[307] Lagerstrœmia indica.
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[308] That is, old Mr. Jen’s body had been possessed by the disembodied spirit of Ta-ch‘êng’s father.
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[309] Five is considered a large number for an ordinary Chinese woman.
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[310] In order to leave some one behind to look after their graves and perform the duties of ancestral worship. No one can well refuse to give a son to be adopted by a childless brother.
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[311] That is, of rising to the highest offices of State.
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[312] The Chinese term used throughout is “star-man.”
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[313] Chinese official life is divided into nine grades.
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[314] Prostrating himself three times, and knocking his head on the ground thrice at each prostration.
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[315] The retinue of a high mandarin is composed as follows:—First, gong-bearers, then bannermen, tablet-bearers (on which tablets are inscribed the titles of the official), a large red umbrella, mounted attendants, a box containing a change of clothes, bearers of regalia, a second gong, a small umbrella or sunshade, a large wooden fan, executioners, lictors from hell, who wear tall hats; a mace (called a “golden melon”), bamboos for “bambooing,” incense-bearers, more attendants, and now the great man himself, followed by a body-guard of soldiers and a few personal attendants, amounting in all to nearly one hundred persons, many of whom are mere street-rowdies or beggars, hired at a trifling outlay when required to join what might otherwise be an imposing procession. The scanty retinues of foreign officials in China still continue to excite the scorn of the populace, who love to compare the rag-tag and bob-tail magnificence of their own functionaries with the modest show even of H.B.M.’s Minister at Peking.
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[return to Vol. II. footnote 39]
[return to Vol. II. footnote 155]
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[316] A land journey of about three months, ending in a region which the Chinese have always regarded as semi-barbarous.
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