On commencing, the host, standing up, salutes his guests, in a cup, apologizing for the frugal board before them, his only desire being to show his respects to them. At a certain period in the entertainment, they reply by simultaneously rising and drinking his health. The Western custom of giving a sentiment is not known; and politeness requires a person when drinking healths to turn the bottom of the tiny wine-cup upward to show that it is drained. Glass dishes are gradually becoming cheap and common among the middle class, but the table furniture still mainly consists of porcelain cups, bowls, and saucers of various sizes and quality, porcelain spoons shaped like a child’s pap-boat, and two smooth sticks made of bamboo, ivory, or wood, of the size of quills, well known as the chop-sticks, from the native name kwai tsz’, i.e., ‘nimble lads.’ Grasping these implements on each side of the forefinger, the eater pinches up from the dishes meat, fish, or vegetables, already cut into mouthfuls, and conveys one to his mouth. The bowl of rice or millet is brought to the lips, and the contents shovelled into the mouth in an expeditious manner, quite suitable to the name of the tools employed. Less convenient than forks, chopsticks are a great improvement on fingers, as every one will acknowledge who has seen the Hindus throw the balls of curried rice into their mouths.
The succession of dishes is not uniform; soups, meats, stews, fruits, and preserves are introduced somewhat at the discretion of the major-domo, but the end is announced by a bowl of plain rice and a cup of tea. The fruit is often brought in after a recess, during which the guests rise and refresh themselves by walking and chatting, for three or four hours are not unfrequently required even to taste all the dishes. It is not deemed impolite for a guest to express his satisfaction with the good fare before him, and exhibit evidences of having stuffed himself to repletion; nor is it a breach of manners to retire before the dinner is ended. The guests relieve its tedium by playing the game of chai mei, or morra (the micare digitis of the old Romans), which consists in showing the fingers to each other across the table, and mentioning a number at the same moment; as, if one opens out two fingers and mentions the number four, the other instantly shows six fingers, and repeats that number. If he mistake in giving the complement of ten, he pays a forfeit by drinking a cup. This convivial game is common among all ranks, and the boisterous merriment of workmen or friends at their meals is frequently heard as one passes through the streets in the afternoon.[379] The Chinese generally have but two meals a day, breakfast at nine and dinner at four, or thereabouts.
TEMPERANCE OF THE CHINESE.
The Chinese are comparatively a temperate people. This is owing principally to the universal use of tea, but also to taking their arrack very warm and at their meals, rather than to any notions of sobriety or dislike of spirits. A little of it flushes their faces, mounts into their heads, and induces them when flustered to remain in the house to conceal the suffusion, although they may not be really drunk. This liquor is known as toddy, arrack, saki, tsiu, and other names in Eastern Asia, and is distilled from the yeasty liquor in which boiled rice has fermented under pressure many days. Only one distillation is made for common liquor, but when more strength is wanted, it is distilled two or three times, and it is this strong spirit alone which is rightly called samshu, a word meaning ‘thrice fired.’ Chinese moralists have always inveighed against the use of spirits, and the name of Í-tih, the reputed inventor of the deleterious drink, more than two thousand years before Christ, has been handed down with opprobrium, as he was himself banished by the great Yu for his discovery.
