping Chou in Chih-li.
[66] 蓮花石.
[67] Three Lectures on Buddhism, pp. 60-61.
[68] 唵嚤呢叭□吽.
[69] ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ་·
[70] 南無阿彌陀佛.
[71] 洗象池.
[72] 大勢至.
[73] 大乘寺. See [Note 9] (p. 418).
[74] 白雲古剎.
[75] 張良.
[76] 文成.
[77] 雷洞坪.
[78] 掣電飛雲.
[79] 接引殿.
[80] 韋陀 or 護法韋陀: Veda Fidei Defensor—a Hindu deity who was regarded as one of the protectors of the four "Continents" of the world or Universe.
[81] 藥師佛, whose common title Lui Li Fo (琉璃佛) translates the Sanskrit Vaidūrya, lapis lazuli. This precious stone seems also to have been associated with a favourite Assyrian deity, Ênu-rêstū.
[82] 地藏.
[83] 古太子坪.
[84] 永慶寺.
[85] See above, p. 66.
[86] 開山肉身祖師殿.
[87] 沉香塔. The aloes or eagle-wood is so-called because it sinks (ch'ên) in water. It is supposed to be the aloes-wood mentioned in the Bible.
[88] 威鎮天門.
[89] 七天橋.
[90] 普賢塔.
[91] 財神 or 財帛星神.
[92] 關帝.
[93] 龍王.
[94] 三官.
[95] 錫瓦殿.
[96] Chêng Ting Chin Tien (正頂金殿). There is another Chin Tien or Golden Temple on the summit of a range of mountains north-east of Tali-fu in Yunnan (the Chi Shan) which is also a noted centre for Buddhist pilgrimages. A short account of the temples of this mountain is given in a Foreign Office Report by the late Mr Litton. (China, No. 3: 1903, pp. 4-6.)
[97] 日出則犬吠.
[98] 佛光.
[99] A somewhat similar phenomenon, described as an "anthelia," may be witnessed in Ceylon. Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his Ceylon [Longmans: 1859, 2nd edition], states that phenomena of this kind may have "suggested to the early painters the idea of the glory surrounding the heads of beatified saints." He adds this description: "To the spectator his own figure, but more particularly the head, appears surrounded by a halo as vivid as if radiated from diamonds. The Buddhists may possibly have taken from this beautiful object their idea of the agni or emblem of the sun, with which the head of Buddha is surmounted. But, unable to express a halo in sculpture, they concentrated it into a flame."—Vol. i. 72 seq.
[101] 捨身崖. There is a similar Suicide's Cliff near the summit of T'ai Shan. Shê shên, it may be remarked, has a double meaning.
[102] 銀色界.
[103] 雷打天補.
[104] 早課.
[105] 大雄寶殿. The first two characters, rendered Great Lord or Hero, represent the Sanskrit Vîra, used as the epithet of a Buddhist saint.
[106] 南無本師釋迦牟尼佛.
[107] 南無當來彌勒尊佛.
[108] 文殊師利.
[109] 大智.
[110] 普賢.
[111] 護法諸天菩薩.
[112] 三洲感應護法韋陀尊天菩薩.
[113] 韋陀.
[114] 日光 and 月光遍照菩薩.
[115] 增福財神.
[116] See above, p. 99.
[117] 什方菩薩.
[118] 晚課.
[119] 極樂世界阿彌陀佛.
[120] 消災延夀藥師佛.
[121] 大悲觀世音 and 大勢至 (Avalokiteçvara and Mahâsthâma: see footnote, [p. 72]).
[122] 地藏王.
[123] 伽藍聖衆菩薩. The two first characters represent the Sanskrit Sanghârâma, the park or dwelling-place of monks, equivalent to a vihara or monastery.
[124] 歷代袓師菩薩.
[125] 清淨大海諸菩薩.
[127] 先祖殿. See [Note 12] (p. 420).
[128] 峰頂卧雲庵.
[129] 白龍池.
[130] 廣福寺.
[131] 龍昇岡.
[132] 觀音寺.
[133] 中峰寺. See [Note 12] (p. 420).
[134] 大峨寺. See [Note 12] (p. 420).
[135] 正心橋.
[136] 慧燈寺.
[137] From here a road leads direct to the capital, Ch'eng-tu, which can be reached in three stages.
[140] Three Years in Western China, p. 95.
[142] Baber mentions an instance of a coolie who "must have had, at the lowest computation, more than 400 English pounds on his back."
[144] Also known as Man Chuang (蠻庄).
[146] 內地第一險阻也.
[147] Rockhill, The Land of the Lamas, p. 305.
[150] Land of the Lamas, p. 304.
[152] See chap. xv.
[153] I observe that it is so marked in Waddell's map attached to his recent book on the British expedition to Lhasa.
[154] For a brief discussion of the ethnology of this country, see [chap. xv].
[155] Gold-washing is carried on here to a considerable extent, as in nearly all the rivers of western Ssuch'uan.
[156] Journey to the Eastern Frontier of Tibet, pp. 24-25.
