China and the West

Southey, Robert. Barrow's Travels in China [review]. (1) [ID D31052].
Whatever may have been the commercial effects of our embassy to China, literature has reaped ample advantages from it. The drawing of Mr. Alexander, and the work of Mr. Barrow, have communicated more information concerning this extraordinary empire and its inhabitants, than could be collected from all our former travellers.
Mr. Barrow in his preliminary chapter disclaims all intention of dwelling on those subjects which have been already treated on by sir George Staunton, his object is to shew the Chinese as they really are, and to lay before the reader such facts as may enable him to settle in his own mind the point of rank which China may be considered to hold in the scale of civilized nations. By the arly travellers, China had been represented as in a far higher degree of civilization than Europe ; it is here well observed, that those travellers represented it truly, but that during the two centuries and a half which have elapsed, Europa has been progressive in all the arts of life, while China has stood still.
The first part of the Chinese dominions which the squadron touched was one of the islands of the Chusan Archipelago. It was the best in the groupe, and the most populous, except that of Chusan, a native told them that it contained ten thousand inhabitants ; but the English discovered afterwards that this was an indefinite phrase of amplification, and that when a Chinese means to speak expressly of ten thousand, he always says nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.
The country ships were now seen in considerable numbers sailing along the coast of the main land. They were generally laden with small timber, piled dangerously high upon the decks ; beams which were too long to be upon the deck of a shingle ship, were laid across the decks of two lashed together. These ships are very ill adapted for such tempestuous seas. The form of the hull is like the new moon ; the bow is a square flat surface, the same as the stern, without any cut water, and without any keel ; the two ends of the ship rise to a great height above the deck ; each mast consists of a single piece of timber, and has a single sail of matting, stretched by means of bamboos, and frequently made to furl like a fan ; the rudder is so placed that I can be taken up on approaching sands and shallows. They can sail within three and a half, or four points of the wind ; but lose this advantage over European ships by drifting to leeward, in consequence of the round and clumsy shape of the bottom, and their want of keel. The Chinese keep no reckoning, and have no idea of drawing charts. They keep as near the shore as possible, and never lose sight of it, except in voyages where they must fairly put out to sea ; they then, let the wind be fair or foul, keep the head of the ship pointing, as nearly as possible, towards the port by means of the compass ; an instrument which, beyond all doubt, came from Asia to Europe, and was probably brought from China by Marco Polo. Behind the compass is usually placed a little temple with an altar, on which is continually kept burning a spiral taper of wax, tallow, and sandal-wood dust, which serves, like Alfred's time-lights, to measure the twelve portions of the day. It is also an act of piety to keep this taper burning ; the needle seems to be regarded as something divine, and on every appearance of a change of weather they burn incense before it. When a ship leaves Canton for a foreign voyage, it is considered as an equal chance that she will never return, and in fact ten or twelve thousand persons from that single port are supposed to perish annually by shipwreck. The coast naviagion also is so dangerous, that the internal communication by means of rivers and canals, between the two extremities of the empire, was opened because many of the ships employed to transport the taxes paid in kind to the northern capital foundered on the way.
