120 a н I Chinn. decline. They pretend indeed, but without adducing tain only a certain number of words; all of which any satisfactory proof of its truth, that the monuments must be ranged according to the rules of quantity, and of literature were destroyed by the tyrant She-whang- terminate in rlyme. The number of verses in a strophe te, 200 years before the Christian era, that succeeding is not determined; but they must be uniform, and pregenerations might consider him as the first civilized sent the same distribution of rhymes. The small num. emperor who had swayed the sceptre over that exten- ber of poetical expressions contained in the Chinese sive country. The chief works at present among them language has rendered it necessary to extend the poeti. which are most valued, studied, and least understood, cal liceuce to a great length in this respect. The Chiare the five classics collected by their favourite Cong- nese poets are allowed to employ a blank verse in evefoo-tse, 450 years B. C. and wbich it seems bad the good ry four. They are acquainted with most kinds of poefortune to escape the unlettered fury of She-wbang-te. try in use among us. They have stanzas, odes, eleThese classics are enumerated by Mr Barrow in the gies, idyls, eclogues, epigrams, satires, and even bouts following order. rimes. The common people have also ballads and 1. Shoo-king. A collection of records and annals of songs peculiar to themselves. Some of the most distinvarious princes, commencing more than 2000 years guished of the literati have even thought it of imporB. C. tance enough to turn the most celebrated maxims of 2. Shee-king. Odes, sonnets, and maxims ; most of morality, with the rules of civility, into verse. Their them so abundant in metaphor, and so obscure, that poetry is seldom disgraced by any kind of obscenity; much of the sense is to be made out by the transla- and indeed any such thing would be severely punished tor. by government. That severe attention with which 3. Ye-king. The perfect and the broken lines of every thing tending to corrupt the morals is watched Fo-shee; the most ancient relick in China, and perhaps in China, probibits not only poems of this kind, but the first attempt at written language: now perfectly likewise romances of all sorts. The police, however, incomprehensible. permits such novels as bave a useful tendency, and in 4. Chung-choo. Spring and autumn. The history which nothing is introduced prejudicial to sound moraof some of the kings of Loo: the work principally of lity. Every author who writes against government is Cong-foo-tse. punished with death, as well as all those who have 5. Lee-kee. Ceremonies and moral duties, a compi- had any band in the printing or distribution of his lation of Cong-foo-tse. works. Without a complete change of the Chinese language, The arts of making paper and printing have been Chinese and a more extensive and friendly intercourse with fo- long known among the Chinese. That kind of paper paper. reign nations, it is not at all probable that that peo: now in use was first manufactured about 105 years beple will ever rank high for their knowledge of litera. fore the Christian era. Before that period they used ture. cloth, and various kinds of silk stuff, instead of 124 paper ; Chinese There are five kinds of writing nientioned by the and to this day they still preserve a custom of writing writing. Chinese literati ; the most modern of wbich is a me- the praises of the dead upon large pieces of silk, which thod of tracing out the characters with a pencil. This are suspended on one side of the coffin, and carried in is difficult, and requires much experience; at any rate funeral processions; and of ornamenting their apartit disfigures the characters greatly, and is therefore ments with maxims and moral sentences written in the only used in the prescriptions of physicians, prefaces to In ages still more early, they wrote books, and inscriptions of fancy. "The tracing of cha- with a kind of -style upon pieces of bamboo, or even racters with neatness and accuracy, however, as we upon plates of metal. The first paper was invented have already had occasion to observe, is greatly admi- by a mandarin. He took the bark of trees, hemp, and red in China. They are often preferred to the most old pieces of silk-stuff, boiling them together until they elegant painting ; and some will give a most exorbitant were reduced to a kind of paste, of which he formed price for a page of an old book, if it happens to be his paper ; which by degrees was brought to perfecneatly written. They pay particular attention to well tion, and the art of whitening and giving it a lustre formed characters even in the most common books; found out. A great number of different substances and if any of the leaves happen to fall off, will replace are now used in this empire for making paper; such them with the greatest attention. To apply them to as the bamboo reed, the cotton shrub, the bark of the any vile purpose, tread them under foot, &c. would be plant called kou-chu, and of the mulberry tree; hemp, reckoned an unpardonable violation of decency