[158] Mrs Moyes (then Mrs Rijnhart) is the well-known author of the book, With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple, in which she ably describes the life of adventure and hardship which she led in the far interior of Tibet, where she lost both husband and child.
[160] Hosie, Journey to the Eastern Frontier of Tibet.
[161] Yule, Marco Polo (Cordier's edition), vol. ii. p. 49.
[162] The word Amban, now so well known to Europeans, is Manchu, and is applied to many high Chinese officials serving in the Mongolian and Tibetan dependencies of China, besides the Resident at Lhasa.
[163] 甲哪.
[164] 甲宜齋.
[166] Land of the Lamas, p. 276.
[167] The Chinese is 烏拉, which is merely phonetic. The word ula is Mongolian. Rockhill observes that ula (oulâk) was known in India in mediæval times.—(Land of the Lamas, p. 52.)
[168] Huan-t'ieh (換帖), literally "the exchange of cards."
[169] See p. 358 of that work.
[170] For the origin of the Prayer (or perhaps rather Praising) Wheel, see Rhys Davids' Hibbert Lectures (1881), p. 138 (4th ed.). See also Tylor's Primitive Culture, ii. 372-373 (4th ed.)
[171] A Mongolian word which the Chinese have naturalised as o-pu (阿卜).
[172] Major H. R. Davies, whose admirable survey and exploration work are well known, visited the Muli lamasery before me, but our routes only touched at that point. He has unfortunately published no account of his journey from Mien-ning-hsien to Chung-tien.
[173] For M. Bonin's see the Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, 1898, pp. 389 seq. For Mr Amundsen's, see the Geographical Journal for June and November 1900.
[174] How few, may be judged from the fact that I met only one caravan in the course of a month's journey.
[175] The complications and variations in currency and money values constitute one of the greatest vexations to a European traveller in China. As is well known, the ordinary medium of exchange in China for small purchases is the "cash" (t'ung ch'ien) of which about 1,000 (sometimes more and sometimes less) are equivalent to a dollar (Mex). In larger transactions silver sycee or "broken" silver is used, in which case payments are made by weight and according to the "touch" or fineness of the silver. The ingots are cut up by the use of sycee-shears into small or large portions as required. The larger ingots—which in Ssuch'uan are generally of the approximate value of ten taels each (equivalent to nearly two pounds)—usually bear the guarantee "chops" of bankers and large merchants. In the west of Ssuch'uan the Indian rupee became many years ago a well-known and much appreciated coin, and very largely took the place of broken silver. Its convenient size and shape specially commended it to the Chinese and Tibetan merchants who had trade relations with Burma, Tibet and India: and as its exchange-value in and about Tachienlu was in excess of its face-value many Yunnanese merchants used to bring mule-loads of rupees to that city from Tali-fu, thereby making a very considerable profit. The coin was generally known as the lama-t'ou or Lama's Head—Queen Victoria's head being supposed to be that of a lama—and also as yang ch'ien or "foreign money," the same term that is often applied in other parts of China to the Mexican and British dollars. Recently the provincial Government prohibited the circulation of Indian rupees in Ssuch'uan, and began to issue a similar coin of its own at the Mint in Ch'êng-tu. The new coin is almost exactly equivalent in value to the Indian rupee, and resembles it in size and appearance: but it bears the head of the emperor of China instead of that of the emperor of India. It is interesting as being the first Chinese coin, so far as I am aware, to bear the sovereign's head. Probably had it borne no head at all it would have been regarded with suspicion and dislike by those who had for years been accustomed to the Indian rupee. One of the Ssuch'uanese coins (a half-rupee) is illustrated in the text, along with the obverse and reverse of a Tibetan coin also in common use about Tachienlu and western Ssuch'uan. I found the new Ssuch'uan rupee was accepted fairly willingly by the people between Tachienlu and Pa-U-Rong, less willingly by those of the Muli country. South of Yung-ning I again had recourse to broken silver; but west of Tali-fu the Indian rupee is generally accepted, and at the town of Hsia Kuan, near Tali-fu, Indian rupees can be bought in any quantity by travellers and merchants bound for Burma. The Indian rupee is now a rare coin in Ssuch'uan, but sometimes it is treated like broken silver, being cut into pieces and sold by weight. I have in my possession several mutilated rupees which were weighed out to me as small change. The late queen-empress's head has been treated with small respect by the silver-merchants.
[177] It has been pointed out by Griesbach that the central Himālayan glaciers are receding, and once extended much lower than at present. Apparently the same is the case in the "Himālayas" of Tibetan Ssuch'uan. I saw few living glaciers; but in many ravines there were evident traces of lateral and terminal moraines.
[178] This I take to be the crossoptilon Tibetanum. It is quite unknown in China proper.
[180] The Tibetan ja-ndong.
[182] Yule's Marco Polo (Cordier's edition), vol. ii. p. 45.
[183] Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce.
[184] It is now well known that in parts of the Himalāyas which form the watershed of the great Indian rivers the line of perpetual snow is as high as 18,000 or even 20,000 feet.