Yet, in early times, it is certain that the Chinese were an adventurous and colonizing people. M. de Guignes believes that about the seventh century of our era they carried on a trade to the west coast of North America. Wrecks of Chinese vessels were found by the early Spanish naviagors in different parts of this western coast, where the nations were more civilized than in the interior and eastern parts. Mr. Barrow should have referred to his authorities in this part of his work. Even at Rio Jeneiro this gentleman observed in the native Brazilians a very strong resemblance to the Chinese in their persons. It appears from Persoue, that the island of Tcho-ka, or Saghalien, in the Tartarian sea, has been peopled by the Chinese. They traded formerly with Bussora, and many places in the Persian gulph still bear Chinese names. In some of the voyages (here again we have to regret the want of references) it is observed, that a colony of Chinese had problably settled in Sofala, the descendants of whom were, in the time of the writers, easily distinguished from the other nations by their colour and features. But the ruins in Sofala are said, by Barros, to resemble those in Upper Egypt, and this whiter race would be more probably of the Coptic or Jewish origin, Marco Polo certainly visited Madagascar in a Chinese ship. Mr. Barrow even suspects that the unmixed Hottentots are of Chinese family. The resemblance, as it appears in his annexed portraits, is very striking, and the Dutch themselves call this people Chinese Hottentots, from the obvious similarity. Sumatra probably, and Ceylon certainly, was colonized by the same enterprising race ; the Chingalese, indeed, acknowledge their descent, a fact with which Mr. Barrow seems not to have been acquainted. Ceylon derives its name from them. A fleet of eighty Chinese had been wrecked between that island and the continent, and the straits where they perished were therefore called Chilam, signifying the destruction of the Chinese. The Moors softened it into Cilan, and applied it to the island itself, not knowing its true name : from them the Portuguese made it Ceilam, and we retain their pronunciation in the unenglish manner where with we nasalize the last syllable of Ceylon. The Chingalese were so called by the other inhabitants of Ceylon, as meaning the Chinese of Gall ; for they were a mixed breed speaking the language of these colonizing conquerors, who withdrew to that mountainous district when the Chinese abandoned their intercourse with India altogether, as destructive of their fleets and people. These circumstances are here selected on the authority of Barros. Mr. Barrow's digression is very curious, and affords strong proof that the state of China is materially different now from what it was some centuries ago.
A small brig was sent forward to Chu-San to take on board the pilots, who according to the Imperial order were expected to be found ready to embark. But though this was one of the best and most frequented ports in China, no other means of procuring them could be devised that by sending out soldiers to collect all the persons in that place who had ever visited Tien-sing by sea ; the poor wretches were brought before the governor, and dropping on their knees were examined in that attitude as to their qualifications. Two were at last found who were thought qualified ; they pleaded earnestly to be excused, saying that they had quitted the sea for many years, and were now comfortably settled in trade which would be ruined by their absence. In spite of all their pleas they were pressed into the service, and after all, the English found them of little or no use. They could not be made to comprehend the difference in the draught of water between their own ships and ours, which in the latter was as many fathoms as feet in the former, although they were palpably shewn by a piece of rope the depth which was required.
The passage up the Pei-ho, or White River, in the country yachts, convinced our people of the hospitality of the natives, and of their extraordinary numbers, but conveyed no idea of great wealth or comfort among them, or of great abundance in the country. Both sexes here crowded indiscriminately to see them. The dress of the women was calculated to shew the foot and ankle, which for singularity, it is observed, may challenge the whole world, the foot having been cramped in its growth to the length of four or five inches, and the ankle being generally swoln in the same proportion that the foot is diminished. This deformity is produced by bandaging the toes of the infant under the sole of the foot, and retaining them in that position till they literally grow into and become a part of it ; and by forcing the heel forward till it is entirely obliterated. As none of the earliest travellers mention this strange custom, Mr. Barrow conjectures that it has been introduced since their time. The people were cheerful and dirty. Only a small proportion of the land was cultivated. The cottages very mean, without any appearance of comfort, and thinly scattered ; seldom standing alone, but generally collected into small villages. The rivers seem to be better peopled than the land. In the distance of ninety miles upon this small branch of a river, Mr. Barrow computed, that there were floating not fewer than 100,000 souls.
The approach to Pekin is admirably described. The external appearance of this great city is by no means answerable to the expectation which a European traveller would have formed of the capital of China. None of the buildings overtop the walls, though these are not above thirty feet high ; not even a chimney is seen rising above the roofs of the houses, which are all nearly of the same height, and all straight lines, so that the whole has the appearance and the regularity of a large encampment.
