“Let the Governors-General and Governors of Provinces examine the conditions in their jurisdictions, and devise means in conjunction with the Board of Finance for determining afresh, either by increasing or decreasing as the case may be, the allowances and rice money of territorial authorities and tax-collectors while on duty, together with the expenditure for travelling on the public service, and let the rates be published openly by proclamation, so that the speculations of clerks and Yamen runners may be abolished for ever.
“As regards the diversity of silver currency in the various provinces, and differences of touch, which give dishonest traders and market-dealers the opportunity for demanding discounts and profits off each transaction, grievous injury is inflicted thereby on all classes, and the Board of Finance is now commanded to issue stringent regulations forbidding such practices in the future, with the view that in a given number of years the national silver currency may become completely uniform.
“Until the new coinage has been minted in sufficient quantities, the dollar and subsidiary silver pieces in use in the provinces, as well as the sycee, may be used as before, for the time being, on the market; and Treasury payments may still be made in sycee for the present, but must year by year be diminished by the substitution of the new silver coinage. On these questions let the Board of Finance carefully consider the circumstances and take satisfactory steps for the execution of this measure.
“Let this Decree be generally circulated in all parts.
“Memorial of the Government Council (Hui I Cheng Wu Ch’u)
on the question of a Uniform National Currency.”
To return to our subject: we made our way along the shingly beach, covered with large loose boulders, past the meat-market, where goats stood ready to be converted into mutton “while you wait,” up to a broad platform of masonry, about twenty feet high, from which the trackers haul the boats up the rapid. They must have been certainly a quarter of a mile distant, and it takes about half-an-hour for some 60 or 100 men to get a heavy junk up the rapid—about 100 yards. We waited our turn from 7.30 A.M. till 5.30 P.M., and there were only thirteen boats ahead of us.
We found we had a short walk to the red-boat, but the men were so nice, and had rigged up the awning for us, and were so anxious that we should be comfortable and rest, that although we felt exasperated at having left our boat and our meal so unnecessarily early, we could not be angry with them. The red-boat was exquisitely clean, and the men clever, daring, and trustworthy: the captain was very tall, and had his head tied up because of a swelling, which made him look particularly interesting.
We sent Liu to procure provisions, as our last fowl had just been put in the pot, and he returned with three live ones (which appears to be the Chinese equivalent to a pair), price 2s. 3d. The fowls took French leave to dine on persimmons, which had been left within reach, casting a furtive glance at intervals to where the boy was sitting meditating on the bank. The day gradually wore away, and we were very tired with the deafening noise of drums, guns, crackers, and shouting, without which accompaniment the junks could not be towed up the rapid in safety! The men on board yell and wave their arms as if in frantic desperation to scare away the evil spirits. At last our turn came, and our boat rode triumphantly up the rapid by means of two towing-ropes in the space of ten minutes. Ten hours’ wait for a ten minutes’ job! China certainly needs patience. Our men evidently thought they had done enough for the day: they tied up to the bank, and were soon snugly snoring for the night. They lie like rows of sausages, so tightly packed that it hardly looks possible for one to turn in his sleep, unless they did like seven sisters whom I know. When they were young and the house was full, they slept in one capacious bed: when one got tired and wanted to turn over, she said “turn,” and all the seven had to turn together!
One of the men groaned heavily for some time, and then began to weep. This was too much for the others, who put an effectual stop to it, so that he groaned no more. In the morning I looked for the culprit, but no one looked particularly ill, as many are opium-smokers and always look a horrible dead colour.
The scenery grows grander and grander as you go up the gorges, and the vicious-looking tide grows more and more threatening. Passing wrecks from day to day is by no means reassuring, but when one sees the slender rope on which the weight of a heavily laden junk depends, the marvel seems that any escape being wrecked. To the traveller who enjoys a spice of danger and loves glorious scenery no trip could be more attractive than a journey up the Yangtze for a month or six weeks, and it is quite easy to go almost the length of the empire by it. The return journey is performed in a very short time, and is certainly not lacking in excitement; for the boats seem to fly past us, and all hands on board are needed to keep the junk at all head foremost; while steering is a work demanding the utmost coolness, strength, and intrepidity, for the river is full of hidden rocks. The change in the height of the water adds immensely to the danger and difficulty of navigation. For the journey downstream the masts are taken down, and on a large junk fifteen or more men are kept rowing as if for dear life; and even then the junk often threatens to be carried down sideways.