THE CHINESE PEOPLE.
Severity of the Judgment of Americans and Chinese Against One Another—Each Sees the Worst Side of the Other—Characteristics of the Chinese, Their Physique, Temperament, and Morals—Tests of Intellectuality—Marriage Customs of the Chinese—The Engagement—The Wedding Ceremony—The Position of Women—Concubinage—Divorce—Family Relationships—Dress of Men and Women—Distorted Feet versus Queues—Chinese Houses and Home Life—Children—Education and Schools—National Festivities—Music and Art—Chinese Religions—Language and Literature.
In treating of the personal characteristics and customs of the Chinese people it is the desire of the writer to get away from the hackneyed descriptions of pigtails, shaven heads, thick soled shoes, assumption of dignity and superiority, and great ignorance concerning many subjects with which we are familiar, which usually mark the pages of articles and books concerning this race. The Chinaman is believed by many to be the personification of stupidity, and many writers who wish to make readable matter gladly seize upon and exaggerate anything which can be made to appear grotesque and ridiculous. It would be but a poor answer to these views to say that they correspond remarkably with those which the Chinese entertain of us. They also enjoy a great deal of pleasantry at our expense, finding it almost impossible to regard otherwise than as ludicrous our short cropped hair, tight fitting, ungraceful, and uncomfortable looking clothes, men’s thin soled leather shoes, tall stiff hats, gloves in summer time, the wasp-like appearance of ladies with their small waists, our remarkable ignorance of the general rules of propriety, and the strange custom of a man and his wife walking together in public! These views we can afford to laugh at as relating to comparatively trivial matters, but they think they have the evidence that we are also inferior to them in intellectuality, in refinement, in civilization, and especially morals. It is evident that one party or the other has made a serious mistake, and it would be but a natural and reasonable presumption that both may have erred to some extent. We should look at this matter from an impartial standpoint, and take into view not simply facts which are comparatively unimportant and exceptional, but those which are fundamental and of widespread influence, and should construe these facts justly and generously. We should take pains not to form the judgment that because a people or a custom is different from our own it is therefore necessarily worse.
There are many reasons why unfair judgments have been formed by us against the Chinese and by the Chinese against Europeans and Americans. Each nation is apt to see the worst side of the other. It so happens that the Chinese who have come to America are almost all from the southern provinces and from the lower classes of the worst part of the empire. We have formed many of our impressions from our observation of these low class adventurers. They on the other hand have not received the treatment here which would cause them to carry back to China kindly opinions of Americans.
In China the same or similar conditions have existed. In the open ports, where a large foreign commerce has sprung up, an immense number of Chinese congregate from the interior. Many of them are adventurers who come to these places to engage in the general scramble for wealth. The Chinamen of the best class are, as a matter of fact, not the most numerous in the open ports. Moreover foreign ideas and customs prevail to a great extent in these foreign communities, and the natives, whatever they might have been originally, gradually become more or less denationalized, and present a modified type of their race. The Chinese being every day brought into contact with drunken sailors and unscrupulous traders from the west, new lessons are constantly learned from them in the school of duplicity and immorality. The Chinese of this class are no fitting type of the race. It is an accepted fact that the great seaports of the world, where international trade holds sway, are the worst centers of vice, and no estimate of a people formed from these cities can be just.
The Chinese as a race are of a phlegmatic and impassive temperament, and physically less active and energetic than European and American nations. Children are not fond of athletic and vigorous sports, but prefer marbles, kite flying, and quiet games of ball or spinning tops. Men take an easy stroll for recreation, but never a rapid walk for exercise and are seldom in a hurry or excited. They are also characteristically timid and docile. But while the Chinese are deficient in active courage and daring, they are not in passive resistance. They are comparatively apathetic as regards pain and death, and have great powers of physical endurance as well as great persistency and obstinacy. Physical development and strength and longevity vary in different parts of the empire. In and about Canton, as well as in most parts of the south, from which we have derived most of our impressions of China, the people are small in stature; but in the province of Shan-tung in the north, men varying in height from five feet eight inches to six feet are very common, while some of them are considerably taller. In this part of China too, one frequently finds laborers more than seventy years of age working daily at their trades, and it is not unusual to hear of persons who have reached the age of ninety or more.
The intellectuality of the Chinese is made evident by so many obvious and weighty facts, that it seems strange that persons of ordinary intelligence and information should ever have questioned it. We have before us a system of government and code of laws which will bear favorable comparison with those of European nations, and have elicited a generous tribute of admiration and praise from the most competent students. The practical wisdom and foresight of those who constructed this system are evidenced by the fact that it has stood the test of time, enduring longer than any other which man has devised during the world’s history; that it has bound together under one common rule, a population to which the world affords no parallel, and given a degree of prosperity and wealth which may well challenge our wonder. It is intelligent thought which has given China such a prominence in the east and also in the eyes of Christendom. She may well point with pride to her authentic history reaching back through more than thirty centuries; to her extensive literature, containing many works of sterling and permanent value; to her thoroughly elaborated language possessed of a remarkable power of expression; to her list of scholars, and her proficiency in belles-lettres. If these do not constitute evidences of intellectuality, it would be difficult to say where such evidences could be found, or on what basis we ourselves will rest our claim of intellectual superiority.
China has been so arrogant and extravagant in her assumptions of pre-eminence, that we have perhaps for this very reason been indisposed to accord to her the position to which she is fairly entitled. It should be remembered, that ignorant until recently of western nations, as they have been of her, she has compared herself simply with the nations around her, and a partial excuse for her overweening self conceit may be found in the fact that she only regarded herself as the nations with which she is acquainted have regarded her. She has been for ages the great center of light and civilization in eastern Asia. She has given literature and religion to Japan, to Corea, and to Manchooria, and has been looked up to by these and other smaller nations as their acknowledged teacher. The Japanese have produced no great teachers or sages which they would presume to compare with those of China; and it is clearest evidence of their acknowledgment of the literary superiority of the Chinese that they use Chinese classics as text books in their schools much as we do those of Greece and Rome. It is true that the Chinese know hardly anything of the modern arts and sciences and that there is no word in their language to designate some of them; but how much did our ancestors know two hundred years ago of chemistry, geology, philosophy, anatomy, and other kindred sciences. What did we know fifty years ago of the steamboat, the railroad, and the telegraph? And is our comparative want of knowledge a few years ago and that of our ancestors to be taken as evidence of inferiority of race and intellect? Furthermore, if we go back a few hundred years we are apt to find many things to establish the claims of the Chinese as a superior rather than inferior race. There are excellent grounds to credit the Chinese with the invention or discovery of printing, the use of the magnetic needle, the manufacture and use of gunpowder, of silk fabrics, and of chinaware and porcelain, and there seems no doubt that the Chinese discovered America from the westward, long before the discoveries of Europeans.
Intellectual power manifests itself in a variety of ways, and glaring defects are often found associated in the same individual with remarkable powers and capabilities, as particular faculties both of mind and body are often cultivated and developed at the expense of others. Chinese education has very little regard to the improvement of the reasoning powers, and Chinese scholars are deficient in logical acumen and very inferior to the Hindoos in this respect; but in developing and storing the memory they are without a rival. Again their system of training effectually discourages and precludes freedom and originality of thought, while it has the compensating advantages of creating a love of method and order, habitual subjection to authority, and a remarkable uniformity in character and ideas. Perhaps the results which they have realized in fusing such a vast mass of beings into one homogeneous body, could have been reached in no other way.
The morality of the Chinese presents another subject about which there is a wide difference of opinion. It may be a matter of interest and profit to turn for a moment to the views which the Chinese generally entertain of our morality, and their reasons for these views. They are all familiar with the fact that foreigners introduced opium into China, in opposition to the earnest and persistent remonstrances of the Chinese government; that out of the opium trade grew the first war with China; and that when the representatives of Christian England urged the Chinese government to legalize the trade and make it a source of revenue, the Chinese emperor replied that he would not use as a means of revenue that which brought suffering and misery upon his people.
The Chinese form their opinions of western morality to a great extent from the sailors on shore-leave at the open ports, and these men are proverbially vicious under such circumstances. For years foreigners of this class have commanded many of the piratical fleets on the coasts of China, and foreign thieves and robbers have infested many of the inland canals and rivers. In business dealings with strangers from western lands the natives find that duplicity and dishonesty are not confined to their own people. Replying to our criticism of the system of concubinage, the Chinese point to the numerous class of native women in the foreign communities, fostered and patronized by foreigners alone, who appear in the streets with an effrontery which would be regarded as utterly indecent and intolerable in most Chinese cities. The large importation from Europe of obscene pictures which are offered at every hand, is another fact which the educated Chinese cites in answer to criticisms of his people’s morality.
On the general subject of morality and Chinese moral teaching, two quotations from the writings of eminent Englishmen who lived in China for many years are pertinent. Sir John Davis says: “The most commendable feature of the Chinese system is the general diffusion of elementary moral education among the lower orders. It is in the preference of moral to physical instruction that even we might perhaps wisely take a leaf out of the Chinese book, and do something to reform this most mechanical age of ours.” The opinion of Thomas Taylor Meadows is thus expressed: “No people whether of ancient or modern times has possessed a sacred literature so completely exempt as the Chinese from licentious descriptions and from every offensive expression. There is not a single sentence in the whole of their sacred books and their annotations that may not when translated word for word be read aloud in any family in England.”
It must be acknowledged that the Chinese give many evidences, not only in their literature, but also in their paintings and sculpture, of a scrupulous care to avoid all indecent and immoral associations and suggestions. In referring to the above peculiarity of Chinese views and customs, these remarks are not, of course, concerning the private lives and practices of the people, but of their standard of propriety and of what the public taste requires, in objects which are openly represented to be seen and admired by the young and old of both sexes.
The government of the empire is modeled on the government of a household, and at the root of all family ties, says one of the Chinese classics, is the relation of husband and wife, which is as the relation of heaven and earth. Chinese historians record that the rite of marriage was first instituted by the Emperor Fuh-he, who reigned in the twenty-eighth century B.C. But before this period there is abundant evidence to show that as amongst all other peoples the first form of marriage was by capture. At the present day marriage is probably more universal in China than in any other civilized country in the world, for it is regarded as something indispensable and few men pass the age of twenty without taking to themselves a wife. To die without leaving behind a son to perform the burial rites and to offer up the fixed periodical sacrifices at the tomb, is one of the most direful fates that can overtake a Chinaman, and he seeks to avoid it by an early marriage.
Like every other rite in China that of marriage is fenced in with a host of ceremonies. In a vast majority of cases the bridegroom never sees his bride until the wedding night, it being considered a grave breach of etiquette for young men and maidens to associate together or even to see one another. Of course it does occasionally happen that either by stealth or chance a pair become acquainted; but whether they have thus associated, or whether they are perfect strangers, the first formal overture must of necessity be made by a professional go-between, who having received a commission from the parents of a young man, proceeds to the house of the young woman and makes a formal proposal on behalf of the would-be bridegroom’s parents. If the young lady’s father approves the proposed alliance, the suitor sends the lady some presents as an earnest of his intentions.
The parents next exchange documents which set forth the hour, day, month, and year when the young people were born, and the maiden names of their mothers. Astrologers are then called in to cast the horoscopes, and should these be favorable the engagement is formally entered into, but not so irrevocably that there are not several orthodox ways of breaking it off. But should things go smoothly, the bridegroom’s father writes a formal letter of agreement to the lady’s father, accompanied by presents, consisting in some cases of sweetmeats and a live pig, and in others of a goose and gander, which are regarded as emblems of conjugal fidelity. Two large cards are also prepared by the bridegroom, and on these are written the particulars of the engagement. One is sent to the lady and the other he keeps. She in return now makes a present to the suitor according to his rank and fortune. Recourse is then again had to astrologers to fix a fortunate day for the final ceremony, on the evening of which the bridegroom’s best man proceeds to the house of the lady and conducts her to her future home in a red sedan chair, accompanied by musicians who enliven the procession by wedding airs. At the door of the house the bride alights from her sedan, and is lifted over a pan of burning charcoal laid on the threshold by two “women of luck,” whose husbands and children must be living.
In the reception room the bridegroom awaits his bride on a raised dais, at the foot of which she humbly prostrates herself. He then descends to her level, and removing her veil gazes on her face for the first time. Without exchanging a word they seat themselves side by side, and each tries to sit on a part of the dress of the other, it being considered that the one who succeeds in so doing will hold rule in the household. This trial of skill over, the pair proceed to the hall, and there before the family altar worship heaven and earth and their ancestors. They then go to dinner in their apartment, through the open door of which the guests scrutinize and make their remarks on the appearance and demeanor of the bride. This ordeal is the more trying to her, since etiquette forbids her to eat anything, a prohibition which is not shared by the bridegroom, who enjoys the dainties provided as his appetite may suggest. The attendants next hand to each in turn a cup of wine, and having exchanged pledges, the wedding ceremonies come to an end. In some parts of the country it is customary for the bride to sit up late into the night answering riddles which are propounded to her by the guests; in other parts it is usual for her to show herself for a time in the hall, whither her husband does not accompany her, as it is contrary to etiquette for a husband and wife ever to appear together in public. For the same reason she goes to pay the customary visit to her parents on the third day after the wedding alone, and for the rest of her wedded life she enjoys the society of her husband only in the privacy of her apartments.
DISCIPLINE ON THE MARCH, IN THE CHINESE ARMY.
The lives of women in China, and especially of married women, are such as to justify the wish often expressed by them that in their next state of existence they may be born men. Even if in their baby days they escape the infanticidal tendencies of their parents, they are regarded as secondary considerations compared with their brothers. The philosophers from Confucius downward have all agreed in assigning them an inferior place to men. When the time comes for them to marry, custom requires them in nine cases out of ten, as we have seen, to take a leap in the dark, and that wife is fortunate who finds in her husband a congenial and faithful companion.
There is but one proper wife in the family, but there is no law against a man’s having secondary wives or concubines; and such connections are common enough wherever the means of a family are sufficient for their support. The concubine occupies in the family an inferior position to the wife, and her children, if she has any, belong by law to the wife.
There are seven legal grounds for divorcing a wife: disobedience to her husband’s parents; not giving birth to a son; Dissolute conduct; jealousy; talkativeness; thieving, and leprosy. These grounds however may be nullified by “the three considerations:” If her parents be dead; if she has passed with her husband through the years of mourning for his parents; and if he has become rich from being poor.
So many are the disabilities of married women, that many girls prefer going into nunneries or even committing suicide to trusting their future to men of whom they can know nothing but from the interested reports of the go-between.
The re-marriage of widows is regarded as an impropriety, and in wealthy families is seldom practiced. But among the poorer classes necessity often compels a widow to seek another bread winner. Some, however, having been unfortunate in their first matrimonial venture, refuse to listen to any proposal for a re-marriage, and like the young girls mentioned above seek escape by death from the importunities of relatives who desire to get them off their hands. A reverse view of matrimonial experiences is suggested by the practice of wives refusing to survive their husbands, and putting a voluntary end to their existence rather than live to mourn their loss. Such devotion is regarded by the people with great approbation and a deed of suicide is generally performed in public and with great punctiliousness.
The picture here given of married life in China has been necessarily darkly shaded, since it is, as a rule, only in its unfortunate phases, that it affords opportunity for remark. Without doubt there are many hundreds of thousands of families in China which are entirely happy. Happiness is after all a relative term, and Chinese women, knowing no higher status, are as a rule content to run the risk of wrongs which would be unendurable to an American woman, and to find happiness under conditions which are fortunately unknown in western countries.
The family tie in China is strong and the people are clannish. They seldom change their place of residence and most of them live where their ancestors have lived for many generations. One will frequently find the larger portion of a small village bearing the same name, in which case the village often takes its name from the family. Books on filial piety and the domestic relations recommend sons not to leave their parents when married, but to live together lovingly and harmoniously as one family. This theory is carried out in practice to some extent, in most instances. In the division of property some regard is had to primogeniture, but different sons share nearly equally. The eldest simply has a somewhat larger portion and certain household relics and valuables.
The position of woman is intermediate between that which she occupies in Christian and in other non-Christian countries. The manner in which they regard their lot may be inferred from the fact related on a previous page, that the most earnest desire and prayer in worshipping in Buddhist temples is, generally, that they may be men in the next state of existence. In many families girls have no individual names, but are simply called No. One, Two, Three, Four, etc. When married they are Mr. So-and-so’s wife, and when they have sons they are such-and-such a boy’s mother. They live in a great measure secluded, take no part in general society, and are expected to retire when a stranger or an acquaintance of the opposite sex enters the house. The claim of one’s parents and brothers upon his affections is considered to be paramount to that of his wife. A reason given for this doctrine in a celebrated Chinese work is that the loss of a brother is irreparable but that of a wife is not. Women are treated with more respect and consideration as they advance in years; mothers are regarded with great affection and tenderness, and grandmothers are sometimes almost worshipped. It must be further said that the Chinese have found the theory of inferiority of women a very difficult one to carry out in practice. There are many families in which the superiority of her will and authority is sufficiently manifest, even though not cheerfully acknowledged.
The rules and conventionalities which regulate social life are exceedingly minute and formal. Politeness is a science, and gracefulness of manners a study and discipline. The people are hospitable and generous to a fault, their desire to appear well in these respects often leading them to expenditures entirely disproportionate to their means.
When under the influence of passion, quarrels arise, the women resort to abuse in violent language, extreme in proportion to the length of time during which the feelings which prompted them have been restrained. Men bluster and threaten in a manner quite frightful to those unaccustomed to it, but seldom come to blows. In cases of deep resentment the injured party often adopts a mode of revenge which is very characteristic. Instead of killing the object of his hate, he kills himself on the doorstep of his enemy, thereby casting obloquy and the stigma of murder on the adversary.