[185] There is a fine poplar grove close to Tachienlu, fringing the "royal" parade-ground. Sarat Chandra Das (Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet) mentions a poplar at Lhasa which is supposed by the Tibetans to have sprung from the hair of the Buddha.
[186] The felis fontanieri, besides other members of the Cat tribe.
[187] Customs of this kind seem to exist or to have existed all over the world. For Tibet, see Sarat Chandra Das's Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet, and several recent works. Frazer, in the Golden Bough (2nd edn. vol. iii. pp. 4-6), has an interesting note in which he mentions the same or similar customs in the Solomon and Banks Islands, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Central and South Africa, Bolivia, Burma and Korea. He says: "The act is not a religious rite, for the thing thrown on the heap is not an offering to spiritual powers, and the words which accompany the act are not a prayer. It is nothing but a magical ceremony for getting rid of fatigue, which the simple savage fancies he can embody in a stick, leaf, or stone, and so cast it from him." Gipsies have a custom of leaving heaps of stones and bits of stick at cross-roads, to guide members of their band who have fallen behind. I do not propose to argue from this fact that the gipsy race was originally a Tibetan tribe, in spite of the facts that both gipsies and Tibetans love a wandering life, and that the gipsies of Persia and the Tibetans use almost the same word for "tent," which is guri in Persia and gur (གུར་) in Tibet.
[188] River of Golden Sand, vol. ii. p. 136.
[189] Royal Geographical Society's Supplementary Papers, vol. i. p. 96.
[190] Sometimes, however, the door is several feet above the level of the ground, so that ladders of some kind must have been used for entrance and exit.
[191] The word Drung or Dr'ong (གྲོང་) is the Tibetan word for Village.
[192] La is the Tibetan word for a Mountain Pass. Ri, which often occurs in the names of villages and passes, means Mountain, and Rong Valley.
[193] See above, p. 143.
[194] See above, p. 145.
[195] Many of the villages between Tachienlu and Yung-ning have been given Chinese names by the Yunnanese, who occasionally send merchandise by this route. The Chinese name, as a rule, has no connection with the Tibetan or Man-tzŭ name. Wu Chia-tzŭ, for instance, means a "Village of Five Families"; San Chia-tzŭ a "Village of Three Families."
[196] See illustration of this tower, which is a fair sample of the rest, to face p. 171.
[197] Modern Painters, I. II. chap. iv. p. 2.
[198] See John Tyndall's description of his ascent of the Finsteraarhorn (Glaciers of the Alps).
[201] Les Lolos, by M. Paul Vial, Catholic missionary (Shanghai, 1898).
[202] See chap. xv. below, on the ethnology of the Lolos and other border tribes.
[203] See Appendix A.
[204] There is, however, a system of written characters peculiar to the Lolos. It appears to be unknown among these colonists.
[205] See above, p. 55.
[208] Mr Amundsen states that he crossed by a raft made of two pieces of timber, with a plank in the middle to stand on.—(Geographical Journal, vol. xv. p. 621).
[209] In Captain Gill's The River of Golden Sand (John Murray), p. 121, where there is a good illustration of the single-rope bridges.
[210] See above, p. 128.
[211] Yule's Marco Polo, edited by Cordier. [London: John Murray.] See vol. ii. p. 67.
[212] See above, pp. 43-44.
[213] 流入岷江. Similarly we read of the Han River (which flows into the Yangtse at Hankow) joining the Min (合岷江).
[215] This is on Mr Amundsen's authority. See Geographical Journal, Nov. 1900, p. 534.
[216] See illustration, p. 152 (No. 2). The plaques may also be seen on the women's heads, p. 188.
[217] I travelled up the valley of this river in 1902, and heard much of its deadliness. Rocher, in his excellent history of Yunnan, remarks that the only people who could live on the banks of the Red River with comparative immunity were some indigenous non-Chinese tribes and Cantonese merchants. As regards the Cantonese, the jealous Yunnanese supposed that their immunity was derived from the fact that they possessed a sovereign remedy for the disease, but kept the secret of it to themselves so that they alone should obtain the benefit. Some of the Yunnanese told Rocher that they would go into battle rather than brave a visit to the banks of the Red River.—(La Province Chinoise du Yunnan, vol. i. pp. 229, 230, and 286.)
[218] See below, pp. 305 seq.
[219] གའུ་
[220] Tibetan brTen (སྲུང་བ་) pronounced ten, or Srung-ba (སྲུང་བ་) pronounced sung-wa, the original meaning of which is simply "protection."
[221] The reader will not, I hope, require to be reminded of "The Bad Child's Book of Beasts," in which the poem to which I refer finds an honourable place.
[222] It would appear from the recent Indian Survey map prepared by Major H. R. Davies, that this must be the Litang River, and therefore starts its course much further north.
[224] Ruskin, Proserpina, II. IV.
[225] Spelt in Tibetan mCh'od-rTen.
[226] See illustration, p. 207.
[227] Land of the Lamas, p. 63.
[228] Lamaism in Tibet, pp. 263-264.
