Shut out from the country, and having no means of getting information on which we could depend (for independent of Chinese statements, the accounts written by the Jesuits were in many instances grossly exaggerated), it is not to be wondered at if the works in our language were more remarkable for the exhibition of the imaginative power of their authors, than for facts concerning China and the Chinese. We were in the position of little children who gaze with admiration and wonder at a penny peep-show in a fair or market-place at home.—We looked with magnifying eyes on every thing Chinese; and fancied, for the time at least, that what we saw was certainly real. But the same children who look with wonder upon the scenes of Trafalgar and Waterloo, when the curtain falls, and their penny-worth of sights has passed by, find that, instead of being amongst those striking scenes which have just passed in review before their eyes, they are only, after all, in the market-place of their native town. So it is with "children of a larger growth." This mystery served the purpose of the Chinese so long as it lasted; and although we perhaps did not give them credit for all to which they pretended, at least we gave them much more than they really deserved.
Viewing the subject in this light we have little difficulty in accounting for the false colouring which has been given to every picture drawn by authors who have written on this country, and who have extolled to the skies her perfection in the arts, in agriculture, in horticulture, the fertility of the soil, the industry of the people, and the excellence of her government and laws. But the curtain which had been drawn around the celestial country for ages, has now been rent asunder; and instead of viewing an enchanted fairy-land, we find, after all, that China is just like other countries. Doubtless the Chinese were in that half-civilised state in which they are now, at a very early period, and when the now polished nations of the West were yet rude savages. It is long since they discovered the art of making the beautiful porcelain, lacquer-ware, and silks, which have for centuries been so much admired in Europe; but these very facts—their civilised condition, their advancement in the arts, and even their discovering a magnetic power in nature, which they could convert into a compass for the purpose of navigation—instead of telling in their favour as an active and intelligent people, do the very reverse when we consider what they might have been now and what they really are.
A great proportion of the northern Chinese seem to be in a sleepy or dreaming state, from which it is difficult to awake them. When a foreigner at any of the northern ports goes into a shop, the whole place inside and out is immediately crowded with Chinese, who gaze at him with a sort of stupid dreaming eye; and it is difficult to say whether they really see him or not, or whether they have been drawn thereby some strange mesmeric influence over which they have no control: and I am quite sure that, were it possible for the stranger to slip out of his clothes and leave a block standing in his place, these Chinese would still continue to gaze on, and never know the difference. The conduct of the Chinese peasants during the war was very remarkable in this respect. I have been told by some of the military officers, that, when the whole fleet of sailing vessels and steamers went up the Yang-tse-Kiang in 1842, many of the agricultural labourers on the banks of the river used to hold up their heads for a few seconds, and look with a kind of stupid gaze upon our noble fleet; and then quietly resume their labours, as if the thing was only an every day occurrence, and they had seen it a thousand times before. When the "Medusa" steamer went up the Shanghae river for several miles above the city, the river became so narrow that they had some difficulty in finding a place wide enough to allow the steamer to come round. A peasant was standing on the bank smoking his pipe, and looking on with the most perfect unconcern when, the helm being put down, the little vessel in coming round shot right across the stream, and came in contact with the bank, just under the very feet of the Chinaman. The shock was of course considerable, and the man who all at once seemed to awake from a trance, set off in the utmost terror, like an arrow, across the fields, without once looking behind him; and, as Captain Hewitt who related the story, remarked, for any thing he knew, the man was running until this day! Many of the Chinese are of course very different characters from those I have just described; and are as active men as you find in any part of the world: but the above are striking features in the character of the inhabitants of the northern parts of the country which I have had an opportunity of visiting.
In the knowledge and practice of agriculture, although the Chinese may be in advance of other Eastern nations, they are not for a moment to be compared with the civilised nations of the West. Perhaps more nonsense has been written upon this subject than upon any other connected with China; and we can only account for it by supposing the writers to have been entirely unacquainted with the subject, and led away by the fancies and prejudices above alluded to. How ridiculous, for example, for them to speak in such glowing terms of the fertility of the land, when we bear in mind that they judged from what they saw at Canton and Macao! Had they seen the glorious scenery amongst the mountains at Tein-tung near Ning-po, or the rich plain of Shanghae, then indeed they might have written in the most glowing terms of the fertility of Chinese soil; but what terms could they have found to describe it, after giving the barren soil of the south such a character?