In matters of dress, with one or two exceptions, the Chinese must be acknowledged to have used a wise discretion. They wear nothing that is tight fitting, and make a greater difference between their summer and winter clothing than is customary among ourselves. The usual dress of a coolie in summer is a loose fitting pair of cotton trousers and an equally loose jacket; but the same man in winter will be seen wearing quilted cotton clothes, or if he should be an inhabitant of the northern provinces a sheepskin robe, superadded to an abundance of warm clothing intermediate between it and his shirt. By the wealthier classes silk, satin, and gauze are much worn in the summer, and woolen or handsome fur clothes in the winter. Among such people it is customary except in the seclusion of their homes, to wear both in summer and winter long tunics coming down to the ankles.
In summer non-official Chinamen leave their heads uncovered, but do not seem to suffer any inconvenience from the great heat. On the approach of summer an edict is issued fixing the day upon which the summer costume is to be adopted throughout the empire, and again as winter draws near, the time for putting on winter dress is announced in the same formal manner. Fine straw or bamboo forms the material of the summer hat, the outside of which is covered with fine silk. At this season also the thick silk robes and the heavy padded jackets worn in winter are exchanged for light silk or satin tunics. The winter cap has a turned-up brim and is covered with satin with a black cloth lining, and as in the case of the summer cap a tassel of red silk covers the entire crown.
The wives of mandarins wear the same embroidered insignia on their dresses as their husbands, and their style of dress as well as that of Chinese women generally bears a resemblance to that of the men. They wear a loose fitting tunic which reaches below the knee, and trousers which are drawn in at the ankle after the bloomer fashion. On state occasions they wear a richly embroidered petticoat coming down to the feet, which hangs square both before and behind and is pleated at the sides like a Highlander’s kilt. The mode of doing the hair varies in almost every province. At Canton the women plaster their back hair into the shape of a teapot handle, and adorn the sides with pins and ornaments, while the young girls proclaim their unmarried state by sutting[sutting] their hair in fringe across their foreheads after a fashion not unknown among ourselves. In most parts of the country, flowers, natural when obtainable and artificial when not so, are largely used to deck out the head dresses, and considerable taste is shown in the choice of colors and the manner in which they are arranged.
A TYPHOON.
Thus far there is nothing to find fault with in female fashions in China, but the same cannot be said of the way in which they treat their faces and feet. In many countries the secret art of removing traces of the ravages of time with the appliances of the toilet table has been and is practised; but by an extravagant and hideous use of pigments and cosmetics, the Chinese girl not only conceals the fresh complexion of youth, but produces those very disfigurements which furnish the only possible excuse for artificial complexions. Their poets also have declared that a woman’s eyebrows should be arched like a rainbow or shaped like a willow leaf, and the consequence is that wishing to act up to the idea thus pictured, China women with the aid of tweezers remove all the hairs of their eyebrows which straggle the least out of the required line, and when the task becomes impossible even with the help of these instruments, the paint brush or a stick of charcoal is brought into requisition. A comparison of one such painted lily with the natural healthy complexion, bright eyes, laughing lips, and dimpled cheeks of a Canton boat girl, for example, is enough to vindicate nature’s claim to superiority over art a thousand fold.
BANDAGING THE FEET.
But the chief offense of Chinese women is in their treatment of their feet. Various explanations are current as to the origin of the custom of deforming the women’s feet. Some say that it is an attempt to imitate the peculiarly shaped foot of a certain beautiful empress; others that it is a device intended to restrain the gadding-about tendencies of women; but however that may be, the practice is universal except among the Manchoos and the Hakka population at Canton, who have natural feet. The feet are first bound when the child is about five years old and the muscles of locomotion have consequently had time to develop. A cotton bandage two or three inches wide is wound tightly about the foot in different directions. The four smaller toes are bent under the foot, and the instep is forced upward and backward. The foot therefore assumes the shape of an acute triangle, the big toe forming the acute angle and the other toes, being bent under the foot, becoming almost lost or absorbed. At the same time, the shoes worn having high heels, the foot becomes nothing but a club and loses all elasticity. The consequence is that the women walk as on pegs, and the calf of the leg having no exercise shrivels up. Though the effect of this custom is to produce real deformity and a miserable tottering gait, even foreigners naturally come to associate it with gentility and good breeding, and to estimate the character and position of women much as the Chinese do, by the size of their feet. The degree of severity with which the feet are bound differs widely in the various ranks of society. Country women and the poorer classes have feet about half the natural size, while those of the genteel or fashionable class are only about three inches long.
Women in the humbler walks of life are therefore often able to move about with ease. Most ladies on the other hand are practically debarred from walking at all and are dependent on their sedan chairs for all locomotion beyond they own doors. But even in this case habit becomes a second nature and fashion triumphs over sense. No mother, however keen may be her recollection of her sufferings as a child, or however conscious she may be of the inconveniences and ills arising from her deformed feet, would ever dream of saving her own child from like immediate torture and permanent evil. Further there is probably less excuse for such a practice in China than in any other country, for the hands and feet of both men and women are naturally both small and finely shaped. The Chinese insist upon it that the custom of compressing women’s feet is neither in as bad taste nor so injurious to the health as that of foreign women in compressing the waist.
The male analogue of the women’s compressed feet in the shaven forepart of the head and the braided queue. The custom of thus treating the hair was imposed on the people by the first emperor of the present dynasty, in 1644. Up to that time the Chinese had allowed the hair to grow long, and were in the habit of drawing it up into a tuft on the top of the head. The introduction of the queue at the bidding of the Manchoorian conqueror was intended as a badge of conquest, and as such was at first unwillingly adopted by the people. For nearly a century the natives of outlying parts of the empire refused to submit their heads to the razor and in many districts the authorities rewarded converts to the new way by presents of money. As the custom spread these bribes were discontinued, and the converse action of treating those who refused to conform with severity, completed the conversion of the empire. At the present day every Chinaman who is not in open rebellion to the throne, shaves his head with the exception of the crown where the hair is allowed to grow to its full length. This hair is carefully braided, and falls down the back forming what is commonly known as the “pig tail.” Great pride is taken, especially in the south, in having as long and as thick a queue as possible, and when nature has been niggardly in her supply of natural growth, the deficiency is supplemented by the insertion of silk in the plait.
The staff of life in China is rice. It is eaten and always eaten, from north to south and from east to west, on the tables of the rich and poor, morning, noon, and night, except among the very poor people in some of the northern non-rice producing provinces where millet takes its place. In all other parts the big bowl of boiled rice forms the staple of the meal eaten by the people, and it is accompanied by vegetables, fish and meat, according to the circumstances of the household. Among many people, however, there is a disinclination to eat meat, owing to the influence of Buddhism. The difference in the quality and expense of the food of the rich from that of the poor, consists principally in the concomitants eaten with the rice or millet. The poor have simply a dish of salt vegetables or fish, which costs comparatively little. The rich have pork, fowls, eggs, fish and game prepared in various ways.
Before each chair is placed an empty bowl and two chop-sticks, while in the middle of the table stands the dishes of food. Each person fills his basin from the large dishes, or is supplied by the servants, and holding it up to his chin with his left hand he transfers its contents into his mouth with his chop-sticks with the utmost ease. The chop-sticks are held between the first and second, and the second and third fingers, and constant practice enables a Chinaman to lift up and hold the minutest atoms of food, oily and slippery as they often are, with the greatest ease. To most foreigners their skillful use is well nigh impossible. To the view of the Chinese the use of chop-sticks is an evidence of superior culture; and the use of such barbarous instruments as knives and forks, and cutting or tearing the meat from the bones on the table instead of having the food properly prepared and severed into edible morsels in the kitchen, evidences a lower type of civilization.
The meats most commonly eaten are pork, mutton, and goat’s flesh, beside ducks, chickens, and pheasants, and in the north deer and hares. Beef is never exposed for sale in the Chinese markets. The meat of the few cattle which are killed is disposed of almost clandestinely. There is a strong and almost universal prejudice against eating beef, and the practice of doing so is declaimed against in some of the moral tracts. Milk is hardly used at all in the eighteen provinces, and in many places our practice of drinking it is regarded with the utmost disgust.
It must be confessed that in some parts of the country less savory viands find their place on the dinner table. In Canton, for example, dried rats have a recognized place in the poulterers’ shops and find a ready market. Horse flesh is also exposed for sale, and there are even to be found dog and cat restaurants. The flesh of black dogs and cats, and especially the former is preferred as being more nutritive. Frogs form a common dish among the poor people and are, it is needless to say, very good eating. In some parts of the country locusts and grasshoppers are eaten. At Tien-tsin men may commonly be seen standing at the corners of the streets frying locusts over portable fires, just as among ourselves chestnuts are cooked. Ground-grubs, silkworms and water-snakes are also occasionally treated as food. The sea, lakes, and rivers abound in fish, and as fish forms a staple food of the people the fisherman’s art has been brought to a great degree of perfection. The same care as in the production of fish is extended to that of ducks and poultry. Eggs are artificially hatched in immense numbers, and the poultry markets and boats along the river at Canton are most amazing in their extent.
THE SEAT OF THE WAR.
The funerals of grown persons, and especially of parents, are as remarkable for burdensome ceremonies, extravagant manifestations of grief and lavish expense, as those of children are for their coldness and neglect. Candles, incense and offerings of food are placed before the corpse, and a company of priests is engaged to chant prayers for the departed spirit. An abundance of clothing is deposited with the body in the coffin and various ceremonies are performed during several days immediately after that, and on every subsequent seventh day, closing with the seventh seven. When the coffin is carried out for burial, men and women follow in the procession clothed in coarse white garments, white being used for mourning.
Inasmuch as the coffin must remain in the hall for forty-nine days, naturally they are prepared with a great deal of care. Very thick planks are used in its construction, cut from the hardest trees, caulked on the outside and cemented on the inside, and finally varnished or lacquered. Sometimes a coffin containing a body is kept in the house for a considerable length of time after the forty-nine days have expired, while arrangements are being made for a burying place and other preliminaries are attended to. The lids being nailed down in cement they are perfectly air-tight.
The notions which Chinamen entertain concerning the future life rob death of half its terrors and lead them to regard their funeral ceremonies and the due performance of the proper rites by their descendants as the chief factors of their future well being. Among other things the importance of securing a coffin according to the approved fashion is duly recognized, and as men approach old age they not infrequently buy their own coffins, which they keep carefully by them. The present of a coffin is considered a dutiful attention from a son to an aged father.
The choice of a site for the grave is determined by a professor of the “Fung Shuy” superstition, who, compass in hand, explores the entire district to find a spot which combines all the qualities necessary for the quiet repose of the dead. When such a favored spot has been discovered a priest is called in to determine a lucky day for the burial. This is by no means an easy matter and it often happens that the dead remain unburied for months or even years on account of the difficulties in the way of choosing either fortunate graves or lucky days. The ceremonies of the interment itself and of mourning that follows are most elaborate in character, and too much involved for detailed description here.
THE PUNISHMENTS OF HELL.—From Chinese Drawings.
But universal as the practice of burying may be said to be in China there are exceptions to it. The Buddhist priests as a rule prefer cremation, and this custom, which came with the religion they profess from India, has at times found imitators among the laity. In Formosa the dead are exposed and dried in the air; and some of the Meaou-tsze tribes of central and southern China bury their dead, it is true, but after an interval of a year or more, having chosen a lucky day, they disinter them. On such occasions they go accompanied by their friends to the grave, and having opened the tomb they take out the bones and having brushed and washed them clean they put them back wrapped in cloth.
The necessity in the Chinese mind that their bones must rest in the soil of their native land with their ancestors, has made to exist some peculiar practices among the colonizing Chinese in the United States and other countries. The bones of those who die thus far away from home are carefully preserved by their countrymen and shipped back, sometimes after many years, to find a resting place in the Middle Kingdom.
It is a curious circumstance that in China where there exists such a profound veneration for everything old, there should not be found any ancient buildings or old ruins. That there is an abundant supply of durable materials for building is certain, and for many centuries the Chinese have been acquainted with the art of brick making, yet they have reared no building possessing enduring stability. Not only does the ephemeral nature of the tent, which would indicate their original nomadic origin and recollection of old tent homes, appear in the slender construction of Chinese houses, but even in shape they assume a tent-like form. Etiquette provides that in houses of the better class a high wall shall surround the building, and that no window shall look outward. Consequently streets in the fashionable parts of cities have a dreary aspect. The only breaks in the long line of dismal wall are the front doors, which are generally closed, or if not, movable screens bar the sight of all beyond the door. Passing around one such screen one finds himself in a court-yard which is laid out as a garden or paved with stone. From this court-yard one reaches, on either side, rooms occupied by servants, or directly in front, another building. Through this latter another court-yard is reached, in the rooms surrounding which the family live, and behind this again are the women’s apartments, which not infrequently give exit to a garden at the back.
Wooden pillars support the roofs of the buildings, and the intervals between these are filled up with brick work. The window-frames are wooden, over which is pasted either paper or calico, or sometimes pieces of talc to transmit the light. The doors are almost invariably folding doors; the floors either stone or cement; and ceilings are not often used, the roof being the only covering to the rooms. Carpets are seldom used, more especially in southern China, where also stoves for warming purposes are known. In the north, where in the winter the cold is very great, portable charcoal stoves are employed and small chafing dishes are carried about from room to room. Delicate little hand-stoves, which gentlemen and ladies carry in their sleeves, are very much in vogue. In the colder latitudes a raised platform or dais is built in the room, of brick and stone, under which a fire is kindled with a chimney to carry off the smoke. The whole substance of this dais becomes heated and retains its warmth for several hours. This is the almost universal bed of the north of China. But the main dependence of the Chinese for personal warmth is on clothes. As the winter approaches garment is added to garment and furs to quilted vestments, until the wearer assumes an unwieldy and exaggerated shape. Well-to-do Chinamen seldom take strong exercise, and they are therefore able to bear clothes which to a European would be unendurable.
Of the personal comfort obtainable in a house, Chinamen are strangely ignorant. Their furniture is of the hardest and most uncompromising nature. Chairs made of a hard black wood, angular in shape, and equally unyielding divans, are the only seats known to them. Their beds are scarcely more comfortable, and their pillows are oblong cubes of bamboo or other hard material. For the maintenance of the existing fashions of female head dressing, this kind of pillow is essential to women at least, as their hair, which is only dressed at intervals of days, and which is kept in its shape by the abundant use of bandoline, would be crushed and disfigured if lain upon for a moment. Women, therefore, who make any pretension of following the fashion, are obliged to sleep at night on their backs, resting the nape of the neck on the pillow and thus keeping the head and hair free from contact with anything.
The ornaments in the houses of the well-to-do are frequently elaborate and beautiful. Their wood carvings, cabinets, and ornamental pieces of furniture, and the rare beauty of their bronzes and porcelain, are of late years well known and much sought for in our own country. Tables are nearly uniform in size, furnishing a seat for one person on each of the four sides, and tables are multiplied sufficiently to accommodate whatever number requires to be served. When guests are entertained, the two sexes eat separately in different rooms, but in ordinary meals the members of the family of both sexes sit down together with much less formality.
The streets in the towns differ widely in construction in the northern and southern portions of the empire. In the south they are narrow and paved, in the north they are wide and unpaved, both constructions being suited to the local wants of the people. The absence of wheel traffic in the southern provinces makes wide streets unnecessary, while by contracting their width the sun’s rays have less chance of beating down on the heads of passers and it is possible to stretch awnings from roof to roof. It is true that this is done at the expense of fresh air, but even to do this is a gain. Shops are all open in front, the counters forming the only barrier. The streets are crowded in the extreme, and passage is necessarily slow.
This inconvenience is avoided in the wide streets of the cities of the north, but these streets are so ill kept that in wet weather they are mud and in dry they are covered inches deep in dust. Of the large cities of the north and south Peking and Canton may be taken as typical examples and certainly, with the exception of the palace, the walls, and certain imperial temples, the streets of Peking compare very unfavorably with those of Canton. The walls surrounding Peking are probably the finest and best kept in the empire. In height they are about forty feet and the same in width. The top, which is defended by massive battlements, is well paved and is kept in excellent order. Over each gate is built a fortified tower between eighty and ninety feet high.
CHINESE CART.
The power of a Chinese father over his children is complete except that it stops short with life. The practice of selling children is common, and though the law makes it a punishable offense, should the sale be effected against the will of the children, the prohibition is practically ignored. In the same way a law exists making infanticide a crime, but as a matter of fact it is never acted upon; and in some parts of the country, more especially in the provinces of Chiang-hsi and Fu-chien, this most unnatural offense prevails among the poorer classes to an alarming extent. Not only do the people acknowledge the existence of the practice, but they even go the length of defending it. It is only however abject poverty which drives parents to this dreadful expedient, and in the more prosperous and wealthy districts the crime is almost unknown. Periodically the mandarins inveigh against the inhumanity of the offense and appeal to the better instincts of the people to put a stop to it; but a stone which stands near a pool outside the city of Foochow bearing the inscription, “Girls may not be drowned here,” testifies with terrible emphasis to the futility of their endeavors.
SCHOOL BOY.
The large number of cast-a-way bodies of dead infants seen in many parts of China is often regarded, though unjustly, as evidence of the prevalence of this crime. In most instances, however, it really indicates only the denial of burial to infants. This is due, at least in many places, to the following superstition: When they die it is supposed that their bodies have been inhabited by the spirit of a deceased creditor of a previous state of existence. The child during its sickness may be cared for with the greatest tenderness, but if it dies parental love is turned to hate and resentment. It is regarded as an enemy and intruder in the family who has been exacting satisfaction for the old unpaid debt; and having occasioned a great deal of anxiety, trouble, and expense, has left nothing to show for it but disappointment. The uncared for and uncoffined little body is cast away anywhere; and as it is carried out of the door the house is swept, crackers are fired, and gongs beaten to frighten the spirit so that it may never dare enter the house again. Thus do superstitions dry up the fountains of natural affection.
