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CHINESE PICTURES

Notes on Photographs

Made in China

BY

MRS. J. F. BISHOP

F.R.G.S., etc.

CASSELL AND COMPANY, Limited

London, Paris, New York & Melbourne

1900. All Rights Reserved

INTRODUCTION.

This little book is the outcome of talks with Mrs. Bishop over some of the photographs which were taken by her in one or other of her journeys into and across China. Some of the photographs have already appeared in her published works, “The Yangtze Valley and Beyond” and “Korea and Her Neighbourhood” (2 vols., Murray). The notes were, in substance, dictated by Mrs. Bishop. It is hoped they contain some real information on the people, their surroundings, and habits which, though slight in form, may be helpful to a better understanding of a very difficult problem.

According to our newspaper press to-day, the Chinese are simply cruel barbarians. According to Mrs. Bishop, when you know them they are a likeable people—and she has formed this opinion in spite of the fact that, in their deeply-rooted hatred of the foreigners, they twice attacked her with violence. A real understanding of the people is for us, with our different modes of thought, most difficult to arrive at; but we shall not advance towards it by accepting all the evil reports and shutting our ears to the good ones. That the problem of China is, and will for some time continue to be, the most interesting question to the rest of the world is certain. The future of its people is all unknown, but there are in it possibilities which make it a terror to all other nations.

ERRATA.

The illustrations on p. [79] and p. [81] have been transposed. The former represents “The Tablet of Confucius,” the latter, “The Altar of Heaven.”

Chinese Pictures.

[Transcriber’s Note: this error has been corrected.]

CONTENTS.

THE PRIVATE ENTRANCE
TO THE
IMPERIAL PALACE, PEKING.

A subject of considerable interest, owing to the mystery surrounding the members of the Imperial Family. The photograph was taken from the wall of the Purple or Forbidden City, in which only the Imperial Family and their entourage have the right to dwell. The building in the centre, which is roofed with yellow tiles, is supposed to be the residence of the Emperor, but where he does actually reside remains a mystery. The entrance to the Palace is through the arches in the building on the left.

THE PRIVATE ENTRANCE
TO THE
IMPERIAL PALACE, PEKING

THE ENTRANCE TO THE
BRITISH LEGATION.

The Legation is a fine old palace, which formerly belonged to a member of the Imperial Family. The photograph shows the entrance to the first courtyard. The Legation compound is very extensive, and contains several courtyards with buildings round each. It is very highly decorated, the designs shown in this picture being elaborately wrought in lacquered work of gold and colours. This is the building recently attacked by the Chinese in their attempt to destroy all foreigners, including the members of the various European Legations who took refuge with Sir Claude Macdonald.

THE ENTRANCE TO THE
BRITISH LEGATION

ENTRANCE TO THE COLLEGE
OF THE
STUDENT INTERPRETERS.

Student interpreters are young Englishmen who enter the College to prepare themselves for the Consular Service. At eighteen they have to pass their entrance examination. They receive given posts in connection with one of the various Chinese Consulates. All our Chinese Consuls are drawn from this College. It stands within the grounds of the Legation, which is the building shown on the right of the picture.

ENTRANCE TO THE COLLEGE
OF THE
STUDENT INTERPRETERS

THE STATE CARRIAGE
OF THE
BRITISH LEGATION.

There are practically no carriage roads in China, so that there is virtually no carriage traffic. This rough, springless cart is the only carriage drawn by animals at the disposal of the Legation.

THE STATE CARRIAGE
OF THE
BRITISH LEGATION

THE GREAT IMPERIAL STONE
ROAD FROM PEKING TO
CHENGTU, THE CAPITAL OF SZE CHUAN.

Made more than a thousand years ago, it must have been a gigantic work at the time of its construction. It was paved throughout with rough stone flags for about eight feet, or about half its width, and planted with cedars. It is now very much out of repair, as are most things in China, the flags disappearing now and again for long distances; but it is still the object of much official attention, and every year certain magistrates inspect it and count the cedars, every one of which is sealed with the Imperial seal. Many of the trees have died, but many still survive and are grand objects by the roadside.

THE GREAT IMPERIAL STONE
ROAD FROM PEKING TO
CHENGTU, THE CAPITAL OF
SZE CHUAN

A MULE CART.

A typical mode of conveyance in Manchuria, the Northern Province. The arrangement for carrying luggage is seen at the back of the cart. It is very similar to the Legation state carriage in construction, being entirely without springs. It is only possible to use such a conveyance in such a roadless country, with any security from broken bones, by adopting the precaution to pad the whole of the interior, bottom, top, and sides with thick mattresses. In the course of a journey of three miles only, Mrs. Bishop had the misfortune to be thrown into the top of the cart in an upset with such violence that her arm was broken and her head severely cut. In her case, unfortunately, the top of the cart was not padded.

A MULE CART

A MANCHURIAN
FAMILY TRAVELLING.

Although so risky to life and limb, the mule cart is the more fashionable mode of moving from place to place in Manchuria. The poorer people ride on asses, with their belongings slung about in the manner shown in the picture.

A MANCHURIAN
FAMILY TRAVELLING

CARRIAGE BY BEARERS.

Out in the country there are practically no roads, as we understand roads. It is necessary to cultivate every inch of available ground, and the farmer begrudges anything taken from the fields for the paths, which are but a foot or two wide. It is easy to understand that, under such conditions, the almost universal mode of passenger transit is by chairs and bearers. The narrowness of the paths is a source of trouble. When two parties of bearers approach each other, there is much shouting to induce one or other to return and make way; but when both come on, one has to get off, or be pushed off, into the swamp by the sides. When one is a foreigner his portion is invariably the swamp.

The bearers are patient, much-enduring people, who do their work thoroughly and without complaining, in the face of mud, and rain, and difficult roads. They will carry a traveller from twenty to twenty-five miles a day. When a lady occupies the chair the curtains are rigidly closed. It would be at the risk of her life to travel in an open chair. There is much etiquette connected with the getting in and out of chairs, which wise travellers never neglect. The photograph is of a lady’s chair.

CARRIAGE BY BEARERS

A TRAVELLER ARRIVING
AT AN INN
IN MANCHURIA.

There are various ways of carrying a traveller’s baggage. Sometimes it is slung in the centre of bars and carried as the traveller’s own chair is carried. More often a package is slung at each end of a bar, which is placed across the shoulders of a coolie. Constant change of shoulder is necessary, and the stopping to make this change becomes a serious matter in a journey of any length. It is trying work, and the shoulders of the coolies generally show it by the callositis produced by the constant carrying of heavy burdens. The illustration shows Mrs. Bishop’s baggage arriving after a day’s journey.

A TRAVELLER ARRIVING
AT AN INN
IN MANCHURIA

CARRIAGE
OF
MERCHANDISE.

It will be seen that two coolies, by means of these bars, can carry a great weight—as much as two hundred pounds is carried between them—and they will cover with this weight twenty to twenty-five miles a day. Chair-carriers will, with the attendant luggage-carriers, cover as much as twenty-five miles, but their burdens are less heavy.

CARRIAGE
OF MERCHANDISE

THE MODE OF CARRYING
OIL AND WINE.

In wicker baskets lined with oiled paper of extraordinary toughness, which is much used everywhere. The oil is obtained from various “oil seeds,” the tough paper by macerating bamboo. Beneath the basket will be noticed a long cylinder. This is the coolie’s purse, in which he carries his “cash,” the small copper or brass coin of the country, which is of such small value that nine pounds weight of copper cash is only worth one English shilling.

THE MODE OF CARRYING
OIL AND WINE

WHEELBARROW TRAFFIC
ON THE
CHENGTU PLAIN.

