The fall of rain at Canton is 70 inches annually, which is the mean of sixteen years’ observation. Ninety inches was registered during one of these years. Nearly one-half of the whole falls during May, June, and September. The average at Shanghai for four years was 36 inches. No observations are recorded for the valley of the Yangtsz’. Near the edge of the Plateau the rainfall averages 16 inches in the province of Chihlí, and rather more in Shansí and Shantung, where moisture is attracted by the mountains. More than three-fourths of the rain falls during the ten weeks ending August 31st. Snow seldom remains on the level over a fortnight.
TYFOONS.
The increased temperature on the southern coast during the months of June and July operates, with other causes, to produce violent storms along the seaboard, called tyfoons, a word derived from the Chinese ta-fung, or ‘great wind.’ These destructive tornadoes occur from Hainan to Chusan, between July and October, gradually progressing northward as the season advances, and diminishing in fury in the higher latitudes. They annually occasion great losses to the native and foreign shipping in Chinese waters, more than half the sailing ships lost on that coast having suffered in them. Happily, their fury is oftenest spent at sea, but when they occur inland, the loss of life is fearful. In August, 1862, and September 21, 1874, the deaths reported in two such storms near Canton, Hongkong, and their vicinity, were upward of 30,000 each. In the latter instance the American steamer Alaska, of 3,500 tons, was lifted from her anchorage and quietly put down in five feet of water near the shore, from whence she was safely floated some months afterward.
Tyfoons exhaust their force within a narrow track, which, in such cases as have been registered, lies in no uniform direction, other than from south to north, at a greater or less angle, along the coast. The principal phenomena indicating their approach are the direction of the wind, which commences to blow in soft zephyrs from the north, without, however, assuaging the heat or disturbing the stifling calm, and the falling barometer. The glass usually begins to fall several hours before the storm commences, and the rarefaction of the air is further shown by the heavy swell rolling in upon the beach, though the sea remains unruffled. The wind increases as it veers to the north-east, and from that point to south-east blows with the greatest force in fitful gusts. The rain falls heaviest toward the close of the gale, when the glass begins to rise. The barometer not unfrequently falls below 28 in. Capt. Krusenstern in 1804 records his surprise at seeing the mercury sink out of sight.
The Chinese have erected temples in Hainan to the Tyfoon Mother, a goddess whom they supplicate for protection against these hurricanes. They say “that a few days before a tyfoon comes on, a slight noise is heard at intervals, whirling round and then stopping, sometimes impetuous and sometimes slow. This is a ‘tyfoon brewing.’ Then fiery clouds collect in thick masses; the thunder sounds deep and heavy. Rainbows appear, now forming an unbroken curve and again separating, and the ends of the bow dip into the sea. The sea sends back a bellowing sound, and boils with angry surges; the loose rocks dash against each other, and detached sea-weed covers the water; there is a thick, murky atmosphere; the water-fowl fly about affrighted; the trees and leaves bend to the south—the tyfoon has commenced. When to it is superadded a violent rain and a frightful surf, the force of the tempest is let loose, and away fly the houses up to the hills, and the ships and boats are removed to the dry land; horses and cattle are turned heels over head, trees are torn up by the roots, and the sea boils up twenty or thirty feet, inundating the fields and destroying vegetation. This is called tieh kü, or an iron whirlwind.”[27] Those remarkable gusts which annually occur in the Atlantic States, called tornadoes, defined as local storms affecting a thread of surface a few miles long, are unknown in China. The healthy climate of China has had much to do with the civilization of its inhabitants. No similar area in the world exceeds it for general salubrity.
FU, TING, CHAU, AND HIEN.
The Chinese are the only people who have, by means of a term added to the name of a place, endeavored to designate its relative rank. Three of the words used for this purpose, viz., fu, chau, and hien, have been translated as ‘first,’ ‘second,’ and ‘third’ rank; but this gradation is not quite correct, for the terms do not apply to the city or town alone, but to the portions of country of which it is the capital. The nature of these and other terms, and the divisions intended by them, are thus explained:
“The Eighteen Provinces are divided into fu, ting, chau, and hien. A fu is a large portion or department of a province, under the general control of one civil officer immediately subordinate to the heads of the provincial government. A ting is a division of a province smaller than a fu, and either like it governed by an officer immediately subject to the heads of the provincial government, or else forming a subordinate part of a fu. In the former case it is called chih-lí, i.e. under the ‘direct rule’ of the provincial government; in the latter case it is simply called ting. A chau is a division similar to a ting, and like it either independent of any other division, or forming part of a fu. The difference between the two consists in the government of a ting resembling that of a fu more nearly than that of a chau does: that of the chau is less expensive. The ting and chau of the class to which the term chih-lí is attached, may be denominated in common with the fu, departments or prefectures; and the term chih-lí may be rendered by the word independent. The subordinate ting and chau may both be called districts. A hien, which is also a district, is a small division or subordinate part of a department, whether of a fu, or of an independent chau or ting.
“Each fu, ting, chau, and hien, possesses at least one walled town, the seat of its government, which bears the same name as the department or district to which it pertains. Thus Hiangshan is the chief town of the district Hiangshan hien; and Shauking, that of the department Shauking fu. By European writers, the chief towns of the fu or departments have been called cities of the first order; those of the chau, cities of the second order; and those of the hien, cities of the third order. The division called ting, being rarely met with, has been left out of the arrangement—an arrangement not recognized in China. It must be observed that the chief town of a fu is always also the chief town of a hien district; and sometimes, when of considerable size and importance, it and the country around are divided into two hien districts, both of which have the seat of their government within the same walls: but this is not the case with the ting and chau departments. A district is not always subdivided; instances may occur of a whole district possessing but one important town. But as there are often large and even walled towns not included in the number of chief or of district towns, consequently not the seat of a regular chau or hien magistracy, a subdivision of a district is therefore frequently rendered necessary; and for the better government of such towns and the towns surrounding them, magistrates are appointed to them, secondary to the magistrates of the departments or the districts in which they are comprised. Thus Fuhshan is a very large commercial town or mart called a chin, situated in the district of Nanhai, of the department of Kwangchau, about twelve miles distant from Canton. The chief officer of the department has therefore an assistant residing there, and the town is partly under his government and partly under that of the Nanhai magistrate, within whose district it is included, but who resides at Canton. There are several of these chin in the provinces, as Kingteh in Kiangsí, Siangtan in Hunan, etc.; they are not inclosed by walls. Macao affords another instance: being a place of some importance, both from its size and as the residence of foreigners, an assistant to the Hiangshan hien magistrate is placed over it, and it is also under the control of an assistant to the chief magistrate of the fu. Of these assistant magistrates, there are two ranks secondary to the chief magistrate of a fu, two secondary to the magistrate of a chau, and two also secondary to the magistrate of a hien. The places under the rule of these assistant magistrates are called by various names, most frequently chin and so, and sometimes also chai and wei. These names do not appear to have reference to any particular form of municipal government existing in them; but the chai and the wei are often military posts; and sometimes a place is, with respect to its civil government, the chief city of a fu, while with respect to its military position it is called wei. There are other towns of still smaller importance; these are under the government of inferior magistrates who are called siun kien: a division of country under such a magistrate is called a sz’, which is best represented by the term township or commune. The town of Whampoa and country around it form one such division, called Kiautang sz’, belonging to the district of Pwanyu, in the department of Kwangchau.