The complete subjection of children to their parents is so firmly imbued in the minds of every Chinese youth, that resistance to the infliction of cruel and even unmerited punishment is seldom if ever offered, and full-grown men submit meekly to be flogged without raising their hands. The law steps in on every occasion in support of parental authority. Filial piety is the leading principle in Chinese ethics.
CHINESE SCHOOL.
School life begins at the age of six, and among the wealthier classes great care is shown in the choice of master. The stars having indicated a propitious day for beginning work, the boy presents himself at school, bringing with him two small candles, some sticks of incense, and some paper money, which are burnt at the shrine of Confucius, before which also the little fellow prostrates himself three times. There being no alphabet in Chinese the pupil has to plunge at once into the middle of things and begins by learning to read. Having mastered two elementary books, the next step is to the “Four Books.” Then follow the “Five Classics,” the final desire of Chinese learning. A full comprehension of these Four Books and Five Classics, together with the commentaries upon them, and the power of turning this knowledge to account in the shape of essays and poems, is all that is required at the highest examination in the empire. This course of instruction has been exactly followed out in every school in the empire for many centuries.
CHINESE ENGINEERS LAYING A MILITARY TELEGRAPH.
The choice of a future calling, which is often so perplexing in our own country, is simplified in China by the fact of there being but two pursuits which a man of respectability and education can follow, namely the mandarinate and trades. The liberal professions as we understand them are unknown in China. The judicial system forbids the existence of the legal profession except in the case of official secretaries attached to the mandarins’ courts; and medicine is represented by charlatans who prey on the follies of their fellowmen and dispense ground tiger’s teeth, snake’s skins, etc., in lieu of drugs. A lad, or his parents for him, has therefore practically to consider whether he should attempt to compete at the general competitive examinations to qualify him for office, or whether he should embark in one of the numerous mercantile concerns which abound among the moneymaking and thrifty Chinese.
SCHOOL GIRL.
The succession of examinations leading up to the various honorary degrees and official positions, are complicated and exacting. The successful candidates have great honor attached to them, and are the prominent and successful people of the empire. These examinations are open to every man in the empire of whatever grade, unless he belong to one of the following four classes, or be the descendant of one such within three generations; actors, prostitutes, jailers, and executioners and servants of mandarins. The theory with regard to these people is that actors and prostitutes being devoid of all shame, and executioners and jailers having become hardened by the cruel nature of their offices, are unfit in their own persons or as represented by their sons to win posts of honor by means of the examinations.
The military examinations are held separately, and though the literary calibre of the candidates is treated much in the same way as at the civil examinations, the same high standard of knowledge is not required; but in addition skill in archery and in the use of warlike weapons is essential. It is illustrative of the backwardness of the Chinese in warlike methods, that though they have been acquainted with the use of gunpowder for some centuries, they revert in the examination of military candidates to the weapons of the ancients, and that while theoretically they are great strategists, strength and skill in the use of these weapons are the only tests required for commissions.
CHINESE ARTIST.
Persons of almost every class and in almost every station of life make an effort to send their boys to school, with the hope that they may distinguish themselves, be advanced to high positions in the state, and reflect honor upon their families. Of those who compete for literary honors a very small proportion are successful in attaining even the first degree, though some strive for it for a lifetime. These unsuccessful candidates and the graduates of the first and second degrees, form the important class of literary men scattered throughout the empire. The large proportion of this class are comparatively poor, and their services may be obtained for a very small remuneration. They are employed to teach the village schools. Rich families in different neighborhoods often assist in keeping up the school for the credit of the village, and opportunities for obtaining an education are thus brought within the reach of all. Graduates of the first and second degrees, generally have the charge of more advanced pupils, and many are engaged as tutors in private families, commanding higher wages. They are also employed as scribes or copyists, and to write letters, family histories, genealogies, etc. In the larger cities schools are established by the government, and in many places free schools are supported by wealthy men, but these institutions do not seem to be popular and are not flourishing.
CHINESE BARBER.
Though trade practically holds its place as next in estimation to the mandarinate, in theory it should follow both the careers of husbandry and of the mechanical arts. All land is held in free-hold from the government, and principally by clans or families, who pay an annual tax to the crown, amounting to about one-tenth of the produce. As long as this tax is paid regularly the owners are never dispossessed, and properties thus remain in the hands of clans and families for many generations. In order that farming operations shall be properly conducted, there are established in almost every district agricultural boards, consisting of old men learned in husbandry. By these veterans a careful watch is kept over the work done by the neighboring farmers, and in the case of any dereliction of duty or neglect of the prescribed modes of farming, the offender is summoned before the district magistrate, who inflicts the punishment which he considers proportionate to the offense. The appliances of the Chinese for irrigating the fields and winnowing the grain are excellent, but those for getting the largest crops out of the land are of a rude and primitive kind.
Among their artisans the Chinese number carpenters, masons, tailors, shoemakers, workers in iron and brass, and silversmiths and goldsmiths, who can imitate almost any article of foreign manufacture; also workmen in bamboo, carvers, idol makers, needle manufacturers, barbers, hair-dressers, etc. Business men sell almost every kind of goods and commodities wholesale and retail. Large fortunes are amassed very much in the same way and by the same means as are now in our own country. The wealth of the rich is invested in lands or houses, or employed as capital in trade or banking, or is lent out on good security, and often at a high rate of interest.
FEMALE TYPES AND COSTUMES.
Traveling in China is slow and leisurely, and the modes of it vary greatly in different parts of the empire. In many of the provinces, especially along the coast and in the south, canals take the place, for the most part, of roads. In the vicinity of Ningpo the country is supplied with a complete network of them, often intersecting each other at distances of one or two miles or less. Farmers frequently have short branch canals running off to their houses, and the farm boat takes the place of the farm wagon. Heavy loaded passage or freight boats ply in every direction. The ordinary charge for passage is less than one-half a cent per mile. The boats are admirably adapted to the people and circumstances, being built for comfort, rather than for speed. These water courses then, with the rivers which are so numerous, furnish the most general way of traveling throughout the empire.
In the north, where the country is level and open, the existence of broad roads enables the people to use rude carts for the conveyance of passengers and freight. Mules are used for riding purposes, and palanquins borne by two horses, or sedan chairs carried by two coolies, are popular ways of traveling. The sea-going junks are very much larger than the river craft, and different in construction. The best ones are divided into water tight compartments and are capable of carrying several thousand tons of cargo. They are generally three-masted and carry huge sails made of matting.
PORTER'S CHAIR.
Although the Chinese have the compass, they are without the knowledge necessary for taking nautical observations, so they either hug the land or steer straight by their compass[their compass] until they reach some coast with which they are familiar. In these circumstances it is easy to understand why the loss of junks and lives on the Chinese coast every year is so great. The immense number of people who live in boats on the rivers in southern China, render the terrible typhoons which sweep the sea and land especially destructive. For the most part these boat-people are not of Chinese origin but are remnants of the aborigines of the country. That the race has ever survived is a constant wonder, seeing the hourly and almost momentary danger of drowning in which the children live on board their boats. The only precaution that is ever taken, even in the case of infants, is to tie an empty gourd between their shoulders, so that should they fall into the water they may be kept afloat until help comes. They are born in their boats, they marry in their boats, and die in their boats.
The Chinese calendar and the festivities that accompany different seasons and anniversaries, are peculiarly interesting and different from our own, but space forbids any detailed account of them. The four seasons correspond to ours, and in addition to the four seasons the year is divided into eight parts called “joints,” or divisions, and these are again subdivided into sixteen more called “breaths,” or sources of life. There are forty festivals of China which are celebrated with observances generally throughout the empire and are considered to be important. They do not occur at regular intervals, and there is no periodical day of rest and recreation corresponding at all to our Sunday. The festivities of the new year exceed all others in their prominence and continuance, and in the universality and enthusiasm with which they are observed. “The Feast of Lanterns” and “The Festival of the Tombs” are two of the most interesting of Chinese festivals. The ninth day of the ninth month is a great time for flying kites. On that day thousands of men enjoy the sport and immense kites of all grotesque shapes fill the air. Theaters are very common in China, but the character and associations of the stage are very different from those of western lands and are very much less respected. Actors are regarded as an inferior class. Females do not appear upon the stage, but men act the part of female characters. Gambling is very common in China and is practiced in a variety of ways. Its ill effects are acknowledged, and there are laws prohibiting it, but they are a dead letter. There are many kinds of stringed and reed instruments used by the musicians of China. Bells, also, are very numerous, and excellent sweet toned bells are made. A careful watch is kept over the efforts of composers by the imperial board of music, whose duty it is to keep alive the music of the ancients and to suppress all compositions which are not in harmony with it. It is difficult for western ears to find anything truly beautiful in Chinese music.
The medical art of China is not of a sort to win much admiration from us. The Chinese know nothing of physiology or anatomy. The functions of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and brain are sealed books to them and they recognize no distinction between veins and arteries and between nerves and tendons. Their deeply rooted repugnance to the use of a knife in surgery or to post-mortem examinations prevents the possibility of their acquiring any accurate knowledge of the position of the various organs. They consider that from the heart and pit of the stomach all ideas and delights proceed, and that the gall bladder is the seat of courage. Man’s body is believed to be composed of the five elements, fire, water, metal, wood, earth. The medical profession in China is an open one, for there are no medical colleges and no examination tests to worry the minds of would-be practitioners. Some doctors have prescriptions as valuable and of the same sort as those prepared from herbs and vegetables by many an old woman in our own country settlements. On the other hand, some of the most ridiculous remedies are given, such as tiger’s teeth, gold and silver leaf, and shavings of rhinoceros horns, or ivory. Fortunately for the people inflammatory[inflammatory] diseases are almost unknown in China, but small-pox, consumption, and dysentery rage almost unchecked by medical help; skin diseases are very prevalent, and cancer is by no means uncommon. Of late the practice of vaccination has begun to make its way among the people.
There are hosts of superstitions among the Chinese people, and their beliefs regarding spirits and the influence of the dead, of sorcerers, and of devils, are myriad. These superstitions pervade every rank of society, from the highest to the lowest. The general term applied to the whole system of superstition and luck is fung-shwuy, and the practitioners and learned men in this science are called upon to determine what action shall be taken in all sorts of circumstances.
There are benevolent societies in China corresponding in variety and almost in number to those of Christian lands. There are orphan asylums, institutions for the relief of widows, and for the aged and infirm, public hospitals and free schools, together with other kindred institutions more peculiarly Chinese in their character. In some parts of China schools for girls exist, taught by female teachers. In most places, however females are seldom taught letters, and schools for their benefit are not known. Foreigners in establishing them invariably give a small sum of money or some rice for each day’s attendance, and it is thought that these schools could not be kept together in any other way.
The Chinese describe themselves as possessing three religions, or more accurately three sects, namely, Joo keaou, the sect of scholars; Fuh keaou, the sect of Buddha; and Tao keaou, the sect of Tao. Both as regards age and origin, the sect of scholars, or as it is generally called, Confucianism, represents pre-eminently the religion of China. It has its root in the worship of Shang-te, a deity associated with the earliest traditions of the Chinese race. This deity was a personal god, who ruled the affairs of men, rewarding and punishing as appeared just. But during the troublous times which followed the first sovereigns of the Chow dynasty, the belief in a personal deity grew dim, until when Confucius began his career there appeared nothing strange in his atheistic teachings. His concern was with man as a member of society, and the object of his teaching was to lead him into those paths of rectitude which might best contribute to the happiness of the man, and to the well-being of the community of which he formed a part. Man, he held, was born good and was endowed with qualities, which when cultivated and improved by watchfulness and self-restraint, might enable him to acquire godlike wisdom. In the system of Confucius there is no place for a personal god. Man has his destiny in his own hands to make or mar. Neither had Confucius any inducement to offer to encourage men in the practice of virtue, except virtue itself. He was a matter-of-fact, unimaginative man, who was quite content to occupy himself with the study of his fellow men, and was disinclined to grope into the future. Succeeding ages, recognizing the loftiness of his aims, eliminated all that was impracticable and unreal in his system, and held fast to that part of it that was true and good. They clung to the doctrines of filial piety, brotherly love, and virtuous living. It was admiration for the emphasis which he laid on these and other virtues, which has drawn so many millions of men unto him and has adorned every city of the empire with temples built in his honor.
CHINESE EMPEROR, KING OF COREA, AND CHINESE OFFICIALS.
Side by side with the revival of the Joo keaou, under the influence of Confucius, grew up a system of a totally different nature, which when divested of its esoteric doctrines and reduced by the practically minded Chinamen to a code of morals, was destined in future ages to become affiliated with the teachings of the sage. This was Taoism, which was founded by Lao-tzu, who was a contemporary of Confucius. The object of his teaching was to induce men, by the practice of self-abnegation, to reach absorption in something which he called Tao, and which bears a certain resemblance to the Nirvana of the Buddhists. The primary meaning of Tao is “the way,” “the path,” but in Lao-tzu philosophy it was more than the way, it was the way-goer as well. It was an eternal road; along it all beings and things walked; it was everything and nothing, and the cause and effect of all. All things originated from Tao, conformed to Tao, and to Tao at last returned. It was absorption into this “mother of all things” that Lao-tzu aimed at. But these subtilties, to the common people were foolishness, and before long the philosophical doctrine of the identity of existence and non-existence assumed in their eyes a warrant for the old Epicurean motto, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” The pleasures of sense were substituted for the delights of virtue, and to prolong life the votaries began a search for elixirs of immortality, and charms. Taoism quickly degenerated into a system of magic. To-day the monopoly which Taoist priests enjoy as the exponents of the mysteries of nature, inherited from the time when they sought for natural charms, makes them indispensably necessary to all classes, and the most confirmed Confucianist does not hesitate to consult the shaven followers of Lao-tzu on the choice of the site for his house, the position of his family graveyard, or a fortunate day for undertaking an enterprise. Apart from the practice of these magical arts, Taoism has become assimilated with modern Confucianism and is scarcely distinguishable from it.
The teachings of Lao-tzu bore a sufficient resemblance to the musings of Indian sages, that they served to prepare the way for the introduction of Buddhism. A deputation of Buddhists arrived in China in the year 216 B.C., but were harshly treated, and returned to their homes without leaving any impress of their religion. It was not until some sixty years after Christ, in the reign of the Emperor Ming Ti, that Buddhism was actually introduced. One night the emperor dreamed that a monster golden image appeared and said, “Buddha bids you to send to the western countries to search for him and to get books and images.” The emperor obeyed, and sent an embassy to India which returned after an absence of eleven years bringing back images, the sacred writings, and missionaries who could translate these scriptures into Chinese. Thus was introduced into China the knowledge of that system which in purity and loftiness of aim takes its place next to Christianity among the religions of the world. From this time Buddhism grew and prevailed in the land.
BUDDHIST TEMPLE.
The Buddhism of China is not, however, exactly that of India. The Chinese believe in a material paradise, which is obviously inconsistent with the orthodox belief in Nirvana. Like the other faiths of China, orthodox Buddhism could not entirely satisfy the people. Like the Jews of old they were eager after signs, and self interest made their spiritual rulers nothing loth to grant them their desire. From the mountains and monasteries came men who claimed to possess the elixir of immortality, and proclaimed themselves adepts in witchcraft and sorcery. By magic incantations they exorcised evil spirits, and dissipated famine, pestilence, and disease. By the exercise of their supernatural powers they rescued souls from hell, and arrested pain and death. In the services of the church they added ritual to ritual. By such means they won their way among the people, and even sternly orthodox Confucianists make use of their services to chant the liturgies of the dead. But while superstition compels even the wise and the learned to pay homage to this faith, there is scarcely an educated man who would not repudiate a suggestion that he is a follower of Buddha; and though the common people throng the temples to buy charms and consult astrologers, they yet despise both the priests and the religion they profess. But Buddhism has after all been a blessing rather than a curse in China. It has to a certain extent lifted the mind of the people from the too exclusive consideration of mundane affairs, to the contemplation of a future state. It has taught them to value purity of life more highly; to exercise self-constraint and to forget self; and to practise charity towards their neighbors.
It will be seen that no clearly defined line of demarcation separates the three great sects of China. Each in its turn has borrowed from the others, until at the present day it may be doubted whether there are to be found any pure Confucianists, pure Buddhists, or pure Taoists. Confucianism has provided the moral basis on which the national character of the Chinese rests, and Buddhism and Taoism have supplied the supernatural element wanting in that system. Speaking generally then, the religion of China is a medley of the three great sects which are now so closely interlaced that it is impossible either to classify or enumerate the members of each creed. The only other religion of importance in China is Mohammedanism, which is confined to the south-western and north-western provinces of the empire. In this faith also the process of absorption in a national mixture of beliefs is making headway. And since the suppression of the Panthay rebellion in Yun-nan, there has been a gradual decline in the number of the followers of the prophet.
The speech and the written composition of the Chinese differ more than those of any other people. The former addresses itself, like all other languages, to the mind through the ear; the latter speaks to the mind through the eye, not as words but as symbols of ideas. All Chinese literature might be understood and translated though the student of it could not name a single character. The colloquial speech is not difficult of acquisition, but the written composition is slow of learning by foreigners. “Pidgin English” is a mixed Chinese, Portuguese and English language, which is a creation of the necessities of communication between Chinese and foreigners at the open ports, while neither party had the time or means or wish to acquire an accurate knowledge of the language of the other. “Pidgin” is a Chinese attempt to pronounce our word business, and the materials of the lingo are nearly all English words similarly represented or misrepresented. The idiom on the other hand is entirely that of colloquial Chinese. Foreigners master it in a short time so as to carry on long conversations by means of it, and to transact important affairs of business. This jargon is passing away. Chinese who know English and English who know Chinese are increasing in number from year to year.