This Chengtu Plain, with its 2,500 square miles of country and 4,000,000 population, is perhaps the best cultivated and most fertile spot in the world. It owes its fertility to the work of two engineers, who, more than two thousand years ago (250 years B.C.), designed and carried out the most perfect system of irrigation. They were Li Ping, the father, and his son, and are familiarly known to-day as the first and second gentlemen of China. The land bears four crops in the year. With all this produce and population, the traffic is enormous, and it is mainly carried on by means of wheelbarrows, which are so contrived, by placing the wheel in the centre and platforms at the side and behind it, as to enable one man to wheel five hundredweight with ease. The narrow roads of the plain are covered by an almost endless procession of these wheelbarrows, which are often preceded by one man pulling in addition to the man behind.

WHEELBARROW TRAFFIC
ON THE
CHENGTU PLAIN

THE WHEELBARROW
OF NORTH CHINA.

This is another form of the same baggage-carrier which is in use all over the Empire. It is much larger than that in use on the Plain of Chengtu, but is constructed on the same principle; by means of it one man can wheel as much as half a ton. It is a vehicle well adapted to the narrow roads of the country.

THE WHEELBARROW
OF NORTH CHINA

A SMALL HOUSEBOAT
ON THE
YANGTZE KIANG.

If China cannot boast of its roads, it may claim to be a country of waterways, rivers and canals forming the chief means of communication. The country being so large, travellers have to spend much time in going from place to place, and living accommodation has to be provided on the boats. It is very rough. The illustration gives a good specimen of a small boat which may be hired for a journey. The mat roof is placed over the open part at night. In the daytime this space is occupied by the rowers. In the night they roll themselves up in their wadded quilts and sleep there. In China there is no privacy, but much curiosity. No part of your boat, although you have hired it, is sacred to you; the boatmen pass in and out of what you may regard as your cabin without consideration for you. Mrs. Bishop put up curtains around her cabin to shut out prying eyes, and as far as they could the people respected her evident desire to be alone.

A SMALL HOUSEBOAT
ON THE
YANGTZE KIANG

A FOOT BOAT FOUND
IN CENTRAL CHINA.

The oars are worked by the feet instead of the arms. The sides of this one are beautifully carved and lacquered, and protection from the sun and rain is provided by a roof of mats, the universal form of shelter and protection on the water.

A FOOT BOAT FOUND
IN CENTRAL CHINA

HSIN TAN RAPID
ON THE
YANGTZE RIVER.

The rapids on the river give rise to a considerable amount of occupation for men called Trackers, whose occupation is the dragging of boats up-stream through the wild and dangerous waters of the rapids. These men live in huts on the river banks as close to the water’s edge as possible. A group of their huts is to be seen on the left of the picture, and on the extreme left, almost too small to be visible, are four hundred trackers dragging up a boat. At the top and foot of every rapid on the Yangtze are to be found one or more Red Lifeboats, which are most efficiently and admirably manned and maintained at the cost of Benevolent Guilds—one of the many charitable guilds in the country—for the purpose of assisting the crews of boats which get into difficulties. Boats are frequently wrecked in their passage, and the Red Lifeboat has saved the lives of many foreigners in the accidents attendant upon their passage of the Rapids.

HSIN TAN RAPID
ON THE
YANGTZE RIVER

A BOAT ON THE MIN
RIVER, USED FOR
RUNNING THE RAPIDS.

The Min River, called also the Fu, is a western tributary of the Upper Yangtze, but a great river in itself. Of the boat’s four sails the lowest is of bamboo, and is let down at night to protect the boatman and his family. The feature of the boat is its high prow, for protection against the rocks and rushing water.

A BOAT ON THE MIN
RIVER, USED FOR
RUNNING THE RAPIDS

PART OF A FRINGE
OF JUNKS OR RIVER BOATS
AT WAN HSIEN.

Illustrating the enormous traffic on the Yangtze. This fringe of boats, closely packed, extends for two miles along the river bank, and is an evidence of the great trade and prosperity of Wan Hsien.

PART OF A FRINGE
OF JUNKS OR RIVER BOATS
AT WAN HSIEN

THE BRIDGE OF
TEN THOUSAND AGES,
FOOCHOW.