Although it is not my intention to devote any part of these pages to the history and government of the Chinese, I must still notice, in passing, what has been so often said about the perfection of their government and laws. And here, too, I must differ from those who have such high notions of the Chinese in these respects. I think no country can be well governed where the government is powerless, and has not the means of punishing those who break the laws. China is very weak in this respect, compared with European nations, and the only thing which keeps the country together is the quiet and inoffensive character of the people. Everybody, who has travelled in China, knows that, wherever the natives are enterprising and bold, they set the government at defiance whenever it suits their purpose to do so. For example, what can the government do if the natives on the coast of Fokien,—a bold and lawless race, choose to disobey its mandates?—Positively nothing. Even further north, where the Mandarins are more powerful—in Shanghae for example—the Chinchew men, as they are called, often fight pitched battles with fire-arms, in the streets and in open day; and the Mandarins, with all their soldiers at their backs, dare not to interfere. Surely no government worth any thing would tolerate this state of things. The system of apprehension and punishment is so curious, and so characteristic of the Chinese government, that I must not omit to mention it. The belligerents are allowed to fight as long and as fiercely as they choose, and the soldiers never interfere: but when the weakest side is over-powered, and probably a number of lives lost in the affray, they come down in great force and seize and carry off to punishment the most defenceless: and, in circumstances of this kind, they are not over particular about seizing the most riotous, or those most implicated in the disturbances, provided those they seize are the weakest and least able to resist. Such conduct in the Chinese government I have been an eye-witness to, again and again, in the north of China; more particularly in Shanghae. What should we think if such a state of things existed in England? and yet this is a specimen of the government which has been considered so perfect, and which has been so highly eulogised.
There can be no doubt that the Chinese empire arrived at its highest state of perfection many years ago; and since then it has rather been retrograding than advancing. Many of the northern cities, evidently once in the most flourishing condition, are now in a state of decay, or in ruins; the pagodas which crown the distant hills, are crumbling to pieces, and apparently are seldom repaired; the spacious temples are no longer as they used to be in former days; even the celebrated temples on Pootoo-San (an island near Chusan) to which, as to Jerusalem of old, the natives come from afar to worship, show all the signs of having seen better days. It is very true that these are heathen temples, and the good in every land will hail with delight the day when these shall give way to others which shall be erected to the true God: but nevertheless such is the fact, that these places are not supported as they used to be: and from this I conclude that the Chinese, as a nation, are retrograding rather than advancing.
Although I have considered it necessary to expose in this manner the prejudiced opinions which have been from time to time given out to the world by authors on China, I am far from having any prejudice against the Chinese people. On the contrary, in many respects they stand high in my estimation. During the last three years I have been continually among them; wandering over and among their hills, dining in their houses, and sleeping in their temples: and from this experience I do not hesitate in pronouncing them a very different race from what they are generally supposed to be. The natives of the southern towns, and all along the coast, at least as far north as Chekiang, richly deserve the bad character which every one gives them; being remarkable for their hatred to foreigners and conceited notions of their own importance, besides abounding in characters of the very worst description, who are nothing less than thieves and pirates. But the character of the Chinese as a nation must not suffer from a partial view of this kind; for it must be recollected that, in every country, the worst and most lawless characters are amongst those who inhabit sea-port towns, and who come in contact with natives of other countries: and unfortunately we must confess that European nations have contributed their share to make these people what they really are. In the north of China, and more particularly inland, the natives are entirely different. There are doubtless bad characters and thieves amongst them too: but generally the traveller is not exposed to insult; and the natives are quiet, civil, and obliging. And although they are not entitled to the credit of being equal to, much less in advance of the nations of the West in science, in the arts, in government, or in laws; yet they are certainly considerably in advance of the Hindoos, Malays, and other nations who inhabit the central and western portions of Asia. Besides, the manners and customs of the people, and the strange formation of the country, are indeed striking when viewed by the stranger's eye;—the pagodas, like monuments to departed greatness, towering on the hills; the strange dresses and long tails of the men, and the small deformed feet of the women. Added to which, this is the land of tea,—a beverage which in the eyes of Englishmen is enough to immortalise any country, had it nothing else besides. But I must again assert, that the great secret of the popularity of China, and the Chinese people, lies in the manner in which foreigners allowed themselves to be treated in former days, and in the mystery with which the Chinese, from principle, enveloped every thing relating to their country.