Sidelights on Chinese Life

by J. Macgowan

To face p. 327.

That this vice affects not simply certain classes within the Empire is evident from the fact that the wealthy men who have no need to increase the huge fortunes they have at their command are amongst the most determined gamblers in the community. Gain is not the sole purpose of such men, when they spend days and nights with the cards in their hands, and everything else is forgotten in the mad excitement that the varied fortunes of the game brings to the players. Not long since, the chief mandarin of a district that contained several large counties, and who was immensely rich, became so enthralled with the gambling mania that he utterly neglected his official duties, and spent his whole time with a number of wealthy men in playing the various games of chance that are so well known to the Chinese. The Viceroy of the province got to know in some way or another of his disgraceful conduct, and not only dismissed him from his office, but also got the sanction of the authorities in Peking to decide that he should never be allowed to hold any position under the Government in the future, and so his official life came to a sudden and disastrous termination. That this ignominious close to the ambitions of a life will have any effect in delivering him from the craving for excitement that has got such a grip upon him, is extremely improbable. His curt dismissal and his reduction to the ranks of the common people will no doubt have a beneficial effect upon the mandarins throughout the province, for he was a well-known man, and was a member of a family that had within it officials of the highest possible distinction.

This fatal tendency of the Chinese for gambling is fully realized by the rulers of the country, and the most stringent measures have been adopted by them to repress it. That they have been only moderately successful is not to be wondered at, for the passion within the hearts of the people is like a stream that has been dammed up, and that by and by scatters everything before it, and carries destruction in its mad career. Wherever a vigorous mandarin holds rule and the gambling laws are carried out with a certain amount of strictness, the people are afraid openly to indulge in the national propensity. Where, however, an easy-going official and perhaps a gambler himself holds the reins of office, then the people, feeling the curb removed, plunge with wild excitement into the gambling fray, and neglecting every other business in life, give themselves wholly to the cards and the dice.

On one occasion, in a certain district, an opium-smoking mandarin whose brains were dazed and muddled with his midnight orgies allowed the law to be very loosely administered within his jurisdiction. His runners or policemen took advantage of the situation to earn a little extra money by receiving bribes from the owners of gambling houses, and to wink at the trade that was being carried on by them. Immunity from police inspection not only gave encouragement to these gentry, but at the same time struck as if with a whip the slumbering passion in the hearts of the community and roused it into a fury.

It soon became known that the Yamen was not to be feared, and that there were no penalties against the infraction of the gambling statutes, for the mandarin’s soul was steeped in opium, and all his executive staff were gathering in a golden harvest that prevented them from seeing how the people were breaking the laws. One firm, having literally bribed every official, including even the mandarin himself, had the audacity to open a large gambling establishment, and to announce publicly that a particular form of gaming was going to be carried on in it, and to invite the public to come and purchase their tickets from them.

The system that was proposed was one that was exceedingly popular with the Chinese, but it had been so demoralizing in its effects, that it had been repeatedly suppressed at various times by the authorities. It consisted of thirty-six well-known gambling words, one of which was selected by the head of the concern and concealed within a series of small boxes, which were to be opened in the presence of a committee, on a certain drawing day, when all those who had tickets with the lucky word would be rewarded by certain specified prizes in money, far in excess of the sums they had originally paid for them.

The whole country for miles round was in the wildest excitement about this lottery business. The great question with nearly every one was what word should they speculate on, for with the gambling mania strongly aroused within them, every one wanted to take his chance of gaining the coveted prize. Soothsayers and fortune-tellers were consulted to see if by their jugglery they could not reveal the word that had been hidden away so carefully so that none should know its secret. Men and women in large numbers visited the various idol shrines in the region and made vows to gods of valuable offerings if they would but disclose to them the unknown Chinese character that was going to bring wealth to those that should purchase the lucky ticket.

There was one large temple, famous for the potency of the idols that were enshrined in it, and every evening for weeks before the drawing hundreds of men and women used to repair to it in the hopes that the idols would reveal to them in their dreams during the stillness of the night which word they should select as the right one. Singular to say, some declared that they got such clear illuminations from the idols that they proceeded to buy tickets which subsequently gave them the coveted prizes.

After a time society became so disorganized that the whole thing was put a stop to, and gambling was more sternly forbidden than ever. The Government, however, is conscious that it cannot be absolutely prohibited, and so three days of grace are given, when every one is allowed to gamble to his very heart’s content without any fear from any one. The first begins on the Chinese New Year’s Day, when the whole of the Empire is having a holiday. All work is suspended and the shops are closed, so that for one day at least in the year the towns and cities have a genuine Sunday look about them.

In all the public thoroughfares tables are set up, where the crowds may gather and throw their dice and venture their cash, and look with their solemn, unemotional faces upon the varying fortunes of the games, as their money that they have hoarded up for the occasion passes into the possession of the winner, and they are left penniless. The chances are all in favour of the man that runs the concerns, but an occasional success where ten times the amount risked is gathered in by the delighted winner, so stirs the gambling instincts that they keep putting down their money on the board, hoping in every throw of the dice to woo fortune to their side.