A country of waterways must be a country of bridges, but the beauty of the bridges in China is quite a surprise to the traveller. The straight bridge of the illustration given here is built upon enormously solid piers, which are often monoliths. The roadway is constructed of single blocks thirty feet long. The balustrade, as well as the roadway, is solid stone. This is the oldest form of bridge in the country, and the bridge in the picture is one of the oldest bridges.

THE BRIDGE OF
TEN THOUSAND AGES,
FOOCHOW

A BRIDGE AT WAN HSIEN
OF THE
SINGLE ARCH TYPE.

One enters almost every town or village, when travelling by water, under a bridge of one arch, which may be anything from fifteen to thirty feet high and of a most graceful form. These bridges are constructed of blocks of granite cut to the curve of the bridge, and a flight of steps leads to the crown of the arch. In the illustration the steps are clearly shown leading to the house at the top. A most graceful and beautiful bridge.

A BRIDGE AT WAN HSIEN
OF THE
SINGLE ARCH TYPE

THE BRIDGE OF
MIEN CHUH SZE CHUAN.

When a rich man or a company of rich men wish to benefit their province, it is quite a common thing for them to let their generosity take the form of the building of a bridge. This bridge was so built. It is a most beautiful structure, both in form and colour. The roof is of green tiles, the inside being lined with crimson lacquer, deeply incised in gold with the names of the donors.

THE BRIDGE OF
MIEN CHUH SZE CHUAN

A SIMPLE
COUNTRY BRIDGE.

The kind of bridge found on a secondary road in Sze Chuan, constructed of wood roofed in with tiles, after the manner of Switzerland, to protect it from the weather.

A SIMPLE
COUNTRY BRIDGE

A DRAGON BRIDGE.

Quite a common form of stone bridge, in which every pier is surmounted by a dragon, the national emblem.

A DRAGON BRIDGE

THE ZIG-ZAG BRIDGE
OF SHANGHAI.

Its name indicates its peculiar character. It makes nine zig-zags across the water to the most celebrated tea house in Shanghai, and, perhaps, the most fashionable tea house in China. It is the resort of mandarins and people of the upper classes. Women are never seen at the tea houses. They are patronised by men only. Women, indeed, are very little seen in public at all. The absence of the female element is a marked feature in Chinese life.

THE ZIG-ZAG BRIDGE
OF SHANGHAI

THE GARDEN OF THE
GUILD OF BENEVOLENCE, CHUNG KING.

China is the country of guilds. All workmen and traders have their guilds. To this rule there are but two exceptions—the water-carriers and the trackers (men who drag the boats up the rapids); these alone have no trade organisation. These guilds, or trade unions, are as complete and as effective for good or harm as anything we know in this country. They watch most jealously the interests of their craft. But the guild enters into the life of the people at every turn. The charities of the Empire, which are numerous, are conducted by guilds. There is, perhaps, little personal charity and benevolence; it is safer to leave these to the guilds. But there is scarcely a town of any size that has not its Guild of Benevolence. Soup kitchens, clothing for the living, coffins and burial for the dead, hospitals, free dispensaries, orphan and foundling homes, life-boats, and many other charities are the outcome of these Guilds of Benevolence.

THE GARDEN OF THE
GUILD OF BENEVOLENCE,
CHUNG KING

A BURIAL CHARITY.

A cemetery, with temple attached, for the burial, with all sacred rites, of strangers who may have died friendless. To a Chinaman the most important event in his history is his burial. We can have no idea of what decent burial means to him. He is thinking of it and arranging for it all his life, and it is not to be wondered at that so large a part of the operation of Chinese charity should connect itself with funerals. To be suitably buried is the great hope and aim of every Chinaman.

This Cemetery, with its funeral rites, is one of the operations of a Guild of Benevolence.

A BURIAL CHARITY

A BABY TOWER,
FOOCHOW.

When a baby dies, and the parents are too poor to give it a decent burial, they drop its poor little body into one of the openings in this tower. A Guild of Benevolence charges itself with the task of clearing out the tower every two or three days, burying the bodies with all religious rites and ceremony.

A BABY TOWER,
FOOCHOW

BOTTLE SELLER
AND
HOSPITAL PATIENT.

The hospitals of England and China have evidently many things in common. Inside the compound of the English Presbyterian Medical Mission of Swatow, the patients buy their bottles of the vendor as they if were patients of Guy’s or St. Bartholomew’s. A similar incident is to be witnessed in Smithfield any day of the week. It may be mentioned that the hospital of this particular Medical Mission is nearly the largest in the East. In times of stress it accommodates four hundred patients, and in the proportion of its cures is one of the most successful in the world.

BOTTLE SELLER
AND
HOSPITAL PATIENT

THE DYING COOLIE.

Perhaps because benevolence and charity are the objects of guilds, there is very little of the personal element in either. Personal kindliness and care for the sick and dying do not characterise the people of China. If a man is sick to death he is of no more use, and why should time and care be wasted on him? This coolie in the picture was one of Mrs. Bishop’s carriers, who fell sick by the way, and though he had been a companion of the other men for many days, they had no care for him when he fell sick, and Mrs. Bishop was laughed at for taking the trouble to wet a handkerchief to lay on the feverish forehead of a man who was of “no more use.”

THE DYING COOLIE

THE MODE OF SEPULCHRE
THROUGHOUT
SOUTHERN CHINA.

A horseshoe-shaped excavation is made in a hillside facing south, the whole construction being faced with stone. There is in this mode of arranging graves a similarity to that adopted by the Etruscans.

THE MODE OF SEPULCHRE
THROUGHOUT
SOUTHERN CHINA

COFFINS KEPT
ABOVE GROUND.

So careful is the Chinaman about his burial, that the date and place of a funeral is not fixed until the geomancers have decided as to both. Sometimes the coffins with their inmates remain above ground for months, and even years, waiting for the professional decision as to a favourable day. In such cases, where the friends are able, every care is taken of them, incense being daily burned before them. It was no uncommon thing for Mrs. Bishop, on her journey in Sze Chuan, to have to sleep in a room where a coffin was stored, waiting the day of its interment, incense burning and other religious rites being daily performed in front of it. To prevent mischief owing to the retention of bodies above ground for so long a time, the coffins are built of very thick wood, the bodies are placed in lime, the joints of the coffin are cemented, and the whole covered with varnish.

COFFINS KEPT
ABOVE GROUND

THE TEMPLE OF
THE GOD OF LITERATURE
AT MUKDEN.

Mukden is the capital of Manchuria, the Northern Province. In every province of the Empire the God of Literature stands highest in the Chinese Pantheon, and it is interesting to note that the God of War stands low, though in China, as in other countries, we know women are devoted to his worship. In no country of the world does literature stand in such high estimation; by means of it the poorest man may climb to the highest post in the Empire. Nothing so helps a man to a career as a knowledge of the literature of his country. Reverence for it has become a superstition, and societies exist for collecting waste paper and saving any writing from indignity by burning it in furnaces erected for the purpose in every town.

THE TEMPLE OF
THE GOD OF LITERATURE
AT MUKDEN

THE TEMPLE OF
THE FOX, MUKDEN.

Another temple at Mukden, greatly frequented by mandarins. A group of them is seated in the centre. The temple is situated close to the city wall, which is shown in process of decay, the descending roots of the trees stripping off its facing, which lies and will continue to lie on the ground. It is an admirable illustration of the way things are allowed to go to ruin in China. The Chinese will undertake new works; they seldom repair old ones, and an aspect of decay is consequently frequently visible.

THE TEMPLE OF
THE FOX, MUKDEN

WAYSIDE SHRINES.

Found all over the country, and commonly known as “Joss Houses.” There is an idol in each of them. They are of interest as presenting a similar feature to the shrine and wayside crucifixes found all over Catholic countries in Europe.

A WAYSIDE SHRINE

A WAYSIDE SHRINE

THE FICUS RELIGIOSA.

A kind of banyan tree found in every village of the South and South Central Provinces of China. Its foliage covers an enormous extent of ground. The tree itself is an object of worship, and an altar for the burning of incense is always found beneath it.