and the straw of wheat and rice, parchment, the cods of politeness ; nay, it often happens, that workmen, such the silk-worm, and several other substances unknown as masons and joiners, dare not tear a printed leaf of in Europe. In this manufacture the bark of trees and paper fixed to the wall. shrubs is used, and the woody substance of the bamboo of their Iunctuation was not formerly used in China, nor are and cotton tree, after it has been macerated and redupoetry. points as yet employed in works of an elevated style, ced to a thin paste. Most of the Chinese paper, howor such as are to be presented to the emperor. Poe- ever, is attended with the disadvantage of being very try is seldom an object of attention, though the taste susceptible of moisture, readily attracts the dust, and for it seems to be pretty general in China. worms insensibly get into it: to prevent which inconsification has its rules, and is no less difficult than that veniences, it is necessary to beat the books often, and of other nations. Only the most harmonious, energe- expose them to the sun. That made of cotton is the tic, and picturesque words, are to be employed, and prettiest, and most used of any. All of them, howthey must always be used in the same sense in which ever, are much softer and smoother than ours; which they were used by the ancients. Each verse can con- is absolutely necessary for their method of writing with same manner. 125 Their ver China. a pencil, in order that it may run with freedom, which of ink upon the planks : and in this manner one man Ching it could not do upon ours. It is formed into sheets of is able to throw off almost 10,000 copies a day. The matter to procure from the manufactories of this em- described, and which is used in writing. The leaves, 117 pire sheets of paper 30 or 40 feet long. on account of the thinness of the paper, are printed made of the fur of a rabbit, and consequently very vernment may be said to be founded on error and sup- ported by oppression. It was the liberty of the press Their me. The Chinese method of printing is exceedingly dif- which accomplished the overthrow of sacerdotal tyranthod of ferent from ours; and indeed it would be in a manner ny in many European countries, by enlightening the printing. impossible to have moveable types for such a number minds of those who were enslaved. When the art of , , . 129 down the intermediate part of the wood. Thus each The art of manufacturing silk, according to the best Vast quan, page of a book requires a separate plank ; and the ex- authorities, was communicated by the Chinese to the tity of silk cessive multiplication of these is no doubt a very great Persians, and from them to the Greeks. The art has produced. inconvenience, one chamber being scarce sufficient to been known in this empire from the remotest antiqui. preserve those employed for a single book. The ad- ty; and the breeding of silk-worms and making of silk vantages are, that the work is thus free from typogra- was one of the employments even of the empresses in phical errors, and the author has no occasion to cor- very early ages. rect the proofs. Thus also the booksellers in China The most beautiful silk in the whole empire is that have a decided advantage over those of Europe, as of Tche-kiang, which is wrought by the manufactories they are able by this method of printing to throw off of Nanking. From these are brought all the stuffs copies according to their sale, without running the risk used by the emperor, and such as he distributes in preof being ruined by too large an edition. In this sents to his nobility. A great number of excellent method the beauty of the work depends entirely up- workmen are also drawn to the manufactories of Canon the skill of the writer previously employed. The ton by the commerce with Europe and other parts of engravers are exceedingly dexterous, and imitate eve- Asia. Here are manufactured ribbons, stockings, and ry stroke so exactly, that it is sometimes difficult to buttons. A pair of silk stockings here costs little more distinguish a printed work from one that is only writ- tban 6s. sterling. ten. The quantity of silk produced in China seems to be The method of printing in China is not by a press almost inexbaustible; the internal consumption alone as in Europe, as neither their wooden planks nor their being incredibly great, besides that which is exported soft paper could sustain so much pressure. They first in the commerce with Europe and the rest of Asia. place the plank level, and then fix it in that position. In this empire all who possess a moderate fortune wear The printer is provided with two brushes, and with the silk clothes ; none but the lower class of people wear, bardest daubs the plank with ink; and one daubing is ing cotton stuffs, which are commonly dyed blue. The sufficient for four or five leaves. After a leaf has been principal stuffs manufactured by them are plain and adjusted upon the plank, the workman takes the second flowered gauzes, of which they make summer dresses; brush, which is softer than the former, and of an ob- damask of all colours; striped and black satins ; naped, long figure, and draws it gently over the paper, pres- flowered, striped, clouded, and pinked taffeties ; crapes, sing it down a little, that it may receive the ink. The brocades, plush, different kinds of velvet, and a mula degree of pressure is to be regulated by the quantity titude of other stuffs unknown in Europe. They make Vol. VI, Part I. + F particular China. 