[66] Society in China, p. [107].
[67] Kuei chia shih shih yang yen i ta kuan ssŭ wei lo shih.
[68] Ta-jên. The term Ta Lao-yeh (see p. [15]) is more correct for a "father-and-mother" official, but Ta-jên implies higher rank, and the Chinese finding from experience that nearly all European officials are foolish enough to prefer the loftier form of address, wisely make use of it in addressing a foreigner whom they desire to propitiate.
[69] Ta-jên tuan shih ju shên.
[71] See below, pp. [264] seq.
CHAPTER VII
VILLAGE LIFE AND LAND TENURE
To enter into a detailed description of Chinese village life would take us far astray from the immediate purpose of this book, which is to place before the reader a picture of Weihaiwei and the manners and customs of its people. Many such manners and customs are indeed common to the whole Empire, and in describing them we describe China; others are, or may be, peculiar to eastern Shantung or to the districts in proximity to the Promontory. Indeed, the student of sociological conditions in various parts of Asia will perhaps observe how much there is in common, with respect to village organisation, between the people of Weihaiwei and those—for example—of many parts of the Indian Empire. Far apart as the races concerned are in origin, traditions, and geographical and climatic conditions, it is yet a fact that the village communities of Weihaiwei at the present day are, in some important respects, identical in structure with those of Burma, especially of Upper Burma as it was before the annexation to the British Empire.