There are usually a hundred or more persons at every examination in Canton subject to this punishment, for breaking this, or some other of the regulations. The candidates are not allowed “to get drunk” and “behave disorderly” during the examination. All intercourse of civility between the examiners and the relations of the students must be discontinued; and there must be no interchange of letters, food, &c. On entering the outer gate of the kung-yuen, each candidate must write his name in a register, kept for that purpose; if it is afterward discovered that the name was erroneously written, then the officer superintending the register, if it be found that he is an accomplice in registering a spurious essay, shall, with the candidate for literary honours who has violated the law, be tried and punished. Moreover, the student, on entering the hall of examination, must be searched; and if it be discovered that he has with him any precomposed essay, or miniature copy of the classics, he shall be punished by wearing a wooden collar, degraded from the rank of sew-tsae, and for ever incapacitated to stand as a candidate for literary honours; and the father and tutor of the delinquent shall both be prosecuted and punished. All the furniture and utensils, such as the writing-desks, inkstands, &c., in the apartments where the students write their essays, must be searched; and also, each and all of the managers, copyists, attendant officers, servants, porters, &c. If, in any manner, a learned person, who is to decide on the papers, be admitted to the apartments of the students, dressed as a servant, he shall be punished; and the chief examiner delivered over to a court of inquiry. A watch, composed of military officers and soldiers, is maintained day and night, both in the inner and outer courts of the hall; and if any of these men are guilty of conveying papers to the candidates, concealed with their food, or in any other way, they shall be punished.
There are many other regulations and precautions which have been adopted to prevent fraud, but a sufficient number have been stated to show somewhat of the interest which gathers around these examinations, and the schemes which are formed to gain distinction, without the toil and fatigue of hard study. Of the thousands of candidates assembled at these examinations in Canton, only seventy-one can obtain the degree of Kew-jing; the names of the successful essayists are published by a proclamation, which is issued on or before the tenth of the ninth moon, and within twenty-five days subsequent to the closing of the examination. This time is allowed to the examiners to read the essays, and prepare their report. The proclamation, which contains the name of the successful candidates, after it has received its appropriate signatures, is pasted up at the office of the foo-yuen.
At a given hour three guns are fired; and the foo-yuen at the same time comes forth from his palace, accompanying the official paper; it is forthwith pasted up, and again a salute of three guns is fired; his excellency then advances, and bows three times towards the names of the “promoted men,” (hin-jir), and finally retires under another salute of three guns. Ten thousand minds are now relieved from their long suspense. Swift messengers are despatched by those who have won the prize, to announce to their friends the happy result of the long trial which they have undergone; while the many return with disappointment to their homes, the successful few are loaded with encomiums and congratulations, and their names with their essays sent up to the emperor. To crown the whole, a banquet is prepared for these newly-promoted men, of which the examiners and all the civil officers of rank in the province partake. Gold and silver cups for the occasion must be provided by the provincial treasurer. The chief examiner, from Peking, presides; the foo-yuen, at whose palace the banquet is given, and who is present as visiter, is seated on the right, and the assistant-examiner on his left. The governor of the province is also present, a train of inferior officers wait as servants, and two lads, dressed like naiads, holding in their hands branches of olive, grace the scene with a song from their ancient classics.
There are three other examinations in Canton, which occur twice in three years, and are attended by great numbers of aspirants. At the first, which is attended by the students of Nan-hae and Pwanyu, the che-heens preside; at the second, which is attended by candidates from all the districts of Kwang-chow-foo, the che-foo presides; but the third is conducted by the literary chancellor of the province, whose prerogative it is to confer the degree of sew-tsae upon a limited number of the most distinguished competitors.
LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.