130 Porcelain. 131 Glass of little esti. mation, 132 Medicine. particular use of two kinds; one named touan-tse, a kind of satin much stronger, but which has less lustre, than that of Europe; the other a kind of taffety, of which they make drawers and linings. It is woven exceedingly close, and is yet so pliable that it may be rumpled and rubbed between the hands without any crease; and even when washed like cotton-cloth, it loses very little of its lustre. They manufacture also a kind of gold brocades, but of such a slight nature, that they cannot be worn in clothes: they are fabricated by wrapping fine slips of gilt paper round the threads of silk. Porcelain is another great branch of Chinese manufacture, and employs a vast number of workmen. The finest is made in a village called King-te-Ching in the province of Kiang-si. Manufactories have also been erected in the provinces of Fo-kien and Canton, but their produce is not esteemed: and one which the emperor caused to be erected at Peking, in order to be under his own inspection, miscarried entirely. The Chinese divide their porcelain into several classes, according to its different degrees of fineness and beauty. The whole of the first is reserved for the use of the emperor, so that none of it ever comes into the hands of other persons, unless it happen to be cracked or otherwise damaged in such a manner as to be unworthy of being presented to the sovereign. Among that sent to the emperor, however, there is some porcelain of an inferior quality, which he disposes of in presents. There is some doubt, therefore, whether any of the finest Chinese porcelain was ever seen in Europe. Some value, however, is now put upon the European porcelain by the Chinese themselves. The use of glass is very ancient in China, though it does not appear that great value was ever put upon this kind of ware, the art of manufacturing it having been frequently lost and revived again in this empire. They greatly admire the workmanship of the European crystal, but prefer their own porcelain, which stands hot liquors, and is much less liable to be broken. The little estimation in which this substance was held, is even mentioned by their own writers in speaking of the false pearls, mirrors, and other toys which were made in former ages. The remembrance of a very large glass veesel, however, which was made in 627, is still preserved; and of which it was said that a mule could as easily enter it as a gnat could enter a pitcher. In order to transport this monstrous vessel from the place where it was manufactured to the emperor's pa lace, it was necessary to inclose it in a net, the four corners of which were fixed to four carriages. The same indifference with regard to glass is still entertained by the present emperors; however, a glass-house is established at Peking, where a number of vases and other works are made; and these are so much the more difficult in the execution, as none of them are blown. This manufactory, as well as many others, is considered only as an appendage of the court, destined for the purposes of pomp and magnificence. It seems evident that medicine must have been one of the earliest studies to which mankind turned their attention, at least when they had attained to some degree of civilization. It is the common lot of humanity to be born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, and therefore an assiduous application to the study of those diseases to which man is subject, either with a view to effect a radical cure, or even to mitigate the virulence of their symptoms, must have secured to such characters the esteem and admiration of the world. Even savages have discovered respect for such of their own nation as could remove obstructions, heal bruises, or administer relief to the miserable in any shape whatever. The Chinese in this respect are perfectly unique, and seem to differ from every nation under heaven in their notions of medicine. They have no public seminaries where the healing art may be taught, because they do not consider the knowledge of any branch of medicine as in the smallest degree necessary. very best performances of this nature to be met with in China, are little more than mere enumerations of the names and supposed qualities of different plants, a sufficient stock of knowledge for constituting a Chinese physician. In a country where the people are so credulous, and the medical art at such a low ebb, it would be a singular circumstance to find no quacks. In every city, therefore, of this vast empire, multitudes are to be met with continually vending nostrums, as pretended specifics for some disease or other, and the easy credulity of the people affords them a comfortable subsistence. The Were the Chinese