In the first two chapters, containing a sketch of Chinese history, mention has been made of the greater literary works produced in the early centuries of the empire; and the calamity of the burning of the books has been described. Of the famous classics which are yet cherished we will not speak again here. After the revival of literature, and the encouragement given to it by the successors of the emperor who destroyed the libraries of the empire, the tide has flowed onward in an ever-increasing volume, checked only at times by one of those signal calamities often overtaking the imperial libraries of China. It is noteworthy that however ruthlessly the libraries and intellectual centers have been destroyed, one of the first acts of the successful founders of succeeding dynasties has been to restore them to their former completeness and efficiency.
The Chinese divide their literature into four departments, classical, philosophical, historical and belles lettres. The “nine classics,” of which we have already spoken as being the books studied by every Chinese student, form but the nucleus of the immense mass of literature which has gathered around them. The historical literature of China is the most important branch of the national literature. There are works which record the purely political events of each reign, as well as those on chronology, rites and music, jurisprudence, political economy, state sacrifices, astronomy, geography, and records of the neighboring countries. On drawing, painting, and medicine much has been written. Poems, novels, and romances, dramas, and books written in the colloquial[colloquial] style, are frequent in the Chinese literature. There is no more pleasant reading than some of their historical romances, and some of the best novels have been translated into European languages. There is, however, considerable poverty of imagination, little analysis of character, and no interweaving of plot in the fiction.
TEMPLE OF FIVE HUNDRED GODS, AT CANTON.
The glance that we have taken at the habits and customs of life among the Chinese people, shows that while they lack many of the things that we have been taught to believe essential to civilization, they nevertheless are equipped with many good things. They have the same human instincts, and are ready and able to absorb learning with great rapidity, when once they become convinced of the value of it. It is their conservatism and their belief that they are the only truly civilized people in the world, while all others are barbarians, that has made them so slow to adopt any of the better things of western civilization. The war which this work records may prove to be the most effective means that could possibly have been devised to awaken China from the sleep of centuries, and convince her of the value and efficacy of western methods. If this prove true, a description of China written a generation in the future may have to describe the things here related as existing conditions, to be historical facts after twenty years.
Japan
JAPANESE MUSICIAN.
THE MIKADO AND HIS PRINCIPAL OFFICERS.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JAPAN FROM THE EARLIEST
TIMES TO FIRST CONTACT WITH
EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION.
The Oldest Dynasty in the World and its Records—The First Emperor of Japan—Some of the Famous Early Rulers—Invasion and Conquest of Corea by the Empress Jingo—How Civilization Came from Corea to Japan—The Rise of the Dual System of Government—Mikado and Shogun—Expulsion of the Hojo Dynasty of Shoguns—The Invasion of the Mongol Tartars—Annihilation of the Armada—Corruption of the Shogun Rule—Growth of the Feudal System—Another Conquest of Corea—Founding of the Last Dynasty of Shoguns—Advance of Japan in the Age of Hideyoshi.
In a historical sketch of the life of a nation which counts twenty-five centuries of recorded history, but the briefest outline can be given. The scope of such a work as this does not admit of minute historical details. When it is said that traditions exist carrying back the history for a number of years which requires several hundred ciphers to measure, the effort to relate even an outline becomes almost appalling. Until the twelfth century of our era, Europe did not know even of the existence of Japan; and the reports which were then brought by Marco Polo, who had learned of the island empire of Zipangu from the Chinese were as vague as they were enticing. The successes of the Jesuit missionaries led by Xavier, and the commercial intercourse established by the Portuguese in the latter part of the 16th century, and by the Dutch somewhat later, promised to disclose the mysteries of the far Pacific empire; but within a few generations these were more hopelessly than ever sealed against foreign intrusion. Only forty years ago the United States of America knocked at the door of Japan, met a welcome under protest, and the country began to open to western civilization. Even yet the great mass of the people of our own country have far from a right conception of the ancient civilization which has for ages prevailed in these islands of the Pacific.
The Japanese imperial dynasty is the oldest in the world. Two thousand five hundred and fifty-four years ago in 660 B.C., the sacred histories relate that Jimmu Tenno commenced to reign as the first Mikado, or Emperor of Japan. The sources of Japanese history are rich and solid, historical writings forming the largest and most important divisions of their voluminous literature. The period from about the ninth century until the present time is treated very fully, while the real history of the period prior to the eighth century of the Christian era is very meagre. It is nearly certain that the Japanese possessed no writing until the sixth century A.D. Their oldest extant composition is the “Kojiki,” or “Book of Ancient Traditions.” It may be called the Bible of the Japanese. It comprises three volumes, composed A.D. 711-712, and is said to have been preceded by two similar works about one hundred years earlier, but neither of these have been preserved. The first volume treats of the creation of the heavens and earth, the gods and goddesses, and the events of the holy age or mythological period. The second and third give the history of the mikados from the year I (660 B.C.) to the year 1280 of the Japanese era. It was first printed in the years A.D. 1624-1642. The “Nihongi” completed A.D. 720 also contains a Japanese record of the mythological period, and brings down the annals of the mikados to A.D. 699. These are the oldest books in the language. They contain so much that is fabulous, mythical or exaggerated, that their statements especially in respect of dates cannot be accepted as true history. A succession of historical works of apparent reliability illustrate the period between the eighth and the eleventh centuries, and still better ones treat of the mediæval period from the eleventh to the sixteenth century. The period from 1600 to 1853 is less known than others in earlier times, because of mandates that existed forbidding the production of contemporary histories.
JAPANESE GOD OF THUNDER.
Whatever may be the actual fact, Jimmu Tenno is popularly believed to have been a real person and the first emperor of Japan. He is deified in the Shinto religion, and in thousands of shrines dedicated to him the people worship his spirit. In one official list of mikados he is named as the first. The reigning Emperor refers to him as his ancestor, from whom he claims unbroken descent as the 123rd member of this dynasty. The seventh day of April is fixed as the anniversary of his ascension to the throne and that day is a national holiday on which the birth, the accession and death of this national hero are still annually celebrated. Then one may see flags flying from both public and private buildings, and hear the reverberations of a royal salute fired by the ironclad navy of modern Japan from Krupp guns, and by the military in French uniforms from Remington rifles. The era of Jimmu is the starting point of Japanese chronology, and the year 1 of the Japanese era is that upon which he ascended the throne at Kashiwavara.
In the beginning there existed, according to one interpretation of the somewhat perplexing Shinto mythology, chaos, which contained the germs of all things. From this was evolved a race of heavenly beings and celestial “Kami” of whom Izanagi, a male, and Izanami, a female, were the last individuals. Other authorities on Shinto maintain that infinite space and not chaos existed in the beginning; others again that in the beginning there was one god. However, all agree as to the appearance on the scene of Izanagi and Izanami, and it is with these we are here concerned; for by their union were produced the islands of Japan, and among their children were Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and her younger brother, Susanoo, afterward appointed god of the sea. On account of her bright beauty the former was made queen of the sun, and had given to her a share on the government of the earth. To Ninigi-no-mikoto, her grandson, she afterward consigned absolute rule over the earth, sending him down by the floating bridge of heaven upon the summit of the mountain Kirishima-yama. He took with him the three Japanese regalia, the sacred mirror, now in one of the Shinto shrines of Ise; the sword, now treasured in the temple of Atsuta, near Nagoya; and the ball of rock crystal in possession of the emperor. On the accomplishment of the descent, the sun and the earth receded from one another, and communication by means of the floating bridge ceased. Jimmu Tenno, the first historic emperor of Japan, was the great grandson of Ninigi-no-mikoto.
JAPANESE GOD OF RIDING.
According to the indigenous religion of Japan, therefore, a religion which even since the adoption of western civilization has been patronized by the state, the mikados are directly descended from the sun goddess, the principal Shinto divinity. Having received from her the three sacred treasures, they are invested with authority to rule over Japan as long as the sun and moon shall endure. Their minds are in perfect harmony with hers; therefore they cannot err and must receive implicit obedience. Such is the traditional theory as to the position of the Japanese emperors, a theory which was advanced in its most elaborate form, as recently as the last century, by Motoori, a writer on Shinto, which of late years has no doubt been much modified or even utterly discarded by many of the more enlightened among the people. Even yet, however, it is far from having been abandoned by the masses.
JAPANESE PEASANTRY.
The mikados being thus regarded as semi-divinities, it is not surprising that the very excess of veneration showed them tended more and more to weaken their actual power. They were too sacred to be brought much into contact with ordinary mortals, too sacred even to have their divine countenances looked upon by any but a select few. Latterly it was only the nobles immediately around him that ever saw the mikado’s face; others might be admitted to the imperial presence, but it was only to get a glimpse from behind a curtain of a portion of the imperial form, less or more according to their rank. When the mikado went out into the grounds of his palace in Kioto, matting was spread for him to walk upon; when he left the palace precincts he was borne in a sedan chair, the blinds of which were carefully drawn down. The populace prostrated themselves as the procession passed, but none of them ever saw the imperial form. In short, the mikados ultimately became virtual prisoners. Theoretically gifted with all political knowledge and power, they were less the masters of their own actions than many of the humblest of their subjects. Although nominally the repositories of all authority, they had practically no share in the management of the national affairs. The isolation in which it was deemed proper that they should be kept, prevented them from acquiring the knowledge requisite for governing, and even had that knowledge been obtained, gave no opportunity for its manifestation.
From the death of Jimmu Tenno to that of Kimmei, in whose reign Buddhism was introduced, A.D. 571, there were thirty mikados. During this period of one thousand three hundred and thirty-six years, believed to be historic by most Japanese, the most interesting subjects are the reforms of Sujin Tenno, the military expeditions to eastern Japan by Yamato-Dake, the invasion of Corea by the Empress Jingo Kogo, and the introduction of Chinese civilization and Buddhism.
Sujin—or Shujin, B.C. 97-30, was a man of intense earnestness and piety. His prayers to the gods for the abatement of a plague were answered, and a revival of religious feeling and worship ensued. He introduced many forms in the practices of religion and the manners of life. He appointed his own daughter priestess of the shrine and custodian of the symbols of the three holy regalia, which had hitherto been kept in the palace of the mikado. This custom has continued to the present time, and the shrines of Uji in Ise, which now hold the sacred mirror, are always in charge of a virgin princess of imperial blood.
The whole life of Sujin was one long effort to civilize his half savage subjects. He regulated taxes, established a periodical census, and encouraged the building of boats. He may also be called the father of Japanese agriculture, since he encouraged it by edict and example, ordering canals to be dug, water courses provided, and irrigation to be extensively carried on.
The energies of this pious mikado were further exerted in devising a national military system whereby his peaceably[peaceably] disposed subjects could be protected, and the extremities of his realm extended. The eastern and northern frontiers were exposed to the assaults of the wild tribes of Ainos, who were yet unsubdued. Between the peaceful agricultural inhabitants and the untamed savages a continual border war existed. A military division of the empire into four departments was made, and a shogun or general appointed over each. The half subdued inhabitants in the extremes of the realm needed constant watching, and seem to have been as restless and treacherous as the indians on our own frontiers. The whole history of the extension and development of the mikado’s empire is one of war and blood, rivalling that of our own country in its early struggles with the Indians. This constant military action and life in a camp resulted, in the course of time, in the creation of a powerful and numerous military class, who made war professional and hereditary. It developed that military genius and character which so distinguish the modern Japanese and mark them in such strong contrast with other nations of eastern Asia.
Towards the end of the first century A.D., Yamato-Dake, son of the emperor Keiko, reduced most of the Ainos of the north to submission. These savages fought much after the manner of the North American Indian, using their knowledge of woodcraft most effectually, but the young prince with a well equipped army embarked on a fleet of ships and reaching their portion of the island, fought them until they were glad to surrender.
JAPANESE GOD OF WAR.
It was in the third century that the Empress Jingo invaded and conquered Corea. In all Japanese tradition or history, there is no greater female character than this empress. She was equally renowned for her beauty, piety, intelligence, energy and martial valor. To this woman belongs the glory of the conquest of Corea, whence came letters, religion and civilization to Japan. Tradition is that it was directly commanded her by the gods to cross the water and attack Corea. Her husband, the emperor, doubting the veracity of this message from the gods, was forbidden by them any share in the enterprise.
Jingo ordered her generals and captains to collect troops, build ships, and be ready to embark. She disguised herself as a man, proceeded with the recruiting of soldiers and the building of ships, and in the year 201 A.D. was ready to start. Before starting, Jingo issued these orders for her soldiers: “No loot. Neither despise a few enemies nor fear many. Give mercy to those who yield but no quarter to the stubborn. Rewards shall be apportioned to the victors, punishments shall be meted to the deserters.”
It was not very clear in the minds of these ancient filibusters where Corea was, or for what particular point of their horizon they were to steer. They had no chart or compass. The sun, stars and the flight of birds were their guide. None of them before had ever known of the existence of such a country as Corea, but the same gods that had commanded the invasion protected the invaders, and in due time they landed in southern Corea. The king of this part of the country had heard from his messengers of the coming of a strange fleet from the east, and terrified exclaimed, “We never knew there was any country outside of us. Have our gods forsaken us?”
It was a bloodless invasion, for there was no fighting to do. The Coreans came holding white flags and surrendered, offering to give up their treasures. They took an oath to become hostages and be tributary to Japan. Eighty ships well laden with gold and silver, articles of wealth, silks and precious goods of all kinds, and eighty hostages, men of high families, were given to the conquerors. The stay of the Japanese army in Corea was very brief, and the troops returned in two months. Jingo was, on her arrival, delivered of a son, who in the popular estimation of gods and mortals holds even a higher place of honor than his mother, who is believed to have conquered southern Corea through the power of her yet unborn illustrious offspring. The motive which induced the invasion into Corea seems to have been mere love of war and conquest, and the Japanese still refer with great pride to this, their initial exploit on foreign soil.
TOKIO—TYPES AND COSTUMES.
JAPANESE MUSICIAN.
JAPANESE SILK SPINNER.
The son Ojin, who became the emperor, was, after his death, deified and worshipped as the god of war, Hachiman, and down through the centuries he has been worshiped by all classes of people, especially by soldiers, who offer their prayers and pay their vows to him. Ojin was also a man of literary tastes, and it was during his reign that Japan began to profit from the learning of the Coreans, who introduced the study of the Chinese language, and indeed the art of writing itself. During the immediately succeeding centuries various emperors and empresses were eminent for their zeal in encouraging the arts of peace. Architects, painters, physicians, musicians, dancers, chronologists, artisans and fortune tellers were brought over from Corea to instruct the people, but not all of these came at once. Immigration was gradual, but the coming of so many immigrants brought new blood, ideas, methods and improvements. Japan received from China, through Corea, what she has been receiving from America and Europe for the last forty years—a new civilization. The records report the arrival of tailors in 283 and horses in 284 from Corea to Japan. In 285 a Corean scholar came to Japan, and residing at the court, instructed the mikado’s son in writing. In 462 mulberry trees were planted, together with the silk worm, for whose sustenance they were implanted, from China or Corea. And this marks the beginning of silk culture in Japan. When in 552 the company of doctors, astronomers and mathematicians came from Corea to live at the Japanese court, they brought with them Buddhist missionaries, and this may be called the introduction of continental civilization. Beginning with Jingo, there seems to have poured into the island empire a stream of immigrants, skilled artisans, scholars and teachers, bringing arts, literature and religion. This was the first of three great waves of foreign civilization in Japan. The first was from China, through Corea, in the sixth; the second from western Europe in the fifteenth century; the third was from America, Europe and the world, in the decade following the advent of Commodore Perry.
In the eighth century, during the greater part of which the capital of the country was the city of Nara, about thirty miles from Kioto, Japan had largely under the government of empresses reached a most creditable stage of progress in the arts of peace. Near the close of the eighth century the emperor Kuwammu took up his residence at Kioto, which until 1868 remained the capital of the country, and is even now dignified with the name of Saikiyo, or “Western Capital.” Here he built a palace very unlike the simple dwelling in which his predecessors had been content to live. It had a dozen gates, and around it was reared a city with twelve hundred streets. The palace, he named “the Castle of Peace,” but for years it proved the very centre of the feuds which soon began to distract the country. This did not happen however until some centuries after the death of Kuwammu. But even after his time there were not wanting indications that the control of affairs was destined to slip into the hands of certain powerful families at the imperial court.
The first family to rise into eminence was that of Fujiwara, a member of which it was that got Kuwammu placed upon the throne. For centuries the Fujiwaras controlled the civil affairs of the empire, but a more important factor in bringing about the reduction of the mikado’s power and the establishment of that strange system of government which was destined to be so characteristic of Japan, was the rise into power of the rival houses of Taira and Minamoto, otherwise called respectfully Hei and Gen. This system of government has almost always been misunderstood in America and Europe. Two rulers in two capitals gave to foreigners the impression that there were two emperors in Japan, an idea that has been incorporated into most of the text books, and encyclopedias of Christendom. Let it be clearly understood however that there never was but one emperor in Japan, the mikado, who is and always was the only sovereign, though his measure of power has been very different at different times. Until the rise and domination of the military classes, he was in fact, as well as by law, supreme.
With the feuds of Hei and Gen commences an entirely new era in the history of the country, an era replete with tales alike of bloodshed, intrigue and chivalry. We see the growth of a feudal system at least as elaborate as that of Europe, and strangely enough, assuming almost identical forms, and that during the same period.
The respective founders of the Taira and Minamoto families were Taira Takamochi and Minamoto Tsunemoto, two warriors of the tenth century. Their descendants were for generations military vassals of the mikado, and were distinguished by red and white flags, colors which suggest the red and white roses of the rival English houses of Lancaster and York. For years the two houses served the emperor faithfully; but even before any quarrel had arisen between them, the popularity of the head of the Minamoto clan, with the soldiers with whom he had been placed, so alarmed the emperor Toba (1108-1124, A.D.) that he issued an edict forbidding the Samurai, the military class, of any of the provinces, from constituting themselves the retainers of either of these two families.