"Although the approach to Pekin afforded little that was interesting, we had no sooner passed the gate and opened out the broad street, than a very singular and novel appearance was exhibited. We saw before us a line of buildings on each side of a wide street, consisting entirely of shops and warehouses, the particular goods of which were brought out and displayed in groups in front of the houses. Before these were generally erected large wooden pillars, whose tops were much higher than the eaves of the houses, bearing inscriptions in gilt characters, setting forth the nature of the wares to be sold, and the honest reputation of the seller ; and, to attract the more notice, they were generally hung with various coloured flags and streamers, and ribbons, from top to bottom, exhibiting the appearance of a line of shipping dressed, as we sometimes see them, in the colours of all the different nations in Europe. The sides of the houses were not less brilliant : in the several colours with which they were painted, consisting generally of sky blue or green, mixed with gold : and what appeared to us singular enough, the articles for sale that made the greatest show were coffins for the dead. The most splendid of our coffin furniture would make but a poor figure if placed beside that intended for a wealthy Chinese. These machines are seldom less than three inches thick and twice the bulk of ours. Next to those our notice was attracted by the brilliant appearance of the funeral biers and the marriage ears, both covered with ornamental canopies."
"At the four points where the great streets intersect one another were erected those singular buildings, sometimes of stone but generally of wood, which have been called triumphal arches, but which, in fact, are monuments to the memory of those who had deserved well of the community, or who had attained an unusual longevity. They consist invariably of a large central gateway, with a smaller one on each side, all covered with narrow roofs ; and, like the houses, they are painted, varnished, and gilt in the most splendid manner."
"The multitude of moveable workshops of tinkers and barbers, coblers and black-smiths ; the tents and booths where tea and fruit, rice, and other eatables were exposed for sale, with the wares and merchandize arrayed before the doors, had contracted this spacious street to a narrow road in the middle, just wide enough for two of our little vehicles to pass each other. The cavalcade of officers and soldiers that preceded the embassy, the processions of men in office attended by their numerous retinues, bearing umbrellas and flags, painted lanterns and a variety of strange insignia of their rank and station, different trains that were accompanying, with lamentable cries, corpses to their graves, and, with squalling music, brides to their husbands, the troops of dromedaries laden with coals from Tartary, the wheel-barrows and hand-carts stuffed with vegetables, occupied nearly the whole of this middle space in one continued line, leaving very little room for the cavalcade of the embyssy to pass. All was in motion. The sides of the street were filled with an immense concourse of people, buying and selling and bartering their different commodities. The hurry and confused noises of this mixed multitude, proceeding from the loud bawling of those who were crying their wares, the wrangling of others, with every now and then a strange twanging noise like the jarring of a cracked Jew's harp, the barber's signal made by his tweezers, the mirth and the laughter that prevailed in every groupe, could scarcely be exceeded by the brokers in the Bank rotunda, or by the jews and old women in 'Rosemary-Jane'. Pedlars with their packs, and jugglers, and conjurors, and fortune-tellers, mountebanks, and quack doctors, comedians, and musicians, left no space unoccupied. The Tartar soldiers, with their whips. Kept with difficulty a clear passage for the embassy to move slowly forward ; so slow, indeed, that although we entered the eastern gate at half past nine, it was near twelve before we arrived at the western."
"Although an extraordinary crowd might be expected to assemble on such a particular occasion, on the same principle of curiosity as could not fail to attract a crowd of spectators in London, yet there was a most remarkable and a striking difference observable between a London and a Pekin populace. In the former the whole attention and soul of the multitude would have been wrapt up in the novel spectacle ; all would have been idlers. In Pekin, the show was but an accessary, every one pursued his business, at the same time he gratified his curiosity. In fact, it appeared that, on every day throughout the whole year, there was the same noise and bustle, and crowd in the capital of China. I scarcely ever passed the western gate, which happened twice, or oftener, in the week, that I had not to wait a considerable time before the passage was free, particularly in the morning, notwithstanding the exertions of two or three soldiers with their whips to clear the way. The crowd, however, was entirely confined to the great streets, which are the only outlets of the city. In the cross lanes all was still and quiet."

