| PAGE | ||
| Introductory Letter | [ 6] | |
| I | The Invisible Top | [ 11] |
| II | Chinese Babies | [ 14] |
| III | The Children’s Home | [ 18] |
| IV | School Days | [ 23] |
| V | Girls | [ 30] |
| VI | Games and Riddles | [ 37] |
| VII | Stories and Rimes | [ 42] |
| VIII | Religion | [ 52] |
| IX | Festivals | [ 58] |
| X | Superstitions | [ 63] |
| XI | Reverence for Parents | [ 73] |
| XII | Faithfulness | [ 76] |
| XIII | The Cry of the Children | [ 80] |
| XIV | Ministering Children | [ 87] |
| XV | The Children’s King | [ 94] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| The Emperor of China | [ Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| Chinese Babies | [ 16] |
| Child leading Buffalo | [ 20] |
| Kindergarten Pupils | [ 28] |
| Children at Food and at Play | [ 40] |
| Going to visit his Idol Mother | [ 60] |
| Phœnix | [ 84] |
| Sunday School, Chinchew | [ 88] |
CHILDREN OF CHINA
CHAPTER I
THE INVISIBLE TOP
The beginning of the world, as it is described to Chinese boys and girls, is stranger than a fairy tale. First of all, according to the story, there was something called ‘khi’ which could not be seen, nor touched, but was everywhere. After a time this ‘khi’ began to turn round like a great invisible top. As it whirled round, the thicker part sank downwards and became the earth, whilst the thinner part rose upwards, growing clearer until it formed the sky, and so the heavens and the earth span themselves into being. Presently, for the story changes like a dream, there came a giant named Pwanku. For thousands of years the giant worked, splitting masses of rock with his mallet and chisel, until the sun, moon and stars could be seen through the openings which he had made. The heavens rose higher, the earth spread wider, and Pwanku himself grew six feet taller every day. When he died, his head became mountains, his breath wind, and his voice thunder; his veins changed into rivers, his body into the earth, his bones into rocks and his beard into the stars that stream across the night sky. But though all this is only ‘a suppose story’ of long ago, the first part of it is wonderfully like what wise men in our time have told us about the beginning of things.