[229] See accompanying illustration.
[231] Royal Geographical Society's Supplementary Papers, vol. i. p. 96. The conjecture about the monastery was correct.
[232] 黃 (Yellow) and 皇 (Imperial).
[233] Judging from the dates in the T'ung Chih, it cannot have been earlier than 1729.
[234] "Nearly every great monastery," says Waddell, "has its own reincarnate Lama as its chief."—(Lamaism in Tibet, p. 230. For the numbers of these reincarnated saints, see ibid., p. 243.) These are the personages generally known by Europeans as Living Buddhas. One of them presides over the great lamasery in Peking.
[235] Spelt mk'an-po (མཁན་པོ་)
[236] This word literally means the "house of a god, or shrine" (ལྷ་ཁང་) It is the same lamasery as that otherwise known as Wa-chin, referred to on p. 204.
[238] ཕྱག་མཛོད་ (ch'ag-mDzod), literally the "treasury-hand."
[239] སྐུ་ཚབ་ (sku-ts'ab), literally "vice-gerent" or "lieutenant."
[241] Known by the Tibetans as Re-wo-tse-nga. The monastery there is said to be the oldest in China, and is visited annually by thousands of pilgrims, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese.
[242] Spelt Ha-dBar-bDe-Ligs(ཧ་དབར་བདེ་ལིགསརྒྱ་ལ་བོ་).
[244] For further information regarding the position of the ruler of Muli and the history of his state, see [Note 34] (p. 432).
[245] Travellers to Mecca have recorded the same fact with regard to that city.
[246] གྲྭ་པ་
[248] See pp. 280-281.
[249] Major H. R. Davies informs me that he found some Miao-tzŭ between Mien-ning-hsien and the Yalung on the way to Muli, but that is much further east.
[251] Cf. Marco Polo's description of the burial customs of certain Yunnan tribes, vol. ii. pp. 122-123. (Cordier's edition, 1903.)
[252] See Rockhill, Land of the Lamas, pp. 286-287. See also p. 81, where he states that "the remains of the dead are exposed on the hillsides in spots selected by lamas; if the body is rapidly devoured by wild beasts and birds of prey, the righteousness of the deceased is held to be evident, but if it remains a long time undevoured, his wickedness is proved." See also the Zend-Avesta, Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv. pp. 74-75 and 97-98. It is interesting to note that Friar Odoric's account of "Tebek" is almost literally true, if we except the remark about the tusked ladies.
[254] See below, chap. xv.
[255] From information obtained later I gather that these travellers were the Count de Marsay and the Count L. de Las Cases.
[256] One of their earrings is illustrated at p. 152.
[257] 開基.
[258] See Royal Geographical Society's Supplementary Papers, vol. i. p. 97.
[259] "In Ceylon the joint husbands are always brothers, and this is also the case among the tribes residing at the foot of the Himalaya mountains." (Lord Avebury's Origin of Civilisation, 6th ed. p. 153.) A fuller account of polyandry in Ceylon may be found in Tennent's Ceylon (Longmans, 1859, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 428 seq.). Tennent points out that polyandry can be traced back to very ancient times. It "receives a partial sanction in the Institutes of Manu," and is referred to without reproach in the Mahabharata. Herbert Spencer (Principles of Ethics, pt. ii. ch. 13) says that in Tibet, "polyandry appears more conducive to social welfare than any other relation of the sexes. It receives approval from travellers, and even a Moravian missionary defends it: the missionary holding that superabundant population, in an unfertile country, must be a great calamity and produce 'eternal welfare or eternal want.'" See also Principles of Sociology. Polyandry is forbidden in the Shan States, though polygamy is sanctioned. (See Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 325.)
[261] See illustration to face page 236.
[262] A similar great bend, only recently discovered, occurs in the course of the Yalung. In travelling between Mien-ning-hsien, north of Ning-yuan-fu, and Muli, the Yalung must, on account of this bend, be crossed no less than three times. The bend was discovered by Major H. R. Davies.
[263] See page 233.
[264] A similar story, apparently, was told to Mr Amundsen with reference to a locality in the Muli territory.
[265] This is, I have been told, a common practice among the people of the Upper Mekong valley, especially about Atuntzŭ.
[266] 鳴音汲.
[268] See above, p. 150.
[269] Known to the Tibetans as A-jol (འཇོལ་)
[270] Both names are Chinese. The first means "Below the Pass," the second "The Foot of the Hill."
[271] See below, pp. 289 seq.
[272] Literally "Tail of the Lake."
[273] Snow is said to exist in patches on the summit of the Tali mountains all the year round; and is hawked in the streets of Hsia Kuan, near Tali-fu, in the summer months.
[274] In Yunnan the word chieh (which means either "street" or "village") is always pronounced Kai, as in the Cantonese dialect.
[275] The official Annals of Yunnan contain records of very many disastrous earthquakes in this province.
[276] The Pai Sha (White Sand) river is no whit more entitled to that appellation than the Cher would be.