No Chinese women were to be seen in the streets of Pekin, though the female Tartars seemed to enjoy full liberty. None of the streets wer4e paved, a defect the more remarkable, as the road to the city is paved with stones of granite from six to sixteen feet in length, and proportionately broad, which must have been brought at least sixty miles. No kind of filth was to be seen in the streets ; all this, be it of whatever kind it may, is collected in large earthen jars, of which every family has one, and the gardeners' carts which supply the city with vegetables, return laden with this liquid manure, so that the city enjoys the full odour of agricultural economy. In the provinces these precious articles are made into cakes thicker than our crumpets, and dried in the sun ; then sent to the capital, where the gardeners purchase them, and dissolve them in urine for manure. The police is very strict. At the end of every cross street, and at certain distances in it sentry boxes are placed, and few of these streets are without a guardhouse. The proprietor of every tenth house is answerable for the good conduct of his nine neighbours ; this villainous system, which is carried to its utmost length in Japan, was once the custom in England.
While the ambassador went into Tartary to be introduced, Mr. Barrow remained near Pekin, having apartments in the palace of Yuen-min-yuen ; he had permission to visit the city whenever he thought proper, and prudently chose to have none but Chinese servant,s that his knowledge of the language might be improved. His lodgings were mean and miserable, but bad as they were, they were what one of the ministers of state occupied when the emperor was at this residence. Here the largest and most valuable of the presents were to be fitted up for the sovereign's inspection, and they attracted an infinite number of beholders.

"The two elegant carriages made by Hatchett puzzled the Chinese more than any of the other presents. Nothing of the kind had ever been seen at the capital ; and the disputes among themselves as to the part which was intended for the scat of the emperor were whimsical enough. The hammer-cloth that covered the box of the winter carriage had a smart edging, and was ornamented with festoons of roses. Its splendid appearance and elevated situation determined it at once, in the opinion of the majority, to be the emperor's seat ; but a difficulty arose how to appropriate the inside of the carriage. They examined the windows, the blinds, and the skreens, and at last concluded, that it could be for nobody but his ladies. The old eunuch came to me for information, and when he learned, that the fine elevated box was to be the seat of the man who managed the horses, and that the emperor's place was within, he asked me with a sneer, if I supposed the Ta-whang-tee would suffer any man to sit higher than himself, and to turn his back towards him ? and he wished to know if we could not contrive to have the coach-box removed and placed somewhere behind the body of the carriage."

A planetarium completely puzzled the president of the tribunal of mathematics, as the Jesuits have denominated the board at which he presides. A few Portuguese missionaries are members of the board, their business is to supply the astronomical part of the national almanack, the astrology being managed by a committee of their Chinese associates. These Europeans were not much more skillful than the natives ; they honestly confessed that they were more indebted to the Connoissances de tems of Paris than to their own calcula ions, and as the revolution had cut off this resource, they considered a set of the nautical almanack calculated for the meridian of Greenwich up to the year 1800, as an invaluable present. These missionaries, however, on the whole, are represented in a favourable light.
The Tartar officers had heard of sword blades which would cut iron bars without injuring the edge, and so great was their astonishment on proving the fact, that they could scarcely credit what they saw. Gill's sword blades, Mr. Barrow thinks, might be advantageously introduced in the regular course of trade through Canton.

"Among the presents carried into Tartary was a collection of prints, chiefly portraits of English nobility and distinguished persons ; and to make the present more acceptable, they were bound up in three volumes in yellow Morocco. The emperor was so pleased with this collection, that he sent it express to Yuen-min-yuen to have the name, rank, and office of each portrait translated into the Mantchoo and Chinese languages. The Tartar writer got on pretty well, but the Chinese secretary was not a little puzzled with the B, the D, and the R., that so frequently recurred in the English names. The duke of Marlborough was Too-ke Ma-ul-po-loo, and Bedford was transformed to Pe-te-fo-ul-te. But here a more serious difficulty occurred than that of writing the name. The rank was also to be written down, and on coming to the portrait of this nobleman (which was a proof impression of the print, engraved from a picture by sir Joshua Reynolds, when the late duke of Bedford as a youth), I told the Chinese to write him down a Ta-giu, or great man of the second order. He instantly observed, that I surely meant his father was a Ta-gia. I then explained to him that according to our laws, the son succeded to the rank of the father, and that with us it was by no means necessary, in order to obtain the first rank in the country, that a man should be of a certain age, be possessed of superior talents, or suitable qualifications. That these were sometimes conducive to high honours, yet that a great part of the legislative body of the nation were entitled to their rank and situation by birth. They laughed hartily at the idea of a man being born a legislator, when it required so many years of close application to enable one of their countrymen to pass his examination for the very lowest order of state-officers. As, however, the descendants of Confucius continue to enjoy a sort of nominal rank, and as their emperor can also confer an hereditary dignity, without entitling to office, emolument, or exclusive privilege, they considered his grace might be one of this description, and wrote down his rank accordingly ; but they positively refused to give him the title of Ta-gia, or great man, asking me, if I thought their emperor was so stupid as not to know the impossibility of a little boy having attained the rank of a great man."

