The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; vol. 2 of 2 / Being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics

by J. G. Wood

The Chinese have good reason to be ambitious of the honors of a button, as even the very lowest button exempts the wearer from military service and from arrest by the police. The bearer of this coveted symbol becomes at once one of the privileged classes; he wears an official costume when he likes, and is qualified to enter as candidate for still higher honors. Such privileges are worth much trouble to obtain, and accordingly the rejected candidates will enter the examination year after year, even until they are gray-headed. With the respect for old age which is one of the most pleasing characteristics of the Chinese, there is a law that if a man should attend the examinations annually until he is eighty years of age, and still be unable to pass, he is invested with an honorary degree, and may wear the button and official dress honoris causâ. The same rule holds good with the higher degrees.

The very highest posts in the kingdom are denoted by a peacock’s feather, which falls down the side of the cap. The gradations in rank of the feather wearers are marked by the number of “eyes” in the ornament, the summit of a Chinaman’s ambition being to wear a feather with three eyes, denoting a rank only inferior to that of the Emperor.

There is one article common to all ranks and both sexes, and equally indispensable to all. This is the fan, an article without which a Chinaman is never seen. The richer people carry the fan in a beautifully embroidered case hung to their girdles; but the poorer class content themselves with sticking it between the collar of the jacket and the back of the neck. Whenever the hand is not actually at work on some task, the fan is in it, and in motion, not violently agitated, as is mostly the case in Europe, but kept playing with a gentle, constant, and almost imperceptible movement of the wrist, so as to maintain a continuous though slight current of air.

Sometimes, in very hot weather, a stout mandarin will quietly lift up the skirts of his jacket, place his fan under the garment, and send a current of cool air round his body; and this done, he drops the skirts afresh into their place, and directs the refreshing breeze over his countenance. Sometimes it is used by way of a parasol, the man holding it over his head as he walks along. Sometimes the schoolmaster uses it by way of a ferule, and raps his pupils unmercifully on the knuckles; and so inveterate is the use of the fan, that soldiers, while serving their guns, have been observed quietly fanning themselves in the midst of a brisk fire of shot, shell, and bullets.

The materials and patterns of Chinese fans are innumerable. They are made of paper, silk, satin, palm-leaf, wood, feathers, horn, or ivory. Some of them are made so that when they are opened from left to right they form very good fans, but when spread from right to left all the sticks fall apart, and look as if they never could be united again. Those which are made of paper have various patterns painted or printed on them, and thousands are annually sold on which are complete maps of the larger Chinese cities, having every street and lane marked. Those which are made of silk or satin are covered with the most exquisite embroidery; while the horn and ivory fans are cut into patterns so slight and so delicate that they look more like lace than the material of which they really are composed. The wooden fans are made in much the same way, though the workmanship is necessarily coarser: the material of these fans is sandal-wood, the aromatic odor of which is much prized by the Chinese.

Choice sentences and aphorisms from celebrated authors are often written on the fan; and it is the custom for Chinese gentlemen to exchange autographs written on each other’s fans. The price of these fans varies according to the material and workmanship, common ones being worth about four or five for a penny, while a first-class fan will cost several pounds.

The lantern is almost as characteristic of the Chinese as the fan, inasmuch as every one who goes abroad after dark is obliged by law to carry a lantern, whereas he need not carry a fan unless he chooses. These lanterns have of late years become very common in England, the subdued light which they give through their colored envelopes having a very pretty effect at night, especially in conservatories. There is a wonderful variety of these lanterns, some of them being most complicated in structure, enormous in size, and hung round with an intricate arrangement of scarlet tassels. Others are made of a balloon-like shape, the framework being a delicate net of bamboo, over which is spread a sheet of very thin paper saturated with varnish, so that it is nearly as transparent as glass. Figures of various kinds are painted upon the lantern, and so great is the sale of these articles, that many artists make a good living by painting them. Generally, when a man buys a lantern, he purchases a plain one, and then takes it to the painter to be decorated. The name of the owner is often placed upon his lantern, together with his address, and sometimes the lantern is used as a representative of himself.

Many of the lanterns shut up flat, on the principle of the fan; some of them open out into cylinders, and some into spherical and oval shapes.

One of the most ingenious of these articles is the “stalking-horse lantern,” which is only used for festivals. It is of large size, and contains several tapers. Above the tapers is a horizontal paddle-wheel, which is set revolving by the current of air caused by the flame, and from the wheel silk threads are led to a series of little automaton figures of men, women, birds, beasts, etc., all of which move their arms, legs, and wings as the wheel runs round. A good specimen of this lantern is really a wonderful piece of work, the threads crossing each other in the most complicated style, but never getting out of order.

So completely is the Chinaman a lantern-carrying being, that, during our war in China, when a battery had been silenced by our fire in a night attack, and the garrison driven out, the men were seen running away in all directions, each with a lighted lantern in his hand, as if to direct the aim of the enemy’s musketry.