HOUSES.
Chinese houses usually open towards the south; but in these, as also in the poorer kind, this favourite position is disregarded. Dwellings of this description, are rented at four or five dollars a month. Another class of houses, inhabited by a more wealthy but less numerous part of the community, are the residences of those in easy circumstances, who enjoy plenty without any of the accompaniments of luxury; these houses together with the plot of ground on which they stand are surrounded by a wall, twelve or fourteen feet high, that rises and fronts the street, so as completely to conceal all the buildings from the traveller, as he passes by.
The prospect, in passing along the narrow streets which are lined with these houses, is very cheerless. If allowed to enter some of these dwellings more pleasing scenes will be presented. A stranger enters the outer enclosure through a large folding door into an open court, thence he is conducted by a servant to the visiters’ hall; which is usually a small apartment, furnished with chairs, sofas, tea-stands, &c.; here the host presents himself to introduce his guest to the younger members of the family.
These halls are open on one side, the others being ornamented with carved work, or hung with various scrolls presenting in large and elegant characters, the moral maxims of their sages: or perhaps, exhibiting rude landscapes, or paintings of birds and flowers. The remaining portion of the enclosure is occupied with the domestic apartments; a garden and, perhaps, a small school-room.
The houses occupied by a few of the most opulent in Canton are by no means inferior to the imperial palaces, excepting it be in the space which they fill. The family residences of some among those merchants, who are licensed by government to trade with foreigners, furnish good specimens of this description of buildings. The seat of the late Consequa, now half in ruins, was once superb; that of the present senior hong-merchant, is on a scale of great magnificence; it is a villa or rather palace, divided into suites of apartments, which are highly and tastefully decorated. The dwellings occupied by the government offices, and the numerous temples of the city, need not be particularized in this place; suffice it to remark, that they are usually more spacious than private houses, and that, at present, most of them are in a very ordinary condition; very few of the houses or temples in Canton, have more than one story, the halls of which are of the whole height of the fabric, without any concealment of the beams or rafters of the house. Terraces are often built above the roofs, and when surrounded by a breastwork, afford in the cool of the day, a very pleasant and secure retreat, to which the inmates can ascend, in order to breathe a pure air, enjoy a wider prospect, or to witness any event that transpires in the neighbourhood. These terraces are not perhaps unlike the flat-roofs of other orientals. In some other points there is also a coincidence between the houses of the Chinese, and those which are noticed in the sacred writings.
Professor Jahn in his Biblical Archaeology, when referring to the buildings described in the Scriptures, says: “The gates not only of houses, but of cities, were customarily adorned with an inscription which was to be extracted from the law of Moses; a practice in which may be found the origin of the modern Mezuzaw or piece of parchment inscribed with sacred texts, and fastened to the door-posts. The gates were always shut, and one of the servants acted the part of a porter: the space immediately inside of the gate, called the porch, is square, and on one side of it is erected a seat for the accommodation of those strangers who are not to be admitted into the interior of the house. From the porch we are introduced through a second door into the court, which is commonly paved with marble, and surrounded on all sides. Sometimes however only one side is enclosed, with a peristyle or covered walk, over which, if the house has more than one story, there is a gallery of the same dimensions, supported by columns and protected by a balustrade.
In the church, large companies are received at nuptials and feasts: on such occasions, a large veil of thick cloth is extended by ropes over the whole court, to exclude the sun’s heat. The back part of the house, called in Arabic, the harem, and in Hebrew, by way of eminence, the palace, is allotted to the females. Behind the “harem,” is a garden into which the women can enjoy the pleasure of looking from their apartments. In the smaller houses the females occupy the upper story; the place assigned them also, by Homer in the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.”
In the buildings of the Chinese, the various inscriptions are seen on the door-posts: the porter at the outer gate; the porch and court within; the peristyle with its columns and perhaps a gallery above; the palace, Kin-tee or “forbidden ground,” with its garden, bears a striking resemblance to those of the above description. The inner apartments of the emperor are in like manner, by way of eminence, called Kung-teen, or the “palace.”
DUTIES OF GOVERNOR.
The government of Canton now claims our notice. Here, as in every other place throughout the dominions of the Mantchow Chinese, all power emanates from one man, honoured as the vicegerent of “High heaven;” hence the present line of monarchs have not been satisfied with the dignity of sovereigns but have laid claim to the character of sages.