perpetual strangers to every species of disease, it would enable us to account for their unnatural apathy or indifference about the study of physic; but it will remain an inexplicable paradox, when we are assured upon undoubted authority, that they are subject to a multiplicity of distempers. The smallpox, ophthalmia, contagious fevers, sometimes the venereal or Canton ulcer, as it is denominated by themselves, are a few of the maladies incident to the Chinese, which might constitute a powerful stimulus, one would imagine, to the study of physic, with unremitting assiduity, which it is certain they do not, as appears from the subsequent assertion of Dr Gregory. "In the greatest, most ancient, and most civilized empire on the face of the earth, an empire that was great, populous, and highly civilized 2000 years ago, when this country was as savage as New Zealand is at present, no such good medical aid can be obtained among the people of it, as a smart boy of 16, who had been but 12 months apprentice to a good and well employed Edinburgh surgeon, might reasonably be expected to afford." This gives us a melancholy picture of the state of medicine in China, which, however, is confirmed by the united testimony of Sir George Staunton and Mr Barrow. The people of China are said to be in the possession of a method for ascertaining whether a man has been murdered, or committed an act of suicide, of the probability of which our readers will be able to judge from the following process. The body to be examined is washed with vinegar. A large fire is kindled in a pit dug for the purpose, six feet long, three wide, and the same in depth. The fire receives new accession of fuel till the pit acquires the temperature of a heated oven, when the whole of the remaining fuel is taken out, and a large quantity of wine is poured into the pit. The body is then placed at full length on osier twigs over the mouth of it, and covered with a cloth for two hours, that the steam of the wine may act upon the body in all directions. The Chinese, it China. is said, assert that if the blows given the body were so violent as to occasion death, this process makes the marks of them clearly appear, let the state of the body, when subjected to this test, be ever so cadave 133 Of their music. rous. With regard to the music of the Chinese, we have the same stories related as of the Greeks and Egyptians, viz. that in former ages the musicians could make brute animals leap at the sound of their instruments. Our author, M. Grosier, indeed does not quote any Chinese author who asserts that the ancient music could make trees dance, or stones arrange themselves into a city; but he quotes them asserting, "that the musicians could call down superior spirits of every age from the ethereal regions; raise up the manes of departed beings; inspire men with a love of virtue; and lead them to the practice of their duty." Effects of this supernatural kind are attributed to the sacred music by the inspired writers; as in the case of Saul, out of whom an evil spirit departed at the sound of David's harp; and of Elisha, who was inspired with the spirit of prophecy at the sound of a musical instrument. It is probable, therefore, that the relations both of the Greeks and Chinese are founded upon facts of this kind; and we cannot from thence infer, that the music of early ages was at all superior to that which followed. According to those who have employed much time in these researches, the ancient Chinese were acquainted with the division of the octave into twelve semitones; and that before the time of Pythagoras, or even Mercury himself: that the lyre of Pythagoras, his invention of the diatonic tetrachords, and the formation of his grand system, were merely borrowed from the ancient Chinese. In short, it is maintained, that the Greeks, even Pythagoras himself, did nothing but apply to strings that theory which the Chinese had before formed, and applied to pipes. At present the Chinese are not acquainted with the use of our musical notes; they have not that diversity of signs which distinguish the different tones, and the gradual elevation or depression of the voice, nor any thing to point out the various modifications of sound to produce harmony. They have only a few characters to mark the principal notes; and all the airs they learn are repeated merely by rote. The emperor Kang-hi was therefore greatly astonished at the facility with which an European could catch and remember an air the first time he heard it. In 1679 he sent for Fathers Grimaldi and Pereira, to play some tunes on the harpsichord, of which they had before made him a present. He was greatly entertained with their music, but altogether astonished when he found that F. Pereira could take down a Chinese air while the musicians were playing it, and then repeat the whole without omitting a single note. Having made several trials of this kind in order to satisfy himself, he bestowed the highest encomiums upon the European music, and the means furnished by it to facilitate and lessen the labour of the memory. "I must confess (says he) that the European music