[277] There are two roads from Shang Kuan to Tali-fu: one lying near the lake, the other near the mountain. My road was the latter.
[278] Marco Polo's description of Tali-fu and the district of which it was capital (Carajan) is well worth reading. The terrifying serpents which he mentions as having "eyes bigger than a great loaf of bread," are said to have been crocodiles. (See Cordier's edition of Yule's Marco Polo, vol. ii. pp. 76-84.)
[280] In his valuable work La Province Chinoise du Yunnan (Paris, 1880).
[281] The Chinese name for the lofty mountains behind Tali-fu is Ts'ang Shan (蒼山), "Azure Hills."
[282] Two young children survived the catastrophe. Yang Wei was the Sultan's son-in-law and principal general of his army.
[283] 楊玉科, an imperialist general.
[284] China: Her History, Diplomacy and Commerce, p. 9.
[285] 西番 and 土番.
[286] See Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, pp. 215-216, and T. W. Kingsmill's article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (China Branch), vol. xxxvii. pp. 26-27.
[287] བོད་ The last letter of the Tibetan word is not pronounced, but it modifies the phonetic value of the vowel sound. As regards the Chinese character 番 of which the phonetic value in modern Chinese is generally fan, we find several cases in which the sound is still bo or po. Mr Kingsmill mentions 鄱 p'o (as in the characters used for the P'o Yang Lake). The characters 嶓, 皤 and 播 are similar instances.
[288] སྟོད་ as opposed to སྨད་ (smad, pron. ma), meaning lower, inferior.
[289] Often transliterated Mantse, and spelt by Marco Polo Manji.
[290] Vol. ii. p. 617 (Legge's ed.).
[291] As in Shu Ching, vol. ii. p. 345.
[292] 荒服.
[293] Shu Ching vol. i. p. 147.
[294] Ibid. vol. i. pp. 42, 44.
[295] Mencius, p. 255 (Legge, 2nd. ed.).
[296] Mencius, pp. 253-254 (Legge).
[297] Lun Yü, pp. 295-296 (Legge, 2nd ed.).
[298] China: Her History, Diplomacy and Commerce, p. 310.
[300] Comptes Rendus, Société de Géographie, 1898. No. 8, p. 349. But see M. Paul Vial (Les Lolos: Shanghai, 1898). If M. Vial's theory of the origin of the word Lolo is correct, it was originally by no means a disrespectful term. He considers that it is a Chinese reduplication of a form of the word No or Na, which was the special name of one of the patrician tribes of the Lolos. He admits, however, that the term is now regarded as impolite. He says that the Lolos have now no common name for the whole race, but simply employ the various tribal names as occasion requires. The Chinese characters for Lolo (generally 玀玀) are merely phonetic. The constant use of the "dog" radical in the Chinese characters employed to represent the names of barbarous tribes is an instructive indication of the contemptuous Chinese attitude towards such people. In the word Man the radical is an insect or reptile.
[301] M. Bonin regards them all as of Tibetan origin; but as they separated from the main branch, he says, before the adoption of Buddhism they have preserved on Chinese soil their primitive fetish-worship. "I consider them in consequence," he concludes, "as the avant-garde of the Tibetans."
[302] Les Lolos, p. 4. See also the Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 615, where it is stated that the Man-tzŭ "have undoubtedly been distinct from the Lolo for centuries, but the balance of opinion seems to connect them with that tribe."
[303] See the Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. pp. 272 seq. "The relationship of the T'ai to the Chinese races seems unmistakable.... The research, which has not been long begun, points distinctly to the fact that the Chinese and the T'ai belong to a family of which the Chinese are the most prominent representatives."
[304] 重家子, or 重甲子.
[305] Yule's Marco Polo (Cordier's edition), vol. ii. pp. 122-123. Cordier has, however, another explanation.
[306] Introduction to Colquhoun's Amongst the Shans, liv.
[307] See Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 597.
[308] Op. cit. p. 35.
[310] See Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. pp. 597-601. There are numerous settlements of the Miao-tzŭ in the British Shan States, and the Gazetteer says: "It may be hoped that more will come, for they are a most attractive race."
[311] See pp. 239 and 245-246.
[312] The Chinese characters are 摩□. It is tempting, but rash, to connect the word with Mu-hsö, which means "a hunter" in the Shan, Wa, Palaung, Rumai and Riang languages.
[313] The Tibetans also call them Jang or Aj'angs (འཇངས་). Surely there is some justification for tracing a connection between this word, as spelt in Tibetan, with the name of the tribe A-ch'angs mentioned in the Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. pp. 618-619. But see Sir George Scott's Burma, pp. 94-95.
[315] Géographie de l'empire de Chine, by Richards (Shanghai: 1905).
[316] See above, pp. 228-229.
[317] In Tibetan Sa is "earth" or "land," and t'am is "seal" (sigillum) or "offering." Possibly the Tibetan is in this case the transliteration of a Mo-so word.