The news from Gehol, that lord Macartney had refused to perform the nine prostrations before the emperor, threw all the officers at Yuen-min-yuen into dismay, and Mr. Barrow and his companions felt the effects of their ill humour in their table, which was very materially affected by it, both in the number and quality of dishes. This, however, wore off, though the old eunuch of the palace used to call them proud head-strong Englishmen.
The famous gardens of the palace Mr. Barrow could only visit by stealth ; what little he saw was such as to induce a very favourable opinion, though they fall very short of the extravagant descriptions which sir William Chambers has given of Chinese gardening. Gardening, however, seems to be of all arts that which they have studied most successfully, Lord Macartney's account of the imperial park at Gehol, contains the highest praises of their good taste and knowledge of the picturesque. But except in this single art, the Chinese are wretchedly below the rank which was heretofore assigned to them among civilized nations. The women are in a state of abject slavery. In infancy, by a preposterous and cruel fashion, they are crippled, and, as if this was not a sufficient means of confinement, it is made a moral crime for a woman to be seen abroad. The wives and daughters of the lower class, indeed, are not thus immured, but the drudgery of agricultural labour falls upun them ; they drag the plough and the harrow, while their husbands are gambling or idling ; and there is reason to believe that sometimes a woman is yoked to the same plough with an ass. Even at home the wife must neither eat at the same table, nor sit in the same room with her lord and master ; and boys at the age of nine or ten are entirely separated from their sisters. For mental pursuits the women are totally unqualified, and to fill up their tedious hours smoking is the usual expedient. Love of course cannot exist in a country where there is this grievous disparity between the sexes. The bridegroom always bargains for his intended bride with her parents ; she herself has no choice, her price is paid, she is locked up in a close chaire, and sent to a man whom she has never seen, who, if he does not like her when he unlocks the door, may turn the key again, and send her back to her parents, if he chuses to forfeit what the has cost him, and a sum of the same value. If she be found guilty of adultery she may be sold for a slave, the method by which girls are punished for having been debanched. Polygamy is customary among the great : the poor of every country where it is permitted are prevented by their poverty from having more wives than one ; but as one of its constant effects, the most detestable of all crimes is so common, that it is publicly avowed by many of the first officers of state.
There are no social pleasures in China, for gambling is a selfish one. The upper rank stupefy themselves at home with opium. The people are free from drunkenness, but they are also without those friendly and cheerful feelings which, though they sometimes lead to it, produce more good than evil. There are no meetings for dancing or feats of activity, none even for religious worship ; the Chinese are without a sabbath, the same solitary and dissocializing system pervading their devotion and their private life. All ranks are addicted to gaming, with cards, dice, or at the game of the fingers, the morra of the Italians, which is mentioned by Cicero. Cockfighting, with which of few despicable Englishmen are still permitted to disgrace their country, is eagerly purused by the upper classed in China : they train quails for the same wicked purpose, and having found a species of gryllus, that will attack each other with such ferocity as seldom to quit their hold without bringing away a limb of their antagonist, they keep these insects for the pleasure of seeing devour each other ; and during the summer months scarcely a boy is to be seen without his cage. Cruel amusements are as such a cause as an effect of national cruelty. Their punishments consist in inflicting mere physical pain, they produce no shame, for shame is a sentiment whereof they know nothing. Compassion also seems to be a feeling with which they are wholly unacquainted, and as if their hearts were not hard enough already, one of the most absurd laws that ever disgraced a criminal code contributes to harden them still more. Whoever takes a wounded man under his care in the hope of healing him, or of alleviating his sufferings, is liable to be punished with death if the man die, unless he can produce an undeniable evidence how the wound was made, or that he survived it forty days. The poor wretches, therefore, who by any accident are dangerously hurt, are left to die in the streets.
