Three Years in Western China / A Narrative of Three Journeys in Ssu-ch'uan, Kuei-chow, and Yün-nan

by Sir Alexander Hosie

TO THE WHITE WAX COUNTRY, THE SACRED MOUNT O-MEI, AND THE HIGHEST NAVIGABLE POINT ON THE YANG-TSZE.

An unfortunate start—North to Ho Chou—Chinese Soy—Varnish and its collection—Young trees from the old—Light-hearted peasants—The garden of Ssŭ-ch’uan—Otter fishing—Man-tzŭ caves—A great sugar country—Glimpse of O-mei—Chief silk country in Western China—Ascent of O-mei—Sweet tea of O-mei—The Golden Summit—The Glory of Buddha—Pilgrims and their devotions—O-mei beggars—A difficult descent—Official obstruction—Sick followers—On the banks of the Ta-tu—Man-tzŭ raids—Down with fever—Guerilla warfare—Hard up for food—An exhausting march—The welcome Yang-tsze—Its highest navigable point—Down the upper rapids—Death of my horse-boy—Back to Ch’ung-k’ing.

In the spring of 1884, I received instructions from the Foreign Office to report fully, for the information of the Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew, on the subject of Chinese Insect White Wax, and to collect and transmit specimens illustrative of this remarkable industry. In China, so much of the marvellous is always mixed up with fact that, in order to gain trustworthy information on anything that savours of obscurity, personal observation is essential. To comply with my instructions, therefore, I found it necessary to pay a visit to the centre of this wax culture in the province of Ssŭ-ch’uan, and I resolved to combine with my researches the ascent of the Sacred Mount O-mei, from whose summit the famous Glory of Buddha is to be seen, and to strike on my way back the highest navigable point on the Yang-tsze. I was, fortunately, able to carry out this programme, and the present and subsequent chapters are devoted to an account of the journey and its results.

In the two preceding years, I had been able so to regulate my departure from Ch’ung-k’ing as to enjoy comparatively cool weather during my journeys, but the fact that the white wax industry is carried on and completed during the summer months, compelled me to delay starting till June. My caravan was much the same as on previous occasions. Had I so willed, I might have ascended the Yang-tsze by boat to Sui Fu and its tributary the Min to Chia-ting, and thus saved myself much overland toil; but, as every explorer knows, the thirst for new fields becomes after a time irresistible and must be satisfied. Boat-travelling would have been altogether too monotonous and uninteresting. My plan, briefly, was to make for Ho Chou, a trade centre on the Chia-ling, which enters the Yang-tsze at Ch’ung-k’ing, strike west in as direct a line as possible to the Min River and Chia-ting, go west to Mount O-mei, then proceed south along the eastern borders of Lolodom to the Yang-tsze, and return, if possible, by water.

The evening of the 1st of June, which was an excessively hot day even for Ch’ung-k’ing, saw all our arrangements completed for a start the following morning. Overnight, thunder and rain raised some doubts whether my followers would be willing to proceed until the weather had settled, and when the rain was still descending heavily at daylight, my doubts became almost a certainty. They turned up, however, and begged for delay; but I succeeded in persuading them, by a series of rather doubtful arguments, that the heavens had all but exhausted themselves, and that the sun would show his face before noon. Unfortunately, my prognostications did not come true, and by the time we reached Fu-to’u-kuan we were all drenched. But a start had been effected, and there was no turning back.

A FERTILE DISTRICT.

At Fu-to’u-kuan the road to Ho Chou leaves the highway to the capital, and goes north by west through broken country to avoid the windings of the Chia-ling, which twists and turns from east to west and west to east in its hurry to reach the Yang-tsze. In the bottom lands, on terraced hill-sides, and wherever water could be retained, paddy was planted out; Indian corn, tall millet, [Sorghum vulgare], tobacco, melons, ginger, taros [Arum aquaticum], indigo, beans, and hemp or China grass were everywhere growing luxuriantly. Amid these plots were the farm-houses, the homesteads nestling in clumps of bamboo and fir. Here and there rose a fan-palm and a banyan, and the wood-oil tree was at home on rocky ground. Bushes of scrub-oak occupied uncultivated hill-sides, and plantations of mulberry trees and orange groves were occasionally to be seen. Coal and lime were everywhere abundant. Several small streams flow through this country and swell the Chia-ling.

On the afternoon of the 4th of June, we stood on the northern brink of this broken country, to the north-east and not far below us stretched a plain, while four miles to the north rose a thirteen-storied pagoda, which marks the approach to the city of Ho Chou. On reaching the pagoda, we found ourselves near the right bank of the Fu Chiang, one of the chief tributaries of the Chia-ling. The busy market town of Nan-ching-kai, which stands on the right bank, seemed to be almost entirely devoted to cotton-weaving; the click-clack of the loom was heard in every street through which we passed to the ferry. Ho Chou occupies low rising ground just above the junction of the two rivers; to it come for distribution the rich and varied products of north-eastern Ssŭ-ch’uan—salt, silk, safflower, lumber, rape-oil, tobacco, grass-cloth, vegetables, spirits, and a whole catalogue of medicines.

A special industry of the city is the manufacture of a soy, which is famous, not only in Ssŭ-ch’uan, but in other provinces. Chinese soy, as is well known, is imported into England in large quantities, and is, I believe, used in the manufacture of sauces. In China itself there is amongst foreigners a decided prejudice against soy, and a fresh arrival is often solemnly assured that it is made of boiled down cockroaches; yet, to the best of my information, it contains nothing more deleterious than the juice of a bean.

THE VARNISH TREE.