Eighteen capitals of China
55 Cm 0 6 § 1^ aj*n >H Jj a^-a <» & •S"^ § o Q ^•S| H J 4) , OJ X H 0 o IS z ici » Q §1^ u S5 g -< «< g g ■5 -^ 0 2; V3 a u -Cl-M 0 s H*-^ h 23 >^ ^1l M P^ CJ t-v t s^s H tc o « 1 R K 2— 2 -< HN PLAN THB WHOLI YSAB IM TBB 8PIUM0 do not like to leave our homes, especially those who live in K*un Ming Hsien; only a few go out of the villages, mostly to attend examinations for a degree; others are satisfied in ploughing the fields and cultivat- ing mulberry trees or hemp as a life-work. Only two per cent, go with carts and oxen for trade. This indicates the simplicity of the nature and customs." He is very careful to indicate clearly the location of Yunnan. Under the heading of Feng Su he says, " In the capital at Peking the Polar Star appeared 40 degrees above the horizon; by the Yangtze the Polar Star appeared to be 82 degrees above the horizon; in the capital of Yunnan the Polar Star appeared to be 24 degrees above the horizon." Yiin Ying- was not unmindful of " Beauty," under which head he furnishes future generations with a glimpse of the women of his day. Under a subdivision of " Women's Apartments in the Home," he writes: " Li Yin San died at eighty years of age. He left a little daughter. A moon after Li*s death the father-in-law advised the widow to marry again, but she cut off one of her fingers and said, " If you can joint this finger again to this hand." In no other great country, have literary men been so much connected with the government and rewarded by it as in China. In the " flower of his life " Yiin wrote much about the distinguished men of his province in his and previous ages, but we prefer to take a sample Yunnanese from among her famous sons whom it has been our pleasure to meet during this and other long and arduous jour- neys throughout this vast Empire. The fact that in China men are not permitted to occupy office in their own province compels one to seek for the present great 156 THE FAST FLEETINO PAST men of Yunnan in other provinces. It was our happy privilege to meet one such while visiting the capital of Anhwei, and we quote from the diary written immedi* ately after the governor had finished his call: To-day the Governor of this State, which has a population of twenty millions, called on me at the American Mission. He came in state, accompanied by a large display of mihtary and a few distinguished civilians. His visit lasted for a full hour and a half. He was perfectly at his ease and full of interesting talk. He was unable to tell the precise population of Anking, as the census after the modern fashion would not be taken until next year. The Governor of Anhwei was bom at Linan-fu, due south of Yunnanfu, and is now an Hanlin. His rise has been rapid; he was first made Magistrate, then a Fu in Chihli, then Provincial Judge in Eansu, Treasurer in Eansu, Governor in Manchuria, and as Governor of the Yangtze province of Anhwei is held in high esteem. He is said to be very brave, quick, and wise, and so he impresses me. He is pleasant, at times jolly, laughs heartily, more heartily than most Hanlins, and yet his face when in repose carries distinct traces of sadness. His life, I should guess, is in danger. His is a most difficult task now, when China is drop- ping the old and has not yet properly assumed the modem! Now, when there are dynastic enemies, when traitors exist, when the people are loosing from their ancient religious faiths and are not being steadied by the Great Faith of the West! He does well to be sad, this brave, heroic Hanlin of Yunnan. This Yunnanese has all the virtues so dear to the Chinese heart; he needs the Chritsian virtues also. The nation, if I mistake not, needs many Hanlins like this man, Chu Chia Pao, this Grovemor who is sad I He says the new education has not yet proved of much benefit to the Empire. He might have said that temporarily it had caused many anxious moments for the future of the Central King- dom. !^m^^ 157 A THIN B0U81C HAS LONG UAIS I find myself with a growing sympathy for these men who are at the hehn just now when the changes are frequent and disquieting and threatening, when the whole people are metamorphosing; they went into this process slowly, they will emerge with wings! But whither will the nation fly for that help which it sorely needs? The Governor, when in repose, is sad! That abides with me. He left me these two hours, but the recollection still lingers that he is sad! The cares of office are heavy upon him. Were he not at times sad, very sad, my admiration would be less. He quelled a mutiny, did it by bravery, with few troops; others should have accompanied him when he went out of the city to the disturbance, but they were afraid. He led a handful of men, and succeeded! He was brave, is grave now, is heroic; but brave men and heroic men are often sad, should under the circumstances be sad! He is fearless in the face of danger, but