[133] Properly spelt Kong-fu-tséu, from which the Europeans have constructed the Latinized name Confucius. Kong-fu-tséu (sometimes also written Kong-tse) was born 550 B.C. in the city of Kio-siu-bien, in the modern province of Shantung.
[134] Lao-tse (Lao-tseu), born B.C. 504, in the village of Knio-schin, in the kingdom of Thsu, held the post of keeper of the archives of the palace under the Tscheu dynasty. In his Book of Philosophy (Tao-te-king) the following remarkable words occur: "The rule of antiquity has been, not to shed light on the people, but to keep them in ignorance. A people that comprehends is difficult to govern. On this subject men say, Whoso governs a kingdom in knowledge, the same is the destroyer of that kingdom; whoso governs a kingdom assigning no reason, the same maintains that kingdom. In the family, in the school, children are brought up among idols. When they enter school in the morning they are taught to do honour to the image of Kong-tse. This custom must be forthwith dispensed with." (Compare J. R. Kaeuffer's History of Eastern Asia, for "Friends of the History of Mankind," Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1859, vol. ii. p. 64, and K. F. Neumann's Eastern Asiatic History, Leipzig, W. Engilmann, 1861, p. 129.)
[135] Copper coins, struck by a ruler with whose reign any memorable occurrences are associated, command a high price as health-giving amulets. Some of these, those, for instance, of the Ming and Sing dynasties, have very special healing virtues attributed to them. The currency of Tsching-tá (1506-1522) are unfailing preservatives against the perils of pregnancy, and the illnesses consequent thereon. Others are held in great honour as prophylactics. The mode of application consists in the invalid dragging them by a cord over various parts of his body in a certain prescribed order.
[136] The Chinese attribute the most marvellous healing powers to water, and accordingly apply it in a variety of forms, in numbers of maladies of the most dissimilar character. Water, cold, tepid, warm, and hot, as also snow and iced-water, figure among the list of medicaments, as do also rain-water, well and river-water, brackish water, dew, water from any eddy or whirlpool, or a stream, boiling water, and steam.
[137] The Chinese women are for this reason anxious to keep their children at the breast for two or three years and even longer, partly by way of speculating upon their having a constant breast of milk, and in this singular manner make up for any deficiency of cow's milk, between the market demand and the actual supply. A Chinese who possesses five or six concubines in addition to his legitimate spouse, may thus boast of a regular dairy farm. As sailors on arriving in port are usually excessively fond of milk, which they drink in large quantities, we were not a little amazed on learning from a physician at Hong-kong the source whence in all probability had been derived the milk that was so plentifully supplied!
[138] In German Bruch-porzellan, in French porcelaine-craquelée.
[139] Description générale de la Chine.
[140] Not alone this oil-cake, but ground horns and bones, hair from the beard, and nail-parings, rust, ashes, and even human excrement are used as manure. And it is a singular fact that the price of the latter varies according to the race of men by whom it has been evacuated. The succulently nourished flesh-eating English and Americans are in this respect in far greater demand than the more sparely-fed cross-breeds; while the Chinese, subsisting almost exclusively upon fish and vegetables, are in respect to the value of their fæces as manure, behind every other race inhabiting the country. The price of this manure varies with the quality from one dollar to three dollars the picul. This custom of collecting and disposing of human excrement for manure is much more extensively observed in the interior of the Empire than in the provinces along the coast. "If," writes M. Huc, the well-known missionary,—"if we were not aware to what perfection the denizens of the Celestial Empire have carried the art of manuring, one would be at a loss how to reconcile the fondness of John Chinaman for making money with the conveniences free of all charge which the proprietors of the soil everywhere erect for the comfort of travellers. There is not a city nor a village in which this is not universally the case. In the most crowded streets, or the most out-of-the-way abandoned spot, one frequently marvels to find these "cabinets" in cane-work, earth, or even masonry. One is almost tempted to believe he is in a country where the care to provide plenty of public latrines is pushed to the extreme. Utilization, however, furnishes a sufficient explanation of all these edifices."
[141] In every part of this extensive empire, travellers encounter these national tributes to the memory of distinguished women, and Dr. Medhurst, as also Fortune and other authorities upon China, relate numerous instances of these remarkable memorials. One of these, an archway of stone, is spoken of by Medhurst as of singular beauty. It is half a mile from the city of Kwang-Tib, and was erected by the community of that region, with the approval of the Emperor, in honour of a lady of that city, of singular piety and benevolence. Over the portico are inscribed the words "Kin-sin-tsaé-tschung" (a golden and perfect heart precisely in the middle).
[142] In the hospital, in what is called the western suburb of Canton, which was under the charge of Dr. Hobson from 1848 to 1858, the annual number of patients of both sexes under treatment averaged upwards of 20,000. During the most unhealthy season (May and June) the number imploring assistance frequently amounted to from 3000 to 3400. In the dispensary there were, moreover, from 200 to 250 patients, who received medical advice three times a week, and were supplied with medicaments gratuitously.