The Shu King contains a discourse by the Duke of Chau on the abuse of spirits. His speech to his brother Fung, B.C. 1120, is the oldest temperance address on record, even earlier than the words of Solomon in the Proverbs. “When your reverend father, King Wăn, founded our kingdom in the western region, he delivered announcements and cautions to the princes of the various states, their officers, assistants, and managers of affairs, morning and evening, saying, ‘For sacrifices spirits should be employed. When Heaven was sending down its [favoring] commands and laying the foundations of our people’s sway, spirits were used only in the great sacrifices. [But] when Heaven has sent down its terrors, and our people have thereby been greatly disorganized, and lost their [sense of] virtue, this too can be ascribed to nothing else than their unlimited use of spirits; yea, further, the ruin of the feudal states, small and great, may be traced to this one sin, the free use of spirits.’ King Wăn admonished and instructed the young and those in office managing public affairs, that they should not habitually drink spirits. In all the states he enjoined that their use be confined to times of sacrifices; and even then with such limitations that virtue should prevent drunkenness.”[380]
The general and local festivals of the Chinese are numerous, among which the first three days of the year, one or two about the middle of April to worship at the tombs, the two solstices, and the festival of dragon-boats, are common days of relaxation and merry-making, only on the first, however, are the shops shut and business suspended. Some persons have expressed their surprise that the unceasing round of toil which the Chinese laborer pursues has not rendered him more degraded. It is usually said that a weekly rest is necessary for the continuance of the powers of body and mind in man in their full activity, and that decrepitude and insanity would oftener result were it not for this relaxation. The arguments in favor of this observation seem to be deduced from undoubted facts in countries where the obligations of the Sabbath are acknowledged, though where the vast majority cease from business and labor, it is not easy for a few to work all the time even if they wish, owing to the various ways in which their occupations are involved with those of others; yet, in China, people who apparently tax themselves uninterruptedly to the utmost stretch of body and mind, live in health to old age. A few facts of this sort incline one to suppose that the Sabbath was designed by its Lord as a day of rest for man from a constant routine of relaxation and mental and physical labor, in order that he might have leisure for attending to the paramount duties of religion, and not alone as a day of relaxation and rest, without which they could not live out all their days. Nothing like a seventh day of rest, or religious respect to that interval of time, is known among the Chinese, but they do not, as a people, exercise their minds to the intensity, or upon the high subjects common among Western nations, and this perhaps is one reason why their yearly toil produces no disastrous effects. The countless blessings which flow from an observance of the fourth commandment can be better appreciated by witnessing the wearied condition of the society where it is not acknowledged, and whoever sees such a society can hardly fail to wish for its introduction.
Converts to Christianity in China, who are instructed in its strict observance, soon learn to prize it as a high privilege; and its general neglect among the native Roman Catholics has removed the only apparent difference between them and the pagans. The former prime minister of China once remarked that among the few really valuable things which foreigners had brought to China, the rest of the Sabbath day was one of the most desirable; he often longed for a quiet day.[381]
NEW YEAR’S CUSTOMS AND CEREMONIES.
The return of the year is an occasion of unbounded festivity and hilarity, as if the whole population threw off the old year with a shout, and clothed themselves in the new with their change of garments. The evidences of the approach of this chief festival appear some weeks previous. The principal streets are lined with tables, upon which articles of dress, furniture, and fancy are disposed for sale in the most attractive manner. Necessity compels many to dispose of certain of their treasures or superfluous things at this season, and sometimes exceedingly curious bits of bric-a-brac, long laid up in families, can be procured at a cheap rate. It is customary for superiors to give their dependents and employees a present, and for shopmen to send an acknowledgment of favors to their customers; one of the most common gifts among the lower classes is a pair of new shoes. Among the tables spread in the streets are many provided with pencils and red paper of various sizes, on which persons write sentences appropriate to the season in various styles, to be pasted upon the doorposts and lintels of dwellings and shops,[382] or suspended from their walls. The shops also put on a most brilliant appearance, arrayed in these papers interspersed among the kin hwa, or ‘golden flowers,’ which are sprigs of artificial leaves and flowers made in the southern cities of brass tinsel and fastened upon wires; the latter are designed for an annual offering in temples, or to place before the household tablet. Small strips of red and gilt paper, some bearing the word fuh, or ‘happiness,’ large and small vermilion candles, gaily painted, and other things used in idolatry, are likewise sold in great quantities, and with the increased throng impart an unusually lively appearance to the streets. Another evident sign of the approaching change is the use of water upon the doors, shutters, and other woodwork of houses and shops, washing chairs, utensils, clothes, etc., as if cleanliness had not a little to do with joy, and a well-washed person and tenement were indispensable to the proper celebration of the festival. Throughout the southern rivers all small craft, tankia-boats, and lighters are beached and turned inside out for a scrubbing.
SETTLING ACCOUNTS AND DECORATING HOUSES.