he is sad. Were I an educated Chinese I shoiSd be sad! ^ We cannot now think of any one enterprise more likely to assist China to real strength than that .of the Christian missions. The missionaries in Yunnan, Owen Stevenson and others, are performing heroic deeds these fast changing times. Often they^lso are sad, for what are forty workers among twelve million people? But the day dawns, if I mistake not, when China will be really and truly the Central Glory. *Tbe great Panthay r^ellion nearly ruined this province. The PanthajB were Mohammedan Chinese who, after a brutal massacre of 14,000 of their fellow-religionists at Yilnnanfu in 1856, revolted against the yoke of China and made an attempt to establish a separate kingdom in the province of Yfinnan, with their capital at Tali Fu. Ambassadors were sent to England in 1879, but failed to interest the British govern- ment in their behalf. On Jan. 15, 1873, the brave commander Tu Wen-hsin, having first swallowed poison, surrendered to Ts'ftn Yii-ying, who had demanded hi» life only, but eleven days later treacherously massacred SOfOOO people. T&'£n Yii-ying has also been held responsible for the murder of Margary at Manwjme (Yilnnan) in 1875. THE YANGTZE CAPITALS vn SOOCHOW PART I.— WHAT IS SOO? Soo is the first of the eighteen provincial capitals to be reached from Shanghai — seat of an old kingdom, the Amsterdam- Venice of the East. The king of Wu in the days of Pisistratus, Ezra, and Confucius was named Ho Lu/ who assassinated his predecessor and decided to make a new beginning. He bade his prime minister, Wu Tzu-hsii, design him a plan; he chose as a site an archipelago of islands among a few score of lakes some forty miles south of the Yangtze, twelve miles east of the jGrreat Lake, and eighty miles from the sea. Geomancers were employed to consult the signs of the heavens and the winds of the earth, then to taste the waters. Then arose a rectangular wall some forty-seven li around, with nine gates, the royal number, bastions and comer forts. Within it were laid out parks, palaces, libraries, and comfortable homes; bridges linked the islands, canals intersected them, eight-foot streets reticulated over them. Three former cities were depopulated to provide a people at the artificial capital; and lo, Soo- chow! Not only did Ho Lu have Wu to make Soo, but he also had Sun, the greatest military writer of all China's ages to provide patterns for his various military *The name is variously given as Ho Lu (by Ss(i>ma Chien, the liis- torian) and Ho L1i» a different character being employed in the latter case. 158 Photo by Dr. (.. F. Stooke. Entrance to the \Vu Shan Gorge, Yangtze. Seven of the Capitals of China are accessible by the Yangtze or its tributaries. VO FULL OHM HAOI VBOM THB HIDI OF AN OZ 5t^ ¥ Soochow means *'The Soo District." "Soo** signifies to revive an old state. 160 WHAT IS SOO? manoeuvres. His use of strategy and his lessons on " The Art of War " were studied by the generals of Ch'in the Great, who made an Empire out of the fight- ing fragments of China. The following quotation is from the Introduction to Sun Tzu, by Lionel Giles, in his valuable work on " The Art of War,'* translated from Ssu-ma Ch'ien: « Sun Tzu Wu was a native of the Ch*i state. His * Art of War ' brought him to the notice of Ho Lu, king of Wu. Ho Lu said to him: * I have carefully perused your 18 chapters. May I submit your theory of managing soldiers to a slight test? Sim Tzu replied: * You may.' Ho Lu asked: * May the test be applied to women? ' fihe answer was again in the afiSrmative, so arrangements were made to bring 180 ladies out of the palace. Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, and placed one of the King's favourite concubines at the head of each. He then bade them all take spears in their hands, and addressed them thus : ' I presume you know the difi^erence between front and back, right hand and left hand ? The girls replied : * yes.' Sun Tzu went on : * When I say, " Eyes front," you must look straight ahead. When I say, " Left turn," you must face toward your left hand.' Again the girls assented. The words of command having been thus explained, he set up the halbreds and battle-axes in order to begin the drill. Then, to the sound of drums, he gave the order, * Right tumi' But the girls only burst out laughing. Sun Tzu said: ' If words of command are not clear and dis- tinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the gen- eral is to blame But if his orders are dear and the soldiers disobey, then it is the fault of their offi- cers.