It was in the year 1156 that the feuds between the two houses broke out, and it arose in this way. At the accession of Go-Shirakawa to the throne in that year, there were living two ex-emperors who would seem to have voluntarily abdicated; one of them, however, Shutoku, was averse to the accession of the heir, being himself anxious to resume the imperial power. His cause was espoused by Tameyoshi, the head of the Minamoto house, while among the supporters of Go-Shirakawa was Kiyomori, of the house of Taira. In the conflict which followed, Go-Shirakawa was successful, and immediately thereafter we find Taira Kiyomori appointed Daijo-Daijin, or prime minister, with practically all political power in his hands. On the abdication within a few years of the mikado, the prime minister was able to put whatever member of the imperial house he willed upon the throne; and being himself allied by marriage to the imperial family, he at length saw the accession of his own grandson, a mere babe. Thus, to use the term connected with European feudalism of the same period, the mayor of the palace virtually, though not nominally, usurped the imperial functions. The emperor had the name of power but Kiyomori had the reality.
But this state of matters was not destined to last long. The Minamotos were far from being finally quieted. The story of the revival of their power is a romantic one, but we cannot dwell upon it. It was in the battle of Atiji that Kiyomori seemed at length to have quelled his rivals. Yoshitomo, the head of the Minamoto clan was slain in the fight, but his beautiful wife Tokiwa succeeded in escaping with her three little sons. Tokiwa’s mother, however, was arrested. This roused the daughter to make an appeal to Kiyomori for pardon. She did so, presenting herself and children to the conqueror, upon whom her beauty so wrought that he granted her petition. He made her his concubine, and not withstanding the remonstrances of his retainers, also spared the children who were sent to a monastery, there to be trained for the priesthood. Two of these children became famous in the history of Japan. The eldest was Yoritomo the founder of the Kamakura dynasty of shoguns, and the babe at the mother’s breast was Yoshitsune, one of the flowers of Japanese chivalry, a hero whose name even yet awakens the enthusiasm of the youth of Japan and who so impressed the Ainos of the north whom he had been sent to subdue, that to this day he is worshiped as their chief god. A Japanese has even lately written a book in which he seeks to identify Yoshitsune with Genghis Khan.
It is unnecessary to dwell on the circumstances which brought Yoritomo and Yoshitsune into note; how the two brothers raised the men of the eastern provinces, and after a temporary check at the pass of Hakone, succeeded in utterly routing the Taira forces in a dreadful battle, half by land and half by sea, at the straits of Shimonoseki. Suffice it to say, that Yoshitsune having been slain soon after a famous victory, through the treachery of his brother Yoritomo, who was jealous of his fame and popularity, that warrior was left without a rival. Yoritomo received from the emperor the highest title which could be conferred upon him, that of Sei-i-tai-shogun, literally “Barbarian-subjugating great general.” This title is generally contracted to shogun, which means simply general. Thus appointed generalissimo of all the imperial forces, he looked about for a city which he might make the center of his power. This he found in Kamakura about fifteen miles westward of the site of the modern Yokohama.
Thus before the close of the twelfth century was founded that system of dual government which lasted with little change until the year 1868. The Mikado reigned in Kioto with the authority of his sacred person undisputed; but the shogun in his eastern city had really all the public business of the country in his own hands. It was he who appointed governors over the different provinces and was the real master of the country; but every act was done in the name of the emperor whose nominal power thus remained intact.
Yoritomo virtually founded an independent dynasty at Kamakura, but it was not destined to be a lasting one. His son Yoriye succeeded him in 1199, but was shortly afterwards deposed and assassinated; and the power though not the title of shogun passed to the family of Yoritomo’s wife, that of Hojo, different members of which swayed the state for more than a century.
After a checkered career of various shoguns of the Hojo family, their tyranny became supreme. None of the family ever seized the office of shogun, but in reality they wielded all and more of the power attaching to the office. The political history of these years is but that of a monotonous recurrence of the exaltation of boys and babies of noble blood to whom was given the semblance of power, who were sprinkled with titles and deposed as soon as they were old enough to be troublesome. In an effort made by the ex-emperor Gotoba to drive the usurping Hojo from power the chains were riveted tighter than ever. The imperial troops were massacred by the conquering Hojo. The estates of all who fought on the emperor’s side were confiscated and distributed among the minions of the usurpers. The exiled emperor died of a broken heart. The nominal Mikado of Kioto and the nominal shogun at Kamakura were set up, but the Hojo were the keepers of both. The oppression, the neglect of public business and the carousals of the usurpers became intolerable. Armies were raised spontaneously to support the emperor and the Ashikaga leader in their revolt against the existing evils. All over the empire the people rose against their oppressors and massacred them. The Hojo domination which had been paramount for nearly one hundred and fifty years was utterly broken.
COLOSSAL JAPANESE IMAGE FIFTY FEET HIGH.
The Hojo have never been forgiven for their arbitrary treatment of the Mikados. Every obloquy is cast upon them by Japanese historians, dramatists, poets and novelists, and yet there is another side to the story. It must be conceded that the Hojos were able rulers and kept order and peace in the empire for more than a century. They encouraged literature and the cultivation of the arts and sciences. During their period the resources of the country were developed, and some branches of useful handicraft and fine arts were brought to a perfection never since surpassed. To this time belongs the famous image carver, sculptor and architect, Unkei, and the lacquer artists who are the “old masters” in this branch of art. The military spirit of the people was kept alive, tactics were improved, and the methods of governmental administration simplified. During this period of splendid temples, monasteries, pagodas, colossal images and other monuments of holy zeal, Hojo Sadatoki erected a monument over the grave of Kiyomori at Hiogo. Hojo Tokimune raised and kept in readiness a permanent war fund so that the military expenses might not interfere with the revenue reserved for ordinary government expenses. To his invincible courage, patriotic pride, and indomitable energy are due the vindication of the national honor and the repulse of the Tartar invasion.
During the early centuries of the Christian era, Japan and China kept up friendly intercourse, exchanging embassies on various missions, but chiefly with the mutual object of bearing congratulations to an emperor upon his accession to the throne. The civil disorders in both countries interrupted these friendly relations in the twelfth century, and communication ceased. When the acquaintance was renewed in the time of the Hojo it was not on so friendly a footing.
In China the Mongol Tartars had overthrown the Sung dynasty and had conquered the adjacent country. Through the Coreans the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, at whose court Marco Polo and his uncles were then visiting, sent letters demanding tribute and homage from Japan. Chinese envoys came to Kamakura, but Hojo Tokimune, enraged at the insolent demands, dismissed them in disgrace. Six embassies were sent, and six times rejected. An expedition from China consisting of ten thousand men was then sent against Japan. They landed, were attacked, their commander was slain, and they returned, having accomplished nothing. The Chinese emperor now sent nine envoys to announce their purpose to remain until a definite answer was returned to their master. They were called to Kamakura, and the Japanese reply was given by cutting off their heads. The Japanese now began to prepare for war on land and sea. Once more Chinese envoys came to demand tribute. These were decapitated. Meanwhile the armada was preparing. Great China was coming to crush the little strip of land that refused homage to the invincible conqueror. The army numbered one hundred thousand Chinese and Tartars, and seven thousand Coreans in ships that whitened the sea. They numbered three thousand five hundred in all. It was in July, 1281, that the sight of the Chinese junks greeted the watchers on the hills of Daizaifu. Many of the junks were of immense proportion, larger than the natives of Japan had ever seen, and armed with the engines of European warfare which their Venetian guests had taught the Mongols to construct and work. The naval battle that ensued was a terrible one. The Japanese had small chance of success in the water, owing to the smallness of their boats, but in personal valor they were much superior, and some of their deeds of bravery are inspiringly interesting. Nevertheless the Chinese were unable to effect a landing, owing to the heavy fortifications along the shore.
JAPANESE FEMALE TYPES.
The whole nation was now roused. Re-enforcements poured in from all quarters to swell the hosts of defenders. From the monasteries and temples all over the country went up unceasing prayer to the gods to ruin their enemies and save the land of Japan. The emperor and ex-emperor went in solemn state to the chief priest of Shinto, and writing out their petitions to the gods sent him as a messenger to the shrines of Ise. It is recorded as a miraculous fact that at the hour of noon as the sacred envoy arrived at the shrine and offered a prayer, the day being perfectly clear, a streak of cloud appeared in the sky that soon overspread the heavens, until the dense masses portended a storm of awful violence. One of those cyclones called by the Japanese tai-fu, of appalling velocity and resistless force, such as whirl along the coast of Japan and China during late summer and early fall of every year, burst upon the Chinese fleet. Nothing can withstand these maelstorms of the air. We call them typhoons. Iron steamships of thousands of horse power are almost unmanageable in them. The helpless Chinese junks were crushed together, impaled on the rocks, dashed against the cliffs or tossed on land like corks on the spray. Hundreds of the vessels sank. The corpses were piled on the shore or floating on the water so thickly that it seemed almost possible to walk thereon. The vessels of the survivors in large numbers drifted or were wrecked upon Taka island, where they established themselves and cutting down trees began building boats to reach Corea. Here they were attacked by the Japanese, and after a bloody struggle, all the fiercer for the despair on the one side and the exultation on the other, were all slain or driven to the sea to be drowned except three, who were sent back to tell their emperor how the gods of Japan had destroyed their armada.
SHINTO TEMPLE.
This was the last time that China ever attempted to conquer Japan, whose people boast that their land has never been defiled by an invading army. They have ever ascribed the glory of the destruction of the Tartar fleet to the interposition of the gods of Ise, who thereafter received special and grateful adoration as the guardian of the seas and the winds. Great credit and praise were given to the Lord of Kamakura, Hojo Tokimune, for his energy, ability and valor. The author of one native history says, “The repulse of the Tartar barbarians by Tokimune and his preserving the dominions of our Son of Heaven were sufficient to atone for the crimes of his ancestors.”
Nearly six centuries afterward when “the barbarian” Perry anchored his fleet in the bay of Yeddo, in the words of the native annalist, “Orders were sent by the imperial court to the Shinto priest at Ise to offer up prayers for the sweeping away of the barbarians.” Millions of earnest hearts put up the same prayers their fathers had offered fully expecting the same result.
To this day the Japanese mother hushes her fretful infant by the question, “Do you think the Mongols are coming?” This is the only serious attempt at invasion ever made by any nation upon the shores of Japan.
JAPANESE GOD OF THE WIND.
The internal history of Japan during the period of time covered by the actual or nominal rule of the Ashikaga family, from 1336 until 1573, except the very last years of it, is not very attractive to a foreign reader. It is a confused picture of intestinal war. It was by foul means that Ashikaga Takugi, one of the generals who overthrew the Hojos, attained the dignity of shogun, and a period of more than two centuries, during which his descendants held sway at Kamakura, was characterized by treachery, bloodshed and almost perpetual warfare. The founder of this line secured the favor of the mikado Go-Daigo, after he was recalled from exile, upon the overthrow of the military usurpation. Ashikaga soon seized the reins in his own hands. The mikado fled in terror, and a new mikado was declared in the person of another of the royal family. Of course this man was willing to confer upon Ashikaga, his supporter the title of shogun. Kamakura again became a military capital. The duarchy was restored, and the war of the northern and southern dynasties began, to last fifty-six years.
DAIMIOS OF JAPAN.
The act by which more than any other the Ashikagas earned the curses of posterity, was the sending of an embassy to China in 1401, bearing presents, acknowledging in a measure the authority of China, and accepting in return the title of Nippon O, or king of Japan. This which was done by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third of the line, was an insult to the national dignity for which he has never been forgiven. It was a needless humiliation of Japan to her arrogant neighbor and done only to exalt the vanity and glory of the usurper, who, not content with adopting the style and equipage of the mikado, wished to be called a king and yet dared not usurp the imperial throne.
Japan of all the Asiatic nations seems to have brought the feudal system to the highest state of perfection. While in Europe the nations were engaged in throwing off the feudal yoke and inaugurating modern government, Japan was riveting the fetters which stood intact until 1871. The daimios were practically independent chieftains, who ruled their own provinces as they willed; and the more ambitious and powerful did not hesitate to make war upon the neighboring clans. There were on all sides struggles for pre-eminence in which the fittest survived, annexing to their own territories those of the weaker class which they had subdued. Nor was it merely rival clans that were disturbing the country. The Buddhist clergy had acquired immense political influence, which they were far from scrupulous in using. Their monasteries were in many cases castles, from which themselves living amid every kind of luxury, they tyrannized over the surrounding country. The history of these often reads strikingly like that of the corresponding institutions in Europe during the middle ages; indeed the hierarchical as well as the feudal development of Europe and Japan have been wonderfully alike.
SKETCH SHOWING DEVELOPMENT OF THE JAPANESE ARMY
FROM 1867 TO THE PRESENT.
Probably the three names most renowned in Japan are Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu. The second and third of these were generals subordinate to the first, who deposed the Ashikaga shoguns, persecuted the Buddhists, encouraged the Jesuits, and restored to a great extent the supremacy of the mikado. The Buddhists look on this leader as an incarnate demon sent to destroy their faith. He was a Shintoist, with bitter hatred for the Buddhists, and never lost an opportunity to burn property of his enemies or butcher priests, women, and children of that faith. These who have just been named, by their prowess and the strength of their armies, rose to highest positions among the daimios.
BUDDHIST PRIESTS.
When these three great men appeared, the country was in a most critical state. The later Ashikaga shoguns had become as powerless as the mikado himself in the management of affairs. Nobunaga first rose into note. By successive victories, he became ruler of additional provinces, and his fame became so great that the emperor committed to him the task of tranquilizing the country. He deposed first one usurping shogun and then another, and thus came an end to the domination of the Ashikagas. Nobunaga was now the most powerful man in the country, and was virtually discharging the duties of shogun though he never obtained the title. Hideyoshi became virtual lord of the empire, after the assassination of Nobunaga. He rose from the ranks of the peasants to the highest position in Japan under the emperor. Having in connection with Nobunaga and Iyeyasu reduced all the Japanese clans into subjection, he looked abroad for some foreign power to subdue.
The immoderate ambition of Hideyoshi’s life was to conquer Corea, and even China. Under the declining power of Ashikaga, all tribute from Corea had ceased and the pirates who ranged the coasts scarcely allowed any trade to exist. We have seen how it was from Corea that Japan received Chinese learning and the arts of civilization, and Coreans swelled the number of Mongol Tartars who invaded Japan with the armada. On the other hand Corea was more than once overrun by Japanese armies, even partly governed by Japanese officials, and on different occasions had to pay tribute to Japan in token of submission. Japanese pirates too were for six hundred years as much the terror of the Chinese and Corean coasts[coasts] as were the Danes and Norsemen of the shores of the North Sea. The discontinuance of the embassies and tribute from Corea, thus afforded the ambitious general a pretext for disturbing the friendly relations with Corea, by the dispatch of an embassador to complain of this neglect. The behavior of this embassador only too clearly reflected the swagger of his overbearing lord, and the consequence was an invasion of Corea.
Hideyoshi promised to march his generals and army to Peking, and divide the soil of China among them. He also scorned the suggestion that scholars versed in Chinese should accompany the expedition. Said he, “This expedition will make the Chinese use our literature.” Corea was completely overrun by Hideyoshi’s forces, although the commander himself was unable to accompany the expedition, owing to his age and the grief of his mother. Further details of this invasion will be found later in the historical sketch of Corea. It may be said here however, that the conquest terminated ingloriously, and reflects no honor on Japan. The responsibility of the outrage upon a peaceful nation rests wholly upon Hideyoshi. The Coreans were a mild and peaceable people, wholly unprepared for war. There was scarcely a shadow of provocation for the invasion, which was nothing less than a huge filibustering scheme. It was not popular with the people or the rulers, and was only carried through by the will of the military leader. The sacrifice of life on either side must have been great, and all for the ambition of one man. Nevertheless, a party in Japan has long held that Corea was by the conquests of the third and sixteenth centuries a part of the Japanese empire, and the reader will see how 1772 and again in 1775 the cry of “On to Corea” shook the nation like an earthquake.
After the deaths of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Iyeyasu was left the virtual ruler of Japan. At first he governed the country as regent, but his increasing popularity awoke the jealousy of the partisans of Hideyori, the son of Hideyoshi, who was nominated as his successor, as well as of Nobunaga’s family. These combined to overthrow him, and the consequence was the great battle of Sekigahara, fought in 1600, in which Iyeyasu came off completely victorious. Three years later, he was appointed by the emperor shogun. Like Yorotomo he resolved to select a city as the center of his power, and that which seemed to him most suitable was not Kamakura, which ere this had lost much of its glory, but the little castle town of Yeddo, about thirty-five miles farther north. Here he and his successors, and the dynasty he founded, swayed the destinies of Japan from 1603 until the restoration in 1868.
JAPANESE JUNK.
It is not difficult to account for the tone of admiration and pride with which a modern Japanese speaks of “The age of Taiko.” There are many who hold that Hideyoshi, or Taiko, was the real unifier of the empire. Certain it is that he originated many of the most striking forms of national administration. In his time the arts and sciences were not only in a very flourishing condition, but gave promise of rich development. The spirit of military enterprise and internal national improvement was at its height. Contact with the foreigners of many nations awoke a spirit of inquiry and intellectual activity; but it was on the seas that genius and restless activity found their most congenial field.
OLD TIME JAPANESE FERRY.
