“We had heard that there were people who drowned their girl children but we had not been able to believe it. Today our censor T’Kiai having addressed to us a petition on this unholy practice, we are led to believe that it must really exist.
“The paternal emotions come from nature and there ought not be any difference in the manner of treating sons and daughters. Why should parents conduct themselves cruelly toward girl babies and condemn them to death? Meng Tse has said:
“‘When one sees an infant on the point of falling into a well every man feels in his heart the sentiments of fear and compassion.’
“Here, however, it is not a question of strangers or of passers-by. Since all men are moved at the sight of an infant in danger when that infant is a stranger, what kind of parents must those be who deprive their own children of life? What excesses are they not capable of when they can commit such crimes?
SPECIAL REPOSITORY FOR BODIES OF NEGLECTED BABIES, CHINA
(REPRODUCED FROM “CHINA IN DECAY”)
“The Supreme Ruler loves to give life and wishes that all beings might enjoy themselves without harm. But if a mother and father destroy the child to which they have given life, how can they help but see in that act a blot in the celestial harmony?
“If flood and famine, war and pestilence, visit their terrors on the people, it is because these misfortunes are the punishments for the crimes spoken of. The ancient Emperors wept bitterly over these faults of the people and pardoned crimes, and by that spirit imitated the Spirit of Heaven, who loves to give life. When one of our officers addresses us a report concerning a great wrong, we first look to save the life; if it is not possible to use clemency, and if it is necessary that we pronounce the sentence of death, such a decision causes us genuine sadness. How great ought to be our sorrow, however, at the sight of an infant that had hardly been born, condemned to death.
“Although the mandarins have prohibited this custom, all people are probably not aware of the prohibition. Measures must therefore be taken to bring this prohibition to the knowledge of all and an end must be put to this custom. Not until then will we be joyous and content.
“Ho Long Tou in his book entitled On Abstaining from Drowning Little Girls has written these words: