SUPPL. VOL. I. PART II.
3 H
(A) The Chinese court, which considers all other sovereigns as subordinate to their own, exacts from foreign ministers, as well as from natives of the empire, nine prostrations upon their first introduction to the emperor. This demand was made, in the last century, of the Dutch, who instantly complied with it in hopes of obtaining in return some lucrative advantages; and the consequence was, that their ambassador was treated with neglect, and dismissed without promise of the smallest favour. It was likewise made of a Russian ambassador in the present century; but he would not comply with it, until a regular agreement was made for its return, on a like occasion, to his own sovereign. Lord Macartney, who was repeatedly urged to go through the same abject ceremony, displayed such firmness and address, that after much evasion it was at last announced to him, that his imperial majesty would be satisfied with the same form of respectful obedience that the English are in the habit of paying to their own sovereign; and upon these terms his lordship was introduced and graciously received.
the minds of men by this apparent worship of a fellow-mortal might not be too quickly effaced, all scenes of sport and gaiety were postponed to the next day, when a variety of entertainments was exhibited in the presence of the emperor, surrounded by his court and tributary princes.
Notwithstanding the general veneration of the Chinese for the person and government of their emperor, the mandarines asserted that a sect had for ages subsisted in the country, whose chief principles were founded on an antipathy to monarchy, and who nourished hopes of at last subverting it. Their meetings were held in the utmost secrecy, and no man avowed any knowledge of them; but a sort of inquisition was said to be established in order to find them out, and they who were suspected of such sentiments were cut off, or hunted out of society. Should the French declaration of the rights of man, which, through the zeal of its authors, has been translated into one of the languages of India, find its way into China (of which the court is said to be much afraid), it would indeed be a powerful engine in the hands of this secret sect to sap the foundations of the ancient government. The minds of many of the Chinese are far from satisfied with their condition, which lays both their persons and their fortunes at the mercy of the mandarines. No private man in China is exempted from corporal punishment, which may be instantly inflicted on him at the nod of a magistrate; and when he has occasion to speak to a great mandarine, he is obliged, by the police of the country, to throw himself on his knees, and in that posture to communicate his business. The mandarine himself, on the other hand, lies under the hardship of being frequently responsible for events which he could not controul. Upon the general principle that it is his duty to watch over the morals of the people, he is in many cases considered as a criminal for not preventing crimes which he had not been able to prevent. The mandarines are thus aware of not being guaranteed by good conduct against disgrace; and feeling the chagrin of insecurity, many of them must doubtless be ripe for a revolt. Fear may keep them quiet during the reign of a sovereign possessed of abilities and vigilance; but the maxims which regulate the imperial succession are such, that a firm confederacy could hardly fail at the death of an emperor to introduce great changes into the constitution. The throne of China is neither hereditary nor elective. The choice of a successor is left entirely to the reigning prince, who may exclude, as has been instanced, even his own offspring and family. To prevent commotions and fraud, it is no uncommon practice for the emperor, during his lifetime, to declare his successor; for when his succession is settled by a written testament, the throne is not always filled by him for whom it was destined. The father of the emperor to whom the British embassy was sent, is said to have obtained possession of the throne by suddenly entering the palace in the last moments of his predecessor, and substituting his own name in a testament intended for the exaltation of another.
To what has been said in the Encyclopædia of the religion of the Chinese, we have here very little to add. Various deities are worshipped in the empire by very different rites and ceremonies; but there is in China no state religion. None is paid, preferred, or encouraged by it. The emperor is of one faith; many of the mandarines of
another; and the majority of the common people of a third, which is that of Fo. The men of letters venerate rather than adore Confucius; and meet to honour and celebrate his memory in halls of a simple but neat construction. The numerous and lower classes of the people are less able than inclined to contribute much towards the erection of large and costly edifices for public worship: their attention is almost wholly engaged by their household gods; for every house has its altar and its deities.
"No people are, in fact, more superstitious than the common Chinese. Beside the habitual offices of devotion on the part of the priests and females, the temples are particularly frequented by the disciples of Fo previously to any undertaking of importance; whether to marry, or go a journey, or conclude a bargain, or change situation, or for any other material event in life, it is necessary first to consult the superintendent deity. This is performed by various methods. Some place a parcel of consecrated sticks, differently marked and numbered, which the consultant, kneeling before the altar, shakes in a hollow bamboo, until one of them falls on the ground; its mark is examined, and referred to a correspondent mark in a book which the priest holds open, and sometimes even it is written upon a sheet of paper pasted upon the inside of the temple. Polygonal pieces of wood are by others thrown into the air. Each piece has its particular mark; the side that is uppermost when fallen on the floor is in like manner referred to its correspondent mark in the book or sheet of fate. If the first throw be favourable, the person who made it prostrates himself in gratitude, and undertakes afterwards with confidence the business in agitation. But if the throw should be adverse, he tries a second time, and the third throw determines, at any rate, the question. In other respects, the people of the present day seem to pay little attention to their priests. The temples are, however, always open for such as choose to consult the decrees of heaven. They return thanks when the oracle proves propitious to their wishes. Yet they oftener cast lots to know the issue of a projected enterprise than supplicate for its being favourable; and their worship consists more in thanksgiving than in prayer.
"The Chinese are seldom said to carry the objects to be obtained by their devotion beyond the benefits of this life. Yet the religion of Fo professes the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and promises happiness to the people on conditions, which were no doubt originally intended to consist in the performance of moral duties; but in lieu of which are too frequently substituted those of contributions towards the erection or repair of temples, the maintenance of priests, and a strict attention to particular observances. The neglect of these is announced as punishable by the souls of the defaulters passing into the bodies of the meanest animals, in whom the sufferings are to be proportioned to the transgressions committed in the human form."
Though the Chinese artists are very ingenious as mere workmen, there is hardly any thing which deserves the name of science in the whole empire. So little is the study of mathematics cultivated, that there are few shopkeepers in China who can perform the ordinary operations of arithmetic; but cast up their accounts by means of an instrument called swanpan (See
China. SWANSON Encycl.). Though the composition of gunpowder was certainly known in China much earlier than in Europe, and though the Chinese had employed it from the beginning in blasting rocks, and in making a vast variety of fire-works; yet Sir George Staunton seems convinced, that they never thought of the invention of guns till they were taught by the Europeans to introduce them into their armies.
The state of physic in this vast country is extremely low, being nowhere taught in public schools or colleges. "A young man who wishes to become a physician, has no other way of acquiring medical knowledge than by engaging himself to some practitioner as an apprentice. He has thus the opportunity of seeing his master's practice, of visiting his patients with him, and of learning such parts of his knowledge and secrets as the other chooses to communicate to him. The emoluments of the profession seldom exceed the skill of the practitioner. As many copper coin as scarcely are equal to sixpence sterling is said to be the usual fee among the people; and perhaps quadruple among the mandarines. Medicine is not divided in China into distinct branches as in most parts of Europe. The same person acts as physician, surgeon, and apothecary. The surgical part of the profession is still more backward than the others. Amputation, in cases of compound fracture and gangrene, is utterly unknown; and death is the speedy consequence of such accidents. The Chinese method of inoculation, which was introduced into the empire about the beginning of the tenth century of our era, is as follows: When the disease breaks out in any district, the physicians of the place carefully collect a quantity of ripe matter from pustules of the proper sort; which being dried and pulverised, is closely shut up in a porcelain jar, so as to exclude from it the atmospheric air; and in this manner it will retain its properties for many years. When the patient has been duly prepared by medicines, generally of an aperient kind, and strictly dieted for a short time, a lucky day is chosen to sprinkle a little of the variolous powder upon a small piece of fine cotton wool, and to insert it into the nostrils of the patient.
"No male physician is allowed to attend a pregnant woman, and still less to practise midwifery; in the indecency of which both sexes seem to agree in China. There are books written on that art for the use of female practitioners, with drawings of the state and position of the infant at different periods of gestation; together with a variety of directions and prescriptions for every supposed case that may take place: the whole mixed with a number of superstitious observances.
Many practitioners of physic take the advantage, as elsewhere, of the obscurity in which that art is involved, and of the ignorance and credulity of the people, to gain money by the sale of nostrums and secrets of their own. They distribute hand bills, setting forth the efficacy of their medicines, with attested cures annexed to them. And there is one sect which boldly arrogates to itself the possession of a medical secret not to die! To those who had all the enjoyments of this life, there remained unaccomplished no other wish than that of remaining for ever in it. And accordingly several sovereigns of China have been known to cherish the idea of the possibility of such a medicine. They had put themselves, in full health, under the care of
those religious empires, and took large draughts of the boasted beverage of immortality. The composition did not consist of merely harmless ingredients; but probably of such extracts and proportions of the poppy, and of other substances and liquors, as occasioning a temporary exaltation of the imagination, passed for an indication of its vivifying effects. Thus encouraged, they had recourse to frequent repetitions of the dose, which brought on quickly languor and debility of spirits; and the deluded patients often became victims to deceit and folly in the flower of their age.
"There are in China no professors of the sciences connected with medicine. The human body is never, unless privately, dissected there. Books, indeed, with drawings of its internal structure are sometimes published; but these are extremely imperfect, and consulted, perhaps, oftener to find out the name of the spirit under whose protection each particular part is placed, than for observing its form and situation.
"It is a matter of doubt, whether natural history, natural philosophy, or chemistry, be, as sciences, much more improved than anatomy in China. There are several treatises, indeed, on particular subjects in each. The Chinese likewise possess a very voluminous Encyclopædia, containing many facts and observations relative to them; but from the few researches which the gentlemen of the embassy had leisure or opportunity to make during their short visit to the country, they perceived no traces of any general system or doctrine by which separate facts or observations were connected and compared, or the common properties of bodies ascertained by experiment; or where kindred arts were conducted on similar views, or rules framed, or deductions drawn from analogy, or principles laid down to constitute a science."
Of all people the Chinese are perhaps the most eager in their curiosity about foreigners coming among them, and the most indifferent about the countries of such foreigners. They have been always in the habit of confining their ideas to their own country, emphatically styled the middle kingdom. No Chinese ever thinks of quitting it, except a few of desperate fortunes residing near the sea-coast, or sea-faring men, who form a class, in a great measure, apart from society. Even foreign commodities consumed in China remind them only of Canton, whence they received them, as if produced in it; and these commodities they consider, perhaps properly, as of no real benefit to the empire. Regions out of Asia are scarcely mentioned in their books, or noticed in their distorted maps; and the great body of the people would be little gratified with accounts of such regions, which did not contain tales of wonders not performed at home, or of powers exerted beyond the ordinary boundaries of nature.