This era is marked by the highest production in marine architecture, and the extent and variety of commercial enterprise. The ships built in this century were twice the size and vastly the superior in model of the junks that now hug the Japanese shores or ply between China and Japan. The pictures of them preserved to the present day, show that they were superior in size to the vessels of Columbus, and nearly equal in sailing qualities to the contemporary Dutch and Portuguese galleons. They were provided with ordnance, and a model of a Japanese breech-loading cannon is still preserved in Kioto. Ever a brave and adventurous people, the Japanese then roamed the seas with a freedom that one who knows only of the modern bound people would scarcely credit. Voyages of trade discovery or piracy have been made to India, Siam, Birmah, the Philippine Islands, Southern China, the Malay Archipelago and the Kuriles, even in the fifteenth century, but was more numerous in the sixteenth. The Japanese literature contains many references to these adventurous sailors, and when the records of the far east are thoroughly investigated, and this subject fully studied, very interesting results are apt to be obtained showing the widespread influence of Japan at a time when she was scarcely known by the European world to have existence.
SCENES OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE. (From a Japanese Album.)
HISTORICAL SKETCH FROM THE COMING OF THE
FIRST EUROPEAN TRAVELERS TO THE
PRESENT TIME.
A New Dynasty of Shoguns—Mendez Pinto’s Visit—Arrival of the Jesuit Missionaries—Kind Reception of Christianity—Quarrels Between the Sects—Beginning of Christian Persecution—Expulsion of the Missionaries—Torture and Martyrdom—The Massacre of Shimabara—Expulsion of all Foreigners—Closing the Door of Japan—History of the Last Shogunate—Arrival of Commodore Perry’s Fleet—The Knock at the Door of Japan—An Era of Treaty Making—Rapid Advance of Western Manners and Ideas in Japan—Attacks on Foreigners—The Abolition of the Shogunate—Japan’s Last Quarter Century.
Hitherto we have seen two readily distinguishable periods in the history of Japan, the period during which the mikados were the actual as well as the nominal rulers of the empire; and the period during which the imperial power more and more passed into the hands of usurping mayors of the palace, and the country was kept in an almost constant ferment with the feuds of rival noble families which coveted this honor. Successively the power, although not always the title, of shogun, had been held by members of the Minamoto, Hojo, Ashikaga, Ota and Toyotomi families. With Iyeyasu we pass into a third period, like the second in that the dual system of feudal government still prevailed, but unlike it in that it was a period of peace. Much strife had accompanied the erection of the fabric of feudalism, but it now stood complete. The mikado in Kioto and the daimios in their different provinces, alike ceased to protest against the dual administration. Within certain limits they had the regulation of their own affairs; the mikado was ever recognized as the source of all authority, and the daimios in their own provinces were petty kings; but it was the shogun in Yeddo who, undisputed, at least in practice, whatever some of the more powerful daimios may have said, swayed the destinies of the empire.
Let us now note the policy which the Shoguns adopted towards the foreigners who as missionaries or merchants had found their way to Japan, and the course of settlement and trade of foreigners.
It seems now certain that when Columbus set sail from Spain to discover a new continent, it was not America he was seeking, but the land of Japan. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler, had spent seventeen years, 1275-1292, at the court of the Tartar emperor Kublai Khan, and while in Peking had heard of a land lying to the eastward, called in the language of the Chinese, Zipangu, from which our modern name Japan has been corrupted. Columbus was an ardent student of Polo’s book, which had been published in 1298. He sailed westward across the Atlantic to find this kingdom. He discovered not Japan, but an archipelago in America on whose shores he eagerly inquired concerning Zipangu. Following this voyage, Vasco de Gama and a host of other brave Portuguese navigators sailed into the Orient and came back to tell of densely populated empires enriched with the wealth that makes civilization possible, and of which Europe had scarcely heard. Their accounts fired the hearts of the zealous who longed to convert the heathen, aroused the cupidity of traders who thirsted for gold, and kindled the desire of monarchs to found empires in Asia.
Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese adventurer, seems to have been the first European who landed on Japanese soil. On his return to Europe he told so many wonderful stories that by a pun on his Christian name he was dubbed “the mendacious.” His narrative was, however, as we now know, substantially correct. Pinto while in China had got on board a Chinese junk, commanded by a pirate. They were attacked by another corsair, their pilot was killed, and the vessel was driven off the coast by a storm. They made for the Liu Kiu Islands, but unable to find a harbor, put to sea again. After twenty-three days’ beating about, they sighted the islands of Tanegashima and landed. The name of the island, “island of the seed,” was significant. The arrival of these foreigners was a seed of troubles innumerable. The crop was priestcraft of the worst type, political intrigue, religious persecution, the inquisition, the slave trade, the propagation of Christianity by the sword, sedition, rebellion, and civil war. Its harvest was garnered in the blood of sixty-thousand Japanese.
The native histories recount the first arrival of Europeans in 1542, and note that year as the one in which fire-arms were first introduced. The pirate trader who brought Pinto to Japan cleared twelve hundred per cent. on his cargo, and the three Portuguese returned to China loaded with presents. The new market attracted hundreds of Portuguese adventurers to Japan, who found a ready welcome. The missionary followed the merchant. Already the Portuguese priests and Franciscan friars were numerous in India. Two Jesuits and two Japanese who had been converted at Goa, headed by Xavier, landed at Kagoshima in 1549. Xavier did not have great success, and in a short time left Japan disheartened. He had, however, inspired others who followed him, and their success was amazingly great.
The success of the Jesuit missionaries soon attracted the attention of the authorities. Organtin, a Jesuit missionary in Kioto, writing of his experiences, says that he was asked his name and why he had come to Japan. He replied that he was the Padre Organtin and had come to spread religion. He was told that he could not be allowed at once to spread his religion, but would be informed later on. Nobunaga accordingly took counsel with his retainers as to whether he would allow Christianity to be preached or not. One of these strongly advised not to do so, on the ground that there were already enough religions in the country, but Nobunaga replied that Buddhism had been introduced from abroad and had done good in the country, and he therefore did not see why Christianity should not be granted a trial. Organtin was consequently allowed to erect a church and to send for others of his order, who, when they came, were found to be like him in appearance. Their plan of action was to care for the sick, and so prepare the way for the reception of Christianity, and then to convert every one and make the thirty-six provinces of Japan subject to Portugal. In this last clause we have an explanation of the policy which the Japanese government ultimately adopted towards Christianity and all foreign innovations. Within five years after Xavier visited Kioto, seven churches were established in the vicinity of the city itself, while scores of Christian communities had sprung up in the south-west. In 1581 there were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand native Christians.
In 1583 an embassy of four young noblemen was dispatched by the Christian daimios to the pope to declare themselves vassals of the Holy See. They returned after eight years, having had audience of Phillip II. of Spain, and kissed the feet of the pope at Rome. They brought with them seventeen Jesuit missionaries, an important addition to the list of religious instructors. Spanish mendicant friars from the Philippine Islands, with Dominicans and Augustinians, also flocked into the country, teaching and zealously proselyting. The number of “Christians” at the time of the highest success of the missionaries in Japan was, according to their own figures six hundred thousand, a number that seems to be no exaggeration if quantity and not quality are considered. The Japanese less accurately set down a total of two million nominal adherents to the Christian sects. Among the converts were several princes, large numbers of lords, and gentlemen in high official positions, and beside generals of the army and admirals of the navy. Churches and chapels were numbered by the thousand, and in some provinces crosses and Christian shrines were as numerous as the kindred evidences of Buddhism had been before. The methods of the Jesuits appealed to the Japanese, as did the forms and symbols of the faith, but the Jesuits began to attack most violently the character of the native priests, and to incite their converts to insult their gods, burn the idols and desecrate the old shrines.
As the different orders, Jesuits, Franciscans and Augustinians increased, they began to clash. Political and religious war was almost universal in Europe at the same time, and the quarrels of the various nationalities followed the buccaneers, pirates, traders and missionaries to the distant seas of Japan. All the foreigners, but especially Portuguese, then were slave traders, and thousands of Japanese were bought and sold and shipped to China and the Philippines. The sea ports of Hirado and Nagasaki were the resorts of the lowest class of adventurers of all European nations, and the result was a continuous series of uproars, broils and murders among the foreigners. Such a picture of foreign influence and of Christianity as the Japanese saw it was not calculated to make a permanently favorable impression on the Japanese mind.
Latterly Nobunaga had somewhat repented of the favor he had shown to the new religion, though his death occurred before his dissatisfaction had manifested itself in any active repression. Hideyoshi had never been well disposed to Christianity, but other matters prevented him from at once meddling with the policy of his predecessors. In 1588 he ventured to issue an edict commanding the missionaries to assemble at Hirado, an island off the west coast of Kiushiu and prepared to leave Japan, and the missionaries obeyed, but as the edict was not enforced they again returned to the work of evangelization in private as vigorously as ever, averaging ten thousand converts a year. The Spanish mendicant friars pouring in from the Philippines, openly defied Japanese laws. This aroused Hideyoshi’s attention and his decree of expulsion was renewed. Some of the churches were burned. In 1596 six Franciscan and three Jesuit priests with seventeen Japanese converts were taken to Nagasaki and there burned.
When Hideyoshi died, affairs seemed to take a more favorable turn, but only for a few years. Iyeyasu was as much opposed to Christianity as Hideyoshi, and his hatred of the new religion was intensified by his partiality for Buddhism. The new daimios, carrying the policy of their predecessors as taught them by the Jesuits, but reversing its direction, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel them to renounce their faith. The native converts resisted, even to blood and the taking up of arms. The idea of armed rebellion among the farmers was something so wholly new that Iyeyasu suspected foreign instigation. He became more vigilant as his suspicions increased, and resolving to crush this spirit of independence and intimidate the foreign emissaries, met every outbreak with bloody reprisals.
Iyeyasu issued a decree of expulsion against the missionaries in 1600, but the decree was not at once carried into effect. The date of the first arrival in Japan of Dutch merchants was also 1600. They settled in the island of Hirado. In 1606 an edict from Yeddo forbade the exercise of the Christian religion, but an outward show of obedience warded off active persecution. Four years later the Spanish friars again aroused the wrath of the government by defying its commands and exhorting the native converts to do likewise. In 1611 Iyeyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long suspected, the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits and hundreds of native priests were embarked by force on board junks and sent out of the country. The next year the shogun pushed matters to an extreme with Hideyori, who was entertaining some Jesuit priests, and laid siege to the castle of Ozaka. A battle of unusual ferocity and bloody slaughter raged, ending in the burning of the citadel and the total defeat and death of Hideyori and thousands of his followers. The Jesuit fathers say that one hundred thousand men perished in this brief war.
The exiled foreign friars kept secretly returning, and the shogun pronounced sentence of death against any foreign priest found in the country. Iyemitsu, the next shogun, restricted all foreign commerce in Nagasaki and Hirado; all Japanese were forbidden to leave the country on pain of death. Any European vessel approaching the coast was at once to be referred to Nagasaki, whence it was to be sent home; the whole crew of any junk in which a missionary should reach Japanese shores were to be put to death; and the better to remove all temptation to go abroad, it was decreed that no ships should be constructed above a certain size and with other than the open sterns of coasting vessels.
Fire and sword were used to extirpate Christianity and to paganize the same people who in their youth were Christianized by the same means. Thousands of the native converts fled to China, Formosa and the Philippines. The Christians suffered all sorts of persecutions and tortures that savage ingenuity could devise. Yet few of the natives quailed or renounced their faith. They calmly let the fire of wood, cleft from the crosses before which they once prayed, consume[prayed, consume] them. Mothers carried their babes to the fire or the edge of the precipice rather than leave them behind to be educated in pagan faith. If any one doubt the sincerity and fervor of the Christian converts of to-day, or the ability of the Japanese to accept a higher form of faith, or their willingness to suffer for what they believe, he has but to read the accounts of various witnesses to the fortitude of the Japanese Christians of the seventeenth century.
JAPANESE BELL TOWERS.
The persecution reached its climax in the tragedy of Shimabara in 1637. The Christians arose in arms by tens of thousands, seized an old castle, repaired it and fortified it, and raised the flag of rebellion. The armies of veterans sent to besiege it expected an easy victory, and sneered at the idea of having any difficulty in subduing these farmers and peasants. It took two months by land and water, however, of constant attack before the fort was reduced, and the victory was finally gained only with the aid of Dutch cannon furnished under compulsion by the traders of Deshima. After great slaughter the intrepid garrison surrendered, and then began the massacre of thirty-seven thousand Christians. Many of them were hurled into the sea from the top of the island rock of Takaboko-shima, by the Dutch named Pappenberg, in the harbor of Nagasaki.
IMAGE OF BUDDHA.
The result of this series of events was that the favorable policy adopted by Iyeyasu in regard to foreign trade was completely reversed. No foreigners were allowed to set foot on the soil of Japan, except Chinese and a few Dutch merchants. The Dutch gained the privilege of residing in confinement on the little island of Deshima, a piece of made land in the harbor of Nagasaki. Here under degrading restrictions and constant surveillance lived less than a score of Hollanders, who were required every year to send a representative to Yeddo to do homage to the shogun. They were allowed one ship per annum to come from the Dutch East Indies for the exchange of the commodities of Japan for those of Holland.
JAPANESE SAMURAI OR WARRIOR OF THE OLD TIME.
Says Doctor Griffis in his study of this era of Japanese history, “After nearly a hundred years of Christianity and foreign intercourse, the only apparent results of this contact with another religion and civilization were the adoption of gunpowder and fire-arms as weapons, the use of tobacco and the habit of smoking, the making of sponge cake, the naturalization into the language of a few foreign words, the introduction of new and strange forms of disease, among which the Japanese count the scourge of the venereal virus, and the permanent addition to that catalogue of terrors which priest and magistrate in Asiatic countries ever hold as welcome, to overawe the herd. For centuries the mention of that name would bate the breath, blanch the cheek and smite with fear as with an earthquake shock. It was the synonym[synonym] of sorcery, sedition, and all that was hostile to the purity of the home and the peace of society. All over the empire, in every city, town, village and hamlet; by the roadside, ferry or mountain pass; at every entrance to the capitol, stood the public notice boards on which with prohibitions against the great crimes that disturbed the relations of society’s government was one tablet written with a deeper brand of guilt, with a more hideous memory of blood, with a more awful terror of torture, than when the like superscription was affixed at the top of a cross that stood between two thieves on a little hill outside Jerusalem. Its daily and familiar sight startled ever and anon the peasants who clasped hands and uttered a fresh prayer; the Bonze, or Buddhist priest, to add new venom to his maledictions; the magistrate to shake his head; and to the mother a ready word to hush the crying of her fretful babe. That name was Christ. So thoroughly was Christianity or the “corrupt sect” supposed[supposed] to be eradicated before the end of the seventeenth century, that its existence was historical, remembered only as an awful scar on the national memory. No vestiges were supposed to be left of it, and no knowledge of its tenets was held save by a very few scholars in Yeddo, trained experts who were kept as a sort of spiritual blood hounds to scent out the adherents of the accursed creed. It was left to our day since the recent opening of Japan, for them to discover that a mighty fire had been smoldering for over two centuries beneath the ashes of persecutions. As late as 1829 seven persons, six men and an old woman, were crucified in Ozaka on suspicion of being Christians and communicating with foreigners. When the French brethren of the Mission Apostolique of Paris came to Nagasaki in 1860, they found in the villages around them over ten thousand people who held the faith of their fathers of the seventeenth century.”[century.”]
The Portuguese were not the only race to attempt to open a permanent trade with Japan. Captain John Saris, with three ships, left England in April, 1611, with letters from King James I. to the “Emperor” (shogun) of Japan. Landing at Hirado he was well received, and established a factory in charge of Richard Cocks. The captain and a number of the party visited Yeddo and other cities and obtained from the shogun a treaty defining the privileges of trade, and signed Minamoto Iyeyasu. After a tour of three months Saris arrived at Hirado again, having visited Kioto, where he saw the splendid Christian churches and Jesuit palaces. After discouraging attempts to open a trade with Siam, Corea and China, and hostilities having broken out between them and the Dutch, the English abandoned the project of permanent trade with Japan, and all subsequent attempts to reopen it failed.
JAPANESE GENERAL OF THE OLD TIME.
(From a Native Drawing.)
Will Adams, who was an English pilot, and the first of his nation in Japan, arrived in 1607 and lived in Yeddo till he died thirteen years later. He rose into favor with the shoguns and the people by the sheer force of a manly, honest character. His knowledge of shipbuilding, mathematics, and foreign affairs made him a very useful man. Although treated with kindness and honor, he was not allowed to leave Japan. He had a wife and daughter in England. Adams had a son and daughter born to him in Japan, and there are still living Japanese who claim descent from him. One of the streets of Yeddo was named after him, and the people of that street still hold an annual celebration on the fifteenth of June in his honor.
The history of the two centuries and a half that followed the triumphs of Iyeyasu is that of profound peace and stern isolation. We must pass rapidly in review of them. This great shogun took pains to arrange the empire after the appointment to the office, in such a way that the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, the dynasty which he founded, should have strictest power and most certain descent. His sons and daughters were married where they would be most powerful in influence with the great families of daimios. It must not be forgotten that Iyeyasu and his successor were both in theory and in reality vassals of the emperor, though they assumed protection of the imperial person. Neither the shogun nor the daimios were acknowledged at Kioto as nobles of the empire. The lowest kuge, or noble, was above the shogun in rank. The shogun could obtain his appointment only from the mikado. He was simply the most powerful among the daimios, who had won that pre-eminence by the sword, and who by wealth and power and a skillfully wrought plan of division of land among the other daimios was able to rule.
JAPANESE BRIDGE.
In 1600 and the years following, Iyeyasu employed an army of three hundred thousand laborers in Yeddo improving and building the city. Before the end of the century, Yeddo had a population of more than half a million, but it never did have, as the Hollanders guessed and the old text books told us, two million five hundred thousand souls. Outside of Yeddo the strength of the great unifier was spent on public roads and highways, post stations, bridges, castles and mines. He spent the last years of his life engaged in erasing the scars of war by his policy of conciliation, securing the triumphs of peace, perfecting his plans for fixing in stability a system of government, and in collecting books and manuscripts. He bequeathed his code of laws to his chief retainers, and advised his sons to govern in the spirit of kindness. He died on the eighth of March, 1616.