* So saying, he ordered the leaders of the two com- panies to be beheaded. Now the king of Wu was watch- ing them from the top of a raised pavilion; and when he SoocHow, Gubernatorial Capital of Kiangsu. Jl^^fng^am 1" BABBin DO HOT lAT BOAD8IDB GKAfll saw that his favourite concubines were about to be executed, he was greatly alarmed and hurriedly sent down the following message: * We are now quite satis- fied as to the ability of our general to handle troops. If we are bereft of these two concubines, our meat and drink will lose their savour. It is our wish that they shall not be beheaded.' Sun Tzu replied: 'Having once received his Majesty's conunission to be general of his forces, there are certain conmiands of his Majesty which, acting in that capacity, I am unable to accept.' Accordingly, he had the two leaders beheaded, and straightway installed the pair next in order as leaders in their place. When this had been done, the drum was soimded for drill once more; and the girls went through all the evolutions, turning to the right or to the left, marching ahead or wheeling back, kneeling or standing, with perfect acciiracy and precision, not venturing to utter a sound. Then Sun Tzii sent a messenger to the king, saying: *Your soldiers, sire, are now properly drilled and disciplined, and ready for your Majesty's inspection. They can be put to any use that their sovereign may desire; bid them go through fire and water and they will obey. . . . And Sun Tzu shared the might of the king." Ho Lu died^ and was buried; his son, Fu Ch*ai, proceeded to dissipate his treasures in the usual round of Oriental dissipation — ^a lake of wine, a ballet troupe. The prime minister expostulated, and was sent a jewelled sword as a polite hint to cut it short. He therefore committed suicide; but the people rescued his body from the canal and made a national mourning. Since that day the city has been noted for its suicides —over the walls, down the wells, off the pagodas, into the canals; poison, dagger, and smallpox. 'Ho Lu was kUled in 496 b.c. 11 162 WHAT IS SOO? Changes have of course taken place. Some of the original gates have been closed, probably for "good luck" reasons, another has been opened; now there are six water gates, and six street gates, each of which has a barbican enclosing some half an acre. Outside the walls are of course extensive subturbs, with inns for late arrivals. It is important to get hold of the fact that the land here is an accident; the water is the chief thing. There are islands, which are useful to separate the different canals and lagoons. The water-ways are as far superior to the paths as are those in Venice. And the Grand Canal in these parts dates from an ancient time, provid- ing water-carriage from the city all over the Yangtze basin and across country to the Hwang-ho. The next great change in the architecture of the city is due to the arrival of Buddhism. The Indian monks were accustomed to erect dagobas, monumental spires. The Chinese idea of towers to attract " good luck " chimed in well with the new suggestion, and soon there came about the characteristic pagodas. The earliest of all is supposed to have been erected here. For the most beautiful, take the description by Dr. Hampden du Bose, of the Southern Presbyterian Mis- sion. "•The glory of the capital is the Great Pagoda, the highest in China, and so the highest on terra firma. Stand near it and behold one of the greatest wonders of the world! Count the stories, note the verandas, see the doors, as so many pigeon-holes, and men as pigmies on those giddy heights! Consider the foundations, and what a quarry of hewn stone supports that mighty pile of masonry, which, including its spiral crown, rises to nearly, two hundred and fifty feet in height. Walk round the base, which, with the shed room on the ground floor, is one hundred feet in diameter or one hundred Aff-i-.W^H 163 IV XSB DiaTAMOJi YBOM N08B TO LIP BB OKB IHCH, UE WILL LITB 100 TJUSS yards around. Note the images in basso-relievo among the clouds, carved on stones, seated upon the roof, hid- ing in the niches, and sitting majestically upon the shrines, Buddhist gods inside and Brahman divinities without — ^two hundred in number; it is a high temple of heathenism. The name of the Sir Christopher Wren who planned this tower has not come down to us, but we can admire the skill of the master hand which drew the lines. The walls are octagonal, one wall within and one without, or a pagoda within a pagoda; each wall ten feet thick, the steps rising between them by easy gradations with a walk around before the next flight is reached, the floors being paved with brick two feet square. There are eight doors to each of the nine stories, and with the cross passages the halls are full of light. And what wonderful proportions! Sixty feet in diameter at the base, it tapers to forty-five feet on the upper floor; each story slightly lower as you ascend, each door smaller, each veranda narrower. Walk round these porches; see the city lying at your feet; the Dragon Street, running south to the Confucian Temple ; the Great Lake to the west; the range of hills and the picturesque pagodas that crown the jutting eminences; the plain dotted every fourth mile with hamlets. See the pagoda to the south — it marks the city of Wukiang. Follow the Shanghai canal glistening in the simlight to the east till your eye rests on a hill — ^that is Quensan. At the foot of that mountain, thirty miles to the north- east, is Changsoh, a city of 100,000 inhabitants. Look northwest up the Grand Canal, thirty miles — ^that is Mount Wei^tsien. There is Wusih, with a population of 150,000, and within a radius of thirty miles are one hundred market-towns of from one thousand to fifty thousand inhabitants, and probably 100,000 villages and hamlets — ^five million within range of vision I *' 164 WHAT IS SOO? Since the pagoda was built others have followed, but only six remain to-day, and the upper stories of some of these have been removed. Thus it is said of the South Gate Pagoda, Zay Ewaung Tah,® that the king built it a thirteen-story pagoda for a priest who came in 242; it was repaired twice, then torn down in 1119, and replaced by another of seven stories, whidi has been frequently repaired but is substantially the present building. The walls have needed frequent attention. The most remarkable episode is that between 581 and 610 the people deserted the city because of robbers and rebels. About 917 there was extensive fortifications, the walls being thickened to twenty-five feet and made about as lofty, while, in addition to the usual moat outside, a second moat was constructed just inside — a procedure natural only in a city of canals. Soon after 1278 the Mongols ordered all city walls to be demol- ished so that there could be no further opposition to their supremacy; but when they were losing grip, about 1852, the walls here were rebuilt. When the Manchus conquered the land, they adopted an opposite policy, quartering a strong garrison in a fort alongside many cities, and so in 1662 there was a grand re-fortification. Since then the leading outward event has been the siege by the T*ai-p*ings, which led to the virtual destruction of the interior, and the speedy recovery after Gk)rdon and his Ever Victorious Army regained it. Last of all has come the railway from Shanghai, turning north here and pointing towards Peking. In a career of more than two millenniums Soochow has of course produced several noted men. T*ang Pah- hu, a famous artist under the Mings, lived on Peach- blossom Street; his pictures and manuscripts fetdi ■Itiis is of course the Soochow dialect Hot mywK o»u cash falls on kmpty gbouvs fabulous prices to-day. Ma Liang was born near Can- ton, but came here to study; devoting himself to draw- ing, he practised assiduously on one idol at Quin Shan, to the great admiration of all who watched. A friend named iTsang Na put his autograph on the pictures, and they sold so well that his fame is recorded in the local annals. Evidently there is hope for the pave- ment artist with one theme. Ts'ao, from Wusih, thirty li away, devoted himself here to the study of medicine, especially children's dis- eases. He hung his shingle outside the Si Men, and became so clever that he could foretell exactly the hour when health would be restored. His fame cid- minated when he was called in to an aged oflBciaFs home to " see sickness," to prescribe for a grandchild; he pre- ferred to begin with the official. " I am too old; my disease is incurable." " Nay, if I cannot heal the grandfather first, how can I heal the grandson? " So he had his way, and in two days had restored both patients. Then was discovered the secret of his prac- tice, to learn the family constitution from the more developed cases. Another Ts*ao was born at Huchow. " He picked up a pen, and it seemed to write itself." With such natural gifts he readily rose to be a Hanlin and a very high official, both a great scholar and one of the finest artists known in the Empire. Ts'ao Fu-hsing, a native of Wu (the modern Kiangsu) of the third century, was reckoned the greatest painter of his day. Commissioned by the King, Sun Chilian, to paint a screen, he accident- ally made a blot on it, and then turned the blot into a fly so skillfully that Sun Ch'iian tried to fillip it away. He painted a picture of a red dragon which he had seen playing on the surface of a river, and later on, during 166 SOO: BY BOAT a time of drought, this dragon was brought forth and cast into the river, the result being that rain fell immedi- ately in great quantities. Five hundred worthies are carved in stone in the gardens of the Ts'ang Lang pavilion. Alongside these historic heroes set a modern one, Liu Te-Sen, or Luxu- riant Virtue. A man from the anti-foreign province of Hunan had become magistrate here, and set his face against aliens acquiring land. Twice did the Southern Presbyterians attempt to buy ground for a hospital, and after expending time and money found themselves balked by him. Then Liu Te-Sen was employed to negotiate and closed the ^transaction; but when the magistrate discovered