is incomparable, and that the like of this F. Pereira is not to be found in my whole kingdom." Musical in- The Chinese have always distinguished eight differstruments. ent sounds; and they believe that nature, in order to 134 produce these, formed eight different kinds of sonorous bodies. The order in which they distribute these sounds, and the instruments they have contrived to produce them, are, 1. The sounds of skin produced by drums; 2. That of stone produced by the king; 3. The sound of metal by bells; 4. That of baked earth b the huien; 5. Of silk by the kin and che; 6. Of wood by the yu and tchou; 7. Of the bamboo by the koan, and different flutes; 8. That of a gourd by the cheng. The drums were originally composed of a box made of baked earth, and covered at the extremities with the skin of some animal; but on account of the brittleness of baked earth, wood was soon substituted in its stead. Most of these instruments are shaped like our barrels, but some are cylindrical. The instruments formed of the sonorous stones are called king, distinguished into tse-king and pien-king. The tse-king consists only of one stone, and therefore produces only one note. The pien-king consists of 16 stones suspended together, and thus forming an instrument capable of producing all the tones admitted into the music of the ancient Chinese. They are cut into the form of a carpenter's square; their tone is flattened by diminishing their thickness, and is made sharper by abridging their length. Although in the estimation of the Chinese, universal nature has been forced to contribute towards the perfection of their music, by furnishing them with the skins of different animals, metals, stones, baked earths, and the fibrous parts of plants, Mr Barrow could discover no instrument among them of a musical nature, the tones of which would have been even tolerable to a delicate European ear; and only one person in the course of his investigations and researches could with any propriety be said to sing from tenderness and feeling. Yet without the smallest authority for such a bold assertion, a certain Jesuit has maintained, that the musical system of the Chinese was borrowed from them by the Greeks and Egyptians before the time of Orpheus! He who can believe this extravagant assertion, after comparing the music of these countries together at any given period, will find it an easy matter to give credit to any thing whatever. China. 135 The bells in China have always been made of a Bells of immixture of tin and copper. They are of different mense size. shapes, and those of the ancients were not round but flattened, and in the lower part resembling a crescent. An instrument, corresponding to the king, already mentioned, is composed of 16 bells of different sizes. Some of their bells used on public occasions are of enormous magnitudes. One at Peking is described as 13 feet in diameter, 12 in height, and 42 in circumference; the weight being upwards of 120,000 pounds. It is used for announcing the hours or watches of the night; and its sound, which is prodigiously loud and strong, has a most awful effect in the nighttime, by reverberating round the walls and the echo of the surrounding country. There are several others likewise of vast size in the same city; one of which deserves greatly to be admired on account of the beautiful characters with which it is covered; and which are as neat and perfect as if traced out by the hand of the finest writer, or formed by means of a stamp upon wax. F. le Compte tells us, that in all the cities China to be universally agreed, that the Chinese have no notion of correctness or perspective, and little knowledge of the proportions of the human body, though it cannot be denied that they excel in painting flowers and animals. In these they pride themselves in a scrupulously exact imitation of nature, insomuch that it is no uncommon thing to hear a painter ask his pupil how many scales there are between the head and tail of a carp. of China there are bells for marking the hours and watches of the night. They generally divide the night into five watches, beginning at seven or eight in the evening. On the commencement of the first they give one stroke, which is repeated a moment after; and thus they continue for two hours till the beginning of the second: they then give two strokes, which are repeated at equal intervals till the beginning of the third watch; and thus they proceed to the fourth and fifth, always increasing the number of the strokes. For the same purpose also they use enormous drums, which they beat in a similar manner. F. Magaillans mentions one at Peking upwards of 40 feet in circumference. The instrument called huien, which is made of baked earth, is highly esteemed by the Chinese on account of its antiquity. It is distinguished into two kinds, the great and small; the former being of the size of a goose's egg; the latter of that of a hen's. It has six holes for the notes, and a seventh for the mouth. The kin and tche have been known from the remotest antiquity. The kin has seven strings made of silk, and is distinguished into three kinds, differing