THE ZIG-ZAG BRIDGE
OF SHANGHAI
THE GARDEN OF THE
GUILD OF BENEVOLENCE, CHUNG KING.
China is the country of guilds. All workmen and traders have their guilds. To this rule there are but two exceptions—the water-carriers and the trackers (men who drag the boats up the rapids); these alone have no trade organisation. These guilds, or trade unions, are as complete and as effective for good or harm as anything we know in this country. They watch most jealously the interests of their craft. But the guild enters into the life of the people at every turn. The charities of the Empire, which are numerous, are conducted by guilds. There is, perhaps, little personal charity and benevolence; it is safer to leave these to the guilds. But there is scarcely a town of any size that has not its Guild of Benevolence. Soup kitchens, clothing for the living, coffins and burial for the dead, hospitals, free dispensaries, orphan and foundling homes, life-boats, and many other charities are the outcome of these Guilds of Benevolence.
THE GARDEN OF THE
GUILD OF BENEVOLENCE,
CHUNG KING
A BURIAL CHARITY.
A cemetery, with temple attached, for the burial, with all sacred rites, of strangers who may have died friendless. To a Chinaman the most important event in his history is his burial. We can have no idea of what decent burial means to him. He is thinking of it and arranging for it all his life, and it is not to be wondered at that so large a part of the operation of Chinese charity should connect itself with funerals. To be suitably buried is the great hope and aim of every Chinaman.