[318] We have seen on pages 249-250 that the plain west of that of Li-chiang is called Lashi-Pa, or Plain of the Mo-so, and that a village therein bears the same name. M. Paul Vial mentions what he calls a Lolo tribe named Ashi, apparently dwelling in the south-east of Yunnan (Les Lolos, p. 25). Now only a few miles west of Lashi-Pa, on the road from Li-chiang to Chung-tien, there is a village called Ashi, which gives its name to a ferry on the Yangtse river. It is possible that the sound in both cases was once either Lashi or Nashi, for, when we find from experience that the L and N are interchangeable, it may well be that in some districts inhabited by Mo-so the initial has been dropped altogether. I do not know the derivation of the word Lashio, the British settlement near the Salwen valley, in the North Shan States. There is also a district called Lashi, in British territory, north-east of Myitkyina, the people of which appear to be a connecting link between the Kachins and the Burmese. (See Sir George Scott's Burma, p. 70.)
[319] See above, p. 222.
[320] As in the common expression, ka-li ka-li ndro a, "walk slowly" or "there's no hurry."
[321] For some account of the Bon religion see Rockhill's Life of the Buddha, pp. 205 seq., and Sarat Chandra Das's Journey to Lhasa.
[322] 力□.
[323] Mr G. C. B. Stirling, quoted in Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 588.
[324] Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 616.
[325] The Mantse and the Golden Chersonese, and Ancient Tibet and its Frontagers, by T. W. Kingsmill, in vols. xxxv. and xxxvii. of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (China Branch).
[326] The name still survives in the province of Theinni and in the classical name Tien (滇) for the Chinese province of Yunnan. The connection between Tien and Theinni was pointed out by Terrien de Lacouperie in his introduction to Colquhoun's Amongst the Shans, p. xlviii.
[327] The fable is that a Mauryan woman was married to a Tibetan dog and that their progeny were the Man-tzŭ.
[328] See above, p. 275 (footnote 2).
[329] Introduction to Colquhoun's Amongst the Shans.
[331] Buddhist India, p. 260.
[333] Introduction to Jātaka, No. 149. (Cowell's ed., vol. i. p. 316.)
[334] Ibid., No. 301 (vol. iii. p. 1).
[336] "The struggle between Kosala and Magadha for the paramount power in all India was, in fact, probably decided when the powerful confederation of the Licchavis became arrayed on the side of Magadha." (Rhys Davids' Buddhist India, p. 25.)
[337] For the Kiang element, see Kingsmill, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (China Branch), vol. xxxvii. 29 and 34 seq. The Kiang appear to have been a branch of the Yüeh-ti or Lunar Race, to which reference is made on p. 49.
[338] It is to the "Mauryan" Man-tzŭ that Mr Kingsmill ascribes the excavation of the caves of Ssuch'uan (see [pp. 46] seq.). He says that they were evidently the work of a people who had made considerable progress in the arts, and that the art in its predominant features approaches more nearly to ancient Indian types than to Chinese (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, China Branch, vol. xxxv. p. 93). As I have already stated, there is not much evidence of a strong artistic instinct in the decoration of the caves. I agree with Mr Kingsmill, nevertheless, in ascribing the art, such as it is, to Indian influences.
[339] Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. p. 267.
[340] 秦, pronounced Ch'in in modern Pekingese.
[341] In this connection Mr Kingsmill explains that the character hsiang (象), which means "elephant," was also originally pronounced Ser. I have already mentioned a mountain-pass called the Ta Hsiang Ling which is supposed to be named after either P'u Hsien's elephant or Chu-ko Liang. (See [p. 117] and [Note 14].) To the south of that pass there is another named the Hsiao Hsiang Ling, or Small Elephant Pass, which must be crossed on the way to the Chien-ch'ang valley. Mr Kingsmill would perhaps translate the names of these passes as the Great and Small Passes of the Ts'in or Ser; in which case we may regard Ts'in Shih Huang-ti as being a third claimant to the honour of giving a name to this pass.
[342] See Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (China Branch), vol. xxxvii. pp. 22-23.
[344] Hung Wu was the "reign-title" of the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, who reigned from 1368 to 1398. His successor, whose "reign-title" was Chien Wên, ruled from 1399 to 1402. With regard to the Yangtse being taken as the southern limit of China, this statement can only be accepted with an important modification, for all the southern provinces of China, including Yunnan, were at this time regarded as being within the empire, though the fact that they were chiefly inhabited by non-Chinese tribes made it somewhat anomalous to describe them as forming part of China proper. We have seen that Yunnan was annexed to the empire by Kúblái Khan in the thirteenth century. Towards the close of the following century the Yunnanese princes tried to reassert their independence, and the province was again reduced to complete submission by the generals of the emperor Hung Wu himself, who, in spite of his maps, never for a moment intended to relax the imperial hold on that distant province.
[345] By "indigenous race" M. Vial presumably means Lolos or Mo-so.
[346] That is, Kiang-su, the province in which Shanghai is situated. Nanking was at that time the capital of China.
[347] See above, p. 276.
[348] Gazetteer of Upper Burma, pt. i. vol. i. pp. 585-586.
[349] See below, p. 331.
