[302] See No. XLIII., [note 248].
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[303] See No. LIII., [note 288].
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[304] Such is the Chinese idiom for what we should call “bitter” tears. This phrase is constantly employed in the notices of the death of a parent sent round to friends and relatives.
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[305] A disgraceful state of things, in the eyes of the Chinese. See the paraphrase of the Sacred Edict, Maxim 1.
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[306] An illegal form of punishment, under the present dynasty, which authorizes only bambooing of two kinds, each of five degrees of severity; banishment, of three degrees of duration; transportation for life, of three degrees of distance; and death, of two kinds, namely, by strangulation and decapitation. That torture is occasionally resorted to by the officers of the Chinese Empire is an indisputable fact; that it is commonly employed by the whole body of mandarins could only be averred by those who have not had the opportunities or the desire to discover the actual truth.
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[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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