for whom he had acted, he declined to stamp the deeds, and summoned Liu T^- Sen, ostensibly to discover how much money he had pocketed. Anticipating trouble, Liu found a friend to take care of his f aniily, and went to court, advised simply to tell the plain truth. He was obliged to kneel, and a lictor stood beside him with a bamboo. But he was able to prove that the very cheques paid over to the vandor, drawn on a native bank, had been signed by Dr. Davis. " You liarl Having a big piece of meat in your hand, surely you would take a bite of itl ** But the facts were too plain, and the outwitted magistrate could secure nothing by threats and orders to beat him. After an hotur the sturdy Christian was released; and after an appeal to the Foreign Office the magistrate was peremptorily ordered to do his duty and stamp the deeds. PART II.— SOOs BY BOAT Soochow has to be explored by sections : water, earth, and sky. Water has distinctly the right of way, and we used for the main canals the " Annie Barr," a small house-boat named after an heroic missionary, while an Fan Chung Ykn (Father). One of the Five Hundred Great Men of Soochow History. a Rubbing.) (Taken from BOUGHT ▲ BRICK-BiiT IV8TBAD OV A OOOSS open row-boat took us into the narrow water alleys where only paddle and punt could propel. At the water gate toll is collected by a bag at the end of a long pole, such as cathedrals use. There is of course some delay here, and it gives opportunity to observe the cormorant fishing-boats. The birds are equipped by nature with a large pouch to deposit their catch in, and by art with a ring round the neck to pre- vent its slipping — ^accidentally — ^any further. They sit in double rows round the boat till the manager pushes them into the water with a bamboo; when one finds a fish, he pecks out the eye and pouches the creature; if it be too large, he invites other cormorants, and they together will lift out any fish not exceeding eleven pounds. If this be too much to swallow, remem- ber it is a fish story. The chief canals are laid out regularly, parallel with the great boundary moats, but of covu*se there are blind alleys and back yards, all of water. They are designed for transportation, and in the country they serve for irrigation also, but incidentally they serve for all manner of uses. Refuse of all kinds is tipped into them, clothes are washed, food is cleansed, fish are bred in them, and drinking water is obtained thence. To the credit of the people be it said that this is always boiled in copper kettles and converted into tea. Naturally the canals provide meat as well as drink; fish, crabs, and shrimps may be had readily. Dr. Nathaniel Gist Gee states also that an ample supply of vegetable matter is procurable here; the cyano- phyceae algals are represented by nostoc and oxillaria, the latter being perennial; chlorophycese abound, zygnema being early and hydrodictyon a late summer variety, ulothrix, cladophora and spirogyra available at 168 SOO: BY BOAT all times. In the shallows there is a rich growth of dra* panaldia on the rocks, with a wealth of desmids. On the rice-fields the englena often gives a green appearance to the water. For all these beautiful forms the Chinese have no distinctive names, calling them merely water-grass. It seems rather remarkable that alongside these canals there is a separate and official system of sewers. This seems so obviously superfluous that there is an officer charged to inspect them. His method is delight- fully vicarious, and consists in putting a man down at one end, then going to the other end to await his arrival and hear his report. Seldom, indeed, can the sub- marine passage be effected as rapidly as the inspector can be carried in the open air, but after due delay a dirty labourer duly emerges from the man-hole and narrates his adventures below. Of course it is always the same man that was put in at the other end — ^it can only be the dirt and discomfort of the journey that produce such changes in form and figure; did not Brother Terrapin win the great race by the aid of a numerous family? Perhaps if the inspector gave the man who went down at one end some token to carry or be imprinted on his skin, he might wait a long time before that same man emerged at the other end with the token. But can we expect better things of underground sewers in Soo than of undergroimd conduits in New York? Below these deeps there are reputed to be lower still. Why or wherefore no one knows, but the legend goes that a series of sub-marine passages exists, no longer to be explored except by those who present an order with the Vermilion Pencil. Both these systems we left to their quiet seclusion, and continued our inves- tigations on the surface of the water. All that we did in the way of delving was to examine the borings for an TBI ORAZT MAS HOPBB THK HBAVENS WILT. FALL; TUK tOOR MAN HOm VOR A RIOT. artesian well