The grandson of Iyeyasu, Iyemitsu, was another great shogun, and it was he who established the rule that all the daimios should visit and reside in Yeddo during half the year. Gradually these rules became more and more restrictive, until the guests became mere vassals. Their wives and children were kept as hostages in Yeddo. During his rule the Christian insurrection and massacre at Shimabara took place. Yeddo was vastly improved, with aqueducts, fire watch towers, the establishment of mints, weights and measures. A general survey of the empire was executed; maps of various provinces and plans of the daimios’ castles were made; the councils called Hiojo-sho (discussion and decision), and Wakadoshiyori (assembly of elders), were established and Corean envoys received. The height of pride and ambition which this shogun had already reached, is seen in the fact that in a letter of reply to Corea he is referred to as Tai Kun, (“Tycoon”), a title never conferred by the mikado on any one, nor had Iyemitsu any legal right to it. It was assumed in a sense honorary or meaningless to any Japanese, unless highly jealous of the mikado’s sovereignty, and was intended to overawe the Coreans. The approximate interpretation of it is “great ruler.”
Under the strong rule of the Tokugawa shoguns, therefore, the long distracted Japanese empire at length enjoyed two-and-a-half centuries of peace and prosperity. The innate love of art, literature, and education, which almost constant warfare had prevented from duly developing among the people, had now an opportunity of producing fruit. And as it had shown itself in former intervals of rest, so was it now. Under the patronage of Iyeyasu was composed the Dai Nihon Shi, the first detailed history of Japan. Tsunayoshi, his successor, 1681 to 1709, founded at Seido a Confucian university, and was such an enthusiast for literature that he used to assemble the princes and high officials about him and expound to them passages from the Chinese classics. Yoshimune, another shogun, was much interested in astronomy and other branches of science, beside doing much to improve agriculture. Legal matters also engaged his attention; he altered Iyeyasu’s policy so far as to publish a revised criminal code, and improved the administration of the law, forbidding the use of torture except in cases where there was flagrant proof of guilt. He built an astronomical observatory at Kanda and established at his court a professorship of Chinese literature.
Iyenori, shogun from 1787 to 1838, threw the classes of the Confucian university open to the public. Every body from the nobility down to the masses of the people began to appreciate literary studies. Maritime commerce within the limits of the four seas was encouraged by the shogun’s government, regular service of junks being established between the principal ports. Nor must it be forgotten that to the Tokugawas is due the foundation of the great modern city of Yeddo with its vast fortifications and its triumphs of art in the shrines of Shiba and Uyeno. It was at this period too that the matchless shrines of Nikko were reared in memory of the greatness of Iyeyasu and Iyemitsu. The successors of the former, the shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty, fourteen in all, were with one exception buried alternately in the cemeteries of Zozoji and Toyeizan, in the city districts of Shiba and Uyeno.
But throughout all this period of peace and progress the light of the outer world was excluded. The people made the best use of the light they had, but after all it was but dim. The learning by rote of thousands of Chinese characters, and the acquisition of skill in the composition of Chinese and Japanese verse, were little worthy to be the highest literary attainments possible to the most aspiring of the youth of Japan. In the domain of art there was more that was inviting, but scientific knowledge was tantalizingly meagre and that little was overlaid with Chinese absurdities. When we consider that the isolation of the country was due to no spirit of exclusiveness in the national character, that indeed it was the result of a policy that actually went against the grain of the people, how many restless spirits must there have been during these long years, who kept longing for more light. Fortunately there was one little chink at Deshima, in the harbor at Nagasaki, and of this some of the more earnest were able to take advantage. Many instances are recorded and there must be many more of which we can know nothing, of Japanese students displaying the truest heroism in surmounting the difficulties that lay in the way of their acquiring foreign knowledge. Let us now see how there came at length an unsettled dawn, and after the clouds of this had cleared, a dazzling inpouring of the light.
It was the American Union which opened the door of Japan to western civilization. It had been desired by all of the European nations, as well as by the United States, to obtain access to Japanese ports. Supplies were frequently needed, particularly water and coal, but no distress was ever considered a sufficient excuse for the Japanese to permit the landing of a foreign vessel’s crew. Shipwrecked sailors frequently passed through seasons of great trial and danger, before they were restored to their own people. Even Japanese sailors who were shipwrecked on other shores, or carried out to sea, were refused re-admission to their own country when rescued by foreigners.
Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry of the American navy, urged upon President Millard Fillmore the necessity and possibility of making some sort of a treaty with the exclusive empire. It was decided that the most effective way to advance this desire was to sail into the bay of Yeddo with a squadron sufficient to command respect. A fleet was assigned to the undertaking, under the command of Perry, and the American vessels sailed away to the Orient to rendezvous at the chief city of the Liu Kiu islands, Napha. From Napha the fleet sailed for Japan, the Susquehanna, the flagship, the advance of the line of the ships of seventeen nations.
BAPTISM OF BUDDHA.
It was on the seventh day of July, 1853, under a sky and over a sea of perfect calm, that the four American warships appeared off Uraga in the Bay of Yeddo. Without delay the officials of Uraga emphatically notified the “barbarian” envoy that he must go to Nagasaki, where all business with foreigners had to be done. The barbarian refused to go. He informed the messengers that he was the bearer of a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan; that he had sailed as near as possible to the destination of the letter and would now deliver it and continue it on its way by land, but he would not retrace his path until the letter was delivered. The shogun Iyeyoshi on receiving information of such decision, was exceedingly troubled and called his officials to a council. Alarm was wide spread, and it was ordered that strict watch should be kept along the shore to prevent the barbarian vessels from committing acts of violence. During the eight days while Commodore Perry’s fleet was waiting in the Bay of Yeddo, the boats of his ships were busily engaged in taking soundings and surveying the shores and the anchorage. No sailors were permitted to land, and no natives were molested. Every effort was made to indicate to the Japanese the desire for a peaceful friendship.
A learned Chinese scholar was sent by the shogun to Uraga, who acted as an official and eminent interpreter in an interview with the American envoy. Continued councils were called by the shogun, not only of his chief officers but of the daimios, the nobles, and the retired nobles of Yeddo. The citizens of Yeddo and the surrounding villages were in great tumult, fearing that there would be a war, for which the country was totally unprepared. Meanwhile the envoy was impatiently demanding an answer. At last, after eight days, the patience and the impatience, combined with the demonstrations made by the vessels of the fleet, which were highly impressive to the Japanese who had never seen a steamboat, won success for Commodore Perry’s message. A high Japanese commissioner came to Uraga, prepared a magnificent pavilion for the ceremonies, and announced himself ready to receive the letter to the emperor. With great pomp and ceremony the Americans landed and in this pavilion with proper formalities, delivered the letter and presents from the president. Then having, for the first time in history, gained several important points of etiquette in a country where etiquette was more than law or morals, the splendid diplomat and warrior Perry sailed away with his fleet July 17, 1853.
It was in response to a temporizing policy on the part of Japan, and to the good judgment and careful decision of Commodore Perry, that the fleet sailed away without demanding an immediate reply to his letter. The American envoy was informed that in a matter of so much importance a decision could not be at once reached, and that if he now left, he would on his return get a definite answer. No wonder there was commotion. The nineteenth century had come suddenly into contact with the fourteenth. The spirit of commerce and the spirit of feudalism, two great but conflicting forces, met in their full development, and the result was necessarily a convulsion. We are hardly surprised to hear that the shogun died before Commodore Perry’s return, or that during the next few years the land was harassed by earthquakes and pestilences.
Perry’s second appearance was in February, 1854, this time with a much larger fleet. A hot debate took place in the shogun’s council as to the answer that should be given. The old daimio of Mito, the head of one of the three families, which, forming the Tokugawa clan, furnished the occupants of the shogunate, wanted to fight and settle the question once for all. “At first,” he said, “they will give us philosophical instruments, machinery and other curiosities; will take ignorant people in; and trade being their chief object they will manage to impoverish the country, after which they will treat us just as they like, perhaps behave with the greatest rudeness and insult us, and end by swallowing up Japan. If we do not drive them away now we shall never have another opportunity.”
Others gave contrary advice, saying, “If we try to drive them away they will immediately commence hostilities, and then we shall be obliged to fight. If we once get into a dispute we shall have an enemy to fight who will not be easily disposed of. He does not care how long he will have to spend over it, but he will come with myriads of men-of-war and surround our shores completely; however large a number of ships we might destroy, he is so accustomed to that sort of thing that he would not care in the least. In time the country would be put to an immense expense and the people plunged into misery. Rather than allow this, as we are not the equals of foreigners in the mechanical arts, let us have intercourse with foreign countries, learn their drill and tactics, and when we have made the nation as united as one family, we shall be able to go abroad and give lands in foreign countries to those who have distinguished themselves in battle.”
The latter view carried and a treaty with the United States was signed on the thirty-first of March, 1854. Now be it observed that the shogun did this without the sanction of the mikado, whom indeed he had never yet consulted on the matter, and that he subscribed himself Tai Kun, (“Tycoon,”) or great ruler, a title to which he had no right and which if it meant anything at all involved an assumption of the authority of supreme ruler in the empire. This was the view naturally taken by Perry and by the ambassadors from European countries who a few years later obtained treaties with Japan. They were under the impression that they were dealing with the emperor; and hearing of the existence of another potentate living in an inland city, surrounded with a halo of national veneration, they conceived the plausible but erroneous theory that the tycoon was the temporal sovereign, and this mysterious mikado the spiritual sovereign of the country. They little dreamed that the so-called tycoon was no sovereign at all, and that consequently the treaties which he signed had no legal validity.
The shogun could ill afford thus to lay himself open to the charge of treason. From the first there had been a certain class of daimios who had never heartily submitted to the Tokugawa administration. The principal clans which thus submitted to the regime under protest against what they considered a usurpation, an encroachment on the authority of the mikado, whom alone they recognized as the divinely appointed ruler of Japan, were those of Satsuma, Choshiu, and Tosa. As the years of peace cast their spell over the nation, making the people forgetful of war and transforming the descendants of Iyeyasu into luxurious idlers, much more like impotent mikados than successors of the energetic soldier and law-giver, their hopes more and more arose that an opportunity would be given them to overthrow the shogunate and bring about the unification of the empire at the hands of the mikado. Their time had now come. The shogun was enervated and he had so far forgotten himself as to open the country to foreign trade, without the sanction of the “Son of Heaven.” It was this illegal act of the shogun that precipitated the confusion, violence and disaster of the next few years, reaching ultimately in 1868 to the complete overthrow of his own power and the restoration of the mikado to his rightful position as actual as well as nominal ruler of the empire.
Fearing the consequences of the illegal act into which he had been driven, the shogun lost no time in sending messengers to Kioto to inform the mikado of what had happened and seek his sanction to the policy adopted. It was plead in excuse for the course of conduct, that affairs had reached such a condition that the shogun was driven to sign the treaty. The emperor in great agitation summoned a council. The decision was unanimous against the shogun’s action, and the messengers were informed that no sanction could be given to the treaty. The next important step was not taken until July, 1858, when Lord Elgin arrived with propositions on the part of Great Britain for a treaty of amity and commerce. He was unaccompanied by any armed force, and brought a steam yacht as a present from Queen Victoria to the tycoon of Japan.
A few months later treaties were entered into with all the leading powers of Europe, but if there was a political lull between 1854 and 1858, the poor Japanese had distractions of a very different kind. From a violent earthquake and consequent conflagration, one hundred and four thousand of the inhabitants of Yeddo lost their lives. A terrific storm swept away one hundred thousand more, and in a visitation of cholera thirty thousand persons perished in Yeddo alone. Moreover, just when the treaties were being signed, the shogun Iyesada died, “as if,” says Sir R. Alcock, “a further victim was required for immolation on the altar of the outraged gods of Japan.”
The political tempest that had been gathering now swept over the nation. For the next ten years there was so much disorder, intrigue, and bloodshed, that Japan became among the western nations a byword for treachery and assassination. Defenseless foreigners were cut down in the streets of Yeddo and Yokohama and even in the legations. Twice was the British legation attacked, on one of the occasions being taken by storm and held for a time by a band of free-lances. No foreigner’s life was safe. Even when out on the most trivial errand, every foreign resident was accompanied by an armed escort furnished by the shogun’s government. It is needless to give an account of all the different assassinations, successful or attempted, which darkened the period. The secretary to the American legation was cut down near Shiba, Yeddo, when returning from the Prussian legation with an armed escort; a Japanese interpreter attached to the British legation was fatally stabbed in broad daylight while standing at the legation flagstaff; one of the guard at the same legation murdered two Englishmen in the garden and then committed suicide; an Englishman was cut down on the highway between Yokohama and Yeddo by certain retainers of the daimio of Satsuma, whose procession he had unwittingly crossed on horseback; and these were not all.
It is not a satisfactory answer to say that hatred of foreigners was the leading motive that inspired all these acts of violence. This was no doubt more or less involved, but the true explanation is to be found in the hostility of the mikado’s partisans to the shogun’s government. All possible means were taken to thwart the shogun and bring him into complications with the ambassadors at his court. Every attack on a foreigner brought fresh trouble upon the Yeddo government and hastened its collapse. Long before foreigners arrived, the seeds of revolution had sprouted and their growth was showing above the soil. It is to the state of political parties and of feudalism at this epoch in Japanese history, and not to mere ill will against foreigners, that this policy of intrigue and assassination must be ascribed.
It would take too long to discuss all the complications of this period and to inquire, for instance, how far when the Japanese government failed to arrest and execute the murderer of Mr. Richardson, the British were justified in demanding an indemnity of $500,000 from the shogun and $125,000 from the daimio of Satsuma, or in enforcing their demands with a threatened bombardment of Yeddo and an actual bombardment of Kagoshima. It is out of our scope here to inquire into the shelling of the batteries of the daimio of Choshiu, at Shimonoseki, in turn by the Americans, British, French and Dutch, the men of Choshiu having fired upon some Dutch, American, and French vessels that had entered the straits against the prohibition of the Japanese. An indemnity of $3,000,000 was also exacted and distributed among these nations.
Such stern measures doubtless appeared to the foreign ambassadors necessary to prevent the expulsion or even the utter extermination of foreigners. Whether their policy was mistaken or not, certain it is that they can have had no adequate conception of the difficulties with which the shogun had to contend. The position of that ruler was one of such distraction as might well evoke for him the pity of every disinterested onlooker. Do as he would, he could not escape trouble; on the one side were the mikado’s partisans ever growing in power and in determination to crush him, and on the other were the equally irresistible foreigners with their impatient demands and their alarming threats. He was as helpless as a man between a wall of rock and an advancing tide.
The internal difficulties of the country were increased by dissensions which broke out in the imperial court. The clans of Satsuma and Choshiu had been summoned to Kioto to preserve order. For some reason the former were relieved of this duty, or rather privilege, and it therefore devolved exclusively upon the Choshiu men. Taking advantage of their position, the Choshiu men persuaded the mikado to undertake a progress to the province of Yamato, there to proclaim his intention of taking the field against foreigners; but this proposal roused the jealousy of the other clans at the imperial court, as they feared that the men of Choshiu were planning to obtain possession of the mikado’s person and thus acquire pre-eminence. The intended expedition was abandoned, and the men of Choshiu, accompanied by Sanjo, afterward prime minister of the reformed government, and six other nobles who had supported them, were banished from Kioto.
The ill feeling thus occasioned between Choshiu and Satsuma, was fomented by an unfortunate incident which occurred at Shimonoseki early in 1864. The former clan recklessly fired upon a vessel, which being of European build they mistook for a foreign one, but which really belonged to Satsuma. Thus Choshiu was in disfavor both with the shogun and with the mikado, and in this year we have the strange spectacle of these two rulers leaguing their forces together for its punishment. August 20, 1864, the Choshiu men advanced upon Kioto, but were repulsed with much slaughter, only however after the greater part of the city had been destroyed by fire. The rebellion was not at once quelled; indeed the Choshiu samurai were proving themselves more than a match for the troops which the shogun had sent against them, when at length the imperial court ordered the fighting to be abandoned. Simultaneously with the Choshiu rebellion the shogun had to meet an insurrection by the daimio of Mito, in the east. His troubles no doubt hastened his death, which took place at Osaka in September, 1866, shortly before the war against Choshiu terminated. Then there succeeded Keiki, the last of the shoguns.
It should be noted, however, that before this the mikado’s sanction had been obtained to the foreign treaties. In November, 1865, British, French, and Dutch squadrons came to anchor off Hiogo, of which the foreign settlement of Kobe is now a suburb, and sent letters to Kioto demanding the imperial consent. The nearness of such an armed force was too great an argument to be withstood, and the demand was granted. Little more than a year after his accession to the shogunate Keiki resigned. In doing so he proved himself capable of duly appreciating the national situation. Now that foreigners had been admitted, it was more necessary than ever that the government should be strong, and this, it was seen, was impossible without the abolition of the old dual system. He had secured the mikado’s consent to the treaties, on the condition that they should be revised, and that Hiogo should never be opened as a port of foreign commerce.
But the end had not yet come. On the same day when the shogunate was abolished, January 3, 1868, the forces friendly to the Tokagawas were dismissed from Kioto, and the guardianship of the imperial palace was committed to the clans of Satsuma, Tosa, and Geishiu. This measure gave Keiki great offense, and availing himself of a former order of the court which directed him to continue the conduct of affairs, he marched with his retainers and friends to Ozaka and sent a request to the mikado that all Satsuma men who had any share in the government should be dismissed. To this the court would not consent, and Keiki marched against Kioto with a force of thirty thousand men, his declared object being to remove from the mikado his bad counselors. A desperate engagement took place at Fushimi, in which the victory was with the loyalists. But this was only the beginning of a short but sharp civil war, of which the principal fighting was in the regions between Yeddo and Nikko.
