Then the way is cleared of all persons—and matting is put up on either side of the roadway to prevent the Celestial eyes falling on the people, or the people from seeing their sovereign. The foreign ministers are required to warn their nationals to keep away from the neighbourhood.
Unfortunate Majesty! How the young Emperor must yearn for some knowledge and experience of the outer world, something more than the views of the aged mandarins around him, to guide him in his decisions. Small wonder that he should reject the suggestion recently made of the censor (who is permitted even to rebuke the throne), that for some hours in each day he should, in addition, have the ancient classics read to him. They say that his youthful Majesty is not wanting in intelligence and ability, and it is even whispered that some of the rescripts of the Imperial Gazette of Peking issue from his own hand. Perhaps too he may look wistfully towards the mausolea being prepared for the Empresses-Dowager, and wonder if they will prove true to their names: "Happy Homes for a myriad years."
We meet a wedding procession as we proceed; indeed, we are constantly getting mixed up in these straggling processions, for both yesterday and to-day the horoscope has cast as lucky, and they have perhaps been long waited for. The one is the Fête of the God of Wealth and the Golden Dragon King; the other of the God of Fire and the Inventor of Writing. Everything is scarlet. First come the bannermen, bearing aloft on poles red boards, on which are inscribed the titles of the father of the bride. They are generally a string of dirty men and boys, the scum of the city, dressed in scarlet, with black hats and feathers sticking up like a Red Indian. More men follow, carrying lanterns and draped pagodas, and a cage with white ducks, an emblem of conjugal fidelity. Next comes the band, with enormous drums, draped in red and yellow silk, and ludicrous gilt trombones, which the musician puffs valiantly into, only to produce a sound like the wheeze of a bagpipe. Lastly comes the closed palanquin, richly gilt and embroidered, followed by another containing the parents. It is the day of triumph for the almond-eyed one with the little feet, within the closely-curtained vermilion palanquin. With blare of trumpets and songs of joy she is borne through the streets, securely locked, to the bridegroom's house, where the mother delivers her up with the key of the chair, to the husband, to whom in childhood's innocent hours she was affianced.
All day we are passing houses, outside which are lanterns on red poles, arranged in a square, with archways and decorations, and waiting palanquins and carts, whilst the feast is proceeding inside. In the afternoon we see several whence the guests are streaming away from the festivity, the ladies of small feet being carried by their attendants to their palanquins. It is the prerogative of every poor relation and connection to attend this feast, and often the parents can ill afford such an expense; still, it must be done, or "face" will be lost. Like the "squeeze," this "face," or prestige, is another prominent feature of Chinese life. It is as pronounced as the caste difficulty in India, and pervades every detail of life. The most roundabout methods and transparent deceits are resorted to, to save a man's "face," viz. his credit, or renown.
A funeral is an equally elaborate ceremony. We saw preparations for one in a village, coming up the Peiho. Outside the deceased's house were erected straw archways, whilst a catafalque of enormous dimensions was waiting at the door. As we watched, a life-sized wooden horse, with a sham rider, arrived, drawn on a board, to figure in the procession. The mourners will all wear white, and as many as sixty-four men will aid in carrying the coffin to its resting-place. Food and money will be offered to the evil spirits to propitiate them, and every care taken that the spirit of the deceased shall rest in peace.
Then the tablet will be placed in the family memorial chamber, and sons and grandsons, and great granddaughters and their children, will come in the ages of the future, to tell the spirit of the departed, of the marriage, of the illness, of the promotion, or the fall of a descendant. It may be, too, that a future scion of the house may render service to the State—be made a Viceroy, a President of a Board, a Member of the Grand Council. Will his Imperial Master reward him with title to descend in a few months to an unworthy son? No, the peerage, the honour, will be posthumously rendered by decree of the emperor to the ancestor, be so notified in the Peking Gazette, and, amid a gathering of all kindred, be heralded unto the great Unknown in the Memorial Hall. "Great is the son who bringeth his father honour."
For this ancestor-worship seems to be the only religion which the people practise. Some are Confucians, some Buddhists, some Taoists, but they are held as only moral and perfunctory faiths, whereas this worship of the dead is very real to them, and faithfully performed. They do right, because they fear to disturb the spirits of their forefathers, who will haunt their homes and cause evil to fall on their families, if they do wrong.
We return home by an even dirtier and more slovenly road, past the various Yâmens of the Board of Works, the Board of War, and the Navy, and the Board of Punishments, which obtained such a bad notoriety for the cruelties perpetrated in 1860. There is nothing, however, to see from outside, but an archway leading to several courts.
We spent the afternoon in visiting the various Missionary Establishments of the different nationalities, which have their headquarters at Peking. First to the spacious compound of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, where we saw the boys' and girls' school, the sleeping apartments and dining halls, for they feed and house, but do not clothe them. Their method is to admit the scholars and give them a Christian education, with good influences, without, however, obliging them to become Christians. But whether the writing of essays in English, and the teaching of the piano to girls, is conducive to or comes under the head of missionary work, I am not competent to judge. I should think it better if the teachers were to learn Chinese, and teach the children in their own language, a knowledge of English not being essential to their becoming Christians.