here. This has been put down by the Soochow University, maintained by the Methodist Episcopal Church South inside the eastern wall; the well is 888 feet deep and yields three gallons per foot per hour. Layers of brown and blue clay alternate for 292 feet, then come 11 feet of fine gray sand, and below that the 80 feet of coarse, clean gray sand, which is the stratum bringing the water. On the bank of the inner moat, against the city wall, is to be seen a curious lantern-topped stone with seven faces, each bearing an inscription. It marks the spot where a man fell in and was drowned, and is put up to warn others to keep away, lest his spirit should drag them in too. It seems that the soul of a drowned man remains on guard till it can secure another to replace it; then it goes to its permanent abode. Bridges of course abound, and have to be made lofty enough for the regular canal trajBSc to be unhindered. Some of the old ones are most picturesque in their steep rises, which yet do not hinder horses from going over. Now that new railway bridges are coming, they too have to conform to the rule of allowing proper headway for the barges below. But despite the novelties in bridge architecture, the Chinaman cannot credit that a mere Westerner can design without help from Soo- chow; and an account of Brooklyn Bridge evidently called forth great admiration for the powers of Ijring displayed. One of the greatest bridges outside the city is renowned as the "Precious Belt,** or "Fifty-three Arch," or " Bridge of the Golden Hook.'' This spans the river Dai-dai where it empties into the Grand Canal, and carries the tow-path of the latter; it is some three miles south of the southeast comer of the city. At the 170 SOO: BY BOAT north end is a Buddhist temple, where two monks sold us tea for three and a drum for a shilling. They also furnished a tale as to the origin of the bridge. " Li was a great robber who dwelt in the hills beside the Great Lake; as his beard and whiskers were very long, they fell into his food, so he had two golden hooks to hold them up to his ears at meal-times. He com- manded a thousand followers, and to those who paid blackmail he issued an exemption ticket which secured from robbery" — quite the method used at Western bazaars. " Nor would he rob poor people, but even dis- tributed among them the plunder from the rich, while officials stood in awe of him. Now he desired to gain merit in heaven, so he decided to build this bridge; and under its foimdations he buried precious belts and pearls. At ninety years of age he died Where did he go? Well, I never heard of his going to heaven, nor did I hear of his going to hell. But his stomach was big, full of righteousness. If his goods deeds outbal- ance his evil, then he will be in heaven." A special temple and a pagoda built by Li of the Golden Hooks ensure good luck to the bridge; and this may be the reason why the Cliinese surveyors wished to arrange the Foreign Concession here in 1896 after the Japanese war. But the Japanese commis- sioner dryly remarked it was capital for rice-growing and pheasant-hunting; so the concession was placed on the Grand Canal, opposite the south wall,, with deep water frontage of a mile. A good trade has sprung up, and the customs commissioner reports eighty-seven million cigarettes imported here, with nearly two million gallons of oil, and a large export of silk goods, for which the place is famous. The Post Office handles 5,684,750 letters a year. Bridges bridge the transition from watery Soo to earthy Soo. Pass we over. Main Building, Soochow University. Built by the Methodists of New Orleans. Fhoto by FroC N. G. Gee. "The Custom's Bridge," Soochow. AW AMT OV A HOT BOOK The silken goods which form the staple export are the glory of the place, and the Imperial household gets its chief supplies hence. It is strange to see the primi- tive surroundings, a little hut with an earthen floor in which they are produced, with their exquisite designs and perfect workmanship. In these uncleanly sur- roundings a basin of water stands for the weaver to keep his hands unsoiled. He can make four or five feet daily, a yard wide, thus earning 800 or 875 cash and producing material worth nearly two shillings a foot. It is the best-paid occupation in the city. The Fang Sheng Yuan,* or Life-saving Institution, is unique. It does not deal with human life, and it is rather a surprise to find some 1500 corpses stored here, and rentals varying from 600 cash to $80, prices vary- ing with locality, fashion, and accommodation. The most expensive room had a glass window and a clock; in another there were silken scrolls with remarks on the family history and character of the dead and living; in a third there were paper servants for the use of the departed and opium utensils to keep up his earthly habits. These apartments, however, were accessory. There is a turtle pond where people