The birthday on which any person completes his cycle is considered a very auspicious occasion. The second emperor of the present dynasty, K‘ang Hsi, completed a cycle in his reign, with one year to spare; and his grandson, Ch‘ien Lung (or Kien Lung) fell short of this only by a single year, dying in the same cyclical period as that in which he had ascended the throne.
[return to footnote anchor 152]
[return to Vol. II. footnote anchor 270]
[153] Bride and bridegroom drink wine together out of two cups joined by a red string, typical of that imaginary bond which is believed to unite the destinies of husband and wife long before they have set eyes on each other. Popular tradition assigns to an old man who lives in the moon the arrangement of all matches among mortals; hence the common Chinese expression, “Marriages are made in the moon.”
[return to text]
[154] The bill of sale always handed to the purchaser of a child in China, as a proof that the child is his bonâ fide property and has not been kidnapped, is by a pleasant fiction called a “deed of gift,” the amount paid over to the seller being therein denominated “ginger and vinegar money,” or compensation for the expense of rearing and educating up to the date of sale. This phrase originates from the fact that a dose of ginger and vinegar is administered to every Chinese woman immediately after the delivery of her child.
We may here add that the value of male children to those who have no heirs, and of female children to those who want servants, has fostered a regular kidnapping trade, which is carried on with great activity in some parts of China, albeit the penalty on discovery is instant decapitation. Some years ago I was present in the streets of Tientsin when a kidnapper was seized by the infuriated mob, and within two hours I heard that the man had been summarily executed.
[return to footnote anchor 154]
[return to footnote 185]
[return to footnote anchor 238]
[return to Vol. II. footnote anchor 79]
[155] The power of recalling events which have occurred in a previous life will be enlarged upon in several stories to come.
[return to text]
[156] There is nothing in China like an aristocracy of birth. Any man may raise himself from the lowest level to the highest; and as long as he and his family keep themselves there, they may be considered aristocratic. Wealth has nothing to do with the question; official rank and literary tastes, separate or combined, these constitute a man’s title to the esteem of his fellows. Trade is looked upon as ignoble and debasing; and friendly intercourse between merchants and officials, the two great social divisions, is so rare as to be almost unknown.
[return to text]
[157] The medium, without whose good offices no marriage can be arranged. Generally, but not always, a woman.
This system of go-betweens is not confined to matrimonial engagements. No servant ever offers himself for a place; he invariably employs some one to introduce him. So also in mercantile transactions the broker almost invariably appears upon the scene.
[return to text]
[158] See No. II., [note 41].
[return to text]
[159] The so-called “golden lilies” always come in for a large share of criticism. See No. XII., [note 86]. This term originated with an emperor who reigned in the fifth century, when, in ecstasies at the graceful dancing of a concubine upon a stage ornamented with lilies, he cried out, “Every footstep makes a lily grow.”
[return to text]