The horrible practice of infanticide is not indeed expressly allowed by the laws, but it is sanctioned by them, as no punishment is provided for it : and it may indeed be considered as a legitimate consequence of that paternal despotism to which their whole system of government refers. The son is the absolute property of his father, he is his slave, and may be sold at his pleasure : but when human beings are once considered as mere animals, any West India planter can tell how cheaply their lives are held ; and a proprietor may be allowed to calculate how many he can conventiently rear.

"It is, however, tacitly considered as a part of the duty of the police of Pekin to employ certain persons to go their rounds, at an early hour in the morning, with carts, in order to pick up such bodies of infants as may have been thrown out into the streets in the course of the night. No enquiries are made, but the bodies are carried to a common pit without the city walls, into which all those that may be living, as well as thouse that are dead, are said to be thrown promiscuously. At this horrible pit of destruction the Roman Catholic missionaries, established at Pekin, attend by turns, as a part of the duties of their office, in order, as one of them expressed himself to me on this subject, to chuse among them those that are the most lively, to make future proselytes, and by the administration of baptism to such of the rest as might be still alive, pour leur sauver l'ame. The Mahomedans, who, at the time that their services were useful in assisting to prepare the national calendar, had a powerful influence at court, did much better : those zealous bigots to a religion, whose least distinguishing feature is that of humanity, were however, on these occasions, the means of saving the lives of all the little innocents they possibly could save from this maw of death, which was an humane act, although it might be for the purpose of bringing them up in the principle of their own faith. I was assured by one of the Christian missionaries, with whom I had daily conversation during a residence of five weeks within the walls of the emperor's palace at Yuen-min-yuen, and who took his turn in attending, pour leur sauver l'ame, that such scenes were sometimes exhibited on these occasions as to make the feeling mind shudder with horror. When I mention that dogs and swine are let loose in all the narrow streets of the capital, the reader may conceive what will sometimes necessarily happen to the exposed infants, before the police-carts can pic them up."

Upon an average twenty-four infants are thus found dead, or dying, every morning in the streets of Pekin !
These unfavourable features, says Mr. Barrow, in the character of a people whose natural disposition is neither ferocious nor morose, but on the contrary mild, obliging, and cheerful, can be attributed only to the habits in which they have been trained, and to the heavy hand of power perpetually hanging over them ! Never have we seen the vices of any people more fairly stated or more candidly considered than in the volume before us. The proverbial knavery of the Chinese in their dealings with Europeans partly proceeds from retaliation, partly because a merchant, a buying and selling man, as they call him, is considered as the lowest character in the country, as one who will cheat if he can, and whose trade it is to create and then supply artificial wants.

"The gaudy watches of indifferent workmanship, fabricated purposely for the Chinese market and once in universal demand, are now scarcely asked for. One gentleman in the honourable East India company's employ took it into this head that cuckoo clocks might prove a saleable article in China, and accordingly laid in a large assortment, which more than answered his most sanguine expectations. But as these wooden machines were constructed for sale only, and not for use, the cuckoo clocks became all mute long before the second arrival of this gentleman with another cargo. His clocks were now not only unsaleable, but the former purchasers threatened to return theirs upon his hands, which would certainly have been done, had not a thought entered his head, that not only pacified his former customers, but procured him also other purchasers for his second cargo : he convinced them by undeniable authorities, that the cuckoo was a very odd kind of a bird which sung only at certain seasons of the year, and assured them that whenever the proper time arrived, all the cuckoos they had purchased would once again 'tune their melodious throats'. After this it would only be fair to allow the Chinese sometimes to trick the European purchaser with a wooden ham instead of a real one."