THE FICUS RELIGIOSA

THE ALTAR OF
HEAVEN.

A fine picture of an open-air altar outside Foochow City.

THE ALTAR OF
HEAVEN

THE TABLET
OF CONFUCIUS.

Wherever there is a magistrate there is a temple to Confucius, in which the magistrates do homage in memory of the Great Teacher. The tablet is inscribed with a number of his most important sayings having a bearing on the administration of justice. This great man has by his teaching dominated the laws, the teaching, the literature, and the whole social life of nearly half the human race for the last two thousand years. These shrines are absolutely taboo to the foreigner, a fact which was learned by the traveller only after she had entered it and, finding it absolutely empty, had made her photograph.

THE TABLET
OF CONFUCIUS

A PORCELAIN-FRONTED
TEMPLE ON
THE YANGTZE.

The manufacture of porcelain has for centuries made China celebrated. It may be of interest to refer to the fact that we owe the existence of our Worcester porcelain works to the attempt made by a chemist to produce porcelain in England similar to the Chinese. A great many temples in the Empire province of Sze Chuan have their fronts and roofs of this porcelain. They are most gorgeous in colour, and have the appearance of being jewelled.

A PORCELAIN-FRONTED
TEMPLE ON
THE YANGTZE

CHILD EATING RICE
WITH CHOPSTICKS.

The Chinese eat an enormous number of things which the Western turns from, or which he doesn’t know of. As a rule the Chinese are good cooks, and the food is wholesome, steaming being the favourite method. Rice is the staff of life to the masses, who eat it mixed with fried cabbage or some other flavouring ingredient. It is seldom eaten alone. So common and universal is rice eating that, while in French the equivalent of “How do you do?” is “How do you carry yourself?” and in Italian “How do you stay?” in Chinese the equivalent is “Have you eaten rice?”

CHILD EATING RICE
WITH CHOPSTICKS

FORT ON
THE PEKING WALL.

City walls are a great feature of the country. The illustration is of a fort on one of the angles of the wall of Peking, the interest of it lying in the fact that the guns showing in the embrasures are dummies, being simply painted wood. Probably the cost of real guns went into the pockets of some official entrusted with providing the armament of the fort.

FORT ON
THE PEKING WALL

ANOTHER FORT ON
THE WALL OF PEKING.

This fort is filled with carronades, old guns still kept there, though absolutely useless, being honeycombed with disuse and rust.

ANOTHER FORT ON
THE WALL OF PEKING

COLOSSAL ASTRONOMICAL
INSTRUMENTS
ON THE PEKING WALL.

Many hundred years old, but as bronze castings they are reckoned to be amongst the finest in the world. And as astronomical instruments their results differ very little from those obtained by astronomers from appliances of the most modern construction.

COLOSSAL ASTRONOMICAL
INSTRUMENTS
ON THE PEKING WALL

CHIEN MUN GATE.

Perhaps the most interesting and picturesque feature of the country is its city gates. There is a great family likeness between them, the usual fort-like building surmounting the wall where it is pierced by the gate. It is not a fort, however. In it are kept the gongs and other musical instruments by means of which are announced the rising and the setting of the sun. This is the gate which was blown up by the Japanese in their recent attack on and entry into the city. It is the largest and most important gate in Peking.

CHIEN MUN GATE

THE
GATE OF VICTORY,
MUKDEN.

Mukden, the capital of Manchuria, is officially the second city of the Empire. In it are duplicated all the official boards, save one, that exist in Peking, the capital of the Empire. Thus Mukden possesses its Board of Rites and Ceremonies, of Punishments, etc., etc., just like Peking. Close to Mukden are the ancestral graves of the Manchu dynasty.

THE
GATE OF VICTORY,
MUKDEN

THE WEST GATE OF
KIALING FU.

A most picturesque entrance to the city. These gates are closed at sunset and opened at sunrise, the gongs and other instruments notifying the hours of opening and closing.

THE WEST GATE OF
KIALING FU