[51] Encyclopédie des Connoissances Humaines.
[52] The present Emperor shewed his gratitude for his prayers having been heard, by granting in a public edict an additional title to the temple in which they were offered.
IMPERIAL EDICT.
"The gracious protecting temple of the king of the dragons, on the mountain of Yu-chun, has on every occasion of drought proved favourable to our prayers offered up there for rain, as duly observed on our sacred registers. From the summer solstice of the present year, a great want of rain has been experienced, on which account we were induced, on the 17th of this moon, to offer up our prayers and sacrifices in person at the said temple. During the very same day, a fall of small rain or dew was observed, and, on the day following, the country was relieved by frequent and copious showers. This further proof of efficacy in granting our requests, augments our veneration and, in testimony whereof, we direct that the temple of the propitious divinity shall receive an additional title, and be styled on all future occasions,
"The gracious in protecting, and efficacious in preserving, the temple of the king of the dragons.
[53] From a passage in the manuscript journal of a Chinese who accompanied the Dutch embassy it would appear, that the art of embalming the dead was once known and practiced in this country. He observes, that at Ou tebé there is a temple or pagoda inhabited by a number of priests, who shew the body of a very ancient bonze, prepared in such a manner, and filled with such ingredients, that it does not decay, but remains perfectly entire. He is dressed in his robes of ceremony, and in his hand he holds a machine which was invented by him for cleaning rice.
[54] For the convenience of collecting and distributing the taxes raised in kind, the districts, and cities within them, are divided into three classes, distinguished by the adjuncts foo, tchoo, shien. The shien is answerable to the tchoo; the tchoo to the foo; and the foo to the board of revenue in the capital.
[55] The Far et mica salis were parts of most of the Roman sacrifices, and salt, in particular, was held in such veneration, and in such general use, that when any one obtained a salary or pension, he was said to have got his Salarium, or something to procure his salt, in the same sense, as we say, to get one's bread, and a common expression in India, denoting service, is, I eat the salt of such a one, and the Dutch in speaking of a dependent say, he owes his salt to such a one. These coincidences of opinion, or custom, among remote nations, however difficult they may be to explain, are nevertheless extremely interesting and are on that account here noticed.
[56] I infer that such is not the practice in China, from the manner in which the Dutch Embassadors were conveyed to and from the capital in the middle of winter. The inconveniences they suffered on this occasion are such as can scarcely be conceived to have happened in a civilized country. The perusal of the manuscript journal I have elsewhere noticed conveyed to my mind the idea of a country dreary and desolate, and of a people indigent and distressed; without humanity, and without hospitality. They travelled in little bamboo chairs, carried by four men, who were generally so weak and tottering that they could not go through the day's journey, but were obliged, frequently, in the middle of the night, to halt in an open uninhabited part of the country, where not a hovel of any description was to be met with to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather. And it most commonly happened, that the lodgings appointed for their reception, at the different stages were in such a miserable condition, admitting on every side the wind, rain, or snow, that they generally preferred taking a little rest in their bamboo chairs. They were surprized to find so few cities, towns, or villages in their route, and not less surprized at the ruinous condition in which these few appeared to be. Near the capital a whole city exhibited only a mass of ruins. In many places they found the country under water, and the mud hovels completely melted down. Sometimes they passed extensive wastes, where not a trace was visible of any kind of cultivation, nor a single dwelling occurred in the distance of eight or ten English miles. And it was not before they had crossed the Yellow River that they perceived the marks of wheel-carriages imprinted on the roads, which were so little travelled upon that they could with difficulty be traced. Here they met old men and young women travelling in wheelbarrows; and litters carried by asses, one being fixed between the poles before, and one behind. The rivers had no bridges over them; and such as were too deep to be forded, they were under the necessity of crossing on rafts of bamboo. In short, before they arrived at the capital, the fatigue and hardships they had undergone considerably impaired their health, and the condition of their clothing was such as to excite the compassion of the mandarines, who made them a present of twenty sheep-skin jackets, dressed with the wool upon them; which, like the Hottentots, they wore inwards. One of these gentlemen assured me, that having satisfied his curiosity, no earthly consideration should tempt him to undertake a second journey by land to the capital; for that he believed the whole world could not furnish a like picture of desolation and misery. What a contrast is here exhibited to the ease and convenience with which our journey was made! But the whole treatment of the Dutch embassy seems to have been proportioned to the degree of importance which the Chinese attached to the political condition of this nation.
[57] It may be observed of almost all the writings of the missionaries concerning China, that virtues of so trifling a nature as hardly to deserve the name, have met their unqualified praise, whilst enormous vices have either been palliated or passed over in silence.