The restoration was at last complete. Proclamation was made “to sovereigns of all foreign nations and their subjects, that permission had been granted to the shogun Yoshinobu, or Keiki, to return the governing power in accordance with his own request;” and the manifesto continued: “henceforward we shall exercise supreme authority both in the internal and external affairs of the country. Consequently the title of emperor should be substituted for that of tycoon which had been hitherto employed in the treaties.” Appended were the seal of Dai Nippon, and the signature of Mutsuhito, this being the first occasion in Japanese history on which the name of an emperor had appeared during his lifetime.
With the triumph of the imperial party one might have expected a return to the old policy of isolation. There can be no doubt that when the Satsuma, Choshiu, and other southern clans commenced their agitation for the abolition of the shogunate, their ideas with regard to foreign intercourse were decidedly retrogressive. But after all, the leading motive which inspired them was dissatisfaction with the semi-imperial position occupied by the upstart Tokugawas; to this their opposition to foreigners was quite secondary. It so happened that the Tokugawa shoguns got involved with foreigners, and it was so much the worse for the foreigners. To go deeper, what was at the bottom of this desire was the overthrow of the shogunate. Doubtless their patriotism, what they had at heart, was the highest welfare of their country, and this they believed impossible without its unification. Their primary motive then, being patriotism, we need not be surprised that they were willing to entertain the notion that perhaps after all the prosperity of their country might best be insured by the adoption of a policy of free foreign intercourse. This idea more and more commended itself, until it became a conviction; and when they got into power they astonished the world by the thoroughness with which they broke loose from the old traditions and entered upon a policy of enlightened reformation. To the political and social revolution which accompanied the restoration of the mikado in 1868, there has been no parallel in the history of mankind.
WOMAN OF COURT OF KIOTO.
One of the first acts of the mikado after the restoration, was to assemble the kuges and daimios and make oath before them “that a deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be decided upon by public opinion; that impartiality and justice should form the basis of his action; and that intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world in order to establish the foundations of the empire.” In the mid-summer of 1868, the mikado, recognizing Yeddo as really the center of the nation’s life, made it the capital[capital] of the empire and transferred his court thither; but the name Yeddo, being distasteful on account of its associations with the shogunate, was abolished, and the city renamed Tokio, or “Eastern Capital.” At the same time the ancient capital Kioto, received the new name of Saikio or “Western Capital.” For the creation of a central administration, however, more was necessary than the abolition of the shogunate and the establishment of the mikado’s authority. The great fabric of feudalism still remained intact. Within his own territory each daimio was practically an independent sovereign, taxing his subjects as he saw fit, often issuing his own currency, and sometimes even granting passports so as to control intercourse with neighboring provinces. Here was a formidable barrier to the consolidation of the empire. But the reformers had the courage and the tact necessary to remove it.
The first step towards the above revolution was taken in 1869, when the daimios of Satsuma, Choshiu, Hizen, and Tosa addressed a memorial to the mikado requesting his authorization for the resignation of their fiefs into his hands. Other nobles followed their example, and the consequence was the acceptance by the mikado of control over the land and revenues of the different provinces, the names of the clans however being still preserved, and the daimios allowed to remain over them as governors, each with one-tenth of the former assessment of his territory as rental. By this arrangement the evil of too suddenly terminating the relation between the clans and their lords was sought to be avoided, but it was only temporary; in 1871 the clan system was totally abolished, and the country redivided for administrative purposes, with officers chosen irrespectively of hereditary rank or clan connection.
But the payment of hereditary pensions and allowances of the ex-daimios and ex-samurai proved such a drain upon the national resources that in 1876 the reformed government found it necessary to compulsorily convert them into capital sums. The rate of commutation varied from five years’ purchase in the case of the largest pensions, to fourteen years’ in that of the smallest. The number of the pensioners with whom they had thus to deal was three hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and twenty-eight. The act of the daimios in thus suppressing themselves looks at first sight like a grand act of self-sacrifice, as we are not accustomed to see landed proprietors manifesting such disinterestedness for the patriotic object of advancing their country’s good. But the vast majority of daimios had come to be mere idlers, as the greater mikado had been. Their territories were governed by the more able and energetic of their retainers, and it was a number of these men that had most influence in bringing about the restoration of the mikado’s authority. Intense patriots, they saw that the advancement of their country could not be realized without its unification, and at the same time they cannot but have preferred a larger scope for their talents, which service immediately under the mikado would give them. From being ministers of their provincial governments, they aspired to be ministers of the imperial government. They were successful; and their lords, who had all along been accustomed to yield to their advice quite cheerfully, acquiesced when asked for the good of the empire to give up their fiefs to the mikado. One result of this is that while most of the ex-daimios have retired into private life, the country is now governed almost exclusively by ex-samurai. Such sweeping changes were not to be accomplished without rousing opposition and even rebellion. The government incurred much risk in interfering with the ancient privileges of the samurai. It is not surprising that several rebellions had to be put down during the years immediately succeeding 1868.
Dr. William Elliot Griffis, in his exhaustive and interesting work, “The Mikado’s Empire,” discusses at length the change of Japan from feudalism to its present condition, the abolition of the shogunate, and the rebellions that followed that event. He declares that popular impression to be wrong which suggests that the immediate cause of the fall of the shogun’s government, the restoration of the mikado to supreme power, and the abolition of the dual and feudal systems, was the presence of foreigners on the soil of Japan. The foreigners and their ideas were the occasion, not the cause, of the destruction of the dual system of government. Their presence served merely to hasten what was already inevitable.
The history of Japan from the abolition of feudalism in 1871 up to the present time, is a record of advance in all the arts of western civilization. The mikado, Mutsuhito, has shown himself to be much more than a petty divinity, a real man. He has taken a firm stand in advocacy of the introduction of western customs, wherever they were improvements. The imperial navy, dockyards, and machine shops have been a pride to him. He has withdrawn himself from mediæval seclusion and assumed divinity, and has made himself accessible and visible to his subjects. He has placed the empress in a position like to that occupied by the consorts of European monarchs, and with her he has adopted European attire. In the latter part of June, 1872, the mikado left Tokio in the flagship of Admiral Akamatsu, and made a tour throughout the south and west of his empire. For the first time in twelve centuries the emperor of Japan moved freely and unveiled among his subjects.
CHINESE COOLIE.
Again in the same year Japan challenged the admiration of Christendom. The coolie trade, carried on by Portuguese at Macao, in China, between the local kidnappers and Peru and Cuba, had long existed in defiance of the Chinese government. Thousands of ignorant Chinese were yearly decoyed from Macao and shipped in sweltering shipholds, under the name of “passengers.” In Cuba and Peru their contracts were often broken, they were cruelly treated, and only a small portion of them returned alive to tell their wrongs. The Japanese government had with a fierce jealousy watched the beginning of such a traffic on their own shores. In the last days of the shogunate, coolie traders came to Japan to ship irresponsible hordes of Japanese coolies and women to the United States. To their everlasting shame, be it said some were Americans. Among the first things done by the mikado’s government after the restoration, was the sending of an official who effected the joyful delivery of these people and their return to their homes.
So the Japanese set to work to destroy this nefarious traffic. The Peruvian ship Maria Luz, loaded with Chinese, entered the port of Yokohama. Two fugitive coolies in succession swam to the English war ship Iron Duke. Hearing the piteous story of their wrongs, Mr. Watson, the British chargé d’affaires, called the attention of the Japanese authorities to these illegal acts in their waters. A protracted enquiry was instituted and the coolies landed. The Japanese refused to force them on board against their will, and later shipped them to China, a favor which was gratefully acknowledged by the Chinese government. This act of a pagan nation achieved a grand moral victory for the world and humanity. Within four years the coolie traffic, which was but another name for the slave trade, was abolished from the face of the earth, and the coolie prisons of Macao were in ruins. Yet the act of freeing the Chinese coolies in 1872 was done in the face of clamor and opposition, and a rain of protests from the foreign consuls, ministers, and a part of the press. Abuse and threats and diplomatic pressure were in vain. The Japanese never wavered, but marched straight to the duty before them, the liberation of the slaves. The British chargé and the American consul, Colonel Charles O. Shepherd, alone gave hearty support and unwavering sympathy to the right side.
JAPANESE GYMNASTS—KIOTO.
During the same year, 1872, two legations and three consulates were established abroad, and from that time forward the number has been increasing until the representatives of Japan’s government are found all over the world. Scores of daily newspapers and hundreds of weeklies have been furnishing the country with information and awakening thought. The editors are often men of culture or students returned from abroad.
The Corean war project had, in 1872, become popular in the cabinet and was the absorbing theme of the army and navy. During the Tokugawa period Corea had regularly sent embassies of homage and congratulation to Japan; but not relishing the change of affairs in 1868, disgusted at the foreignizing tendencies of the mikado’s government, incensed at Japan’s departure from Turanian ideals, and emboldened by the failure of the French and American expeditions, Corea sent insulting letters taunting Japan with slavish truckling to the foreign barbarians, declared herself an enemy, and challenged Japan to fight. About this time a Liu Kiu junk was wrecked on eastern Formosa. The crew was killed by the savages, and, it is said, eaten. The Liu Kiuans appealed to their tributary lords at Satsuma, who referred the matter to Tokio. English, Dutch, American, German, and Chinese ships have from time to time been wrecked on this cannibal coast, the terror of the commerce of Christendom. Their war ships vainly attempted to chastise the savages. Soyejima, with others, conceived the idea of occupying the coast, to rule the wild tribes, and of erecting light houses in the interests of commerce. China laid no claim to eastern Formosa, all trace of which was omitted from the maps of the “Middle Kingdom.” In the spring of 1873, Soyejima went to Peking and there, among other things granted him, was an audience with the Chinese emperor. He thus reaped the results of the diplomatic labors of half a century. The Japanese ambassador stood upright before the “Dragon Face” and the “Dragon Throne,” robed in the tight black dress-coat, trousers, and linen of western civilization, bearing the congratulations of the young mikado of the “Sunrise Kingdom” to the youthful emperor of the “Middle Kingdom.” In the Tsung-li Yamen, Chinese responsibility over eastern Formosa was disavowed, and the right of Japan to chastise the savages granted. A Japanese junk was wrecked on Formosa, and its crew stripped and plundered while Soyejima was absent in China. This event piled fresh fuel on the flames of the war feeling now popular even among the unarmed classes.
FORMOSAN TYPE.
Japan at this time had to struggle with opposition within and without, to every move in the direction of advancement in civilization. Says Griffis, “At home were the stolidly conservative peasantry backed by ignorance, superstition, priestcraft, and political hostility. On their own soil they were fronted by aggressive foreigners who studied all Japanese questions through the spectacles of dollars and cents and trade, and whose diplomatists too often made the principles of Shylock their system. Outside the Asiatic nations beheld with contempt, jealousy and alarm the departure of one of their number from Turanian ideas, principles, and civilization. China with ill-concealed anger, Corea with open defiance taunted Japan with servile submission to the ‘foreign devils.’
“For the first time the nation was represented to the world by an embassy at once august and plenipotentiary. It was not a squad of petty officials or local nobles going forth to kiss a toe, to play the part of figure-heads, or stool-pigeons, to beg the aliens to get out of Japan, to keep the scales on foreign eyes, to buy gun-boats, or to hire employees. A noble of highest rank, and blood of immemorial antiquity, with four cabinet ministers, set out to visit the courts of the fifteen nations having treaties with Dai Nippon. They were accompanied by commissioners representing every government department, sent to study and report upon the methods and resources of foreign civilizations. They arrived in Washington February 29, 1872, and for the first time in history a letter signed by the mikado was seen outside of Asia. It was presented by the ambassadors, robed in their ancient Yamato costume, to the President of the United States on the 4th of March, Mr. Arinori Mori acting as interpreter. The first president of the free republic, and the men who had elevated the eta to citizenship stood face to face in fraternal accord. The one hundred and twenty-third sovereign of an empire in its twenty-sixth centennial saluted the citizen ruler of a nation whose century aloe had not yet bloomed. On the 6th of March they were welcomed on the floor of Congress. This day marked the formal entrance of Japan upon the theater of universal history.”
In its subordinate objects the embassy was a signal success. Much was learned of Christendom. The results at home were the splendid series of reforms which mark the year 1872 as epochal. But in its prime object the embassy was an entire failure. One constant and supreme object was ever present, beyond amusement or thirst for knowledge. It was to ask that in the revision of the treaties the extra-territoriality clause be stricken out, that foreigners be made subject to the laws of Japan. The failure of the mission was predicted by all who knew the facts. From Washington to St. Petersburg point-blank refusal was made. No Christian governments would for a moment trust their people to pagan edicts and prisons. While Japan slandered Christianity by proclamations, imprisoned men for their beliefs, knew nothing of trial by jury, of the habeas corpus writ, or of modern jurisprudence; in short while Japan maintained the institutions of barbarism, they refused to recognize her as a peer among nations.
At home the watchword was progress. Public persecution for conscience' sake vanished. All the Christians torn from their homes and exiled and imprisoned in 1868 were set free and restored to their native villages. Education advanced rapidly, public decency was improved, and the standards of Christendom attempted.
While in Europe Iwakura and his companions in the embassy kept cognizant of home affairs. With eyes opened by all that they had seen abroad, mighty results, but of slow growth, they saw their country going too fast. Behind the war project lay an abyss of ruin. On their return the war scheme brought up in a cabinet meeting was rejected. The disappointment of the army was keen and that of expectant foreign contractors pitiable. The advocates of war among the cabinet ministers resigned and retired to private life. Assassins attacked Iwakura, but his injuries did not result fatally. The spirit of feudalism was against him.
On the 17th of January, the ministers who had resigned sent in a memorial praying for the establishment of a representative assembly in which the popular wish might be discussed. Their request was declined. It was officially declared that Japan was not ready for such institutions. Hizen, the home of one of the great clans of the coalition of 1868, was the chief seat of disaffection. With perhaps no evil intent, Eto, who had been the head of the department of justice, had returned to his home there and was followed by many of his clansmen. Scores of officials and men assembled with traitorous intent, and raised the cry of “On to Corea.” The rebellion was annihilated in ten days. A dozen ringleaders were sent to kneel before the blood pit. The national government was vindicated and sectionalism crushed.
ENTRANCE TO NAGASAKI HARBOR.
The Formosan affair was also brought to a conclusion. Thirteen hundred Japanese soldiers occupied the island for six months, conquering the savages wherever they met, building roads and fortifications. At last the Chinese government in shame began to urge their claims on Formosa and to declare the Japanese intruders. For a time war seemed inevitable. The man for the crisis was Okubo, a leader in the cabinet, the master spirit in crushing the rebellion, and now an ambassador at Peking. The result was that the Chinese paid in solid silver an indemnity of $700,000 and the Japanese disembarked. Japan single-handed, with no foreign sympathy, but with positive opposition, had in the interests of humanity rescued a coast from terror and placed it in a condition of safety. In the face of threatened war a nation having but one-tenth the population, area, or resources of China, had abated not a jot of its just demands nor flinched from battle. The righteousness of her cause was vindicated.
The Corean affair ended happily. In 1875 Kuroda Kiyotaka with men of war entered Corean waters. Patience, skill, and tact were crowned with success. On behalf of Japan a treaty of peace, friendship, and commerce was made between the two countries February 27, 1876. Japan thus peacefully opened this last of the hermit nations to the world.
The rebellions which we have mentioned were of a mild type compared with that which in 1877 shook the government to its foundations. In the limits of our space it is impossible to enter deeply into the causes of the Satsuma rebellion. Its leader, Saigo Takamori, was one of the most powerful members of the reformed government until 1873 when he resigned as some of his predecessors had done, indignant at the peace policy which was pursued. A veritable Cincinnatus, he seems to have won the hearts of all classes around him by the Spartan simplicity of his life and the affability of his manner, and there was none more able or more willing to come to the front when duty to his country called him. It is a thousand pities that such a genuine patriot should have sacrificed himself through a mistaken notion of duty. Ambition to maintain and extend the military fame of his country seems to have blinded him to all other more practical considerations. The policy of Okubo and the rest of the majority in the cabinet, with its regard for peace and material prosperity, was in his eyes unworthy of the warlike traditions of old Japan. But we cannot follow out the story of this famous rebellion—how Saigo established a private school in his native city of Kagoshima for the training of young Shizoku in military tactics, how the reports of the policy of the government more and more dissatisfied him, until a rumor that Okubo had sent policemen to Kagoshima to assassinate him precipitated the storm that had been brewing. This report was not supported by satisfactory evidence, although the Kagoshima authorities extorted a so-called confession from a policeman. Okubo was too noble to be guilty of such an act. It was only after eight months of hard fighting, during which victory swayed from one side to another, and the death of Saigo and his leading generals when surrounded at last like rats in a trap, and the expenditure of over forty million yen, that the much tried government could freely draw breath again. The people of Satsuma believe that Saigo’s spirit has taken up its abode in the planet Mars, and that his figure may be seen there when that star is in the ascendant.
By this time railways, telegraphs, lighthouse service, and a navy were well under construction in native works. Two national exhibitions were held, one in 1877 and the second in 1881; the latter particularly was a pretentious one and a great success. In 1879 Japan annexed the Liu Kiu islands, bringing their king to Tokio, there to live as a vassal, and reducing the islands to the position of a prefecture in spite of the warlike threats of China. In the same year occurred the visit to Japan of General Grant while he was on his tour around the world. The famous American was entertained most enthusiastically by the citizens of Tokio for some two weeks in July. The enthusiasm awakened by his visit among the citizens was remarkable. Arches and illuminations were on every hand for miles. The entertainment provided by the Japanese for their distinguished guests at any time is so unique when seen by western eyes that it is always impressive and delightful.