only in size. The body is formed of a kind of wood varnished black, and its whole length is about five feet five inches. The tche is about nine feet in length, has 25 strings, and is divided into 25 kinds. F. Amiot assures us, that we have no instrument in Europe which deserves to be preferred to it. 136 Chinese paintings. The instruments which emit the sound of wood are the tchou, the yu, and the tchoung-ton. The first is shaped like a bushel, and is beat on the inside with a hammer; the second, which represents a tyger squatting, is made to sound by scraping its back gently with a rod; the third is a collection of twelve pieces of boards tied together, which are used for beating time, by holding them in the right hand, and knocking them gently against the palm of the left. Many instruments are constructed of the bamboo. These consist of pipes joined together, or separate, and pierced with more or fewer holes. The principal of all these wind instruments is the cheng, which emits the sound of a gourd. This is formed by cutting off the neck of a gourd, and reserving only the lower part. To this a cover is fitted, having as many holes as are equal to the number of sounds required. In each of these holes a pipe made of bamboo is fixed, and shorter or longer according to the tone intended. The mouth of the instrument is formed of another pipe shaped like the neck of a goose; which is fixed to the gourd on one side; and serves to convey the air to all the pipes it contains. The ancient cheng varied in the number of their pipes; those used at present have only 13. The painting of the Chinese is undoubtedly inferior to that of the Europeans, though we are not by any means to judge of the abilities of the painters of this empire by the performances which are brought to Europe. M. Grosier remarks, that the works of the eminent Chinese painters are never brought to Canton, because they cannot find purchasers among the European merchants. The latter delight only in obscene pictures, which are not permitted by government, nor indeed will any artist of character execute them, though they prevail upon some of the inferior daubers to gratify them in this respect. It seems, however, Painting was formerly much esteemed in China, but has now fallen into disrepute on account of its political inutility. The cabinets and galleries of the emperor, however, are filled with European paintings, and the celebrated artists Castiglioni and Attiret were both em ployed; but their offer of erecting a school of painting was rejected, lest they should by this means revive the taste for that art which it had been formerly thought prudent to suppress. Painting in fresco was known in China long before the Christian era; and, like the Grecians, the Chinese boast much of their celebrated painters of antiquity. Thus we are told of a door painted by Fan-hien, which was so perfect an imitation, that the people who entered the temple where it was, attempted to go out by it, unless prevented by those who had seen it before. The present emperor has in his park an European village painted in fresco, which produced the most agree. able deception. The remaining part of the wall represents a landscape and little hills, which are so happily blended with the distant mountains, that nothing can be conceived more agreeable. This was the production of Chinese painters, and executed from designs sketched out for them. After this account of the state of painting in China, chiefly on the authority of M. Grosier, we beg leave to remark, upon the authority of more recent, and seemingly more competent as well as more inquisitive observers, that painting in China is at a low ebb, which made a certain artist once exclaim, "These Chinese are fit for nothing but weighing silver, and eating rice." They can copy with tolerable exactness what is laid before them, but so deficient are they in respect to a judicious alternation of light and shade; and therefore without discovering a single symptom of taste, beauties and defects are alike slavishly imitated. Their supposed excellence in drawing flowers, birds, and insects to the life, is most remarkable in the city of Canton; from which Mr Barrow conjectures that they acquire their eminence by copying the productions of Europe, occasionally sent over to be transferred to the porcelain designed for exportation. China. 137 Engraving in three, four, or five colours, is very an- Engravin cient among the Chinese, and was known in this empire long before its discovery in Europe. 138 Sculpture is very little known in this empire; nor Sculpture is there a single statue in any of the squares or public edifices of Peking, not even in the emperor's palace. The only real statues to be met with in the empire are those which, for the sake of ceremonious distinction, are used to ornament the avenues leading to the tombs of princes and men of great rank; or those that are placed near the emperor's coffin, and that of his sons and daughters, in the interior part of the vault, where their remains are deposited. 139 The Chinese architecture is entirely different from Architec that ture. |