These are preparatory to the triennial examination, and inferior to it in interest; they need not, therefore, be further particularized. It may be remarked, however, that they are open to persons of all ages; and a case very recently occurred where a hoary head of eighty, accompanied by a son and grandson, attended the examination; all of them were candidates for the same literary honours. To qualify the young for these examinations, and thereby prepare them for rank and office in the state, is a leading object of the higher schools and colleges among the Chinese. But a great majority of the schools in Canton are designed only to prepare youth for the common duties of private life. These latter, as well as many of the higher schools, are private establishments. And though there are teachers appointed by government, in all the districts of the empire, yet there are no public or charity-schools for the benefit of the great mass of the community. Whatever may be his object and final distinction, almost every scholar in Canton commences his course at some one of the private schools. These, among the numerous inhabitants of this city, assume a great variety of form and character, according to the peculiar fancy of individuals. The opulent, who are desirous of pushing forward their sons rapidly, provide for them able teachers, who shall devote the whole time to the instruction of two, three, or four pupils. A school of this description we have repeatedly visited; it is in a hall belonging to merchants from Ning-po, and is kept by an old man, who has three lads under his care; one five, another seven, and a third nine years old: he instructs them in the learned dialects, and the youngest has already made greater proficiency than is usually accomplished by boys at the age of ten. Sometimes the inhabitants of a single street, or a few families who are related to each other, unite, have a teacher, and fit up a school-room, each defraying a stipulated part of the expenses. At other times, the teacher publishes the rules and terms on which he will conduct his school, and seeks for scholars wherever he can find them. Children are not generally sent to school until they are seven or eight years old; they enter, usually, for a whole year, and must pay for that term whether they attend regularly or not. The wages of the teachers vary greatly: in some instances (and they are not unfrequent in the country) the lads pay only two or three dollars, but generally fifteen or twenty per annum. When the teacher devotes his whole time to two or three pupils, he often receives a hundred dollars from each.
The ordinary school-room, with all its defects, presents an interesting scene. At the head of it there is a tablet, on which the name of the sage—“the teacher and pattern for myriads of ages”—is written in large capital letters; a small altar is placed before it, upon which incense and candles are kept constantly burning. Every morning, when the scholar enters the room, he bows first before the tablet, and then to his teacher; the former is not merely a tribute of respect, but an act of worship, which he is taught, nay, compelled, to pay to Confucius. The boys usually continue in school from six o’clock in the morning until six in the evening, except two or three hours, which they are allowed for their meals. When in school, they all study aloud, each raising his voice at the same time, and striving to outdo his fellows, the noise of which is very great. Upon those who are idle or disobedient, the teacher plies the rattan, with woful severity. Every lesson must be committed perfectly to memory, and the lad who fails in this, is obliged to bow down, and learn it upon his knees; those who are the most incorrigible are made to kneel on gravel, small stones, or something of the kind, in order to enhance their punishment. The San-tse-king, the famous “three-character classics,” is the first book which is put into the hands of the learner. Though written expressly for infant minds, it is scarcely better fitted for them than the propositions of Euclid would be, were they thrown into rhyme. But, “it is not to be understood” at first; and the tyro, when he can rehearse it from beginning to end, takes up the Four books, and masters them in the same manner. Thus far the young learners go, without understanding aught, or but little, of what they recite; and here those who are not destined to a literary course, after having learned to write a few characters, must close their education. The others now commence the commentary on the Four books, and commit it to memory in the same way; and then pass on to the other classics. The study of arithmetic, geography, history, &c., forms no part of a “common-school” education.
The high schools and colleges are numerous, but none of them are richly endowed, or well fitted for the purposes of education. The high schools, which are fourteen in number, are somewhat similar to the private grammar-schools in England and America; with this difference, that the former are nearly destitute of pupils. There are thirty colleges; most of which were founded many centuries since. Several of them are now deserted, and falling to ruins. Three of the largest have about two hundred students each, and, like all the others, only one or two professors. We have sought long and diligently, but thus far in vain, for some definite information concerning the existing discipline and regulations of these colleges; should we affirm that they are without rules and order, we should say what we do not doubt, but cannot prove. All those systems of instruction which have sprung up in modern times, and are now accomplishing so much for the nations of the West, are here entirely unknown. There are a few books in the Chinese language which contain excellent maxims on the subject of education, give numerous rules to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, and detail systems of gymnastic exercises for the preservation of health.
Of the whole population of Canton, not more than one half are able to read. Perhaps not one boy out of ten is left entirely destitute of instruction, yet, of the other sex, not one in ten ever learns to read or write. There is scarcely a school for girls in the whole city. Public sentiment—immemorial usage—and many passages in the classics, are against female education; the consequence is, that females are left uninstructed, and sink far below that point in the scale of being, for which they are fitted, and which they ought ever to hold. The degradation into which the fairest half of the human species is here thrown, affords cause for loud complaint against the wisdom and philosophy of the sages and legislators of the celestial empire. We do not knowingly detract from the merits of the Chinese; in comparison with other Asiatics, they are a learned and polished race. Those who have been educated are generally remarkably fond of books: and though there are no public libraries in Canton, yet the establishments for manufacturing and vending books are numerous. To supply those who are unable to purchase for themselves the works they need, a great number of circulating libraries are kept constantly in motion.
While the purest moral maxims are found mixed up at times, in the Chinese language, as in ours, with gross licentiousness, the charge does not lie against works comprising the library of the youthful students, which, in this particular, is wholly unexceptionable.