The great advantages attainable from the use of mechanical powers are either not understood or, purposely, not employed. In a country of such vast population, machinery may perhaps be considered as detrimental especially as, at least, nine-tenths of the community must derive their subsistence from manual labour. It may be a question, not at all decided in their minds, whether the general advantages of facilitating labour, and gaining time by means of machinery, be sufficient to counterbalance the individual distress that would, for a time, be occasioned by the introduction of such machinery. Whatever the reason may be, no such means are to be met with in the country. Among the presents that were carried out for the Emperor were an apparatus for the air pump, various articles for conducting a set of experiments in electricity, and the models of a complete set of mechanical powers placed upon a brass pillar. The Emperor, happening to cast his eye upon them, enquired of the eunuch in waiting for what they were intended. This mutilated animal, although he had been daily studying the nature and use of the several presents, in order to be able to say something upon them when they should be exhibited to his master, could not succeed in making his Imperial Majesty comprehend the intention of the articles in question. "I fancy," says the old monarch, "they are meant as playthings for some of my great grandchildren."
The power of the pulley is understood by them, and is applied on board all their large vessels, but always in a single state; at least, I never observed a block with more than one wheel in it. The principle of the lever should also seem to be well known, as all their valuable wares, even silver and gold, are weighed with the steelyard: and the tooth and pinion wheels are used in the construction of their self-moving toys, and in all their rice-mills that are put in motion by a water wheel. But none of the mechanical powers are applied on the great scale to facilitate and to expedite labour. Simplicity is the leading feature in all their contrivances that relate to the arts and manufactures. The tools of every artificer are of a construction the most simple that it should seem possible to make them, and yet each tool is so contrived as to answer several purposes. Thus, the bellows of the blacksmith, which is nothing more than a hollow cylinder of wood, with a valvular piston, beside blowing the fire, serves for his seat when set on end, and as a box to contain the rest of his tools. The barber's bamboo basket, that contains his apparatus, is also the seat for his customers. The joiner makes use of his rule as a walking stick, and the chest that holds his tools serves him as a bench to work on. The pedlar's box and a large umbrella are sufficient for him to exhibit all his wares, and to form his little shop.
Little can be said in favour of the state of the fine arts in this country. Of their poetry, modern and ancient, I have given a specimen; but I think it right once more to observe that, with regard to Asiatic compositions, Europeans cannot form a proper judgment, and more especially of those of the Chinese, which, to the mysterious and obscure expressions of metaphor, add the disadvantage of a language that speaks but little to the ear; a whole sentence, or a combination of ideas, being sometimes shut up in a short monosyllable, whose beauties are most studiously addressed to the sense of seeing alone.
Of the other two sister arts, painting and music, a more decided opinion may be passed. Of the latter I have little to observe. It does not seem to be cultivated as a science: it is neither learned as an elegant accomplishment, nor practiced as an amusement of genteel life, except by those females who are educated for sale, or by such as hire themselves out for the entertainment of those who may be inclined to purchase their favours. And as the Chinese differ in their ideas from all other nations, these women play generally upon wind instruments, such as small pipes and flutes; whilst the favourite instrument of the men is the guittar or something not very unlike it, some of which have two strings, some four, and others seven. Eunuchs, and the lowest class of persons, are hired to play; and the merit of a performance should seem to consist in the intenseness of the noise brought out of the different instruments. The gong or, as they call it, the loo is admirably adapted for this purpose. This instrument is a sort of shallow kettle, or rather the lid of a kettle, which they strike with a wooden mallet covered with leather. The composition is said to be copper, tin, and bismuth. They have also a kind of clarinet, three or four different sorts of trumpets, and a stringed instrument not unlike a violoncello. Their sing is a combination of uneven reeds of bamboo, not unlike the pipe of Pan; the tones are far from being disagreeable, but its construction is so wild and irregular, that it does not appear to be reducible to any kind of scale. Their kettle drums are generally shaped like barrels; and these, as well as different-sized bells fixed in a frame, constitute parts in their sacred music. They have also an instrument of music which consists of stones, cut into the shape of a carpenter's square, each stone suspended by the corner in a wooden frame. Those which I saw appeared to belong to that species of the silicious genus usually called Gneiss, a sort of slaty granite. In the Keswick museum are musical stones of the same kind, which were picked up in a rivulet at the foot of Skiddaw mountain; but these seem to contain small pieces of black shorl or tourmaline. It is indeed the boast of their historians, that the whole empire of nature has been laid under contribution in order to complete their system of music: that the skins of animals, the fibres of plants, metals, stones, and baked earths, have all been employed in the production of sounds. Their instruments, it is true, are sufficiently varied, both as to shape and materials, but I know of none that is even tolerable to an European ear. An English gentleman in Canton took some pains to collect the various instruments of the country, of which the annexed plate is a representation, but his catalogue is not complete.
A sheet of bell Metal
A pot of bell Metal
The Great Bell of Canton 20 feet diameter 8-16 Inches thick.
A Barrel drum sometimes of Wood & sometimes Metal.
A Log of Wood shaped like a Skull and used in Temples.
A Metal Bell.
A Lyre of silken Strings.
A small Flute.
A Muffled Drum.
The Metal Gong or Loo
Cymbals.
Uncertain
A Pair of Rattles or Castanets.
Cymbals struck with a rod.
Alommon Flute.
Two Stringed Violins
A Three Stringed Guitar.
A Pipe of inequal reeds or bamboos.
Four Stringed Guitars.
Three Trumpets.
A Lyre of 11 Metallic Strings.
Metal Plates an Instrument used in Sacred Music.
A small barrell Drum.
A fixed Drum used in Sacred Music.
A small Gong or Loo.
Neele sc. Strand
Published May 10th, 1804 by Cadell and Davies Strand.
A Chinese band generally plays, or endeavours to play, in unison, and sometimes an instrument takes the octave; but they never attempt to play in separate parts, confining their art to the melody only, if I may venture to apply a name of so much sweetness to an aggregation of harsh sounds. They have not the least notion of counter-point, or playing in parts: an invention indeed to which the elegant Greeks had not arrived, and which was unknown in Europe as well as Asia, until the monkish ages.