[350] Baber describes the old bridge as "very dilapidated" when it was crossed by the Grosvenor Mission in 1876.
[351] 蘭滄江.
[352] Captain Gill (River of Golden Sand) somewhat exaggerates the difficulties of what he calls "this desperate gorge."
[353] 人力所通.
[354] 光尊寺.
[355] Yule's Marco Polo (Cordier's edition), vol. ii. p. 85.
[356] Yule's Marco Polo (Cordier's edition), vol. ii. pp. 98-104.
[357] 潞子江.
[358] This is especially the case with the Chinese who come from a long distance, and only know the Salwen by hearsay. My men (who belonged to Yung-ch'ang) treated the valley with a disrespect that was perhaps bred of familiarity, for they certainly did not unduly hurry themselves.
[359] Royal Geographical Society's Supplementary Papers, vol. i. pp. 176-177.
[360] At Ta Pan Ching (4,500 feet) the shade temperature immediately after sunrise was 67°: in the temple at the Salwen bridge (2,400 feet) it was only 81° at midday. So even the change of temperature was not very serious.
[361] Or the alternative route through the valley of Ho Ch'ing.
[362] Those interested in the railway question should consult Major Ryder's paper in the Geographical Journal for February 1903 (vol. xxi.) and Major Davies's remarks thereon.
[363] So called by the Burmese. The Shan word is Sao-p'a, which is the designation of a tribal chief or prince.
[364] The name of the bungalow is Mong-kung-ka.
[365] The years of dacoit-hunting that followed were, unfortunately, far from bloodless; and it was during those years that the Burman learned to respect the British soldier.
[366] The latitude of Hongkong is almost exactly the same as that of Mandalay and Calcutta.
[367] Some villages in Ssuch'uan may be said to be an honourable exception.
[368] "Est-ce la colline qui a été façonée pour la pagode, est-ce la pagode qui a choisi la colline, si bien faites l'une pour l'autre, ravissantes d'ensemble? Qu'elle est jolie, cette réflexion blanche, tombant de haut dans le cristal de l'eau!"—Birmanie, par Mme. Quenedey, p. 218.
[369] The first is above Bhamo, where, owing to the dangers to navigation, steamers have temporarily ceased to run.
[370] A large river of French Laos or the trans-Mekong Shan States. It is navigable only for canoes of the most primitive description, for it is full of dangerous rapids. It enters the Mekong a few miles above Luang Prabang. The scenery of this river, which I descended from its highest navigable point (Muang Wa) to its mouth, is exceptionally beautiful.
[371] The founder of Mandalay, and second last king of Burma. He reigned from 1852 to 1878, and was succeeded by his son Thibaw, who reigned until his deposition by the British Government in 1885.
[372] There is an interesting essay by Max Müller on the Kutho-daw in his Last Essays (Second Series).
[373] Mr G. C. B. Stirling.
[376] A People at School, chap. xxiv.
[377] Op. cit. chap. xxi.
[378] Fielding Hall's Soul of a People, p. 125.
[379] See, for instance, Mr R. B. Arnold's Scientific Fact and Metaphysical Reality, pp. 321-323. Professor William James, in his Varieties of Religious Experience, asks whether "the worship of material luxury and wealth, which constitutes so large a portion of the 'spirit' of our age" does not "make somewhat for effeminacy and unmanliness." He goes so far as to recommend, as a cure for some of our social diseases, the adoption of that form of asceticism which consisted in "the old monkish poverty-worship." Wealth-getting, he says, "enters as an ideal into the very bone and marrow of our generation." It is certain, he adds, that "the prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilisation suffers."—(Pp. 365-369.)
See also Professor W. R. Inge's Personal Idealism and Mysticism, especially pp. 175-176. I strongly recommend the reader who is interested in the pressing problems presented by the changing relations between the Occident and the Orient to read Dr Inge's book (especially Lectures IV. and VI.) in connection with Mr Percival Lowell's Soul of the Far East. Both are, as one would expect, able and well-written books, but they take diametrically opposite views of a very important question. Mr Lowell finds that the most notable characteristic of the East, and the secret of its fatal weakness, is what he calls its Impersonality, and that the peoples of the West, deriving an irresistible strength from the exact opposite—an intense Individualism—have nothing to fear from the impersonal civilisations of the East, which they will eventually overpower and crush. Dr Inge arrives independently at a similar belief as to the remarkable absence of individualism in the East, but so far from adopting Mr Lowell's interpretation of its results he finds in this Oriental Impersonality a very remarkable source of strength and permanence; while he prognosticates possible disaster to Western civilisation from the very fact that it is based on individualism. Already, he says, "it shows signs of breaking up from within." It seems possible that the events of the not-distant future will show that Dr Inge was right.
[380] Time and Tide. See also an article by W. T. Seeger in the Hibbert Journal for October 1906, p. 75; and Sir Oliver Lodge's article in the same journal for April 1907, p. 527.
[381] The Silken East, p. 37.
[382] Of course there are exceptions, especially in the larger towns where Burmese and English civilisations have clashed.
[383] "It is the way in which hours of freedom are spent that determines, as much as war or as labour, the moral worth of a nation. It raises or lowers, it replenishes or exhausts. At present we find, in these great cities of ours, that three days' idleness will fill the hospitals with victims whom weeks or months of toil had left unscathed."—Maurice Maeterlinck, The Kingdom of Matter.
[384] See the Burma Census Report for 1891 and Sir George Scott's Upper Burma Gazetteer, and his Burma: a Handbook, pp. 380-381.
[385] Perhaps that is not saying much after all. "In reality," said the German philosopher Nietzsche, "there has been only one Christian, and He died on the Cross."
[386] Here, again, there are, of course, exceptions. There are "black sheep" within the monastic fold as well as outside it.
[387] Sir George Scott, in Burma: a Handbook, p. 381.
[388] See his Greek Oracles, pp. 8, 18, 20-21. (Eversley Series.)
[389] See ll. 349 seq.
[390] See Frazer's Golden Bough, vol. iii. p. 49, and vol. i. pp. 170-171 (2nd ed.). See also Tylor's Primitive Culture, vol. i. pp. 475-476, and ii. pp. 217-218 (4th ed.); and Rhys Davids' Buddhist India, chap. xii.
[391] Sir George Scott, Burma: a Handbook, p. 22.
[392] Scott O'Connor, The Silken East, p. 128.
[393] A cutting from the sacred tree (a species subsequently known as the ficus religiosa) under which Gautama is believed to have sat when he attained Buddhahood, was brought from India to Ceylon about the year 245 B.C. and planted at Anuradhapura, then the Singhalese capital. It is still growing there, and is annually visited by countless pilgrims from all parts of the Buddhist world.
[394] A Study of Religion, vol. i. p. 374 (2nd ed.).
[395] See an excellent anonymous article in Macmillan's Magazine, vol. ii. No. 16, N.S. It is entitled "The White Man and the British Empire."
[396] Herbert Spencer, in the Principles of Ethics, speaks of "the many who, in the East, tacitly assume that Indians exist for the benefit of Anglo-Indians." He is right in saying it is tacitly assumed; for few go so far as to say openly that the Indians are destined by Nature to be exploited by the White races. But the tacit assumption often leavens their thoughts and discourses on "the native question." One recent writer, indeed, distinctly states that "it is an inexorable law of progress that inferior races are made for the purpose of serving the superior; and if they refuse to serve, they are fatally condemned to disappear." (W. H. Brown, On the South African Frontier). But who is to decide which are "the inferior races"?
[397] See Shakespeare, King Henry V., Act iii. Sc. 6.
[398] The Times, 4th Sept. 1907.
[399] Mr Chester Holcombe, in The Real Chinese Question, p. 242.
[400] Mutato coelo mores mutantur!
[401] I earnestly commend to the reader's notice an admirable leader in the Times of 15th January 1907, which closes with these words: "Altogether it seems to be time for the white races to take a fresh survey of the whole situation, and to recognise that, in the changed conditions, the old haughty and dictatorial attitude stands in need of modification."
[402] Lest it may appear that I am under-rating the speed with which evolutionary forces have operated among the European races during the last few centuries, I venture to quote the words of one whose opinion is likely to be listened to with respect, and who was the last man to minimise the significance of the conquests made by science. "There can be no doubt that vast changes have taken place in English civilisation since the reign of the Tudors. But I am not aware of a particle of evidence in favour of the conclusion that this evolutionary process has been accompanied by any modification of the physical or the mental characters of the men who have been the subjects of it. I have not met with any grounds for suspecting that the average Englishmen of to-day are sensibly different from those that Shakespeare knew and drew.... In my belief the innate qualities, physical, intellectual and moral, of our nation have remained substantially the same for the last four or five centuries" (T. H. Huxley, Prolegomena to Evolution and Ethics).
[403] A few years ago a certain Chinese magistrate in a district very near Weihaiwei was much disgusted, on arriving at his post, to find that the opportunities for "squeeze" were so severely limited that he was likely to remain a poor man. On his own responsibility he decided to tap a new source of revenue, and issued a proclamation to the necessary effect. In a few days the populace was up in arms, the magistrate's official residence was pulled to pieces (it is still almost a ruin), and he was himself a disgraced fugitive.
[404] The Times of 15th December 1906 reports the sale at Christie's of a pair of vases of the K'ang Hsi period for 3,700 guineas, and a pair of beakers of the Yung Chêng period for 3,100 guineas.
[405] Quoted in Professor Giles' Chinese Pictorial Art.
[406] Author of Papers from a Viceroy's Yamen, and other works.
[407] Chinese Poetry in English Verse (Shanghai and London: 1898).
[408] Published by the Clarendon Press, 1904.
[409] Lafcadio Hearn's Kokoro, p. 335.
[414] See Waddell's Lhasa and its Mysteries, pp. 434 seq.
[415] Op. cit., p. 439.
[416] See Evolution and Ethics, pp. 80-81 (Eversley edn.).