LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG.PAGE
1.VIEW OF HONG-KONG TAKEN FROM ABOVE THE TOWN[3]
2.CHINESE SOLDIERS[5]
3.CHINESE WEAPONS[6]
4.CHINESE HELMET AND QUIVER[7]
5.A YOUNG CHINESE WOMAN[8]
6.A CHINESE COURTESAN[9]
7.HWANG-TIEN-SHANG-TI, THE GOD OF HEAVEN[11]
8.A CHINESE MANDARIN[15]
9.ANCIENT CHINESE COSTUMES[17]
10.ANCIENT CHINESE COSTUMES[18]
11.A YOUNG CHINESE POET[21]
12.A NAUGHTY PUPIL[28]
13.A CHINESE BRIDGE SPANNING THE HOANG-HO[31]
14.A PAGODA[34]
15.A STREET IN CANTON[40]
16.A WOMAN OF THE PEOPLE WITH HER BABY[41]
17.A CHINESE MANDARIN[42]
18.A GONG-RINGER[43]
19.A CHINESE ACTOR[44]
20.A CHINESE ACTOR IN A TRAGIC PART[47]
21.A VILLA NEAR CANTON[51]
22.GENERAL TCHENG-KI-TONG[58]
23.LAO-TSZE[67]
24.THE HOUSE IN WHICH CONFUCIUS WAS BORN[75]
25.PORTRAIT OF CONFUCIUS[76]
26.A FUNERAL PROCESSION IN CHINA[77]
27.CHINESE TOMBS[78]
28.A CHINESE CEMETERY[80]
29.A YOUNG CHINESE MARRIED LADY[88]
30.A MARRIAGE PROCESSION[92]
31.A DESPERATE MAN[94]
32.THE TOMB OF CONFUCIUS[95]
33.CHINESE PEASANT CRUSHING RICE[122]
34.A CHINESE FERRYMAN[124]
35.A MANDARIN'S HOUSE[127]
36.PORTRAIT OF HIS EXCELLENCY LI-HUNG-CHANG[138]
37.ICHANG[141]
38.A CHINESE DYER AT WORK[143]
39.A CHINESE VISITING CARD[144]
40.A CHINESE RESTAURANT. AFTER THE REPAST[156]
41.A CHINESE JUNK[165]
42.AN OPIUM-SMOKER[179]
43.OPIUM PIPES[181]
44.REQUISITES FOR OPIUM-SMOKING[183]
45.A TEMPLE AT TIEN-TSIN[195]
46.THE GREAT WALL[206]
47.BURNING OF MANDARINS AND HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS, BY ORDER OF SHIH-KWANG-TI[209]
48.A STREET IN PEKIN[214]
49.NIGHT-WATCHMEN IN PEKIN[216]
50.A CHINESE GENERAL IN HIS WAR-CHARIOT[220]
51.PORCELAIN TOWER AT NANKING[222]
52.MONOLITHS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE TOMBS OF THE MING EMPERORS[231]
53.CHINESE BRONZES[233]
54.PORTRAIT OF ONE OF THE CHINESE EMPERORS OF THE CH'ING DYNASTY, PROBABLY KIEN-LONG[242]
55.ONE OF THE REGENTS DURING THE MINORITY OF TUNG-CHE[249]
56.A CHINESE SEDAN-CHAIR AND BEARERS[255]
57.A BONZE TORTURING HIMSELF IN A TEMPLE, AFTER A CHINESE PAINTING[260]
58.THE TOWN AND BRIDGE OF FUCHAN[265]

CHINA AND THE CHINESE

CHAPTER I

The delight of exploring unknown lands—Saint Louis and the Tartars of olden times—The Anglo-French force enters Pekin—Terror of the "Red Devils"—The "Cup of Immortality"—The "Sons of Heaven"—Hong-Kong as it was and is—The Treaty of Tien-tsin—The game of "Morra"—First Tea-party in the Palace of Pekin—Chinese agriculture and love of flowers—Chinese literati—An awkward meeting between two of them—Love of poetry in China—Voltaire's letter to the poet-king—The Chinese army—The Shu-King, or sacred book of China—Yao and his work—Chung, the lowly-born Emperor—The Hoang-Ho, or "China's Sorrow"—Yu the engineer and his work—Chung chooses Yu to reign after him—The foundation of the hereditary monarchy in China.

I do not deny the happiness of a life spent beneath the shadow of the belfry of one's native place, in all the unruffled peace of one's own home, surrounded by one's own family; but, after all, what are such joys as these compared to those of the explorer who goes forth to meet the unknown ready for all that may betide, making fresh discoveries at every turn, gladly facing all dangers and rejoicing in the ever-changing, ever-widening horizon before him? Who would care to forego the joys of memory, the power of living over again in old age the adventures of youth, of seeing once more with the mind's eye the wonders of the far-distant lands visited when the mind was still buoyant, the sight still undimmed, the limbs still in all the vigour of manhood? Happy mortal indeed is he who, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the discoverer, looks upon death itself not as the end of all things, but the threshold of a new world, the beginning of yet another journey fraught with the deepest interest, to a bourne all the more fascinating because of the deep mystery in which it is shrouded.

This was how I reasoned with myself when I was a mere lad eagerly devouring the accounts of the work of the great early explorers, Marco Polo, the Dupleix, La Pérouse, Bougainville, Dumont D'Urville, Christopher Columbus, Mungo Park, the Landers, etc., not to speak of Swift's fascinating romance Gulliver's Travels, and the yet more thrilling Robinson Crusoe of Defoe. Like all boys with vivid imaginations, I was fired with a longing to emulate all these heroes, and said to my mother: "I have made up my mind to be a sailor!"