desirous of acquir- ing merit deposit turtles in safety; an old lady watched me fee a coolie to feed them, and congratulated me on thus amassing credit for myself. Another department is for pigs, where a patriarchal boar with a bristly back was wondering that fourteen years had not qualified him for conversion into pork and lard. Other depart- ments benefit geese, ducks, hens, and frogs; the frogs are apparently housed apart to ensure their long life. Attached to this strange zoological garden is the inevit- able tea-room, and here are scrolls with reversible sen- tences, like the reputed salutation to Eve of her ♦•♦Garden for the Release of Living Creattipes." in SOO: BY BOAT husband, "Madam, I'm Adam"; or like Napoleon's lament, " Able was I ere I saw Elba." The old Examination Hall still stood at my visit, a useless relic of the past. All too rapid are the changes now, and one hopes that the filial spirit will not evapo- rate now that the free Western air is breathing o'er the land, A typical story of the past was given by Mr. Yang: A Chinese gentleman and his son had a fight; dur- ing the scuffle the son accidentally knocked out some of his father's front teeth. The father, though deeply ofi^ended, because of his son's superior strength was unable to punish, and so went to law. This frightened the son so much that he consulted a man named Tsu, asking him to help him out. Tsu told him to come up the next morning to a high mountain. Although in the dead of winter, the son was dressed in light- weight siunmer clothes. While he was sitting in the temple on top of the hill, his friend Tsu came up and demanded two thousand dollars before helping him out of the serious scrape. He paid it; then Tsu took out a knife and cut off the ofi^ending son's ear. He objected to this, but Tsu told him nothing better could have been done for him; in court the son was to say Iiis father had bitten off his ear, and that in the melee the front teeth of his father had come out. The son bet- tered Tsu's instructions; in the scrimmage he had not knocked out his father's teeth, which would have been unfilial, but when his father bit off his ear his head rebounded up against him and knocked out his front teeth. This sounded plausible to the court, so that they both were dismissed. The father and son became friends and lived together happily. Later the father asked his son how it happened he had thought up such a good defence, as he had not bitten the ear off at all. The son told him Tsu had helped him. The father. TBM MOUmt-MAKWM IB RBTXE WKART ; THI WXART JCA^T lUVMS M AKBS MOMBT enraged at Tsu, had him up in court, but Tsu claimed he had not helped the son. " Yes, you did," said the son. " Where do you say we met? " asked Tsu. " On the mountain, where you remember I had on summer clothes." " What, in winter? " intervened the magis- trate. "Yes, in winter." But this detail was the death-blow of the case, and it was dismissed. A tale like this suggests how far we are from following the windings of the average Chinese thought, and of appre- ciating their standards. Trying to understand something of the home life and the national amusements, it was with much pleas- ure that the opportunity was taken of helping celebrate a birthday. True, it was that of Dr. Wilkinson, but the programme was mainly native. The Chinese students, nurses, and friends, after preparations going on for some days, made a deal of noise and good cheer. There were minstrels, an orches- tra of seven men with a variety of instruments, the Victor phonograph, a present to the popular physician, a juggler who gave two exhibitions, a fine feast of say twenty courses, a mandarin and other Chinese, mostly educated, one the wife of a millionaire. The evening opened with music by the orchestra, who were also minstrels. This was odd, but at times musical. At one time during the splendid feast both the Victor phonograph and the native orchestra were en- gaged in playing at the same time. What a difference I and how superior the West over the East in this mat- ter of music, so it seemed to me I East and West met. The juggler played certain mystifying tricks. Oriental sleight of hand. He placed a bottle in one cylinder of card-board, a glass in another, and fired ofi^ 174 SOO: BY BOAT a pistol, when behold 1 they had exchanged places. He then spoke of the empty-headedness of the Soochow people. A Soochow man was out one night without a lantern, so he took a candle, lit it, took off his scalp, and put it in his empty headl He told a story of men arguing as to how the Great Pagoda at Soodiow was built. One man said that it was begun at the top and built from the sky down to the earth; another man said from the bottom up. Another said it was built on its side and then stood up. A fourth declared it had never been built here at all, but came from another place whole! As a comment on this, he suddenly pro- duced a pagoda of say fifteen stories, and in height about five feet. What I particularly admired about the feast was that between shark's fins and sea cucumbers (slugs) medicine was served — ^the famous Chinese remedy, Boho, the immortal Boho. A fine idea, — one to be fol- lowed in the West, that of providing in the midst of a banquet a medical course, real medicine, say Boho. Dr. Wilkinson works at the Blake Hospital, where there is a fine operating-room in memory of two nurses who died after a short practice of their profession here. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the Moslem ceme- tery lies hard by, with its evergreens, cedars, and olive trees embowering its little burial mosque; or shall we say that the contrast is significant? Islam has nothing to offer but resignation; Christianity has hope and life. It is high time to pass from Soochow of the earth to Soochow of the sky. In the reality of the spirits there is firm belief. They lurk in the canals near the scenes of death to drag in substitutes; they cross the bridges carrying lights; nothing scares them but the presence of a sinner. Now against all this popular superstition Confucius set the weight of his influence, ignoring the whole subject. Try, then, the Confucian Temple, and Soo's South (Water) Gate. The City has five such gates, beautiful and interesting. The Great Pagoda from near the Execution Grounds. 55*m "* A OAT WBIPIMO OYER A RAT see how far his teaching and his memory are revered. There is a grandiloquent ode by Vong Gnow which annomices, with the usual truthfulness of epitaphs, that " His road he spread abroad universally; by his teach- ings he brings heaven and earth into conjunction. He elected and spoke forth the Book of Six Odes. To myriad generations he handed down what he received in his palace, the righteousness of the Emperor Voh Hse [the first Emperor after the creation]. Him did he repay for the righteousness given him, by spreading it abroad till many have worshipped him and a hundred Emperors have paid him reverence/* But the temple seems devoted chiefly to the bats, thousands of whom harbour in the ceiling, so that their manure produces a most disgusting odor. So deserted is it that a famous robber chief thirty years ago hid over the tablets and remained in perfect safety. Contrast the present decadent state of Confucian- ism with the past. The following eloquent words, writ- ten twenty centuries ago by the famous historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien, best describe ike position then held by the great sage in the hearts of the Chinese people: "' Countless are the princes and prophets that the world has seen in its time; glorious in life, for- gotten in death. But Confucius, though only a humble member of the cotton-clothed masses, remains among us after many generations. He is the model for such as would be wise. By all, from the Son of Heaven down to the meanest student, the supremacy of his principles is fully and freely admitted. He may indeed be pronounced the divinest of men.*' From the temple to the pagodas: three of these received our attention, two Pen and one Ink. A 176 SOO: BY BOAT scholar built the Two Pen pagodas to attract the good luck required to ensure good scholarship to the town; but as most of the candidates kept on failing after- wards, he consulted the geomancers, and they showed how absurd it was to provide two pens but no ink. The omission rectified, the candidates passed. We passed these by, however, in favour of the famous nine- story pagoda, with its inscription over the doorway, " From within issues precious light." All around are idols, with blue nightcaps to prevent insects from biting them, and barred in to prevent pilgrims from carrying off chips; the numbers have thus been reduced from nine hundred, and very few are now left unprotected. A Buddhist monk, telling his beads, received the copper for admission. Fortunately the temple which long stood in front of the pagoda was destroyed by the T*ai-p*ings and never restored; thus an open space is left for observing the fine lines of the majestic structure. A queer old priest, who made the ladies ** feel crawly," held two candles to light us up the first flight of wooden stairs, which otherwise would have been groped in the darkness. Up we passed from story to story until the ninth, from which elevation the city and sur- roundings appeared below and beyond in delightful panorama. Toward the south lay the great city with its green trees, its green earth mounds higher than the roofs of the houses, the City Temple on Kwon Dzien, in the grounds of which are hawkers crying their wares, Pimch and Judy shows, caged birds singing, crowds of popu- lace— ^the Vanity Fair of Soo; the Soochow Univer- sity, between the Ink and Twin Pagodas; the Foreign Concession, with its smoke-stacks attached to the Silk Filatures Factory, foreign method; and a great lake. 